“You are now in the presence of the king!”
Keanu Reeves
The first time I watched The Matrix in 1999 was like nothing else I had ever seen in a movie theatre. It felt like lightning, and it was one of the few films I saw again a week later.
TIFF 2021 starts tomorrow, and I’ve been reflecting on all the years that I’ve been covering Canada’s best festival, and one of the most interesting public festivals in the world.
An inspired and nostalgic blast of fun at a time in human history when genuine amusement is in direly short supply, the long gestating sequel Bill & Ted Face the Music nicely balances fan expectations, progressiveness, gentility, and melancholy to create the ultimate in 2020 cinematic comfort food.
Fall means warm sweaters, a cup of tea, and curling up in front of the television for a few hours on the weekend to unwind. So pull up a couch cushion, grab the remote, and stream a few movies and shows with my autumn suggestions from The Roku Channel, Google Play Movies, Amazon Prime Video, and Netflix.
In Toy Story 4, which hit theatres this weekend, audiences around the world will get acquainted with a very special character: Duke Caboom, Canada’s “greatest” stuntman. And unlike most Canadian…
Although it certainly seemed like a franchise that reached a natural, heartwarming conclusion a few years ago, Toy Story 4 genially and entertainingly proves that its titular playthings still have some mileage left in them.
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, the latest entry into the best action franchise going today, continues the series’ upward trajectory into fresh, exciting, but potentially top heavy territory.
To the Bone wants to be two very different things at once: one of them noble and important and the other hackneyed and clichéd. The feature directorial debut of television veteran and screenwriter Marti Noxon, To the Bone offers a deeply personal look at the struggles of anorexia through the lens of a filmmaker who once struggled with the disease herself. That aspect is the noble, well meaning, and imperfectly delivered one. It’s just unfortunate that about half of To the Bone is a turgid, chaste, thoroughly unconvincing teen romance that bogs down a lot of good and necessary conversations that could be had from the material.
Toronto’s streets will be flooded with movie lovers–and movie stars–this September as the 38th Toronto International Film Festival takes over the city from September 5 to 15, and today the festival has announced the full list of filmmakers and celebrities expected for all the red carpet events.