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Toronto After Dark

Festival Coverage

Toronto After Dark 2016: ‘Antibirth’ and ‘From a House on Willow Street’

October 23, 2016Shahbaz Khayambashi2 Comments

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…

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Festival Coverage

Toronto After Dark 2016: ‘As the Gods Will’ and ‘In a Valley of Violence’

October 20, 2016Shahbaz Khayambashi0 Comments

As the Gods Will (DIR. Takashi Miike) Takashi Miike has two modes of filmmaking: a deadly serious style that’s evident in films like Audition, and a goofy, over-the-top style visible in films like Ichi the Killer.  In As the Gods Will, it takes the viewer mere minutes to figure out which category Miike’s latest falls into (for me, it was the moment when a student gets decapitated and bleeds red marbles).

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Festival Coverage

Toronto After Dark 2016: Shahbaz on Short Films

October 19, 2016Shahbaz Khayambashi1 Comment

Shorts After Dark – a program of carefully selected international short films – returned to the Toronto After Dark Film Festival on Saturday, October 15.  In the past, these shorts usually run the gamut of subgenres, as well as the gamut of quality, with the spectrum ranging from brilliance to downright horrendous.  This year’s selection was solid.  Even in comparison to past showcases, this year’s worst short was still better than former duds that have made the cut.

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Festival Coverage

Toronto After Dark 2016: ‘Blood Father’ and ‘Kill Command’

October 17, 2016Shahbaz Khayambashi1 Comment

Blood Father (DIR. Jean-François Richet) Mel Gibson was once one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.  Now, he is staging a comeback which includes a few directorial efforts.  Preceding those is his starring role in Jean-Francois Richet’s Blood Father, a film which could be cynically viewed as an attempt to get Gibson back on the public’s radar and nothing more, if only it was not so entertaining and memorable.

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Festival Coverage

Toronto After Dark 2016: ‘Train to Busan’ and ‘Trash Fire’

October 16, 2016Shahbaz Khayambashi0 Comments

Train to Busan (DIR. Yeon Sang-ho) Sometimes, a film fails at everything – an abject failure.  Sometimes, a film fails at the majority of its goals while succeeding in some, earning a designation of mediocrity.  Then, there are the rare cases of films failing in a majority of ways with a few successes, wherein those successes manage to outshine the failure.  Yeon Sang-ho’s Train to Busan fits into that final example, a film that comes…

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Festival Coverage

Toronto After Dark 2016: ‘War on Everyone’

October 14, 2016Addison Wylie1 Comment

Alexander Skarsgård (The Legend of Tarzan) and Michael Peña (Ant-Man) are two of New Mexico’s worst cops, yet they’re the kings of their castle in War on Everyone.  Their delusion intimidates pedestrians and perps, and their shallowness makes their supervisor Lt. Gerry Stanton (Paul Reiser) confused and ultimately indifferent.  However, their false royalty is disrupted when they’re overshadowed by a more diabolical threat, Lord James Mangan (Theo James of The Benefactor and the Divergent series).

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Festival Coverage

Toronto After Dark 2015: Shahbaz on Short Films

October 27, 2015Addison Wylie5 Comments

By: Shahbaz Khayambashi Once again, the sun sets on another successful edition of the Toronto After Dark Film Festival.  On the tenth anniversary of this local darling, I felt it necessary to shine a light on what I have consistently felt to be an important and underappreciated part of this festival: the shorts. The first time that I went to the festival, about six years ago, my first screening was the Shorts After Dark program and I…

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Festival Coverage

Toronto After Dark 2015: ‘Deathgasm’ and ‘The Diabolical’

October 26, 2015Addison Wylie0 Comments

Deathgasm (DIR. Jason Lei Howden) By: Shahbaz Khayambashi Think to yourself for one moment: what do you imagine when you think of a film entitled Deathgasm?  Jason Lei Howden’s film is basically that. The plot is simple enough: four teenage New Zealand metalheads decide to form a band, after sneaking into a Varg Vikernes stand-in’s house and coming into possession of music and lyrics to a demonic song which turns the inhabitants of their small town…

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