2016 movies

TIFF 2016 Movie Review: SADAKO VS KAYAKO (Japan 2016)

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Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2016. Go to TIFF 2016 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.

sadako_v_kayako_poster.jpgSADAKO VS KAYAKO (Japan 2016) **
Directed by Kôji Shiraishi

Starring: Mizuki Yamamoto, Tina Tamashiro, Aimi Satsukawa |

Review by Gilbert Seah

Two iconic Japanese ghosts are thrown into the ring for a grudge match that’s the ultimate spectral showdown.

A more appropriate title would be THE RING VS THE GRUDGE. University students Yuri (Mizuki Yamamoto) and Natsumi (Aimi Satsukawa) buy an old VCR in order to transfer their home videos to DVD, but when Natsumi watches the dusty old tape found in the machine, she realizes she may have fallen victim to the curse that their urban-legends professor Morishige (Masahiro Komoto) is obsessed with.

Meanwhile, high-schooler Suzuka (Tina Tamashiro) is having dreams about a mysterious house down the street from her new home. Though warned not to enter the house lest she be killed by the Saeki family curse, she is soon drawn inside by the resident ghosts, Kayako and her son, Toshio.

The film is SADAKO VS KAYAKO. But the film does not turn out as well as it sounds. I am not a fan of mash-ups like BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN or COWBOYS VS ALIENS. They turn out too silly and never achieve much, the only exception being the excellent Japanese classic KING KONG VS GODZILLA.

Sadako exists mainly as hair coming out of the TV or video tape so a confrontation of hair against a white crawly ghoul might not amount to much.

Director Shiraishi spends too much time setting the stage for the fight and when it finally occurs, it is a disappointment.

See this only if you must!

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyLA6nfPvRo

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TIFF 2016 Movie Review: AFTER THE STORM (Japan 2016) ***

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Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2016. Go to TIFF 2016 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.

after_the_storm_poster.jpg
AFTER THE STORM (Japan 2016) ***
Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda

Starring: Hiroshi Abe, Yôko Maki, Taiyô Yoshizawa

Review by Gilbert Seah

AFTER THE STORM is Kore-da at his mildest ilmmaking. Don’t expect the drama of LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON or the imagination of AFTER LIFE his two best films. Yet AFTER THE STORM is not without its pleasures.

On the surface it is a simple film, a kind look at a loser. Ryota (Hiroshi Abe) is a failed writer, a third-rate detective, and a hardened gambler. As the film’s title seems to suggest, the salient moments of his life have already passed before the beginning of the story.

He won an important literary award when he was young, but his promising career vanished into thin air. Now, his father has died and his wife has left him. He adores his young son, but seems resigned to his position on the sidelines of the boy’s life.

One night, when a typhoon strikes, the broken family is forced to spend the night together at Ryota’s mother’s home. The ensuing interaction that is both bittersweet and tender forms the film’s highlight. “I never want to grow up to be like you.”, the son says. “I will always love them. They are my family.”

The father says at one point. Great performances here not only from Abe but from Kirin Kiki as Ryota’s mother, who is so funny she steals every scene she is in.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwJcIoFuhto

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TIFF 2016 Movie Review: Tereddut (Clair-obscur) (2016)

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Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2016. Go to TIFF 2016 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.

clair_obscur_poster.jpgCLAIR-OBSCUR (Turkey/Germany/Poland/France 2016) **
Directed by Yesim Ustaoglu

Starring: Mehmet Kurtulus, Metin Akdülger, Okan Yalabik

Review by Gilbert Seah

A female director’s film about two females. So expect a lot of feminine perspective to be presented in the story told. Turk director Yesim Ustaoglu offers a parallel study of two women — a psychiatrist with a long-time live-in partner and a wife in a conservative, nearly tyrannical household — in this study of the possibilities and limitations that exist for women in Turkey today.

A third through the film, their paths cross as the psychiatrist treats the other after a catastrophe.

Ustaoglu’s film clearly intends to show women’s hardships in terms of two different imprisonments of the two women. She succeeds in her tale of Elmas, the young abused new wife, but fails in the second tale of the psychiatrist.

The psychiatrist comes along as too smart and her arguments against her husband does not really feel genuine, as her husband could also feel himself used by her, as she did have an affair before the quarrel.

A mixed bag of emotions in this film, though the visuals are arresting.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEpIzcHVPfo

 

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TIFF 2016 Movie Review: CARRIE PILBY (USA 2016) ***

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Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2016. Go to TIFF 2016 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.

carrie_pilby_poster.jpgCARRIE PILBY (USA 2016) ***
Directed by Susan Johnson

Starring: Bel Powley, Nathan Lane, Gabriel Byrne

Review by Gilbert Seah

Being too smart might be detrimental to ones life. Based on Caren Lissner’s best-selling 2003 novel, CARRIE PILBY is a story of a awkward teen who graduated Harvard at the age of 19 and lives in a small NYC apartment paid for by her London-based father (Gabriel Byrne).

Carrie (Bel Powley) has no job, no purpose and no friends because she actively dislikes just about everyone (rating them “morally and intellectually unacceptable”) as only a teenager can.

Her one regular contact is her dad’s therapist friend, Dr. Petrov (Nathan Lane in rare role of an unfaithful straight man), who after a fruitless series of weekly visits finally sets Carrie some homework: a five-point plan to get her life together. As they say, nothing goes as planned. The plan results in her life turned more upside down. Johnson’s film takes half the film to get its footing.

The first half is really annoying with Carrie spurting out too much clever dialogue and the script getting too smug for tis own good. It treats its audience as simple folk that need a twist in every segment or needing a punch line after a dialogue.

The film gets more tolerable in the second half even turning to winning when Carrie finally gives up on the plan.

Part coming-of-age, part father/daughter relationship and part romance, CARRIE PILBY is a chick flick that finally rises, like is character at the end.

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TIFF 2016 Movie Review: BOYS IN THE TREES (Australia 2016)

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Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2016. Go to TIFF 2016 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.

boys_in_the_trees_poster.jpg
BOYS IN THE TREES (Australia 2016) **
Directed by Nicholas Verso

Starring: Toby Wallace, Gulliver McGrath, Mitzi Ruhlmann

Review by Gilbert Seah

BOYS UNDER TREES contains an exciting premise – a coming-of-age story with gay overtones set in a small Australian town where the protagonist seeks to leave for the big city. The action takes place during Halloween where goals and Aborigine black magic exists.

The story unfolds over the course of an afternoon and deep into Halloween night, what occurs are also on the border separating the comforts of daytime and the eeriness of twilight. Some of the suburban territories they stumble into seem to contain a parallel realm of supernatural forebodings.

But the parallel universe theme does not really work and serve to confuse than to fascinate. Verso’s film is also so slow moving that one feels that it should have ended long before its short running time. The film also puzzles with a lot of questions like:

Is the snow in one scene real and if false who is supplying it and why is it toxic? Why is the girl in a different place for no reason?
Why is the Aborigine in the white suit appearing for no reason?

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfx7L-pXCUg

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TIFF 2016 Movie Review: AQUARIUS (Brazil/France 2016) ****

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Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2016. Go to TIFF 2016 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.

aquarius_posterAQUARIUS (Brazil/France 2016) ****
Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho

Starring: Sonia Braga, Maeve Jinkings, Julia Bernat

Review by Gilbert Seah

Filho’s AQUARIUS is again set in Recife, the seaside neighbourhood that he made famous in his last film NEIGHBOURING SOUNDS.

Though that one was mainly set at night, AQUARIUS is mainly shot in bright sunlight for most of the scenes. AQUARIUS focuses on an individual: Clara (ex-Brazilian sex symbol, who still maintains her looks, Sônia Braga), a retired music critic and the sole tenant of an older apartment block being bought up by ruthless condo developers.

After surviving a bout of cancer and the loss of her beloved husband, Clara is hardly about to let herself be bullied by the “generous” offers or insidious charms of Diego (Humberto Carrão), the American-educated scion of a powerful local real-estate firm. Diego tries everything in his power to force Clara out of her home, including (hilariously, but not for Clara) hosting a noisy orgy in the suite above Clara’s — one that leaves a putrid mess in its wake. The second half of the film is how Clara fights back. Filho builds up the suspense right up to the climatic confrontation.

The film also reveals the class system, prejudices and culture of the Brazilian society.

Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bBcLImYBgQ

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TIFF 2016 Movie Review: WEIRDOS (Canada 2016) ***

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Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2016. Go to TIFF 2016 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.

weirdos_poster.jpgWEIRDOS (Canada 2015) ***
Directed by Bruce McDonald

Starring: Dylan Authors, Rhys Bevan-John, Francine Deschepper

Review by Gilbert Seah

Bruce McDonald (HARD CORE LOGO, THE TRACEY SEGMENTS) turns down the angst a little with his latest film penned by playwright and fellow filmmaker Daniel McIvor. The setting is the town of Antigonish in Nova Scotia on the 4th of July of 1976, the American Bicentennial. Music-loving 15-year-old Kit (Dylan Authors) spends his time either alone in his room listening to Elton John albums, or hanging out with his platonic girlfriend, Alice (Julia Sarah Stone).

Like Kit, Alice feels out of place, and her divorced parents have too many issues of their own to offer much comfort. The film pays tribute (or copies, depending on how one wants at look at it) from films like Woody Allen’s PLAY IT AGAIN SAM and John Schlesinger’s MIDNIGHT COWBOY. Andy Warhol appears at various points in the film, unseen by anyone except Kit giving silly advice to Kit which Kit never takes anyway.

This ploy by McIvor is remotely funny, but serves no purpose but provide a little humour. The beginning of the film feels like MIDNIGHT COWBOY together with the falsetto part of the song resembling “Everybody’s Talkin’ of me” by John Nilsson.

Throughout the entire film, one has the feeling McDonald thinks he is pretty cool and that his film is pretty cool stuff. It is a good thing he is a confident director, as his watchable film is inventive in certain places.

But the film is too weird, pretty much like its characters and all over the place.

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TIFF 2016 Movie Review: LE CIEL FLAMAND (FLEMISH HEAVEN) (Belgium 2016)

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Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2016. Go to TIFF 2016 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.

le_ciel_flamand_posterLE CIEL FLAMAND (FLEMISH HEAVEN) (Belgium 2016) **
Directed by Peter Monsaert

Starring: Sara Vertongen, Wim Willaert, Esra Vandenbussche

Review by Gilbert Seah

Twin stories are told in writer/director Monsaert’s second feature set around the events at a local brothel called LE CIEL FLAMAND. One is the rearing of little Sylvie, the 6-year old daughter of the owner Monique who works there together with her own mother.

The brothel has been passed down through generations though it is falling apart, business-wise. Monique is shown as both a smart businesswoman and mother. She keeps the sex acts from Sylvie.

The film’s most amusing segment has Sylvie questioning her mother where babies come from. But when Sylvie appears to be sexually assaulted, things become extremely tense. Uncle Dirk is suspect but it is he who eventually finds the culprit.

All the events are set, ironically at Christmas time, when the joy of Christmas carols is in the air. The performances are excellent, especially those of real mother and daughter Sara Vertongen and Esra Vandenbussche. But the film’s trouble is director Monsaert trying to polish his film with metaphors and ends up becoming confusing and annoying.

An example is the puzzling last scene when Uncle Dirk uses a rope, initially thought for the making of a noose, that turns out to be the two parts of a swing he is making.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5FM0pOaSF4

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TIFF 2016 Movie Review: ARRIVAL (USA 2016) ****

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Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2016. Go to TIFF 2016 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.

arrival_poster.jpgARRIVAL (USA 2016) ****
Directed by Denis Villeneuve

Starring: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker

Review by Gilbert Seah

Finally arrives a sci-fi futuristic alien film without the blow ups, collapsing buildings and end of the world scenario. Well, all of the above might still happen but it is up to theoretical physicist, Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) and linguistics expert, Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams0 to find out the purpose of the landings.

The landings occur at 12 different locations around the globe and there is a reason for that. Director Villeneuve (PRISONERS, ENEMY) builds up the suspense carefully aided by Jóhann Jóhannsson’s captivating score, unique set design by Patrice Vermette and cinematography by Bradford Young. But it is surprising that the best part of the film is the simple shot segment of Dr. Louise’s explanation of what it means to communicate the question: “What is the purpose of your visit?” to the visitors.

Every word and even the question mark and the pronoun you (singular or collective?) might have different meanings. The non-linearity of time is also a neat concept that is also examined.

The title ARRIVAL in the film, could also refer to two things – the arrival of the visitors or the birth of Dr. Louise’s baby.

ARRIVAL is a fascinating film on all counts.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFMo3UJ4B4g

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Movie Review: JAILBREAK (2016)

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MOVIE POSTERJAILBREAK, 1min., USA, Animation/Crime
Directed by Alise Munson

Shot in black and white, “Jailbreak” follows the daring escape of a prisoner fleeing his cell and his quest for sweet punishment. The animated short from HouseSpecial Director Aaron Sorenson is a German Expressionist-inspired design mash-up of stop-motion and illustration with a decidedly adult twist.

Seen at the August 2016 ANIMATION FEEDBACK Film Festival in Toronto.

Movie Review by Kierston Drier

Jail Break coming to us from the USA and directed by Alise Munson is a delight for the senses.

The curious duet of stop-motion and art illusion is superb creating a reality and
otherworldliness that is both engaging and visually decadent.

The animation in this piece is detailed, lush and highly satisfying. The story packs of humourous punch for so short a film coming in at just under one minute in length. You can’t help but side with our hard bitten hero, a complex criminal with some choice eclectic tastes.

Jail Break follows our criminal hero as he escapes from prison, narrowly missing guards and various obstacles only to get himself chained up in another, more pleasureably sense.

Comic irony that adults will enjoy, and might just go over the heads of a young audience. (Hopefully.)

Watch the Audience FEEDBACK Video of the short film: