Category: Drama

TIFF22 REVIEW: The Young Arsonists [2023]

Jared Mobarak

I’m leaving too. Small town rural living tends to instill a sense of malaise in youth and neither Nicole (Maddy Martin) nor Veronica (Jenna Warren) are exceptions to that rule. They’ve already made a pact to eventually get out of here for no other reason than to aspire towards something that didn’t seem like a dead-end. Because that’s what life is like now—a purgatory of hardship, tragedy, and sorrow. Nicole’s family mourns the loss of her older brother Seamus (Kyle Meagher) in a farming accident that ultimately left them without…

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TIFF22 REVIEW: Susie Searches [2023]

Jared Mobarak

Be positive, homie. Susie Wallis (Kiersey Clemons) has never met a mystery she couldn’t solve. At least not when it comes to those that populate the crime books her mother (Jammie Patton‘s Anne) read to her as a child. It got to the point where she wondered if they should stop reading them altogether, but Susie refused. She didn’t care that she always guessed the culprit. All she cared about was spending time with Mom. So, when Anne’s MS diagnosis advanced enough to take away her speech, Susie took over…

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TIFF22 REVIEW: What Comes Around [Roost] [2023]

Jared Mobarak

I’ll see you in a little bit. This is a tricky film to talk about without massive spoilers unless, of course, the eventual marketing campaign decides divulging its secrets will help them sell it. I’m hoping they ultimately choose to keep its twists and turns under wraps because going in blind adds a dimension that I’m sure playwright Scott Organ (who adapts his own “The Thing with Feathers”) intended and director Amy Redford matches. As she mentions in the press notes, Roost is about provocation. It’s about telling us one…

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TIFF22 REVIEW: Prisoner’s Daughter [2023]

Jared Mobarak

Everything dies with me. Maxine (Kate Beckinsale) isn’t having a good day. She’s barely slept after working the nightshift cleaning the place where she used to pole dance and hopes to earn enough tips at her waitressing day job to pay for her son Ezra’s (Christopher Convery) epilepsy medication when her ex (his father) Tyler (Tyson Ritter) causes a scene that ultimately gets her fired. Then the school calls to say the boys who assaulted her son were suspended as though it would soften the blow that he’s being punished…

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TIFF22 REVIEW: Fixation [2023]

Jared Mobarak

The past is not the present. What did Dora (Maddie Hasson) do all those years ago? That’s the question she’s asking herself as she sits straightjacketed in a hospital she doesn’t remember entering. What did her family do to her to earn that ire? That’s the question her doctors (Genesis Rodriguez‘s Dr. Melanie and Stephen McHattie‘s Dr. Clark) hope to answer for her through an invasively experimental psychiatric evaluation. While the two questions ultimately go together considering her actions were a response to that abuse, separating them should always be…

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TIFF22 REVIEW: Stellar [2023]

Jared Mobarak

Hasn’t the world been ending since it started? It’s all a matter of perspective. If you’ve never known a privileged existence, what difference to your world would an apocalypse truly introduce? There’s always been fire for She (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) and He (Braeden Clarke). There’s always been tragedy. Whether living under the oppressive rule of Canadian law or being ignored and/or disrespected when leaving the reservation for the cities that they were told would open their arms if only they gave into demands for assimilation, life has always been a struggle…

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TIFF22 REVIEW: Rosie [2023]

Jared Mobarak

Love is what makes a family. The last thing Frédérique (Melanie Bray) needs is another mouth to feed. She’s already sneaking out the fire escape to avoid her landlord and can barely hold down a job due to her “passionate” disposition, so a child services agent (Josee Young‘s Barb) dropping off a niece (Keris Hope Hill‘s Rosie) she didn’t know she had proves quite the shock. More than needing to deal with the logistics problem, however, Fred also possesses a wealth of guilt and regret considering the reason the two…

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TIFF22 REVIEW: My Sailor, My Love [2022]

Jared Mobarak

I know what you’re up to. Howard (James Cosmo) lives what appears to be a hermitic life of unwavering obstinance. He doesn’t even open the door when his daughter Grace (Catherine Walker) and her husband Martin (Aidan O’Hare) arrive—a seemingly inconsequential fact until you realize it’s his birthday and she’s there to ready for the celebration. It would be easy to dismiss his demeanor as immovable then. Why would he act like this with his loved ones if that wasn’t how he acts with everyone? Except attending the local bar…

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TIFF22 REVIEW: Sweet As [2023]

Jared Mobarak

Maybe we have a story. It didn’t take long after watching Jub Clerc‘s Sweet As to see the comparison point my mind went to first (The Breakfast Club) was hardly an original thought. It’s an archetypal coming-of-age story for a reason. You see a mixed-bag group of troubled teens forced to confront their hardships during a mandated supervised excursion and allusions to John Hughes‘ classic aren’t far behind. Whereas he could get away with making that group consist of white suburban kids with differing degrees of entitlement and affluence, however,…

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TIFF22 REVIEW: Riceboy Sleeps [2023]

Jared Mobarak

Keep your eyes open. So-Young (Choi Seung-yoon) didn’t want to leave South Korea. She had no choice. The father of her newborn son committed suicide and, as an orphan who was never adopted, she had no other family. So, with nowhere to turn and a boy who couldn’t legally become a citizen due to being born out of wedlock, she immigrated to Canada to start anew. There she would build a home for the two of them and a wall in front of her past. Questions about Dong-Hyun’s (Dohyun Noel…

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TIFF22 REVIEW: Baba [2022]

Jared Mobarak

Why didn’t you come to me? The synopsis describes six-year-old Baba (Malik Wandera) as having the ability to teleport by closing his eyes to leave any situation. To watch Mbithi Masya‘s short film Baba unfold, however, is to realize we aren’t witnessing a superhero origin story. Baba isn’t shifting from one place to another on a whim. He isn’t testing his strength to push his gift to its limits. This is instead a tale about abuse and survival with Baba’s teleportation proving not of the body but the mind. He…

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