Meet Kazuto (Kazuto Osawa), an aspiring actor. There’s just one problem: confrontation makes him weak. So weak, in fact, he tends to faint and recovers only to severe embarrassment. This sets him apart from his childhood hero and career inspiration, Rescueman, a ridiculous caricature of superhero fame who appears throughout this cartoonish comedy. After Kazuto […]
Author: Becky Belzile
Violation – VIFF 2020 Review
Revenge movies have enormous popularity. We’ve all seen the victim get retribution against the evil stranger who lurks in the dark. But what is it like outside of the fantasy, when revenge is raw, and real, and against someone you might love? Violation aims to answer that question by placing us in the middle of […]
Fugue – VIFF 2018 Review
Awash in the familiar blues and greys of Polish cinema, Agnieszka Smoczynska’s Fugue follows up her lyrical fantasy The Lure (2015), with no less attention to the complexities of feminine identity. When Alicja (Gabriela Muskala) seemingly returns from the bowels of the earth with no recollection of her past, it’s up to her family to […]
The Favourite – VIFF 2018 Review
Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer) has done it again, adding yet another absurdist gem to a collection that shows no sign of slowing down in quality and fanfare. In The Favourite, he reimagines the reign of Queen Anne and the periodically playful, somewhat sexy competition between her two ladies-in-waiting, Lady […]