Category: Movie Reviews

#TIFF50 Review: Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband) (Special Presentations)

By John Corrado The latest work from Inuk filmmaker Zacharies Kinuk, Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband) is a mix of Indigenous legend and storytelling. Set thousands of years in the past, the film follows Sapa (Haiden Angutimarik) and Kaujak (Theresia Kappianaq), a boy and girl who are betrothed to each other, gaining them the names “future husband”… Read More #TIFF50 Review: Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband) (Special Presentations)

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#TIFF50 Review: Tuner (Special Presentations)

By John Corrado In his narrative feature debut Tuner, Oscar-winning Navalny director (and Toronto local) Daniel Roher delivers a delightful surprise. Roher’s first fiction film finds its own rhythm, with a carefully calibrated mix of tones that blends drama, romantic comedy, and thriller, set to a fitting, jazzy score. The film’s premise is also an… Read More #TIFF50 Review: Tuner (Special Presentations)

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#TIFF50 Review: Nouvelle Vague (Special Presentations)

By John Corrado Nouvelle Vague is American director Richard Linklater’s playful look at the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s groundbreaking 1959 film Breathless, done in the spirit of a French New Wave film. A Texas filmmaker shooting in France, in the French language no less, might seem like a stretch. But the indie auteur attitudes of… Read More #TIFF50 Review: Nouvelle Vague (Special Presentations)

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#TIFF50 Review: Blue Moon (Centrepiece)

By John Corrado Richard Linklater’s wistful period piece Blue Moon finds the filmmaker back in Me and Orson Welles mode, delivering a series of beautifully written and performed scenes in his portrait of former creative partners Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke) and Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott). The year is 1943, and the setting is Sardi’s, the… Read More #TIFF50 Review: Blue Moon (Centrepiece)

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#TIFF50 Review: Eleanor the Great (Gala Presentations)

By John Corrado Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut, Eleanor the Great, is a competent enough filmmaking start for the actress, that is held back by a questionable and awkwardly handled story. The film features a decent performance from June Squibb, with Johansson providing a much-deserved leading role for the actress in her mid-90s. But the screenplay… Read More #TIFF50 Review: Eleanor the Great (Gala Presentations)

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#TIFF50 Review: To the Victory! (Platform)

By John Corrado The latest work from Ukrainian filmmaker Valentyn Vasyanovych, To the Victory! is an interesting and narratively playful portrait of life finding a way in an imagined post-war country, and also a meta-textual look at an artist trying to use the decimated backdrop to create something. Vasyanovych stars in the film as Roman,… Read More #TIFF50 Review: To the Victory! (Platform)

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#TIFF50 Review: Rental Family (Special Presentations)

By John Corrado In her heartwarming and heartfelt dramedy Rental Family, director Hikari explores the Japanese industry of “rental families;” actors that can be hired to play the roles of family members and friends for lonely people. It’s a concept perhaps foreign to Western audiences, but one that, in her film at least, is an… Read More #TIFF50 Review: Rental Family (Special Presentations)

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#TIFF50 Review: Meadowlarks (Special Presentations)

By John Corrado In her narrative debut Meadowlarks, Canadian filmmaker Tasha Hubbard adapts her 2017 documentary Birth of a Family into a deeply moving family drama. The film follows four Cree siblings – brother Anthony (Michael Greyeyes, delivering one of his finest performances) and his three sisters Connie (Carmen Moore), Gwen (Michelle Thrush), and Marianne… Read More #TIFF50 Review: Meadowlarks (Special Presentations)

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#TIFF50 Review: EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert (Special Presentations)

By John Corrado A companion piece to the cinematic spectacle of his excellent 2022 biopic Elvis, Australian director Baz Luhrmann’s EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert answers the question of what a Luhrmann-directed documentary looks like. We get the flurry of flashy images, editing, and title cards, with Luhrmann delivering all the visual razzle-dazzle we expect.… Read More #TIFF50 Review: EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert (Special Presentations)

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#TIFF50 Review: Bad Apples (Special Presentations)

By John Corrado In his film Bad Apples, Swedish director Jonatan Etzler fully commits to a tricky tonal tightrope walk between drama, thriller, darkest of dark comedies, and barn-burner of a satire. It will polarize viewers, but is also completely engaging if you are able to get on its wavelength. Saoirse Ronan stars in the… Read More #TIFF50 Review: Bad Apples (Special Presentations)

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#TIFF50 Review: Christy (Special Presentstions)

By John Corrado Christy is Australian director David Michôd’s gruelling sports biopic of boxer Christy Martin, a pioneer in the sport of female boxing. Michôd doesn’t fully escape the expected biopic beats. But his film is an emotionally charged one, built around two very strong performances from Sydney Sweeney, who is excellent as Christy, and… Read More #TIFF50 Review: Christy (Special Presentstions)

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#TIFF50 Review: John Candy: I Like Me (Gala Presentations)

By John Corrado A clear labour of love for director Colin Hanks and producer Ryan Reynolds, the celebrity bio-doc John Candy: I Like Me provides an engaging and moving tribute to the Canadian legend, both his work and his humanity. It was a fitting choice for the festival’s opening night on Thursday. The film’s name,… Read More #TIFF50 Review: John Candy: I Like Me (Gala Presentations)

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#TIFF50 Review: Blood Lines (Centrepiece)

By John Corrado In her sophomore feature Blood Lines, Métis writer, director, and actress Gail Maurice (Rosie) crafts a family melodrama steeped in Métis culture. This cultural specificity is the main point of intrigue for Maurice’s film, which is also presented largely in the traditional Michif language. The main character is Beatrice (Dana Solomon), a… Read More #TIFF50 Review: Blood Lines (Centrepiece)

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#TIFF50 Review: No Other Choice (Gala Presentations)

By John Corrado The latest film from Korean director Park Chan-wook, following up the gauzy, neo-noir, romantic mystery of 2022’s stunning Decision to Leave, No Other Choice is a wildly entertaining film that moves so seamlessly between dark comedy, drama, and murderous thriller, that it seems to defy genre itself. The story centres around Man-soo… Read More #TIFF50 Review: No Other Choice (Gala Presentations)

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#TIFF50 Review: Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (Midnight Madness)

By John Corrado There is something objectively funny about Canadian filmmaker and actor Matt Johnson using the money and industry cred that he received from his 2023 movie BlackBerry to make Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, an idiosyncratic and gloriously entertaining big screen resurrection of his cult web series from 2008. In doing… Read More #TIFF50 Review: Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (Midnight Madness)

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#TIFF50 Review: Honey Bunch (Centrepiece)

By John Corrado The Canadian genre film Honey Bunch serves as both the latest collaboration between actors and real life partners Grace Glowicki and Ben Petrie, and the sophomore feature from co-directors Madeline Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli. In their debut film, the ultra-gritty revenge thriller Violation, Sims-Fewer and Mancinelli showed an appetite for extreme violence.… Read More #TIFF50 Review: Honey Bunch (Centrepiece)

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#TIFF50 Review: It Was Just an Accident (Special Presentations)

By John Corrado In his latest film, the Palme d’Or winner It Was Just an Accident, formerly imprisoned Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi crafts another complex and involving portrait of modern day Iran. The film follows a group of people who find themselves at the centre of a moral dilemma, when a worker named Vahid (Vahid… Read More #TIFF50 Review: It Was Just an Accident (Special Presentations)

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