Reviews of the Bosch

It’s been a very long time since a movies’ troubled production has so overshadowed the movie itself as it has for Don’t Worry Darling , the sophomore feature from Olivia Wilde, which began the year one of the more intriguing movies to look out for and has since become something of a P.R. liability for everyone involved. I’m not so interested in that drama between Wilde and Florence Pugh, or the several gaffes that have happened through the films’ promotional tour, as unavoidable as they may be. But the negative press it brings can’t be good for a movie that already faced significant scrutiny off of its’ subject matter. And it’s sure to result I feel in a harsher attitude towards the movie than it perhaps deserves. Having seen it, it is not at all the trainwreck it has been anticipated as. But neither is it especially good in its’ limited sights and highly rudimentary themes. As every indication by the trailers have suggested, Don’t Worry Darling  is molded in both the themes and aesthe

Laura  is a movie that sets up an interesting mystery and steps all over it. It’s not the most unexpected thing for a classic film noir, which typically had levels of convolution that could only be matched by soap operas. But still, there’s something I find disheartening to how this movie, directed by Otto Preminger in 1944 after a lengthy battle for it with Fox head Darryl F. Zanuck, unfolds its’ mystery with a twist that makes the whole affair far less compelling than it should have been -indeed that it was. And I will have to reveal that twist, which happens at about the films’ midpoint, in order to discuss the movie properly. Laura is alive. The mystery surrounding her death is a matter of mistaken identity -it was her secretary who took the bullet for her. And now she accompanies the detective, who has been falling in love with her memory, onto the case of who tried to kill her but failed. As usual when dealing with films from this period, I assumed initially this had to be a choi

One of the things I miss most in modern Hollywood is the general absence of historical epics, one of the long-time great sources of cinematic spectacle not tied to major franchises or intellectual properties. Once upon a time of course they ruled the industry, but then they faded away and haven’t really made a proper comeback outside of a few efforts from the like of Ridley Scott in the last twenty years. Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King  clearly strives to change that, to be an epic in the classical tradition, but for a people and culture that have too long been neglected by it. I mean it’s not a great sign when the most significant historical epic to focus on Africa is Zulu . To her credit, she’s found a compelling subject in the Agojie, an all-female elite warrior band that served the kingdom of Dahomey for about two-hundred years in modern-day Benin. However due to the recorded history of this region being so white-biased, there is no specific figure known of to draw on withi

Pearl is the proof that A24 believes it has found its’ first proper film franchise. And as with everything A24, it’s a bit of a gutsy move. Director Ti West pitched the idea of expanding on his movie X and they greenlit it before that film was even finished production. X  and Pearl wound up being shot back-to-back with the latter not even being revealed publicly until X  came out this past spring. And now it’s the fall, and we’ve got Pearl  -a prequel origin story about the antagonist of X . Mia Goth, who played the dual role of heroine and villain in  X , reprises her role of the latter here, in addition to receiving a co-writer credit (she’s also due to reprise her other role from X  in a sequel probably due out next year). And while this process may seem very slap-dash and ostentatious, I have to say that Ti West’s little cinematic universe here is so far two for two - Pearl  being its’ own interesting beast while tying into the movie that preceded it. It’s a fairly different appro

Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap  is still the longest running show in the West End. It opened in 1952 at the Ambassadors Theatre and barring one move to St. Martins’ next door has been a constant of the British theatrical scene ever since. I actually saw it in 2009 on holiday, my first ever West End show, and yes it is true that it still ends with the gimmick of asking the audience not to reveal the twist ending despite the seventy year history of the show. I didn’t expect that The Mousetrap  would be such a central feature of See How They Run , a murder mystery comedy directed by Tom George and with a fairly noteworthy ensemble cast led by Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan. The whole movie in fact revolves around that show in its’ original run, and draws from it and other Agatha Christie tropes for its’ plot, frequently winking at the audience in the same corny way the play does. Even the title seems like it could be lifted straight from one of her works -it has that 1940s playfulness to

Larry Gelbart The chief architects of M*A*S*H  at its’ beginning were Larry Gelbart and Gene Reynolds. Gelbart wrote the pilot, Reynolds directed it, and the two would spearhead the creative direction of the show for its’ first three seasons. The show developed its’ character under their wing, the dynamics of the cast set in place, their routines solidified. This era of the show was characterized by both a light touch and an abundance of silliness to general premises –a sensibility that often boarded on the anarchism of the movie. It’s curious to see plotlines here that would fly very differently had they come later, such as an unexploded shell landing in the middle of the camp in “The Army-Navy Game” or the whimsy with which they treat one very incompetent enemy bomber in “5 O’Clock Charlie”. This mirrors an attitude towards the war and the American army that is patently tongue-in-cheek –every aspect of military life and every austere military figure is played to the utmost goofball s

When I came into Toronto for the film festival one of the first things I was awed by was the diversity. I think I noticed it at Union Station most prominently: people from so many different cultures and backgrounds and languages and identities. It really felt the cosmopolitan city, one rich for its’ variety of distinct peoples, its’ variety of distinct stories. This Place , the feature debut of director V.T. Nayani is in some ways a testament to this mosaic that exists within Toronto; the ethnic communities and immigrant communities, the queer communities and youth communities. And it is about the uniquely cultural dramas that effect these peoples’ lives and relationships. A little indie glimpse into the myriad worlds and tragedies therein that are a quiet but significant part of the multicultural make-up of these strong urban centres. I chose this movie as my final watch for this years’ TIFF because it felt right to go out on a Canadian film and because I’ve been a curious follower of