TIFF 25: Retreat dir. Ted Evans

Ted Evans wrote and directed this engaging thriller that takes us inside the lives of Eva (Anne Zander) and Matt (James Joseph Boyle) when Eva joins Matt and a collection of deaf people living at a residence they know as Chilmark. Under the watchful eye, and guidance of Mia (Sophie Stone), the residents are establishing…

Thunderbolts* (2025) – Jake Schreier

Thunderbolts*, as a film, is a bold choice for Marvel. It’s also smaller and more… intimate doesn’t feel like the right word, for a Marvel film. That being said, it’s a big action movie for anyone else. With Jake Schreier helming this outing, and a script by Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo, we catch up…

True Grit (1969) – Henry Hathaway

Ten Bad Dates With De Niro brings me a classic western on their list of titles that bring movie tears to the eye. John Wayne delivers an Oscar winning turn as Rooster Cogburn in Henry Hathaway’s cinematic adaptation of Charles Portis’ novel. I won’t lie, I came to the Coen Brothers version of the story…

The Lost Weekend (1945) – Billy Wilder

I dig into a new movie book today, Ten Bad Dates with De Niro, which have a number of different chapters and submissions. There’s going to be a lot of interesting films in this one. The first section is titles Losing it at the Movies – Pure Emotional Responses to Cinema. I found myself coming…

Ulysses (1954) – Mario Camerini

Kirk Douglas stars in this Italian sword and sandals (and sorcery) epic that also features Anthony Quinn, and is the next film in DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies book as I explore the chapter on Myths, Legends and Fairy Tales. Using Homer’s epic poem as its basis, the film follows Ulysses (Douglas) on his…

Toronto After Dark 2016: War On Everyone – John Micheal McDonagh

My time with the 2016 Toronto After Dark film festival got underway last night with the exceptional, brash, bold, politically incorrect, devastatingly hilarious War On Everyone. I think the only thing I would have changed about it is the name, everything else, totally worked for me. Now, as a caveat, part of the enjoyment of…

Toronto Fringe: All Our Yesterdays

Bold, beautiful, and packing a powerful emotional punch, All Our Yesterdays from writer/director Chloe Hung features masterful performances from Amanda Weise and Chiamaka Umeh. In April of 2014, 276 girls in Chibook, Nigeria were abducted by the Boko Haram (western education is forbidden), simply because they were seeking an education. Stolen as they sat down…