Spencer Le Fou: A film blog of sorts.

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). ...