By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Set in the tacky, tourist trap area of Niagara Falls that the film is named after, Clifton Hill follows a woman named Abby (Tuppence Middleton), who returns to her hometown of Niagara Falls after her mother dies to help facilitate the sale of their family motel, and becomes… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Clifton Hill (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★ (out of 4) The third feature from Toronto filmmaker Kazik Radwanski, Anne at 13,000 ft is shot in his usual minimalistic style, offering a gritty and stripped down portrait of its title character, who is in the throes of a mental breakdown. Anne (Deragh Campbell) is in her late twenties and… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Anne at 13,000 ft (Platform)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The first film that director Hirokazu Kore-eda has made outside of his native Japan, The Truth follows Fabienne (Catherine Deneuve), a veteran French actress who has just published an autobiography. The release of this book prompts Fabienne’s screenwriter daughter Lumir (Juliette Binoche) to visit her in Paris, travelling… Read More #TIFF19 Review: The Truth (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Based on a true story, Hustlers centres around Destiny (Constance Wu), a young stripper who becomes the protege of Ramona (Jennifer Lopez), the de facto queen of the club. When the club starts losing business during the 2008 recession, Ramona hatches a plan to make money by drugging… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Hustlers (Gala Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Grace (Annette Bening) and Edward (Bill Nighy) are an old married couple who bicker constantly, but have stayed together for over thirty years. Edward is very quiet, and Grace is neurotic by nature, which makes their relationship somewhat volatile. In her attempts to elicit the sort of emotional… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Hope Gap (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) Marianne (Noémie Merlant) is an 18th century artist who is commissioned to paint a portrait of Héloïse (Adèle Haenel), ahead of her arranged marriage to a Milanese businessman. Héloïse is resisting the marriage, and doesn’t want to be painted, so her mother (Valeria Golino) has hired Marianne to… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) Salvador Mallo (Antonio Banderas) is an aging filmmaker plagued by chronic pain and a sense of creative stagnancy. When a revival screening is booked of Sabor, the last movie he made before his career started drying up, Salvador reunites with the film’s star, Alberto (Asier Etxeandia), whom he… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Pain and Glory (Special Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) A bloody, gory and socially conscious Indigenous zombie movie, Blood Quantum explores what happens when a plague that turns people into flesh-eating zombies ravages the outside world, and everyone on a First Nations reserve somehow has immunity to the virus. The film takes place on the Red Crow… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Blood Quantum (Midnight Madness)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Directed by Toronto’s own Daniel Roher, and carrying the distinction of being the first ever Canadian documentary to open the festival, Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band is an engaging and emotional look at Robertson’s own life and career as the lead guitarist and main songwriter… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band (Gala Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Jenny (Hong Chau) is a young political activist in the 1970s who is laying low after bombing a draft office to protest the Vietnam War, when she forms a bond with a young heiress named Pauline (Sarah Gadon), who has gotten involved with a violent cult run by… Read More #TIFF19 Review: American Woman (Gala Presentations)
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) A dark and brooding fairy tale set in the Balkan forests, Entwined follows a doctor named Panos (Prometheus Aleiferopoulos) who arrives in town to start a medical practise, much to the suspicion of the superstitious townsfolk. When he comes across a mysterious young woman, Danae (Anastasia-Rafaela Konidi), who… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Entwined (Discovery)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) When his estranged father Al (Christian Aldo) dies, struggling actor Wayne (Nathanael Chadwick) inherits his dad’s business, a rundown porno theatre. Wayne initially plans to sell the property, which has an apartment above it where tenants still live. But the more time he spends in the building, the… Read More #TIFF19 Review: The Last Porno Show (Contemporary World Cinema)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The latest and best film from young Canadian filmmakers Calvin Thomas and Yonah Lewis, White Lie opens with its main character, a young woman named Katie Arneson (Kacey Rohl), shaving her head with a razor. Katie doesn’t have cancer, but she wants everyone, including her girlfriend Jennifer (Amber… Read More #TIFF19 Review: White Lie (Contemporary World Cinema)
By John Corrado ★★★★ (out of 4) The latest from Alan Zweig, Coppers finds the Canadian documentary filmmaker interviewing former police officers in Ontario, who have either left the force due to retirement or for other reasons. Speaking directly to the camera, the officers open up about experiencing PTSD, tough decisions they had to make… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Coppers (TIFF Docs)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Since moving to England from Algeria in 2001, Fahed has been living in the working class town of Grimsby. While he is settled in the UK, working late hours at a restaurant in order to support himself, he still feels the pull of his home country, and dreams… Read More #TIFF19 Review: My English Cousin (TIFF Docs)
By John Corrado ★★½ (out of 4) Directed by Pat Collins, Henry Glassie: Field Work is a documentary portrait of the renowned scholar and American folklorist Henry Glassie, who has spent over fifty years travelling around the world to study the work that other artists create, from religious statues to clay pots. For much of the… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Henry Glassie: Field Work (Contemporary World Cinema)
By John Corrado ★★★½ (out of 4) The latest work from filmmaker Thomas Heise, who was born in East Berlin, Heimat is a Space in Time is a mix of documentary and cinematic essay that is comprised mostly of excerpts from old diaries and letters belonging to his family in Germany, spanning four generations and almost the… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Heimat is a Space in Time (Wavelengths)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) In this era of fake news, independent journalist Robert Fisk stands tall as a champion of finding the truth and standing up for those who are oppressed, even if it means going against the official narratives and holding those who hold power to account. With a long, storied… Read More #TIFF19 Review: This is Not a Movie (TIFF Docs)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) The 53rd film from Alanis Obomsawin, Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger continues the Canadian filmmaker’s long history of documenting the injustices faced by Indigenous people in Canada and the fight for equal treatment under the law. This film focuses on the case of Jordan River Anderson, a baby… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger (Masters)
By John Corrado ★★★ (out of 4) Back in 1969, after local religious authorities ordered that all of the totem poles be cut down as part of Canada’s widespread erasure of Indigenous culture, the celebrated Haida artist Robert Davidson became responsible for carving the first new totem pole to be put up in nearly a century in his village… Read More #TIFF19 Review: Now is the Time (Short Cuts)
