I moved to Toronto three years ago in the middle of TIFF. Three years ago, I was alone and knew no one and so I did what any cinephile does, I went to a movie. Growing up, we didn’t have an excess of money and so going to the theatre was something we did but not every week. It’s only when I started working that the theatre became a regular thing for me. Going to a Festival was all new to me, the experience was everything and more. Then, last year I was lucky enough to be able to cover the Festival and was able to see a lot more then I thought I would. And this year, well I will be again be attending the Festival as press and will provide coverage right here.
Movies are a weird thing, objectively they can differ with everyone and you can either connect to them on a deep level or just see them as fun and move past it. For me, Brittany Runs a Marathon is nothing but miraculous. Connecting to films isn’t new to me, every year there’s just one movie that sits with me for a long time and I just wait for it to leave me only to become part of me. I have a feeling that Brittany Runs a Marathon will be just that to me. From beginning to end, the film spoke to me. I understood it and what the characters were going through. I never felt like the film was preaching to me, instead, it was just going through me and making me feel all the emotions possible. See, just like the character of Brittany (Jillian Bell), I lost a lot of weight. While we did it for a very different reason, I could understand everything she was going through because I went through it all too.
If you know me, you know one thing, Star Wars is everything to me. There’s so much that I love about it and I will always love about it. Unlike many, I loved The Last Jedi, though it was one of the best films in the series. So for me, The Rise of Skywalker has to accomplish a lot. It needs to continue the story of our three new main characters, it needs to live up to my expectations and needs to conclude one of the best sagas ever created. That’s a lot to ask for a film, but at the same time, it’s Star Wars so I expect nothing else than perfection at this point. With the D23 Expo that happened this weekend, it was just a matter of time before a trailer came out and this morning, we all woke up to this gem.
If you know me, you know I watch A LOT of television. Finding hidden gems, trying to keep up with what everyone is watching and losing myself in television is the norm for me. Television has always been my escape, even more than film. But not everyone watches as much television as I do and I know that. So in this column, I will tell you what I watched and loved and what to look forward too.
So every month, I will give you guys a television report card in a certain way. My top 10 TV shows of the month, in no particular order, some honourable mentions and what to look forward too. I will even tell you where you can watch it! Now this time it will be a little different because I want to cover shows beyond this month since a lot of great television has aired in 2019 and I haven’t covered it. So this list will be longer than usual. So here we go… Welcome to Arianne’s Watchlist.
We’ve been waiting for this.
We, as a collective, maybe not you, but some of the internet definitely has been.
Last week, TIFF announced their first waves of film and we were right here to tell you all about them. And again today, TIFF continued their announcements for this year’s festival by announcing their Canadian slate to the programming. This programming features newcomers, alumni and is more diverse than ever. Let’s first look at everything that was announced and then let’s take a deep dive into what TIFF has in store for us.
I logged onto Twitter right at 9am. The first thing I saw was the trailer for The Lighthouse. Cue me screaming and pulling out my laptop in a car and hot-spotting my phone so that I may be here to write about it.
I might add to future thoughts when I arrive home, but this is what we do in the meanwhile.
Let’s see this beautiful thing.
I never thought the day where I would walk out of a Tarantino movie completely indifferent from what I had just seen. Tarantino isn’t one of my favourite filmmakers but I can see the genius behind his work, he was always one prone to violence but I could always see how much of a great filmmaker he was. So going into Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood, I was excited. The premise was interesting, the idea of a what-if was more than appealing and the cast was out of this world. Imagine my disappointment when I walked away more disappointed than satisfied.
Some of us saw this coming.
As it happens with every film festival, after a movie is announced, we typically welcome a flood of movie trailers to build hype up for their film (and the festival). It seems like the first one on our docket is Taiki Waititi’s Hitler film. A lot of people already saw the trailer, but if you haven’t, after the jump you can watch the officially released version (on YouTube at least).
The UnderSCENE 