Out of the glamour that can sometimes overwhelm film festivals, there are small films that can be overlooked. Martti Helde’s In The Crosswind (Risttuules) is a unique standout at TIFF this year. On June 14, 1941 thousands of people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were deported by the Soviets to Siberia in a Stalin…
Jason Jones of The Daily Show interviewed Maziar Bahari in 2009. This was in Iran where Bahari was a Newsweek reporter covering the Iran elections. A few days later Bahari was arrested by the Iranian government for espionage and imprisoned for 118 days. Bahari was interrogated and tortured daily for five months, and ordered to falsely confess so that he could be released…
[REC]4: Apocalypse is a detour from the previous three Spanish [REC] horror films. Though we should count [REC] 3: Genesis out since it wasn’t directed by Jaume Balagueró, who helmed the first two films and now this fourth entry, Apocalypse. The new film, which takes place immediately after the second and is situated on an oil tanker in the middle of the ocean, deviates from…
I have no idea what this movie is trying to get at and there’s little spirit that I can find in it. It’s frustrating because I’m a fan of Arcand’s The Barbarian Invasions. In it, Remy is an old professor who will soon die of cancer. He’s a womanizing, wine loving socialist. The characters in the film are multi-layered and almost every scene is infused with brilliant sarcasm and/or a…
Although I’ve attended the Toronto International Film Festival almost every year since I was eighteen, this is my second year of covering it for Next Projection. This year, I’ve taken on reviewing several films with my press pass and I’ve taken on navigating the insane media schedule that goes along with it. There are films I’ve had to miss due to overlapping screenings, but I’ve…
I have never hiked, but I have friends who have done some crazy hikes. I have no survival skills. However, one day in a post partum depression phase after a walk, I decided to run a marathon. I needed to prove something to myself, at least, that I could do something with my life. Checking off the miles on my training schedule had me progressing and pushing my limits. Every long…
It’s extremely disturbing to realize that there are real life stories of genocide and mass murder that are yet to be uncovered. There are times the world seems so small with social media covering everything, yet it’s so big and confusing in its ignorance of its past that didn’t have that scope of broadcast. Researchers, journalists, archivists, and documentarians help to keep our eyes open to…
In Dan Gilroy’s marvelous directorial debut, the gritty, neo-noir Nightcrawler; a gaunt and greasy looking Jake Gyllenhaal gives his most captivating performance to date. Playing the mysterious psychopath Lou Bloom; a petty thief who stumbles upon the underworld of crime journalism, subsequently discovering his …
Beneath the cool blue colour palette and sparse dialogue is a visually powerful tableau of physical existence. Juxtaposed with the carcasses of dead animals in an abattoir (slaughterhouse), the fragility of the human body becomes tantamount to gruesome slaughter…
Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhal) is a demented shell. He’s a petty thief and crazy lonely man whose educated himself through motivational speaker rhetoric. One night he happens upon a freelance news cameraman (Bill Paxton) zooming into a car crash. Fascinated by the lure of big bucks and success, Bloom pawns a stolen bike in return for a cheap camera thus beginning his new…