#the comedic timing of the image appearing and ryan breaking

[lasagoofs]

watching ghost files debrief rn AND THEY FEATURED YOUR DOG FANART!! i had seen it a long time ago but it reminded me of your art again, god it's soso good SHAPES SHAPES EVERYWHERE anyway the wheeze Ryan let out after seeing dog-Shane. Absolutely priceless

The fact that silly doodle from a year ago made it into the video coupled with ryan’s laughter had me in tears. this is some sort of meme template to me

[mrdrhenwardhykle]

Can I just take a moment to rant about how Hollywood reboots of original animated properties have no respect for the character's original design and purpose behind that design (mainly just because Hollywood has an obsession with making things boring-looking and conventionally attractive).

(The following is slightly opinionized. You don't have to agree with me, but I'm just naturally picky on flawed character design)

Alright, so this is Dirk the Daring from the 1983 Arcade game 'Dragon's Lair'. If you didn't know, Dragon's Lair is an early quick time event-centered arcade game that's mainly known for it's harder-than-balls gameplay and comedic yet semi-violent death scenes. By Dirk's original design, he is top heavy but not overly beefed up or overly-masculinized in his concept. Dirk's basic shapes are elongated rectangular shapes; allowing for the character to be as expressive as the animators need him to be. It can also be noted that Dirk's character is not romanticized or sexualized by the designers because of the over-exaggerated features in his nose, chin, mouth, feet, and hands; making him much more cartoony than Daphne (the Damsel in Distress he's after).

The character of Dirk is so expressive, in fact, that for the most part; the animators make a habit to slightly break past his character sheet\ over exaggerate his model during his death scenes.

(Notice how his nose changes, and also sometimes has a square jawline and sometimes doesn't)

Also, alongside being a very expressive character (both through expressions and slapstick); Dirk doesn't talk at all through the franchise (being the only words I think he's ever said is "uh-oh" and "Daphne?"), but instead makes little cowardly squeals, screams, and whines even if you're playing the game properly. Sure, it's not a whole lot like mountains of 'quirky' dialogue, but it's enough to understand that this character is a little more than a blank slate.

So, after knowing about this conventionally un-attractive character who's strongpoints are being very expressional through both expressions and body-language, but also showing his hesitation through little sounds in the gameplay; who would you guess who is reportedly being considered to play the role of this character in a (likely) live-action adaptation of Dragon's Lair?

No other than Ryan Reynolds; a conventionally attractive actor that expresses himself the most through witty dialogue. I have nothing against Ryan Reynolds, but the fact that I don't associate him with any of Dirk's qualities just feels like there wasn't much thought process or consideration behind this. Ryan goes by a verbal-type humor, while Dirk is more physical. (Also, if you look Ryan Reynolds up on Google Images, he's literally making almost the same face in every image).

If anything, they feel like polar opposites.

I'm just bothered by this because this just sounds like another Garfield\Mario\Chris Pratt situation where all options weren't considered well enough.

But nothing's set in stone, I don't think. I just feel like if Hollywood-type directors and producers ever get their hands on this franchise, they'll totally erase his original personality and appearance one way or the other.

[timeagainreviews]

The Doctor visits Villa Diodati... Again

It’s rare that an episode of Doctor Who can upset the fandom before it ever airs. Even rarer is the fandom actually having a valid reason for being so hacked off. The reason for this week’s outrage? That would be none other than the inclusion of the famous writer Mary Shelley into the story. If you’re a fan of Big Finish, you may know already that Mary Shelley acts as a bit of a companion in the Eighth Doctor audios. So when she shows up with the Doctor on the same night when she meets the Eighth Doctor, you start to wonder if anyone thought to actually check.

There’s a really great thing called the TARDIS Data Core. It’s a wiki maintained by the type of meticulous nerds (see: me) who care about this sort of thing. And it’s absolutely free to use. So if you want to throw in someone like say, Houdini, you can read up on the many instances when the Doctor met the man. I’ve said it before, and I will say it again, Doctor Who writers have a bizarre fascination with that man. I won’t fault Maxine Alderton for having not listened to the audios with Mary Shelley. I’ve only listened to one of them. But hell, check the damn wiki.

The world of Doctor Who gets its mileage out of perception filters. They play a huge part in the mythology of the show, and especially tonight’s episode. Maybe this is why the Thirteenth Doctor doesn’t remember her travels with Mary Shelley, it’s filtered out. And maybe that’s why when Lord Byron answers the door to Villa Diodati, he reacts with shock despite the massive windows with a clear view of the Doctor and her companions. Was he shocked by the fact that literally nothing changed? Pro tip- if you’re going to show someone surprised by who is on the other side of a door, wood is more effective than glass.

The Doctor and her companions have arrived at the Villa Diodati in the rain-soaked summer of 1816. The very same rain that has relegated Lord Byron, Mary Shelley, Claire Clairmont, and John Polidori housebound, has also forced the TARDIS crew to seek shelter at the villa. The episode wastes no time reaching for cliches as the Doctor says to her companions to brace themselves for meeting some of the greatest minds of human history, only to have the door open to a room of drunken buffoons. They did the exact same joke when the Tenth Doctor met Shakespeare. It’s not egregious, but it’s played out none the less.

Rebounding from cliches, director Emma Sullivan gets some great horror movie vibes as the appearance of a skeletal hand stalks through the house like a spider looking for prey. Clips of ghostly apparitions flicker in and out of existence. I was already very excited about where this was headed. Lord Byron is quite taken by the Doctor, who pays him very little mind. But this doesn’t stop the sleepwalking Dr Polidori from getting jealous when Claire appears to be flirting with Lord Byron. Much of the information about these four is conveyed by their proclivity to gossip, which I thought was a very clever way of sneaking a history lesson into the story. Once again, they’re making better use of edutainment moments by incorporating them into the story.

However, it is Lord Byron who has Claire’s eye. Unfortunately for her, she doesn’t stand a chance against the Doctor, or whoever catches Lord Byron’s attention that week. Claire laments Lord Byron’s mixed signals in a conversation with Yaz, leading Yaz to convey her own issues with someone she fancies. She never outright says it’s Ryan, but I’m guessing it’s Ryan. I’m also guessing we’re still doing that? She also very well could have meant the Doctor. Meanwhile, Graham is lost in this labyrinthian house whilst searching for the loo. I love that Graham is the companion that thinks about eating and going to the bathroom. I’ve always wondered why there weren’t more action movies where someone needed to take a piss. You never see Ethan Hunt stop a bullet train while needing to poop. Now that’s an impossible mission.

With Dr Polidori being a sleepwalker, his demeanour is anxious and agitated causing him to take Ryan’s playground trash talk as a major slight on his character. He challenges him to a duel, but before he can put a cap in Ryan’s backside, they’re interrupted by the presence of the skeleton hand. I really have to give it up to Tosin Cole here. His comedic chops this series have been spot-on. Watching him try and fight off a flying hand was just as funny as watching him try to impress Mary Shelley with a stumbling rendition of "Chopsticks," on the piano. After a bit of hot potato, the skeletal hand is taken out of commission by the valet, Fletcher with the serving tray assist. The hand smacks into the ground in a fine powder.

The Doctor reveals that she believes the house is giving off really evil "vibes," and they set about looking for answers. It’s at this moment that the perception filters begin toying with their minds. Stairwells lead down to their tops and exits lead to their entrances. It’s a very wibbly-wobbly moment that leads you to wonder what exactly is going on. Is the house haunted? Does it have anything to do with the bones Lord Byron is keeping at the villa? Why are vases breaking against the wall? Who is this apparition that keeps blinking in and out of existence? Who are the woman and child that supply Graham with a sweet plate of sandwiches?

Stuck in what seems like a time loop, Mary begins to panic as she hears her infant son William crying from a room she is unable to reach. It is then that the sleepwalking of Polidori actually comes in handy as he is able to walk through walls as he is unaffected by perception filters while asleep. This allows everyone to navigate the house by closing their eyes. The Doctor assumes that whatever is happening has turned the villa into a sort of panic room to protect it from something horrible. Perhaps this something has to do with room they’ve discovered which is covered in mad writing scrawled in an alien language. I’ll forgive them the cliche of the madman furiously scrawling walls as at this point, I am fully invested in the story.

It takes them almost no time to discover who the house is protecting them from, as the Lone Cyberman as warned about by Captain Jack arrives looking like Frankenstein’s monster. I absolutely loved the horror movie visuals. The decision not to reveal exactly what the Cyberman was at first, really amped up the anticipation. I knew he was coming at the end of the series, but I didn’t expect him so soon. His image cut like a hunched monster in the darkness of the hallway portrayed a man or monster that has clearly travelled a very long distance to get here. We’ve never had a chance to see a Cyberman look so fatigued and battle-worn. This concept is driven home as we’re able to see the human underneath the mask. One of his hands is left exposed calling back to the Cybermen’s first appearance in "The Tenth Planet."

The Doctor kicks into Doctor mode as she commands her companions not to follow her. The Cyberman goes about looking for "the guardian," which doesn’t pan out too well for poor Fletcher or the maid watching William. However, the Cyberman spares the baby because, after all, this is a family show, and we are still pre-watershed. The Doctor confronts the Cyberman who is unable to attack. Noting his emotions are still intact, the Doctor tries to negotiate with him. This is a rare opportunity for the Doctor to do something more with a Cyberman than exploding his head. However, it would appear this lone mechano man is the cause of all of the freak weather happening, as he recharges himself with a very Mary Shelley style lightning.

Meanwhile, the companions and their new friends have discovered Percey Shelley in the cellar. The Doctor reads Percy’s mind to discover he had found something shiny in the bottom of Lake Geneva, like some sort of sexy Smeagol.  Upon picking it up, it begins seeping into his skin, connecting to his mind where it would attempt to hide from the Lone Cyberman. The object is a sort of intelligent liquid metal known as the Cyberium. Within it resides all of the knowledge and history of the Cybermen. In its attempt to hide, Percy returns home to discover nobody can see him no matter how many vases he throws against the wall. The Cyberium puts up a series of perception filters that obscure him from sight. Who sent it back in time, and why it wants to hide from the Lone Cybermen is left a mystery.

The Doctor is forced to make a decision- ignore Jack’s warning not to give the Lone Cyberman what he wants, or allow the Cyberium to destroy Percy’s mind. Ryan tries to make like this is a simple decision as one life weighed against billions is an easy choice. However, the Doctor’s curt response shows the situation to be far more impactful. I loved her speech about being the lone person at the peak of a summit. That was some "curse of the Time Lords," level pontification which I have yearned so much to hear from Jodie’s Doctor. She almost seems disgusted with Ryan here. She doesn’t hide her contempt for always having to be the strong one. This may be one of my favourite Thirteenth Doctor moments as she seems genuinely pissed about being the one to make the big decisions.

Mary Shelley has a moment that clearly sounds like she was working out the basis for what would become her book "Frankenstein," as she tries to reason with the Cyberman. She sees the monster made of disparate parts, but she also sees the man within. But it would appear that this man within has the brain of a criminal as he thrashes about wildly looking to harm. Percy passes the Cyberium to the Doctor. Once again they touch on cliche by claiming the Doctor is the perfect host for the Cyberium. I found this odd considering they have always said the Doctor is not compatible with Cyberman technology, but whatever. The Doctor makes her decision which is to give the Cyberman the Cyberium. That’s step one of the plan, step two is to fix the problems she created with step one. I’ve never heard Doctor Who so succinctly summed up. The Doctor just keeps putting out fires until the problem is solved. Brilliant.

For now, we’re left to ponder the future of this Lone Cyberman. How will it play into the Timeless Child if at all? Is this the beginning of storyline spanning three different episodes? I’m hoping the answer is yes. That would be really cool to see not just the Timeless Child and the Lone Cyberman come together, but also the Master as well. If Chris Chibnall can actually find a through-line with all three stories, I would be very impressed. There’s a lot to like in series twelve, which makes it almost sad that so many people have been tuning out. I’ll admit I understand the trepidation people may have after series eleven. There was a sort of aimlessness that series twelve definitely does not share.

I wouldn’t sit here and say the entire series has been home run after home run, but I’ve not hated a single episode. Even the weaker efforts like "Orphan 55," and “Can You Hear Me?” were completely watchable. Even if "The Haunting of Villa Diodati," does mess with the Eighth Doctor canon, it doesn’t waste its time. That Cyberman reveal was so effective that I audibly said "Woah!" as he beamed his way into the house. And it’s still too early to say what is and isn’t canon at this point, as the Timeless Child could play into it. We could be dealing with pocket realities or alternate timelines. All could very well be revealed in the end. If not, well, it just gives Big Finish a chance to do what it does best- retcon the shit out of something until it fits. It’s Doctor Who, it can take the strain.

[dingoes8myrp]

It Chapter Two: Review

This is a review of the movie It Chapter Two. Spoilers ahead. You’ve been warned.

Overall, I enjoyed It Chapter Two. It was a fun ride from start to finish. The story and acting were fantastic on all counts. Bill Hader particularly stood out, as he’s not an actor I associate with horror. His performance was very well rounded, combining elements of horror, comedy, and drama in a way that stood out due to the journey of his character specifically. Richie’s lifelong secret of harboring romantic feelings toward his best friend Eddie (played as an adult by James Ransone) is only revealed to the viewer toward the end of the film. After the heroic but heartbreaking death of Eddie at the hands of Pennywise, the normally light-hearted Richie completely breaks down to the alarm of the rest of the group. The reason is revealed in a flashback of young Richie (played by Finn Wolfhard) carving his and Eddie’s initials in a wall. This added layer of character development required a varied performance from Hader, which he pulled off fantastically.

Jessica Chastain was very believable and genuine as adult Beverly, exhibiting the quiet emotion and hidden pain we see in her young counterpart (played by Sophia Lillis). Isaiah Mustafa also stood out as Mike Hanlon, who may have gone slightly insane due to spending his entire life in Derry. Mustafa treads a line between heroic confidence and terrified desperation (often in the same scene) as Mike gathers his old friends in an attempt to stop Pennywise. James McAvoy is the spitting image of his younger counterpart Jaeden Martell down to their small ticks and subtle mannerisms. McAvoy’s flawless character acting he’s become known for is on full display here. Ransone’s mile-a-minute nervous speech pattern mimicked his counterpart Jack Dylan Grazer’s perfectly. The second Andy Bean’s Stanley answers the phone he’s recognizable due to his mannerisms and speech patterns. Ben’s adult counterpart played by Jay Ryan has become a handsome, successful man still holding onto his sweet fondness for bringing people together.

The way all the adult actors reverted to older versions of their younger selves the longer they were in Derry was interesting. We meet our heroes all grown up, each in their own individual lives. As soon as everyone sits down together they revert back to the personalities and dynamics we saw in the first movie with the adult actors embodying their childhood counterparts wonderfully. As the film progresses they all become more and more like their younger selves. This seems to be due to the influence of Derry and/or Pennywise.

Watching all these characters come together to face their fears and try, fail, and try again to defeat Pennywise was captivating, both due to the performances of all the actors and the magical story.

There were a few things that took me out of the film frequently and disappointed me slightly. The biggest problem I had with the film was the prominence of CGI and the heavy reliance on jump scares. Tension would be built, the atmosphere and audio would prime us for a scare, and BAM! Something would jump out and startle me… and then I’d immediately start laughing at how ridiculous the actual entity looked. Not only was it heavy CGI, it was… silly. I’ve seen CGI done sparingly or done well in horror films (Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak comes immediately to mind). No matter how good CGI technology has gotten, it’s still not perfect, so less is more, particularly when you’re using CGI alongside live action actors (in this case Bill Skarsgard).

This brings about my second problem: the lack of Bill Skarsgard.

The heart of what made Pennywise so terrifying for me in the first film was Bill Skarsgard’s performance. His playful demeanor and creepy sing-song voice combined with his overall costume and make-up were whimsically terrifying, and his abrupt turns to out-right scary were all the more jarring because he still held onto the same basic playful persona throughout. He made Pennywise a character with layers despite the fact that it’s supposed to be an inhuman villain. Taking Skarsgard out of the picture for the most part to replace him with clunky CGI jump scares was disappointing and took 70% of the horror right out. And there were so. MANY. CGI entities. Once the thing jumped out, I just waited for the “scary” scene to be done with (which always took too long). I would’ve preferred subtle CGI built around a performance from Skarsgard to maintain the consistent creepiness of Pennywise throughout the film, rather than cutting him out entirely to toss in some computer hodgepodge of imagery just there to jump out at us and gross out the characters. This also became formulaic. Once they did it once it became expected and we had to watch the same thing happen over and over in a different setting with a new blob of CGI to laugh at. The strongest scares for me were the scenes where Skarsgard appeared, particularly the face peeling scene between himself and Chastain.

I also wanted to see more of the original child actors. We did get quite a few flashback scenes, but I would have liked a few more just to round things out a bit more. I would have liked more scenes between Skarsgard and the younger actors than the CGI nonsense chase sequences with the adults, for example. I understand the runtime was quite long and they only had so much room (and that Pennywise is a shapeshifter in the novels, so they needed to bring that in). However, the execution of Pennywise this go around took away a lot of the enchantment and creepiness that was present in the first movie largely due to Skarsgard’s interactions with the other actors.

My final issue was with the lore. This film tried to answer as many questions and wrap up as many loose ends as it could, but it hacked out large sections of lore from the book (which I had to look up because I haven’t read it). What was Pennywise? Why did he settle in Derry? What was up with those weird circus photos in Beverly’s old apartment? Where did that weird ritual come from and why didn’t it work? Wait, so the whole time all you had to do was call Pennywise a clown over and over again to make him feel bad?

Really?!

I was disappointed with the sheer length of the final battle and the anticlimactic conclusion. I felt like the butt of a joke. “Look, we’re teasing the whole time about endings being crappy and now we’re giving you a crappy ending!” I wanted the group to have to trace Pennywise’s origins to find its weaknesses, to unravel that mystery together. Wasn’t that the whole point? Instead we spend a lot of time following these characters on their own so they can get jump scared by something cobbled together in CGI. Even the best actors need something to play off of, and the strongest performances in this film occur when the actors are playing off one another.

While I enjoyed the movie overall, I feel like they took a lot of the things that made the first one scary and powerful and… got rid of them. Maybe they didn’t want to be repetitive or they wanted to reinvent themselves to try something new. I think they missed the mark on the scares, and the comedic relief is so heavy handed this film feels like a spoof of the original at times.

Definitely worth seeing and I’m not mad I saw it in the theater, but I didn’t love it as much as the first one. However, if you like any of the actors featured in the film you’ll see some great performances all around.

[theconservativebrief]

Throughout the first half of September, the Toronto International Film Festival screened hundreds of films for hundreds of thousands of moviegoers and launched more than a few awards hopefuls on a path to the Oscars.

Some of the festival’s buzziest films will hit theaters over the next several months. Not all of them will end up in the awards race, but many of them are worth your time and attention.

Here are 19 films from the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival to watch out for.

Release date: September 21

[embedded content]

Joaquin Phoenix and John C. Reilly star in The Sisters Brothers, a darkly comedic Western based on Patrick deWitt’s 2011 novel of the same name and directed by Jacques Audiard, whose previous films include the lauded A Prophet and The Beat That My Heart Skipped. Phoenix and Reilly play brothers who work as assassins in the Wild West; they’re set on the trail of a thieving prospector in 1851 in a story that’s as much about family as it is about the Gold Rush. Riz Ahmed and Jake Gyllenhaal also star as prospectors the brothers cross paths with.

Release date: September 21

[embedded content]

Fahrenheit 11/9, though sprawling and imperfect, is Michael Moore’s best film in years. It’s a sweeping broadside against Donald Trump, which is by no means an original approach in documentary filmmaking these days. But it also does what few political films seem willing to do in the Trump era: It powerfully (if unsystematically) dismantles idealistic notions about how much better things were before Trump took office. And when Fahrenheit 11/9 does turn to the election itself, it’s less interested in Trump as a cause than as a symptom of nationwide disillusionment, money-driven elections, and resulting apathy toward the political process.

Release date: September 28

[embedded content]

National Geographic Documentary Films is the distributor behind Free Solo, and that makes sense: It’s a film about free climber Alex Honnold, who’s planning to climb the 3,000-foot vertical rock face at Yosemite’s El Capitan … without ropes. The resulting film is both beautiful and harrowing, and it’s a thoughtful look at what drives people like Honnold to attempt feats like this. Those prone to vertigo should be ready to cover their eyes.

Release date: September 28

[embedded content]

In what he says is his final role before retiring from acting, Robert Redford stars as Forrest Tucker, a career bank robber who escapes San Quentin at age 70 and begins robbing banks again. Set in 1981 and styled to look like a film from that era, it’s the latest project from David Lowery, whose stories of love and longing (see: A Ghost Story and Ain’t Them Bodies Saints) make him a natural fit for the material. Sissy Spacek and Casey Affleck co-star with Redford in a fitting farewell to an onscreen legend as well as an archetype — the celebrity bank robber — that dominated the American consciousness for so long but is starting to fade.

Release date: October 5

[embedded content]

For his directorial debut, Bradley Cooper took on the much-adapted narrative of A Star Is Born, which first appeared in 1937 and then was remade in 1954, 1976, and now 2018. Cooper stars alongside Lady Gaga in the latest version, a love story about a fading music star who gives a talented newcomer the push she needs to break through — and then she begins to eclipse him. Laced with instantly memorable songs and outstanding performances, 2018’s A Star Is Born is the kind of movie that tries to harness all of its cinematic possibility to make your heart burst. And it more or less succeeds.

Release date: October 5

[embedded content]

Amandla Stenberg leads a truly outstanding cast in The Hate U Give, an adaptation of Angie Thomas’s best-selling novel. The film has a great deal to say and no apologies to make about its outspoken message, even as it presents itself as a straightforward family drama. But The Hate U Give strikes a perfect balance between being a coming-of-age story on the one hand and a social drama on the other. And in never sacrificing either of those two interests, it becomes a strong example of both.

Release date: October 12

[embedded content]

First Man, from director Damien Chazelle (La La Land) and screenwriter Josh Singer (The Post, Spotlight), is less concerned with delivering a triumphalist portrayal of the 1969 moon landing — which has been done before, we’ve all seen it — and more with telling the story of astronaut Neil Armstrong (played by Ryan Gosling) the way he saw himself.

Based on Armstrong’s authorized biography, First Man presents a historic moment through the lens of an intimate personal experience, reminding us that events that appear triumphant in history’s rearview mirror often come at the expense of pain and great personal sacrifice shouldered by real people. We’re allowed to see the moon landing through Armstrong’s eyes, but in return, the film asks us to respect what he went through to get there.

Release date: October 19

[embedded content]

Marielle Heller (The Diary of a Teenage Girl) directs Melissa McCarthy in Can You Ever Forgive Me?, based on Lee Israel’s memoir of the same name. McCarthy plays Israel, a successful celebrity biographer who falls on dire financial straits and later turns to literary forgery and theft. Richard E. Grant co-stars in the comedy, which probes the darker side of trying to make a living as a writer while also depicting a kind of delightfully misanthropic friendship.

Release date: October 26

[embedded content]

Burning, from Korean director Lee Chang-dong, has been one of the most critically lauded films at this year’s film festivals, topping many critics’ lists and drawing nearly universal praise. It’s loosely based on Haruki Murakami’s short story “Barn Burning,” which was first published in the New Yorker in 1992. The film is gripping and unnerving, a noir-style mystery that goes in entirely unexpected directions (and harbors a hint of William Faulkner), and featuring a cast that includes The Walking Dead’s Steven Yeun. You can expect it to become a favorite at arthouse cinemas around the country when it opens later this fall — and if you love a haunting mystery, it’s one to watch for.

Release date: November 16

[embedded content]

Director Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) has made a heist movie that has all the trappings of a typical heist movie — the plans, the machinations, the twists — but a lot more too. After a group of women, previously strangers to one another, are widowed following their husbands’ deaths in a botched heist, they band together to finish the job against the backdrop of a corrupt election on Chicago’s South Side. Viola Davis leads a star-studded cast that includes Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Rodriguez, Carrie Coon, Liam Neeson, Colin Farrell, Daniel Kaluuya, Brian Tyree Henry, Jon Bernthal, and Robert Duvall.

Release date: November 23

[embedded content]

Shoplifters made its debut earlier this year at Cannes, where the jury awarded it the top prize, the Palme d’Or. It’s an intimate and accessible drama about a family of small-time petty crooks from Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda. But as the story unfolds, a mystery seems to emerge almost imperceptibly from the family’s ordinary interactions, and it eventually becomes something else altogether. With strong performances and an engaging narrative, the movie is continuing to earn praise and capture hearts throughout its fall festival run.

Release date: November 30

[embedded content]

For his follow-up to Moonlight, which won Best Picture in 2017, director Barry Jenkins chose to adapt James Baldwin’s 1974 novel If Beale Street Could Talk. Set in Harlem, the story centers on a young black couple who grew up together and fell in love. But then conflict takes over — not originating from inside their relationship but pressing in from the outside world. If Beale Street Could Talk is a beautiful, lyrical film, at times feeling like a tone poem or lyrical plaint. It’s hard not to fall under its beautiful, somber, lustrous spell, and as a story about black American life framed as a love story, its images are indelible.

Release date: December 21

Tomasz Kot and Joanna Kulig star in Cold War. Cannes Film Festival

Cold War — a decade- and continent-spanning, pristinely shot romantic tragedy from Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski — was my favorite film at Cannes (where it premiered earlier this year), and it easily won hearts at Toronto as well. Set in Europe in the early decades of the actual Cold War, the film balances its captivating main characters and their fiery love with the grand sweep of the places and times they find themselves in. It shows how those two things intertwine, with country and ideology pushing and prodding the characters into shapes that ultimately determine their fate.

You couldn’t call Cold War a political film, exactly, but if the central couple’s stars are crossed, then politics had a hand in crossing them, and in the end, the tragedy of realizing that is almost too much to bear.

Release date: TBD

Robert Pattinson stars in High Life, a sci-fi drama like nothing you’ve ever seen. Courtesy of TIFF

High Life is a wild, visionary film from director Claire Denis about a group of convicts on death row who are sent into deep space for the sake of science. It’s not for the faint of heart — it’s about sex and reproduction and death and life — and it’s anything but sterile; in this case, sci-fi’s enduring quest to probe what it means to be human means that bodily fluids, violence, and deep loneliness all make their appearances. Robert Pattinson leads a cast that also features Mia Goth and Juliette Binoche, and gives a performance that’s equal parts unexpected and tender. All told, the film is confounding but wholly original.

Release date: TBD

Steve Bannon is the subject of Errol Morris’s American Dharma. Courtesy of TIFF

For American Dharma, documentarian Errol Morris sat down for an extended conversation with former Breitbart chair and White House adviser Steve Bannon about his ideological views, his interpretation of history, and his involvement in Donald Trump’s presidency, the alt-right, and the reemergence of militant white nationalism in America.

The result isn’t exactly satisfying; if you go into American Dharma hoping for a systematic and explicit confrontation or dismantling of Bannon’s often disturbing views, you’ll be disappointed. Instead, Morris is interested in revealing his subject as a farce: a deluded figure with fantasies of grandeur and little substance beneath the grandiose clichés — a grown man desperately play-acting at being the tragic hero he saw in the movies.

Release date: TBD

In Fabric is one of the strangest, most twisted films that screened at Toronto this year. Courtesy of TIFF

I’m still not sure I know what In Fabric is actually about, but it was one of the weirdest, nastiest, most fun movies to screen at TIFF this year. Director Peter Strickland (The Duke of Burgundy) tells a twisted tale of shopping — for clothes and for people — that centers on a red dress that keeps mysteriously killing those who come into contact with it. Shot in a self-consciously ’60s style with a hint of sexploitation, the movie feels like a waking nightmare, and it at least partly concludes that women’s fashion is more or less a product of hell.

Release date: TBD

[embedded content]

Roma is one of the year’s most anticipated films, and it delivers. In this lushly shot monochromatic domestic drama, director Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity, Children of Men) tells the story of a family in Mexico City and the girl who works for them. Focusing on the struggles and strength of the family’s women, Roma is funny, sad, and carefully told — a challenge to the viewer to simply sit and pay attention to people who find themselves overlooked in their own homes. The film will be released in select theaters and on Netflix later this fall.

Release date: TBD

Roberto Minervini’s What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire is one of the most challenging documentaries from this year’s TIFF. Courtesy of TIFF

Roberto Minervini’s documentaries — such as 2015’s The Other Side, about the often forgotten corners of America — are remarkable not only for the access they have to their subjects but also because Minervini is an outsider, an Italian filmmaker working in America who gains those subjects’ extraordinary trust. In What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire, Minervini quietly observes the lives of a handful of black residents in Louisiana, including a group of residents who are forming a chapter of the New Black Panther Party to address injustices in their own community that go unnoticed. It isn’t an easy watch, but it’s a vital one.

Release date: TBD

[embedded content]

A sort of darkly inverse A Star Is Born, Vox Lux is the story of Celeste (Raffey Cassidy), a teenage girl who’s wounded in a school shooting. She sings an original song at a memorial service for her slain classmates and becomes a national sensation, rapidly rocketing to pop stardom under the guidance of her older sister (Jennifer Ehle) and a new manager (Jude Law). But then the movie jumps forward in time to center on a grown Celeste, played by Natalie Portman, who has been hardened by show business and is attempting a comeback.

It’s a highly stylized, incredibly ambitious film that doesn’t quite hit its marks, but it tries hard to illustrate how the modern appetite for sensationalism and spectacle leads to both celebrity and self-destruction — and Portman’s performance as a strung-out pop star is appropriately hard-bitten and manic. Sia wrote a number of the film’s songs and serves as executive producer.

Original Source -> 19 standout movies from TIFF to look forward to this fall

via The Conservative Brief