IT MUST BE HEAVEN – CIFF Quickie 2019 REVIEW

Jacques Tati was perhaps the greatest of all film comedians. Through his films (which featured him in silent performances), he effectively dissected everything wrong about modern society and the alienation humanity experienced as technology took over the world. Elia Suleiman, for all of his talents, is no Tati. It Must Be Heaven follows Elia Suleiman […]

BOMBAY ROSE – CIFF 2019 Quickie REVIEW

One of the great joys of attending any film festival, is coming across a piece of work by an up-and-coming director that you just know will make waves one day. Gitajali Rao’s feature length debut, Bombay Rose, is more than enough proof that she’ll continue to make grand impressions in the world of animation for […]

CLEMENCY – CIFF 2019 Quickie REVIEW

It’s likely that audiences won’t come across a film this year that is more soul-crushing or grim as Clemency. Winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, Chinonye Chukwu’s second feature is a hushed and constrictive tale about the morality of the death sentence in the United States; and whether the societal havoc that it wreaks […]

TREMORS – CIFF 2019 Quickie REVIEW

Tremors is a horror movie; though not in such an obvious a manner as the Kevin Bacon creature feature it shares its title with. Rather than an underground beast, the monster here is the rampant homophobia present within the churches of Guatemala. Jayro Bustamante’s latest feature focuses on Pablo (Juan Pablo Olyslager), an affluent businessman […]

I WAS AT HOME, BUT… – CIFF 2019 QUICKIE REVIEW

Angela Schanaelec’s third film I Was at Home, But… begins with a sequence of natural drama between animals, before transitioning to the film’s primary human characters. It’s a prelude for the rest of the film, deftly introducing us to the situation at hand. Widowed single mother Astrid (Maren Eggert) is struggling to keep it together, […]