Review

Gone Girl Review

Gone Girl (2014)

Dir: David Fincher

Gone Girl combines many recurring themes in David Fincher’s work: it’s a process-oriented thriller (Zodiac, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), featuring possibly unreliable narration (Fight Club), with overtones of classism and how technology seeps into our lives (The Social Network), all scored to the now familiar strains of Trent Reznor’s atonal bleeps and painted with Fincher’s signature cool palette. It’s also an adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s bestselling novel of the same name (joining fellow story-to-screen Fincher adaptations Fight Club, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Dragon Tattoo) that holds many surprises for those unfamiliar with the source and even (more…)

Tim’s Vermeer Review

Tim’s Vermeer (2014)

Dir: Teller

“I could paint that” is a common refrain heard when viewing art, especially when the art in question is abstract, simple or elliptical in a way that defies easy meaning. 17th-century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer painted intricate interiors that were so realistic he seemingly “painted the light”. Few would claim that they could replicate his work accurately, but that’s exactly what inventor Tim Jenison sets out to do in Tim’s Vermeer, an intimate documentary that examines process and art, and how science may have played a role in the creation of (more…)

Chef Review

Chef (2014)

Dir: Jon Favreau

Writer/director Jon Favreau trades superheroes for sweaty kitchens in the winning Chef, an ode to creativity and following your muse. Coming off the critical and commercial failure of 2011’s Cowboys & Aliens, it makes sense that Favreau would retreat to the smaller budget realm where he cut his teeth with his breakout hit Swingers. Imbued with a sunny disposition and a renewed sense of purpose, the unexpected part is (more…)

The Drop Review

The Drop (2014)

Dir: Michaël R. Roksam

The Drop is another film based on a Dennis Lehane story (like Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone) which swaps out snowy Brooklyn for the usual Boston while retaining a strong sense of place. Like those previous Lehane adaptations, the world transposed to the screen here feels appropriately gritty and real. The story of familial responsibility and the sins of the past feels small by design, but is full of telling details (the chatter of barflies, how people act while alone)and strong performances (from a mostly foreign cast) that add richness. Tom Hardy (Bronson, Locke) once again proves chameleonic in the lead role, while the movie suffers from some pacing problems and odd character choices but remains interesting in spurts.

Hardy is Bob, a mumbling Brooklyn bartender with a soft spot for his booze-addled clients. His cousin Marv (James Gandolfini in his final screen appearance) is the bar’s namesake who long ago lost ownership to (more…)

The Double Review

The Double (2014)

Dir: Richard Ayoade

The Double reimagines Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novella of the same name into a bleak and darkly funny vision that features a fine dual performance from Jesse Eisenberg at his motor-mouthed best. Combining the production design of Terry Gilliam with a uniquely understated sensibility all his own, director Richard Ayoade creates an alternate universe of corporate drudgery and oppression peppered  with anachronistic technology and surreal humour.

Jesse Eisenberg is Simon, a meek office drone whose luck is beyond bad. He can’t leave an impression on his boss or colleagues, his mother has little use for him, and he pines fruitlessly over his aloof co-worker Hannah (Mia Wasikowska). He is a non-entity who exists in an uncaring world. Thankfully, watching the world piling onto Simon is Schadenfreude at its best and Eisenberg sells the yearning and (more…)

Cut Snake (TIFF 2014 Review)

Dir: Tony Ayres

Cut Snake opens on a slow motion close-up of a cigarette heater pulsating as a drag is taken. Smoke swirls and ebbs, backlit by the blinding afternoon sun. The shot is enticing and evocative, and makes promises that the disappointing Cut Snake is unable to keep. While idyllic and sun-drenched Melbourne is an inspired choice to set a period noir in, it’s the visuals alone that pop in this overblown melodrama.

Taking place in 1974, the film opens with Pommie (Sullivan Stapleton, memorable in Animal Kingdom and perfunctory as a place holder in 300: Rise of an Empire) being released from prison and tracking down an old acquaintance. Side-stepping ambiguity, Pommie’s motivations are quickly made clear from the ominous music overlaid atop scenes of him stalking parking lots and threatening the elderly. He’s searching for (more…)

Starred Up Review

Starred Up (2014)

Dir: David Mackenzie

Prison’s long been a ripe setting for drama and The Prison Movie is a storied genre with many stellar entries. The past few years have seen some standouts from Europe, including the surreal Bronson from Danish auteur Nicolas Winding Refn, and the Godfather-esque Un prophète from French visionary Jacques Audiard. You can now add the incendiary Starred Up to that list, as it’s a first rate masterpiece of the genre that delivers a cracking blow to staid senses.

Jack O’Connell gives a star-making performance as the 19 year old inmate Eric Love who’s been prematurely transferred to adult prison (“starred up” in UK slang) after a string of mostly unnamed offenses. The inhumanity of the intake system of prison is laid out in deliberate detail in the opening scenes as you begin to (more…)

The Guest (TIFF 2014 Review)

Dir: Adam Wingard

The Guest has so many familiar elements of VHS-era classics that it’s a wonder the end product feels as fresh and vibrant as it does. Credit writer-director team Simon Barrett and Adam Wingard, as they strike gold in their third collaboration together (after 2010’s mumblecore horror pic A Horrible Way to Die and 2011’s clever slasher You’re Next) and transcend 80’s fetishism to create an entirely new beast that’ll have midnight audiences cheering.

The film opens with David (British actor Dan Stevens of Downton Abbey) arriving at the Peterson homestead while claiming to be a fellow soldier of their late son Kaleb. Mother Laura (Sheila Kelley) is quick to warm to this surrogate son and invites him to stay in Kaleb’s old room. Father Spencer (Leland Orser) is hesitant at first, but soon finds in David a drinking buddy with a sympathetic ear to his failed career ambitions. Well ingratiated into the family, David soon stands up to bullies who have been terrorizing teenage son Luke (Brendan Meyer) in a raucous barroom confrontation that combines (more…)

Haemoo (TIFF 2014 Review)

Dir: Shim Sung-Bo

Haemoo (meaning “Sea Fog”, the film’s original working title) is a hybrid of sorts – a fast-paced, allegorical seafaring adventure that takes a turn towards the grim and gripping around halfway through. The Korean actioner comes from first time director Sung Bo Shim, with producing and co-scripting duties handled by the celebrated Bong Joon-ho (of The Host and Snowpiercer fame). Unpredictability married to strongly wrought (but sometimes broad) characters are Haemoo’s stock-in-trade, and they serve the story well by creating a lasting impression that lingers long after the final reel ends.

Kim Yun-seok portrays the down-on-his-luck Capt. Kang, whose fishing boat, love life and luck have all run aground and seen better days. Desperate and debt-riddled, he makes a last-ditch deal with the local heavy to transport illegal immigrants from China to South Korea. Along for the ride is his ragtag crew, most of whom are given a single defining trait (i.e. naïve, conniving, sex-starved) but are gradually fleshed out over the course of the film. After the crew of the Junjiho is given their share of the earnings and brought into the fold by their captain, they hesitantly set about (more…)

The World of Kanako (TIFF 2014 Review)

Dir: Tetsuya Nakashima

The brutal Japanese thriller The World of Kanako seeks to shock and destroy with its stylish pastiche of American grindhouse trends. Cribbing liberally from film noir, 70’s exploitation, Robert Rodriguez’s anti-heroes of Sin City, and Tarantino’s talky scenes intercut with shocking violence, Kanako  is drenched in even more sin and far less redemption than its forebears. The result is a mixed cocktail of blood and style that is both inebriating and toxic.

After some dizzyingly edited pre-credits scenes set the tone of the film (nauseatingly violent and heavily noir inflected), a whiplash credits sequence – all 70’s cool and throttling guitar – sets an impossibly high bar that the film itself has a hard time following. In the centre of this exercise in excess is Kôji Yakusho as Akikazu, a disgraced former cop and current P.I. tasked with tracking down his estranged teenage daughter, Kanako. The plot is often a mere excuse to string along a series of beatings, intimidations, betrayals and revelations. The end result can be (more…)