In recent years, Chris Eyre’s 1998 film Smoke Signals has been the source of a thousand memes shared by Indigenous people. Among the most popular have been images of Thomas Builds-the-Fire (Evan Adams) calling out “Hey, Victor!” to Victor Joseph (Adam Beach) in a distinctive rez accent. In Hey, Viktor!, actor Cody Lightning, who played the child version […]
TIFF 2023 Reactions
TIFF Reaction – QUEEN OF MY DREAMS
Continuing my TIFF reaction series, I am now taking a look at one of my favourite Canadian titles from TIFF 2023’s lineup. QUEEN OF MY DREAMS had a really strong reaction from critics and audiences at the festival this year and should be coming out in early 2024. ABOUT: In 1999, the sudden death of […]
TIFF Reaction – Tautuktavuk/What We See
Continuing my TIFF reactions, I came across a really strong Canadian documentary called TAUTUKTAVUK (WHAT WE SEE) which screened in the TIFF Docs section. It was a busy festival with a lot of movies seen big and small and I was really happy I got to check this one out. About: After experiencing a traumatic […]
TIFF and Fantastic Fest Reaction – SLEEP
Both myself (Jason) and my lovely writer Anna Hanks both saw SLEEP at the respective Toronto International Film Festival and Austin’s Fantastic Fest and we both had some very positive reactions! ABOUT: A marriage is tested after expectant mother Soo-jin (Jung Yu-mi) awakens one night to the eerie sight of her husband Hyun-su (Lee Sun-kyun) […]
TIFF Reaction: The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed
My next reaction is for a small but notable American Indie with the VERY long title THE FEELING THAT THE TIME FOR DOING SOMETHING HAS PASSED, which had a mixed reaction during its TIFF premiere this year. About: Writer-director Joanna Arnow brings to her feature debut the singular, acerbic vision she pioneered in her shorts […]
TIFF Reaction: SEAGRASS
ABOUT: Set a decade or so in the past, Meredith Hama-Brown’s debut feature tells the story of a family on the verge of coming closer together — or drifting further apart. Judith (Ally Maki) is Japanese Canadian; her husband Steve (Luke Roberts) is white. They’re having some problems communicating with each other, so they’ve found […]
TIFF 2023 Reaction – CHUCK CHUCK BABY
As the start of my TIFF 2023 reactions, I’d like to focus on my top picks of the festival, CHUCK CHUCK BABY, and the below reaction that I furiously typed into my iPad afterwards. I knew that I had just experienced genius and want to follow the journey of Janis Pugh’s wonderful new movie. ABOUT: […]
Wrapping Up The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival – One For The Books
What a whirlwind experience that the 2023 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival was, and to my delight I had a great experience overall this year. This was a dramatic improvement in the Festival experience in comparison to 2022 which I felt was a pretty lousy experience and one that made me a little […]