2018 movies

TIFF 2018 Review: KILLING (Japan 2018) ***

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Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2018. Go to TIFF 2018 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.

Killing Poster
Set during the tumultuous mid-19th century Edo period of Japan Killing is the story of a masterless samurai or ronin named Ikematsu Sosuke. As the prevalent peace and tranquility are sure … See full summary »

Director:

Shin’ya Tsukamoto

Writer:

Shin’ya Tsukamoto (screenplay)

Stars:

Shin’ya Tsukamoto, Yû Aoi, Sôsuke Ikematsu

KILLING is a samurai action flick set in the era when samurais were roaming the land seeking for Masters to serve and to pay them for fighting (for them).  Samurais were still highly respected and many men wanted to become one.  Killing tells this familiar story but with more drama and authenticity. 

 The film looks like Akira Kurosawa’s RASHOMON where a large part of the action takes place within a forest with the sun shining through the trees  Director Mokunoshin Tsuzuki (Sosuke Ikematsu) is one such samurai, a warrior without a war to fight. Impoverished by the long-lasting peace of mid-19th-century Japan, he makes a living by helping farmers in a small village.  Life in the countryside flows uneventfully, between farming chores and playful daily sparring with Ichisuke (Ryusei Maeda), the hot-blooded farmer’s son who dreams of one day becoming a valiant samurai played by director Tsukamoto himself.  But the peaceful surface of the days belies hidden passions, an unspoken attraction for Ichisuke’s sister Yu (Yu Aoi), a looming sense of danger, and many doubts.  

The swords fights are edited too fast for one to really discern what is going on, but the excitement is still present.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=Ev53MlEVIIU

TIFF 2018 Review: SKIN (USA 2018) ***

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Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2018. Go to TIFF 2018 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.

Skin Poster
A destitute young man, raised by racist skinheads and notorious among white supremacists, turns his back on hatred and violence to transform his life, with the help of a black activist and the woman he loves.

Director:

Guy Nattiv

Writer:

Guy Nattiv

Stars:

Jamie Bell, Danielle Macdonald, Bill Camp

Nothing about the KKK on film and all of a sudden two films about infiltration of the Kuklaxklan, though SKIN does not specifically refer to this clan but a general neo-Nazi group.  The other difference is that the infiltrator in this one is white, and goes by the name of Byron Widner (Jamie Bell).  

He is caught on camera brutally attacking a black by the feds and forced into snitching or face jail time and losing everything he has.  At the same time he falls for a single mother, Julie (Danielle Macdonald) with three kids.  Nattiv’s film follows Byron as he slowly but surely gives up his racism.  His neo_Nazi mother and father go all to to prevent him from doing so.  Every time he disposes of one aspect of racism, he has a particular part of a tattoo on his face removed, a very painful process.  

Though based on a true story, the relationship between Byron and Julie is just not believable that he would give up all for her, for obvious reasons as seen on the screen.

Trailer: (unavailable)

TIFF 2018 Review: ROJO (Argentina 2018) ***1/2

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Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2018. Go to TIFF 2018 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.

Rojo Poster
Set in Argentina during the mid-1970s, Benjamín Naishtat’s hypnotic drama follows a successful lawyer whose picture-perfect life begins to unravel when a private detective comes to his seemingly quiet small town and starts asking questions

Director:

Benjamín Naishtat

Writer:

Benjamín Naishtat

Stars:

Alfredo Castro, Diego Cremonesi, Andrea Frigerio

Director Benjamín Naishtat is clearly an expert at creating tense situations.  The beginning 10 minute sequence jet before the title ROJO appear on the screen tells it all.  The protagonist, a lawyer is rudely singled out in a restaurant by a mysterious stranger to leave his table.   

The lawyer lets him have it saying that he is rude and would in life never get what he wants because of his behaviour that he cannot help because he is a victim of his upbringing.  This causes an alteration outside with the stranger shooting himself and the lawyer dumping the body ithe desert.  A detective shows up asking questions.  The lawyer is shown to be nit that well brought upeithr, psychologically abusing his wife so much that she cannot even tell him comfortably that she has to go to the lady’s.  ROJO is an event driven character study set in

Argentina during the mid-1970s, when the military dictatorship, the “Dirty War,” the disappeared.   The 70’s atmosphere is effectively created with everything from clothes to the cars and props.  A tense and absorbing film from start to a satirical finish.

Trailer: http://www.cineuropa.org/en/video/rdID/357258/f/t/

TIFF 2018 Review: FALLS AROUND HER

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Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2018. Go to TIFF 2018 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.

Falls Around Her Poster
A relentless pursuit to seek reclamation through isolation.

Directors:

Darlene Naponse,

Writer:

Darlene Naponse

Stars:

Tantoo Cardinal, Lewis Hodgson, Johnny Issaluk

FALLS AREOUN HER is a true Northern Ontario and Anishinaabe First Nation film that celebrates the winter of Canada as seen in the landscapes of lake, forests and rivers.  The film stars Tantoo Cardinal shining as a world-famous Anishinaabe musician (there is a shot her singing at the stat of the tim – showing some good original music) who returns to the reserve to rest and recharge — only to discover that fame (and the outside world) are not easily left behind.  

Her sister Betty (Tina Keeper) senses there may be more to Mary’s need for isolation and urges her to reconnect with family and old friends.  As Mary gets out more and even starts dating, it seems as though new possibilities are on the horizon.  She has demons to rid off which includes her past manager who is quite the woman abuser, though he gets what he deserves in the end as the film shifts uncomfortably towards horror slasher mode. 

Otherwise it is a relatively dull affair, all good intention aside.

TIFF 2018 Review: LIFE ITSELF (USA 2018) ****

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Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2018. Go to TIFF 2018 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.

Life Itself Poster
Trailer

As a young New York couple goes from college romance to marriage and the birth of their first child, the unexpected twists of their journey create reverberations that echo over continents and through lifetimes.

Director:

Dan Fogelman

Writer:

Dan Fogelman

Stars:

Oscar Isaac, Olivia Wilde, Annette Bening

I overheard the television the other day for a minute that blared the words of actor Mandy Patinkin interviewed for the film: “this is one of the best scripts I have ever read.”  I cannot agree after viewing LIFE ITSELF the new film directed and written by Dam Fogelson about various lives intertwining as if life the narrator was playing a good joke on mankind.  

Abby (Olivia Wilde) is a New York graduate student. Her boyfriend, Will (Oscar Isaac), loves her deeply, but the depth of his commitment overwhelms her sometimes. What’s his story?  Their circle includes Annette Bening and Mandy Patinkin as parents who have their own stories to live out.  And Antonio Banderas and Laia Costa do remarkable work when the action shifts to Spain. As each character’s story is revealed, the fascination increases between lovers, between children and parents, between America and Europe and even between past and present.  

Abby studies unreliable narrators in fiction but as she notes in her thesis, “Life itself is the ultimate unreliable narrator.”  Best way of enjoying this movie, is to just sit back and enjoy the excellent storytelling.

Trailer: https://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/life-itself/

TIFF 2018 Capsule Review: OUT OF BLUE (UK 2018)

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Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2018. Go to TIFF 2018 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.

Out of Blue Poster
When Detective Mike Hoolihan is called to investigate the shooting of leading astrophysicist and black hole expert, Jennifer Rockwell, she is affected in ways she struggles to comprehend.

Director:

Carol Morley

Writers:

Martin Amis (based on the novel by), Carol Morley

Stars:

Patricia Clarkson, James Caan, Mamie Gummer

This is a British film with Brit director Carol Morley (DREAMS OF LIFE) from her script based on Martin Amis’s 1997 novel Night Train set in the U.S.  It follows Mike Hoolihan, a homicide detective’s (Patricia Clarkson) investigation into the shooting of a leading astrophysicist and black-hole expert. 

The killing destabilizes her view of the universe and herself.  The film aims at an examination of a highly intelligent, indeed metaphysical, exploration of existence but it ends up all over the place including an out of place odd scene with Hoolihan dancing in a strip club with the other female dancers.  The solution to the killing is revealed mid-way through the film and the film meanders into her existence and guilt after.  

Clarkson is as usual, excellent in her role (minus the pole dancing) but this is a wasted performance in a character the script never bothers to get the audience to identify with.

TIFF 2018 Review: CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? (USA 2018) ***1/2

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Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2018. Go to TIFF 2018 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.

Can You Ever Forgive Me? Poster
Trailer

When Lee Israel falls out of step with current tastes, she turns her art form to deception. An adaptation of the memoir Can You Ever Forgive Me?, the true story of best-selling celebrity biographer Lee Israel.

Director:

Marielle Heller

Writers:

Nicole Holofcener (screenplay by), Jeff Whitty (screenplay by)

Stars:

Melissa McCarthy, Richard E. Grant, Dolly Wells

 

It takes courage to make for comedian Melissa McCarthy to lose all that weight and to star in a serious role of a convicted felon as well as to bring to the screen the story of a protagonist that is annoying and not one many can root for.  

Accolades for the effort.  Based on the book/biography of the same name, CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? tells the story of failed writer Lee Israel who did at one time make it on the New York Times Best 10  bestseller list but now, down spiralled to drinking and being exceptionally rude to everyone.  She is a petty thief as well.  Then she learns something she is really good at, forging literary letters and selling them to collectors.  She befriends a gay Brit (Richard E. Grant) who does not help her esteem either. 

Heller’s first third of the film shows Lee as a dislikable person, despite offering some break in her jokes and insults.  Heller and McCarthy achieves their difficult task of getting the audience to slowly become sympathetic (if not root) for the character after that.  

But the film is a biography and a study character of the forger Lee Israel and in that sense, the film succeeds tremendously.

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

TIFF 2017 Review: ASSASSINATION NATION (USA 2018)

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Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2018. Go to TIFF 2018 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.

Assassination Nation Poster
Trailer

This is a thousand percent a true story about how the quiet, all-American town of Salem absolutely lost its mind.

Director:

Sam Levinson

Writer:

Sam Levinson

Stars:

Odessa Young, Hari Nef, Suki Waterhouse

ASSASSINATION NATION had a standing ovation at the Midnight Madness premiere at TIFF – not so much that the film was any good but for the spirit of the director, actors and publicity that included a full band entering the theatre during the closing credits to perform the end song in unison with the band playing on the screen.  

The film opens with a barrage of audience warnings (and with reason) of the countless ways one’s sensibilities could be shattered by is about to transpire on screen that includes pedophilia and rape.  Set in the suburban community of Salem, the film’s mayhem first ignites when an anonymous hacker starts exposing the private data of select citizens. When the hacker suddenly exposes half the town, an initial wave of righteous public shaming gives way to a violent mob mentality of paranoid prejudice where the pitchforks are no longer proverbial.  

The target are 4 high-school girls.  So it is them s. Salem with the audience clearly on the girls’s side.  Lots of glorified violence, inane dialogue and scenes that have continuity problems and make no sense. 

But this is after all a Midnight Madness movie and the audience loved the film, despite its flaws.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9qyOGEuLY4

TIFF 2018 Review: ANIARA (Sweden 2018) ***

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Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2018. Go to TIFF 2018 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.

Aniara Poster
A spaceship carrying settlers to Mars is knocked off course, causing the consumption-obsessed passengers to consider their place in the universe.

Directors:

Pella Kagerman (as Pella Kågerman), Hugo Lilja

Writers:

Pella Kagerman (as Pella Kågerman), Hugo Lilja |1 more credit »

Stars:

Emelie Jonsson, Bianca Cruzeiro, Arvin Kananian

This is a sci-fi disaster film based on a prescient epic poem by Swedish Nobel Prize winner Harry Martinson that could very well be a based on true fact event set in the not too far distant future.  
A ship carrying settlers to Mars is knocked off course, causing the consumption-obsessed passengers to consider their place in the universe.   ANIARA is the name of one of several ships launched into space to start anew on Mars.   ANIARA is also a giant shopping mall, but once the accident occurs, no one knows when they will go back on course towards Mars.  The film tracks the time period of the time of the accident, a few weeks after, then a few months after followed by years after.  
The settlers get addicted to a room where the protagonist (Emilie Jonsson) runs a computer that can recall their best memories (nods to Kore-eda’s AFTER LIFE).  The premise is excellent coupled with great production sets but the film’s narrative stays dead ended.

TIFF 2018 Review: PHOENIX (FONIKS) (Norway/Sweden 2018) ***

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Movie Reviews of films that will be playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in 2018. Go to TIFF 2018 Movie Reviews and read reviews of films showing at the festival.

Phoenix Poster
From a young age, Jill has acted as the responsible adult in her small family. She cares for her loving but mentally unstable mother and her younger brother. The news that their estranged …See full summary »

Director:

Camilla Strøm Henriksen

Writer:

Camilla Strøm Henriksen

Stars:

Konrad Agnas, Idun Daae Alstad, Maria Bonnevie

The title of the film comes from the fact that the creature, the PHOENIX can rise from the ashes and rise to great heights as the protagonist, a young girl struggles to keep her family together in the aftermath of a tragedy, that forces her to grow up far too quickly. 

 Jill has to love and put up with her emotionally challenged mother Astrid (Maria Bonnevie).  She also has to look after her younger brother.  Her birthday is approaching the coming Saturday which prompts a visit from her father, Nils (the irresistibly good-looking Sverrir Gudnason) who has left the family.  There is not much else story-wise but director Camilla Strøm Henriksen emerges the audience right into the story, feeling for Jill as well as what might happen to her fragile family. 

 A remarkable emotional first film told from a youth’s point of view.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=jk0bA3sf8-Q