TIFF Journal: ‘The Handmaiden’
‘The Handmaiden’ is a naughty film made by a naughty boy. It’s also a pretty damn clever, beautifully crafted and amusingly nasty one. As he proved in movies like ‘Oldboy’ and ‘Lady Vengeance...
‘The Handmaiden’ is a naughty film made by a naughty boy. It’s also a pretty damn clever, beautifully crafted and amusingly nasty one. As he proved in movies like ‘Oldboy’ and ‘Lady Vengeance...
It takes a lot of guts for a movie star to transition into directing. Although landing that debut gig will likely be far easier than it would be for anyone lacking experience, the pressure is high and folks will be rooting for fai...
Denis Villeneuve continues his transition from Canadian indies to sprawling Hollywood fables that retain his masterful style and personal touch. After last year’s searing drug war thriller ‘Sicario’, the director...
Xavier Dolan is a curious case. He burst onto the international filmmaking scene at 20 and was hailed as an impressive original voice while most folks in his generation were still figuring out if they even liked movies. Since then...
For years, Ben Wheatley (‘Kill List’, ‘High-Rise’) has established himself as one of the best genre filmmakers on the planet. He’s dabbled in crime, horror, comedy, and even more esoteric art house fa...
Jim Jarmusch’s particular brand of philosophical deadpan comedy probably should have gone out of style by now. However, since the guy was always an artist who seemed displaced in time, his movies continue to appeal to a sele...
Fresh off of a Palm d’Or win at Cannes, Ken Loach returns with another of his achingly naturalistic polemics that feeds all of the 80-year-old filmmaker’s best and worst impulses. ‘I, Daniel Blake’ is devas...
Paul Verhoeven is as much an intellectual prankster as a filmmaker. Now that he’s abandoned Hollywood to work exclusively in Europe, the provocateur seems as dedicated to upsetting viewers as entertaining them. He deliberate...
Like almost all of the later period films directed by Clint Eastwood, ‘Sully’ seems to be executed with a mixture of passion and disinterest. The movie has some rousing, even stunning sequences executed by the aging fi...
You know what no one asked for? An impossibly bland animated adaptation of ‘Robinson Crusoe’ narrated by a parrot. Yet here we are. Thanks to the seemingly endless profitability of CG-animated family entertainment, we&...
The biggest problem with ‘Morgan’ is that it’s not ‘Ex Machina’, yet comes out so soon after Alex Garland’s brilliant robo-Frankenstein tale that it’s almost impossible not to draw compari...
‘Hands of Stone’, Hollywood’s latest uninspired boxing melodrama, is a big, long, sweeping affair. Robert De Niro has a supporting role, just in case anyone considers that a selling point anymore.