Neighbors
SimilarAmélie (2001),
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) Bring It On (2000), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Mary Poppins (1964), Wonder Boys (2000),
Josh Forbes’ uneven horror-comedy goes nowhere after a while, but has fun getting there.
Apartment life means having to give up most expectations of peace and quiet. I’ve had a neighbor who spent most of his days listening to disco music set at eleven on the volume dial, occasionally letting out a joyful “woo!” Another would tunelessly noodle on a keyboard for hours at a time. A third sounded as if he offered Irish step dancing lessons for extra income. Some people talk a good game about not putting up with noise, but most of us just learn to deal with it, usually by grumbling about it and making our own noise to cover it up.
Every now and then, however, a person will just snap, and then you end up with Destroy All Neighbors, a likably silly horror-comedy that compensates for a lack of plot and character development with gory practical effects and a memorable performance by Alex Winter. Continue Reading →
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Similar2046 (2004), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974), Annie Hall (1977), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Caché (2005), Enchanted (2007), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Fantomas vs. Scotland Yard (1967), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Ghostbusters (1984), GoodFellas (1990), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), King Kong (2005), Léon: The Professional (1994), Manhattan (1979), Maria Full of Grace (2004), Match Point (2005), Men in Black II (2002), Moulin Rouge! (2001), Muriel's Wedding (1994), Pi (1998), Sissi (1955), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Sliver (1993), Stalker (1979), Stranger Than Paradise (1984), Taxi Driver (1976), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), The Cider House Rules (1999), The Godfather Part III (1990), The Good German (2006), The Terminal (2004), The Usual Suspects (1995), Vertigo (1958), Wonder Boys (2000),
John Carney's new drama is just one of a diverse collection of features at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the works being covered here wouldn't exist.
Irish filmmaker John Carney made his big breakthrough in 2007 with Once, a film focused on the redemptive power of music and its ability to bring people, whether they are strangers or family, together in the pursuit of creating something that allows them to give voice to their once-buried hopes and desires. This was followed by Begin Again (2013), a film focused on the redemptive power of music and its ability to bring people, whether they are strangers or family, together in the pursuit of creating something that allows them to give voice to their once-buried hopes and desires. After that came Sing Street (2016), a film focused on the redemptive power of music and its ability to bring people, whether they are strangers or family, together in the pursuit of creating something that allows them to give voice to their once-buried hopes and desires. Continue Reading →
Cinderella
StarringStellan Skarsgård,
StudioWalt Disney Pictures,
Nothing better encapsulates the derivative nature of Kay Cannon’s Cinderella than the presence of a trio of comic relief mice (played by Romesh Ranganathan, James Acaster, and, sigh, James Corden). These rodents were not a part of the original Cinderella story; the concept of this lady hanging out with talking mice came about solely due to the 1950 Disney cartoon. Why, then, is this new Cinderella, hailing from Sony Pictures and being released by Amazon, cribbing something from Disney? Because it’s familiar, easy, and cloying, all of which characterize this most recent adaptation. Continue Reading →