tiff21 Archives - ScreenRex

TIFF 2021: Terrorizers

Hannah Lodge September 13, 2021 September 12, 2021 Film

This new Terrorizers has a large, but not overwhelming, ensemble cast, focusing on six teenagers in Taipei. It unfolds in chapters, each focusing on a specific character’s point of view, in turn recontextualizing our understanding of events. It’s a fascinating bit of audience immersion in that our expectations are consistently upended the further down the rabbit hole we go and the more characters we’re introduced to. In all, a riveting experience and the best film I’ve seen at TIFF so far.

TIFF 2021: Violet

Hannah Lodge September 12, 2021 September 11, 2021 Film

A few years ago, I was shocked to learn for the first time that not everyone has an inner monologue narrating their life causally running in the background of their minds. You know (or maybe you don’t) – that voice that chimes in to dole out advice, snark, fear, and whatever else we’re thinking but can’t always vocalize. I’ve had one all my life and assumed it was a basic function of living, like hearing and smell. But estimates are that about half of us do, and half of us do not.

Violet is a movie crafted for that half of the movie that knows what the voice sounds like. Or for anyone else curious about how the other half lives.

TIFF 2021: Aloners

Hannah Lodge September 12, 2021 September 11, 2021 Film

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.

TIFF 2021: Petite Maman

Hannah Lodge September 12, 2021 September 11, 2021 Film

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.