Screens at CIFF: 10/13 World premiere: 19 May, 2013, Cannes International Film Festival There is a great deal to be said about The Last of the Unjust, and since it is three hours and 38 minutes long, this is a good thing – if one invested that kind of time in watching a movie and […]

Screens at CIFF: 10/16 & 10/18 & 10/19World premiere: 16 August, 2013, Gramado Film Festival There are critics whose first word on Chasing Fireflies would be about its tender but not sentimental depiction of a reunion between father and daughter; there are critics whose first word on Chasing Fireflies would be to consider the film’s […]

Screens at CIFF: 10/16 & 10/17World premiere: 3 January, 2013, Croatia On one of the Dalmatian islands, a small town has been slowly deflating for years; the death rate far outstrips the birth rate, and for the most part, the townspeople seem disinterested enough in preserving their little corner of the world to do a […]

Screens at CIFF: 10/11 & 10/13 & 10/15World premiere: 18 May, 2013, Cannes International Film Festival The “what if?” film – watching as a situation plays out in vastly different ways, based on very small choices made by characters early on – is inherently gimmicky, but that doesn’t mean the gimmick has to be bad. […]

Screens at CIFF: 10/12 & 10/14 & 10/18 World premiere: 12 October, 2013, Chicago International Film Festival There is, as far as I can tell, nothing wrong with Cold Harbour (which I first saw and reviewed under its festival title, Black South-Easter) That is the good news. It’s a snugly-plotted cop thriller in which the […]

Screens at CIFF: 10/12 & 10/13 & 10/14World premiere: 26 March, 2013, New Directors/New Films In a lot of ways, the debut film of director Alex Pitstra, Die Welt, is a paint-by-numbers affair – the lines flawlessly filled in, which not everyone can do, but still – but I think it’s fair to start talking […]

Screens at CIFF: 10/13 & 10/15World premiere: 26 April, 2013, HotDocs Canadian International Documentary Festival Winner of the Gold Hugo for Best Documentary There is an Iranian man, Mahmood Kiyani Falavarjani, whose life in even the most succinct terms is so unbelievably interesting that a whole series of feature length documentaries might just about be […]

Screens at CIFF: 10/13 & 10/15 & 10/21World premiere: 13 October, 2013, Chicago International Film Festival There is more than one kind of Muslim-majority country, and more than one form of Islam that could be practiced by the Muslims of a country whether they dominate its cultural life or not, so nothing applies to every […]

Screens at CIFF: 10/12 & 10/13World premiere: 21 April, 2013, Tribeca Film Festival That Josh C. Waller loves Quentin Tarantino is already obvious from the casting of Zoë Bell as the lead of his film Raze – you know Ms. Bell, of course, she being the New Zealander stunt performer who doubled for Uma Thurman […]

Screens at CIFF: 10/12 & 10/14World Premiere: 11 September, 2012, Dubai International Film Festival The first shots of Infiltrators end up having very little to do with the rest of the film, aesthetically at least, but they do make for an awfully compelling introduction to an awfully compelling documentary. Briefly, the opening introduces us to […]

Screens at CIFF: 10/12World premiere: 23 May, 2013, Cannes International Film Festival The Palme d’Or winner for 2013, Blue Is the Warmest Color, comes with some serious baggage attached. More than most Palme d’Or winners, I mean. First, the running time: it’s a “lifespan of a romantic relationship” drama that is great at three hours, […]

Screens at CIFF: 10/12 & 10/14 & 10/20World premiere: 26 August, 2013, Montréal World Film Festival The question: how many shots of gorgeous cloudy skies with intensely augmented color correction that leaves them looking even more dramatic and powerful and just exactly perfect for an inspirational poster does it take before a movie starts to […]