by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, Red Herring
While Transformers is often a self-serious toy franchise, this film finds a good balance between giving the story proper weight and allowing for enough comedy to emphasize that these toy movies are supposed to be fun.
by Rosalie Kicks, Old Sport and Editor in Chief
I can imagine that in 1969 witnessing what was thought conceivable only in science fiction stories become a reality was an extremely joyful and uplifting moment. It gave people something to believe in, cheer for and most importantly served as a reminder that the impossible was possible.
by Daniel Santelli, Staff Writer
The power of Under The Skin is mined from the power of the image and its tireless efforts to reify and mirror Isserley’s perspective through technique.
by Rosalie Kicks, Editor in Chief and Old Sport
Wes Anderson’s latest cinematic adventure, Asteroid City, is a meticulously designed feast for the eyes with a story that is perfectly satisfactory.
by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor, The Red Herring
Black Widow brings the original slate of Avengers full circle, giving a solo outing to the Marvel superhero introduced fourth in the MCU overall after 11 years and 24 movies.
Written and directed by Noah Baumbach
Starring Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver and Merritt Weaver
MPAA rating: R for language throughout and sexual references
Running time: 2 hours and 16 minutes
by Fiona Underhill
The Year of Adam Driver™ has, so far, provided us with the eclectic delights of political thriller The Report (shortly heading to Amazon Prime), Terry Gilliam’s long-awaited The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (still my film of the year thus far), Jim Jarmusch’s zombie comedy The Dead Don’t Die and now Noah Baumbach’s divorce drama for Netflix - Marriage Story. The year will of course round-out with Driver returning as Kylo-Ren in the last in the Star War sequel trilogy. Some might say that five films from one actor in one year is too many and to them I say, if it’s an actor of the caliber of Driver, ten films a year isn’t enough. As someone who has been eagerly watching him since the TV show Girls started in 2012 and experienced his devastating arc in that show, which plays out across the decade, each new Driver film has been a gift. He has worked with everyone from the Coens to Scorsese and collaborated with Baumbach on three previous films, making him pretty much the male version of Greta Gerwig.
Read MoreWritten and directed by Taika Waititi
Adapted from the novel Caging Skies by Christine Leunens
Starring Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie and Scarlett Johansson
MPAA rating: PG-13 for mature thematic content, some disturbing images, violence, and language
Running time: 1 hour and 48 minutes
by Benjamin Leonard, Best Boy
Rosalie and I saw this one at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) though we saw it at different screenings, we had a lot to talk about afterwards. We both knew the basic premise going in, and thought that it could go one of two ways, cringy or fun and silly as hell. Thankfully, it was the latter. In case you don’t know what the story is about, it is set in Nazi Germany and we follow young Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis), his mother Rosie (Scarlett Johansson) and Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie) a young Jewish woman that Rosie is hiding in their house. The comedy comes from the fact that Jojo is so enamoured with Hitler that he becomes his imaginary friend. When Jojo finds out that his mother is harbouring a Jew, he is obviously upset but doesn’t want to get his mother into trouble. There was a hint of cringiness in this movie but it didn’t ruin the rest of the film for me and it would be spoilery to discuss. So I will not do so until the very bottom of this review.
Read MoreDirected by Jonathan Glazer (2013)
by Melissa Strong
“The best adaptations riff a little,” asserts TV writer Alessandra Stanley, reimagining not just minor details but also sensibility. Stanley points to the show Homeland as an example: it reinvents Prisoners of War by moving to the U.S. from Israel with a female C.I.A. operative at its center rather than three male soldiers. She may be right about that, but books often suffer when they are adapted to film.
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