Author: Andres Guzman

Reviews

Joker [Spoiler Review]

While, yes, we already have a review of Joker on our site that does have spoilers, this is going to full spoilers, nothing holding back. When Arianne saw the film before and wrote about it here, there was always a thought that whenever I would see it, I would give my two cents as well.

Well I saw the film on Monday, and I decided that I didn’t want to think about the film anymore, but many people have told me they loved the film and asked me how I felt and didn’t understand why I hated the film. So, join me in trying to find the words to explain why.

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Reviews

The Forest of Love [Review]

If you’ve ever wanted to see a Sion Sono film and watch him unleash himself entirely, I’d never thought that you could do so from the comfort of your couch, due to it being a Netflix film. So this gives you no excuse for you to watch the film for yourself. Unfortunately, it’s released on the same day as the Breaking Bad film, I still suggest making time to watch all two and a half hours of The Forest of Love.

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Reviews

In The Tall Grass [Review]

To say there’s a resurgence of Stephen King adaptations the way some say would make it out like there was a drought of adaptations, which is obviously not the case. The longest gap between adaptations was 1976 to 1980 (Carrie and The Shining respectively) and also 2009 to 2013 (Dolan’s Cadilac and funnily enough, Carrie). We are running through his material at an alarming rate though, as four were made in 2017, and four were made in 2019. And depending on your own opinion, out of the 7 I’ve seen (Doctor Sleep hasn’t been released yet), 6 are great and one is mediocre – and to be fair, Pet Semetery may not be great, but it had some fun stuff.

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Reviews

The Laundromat [Review]

The Laundromat marks Steven Soderbergh’s second film released by Netflix in this year alone. This film wasn’t shot on an iPhone like his last two films, Unsane, and High Flying Bird. While visually and stylistically, Laundromat feels like classic Soderbergh, it still is too messy to be continuously enjoyed. Don’t get me wrong, I very much was glad that I got to see The Laundromat on the big screen, and that others will be able to as well. I just personally believed that High Flying Bird should have had the same opportunity. 

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Festivals, Reviews, TIFF19

Synchronic [TIFF19 Review]

Leading up to May of 2015, I kept hearing about a film called Spring, and it was described as Lovecraft meets the Before trilogy. Anybody who knows me should know this is a film calling my name. I remember missing out a screening of Mad Max Fury Road to see both Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead introduce Spring at a screening in Toronto. Even when the fire alarm went off in the theatre, I still hold that screening close to my heart. In a way, without Spring, there wouldn’t be no Film Queue or no UnderSCENE, or even a version of me who has fallen for film criticism. I have followed their growth as I’ve tried to grow as a writer, and that’s why it pains me to say that Synchronic was their first big-budget film was a (minor) miss.

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Festivals, Reviews, TIFF19

The Vast of Night [TIFF19 Review]

The film opens in a room straight out of the 1950s and it’s filled with colour, as we watch a small tv that begins its black and white broadcast. It’s a program that has opening narration akin to The Twilight Zone, or Outer Limits or any science fiction based anthology show from the same time period. The program was called Paradox Theatre, and tonight’s episode was The Vast of Night. Using this as a framing device set up the film perfectly and told me exactly what type of film I was about to watch, but it didn’t tell me it would become my favourite movie of the festival.

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TIFF19

Uncut Gems [TIFF19 Review]

I don’t think anybody can ever be remotely ready for a film by the Safdie brothers. We might make an exception if you’ve already seen the film, but let’s make it clear, Good Time does not become an easier watch on a second watch and I can’t imagine the same being the case with their Adam Sandler led film Uncut Gems. 

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TIFF19

The Vigil [TIFF19 Review]

For a long time growing up, horror films were not for me. I would run from the room as my uncle would try and force me to watch one, and then out of the blue, that all changed and I ate up as much as horror as I can get my hands on. So halfway through The Vigil, a scare happened that made me question myself why I do this to myself, time after time. Continue reading “The Vigil [TIFF19 Review]” →

Festivals, Reviews, TIFF19

Waves [TIFF19 Review]

For lack of a better term, Trey Edward Shults has made huge waves as a filmmaker since he released his first film, Krisha. A wonderful new voice with a great eye (thanks to ever-brilliant Drew Daniels who also worked on Euphoria) could make a remarkable contained drama. Then Trey went and made It Comes at Night, and the world realized he can make a wonderful horror film as well. And then comes Waves, and I hope the world realizes like I do, that Trey can make a masterpiece.

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