Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake is so unyieldingly empathetic that even its bleakest moments carry an air of triumph. In trying to create his paean to the working man Loach has stripped him of his three-dimensional humanity and replaced it…
Movie Review: Rogue One
Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One is all business, a one-offer relying solely on the function of fulfilling a paragraph in the original Star Wars (1977) title crawl which had only been thought of at the time as nothing more than an afterthought.…
Natalie Portman’s 5 Best Performances
Natalie Portman’s film career, starting at the age of 12 when she starred in Luc Besson’s Léon: The Professional, is replete with multifarious ups and downs—mostly ups. The actress has such an impressive array of great performances—2 of them nabbing…
Movie Review: The Handmaiden
The Handmaiden, like all of Park Chan-wook’s films, uses harsh methods to test the viewer’s fortitude, challenging their senses before rewarding their wisdom. Borrowing a good deal of its story from the Victorian-set novel Fingersmith, The Handmaiden is an atypically swoon-worthy…
Movie Review: Manchester by the Sea
There’s a tragedy at the core of Manchester by the Sea, but you’d never see it behind that emotionless wall separating Casey Affleck from the rest of the world. His eyes are remote and affectionless, but not unreachable—that tiny thread…
Movie Review: Elle
To read previous VIFF coverage, click here. Paul Verhoeven’s ventures into irreverence and topical discussion have always been assigned to lavish psychosexual entertainment, mostly overlooked however are his films’ dramatic undertones, which are always sincere, biting and deeply self-aware. Elle…
Movie Review: Miss Hokusai
Miss Hokusai doesn’t explore an artist’s plight so much as it explores a certain plight that effects every living person. O-Ei Hokusai, a great painter, lives in the shadow of her father’s accomplishments, resigned—as his daughter—to play second fiddle. The anime opens introducing not…
