Category: tiff 2019

2019 / david bax / movies / reviews / Theatrical Review / tiff / tiff 2019

September 8, 2019

TIFF 2019: Vitalina Varela, by David Bax

When a filmmaker develops a style as distinct and seemingly simplistic as Pedro Costa’s and when that style proves effective, why should they bother making any major changes to it? Vitalina Varela is recognizable as a Costa film from the...

2019 / david bax / movies / reviews / Theatrical Review / tiff / tiff 2019

September 7, 2019

TIFF 2019: The Personal History of David Copperfield, by David Bax

As a writer and director of motion pictures, Armando Iannucci has so far stuck to the absurd brutality of politics, both the modern day, lightly fictionalized kind (In the Loop) and the historical kind (The Death of Stalin). These are...

2019 / david bax / movies / reviews / Theatrical Review / tiff / tiff 2019

September 6, 2019

TIFF 2019: About Endlessness, by David Bax

If you’ve seen a film by Roy Andersson (Songs from the Second Floor, You, the Living, A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence), you will largely know what to expect from his newest, About Endlessness. Once again, the...

2019 / david bax / movies / reviews / Theatrical Review / tiff / tiff 2019

September 6, 2019

TIFF 2019: Bacurau, by David Bax

Assuming it doesn’t take too long for the shock to wear off that Kleber Mendonça Filho (Neighboring Sounds, Aquarius) has, along with co-director Juliano Dornelles, made an unabashed, committed, gory genre movie, it should very quickly become apparent that, for...

2019 / david bax / movies / reviews / Theatrical Review / tiff / tiff 2019

September 6, 2019

TIFF 2019: Zombi Child, by David Bax

Bertrand Bonello’s Zombi Child is a fictionalized retelling of the account of Clairvius Narcisse, a Haitian man who claimed to have been given a poison in 1962 that caused him to appear dead and then “resurrected” by men who enslaved...

2019 / david bax / movies / reviews / Theatrical Review / tiff / tiff 2019

September 6, 2019

TIFF 2019: Portrait of a Lady on Fire, by David Bax

Portraiture is one of the oldest, and therefore most conventional, artistic pursuits. And much of Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire is concerned with the creation of that traditionalist style of painting. Yet, when we see the work...

2019 / david bax / movies / reviews / Theatrical Review / tiff / tiff 2019

September 5, 2019

TIFF 2019: Varda by Agnes, by David Bax

The opening titles of Agnès Varda’s final film, Varda by Agnès, are backdropped by stills from her films; there are beaches, gleaners, couples in the throes of happiness, etc. So, if you didn’t know beforehand, you’d realize pretty quickly that...