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List of posts tagged Italy :
Doctor Zhivago – Premium Classics
This past weekend, marking the 60th anniversary of the film, I attended a TIFF Cinematheque screening of the 1965 Russian Revolution romantic epic Doctor Zhivago. Dr. Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif) was a doctor and poet in early 20th century Moscow, right as the Russian Revolution was beginning to happen. One of the revolutionaries is Pavel […]
Queer
The novel by William S. Burroughs is adapted for the big screen with Queer. As a result of his drug addictions, writer William Lee (William Lee) has been living as an exile in 1950s Mexico City, frequenting the city’s gay bars and sharing tales of homosexual misadventures with his friend Joe Guidry (Jason Schwartzman). Lee […]
The End
A family’s existence within a fallout shelter is disrupted by the arrival of an outsider in The End. Following an apocalyptic event, a former Energy Tycoon (Michael Shannon) and his Wife (Tilda Swinton), descend into an underground bunker along with their Butler (Tim McInnerny), Doctor (Lennie James) and Friend (Bronagh Gallagher). The couple’s Son (George […]
Robot Dreams
A budding friendship develops between a dog and a robot in 1980s New York City in Robot Dreams. Living an isolated existence in his New York City apartment, Dog orders for himself an Amica 2000 robot. Dog and Robot become fast friends, exploring the city to the sounds of Earth, Wind, & Fire’s “September.” However, […]
Challengers
Three tennis aces have a love triangle relationship over a multi-year period in Challengers. Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) is a past his prime Tennis superstar preparing for the 2019 US Open while recovering from an injury. Art’s wife and coach, retired tennis ace Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), enters him as a wild card into a Challenger […]
The First Omen
A young nun learns of a plot to birth the antichrist in The First Omen. In 1971 Rome, American novitiate Margaret Daino (Nell Tiger Free) arrives at the behest of Cardinal Lawrence (Bill Nighy) to work at the Vizzardeli Orphanage run by Sister Silva (Sônia Braga). Margaret is drawn to troubled teen Carlita (Nicole Sorace), […]
Io Capitano
Two cousins from Dakar try to make the difficult journey to Italy in Io Capitano. Seydou (Seydou Sarr) and Moussa (Moustapha Fall) are two impoverished teenage cousins in Dakar, Senegal. Hoping to escape to a presumably better life, the two set out on the dangerous journey across Africa to Lybia, hoping to secure passage across […]
Dune: Part Two
Paul Atreides joins the Fremen people to get revenge against the House of Harkonnen in Dune: Part Two. After the fall of House Atreides on Arrakis, the result of a joint attack by the forces of Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) and Emperor Shaddam IV (Christopher Walken). Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his mother Lady Jessica […]
The Last Emperor
Last night I got to cross another film off the list of films that won the Oscar for Best Picture when I attended a screening of a 4K restoration of Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1987 historical epic The Last Emperor. The story begins in 1950, with the former emperor Pu Yi (John Lone) as a political prisoner […]
Ferrari
The future of the Ferrari S.p.A. sportscar manufacturer depends on the results of a treacherous 1000-mile race in Ferrari. In 1957, Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver) is preparing his team, including drivers Alfonso de Portago (Gabriel Leone) and Piero Taruffi (Patrick Dempsey), to race in the 1000-mile-long Mille Miglia. In the lead-up to the race, Enzo […]
Priscilla
The story of the tumultuous relationship between Priscilla Beaulieu and Elvis Presley is told in Priscilla. In 1959, 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu (Cailee Spaeny) is living in Germany with her stepfather Captain Beaulieu (Ari Cohen) and mother Ann (Dagmara Dominczyk). Priscilla is invited to a party hosted by an army cadet and rock and roll superstar […]
I Told You So – TIFF 2023
The interconnected stories of multiple people in Rome during a heatwave are told in I Told You So. It is January, yet Rome is engulfed in an unseasonal heatwave. During this blistering hot day, Gianna (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) reignites her obsession with her ex-best friend Pupa (Valeria Golino), an aging porn star. Gianna is dependent […]
The Last Voyage of the Demeter
A doomed ship carries deadly cargo in The Last Voyage of the Demeter. Clemens (Corey Hawkins) is a British doctor stranded in Romania, who secures passage aboard the Detetmer helmed by Captain Eliot (Liam Cunningham) and his first mate Wojchek (David Dastmalchian). Part of the Demeter’s cargo on its voyage to London is fifty unmarked […]
Bones and All
Disclaimer: My thoughts on Bones and All are based on the content of this work of fiction and do not support nor condone the act of cannibalism A teenage girl battling cannibalistic urges goes on a cross-country trip to locate her birth mother in Bones and All. Maren Yearly (Taylor Russell) is a teenager whose […]
Freaks Out – TADFF 2022
A troupe of circus freaks fight back against a Nazi showman in Freaks Out. Matilde (Aurora Giovinazzo), Fulvio (Claudio Santamaria), Cencio (Pietro Castellitto), and Mario (Giancarlo Martini) are four superpowered performers for the Half Penny Circus run by Israel (Giorgio Tirabassi) in 1943 Rome. When a bombing mid-performance destroys the circus, Israel goes off on […]
Dark Glasses
An orphaned Chinese boy guides a blind prostitute to track a serial killer in Dark Glasses. Diana (Ilenia Pastorelli) is a prostitute blinded in a car accident while being pursued by a serial killer who has been targeting call girls in Rome. Collateral damage in the accident is a young Chinese boy named Chin (Andrea […]
Silent Land – TIFF21
The horrible accident mars a Polish couple’s Italian vacation in Silent Land. Adam (Dobromir Dymecki) and Anna (Agnieszka Zulewska) are a bourgeois Polish couple, who arrive at their vacation home near an Italian island town. One of the first things that the couple notices is that the house’s pool is empty and their landlord Fabio (Marcello […]
Flee – TIFF21
A refugee tells his story about how he fled Afghanistan and ended up in Denmark in Flee. Danish filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen interviews his friend Amin Nawabi about his life growing up in Afghanistan and how he had to flee with his family to escape the growing war and turmoil. Ending up in Russia, Amil […]
From the Vine
A downtrodden CEO seeks a new start at his family’s vineyard in Italy in From the Vine. Marco Gentile (Joe Pantoliano) is the recently-promoted CEO of the Santius Automotive company, who becomes disillusioned with his position after the board turns down his commitment to lessen the company’s environmental impacts. Taking a leave of absence from […]
They Call Me Dr. Miami
Hot Docs at Home is a Selection of Films from the Postponed 2020 Edition of the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival That Will Air Thursdays in April and May on CBC, Documentary Channel, and CBC Gem A Miami plastic surgeon becomes a social media sensation in They Call Me Dr. Miami. Dr. Michael Salzhauer is the […]
The Two Popes
The contrasting ideologies between Pope Benedict XVI and his successor Pope Francis are examined in The Two Popes. Following the death of John Paul II in 2005, conservative German Cardinal Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger (Anthony Hopkins) is elected the new leader of the Catholic Church as Pope Benedict XVI. Fast forward to 2012 and the Catholic […]
Spider-Man: Far from Home
In the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame, Peter Parker tries to focus on his school vacation in Spider-Man: Far from Home. Reeling from the recent death of his mentor Tony Stark, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is ready to take a break from being Spider-Man and focus on his upcoming class trip to Europe, where he hopes […]
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum
The hunter becomes the hunted in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. After committing an unsanctioned killing in the New York City Continental, John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is declared “excommunicado” and a $14 million bounty is placed on his head by the High Table, though the Continental’s manager Winston (Ian McShane) gives John an hour […]
Dicktatorship
Two filmmakers examine the history of male chauvinistic behaviour in Italy in Dicktatorship. Throughout its history, Italian men have often been associated with the “Latin Lover” macho stereotype, with the country’s gender roles having been heavily influenced by Musolini. On the eve of their marriage, Gustav Hofer and Luca Ragazzi explore and debate the origins […]
Everybody Knows
Suspicions build after a woman’s teenage daughter is kidnapped during a wedding in Everybody Knows. Laura (Penélope Cruz) has traveled home from Spain to Argentina to attend her sister’s wedding, bringer her two children in two. With Laura’s husband Alejandro (Ricardo Darín) unable to make the trip, she takes the time to catch up with her […]
Suspiria
Director Luca Guadagnino presents a re-imagining of the Dario Argento classic with Suspiria. In 1977 Berlin, a young woman named Patricia (Chloë Grace Moretz) storms into the office of Dr. Josef Klemperer (Lutz Ebersdorf) accusing the teachers at the Markos Dance Academy of being witches, which he dismisses as delusions. Patricia soon mysteriously disappears, right around the time Susie Bannion […]
Sicario: Day of the Soldado
The war against the Mexican drug cartels heats up in Sicario: Day of the Soldado. Following a suicide bombing in Texas, where the terrorists sneaked in through the Mexican border, CIA Special Activities Division agent Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) is assigned by Secretary of Defense James Riley (Matthew Modine) to help instigate a war between the Mexican cartels, as […]
The Cleaners
Outsourced content moderators decide what content is appropriate for the major social networks in The Cleaners. Companies such as Google and Facebook outsource content moderation to foreign companies, who go through thousands of pictures and videos to weed out all sexual, violent, or terrorist content. One such company is located in Manila, where the anonymous […]
Death Wish
Bruce Willis stars in a remake of the 1974 cult classic in Death Wish. Dr. Paul Kersey (Willis) is a trauma surgeon in Chicago, who has a seemingly happy life with his wife Lucy (Elisabeth Shue) and daughter Jordon (Camila Morrone), despite the fact that Paul’s younger brother Frank (Vincent D’Onofrio) is always asking for money. However, […]
Call Me by Your Name
A teenage boy develops a relationship with his father’s research assistant in Call Me by Your Name. Elio (Timothée Chalamet) is a 17 year old boy living with his archaeologist father (Michael Stuhlbarg) and mother (Amira Casar) in Northern Italy. In the summer of 1983, graduate student Oliver (Armie Hammer) comes to live with the family, […]
All the Money in the World
An oil tycoon refuses to pay the ransom for his kidnapped grandson in All the Money in the World. John Paul Getty (Christopher Plummer) is an incredibly successful oil tycoon, who made billions drilling and shipping oil from the Saudi desert. In 1973, Getty’s 16 year old grandson John Paul Getty III (Charlie Plummer) is kidnapped […]
Kingsman: The Golden Circle
Kingsman teams up with their American cousins to bring down a psychopathic drug lord in Kingsman: The Golden Circle. A year has passed since Eggsy Unwin (Taron Egerton) became of a full agent of the Kingsman spy organization, even though he deeply misses his fallen mentor Harry Hart (Colin Firth). However, a terrorist organization known as the […]
PROTOTYPE
Toronto-based experimental filmmaker Blake Williams makes his feature debut with PROTOTYPE. Through the use of 3D imagery, footage of the 1900 Galveston Hurricane is turned into a sci-fi landscape. The thing that attracted me to Blake Williams’ PROTOTYPE is the film’s description as a 3D experimental film with sci-fi imagery. However, the film turns out to be […]
Shadowman
The life and career of artist Richard Hambleton is told in Shadowman. Born in Vancouver, Richard Hambleton became known for his New York City street art in the 1980s, which were often done in the form of shadowy silhouettes. Hambleton eventually moved into studio painting and quickly became a sensation along with his friends Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. […]
Flames
Two artists film the events that lead up to the end of their relationship in Flames. Josephine Decker and Zefrey Throwell are New York based multidisciplinary, who are passionately in love with each other. On a whim, they decide to take a spontaneous trip with each other, which marks the beginning of the end for their love […]
Libera Nos
The daily routines of a Sicilian exorcist is observed in Libera Nos. Over the past number of years, the requests to the Catholic Church for the rite of exorcism has been on the rise, to the point where exorcism conferences are held in Rome. Father Cataldo is a veteran exorcist, who regularly performs the rite […]
John Wick: Chapter 2
Lethal assassin John Wick is once again forced out of retirement in John Wick: Chapter 2. After tying up loose ends by recovering his stolen car from Russian gangster Abram Tarasov (Peter Stormare), John Wick (Keanu Reeves) prepares to once again retire from the life of an assassin. However, Wick is approached by Italian crime […]
The Founder
An entrepreneurial salesman turns a family owned burger stand into the world’s largest fast food chain in The Founder. Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton) is a traveling milkshake machine salesman, who becomes curious when an unusually large order to made by a burger stand in San Bernardino, California. Travelling to the stand, Ray meats brother Dick and Mac […]
Silence
Two 17th century Jesuit priests find their faith tested as they search for their mentor in Japan in Silence. Jesuit priest Alessandro Valignano (Ciarán Hinds) receives word that the long lost missionary Cristóvão Ferreira (Liam Neeson) has apostatized his faith after being tortured by the anti-Christian Japanese inquisitor Inoue Masashige (Issey Ogata). Ferreira’s pupils Father Sebastião Rodrigues (Andrew […]
Jason Bourne
The amnesiac assassin returns in Jason Bourne. A decade after remembering who he is and exposing the CIA’s Blackbriar project, former assassin Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) has been keeping a low profile overseas. However, when former CIA tech Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) hacks into the agency’s database and finds some new information about Bourne, she travels to […]
Zoolander 2
Derek Zoolander and Hansel return for more adventures in the world of male modelling in Zoolander 2. After a tragic accident, Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) and Hansel (Owen Wilson) have entered into separate lives of seclusion. They resurface to be part of a fashion show in Rome put on by Alexanya Atoz (Kristen Wiig), with Zoolander hoping to […]
Spectre
Agent 007 faces his greatest adversary in Spectre. Going against orders from MI6, James Bond (Daniel Craig) tracks down a criminal organization, whose members wear rings with the insignia of an octopus. Bond finds that this organization, known as SPECTRE, is lead by Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz), a presumed dead man from Bond’s past. Bond tracks […]
Tomorrowland
A teenage girl finds a pin that leads her to a futuristic city in Tomorrowland. Casey Newton (Britt Robertson) is a troublesome teen, who is arrested when she is caught trying to sabotage the deconstruction of the former Cape Canaveral NASA launch site. When she makes bail, Casey finds a pin, which provides her with […]
Spring
A man finds love with a woman with a monstrous secret in Spring. Following the death of his mother, Evan (Lou Taylor Pucci) goes into a personal tailspin, which includes getting into a bar fight that costs him his job. Looking for a change of scenery, Even travels to Italy and gets a job working […]
Monsoon
From filmmaker Sturla Gunnarsson (Force of Nature) comes this meditation on the torrential rains of India. Beginning around June of every year, the annual monsoons decent upon India. This incomparably vast weather system affects the country in multiple different ways, including being India’s primary source of water for drinking and farming. Over the course of […]
Leviathan (2014)
A man in a Russian coastal town fights to keep his home in the drama Leviathan. Kolya (Alexei Serebriakov) lives on a peninsula by the Barents Sea with his teenage son Roma (Sergey Pokhodaev) and second wife Lilia (Elena Lyadova). Kolya is in the process of fighting against the town’s corrupt mayor Vadim (Roman Madyanov), […]
Into the Woods
Rob Marshall (Chicago) directs this big screen adaptation of the Broadway musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. A baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) live in a village and are desperate for a child. The couple are confronted by a witch (Meryl Streep), who tells them that they can’t have kids because […]
Force Majeure
A split-second decision drives a wedge between a married couple in the Swedish drama Force Majeure. Tomas (Johannes Kuhnke) is on a ski trip in the French Alps, with his wife Ebba (Lisa Loven Kongsli) and two children Vera and Harry. On the second day of their trip, while having lunch at a mountain restaurant, […]
Blindspot 2014: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
This month I head to the old west for, Sergio Leone’s classic 1966 Spaghetti Western, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. The third film in Leone’s Dollars Trilogy, the film is set during the American Civil War and focuses on “Blondie,” aka the Man with No Name (Clint Eastwood), who has an uneasy partnership […]
The Special Need
Enea is a 29 year old Italian man with autism, who works in a textile factory. He has never been in a sexual relationship and is often trying to pick up girls, though they more often than not ignore his advances. Enea’s friends Alex and Carlo (the film’s director) decide to help Enea have his […]
Gabrielle
Playing as part of the Canada’s Top Ten line-up, as well as opening this week for its regular release, Gabrielle is a coming-of-age story about a young woman’s desire to live a normal life, despite her mental disability. Gabrielle (Gabrielle Marion-Rivard) is a young women with William’s Syndrome, who sings in a choir with other […]
Almost Human
On Friday October 13, 1987, Mark Fisher (Josh Ethier) was one of two men to disappear on during a series of strange events that occurred that night in a town in Maine. His friend Seth (Graham Skipper) insisted that strange lights in the sky were the cause of Mark’s disappearance. Two years later, Mark suddenly […]
Leviathan
I should probably preface by saying that I have a love/hate relationship with avant garde/experimental films. Some types of experimental films I find compelling, while others I find excruciating. Sadly, I have to say that the highly experimental documentary Leviathan falls into the latter category. Leviathan is a cinéma vérité documentary about a group of […]
Samsara
Samsara is not an easy film to describe. I guess you can call Samsara a documentary, even though it isn’t really about anything. I suppose my best description of the film would be “Avant Garde meets National Geographic.” It’s a film that you watch for the experience of watching it. There is nothing in the […]
Cosmopolis
Outside of a New York City building (that looks remarkably like Toronto’s Union Station), 28-year-old billionaire Eric Packer (Robert Pattinson) decides that he wants to get a haircut on the other side of town. His bodyguard Torval (Kevin Durand, doing his best Christopher Walken impression) advises against this, because the visiting U.S. President will make traffic […]
The Job
For my final film of Hot Docs, I saw this French documentary that filmed the recruitment process for an insurance company. Ten job seekers come in for the job, not even being told what it is, and they go through a recruitment process that I can best describe as both shocking and enthralling. To call […]
The Rite
When it comes to exorcism films, I doubt that The Rite adds anything new to the genre. However, I was drawn to the film because of the fact that it was directed by Mikael Håfström, who previously directed 1408 (one my my favourite haunted house films of recent years), and stars Anthony Hopkins (who has […]
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
You would never expect Disney to make a live action film based on a classic Mickey Mouse cartoon, but then again you could probably say the same thing about films based on their theme park rides. Other than scene that pays homage, this film is really related to the cartoon in name only. It instead […]
Alice in Wonderland
It is unmistakable that this film is Alice in Wonderland through the eyes of Tim Burton. The director’s touches are all over the film, especially with its gothic imagery. This film was also the first major 3D film, since Avatar hit it big last year. I do have to say that it was a slightly […]
The White Ribbon
When this film, which won the Palme D’or at Cannes, won Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes, I was embarrassed to say that I never previously heard of the film. I made sure to remedy that by seeing the film as soon as possible. The film takes place in a small German town during […]
Angels & Demons
Based on what I heard Angels & Demons had the better story of Dan Brown’s two Robert Langton novels. I have never read either of the novels, so I have no context of comparison, but the seemed to be a more traditional thriller than the elaborate puzzle that made up The Da Vinci Code. I’d […]
Che
Today I sat through the gruelling experience of watching the entire four hour and seventeen minutes of Steven Soderbergh’s two-part biopic about Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Each part of the film tells different stories. The first part deals with the Cuban revolution, while the second part deals with Che’s futile coupe in Bolivia. I have to […]
Valkyrie
It is a shame that there is poor public opinion on Tom Cruise, since I thought Valkyrie was quite a good movie. It would be stretching it to say that it is a film that would receive Oscar recognition, but I thought that the film was a great return to thrillers for director Bryan Singer, […]
Quantum of Solace
I guess it can agreed that the James Bond series would seem a little dated with newer action-packed spy films like the Jason Bourne films showing up. However, I never expected the producers to try and combine the two. There are many times throughout the film that seems to borrow from the Bourne films (including […]
Funny Games
Funny Games is not an entertaining film. I thought that I will make that clear. However, I will also say that I thought it was a very good film. It’s a horror film and it’s a shot-for-shot remake of an Austrian film of the same name by the same director. It’s a highly disturbing film. […]
TIFF07: My exhausting first day
My first day volunteering at the Film Festival left me very exhausted. I did some tasks that I was familiar with from last year, however about half of my time today was spent outside the theatre at the Rush line (a line-up for people to get last minute tickets). Some celebrities actually showed up at […]
The Wind that Shakes the Barley
Since it’s St. Patrick’s Day and I’m partly of Irish heritage, I thought I would check out this film about the Irish war of independence and the start of the Irish civil war. At the focus of the film is the Irish Republican Army. At first thought, I thought this was the same IRA that […]