Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: Women Talking Content warning for sexual assault. Sarah Polley writes and directs this adaption of Miriam Toews’ novel, Women Talking. It’s a gutting drama in which a group of women must decide between two drastic courses of action. As Mennonites, they are at the mercy of the men in their community, By Sarah • Sep 14, 2022 01:44 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Babylon says not so fast Lest the fall festival triad of Venice, Telluride, and TIFF convince you that awards season is all but set in stone, the trailer for Babylon dropped yesterday, introducing one of the later-season players and, potentially, a major contender. Written and directed by Damien Chazelle, Babylon has an A++ list cast, By Sarah • Sep 14, 2022 11:42 am
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: The Fabelmans The Fabelmans is a semi-autobiographical account of filmmaker Steven Spielberg’s childhood, marking the first time Spielberg is credited for a screenplay since 2001’s A.I.: Artificial Intelligence. Playwright Tony Kushner returns after adapting West Side Story for Spielberg last year to co-write the script, and Spielberg continues his By Sarah • Sep 13, 2022 01:34 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: Weird: The Al Yankovic Story Since he’s a parody songwriter, a parody biopic suits Weird Al Yankovic perfectly. Though it inevitably draws comparisons to Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story more accurately does for music biopics what Zoolander did for the fashion industry. A zany, silly, deeply funny lampooning By Sarah • Sep 13, 2022 12:52 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: The Whale Content warning for eating disorders, fatphobia, self-harm, and emotional/verbal abuse. If you ever need proof that film festival audiences can be completely bonkers, look no further than Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, a film that received a 97-year ovation at its premiere at the Venice International Film Festival, and By Sarah • Sep 13, 2022 11:35 am
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: The Woman King A battle epic in the vein of Braveheart and Gladiator, The Woman King is based on the Agojie, the women warriors of the Kingdom of Dahomey in 19th century Western Africa (the territory of Dahomey now lies within Benin). Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and written by Dana Stevens—with a By Sarah • Sep 12, 2022 03:29 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: Glass Onion The devil is in the details in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, the follow-up to 2019’s whodunit, Knives Out. Rian Johnson is once again writing and directing, and Daniel Craig reprises his role as the gentleman sleuth, Benoit Blanc, but otherwise Glass Onion features a new cast of By Sarah • Sep 12, 2022 02:44 pm
TV Updates Not now, Marvel Technically, it’s “not now, Disney”, since this weekend was: the end of the Venice Film Festival, the beginning of TIFF, the beginning of New York Fashion Week, tonight is the Emmys, and here comes Disney like tra-la-la, let’s have D23, our Comic-Con-esque fan convention, the same weekend as By Sarah • Sep 12, 2022 01:36 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: Harry Styles in My Policeman (Lainey: Sarah just posted about The Little Mermaid – remember when Harry Styles could have been in The Little Mermaid?) My Policeman is Harry Styles’ other film coming out this fall, the one that requires no worrying, darling. Directed by Michael Grandage and adapted by Ron Nyswaner from Bethan Roberts’ novel By Sarah • Sep 12, 2022 12:20 pm
Gorgessity Halle Bailey is living the dream as Ariel Because Disney decided not QUITE enough was happening in the world this past weekend, they held their fan convention, D23. Friday night during the opening address, the teaser trailer for the long-anticipated live-action The Little Mermaid was released. I have, generally, not been a fan of these live-action remakes (exceptions: By Sarah • Sep 12, 2022 11:30 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Black Adam tries for some MCU shine So much is happening right now, everyone can take a day off. Seriously, roll it up, go home, and give us all a break from, you know, the EVERYTHING of it all. But no, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson must always do The Most, so he dropped a new trailer for By Sarah • Sep 09, 2022 02:40 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: The Swimmers Sally El Hosaini’s The Swimmers, which opened the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, is based on the true story of Yusra Mardini, who, along with her sister Sarah, fled Syria in 2015 and became a refugee. During the Aegean Sea crossing from Turkey to Lesbos, their dinghy, meant to By Sarah • Sep 09, 2022 01:35 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Benoit Blanc is BACK Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (aka Knives Out 2) premieres at TIFF Saturday evening. I know there are World Events happening right now, but the Glass Onion teaser was my day in between TIFF screenings. We already knew the latest Benoit Blanc mystery takes place on a Greek island, By Sarah • Sep 09, 2022 01:05 pm
Gorgessity The Wades Bring Big Love Energy to TIFF If you want to talk about pride and basking in a celebratory moment at TIFF, look no further than Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade, who brought a magnetic, and contagious, confident energy to the world premiere of The Inspection at the Royal Alexandra Theatre last night. Dwyane and Gabrielle - By Joanna • Sep 09, 2022 12:34 pm
Style Ana de Armas is a Contender Andrew Dominik’s Blonde, featuring Ana de Armas playing Marilyn Monroe, premiered in Venice last night and received a 14-minute long standing ovation and while some have questioned this year whether or not the ovations in Venice have been a little too generous, most people I’ve talked to are By Lainey • Sep 09, 2022 10:34 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Pinocchio is probably cursed I’ll say this for Pinocchio, the latest in the Disney live-action remakes, it’s not Cats. That’s sort of like saying I only got hit by a car, not completely run over. Both seem pretty bad. And while yes, Pinocchio is bad, it’s not inventively bad like By Sarah • Sep 08, 2022 01:16 pm