Over seven years, director Ned Benson followed Jessica Chastain to get ideas for his master work, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby (2013). Originally planned as single feature about a relationship on the rocks after a tragic incident, an epiphany had Benson change his mind. Ins... Read More »
The Midnight Madness series at the Toronto International Film Festival is dedicated to reveling in violence, grossness, camp, and schlock. The film’s are supposed to shock as much as entertain, to provide a respite from the more serious fare that plays throughout the day by just ... Read More »
In the grand scheme of things, here’s my microscopic version of the events in this film: there are many things around us that we overlook. If you commute by transit, bike, car, or train, you might go over a bridge everyday. I, for example, cross two bridges and rivers almost dail... Read More »
His most accomplished work to date, Jason Reitman’s Labor Day (2013) is an interesting take on the family drama. It is at once disturbing and heartwarming to watch a family fall in love with an escaped prisoner seeking refuge. While the beginning expresses distress, the circumsta... Read More »
After making films such as the controversial Dirty and the underrated The Last Wedding, director Bruce Sweeney brings audiences the story of The Dick Knost Show. Dick Knost, played by Tom Scholte, is a mouthy sports talk show host. He dismisses a guest for his opinions on hockey ... Read More »
Some of the best noir writing of all-time occurs in the short story format, which allows the tales to be taut and tight, and the language to be lurid and pulpy without going too far over the top. The grim cleverness of even the best noir patter can grate at feature length, so som... Read More »
Food is far more than survival, it’s the social and cultural lifeblood that binds us to our loved ones and helps us connect with new acquaintances. In director Bruce Alcock’s short film Impromptu one of these situations quickly becomes another, and a quiet evening at home transfo... Read More »
Beginning the 12 Years a Slave (2013) press conference, director Steve McQueen stated that “it is a film about how to survive that situation (slavery).” Creating a story of a foreign circumstance with humanist universal extensions, McQueen used subjectivity to narrate the story o... Read More »
One unfamiliar with the elliptical structure of John Banville’s Man Booker-winning novel The Sea might fairly assume the ephemeral nature of its film adaptation’s scenes to be but a desperate attempt on the part of director Stephen Brown to hide the turgid literariness of its lin... Read More »
On the surface, restriction sounds like a negative, a way to hold oneself back or to be held back, a way to never reach your full potential. In another, though, restriction can be liberating. There’s a freedom to be found in the narrowest of confines, and through tweaking and shi... Read More »
Editor’s Notes: The following reviews are part of our coverage of the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. For more information on the festival visit http://tiff.net and follow TIFF on Twitter at @TIFF_NET. As one might remember from my TIFF 2013 anticipation article, Nathan... Read More »
Kelly Reichardt’s Night Moves (2013) is rather underwhelming in that the highly stylistic formal rhetoric services an undeserving plot. Flawed by a poor narrative economy, a placid soundtrack, and far too many unnecessary filler shots, the film’s dark and minimalist atmosphere—wh... Read More »
