small town
The attendees of a youth astronomy convention find themselves quarantined after an encounter with aliens in Asteroid City. Asteroid City is a small desert town known for being the site of the arid plains meteorite. Many Junior Stargazers and their parents descend upon the town for Asteroid Day, including photographer and recent widower Augie Steenbeck …
Two teenagers investigate a strange noise broadcasting over the radio in their small town in The Vast of Night. One night sometime in the 1950s, while most of the population of the town of Cayuga, New Mexico is attending the high school basketball game, 16-year-old switchboard operator Fay Crocker (Sierra McCormick) notices a strange sound playing …
Guy Ritchie returns with his first gangster film in over a decade with The Gentlemen. One day Raymond (Charlie Hunnam) is visited by private investigator Fletcher (Hugh Grant), who details his plans to blackmail Raymond’s boss Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey), an American immigrant, who has created a highly successful marijuana dealing operation in the UK. Mickey …
Michael Myers once again returns home after forty years in Halloween. After terrorizing the town of Haddonfield on Halloween Night 1978, Michael Myers was apprehended and has spent the last forty years at Smith’s Grove Sanitarium, under the care of Dr. Sartain (Haluk Bilginer), the pupil of Myers’ former caregiver Dr. Loomis. Meanwhile, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) has been …
A series of internet leaks results in chaos in a small town in Assassination Nation. Lily (Odessa Young), Bex (Hari Nef), Sarah (Suki Waterhouse), and Em (Abra) are four teenage friends in the town of Salem. The girls’ lives are turned upside down when half the town’s cellphones are hacked, revealing that Lily has been exchanging …
This review was originally published as part of my coverage of TIFF 2017 A group tries to survive a zombie outbreak in a remote Quebec village in Les Affamés. A flesh-eating plague has broken out in Quebec and a small batch of survivors try to make to safety. These include Bonin (Marc-André Grondin), who is always cracking …
A small town is tormented by a pair of crazed killers in the twelve days leading up to Christmas in Once Upon a Time at Christmas. In the small town of Woodridge, a pair of killers dressed up as Santa (Simon Phillips) and Mrs Claus (Sayla Vee) have started killing people each night in increasing …
A woman seeks justice for the unsolved murder of her daughter in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Seven months after the rape and murder of her daughter Angela, Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand) rents three billboards on an isolated road criticizing the police department’s supposed lack of progress on the case, specifically calling out Chief Bill Willoughby (Woody …
Stephen King’s novel receives new adaptation in IT. In the summer of 1988, the small town of Derry is experiencing an epidemic of missing children cases. One of these missing children was Georgie ( Jackson Robert Scott), the younger brother of Bill (Jaeden Lieberher). Together with the “Losers Club” of Richie (Finn Wolfhard), Ben (Jeremy Ray …
Take a peak into the private life of comedian Gilbert Gottfried in Gilbert. In his public persona as a standup comedian, Gilbert Gottfried is known for his squinty-eyed appearance and his very crude and politically incorrect jokes. However, at home Gottfried is a very shy and softspoken guy, who has been adjusting for the last decade …
A police sergeant investigates a series of murders that may be related to demonic activity in The Wailing. One morning in the isolated town of Goksung, Sgt. Jeon Jong-gu (Kwak Do-won) is called to the scene of a brutal ritualistic murder. This is the latest of a series of homicides in the city, which seems to …
A drifter seeks vengeance in an isolated mining town in In a Valley of Violence. Paul (Ethan Hawke) is an ex cavalry man, who is travelling with his dog Abby on the way to Mexico. Paul decides to take a shortcut through the town of Denton, where he has an violent encounter with psychotic deputy …
Returning to Hot Docs this year is DocX, which consists of a variety of interactive installations, and virtual reality and 360° video experiences. I ventured into the upper floor of Hot Docs House (610 Markham Street) and tried out a number of this year’s DocX experiences. Cardboard Crash (Canada) Presented by the NFB, this Virtual Reality experience …
A booming oil industry results in flocks of people migrating to the town of Williston, North Dakota, in the search for work. With many of these people having no place to stay, Jay Reinke, Pastor of Concordia Lutheran Church, begins an “overnighters” program, where he allows outsiders to either sleep inside the church or park …
Rich Hill, Missouri is a small town with a population of only 1393. Andrew is a 14 year old, whose family is frequently moving; Appachey is a violent and foul-mouthed 13 year old, who’s always getting into trouble; Harley is a 15 year old with anger issues, living with his grandmother, while his mother serves …
A booming oil industry results in flocks of people migrating to the town of Williston, North Dakota, in the search for work. With many of these people having no place to stay, Jay Reinke, Pastor of Concordia Lutheran Church, begins an “overnighters” program, where he allows outsiders to either sleep inside the church or park …
Last night Alexander Payne appeared at the TIFF Bell Lightbox to present a screening of his new film Nebraska, which is scheduled to open in limited release this Friday. The film focuses on Woody Grant (Bruce Dern), an overtly trusting curmudgeonly old man, who receives a letter in the mail, saying that he has “won” …
The Austrian sci-fi/horror film The Station focuses on a team of scientists on a Climate Research Base in the German Alps. Lead by Janek (Gerhard Liebmann), the team discovers a blood-like red liquid coming out of a nearby glacier. It turns out that this liquid contains a single-celled organism, which infects local wildlife, developing into …
It’s been nearly a decade since Arnold Schwarzenegger has had a leading role in an action film, having spent much of that time as Governor of California. After brief supporting roles in the two Expendables films, Schwarzenegger officially makes his return in The Last Stand. The films centres around a small town sheriff (Schwarzenegger), who …
Neil Young Journeys is the third Neil Young concert film directed by Jonathan Demme, which follows 2006’s Neil Young: Heart of Gold and 2009’s Neil Young Truck Show. The bulk of the film consists of footage from a May 2011 concert at Massey Hall in Toronto. While some of Young’s hits are featured, the bulk of the …
For those who are unaware, Super 8 is an 8mm film format, which was a popular format for making home movies in the days before VHS. These days, the format is really only used by aficionados and film students (I myself made a Super 8 film in one of my film classes). For J.J. Abrams’ …
The original Scream came out in 1996 when I was 14 years old (though I was nearly 16 when I saw it for the first time), so the original trilogy had pretty much had the same relevance to my teenage years in the mid-1990s that the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th series’ had for people …
The ads for this latest release from Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures production company says that 30 Days of Night reinvents the vampire. However, I would that there isn’t much to reinvent with vampires — they are undead creatures that live off of blood. Since this film based on a graphic novel, I would definitely …