I’m deep into Hot Docs, now that the actual festival has started, but since the world insists on turning …
The Age of Adaline: Blake Lively plays a perpetual 27-year-old in this romantic fantasy from Celeste and Jesse Forever director Lee Toland Krieger, somehow. Rad wasn’t impressed.
Ex Machina: With his directorial debut, screenwriter Alex Garland takes a nifty, evocative idea to the same place he always takes his ideas. Which is a little frustrating, to be honest.
The Forger: John Travolta plays an ex-con drawn into One Last Job so he can spend more time with his dying son. Glenn caught it at TIFF, found it to be okay. So, okay.
Lost River: Ryan Gosling’s directorial debut is as weird and goofy as Ryan Gosling himself. I can’t really recommend it, but he clearly had a hell of a time making it, and when the Blu-ray comes out it’ll make a perfect background visual for this year’s Halloween parties.
Pump: In which we are told, once again, that humanity’s dependence on fossil fuels is bad and we should feel bad. Glenn politely pushes back against the whole preaching-to-the-choir thing.
The Salvation: Look, I’ll watch Mads Mikkelsen grimly murder jerks any day of the week. But you gotta give me a little more than this.
The Water Diviner: Russell Crowe’s directorial debut is, according to Rad, as glum and self-important as Russell Crowe himself. I had to miss the screening because I was waiting on a plumber. (Is that ironic? I think it is.)
… really, though, it’s all about Hot Docs this weekend. Or at least it should be. Check out our minisite and find something to see!