TIFF20 REVIEW: Seize printemps [Spring Blossom] [2020]

I’d give everyone a five. How do you know a relationship sparked with another is truly love and not merely the absence of the listlessness you felt before its creation—a mere distraction? The answer is probably a simple case of seeing with objective eyes and feeling with an unencumbered heart, but those aren’t easy things to possess while the excitement of the moment remains fresh. So sixteen-year old Suzanne (Suzanne Lindon) will continue longing for the serious stranger standing outside the theater on her way to school regardless. And thirty-five-year…

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REVIEW: Last Call [2020]

Sometimes it feels like a lifetime ago. Anyone who has seen Mat Kirkby‘s Oscar-winning short The Phone Call will be familiar with the emotional beats at the back of Gavin Michael Booth‘s feature film Last Call. Both focus on a man contacting a suicide hotline for someone to talk to (if not someone to help) and the woman who fatefully picks up. Whereas the short focused solely on the latter as she works through her protocols and does whatever she can to try and talk the former down, however, Booth…

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