By Ray Bennett
TORONTO – You don’t expect gentleness and warmth from one of the Farrelly Brothers but that’s exactly what you get in Peter Farrelly’s crowd-pleasing fact-based film ‘Green Book’. Viggo Mortensen and Mahersaha Ali complement each other as fish out of water not just in each other’s company but in the places they visit. Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
TORONTO – Just as in ‘Jackie’ two years ago, Natalie Portman gives a scintillating performance of a driven and complicated woman in a not very successful picture. Director and screenwriter Brady Corbet’s ‘Vox Lux’, which tells of a pop superstar named Celeste who survived a mass murder as a teenager, is a bit of a mess but even though she enters the picture late, Portman is mesmerising. Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
TORONTO – From the very first image of a man in a narrow tin bucket rattling horribly and bouncing at furiously high speed off the atmosphere, Damien Chazelle’s terrific ‘First Man’ focuses on the terrifyingly claustrophobic nature of the planes and rockets that ended up with a man walking on the moon. It’s that old war film trope about fighter planes shot up badly made larger: “You can’t send those kids up in crates like that!” Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
TORONTO – Pawel Pawlikowski’s ‘Cold War’ is a masterpiece. It’s the story of two lovers whose struggle to be together evokes the complexities of life in Poland following World War II as the richness, beauty and contradictions of Polish culture clash with the cold, harsh and unforgiving force of Soviet rule.
Filmed in shimmering black-and-white on the boxy 1.37:1 aspect ratio and running just 88 minutes, the film is filled with music and dancing as the story unfolds over several years with economical sequences that plumb the depths of emotion between a laconic pianist, Wiktor played by Tomasz Kot, and a wilful, joyously gifted young singer and dancer, Zula, played by Joanna Kulig. Together, they are unforgettable.
Already on release in the U.K., the film will be released in the U.S. on Dec. 21.
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. She sings a lot in the film, which is a retelling of a yarn that has always had difficulty drumming up sympathy for its protagonists, one star on the way up, the other on the way down. Continue reading
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 down by armed soldiers with many killed and more wounded.
The film’s attention to historical detail is to be admired greatly but the storytelling is so laboured that it will serve better as a tool for history teachers than entertainment for movie audiences. Cinematographer Dick Pope’s images are like paintings with first-class production design, sets and costumes. The performers, including Rory Kinnear and Maxine Peake, deliver with relish Leigh’s dialogue, which is heavy with regional accents. Continue reading
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. Continue reading
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 white supremacist group in the 1970s. Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
The Toronto International Film Festival today announced a list of 17 galas and 30 special presentations for the 2018 event in September. They include 21 world premieres and seven international bows with films from around the world. Continue reading
Make stars accept awards for action-film crafts winners
By Ray Bennett
LONDON – The American Motion Picture Academy has made a foolish error by introducing a condescending award for popular films. The thinking appears to be that fans of blockbuster action, super-hero and animated films will flock to watch if their favourites get a mention. It’s the wrong move. Continue reading →