Instead of retreading antiwar themes so brilliantly evoked in films like All Quiet on the Western Front (1930, 1979, and 2022) Lukas Dhont’s third feature film delivers a poignant character film that explores hope, love, the horrors of war and the shattering of youth and the illusions they hold for their lives. Pierre (Emmanuel Macchia)…
Tag: performance
Undertone (2025) – Ian Tuason
Undertone is a smart and engaging horror film. With its slow and ominous camera movements, there’s a constant sense of tension created by the knowledge that there may be something lurking just off camera that you are about to catch a glimpse of. It’s also confined to one location, a home (right here in Toronto)….
Jumanji (1995) – Joe Johnston
I hadn’t seen this movie since I saw it in the theaters. I remember that it was on all the loop tapes we played in the video store I worked in. I saw the clips of the monkeys in the police car, and the animal stampede countless times, so much so that it almost overpowered…
A House of Dynamite (2025) – Kathryn Bigelow
Kathryn Bigelow has been a fave director of mine since Near Dark. And with A House of Dynamite, she continues to prove that not only is she a fantastic director, she should be a bigger deal than she is. Taking a political/techno-thriller concept and putting a human face on it, as this film does, makes…
Weapons (2025) – Zach Cregger
Much like Cregger’s previous film, Barbarian, it’s best to go into this film for the first time with no real knowledge beyond what is provided by the poster… one night, almost all the kids from a single classroom disappeared. What happened? That’s the initial launching point for a story that shifts narratives and fractures fairy…
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) – J.A. Bayona
Five films in you can’t expect the series to forge too much new ground. They have a formula that works and people love seeing dinosaurs running amok. This story brings back Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) to bookend the film, and puts Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard – bit of a crush) and Chris Pratt…
The Great Train Robbery (1978) – Micheal Crichton
Michael Crichton writes and directs The Great Train Robbery and invites Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland and Lesley-Anne Down along for the ride. Not quite a romp, the film is definitely an entertaining heist film, resting easily on Connery’s charm, and Sutherland turning in a wonderfully goofy performance. It’s England, in the 1850s. Connery plays Pierce,…
The First Power (1990) – Robert Resnikoff
I did Lou Diamond Phillips, and somewhere in Robert Resnikoff’s The First Power is a solid supernatural police thriller. But everything in it is painfully familiar, though some of it, like the visions characters have are strongly created. Phillips is Russell Logan a Los Angeles homicide cop who has been tracking a serial murderer christened…
Dead of Winter (2025) – Brian Kirk
Emma Thompson stars in this white-knuckle thriller that features a layered performance, and some stand-out moments. With Finland standing in for Minnesota, Thompson braves the cold as Barb who sets out for Lake Hilda for personal reasons. A goodbye needs to be made. Along the way, she has an unnerving encounter with a man in…
TIFF 25: Kokuho dir. Lee-Sang Il
Kokuho is an epic tale, a decades-long story that takes us inside the world of kabuki, and features some outstanding performances. Kikuo (Ryo Yoshizawa) has always had a talent as an onnagata. These are the female characters in kanubi shows, all played by men. He’s taken in by Hanjiro Hanai (Ken Watanabe!!), who will serve…
The Mind Reels 