By John H. Foote While the death of Queen Elizabeth cast a shadowy pall over TIFF, the arrival of one man lit the dimmed lights with his mere presence. Hollywood royalty arrived at TIFF this past week and stole the show, the entire festival revolved around Steven Spielberg. After the screening of his film The…
By John H. Foote For the first time in his 50 year career, Steven Spielberg will bring a film to TIFF. The Fablemans, his autobiographical account of his childhood and how he became a film obsessed director will screen here at TIFF. This marks the first time the director has been to the world class…
By John H. Foote After two years of a virtual film festival, meaning most of we critics saw the films via the internet in the comforts of our offices or homes, TIFF is gearing up for the festival to be as it always has been. The Scotiabank Theatre will again be humming with screenings and…
By John H. Foote With the wildly loved and overrated Belfast winning the People’s Choice Award, TIFF is in the books for another year. Good for the people who run this massive event, they made it happen two years in a row amidst the COVID nightmare. I applaud their thinking outside the box, but truthfully,…
By John H. Foote (***) In 2016, Pablo Larraín brought his film Jackie to TIFF, a haunting film about Jackie Kennedy in the moments, hours, days and weeks after the assassination of her husband, President John F. Kennedy. Portraying Jackie in the year’s greatest performance was Natalie Portman. She masterfully captured that whispery voice, that shell-shocked…
By Alan Hurst I love Melissa McCarthy. I think she’s one of the most inventive comedic actresses on the planet and she’s also a very fine dramatic actress. She won me over in a big way with Bridesmaids (2011), The Heat (2013), Spy (2015), Can You Ever Forgive Me (2018), and in the first few…
By John H. Foote (***) Barry Levinson was at his peak in the 80s and early 90s, directing box office hit and critically acclaimed films such as Diner (1982), The Natural (1984), Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), Tin Men (1987), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), his Oscar-winning Best Picture Rain Man (1988), which also won him the…
By John H. Foote (***) As a filmmaker and actor, Kenneth Branagh has run very hot and cold. Hailed as the heir apparent to Laurence Olivier (did we need one?), Branagh exploded into film with a bloody, realistic production of Henry V (1989) landing himself nominations for Oscars as Best Actor and Best Director. Never…
By John H. Foote (****) The song “You Oughta Know” begins with the singer spitting out each word venomously. “I want you to know….”, she tells her ex-lover, laying open her broken heart. That song launched Alanis Morissette to the top of the Billboard charts, won her a boatload of Grammys, and established her as…
By John H. Foote (***) Accolades came fast for Jessica Chastain, stardom did not. The beautiful red headed graduate of Julliard struggled for several years before finally landing a plum role in Al Pacino’s filmed adaptation of Salome (2009) as the dancing vixen who demands the head of John the Baptist. She had previously been…