“Cultural Awareness 101,” says the scrappy chalkboard as two eccentric figures dance their way through a sex lesson that widely resembles a Discovery Channel documentary on wild animal mating rituals. Their audience is a group of bewildered foreigners who have been bundled together into a classroom in the middle of the Scottish Outer Hebrides, the…
Commencing it’s North American festival run at the forty-fifth edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, One Night In Miami represents Academy-Award winning actress Regina King’s feature-length directorial debut, and is based on the titular play by Kemp Powers. Set primarily in a single motel room the night after Cassius Clay’s world championship win, the…
The world is under a floofy but serious attack in Save Yourselves!, the feature debut of writing and directing team Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson. Su and Jack are not prepared for this. No one is, really, but as a couple of very plugged in millennials who can barely boil a pot of water without…
In our new column Color Code, Luke Hicks chooses a handful of shots from a favorite film in order to draw out the meaning behind color and how it plays into both the scene and the film as a whole. For his third entry, he analyzes Jane Campion’s In the Cut. “She didn’t care what happened,…
My Neighbor Totoro may come to mind for many when considering the greatest anime film of all time. Even for those that it doesn’t, the film is undeniably a classic, offering exceptional animation and a digestible, heartwarming tale of two sisters. For as simple as the narrative is, however, the film is rich in culture…
In their feature directorial debut, Violation, Canadian filmmakers Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli have crafted a technically astute narrative exploration of trauma that is both visceral and meditative. Screening as part of the 2020 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, the two filmmakers – with Sims-Fewer also playing the leading role – spoke with Film Inquiry…
Though a raw coronavirus documentary may not be at the top of anyone’s “to do” list right now, a pandemic-laden film festival wouldn’t be complete without at least one pandemic-focused film. That spot has been designated to 76 Days, the erratic, yet compassionate frontline documentary composed by one filmmaker – New York-based Hao Wu –…
Everything and everyone was changed by World War II. Whether you were a soldier at war, a nurse in the Medic tents, a parent fearful of the loss of a son or a child left parentless, these effects did not end with the conclusion of the war, rather they were carried long after. In the…
It feels like forever has passed since spurs were swapped for pedals. Well-stomped paths and pikes were buried by cement and even something as bountiful and elegant as sunlight became hampered by pockets of skyscrapers. The horse, once man’s primary vessel and whose back helped guide and secure our civilizations, was escorted away, begging the…
You’re not dreaming. We are going back to Manderley thanks to Rebecca, the latest from director Ben Wheatley. Yes, this is that Rebecca. Again. But hey, the Daphne du Maurier novel keeps being revisited because it’s that good. Its twisty tale of loves new and recently gone has it all: class-defying romance, a lavish estate,…
Streaming might be the future, but physical media is still the present. It’s also awesome, depending on the title, the label, and the release, so each week we take a look at the new Blu-rays and DVDs making their way into the world. Welcome to this week in Home Video for September 15th, 2020 where we…
If Bob Fosse ever taught us anything, it’s that musicals don’t always need to end happily. Even behind all the glitz and glamour that trademarks the genre – words, actions and more importantly songs, can often reflect an entirely different meaning when hinging on the notion of unavoidable tragedy. We saw it with the unshakable…
Last year, Chyna Robinson directed No Ordinary Love, an immersive thriller about two women in abusive marriages. It pivots its audience between two very different, but very real, experiences of intimate partner violence. We follow its protagonists as they realize they are in danger, and we are held in visceral suspense as they consider escape. No Ordinary Love…
It’s all about the game and how you play it. Scores of minds have grappled and tugged at riches. The parlay between rags and results requires either ambition or fault. The best players secure both. And while it may feel comforting – or simply less tiring – to consider the value of enterprise and service,…
The first film to premiere almost simultaneously at the Toronto, Venice, New York, and Telluride Film Festivals, Nomadland is a tale centered around Fern (Frances McDormand), a jobless, working-class woman who turns to life as a modern-day nomad who traverses the American Midwest. Written, directed, and edited by the incomparable Chloe Zhao, the much buzzed…
In the No Time To Die Countdown, Jake Tropila takes a look back at every Bond film – official and unofficial – in anticipation of the release of the latest entry. Despite reaching an artistic apex with On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, George Lazenby could not bring himself to commit to a contract of five…
While survival and transitional stories are far from a new tale, their ability to interweave important topics and necessary conversations of the world into the narrative is what keeps them fresh and relevant. It is their ability to stay true to the issues through strong characters and solid setting that maintains their importance throughout the…
In 1998, French company Haut et Court initiated a film project dubbed 2000, Seen By…, in which the impending turn of the millennium was depicted by ten different filmmakers from around the world. One of these filmmakers was Taiwanese auteur Tsai Ming-liang, and the resulting film, The Hole, has just been re-released via virtual cinemas…
Welcome to How’d They Do That? — a bi-monthly column that unpacks moments of movie magic and celebrates the technical wizards who pulled them off. This entry looks into how rear projection works. If you’ve seen a film from before the 1970s, there’s a very good chance you’ve already encountered rear projection. And if you’ve seen…
Escape is defined as “an act of breaking free from confinement or control”. How does one define, or even understand, breaking free, especially when all they have known is what they want to escape the most? Can we ever change our destiny, or is fate an inescapable vice that we can hold off, but never…
It’s been almost thirty years since the last installment in the Bill & Ted franchise, and it would be an understatement to say that a lot has changed in the cinematic landscape since then, certainly not limited to the comedy genre. Things have changed a lot in the time between the titular duo’s journey to…