[TIFF 2019] REVIEW: ‘Black Conflux’ zooms in on loneliness

Few emerging filmmakers are quite as confident as Dorsey with how she isolates visuals and sounds, like an insect crawling along the ground while high-school-aged girls chat about boys, or the almost unsettling amplification of the sounds of people chewing or drinking. It’s a technique that suggests the film wants to take a detailed, magnified look at hard-to-spot details in everyday life; a method that echoes the feeling that drives the two main characters: pervasive, almost crippling loneliness.

FilmRobert SnowSeptember 11, 2019newfoundland, black conflux, tiff, tiff 2019, ella ballantine, nicole dorsey, ryan mcdonald, 2019, movies, review, dramaComment

REVIEW: ‘Where’d You Go, Bernadette’ should have started from scratch

Bafflingly, the question posed by the film’s title doesn’t really come into force until halfway through. And various storytelling devices intended to tame the movie’s shaggy bits, like voiceover by the protagonist’s daughter and flashback exposition-dumps, are too inconsistently applied to keep anything in check.

REVIEW: ‘Driven’ runs on Lee Pace’s calibrated performance

As the car magnate, Pace is the core attraction. After playing a similarly intimidating genius named Joe MacMillan on AMC’s retro tech-industry series Halt and Catch Fire, DeLorean feels like a natural choice for the actor.

Film, New ReleasesRobert SnowAugust 16, 2019lee pace, driven, jason sudeikis, corey stoll, judy greer, erin moriarty, cars, delorean, dmc, drama, comedyComment

REVIEW: Like delivery pizza, 'Hobbs & Shaw' somehow hits the spot

Here’s five reasons the movie rules and five reasons it sucked.

REVIEW: 'Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood', when Tarantino makes a superhero movie

Somewhere inside, the filmmaker believes that his beloved analog Hollywood could have been rescued by a man of action like Cliff. While we’re encouraged to get to know Robbie’s depiction of Tate and root for her, she’s more of an icon for the period of time that Tarantino so carefully recreates here, and preserves in other ventures like his New Beverly Cinema in the real-life L.A.

REVIEW: 'The Farewell': Say hello to the Asian-American experience

The struggle is real; not only is she hounded by questions about her private life (“are you married yet?”), she also has to put on a brave face to keep the family secret because – as her own family members keep pointing out – she’s far too emotional to be able to hide anything. It’s a low-key shot at “western” values that place more emphasis on being open and free-speaking, compared to stoicism as the more widely-accepted ideal in most Asian cultures.

Film, New ReleasesJason ChenJuly 30, 2019the farewell, lulu wang, awkwafina, drama, asia, china, family, 2019, movies, film, reviewComment

REVIEW: ‘The Lion King’ is neutered in more ways than one

It’s funny, though, that this would be the detail that the studio would censor in Jon Favreau’s film, because it’s symbolic of the problem in the release as a whole. Every painstakingly recreated scene feels like a crucial piece of it was sliced out to suit a modus operandi of making a version of The Lion King that might feasibly occur in the real Africa.

Film, New ReleasesRobert SnowJuly 25, 2019lion king, disney, remake, 2019, 1994, animation, donald glover, beyoncé, billy eichner, seth rogen, john oliver, chiwetel ejioforComment

AWARDS RACE: Looking ahead to the 2020 Oscars

Back in February, we surveyed all the films set to come out over the upcoming year and wondered who could win their first statue in 2020.

It’s now five months later, so we thought it was high time to revisit the list and see what’s changed.

FilmJason ChenJuly 10, 2019oscars, awards, 2020, academy awards, brad pitt, ed harris, edward norton, annette bening, joaquin phoenixComment

REVIEW: 'Spider-Man: Far From Home' is a familiar welcome-back hug

So much of Tom Holland’s second solo venture as Spider-Man is tied to Iron Man and Avengers: Endgame that you half-expect another superhero to show up, and it’s oddly weird that no one does. The end result is another competent entry in the MCU, the final chapter in the universe’s Phase 3, but a film that doesn’t stand out on its own.

Film, New ReleasesJason ChenJuly 4, 2019spider-man, far from home, sequel, marvel, tom holland, zendaya, jake gyllenhaal, 2019, review, movies, filmComment

REVIEW: ‘Men in Black International’ can’t be bothered to save the series

The key ingredient of the original film is the relationship between J and K: one an over-confident, rule-eschewing newbie, the other a grizzled veteran. Even though the screenwriters try to fit Hemsworth and Thompson into a similar dynamic, their characters are paper-thin by comparison

REVIEW: 'Dark Phoenix' fails to fly

Despite some strong performances and two excellent action sequences, Dark Phoenix never really feel like it had a chance. It’s still rife with problems, but it doesn’t deserve to be forgotten.

REVIEW: ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ stomps closer to the spirit of the series

The balance between titanic brawls and terrified citizens is redistributed in the right direction; as any die-hard fan of the franchise will tell you, we’re not meant to focus on the drama of the helpless humans caught in the fray.

REVIEW: ‘John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum’ is almost too much of a good thing

The movie adds 167 deaths alone - more than half the total - and many of these come in lengthy, technically dazzling scenes whose only crime is that there’s too much of them. It sounds odd, but for all the thrills and grim laughs in Chapter 3, the movie could do with being 10 or 15 minutes shorter.

REVIEW: 'Pokémon Detective Pikachu' discovers nostalgia, but not much else

The kids are the target audience, so all of the Pokémon have to look cute and cuddly. Pikachu is all sorts of fluffy and sassy, the travelling group of squeaking Bulbasaurs are a delight, and the giant earthquake-inducing Torterras really give you a sense of awe and wonder, the kind that kept so many kids (including yours truly) hooked.

Film, New ReleasesJason ChenMay 10, 2019pikachu, detective pikachu, pokémon, ryan reynolds, video game, movies, film, 2019Comment

REVIEW: ‘Avengers: Endgame’ is made out of spoilers, so let's talk about them

As far as I’m concerned, Endgame’s relationship to spoilers runs a little deeper than this, because the movie is basically constructed out of them. It’s the culmination of twenty previous features, which have all had several breadcrumb scenes embedded inside and at the end of the credits that have led to this movie’s release. From beginning to end, watching the movie is like getting numerous stubborn itches scratched, with hilarious banter, epic team-up shots, and satisfying emotional arcs.

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