Reviews - Page 86

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

TIFF Review: ‘Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator’

Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator (USA, 82 min.) Dir. Eva Orner Programme: TIFF Docs (World Premiere) Eva Orner delivers a pre-#MeToo tale for the #MeToo movement with Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator. The film is an incisive, no holds-barred doc that holds a sexual predator accountable for his actions and gives voice to the survivors of his crimes. It’s a brave and bold collection of stories about hot yoga guru Bikram Choudhury, the yogi in the black undies and gold Rolex, that exposes him as the idiot, predator, misogynist and rapist he is. Orner, who won an Oscar for producing Alex Gibney’s Taxi to the Dark

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TIFF Review: ‘Desert One’

Desert One (USA, 107 min.) Dir. Barbara Kopple Programme: TIFF Docs (World Premiere) If you think Argo is a thrill ride, you haven’t seen anything yet! Ben Affleck’s hugely entertaining Oscar winning film dramatizes the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis with its tale of a covert escape plan that used a fake movie to smuggle American hostages out of the country. Barbara Kopple’s Desert One tells of another mission that sought to save the dozens of Americans held hostage by Iranian fundamentalists in the US embassy in Tehran. It has all the facts and all the thrills to boot. In her signature fashion, the Oscar-winning Kopple (Harlan County, USA New

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TIFF Review: ‘Love Child’

Love Child (Denmark, 112 min) Dir. Eva Mulvad Two of the biggest issues in the world, border crossings and the fate of refugees, are at the heart of Love Child, Danish director Eva Mulvad’s new doc. Iranian teachers Sahand and Leila have, in a way, crossed two borders. They have transgressed the law in Iran, breaking the border between married couples by having a child, Mani, out of wedlock. That causes them to leave their country for Turkey in 2012, out of fear that the authorities will figure out Leila’s husband isn’t Mani’s father. The penalty for adultery in Iran is

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TIFF Review: ‘Letter to the Editor’

Letter to the Editor (USA, 88 min.) Dir. Alan Berliner Programme: TIFF Docs (World Premiere) Alan Berliner dubs himself a “cultural anthropologist,” a fitting term for a filmmaker fascinated by the way media reflects on who we are while helping to shape society’s values and interests. For Berliner, there’s a prime focus for his interest in the media, the New York Times. Like many New Yorkers and aficionados elsewhere, he subscribes to the Times, reading it daily. But his interest is far greater than that of even the most attuned Times reader. For the past forty years, Berliner has been cutting out the pictures from the Times every

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TIFF Review: ‘The Cordillera of Dreams’

The Cordillera of Dreams (Chile/France, 85 min) Dir. Patricio Guzman Patricio Guzman is a man obsessed with the past and who can blame him? When the director was young, he was a supporter of the populist socialist president Salvador Allende, whose radical regime in Chile was overthrown in 1973 in a U.S. sponsored coup by the country’s military. Under General Augusto Pinochet, Chilean democracy was brutally eliminated for two decades, with many leftists and humanitarians killed. Guzman was one of the country’s leading documentarians in 1973, though he was barely 30, and his account of what happened was turned into

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TIFF Review: ‘Sing Me a Song’

Sing Me a Song (France/Germany/Switzerland, 99 min.) Programme: TIFF Docs (World Premiere) Every edition of TIFF and Hot Docs seems to feature at least one documentary about child monks. This incredibly niche corner of documentary doesn’t run out of things to say. But Sing Me a Song leaves a viewer wondering how much longer these tales of a little wisdom will last—not because the subjects aren’t interesting but because they may soon become too rare. This exquisitely shot meditation on the future of faith offers a unique snapshot of our changing world. Sing Me a Song is director Thomas Balmès’ follow-up to his wonderful 2014 film Happiness, which

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TIFF Review: ‘The Cave’

The Cave (Denmark, 95 min.) Dir. Feras Fayyad Programme: TIFF Docs (World Premiere) After shining a light on the last men in Aleppo, Feras Fayyad turns his gaze towards the women of Syria. The Cave, Fayyad’s follow-up to his 2017 Oscar nominee Last Men in Aleppo, provides a visceral and harrowing portrait of several women in Ghouta, a city just 15 km away from Damascus, who provide emergency care for their neighbors as the country endures relentless bombings and attacks by the regime. This film is not for the faint of heart. The world above ground is hell on Earth as Fayyad’s camera goes

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TIFF Review: ‘There’s Something in the Water’

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There’s Something in the Water (Canada, 73 min.) Dir. Elliot Page, Ian Daniel Programme: TIFF Docs (World Premiere) It’s not unusual for stars to lend their celebrity to worthy causes. Just look at TIFF eco docs such as And We Go Green with Leonardo DiCaprio and Sanctuary with Javier Bardem. While star status risks overwhelming a film, it can provide invaluable benefits, like exposure and a reliable screen presence to engage the audience. Putting the camera in the hands of the star, however, is a different story. Elliot Page does double duty as guide and director with There’s Something in the Water, and is great as a participant

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