Day 8 Tiff Blog

Hold the dark. Violent movie follows a mass murder investigation in Alaska (actually shot in Alberta), and pits a native community against police and a strange couple. Very weird backdrop, lots of darkness in the community related to what I think is a“native” wolf related spirit. Tons of action, though the plot lets you down, and in the end, you don’t’ really know what you saw.

Husband Matieral is a Punjabi film which almost feels like a musical, or a movie for which the music was written first, and the movie wrapped around it. It was a battle of two half’s! The first half of the movie was terrible, and to me, was Bollywood Cinema meant for an Indian audience. There is even an Intermission stop notification (it wasn’t stopped for this screening). The second half, however, followed a love and wedding triangle back and forth and back and forth, and in the end,  somewhat redeemed the horrible start. Several times I thought both of the males involved should have told the source of their affection to get lost. She wasn’t worth fighting over, save her beauty.

The Lie was a very good movie which asks the question ‘how far would you go to protect your child’. Very good plot, excellent twist (which a few of us guessed), and good acting, and filmed entirely in Toronto I understand. The daughters lethal mistake leads to actions which are disturbing and dramatic. What may have been an 8 though, was dropped to 6.5 because some of the events nearing the end caused the audience to laugh, rather then gasp.. and if you see it, you will understand what I mean. Obviously any pet release focus group wasn’t effective.

The Kindergarden Teacher stars Maggie Gyllenhaal as a teacher who notices an talent in one of her students, and goes through a obsession which is unatural in promoting her student. It is a remake of a 2014 drama by Israeli Nadav Lapid. It is a bit slow, and a good through the first part, and drops off at the end. Funny, the guy next to me fell asleep, and woke in a start tipping his popcorn onto the floor,.. we all laughed. Was also my first trip to the Green Room at RTL, and saw the stars there before the film.