★★★★ (Written by Allison Brown) As a big fan of Alicia Vikander, I have been looking forward to Blue Bayou for some time, initially for months in anticipation of the original June 25th release date. Once it was announced for Cannes, the movie was pushed back without much clarity. I was so glad to finally … Continue reading Film Review: Blue Bayou
TIFF 2021: Encounter
★★★ The newest film from Amazon Studios comes in the form of sci-fi tinged Encounter, from director Michael Pearce. Plucking three lead performances all of Pakistani background, Encounter gets more right than wrong in general. However, I could not help feeling let down by certain elements of the storyline as they unfolded. The potential brimming … Continue reading TIFF 2021: Encounter
TIFF 2021: You Are Not My Mother
★★★★ Weird behavior is one thing, but what course of action would you take if your mother quite literally was someone else? Perhaps the most appropriately-named movie of the year, You Are Not My Mother is an eerie Irish horror film from debut feature writer/director Kate Dolan. The flavor of horror is difficult to pinpoint—occasionally … Continue reading TIFF 2021: You Are Not My Mother
TIFF 2021: Lo Invisible
★★★ (Written by Allison Brown) Lo Invisible is a singular portrayal of how upper-class families neglect their relatives afflicted with postpartum depression. It is a rich study of the tender relationships an individual can form with “the help” while growing up under a sheltered life, and juxtaposes the duality of luxury with familial disinterest. Anahí … Continue reading TIFF 2021: Lo Invisible
TIFF 2021: All My Puny Sorrows
★★★★ All My Puny Sorrows is so much deeper than just Suicide: The Movie. While this topic has been explored before by filmmakers, something about this story feels gripping and personal in a way that others before it have not. Based on the acclaimed novel by Miriam Toews, writer/director Michael McGowan adapts the material with … Continue reading TIFF 2021: All My Puny Sorrows
TIFF 2021: Montana Story
★★★★ Montana Story tells an intimate and emotional tale of two siblings, using the gorgeous mountainous backdrop of Montana state. I enjoyed Haley Lu Richardson in 2019’s Five Feet Apart, and I found Owen Teague to be impressive in Stephen King remakes of It and The Stand, but both young actors have never been this … Continue reading TIFF 2021: Montana Story
TIFF 2021: Kicking Blood
★★★ Kicking Blood, my first film viewed for 2021’s Toronto International Film Festival, acts as a surprisingly great start to round off the festivities. Vampires have never been one of my favorite subgenres of horror (I tend to think they work better on the page or in television format to properly expand the mythology), but … Continue reading TIFF 2021: Kicking Blood
TIFF 2021: Aloners
★★★ (Written by Allison Brown) Aloners, directed by Hong Sung-eun, is a masterful and comedic commentary on the fear of dying alone, not being good enough, and living a monotonous life. As a single woman in my early thirties spending the past year and a half primarily on my own due to the pandemic, I … Continue reading TIFF 2021: Aloners
TIFF 2021: Scarborough
★★★★ Though it carried with it a content warning (child abuse and neglect, racist language, off-screen domestic violence, references to drug use), even this was not enough to mentally and emotionally prepare me for what Scarborough had in store. The only still released ahead of 2021’s version of TIFF seemed to suggest a light familial-tinged … Continue reading TIFF 2021: Scarborough
Film Review: The Voyeurs
★★★★★ Amazon Prime’s new erotic thriller, The Voyeurs, easily emerges as one of my favorite films of the year in more ways than one. What starts as a simple plot with a cute couple moving into a gorgeous loft apartment escalates into pearl-clutching moments of shocking intensity. Writer/director Michael Morgan, creator of the excellent but … Continue reading Film Review: The Voyeurs