TIFF21 REVIEW: All My Puny Sorrows [2022]

We’re meant to move on. What we feel often confuses what we know. To Yoli (Alison Pill), living in the shadow of her perfect sister Elf (Sarah Gadon) was a frustrating existence that seemingly guaranteed her own rocky path continued into adulthood. She had a daughter at eighteen (Amybeth McNulty‘s Nora), left her husband after sixteen years despite being the one who refuses to sign the divorce papers, and sees her writing career as fledgling at best. Elf, on the other hand, is now an internationally renowned concert pianist with…

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REVIEW: Philomena [2013]

“No one’s interested in Russian bloody history” The dreaded ‘human interest story’—a tale about naively ignorant folk read by naively ignorant folk. I paraphrase what wrongly disgraced journalist Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan) dryly quips when first told about the aging woman’s plight he would soon use to rejuvenate his career (at least where the film’s concerned considering he published The Lost Child of Philomena Lee eight years after his being ‘resigned’ from the BBC), but you get the point. Why would anyone who covered political scandals and wars want to…

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REVIEW: St. Elmo’s Fire [1985]

“The only illusion that’s worth it” I think Joel Schumacher gets a bad rap. Sure Batman & Robin is possibly the worst movie ever made, and it did kill a multi-million dollar franchise, but is that truly all we think about on the mention of his name? I myself will admit to keeping a stigma of hack whenever Schumacher is talked about, however, along with some decent films of late, his track record in the 80’s was full of pure, nostalgic gems. I finally got the opportunity to check out…

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