Hotel Mumbai: Intense Docudrama Delivers Horror of Terrorism, Tropes of Disaster Pics
ReviewHotel Mumbai, Anthony Maras, Dev Patel, Armie Hammer, TIFF 2018, Terrorism, disaster movie, fact-based drama, Jason Isaacs, Nazanin Boniadi
Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes - A rich archival and anecdotal musical doc, cleverly assembled
ReviewJim SlotekKendrick Lamar, Blue Note Records, Sophie Huber, Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Bud Powell, Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Alfred Lion, Francis Wolff, Reid Miles, Don Was, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Marcus Strickland, Robert Glasper, Norah Jones
The Beach Bum: A great cast of colourful Floridian characters, but McConaughey's just aw-right
ReviewJim SlotekThe Beach Bum, Harmony Korine, Hunter Thompson, The Big Lebowski, Matthew McConaughey, Bertie Higgins, Key Largo, Jimmy Buffett, Snoop Dogg, Isla Fisher, Zac Efron, Martin Lawrence, Jonah Hill, Movies about drunks, Movies about poets
Dumbo: Tim Burton’s Gorgeous, Treacly Live-Action Reboot Subtle as a Stampede
ReviewDumbo, Disney, Tim Burton, Danny DeVito, Michael Keaton, Eva Green, Colin Farrell, Live-action, Fable, Children's films, Elephants
Stratford's Coriolanus onscreen: Lepage's vision is blurred by the camera, but the message stays clear
ReviewJim SlotekStratford's Shakespeare on screen, Robert LePage, Barry Avrich, Coriolanus, Andre Sills, John Hirsch, Multimedia theatrical productions, Lucy Peacock, Graham Abbey, Tom McCamus, Stephen Ouimette, Tom Rooney, Militarism, Dictatorship
The Highwaymen: Starry Bonnie & Clyde Redux Glorifies the Real (If Less Sexy) Heroes
ReviewJohn Lee Hancock, Kevin Costner, Woody Harrelson, Kathy Bates, Netflix, Drama, The Highwaymen, Emily Brobst, Edward Bossert, John Carroll Lynch, Kim Dickens, Thomas Newman'
The Mustang: Gripping, Well-Told Story Persuasively Ponders Themes of Redemption, Love
Ash Is Purest White: Drama a Smart Rumination on Love and China’s Explosive Growth
The Aftermath: A Kind of Sexy Time (OK, Not Really) in Post-war Germany
ReviewThe Aftermath, Nazi, 1940s, Historical drama, Jason Clarke, Keira Knightley, Alexander Skarsgård, Flora Thiemann, James Kent, Ridley Scott
Us: Jordan Peele's crazy horror fever-dream is ambitious, ambiguous, smart and maybe even commercial
ReviewJim SlotekUs, Jordan Peele, Get Out, Keegan-Michael Key, African-American actors, doppelgangers, Horror films, Hands Across America, Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Tim Heidecker, Elisabeth Moss, Michael Abels, Luniz, I Got 5 on It, The Beach Boys, Good Vibrations, NWA
An Audience of Chairs: Portrait of Mental Illness Half Succeeds in Penetrating the Mind
ReviewAn Audience of Chairs, Canadian movies, Deanne Foley, Carolina Bartczak, adaptation, Christopher Jacot, Rosemary House, Edie Inksetter, Peter McNeill, Gordon Rand
The Hummingbird Project: Ho-Hum Dramedy Stumbles on Head-Scratcher Premise
The Quietude: Sexually-charged Argentinian social drama is more soap than art
ReviewJim SlotekThe Quietude, Pablo Trapero, Venice Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Argentinian films, Isidoro Tolcachir, Martina Gusman, Benenice Bejo, Joaquín Furriel, Edgar Ramirez, Graciela Borges, Family secrets, Argentinian dictatorship, Wealthy characters
What to watch (and what to skip) in the theatres this week
ReviewJim SlotekThe week's movies in theatres, Review recaps, Level 16, Danishka Esterhazy, Celina Martin, Katie Douglas, Woman at War, Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir, Gloria Bell, John Turturro, Julianne Moore, Sebastián Lelio, Five Feet Apart, Haley Lu Richardson, Cole Sprouse, young adult novels, To Dust, Matthew Broderick, Géza Röhrig, Denis Côté, Ghost Town Anthology, Captain Marvel, Lashana Lynch, Steven Spielberg, Netflix
Five Feet Apart: YA Weepie Hits Its Intended Targets, and Then Some
To Dust: Unorthodox “Buddy Movie" Tackles Life, Death, Religion With Sweetness And Dry Wit
ReviewJim SlotekTo Dust, Géza Rohrïg, Son of Saul, Matthew Broderick, Bern Cohen, Dybbuk, Orthodox Jews, Life and death, Jewish funereal tradition, Offbeat comedies, Shawn Snyder
Woman at War: A quirky feel-good movie about an Icelandic eco-warrior
ReviewJim SlotekIcelandic films, Woman at War, Cannes, Toronto International Film Festival, Benedikt Erlingsson, Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir, Eco-terrorism, Jörundur Ragnarsson, Jóhann Sigurðarson, Juan Camillo Roman Estrada, Ukrainians, Twins, Jodie Foster, Hollywood remakes of foreign films
Ghost Town Anthology: The Dead Reclaim A Dying Town In Denis Cote's Sombre Ghost-As-Metaphor Film
ReviewJim SlotekGhost Town Anthology, Denis Côté, Laurence Olivier, Répertoire des villes disparues, Robert Naylor, Larissa Corriveau, Diane Lavallée, Ghost story, The death of small towns, Quebecois films, Winter scenes, Henry James
Level 16: Smartly Scripted Dystopian Tale Like A Black Mirror/Handmaid's Tale Mashup
ReviewJim SlotekLevel 16, Suspiria, Dystopian stories, Danishka Esterhazy, Subjugation of women, Katie Douglas, Celina Martin, Sara Canning, Black Mirror, Handmaid's Tale, Canadian films
Invisible Essence: The Little Prince - How a book with big thoughts took hold in the minds of kids
