Toronto
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Toronto 2016: Manchester by the Sea review
★★★★☆ Grief is shovelling snow in Kenneth Lonergan’s highly-anticipated third film Manchester by the Sea. The taciturn Lee (Casey Affleck) literally does it by day as the handyman for a Boston apartment building, and figuratively does it by night as he drinks himself into bar fights. His shoulders bow beneath the weight of some past misfortune…
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Toronto 2016: Our picks of the festival
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) comes rolling back into town today with the world premiere of Antoine Fuqua’s remake of classic western The Magnificent Seven. It kicks off a mammoth week and a half which will play host to just shy of 300 features over 130 of which will be screenings for the very…
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Toronto 2015: ‘Room’ review
★★★★☆ In his previous two features, Lenny Abrahamson has managed to coax sensational performances from Jack Reynor (What Richard Did) and, even beneath an enormous papier mâché head, Michael Fassbender (Frank). The director has done it again with Room (2015), an intimate, harrowing drama that features stellar performances from both Brie Larson and the young…
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Toronto 2015: ‘Mississippi Grind’ review
★★☆☆☆ The saying goes that when in a hole you should stop digging. Meandering road movie Mississippi Grind (2015), co-directed by the Half Nelson (2006) and Sugar (2008) duo of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, features two hopeless gamblers on whom the sentiment of this old adage appears to have been entirely lost. The pairing…
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Toronto 2015: ‘Our Brand Is Crisis’
★★☆☆☆ The inherent drama of political election campaigns have long proved effective oil for the cinematic narrative machine – both inside and outside the Hollywood dream factory. Whilst the cogs are whirring at full steam for David Gordon Green’s latest venture, Our Brand Is Crisis (2015) turns out to be a disappointingly middling affair. Whilst…
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Toronto 2015: ‘Last Cab to Darwin’ review
★★★★☆ If there’s one thing that Australia has in spades it’s miles and miles of open road. Be it tarmacked or dust and dirt, lifelong cab driver, Rex (Michael Caton), covers a fair amount of both driving from Broken Hill, NSW, through Oz’s barren Red Centre, to Darwin at the tip of the Northern Territory.…
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Toronto 2015: ‘The Idol’ review
★★★★☆ “People are dying, you’re singing,” come the words of recrimination as four kids with homemade instruments are drenched in water from a window. Of course, they’re words laced with dramatic irony when deployed at the beginning of a well known a true story as is presented in Hany Abu-Assad’s The Idol (2015). It follows…
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Toronto 2015: ‘The Family Fang’ review
★☆☆☆☆ The Family Fang (2015) is Jason Bateman’s second directorial undertaking. Known predominantly for his work in Arrested Development, feature film comedies and oddball roles in more serious pieces, Bateman proved in this year’s The Gift (a scintillating debut picture by Australian actor Joel Edgerton) that he has a far greater acting range than many…
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Toronto 2015: ‘Evolution’ review
★★★★☆ Returning to screens over ten years after her memorable debut Innocence, Lucile Hadžihalilovic’s new film is akin to a beguiling and deeply unsettling siren’s song. An alchemical concoction of timeless folklore and science fiction body horror, Evolution (2015) may vaguely resemble what might be the result were David Cronenberg tasked with injecting his cinematic…
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Toronto 2015: ‘The White Knights’ review
★★★★☆ In 2007, individuals associated with charity group Zoé’s Ark were charged with child abduction in Chad – their intention was to have the children placed into foster families in France. A fictionalised version of the scenario forms the basis for Our Children (2012) director Joachim Lafosse’s new film The White Knights (2015), an inquest…