#viff 2019

[hollywood-fashion]

Gana Bayarsaikhan in Ashi Studio Couture at the Venice Film Festival premiere for Waiting for the Barbarians on September 6, 2019.

[yigcr]

Beautiful

[awardseason]

76th Venice International Film Festival, Italy — September 2, 2019 TESSA THOMPSON

[rob-pattinson]

ROONEY MARA, JOAQUIN PHOENIX 76th Venice Film Festival, Italy › ph. Greg Williams

[awesomefridayca]

Home Video: Vancouver International Film Fest Favourites and Where to Buy, Rent, or Stream them

Home Video: @VIFFest Favourites and where you can buy, rent, or stream them!

The 2021 Vancouver Film Festival is on now, and this is my sixth time covering it. Every year, there is a wide array of films to be seen, but one or two stand out. So this week in Home Video, here are five favourite films from past VIFFs! (more…)

[rickchung]

No Crying at the Dinner Table (dir. Carol Nguyen).

Her family interviews craft an emotionally complex and meticulously composed portrait of intergenerational trauma, grief, and secrets in a cathartic journey about things left unsaid. It's a pitch-perfect, stunning film about what it's like growing up in different two different worlds as immigrants or the children of immigrants struggling to both adapt to a new way of life while remaining true to your own cultural identity.

[justiceleague]

The top prize of the Lido went to Todd Phillips' revisionist take on the DC comic villain. 

The 2019 Venice International Film Festival has wrapped, and this year’s edition has announced its award winners. The Golden Lion, the festival’s top laureate, went to “Joker,” which is a strong statement from this year’s competition jury led by Lucrecia Martel.

[shacarmeen]

mr. chalamet said PERIOD

[adam-driver-online]

Adam Driver looking nervous during an interview at the Venice International Film Festival #adamdriver

[persimmonlions]

saw o holy ghost @ viff tonight! (mild spoilers under the cut.)

i was worried about seeing this bc i knew i was going to be reminded of church and i very much was

thankfully, someone hates evangelism just as much as i do. (i may or may not have been the only person in the theatre stifling a giggle at some of the evangelical echoes.)

there is some great comedy timing in this film. the bird was the obvious one. i don’t think as many people picked up on stephanie’s freudian slip being covered up by charmaine deliberately chanting louder (chef’s kiss to that one).

i thought the usage of ~elevated, shakesperian-esque language for emmanuel was a bit ott? i get the point that was being made but it felt a bit too out of place.

the ending to emmanuel’s arc didn’t really deliver for me

the green sweater on ben: a look. the blue-and-silver windbreaker though: omg what is this vancouver fashion.

ben eating a mini-cupcake? with a hot water bottle tucked in his lap? beautiful

fehinti really carried this film

[what2watch2night]

The Category Is: Weirdness! DEERSKIN and LITTLE JOE

Part 2 LITTLE JOE

After The Weird Cray-cray-ness DEERSKIN Now The Curiously Weird LITTLE JOE 

The very polished “science-fiction-y” addition serving weirdness as takeaways every night! This one should be a must-watch for many reasons but mainly because of excellent design work from the flowers themselves, to an all pastels sciency workplace, to a rococo shrink office, and all the costumes blending each environment creating beautiful palettes in a very clinical manner. There is somethings very “Wes Andersonian” about LITTLE JOE visual approach and quirkiness.

LITTLE JOE, by Jessica Hausner, is the story of Alice (Emily Beecham), a botanical scientist, devoted to breeding a species of plant that will make people happy, the Little Joe. She is working for a big company with lots of pressure and deadline but she is the most dedicated to her work despite the fact that she also needs to raise her son Joe (Kit Connor) by herself. Somehow she also regularly consult a psychiatrist but the film makes sure we do not know why she is really there. Her coworker - and pretty much everybody else in the film!- are all eccentric in their own way and have uncommon allegiance to their project, particularly one played by Ben Whishaw who is romantically pursuing Alice.

Interestingly, LITTLE JOE is mirroring DEERSKIN in a low-key mode, as Little Joes flowers, like the jacket, have some kind of power over their owner. It is quite a fascinating story from the start with its distinctive visual and Japanese-inspired score, mesmerizing cinematography and solid acting. Emily Beecham won the award for Best Actress at Cannes where the film competed.

Most characters alternate between idiosyncratic and serious in this drama as required by the narrative, or LITTLE JOE story, which is undoubtedly one of the most original of the year. In a way, the acting, based on the script, was quite “LOBSTER-Esque” as is the plot is. Obviously not as bonkers as the one from the previous film, but more grounded or “realistic”. The kid is also quite excellent here and bringing some of those scary child vibes that make viewers wish there was more of his story. Likewise, despite being unconventional, narratively speaking LITTLE JOE stick to the familiar path and its twist, despite being quite inventive, got lost in the process or its effect is lessened. That being said it suited the unostentatious and mellowness of the film.

Moral of the story:  7.75/10 LITTLE JOE is without a doubt a 2019 mus-see as it is a unique and bewitching film. For better or worse, a slow-burning one but it should conquer most audiences within a few scenes as we understand that things will only get “curiouser and curiouser!” It is also a film that makes you think, as it is one of these near-futuristic films with a very realistic approach of how we -living capitalistic society - would deal a certain type apocalypse or radical change, and it eerily makes us realize that we might be nearing this near future is a bit too fast.

Truly, using the business of genetically modified flowers-making, themes of science toying with DNA and laboratory environment was a brilliant idea that allowed for a lot of captivating and bizarre things to happen.

So, LITTLE JOE, sets in a society obsessed with happiness and profit where these many things can go wrong, can also perform as a cautionary tale. 

LITTLE JOE, seen at VIFF 2019

[hollywood-fashion]

Elodie Yung in Armani Prive at the 2019 Venice Film Festival on August 31, 2019.

[awardseason]

76th Venice International Film Festival, Italy “Joker” Photocall — August 31, 2019 ZAZIE BEETZ

[rob-pattinson]

BRAD PITT ‘Ad Astra’ Première | 76th Venice Film Festival, Italy › August 29, 2019

[awesomefridayca]

VIFF Review: 'White Lie' is a tense psychological drama

VIFF Review: 'White Lie' is a tense psychological drama #VIFF #VIFF2019

The problem with telling a lie –even a white lie– is that in order to maintain it you have to tell more of them. Each new lie you tell builds on the ones you’ve already told until one day instead of maintaining some small mistruth you’re maintaining an entire narrative that you can barely keep straight.

This is the world of Katie Arneson (Kacey Rohl), the university student and dancer at the…

[rickchung]

Knives and Skin (dir. Jennifer Reeder) x VIFF 2019.

Set in an unnamed American midwestern town, Reeder’s teen movie take on Twin Peaks’ sense of weird storytelling unravels an amusing horror genre style mystery.