| GRACE & GRIT, 3min, USA, Thriller/Drama Directed by Olivia Applegate A twisted celebration of me, myself and I. CLICK HERE – and see full info and more pics of the film! |
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Audience FEEDBACK Video: MAGIC RADIO, 9min, USA, Family/Comedy
| MAGIC RADIO, 9min, USA, Family/Comedy Directed by Meng Yu A magic radio gives a high school student ability to experience the future within 10 seconds, however nothing can change his life but himself. CLICK HERE – and see full info and more pics of the film! |
HIGHLIGHTS & VIDEOS: Toronto August 2017 Film Festival
AUDIENCE FESTIVAL AWARDS
Best Film: KAJAL
Best Performances: THE SESSION
Best Cinematography: WE WERE SWIMMING
Best Music: The music from KAJAL
Watch the Audience FEEDBACK Videos from each film:
 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 |
The FEMALE AUGUST 2017 FEEDBACK Film Festival gave our audiences the best NEW films by women directors from around the world.
The theme of the festival was “SELF DISCOVERY”.
Every film showcased was about a setting where a character finds out who they are deep inside of themselves.
NOTE: Our 4th Female Director’s festival!
The Female FEEDBACK Film Festival…
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TIFF 2017 Movie Review: VAMPIRE CLAY (Japan 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.
A plasticine demon devours the denizens of a rural art school.
Director:
Writer:
Sôichi Umezawa (screenplay)
Stars:
Ena Fujita, Asuka Kurosawa, Yuyu Makihara
Director/writer/editor Soichi Umezawa knows the effects of clay. Besides the use of it being able to be moulded onto gruesome creatures, the look of fit in close-up, squishy, black and oozing out liquid when wet makes it an excellent horror source. The only thing missing is perhaps is a scene with worms oozing from the moist clay.
Blood from a murdered sculpture is dumped into lay and buried. When dug up and used as material, the sculptured creature comes to life. The subjects are an art school in the Japanese countryside. Umezawa is 25-year old veteran special-effects makeup artist with over 70 credits.
He realizes both the comedic and horror potentials of clay and mixes these elements well in horror comedy that reminds one of the horror B-movies of the sixties – but in a better way!
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUYxBrFM94k
TIFF 2017 Movie Review: LE PRIX DU SUCCES (THE PRICE OF SUCCESS) (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.
A comedian’s relationship with his family crumbles when he reaches a level of success in his career.
Director:
Writers:
Stars:
Tahar Rahim, Roschdy Zem, Maïwenn
THE PRICE OF SUCCESS benefits from the performance of two of the best Arab stars in French films today – Tahar Rahim and Roschdy Zem.. They play brothers fighting (lysically as well as verbally) with each other.
A popular stand-up comic, Brahim (Rahim) from a working class French family balances fame, ambition, and expectations while feeling his loyalties pulled between his manager-brother (Zem) and artistic-director girlfriend (Maiwenn).
Mourad supported and promoted Brahim for 15 years, but is he now thinking too small? Too Arab? Too immigrant? And is he willing to let go of the brother who has defined his life? The film could have been funnier with more laughs from Brahim’s stand up comedy.
Brahim’s comic routines on show that were supposed to have shot him to fame, are not really funny or impressive. The film does not quite come together despite the confrontation scenes.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFDgo0TZwgM
TIFF 2017 Movie Review: CHAPPAQUIDDICK (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.
Ted Kennedy’s life and political career become derailed in the aftermath of a fatal car accident in 1969 that claims the life of a young campaign strategist, Mary Jo Kopechne.
Director:
Writers:
Stars:
Kate Mara, Ed Helms, Jason Clarke
CHAPPAQUIDDICK is a story not many non-Americans are familiar with. If this is not a story that needs be told, and if it is not an interesting one, it is one that questions the right thing that human being should do. Presidents of the United States have always lied when confronted with catastrophe, Nixon and Clinton being the best examples. This film questions the integrity of Ted Kennedy, which is correctly chosen to be the subject oft the film rather than the incidents that occur.
This suspenseful historical drama examines the infamous 1969 incident when Senator Ted Kennedy (Jason Clarke) accidentally drove off a bridge, resulting in the death of campaign worker Mary Jo Kopechne (Kate Mara).
This become known as the Chappaquiddick Incident. Kopechne was trapped in a car that Senator Ted Kennedy drove off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, following a night of festivities. Kennedy patriarch Joe (Bruce Dern), however, always considered his youngest son a ne’er-do-well — and he never let Ted forget it.
The party on Chappaquiddick reunited the “Boiler Room Girls” who had served on Robert Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign, among them Mary Jo (Kate Mara). Ted whisks Mary Jo away for a reckless moonlight drive that ends in tragedy.
But the more profound malfeasance begins after the drowning — itself dramatized here in harrowing detail — when a battalion of spin doctors gets to work on covering up the incident, using the Apollo 11 moon landing as a distraction.
TV REVIEW: BOJACK HORSEMAN – SEASON 04 – EPISODE 12
Directed by:
Writers:
Raphael Bob-Waksberg (creator),Raphael Bob-Waksberg
Stars:
Will Arnett, Amy Sedaris, Alison Brie
by Mary Cox
“What Time is it Right Now?”
This season’s finale leaves us with a sense of conclusion, but not a sense of finality. Bojack and Hollyhock’s relationship has finally come to a point of mutual understanding, giving Bojack a sense of inner peace for the first time in the entire series. Princess Carolyn saves her career and successfully displaces her grief by channeling her emotional energy into a symbolic project. Todd’s dumb dentist clown venture ends up like every other single Todd scenario. The resolution we get between Bojack and Hollyhock is satisfying and ends the season on a positive note, but I’m more interested in the collapsing dynamic between Mr. Peanutbutter and Diane.
It’s profoundly obvious that Diane is suffering from the kind of slow-progressing, all-encompassing, weighty depression that sneaks into someone’s life like smoke under a door in a burning building. The question really comes down to how much of Diane’s pain is caused by unresolved internal issues, and how much of it is external and related to her failing relationship.
You have to commend Mr. Peanutbutter for at least trying to use all the power he has to give Diane what he thinks she wants to have. Mr. Peanutbutter is a textbook people-pleaser who can be goaded into almost anything if he feels his likability is at stake, and it seems like he only knows how to express himself in grand gestures, but that’s exactly his fundamental flaw. Mr. Peanutbutter can only really see and experience things from his own perspective, almost to the point where he lacks true empathy. Diane’s rejection of her “Belle Room” is complete evidence that Mr. Peanutbutter won’t ever be able to understand her worldview, and is another reason why this doomed couple is heading towards divorce.
The fifth season of Bojack Horseman has yet to be confirmed, although it would be highly surprising if this is where Netflix allows this series to end. How will a more emotionally-available Bojack handle the separation of his two best friends? We’ll have to wait until next year to find out.
*****
“Mary Cox is an entertainment writer from the United States. Her hobbies include making good beer and bad decisions, watching drag queens fight on the internet, and overanalyzing everything. Mary one day hopes to be the person shouting “World Star” in the back of a Waffle House brawl video. She is currently tolerating life in Toronto. You can follow her on Twitter at @M_K_Cox”t
TV REVIEW: BOJACK HORSEMAN – SEASON 04 – EPISODE 10
Writers:
Raphael Bob-Waksberg (creator), Peter Knight (as Peter A. Knight)
Stars:
Will Arnett, Amy Sedaris, Alison Brie
“Lovin’ that Cali Lifestyle!”
Structurally, I have to commend this episode for it’s detailed foreshadowing. Hollyhock’s enthusiasm about Beatrice’s coffee, the opening titles showing her not eating, all of the weight-based comments we get in the flashback sequences with Bojack’s grandparents. When combined with Hollyhock’s obsessive behaviors and her lack of interest in food, this totally, totally works.
It’s easy to not notice the subtle changes in Hollyhock’s physical appearance on your first watch through of this season, but if you actually go back and compare her appearance from episode to episode, the change in Hollyhock’s body is visible and incredibly obvious. It’s an excellent depiction of how dangerous drug use can sneak in, totally undetected, right under someone’s nose.
There are, however, some slight gaps in the logic of the big twist of this episode. Beatrice is home-bound and suffering from moderate-to-severe dementia, right? So how exactly did she manage to gain access to a large bottle of amphetamine-based diet pills? We’re not really meant to know Beatrice’s specific level of sentience, but it’s a little hard to suspend my disbelief to the point where I can see Beatrice gaining access to medical-grade amphetamines in her mental conditions.
Despite Hollyhock’s collapse being the main focus of this episode, the Mr. Peanutbutter gubernatorial campaign plot line finally meets it’s resolution. There are a few subtle references to the 2016 Presidential Election, such as petty factors like a distaste for avocado being monumentally important to public opinion. There’s also the darker note of Diane’s reaction to Mr. Peanutbutter assigning joint credit to her accomplishments, which is yet another moment pointing to their obvious impending separation. |az\
*****
“Mary Cox is an entertainment writer from the United States. Her hobbies include making good beer and bad decisions, watching drag queens fight on the internet, and overanalyzing everything. Mary one day hopes to be the person shouting “World Star” in the back of a Waffle House brawl video. She is currently tolerating life in Toronto. You can follow her on Twitter at @M_K_Cox”t
TV REVIEW: BOJACK HORSEMAN – SEASON 04 – EPISODE 09
One one awful day, Princess Carolyn deals with rejection, deception and loss. BoJack and Diane try to track down Hollyhock’s birth certificate.
Director:
Writers:
Raphael Bob-Waksberg (creator), Joanna Calo
Stars:
Will Arnett, Amy Sedaris, Alison Brie |
by Mary Cox
“Ruthie”
I can’t be alone in thinking that the handling of Princess Carolyn’s miscarriage was somewhat tasteless. We see her suffer yet another huge, profound disappointment in her life, one which ultimately ends her relationship with Ralph and sends her spiraling into alcoholism and depression, and how do they decide to frame this information? Puns and cheap jokes based on the accents of “foreigners.” Tacky.
Bad taste aside, the plot line about Princess Carolyn’s family heirloom was a decent metaphor for the artificiality of the lies we tell ourselves about the past and the future, which does seem to connect to this season’s greater theme of all things being swept away by the passage of time.
I could live without the somewhat uninspired sub-plot where Bojack and Diane try to track down Hollyhock’s birth certificate at the county courthouse. If DMV-type jokes are the “groundbreaking” territory this series aims to cover, Bojack might as well be doing a stand-up routine about airplane food.
The ending of “Ruthie” does kind of pull back around to a more tonally reasonable place, but this season has generally struggled a little when it comes to balancing comedic and dramatic moments, like how it stumbled over Bojack’s grandmother’s lobotomy. At the very least, “Ruthie” gives us clarification that inter-species relationships end up with babies that are either one animal or another, clearing up some of the mystery surrounding Hollyhock’s parentage.
*****
“Mary Cox is an entertainment writer from the United States. Her hobbies include making good beer and bad decisions, watching drag queens fight on the internet, and overanalyzing everything. Mary one day hopes to be the person shouting “World Star” in the back of a Waffle House brawl video. She is currently tolerating life in Toronto. You can follow her on Twitter at @M_K_Cox”t
TV REVIEW: BOJACK HORSEMAN – SEASON 04 – EPISODE 08
Hollyhock starts dating and intern on BoJack’s new show. Princess Carolyn meets Ralph’s parents. Mr. Peanutbutter throws his support behind Woodchuck.
Director:
Writers:
Raphael Bob-Waksberg (creator), Elijah Aron
Stars:
Will Arnett, Amy Sedaris, Alison Brie
“The Judge”
Princess Carolyn and Stilton’s relationship touched on interesting ground in this episode. Maintaining a romantic relationship across two different cultures can be a huge challenge in any situation, let alone when one culture bases part of its identity on denigrating the people and culture of another group.
How could Carolyn ever feel embraced in a culture that bases part of its core identity on hating cats? Stilton ultimately makes the right choice in standing up for his partner, even in defiance of his culture and family.
Bojack is making an attempt at fatherhood by trying to guide Hollyhock through one of her earliest relationship. While Bojack ends up being right about the Intern’s intentions, he has to backtrack to protect Hollyhock’s feelings.
Interestingly, Hollyhock shows us that some more of Bojack’s obsessive and self-destructive behaviors might be lurking inside of her as well.
*****
“Mary Cox is an entertainment writer from the United States. Her hobbies include making good beer and bad decisions, watching drag queens fight on the internet, and overanalyzing everything. Mary one day hopes to be the person shouting “World Star” in the back of a Waffle House brawl video. She is currently tolerating life in Toronto. You can follow her on Twitter at @M_K_Cox”t
