Barfi!: Film Review

Chances are, someones already told you to run out and see Barfi!, Anurag Basus tender romantic comedy starring Ranbir Kapoor as a deaf man. The film has opened strong in India, and word of mouth among Indian and diaspora audiences is bound to elevate Barfi!s fortunes still more with repeat viewings. Auds new to Hindi films may find much to like here, as well. The film -- told mostly without dialogue -- is a refreshingly non-commercial exercise,...

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Resident Evil Retribution: Film Review

Its easy by now for film critics to identify with Alice (Milla Jovovich), the badass heroine of the extremely lucrative Resident Evil film franchise. Shes constantly being besieged by a seemingly never-ending series of monsters, and we -- at least every couple of years or so -- are forced to sit through yet another installment of the mind-numbing series. The film opened without press screenings, which seems an entirely reasonable tactic since...

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In the House: Toronto Review

TORONTO In Francois Ozon's Swimming Pool, a parched crime writers creativity is reinvigorated by her proximity to a sexually uninhibited younger woman. A less carnal male twist on that dynamic sparks the director's seductive new film, In the House (Dans la maison), which is perhaps his strongest work since the 2003 drama. This time the older figure is a joyless schoolteacher and failed novelist whose vicarious involvement in a gifted students...

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Inch'Allah: Toronto Review

Among the growing number of films coming out of Palestine, one can see the divide opening up between locally made, no-budget documentaries like Emad Burnat and Guy Davidis stirring 5 Broken Cameras and well-financed Western coprods like Denis Villeneuves Oscar nominee Incendies. Squarely in the latter category, the Canadian-French InchAllah has all the right credentials, including writer-director Anais Barbeau-Lavalettes (If I Had a Hat, The Fight) passionate feeling for the region, but lacks the originality to catch fire, or to go beyond an outsiders...

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Arthur Newman: Toronto Review

TORONTO A man living in quiet desperation and a woman whose suffering is a good deal less inconspicuous try to jettison unwanted identities in Arthur Newman, a road film that (thankfully) has less to do with golf than its synopsis might suggest. Landing leads Colin Firth and Emily Blunt helps the commercial prospects of director Dante Ariola's feature debut, and Firth makes a convincing dive into the title character's psyche; some plot elements...

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Painless (Insensibles): Toronto Review

TORONTO -- The wounds inflicted by Spains long and violent history of Fascism are given a powerful allegorical remedy in Painless (Insensibles), an impressive and absorbing debut feature from writer-director Juan Carlos Medina. Taking cues from Guillermo Del Toros The Devils Backbone and Pans Labyrinth, the film convincingly lifts elements from the dark decades of Francisco Francos extensive reign, blending them into a phantasmagorical suspense...

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A Special Day (Un Giorno speciale): Venice Review

Roman Holiday meets Before Sunrise in Francesca Comencinis slight but charming A Special Day (Un Giorno speciale), at heart a brisk two-hander for youthful, likeable leads Giulia Valentini and Filippo Schiccitano. Debuting quietly in Venices Competition three years after Comencinis older-skewing The White Space scooped five unofficial awards on the Lido, it should recoup what must have been a pretty modest budget when released in Italy on Oct....

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Satellite Boy: Toronto Review

TORONTO Setting a modestly scaled but archetypal quest story against the vast terrain of Western Australia, Catriona McKenzie's Satellite Boy radiates respect for traditional folkways and the Aborigines who manage to maintain them despite the encroachment of modern life. Combining the credibility factor of veteran Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil with a cute-kid story and some stunning vistas, the picture has solid potential at arthouses. First-time...

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The Bay: Toronto Review

TORONTO An unexpected detour for director Barry Levinson into mock-doc horror, The Bay is an unnerving eco-disaster thriller that refreshes the found-footage trend with surprising effectiveness. Playing by classic B-Movie genre rules but with a mostly convincing veneer of reportorial realism, this lean, micro-budget entry sustains tension while delivering squirms, even if it drops the ball in the wrap-up.Related TopicsToronto International Fil......

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Liverpool: Toronto Review

TORONTO A lightweight mystery-romance set not in the Beatles' hometown but around a Montral nightclub of the same name, Manon Briand's Liverpool follows a coatcheck girl whose misguided attempt at a good deed turns up a massive e-waste conspiracy operating out of the city's port. Its sweetly shy heroes are difficult to dislike, but their fumbling adventure is best suited to the small screen. Stphanie Lapointe plays milie, a girlie-voiced wallflower...

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The Man Who Laughs (L'Homme Qui Rit): Venice Review

A powerhouse end justifies some clunky means in The Man Who Laughs (L'Homme qui rit), Jean-Pierre Amris' functional, liberal adaptation of Victor Hugo's 1869 novel that builds stealthily to a surprisingly moving finale. Very much designed for audiences rather than critics, this opulent period fantasy/tragedy received predictably harsh press when world-premiering as Venices closing film. But the French/Czech co-production, co-funded by Luc Besson's...

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Show Stopper: The Theatrical Life of Garth Drabinsky: Toronto Review

TORONTO Turning the plot of The Producers on its head, the real-life felonies in Barry Avrich's Show Stopper: The Theatrical Life of Garth Drabinsky, though involving millions of dollars in accounting fraud, appear to have been motivated not by greed but artistic ambition: Drabinsky, who built two game-changing show-business empires in his day, was only trying to put on the best damned stage productions in the world. His story, tailored here for...

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Mr. Pip: Toronto Review

TORONTO -- First class literature butts heads with a Third World massacre in Mr. Pip, an earnest but occasionally cringe-inducing story about one young womans Great Expectations obsession, and how it helps her to cope with the bloody civil war that racked parts of Papua New Guinea in the early 1990s. Adapted from a 2006 novel by Lloyd Jones, this highly personal effort from Shrek director Andrew Adamson mixes magical realism with hard-hitting...

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Song for Marion: Toronto Review

TORONTO Less sentimental than it sounds but not by much, Paul Andrew Williams's Song for Marion presents Terence Stamp as a senior citizen convinced to sing with a choir in tribute to his dearly-departed wife. Some very fine actors manage to keep their dignity here, in a film whose conceit and execution will appeal to a large percentage of the older moviegoing public. Stamp's Arthur is a husband whose gruffness, though a challenge for others,...

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Inventing David Geffen: Toronto Review

TORONTO A lively account of one of the most influential careers in modern showbiz, Susan Lacy's Inventing David Geffen works within a familiar format to sing the praises of a man who never did. An upcoming airing on PBS's American Masters series (Nov. 20) will please home auds; on home vid, the story should inspire would-be moguls for years. "I'm completely without gift," David Geffen recalls telling a casting agent who asked, decades ago, about...

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Aftershock: Toronto Review

TORONTO -- Splat pack ringleader Eli Roth takes his gory roadshow south in Aftershock, a lively but formulaic Chile-set chiller where a group of tourists find themselves bloodied, bludgeoned and buried beneath a horrific earthquake. With Roth playing one of the leads and handing off directorial duties to Nicolas Lopez (Santos), the film tends to feel shoddier than the first two Hostel movies, even if the team draws laughs from the sight of spoiled hipsters getting their comeuppance in the Third World. Given how the torture-porn genre has been waning...

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Byzantium: Toronto Review

TORONTO -- I am Eleanor Webb. I throw my story to the wind. So says the ancient child-woman played by Saoirse Ronan in Byzantium. In a sense thats what director Neil Jordan and screenwriter Moira Buffini do too, allowing this moody but convoluted century-hopping reinvention of the vampire myth to drift in too many meandering directions before it finally comes together with a semblance of focus in the concluding stretch.Related TopicsToronto International...

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Everyday: Toronto Review

An admirable idea in theory proves to be a real slog to sit through in Everyday, Michael Winterbottom's attempt to incorporate the real passage of time, including the aging of the cast, into a dramatic feature film. As does her character, a working class mother of four, Shirley Henderson does her best to hold everything together here, but the director has chosen to emphasize the observational over the dramatic in this thinly developed story of...

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Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang: Toronto Review

TORONTO -- French auteur and Palme dOr laureate Laurent Cantet (The Class, Human Resources) takes his second stab at English-language filmmaking with Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang, adapted from Joyce Carol Oates bestselling, 1950s-set novel about a band of proto-feminist teens whose rebellious exploits yield disastrous consequences. Not unlike his 2005 drama, Heading South, the directors soft-touch realism and sharp eye for detail are both...

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A Late Quartet: Toronto Review

TORONTO -- A terrific cast helps boost an otherwise conventional chamber piece in A Late Quartet, writer-director Yaron Zilbermans debut feature about a New York string ensemble trying to stay in tune amid a wealth of personal disasters. Featuring endearing performances from Christopher Walken, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener, the film mines both the relationship issues and the Upper East Side neighborhoods of Woody Allens best work,...

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Thanks for Sharing: Toronto Review

TORONTO With a subject as specific as sex addiction, comparisons to last years Shame are inevitable. That dark drama was a deep-probe character study, intensely focused on a man consumed by his cravings. By contrast, Thanks for Sharing is an ensemble piece juggling humor with sober observation of three men intent on overcoming their dependence on the pleasures of the flesh. Making a technically polished directing debut, screenwriter Stuart Blumberg...

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