TIFF 2017: 'Never Steady, Never Still'

The troubled characters in this film deserve a more complex, nuanced approach.

                                      
Film
    
        TIFF 2017: 'Ta peau si lisse' (A Skin So Soft)
    
Chelsea Phillips-Carr

        10 Sep 2017
    
Film
    
        TIFF 2013: '12 Years a Slave' (dir. Steve McQueen, 2013)
    
Alex Ramon

        18 Sep 2013
    
Film
    
        TIFF 2013: August: Osage County (dir. John Wells, 2013)
    
Alex Ramon

        11 Sep 2013

Recent

Film

TIFF 2013: Can a Song Save Your Life? (John Carney, 2013)

Alex Ramon finds himself underwhelmed by Once director John Carney's latest exercise in music-based uplift.

Film

TIFF 2013: Wałęsa. Man of Hope (dir. Andrzej Wajda, 2013)

At TIFF, we find Andrzej Wajda's Lech Wałęsa biopic to be a surprisingly lively, cogent take on (part of) the life and times of one of the pivotal figures of the 20th century.

Film

TIFF 2013: Gravity (dir. Alfonso Cuarón) / Le Week-End (dir. Roger Michell)

Our third day at TIFF finds Alfonso Cuarón casting Sandra Bullock and George Clooney into space and creating a visually dazzling and richly emotional sci-fi epic in the process. Meanwhile, Roger Michell sends Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan to Paris to less compelling effect. PopMatters reports.

Film

TIFF 2013: A Story of Children and Film (dir. Mark Cousins) / InRealLife (dir. Beeban Kidron)

With a couple of fiction films punching below their weight, two major documentaries about young people prove to be the highlights of our second day at Toronto International Film Festival.

Film

TIFF 2013: 'Stranger By the Lake' (dir. Alain Guiraudie, 2013)

Guiraudie's movie unfolds entirely at a gay cruising area on the French coast where men flop naked on the beach, appraise each other and head to the woods for more intimate encounters

Film

TIFF 2013: 'Bastards' (dir. Claire Denis, 2013)

On his first day at TIFF 2013, Alex Ramon applauds two startling French features, the latest works from Claire Denis and Alain Guiraudie, that both twist the suspense thriller into fresh territory.

Film

TIFF 2012: Day 5: 'To the Wonder' + 'End of Watch'

Day five of our TIFF coverage features the latest Terrence Malick film To the Wonder and David Ayer's End of Watch.

Film

TIFF 2012: Day 2: 'Midnight's Children' + 'The Central Park Five' + 'The Sessions'

Day two of our TIFF coverage features a take on the Salman Rushdie novel Midnight's Children, Ken Burns' doc about the Central Park Five, and the sex-positive The Sessions.

Film

TIFF 2012: Day 1: 'Amour' + 'Burn It Up Djassa' + 'Bestiaire' + 'Far Out Isn’t Far Enough'

PopMatters begins daily coverage of the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival, this last major festival before awards season.

Events

Toronto International Film Festival 2011: 'A Dangerous Method'

David Cronenberg's latest is a chilly study of the creative and competitive triangle between Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen), Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender), and the lesser-known Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightly) in the early years of the 20th century.

Events

Toronto International Film Festival 2011: 'The Day'

Can a cannibal ever truly be redeemed? For the answer to this Augustinian question I guess you could watch The Day, but it's probably better to just let that be one of life's unaswerables.

Film

Toronto International Film Festival 2011: 'Martha Marcy May Marlene'

An exquisite, terrifying, and marvelously vertiginous film, Martha Marcy May Marlene is my favourite movie of the Festival, and may stand up as my favourite picture of the year.

Film

Toronto International Film Festival 2011: 'Elles'

Although in some ways a seductive feminist study of sex, power, and commerce -- for Binoche is writing this article for money, we cannot forget -- the overall impression by film's end is one of bewilderment rather than contemplation.

Film

Toronto International Film Festival 2011: 'Dark Horse'

Todd Solondz (Happiness, Life During Wartime) understands tackiness on a deeper level than just about everyone else in the business besides John Waters.

Film

Toronto International Film Festival 2011: 'The Kid With a Bike'

This quiet little tour de force about a troubled young boy has bewitched the critics at this year's Festival.

Film

Toronto International Film Festival 2011: 'Take This Waltz'

Take This Waltz is set in Polley's native Toronto and it makes wide use of that city's funky west end for its locations and local musicians for its score (a real treat for this Torontonian).

Film

Toronto International Film Festival 2011: 'Pearl Jam Twenty'

Documentaries made by non-documentarians can be exhilarating since, new to the form, the filmmakers tend to break old rules and push into interesting territory. But they can also wind up looking something like Pearl Jam Twenty.

Film

Toronto International Film Festival 2011: 'The Ides of March'

This dark, angry movie wants to be a smart, keep-you-guessing political thriller but winds up a wildly improbable and deeply cynical melodrama.

Film

Toronto International Film Festival 2011: 'Melancholia'

"The earth is evil. We don't need to grieve for it." So declares a luminous Kirsten Dunst in Danish provocateur Lars von Trier's best and most powerful film yet.

Film

Toronto International Film Festival 2011: 'Moneyball'

Expect Brad Pitt to get some award season attention for his playful portrayal of real life Oakland A's GM Billy Beane, a man trying to find a way to win a game with a stacked deck.

Film

Toronto International Film Festival 2011: 'Where Do We Go Now?'

An enchanting, brilliant, and heartbreaking film about civil war and its indelible legacy, this Lebanese masterwork utterly slayed me.

Film

Toronto International Film Festival 2011: 'Once Upon a Time in Anatolia'

A languid, patience-testing three-hour police procedural that spends its entire first 90 minutes in the literal (and, of course, figurative) dark, this one is not for everyone.

Film

Toronto International Film Festival 2011: 'Lipstikka'

The story of two Palestinian refugees (one Christian and one Muslim) and their tumultuous, tortured relationship over 30 years, this provocative picture almost works.

Film

Toronto International Film Festival 2011: 'Think of Me'

Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under) gives a breakout film performance as a single mother struggling to make ends meet in seedy Las Vegas.

Film

Toronto International Film Festival 2011: 'The Loneliest Planet'

This archetypal art house film follows two mostly non-verbal tourists as they hike through the Caucuses under mostly overcast skies.

Film

Toronto International Film Festival 2011: 'My Worst Nightmare'

Quite uncomfortably, the film uses class stereotypes aggressively and persistently, relying upon them as scaffolding for this faux-existential narrative about awakening and self-actualization.

Film

Toronto International Film Festival 2011: 'The Island President'

This is one of those documentaries designed to make you march out of the theatre and do something to change the world.

Film

Toronto International Film Festival 2011: 'Burning Man'

This is a perfectly devastating Australian film about the horror of loss and the futility of refusing to face up to grief.

Film

11 Things to Look Forward to at the Toronto International Film Festival

A mix of art house experiments, mainstream confections, grand costume dramas, sex-soaked character studies, apocalyptic horror, intimate human drama, political satires, rock 'n' roll documentaries, and a little Werner Herzog for good measure.

Film

Day 5: TIFF 2010: A Mixed Bag of Short Takes

James Franco and Xavier Dolan come up winners, while Catherine Breillat, in an unlikely twist of fate, brings up the rear with Hilary Swank.

Film

Day 4: TIFF 2010: Nicole Kidman, Harbinger of Doom

The presence of queer directors at this year's TIFF is strong, as is the presence of women, both in front of and behind the camera.

Film

Day 3: TIFF 2010: Organ Farming, Woman Hating and Woody Allen

PopMatters checks in on the latest fare from Woody Allen, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, while seeing a few mediocre new films, including the adaptation of Kazou Ishiguro's novel Never Let Me Go and the Paul Giamatti vehicle, Barney's Version.

Film

Toronto International Film Festival 2009: Part 5

Our TIFF coverage wraps with Tilda Swinton's exemplary new film, Drew Barrymore's turn in the director's chair, a new vampire flick and more.

Film

Toronto International Film Festival 2009: Part 4

The new George Clooney showcase Up in the Air, the excellent Partir, the engaging Micmacs, and four short films from the National Film Board of Canada.

Film

Toronto International Film Festival 2009: Part Three

In his third installment, Stuart reviews the hotly anticipated adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, a great documentary on Daniel Ellsberg, and new films from Todd Solondz (yuck) and Werner Herzog (yuck, but in a good way).

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The troubled characters in this film deserve a more complex, nuanced approach.

Alex Ramon finds himself underwhelmed by Once director John Carney's latest exercise in music-based uplift.

At TIFF, we find Andrzej Wajda's Lech Wałęsa biopic to be a surprisingly lively, cogent take on (part of) the life and times of one of the pivotal figures of the 20th century.

Our third day at TIFF finds Alfonso Cuarón casting Sandra Bullock and George Clooney into space and creating a visually dazzling and richly emotional sci-fi epic in the process. Meanwhile, Roger Michell sends Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan to Paris to less compelling effect. PopMatters reports.

With a couple of fiction films punching below their weight, two major documentaries about young people prove to be the highlights of our second day at Toronto International Film Festival.

Guiraudie's movie unfolds entirely at a gay cruising area on the French coast where men flop naked on the beach, appraise each other and head to the woods for more intimate encounters

On his first day at TIFF 2013, Alex Ramon applauds two startling French features, the latest works from Claire Denis and Alain Guiraudie, that both twist the suspense thriller into fresh territory.

Day five of our TIFF coverage features the latest Terrence Malick film To the Wonder and David Ayer's End of Watch.

Day four of our TIFF coverage features the collaboration between the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer that is Cloud Atlas, David O. Russell's superb Silver Linings Playbook, and Neil Jordan's latest, Byzantium.

Day two of our TIFF coverage features a take on the Salman Rushdie novel Midnight's Children, Ken Burns' doc about the Central Park Five, and the sex-positive The Sessions.

PopMatters begins daily coverage of the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival, this last major festival before awards season.

David Cronenberg's latest is a chilly study of the creative and competitive triangle between Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen), Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender), and the lesser-known Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightly) in the early years of the 20th century.

Can a cannibal ever truly be redeemed? For the answer to this Augustinian question I guess you could watch The Day, but it's probably better to just let that be one of life's unaswerables.

An exquisite, terrifying, and marvelously vertiginous film, Martha Marcy May Marlene is my favourite movie of the Festival, and may stand up as my favourite picture of the year.

Although in some ways a seductive feminist study of sex, power, and commerce -- for Binoche is writing this article for money, we cannot forget -- the overall impression by film's end is one of bewilderment rather than contemplation.

Todd Solondz (Happiness, Life During Wartime) understands tackiness on a deeper level than just about everyone else in the business besides John Waters.

This quiet little tour de force about a troubled young boy has bewitched the critics at this year's Festival.

Take This Waltz is set in Polley's native Toronto and it makes wide use of that city's funky west end for its locations and local musicians for its score (a real treat for this Torontonian).

Documentaries made by non-documentarians can be exhilarating since, new to the form, the filmmakers tend to break old rules and push into interesting territory. But they can also wind up looking something like Pearl Jam Twenty.

This dark, angry movie wants to be a smart, keep-you-guessing political thriller but winds up a wildly improbable and deeply cynical melodrama.

"The earth is evil. We don't need to grieve for it." So declares a luminous Kirsten Dunst in Danish provocateur Lars von Trier's best and most powerful film yet.

Expect Brad Pitt to get some award season attention for his playful portrayal of real life Oakland A's GM Billy Beane, a man trying to find a way to win a game with a stacked deck.

An enchanting, brilliant, and heartbreaking film about civil war and its indelible legacy, this Lebanese masterwork utterly slayed me.

A languid, patience-testing three-hour police procedural that spends its entire first 90 minutes in the literal (and, of course, figurative) dark, this one is not for everyone.

The story of two Palestinian refugees (one Christian and one Muslim) and their tumultuous, tortured relationship over 30 years, this provocative picture almost works.

Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under) gives a breakout film performance as a single mother struggling to make ends meet in seedy Las Vegas.

This archetypal art house film follows two mostly non-verbal tourists as they hike through the Caucuses under mostly overcast skies.

Quite uncomfortably, the film uses class stereotypes aggressively and persistently, relying upon them as scaffolding for this faux-existential narrative about awakening and self-actualization.

This is one of those documentaries designed to make you march out of the theatre and do something to change the world.

This is a perfectly devastating Australian film about the horror of loss and the futility of refusing to face up to grief.

A mix of art house experiments, mainstream confections, grand costume dramas, sex-soaked character studies, apocalyptic horror, intimate human drama, political satires, rock 'n' roll documentaries, and a little Werner Herzog for good measure.

James Franco and Xavier Dolan come up winners, while Catherine Breillat, in an unlikely twist of fate, brings up the rear with Hilary Swank.

The presence of queer directors at this year's TIFF is strong, as is the presence of women, both in front of and behind the camera.

PopMatters checks in on the latest fare from Woody Allen, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, while seeing a few mediocre new films, including the adaptation of Kazou Ishiguro's novel Never Let Me Go and the Paul Giamatti vehicle, Barney's Version.

Our TIFF coverage wraps with Tilda Swinton's exemplary new film, Drew Barrymore's turn in the director's chair, a new vampire flick and more.

The new George Clooney showcase Up in the Air, the excellent Partir, the engaging Micmacs, and four short films from the National Film Board of Canada.

In his third installment, Stuart reviews the hotly anticipated adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, a great documentary on Daniel Ellsberg, and new films from Todd Solondz (yuck) and Werner Herzog (yuck, but in a good way).