Toronto
-
Toronto 2015: ‘Where to Invade Next’ review
★★★☆☆ It’s taken them long enough, but the Pentagon have finally turned to filmmaker Michael Moore for some sage advice regarding US foreign policy. At least, that’s the tongue-in-cheek conceit of the mischievous documentarian’s latest tub-thumper, Where to Invade Next (2015). It affords Moore the opportunity to trot the globe scouring various countries that do…
-
Toronto 2015: ‘Office’ review
★★★☆☆ Adapted for the big screen by writer-actor Sylvia Chang from her own play Design For Living, attempting to pigeonhole Johnnie To’s latest effort Office (2015) is a case of multiple square pegs and even more round holes. Classifying the part-musical, part-satire, part-comedy, part-Orwellian tale of consumerism and capitalism would do a disservice to the…
-
Toronto 2015: ‘James White’ review
★★★☆☆ The guys at Borderline Films are making something of a habit of striking, complex psychological dramas such as Antonio Campos’ After School and Simon Killer, or Sean Durkin’s excellent Martha Marcy May Marlene. The third member of this cinematic triumvirate is Josh Mond who having served as producer on the aforementioned films makes his…
-
Toronto 2015: ‘In Jackson Heights’ review
★★★★☆ Another year, another Frederick Wiseman documentary, reaffirming his elegant mastery of his chosen medium. It’s always refreshing to see the veteran director continuing to work in his trademark long-form, observational style – particularly in a contemporary marketplace that tends to be dominated by sabre-rattling, issue-driven fare. Wiseman’s films have a bewitching experiential quality to…
-
Toronto 2015: Homesick review
★★★☆☆ There’s a strange taboo at the heart of Anne Sewitsky’s sophomore directorial effort Homesick (2015), which she also wrote alongside Ragnhild Tronvoll. That taboo is not the subject of incest – which features heavily – but rather acknowledging with that very fact. If you happened to turn away from the screen for a few…
-
Toronto 2015: ‘Der Nachtmahr’ review
★★★☆☆ Der Nachtmahr (2015), the directorial debut of German multi-disciplinary artist Akiz, begins with a title card requesting that the following film is “played loud, okay?”. This immediately suggests that the sensory experience will be as key to gaining understanding as intellectual engagement, and so proves to be the case. Fittingly for a film about…
-
Toronto 2015: ‘The People vs. Fritz Bauer’ review
★★★☆☆ Given the subject and its original title, Lars Kraume’s The People vs. Fritz Bauer (2015) pits the irascible and implacable attorney general against the West German state, rather than its people, which would be more accurate from both a linguistic and narrative point of view. Cantankerous and belligerent but driven by a burning determination…
-
Toronto 2015: ‘Men & Chicken’ review
★★★☆☆ The sanctity of life and the value of family are not necessarily two themes you might expect from a twisted black comedy filled with violence and bestiality. That is what Anders Thomas Jensen delivers with his first feature film in a decade, the grotesquely bizarre crossbreed that is Men & Chicken (2015). Swinging wildly…
-
Toronto 2015: ‘Chevalier’ review
★★★★☆ The famous Bechdel Test – taken from a 1985 comic strip by Alison Bechdel – has over the past few years become an ever more popular barometer to gauge the validity of a film’s treatment of women. The new film from Athina Rachel Tsangari, Chevalier (2015) spectacularly fails the test by not actually featuring…
-
Toronto 2015: ‘The Whispering Star’ review
★★★☆☆ Sion Sono is nothing if not eclectic. Last year he dropped the gonzo bomb that was hip-hopera Tokyo Tribe (2014) on an enormously willing Toronto audience, and this year he is back with something that is almost the polar opposite. The Whispering Star (2015) is entirely devoid of oddball energy, instead remaining a remarkably…