The roller coaster metaphor isn’t a perfect one to describe German filmmaker Sebastian Schipper’s single take dramatic crime thriller, Victoria, but it’s apt. Especially if you’re the type who gets nauseated by endless litany, easy to anticipate spirals, and, after a tedious build, you just want it all to end. That’s not to say the […]
VIFF 2015
Nina Forever – VIFF 2015 Review
“You’re a bit vanilla,” quips a clueless wannabe Lothario to Holly (Abigail Hardingham), dumping her unceremoniously in an early scene of the beautifully lensed new British horror comedy, Nina Forever. Written and directed by brothers Ben and Chris Blaine, Nina Forever is an occasionally romantic, often amusing, and outright macabre debut that showcases pronounced visual […]
The Boda Boda Thieves – VIFF 2015 Review
Co-directors Donald Mugisha and James Taylor pay an artful homage to the neo-realist movement, specifically Vittorio De Sica and his benchmark 1948 film, Bicycle Thieves, with their film, The Boda Boda Thieves. Set in the winding, crowded streets of Kampala, Uganda, the film focuses on 15 year-old Abel (Hassan “Spike” Insingoma), who must cover for […]
Cop Car – VIFF 2015 Review
Set in a rural present day America, Jon Watt’s (Clown) latest film, Cop Car, soon polarizes into a struggle between good and evil. Good, in this instanced, is represented by two young boys, Travis (James Freedson-Jackson) and Harrison (Hays Wellford), whereas evil comes in the guise of a police man’s uniform with the shady Sheriff […]
Rams – VIFF 2015 Review
Disaffected brothers Gummi (Sigurður Sigurjónsson) and Kiddi (Theodór Júlíusson) have spent the last 40 odd years at odds with one another until a scabie outbreak threatens their competing prized flocks of sheep. It may seem a thin premise to hang a tragicomic parable upon, but Icelandic writer/director Grímur Hákonarson (Summerland) is in full command of […]
The Daughter – VIFF 2015 Review
The Daughter is the searing directorial debut of Simon Stone (he also wrote the screenplay), and it’s an accomplished and echoing pièce de résistance from the word go. Inspired from the Henrik Ibsen play “The Wild Duck”, which Stone previously staged in 2011 — Stone is a venerated theater director — The Daughter is a […]