Toronto International Film Festival
TIFF Review: Comala
We seem, as humans, to have an intrinsic desire to understand our roots. To know where we come from and to try and frame our existence in the context of our forefathers. This is particularly the case when it comes to our parents. The Mexican drug war has impacted families across the country and beyond. …
TIFF Review: Quickening
The journey faced by migrants leaving their home, families and cultures behind for a new and/or better life is long and often winding. The difficulties of integration. Of learning a new language and adapting personal beliefs and practices to fit into a new, often very different, society. However, it can often be the children of …
TIFF Review: Benediction
Whilst poetry today is normally consigned to the specialist sections of bookstores, if stocked at all, at the time of World War I it was still popular. Especially in the upper echelons of society. There were more than two thousand war poets from Britain and Ireland alone and their verses in many ways brought the …
TIFF Review: Julia
If you turn on your TV set today, you’ll not need to channel hop for too long before you encounter a cookery show. They’ve become a staple of daytime television across the world and are now ingrained within popular culture. However, there was a time when this was not the case. While in Europe, especially …
TIFF Review: Lo Invisible
Whilst most new mothers experience what is often jokingly called the ‘baby blues’, postpartum depression is no laughing matter. Affecting over one in ten women, it’s much more invasive than the natural feelings of being down, tearful or anxious after giving birth. It can either hit you straight away or come on gradually, but at …
TIFF Review: Inexorable
During the 1990s, erotic thrillers were big business. The likes of Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct, Disclosure, Body of Evidence and The Last Seduction were not only critically acclaimed and successful at the box office, they also became ingrained within popular culture. Today, these kinds of films are very much of an endangered species. Indeed, until …
TIFF Review: Listening to Kenny G
I have a distinct memory, from childhood, of hearing Kenny G’s Songbird in an electronics shop. I must have been about 10 years old, but that song seemed to be everywhere. You simply couldn’t escape it. While jazz might be cool now, it certainly wasn’t back in the 1980s. Not that anyone within that community …
TIFF Review: Kicking Blood
Vampire myths and legends are part of folklore in almost all corners of the world. In Europe, they often reflected the prejudices and fears of the society in which they belonged. However, it wasn’t until the nineteenth century that the pale, gaunt, romanticised figure of aristocracy appeared. Today, vampires are often depicted as ultra-sexual creatures. …
TIFF Review: Lingui, The Sacred Bonds
The Western world prides itself (often incorrectly) on being progressive, tolerant and inclusive. However, as the recent judgement in Texas highlights, hard won women’s rights can easily be eroded and overturned if there are enough old male religious zealots around. Sadly, it came as no great surprise. Indeed, the personal freedoms and rights of many …
TIFF Review: Maria Chapdelaine
The colony of New France was established in 1534 with permanent settlements springing up at the beginning of the next century. The area changed name, boundary and ownership several times before becoming what is now part of Canada. Countless people crossed the ocean to the New World with the promise of land and a new …