Spencer Le Fou: A film blog of sorts.

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...

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...

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...

"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...

"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...

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...

It's been a while, apparently, since I have posted on this so I figured, three years late is better than... four? Anyways, tis the season for TIFF, which means in a matter of 10 days, King Street will be closed; stars will be seen walking the red carpet or elsewhere; and hundreds of movies from all over the world will be playing. Since my first TIFF experience in high school, I have sort of considered TIFF to be my annual working staycation. It's the time of the year I get to see movies that I may never get to see ever again and a time that I can hear different directors talk about their films. To me, getting to experience all these different visions and hear from the people who create said visions is like another form of film school. That said, when you see the seemingly endless list of films TIFF is screening each year, it's hard to pick one, let alone several to watch. Each year, I try to see between 10-20 movies, which is equally challenging when there is just no wa...