TIFF Review: “Butcher’s Crossing”

Toronto International Film Festival Gala Presentations World Premiere Of all the varied genres Nicolas Cage has explored over the course of his long and colorful career, an old school western is one he hasn’t really touched. But it turns out that the part of buffalo hunter Miller is the exact right fit for Cage, one […]

TIFF Review: “The Whale”

Toronto International Film Festival 2022 Special Presentations North American Premiere There’s a parallel to be found in Brendan Fraser’s recent career trajectory and the life of the character he plays in “The Whale,” Charlie, albeit a tangential one. After stepping away from Hollywood after being a top box office draw in the 1990s and early […]

Review: “Don’t Worry Darling”

Olivia Wilde’s 2019 directorial debut “Booksmart” was a genuinely warm and humorous look at female friendship. With her sophomore feature, Wilde broadens her scope in favor of a narrative that’s much more ambitious. But that’s about the best thing I can say about “Don’t Worry Darling,” a repetitive thriller whose feminist themes are too broad, […]

TIFF Review: “Corsage”

Toronto International Film Festival 2022 North American Premiere Romy Schneider made such an indelible impact playing Empress Elisabeth of Austria in the “Sissi” trilogy as a teenager in the mid-1950s that not only did the success of the films launch her into the celebrity stratosphere, but they have become a tradition in Austria and other […]

TIFF Review: “Pearl”

Toronto International Film Festival 2022 Midnight Madness North American Premiere It was perhaps about a minute into the end credits for “Pearl”—Ti West’s prequel to his film from earlier this year, “X”—that the audience at TIFF’s packed midnight madness premiere erupted into applause and cheers. The image that plays over those credits—an extended, live-action freeze […]

TIFF Review: “Daliland”

Toronto International Film Festival 2022 World Premiere and Closing Night Film A biopic of Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí sounds like the perfect fit for director Mary Harron, with her background in the arts—she started her career as a researcher for the British arts program “The South Bank Show,” and her first feature film “I […]

TIFF Review: “Leonor Will Never Die”

Toronto International Film Festival Canadian premiere and Midnight Madness closing night film. There’s an indelible charm to 80s action movies, whether they’re good, bad, or as is often the case, so bad they’re good. Beyond the glorification of violence and celebration of masculinity at its most macho, the action is frequently creatively realized (particularly in […]

TIFF Review: “Moonage Daydream”

Toronto International Film Festival 2022 Special Presentations North American Premiere After its over-stimulating opening, a barrage of sound and color, “Moonage Daydream” takes a pause, cutting to a clip of a young woman sitting on the steps outside of a stage door, sobbing, a button with David Bowie’s face on it pinned to her lapel. […]

TIFF Review: “Susie Searches”

Toronto International Film Festival 2022 World Premiere It’s exciting when movies take ambitious swings, but sometimes the final product is too messy to be even admired. At the beginning of Sophie Kargman’s feature debut “Susie Searches” (based on her 2020 short of the same name), the story appears to be moving in a predictable direction, […]

TIFF Review: “Prisoner’s Daughter”

Toronto International Film Festival 2022 Gala Presentation World Premiere Max (Brian Cox) has just been freed from a long prison sentence. But that’s about as good as the good news gets. The reason for him being granted the opportunity to spend the rest of his sentence on house arrest is because he’s been diagnosed with […]