TIFF 2021
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in Festivals, Interviews
TIFF Interview: Jean Luc Herbulot Discusses ‘Saloum’ and his Visions for African Cinema and Culture
With its fresh take on the genre traditions of Westerns, thrillers and horror movies, Jean Luc Herbulot’s Saloum was one of the hidden gems of the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. It follows a trio of mercenaries called the Bangui Hyenas who decide to hide out in a camp located in a mysterious and dangerous […] More
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‘Belfast’ Wins the Toronto International Film Festival Audience Award!
*Editor’s Note: This doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. As I tweeted earlier tonight, TIFF tends to either make the Audience Award a crowd-pleasing Oscar player or something way off the beaten path. This time around, they very much went for the former. Is this the start of a march towards Academy Award success? Stay […] More
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TIFF Review: ‘I’m Your Man’ is a Brilliantly Aromantic Love Story
If you watched Maria Schrader’s I’m Your Man with no prior knowledge of its premise, you’d probably be blindsided by its stereotypical setup. A woman meets a man at lively nighttime establishment where they are greeted by a hostess before partaking in food, drinks and dancing. On the surface, it seems like any other first […] More
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TIFF Film Review: ‘Spencer’ is Kristen Stewart’s Finest Hour and An Hypnotically Immersive Experience
Wow. I have seen the performance of the year. In fact, I also think I may well have seen the film of the year. The last movie II saw on the ground in Canada is the crowning (no pun intended) achievement of 2021 right now. Capping off my in person segment of the Toronto International […] More
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TIFF Film Review: Ben Foster’s Committed Performance Can’t Hold Up Biopic-By-Numbers ‘The Survivor’
Barry Levinson introduced the Toronto International Film Festival premiere of his latest film, The Survivor, by telling a story about being a kid in the late 1940s and discovering that his grandmother had a brother he never knew about when the man came knocking on their door. He stayed with Levinson’s family for two weeks, […] More
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Awards Radar Podcast #52: Joey and the Gang Are Joined By Mark Johnson to Talk Telluride and TIFF!
Welcome back to the Awards Radar Podcast. In each episode, Editor Joey Magidson (that’s me!) will be joined by some of the staff of Awards Radar to talk about the latest in film, television, and entertainment in general. The show will obviously have an awards season slant to it, but we won’t forget about other […] More
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TIFF Film Review: ‘Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash’ is An Epic of Crime and Romance
Incredibly striking 16mm photography fills the frames of Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash, the new feature from Indonesian filmmaker Edwin. Co-written by the director and Eka Kurniawan, based on Kurniawan’s book of the same name, the film tells the story of Ajo Kawir (Marthino Lio), a street fighter whose hyper-masculinity and need to […] More
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TIFF Film Review: Kenneth Branagh’s ‘Belfast’ is a Beautiful Love Letter and An Instant Oscar Frontrunner
Well, it happened. Here in Canada at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, a surefire Oscar player has emerged. Belfast is going to be impossible not to fall in love with, which will likely result in it being cited in multiple categories at the Academy Awards. Not only is the quality there, as this is […] More
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TIFF Film Review: ‘Lakewood’ Tries for Cheap Thrills Through Tragedy
Sometimes, you just get the sense that something isn’t being handled the right way. Now, I’m sure that everyone involved in Lakewood were convinced that they were making something important and respectful. You don’t get Naomi Watts in the lead role without that conviction. However, the movie, playing at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, […] More
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TIFF Review: ‘The Rescue’ Is an Incredible Testament to Human Faith and Compassion
Since March 2020, the news has been largely a demoralizing experience for many people around the world. As deniers downplay the COVID-19 pandemic and reject various preventative measures to curb a rising death toll, it’s easy to lose hope in humanity. But the news can also be a source of restored optimism, as was proved […] More
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TIFF Film Review: ‘Dune’ Could Be the Next Great Franchise
It’s no secret that I’ve been somewhat skeptical about Dune. For well over a year, I’ve expressed a bit of trepidation that this ambitious undertaking would be doomed to fail. For one thing, Dune has foiled many before. The source material may well be impossible to successfully adapt, at least without an epic length. So, […] More
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TIFF Film Review: ‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’ is Solely the Jessica Chastain Show
Watching a biopic about a controversial figure can often lend an edge to an otherwise fairly traditional genre. Especially if they could almost equally be portrayed in a sympathetic or villainous light, the possibilities exist for something that stands out from the pack. So, while The Eyes of Tammy Faye is an enjoyable biopic, one […] More