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Toronto Film Festival 2024 Reviews: “The Assessment” & “Road Diary”

THE ASSESSMENT (no distrib); It seems initially as though Fleur Fortune’s feature directing debut The Assessment will be easy to peg. The script, by John Donnelly and the duo credited as “Mrs and Mr Thoma...

by Mitch Salem

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Sundance 2023 Reviews: “Cat Person,” “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields,” & “My Animal”

CAT PERSON: It seems to be necessary to establish one’s bona fides (or lack thereof) before commenting on Susanna Fogel’s Cat Person, so I’ll note that I’ve never read Kristen Roupenian’s ...

by Mitch Salem

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ShowbuzzDaily Sundance 2022 Reviews: “God’s Country” & “Phoenix Rising”

GOD’S COUNTRY (no distrib): A deliberative character study that’s also a thriller of sorts, anchored by one of the best performances of Thandiwe Newton’s career. When two hunters (Joris Jarsky and Y...

by Mitch Salem

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ShowbuzzDaily Sundance 2022 Review: “My Old School”

MY OLD SCHOOL (no distrib): Although the story is apparently well-known in the UK, here the twisty tale that Jono McLeod unfurls in his documentary would constitute a spoiler, so we’ll leave things vague here. ...

by Mitch Salem

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ShowbuzzDaily Sundance 2022 Reviews: “Palm Trees and Power Lines,” “Am I OK?” and “Lucy and Desi”

PALM TREES AND POWER LINES (no distrib): Jamie Dack’s first feature film (from a script written with Audrey Findlay) means to unsettle, and it does. 17-year old Lea (Lily McInerny) is stuck in a dead-end Southe...

by Mitch Salem

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SHOWBUZZDAILY Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “Belfast,” “Benediction” & “Jagged”

BELFAST (Focus/Universal – Nov. 12): Kenneth Branagh’s semiautobiographical film walks a path laid by many great works by master filmmakers, including Fellini’s Amarcord, John Boorman’s Hope and...

by Mitch Salem

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SHOWBUZZDAILY Virtual Sundance Reviews: “Eight For Silver” & “The Sparks Brothers”

EIGHT FOR SILVER: Sean Ellis’s 19th century werewolf movie takes itself very seriously. Ellis has extensively revised the usual mythology of the genre: the full moon doesn’t figure into things, the were...

by Mitch Salem

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SHOWBUZZDAILY Virtual Sundance Reviews: “R#J” & “A Glitch In the Matrix”

R#J: Every generation gets its Romeo & Juliet. In Carey Williams’ R#J, the words of Shakespeare are only occasionally heard. Instead, these extremely up-to-date Capulets and Montagues communicate almost ...

by Mitch Salem

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SHOWBUZZDAILY Virtual Sundance Reviews: “Passing,” “Street Gang” & “Mass”

PASSING: The actress Rebecca Hall has taken a big swing in her writing/directing debut. Her film Passing, based on the 1929 novel by Nella Larsen, embraces ambitious, difficult themes with sensitivity and expertise.�...

by Mitch Salem

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SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Film Reviews: “Save Yourselves!” & “The Fight”

SAVE YOURSELVES! (no distrib): A moderately amusing sketch that doesn’t quite have the heft for feature length. Writer/directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson satirize Brooklyn hipsters and sci-fi in t...

by Mitch Salem

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SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Film Festival Reviews: “Horse Girl,” “Happy Happy Joy Joy” & “Kajillionaire”

HORSE GIRL (Netflix – February 7): Every one of the four films Jeff Baena has directed had its premiere at Sundance, with Horse Girl following Life After Beth, Joshy and The Little Hours. It’s an impressi...

by Mitch Salem

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SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Film Festival Reviews: “Miss Americana,” “Ironbark” & “Scare Me”

MISS AMERICANA (Netflix – January 31): There are certainly areas of Taylor Swift’s life that are carefully elided in MISS AMERICANA (her actor boyfriend’s face and name are absent, for example, and th...

by Mitch Salem

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SHOWBUZZDAILY Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “Just Mercy,” “Pain & Glory,” “The Personal History of David Copperfield” & “Varda By Agnes”

JUST MERCY (Warners – December 25): As the release date suggests, this is a straight-down-the-middle Oscar play, and it may have some success in that arena (although Warners will also be campaigning for The Goldf...

by Mitch Salem

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ShowbuzzDaily Sundance Film Festival Reviews: “Studio 54″” & “What They Had”

STUDIO 54 (no distrib): Matt Tynauer’s documentary covers all the bases of the disco that defined nightlife for a surprisingly brief time in the late 1970s, from the club’s construction on the site of an ol...

by Mitch Salem

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THE BIJOU @ TIFF: Werner Herzog’s “Into the Abyss”

> Welcome to SHOWBUZZDAILY’s coverage of the Toronto International Film Festival, where the reviews will be as plentiful as we can cram into a week. TIFF started things off on a less-than-festive note with Werner Herzog&#...

by Mitch Salem

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Page 1 of 212

Toronto Film Festival 2024 Reviews: “The Assessment” & “Road Diary”

Sundance 2023 Reviews: “Cat Person,” “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields,” & “My Animal”

ShowbuzzDaily Sundance 2022 Reviews: “God’s Country” & “Phoenix Rising”

ShowbuzzDaily Sundance 2022 Review: “My Old School”

ShowbuzzDaily Sundance 2022 Reviews: “Palm Trees and Power Lines,” “Am I OK?” and “Lucy and Desi”

SHOWBUZZDAILY Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “Belfast,” “Benediction” & “Jagged”

SHOWBUZZDAILY Virtual Sundance Reviews: “Eight For Silver” & “The Sparks Brothers”

SHOWBUZZDAILY Virtual Sundance Reviews: “R#J” & “A Glitch In the Matrix”

SHOWBUZZDAILY Virtual Sundance Reviews: “Passing,” “Street Gang” & “Mass”

SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Film Reviews: “Save Yourselves!” & “The Fight”

SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Film Festival Reviews: “Horse Girl,” “Happy Happy Joy Joy” & “Kajillionaire”

SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Film Festival Reviews: “Miss Americana,” “Ironbark” & “Scare Me”

SHOWBUZZDAILY Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “Just Mercy,” “Pain & Glory,” “The Personal History of David Copperfield” & “Varda By Agnes”

ShowbuzzDaily Sundance Film Festival Reviews: “Studio 54″” & “What They Had”

THE BIJOU @ TIFF: Werner Herzog’s “Into the Abyss”

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