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:
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.
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.
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.
TIFF 2017 Movie Review: 1% (Australia 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:
Eddie Baroo, Ryan Corr, Aaron Fa’aoso
The film feels Shakespearean for the theme of control over a bike game being similar to fighting for the throne of a Kingdom. While Knuck (Nable) has been in prison, his surrogate son, Mark, nicknamed “Paddo” (Ryan Corr of Hacksaw Ridge) has minded the store.
Paddo has modernized the activities of the club, expanded their enterprise, and brought in new members — all endeavours that threaten Knuck’s position on his return.
Both men are supported and influenced by their equally strong wives, each woman as ambitious for her husband as for herself. Tensions mount when Paddo’s brother, Skink (Josh McConville), creates trouble with drugs. The film examines the issue of brother or blood vs. identity.
The climax is a shoot out but when you think that there can never be a happy ending – there is one with the villain finally to pay his due. A bit difficult at time to follow because of the Aussie accent and the bike lingo, but the visuals are enough to tell the story. A bit violent but the film need to be.
TIFF 2017 Movie Review: L’INSULTE (THE INSULT) (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:
Adel Karam, Kamel El Basha, Camille Salameh
The film is financed from France and has a French tile but the film is shot in Arabic. Set in Beirut with references to Darfour, the story all started with an insult. One afternoon in the dog days of a Beirut summer,
Tony gets into an altercation with Yasser, a foreman in construction over a broken drainpipe. Tony is a car mechanic and a Christian. Yasser is a construction foreman and a Palestinian. When Tony, hard-nosed and hot-headed, refuses to accept Yasser’s half-hearted apology, two bruised male egos begin to swell. Tony utters an unforgivable insult to Yasser.
With a speed neither man could foresee, their personal argument escalates through the neighbourhood and the city to the national stage. The dispute comes to encapsulate the lasting legacy of the Lebanese Civil War — and becomes a lightning rod for people with more power than either man to pursue their own agendas.
The film contains lots of courtroom scenes with great arguments that provoke the audience to think about other important issues. The plot is not without its twists like the attorneys of the defendant and plaintiff being father and daughter.
THE INSULT ends up as an often brilliant peace that in the end, shows more about tolerance and forgiveness.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwVCaD971Eo
TIFF 2017 Movie Review: THE DISASTER ARTIST (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.
A behind-the-scenes look at the making of Tommy Wiseau‘s The Room (2003).
Director:
Writers:
Scott Neustadter (screenplay), Michael H. Weber (screenplay) |
Stars:
Alison Brie, Zac Efron, James Franco
James Franco and friends appear in this uneven tribute to eccentric filmmaker Tommy Wiseau (played by James) and his friend, actor Greg Sestero (played by brother Dave), whose notoriously awful film The Room has become one of the most beloved cult classics of all time. (I have never heard of it though.)
Since its release in 2003, The Room has captivated cult audiences on the midnight movie circuit with its discombobulated plot, discordant performances, and inexplicable dialogue.
Drawing on the memoir of the same name, Franco chronicles the making of The Room as recalled by Greg. The incredulous script supervisor is played by friend Seth Roger. Other celebrity friends of the Franco’s like Zac Ephron also appear.
The Franco/ Rogen/Goldberg troupe has an uncanny sense of humour, and the humour and timing works magnificently at times. The film ends with a split screen of the shots of the actual ROOM side-by-side of this movie. A so-so movie but with a few good laughs!
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qab3TMg42k
TIFF 2017 Movie Review: SHUTTLE LIFE (Malaysia 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:
Shot around Kuala Lumpur, the capital of West Malaysia in Mandarin, English, Malay and a bit of Cantonese, all these languages of which are spoken by the people there, SHUTTLE LIFE is family drama.
Teenage son, Zi (Jack Tan) is living in a small flat with his mentally ill mother (Taiwanese actress Sylvia Chang in a very unglamorous and admirable role) and younger sister. He has low education, not completed his high school ‘A’ Levels nor a proper job. He hangs out with friends that drink and break into cars for odd change.
He shuttles around on his bike trying to make ends meet for is mother and little sitter. But a bike accident on his sister’s birthday causing her death with him unable to retrieve her body leads him to his limit.
SHUTTLE LIFE is a film with no happy ending but one that offers audiences on the lives of many who are stuck with poverty and unhappiness. Tan’s uncompromising film is scary, well-shot and unfortunately very real.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYYzxBhn-OE
TIFF 2017 Movie Review: C’EST LA VIE (LE SENS DE LA FETE) (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.
Directors:
Stars:
Gilles Lellouche, Suzanne Clément, Jean-Paul Rouve
Directors Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano can best be remembered for their bubbly comedy LES UNTOUCHABLES.
The target this time is an extravagant wedding at a chateau where all the servers have (and forced to wear) valet costumes including white wigs. The story is told from the point of view of the the wedding caterer manager, Max (Jean Pierre Bacri) a battle-weary veteran of the wedding-planning racket.
This gig turns out to be a hell of a fête, involving stuffy period costumes for the caterers, a vain, hyper- sensitive singer who thinks he’s a Gallic James Brown, and a morose, micromanaging groom determined to make Max’s night as miserable as possible.
His personal life also comes into chaos as Joisette (Xavier Dolan regular Suzanne Clément), seems to have written him off, coolly going about her professional duties while openly flirting with a much younger server. This is an ensemble work, like Robert Altman’s THE WEDDING, but more commercial, more French but less of a biting satire.
The comedic set-ups are funny enough, most of them working and keeping the audience happy with laugh-out loud humour.
TIFF 2017 Movie Review: THE CHINA HUSTLE (USA 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:
Writer:
Produced by Alex Gibney who directed ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM about the last 2008 stock market crash, THE CHINA HUSTLE could be considered a sequel as well as warning to all stock traders.
As in his previous film, THE CHINA HUSTLE is an unsettling and eye-opening Wall Street horror story, though this time the target being the Chinese companies listed on the American stock market. The film opens with the main subject, whistleblower Dan David confessing: “There are no good guys in this story, including me.”
After the 2008 stock market crash, David — like almost everyone else in finance — was looking for ways to make big gains quickly. China became an appealing target. Hundreds of Chinese companies entered the US stock market through reverse takeovers with American companies. They boasted tremendous growth, had little oversight, and created a stock-market feeding frenzy. It seemed too good to be true and it was.
The film follows the same pattern as EVRON, interviewing the whistleblowers, with the subject of fraudulence revealed and angering the audience to boiling point.
Again, he has on camera, the poor unsuspecting investors, usually the retirees who have lost all if not a fair portion of their hard earned savings. The film is not as tight or strong as ENRON, bout it is till an engaging informative documentary. All investors should put this doc down as a must-see!
TIFF 2017 Movie Review: THE HOUSE BY THE SEA (LA VILLA) (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:
Robert Guédiguian (screenplay), Serge Valletti(screenplay)
Stars:
Ariane Ascaride, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Gérard Meylan
Robert Guédiguian’s films always make it to TIFF but never get shown otherwise. Those familiar with him can expect more of the same though his latest is a bit of a disappointment not for want of trying.
Three grown children gathered at the picturesque villa of their dying father in Marseille (where most of his films are set) reflect on where they are, who they have become, and what they have inherited.
His political stand as a committed leftist and former Communist can be observed clearly in many scenes where his characters verbally express their dissatisfaction on certain issues like the military and the refugee situation. His wife Ariane Ascaride and Jean-Pierre Darroussin are two of the elderly characters who manage to attract younger suiters.
The film does not successfully combine the dysfunctional family, love relationships and refugee statements.
Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt3wVETIfWs
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