TIFF Journal: Knives Out
The most obnoxious thing I can say about Rian Johnson’s Knives Out is that I prefer its mix of genre tropes and social commentary to Jordan Peele’s Get Out. Frankly, the mix of Clue with an acerbic and biting look at r...
The most obnoxious thing I can say about Rian Johnson’s Knives Out is that I prefer its mix of genre tropes and social commentary to Jordan Peele’s Get Out. Frankly, the mix of Clue with an acerbic and biting look at r...
Repetition in film fascinates me. I love seeing emerging patterns and repeated phrases as a way for filmmakers to call our attention to certain details. I wish I had the foresight to count the number of times the word “fine&...
‘American Sniper’ wasn’t a film that I was fond of at the time, but its legacy is something that I particularly dislike. Thanks to the success of Clint Eastwood’s rousing “kill all the evil brown peop...
Guillermo del Toro’s latest film is a stunning achievement and easily one of his finest works. At once a profoundly personal fairy tale love story and a perversely entertaining monster flick, ‘The Shape of Water’...
Throughout his strange career, Guillermo del Toro has made it a mission to fuse horror and fairy tales until they become indistinguishable. The guy has done a remarkable job weaving those dreams together so far, but something abou...
Weaving stories within stories within pretty pictures, Tom Ford’s ‘Nocturnal Animals’ is an immaculately constructed cinematic contraption that just might be a little empty inside. Like the fashion designer-turne...
Werner Herzog is a brilliant filmmaker when his unique imagination matches up with the right material. Given that the guy tends to make movies even faster and in greater numbers than Woody Allen, that means that his talents syncin...
‘Loving’ is one of those important historical dramas about groundbreaking folks who changed America. It’s also an incredibly intimate character study of two simple people uncertain of why their pure love could ca...
There are several ways in which ‘Midnight Special’ feels like a throwback. In movie geekery terms, the film plays as an homage to the mystery, complexity, wonderment and technical mastery that young Steven Spielberg an...
The Seth Rogen movie machine has become so well-oiled that, at this point, all the guy really needs to do is pick a genre or concept and slip it into his formula. It only makes sense that he’d eventually make a Christmas mov...
Given the devastating effect it had on the U.S. economy, it’s a bit of a shock how few movies have been made about the credit-crunch housing crisis. ’99 Homes’ is the first to take it on directly. Ramin Bahrani...
Jake Paltrow’s ‘Young Ones’ is a gorgeously visualized movie that toys with Western and post-apocalyptic thriller conventions in intriguing ways. Unfortunately, beyond the style and setup, the film is sadly hollo...