FANTASIA21 REVIEW: Tin Can [2022]

We’re in a tomb. Despite being neither a household name nor one I could immediately place, seeing writer/director Seth A. Smith attached to a film while sifting through the schedule at the Fantasia International Film Festival forced me to pause. A quick search later revealed him to be the filmmaker behind 2017’s The Crescent—an under-rated gem that enthralled me via narrative and visuals alike. It didn’t therefore matter what his latest, Tin Can, was about because I felt confident it would prove memorable whether I ended up enjoying it or…

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TIFF15 REVIEW: Never Happened [2015]

“Where’s my other earring?” For eight minutes Mark Slutsky makes sure he has us right where he wants us. Never Happened is so precisely measured in its construction and revelations that we don’t even know its true genre until the very end. Yes there’s comedy and romance and drama in its plot concerning two business partners engaging in a sexual relationship while out of town for a meeting, but their decision to forget the encounter brings with it a much larger understanding of the world in which they live than…

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