Yes Israeli criminals can be big bunglers as we see in “Forgiveness”. I would say it is a low toned comedic film full of subtleties you might easily miss if you are not familiar with Israeli society. At times its premise is delightfully absurd. Shaul and Nissan are robbing a post office safe. Shaul isContinue reading ““Forgiveness”: A Subtle Israeli Comedy: Toronto 2021 Jewish Film Festival”
Category Archives: film
“Asia”: Israeli Academy Awards Winner and the Inevitability of the End: Toronto 2021 Jewish Film Festival
After several years of reviewing Israeli films there is nothing second rate about them. Sure I have seen a few clunkers but such are very rare! No more than in the North American film industry. If one pays attention to the introduction of the film on the TJFF website one might be left with theContinue reading ““Asia”: Israeli Academy Awards Winner and the Inevitability of the End: Toronto 2021 Jewish Film Festival”
“Hors Normes” (The Specials): The 2021 Toronto Jewish Film Festival
“Hors Normes” leaves you a bit dazed when it begins but let it run and the pieces fit in very nicely. While in many senses it is a sort of tragedy about how the most difficult mentally challenged youth and young adults in France have no place to go for treatment. And treatment in theContinue reading ““Hors Normes” (The Specials): The 2021 Toronto Jewish Film Festival”
“Being Thunder”: Sometimes Interesting But Mostly Meandering: 2021 Inside Out Film Festival
The 2021 Inside Out Toronto LGBTQ Film Festival features many “LGBTQ” films one of which is “Being Thunder”. The promo material indicates the documentary is about Sherenté Harris, a two-sprit genderqueer teenager from the Narragansett tribe in Rhode Island in the United States as she “boldly challenges the status quo of what it means toContinue reading ““Being Thunder”: Sometimes Interesting But Mostly Meandering: 2021 Inside Out Film Festival”
“Thunderbird”: A Complex Film Packing a Wallop and Leaving Tantalizing Questions Unanswered
The last 6 minutes of the film will leave your head spinning and if you are looking for a clean resolution of the conflict and mystery it as if you are being taunted to use your imagination to glue together the pieces. This is solid and complex filmmaking and aside from a few awkward linesContinue reading ““Thunderbird”: A Complex Film Packing a Wallop and Leaving Tantalizing Questions Unanswered”
“Undine”: A German Wet and Wonderful Mythological Romantic Film Winner
I have seen some awfully good German films in the past few years and I will count “Undine” amongst one of them. It reminded me of “Shape of Water” due to the mysticism of both those films. However there is some real lore in “Undine”. According to European mythology Undine is a water nymph whoContinue reading ““Undine”: A German Wet and Wonderful Mythological Romantic Film Winner”
“Jenny”: Classic Greek 1960’s film shows beautiful lampooning ahead of its time
A couple of years ago in Greece I had to spend a couple of months taking care of certain estate matters. I was on Samos, a beautiful mountainous island, very close to Turkey. We were staying in Samos City as it is called but the locals call it by its old name Vathi. Vathi was,Continue reading ““Jenny”: Classic Greek 1960’s film shows beautiful lampooning ahead of its time”
“Lost Contact”: Autistics as Aliens?
I encountered Jaina Kalifa’s film “Happy Android” as a short at Toronto Hot Docs Festival in 2019 and it was a simple uplifting story about a mentally distraught man creating a robot costume and trundling about making so many people, particularly children, happy. How could this be? A near “social reject” making people who mightContinue reading ““Lost Contact”: Autistics as Aliens?”
A Modern Greek Tragedy Both Human and Societal: “City of Children”
The Greek Film “City of Children” presents the viewer with a multitude of tragedies. There is nothing like a tragedy to make one feel like a fool for wasted time and bad decisions. There are four couples in the film and pregnancy is ostensibly the main theme but perhaps very subtly the bigger tragedy isContinue reading “A Modern Greek Tragedy Both Human and Societal: “City of Children””
“Coral Ghosts”: Stunning photography but a sad story
Toronto Filmmaker Andrew Nisker’s “Coral Ghosts” presents the viewer with stunning cinematography but a tragic story about the death of the world’s coral reefs. Coral is a living organism and as it is extremely sensitive to increases in water temperatures it is “bleaching out” and dying. With its death the ecosystem that inhabits these reefs isContinue reading ““Coral Ghosts”: Stunning photography but a sad story”
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