By: Jeff Ching Wes Anderson is one of very few current directors where viewers can watch 10 seconds of a trailer promoting his film, and immediately identify it as “a Wes Anderson movie”. I don’t know whether that’s a good or bad thing, but credit to him for such a distinctive style. He may be the most “auteuristic” auteur ever, if that makes any sense. Does it? I don’t know. Moving on…
Jojo Rabbit, written and directed by Taika Waititi, is a risqué movie that reminded me of classic comedies made by the legendary Mel Brooks. The film risks being offensive to lampoon racism, including its different perspectives by persecuting followers, and to draw parallels to current arrogant behaviour thrusted upon minorities. Waititi solves the puzzle to make his satire work, but also doesn’t distill the severity of past hate crimes in this period piece.
By: Jessica Goddard At the Marriage Story screening I attended, a complimentary packet of tissues was waiting in the cup holder of each seat in the theatre. Quite the statement. So when the movie opens with both leading characters reading the lists of things they like about one another in front of a mediator, you know this will be a wrenching watch.
World War II has been done! This is hardly a controversial claim when it comes to cinema; everyone and their mother has already made a film about World War II—whether about how bad the war was or how heroic—and seemingly every possible angle has already been covered. Filmmaker Taika Waititi, however, finds a way to stand out with Jojo Rabbit, a movie that refuses to be about the war at all, instead using his unique brand…
By: Jessica Goddard A loving tribute to man’s best friend, Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs is an imaginative, playful, and visually fascinating stop-motion fable that should appeal to animal lovers of every kind. Endlessly clever and unapologetically fun, this movie keeps you guessing and isn’t afraid to misdirect for the sake of a good twist.
By: Trevor Chartrand Director Wes Anderson is at it again with another quirky stop-motion animated feature, his second foray into the genre since 2009’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox. In Isle of Dogs, Anderson’s gone above and beyond to create a clever, stylized, and memorable motion picture.
By: Addison Wylie “Bittersweet” is the best word to describe Her. Spike Jonze has taken our bad habits with technology and projected them to frame an original love story with messages of poignancy. It’s a personal film about an impersonal society. The characters on-screen are closed off to everyone around them. Among them is writer Theodore Twombly (played by Joaquin Phoenix who is a spitting image of Napoleon Dynamite’s “womanizing” brother Kip). People are enjoyably…
Upon the invention of this series, I was hoping Does It Float? would successfully show how a movie can be conceived in different ways. It doesn’t always have to be a positive experience turning into a negative one or vice versa, however. Maybe a movie could still be a solid watch on separate occasions for different reasons. Who would’ve guessed Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s feature length directorial debut Don Jon would be that film to prove this? Don Jon was the first TIFF film…
By: Addison Wylie If you can bear with Don Jon’s vulgar vocabulary, you may find yourself swept up in Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s directorial debut. It’s a modern day romance with just the right dash of sweet and salty. Gordon-Levitt plays the title character, a guido with a heart who loves to spend time with his boys, work out, and scope out chicks. At the end of the day, he likes to come home and watch a…