» Tanpa Label » TIFF 2013 Review: THE STATION Aims For Creature Feature Greatness But Misses The Mark

TIFF 2013 Review: THE STATION Aims For Creature Feature Greatness But Misses The Mark

Oleh

TIFF 2013 Review: THE STATION Aims For Creature Feature Greatness But Misses The Mark

TIFF 2013 Review: THE STATION Aims For Creature Feature Greatness But Misses The Mark

Posted: 06 Sep 2013 11:00 PM PDT

All of the ingredients are in place for The Station to be a thrilling exercise in crowd pleasing horror. You've got a hot young director in Rammbock's Marvin Kren being given a significant boost in resources to prove what he can do. You've got an absolutely gorgeous location to spread across the screen and give the film scope. And you've got a compelling central premise that promises thrills and chills a'plenty with a multitude of bizarre creatures for shock value. It's all there, all of it driving expectations that are never met with the film sadly ending up as just a pale shadow of the superior pictures which are its primary influences.The action takes place high in the Austrian Alps, with a team of environmental...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

TIFF 2013 Review: ALL CHEERLEADERS DIE Lets The Good Times Load

Posted: 06 Sep 2013 10:30 PM PDT

When it comes to the ample challenge of squeezing out profit from an indie film, current dogma would have it that titles closer to the start of the alphabet do better on digital VOD platforms. Therefore you'd be forgiven for believing a film with a VOD-tastic title like All Cheerleaders Die might be playing up to the digital crowd. Indeed a movie filled with scantily clad cheerleaders, pot-smoking high schoolers, and all sorts of supernatural horror has plenty to offer those casually browsing for fun-filled flicks. While it can be accused of throwing everything but the kitchen sink at you, the movie earns points for going for it. It's silly and it's schlocky, but ultimately All Cheerleaders Die is a true crowd pleaser. In...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

Fantastic Fest 2013: Tiger Chen Will (Maybe) Kill Tim League While Keanu Reeves Watches

Posted: 06 Sep 2013 09:30 PM PDT

In case you hear about the untimely death of Alamo Drafthouse co-founder Tim League in a couple of weeks, we just want you to be prepared. Among the signature events announced for Fantastic Fest 2013, to be held in Austin, Texas, from September 19-26, the most newsworthy is that Mr. League will face off against Keanu Reeves in a debate about the merits of Tai Chi vs. Tae Kwon Do. Then Mr. League will try to survive a round of boxing with Tiger Hu Chen, described in an official statement as "a superhuman master of form and combat." For the sake of Mr. League's wife and children, we can only hope that Mr. Chen will show mercy. Coincidentally (or perhaps not), both Mr. Reeves and...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

TIFF 2013 Review: PARKLAND, A Refreshingly Original Take On The Death Of JFK

Posted: 06 Sep 2013 08:30 PM PDT

It's not really a surprise that the Kennedy Assassination continues to hold so much sway some half century after its occurrence. A young, charismatic President cut off in his prime, a picture-perfect doting wife, and all the mystery and machinations surrounding his death have made for generations of responses to the events of November 22, 1963. This was the death of a president caught in images whose tragedy played out on television, the first modern death of a leader that would quickly take on mythic proportions.What may be more remarkable is that there are still new things to say at this late date, new and interesting things to draw not just documentary but narrative film interest in. If Stone's JFK is likely to remain definitive,...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

TIFF 2013 Review: Tahrir Doc THE SQUARE Is A Modern Masterpiece

Posted: 06 Sep 2013 08:00 PM PDT

Let's cut right to the chase - Jehane Noujaim's epic, astonishing documentary The Square is easily one of the most complex, most nuanced, and frankly most important documentaries made about the ongoing political developments in Egypt. Heck, I'll go further, it's one of the finer historical documentaries I think that's ever been made, period.I have a little mantra that I say about what I feel makes a documentary truly engaging. I despise docs that play to pre-existing notions to sate sedate audiences, relying entirely on its affect by proverbially preaching to the converted. Even the most sophisticated of docs, particularly those that deal with recent events, sometimes lack any kind of multifaceted narrative, as the complexities of capturing a tale from many sides while remaining...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

TIFF 2013 Review: TRIPTYCH Is Intoxicating, Accessible Art Cinema

Posted: 06 Sep 2013 07:30 PM PDT

Québecois filmmaker and theatre director Robert Lepage is one of Canada's truly great artists, a man of astonishing visual style. Since then he has achieved great acclaim, often playing larger on the international stage than he does in most of English Canada. For his latest film, Lepage has teamed up with award-winning short film director Pedro Pires to tell this tale of language and loss, of the intertwined stories of three people connecting in a variety of ways.Through the use of elegant transitions and some moments of startling, near genre film-worthy scenes, the film remains resolutely cinematic. This is all the more remarkable when it's recognized that this is based on one of Lepage's theatrical works. Despite the dialogue (and idea) heavy story, it never...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

TIFF 2013 Review: CANNIBAL, A Beautiful And Minimalist Study Of Love

Posted: 06 Sep 2013 07:00 PM PDT

Cannibalism pops up with fair regularity in film; and between Somos los que hay, its remake (the fact that there is a remake) We Are What We Are and the television series Hannibal, it seems a particular kind of obsession/evil that we find interesting, perhaps as an extension of apocalypse fascination. At what point would you eat a human being? Only for survival? What would make someone wish to do so on a regular basis? But rather than take a melodramatic, religious, or psycho-killer approach, director Manuel Martín Cuenca's Cannibal is a minimalist thriller, a story of love and pain, stripped of veneer and yet controlled and refined. It is a film about light and shadow, the interior and exterior spaces we occupy, with a incredible...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

TIFF 2013 Review: Kurosawa's REAL Is A Bland Disappointment

Posted: 06 Sep 2013 04:00 PM PDT

Acclaimed Japanese director Kurosawa Kiyoshi - a great favorite around these parts - ends a five year absence from feature films with 2013 effort Real, the story of a young man granted the opportunity via high technology to project his consciousness into the mind of his comatose lover in an attempt to restore her to health. Unfortunately he happens to tell this story just a year after Lithuania's Kristina Buozyte tackled the exact same premise with her astonishing Vanishing Waves. Even more unfortunately, Kurosawa's film isn't nearly as good.Rurouni Kenshin star Satoh Takeru stars as Koichi, a young man whose seemingly perfect life is shattered when his girlfriend - a celebrated manga artist played by Ayase Haruka - attempts to take her own life. Nobody...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

Fan Bingbing Gives A Cold Stare In THE WHITE HAIRED WITCH OF LUNAR KINGDOM Posters And Concept Art

Posted: 06 Sep 2013 03:00 PM PDT

Our first look at Fan Bingbing and Huang Xiaoming in the upcoming wuxia fantasy epic The White Haired Witch Of Lunar Kingdom has arrived in the form of two character posters and several pieces of concept art. Based on the classic 1950's novel by famous Wuxia writer Yusheng Liang, it tells a story of kung fu, revenge and romance which has been adapted previously into films and TV series, most notably is Ronny Yu's The Bride with White Hair with Brigitte Lin and Leslie Cheung. For the latest film adaptation, directer Jacob Cheung and artistic director Tsui Hark, the same duo behind the blockbuster Flying Swords of Dragon Gate, will introduce spectacular visuals in 3D and present an unique reinterpretation of the original source material.The...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

TIFF 2013 Review: TIM'S VERMEER Is Magical Art

Posted: 06 Sep 2013 02:30 PM PDT

For decades now, Penn & Teller have made a living pricking the balloon of illusion, showing the skill and sheer tenacity behind magical performances that's as compelling as any level of deceipt or subterfuge. What makes their shtick so engaging is that they go out of their way to show you how the trick was done, and then still manage to awaken within you that sense of wonder you first got when as a child you saw some hack do the ball-and-cup trick at a birthday party. For P&T, science and craftsmanship are the true spirit of magic, and they don't need to rely upon notions of the supernatural or superhuman in order to sway an audience with the power of their performance.It's all the...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

Venice 2013 Dispatch, Last Day: Jun Kunimura Rocks The UNFORGIVEN Japanese Remake

Posted: 06 Sep 2013 02:00 PM PDT

Bookmakers are saying that Tsai Ming-liang's Stray Dogs is now the frontrunner to win the Golden Lion choosen by the international jury headed by Bernardo Bertolucci. Second on the classification is Miyazaki's The Wind Rises, while the third position goes to Philip Gröning's The Police Officer's Wife.Trying to guess the winners of a Festival is of course a very meaningless diversion: we're not talking about the Oscars, but of nine, almost random personalities with different tastes and ideas. From what we've seen, every single title could be a potential winner or loser, since no title really stands out from the others. That's why, in this last dispatch, we find it better to talk about some very good movies we've seen in the collateral sections, out...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

L'étrange 2013 Review: A LITTLE BIT ZOMBIE, Outrageously Funny Comedy

Posted: 06 Sep 2013 01:00 PM PDT

It's always refreshing to watch a film that has a new and fun take on the zombie metaphor. In the case of A Little Bit Zombie, directed by Casey Walker, that take is the change that love and marriage bring. The film is a very funny and unique take on the usual zombie film, and even the zombie comedy, through its use of some outrageous characters, screwball comedy and familial situations that had me and the audience laughing pretty continuously.Steve (Kristopher Turner), his fiancee Tina (Crystal Lowe), his sister Sarah (Kristen Hager) and her husband Craig (Shawn Roberts) are taking a little cottage vacation before the big wedding day. Tina is, to be frank, something of a bridezilla, and Steve spends the first part of...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

TIFF 2013 Review: THE FIFTH ESTATE Showcases Benedict Cumberbatch

Posted: 06 Sep 2013 12:00 PM PDT

Over the weeks leading up to the Toronto International Film Festival, I've been asked repeatedly about the choice of this film as an opening Gala. Many have questions whether the opening film somehow speaks to a great theme at the fest, as if a single title can speak for the hundreds of films from all over the world that descend into this city for this pretty remarkable festival.Still, it's a reasonably fair question, as usually the opening Gala was reserved for something either mediocre or resolutely Canadian, often a combination of both. Over the last couple of years, they've shown pretty miserable films about Darwin, but also interesting docs about the band U2 as well as last year's Looper, a film that ended up being...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

TIFF 2013 Review: SOUTHCLIFFE Collapses Under Its Own Weight

Posted: 06 Sep 2013 11:00 AM PDT

For the first half of its running time the experience of watching the Tony Grisoni scripted, Sean Durkin directed Southcliffe is not unlike the experience of lancing a boil. It is excruciating, yet also somehow exhilerating to watch this tragic tale unfold, each turn of the needle revealing new nuance and perspective on an unspeakable - and yet all too common, in these days - crime. The tale of a small town destroyed by a random gunman, a mass killing nobody saw coming, is positively littered with sterling performances while Durkin - still riding high from the success of Martha Marcy May Marlene brings Grisoni's beautifully rich writing to life. It is confident enough to be understated, smart enough to trust n the value of...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

Kicking A Man When He's Down: New WE GOTTA GET OUT OF THIS PLACE Clip

Posted: 06 Sep 2013 10:30 AM PDT

As a half-Mexican person, I can relate directly to a new NSFW clip from TIFF 2013 selection We Gotta Get Out of This Place, in which a nasty Caucasian swine kicks a Mexican man when he's down -- over and over and over again. With only a few weeks left until his two best friends leave for college, Billy Joe (Logan Huffman) robs his cotton farmer boss, Giff (Mark Pellegrino), in order to pay for one last blow out weekend in Corpus Christi, Texas. Upon returning, the teens are confronted by the unfortunate and brutal consequences of stealing from his boss. Now Billy Joe, Sue (Mackenzie Davis) and Bobby (Jeremy Allen White) must embark on a dangerous journey that will test their trust and friendship...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

New To Netflix: Brain Surgery! Amigos! Stephen Chow! Paddy Considine! Michael Caine Impressions! And More!

Posted: 06 Sep 2013 10:00 AM PDT

While it may appear that Twitch is taken over by TIFF at the moment, we realize the vast majority of you are not in Toronto for the film festival.  And for the minority of that majority who have Netflix subscriptions, wherever you are, perhaps you want an idea or two of what to watch. This week we have Albert Brooks' flop-sweat, Brad Pitt all crazy-eyed, Paddy Considine as a spiritual guru, Stephen Chow vs. the Axe Gang, Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan doing Michael Caine impressions, Dr. Henry Marsh doing pro-bono brain surgery in old Soviet-bloc Europe, as well as Resolution, one of the few found footage films worth a damn!...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

TIFF 2013 Review: INTRUDERS Proves The Power Of Perspective

Posted: 06 Sep 2013 09:00 AM PDT

If ever there were a film that demonstrated the importance of cultural context when unraveling meaning ... well, there are lots of films that demonstrate this, honestly, and Noh Young-seok's Intruders is very definitely one of them. It's such a significant issue here, in fact, that it seems likely that viewing Intruders through purely Western eyes will likely yield a radically different - and significantly more perplexing - experience than that intended for the Korean audience.The story itself appears quite simple on the surface. Jun Suk-ho plays a young screenwriter going on retreat, traveling up into the secluded mountains to find the peace and quiet he needs to complete his latest work. On the way he makes a very unusual friend (Oh Tae-kyung) who casually...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

Check The Brilliant Full Trailer For Jim Taihuttu's WOLF

Posted: 06 Sep 2013 08:00 AM PDT

Soon to have its world premiere at the prestigious San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain with it's North American debut following almost immediately at Fantastic Fest, the full trailer for Jim Taihuttu's Wolf is freshly arrived and it's a dandy. A gritty, character driven crime thriller sure to grab the attention of fans of Pusher and Northwest, here's how I described the film in my program notes for Fantastic Fest:Majid has little to offer the world. The middle son of an immigrant family at a time when immigrants are not looked upon with particular kindness, he's freshly out on parole working a nothing job because anything else would land him back in jail. He's a lifetime hustler, uneducated and brimming with anger, whose only real...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

Interview: Henry Saine Talks About BOUNTY KILLER

Posted: 06 Sep 2013 07:00 AM PDT

Henry Saine's action comedy Bounty Killer opens in limited theatrically release across the States today (Friday, September 6). If it is not playing at a cinema near you, you can also find it on VOD on the following providers: Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Media, Brighthouse, Verizon, Charter, DirectTV, and Dish. I had an opportunity to speak with Saine about his film prior to its release. My thanks to Henry for taking the time to chat and for everyone who gave us time to chat. Twitch: Just for everybody who is getting ready to watch BOUNTY KILLER, why don't we start at the beginning. I know that this is (partly) based on a short film that came up in 2011. The nature of the film, the...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

Watch The Trailer For Richard Ayoade's THE DOUBLE

Posted: 06 Sep 2013 06:00 AM PDT

It's been three solid years since poofy-haired comedian Richard Ayoade - best known for his parts on Garth Marenghi's Dark Place and The IT Crowd - wowed audiences in Toronto with his debut directorial feature Submarine, a film that proved to be a great favorite in these parts. For his sophomore effort Ayoade adapts Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Double with Jesse Eisenberg in a dual lead role as a man confronted with an exact duplicate of himself. We've had the chance to see the film already and it's absolutely fabulous, check out an excerpt of the forthcoming review below:What we have here is a fiercely intelligent, hugely idiosyncratic talent who is seemingly capable of going in any great number of directions and making all of them...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]

Back To Top