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List of posts tagged Spain :


The Room Next Door

A woman receives a grave request from her cancer-diagnosed friend in The Room Next Door. Ingrid (Julianne Moore) is an autofiction novelist, who discovers that her old friend Martha (Tilda Swinton) has been diagnosed with Stage 3 cervical cancer. The two were close in their youth when they worked at the same magazine, but grew […]

The Penguin Lessons – TIFF 2024

An English teacher in Buenos Aires adopts a rescued penguin in The Penguin Lessons. In the year 1976, Tom Michel (Steve Coogan) arrives at Buenos Aires to begin a position at an English Boarding School. Despite the fact that Argentina is in the midst of a coup d’état, it is the policy of the headmaster […]

Daniela Forever – TIFF 2024

A grieving man takes an experimental drug, which brings his dead girlfriend back to life through lucid dreams in Daniela Forever. Nick (Henry Golding) is a British DJ living in Madrid, who is in a depressed funk after his Italian girlfriend Daniela (Beatrice Grannò) is killed in a hit-and-run. Nick’s therapist Victoria (Nathalie Poza) refers […]

From My Cold Dead Hands – Fantasia 2024

A light is shone on United States Gun Culture using footage from thousands of YouTube videos in From My Cold Dead Hands. Framed by a video listing the reasons for being a gun owner, Spanish documentarian Javier Horcajada Fontecha compiles a YouTube mash-up about gun-toting Americans. This includes the best places to keep a gun, […]

Infinite Summer – Fantasia 2024

Three friends have a transhumanist experience while on summer vacation in Infinite Summer. Mia (Teele Kaljuvee-O’Brock) is a young Estonian woman, who goes on summer vacation with her childhood friend Grete (Johanna-Aurelia Rosin), who has returned home after studying in London, bringing along her Canadian friend Sarah (Hannah Gross). While using an “Extreme Dating” app, […]

The Chapel – Fantasia 2024

A non-believing medium reluctantly helps a young girl develop her gift in The Chapel. Every Halloween, a Spanish village unseals its central chapel to commemorate a girl named Usoa taken by Plague Doctors in the middle of the Black Death. Emma (Maia Zaitegi) is a young girl, who has been working with local medium Ivana […]

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, […]

The Click Trap

The dark side of digital advertising is exposed in The Click Trap. Tech giants such as Google and Facebook have effectively turned themselves into advertising companies, by tracking users around the web and sharing relevant ads. However, there is a dark side to this digital advertising model, as advertisers inadvertently find themselves funding misinformation or […]

My Sextortion Diary – Hot Docs 2024

Director Patricia Franquesa documents her own experience of being blackmailed over stolen private photos in My Sextortion Diary. While on a business trip in May 2019, Pati’s laptop was stolen while she had lunch with her ex during a business trip to Madrid. Two months later, she discovers that the laptop was hacked and that […]

Strange Way of Life

Two former lovers apart for 25 years reunite under unfortunate circumstances in Strange Way of Life. Silva (Pedro Pascal) rides from his ranch to the town of Bitter Creek, where he is reunited with Sheriff Jake (Ethan Hawke). The two haven’t seen each other for 25 years, since they were young gunslingers and secret lovers […]

Venus – TIFF 2022

A woman on the run from gangsters encounters cosmic horrors in an apartment block in Venus. Lucía (Ester Expósito) is a nightclub dancer who steals a bag full of drugs from her mafia employers. Lucía heads to the Venus apartment complex, where she hides out with her estranged sister Rocío (Ángela Cremonte) and niece Alba […]

El Agua (The Water) – TIFF 2022

A teenage girl in a remote Spanish village becomes preoccupied with a local legend in El Agua (The Water). Ana (Luna Pamies) in a teenage girl in a small village in south-Eastern Spain, who lives with her bartender mother Isabella (Bárbara Lennie) and grandmother (Nieve De Medina). Ana recently started dating José (Alberto Olmo), the […]

The Elderly – Fantasia 2022

Paranormal events surround an elderly man with dementia in The Elderly. The world of Manuel (Zorion Eguileor) falls apart after Rosa, his wife of fifty years suddenly commits suicide. Despite the objections of his wife Lena (Irene Anula), Manuel’s son Mario (Gustavo Salmerón) decides to take in his father to live with them and Mario’s […]

Uncharted

The popular Naughty Dog video game series hits the big screen with Uncharted. Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) is a bartender and petty thief, who is recruited by Victor “Sully” Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg), a treasure hunter who once worked with Nathan’s long-lost brother Sam (Rudy Pankow). Sully wants Nathan’s help to locate a stash of gold […]

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 […]

OUT OF SYNC – TIFF21

A sound designer’s life falls into chaos when a delay develops between her vision and hearing in OUT OF SYNC. Sound designer and foley artist C. (Marta Nieto) starts to notice a delay between her vision and hearing, which begins to affect her work, as noticed by her co-workers Iván (Miki Esparbé) and Aurora (Cris Iglesias). […]

All the Moons – Fantasia 2021

An orphaned girl turned into a vampire must fend for herself in 19th century Spain in All the Moons. At the end of the Third Carlist War in 1876, an orphanage is attacked and a young girl (Haizea Carneros) is mortally wounded. She is saved by a woman (Itziar Ituño), who heals the girl but the […]

1917

Two soldiers during the First World War are sent to stop their fellow soldiers from walking into a trap in 1917. In the spring of 1917 in the midst of the First World War, Lance Corporal Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Lance Corporal Schofield (George MacKay) are taken to speak with General Erinmore (Colin Firth), who […]

Terminator: Dark Fate

Sarah Connor returns in Terminator: Dark Fate. Even though she helped stop Judgement Day and the rise of Skynet, the life of Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) is struck by tragedy when one many T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) Terminators sent back finds and kills her son John. More than two decades later, a new threat emerges in […]

TIFF19: Bad Education

A Long Island school district is rocked by the largest embezzlement scandal in history in Bad Education. Frank Tassone (Hugh Jackman) is the superintendent of the Roslyn School District in Long Island, who along with his assistant superintendent for business, Pam Gluckin (Allison Janney) have brought unprecedented prestige to the district. When it was discovered […]

The Wrath

A wealthy Korean family is tormented by a vengeful spirit in The Wrath. The heirs of the family of Madame Shin are being killed off on their wedding way by the vengeful spirit of a woman. Ok-bun is a young beggar, who is married off to Shin’s youngest son, in a last-ditch effort to break […]

Fantasia 2019: The Incredible Shrinking Wknd

A woman gets stuck in a time loop on a cottage trip with her friends in The Incredible Shrinking Wknd. Alma (Iria del Río) is a 30-year-old woman, who has come up for a weekend at the cottage with her boyfriend Pablo (Adam Quintero) and her friends Claudia (Irene Ruiz), Mark (Jimmy Castro), Sira (Nadia […]

Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway

The mind of a CIA agent is trapped in a virus-infected virtual world in Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway. Special Agent DT Gagano (Daniel Tadesse) is a C.I.A. agent, who is ready to retire and open a pizzeria with his wife Malin (Gerda-Annette Allikas). However, Gagano accepts one last jump to join […]

Idol

A grieving father wants answers about the events that lead to his son’s death in Idol. Councilor Koo Myung-hui is a candidate for governor, who returns home one day to find out that his son Johan was involved in a hit and run and brought the bloody body home with him. Koo convinces his son […]

Paradise Hills

A young woman is forced to stay at an emotional healing centre in Paradise Hills. Uma (Emma Roberts) is forced to stay for two months at a healing centre run by The Dutchess (Milla Jovovich), before partaking in an arranged marriage with Son (Arnaud Valois). Befriending fellows girls Amarna (Eiza González), Chloe (Danielle Macdonald), and […]

Astronaut

A retired civil engineer enters a competition to be part of the first commercial flight into space in Astronaut. Angus Stewart (Richard Dreyfuss) is a 75-year-old man with heart problems, who has been living with his daughter Molly (Krista Bridges), her husband Jim (Lyriq Bent), and son Barney (Richie Lawrence). When a billionaire entrepreneur named […]

The Hustle

Two con artists compete to scam an internet millionaire in The Hustle. Penny (Rebel Wilson) is a low-rent con artist, who has been relatively successful with scamming men through online dating. In the south of France, Penny meets Josephine (Anne Hathaway), who has taken the art of the con to a whole new level. Josephine […]

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

Terry Gilliam finally brings his long-in-development passion project to the big screen with The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Toby Grisoni (Adam Driver) is a washed up filmmaker, currently shooting commercials for an advertising agency run by The Boss (Stellan Skarsgård). Toby comes across a bootleg DVD of a film he made about Don Quixote […]

Nowhere

A woman desperately tries to search for her missing daughter in Nowhere. Claire Porter (Kate Drummond) and her teenage daughter Sarah (Nell Verlaque) have just moved from Chicago to the small town of Mattawa, where Claire is the new high school vice principal. Claire quickly befriends Ruth Simmons (Rya Kihlstedt), the coach of the school’s […]

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 […]

El Angel

A Buenos Aires teenager becomes embroiled in a life of crime in El Angel. In 1971 Buenos Aires, Carlitos (Lorenzo Ferro) is an angelic looking teenager, who has always been stealing things. Carlitos’ life of crime begins to escalate when he befriends Ramon (Chino Darín), who is the son of career criminals. It is not long until Carlitos […]

Cold Skin

A man is stationed on an island inhabited by amphibious creatures in Cold Skin. In the fall of 1914, a young man (David Oakes) sails to an isolated island in the Antarctic to survey the weather. The only other person on the island is the crazed lighthouse keeper Gruner (Ray Stevenson), who is less than welcoming […]

Constructing Albert

Chef Albert Adrià hopes to step out from his more famous brother’s shadow in Constructing Albert. With his restaurant elBulli, Ferran Adrià redefined the world of gastronomy and can be considered one of the greatest chefs in the world. Ferran’s younger brother Albert began as a teenager working in the kitchen of elBulli and follow the closure of the restaurant in […]

Blade Runner 2049

We return to the conflict between humans and replicants 30 years later in Blade Runner 2049. In the year 2049, replicants developed by Niander Wallace (Jared Leto) have been integrated into society. Officer K (Ryan Gosling) is a replicant blade runner, who is tasked with finding and retiring older model replicants. While on a job, K […]

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 […]

Colossal

An alcoholic woman discovers a connection between her downward spiral and a series of monster attacks in Colossal. Fed up with her hard partying lifestyle, Gloria (Anne Hathaway) is kicked out by her boyfriend Tim (Dan Stevens) and she moves back to her hometown. Gloria is reunited with her old friend Oscar (Jason Sudeikis), who […]

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 […]

The Age of Consequences

Climate change is just one part of a complex web of consequences in The Age of Consequences. Climate change has an impact on every aspect of life, including some ways that we do not expect. Award-winning filmmaker Jared P. Scott breaks down how climate change has contributed to an increase of conflict, poverty, and migration, which […]

Room

A young boy and his mother adjust to life outside the confined quarters where they lived in Room. Jack (Jacob Tremblay) is a five year old boy, who has only known existence in “room,” where he lived with his mother Joy (Brie Larson). Joy has tried her best to shelter Jack from the truth of […]

My Big Night

The taping of a New Year’s Eve special leads to insanity in My Big Night. As disgruntled ex-employees protest outside, an extravagant New Year’s Eve special has been filming at a television network for over a week, even though it’s only October. Throughout the course of this night, egos and insanity ensues, including the bickering celebrity […]

On the White Planet

The issue of race is explored in the dark animated film On the White Planet. On a planet completely devoid of colour, there is one teenage boy who has coloured skin. This glaring difference makes him a complete outcast, with the boy turning into a murderous fugitive. The boy is welcomed in by a group […]

Crumbs

A man traverses across post-apocalyptic Ethiopia looking to board a spaceship in Crumbs. Candy (Daniel Tadesse) is a physical malformed man, who lives with the love of his life Birdy (Selam Tesfaye). A spaceship has been hovering in the sky since the beginning of the big war, which Birdy believes is about to turn on. […]

Shrew’s Nest

This review was originally published as part of my coverage of TIFF 2014 An extremely complicated sisterly relationship is at the centre of this Spanish thriller, produced by Alex De La Iglesia.  Montse (Macarena Gómez) is an agoraphobic and devoutly religious woman, who has acted as a surrogate parent for her younger sister (Nadia de […]

Anguish

A teenage girl is tormented by spirits in Anguish.  Tess (Ryan Simpkins) has been suffering from psychological disorders for much of her life, which really concerns her mother Jessica (Annika Marks).  While the doctors have diagnosed her with dissociative identity disorder, in actuality Tess is tormented by spirits that surround her.  In particular, Tess is […]

Extinction

Two men and a young girl try to survive in a post-apocalyptic frozen wasteland in Extinction.  Nine years after a zombie apocalypse, the world has frozen over and all of humanity appears to be extinct.  Jack (Jeffrey Donovan) tries to live a relatively normal life with his daughter Lu (Quinn McColgan), while Patrick (Matthew Fox) […]

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 […]

Tig

Comedian Tig Notaro had the worst few months of her life in 2012 when she was experienced a life-threatening infection, the death of her mother, and a break-up, all before being diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer. Notaro decided to turn her situation into material for a stand-up set on August 3, 2012, at the Largo […]

The Door

Indie Spotlight is a series focusing on reviews of independent films After saving a wealthy Japanese gentleman from a mugging, Owen (Sam Kantor) is offered a job at one of the man’s family businesses.  Owen arrives at an old abandoned meat-packing plant and is told to put on a security uniform, sit at a desk, […]

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 […]

Life Itself

From Academy Award-nominated director Steve James (Hoop Dreams) comes this tribute to the life and career of film critic Robert Ebert.  Framed around excerpts from Ebert’s autobiography of the same name, narrated by sound-alike voice actor Stephen Stanton, Life Itself covers Ebert’s entire career from his early days as a critic for the Chicago Sun […]

Enemy

Jake Gyllenhaal faces off with himself in this new doppelganger thriller from director Denis Villeneuve (Incendies), which is an adaptation of Nobel Prize-winning author José Saramago’s novel The Double.  Adam Bell (Gyllenhaal) is a Toronto-based history professor, who lives a somewhat mundane and routine life with his girlfriend Mary (Mélanie Laurent). Based on the recommendation […]

Blue is the Warmest Colour

The winner of the Palme D’Or at this years Cannes Film Festival tells the story of Adèle (Adèle Exarchopoulos), a high school senior, who finds herself infatuated with blue-haired art student Emma (Léa Seydoux).  The two strike up a friendship, which quickly turns into a passionate love affair.  However, as time goes by, the passion […]

Witching & Bitching

The 25th anniversary of Midnight Madness concluded with a bang with the crazy horror/comedy Witching & Bitching by Spanish director Álex de la Iglesia (The Last Circus). Jose (Hugo Silva) is a down-on-his-luck divorced man, who is forced to bring his son Sergio with him on a robbery of a cash-for-gold store.  During the getaway, […]

The Kill Team

At one point in Dan Krauss’ war crime documentary The Kill Team, one of the film’s subjects has this to day about the situation he is in:  “From the day you join, to the day you’re out, your job as infantry is to kill everything that gets in your way.  Why are you pissed off […]

Ghost Graduation

I missed the Spanish comedy Ghost Graduation when it originally played last fall, as part of TIFF 2012, so I was happy when the film was brought back as part of the TIFF Next Wave Film Festival for Youth.  The film is described as “The Breakfast Club meets Ghostbusters” and I thought that the film […]

Mama

If there is one thing I can say about the ghost story Mama, it’s that the film’s heart was in the right place.  I could see why, executive producer, Guillermo del Toro would want to put his support behind the film, since it was the kind of story that would attract him.  However, that couldn’t […]

Cloud Atlas

Six weeks into its release, I finally caught up with Cloud Atlas, the epic multi-story film directed by the collaboration of Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) and Andy and Lana Wachowski (The Matrix). The film is based on the novel of the same name by David Mitchell and features a large ensemble cast that includes […]

Red Lights

Red Lights is director Rodrigo Cortés’ follow-up to his 2010 film Buried.  The film follows psychologist Margaret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) and her assistant Tom (Cillian Murphy) as they venture out to debunk psychics using their scientific explanations.  A blind psychic named Simon Silver (Robert De Niro) decides to come out of retirement and all signs to see to point […]

The Raven

I suppose that I shall start by saying that, even though the film is called The Raven (and features plenty of ravens within the film), it has nothing at all to do with Edgar Allan Poe’s famous poem (if you want an adaptation, watch the 1963 Vincent Price film).  I suppose the title is meant as […]

Wrath of the Titans

I don’t know where to begin when it comes to Wrath of the Titans.  I actually somewhat enjoyed the previous film Clash of the Titans (even though I decided to give it half a point less in my rating).  That film still ended up being somewhat watchable, despite being one of the first (of many) victims of […]

Take This Waltz

For my final film of Canada’s Top Ten, I saw this quirky romantic comedy directed by Sarah Polley.  One thing that stands out for this film right away is that even though it’s a Canadian film that takes place in Toronto, it features a very well-known cast of both Canadian and American actors, including Michelle […]

Carnage

Roman Polanski’s latest film, based on the play God of Carnage, is a very simple and hilarious film about how a simple conversation can quickly blow out of proportion. The whole film is one giant coversation between two couples.  The son of Nancy and Alan (Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz) hit the son of Penelope […]

Midnight in Paris

Woody Allen’s latest film Midnight in Paris has been out for nearly two months now, however my interest was peaked a few days when it was reported that the film has become the highest grossing film of Allen’s career (thankfully, the film was still playing in Toronto). You can definitely tell that this is a Woody […]

Biutiful

One thing that can definitely said about this film is that it is a quite depressing film.  The film focuses on a man who finds out he is dying of cancer and he tries to right the wrongs in his life. The film is entire built around Javier Bardem’s performance and while slow at parts […]

The Expendables

Considering all the hype that went into this film, it end up with more a whimper than a bang.  It was alright enough a film, but it was a far cry from “the action film to end all action films.” Probably the most hyped scene in the movie that united Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, and […]

the Secret in Their Eyes

I was all set for The White Ribbon to win the Best Foreign Film Oscar when this Argentinian film ended up winning instead.  As such, I thought that it would be fair that I check out the film for myself. The film deals with a recently retired federal justice agent, who decides to write about […]

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, […]

Vantage Point

Vantage Point is a sad example of a film that I personally enjoyed, while many of the other people in the theatre obviously didn’t. Based on what I overheard from my fellow movie patrons, the reason for this dislike is how the film is structured. The film centres around one incident, which is repeated in […]

The Bourne Ultimatum

This film is the latest in the “summer of threequels.” However, unlike the other “threequels” I never really saw the previous two films in theatres (I only saw them of video and/or TV in the last year — I now regret not seeing them in theatres). However, I do say that seeing the previous films […]

28 Weeks Later

So, this is the sequel to the apocalyptic zombie/virus flick 28 Days Later. This was definitely more of a grim and intense movie than the first film. While the first film had a period where nothing much happened, in this film the characters were always in danger (either by “the infected” or the U.S army, […]

Shooter

This weekend I was deciding between seeing this action thriller or checking out the big screen return of, my childhood favourites, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Well, I decided go for the more “grown up” of the two (though I still will still see that Ninja Turtles movie one way or the other). So, what […]

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 […]