In The Spotlight
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Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “The Burial,” “Wildcat” & “Poolman”
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Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “American Fiction,” “The Critic” & “Mother, Couch”
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Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “Rustin,” “Memory” & “Fingernails”
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Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “The Boy and the Heron,” “Dumb Money” & “North Star”
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Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “Hit Man,” “Daddio” & “Next Goal Wins”
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Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “His Three Daughters,” “Backspot” & “Lee”
Film Festival
Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “The Burial,” “Wildcat” & “Poolman”
THE BURIAL (MGM/Amazon – Oct. 13): A yarn that’s also a true story. Jeremiah O’Keefe (Tommy Lee Jones) was the owner of a family-run, regional Mississippi business that for decades had offered funeral services and burial insurance to its customers. When Jeremiah’s finances took a turn, he made a deal with a conglomerate headed […]
Film Festival
Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “American Fiction,” “The Critic” & “Mother, Couch”
AMERICAN FICTION (Orion/MGM/Amazon – Nov. 17): The Toronto People’s Choice Award has been something of a golden ticket to a Best Picture nomination over the years, and this year the prize went to Cord Jefferson’s directing debut American Fiction. Jefferson’s script (based on the novel “Erasure” by Percival Everett) for the most part deftly toes […]
Film Festival
Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “Rustin,” “Memory” & “Fingernails”
RUSTIN (Netflix – Nov. 17): The director and producer George C. Wolfe is a towering figure in American theater, but his films to date have been wobbly at worst (A Night in Rodanthe, You’re Not You) and sturdy at best (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks). Rustin marks his most accomplished […]
Film Festival
Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “The Boy and the Heron,” “Dumb Money” & “North Star”
THE BOY AND THE HERON (GKids – Dec. 8): Hiyao Miyazaki, a legend of animation (Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke), had announced his retirement as a feature film director a decade ago, upon the release of The Wind Rises. But at the age of 82, he’s returned with The Boy and the […]
Film Festival
Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “Hit Man,” “Daddio” & “Next Goal Wins”
HIT MAN (no distrib): A clever, funny, sexy entertainment from Richard Linklater and emerging star Glen Powell, who co-wrote the script with the director (both also produced), inspired by an already-wild true story. Powell plays Gary Johnson, a philosophy teacher moonlighting as a consultant for a local Texas police department. He’s supposed to be […]
Film Festival
Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “His Three Daughters,” “Backspot” & “Lee”
HIS THREE DAUGHTERS (no distrib): The premise of Azazel Jacobs’ film is simple enough to be staged as a play: as their father Vincent (Jay O. Sanders) lies dying in an unseen room of his Bronx apartment, Katie (Carrie Coon), Christina (Elizabeth Olsen) and Rachel (Natasha Lyonne) get in each others’ ways as they wait […]
