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.
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, the latest and most ambitious experiment in Charlie Brooker’s techno-skeptical anthology series, is engaging, thrilling, and emotionally defined enough to warrant losing the better part of a day trying to figure out its intricacies.
Nowhere near as inspired, zany, or hilarious as one would expect from its cast and premise, Homes & Watson (which wasn’t screened in advance of its Christmas Day release for reviewing press) has a few light chuckles and an overwhelming and frustrating amount of missed potential.
Our film writer Andrew Parker delivers his ranking of the top fifty films of 2018.
A psychologically and philosophically fascinating blend of supernatural and metaphysical thrills, Canadian filmmaker Justin McConnell’s cleverly written and surprisingly emotional chiller Lifechanger has boundless originality that punches in a much higher weight class than the film’s modest budget would suggest.
More inspirational, suspenseful, and unpredictable than the best sports movies and more genuinely moving than an all day marathon of romances, the documentary Pick of the Litter follows around some very good boys and girls as they strive to make the world a better place.
Brash, complicated, and somewhat of a gorgeous mess, Vice, Adam McKay’s pointed critique and chronicle of the career of American politician Dick Cheney moves like an eighteen wheeler barrelling down a hillside with no breaks.
The affable, but unexceptional workplace comedy Second Act boasts a surprisingly solid, confident, and lightly inspiring first half before a midpoint twist sends the whole thing onto a different set of tracks in a flash and straight into needlessly manipulative territory.
The second masterpiece to see release this year from esteemed Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda, Shoplifters is a meditative, detailed reflection on family and morality.
A well intentioned, but woefully misguided attempt to mine real life trauma for feel good whimsy, the effects driven wannabe crowd pleaser Welcome to Marwen has a lot of great technology, solid ideas, and a genuine, earnest desire to uplift, but it never realizes that it’s approach is astoundingly clueless and shallow.
