Reviews include You Hurt My Feelings, The Little Mermaid, and It Ain’t Over.
TFCA Friday: Week of January 31st, 2020
January 31, 2020
Welcome to TFCA Friday, a weekly round-up of film reviews and articles by TFCA critics.
Opening this Week
Gretel & Hansel (dir. Osgood Perkins)
“Still feels twice as long as it needs to be – but Lillis and Krige are great together, and Perkins rouses himself to deliver a striking finale. Who would have thought there was life left in this premise?” — Norm Wilner, NOW Magazine
“An odd, dark little film that loses its way after it leaves the woods” — Jim Slotek, Original-Cin
“There’s no winking or cleverness in this movie; merely low-grade scares along the way to a tidy and neat ending” — Chris Knight, The National Post
“Stands out as a solid horror movie with its carefully created atmosphere” — Gilbert Seah, Afro Toronto
Man Proposes, God Disposes (dir. Daniel Leo) 🇨🇦
“A modestly poignant story and some memorable images wrapped in a mood of subdued fatalism” — Liam Lacey, Original-Cin
“An impressive look at where one’s life can lead” — Gilbert Seah, Afro Toronto
Rabid (dir. The Soska Sisters) 🇨🇦
“A suitable entry into the science-fiction/horror genre that occasionally slants towards the promise of offering something more” — Thom Ernst, Original-Cin
“Walks a fine line between drama and camp. I was rolling my eyes at a hospital scene that featured a Halloween-grade nurse’s uniform and acting to match, until I realized that it wasn’t trying to take itself seriously” — Chris Knight, The National Post
The Rhythm Section (dir. Reed Morano)
“The movie is fine, in that post-Bourne sort of way where an international thriller strives so hard for realism that you can’t help noticing all the ways it’s faking it” — Norm Wilner, NOW Magazine
“Leaves so many loose threads that you could crochet yourself a nice afghan during the closing credits” — Chris Knight, The National Post
Rosie (dir. Paddy Breathnach)
“A modest but hard-hitting drama about a young Dublin mother trying to find temporary accommodation for the night after being evicted, two weeks earlier, when her landlord sold her home” — Liam Lacey, Original-Cin
“Sensitively directed by Paddy Breathnach and starring Sarah Greene this gut-wrenching, unsentimental study is powerful in its simplicity” — Anne Brodie, What She Said!
“You can’t watch this without thinking about the slow-motion tidal wave of Toronto’s own housing crisis, and wondering what you’d do – and how you’d fare – if you found yourself in this family’s situation” — Norm Wilner, NOW Magazine
“This moving portrait of working class life is kitchen sink realism without the sink” — Pat Mullen, That Shelf
“Reveals the shortage of low-income housing in Ireland” — Gilbert Seah, Afro Toronto
“Without getting bogged down in didacticism, Doyle’s script makes it clear that this could happen to anyone living paycheque to paycheque” — Chris Knight, The National Post
Oscar Shorts
NOW Magazine’s Norm Wilner writes on the Oscar shorts currently playing at the Lightbox
At the Toronto Star, Peter Howell has notes on the “sharp and satisfying” shorts
Chris Knight, at the National Post, goes long on shorts
At Toronto Franco, Gilbert Seah has capsule reviews on his favourite shorts
At POV, Pat Mullen gets real on the Oscar short docs, including an interview with St. Louis Superman‘s Sami Khan. At That Shelf, he also writes on the animated and the live action shorts
Human Rights Watch Film Festival
At Original-Cin, Liam Lacey rounds up the highlights from the festival, including Made in Bangladesh
Ford v. Ferrari‘s Not Out
In a new series, Peter Howell handicaps the Best Picture nominees — and the car seemingly in last place might still have a shot, he writes
