TIFF22 REVIEW: The End of Sex [2023]

Are you getting enough banana? Emma (Emily Hampshire) and Josh’s (Jonas Chernick) first kiss was at a summer camp as teenagers and, minus a few break-ups here and there, they’ve been together ever since. They’re best friends, awesome parents, and, because of their two daughters being their focus for every waking second of every single day, mutually apathetic to the concept of sex. So, now that it’s the girls’ time to start going to that same camp, Emma and Josh have no clue what to do with their independence. And…

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TIFF22 REVIEW: Susie Searches [2023]

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: Rosie [2023]

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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REVIEW: Bullet Train [2022]

Why do you laugh at fate? It was supposed to be simple. Ease his way back into the snatch and grab game. He’s not even carrying a gun—not that that ever prevented people from dying while he worked. It’s why he considered quitting. And why he’s in therapy. But he’s a new man now. Ready to think positive. Maybe even listen when his handler Maria says the “bad luck” befalling those around him is “good luck” for him. It’s not like he’s died yet. So, she names him Ladybug (Brad…

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REVIEW: Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. [2022]

I prayed on it, though. Lawsuit settlements don’t pay for themselves. If anyone should know this fact, it’s a Baptist pastor of his own super church bordering on Evangelical tithe-vacuum who’s been accused of a few “indiscretions.” Is Lee-Curtis Childs (Sterling K. Brown) a criminal? While the answer to that question is debatable, his victims’ lawyers didn’t seem confident they could get a jury to label him as such via a criminal trial. So, they went civil instead, knowing Childs couldn’t refute the allegations. At best he could play a…

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TIFF22 REVIEW: A Gaza Weekend [2022]

We’re here. It’s the ‘promised’ land. Director Basil Khalil and co-writer Daniel Ka-Chun Chan waste no time setting the tone for their Middle Eastern comedy A Gaza Weekend. Conceived over a decade ago (and thus not a COVID film despite adding a couple COVID “jokes” into the script), its purpose is to satirize the very real conflict between Palestinians and Israelis to its most absurd extremes while also finding the common ground of humanity hiding beneath—much like Khalil’s enjoyable, Oscar-nominated short Ave Maria. As such, watching a scientist carelessly mill…

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REVIEW: Bodies Bodies Bodies [2022]

He’s a libra moon! The reasons for ignoring the group chat were legitimate. Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) had checked into rehab and needed time working through things while readjusting her life to sobriety. Jumping back in with her equally privileged twenty-something products of wealth would probably have been the worst choice she could have made. But things are different now. She’s in love. And while her and Bee (Maria Bakalova) have only known each other six weeks, we can guess that Sophie has never been happier. So, with the strength of…

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REVIEW: Clerks III [2022]

Spare the heretic I damned in jest. After a well-publicized implosion despite having already written a script and secured financing wherein everything fell apart in ways that had writer/director Kevin Smith admitting he didn’t see a way back, Clerks III is finally in the can … with a completely new script. Was it an extension of the salary issues that plagued co-lead Jeff Anderson from the beginning or a simple lack of interest in going back to the well that made him hesitate? Bits and pieces can be gleaned from…

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REVIEW: House of Darkness [2022]

Seeing things already? Hap (Justin Long) can barely believe his luck. Drunk at the bar and prone to delivering corny pick-up lines, he decides to chat up Mina (Kate Bosworth) only to discover she’s amenable to his liquor-tinged charms. While we don’t witness this meet-cute ourselves, seeing them in his car as it pulls up to her secluded woodlands estate reveals they must have hit it off. Just because Hap was brave enough to offer his services as chauffeur, however, doesn’t mean he’d go so far as to invite himself…

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REVIEW: Spin Me Round [2022]

You seem so open-minded. The last thing Amber (Alison Brie) expected when coming into work as manager of Bakersfield, CA’s popular Tuscan Grove, an Olive Garden-esque shingle of minimum wage employees squeezing microwaved alfredo sauce onto linguine, was an all-expenses paid “retreat” to Italy. It’s what she got, though, courtesy of her location’s owner (Lil Rel Howery‘s Paul) submitting her name to the exclusive managerial team building week annually held by TG’s charismatic CEO and face of the franchise, Nick Martucci (Alessandro Nivola). Having just broken up with a toxic…

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REVIEW: Thor: Love and Thunder [2022]

Team kids-in-a-cage. Korg (Taika Waititi as narrator/sidekick/co-writer/director) isn’t wrong when describing Thor: Love and Thunder as a love story for the ages. What else would a heartfelt tale of blood and justice centering a romance between a man and his hammer be called? Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Mjolnir were inseparable until the former’s older sister maliciously broke the latter into pieces (don’t worry, he got payback). He’s had to live without his baby for years now, desperately trying to fill its void with an axe (Stormbreaker) despite still lamenting what…

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