Toronto After Dark 2021: ‘Nightshooters’
Combining martial arts with survival horror and thrills, Nightshooters may have a few rough patches – but it’s a hell of a good time.
2021
Halloween Kills
Halloween Kills is an ambitious take on a sequel. While the film picks up where 2018’s Halloween ended, this isn’t a movie about the franchise’s villain Michael Myers or his prime victim Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). Instead, it’s a movie about Haddonfield and the mournful community who have been living in fear; being given a tormented reputation by its infamous serial killer. The locals, having not felt protected by the town’s law enforcement, rally…
Grave Intentions
In general, the horror anthology is a devastatingly underrated genre. Brian and Jocelyn Rish’s Grave Intentions is a great example of how entertaining this format can be when done right.
The Rescue
From the Academy Award winning team who brought you Free Solo comes The Rescue, a documentary that chronicles the 2018 search-and-rescue of the Wild Boars soccer team who were trapped in a flooding cave in Thailand.
Defining Moments
Every so often, an overly confident filmmaker comes along to lighten the mood around taboos. There was Josh Lawson’s comedic approach to bizarre sexual fetishes in The Little Death, then Dave Schultz’s tasteless handling of suicide and death in Considering Love & Other Magic, and now Stephen Wallis with Defining Moments, an exhausting flume of individual stories dealing with heavy subject matter (like mental health) and the writer/director’s unbearably quirky perspective.
The Addams Family 2
By: Trevor Chartrand Everyone’s favorite spooky family is back in The Addams Family 2, the sequel to 2019’s animated stinker featuring a re-imaged version of the classic Addams family characters. This go-round is, surprisingly, a slight improvement on the first installment (which isn’t saying much), but ultimately both titles in this series so far feel like ‘babysitter’ movies – stuffed full of filler and thin on the narrative front. It’s something parents can plop their kids…
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
I liked The Eyes of Tammy Faye, but I loved the dynamic and on-screen chemistry between actors Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield. As infamous televangelists Tammy Faye Bakker and Jim Bakker, Chastain and Garfield are excellent and shine through their make-up and prosthetics with believable performances and vibrant personalities. We’re constantly having to remind ourselves that we’re watching a contemporary film; not the 2000-era documentary of the same name that serves as source material.
Adventures of a Mathematician
Though its measured pace and dialogue-heavy approach could turn off audiences seeking a more thrilling cinema experience, the European-produced Adventures of a Mathematician is an engaging and deeply human portrait of a fascinating moment in history.
Dear Evan Hansen
The film adaptation of Dear Evan Hansen is a solid gateway towards introducing movie goers, like me, to the award-winning stage production its adapted from. The movie creates curiosity and builds interest for those who have been wanting to see it and missed out on the opportunity to do so.