TIFF ’24: Scandar Copti Returns with “Happy Holidays”

By Abe Friedtanzer

It’s always worth keeping track of filmmakers whose first films are nominated for the Oscar for Best International Feature, and sometimes it’s quite a wait to see them return for a sophomore effort. Palestinian director Scandar Copti earned Israel its nine (and third consecutive) nomination in the foreign film category in 2009 along with Israeli co-director Yaron Shani. Fifteen years later, Copti is back with another film that feels very much like his first, probing the complexities of multicultural society in a country that’s very often in the news but not always portrayed in such an authentic and vivid manner…

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TIFF ’24: Conviction of Character in “Quisling – The Final Days”

By Abe Friedtanzer

Those with unshakable principles are typically fascinating subjects for film and television, even if those principles contrast sharply with what audiences believe to be right and moral. In the opening scene of Quisling – The Final Days, Vidkun Quisling (Gard B. Eidsvold), the minister president of Norway during the Nazi occupation, announces the death of Adolf Hitler over the radio and frames it as a great loss for the nation. His arrest and imprisonment by the new government follow swiftly, and he remains steadfast that he did the right thing at every turn throughout the entire ill-fated process…

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TIFF ’24: Claes Bang is “William Tell”

By Abe Friedtanzer

The legend of William (or Wilhelm, in German) Tell describes a man who helped to liberate Switzerland from Austrian occupation in the early 1300s. Whether he was real or not is immaterial to the fame his legacy has achieved throughout history, and he’s become the subject of many stories, including the 1804 play William Tell by Friedrich Schiller. That serves as the inspiration for writer-director Nick Hamm’s action epic of the same name, making its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival…

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TIFF ’24: Another take on the transporting “Kill the Jockey”

By Abe Friedtanzer

It’s not always the plot a film that makes it interesting but sometimes the way that it’s told. Kill the Jockey most certainly falls under that description, enhancing a premise about a jockey on the run from his mobster boss after an accident with an unforgettable and unique style. Those seeking a narrative that has a distinct start and finish with clear resolution for all its characters won’t necessarily find that here, but what transpires over its ninety-six minutes is definitely captivating… 

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TIFF '24: “Hard Truths” hits hard

by Cláudio Alves

It's been six years since cinemas have been left waiting for a new Mike Leigh film. Moreover, the British portraitist of working-class life and struggle, joy and pain, secrets and lies, had for a while abandoned the contemporary stories upon which his early career was built. Though the director's forays into historical pasts have produced naught but great cinema, it's fair to say it's been over six years since the world has encountered what most associate with the words "a Mike Leigh film." Well, the wait is over, and I'm pleased to say Hard Truths is well worth the wait.

Not so much a return to form as a return to familiarity, the film also finds the auteur reuniting with Marianne Jean-Baptiste, the Oscar-nominated star of his Palme d'Or victor who also scored the director's Career Girls. And if what Leigh delivers behind the camera could be called a triumph, what his leading lady accomplishes demands a stronger word. She's the stuff of legend and what actressing dreams are made of…

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