TIFF 2022 – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

THE WHALE – Review by Susan Granger

December 12, 2022December 16, 2022 Susan Granger Brendan Fraser, darren aronofsky, hong Chau, the whale, TIFF 2022, toronto international film festival

Brendan Fraser delivers a remarkable performance in the title role of Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, adapted from his play by Samuel D. Hunter. Before we even glimpse his gigantic, 600-pound frame, we hear his gentle voice, teaching an English literature class on-line. Encased in a latex suit with digital prosthetics, designed by Adrien Morot, Fraser’s portrayal is inevitably minimalist, a choice that exudes pathos, even when he’s gobbling greasy pizza or devouring a bucket of fried chicken.

Reviews

EMPIRE OF LIGHT – Review by Diane Carson

November 28, 2022December 3, 2022 Diane Carson colin firth, Empire of Light, Michael Ward, Olivia Colman, roger deakins, sam mendes, TIFF 2022, Toby Jones

Empire of Light is a love letter to 1980s cinema. Writer/director Sam Mendes goes behind the scenes to reveal the lives of those who whisked viewers into another world while battling their own demons and society’s racism, sexual predation, and mental health struggles. Behind the glimmer and glamor of that magical theater and blinding projector’s light existed a real, troubled world from which imagination offered escape, the establishment of a surrogate, supportive family.

Festivals Reviews

EMPIRE OF LIGHT (TIFF 2022) – Review by Cate Marquis

October 18, 2022October 21, 2022 Cate Marquis colin firth, Empire of Light, Michael Ward, Olivia Colman, roger deakins, sam mendes, TIFF 2022, Toby Jones, toronto international film festival

Empire of Light takes place in a grand old movie theater that is now slowly fading away in early 1980s, with a loyal movie-loving staff still selling tickets and popcorn to dwindling audiences. You would expect such a movie to be a love letter to the movies, or at least old movie theaters, fondly recalling the glory days of actual film on reels and the magic of movies. Writer/director Sam Mendes’ nostalgic drama does start out that way, but then it drifts off into something else, a plot touching on mental illness and racial tensions in the 1980s, and involving a May-October romance.

Festivals Reviews

THE LOST KING (TIFF 2022) – Review by Cate Marquis

October 12, 2022October 13, 2022 Cate Marquis Philippa Langley, Richard III, sally hawkins, stephen frears, Steve Coogan, The Lost King, TIFF 2022, toronto international film festival, truth-based

Stephen Frears’ true story-inspired comedy-drama The Lost King is a charmer with a thoughtful underdog theme, starring the wonderful Sally Hawkins as an amateur historian who locates the long-lost grave of King Richard III, the last Plantagenet king. The grave’s location had eluded professionals for centuries. The discovery made headlines around the world, but even better, was that the person who pulled off this discovery, Philippa Langley (Sally Hawkins), was an ordinary middle-aged woman who turned amateur historian – or maybe history detective is more apt – after seeing a production of Shakespeare’s play.

Festivals Reviews

THE BLUE CAFTAN (TIFF 2022) – Review by Cate Marquis

October 12, 2022October 16, 2022 Cate Marquis Ayoub Missioui, Lubna Azabal, Maryam Touzani, Saleh Bakri, The Blue Caftan, TIFF 2022, toronto international film festival

Saleh Bakri and Lubna Azabal deliver moving performances as a traditional tailor and his wife struggling to make a living in one of the oldest medinas in Morocco, in writer/director Maryam Touzani’s moving, thought-provoking human drama The Blue Caftan. Although the drama features a traditional craftsman practicing a fading art, at its heart, The Blue Caftan is really about love in its various forms, romantic love, a love of a craft, and more. It is also a showcase for some striking performances, particularly from Lubna Azabal, in the story that takes surprising twists, and is by turns powerfully dramatic, funny, touching, or heart-wrenching, as this excellent French Moroccan, Arabic-language film unfolds

Commentaries Festivals

My TIFF 2022 Diary: Highlighting Day-to-Day ‘IRL’ – Johanna Schneller reports (Exclusive)

October 3, 2022October 6, 2022 Johanna Schneller cameron bailey, covid, elton john, Hillary Clinton, Sarah Polley, TIFF 2022, toronto international film festival, viola davis

After two minutes, I realize I’m levitating an inch from my seat with happiness. This movie is everything I’d hoped and more. There is not one wasted syllable. I keep swatting away tears of anger (on behalf of the characters, and their real-life counterparts). I can feel the emotion rolling up and down the rows, that feeling you can only get in a theatre full of people who are having a collective experience. I won’t know this until a few days later, but Women Talking sets the tone for my whole TIFF: brilliant women directors, squaring their sites on the patriarchy. And experiencing their work in public again, finally.

Festivals Reviews

MURU (TIFF 2022) – Review by Ulkar Alakbarova

October 3, 2022October 9, 2022 Ulkar Alakbarova Cliff Curtis, muru, new zealand films, Tāme Iti, Tearepa Kahi, TIFF 2022, toronto international film festival, truth-based

Muru is a solid thriller inspired by true events of police raids that took place in 1961 and 2007 in New Zealand. It follows a local police Sergeant “Taffy” Tawharau (Cliff Curtis) who must make a tough decision to assist the Government with a police raid or stand by his community and prevent possible bloodshed. When the government launches an armed raid on Taffy’s community called Ruatoki on a school day, things go terribly wrong. What starts as a mission to find and arrest a possible local terrorist who threatened to attack the Prime Minister turns into a violent altercation with casualties that could have been prevented.

Festivals Interviews

Tearepa Kahi and Cliff Curtis on MURU (TIFF 2022) – Ulkar Alakbarova interviews

October 3, 2022October 4, 2022 Ulkar Alakbarova Cliff Curtis, muru, new zealand films, Tāme Iti, Tearepa Kahi, TIFF 2022, toronto international film festival, truth-based

Racism, corruption, discrimination, greed and power. They all go hand-in-hand. We hope that at some point the world we live in will change for the better. But it does not happen. Are we just naïve to hope and still believe in miracles? The story told in Muru, directed by Tearepa Kahi happened not too long ago. But when you look at it, you begin to ask yourself – how is it even possible for something like this to occur in our modern times? Not revealing much, I had the great pleasure of sitting down with director Tearepa Kahi and actor Cliff Curtis, who provided insights into the film much better than I could.

Reviews

THE WOMAN KING – Review by Susan Granger

September 20, 2022September 22, 2022 Susan Granger dana stevens, Gina Prince-Bythewood, John Boyega, Lashana Lynch, Maria Bello, Sheila Atim, the woman king, Thuso Mbedu, TIFF 2022, toronto international film festival, viola davis

One of the many benefits of inclusion is the ability to learn about historical events that have never before been chronicled on the big screen. Set in 1823, this story follows Nawi (Thuso Mbebu), a rebellious Dahomey teenager who refuses an arranged marriage; infuriated, her father forces her to join warrior force known as the Agojie, commanded by General Nanisca (Viola Davis). Working from a jumbled, often overly melodramatic script by Maria Bello and Dana Stevens, director Gina Prince-Blythewood delivers a rousing, action-packed adventure.

Movie of the Week

MOVIE OF THE WEEK September 23, 2022: THE WOMAN KING

September 16, 2022September 18, 2022 Jennifer Merin Cate Marquis, dana stevens, Gina Prince-Bythewood, jennifer merin, John Boyega, Lashana Lynch, leslie combemale, liz whittemore, loren king, Maria Bello, Marilyn Ferdinand., motw, Movie of the Week, Pam Grady, sandie angulo chen, Sheila Atim, sherin nicole, the woman king, Thuso Mbedu, TIFF 2022, toronto international film festival, viola davis

In the African kingdom of Dahomey, now a part of Benin, an elite all-female military regiment of warriors called the Agojie guarded the king and his subjects from the 1600s through the 1800s. By the mid-19th century, they accounted for a third of the entire Dahomey army. That’s history, and the inspiration for director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s historical epic The Woman King, starring Viola Davis, one of the few studio films releasing in 2022 directed by a female filmmaker.

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