Spencer Le Fou: A film blog of sorts.

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...

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...

Although I call this a "Top 10", I must admit to being terrible with keeping to whatever number I restrain myself to. With that said, I have a Top 10 of 2014 , with several honourable mentions and a few that I sadly missed as well. I felt 2014 was a good year for movies, that or maybe I just got lucky with what I picked. From the looks of it, 2015 will be strong as well, considering some of the films I had the pleasure of seeing at TIFF this past fall. With that said, that's making the assumption that some of the more exceptional films at the fest don't get stuck in distribution hell for the next few years. A side note: I always find that with Oscar season filling the last few months of each year, it becomes hard to remember the other great films that spread themselves out over the preceding months. I will admit that the past two years have had a fairly solid selection for Best Picture. However, comparing 2013 to this past year, I would deem this year more successfu...

So seeing as it's Halloween and I like lists... Here is my top ten movies to watch at or around Halloween! Or Christmas! Or Hanukkah. Or Ramadan. Or whenever you like a good scare. There are many others I could list, but for Halloween season, these will have to do. Yeah, anyways, here's my list in no real order: 1. The Loved Ones I saw this at TIFF when it originally came out and had to wait three long years for it's release in North America. I cannot recommend this prom-themed, confetti-covered, Aussie horror film enough. With that said, it's abundance of torture/gore and offputing tone between black comedy and full-out horror are not for the faint of heart. 2. The Shining One of my two favourite horror films of all time. Although I feel this one needn't an explanation as to why it's recommended, if you haven't seen Stanley Kubrick's excellent foray into horror, get on it. 3. Trick r' Treat (2007) If you haven't seen this one,...

Samba is the follow up from directing duo Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, whose last film, The Intouchables , was a film that was filled with touching moments, lots of laughs, and had two amazing leads. Nakache and Toledano's are collaborating again with Omar Sy, who plays the title role. Omar Sy and Charlotte Gainsbourg both command every scene that they are in, bringing many laughs, and are one of the main strengths of Samba . In this outing, the directors still bring plenty of the same charm, as well as some more dramatic material to play with, although I did not find myself quite as engaged as I was with The Intouchables . The chemistry between Sy and Gainsbourg is strong, but I feel the more dramatic elements present could have played a much bigger part. While the abundant humour and more crowd pleasing elements of the film (mostly) worked, I would have liked to see a bit more weight given to the issues with France's immigration laws instead of the romantic aspects ...

Kill Me Three Times , directed by Kriv Stenders, reminded me of the close-knit noir-ish thrillers of the 90's like Red Rock West , U-Turn , or The Last Seduction , with the exception that Stenders' film is set against a lush Australian backdrop and I enjoyed this film much more than the others mentioned. Along with the aforementioned titles, Kill Me Three Times also feels like the works of Guy Ritchie or Quentin Tarantino, with a bit of Stenders' own polished touch as well. The fact that Stenders' film feels like familiar territory in style, that is one of the film's few detractors. James McFarland's script is filled with twists and turns that push his backstabbing and conniving characters in directions you don't always expect. While the performances are all solid, the two standouts are Simon Pegg playing a clumsy, but cool hitman and Teresa Palmer as an irritable and equally evil housewife. To give much in the way of plot details would spoil the fun, but...

Big Game , Jalmari Helander's follow up to Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale , is a wholly enjoyable sendback to the action-adventure movies that filled my childhood. During the first 10 minutes, I will admit I thought I was going to be in for a straight-to-DVD quality action movie with the initial setup and extremely exposition-heavy dialogue. Luckily, Helander cuts to the action pretty quick after that, and his vision became clear. Instead of attempting anything really serious, Helander knows exactly the movie he is making and throws logic out the window after the twenty minute mark. From there, things only got better. By far the most fun I have had at the festival so far, Samuel Jackson (as the president of the United States) and Onni Tommila have a good bit of chemistry bouncing back at each other throughout the movie. While the sheer lack of plausibility might deter some, I recommend embracing the ludicrousness of the scenario Helander has presented. There is plenty of humour, ...

Eden , the new film by Mia Hansen-Løve, may be formally described as the life of a young DJ (Félix de Givry) and his part in creating French house music (specifically "Garage"). However, I felt that the film was much more about Paul's passion for the music he was creating and his stubbornness to move on as he grows up. Eden 's pacing mixed with Mia's reserved directional style, affected my viewing experience for better and for worse In another director's hands, some of the events in Paul's life, like breakups or his drug addictions, could have been depicted in a more melodramatic or sensational way, but here, Mia never spends very long dwelling on any of this. While refreshing to see her approach, the same approach never made me feel like anything affected Paul all that much. Not to say that Félix's or anyone else's performances were poor, but I found myself wanting to stick around a bit longer when Paul is with his friends or his ex-lover(s). ...

While TIFF last night may have opened with a few high-profile films such as The Judge and Clouds of Sils Maria , I doubt any were as fun as Sion Sono's hip-hop musical brawler, Tokyo Tribe . From the opening crane shot to the final brawl, Sono kept the energy up and the bass pounding for much of the film's two-hour runtime. About twenty minutes in, it is clear that Sono is not interested in ever sticking to one character's story for too long nor should we really have to care about anyone involved in the all-out gang war that will inevitably commence in the film's last quarter. I came to accept the madness pretty quickly, but with so many characters popping up left and right, spouting their (sometimes catchy and always exposition heavy) rhymes, the film could get overwhelming or even tiresome for some as it storms forward. Part of the fun of Tokyo Tribe is seeing that all the actors (many of which are real rappers) and crew are game for the entirety of the product...

I am terrible with decision making. Particularly when it comes to more trivial matters. Case-in-point: coming up with a blog name. Similarly to how I struggle to name my own films, or at an earlier stage in my life, my twelve pet goldfish, I spent far too much time thinking about how to title this blog. This shouldn't be such a hard task, nor should it matter all that much as the title can be changed at any time. With that said, today I found myself under great mental strain trying to figure out the best title that was both relevant to the content I would be posting, as well as something that did not feel was completely cheesy, vulgar, or all around awful. The question that kept pounding away in my mind was: why couldn't I move past this initial literary guard post presented before me? When I am working on set or trying to figure out what food to order for delivery, I'm on top of it. However, this... this was a different beast altogether. After taking a long, hard loo...