Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2017. Go to TIFF 2017 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.
Director:
Writers:
Joseph Kahn (story), Joseph Kahn
Stars:
Calum Worthy, Jackie Long, Rory Uphold
A film about battle rap, I almost walked out within the first 10 minutes not being a fan of this brutal sport. But music video director Kahn’s film increases in intensity while drawing the audience into the world of battle rapping. By the end of the film, one would not only have a more insightful view of the sport but be entertained as well.
The film begins with a battle with explanations of certain terms used by a white couple attending – Adam and his girlfriend. The film assumes the perspective of Adam (Calum Worthy), a white, purportedly progressive graduate student who infiltrates a community of diverse battle rappers for the sake of an edgy thesis.
Before long he develops his own predilection for skilfully slinging rhymed insults and epithets as a competitive poet. Adam is finally forced to choose between his love and his unforgiving girlfriend. Can Adam have the best of both worlds?
The film contains some really awesome rap battles. BODIED is produced by Eminem.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEfbPQVV7wg
TV REVIEW: SOUTH PARK – SEASON 21 – EPISODE 01
Director:
Writers:
Brian Graden (developer), Trey Parker (creator) |1 more credit »
Stars:
Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Jennifer Howell
Review by Mary Cox
“White People Renovating Houses”
South Park is one of those cultural cornerstones that people have looked to for commentary on social and political issues over the past two decades. In a return to Season 8’s episode “Goobacks,” Darryl and South Park’s other xenophobic rednecks are rallying over being replaced by automation. This episode has several direct visual references to the recent Charlottesville protests, Tiki Torches and all.
It seems like class is very much going to be the thematic focus of this season. We start with the the anger of middle-class whites, like the Marsh family, upset about damage done to the “white brand” by conservative protesters. However, there’s some clear miscommunication regarding Randy’s take on the motives of the Confederate flag-waving horde who are hurting the “white image.”
In the “come to Jesus” speech Randy gives to Darryl, the tonal focus is more about morals, and less about economics. The implication is that a superficial change in lifestyle, such as that created by a home renovation, is symbolic of a massive shift in the foundation of someone’s beliefs. In other words, you can deal with the problems of conservative white Americans by providing them with the illusion of a bourgeois middle-class lifestyle.
This is highly emblematic of the fundamental cultural divide in the United States, whereas the issue splitting the country into two angry sides isn’t necessarily related to politics, but to class. Even if Darryl’s lifestyle and cultural perspective can be “rehabilitated,” how can the issue of economic displacement caused by automation be resolved?
Coal mining jobs are never coming back, truck driving jobs are on the way to irrelevancy with self-driving cars, and most basic retail and food service positions are on their way out as well. If the jobs AI is replacing are, as Darryl says, “degrading and menial,” and good jobs are exclusively restricted to university graduates, as is asserted by Randy, what options do working-class people like Darryl even have? It will be interesting to see the solutions provided by Matt Stone and Trey Parker over the course of this season.
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TIFF 2017 Movie Review: VICTORIA AND ABDUL (UK 2017)
Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2017. Go to TIFF 2017 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.
Director:
Writers:
Lee Hall (screenplay), Shrabani Basu (based on the book by)
Stars:
Judi Dench, Olivia Williams, Michael Gambon
VICTORIA AND ABDUL chronicles with humour and insight the friendship between Queen Victoria (Oscar Winner Judi Dench) and a decades-younger Indian clerk named Abdul Karim. Karim has been summoned because of his height to present a ceremonial coin on behalf of British India to the Queen as a part of her Golden Jubilee in 1887. Abdul has done what is forbidden during the ceremony.
He makes eye contact with the Queen who finds him handsome. In no time he is cooking her curries, talking to her about his culture, and being elevated to the post of official clerk, or Munshi, becoming an indispensable part of the household — and state.
Frears’ assessment of Britain and royalty remain respectful. Queen Victoria is revealed in the film with all her grandeur (her royal attire and servants) but also with all her faults and her ageing process. She also claims herself to be and shown as well as cankerous, ill-tempered, fat but also one that has held five generations of household and mother of many children and grandchildren.
VICTORIA AND ABDUL is Frears’ mediocre film which is tolerant of everything and offends no one. These kind of films are often humorous, handsomely mounted, well acted but unfortunately forgetful.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT2Ph_9bGPs
TIFF 2017 Movie Review: HIGH FANTASY (SOUTH AFRICA 2017)
Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2017. Go to TIFF 2017 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.
Director:
Stars:
Qondiswa James, Nala Khumalo, Francesca Varrie Michel
Four friends (1 male 3 females, two black and one white) on a camping trip at an isolated farm around Capetown, South Africa wake up to discover they’ve all swapped bodies.
Four of the actors Qondiswa James, Liza Scholtz, Nala Khumalo, and Francesca Michel all wrote the script together. A mix of comedy and drama, the campers argue on issues like race, gender, inequality while spouting out foul language to no end.
Shot on an iPhone, the film obviously has the feel of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and TANGERINE. This is a personal film, as can be clearly observed, and therefore not for everyone. The filmmakers do not care for anything and just do their thing.
Though occasionally funny, the whole exercise is a wast of time and talent (or rather, effort). The film only serves to prove that one should pick ones friends while going camping.
TIFF 2017 Movie Review: IT STAINS THE SANDS RED (USA 2017)
Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2017. Go to TIFF 2017 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.
Director:
Writers:
Stars:
Brittany Allen, Juan Riedinger, Merwin Mondesir
The zombie film genre is never short of new entries. The new zombie films have to have fresh ideas or original scare set-ups to entertain audiences, many of whom have been saturated already.
IT STAINS THE SANDS RED begins with a couple, an African American and his sexy girlfriend, Molly (Britanny Allen) stranded in the desert fete the car goes into the ditch after a silly argument.
Mollyis a troubled woman from Las Vegas with a dark past. She finds herself stranded in the desert. This means one of two things – either zombies or a TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE tip family. It is the former with a lone ravenous Zombie (Juan Riedinger) on her tail. At first, she’s easily able to outpace her un-dead pursuer, but things quickly become a nightmare when she realizes the zombie doesn’t need to ever stop and rest. Running low on supplies and beat down by the harsh environment, Molly will have to summon the strength she never knew she had to ultimately face the zombie, and the demons that have chased her all her life.
Molly spends half the movie escaping from the one zombie. At least Director Minihand knows zombies are slower. So, she just needs t walk away faster than the zombie – giving more opportunity for ehr to talk to herself (and hence to the caera) for more nonsense sayings.
Expected stuff in the film includes no signal on the cell phone; the sexy girl surviving and obviously the other one done for; sexy girl victim eventually running off in skimpy outfit (Molly runs around half the time with sexy leather bikini outfit under expensive furs) and more. Would an audience watcher or the big ugly guy? Answer is obvious. Inventive stuff (or slightly inventive for that matter) includes an attack in the night with things that can only be seen with a flashlight; zombie hanging on a ledge; combining her own inner demons and the zombie demons; Molly doing coke while being pursued and stranded in the desert. The metaphor of the inner and inner demons is too obvious and not really needed in a horror flick.
The film is unshamefully politically incorrect with dialogue like, :Bitch!’ and “I am going to cut you rip real deep like a n******* in the sun.” An attempted rape scene is also present for the pleasure of the males.
Film costs are obviously a minimum with just one victim and one zombie. This limits what can be seen in the movie. Molly has to talk to herself aloud. to keep the film’s dialogue going. Minihand makes use of the setting like a sandstorm to add more dimension to the movie.
Humour is silly at most: “Can you ever keep your mouth shut.” “You smell like shit.” “Like every man in a bar, you can never know when to say no.” “And worst of all, “You got a small dick!”
IT STAINS THE SANDS RED ends up a mediocre horror zombie film with just a few but insufficient new tricks.
TIFF 2017 Movie Review: THE LEISURE SEEKER (USA 2017)
Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2017. Go to TIFF 2017 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.
Director:
Writers:
Michael Zadoorian (novel), Stephen Amidon (screenplay)
Stars:
Helen Mirren, Donald Sutherland, Kirsty Mitchell
Oscar winner Helen Mirren (THE QUEEN) and Donald Sutherland star as an elderly couple looking for adventure on one (romantic?) final road trip. Ella (Mirren) is dying of cancer.
Her husband, John (Sutherland) is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. As the film opens, their son and daughter discover that their parents have taken off with THE LEISURE SEEKER (the name of their camper), on a last road trip.
Ella nor John is interested in quietly fading away surrounded by nurses and machines just to needlessly prolong a winnowing life. They travel from Boston to Florida (some nice scenery on display) with John behind the wheel. The film is based on the novel by Michael Zadoorian with Italian director Virzi at the helm. But as a film, there is too many issues tackled.
Everything that one can think about growing old is in the film and covered unfortunately in a cliched manner. Director Virzi acts like a traffic cop ushering these issues in an out. The incidents like the traffic comes and goes, none too memorable, and quite boring too, just as the job of directing traffic.
The result is another old farts fantasy film about old people reminiscing or trying to be young again.
Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd5LWTvMy4U
August 2017 Female Directed & Written Stories, Screenplays, and Short Films
Submit your Female Story, Screenplay, or Short Film to the Festival today: https://femalefilmfestival.com/
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 |  UNTIL DEATH DO US PART, 8min, USA, LGBT, DocumentaryWATCH Audience FEEDBACK |
 MY NAME IS JOAN, 30min, USA, DocumentaryWATCH Audience FEEDBACK |  MAGIC RADIO, 9min, USA, Family/Comedy WATCH Audience FEEDBACK |
 GRACE & GRIT, 3min, USA, Thriller/DramaWATCH Audience FEEDBACK |  WE WERE SWIMMING, 3min, UK, Art/SurrealWATCH Audience FEEDBACK |
 THE MAN WHO DOESN?T SLEEP, 15min, Canada, DramaWATCH Audience FEEDBACK |  THE SESSION, 7min, USA, ComedyWATCH Audience FEEDBACK |
 NO STRINGS ATTACHED, 5min, USA, Music VideoWATCH Audience FEEDBACK |  KAJAL, 20min, India, DramaWATCH Audience FEEDBACK |
July 2017 Female Directed & Written Stories, Screenplays, and Short Films
Submit your Female Story, Screenplay, or Short Film to the Festival today: https://femalefilmfestival.com/
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 |  NOVEMBER UNDER ASHES, 3min, France, Music VideoWATCH Audience FEEDBACK |
 ICARO, 11min, Brazil, ExperimentalWATCH Audience FEEDBACK |  65.5 WOMEN, 6min, Norway, ExperimentalWATCH Audience FEEDBACK |
 DIE YOUNG, 3min, USA, Music VideoWATCH Audience FEEDBACK |  DON?T LET THE BASTARDS GRIND YOU DOWN, 4min, UK, ExperimentalWATCH Audience FEEDBACK |
 SUICIDE NOTE, 5min, UK, Fantasy/ThrillerWATCH Audience FEEDBACK |  REAL ARTISTS, 12min, USA, Fantasy/DramaWATCH Audience FEEDBACK |
 PLEASE LOVE ME FOREVER, 27min, France, Fantasy/RomanceWATCH Audience FEEDBACK |
Audience FEEDBACK Video: KAJAL, 20min, India, Drama
KOHL, 20min, India, Drama
Directed by Paakhi A Tyrewala
Like all elements, humans have a saturation point. What happens when a woman — constantly bullied by a boss, harassed by strangers and abused by husband — finds an abandoned package one night?
CLICK HERE – and see full info and more pics of the film!
Audience FEEDBACK Video: NO STRINGS ATTACHED, 5min, USA, Music Video
| NO STRINGS ATTACHED, 5min, USA, Music Video Directed by Lindsay Penn Fans or dollars? A surreal exploration of the inner conflict of the independent artist. CLICK HERE – and see full info and more pics of the film! |
Festival Reviews 