Arts 216 results

Reviews of fine art, classical and opera music, and all things cultured

TIFF diary: My day in Auditorium 12

What's it like to spend the entire day in one cinema, watching whatever comes along? Jay Stone sets out to find out at the Toronto film festival    

TIFF Opens with an Overhead Smash

Movies: #TIFF17 Festival's opening movie, Borg/McEnroe captures, an epic battle at Wimbledon and the two contrasting personalities — the emotional American and the cool Swede — who fought it out By Jay Stone TORONTO — A magazine called Screen has a special edition at the Toronto film festival, and it runs capsule reviews of some of the movies showing that day. Wednesday’s edition included a review of Miracle, a Lithuania/Bulgaria/Poland co-production, in which “the owner of a struggling post-Soviet pig farm finds a surprising benefactor in a visiting American investor, whose ‘good’ intentions upend the gentle rhythms of small-town life.” And that’s the film festival for you: it might be a warm and wonderful comedy, or it could be what you might later describe as the best Lithuania/Bulgaria/Poland co-production of the month. You can’t tell without actually going to watch it, and who has time for that? As it happens, I was reading this while seated next to ...
4Score

Movie review: A Ghost Story is haunting

Movie Review: A Ghost Story This meditation on grief, loss and time is told in a simple but effective story in which the dead spirit is represented by a sheet with two eye holes
3.5Score

The Hero celebrates Sam Elliott

Movie Review: The Hero An aging cowboy actor looks for a final big role — and a chance to redeem his personal failures — in a drama that has many parallels with its memorable star
3Score

Movie review: Despicable Me 3 has lost its despicability

Movie Review: Despicable Me 3 The latest episode in the animated family films adds a former child star, a twin brother, and a trip to Fredonia. Thank heavens the Minions are still around to create chaos
2.5Score

Paris Can Wait can wait

Movie Review: Paris Can Wait A French roue takes his friend's wife on a flirtatious motor trip in this love letter to food, charming villages and other, wiser films about the same subject  
3Score

The Lovers finds passion in abandonment

Movie Review: The Lovers In this bleak and tender view of relationships, a married couple carrying on affairs with other people find a renewed interest in one another
3.5Score

Olli Maki answers the bell

Movie Review: The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki Part boxing movie and part love story, this Finnish film tells the story of a true Scandinavian hero, a prizefighter who fought for a title he didn't really seem to want    
4Score

Emily Dickinson Inspires A Quiet — and Masterful — Passion

Movie Review: A Quiet Passion The lonely, uncompromising life of poet Emily Dickinson comes to life in a Terence Davies film that evokes the solitude and bravery of a 19th Century woman
3Score

Movie review: The horrifying Hounds of Love

In this terrifying Australian film, schoolgirls are abducted and murdered by a man and woman living out a sick fantasy. It's difficult to watch, but its themes are haunting