The galas and special presentations sections of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival have been announced, and it should come to no surprise that this is an absolutely stacked list including films from Darren Aronofsky (mother!), David Gordon Green (Stronger), Alexander Payne
A new poster has been revealed for Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani‘s (Amer, The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears) latest, Let The Corpses Tan (Laissez Bronzer Les Cadavres) ahead of its world premiere at this year’s Locarno Film Festival on August 4th.
This year’s New York Asian Film Festival has officially wrapped, and with the the award winners have been announced. Nattawut Poonpiriya’s Bad Genius won the Best Feature Award with honorable mentions going to Yoshiyuki Kishi‘s A Double Life and Le Binh Giang‘s Kfc. Naoko
7.5
Methodical in its formal approach and more twisted than the salacious details of the crimes it combs over, Kei Ishikawa's Traces of Sin probes ingenuously into the various connecting threads of a murder case, not for the sake of pointing fingers, but more for a want of a full picture.
5.5
The concern over the utter aimlessness and disaffection of Japan's youth has proven to be a topic of abundance for the country's transgressive cinema. Whether we are talking the carefree Sun Tribe films of 1950s, the politically charged student activist films of ’60s and ’70s, or the nihilistic films that followed the burst of the economic bubble in the late ’80s, the nation's cinema was always worried about its future working force maturing in the wrong ways.
4.5
Aside from its goofy title and uniquely strange villain, Alan Lo’s Zombiology: Enjoy Yourself Tonight plays out like numerous other zombie comedies that we’ve seen over the last decade or so, making for a slightly enjoyable, yet familiar, experience despite some of the ideas on display.
5
Combining tropes from classic Hong Kong vampire comedies of decades past with more contemporary vampire tales, Sin-Hang Chiu and Pak-Wing Yan’s Vampire Cleanup Department is a fun concept but lacks any real lasting power, falling short of laughs and plot.
7
Mixing animation with live-action photography is a consistently compelling tactic in contemporary filmmaking. Whether it’s in comedies like Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Space Jam or in action films like Kill Bill Vol. 1, the additional work required to mix the two modes demands an artistic intention that makes the animation mean something more than what could be done with either mode on its own.
7.5
Filled to the brim with near-constant, brutal violence, Tetsuya Mariko’s Destruction Babies is an artfully crafted tale of nihilism and lost youth set against the backdrop of a hot summer in Japan.
6
Derek Tsang's Soul Mate is an interesting, if never fully compelling, romantic drama about the love and friendship shared by Ansheng (Zhou Dongyu) and Qiyue (Sandra Ma), two Chinese women who meet at age 13 and grow up, apart and back together.
1
Maybe it’s nothing more than a nod to Noboru Tanaka’s 1972 film, The Night of the Felines. Perhaps, something was lost in translation or there is a cultural disconnect but as it stands to me now, in the present, Dawn of the Felines contains an absolute dearth of redeeming qualities.
7
Kfc had me from the get-go. It opens with four separate and repetitive title cards adamantly announcing and insisting that this film bears no resemblance to past events or people. And you can understand why writer/director Le Binh Giang had to do this, as the script kept him from graduating film school due to it being deemed too violent by the Vietnamese Council of Examiners.
5.5
In his fourth feature (and first contemporary-set film), fireman-turned-director Yang Shupeng takes us down a winding path of cat-and-mouse intrigue with Blood of Youth. Full of surprise revelations, twists, turns and shocking moments, the film aims to keep viewers on the edges of their seats in this high-stakes crime thriller about a hacker playing a dangerous game with both the police and a criminal organization.
7.5
Imagine if you will Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, except, instead of a tragic love story, it’s a Chinese crime thriller; and you have the foundation for Leste Chen’s Battle of Memories.
The Fandependent Spring Film Festival has officially wrapped and with that, the winners have been announced. Jacob Fallon’s Homebody won the Fan Award and received a $1000 prize, Alice Ralston’s The Pissy Tits Street Gang won the Audience
The 2017 newportFILM outdoor screening series kicks off tonight and the full lineup of films has officially been announced. Ten great looking documentaries will be screening around the Newport area with Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story opening the fest. I had the
