Toronto
-
Toronto 2018: Freaks review
★★★☆☆ In a cinematic landscape saturated with superhero mega-blockbusters from Marvel, Fox and Warner Bros., writer-directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein take their cue from the X-Men series’ themes of oppression to deliver Freaks – a small-scale, intriguing superhero indie with a killer hook. One of the great, and largely overlooked failures of modern superhero movies is their…
-
Toronto 2018: Cities of Last Things review
★★★☆☆ In the near future, Lao Zhang (Jack Kao) stalks and murders three people, including an elderly, hospitalised man and his ex-wife, before killing himself. The question at the heart of Ho Di Wing’s Cities of Last Things is what could have driven him to commit these crimes. Told in three chronologically reversed stages, we…
-
Toronto 2018: Loro review
★★★★☆ Paolo Sorrentino’s Loro begins as it means to go on. A lawyer-baiting disclaimer informs us that the film is not based on real events (even when it is), that any similarity to real people is purely unintentional (even when it isn’t), and that any testimony from reliable witnesses on the aforementioned unrelated parties has had nothing…
-
Toronto 2018: One Last Deal review
★★★★☆ As Olavi (Heikki Nousiainen) approaches retirement, he reflects on his career as an antiques dealer. With little to show for it and no inheritance to leave his semi-estranged daughter Lea (Pirjo Lonka) and teenage grandson Otto (Amos Brotherus), he decides to go out with a final make or break deal in Finnish director Klaus…
-
Toronto 2018: Endzeit review
★★★☆☆ With the saturation of the zombie as modern cinema’s de facto monster, it’s difficult to imagine in what new direction the shuffling dead can possibly amble. Yet, with the imperfect but fascinating Endzeit, director Carolina Hellsgård ultimately guides her ravenous wanderers down an original and largely unbeaten track. The film’s first half is its…
-
Toronto 2018: Our picks of the festival
As the Toronto International Film Festival gears up for its 2018 edition (6-16 September), awards contenders, experimental filmmakers and indie hopefuls come together for a 10-day extravaganza of some of the world’s best cinema. This year’s festival opens with Netflix’s Outlaw King, the latest from director David Mackenzie and starring Chris Pine. Both Mackenzie and Pine…
-
Toronto 2017: Three Billboards wins People’s Choice Award
As the 2017 Toronto Film Festival closes, we take a look at our top picks from the festival. Despite already premiering in Venice, Darren Aronofsky’s unhinged Mother! created the most buzz on the ground, garnering rave reviews from festival-goers and critics alike.Sadly, that hasn’t translated to box office success, with the film flopping at the…
-
Toronto 2017: Valley of Shadows review
★★★★★ Using the folkloric tropes of a deep, dark wood and tales of a beast terrorising the countryside, with his feature debut Valley of Shadows Norwegian director Jonas Matzow Gulbrandsen has crafted one of the year’s finest, most deeply affecting psychological dramas.As with all the best ghost stories, this one starts with a family in…
-
Toronto 2017: Lady Bird review
★★★★★ Following her co-director credit on 2008’s Nights and Weekends, Greta Gerwig goes it alone directing Saoirse Ronan in Lady Bird. A lovingly observed, pitch perfect coming-of-age comedy, Gerwig’s warm, astute account of the end of adolescence is a stunning solo debut. High school senior Christine (Ronan) – now insisting that she is called ‘Lady…
-
Toronto 2017: Dark River review
★★★★☆ Following this year’s The Levelling and God’s Own Country, the decaying farmlands of rural England appear to be replacing the urban concrete high-rise as the preferred setting for British social realism. Clio Barnard’s Dark River may well be the cream of this particular crop.Barnard, whose Yorkshire-centric filmography already includes doc-hybrid The Arbor and The…