The Woman King is a fierce period drama, brought to life with epic performances, and a passion that can be felt in every scene. Set in the early 1800s, Viola Davis stars as General Nanisca, the leader of the Agojie, the elite, all-female warriors who serve the king, and she has a mission to free her people.
King Street almost feels like it did a few years ago as the Toronto International Film Festival returned this week for a fest that’s packed with everything that made it one of my favourite places every September.
Since George Lucas decided Star Wars needed to be updated for modern times, Lucasfilm has set a certain tone. That was never more evident than when Star Wars: A New Hope arrived on Disney+ with “maclunkey” plopped in for absolutely no apparent reason.
Oscar winning filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow has proven herself to be a master of suspense, with most of her films centering around characters trying desperately by any means necessary to survive another day. Her latest collaboration with The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty screenwriter Mark Boal, the historical period drama Detroit, is no exception. Built around a sustained sequence of unease, tension, and violence both psychological and physical that will stand as one of her finest filmmaking moments, Bigelow’s look back rioting and racial injustice in Detroit during the summer of 1967 will haunt the memories of viewers for a long time.
My childhood came back to me in a wave as I watched the opening crawl of Star Wars: The Force Awakens yesterday morning. It’s like I’m a kid again, and someone has planted me back in this universe a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
