76 Days starts like an apocalyptic thriller where hospital workers covered in protective gear get ready to fight off a horde of zombies. But 76 Days isn’t fiction, it’s the reality of 2020. These doctors, nurses and cleaners are facing a pandemic of unknown proportions, and directors Hao Wu and Weixi Chen are here to …
Tag Archives: toronto international film festival
TIFF20 Review – ‘New Order’
Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco’s most ambitious film to date, is set during violent protests in Mexico City, where society and classes get overturned to the point of no return. The unapologetic opening sequence sets the tone, soon opening the gates of hell, creating the most shocking political twists. A never-ending anxiety inducing dystopian nightmare ensues. …
TIFF20 Review – ‘Beans’
Based on true events, Tracey Deer’s feature debut relives the 78-day standoff between two Mohawk communities and government forces in 1990 in Quebec, seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old Mohawk girl named Beans. Most of us know Canadians are kind and loving people, but even they have a dark past that can’t be forgotten. …
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 – ‘Akilla’s Escape’
25 years ago, the Toronto International Film Festival launched a new section showcasing films from Africa and the African diaspora. This year, as we join the call from the streets for Black liberation, we celebrate the voices that Planet Africa amplified. One of the titles being shown as part of Planet Africa 25 is Charles …
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 …
TIFF20 Review – ‘Monday’
One of the more mainstream titles TIFF20 has to offer, is Argyris Papadimitropoulos’ Monday, in which Marvel Studios’ very own Winter Soldier, Sebastian Stan, and Denise Gough play two thirtysomething Americans living their best life in Athens. As soon as they meet on a wild party weekend, sparks go flying. All good things come to …
TIFF20 Review – ‘Inconvenient Indian’
Thomas King sits in the back of a car while making an important observation on how we have to be careful of the stories we tell and those we’ve been told. Once it’s been told, we can never call it back. Throughout the film he tells us the story of the coyote and the ducks, which …
TIFF20 Review – ‘Saint-Narcisse’
Canadian director extraordinaire Bruce La Bruce graces TIFF20’s program with his latest schlockfest ‘Saint-Narcisse’. La Bruce takes us back to the 70s, where we meet the 22 year-old narcissist Dominic. Taking Polaroid selfies every opportunity he gets, he constantly turns himself on by looking at his own reflection. When his grandmother dies, he discovers his …
TIFF20 Review – ‘One Night In Miami…’
Regina King’s feature directing debut with drama ‘One Night in Miami…’, from a screenplay by Kemp Powers based upon his original stage play of the same name, is the crowdpleasing TIFF20 film you should be watching. Blending entertainment and activism, fame and principle, together on one fabled evening to remember. One Night in Miami… imagines a night in …