I had a really good day yesterday, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to have a really good day today. If you see Logan this weekend, that’ll be a pretty good day too.
Ballerina: Okay, so Rad might not have had the best day watching this family-fare CG import, but I was uptown at Bitter Harvest so we both suffered profoundly.
Before I Fall: It’s Groundhog Day as a high-school movie — only with less frustrated comedy and more existential angst, because it’s Groundhog Day as a high-school movie. But Zoey Deutch is really quite good at inhabiting her character.
Bitter Harvest: George Mendeluk’s inept, ludicrously self-important drama about the Ukrainian famine should be screened in every film school as a warning to burgeoning filmmakers. It won’t be, but it should be.
Logan: James Mangold and Hugh Jackman get back together for one last Wolverine movie, and it is frankly fantastic, bringing this specific X-Man’s saga to a close with bruised integrity and a dark comic streak. Also, Stephen Merchant is in it.
Saigon Bodyguards: It’s not a game-changer or anything, but as dopey action comedies go, this one — made in Vietnam with Korean and Canadian money — is oddly charming, and I would probably be very enthusiastic about a sequel. And Kim Ly should totally play The Rock’s secret half-brother in the next Fast and/or Furious movie.
The Shack: Rad calls bullshit on the blatant pandering of Stuart Hazeldine’s faith-based drama, and dear lord does it sound horrible. Octavia Spencer and Sam Worthington deserve so much better than this.
Table 19: A really talented cast produces precious few laughs in Jeffrey Blitz’ wedding comedy … though if you decide Stephen Merchant is playing the same character as he is in Logan, things do get a little more interesting.
Also, the Toronto Irish Film Festival settles into the Lightbox this weekend, and here is my piece on that. You’re not going to want to miss How to Defuse a Bomb, which is not the documentary that you think it might be.