Buster’s Mal Heart
By: Nick Ferwerda Buster’s Mal Heart is a psychological thriller that will keep you guessing until the end.
Wylie Writes
The Dinner
On paper, Oren Moverman’s The Dinner, based on the novel by Dutch author Herman Koch, sounds similar to the 1981 chamber piece My Dinner with Andre, but with a darker twist. The intellectual wit of Andre isn’t present here, replaced instead with elements of thriller and drama.
Sandy Wexler
After nearly a decade of bad comedies starring Adam Sandler, it feels weird to call his recent vehicle “good”. It’s also funny, good-natured, and features Sandler at the top of his form. Somebody pinch me.
Hot Docs 2017: ‘Gilbert’ and ‘Integral Man’
Gilbert (DIR. Neil Berkeley) I expected to laugh while watching Gilbert, but I certainly didn’t expect to be misty-eyed and charmed by foul-mouth comic Gilbert Gottfried. Just as Private Parts showed an identifiable side to shock jock Howard Stern, Neil Berkeley’s Gilbert shows Gottfried’s tenderness while staying true to the comedian’s relentlessly profane wheelhouse.
The Bye Bye Man
You may giggle at that title – we all have. It’s hard to take seriously, especially since so many stoney faces in the trailer say it without a speck of irony. As one of those jokesters who mocked the title and has now seen the movie, I advise readers to not write this film off just yet. The Bye Bye Man has a main attraction that deserves your attention.
Hot Docs 2017: ’78/52′ and ‘Motel’
78/52 (DIR. Alexandre Philippe) It’s a testament to Alfred Hitchcock’s talent as a filmmaker that he directed the shower scene from Psycho and he is still known for things other than that; any other director would have simply become known by that singular sequence. Even though, that particular scene may well be the single most studied, analyzed and deconstructed scene in the history of cinema and, as a part of this tradition, there is Alexandre…
Hot Docs 2017: ‘Girl Inside’ and ‘Tokyo Idols’
Girl Inside (DIR. Maya Gallus) Hot Docs’ Focus on Maya Gallus programme features a screening of the documentarian’s 2007 Girl Inside, a film that chronicles a three-year process towards a substantial surgery for transgendered adult Madison.
Raw
There is a horror renaissance going on right now that everyone should be excited about. The genre has struggled to keep up with the horrors of the real world and has returned to top form; with many of the best films of the last few years coming from the auteurs of screams. One of these films, a film which made this critic’s top ten list last year, is Julia Ducournau’s Raw, which is finally getting…
Hot Docs 2017: ‘Spookers’ and ‘Tu as crié LET ME GO’
Spookers (DIR. Florian Habicht) Spookers focuses on the Watsons, a New Zealand family who has run one of the most successful scare attractions out of an old psychiatric ward.
Hot Docs 2017: ’Mermaids’ and ‘Step’
Mermaids (DIR. Ali Weinstein) Mermaids takes on real-life issues and shows the beneficial qualities of becoming a real-life mermaid.