Canada currently faces threats of economic decimation and political annexation by you know who. Canadians have adopted a fightback phrase “Elbows Up” a metaphorical reference to hockey players aggressively using their elbows to defend and possibly strike back at aggressors. Patrick Sean O’Brien is saddled with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) where the muscles atrophy inContinue reading “RKS 2025 Short Film: “The Hemingway”: Elbows Up”
Tag Archives: Toronto Film Critic
RKS 2025 Film: “Meet, Greet & Bye”: Feel Happy, Feel Sad and Finish with a Smile
The feature Filipino movie “Meet, Greet & Bye” commences a North American theatrical release 14November2025. It has its happy lighthearted moments, nose dives into sadness and pulls up the throttle to the land of smiles. Baby Lopez Facunda (Maricel Soriano), a dynamo Filipina mother and grandmother reveling in her family life and feeding them facesContinue reading “RKS 2025 Film: “Meet, Greet & Bye”: Feel Happy, Feel Sad and Finish with a Smile”
RKS 2025 Film: “Trains”: Dreamlike and Savage
“Trains”, a Polish film directed by Maciej J. Drygas, is more reflective about humanity than trains. Trains can move humanity in adventuresome and joyful spirits but in this film more towards the unspeakable horrors of war on soldiers and civilians alike. 46 film archives were utilized crafting a black and white film without dialogue onlyContinue reading “RKS 2025 Film: “Trains”: Dreamlike and Savage”
RKS 2025 Film: “Green Border”: Trials and Tribulations of Refugees and Migrants Crossing Belarusian Border into Poland
This Polish feature film opens with a Syrian refugee family flying from Turkey into Belarus where a taxi arranged by a family member living in Sweden will transport them to the Polish border where they will “illegally” cross into Poland the assumption being the trip from Poland to Sweden can be made without any difficultyContinue reading “RKS 2025 Film: “Green Border”: Trials and Tribulations of Refugees and Migrants Crossing Belarusian Border into Poland”
RKS 2025 Film: “Under the Volcano”: Metaphorical Streams of Lava!
Roma (Roman Lutskyi), his wife Nastia (Anastasiia Karpenko) and Roma’s children the phone obsessed Sofia (Sofia Berezovska) and the cartoon loving Fedir (Fedir Pugachov) are Ukrainians spending a vacation on one of the Canary Islands, Tenerife. Fun and good times and inevitably the departure back to Kiev. But the fun and games abruptly end withContinue reading “RKS 2025 Film: “Under the Volcano”: Metaphorical Streams of Lava!”
RKS 2025 Film: “Super Happy Forever”: Perhaps Instead “Eternally Miserable”
In “Super Happy Forever”, a Japanese feature film, director Kohei Igarashi plays with your mind right off the bat with the film’s name. A cultish misnomer. A fantasy. The film is more a dive into unhappiness derived from wishful thinking. And temporally Igarashi plays with you but not me as I have the film downContinue reading “RKS 2025 Film: “Super Happy Forever”: Perhaps Instead “Eternally Miserable””
Toronto 2025 Hot Docs: “The Last Ambassador”: No Hope for Afghanistan?
The misogynist cult men of the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan on 15August2021 aided by the “Doha Deal” with the United States ending the war in Afghanistan and lending a degree of informal legitimization to the Taliban. The Taliban attempted to sell to the international community they had changed shallowly stating they respected women’s involvementContinue reading “Toronto 2025 Hot Docs: “The Last Ambassador”: No Hope for Afghanistan?”
RKS 2025 Film: “Misericordia”: Anger, Violence, Guilt and Lustcentric Blind Eyes
Jérémie Pastor (Félix Kysyl), an unemployed baker from Toulouse, returns to his native country village to attend the funeral of his former boss and town baker J.P. Rigal. A one-night stay at widower Martine Rigal’s (Catherine Frot) extends itself to no set date. Vincent Rigal (Jean-Baptiste Durand) expresses hostility then violence towards Pastor thinking heContinue reading “RKS 2025 Film: “Misericordia”: Anger, Violence, Guilt and Lustcentric Blind Eyes”
Crazy 8’s: “Our Monsters”: Brutally Deceptive: Lighthearted Then Vicious
Running since 1999, Crazy8s is an annual 8-day short filmmaking challenge that provides support and funding to 6 emerging and mid-career filmmakers to produce a short film and provides training opportunities to crew and cast. After a Gala Screening and Afterparty, the films go on to be seen by audiences worldwide at film festivals andContinue reading “Crazy 8’s: “Our Monsters”: Brutally Deceptive: Lighthearted Then Vicious”
27th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival: “10 Reports in 10 Minutes”: On the Front Lines of Child Pornography “Management”
Eko and five other analysts work at the Dutch Pornography Reporting Centre reviewing material provided to it through a national hotline. Eko is the longest serving analyst with four years experience and has removed some 200,000 offensive online videos and pictures. Viewers spend 15 minutes watching Eko at work commenting to the camera what heContinue reading “27th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival: “10 Reports in 10 Minutes”: On the Front Lines of Child Pornography “Management””
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