A witch seeks the love of the perfect man in The Love Witch. Elaine (Samantha Robinson) is a beautiful witch, who is starting a new life for herself in a small town. Renting an apartment in a Victorian house from fellow witch Barbara (Jennifer Ingrum), Elaine is desperate to find the perfect man for herself,…
The review was originally published as part of my coverage of TIFF 2015 A groom gets possessed during his wedding day in Demon. Peter (Itay Tiran) is preparing to marry his fiance Zaneta (Agnieszka Zulewska) at her family’s country home in Poland. The night before the wedding, Peter finds skeletal remains on the property, after which he…
A young model finds herself the envy of the fashion industry in The Neon Demon. Jesse (Elle Fanning) is a sixteen year old woman, who has just moved to Los Angeles with the hopes of starting a modeling career. At her first shoot, photographed by new acquaintance Dean (Karl Glusman), Jesse meets make-up artist Ruby (Jena…
Brian De Palma talks about his career in De Palma. Brian De Palma first got interested in filmmaking while he was studying Physics at Columbia University during the 1960s. De Palma was heavily influenced by the films of Alfred Hitchcock, particularly Vertigo, and even hired Bernard Herrmann to score his early films, including as 1973’s Sisters. While utilizing a…
Brian De Palma talks about his career in De Palma. Brian De Palma first got interested in filmmaking while he was studying Physics at Columbia University during the 1960s. De Palma was heavily influenced by the films of Alfred Hitchcock, particularly Vertigo, and even hired Bernard Herrmann to score his early films, including as 1973’s Sisters….
A self-destructive womanizer beings to change his ways in Jackie Boy. Jack (Alino Giraldi) is a man in a small town, who regularly indulges himself in drinking, drugs, and one night stands. However, when he meets Jasmine (Shannon Coulter), Jack is inspired to turn a new leaf and distance himself from his equally self-destructive friend…
A groom gets possessed during his wedding day in Demon. Peter (Itay Tiran) is preparing to marry his fiance Zaneta (Agnieszka Zulewska) at her family’s country home in Poland. The night before the wedding, Peter finds skeletal remains on the property, after which he begins acting strangely during the wedding reception. It quickly becomes apparent that…
Warning: The content described in this review is only suitable for people 18 years or older. Reader discretion is advised.Controversial filmmaker Gaspar Noé (Enter the Void) mixes romantic drama with explicit sex in Love. Murphy (Karl Glusman) is an American film student, who begins an extremely passionate relationship with Parisian artist Electra (Aomi Muyock). Featuring a…
A group of friends visiting a cabin are tormented by a giant sex-crazed mutant rabbit in Bunny the Killer Thing. Jari (Roope Olenius), Mise (Jari Manninen), Jesse (Olli Saarenpää), Sara (Enni Ojutkangas), and Nina (Veera W. Vilo) travel to the cabin owned the family of Tuomas (Hiski Hämäläinen) and Emma (Katja Jaskari). Along the way, they pick…
A new student at a boarding school for the deaf gets caught up with the local gang in The Tribe. Sergei (Grigoriy Fesenko) is a shy deaf teenager, who has just enrolled at a new boarding school. Sergei quickly finds that he has to prove himself worthy of the school’s gang, which results in him…
Once again, 26 filmmakers present 26 ways to die in the horror anthology ABCs of Death 2. As with the first film, each of the filmmakers were given creative freedom to create a short segment corresponding to the letter of the alphabet they were assigned, with each ending in a highly creative and often gory…
Throughout Japan, there are over 37,000 love hotels, where couples can find an escape from the realities of the outside world. Love Hotel follows the staff and patrons of the Angelo Love Hotel in Osaka. The clientele of the hotel include a middle aged couple trying reignite their passions, a dominatrix pleasuring S&M clients, and…
From director Lars von Trier (Melancholia) comes this epic two volume story about a woman with a lifelong sex addition. Left beaten and bloodied in an alley, the titular nymphomaniac Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is taken in by the kind stranger Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård). While she recovers in his home, Joe insists to Seligman that she…
Playing as part of the Canada’s Top Ten line-up, as well as opening this week for its regular release, Gabrielle is a coming-of-age story about a young woman’s desire to live a normal life, despite her mental disability. Gabrielle (Gabrielle Marion-Rivard) is a young women with William’s Syndrome, who sings in a choir with other…
Jake Gyllenhaal faces off with himself in this new doppelganger thriller from director Denis Villeneuve (Incendies), which is an adaptation of Nobel Prize-winning author José Saramago’s novel The Double. Adam Bell (Gyllenhaal) is a Toronto-based history professor, who lives a somewhat mundane and routine life with his girlfriend Mary (Mélanie Laurent). Based on the recommendation…
At the end of the Vietnam war, it was claimed that no American soldiers were left behind enemy lines. Director Michael Jorgensen’s documentary Unclaimed somewhat challenges this statement with this story about a man, who is located living in Vietnam and claims to be a long missing American soldier. The film’s main focus, and narrator,…
Director Kelly Reichardt (Wendy and Lucy, Meek’s Cutoff) returns with this very naturalistic look at a trio of eco-terrorists. Josh (Jesse Eisenberg) and Dena (Dakota Fanning) are a pair of environmental activists, who join up with Harmon (Peter Sarsgaard) in Portland to blow up a dam. Despite a few bumps along the way, the plan…
After playing the awards game with the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire and Oscar-nominated 127 Hours, director Danny Boyle returns to dishing out his unique take on genre films. In the case of Trance, what starts off as a fairly ordinary heist film, turns into psychological thriller in which the main protagonist begins to doubt the reality…
By some interesting coincidence, we seem to be in the middle of an “1980s Action Star Comeback Tour.” Two weeks ago saw the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Last Stand, which I actually ended up enjoying. In two weeks from now, Bruce Willis will be returning for his fifth Die Hard movie, which will…
For my final film of Canada’s Top Ten, I saw this quirky romantic comedy directed by Sarah Polley. One thing that stands out for this film right away is that even though it’s a Canadian film that takes place in Toronto, it features a very well-known cast of both Canadian and American actors, including Michelle…
A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas opened nearly a month ago, but I put off seeing it until today, so it would actually be somewhat close to the holidays. This film is the third entry in the stoner comedy series and while the premise isn’t as fresh as it was back in 2004, I…
One thing that can be said about The Hangover Part II is that the plot structure is nearly 100% the same as the original. This isn’t the first sequel to follow the “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” route, but it still does make the film a little more predictable than the first. However, I…
I have to say that Drive Angry owes a lot to the recent resurgence of grindhouse-type films. First there was the Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino-directed homage to the films, followed by the spin-off Machete, and later this month will see the release of Hobo with a Shotgun, which was based on a contest-winning fake trailer…
I don’t really know how to start this. Kevin Smith‘s films are usually crude, but for the most part it was just in the dialogue. This film gets a bit more….visual, and I have to admit that it was slightly distracting (this film is definitely NOT wholesome family entertainment). However, I also thought the film…
I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the first film. Especially when I saw the movie theatre I regularly go to shown on screen. The sequel is once again a racially charged stoner comedy. However, this time, instead of the simple goal of trying to locate a burger joint, the politically themes are turned way…
Back in April, I pondered how Rob Zombie’s remake/reimagining/whatever of Halloween would measure up to John Carpenter’s original film. My final verdict is not that well. I have to say, when I was watching the film, I was intrigued by the expanded backstory that Zombie gave Michael Myers. In fact, I thought it was quite…
