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.
Sarah Gadon, Edward Holcroft, Zachary Levi
ALIAS ALICE is a layered historical drama based on of Margaret Atwood’s Giller Prize–winning novel about a poor Irish servant accused and convicted of murder, from Canadians screenwriter Sarah Polley and director Mary Harron (AMERICAN PSYCHO).
This is a woman’s film all the way, and the female presence is felt – and in a good way. The story concerns the incident of Marks allegedly killing her wealthy employer, Thomas Kinnear, and his stern housekeeper, Nancy Montgomery, in Upper Canada in 1843.
Years later, as the adult Grace relates her story (as the film begins) to an increasingly appalled and distracted doctor brought in to assess her sanity, it becomes clear there’s far more at work here than widely assumed. The ALIAS PROJECT is filmed as a TV miniseries.
The film shown at TIFF, well shot, well acted, written and directed and even more impressive being for TV, is comprised of the first two episodes.
The film ends with the audience wanting for more.
TIFF 2017 Movie Review: DOWNSIZING (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:
Matt Damon, Christoph Waltz, Hong Chau
DOWNSIZING, a film combining several genres offers the solution to the world’s problem of overpopulation.
If people can be reduced in size to a thousandth of their original, many of the world problems could be solved. People will only eat, use and dispose much, much less product. When science finally achieved the success of downsizing, many colonies were begun.
So, Matt Damon and wife opt to be reduced and live in their new reduced size colony for monetary benefit. Things never go as expected, as in a similar film long time back in Michael Crichton’s sci-fi WESTWORLD.
DOWNSIZING contains a script written by Payne and Jim Taylor that is occasionally brilliant with lots of attention to details. The film does not go into thriller territory but into more ambitious aims. Payne’s social satire does not fully work and ends up too ambitious for its own good.
Still, the film is engaging from start to finish to a large part to Damon’s performance with help from a host of impressive stars (Kristen Wiig, Christoph Waltz, Hong Chau, Laura Dern, Jason Sudeikis, Alec Baldwin, and Neil Patrick Harris). Better a film that with high aims that falters that a minimalist film with no faults.
The special effects and cinematography are also amazing. Shot in Toronto and around the fiords of Norway.
TIFF 2017 Movie Review: LES GARDIENNES (THE GUARDIANS) (France/Switzerland 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:
Nathalie Baye, Iris Bry, Laura Smet
LES GUARDIENNES (THE GUARDIANS) is director Xavier Beauvois’ (LE PETIT LIEUTENANT) handsomely mounted period piece of World War II told during the period of 4 years from 1916, the start to end.
It is a story that needs to be told – of what effects the war as well as modernization had on a typical farm family in France.
The women of the Pardier farm, under the deft hand of the family’s matriarch (Nathalie Baye in arguably her best role), must grapple with the workload while the men, including two sons, are off at the front. Her husband, daughter and , grand-daughter remain with her. She seeks the aid of an outsider, a strong 25-year old orphan, Francine (Laura Smet) who turns out to be an excellent worker.
When Francine and on of the sons fall in love, the trouble starts. Beauvois’ film is almost perfect in he creation of the war atmosphere and of rural France. The harvesting and planting seasons are beautifully captured on film.
The film also does not gear towards the typical Hollywood ending but a realistic credible one instead.
Trailer: (unavailable)
TIFF 2017 Movie Review: NUMERO UNE (NUMBER ONE) (France 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.
In this whip-smart drama about corporate sexism, top French star Emmanuelle Devos plays a high-ranking female executive who is forced to consider her options and marshal her forces when she realizes that the glass ceiling is fast approaching.
Director:
Writers:
Raphaëlle Bacqué (collaboration), Marion Doussot
Tonie Marshall’s corporate drama NUMERO UNE has high hopes for women, the director herself being one of the top French directors today. The story charts the climb to first place of a female business executive, Emmanuelle (Emmanuelle Devos) to head a top CAC 40 (French Stock Market) company.
She is very good at her current job, as seen in many sequences, even speaking and singing Chinese songs with Chinese executives in her environmental friendly wind turbine company. She is wooed by a feminist group to head Athena, though this comes at a cost of her husband (John Lynch) losing his job and other nasties.
The film itself has high hopes but gets bogged down by having one too many subplots which include, Emmanuelle’s sick father (veteran actor Sami Frey), her marriage problems, blackmail and other assortment of problems.
Still Devos (READ MY LIPS, KINGS AND QUEENS, UN PROPHET), as always is a pleasure to watch, and so is the film, despite its flaws.
Movie Review: IT (USA 2017) ***
Writers:
Chase Palmer (screenplay), Cary Fukunaga (screenplay) |
Stars:
Bill Skarsgård, Jaeden Lieberher, Finn Wolfhard
IT is the much anticipated new horror film based on the 1986 Stephen King of the same name. Any novel by King turns out to be a box-office hit. IT expects to do the same and not only that, but to boost the 2017 box-office from its awful slump in recent months. IT was first adapted in a 1990 series, but many like myself have never see it.
The basic story involves seven children, with stuttering Bill being the main one, all terrorized by a killer dancing clown called Pennywise. Their town of Derry, Maine have experienced disappearing children in the past. One of the kids researched that these events occur once every 27 years. It is later revealed that Pennywise comes out to eat children. The kids have to say together in order to defeat the monster.
The film never compromises the horror – which is both emotional and physical. IT is clearly a film for adults but with both adult and childhood horror. Besides the real terror of the dancing clown, there is the notion that the terror is also imagined. When the terrorized kids stick together, Pennywise is defenceless. The film also emphasizes the terror of being alone.
As a result of the un-compromised horror, the film turns out to be quite nasty. The nastiness includes:
– poor young Georgie at the start of the film losing an entire arm
– pedophilia with Beverly terrorized sexually by her father
– bullying taken to the limit with the bullies using a knife to cut up a victim and a vicious fight of rock throwing lots of blood splattering a son killing his father with a switchblade
With a story involving a total of 7 kids, it is expected and it does happen, that not all the stories are completely told. The main kid, Bill, for example has a few minutes with his parents who are then absent throughout the rest of the film .
IT though set in Maine (as in many of King’s stories) was shot in the Riverdale neighbourhood of Toronto and also around Oshawa and Port Hope. Canadians will definitely recognize their typical built neighbourhoods, with the streets and storm drains, like the one shown early in the film when Georgie first meets the killer clown.
Despite the film’s flaws, director Andy Muschietti (MAMA) effectively piles the horrors on. His display of emotional and physical terror is well balanced. The horror and shock effects are quite good. The film is definitely many steps ahead of recent horror films like ANNABELLE CREATION.
The film running at 135 minutes, is long for a horror movie which normally runs 90 minutes. Thought the film is scary in most parts, the film drags in the middle. At the end of the film, the credits ‘Chapter 1’ appear, which means a sequel is for sure already in the making. The second instalment should be good if it is at least good as this one.
TIFF 2017 Movie Review: WESTERN (Germany/Bulgaria/Austria 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:
Writer:
Stars:
Meinhard Neumann, Reinhardt Wetrek,Syuleyman Alilov Letifov
Likely called WESTERN because the characters in this Cannes hit travel to new frontiers like the classic John Ford and Howard Hawks westerns. A group of German construction workers labouring in the Bulgarian countryside to earn more money but trouble arrives in unexpected ways.
They raise their German flag proudly at the site. One of the workers tease the local girls swimming in the river. The locals take offence and old war resentment arises.
The workers and the locals have a problem of communication because of language The film is a bit hard to follow as one wonders which language is actual spoken and who can communicate. Nothing much happens.
Europeans particularly Germans would be able to appreciate this difficult diim more than North Americans.
TIFF 2017 Movie Review: BPM (120 BATTEMENTS PAR MINUTE) (France 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:
Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Arnaud Valois, Adèle Haenel
BPM, 120 battements par minute (beats per minute) centres on the French chapter of the protest organization ACT UP, and the dynamics, personal and public, amongst this disparate group of men and women affected by AIDS.
The film begins with one of its protests followed by a meeting that analyzes its effectiveness. In it, Campillo introduces his characters, its two leaders before concentrating on HIV positive Sean (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart). Sean is a charismatic and very oratorical young militant who wades fearlessly into action, bolstered by the courage of his convictions.
To make his film more personal as well as effective, Campillo puts faces into the organization of ACT UP. Sean meets (at a rally) Nathan and has sex, beginning a relationship. The film also documents different reactions to the ACT UP activities. BPM, one of the best films of TIFF is definitely also its most powerful one.
Those who are HIV positive have the members of ACT UP and other activist groups to thank for the progress made as of today.
For a film that deals with the topic of death, BPM is full of life. A film that deserves to be angry for the fact that the privilege of living for many has almost been taken completely away.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fhO2A4SL24
TIFF 2017 Movie Review: THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER (UK/Ireland 2017) ***1/2
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:
Nicole Kidman, Alicia Silverstone, Colin Farrell
Greek director (DOGTOOTH and THE LOBSTER) Yourgos Lanthimos’s latest feature is a supernatural psychological thriller that is the most difficult to watch despite its bouts of black humour.
The film follows Dr. Steven Murphy (Farrell), a cardiac surgeon who is first seen at a diner meeting with a 16-year-old named Martin (Barry Keoghan).
The doctor buys the boy an expensive watch as a present. The relationship between the two is revealed as the film goes on. Steven introduces Martin to his wife (Nicole Kidman) and two children. Martin, determined to ingratiate himself into this unfamiliar new family, becomes something like an adopted son. Strange things begin to happen with the children developing paralysis right out of the blue.
Secrets start coming out of the closet. Director Lanthimos unveils bits at a time, thus keeping the audience in anticipation. It is safe to say that the film gets more and more serious and ends up becoming quite a disturbing watch. Lanthimos does not skimp on the violence and language.
The film has a lot of anger and the anger is slowly but surely unleashed by every one in the party concerned. THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER is a well executed psychological and emotional horror film but not for everyone!
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQFdGfwChtw
TIFF 2017 Movie Review: BORG/McENROE (Sweden/Denmark/Finland 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:
Writer:
Stars:
Shia LaBeouf, Stellan Skarsgård, Sverrir Gudnason
Chosen as the Opening film of the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, BORG/McENROE is one of two tennis films playing, the other one being BATTLE OF THE SEXES.
The two films by inevitable comparison show vast differences in approach. BORG/McENROE takes its subject of tennis very seriously while the other doesn’t relying on comedy to stir its audience.
The results of the tennis matches are crucial for both films. In BORG/McENROE, they are exciting and competently shot while the other one is laughable and boring.
The actors also here sport tennis bodies while Emma Stone is too skinny and Carell too bloated.
Borg/McEnroe tells the story of the epic rivalry between Swedish tennis legend Björn Borg (Sverrir Gudnason) and his greatest adversary, the brash American John McEnroe (Shia LaBeouf), which came to a head during the 1980 Wimbledon Championships.
Gudnason and LaBeouf deliver believable performances of the tennis stars. LaBeouf probably played himself, an angry controversial person himself in real life.
BORG/McENROE is what a tennis film should be. It celebrates the game of tennis, delivers exciting matches and teaches the audience a thing or two about the game while offering some insight of what tennis professionals go through.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgfFdEOGUqE
TIFF 2017 Movie Review: MARLINA: THE MURDERER IN FOUR ACTS (Indonesia/Malaysia/Thailand/France 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:
Egy Fedly, Dea Panendra, Yoga Pratama
Marlina (Marsha Timothy), recently widowed is unable to pay her husband’s funeral services. A troupe of ugly and unforgiving men use this excuse to take her livestock and have their way with her.
But they are not prepared for the fury of this woman, in this revenge fantasy where women are warriors and will take no shit. Marlina poisons them with a soto ayam (local chicken soup dish) dinner and beheads Markus, the head of the gang, as she is riding him.
Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts (Marlina si Pembunuh dalam Empat Babak), titled THE Robbery,
The Journey, The Killing and The Birth is a slow moving, arty though no less engaging piece of storytelling that will grab one from start to end. Humour is deadpan and always present as Marlina takes a bus with the head of Markus to make a report at the nearest police station. She meets a pregnant neighbour who also has man trouble.
A stylish but violent film proving Surya as a fantastic storyteller. The film is set on an island in East Indonesia shot in Malay.
Festival Reviews 