As the title suggests, What Will People Say is about expectations, image and reputation. Even more than that though, Iram Haq’s second film is an honest but brutal portrayal of the second-generation immigrant struggle to both fit in and devote oneself to family. Nisha (Maria Mozhdah) lives a double life – at home, she follows the […]
Reviews
TIFF 2017: ‘Stronger’ Review
Stronger is based on the true, inspirational story of marathon bombing survivor Jeff Bauman (Jake Gyllenhaal) and his marathon-running girlfriend Erin (Tatiana Maslany). After losing his legs in the bombing, Jeff isn’t so much as having a hard time acclimatizing to not being able to walk, but rather the media attention. He did help the […]
‘IT’ Review: Scary, Funny, and Emotional
So far 2017 is considered one of Hollywood’s worst box office years in recent memory with many big budget action and comedy movies completely flopping while costing their studios millions of dollars. Against all odds and expectations, 2017 is proving to be the year where horror movies are reclaiming the box office glory of the […]
TIFF 2017: ‘Suburbicon’ Review
In a utopian town called Suburbicon (obviously), nothing bad ever happens. Everyone’s perfect life is perfect. That is, until a black family moves in and suddenly the residents are in a uproar, blaming them for a robbery gone bad that ends in murder. Less a whodunit and more a whytheydunit, George Clooney and the Coen […]
TIFF 2017: ‘Call Me By Your Name’ Review
Set somewhere in Northern Italy in the summer of 1983, Call Me By Your Name (based on André Aciman’s novel of the same name) is a beautiful coming-of-age story about 17-year-old Elio (Timothée Chalamet) and his sexual awakening. Every summer, Elio’s father, Professor Perlman (Michael Stuhlbarg) invites a research assistant to their summer home – this year […]
TIFF 2017: ‘Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle’ (‘Muchos Hijos, un Mono y un Castillo’) Review
Playing out more like a series of home movies than a documentary, Lots of Kids, a Monkey, and a Castle follows director Gustavo Salmerón’s family and his eccentric mother, Julita. As a newlywed, she wished for three things: the eponymous lots of kids, a monkey and a castle. They were ambitious dreams for sure, but […]
TIFF 2017: ‘The Judge’ Review
The Judge (not the Robert Downey Jr. one) is a very apt title for this documentary. I think we all unintentionally associate the profession with men, so Erika Cohn’s film about the first female judge in the Middle Easts’ Shari’a courts is a welcome surprise. Kholoud Al-Faqih is an extraordinary woman – prior to becoming a […]
TIFF 2017: ‘The Disaster Artist’ Review
How does the best, worst movie of all time get made? And for what reasons? James Franco directs himself, his brother, and all his friends in The Disaster Artist, which is based on the book of the same name by Greg Sestero of The Room fame. Focusing more on Sestero’s relationship with Wiseau, The Disaster Artist answers some of our […]
TIFF 2017: ‘The Rider’ Review
The Rider is a beautiful and introspective portrait of a young cowboy, Brady, in South Dakota who can’t give up the life of a rodeo star even after a near-fatal head injury that stemmed from being bucked off a horse. Doctors have told him he needs to stop riding, but without the rodeo he doesn’t know […]
TIFF 2017: ‘Happy End’ Review
Michael Haneke’s (The White Ribbon, Amour) latest film is misnomer. There is nothing happy about this movie – and I loved it. The ironically named film is a dark, satirical drama about a seemingly perfect family on the surface, but is actually quite dysfunctional behind closed doors. Seeing Isabelle Huppert and Jean-Louis Trintignant reunited as a […]
TIFF 2017: ‘The Florida Project’ Review
Shot in beautiful pastel colours, Sean Baker’s The Florida Project is so intimate and real that you can almost feel the Floridian heat radiating on your skin. Set during the summer, the film follows Moonee, a young girl living with her mother, Halley, in an extended-stay motel. She explores her surroundings with her friends with a […]
TIFF 2017: ‘High Fantasy’ Review
The hedonistic era of filmmaking has had a much needed boost over the past few years, ones that gave off vibes of undoubtable realism. Jenna Bass’s High Fantasy is a movie that manages to keep that realization at hand with a twist to it. Here, a group of South African teens recoil a camping trip […]
TIFF 2017: ‘Porcupine Lake’ Review
Love never feels quite real from afar, but once you’re face to face with it, it’s like nothing else matters. Ingrid Veninger’s Porcupine Lake brings us an honest tale of discovery of a young girl named Bea, who meets Kate during a family trip. While Bea and Kate form a connection and explore a loss […]
TIFF 2017: ‘Novitiate’ Review
In recent years, there have been a couple films about the Catholic Church. Spotlight made us angry about the scandals behind closed doors. Ida let us see the psyche of a young woman who was about to take her vows to become a nun. Margaret Betts’ latest film, Novitiate, balances both of these stories. Cathleen (played by a […]
‘The Space Between’ Review: The Book Would have Been Better
The Space Between, written, directed, and produced by Amy Jo Johnson (who you may recognize as the Pink Power Ranger, Kimberly Hart from the 1990s series), would have been a good book. On a bright sunny morning, a new father, Mitch, finds out his miracle baby is not actually his. This sudden and unwelcome discovery […]