TIFF 2023: ‘Origin’
By: Jolie Featherstone Origin is Ava DuVernay’s latest film and it is, quite simply, a masterpiece.
TIFF 2023: ‘Motherland’
The anxiety-inducing energy in the short film Motherland speaks to Jasmin Mozzaffari’s multifaceted talents as a storyteller.
TIFF 2023: ‘Seagrass’
In Seagrass, writer/director Meredith Hama-Brown uses a tired-and-true formula of the “family getaway” to uncover new wrinkles in an, otherwise, ordinary unit.
TIFF 2023: ‘Summer Qamp’
By: Jolie Featherstone Jen Markowitz’s documentary Summer Qamp follows several teens as they attend Camp fYrefly – a camp in rural Alberta where queer, non-binary, and trans teens get to be themselves, surrounded by peers and counsellors who can relate to their experience. From the moment the campers arrive, the camp implements a framework of care. Whether it’s coming out as trans or climbing a rock wall, the campers are supported.
The Pod Generation
In a rare move, instead of recommending The Pod Generation by itself, I’m asking you to pair the sci-fi indie with another one from the same ilk, After Yang.
TIFF ’23: ‘The Feeling That The Time For Doing Something Has Passed’
By: Jolie Featherstone Joanna Arnow directs, writes, edits, and stars in the smartly droll The Feeling That The Time For Doing Something Has Passed, a feature-length directorial debut that takes an unflinching, but not bleak, look at Millennial ennui.
Don’t Look Away
Moving in and out of theatres faster than a killer sloth, fun and freaky flick Don’t Look Away offers audiences an ominous and haunting villain – a motiveless, murderous mannequin.
R.L. Stine’s Zombie Town
Let’s compare R.L. Stine’s Zombie Town to past adapted media based on the work of the titular author: if Netflix’s Fear Street trilogy was for adults, and the 90s era Goosebumps television show was for teenagers, and the recent Goosebumps films (featuring Jack Black) are for kids, then Zombie Town is for really young children. I’m wondering what the next level down would be – short stories for fetuses about expectant mothers who eat too…
Golda
Golda kicks off a season of “Oscar bait”, movies that try very hard to make an impression towards the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. As much as Guy Nattiv’s film may have been conceived from a good place, with the movie’s heavy use of make-up and prosthetics to transform Oscar-winner Helen Mirren into Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, it’s hard for viewers to dismiss this possible pandering.