TIFF 2016 Movie Reviews

TIFF 2016 Movie Review: GODSPEED (Taiwan 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.

godspeed_poster.jpgGODSPEED (Taiwan 2016) **
Directed by Chung Mong-Hong

Starring: Leon Dai, Na Dow, Michael Hui

Review by Gilbert Seah

The main attraction of this drug caper comedy is Michael Hui who in his hey day was directing his brothers in the funniest of Hong Kong comedies. In GODSPEED, he plays a cab driver caught in a drug delivery racket. Na Dow (Na Dow) is a drug mule who travels across Taiwan delivering top-quality heroin.

He found the job by simply answering an ad, and his method of transporting the illegal goods is equally mundane: he hails a cab in the morning, rides it from the north of the country to the south, delivers a package, and returns in the same cab that night.

The cab driver is middle-aged Hong Kong native who came to Taiwan some 25 years ago, Old Xu (Michael Hui) goes out of his way to be hired and, even though he’s been driving all night, agrees to take Na Dow down south in hopes of making some extra cash and getting a little closer to retirement. Chung’s film is funny in parts but not consistent as a comedy. The uneven mix of violence and slow rendering of the humour both create a very odd comedy, with the laughs coming too few and far between.

Hui is still a pleasure to watch, but he has done better in his earlier comedies.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=HdHhJL0WQgE

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TIFF 2016 Movie Review: FREE FIRE (UK 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.

free_fire_poster.jpgFREE FIRE (UK 2016) **
Directed by Ben Wheatley

Starring: Brie Larson, Enzo Cilenti, Sam Riley, Michael Smiley

Review by Gilbert Seah

Irrelevant as his A FIELD IN ENGLAND, tho hate it or love it British film set entirely in the U.S. in 1878 for no apparent reason, Bn Whetaley returns to his black comedy roots of SIGHTSEERS, the film that shot him to recognition. his is a 70’ crime caper set totally in an abandoned warehouse where a guns deal takes place.

But a previous altercation between two separate members of the different sides results in a free-for-all shoot out hat lasts the entire joie.

The humour and violence is entertaining initially, but greadullay wears out its welcome. Known names Sharlto Copley, Armie Hammer, Oscar Winner Brie Larson and Cillian Murphy do their best to liven up the proceedings but they can only do so much with the limited amtrial.

Director Wheatley works with his loving wife, Amy Jump who wrote the script and co-edited the film with him.

FREE FIRE may work for a few but will not for the majority as FREE FALL is a queer piece for a select few.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDD3I0uOlqY

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TIFF 2016 Movie Review: THE DUELIST (Russia 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.

the_duelist_poster.jpgTHE DUELIST (Russia 2016) ***
Directed by Alexey Mizgirev

Starring: Pierre Bourel, Nikolay Butenin, Pyotr Chubko

Review by Gilbert Seah

THE DUELIST is a very accomplished film very handsomely mounted and shot in IMAX and a film that has to be seen in IMAX. The period setting shows aristocratic Russia and is set in both Russia and Germany.

The audience is introduced to the rules of nobility as well as the rules of duelling. The film centres on dashing Yakovley, returning to Saint Petersburg after a long exile. Yakovley makes a comfortable living by winning other people’s duels. An enigmatic, focused, and extremely skilled professional, he leaves a trail of dead bodies behind him as he swirls through polite society, frequently called upon to wield a pistol as a surrogate in duels at dawn.

But when Yakovlev meets the naïve young Prince Tuchov and his beautiful sister, Princess Martha, the normally cold-hearted mercenary is surprised by hitherto undetected emotions. He falls in love. The film has magnificently suspenseful duels as well as some graphic scenes of flogging.

Stunning art direction, costume design and cinematography.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQZQg4KT-YY

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TIFF 2016 Movie Review: SAFARI (Austria 2016) ***

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ffMovie 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.

auf_safari_poster.jpg SAFARI (Austria 2016) ***
Directed by Ulrich Seidl

Review by Gilbert Seah

Austrian director Ulrich Seidl is known for his ‘shock’ movies that are more than provocative. His films DOG DAYS, the PARADISE trilogy and his latest SAFARI are not for everyone.

At least half a dozen critics walked out dying the press screening for SAFARI. There is a lot of blood and guts, displayed when the animals shot on SAFARI are gutted in real time. Seidl’s film is also very sly in its humour – the way the over privileged hunters justify the killings as humane.

Seidl provides his audience with access points into the thrill-seeking and power-hungry tourism of the “sport.” Guided by an official hunter and a local hunting caddy, his protagonists appear as nothing more than opportunist marksmen.

A lot of his scenes are set up with his stationary camera while his characters move in and then out of the frame. Occasionally, the camera would track his characters after they move into the frame.

SAFARI is an unforgettable and remarkable feature, if one can handle it.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVMktu2Seuk

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TIFF 2016 Movie Review: RAGE (IKARI) (ANGER) (Japan 2016) ***** Top 10

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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.

rage_poster.jpgRAGE (IKARI) (ANGER) (Japan 2016) ***** Top 10
Directed by Ang-Il Lee

Starring: Ken Watanabe, Hikari Mitsushima, Mirai Moriyama

Review by Gilbert Seah

One of the things most neglected in the judging of a film is the directors’s storytelling technique. In the new film RAGE (also called by different titles), three different stories are wonderfully intercut and linked by a gruesome murder of a husband and wife for no apparent reason.

A stranger shows up in 3 different towns and is the suspect for this murder. One story involves a gay man who picks up a stranger at a bath-house (after sex, of course) who he thinks might be the killer.

Another has a girl finally finding stability and love with a stranger with an unknown past. Her father (Ken Watanabe) digs up the dirt and suspicion falls on the new beau. Finally, the third involves a possible rape with a boyfriend and new friends trying to cope withe crime.

One needs a bit of patience and work to appreciate what the film is attempting but by the last film’s last reel, Lee will have you totally captivated in his storytelling. Besides being a film about rage, it is also one about forgiveness and redemption.

One of the hidden gems of this year’s festival.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbvcbQn1Zqc

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TIFF 2016 Movie Review: PRANK (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.

prank_poster.jpgPRANK (Canada 2016) *
Directed by Vincent Biron

Starring: Alexandre Auger, Eric K. Boulianne, Normand Daoust

Review by Gilbert Seah

The film PRANK must be a prank of some kind. The no-brainer film is about 3 losers and a loser girl that go about town doing pranks of various kinds. Stefie (Étienne Galloy) is a bored, awkward teenager with giant train tracks, a mouth that’s constantly agape, no apparent friends, and nothing better to do than throw a tennis ball listlessly against a schoolyard wall.

Enter older pranksters Martin (Alexandre Lavigne) and Jean-Se (Simon Pigeon), who con Stefie into collaborating on a YouTube ruse. One might include dancing on a bridge until someone comes long when he will be told to f*** off.

This prank is not at all funny, nor are the other ranks nor the film itself.

This is a small budget Quebec film that serves no purpose. One wonders why it has even been selected as a TIFF film. The film that makes the film JACKASS look like a masterpiece.

(No need to bother with a trailer here!)

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TIFF 2016 Movie Review: THE OATH (Iceland 2016) ***1/2

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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.

the_oath_posterTHE OATH (Iceland 2016) ***1/2
Directed by Baltasar Kormákur

Starring: Hera Hilmar, Baltasar Kormákur, Gísli Örn Garðarsson

Review by Gilbert Seah

THE OATH is TAKEN Icelandic style, while making good use of the Icelandic landscape.

Not a revenge film with all violence, beatings and car chases, THE OATH is a thinking man’s revenge flick. Finnur (Kormákur), a prominent physician, is dealing simultaneously with both the death of his father and the increasingly erratic behaviour of his eldest daughter, Anna (Hera Hilmar).

Perplexed, he suspects that Anna’s new boyfriend, Óttar (Gísli Örn Garðarsson), may be the cause. A frantic late-night call from Anna convinces Finnur that he must get the creepy Óttar out of his daughter’s life for good.

The father devises a scheme to save his daughter with the cops having him as the prime suspect for a killing. A large part of the film is his planning for both the killing and the alibi. What would a father not do to save his family?

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vPNwJ4yab8

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TIFF 2016 Movie Review: THE LEVELLING (UK 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.

the_levelling_poster.jpgTHE LEVELLING (UK 2016) ****
Directed by Hope Dickson Leach

Starring: Ellie Kendrick, David Troughton, Jack Holden

Review by Gilbert Seah

Writer/director Leach’s debut feature is a meticulously executed piece proving her a new force to be reckoned with. Leach does marvellously with her material while eliciting almost perfect performances from her two leads.

The script balances both characters and none are totally in the right or wrong. Clover (Ellie Kendrick), the film’s clearheaded young protagonist, comes home to Somerset after learning that her younger brother Harry has committed suicide. There she is met by her sullen father, Aubrey (David Troughton), a brooding hulk of a man whose past woes have derailed his life.

Quiet and dour, wishing never to express himself, he finds himself trapped in quiet anger. The farm is in disrepair. Recent floods have rendered the main house uninhabitable, and Aubrey lives in a trailer.

Harry was meant to take over the farm, but those plans also lie in ruins. But a secret is eventually revealed in the plot bringing the film to a satisfying emotional climax and making it a rewarding gut wrenching family drama.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFfaxS6Go5k

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TIFF 2016 Movie Review: THE BELKO EXPERIMENT (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.

the_belko_experiment_poster.jpgTHE BELKO EXPERIMENT (USA 2016) ****
Directed by Greg McLean

Starring: Josh Brener, Tony Goldwyn, Michael Rooker

Review by Gilbert Seah

Aussie director (Australians always have their special edgy sense of humour) and scriptwriter James Gunn (remember his super-gross SLITHER?) join forces to deliver the perfect Midnight Madness vehicle, which would get my vote for the Midnight Madness Best Film Award.

Office politics turns into a real-life survival of the fittest when a group of co-workers are forced into a sick game of kill or be killed by unknown sinister forces that lock down their building, in this gruesomely funny horror thriller. It at first seems to be an ordinary morning on the job for a group of Americans working for a not-for-profit company in a modern office building in Colombia.

After noticing that their Colombian colleagues have not arrived for work, office worker Mike (John Gallagher, Jr.) spots some unfamiliar security guards entering a large hangar nearby. Moments later, an icy voice comes over the building’s PA system and calmly explains that the employees must kill a certain number of their co-workers — if not, they will be killed themselves.

While the boss (Tony Goldwyn) tries to calm the troops, Mike belatedly realizes that something truly sinister is going on — and when metal doors come sliding down on all the building’s exits and windows, it becomes clear that friends and colleagues are now suddenly enemies in a bloody and brutal battle to the death. Even before the action begins, McLean delivers lots of inside office jokes like the isolation of working in a cubicle, sexual harassment and the introduction of new employees.

The film is a mix between disaster, sci-fi, horror and comedy which means that the filmmakers have plenty to play around with. In the kill to survive scenario, there is the good guy with all the right motives, the bad boss (handsome Goldwyn doing the villain as he did in GHOST), the unstable psycho, the asshole, the plump good meaning lady and so on. Though I and expected the ending to be a let down, a surprising twist in the story proved me wrong.

THE BELKO EXPERIMENT proves to be very violent fun, if one can stomach the violence.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W46xo3AvBA

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TIFF 2016 Movie Review: APPRENTICE (Singapore/Fr/HK/Germ/Qatar) ***

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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.

apprentice_posterAPPRENTICE (Singapore/Fr/HK/Germ/Qatar) ***
Directed by Boo Junfen

Starring: Firdaus Rahman, Wan Hanafi Su, Mastura Ahmad

Review by Gilbert Seah

Singapore is not a country known for its films. When I immigrated from Singapore in 1984, there was no film industry and no feature films on record. TIFF is the only chance I get to watch films from my birthplace and the films have been consistent in quality – to my pride.

APPRENTICE is the second film by Boo which premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes, the first one being the excellent SANDCASTLE which I had seen here at TIFF years back. APPRENTICE is a family drama of another kind and the film is again one about the search of identity.

Correctional officer Aiman (played by a brooding Fir Rahman) is ready to do everything it takes to be transferred to the death ward of Singapore’s highest-security prison. His ambition to become apprentice to chief executioner Rahim (Wan Hanafi Su) is not only professional; it’s born of Aiman’s unspeakable desire to reconnect with a past that haunts him. (Airman’s father was executed by Rahim).

Airman finally gets his wishes as the film’s drama reaches its climatic pitch. A slow burning but effective and absorbing drama shot in both English and Malay with a dose of Mandarin.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxY3zZCqeTw

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