Reviews - Page 109

Giving you our points of view on the latest docs in release and on the circuit.

TIFF Review: ‘The Truth About Killer Robots’

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The Truth About Killer Robots (USA, 83 min.) Dir. Maxin Pozdorovkin Programme: TIFF Docs (World Premiere) The Truth About Killer Robots focuses on the insidious nature of robots. Creeping into our lives with humans too dazzled by convenience and the spectacle of technology to notice the downfalls of anything from faster manual labour to self-driving cars, robots can, and have, resulted in the deaths of humans. Maxim Pozdorovkin’s latest film opens with just that: the death of a worker in a Volkswagen factory. But while the question of physical violence is present, Killer Robots is more intent on the question of the capitalist casualties. When

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TIFF Review: ‘Carmine Street Guitars’

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Carmine Street Guitars (Canada, 80 min.) Dir. Ron Mann Programme: TIFF Docs (North American Premiere) There’s a great scene in Michael McGowan’s 2012 drama Still Mine in which James Cromwell sits at the family dinner table and runs his hands along every nick and scratch in the soft pine surface while fondly recalling memories of his wife and children. There are stories housed in the objects we cherish. If something is built to last, it contains history as it passes from hand to hand and generation to generation. Ron Mann’s wonderful new documentary Carmine Street Guitars shares this philosophy evoked in the scene of Cromwell caressing

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TIFF Review: ‘Capernaum’

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Capernaum (Lebanon, 120 min.) Dir. Nadine Labaki Starring: Zain Al Rafeea, Yordanos Shiferaw, Boluwatife Treasure Bankole, Kawthar Al Haddad, Fadi Youssef, Cedra Izam, Alaa Chouchnieh, Nadine Labaki Programme: Special Presentations (North American Premiere) I generally abhor films that focus on children, but I tip my hat to Nadine Labaki. Her new film Capernaum is a triumph that walks a razor’s edge between heart-wrenching emotion and sentimentality without tripping. It is a devastating parable about the children who are abandoned by their parents’ outdated value systems. Nearly every frame of Capernaum rests on the shoulders of 12-year-old actor Zain Al Rafee, who gives an astonishingly

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TIFF Review: ‘Meeting Gorbachev’

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Meeting Gorbachev (UK/USA/Germany, 90 min.) Dir. Werner Herzog, André Singer Programme: TIFF Docs (Canadian Premiere) Werner Herzog plays softball with world leaders in Meeting Gorbachev. This utterly toothless documentary sits down with the former leader of the Soviet Union for a greatest hits account of his time in office. Sure, Mikhail Gorbachev seems like a really nice guy based on the affable interviews he enjoys with Herzog, and the director’s admiration for the subject is evident in the great rapport that develops between them. With such great access comes great responsibility though, and Herzog doesn’t do the world justice by moderating Gorbachev’s trip

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TIFF Review: ‘Searching for Ingmar Bergman’

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Searching for Ingmar Bergman (Germany/France, 99 min.) Dir. Margarethe von Trotta Programme: TIFF Docs (North American Premiere) Few filmmakers have an aesthetic that is now synonymous with their names. A film is “Bergmanesque” if characters undergo struggles of belonging or faith told in dark, impressionistic atmospheres that are dreamlike and surreal, yet grounded in a hauntingly recognisable reality. The Swedish filmmaker’s influence extends to virtually any students who have immersed themselves in the canon of world cinema, discovered great old movies at revival theatres, or explored the pages of publications like Cahiers du Cinema and their discussions of auteur theory. The best tribute to

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TIFF Review: ‘Fahrenheit 11/9’

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Fahrenheit 11/9 (USA, 120 min.) Dir. Michael Moore Programme: TIFF Docs (World Premiere – Opening Night) On November 8, 2016 I made a poorly received joke to a colleague that watching the TV news anchors declare victory for Donald Trump would be an event comparable only to the phrase, “Where were you when 9/11 happened?” Michael Moore echoes this sentiment with his new documentary Fahrenheit 11/9, a spiritual sequel to his 2004 anti-Bush mega hit Fahrenheit 9/11. The symmetry of the titles implies that the election of Donald Trump was the worst thing to happen to America since the terrorist attacks of September 11,

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TIFF Review: ‘Birds of Passage’

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Birds of Passage (Colombia/Denmark/Mexico/France, 125 min.) Dir. Cristina Gallego, Ciro Guerra Programme: Contemporary World Cinema (Canadian Premiere) It feels as if we’re in the middle of a new revolution in Latin American cinema. Gone are the days of Cinema Novo and Third Cinema. Argentina has developed a robust commercial filmmaking scene with hits like Wild Tales and 2009’s Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winner The Secret in Their Eyes. Chile won last year’s Academy Award for Sebastián Lelio’s transgender drama A Fantastic Woman. It could be Colombia’s year at the podium with the explosive drug cartel drama Birds of Passage. The film, which is Colombia’s

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TIFF Review: ‘Heartbound’

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Heartbound (Hjertelandet) (Denmark/Netherlands/Sweden, 90 min.) Dir. Janus Metz, Sine Plambech Programme: TIFF Docs (World Premiere) What are the borders of love? Heartbound offers a different kind of love story as it observes the marriages in the sparsely populated fishing village of Thy, Denmark, where the population of Thai residents has increased exponentially over the past quarter century. Point zero for the Thai invasion is a woman named Sommai, who came to Denmark 25 years ago after striking up a relationship with a dashing Dane named Niels who was her client whilst on a “sex vacation” in the tourist town of Pattaya, Thailand. Make no mistake,

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