​HERMIA & HELENA ★★☆☆☆
D: Matías Piñeiro.
S: Agustina Muñoz, María Villar, Mati Diop.

Pretentious. Grating. Cloying camerawork. Post-mumblecore tedium. Continually dropped into uninteresting lives.

DON’T BLINK - ROBERT FRANK ★★☆☆☆
​[documentary]
D: Laura Isreal.

Perfunctory, cursory doc on photographer/filmmaker. Contrast BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK or THE SALT OF THE EARTH.

SPACESHIP ★★☆☆☆
D: Alex Taylor.
S: Alexa Davies, Antti Reini, Steven Elder.

Inconsequential. Woeful storytelling, characterisation and dialogue. Decent style though.

​THE RED TURTLE ★★★★½
D: Michael Dudok de Wit.
Artistic producer: Isao Takahata.

A Studio Ghibli co-production. Barring Miyazaki, their best in years. Deceptively simplistic. Moving. Unexpected.

WILD ★★★½☆
D: Nicolette Krebitz.
S: Lilith Stangenberg, Georg Friedrich, Silke Bodenbender, Saskia Rosendahl.

Surreal, funny, erotic. Taboo-busting maybe the dominant force, but there's more going on.

INDIVISIBLE ★★★½
D: Edoardo de Angelis.
S: Gaetano Bruno, Marco Mario de Notaris, Angela Fontana, Marianna Fontana.

Self-determination, co-dependency, exploitation. Unusual portrait of almost post-apocalyptic poverty.

​I am so ready for JOHN WICK 2. Out February. 

THE RIGHT STUFF for a new generation? Here's hoping.

Could Nic Cage be back on form?

The director, the leads, the concept, this has the makings of something impressive.

​CHRISTINE ★★★★☆
D: Antonio Campos (Simon Killer, Afterschool).
S: Rebecca Hall, Michael C. Hall, Tracy Letts.

Campos is expanding his scale and scope. Misanthropy still present, but more oblique, and with compassion.

MOONLIGHT ★★★★½
D: Barry Jenkins (Medicine for Melancholy).
S: Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Trevante Rhodes, André Holland, Janelle Monáe, Ashton Sanders, Jharrel Jerome, Alex Hibbert, Jaden Piner.

Demme meets Malick. Stylish and emotionally powerful. Ellipses and music cues impress. Acting excels. Worth the wait.

MIMOSAS ★☆☆☆☆
D: Oliver Laxe.
S: Ahmed Hammond, Shakib Ben Omar, Said Aagli.

Seemingly entirely concerned with allegory. Zero characterisation. Even AGUIRRE-like brief moments can't expel dullness.

Out to own today:

​I saw 38 movies and attended 10 parties. My favourite five films of TIFF 2016:
​
- ASURA: THE CITY OF MADNESS
- CATFIGHT
- HEADSHOT
- MY ENTIRE HIGH SCHOOL FELL INTO THE SEA
- NORMAN: THE MODERATE RISE AND TRAGIC FALL OF A NEW YORK FIXER

ALL I SEE IS YOU ★★★★☆
D: Marc Forster (World War Z, Machine Gun Preacher, Quantum of Solace, The Kite Runner, Stranger Than Fiction, Finding Neverland, Monster’s Ball).
S: Blake Lively, Jason Clarke, Ahna O'Reilly, Yvonne Strahovski, Danny Huston.

Conveying blindness and sight recovery, an ENTER THE VOID and JULIA'S EYES cross.
Sex and insecurity in mix.

THE JOURNEY ★★★½☆
D: Nick Hamm (The Hole).
S: Timothy Spall, Colm Meaney, John Hurt, Toby Stephens, Freddie Highmore.

Imagined discourse arguably nullifying veracity scepticism, thanks to energy, game performances and sharpness.

Three GAME OF THRONES cast alumni in THE JOURNEY:
-Ser Barristan Selmy (Ian McElhinney)
-Pod (Daniel Portman)
-Ser Meryn Trant (Ian Beattie)

SALT AND FIRE ★★★☆☆
D: Werner Herzog (Queen of the Desert; On Death Row; Into the Abyss; Cave of Forgotten Dreams; Happy People: A Year in the Taiga; My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done; Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans; Rescue Dawn; Grizzly Man; My Best Fiend; Cobra Verde; Fitzcarraldo; Woyzeck; The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser; Aguirre, the Wrath of God).
S: Michael Shannon, Gael García Bernal, Veronica Ferres.

Striking, funny, padded.
Is Werner Herzog interested in making a laugh-less narrative feature any more?

THE NET ★★★★☆
D: Kim Ki-duk (Moebius; Pieta; Time; Samaritan Girl; Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter… and Spring; The Isle).
S: Ryoo Seung-bum, Lee Won-gun, Kim Young-min, Choi Guy-hwa.

A Kafkaesque nightmare about a man put through political wringers. An ordeal made palatable by punctuations of Kim Ki-duk's wry humour.

COLOSSAL ★★★★☆
D: Nacho Vigalondo (Open Windows, Extraterrestrial, Timecrimes).
S: Anne Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis, Dan Stevens, Austin Stowell, Tim Blake Nelson.

A kaiju monster movie more inventive than PACIFIC RIM and the Hollywood GODZILLAs. Anne Hathaway excels.