Maybe it says something to me that it felt like I very much needed a film that felt as brutal as this one (and that’s a discussion I should probably have with a therapist or something). But this was a film that I felt like I needed.
I’ve told a few people and I included this film in one of the films I was most looking forward to, and I’m so excited to say that it didn’t disappoint in the slightest. This may be one of my new favourites of the year.
In 2018, I reviewed Our House and I fell in love. Not during my first watch, but it welcomed me back again and again. It was a film based in real fears and emotions and in my review, I stated that while it wasn’t filled with scares, I was scared of some of the things in it. Also, it was clear that Anthony Scott Burns was fascinated with science in regards to his films. And the same can very much be said about his latest, Come True.
This happens with every festival really, you watch too many, you lose sleep, and then you almost lose excitement as the films bleed into one another. But, hopefully, if you’re lucky, you’ll find a movie that will energize and be reminded why you were once excited for this festival in the first place. And friends, that movie is Bao Tran’s The Paper Tigers.
Another film that I was super excited for, but also, a film that seemed to miss the mark, not by much, but just a bit.
Fantasia is going very strong right now, and it’s almost finished. But before I’m done with coverage (I’ve got a bit more up my sleeve still), I wanted to write about a few films that I don’t personally have time to write about since work has opened back up and I want to make sure I talk about as many films as I can. So, let’s begin, shall we?
Sometimes just from a premise of a show, you just know something is for you. I usually navigate more towards comedy when it comes to television but sometimes a dramatic show will come and sweep me off my feet. Away comes from a team that I trust. Produced by Matt Reeves (Felicity, The Batman, Cloverfield) and Jason Katims (Roswell, Friday Night Lights, Parenthood) and starring Oscar winner Hilary Swank (Boys Don’t Cry, Million Dollar Baby), it had everything to succeed. My only concern was how one could sustain a drama set during a mission to Mars where most of the show would take place onboard a ship. Well, Away was capable of finding a way and make a show that maybe isn’t always on point but certainly shows it’s potential.
Horror-comedies, especially of the creature-feature variety, have become more and more common in recent years. Films like Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland and Jennifer’s Body have come along, setting a pretty high precedent for what these types of movies should be: funny, entertaining and filled to the brim with gore. But like all genres, you also have the lifeless duds that don’t provide more than a few chuckles and rely far too heavily on just being gross. Uncle Peckerhead, written and directed by Matthew John Lawrence, is an absurd little film that falls somewhere in between.
A lot of the time, when something is scary, its because of how tangible it is. But making a film or its scenarios unrealistic, you no longer have anyway of relating to what’s happening on screen. That’s not the case with Alone. We’ve all had moments where we swore and were under the impression that someone was following us. Whether it may be comedically as I’ve taken bus routes to the exact same destination at a random place in the city, or in the case of the film, having a car drive up right behind you and find you in the smallest towns possible.
Watching Alone made me realize, I had no idea that I needed this film, but throughout its entire run time, this was exactly the type of adrenaline I needed.
Charlie Kaufman is the person behind so many of my favourite films. After it came out in 2015, Anomalisa was my favourite film of that year. Not to mention the film that got him his Best Original Screenplay Oscar, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Or his debut film as a director, Synedoche, New York which kind of shatters me every single time I see it. So when I found out he was going to make a new feature film, it suddenly became one of my most anticipated films of the year.
I was so excited I even went out and read the book.
All Together Now was not what I thought it would be. I have not read the book the film is based on and so I watched it with simply the premise in the head. To say that it took me by surprise is an understatement. I still don’t know how I would qualify this film, how I could describe it. Going into this film, I thought I was in for a very normal young adult film, the type that we are now used to seeing on Netflix. All Together Now is not that. While there are tonal problems at times, the film doesn’t pull its punches and hits you at every turn in the feelings. Does it feel like it might be too much at times? Yes, it does. But even when it does, the stellar performance from Auli’i Cravalho (Moana) saves the film from going too much into the melodramatic.
