Category Archives: Film

TIFF FILM REVIEW: Morten Tyldum’s ‘The Imitation Game’

Posted on September 15, 2014 by admin

By Ray Bennett TORONTO – Morten Tyldum’s engrossing drama “The Imitation Game”, about World War II codebreaker Alan Turing, gives Benedict Cumberbatch another complex character to explore and the result is a film that will please audiences and collect major … Continue reading →

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: ‘This Is Where I Leave You’

Posted on September 13, 2014 by admin

By Ray Bennett TORONTO – Shawn Levy’s empty comedy “This Is Where I Leave You” has the same premise as last year’s “August: Osage County” as a family gathers reluctantly upon the death of a father but it replaces hateful … Continue reading →

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: ‘The Riot Club’

Posted on September 12, 2014 by admin

By Ray Bennett TORONTO – Lone Scherfig’s pedestrian film “The Riot Club” follows 10 rich hooligans as they act out the delusion that they have class, style and taste as they gorge on excessive food and drink at a gastropub, … Continue reading →

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: Jon Stewart’s ‘Rosewater’

Posted on September 12, 2014 by admin

By Ray Bennett TORONTO – U.S. comedian Jon Stewart took leave from “The Daily Show” to write and direct “Rosewater” and he has turned out an intelligent and gripping story about a newsman who is incarcerated in Iran as a … Continue reading →

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: Jake Gyllenhaal in ‘Nightcrawler’

Posted on September 10, 2014 by admin

By Ray Bennett TORONTO – From his first appearance – cadaverous, unblinking and unctuous – Jake Gyllenhaal holds your attention in Dan Gilroy’s disturbing thriller “Nightcrawler” as a nocturnal creature that has emerged from under a rock fully formed as … Continue reading →

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: Gemma Arterton in ‘Gemma Bovery’

Posted on September 10, 2014 by admin

By Ray Bennett TORONTO – Anne Fontaine’s “Gemma Bovery” is a witty Gallic fable with a sting in its tail that combines a celebration of glorious femininity with merciless mockery of men who are beguiled by it. Gemma Arterton stars … Continue reading →

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TIFF Film Review: ‘Pawn Sacrifice’

Posted on September 7, 2014 by admin

By Ray Bennett TORONTO – Fast-paced editing, pumped-up music and an assortment of visual textures and styles serve to make a world chess tournament exciting for the uninitiated in Edward Zwick’s sprightly drama “Pawn Sacrifice”. The director, who has made … Continue reading →

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TIFF 2014: A tale of three Equalizers

Posted on September 7, 2014 by admin

By Ray Bennett File under “it’s a small world”: I’m at my old pal Ron Base’s place in Milton for a Sunday brunch chatting with another guest, Hans Gerhardt, who ran the Sutton Place Hotel in Toronto when it was … Continue reading →

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: Tom Hardy in ‘The Drop’

Posted on September 7, 2014 by admin

By Ray Bennett London-born actor Tom Hardy cements his increased movie stardom as a slow-burning tough-guy on the fringes of organised crime in Michaël R. Roskam’s vivid Brooklyn-based noir tale “The Drop”. “Nobody sees you coming, do they,” a cop … Continue reading →

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: Jason Reitman’s ‘Men, Women & Children’

Posted on September 6, 2014 by admin

By Ray Bennett Jason Reitman’s disdainful anthropological film “Men, Women & Children” looks at a small American town and sees only simple-minded, sex-obsessed parents and children who have never heard one word about the marvels of the internet, only its … Continue reading →

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