TIFF 2021: Aloners
A strong first feature debut for writer and director Hong Sung-Eun, Aloners is the perfect ode to the universal feeling of loneliness and isolation that was so deeply intensified during the pandemic.
Author: Hannah Lodge
TIFF 2021: Petite Maman
Clocking in at around 70 minutes, this follow up from Celine Sciamma, the director of Portrait of a Lady on Fire, was my most eagerly anticipated film of TIFF. Petite Maman explores family relationships, grief, and other emotional arcs through a more playful lens of a child.
BLACK WIDOW is Too Little, Too Late
When then-Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter penned an email in 2014 listing examples of failed super hero flicks that were female led, it’s not hard to imagine he was debating the value of adding a Black Widow solo film into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
A Quiet Place: Part II reminded me how much I missed going to the movies
A little over a year ago, A Quiet Place: Part II was the next movie on my to-review-list when the world fell apart and everything closed down. So it was only fitting that my first “normal” press screening with colleagues would be this film, some 15 months after it was …
In the Earth: A Movie That’ll Grow on You
Movies are always a reflection of the times, and so it’s only been a matter of time before we started seeing face masks and hand sanitizer show up in the confines of Hollywood’s fictional mirror. Writer and director Ben Wheatley’s In the Earth is the first pandemic-set movie I’ve seen since experiencing one personally, and if I’m honest, I wasn’t looking forward to the experience. Too soon, anyone?
Godzilla deserved better than Godzilla vs. Kong
When you see a movie like Godzilla vs. Kong, you don’t really expect to walk away thinking one of them was a definitive winner or loser. You expect lots of larger-than-life battles as humans scramble to avoid being crushed like ants, near-death knockouts, and something resembling a tie score at the end of the day.
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN: Rom Com, Dark Thriller, Superhero Flick?
We need a word for when something plays out in a way that makes perfect sense and somehow still manages to be surprising at the same time. And if that word existed, it would be the perfect adjective to describe Promising Young Woman.
WONDER WOMAN 1984 proves that wishes have a cost
The moment a youthful Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) appeared in promos for Wonder Woman 1984, a sequel to the World War I era Wonder Woman, it was clear there’d be some kind of gimmick involved. But really, who cares? The chemistry between the two was great in the first film, and superhero films are rarely planted in realism. It turns out that gimmick is wish fulfillment – and the unexpected price you pay for that wish coming true.
I couldn’t think of a more apt metaphor for both the highs and lows of Wonder Woman 1984.
SOUL achieves greatness by rejecting it
Hobbies are funny things. As adults, we often come by them casually and with little sense of obligation. Maybe a friend convinces us to run a 5K with them and we find unexpected joy in running, or a quick search on Ancestry.com evolves into a years-long project to trace our …
The Monarchy hits its limits in THE CROWN’s stellar fourth season
Season 4 of The Crown is here. This is arguably the most anticipated season of the Netflix hit yet, by virtue of the ground it has to cover: anyone old enough to remember that fateful Paris car crash knows this season begins the public unraveling of one of the most private famous families in the world.
THE WITCHES can’t conjure the original version’s charm
Another day, another “It’s fine, but the original was better” remake.
EVIL EYE and NOCTURNE step up the offerings from Amazon/Blumhouse
We look at Evil Eye and Nocturne, the most recent films from Amazon’s partnership with horror studio Blumhouse.
The Haunting of Bly Manor is even better than The Haunting of Hill House
The ingredients of the second series are basically the same as the first, though it’s a completely new story. Several cast members from The Haunting of Hill House have returned in new roles. On top of that you’ve got plenty of familial strife, a cast of characters each haunted in their own way, and the bones of it all: the haunted house itself.
THE SWERVE finds its horror in the mundane
Two kids. A husband. A house in the suburbs. Bowling. Apple Pie.
The Swerve introduces us to the dread of its world in everyday, comfortable objects.
THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD delivers, but may not live up to my great expectations
The Personal History of David Copperfield has been part of a parade of ‘oh-wow-are-they-making-a-movie-of-that-again?’ literary classic film adaptations to roll through the theaters (or, perhaps, our at-home-theaters) in the last 12 months.