Category Archives: Reviews

TIFF FILM REVIEW: Bradley Cooper’s ‘A Star Is Born’

Posted on September 8, 2018 by admin

By Ray Bennett TORONTO – Enjoyment of Bradley Cooper’s reimagined ‘A Star is Born’ depends almost entirely on having a taste for the singing of Lady Gaga. Her many fans will surely love it. For those less enamoured, probably not. … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Music, Reviews, TIFF Toronto International Film Festival | Tagged 'A Star is Born', Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Matthew Libatique, Ravi Gavin, TIFF18, Toronto International Film Festival | Comments Off

TIFF FILM REVIEW: Mike Leigh’s ‘Peterloo’

Posted on September 7, 2018 by admin

By Ray Bennett TORONTO – British director Mike Leigh’s latest, ‘Peterloo’, is a handsome period piece about a terrible incident in British history following victory over Napoleon at Waterloo when working class protestors in a 19th century English town were cut … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Reviews, TIFF Toronto International Film Festival | Tagged 'Peterloo', Gary Yershon, Maxine Peake, Mike Leigh, Rory Kinnear, TIFF18, Toronto International Film Festival | Comments Off

TIFF FILM REVIEW: Bardem, Cruz in ‘Everybody Knows’

Posted on September 6, 2018 by admin

By Ray Bennett TORONTO – Married Spanish Oscar-winners Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem have become a reliable partnership onscreen and their latest feature together, ‘Everybody Knows’, is a bright addition to their canon.

Posted in Film, Reviews, TIFF Toronto International Film Festival | Tagged 'Asghar Farhadi, 'Everybody Knows', Javier Bardem, Javier Limón, Penelope Cruz, Ricardo Darin, TIFF18, Toronto International Film Festival | Comments Off

FILM REVIEW: Spike Lee’s ‘BlacKkKlansman’

Posted on August 24, 2018 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Passionate and provocative but also at times great fun, Spike Lee’s new film ‘BlacKkKlansman’, which opens today in the United Kingdom, tells an only slightly exaggerated true story about a black cop who infiltrated the … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Reviews | Tagged 'BlacKkKlansman', Adam Driver, John David Washington, Laura Harrier, Spike Lee, Terence Blanchard, Universal Pictures | Comments Off

FILM REVIEW: Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘Phantom Thread’

Posted on February 4, 2018 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film ‘Phantom Thread’, starring Daniel Day-Lewis as an eccentric and punctilious fashion designer in 1950s London, is a thoroughly absorbing intellectual horror film in which the horror is entirely internal.

Posted in Film, Reviews | Tagged 'Phantom Thread', Daniel Day Lewis, Jonny Greenwood, Lesley Manville, Paul Thomas Anderson, Vicky Krieps | Comments Off

FILM REVIEW: Steven Spielberg’s ‘The Post’

Posted on January 18, 2018 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – Given the times, it’s no surprise that Steven Spielberg wants to tell the story of a corrupt swine in the White House who turns the press into an enemy. It’s also hardly surprising that film … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Reviews | Tagged 'The Post', Ben Bradlee, Bob Odenkirk, Daniel Ellsberg, Janusz Kaminsky, John Williams, Matthew Rhys, Meryl Streep, Steven Spielberg, The Washington Post, Tom Hanls | 1 Comment

FILM REVIEW: Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Blade Runner 2049’

Posted on October 7, 2017 by admin

By Ray Bennett LONDON – ‘What if?” movies provide some of the most entertaining and thought provoking moments in cinema and there’s a good deal to enjoy in the sci-fi sequel “Blade Runner 2049” but its key “what if?” question … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Reviews | Tagged 'Blade Runner 2049', 'Blade Runner', Ana de Armas, Benjamin Wallfisch, Hans Zimmer, Harrison Ford, Jared Leto, Philip K. Dick, Ridley Scott, Robing Wright, Ryan Gosling | Comments Off

TIFF FILM REVIEW: Scott Cooper’s ‘Hostiles’

Posted on September 16, 2017 by admin

By Ray Bennett TORONTO – Scott Cooper opens his muscular Western tale “Hostiles” with a horrifying sequence of slaughter and he sustains a palpable level of dread as a group of travellers journey hundreds of miles through some of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Reviews, TIFF Toronto International Film Festival | Tagged 'Hostiles', Ben Foster, Christian Bale, Masanobu Takayanagi, Max Richter, Paul Anderson, Peter Mullan, Rory Cochrane, Rosamund Pike, Scott Cooper, TIFF, Toronto International Film Festival, Wes Studi | Comments Off

TIFF FILM REVIEW: Aaron Sorkin’s ‘Molly’s Game’

Posted on September 15, 2017 by admin

By Ray Bennett TORONTO – Aaron Sorkin’s “Molly’s Game” assumes that to watch obnoxious rich men play the most boring form of poker is actually entertaining. Its story of a glamorous woman whose attempts to exploit the bad behaviour of … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Reviews, TIFF Toronto International Film Festival | Tagged 'Molly's Game', Aron Sorkin, Daniel Pemberton, Idris Elba, Jessica Chasten, Kevin Costner, TIFF, Toronto International Film Festival | Comments Off

TIFF FILM REVIEW: ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’

Posted on September 14, 2017 by admin

By Ray Bennett TORONTO – “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” is so full of surprises that when Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand), carries an open bottle of wine across a restaurant toward a table where her ex-husband sits with his pretty young … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Reviews, TIFF Toronto International Film Festival | Tagged 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Abbie Cornish, Carter Burwell, Frances McDormand, Martin McDonaugh, Missouri', Peter Dinklage, Sam Rockwell, TIFF, Toronto International Film Festival, Woody Harrelson | 1 Comment