Toronto After Dark 2018: ‘Overlord’
Overlord (DIR. Julius Avery) American soldiers are dropped into German-occupied France and need to prepare for the D-Day invasion, but they find that the Germans are involved in some messed-up stuff.
Shahbaz Khayambashi
Toronto After Dark 2018: ‘Prospect’ and ‘The Ranger’
Prospect (DIR. Chris Caldwell, Zeek Earl) First, we lived through “mumblecore”. Then, we were subjected to “mumblegore”. Now, it seems like the next logical step is to “mumblego” where no man has gone before. Case in point: Chris Caldwell and Zeek Earl’s exercise in furious navel-gazing, Prospect, a film so enamored by its own cleverness that it manages to make its modest runtime seem endless. A film whose total lack of direction in favour of world-building…
Toronto After Dark 2018: ‘I’ll Take Your Dead’ and ‘Mega Time Squad’
I’ll Take Your Dead (DIR. Chad Archibald) The multi-hyphen horror film is just a concept that is here to stay. Despite everything being a hyphenated genre lately, very few films actually know how to do it well. The issue is that these films are often so lost in their own muddled genres, that they forget to specialize in one. Very rarely can someone pull off an actually balanced hyphenated genre film, leading to practical magic when…
Toronto After Dark 2018: ‘The Inhabitant’ and ‘Tigers Are Not Afraid’
The Inhabitant (DIR. Guillermo Amoedo) Latin American cinema is in the middle of a great resurgence, creating some of the best works since the cinemas of poverty of the 1960s. On another hand, there has been an influx of supernatural home invasion films: thieves having to deal with demons who won’t let them leave, a torrent which deemed any new arrivals in the genre mundane. Using this dichotomy, one is left to wonder what the…
TIFF 2018: ‘What is Democracy?’
At a time where democracy is in danger of losing its way, it is necessary to ask a few questions regarding the next steps towards putting democracy back on the right path, and whether democracy is even a system worth saving. Astra Taylor’s NFB-produced What is Democracy? attempts that feat but, unfortunately, comes up short.
TIFF 2018: ‘The Trial’
Sergei Loznitsa’s The Trial documents exactly what happens when dictatorial governmental powers are allowed to flourish and continue without question.
TIFF 2018: ‘Fausto’
Featured in the festival’s Wavelengths selection, Andrea Bussmann’s Fausto shows audiences why this particular programme is so important for a well-rounded TIFF experience.
King Cohen
There is a police parade walking down the street. Dozens of men in uniform are walking in formation, surrounded by revelers. Suddenly, Andy Kaufman pulls out a gun and shoots someone down. He is subdued and shot. With his last breath, he says “God told me to.” I have only seen one Larry Cohen film, and yet it managed to contain one scene which placed itself directly into my brain. Cohen has spent decades writing…
Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood
If you have ever read Vito Russo’s The Celluloid Closet or have seen the 1995 documentary based on the book, you would know quite well that Hollywood was full of closeted queer individuals working as actors, directors, producers and everything else; trying their hardest to live their truest lives, while also keeping the truth hidden. Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood tells another side of that story.
Wylie Writes @ TIFF ’18
TIFF returns for another year, pushed along by their Tuesday announcement of gala and special presentation films. This first slate has the same level of films that frequently find their way into the earliest announcement: films that will eventually be nominated for Oscars, or be ignored for Oscars, or find their way into hot take articles about how they should have been nominated for Oscars.