His Three Daughters
Invoking comparisons to Mass and Our Friend, His Three Daughters may not be as good as those character-driven dramas, but it’s still a fantastic chamber piece that should spark award buzz around its stripped-down cast.
Natasha Lyonne
A Futile and Stupid Gesture
It makes sense for David Wain to direct a biopic about Doug Kenney. The absurdist director of Wet Hot American Summer, Role Models, and Wanderlust works with a special brand of off-beat comedy as Kenney’s National Lampoon brainchild did. Even though the biopic genre is new ground for Wain, A Futile and Stupid Gesture is still a comedy cut from familiar cloth.
Handsome: A Netflix Mystery Movie
Jeff Garlin is a clever and hilarious performer. You wouldn’t know that from watching Handsome: A Netflix Mystery Movie. Garlin directed, wrote, executive produced, and stars as Gene Handsome in this unfathomable clunker about a lonely homicide detective in LA. Yet, the film is so devoid of engagement, you would think the actor/filmmaker was tanking this project on purpose to honour a lost bet.
Toronto After Dark 2016: ‘Antibirth’ and ‘From a House on Willow Street’
Antibirth (DIR. Danny Perez) Antibirth is the feature film debut of Danny Perez, someone who has – until now – worked exclusively in music videos, and it shows. The film has a chaotic punk rock aesthetic and beautiful imagery, but not much else going for it. Just like a music video, Antibirth is all about getting from one image to the next, only this time with several minutes of dead air between each visual. The film follows Lou (Natasha…
Inside Out 2016: ‘The Intervention’
If anything says “fun long weekend at a sunny lake house,” it’s deliberately creating awkward tension with your friends.