Hal Ashby is undoubtedly one of the underrated greats of American cinema. While he never quite became a household name, his films frequently had a certain magical quality to them; never quite being the film that people think of when referring to the great works of an actor, but rather that other film that always comes out in the second or third breath. Films like Harold & Maude, The Last Detail, Bound for Glory and Being There ensured that he would…
Yorgos Lanthimos has been one of the most exciting voices in cinema for the past decade; from bringing attention to Greek cinema to bringing that off-kilter absurd style to an American audience. Across four features, Lanthimos’ style has been apparent in a variety of ways; from his films’ unusual stilted acting style to the general oddity of his imagery. Now, in his latest feature The Favourite, Lanthimos shows that his style is inherent, even if…
“We should have known this.” “Someone must have known.”
The central question at the core of Nathaniel Kahn’s The Price of Everything is how importantly, or inherently, is money connected to art? The answer reveals itself through the understanding of artists, historians and dealers, with that importance going higher as monetary power does. In other words, this documentary ultimately makes two points: art is inherently financial, and capitalism will slowly but surely cause the demise of it.
There is a certain sort of film that defies classification. The quick description is the sort of film that is not perfect by any stretch of the term, but which contains just a little something that manages to hit on a collective pathos in the audience. Those films release a positive feeling into the audience that can actually be felt when one is in such an environment. Green Book is just such a film: it…
A J.J. Abrams production is like the latest hipster eatery: they take a lot of effort to put together and people apparently like them, but once you have experienced one, it becomes apparent just how incredibly overrated they are. This is why I’m always so wary of these productions, and why his latest produced feature has been such a surprise – Overlord, directed by Julius Avery, is actually enjoyable!
One thing that differentiates Toronto After Dark from a lot of other horror festivals is their affinity and respect for short films. In an age of streaming and general new media, short films are the future of genre cinema and it is always important to give them a venue, since most of them will never see the inside of a cinema.
I Am a Hero (DIR. Shinsuke Sato) I Am a Hero is long. That is not often how a review will start, but that may be the most remarkable thing about this new zombie film from Japan – running at over two hours, it is needlessly long. Otherwise, it doesn’t reinvent or make any new addition to the zombie mythos, it doesn’t have anything interesting to say, and it doesn’t really pick up until the third…
Anna and the Apocalypse (DIR. John McPhail) Another day, another multi-hyphenated genre film.
Prey (DIR. Dick Mass) Sometimes viewers are given the rare pleasure of experiencing a film that, by all intents and purposes, should be awful. Whether because of its genre’s history or just a general sense of ridiculousness, these films need to be dead on arrival, but sometimes a film is way better than it has any right to be. Dick Mass’ Prey, a film about a giant man-eating lion causing carnage in the streets of Amsterdam,…