Jason says: “The first half of Jean-François Richet’s two-part biography of French gangster Jacques Mesrine, KILLER INSTINCT, was quitE good; the second half, PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE, is even better: As much as it’s still shuffling a lot of characters
Jason says: “The story of French outlaw Jacques Mesrine is a grand, sprawling one, so large that Jean-François Richet felt the need to split it into two films in order to do it justice. Watching the first one, covering Mesrine’s
Thom says: “With 3 musts-see involved with this project I was really excited about this world premiere. Denis was there for the Q&A but unfortunately Huppert & De Bankolé were not. I had considered Denis one of my TOP 10
Jason says: “Documentaries about artists and art are frequently disappointing. Filmmakers try their best, but as artists themselves they can make intuitive leaps between their subject and his or her work that is not obvious to a general audience, who
Jason says: “MAKE-OUT WITH VIOLENCE isn’t quite so good as LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, but that’s the film it brings to my mind. Both take horror-movie tropes and twist them into service of a strange story of young love,
Jason says: “First impressions can be a heck of a thing to shake. Even before talking to the other people at the screening, I knew there were a lot of things that rookie filmmaker Damien Chazelle did well in GUY
Jason says: “It seems like a ridiculous thing to say, after having seen the movie, but I initially thought MaACHOTAILDROP was a documentary. Skim the description, and the bits about a company with a colorful head recruiting skateboarders looking to
Jason says: “Fair warning: I was part of the group screening potential entries for this festival, and LUNOPOLIS was one of the ones I watched and commented on. That’s not just a warning that this could potentially be viewed as
Thom says: “This might well end-up as my TOP FILM for TIFF. Of course, must-see Tilda Swinton is a great help and here she totally shines as a Russian émigré married to an extremely wealthy Italian industrialist, whose company is
Jason says: “When I mentioned to a friend that I was planning a trip to New York to see a new movie inspired by the early life of Louis Armstrong, I asked him to guess what sort of movie it
Bruce says: “Ever since I first saw THE MASSEUR, a rough but auspicious directorial debut, I’ve been a huge Brillante Mendoza fan. This prolific director, a winner of the 2009 director’s award at Cannes for his prior film – the sensation stirring
Jason says: “LOCKED IN is a pretty terrible movie, although one where the audience might be willing to make allowances for budget, or at least give some of its off-seeming moments a conditional pass, just in case the all-but-inevitable twist
Jason says: “Well, I can’t say that I got anything less than could be expected from that title, can I? It’s right there – life, death, people making porn, far more direct than its somewhat more infamous cousin, A SERBIAN
Bruce says: “In 1970-71 Charles Manson along with a trio of his followers – Susan Atkins, Leslie Van Houten, and Patricia ‘Katie’ Krenwinkel – were tried for killing five people at the home of Sharon Tate on August 9, 1969,
Jason says: “LAST TRAIN HOME starts by presenting the audience with large numbers – the 130 million Chinese workers who return home for the New Year’s holiday annually (the world’s largest human migration), and the 2100 kilometers that separate the
Jason says: “THE LAST STATION is a perfectly adequate sort of historical drama. Nice cast in Christopher Plummer, Paul Giamatti, and Helen Mirren. Nice production values. Interesting subjects. You may learn something while watching it, whether in terms of history,
Jason says: “THE KILLER INSIDE ME is getting a certain amount of notice for its violence, which is a little surprising to me, in a strict ‘well, I’ve seen worse’ sense. But I suspect the filmmakers will be fine with
Michael says: “Lisa Cholodenko’s fourth feature (following HIGH ART, LAUREL CANYON and CAVEDWELLER) THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT, is getting a tremendous amount of critical acclaim, and even early Oscar buzz. I was very excited to see this film after
Jason says: “It’s somewhat apt that, in giving the novels and films in the Millennium trilogy similar titles in English-speaking parts of the world, the names given second and third wound up being phrases that essentially mean the same thing.
Beth Caldwell says: “This was a very interesting documentary. When I went into the film I had heard it was a good documentary, but I was less than enthused because I don’t really like Joan Rivers. I didn’t think she’d
