Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: The Holdovers It has been six years since Alexander Payne’s last film, Downsizing, and nineteen years since his previous collaboration with Paul Giamatti, Sideways. Now, Payne is back with The Holdovers, which once again sees Giamatti as his leading man. If Downsizing was a rare miss from Payne, The Holdovers is By Sarah • Sep 14, 2023 02:18 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: North Star Kristin Scott Thomas’s directorial debut, North Star, is inspired by her own experience losing her father and stepfather within a few years of each other when she was a little girl. Scott Thomas, who co-wrote the script with John Micklethwait, frames these losses as the core memories haunting Katherine By Sarah • Sep 14, 2023 01:11 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Five weeks until Flower Moon One film we are very excited for around LaineyGossip HQ is Killers of the Flower Moon, which was a notable absence during the film fest trifecta of Venice, Telluride, and TIFF. After premiering at Cannes in May, Flower Moon’s next stop is the BFI London Film Festival in October, By Sarah • Sep 14, 2023 10:07 am
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: Chris Pine’s Poolman Chris Pine’s directorial debut, Poolman, is, to put it nicely, a kooky love letter to Los Angeles with a neo-noir flair. There is a lot of energy on display in Poolman; there is not, however, any focus or successful management of tone. Swinging from hipster homage of bygone eras By Sarah • Sep 13, 2023 03:37 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: Pain Hustlers The best thing that happened to Dumb Money is that I saw Pain Hustlers before that review posts, because after seeing Pain Hustlers, I went back to my Dumb Money review and revised it as “not THAT bad”. Pain Hustlers, however, IS that bad. Directed by David Yates (of Harry By Sarah • Sep 13, 2023 01:35 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Spooky season is almost here I don’t know what it says about me that two of my “comfort shows” in recent years are The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor. Maybe it just means that I really like the work of filmmaker Mike Flanagan, and I shouldn’t overthink it. By Sarah • Sep 13, 2023 11:26 am
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: La Chimera Italian director Alice Rohrwacher (The Wonders, Happy as Lazzaro, Futura) is back with La Chimera, a film billed as a romantic drama but that also touches on slapstick comedy, heist thriller, and character study. Josh O’Connor stars as Arthur, an ex-pat Brit in 1980-whatever Italy. He’s fresh out By Sarah • Sep 12, 2023 02:19 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: Hit Man Fellow Texans Richard Linklater and Glen Powell have been working together since Powell was a teenager, but their latest collaboration, Hit Man, sees them as more than just director and actor, but as co-writers and co-producers. Jumping off a 2001 Texas Monthly article in which Skip Hollandsworth profiled Gary Johnson, By Sarah • Sep 12, 2023 01:27 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: Ava DuVernay’s Origin In Origin, Ava DuVernay faces an almost impossible task, to adapt not just a work of non-fiction, not just a prize-winning text, but an almost academic thematic exploration into the defining characteristic that links oppressive systems across time and continent into a feature film. Isabel Wilkerson’s book, Caste: The By Sarah • Sep 12, 2023 12:33 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: Woman of the Hour Which one of you will hurt me? That is the “question under the question” of the cheesy game show, The Dating Game. How will you hurt me? That is the question at the heart of Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut, Woman of the Hour. The film, arguably the best piece By Sarah • Sep 11, 2023 03:26 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: Next Goal Wins Taika Waititi's Next Goal Wins is at once his most typically Hollywood movie, and yet still possessing the quirky humor we've come to expect from the Kiwi filmmaker. Telling the (mostly) true story of the 2011 American Samoa national soccer team, Next Goal Wins depicts coach By Sarah • Sep 11, 2023 01:54 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: The Boy and the Heron Legendary Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, co-founder of famed animation house Studio Ghibli, has not made a feature film since 2013’s The Wind Rises. He was believed to be retired, until earlier this year, a new film opened in Japan with virtually no fanfare. Kimitachi wa Dō Ikiru ka? (How By Sarah • Sep 11, 2023 10:09 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Tom Hardy Is Doing A Voice (with bonus Austin Butler) We are in the thick of it! Strikes! Festivals! Tom Hardy doing another f-cking silly voice! The trailer for Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders dropped yesterday, revealing Tom Hardy’s latest silly voice. The film is an adaptation of Danny Lyon’s photo essay of the same name, about the rise By Sarah • Sep 07, 2023 10:37 am
Business of Hollywood The CEOs are squabbling again Fall film festival season is underway, with Venice ongoing, Telluride occurring over the weekend, and TIFF kicking off this Thursday. In the midst of what should be cinema’s most glamorous fortnight, the double strike continues unabated. If anything, we’re going backwards after a series of recent false starts By Sarah • Sep 05, 2023 11:06 am
What Else What Else? We will be dark tomorrow and on Monday, September 4 in observance of Labor/Labour Day. We will be back on Tuesday, September 5. See you next week! Diane Kruger wore red to a movie premiere in France. She looks amazing, and the Fug Girls make a good point—now By Sarah • Aug 31, 2023 04:03 pm
Patrick Dempsey Ferrari is a romance It doesn’t much fit into film criticism and celebrity gossip, but I love cars. (Motorcycles, too, but the older I get, the less I can will myself onto a bike, and I 100% cannot believe I used to ride every day, like for real, how did I not die. By Sarah • Aug 31, 2023 03:33 pm
