Well, that’s finally a wrap on the Toronto International Film Festival. We ran, fifty, count ’em, fifty reviews from the festival including world premieres of David Gordon Green‘s “Halloween” sequel, Barry Jenkins‘ “If Beale Street Could Talk,” Claire Denis‘ insane-sounding sci-fi film “High Life,” Steve McQueen’s arty thriller “Widows,” “Beautiful Boy” with Timothee Chalamet and Steve Carell, Jeremy Saulnier‘s “Hold The Dark,” Sebastian Lelio‘s “Gloria Bell” with Julianne Moore, and the winner of the coveted Audience Award Prize—which often goes on to win the Oscar for Best Picture—Peter Farrelly‘s “Green Book” with Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen and dozens more (you can read all of our coverage and 50 reviews here).

Continue reading 2018 Toronto International Film Festival: The Good, The Great, & Only A Little Ugly at The Playlist.

“If you’re seeking perfection, free soloing is as close as you can get,” says adventurous, daredevil rock climber Alex Honnold, the subject of directors E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin‘s astonishing new documentary “Free Solo.” A term used to describe the act of mountain-climbing without safety ropes, the hard-to-watch insanity that is free soloing is a very real, very thriving sub-culture the exists today.

Continue reading ‘Free Solo’: A Thrilling, Astounding Mountain-Climbing Doc [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

Described as “the greatest literary hoax of our time,” the infamous unmasking of cause célèbre persona/author JT LeRoy in 2005 turned the world of pop culture media upside down. An extraordinary story that made headlines around the globe, the tale in short is: a precocious, sexually ambiguous, then-famous teenage author (LeRoy) — purporting to come from a world of drug addiction, poverty, and sexual abuse — was revealed to be the creation of another writer, a fraud upheld by an actor playing the press-shy persona in public, with her musician/boyfriend as a co-conspirator.

Continue reading ‘Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy’: Kristen Stewart & Laura Dern Can’t Save This Fabulist Tale [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

Best known for his acclaimed 2013 film “2 Autumns, 3 Winters,” filmmaker Sebastien Betbeder has built a stable, yet under-the-radar career making underrated observational comedies, a trend that he continues with his latest film “Ulysses and Mona,” which just premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. Featuring former soccer star turned actor Eric Cantona (“Looking for Eric“) as the titular Ulysses and Manal Issa as Mona, this low-key film follows a reclusive artist’s attempt to make amends with the family and friends that he has wronged.

Continue reading ‘Ulysses and Mona’ Recalls ‘About Schmidt’ & ‘Lost in Translation’ [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

Ever since he shook the cinematic world with the release of his visionary first feature, “Japón,” and then followed that up with his mesmerizing magnum opus “Silent Light,” director Carlos Reygadas struggled to find the same kind of universal acclaim with his polarizing and mystical 2012 film “Post Tenebras Lux” (a beautifully maddening picture which many adore or loathe in equal measure).

Continue reading ‘Our Time’: Carlos Reygadas Offers A Beautiful, But Deeply Distancing Meta-Experience [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

Whether they’re beautiful wildlife films narrated by British actors, stodgy political exposés, or tales too bizarre to be fiction, documentaries run the gamut of topics, styles, and frankly, quality. On the whole, documentaries manifest storytelling in its purest form. The factual films chronicle (mostly) meaningful events on a public and private scale without the predisposition of a fictional premise, while also exposing viewers to the most reviling and heartwarming aspects of human nature. This statement is especially true with the doc “Maiden.”

READ MORE: Venice Film Festival Preview: 20 Most Anticipated Movies

One can only imagine how director Alex Holmes pitched his idea for the film: “Okay, listen.

Continue reading ‘Maiden’: Bravery, Empowerment, & Incredible Pacing Make This Sailing Doc A Must-See [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

The sad, regretful notion of taking things for granted has dual applications in writer/director Nicole Holofcener’s latest humane comedic drama, the sharp, lovely, and wistful “The Land Of Steady Habits.” It’s an adultlescent story about a selfish, developmentally-arrested mid-fifty-year-old, who’s still coming of age, trying to figure out how to behave and how not to be such a selfish f*cking asshole. Unappreciative of his great life, he’s lost his family and now sits in the self-made pile of broken glass that is his lonely existence.

Continue reading ‘The Land Of Steady Habits’: Ben Mendelsohn Comes Of Age For Nicole Holofcener [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

“Three days ago my son Bailey was taken by wolves,” she writes in the letter, and she harbors no illusions about what happened next: “I don’t expect you to find my son alive. But you could find the wolf that took him.” When Russell Core (Jeffrey Wright) arrives at her door, Medora (Riley Keough) holds up the back of the book and compares the author photo. “You’re old,” she notes and lets him in.

Continue reading ‘Hold the Dark’: Jeremy Saulnier Crafts A Moody, Post-Peckinpah Thriller [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

The country of Iceland is perhaps best known for two things: Björk and its jaw-dropping landscapes. Though this idyllic little republic occasionally cameos as another planet in films like “Prometheus” and “Interstellar,” it rarely gets to show its own face on the big screen, whether in terms of authorship or setting. “Woman at War” by Benedikt Erlingsson bucks convention by offering Iceland – and a few other characters – a starring role in its epic tale of one woman’s quest for environmental justice.

Continue reading ‘Woman At War’ Offers A Dynamic, Delightful Portrait Of Iceland [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

America is one of the world’s richest and most powerful countries, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at a considerable portion of the population. It’s this hypocrisy that writer-director Peter Farrelly examines in his new feature, “Green Book.” The movie goes back only a few decades in American history to explain why “the land of the free” label has never been entirely true. To make his point, Farrelly enlists two of today’s most talented actors, pairs them with a witty script, and then lets the sparks fly.

Continue reading ‘Green Book’: Mahershala Ali & Viggo Mortensen Road Trip Through The Jim Crow South [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

Writer/director Amma Asante has carved out a compelling niche for herself as a cinematic interpreter, or re-interpreter, of history, based around the realization that she can challenge entrenched historical narratives simply by giving a voice to mixed-race persons in the past, either in true stories or heavily researched fictions. The fact that her latest, “Where Hands Touch,” has already attracted some controversy, sight unseen, proves that interracial romance can still be seen as politically inconvenient, complicating narratives that we wish were simple.

Continue reading ‘Where Hands Touch’: History Overwhelms This Amandla Sternberg-Led Drama [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

Music competition shows have been a TV mainstay in America ever since the Brits imported “American Idol” in the early-2000s, which in turn kickstarted a slew of copycats, including NBC’s incredibly popular “The Voice.” Eventually, movies based on the competitive nature of these shows (“American Dreamz” and “Pitch Perfect“) were made, creating a genre which, when successful, can be a biting satire of our culture’s obsession with fame.

Continue reading Max Minghella’s Directorial Debut ‘Teen Spirit’ Falls Flat Despite A Strong Elle Fanning Performance [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

Right from the first moments of “The Factory,” it’s clear that Greyhair (Denis Shvedov) has been through some shit. He chooses to walk six kilometers every morning, rain or shine, to the factory where he works, forgoing the company bus because it’s too noisy. Once there, he feeds metal rods into a machine all day long with monotonous efficiency, without saying a single word to his co-workers.

Continue reading ‘The Factory’ Manufactures A Lackluster Kidnapping Thriller [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

The filmography of Claire Denis is so admirably esoteric, running the gamut from psychological drama to war adventure to sex comedy, that the idea of her taking on science fiction has been met, in most quarters, with a collective, “Sure, why not?” And the result, “High Life,” is a notable entry in the rather grand tradition of bugfuck space movies, merging the conventions of that particular genre subset with her ongoing preoccupations.

Continue reading ‘High Life’: Claire Denis Makes Strange, Scary, Kinky Sci-Fi With Robert Pattinson [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

Fine acting, some lovely moments, and good intentions cannot save the fifties-set melodrama “Tell It to the Bees” from being a major disappointment. And that’s a shame since this 2018 Toronto International Film Festival world premiere is positively bursting with promise. Consider: The leads are Oscar winner Anna Paquin and rising star Holliday Grainger (“Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” “Tulip Fever,” “Cinderella“).

Continue reading ‘Tell It To The Bees’: Anna Paquin & Holliday Grainger’s Lesbian Romance Doesn’t Spark [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

When we first meet Tish (Kiki Layne) and Fonny (Stephan James), their love is so soaring and gorgeous, the camera floats above them. They walk to the edge of the Hudson River, and look deep into each other’s eyes, and the power of their gaze all but melts the lens. “You ready for this?” she asks. “I’ve never been more ready for anything my whole life,” he replies.

Continue reading ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’: Barry Jenkins’ Latest Drama Is Marvelous [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

Long fascinated by emotionally complex family dynamics and the way the smallest of events can shatter a clan, writer/director Peter Hedges explored those themes to great effect in such films as “Pieces of April,” “Dan in Real Life,” and as the writer of “What‘s Eating Gilbert Grape?” Hedges’ returns to this well in “Ben is Back,” focusing on the plights of a family torn by the torment of drug addiction and a mother’s unequivocal love for her son in the face of his on-again-off-again relapses.

Continue reading ‘Ben Is Back’: Julia Roberts Delivers A Stunning Performance In An Uneven Rehab Drama [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

TORONTO – Let’s get one thing out of the way.  Writer and director Dan Fogelman’s new film, “Life Itself,” is not attempting to be a big screen version of his critically acclaimed drama series“This Is Us.” No, this Amazon Studios release, which premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, is actually less realistic and more manipulative than that monster NBC hit.

Continue reading ‘Life Itself’ Pushes Buttons Just To Push Buttons [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

In 1978, legendary filmmaker John Carpenter used just a few basic components to create one of the all-time great slasher flicks: a psychopath, a chilling score, and a teenage girl. All these years later, fans remain hungry for more stories featuring the cold-blooded killer, Michael Myers. Director David Gordon Green has taken on the challenge of modernizing “Halloween” for audiences today. This new version scrubs away the convoluted “Halloween” mythology from various sequels and carries on after the series’ creative high-point.

Continue reading ‘Halloween’: Rejoice! This Brutal Horror Remake Is Killer [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

Early in “Widows,“ Steve McQueen’s stylish new adaptation of Lynda La Plante’s British miniseries, two Chicago politicians talk over the stakes of their upcoming special election. One is the current alderman, Tom Mulligan (Robert Duvall), the other is his son Jack (Colin Farrell), angling to take over his dad’s seat, who warns that if they can’t crush an outsider candidate, “we won’t have a pot to piss in.” His father, referencing a pricey piece of modern art the younger man has just finished showing off, retorts, “Says the man with the $50,000 piece of wallpaper.”

READ MORE: 55 Must-See Films: The 2018 Fall Movie Preview

“It’s art,” corrects his son.

Continue reading Steve McQueen’s ‘Widows’ Is A Stylish Thriller Starring Viola Davis [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

The title “Freaks” conjures images of Tod Browning’s 1932 classic of the same name, and its cavalcade of unforgettable sideshow performers. So it may come as a surprise to learn that the first feature from Canadian directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein is not a horror flick. Instead, “Freaks” is a thematically ambitious, well-acted thriller that suffers a bit from over-familiarity but succeeds as solid genre entertainment.

Continue reading ‘Freaks’ With Emile Hirsch & Bruce Dern Is A Horror With Sci-Fi/Thriller Dimensions [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

“The world’s changed,” the craggy old boatman says at the beginning of the unflinchingly visceral “Donnybrook” as a menacing, operatic piece of music swells, ferrying the naïve hero to a looming Hades while delivering the movie’s aggrieved, despondent manifesto. “Criminals running everything. Got no money, just debt. Only thing worth living for is vice and indulgence.” “Jarhead” Earl (Jamie Bell), the ex-marine in question being shipped across this veritable River Styx, isn’t quite dead yet, nor has he paid Charon his coin for passage, but the toll for crossing over into hell will exact a cruel punishment much more severe than death.

Continue reading ‘Donnybrook’: A Brutal, Blistering Masterwork Of American Desperation [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

In 2015, director László Nemes stunned moviegoers away with his harrowing, Oscar-winning directorial debut, “Son of Saul.” For his follow-up movie, the 41-year-old Hungarian returns with his new feature, “Sunset,” which examines the frayed tensions in Budapest during the lead-up to World War I. And if it’s not broken, don’t fix it: the director revisits the now-signature, immersive point-of-view camerawork style to craft a cryptic drama featuring chilly characters and decadent production design.

Continue reading ‘Sunset’: László Nemes’ Cinematic Tricks Don’t Offer Much Warmth [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

Bolstered by revelatory performances from its leads, and a timely thematic foundation appropriate to its place and moment, “Twin Flower” (Italian: “Fiore Gemello”) tells a story that’s as nuanced as it is profound. The tale of two runaways on the road, the film is interested in relationships, community, the vulnerable, and the forgotten. And while the core elements of the story might be basic in their assemblage, the complexity afforded to the characters and the universe they inhabit speaks volumes about the steady, thoughtful hand behind all of this.

Continue reading ‘Twin Flower’: A Story That’s As Nuanced As It Is Profound [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.

Director Michael Winterbottom (“24 Hour Party People,” “A Mighty Heart“) has had a career filled with ups and downs. His knack for jumping into different genres and has always been commendable, but it makes for a rather patchy filmography. Nevertheless, the 56-year-old filmmaker never cashes it in, always pushing himself with something new and, at times, interesting. Even when he fails, he does so admirably.

Continue reading ‘The Wedding Guest’: Dev Patel Stars In Michael Winterbottom’s Patchy Drama [TIFF Review] at The Playlist.