FILM REVIEW: Drew Goddard’s ‘Bad Times at the El Royale’

Posted on October 11, 2018 by admin

By Raymond Bennett 

LONDON – A priest, a traveling salesman, and two young women walk separately into a hotel-casino on the California/Nevada border and all hell breaks loose. They aren’t who they seem to be and neither is the exotic joint where they’ve chosen to stay. Written and directed with assurance and tremendous style by Drew Goddard, ‘Bad Times at El Royale’ is a garish noir tale full of surprises, violence and no little humour. It also offers roles that a terrific cast – Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Jon Hamm and Dakota Johnson initially and then Cailee Spaeny, Lewis Pullman and Chris Hemsworth – get their teeth into with very satisfying results. Continue reading →

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: Alfonso Cuaron’s ‘Roma’

Posted on September 14, 2018 by admin

By Ray Bennett

TORONTO – Directors often claim full authorship of their movies in the credits but if ever someone merited that it is Alfonso Cuarón who is the writer, co-editor, cinematographer, producer and director of his dramatic masterpiece titled ‘Roma’. It is touching, funny and thrilling and it deserves every accolade and award coming its way. Continue reading →

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: David Mackenzie’s ‘Outlaw/King’

Posted on September 14, 2018 by admin

By Ray Bennett

TORONTO – Chris Pine keeps his Scots burr soft and believable in ‘Outlaw/King’, the saga of Robert the Bruce, the 14th century leader who succeeded where William (Braveheart) Wallace failed in uniting the Scottish clans to fight the English.

It’s a rousing adventure with several battles, a warm love story, and glorious settings filmed across Scotland. The title onscreen is ‘Outlaw/King’ although it’s not shown on posters or promotional material. The distinction is subtle but important as it conveys the point that Robert is not an outlaw king but a man seen by different people in different ways. He is a king and he is an outlaw.  Continue reading →

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: Steve McQueen’s ‘Widows’

Posted on September 14, 2018 by admin

By Ray Bennett

TORONTO – Forget the shallow glitz of ‘Ocean’s 8’, the women in Steve McQueen’s full-of-surprises caper movie ‘Widow’ really mean business. The British filmmaker (‘Hunger’, ‘2 Years a Slave’) brings his serious view of the world to an escapist drama and it is all the more entertaining for that. Continue reading →

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TIFF18 BRIEFS: ‘Colette’, ‘Non-Fiction’, ‘American Woman’, ‘The Front Runner’, ‘Red Joan’, ‘The Old Man and the Gun’, ‘Vita & Virginia’, ‘Destroyer’

Posted on September 14, 2018 by admin

From the Toronto International Film Festival

Continue reading →

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: Peter Farrelly’s ‘Green Book’

Posted on September 13, 2018 by admin

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 →

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: Brady Corbet’s ‘Vox Lux’

Posted on September 11, 2018 by admin

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 →

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: Damien Chazelle’s ‘First Man’

Posted on September 10, 2018 by admin

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 →

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: Pawel Pawlikowski’s ‘Cold War’

Posted on September 8, 2018 by admin

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.

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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. 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 →

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