toronto international film festival 2021 – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

NIGHT RAIDERS (TIFF2021) – Review by Leslie Combemale

September 7, 2021September 12, 2021 Leslie Combemale Amanda Plummer, Brooklyn Letexier-Hart, Danis Goulet, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Night Raiders, TIFF, toronto international film festival 2021

The first words uttered in voiceover in Canadian Cree and Metis writer/director Danis Goulet’s feature debut, Night Raiders, are “We knew they would come for us like they always have before.” Though rooted in dystopian storytelling that recalls some darker recent YA literature, the film is actually right out of the nightmares and collective memories of indigenous people around the world, particularly in the US, Australia, and Canada. Clearly, for Goulet, making a film is inherently a political act.

Festivals Reviews

MOTHERING SUNDAY (TIFF2021) – Review by Leslie Combemale

September 7, 2021April 13, 2022 Leslie Combemale Alice Birch, colin firth, eva husson, Mothering Sunday, motw, Movie of the Week, Odessa Young, Olivia Colman, TIFF, toronto international film festival 2021

Part Bridgerton, part Downton Abbey, director Eva Husson’s steamy take on the Hawthorne Prize winning novella Mothering Sunday is equally lush and bleak as it examines love and loss in post WW1 England through the eyes of orphan, maid, and aspiring writer Jane Fairchild (Odessa Young).

Festivals Reviews

PETITE MAMAN (TIFF2021) – Review by Leslie Combemale

September 7, 2021September 11, 2021 Leslie Combemale Céline Sciamma, Claire Mathon, french films, Gabrielle Sanz, Joséphine Sanz, Petite Maman, TIFF, toronto international film festival 2021

Celine Sciamma is the quintessence of female filmmaking. In all her films, she values emotional intelligence, and uses the female lens to examine life and universal truths through stories about women’s experiences and relationships. Her female characters are multidimensional and exist on their own terms, often apart from, or with very little influence from, the men around them. A look here, the touch of a hand there, cooperation in a task together, a verbal exchange where a secret is shared or somehow reveals a character’s fears and hopes, these are her building blocks. With Petite Maman she creates an immersive experience, and one in which most women will see themselves in some way.

Festivals Reviews

VIOLET (TIFF2021) – Review by Leslie Combemale

September 7, 2021September 11, 2021 Leslie Combemale Justin Theroux, Justine Bateman, olivia munn, TIFF, toronto international film festival 2021, Violet

What’s the worst that can happen? That’s not a question the voices inside your head will likely answer, because doing so might end the self criticism, judgment, and worry that play like a tape loop in your brain. That isn’t something studio executive Violet Calder (Olivia Munn) has figured out in the film Violet, from actor Justine Bateman in her first narrative feature as writer/directed.

Festivals Reviews

VIOLET (TIFF2021) – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

September 7, 2021September 12, 2021 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas Justin Theroux, Justine Bateman, olivia munn, TIFF, toronto international film festival 2021, Violet

Violet is a film about toxic relationships, not just with others, but – first and foremost – with ourselves. It makes literal the internal struggles so many of us face on a daily basis: how much do we share? Who do we trust? How do we change our lives? Violet uses the codes and conventions of cinema and weaves them into Justine Bateman’s own strikingly creative approach to filmmaking to address the tricky representational arena of self-sabotage, as the character is pushed and pulled with exhausting frequency between what she feels, what she does, and what the cruel, infantalizing voice in her head tells her about herself. Violet is a film about struggle, about fighting back and taking control, but the way that Bateman brings this internal universe to life makes it not only one of the most memorable films at TIFF this year.