The sincerity of The Homestretch is certainly never in doubt. Depicting the plight of three homeless teens in Chicago, Anne de Mare and Kirsten Kelly’s documentary interweaves the personal stories with various facts and statistics highlighting the widespread nature of the issue. Unfortunately, despite its pure intentions, The Homestretch never really manages to succeed to be truly engaging, regardless of the clear warmth of the three featured youths.
In the world of movies, you should never go home. It rarely goes well, and even if you do attain some measure of pathos, it comes at great cost. Jack doesn’t have much choice in Jack Goes Home; you have to attend your father’s funeral, but if your mother is horror fixture Lin Shaye, you should really know better.
Dinner with Dames Case File Who: Simon Barrett, writer of Blair Witch and The Guest, & Cinefemme board and volunteers – Michele Blackwell, Kimby Caplan, Lagueria Davis, Rory Gory, Heidi Honeycutt, Michelle Kantor, and myself, Jenna Payne What: Dinner 1.
It is easy to see how The Girl With All The Gifts could have been toned down and transformed into a generic YA movie in its cinematic adaptation. In the 2014 best-selling novel, the story is told from the point of view of all five central character. Here, director Colm McCarthy focuses on the titular tween character Melanie, exploring this plague-ravaged world from her point of view.
When the title card appears in Daguerrotype, it announces the film as “Le secret de le chambre noire”. That title reflects the film’s goals as a dark, foreboding ghost mystery, and it probably does so better than the title “Daguerrotype” does. But what I like about the title Daguerrotype (misspelled though it might be), is that it refers to the most interesting part of the film:
A man named Paterson living in a town called Paterson seems quaint, like a small oddity you brush by on a road trip. It’s certainly not something you stop for, but then writer/director Jim Jarmusch rarely stops for the obvious thing. Many of Jarmusch’s films, which are considered exemplary of the American independent scene, ignore traditional plot structures, but Paterson seems to be taking things to a tranquil extreme.
Another day of school on Wednesday (September 14th) allowed me to take a break from my TIFFing, which was welcome. However, I was back on the town the next day, my sixth of what would be nine days in total. After the first weekend, TIFF starts to wind down:
Man, did September fly by, or what? We had such an excellent time featuring one short film every day of September during our #ShortFilmADay challenge. You can find the complete list and some additional information about the shorts we featured in our #ShortFilmADay Recap.
Thought the buddy cop movie formula was tired? Well, it is a cinematic breath of fresh air in comparison to the “bad cop” movie. These movies are tiresome depictions of lawmen (and make no mistake, they are always men) who break every rule in the book whilst trying to enforce it – and even though there have been solid entries into the genre in recent years, it can’t help but feel worn out.
Every Tuesday, Film Inquiry compiles a list of the movies that are opening in cinemas. Opening this week: The Girl On The Train, The Birth of a Nation, The 13th, Voyage of Time, Under The Shadow, Middle School:
Baz Luhrmann is a divisive director. His unique blend of pop culture references coupled with highly choreographed, hyperbolic sequences can, for some, prove distracting. Certainly, these criticisms are understandable, if not valid.
During September, we featured a short film every day, to promote general awareness of short films and the great talent behind them, and to help people find some excellent shorts. Today we’re listing all the short films we featured. We’re also including a bunch of fun graphs to illustrate the data behind the short films!
Killer Friends is a short horror-comedy written by Zach Noe Towers and co-directed by Towers and Tina Carbone. The film stars Jenna-Lee Carreiro, Dave Racki, and Peggy Sinnott alongside Towers, who plays the indestructible jerk himself, Scott. With Friends Like This, Who Needs Enemies?
It’s taken thirteen years for the guys to stage another Christmas heist, but Willie and Marcus are finally back in all their surly glory. They’ve set their sights a bit higher this time, using their Santa and elf routine to infiltrate a large charity group instead of measly department stores. The rude and seemingly uncontrollable antics of Willie put the entire enterprise in jeopardy last time, and thirteen years doesn’t seem to have changed his behavior.
Hundreds of thousands of moviegoers, press, and industry players descend on Canada every year for the Toronto International Film Festival. Eleven days of red carpets, screenings, junkets, and presentations cause a gluttonous amount of content to stream out of the city, covering everything from awards season contenders to fashion faux pas. It’s difficult to imagine anything getting missed by the avalanche, but those who attend know just how immense the festival is.