Reviews

[TIFF Review] Invention

Honoring the spirit of the namesake of TIFF’s Wavelengths program, another Toronto-based filmmaker masterfully plays with space and time creating what has been ...

[Venice Review] From Afar

Proving yet again that festival juries don’t read the trades or pay attention to chatter, the Golden Lion of the 72nd Venice Film Festival was presented to the ...

[TIFF Review] How Heavy This Hammer

At only two feature films, Toronto-based writer-director Kazik Radwanski has already formed a clear thematic through line. His previous picture, Tower, was abou...

[TIFF Review] Sparrows

Finding solace in constancy - times of turbulent change and ever-shifting paradigms of social expectations can be a source of intense stress - and the desire fo...

[TIFF Review] The Ones Below

With comparisons to Hitchcock and Polanski, David Farr's directorial debut The Ones Below starts behind the eight ball straight away. There are definite moments...

[TIFF Review] Hellions

There's a lot I like about Bruce McDonald's latest horror Hellions. Just as much also has me scratching my head, though. While this sometimes enhances the exper...

[TIFF Review] Phantom Boy

French directors Alain Gagnol (who also wrote) and Jean-Loup Felicioli have another winner on their hands with Phantom Boy. The much-anticipated follow-up to th...

[TIFF Review] I Saw the Light

The opening to Marc Abraham's I Saw the Light holds a lot of intrigue. Based on Colin Escott's biography about hillbilly legend Hank Williams, the start goes fr...

[TIFF Review] The Reflektor Tapes

A list of things The Reflektor Tapes comes close to being but doesn’t quite end up as: a concert film stitching together Arcade Fire's work on a worldwide tour ...

[TIFF Review] Yakuza Apocalypse

Something is off within the opening minutes of our Yakuza tale as heavy doses of computer-generated bloodshed elevate the proceedings to, in perhaps an understa...