Two of the year’s best arrive in Toronto today, and one more that’s pretty damn good. Can you figure out which is which? (Don’t panic, it’s not a contest.)
The Age of Consequences: Climate change will threaten America’s security by creating geopolitical instability. There, I just saved you 80 minutes that Jared P. Scott’s monotonous, droning doc might otherwise have wasted. You’re welcome.
Almost Christmas: Danny Glover, Gabrielle Union, Nicole Ari Parker, Omar Epps and Kimberly Elise are a pretty solid ensemble in this family drama from Baggage Claim director David E. Talbert. Rad really wanted to like it.
Arrival: Denis Villeneuve’s latest is a sleek, rewardingly complex meditation on the impossibility of contemplating the unknown, with a tremendous performance from Amy Adams. See it on a big screen, like, now.
Do Not Resist: Craig Atkinson’s documentary about the gradual militarization of police forces across America was one of the best things I saw at Hot Docs; sadly, it’s only grown more relevant since then.
An Eye for an Eye: Susan found Ilan Ziv’s documentary about a post-9/11 hate crime more problematic than gripping. Which is too bad, it’s a potentially great story.
Jean of the Joneses: Stella Meghie’s feature debut — about a family dynamic dropped into chaos by a sudden death — got some juice at TIFF, but Jake didn’t much care for it.
Loving: Rad really likes Jeff Nichols’ low-key drama about Richard and Mildred Loving’s struggle to be a couple before and during the civil-rights era, and so do I. You should see it, and also you should read Rad’s terrific cover story about mixed marriages.
Shut In: Naomi Watts and Room‘s Jacob Tremblay are stalked in a remote home in a thriller from UK TV director Farren Blackburn. Not screened ahead of time, so I’m catching it this afternoon. UPDATE: It’s terrible.
Oh, and Leonard Cohen is dead. Fuck this year, sincerely.
“As great big twists go, it is so amazingly stupid that my first impulse was to stand up, tell the movie to go fuck itself and leave the theatre.”
On a scale from 1 to, oh, Orphan, how stupid is this twist. I’ve got to admit, you’ve kind of piqued my interest when this dumps onto Netflix.
It’s pretty stupid. The sort of twist where you think “Wait, it’s — it’s not THAT, is it? Nah, nobody could be that dumb.” And then they go for it. At least on Netflix you’ll be able to fast-forward through the first hour and get it over with sooner.