Toronto 2015: ‘The Sky Trembles…’ review
★★★★☆ The unsettling skeleton of Paul Bowles’ short story A Distant Episode gives a narrative framework to Ben Rivers latest odyssey into the ethereal unknown. […]
Toronto 2015: ‘No Home Movie’ review
★★★☆☆ Chantal Akerman’s latest film No Home Movie (2015) opens on a shot of a tree being buffeted by the wind with a barren expanse […]
Toronto 2015: Read our TIFF 40 preview
This week sees the red carpet rolling into the centre of the Ontario capital for the fortieth edition of the Toronto Film Festival. Giving a […]
Toronto 2014: ‘Venice’ review
★★★☆☆ Despite its title, Kiki Álvarez’s Venice (2014) is very much about Cuba. Specifically, it’s a rarely seen independent film from the country, marking its […]
Toronto 2014: ‘Return to Ithaca’ review
★★★☆☆ One of two films at Toronto 2014 that take in a group of friends over the course of one balmy Cuban evening, Return to […]
Toronto 2014: ‘Ned Rifle’ review
★★★★☆ With Henry Fool (1997), Hal Hartley introduced the world to his garrulous and hedonistic eponymous rogue who, amongst other things, impregnated an impressionable young […]
Toronto 2014: ‘The Face of an Angel’ review
★★★☆☆ Watching Michael Winterbottom’s The Face of an Angel (2014), it’s fascinating to try to decipher just how autobiographical it actually it is. An eclectic and […]
Toronto 2014: ‘Nightcrawler’ review
★★★☆☆ “If you wanna win the lottery,” claims Lou Bloom, a gaunt and greasy Jake Gyllenhaal in Dan Gilroy crime drama Nightcrawler (2014), “you’ve gotta […]
Toronto 2014: ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart 2’ review
★★★☆☆ Whilst he may primarily be associated with the stylish Hong Kong gangster picks that have made him his name, director Johnnie To is not […]
Toronto 2014: ‘The Duke of Burgundy’ review
★★★★☆ With his first two features, Katalin Varga (2009) and Berberian Sound Studio (2012), British auteur Peter Strickland has made a name for himself by […]
Toronto 2014: ‘Justice’ review
★★☆☆☆ Most of the contemporary cinema that European audiences get to consume from the Philippines come from visionary (and festival favoured) directors such as Lav […]
Toronto 2014: ‘Partners in Crime’ review
★★★☆☆ “If you run into anything unpleasant you must learn to face it yourself,” states a kindly counsellor in Chang Jung-chi’s sophomore feature Partners in […]
Toronto 2014: ‘From What Is Before’ review
★★★★☆ “The memory of a cataclysm” is how a voiceover at the end of Lav Diaz’s latest monumental feat, the Locarno-storming From What Is Before […]
Toronto 2014: Read our TIFF programme preview
This Thursday (4 September), the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival will kick off in Canada with David Dobkin’s courtroom drama The Judge, starring Robert Downey […]