What will no doubt be one of the most sheerly enjoyable films at this year’s VIFF, writer-director Noah Hutton’s Lapsis is a dazzling and inconspicuous amalgam of science fiction, social commentary and dark comedy that contains a multitude of tiny and refined pleasures. Starring Dean Imperial, who looks like a middle-aged Ryan Reynolds wrestling a […]
Reviews
Here We Are – VIFF 2020 Review
The latest Israeli drama from director Nir Bergman (Saving Neta) is a stirring and uplifting tale of fatherly love, and one that should not be missed. Starring Shai Avivi (One Week and a Day) as Aharon, a divorcee who has stopped working to devote himself to being the full time caregiver for his autistic son, […]
Possessor – VIFF 2020 Review
From its opening frames until the final cut to black at the film’s grisly finish, the second film from Brandon Cronenberg (Anitviral) is a brilliant and brutal body-horror head trip that will leave you reeling and chilled to the bone. Possessor, a film very much of the moment, despite the retro-futurism that haunts its elegantly […]
Undine – VIFF 2020 Review
VIFF favorite, German auteur Christian Petzold (Phoenix) is back with a modest-scaled new film that messes with mythology, fusing magical-reality elements with modern day fairy tale vestments while also adorned in a doomed romance thriller. It’s ultimately something of a mixed bag, but Undine is also never boring and on occasion is quite radiant and […]
Jumbo – VIFF 2020 Review
“One day I’ll fly away from here,” says Jeanne (Noémie Merlant) to her boss, while on one of the most awkward dates in a film that is literally chock full of awkward dates, awful engagements, uncomfortable trysts and slews of cringey social, uhh, intercourse, in Zoé Wittock’s oddball romance, Jumbo. This is a film that […]
Portrait Of A Lady On Fire – VIFF 2019 Review
French formalist writer-director Céline Sciamma (Girlhood [2014]) is completely in her element with her exquisitely tender costumer, the laudable and lovely new film Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Having already achingly smouldered earlier this year at Cannes where it rightfully netted the award for Best Screenplay, Sciamma’s painterly perfection focusses on Marianne (Noémie Merlant) […]