Festivals TIFF 2021: The Survivor won’t be going for the belt anytime soon By: Soham Gadre The Survivor wastes Ben Foster and Vicky Kreips in an overfamiliar prestige drama that botches its approach to the Holocaust.
Festivals TIFF 2021: The frustrating Quickening has only one thing to recommend it By: Soham Gadre Quickening star Arooj Azeem gives a breakout performance, but the rest of the film simply does not match her good work.
Festivals TIFF 2021: As In Heaven is a divinely made hybrid of character study and nightmare By: Soham Gadre With As in Heaven, Tea Lindeberg and star Flora Lindhal craft a stupendous study of a young woman's struggle with her faith amidst horror.
Festivals TIFF 2021: Silent Night is a joyless, doomed slog By: Peter Sobczynski Silent Night's admittedly intriguing blend of bleaker-than-bleak comedy and holiday spirit is undermined by noxious writing and characters.
Festivals TIFF 2021: The Forgiven offers up yet more rich white people problems By: Sarah Kurchak Despite its top shelf cast & capable direction, this drama about tourists behaving badly is nothing we haven't seen before.
Festivals TIFF 2021: Drive My Car is a dense, lyrical take on life after grief By: Sarah Kurchak Ryusuke Hamaguchi adapts a Haruki Murakami short story & gives it additional depth & soul.
Festivals TIFF 2021: The Gravedigger’s Wife & other highlights in African cinema By: Soham Gadre Three features at the Toronto International Film Festival turn the spotlight on the best and brightest in African filmmaking.
Festivals TIFF 2021: Belfast is a touching, understated historical drama By: Sarah Kurchak Kenneth Branagh directs a moving film about a working class Irish family impacted by the Troubles.
Festivals TIFF 2021: Jane Campion’s neo-western The Power of the Dog is a haunting study of masculinity and repressed desire By: Reyzando Nawara The great director Jane Campion and a stupendous cast dig deep into dread and melancholy in one of 2021's finest films.
Festivals TIFF: Unclenching the Fists doesn’t forget its humanity as it delves into its bleak tale By: Soham Gadre Cannes Un Certain Regard winner Unclenching the Fists is heavy, but strong performances and craft keep it from being a wallow in misery.
Festivals TIFF: All My Puny Sorrows clings to its source material to its significant detriment By: Soham Gadre All My Puny Sorrows, adapted from the novel of the same name, undermines strong performances by clinging too tightly to its source material.
Festivals TIFF 2021: Violet is an on-the-nose exploration of Hollywood anxiety By: Soham Gadre Olivia Munn's spirited performance elevates what otherwise feels like a moralistic, obvious self-help treatise on trauma and accountability.
Festivals TIFF 2021: Naomi Watts tries to outrun disaster in the horrendous Lakewood By: Peter Sobczynski Phillip Noyce and Naomi Watts team up for a preposterous, formulaic high-concept thriller that does nothing tasteful with its premise.
Festivals TIFF 2021: Titane is a fever dream best served cold By: Sarah Kurchak Julia Ducourneau's followup to her stunning debut Raw makes for brutal, beautiful, brilliant body horror.
Festivals TIFF: Mothering Sunday’s intimate sensuality and strong character work shine despite some rough structural work. Mothering Sunday sees star Odessa Young give a stupendous performance of a young woman's birth as a writer and passionate love.
Festivals TIFF: The Mad Women’s Ball is sadly far from a blitz The Mad Women's Ball, Melanie Laurent's adaptation of a novel about a young woman's incarceration in a cruel asylum, is disappointingly flat.
Festivals TIFF: Listening to Kenny G is about as pleasantly inoffensive as his music By: Peter Sobczynski Penny Lane's profile on the smooth jazz superstar can't quite muster up enough energy to make its explorations of his notoriety (good and bad) sing.
Festivals TIFF: Dear Evan Hansen is a confounding adaptation of the stage musical By: Sarah Kurchak Ben Platt's age is the least of our problems in Stephen Chbosky's misguided adaptation of the already-misguided musical Dear Evan Hansen.