Queer college freshman, Alex Dall (Isabelle Fuhrman – Orphan), joins her university’s rowing team and undertakes an obsessive physical and psychological journey to make it to the top varsity boat, no matter the cost. Intent on outperforming her teammates, Alex pushes herself to her limits—and beyond, alienating everyone around her in the name of success. …
Tag Archives: mental health
Encounter – Film Review | Prime Video
Marine, Malik Khan (Riz Ahmed – Sound of Metal) goes on a rescue mission to save his two young sons from a mysterious threat. As their journey takes them in increasingly dangerous directions, the boys will need to leave their childhoods behind. Encounter starts as a sci-fi thriller in which the future of humanity is …
Knocking – Film Review
Following a traumatic experience, Molly (Cecilia Milocco) is dispatched from a psychiatric facility only to move into an apartment where strange knocking can be heard each night. Fearing for the worst, Molly falls down a dangerous rabbit hole to find the source of the knocking no matter the cost. Described as “twisty” and “claustrophobic”, director …
Broken Diamonds – Film Review
With plans of moving to Paris looming, inspiring writer Scott (Ben Platt – The Politician) is eager to escape the realities of his current life and start anew. His plans are put in jeopardy when he is forced to take care of his mentally ill older sister, Cindy (Lola Kirke – Mozart in the Jungle). …
Short Film Review – ‘Wrath’
Co-directed by Meg Case and her partner Brad Porter, ‘Wrath’ takes you inside the mind of an artistic young woman on the brink of a mental breakdown, while COVID-19 hits her home Michigan, USA and the rest of the world. Amidst a mandatory quarantine, a young woman living in isolation battles against her growing paranoia …
Review – ‘The Swerve’
Holly lives in a nice house in a lovely suburban neighbourhood with her ambitious husband and two demanding teenage boys. She likes teaching, but it seems something’s not entirely right. Medicated for her insomnia, she dreams these very vivid nightmares – so vivid they might even be real. When a mouse pops up in her …
TIFF20 Review – ‘Passion Simple’
The second film on our #TIFF20 schedule has taken a turn for the worse. Danielle Arbid (‘Parisienne’) takes on Annie Ernaux’s autobiographical fiction novel that focuses intensively and almost exclusively on the passion our protagonist has for a man with whom she has an affair. Once one of the hottest books in France, now one …
TIFF20 Review – ‘Pieces Of A Woman’
Premiering at Venice Film Festival earlier this month, where Vanessa Kirby just won the award for best actress, ‘Pieces of a Woman’ kicks off its harrowing story with an incredibly long one take opening sequence wherein Martha (Kirby) and Shawn (LaBeouf) see their planned home birth end tragically. What follows is a melodramatic postpartum period, …
TIFF20 Review – ‘Penguin Bloom’
Based on a true story, ‘Penguin Bloom’ tells the story of Sam Bloom, who after suffering a traumatic accident finds herself searching for a reason to live. “If I can’t be a mother, then what am I?!”, she says with tears in her eyes. Glendyn Ivin’s crowdpleasing tearjerker paints a portrait of a family overcoming …
Fantasia International Film Festival Review – ‘Sanzaru’
Sanzaru, Japanese, noun – three wise monkeys (who “see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil”), a concept that one can interpret as a denial of unwanted truths. Xia Magnus’ debut feature intertwines spirits from the past and the now, transcending beyond Western borders. Evelyn (Aina Dumlao – ‘Introverts’), a young Filipina caretaker, …
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