In a few days, I’ll be covering Fantasia Festival. This year is a bit different as most festivals have either been cancelled, postponed or adapted to fully digital (or drive-in’s). Fantasia Festival is another that tackled changing their festival to entirely digital. Now that all three waves have announced, I’m excited to talk about some of the films I’m looking forward to seeing the most.
When I got the e-mail to potentially cover Peninsula, there was one thing that I knew I had to do first, and that was to watch Train to Busan first. I had four years to do so prior, but now there was a timeline for the next film, I rushed for it. And yes, I was aware it wouldn’t be a direct sequel or one that was directly connected to the first one. But I wanted an understanding of their world and zombies first before seeing where they would adapt.
New Charlie Kaufman alert!
I will be super honest here, writing this review might just be the hardest thing I have had to write in a very long time. Not because I Used To Go Here isn’t good, that would have been much easier in all honesty. No, it’s because I Used To Go Here is actually a really good film in the grand scheme of things, but the main problem I had with this is that I found myself bored out of my mind while watching it. I had to watch it twice in order to be able to write this and even on my second viewing I found myself bored and just wanting to do anything else really.
It looks like movie theatres are finally open back in Canada, and in the case of our site, in Toronto. And as movies are beginning to come up again,
She Dies Tomorrow is a fascinating way to look at how thoughts can be contagious and how evexrything is able to spread. And yes, it feels relevant because of the pandemic, but it would also feel relevant if it came out prior to COVID.
In 2017, Jay Baruchel made his feature directorial debut with Goon: Last of the Enforcers, a sequel to the Michael Dowse helmed Goon, which he co-wrote with Evan Goldberg. The response to his film was that it didn’t sway too much from the original – which makes for an enjoyable sequel but doesn’t try to fix some of the things that critics didn’t enjoy in the first film, such as it’s violence at the scale it had. And it seems that Jay doubled down (or even quadrupled) on the violence for his horror film. And it makes for a great and grimey horror.
Over the years, films about religion and sexuality have become much more prominent and less taboo. We’ve deepened the examination of sexual repression within the Catholic and Christian church, more specifically in the early 2000s and before then. Although many of the churches have adapted and continue to adapt, there’s no forgetting the repression that queer people and women went through; and many continue to experience within their own religion.
In our world today, technology and apps have not only allowed us to order rides from complete strangers but also rent someone’s home, room or cottage for the desired time. You just pick a date, show up for the keys and it’s yours for the weekend without ever really knowing exactly who you’re renting from apart from face value. Most people who participate in this system are more than likely comfortable with the idea, myself included; but what if the fear of being watched or recorded without your knowledge was brought to life. In the case of The Rental, that is exactly what’s demonstrated on screen.
Here’s the thing, I have read the whole Umbrella Academy graphic novel series. It was one of those gems that I found by accident and couldn’t get enough, wishing that more was available and running to the store every time a new book would come out. So going into the first season of the show, I had high expectations. Because I knew how crazy and over the top this graphic novel was, I was scared that a television show would tone it down and make it dull and boring. Well, the exact opposite happened. The show was wild, full of surprises and didn’t feel like the craziness was toned down. It was a show that hit hard and even with its flaws was one of the most enjoyable seasons Netflix had put out. So to say that my expectations for season two were high is an understatement. It had not only to stand up alongside the graphic novel but also the excellent first season. Did they do it? Yes, not only is the second season of Umbrella Academy excellent, but it surpasses every expectation I had set for it.
The UnderSCENE 