Although it looked for quite some time like it would never see the light of day in Toronto area theatres, actor turned filmmaker Paul Dano’s exceptional directorial debut Wildlife, one of the best films of 2018, finally gets its proper due with a run at TIFF Bell Lightbox.
Paul Dano
Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho delivers another fantastical allegory with Okja, following similarly themed, but perhaps more action packed efforts like The Host and Snowpiercer. While those films were a lot darker and more relentless in their approach and aims, don’t let Okja’s overall gentility and flashes of kindness fool you. This is just as cutting, biting, and insightful as his previous works. It’s still not a subtle effort, and a lot of the messages can easily be seen on the film’s surface without much digging or unpacking, but that approach works well with Joon Ho’s tendency towards science fiction and the ethereal.
Rian Johnson just became one of my favourite directors, and all it took was one film. Johnson’s two previous films certainly impressed me, but Looper is a step forward for the writer and director. It’s a film that draws you in with the characters on an intimate level as hell starts to break loose, and despite the topic, it’s also a film that takes the story to heart.
Coming out this week on DVD and Blu-ray: Jay Baruchel and Nicolas Cage star in Disney’s live-action remake of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice; Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz are on the run in Knight And Day; plus a look at Going The Distance, and the Twilight Saga: Eclipse.
Universal Pictures has officially unveiled the first poster for Jon Favreau’s action-thriller, Cowboys & Aliens, which stars Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, Adam Beach, Paul Dano, and Noah Ringer in a Western mashup about an alien invasion.
Opening this week at a theatre near you: Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz star in the action-comedy, Knight And Day; John C. Reilly and Jonah Hill fight it out for the love of a woman in Cyrus; and Adam Sandler leads a group of aging guys in the reunion comedy, Grown Ups.
This week’s new arrivals on DVD and Blu-ray include Roland Emmerich‘s epic disaster, 2012; Spike Jonze‘s adaptation of the children’s book, Where the Wild Things Are; plus a look at The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, and Ponyo.