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Top 10 Movie Moments in 2017

I've been putting this list off for a while as I wanted to catch up on some of the awards-season films in theatres. I actually wrote a bunch of these a couple of months ago, but wanted to hold off until I had seen more films this year. Sadly, I slacked off and/or caught up on some older films instead. I digress... Instead of just listing my favourite films of the past year, I wanted to list my 10 favourite scenes or moments in the films that came out in 2017. I find with many "Top 10" or favourite film lists of each year, you get a lot of the same movies listed. Obviously there are many factors that play into this, keeping in mind that it can be hard to only pick a select number of films to recommend from any given year. Of course, many times the films that make the top 10 are generally considered the best of that year, but popularity and accessibility to these movies affects how many lists the films appear on too. By listing my favourite scenes, it forces me to think
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TIFF 2017 Reviews: The Disaster Artist, Thelma, Brawl in Cell Block 99

Catching up on my reviews from the past few days, I am going to split up the past several days of screenings into a couple of review posts instead of posting individual posts for each review. Starting off with Midnight Madness #2, "The Disaster Artist": "The Disaster Artist" is James Franco's hilarious and seemingly very authentic re-telling of the infamous bad movie, "The Room", adapted from actor Greg Sestero. At first, when I had heard of the film, I thought it would be an interesting experiment at best, but I am happy to say Franco has succeeded in telling Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero's story with the right amounts of humour and heart. Whether you are a fan of "The Room" already like myself or a newcomer to the phenomenon, "The Disaster Artist" serves equally well as either a companion piece or a great starting point to gauge further interest in the original source material. There has been some Oscar talk for James Fr
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TIFF 2017 Review: Revenge

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Each year at TIFF's Midnight Madness program, I always look for the one film that looks the most gory and brutal hardcore horror film of the bunch. Not every year has one of them, but since my first ever TIFF experience in high school with 2008's "Martyrs", I like to try and find something new each year that pushes boundaries and that successfully freaks out it's audience. French cinema in the past decade has been fairly reliable for me in terms of filmmakers who aren't afraid to go that little bit (or a lot) further in terms of what makes people squirm and scream. I may enjoy these gruesome films, but they still have to have purpose for the violence on display and characters I care for. This year's pick was Coralie Fargeat's "Revenge". I was intrigued by seeing a female perspective on the often exploitative "rape-revenge" genre. The plot is about as simple and straightforward as the title suggests and Fargeat certainly deliv
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TIFF 2017 Review: Tulipani, Love, Honour and a Bicycle

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Despite it's lengthy title (there are a fair number of them this year in the festival),  Mike van Diem's "Tulipani, Love, Honour and a Bicycle" is short and sweet and pretty much what I was looking for in a week of my otherwise mostly dark and violent film selections. The story follows Anna, a young Montreal woman with Italian family heritage. Following her mother's final wish to have her ashes scattered in her home town, Anna travels out to Italy to discover the complicated and wacky history regarding her father and mother's relationship. Throw in some murder accusations, loan sharks, and loads of tulips and you have quite the plot. Despite the twists and turns, the film isn't particularly deep and nor is it trying to be. Some sequences veer from lighthearted into ridiculous, but I went along for the ride and tried not to overthink anything. A few heavier dramatic scenes land more successfully than I expected and the performances all around are so
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TIFF 2017 Review: Occidental

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"Occidental", directed by artist Neïl Beloufa, is a strange, suspenseful and engaging piece of retro-style cinema. Shooting in a 4:3 aspect ratio with a decidedly theatrical approach to the film's setting and look, "Occidental" gives off vibes of early Jean Luc-Godard and other New Wave filmmakers. The plot revolves around two maybe-gay, maybe-Italian lovers who book a room at the Hotel Occidental amidst rioting on the streets outside. The manager of the hotel is instantly suspicious and prejudiced towards the couple, but there is more than meets the eye to the various players in the story. I instantly fell in love with the look of the film, and much of the narrative proceedings kept me engaged throughout, but it was not wrapped out in a fully satisfying fashion. Not all questions needed to be answered and I still enjoyed the mysterious atmosphere the film kept, but I wasn't quite given much in narrative payoff by the time the credits rolled. The fil
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TIFF 2017 Review: Youth

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"Youth", Feng Xiaogang's newest drama follows a military arts troupe through the 1970's, in the years leading up and continuing past Chairman Mao's death. The film focuses on the various young members of the troupe, primarily of a newcomer and outcast to the group, He Xiaoping. The troupe essentially serves as a second family to many of the troupe members and we see the different relationships that flourish, transform, and break down over the years. Beautifully composed and staged, my favourite sequences of the film were the moments where no words are spoken, whether they be moments of silence or in the lengthy musical theatre pieces the troupe performs. Xiaogang and cinematographer, Pan Luo, shoot the bulk of the film in sweeping camera movements, leading up to a performance, on stage, and during the later scenes of battle. To be honest, this is one of the most visually mesmerizing films I have seen in some time, which was one of the things that caught my e
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TIFF Picks for 2017 - What made the list

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TIFF is around the corner and I am officially booked! This year, given I am no longer considered a "youth" by TIFF's pricing standards, I decided to select my tickets solely through their packages. Although this means one has to pick their movies a couple weeks in advance of the festival and thus, pick his or her movies more blindly without the help of other film festival reviews or buzz, it's a substantial saving otherwise. Each year I tell myself I will see less movies or take it a little easier than I did the year before, but then I realize that's a dirty lie and I just want to consume as many different flicks as I can handle while still juggling various work contracts and sleep. I thought about making a list of what I recommend from each category of the festival, but instead I figured I would list what I am seeing and why it caught my interest, hopefully helping someone out there also select a couple TIFF screenings to go to. Without further ado, in or
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