Sara Clements

There are always those indie darlings at film festivals that don’t get the attention they deserve. One of those from the Toronto International Film Festival this year is Unicorns. The Swimmers director, Sally El Hosaini, and co-director and writer, James Krishna Floyd, create a story about a cross-cultural, queer romance that’s both raw and heartfelt. An ode to the South “gaysian” drag scene in London, with two strong lead performances, it’s a solid crowd-pleaser that works as an alluring and...

“Loving Vincent” left cinephiles in awe. It’s not often you watch a film and can claim that everything about it is wholly original and has never been done before. But as the world’s first fully painted film, it’s just that. It brought to life the paintings of Vincent van Gogh to tell his story in a unique and fitting manner. Re-imagining over 120 of the artist’s paintings into film, with every one of its 65,00 frames oil painted by hand, directors DK Welchman and Hugh Welchman achieved something truly incredible. Now, after six long years, the duo and the groundbreaking, hand-painted animat...

Alongside films like Poor Things, The Killer and Priscilla, there were many underdogs of the 80th Venice International Film Festival. I had the privilege of viewing a few such films in my pyjamas at home. Featuring a struggling newsroom, a bloodthirsty teen, and an Oscar-nominated short-turned-feature, keep an eye out for these French titles.

THROUGH THE NIGHT (QUITTER LA NUIT)
Oscar-nominated for her short film, A Sister, Delphine Girard’s Through the Night is an expansion of that short. And...

There’s a chill in the air. The leaves are about to fall. Pumpkin spice is back on the shelves. It’s finally spooky season, which means that it’s the perfect time to kick-start your horror marathons. With nine films in its universe, The Conjuring franchise is bound to make an appearance on our screens at least once from now until Halloween. Whether that’s doing a rewatch at home or watching a new one in the theatre, for many, it’s a tradition. Admittedly, the films in the franchise haven’t al...

Films about the psychological torment of an artist are nothing new. There’s “Black Swan,” “Whiplash,” the recent “Tár,” and many more. What sets “Seven Veils” apart is how the play at its center, “Salome,” is so tightly fused with real life. Writer-director Atom Egoyan’s screenplay deals with the fictional remounting of an opera while he was doing a remounting of his own. “Salome” has followed the director since he first directed the Richard Strauss libretto (based on the Oscar Wilde play) in 1996, much like the same opera has followed the fictional director in “Seven Veils,” Jeanine....

If you think of coming-of-age films centering on teenage boys, there’s more often than not a very embarrassing scene used for laughs involving masturbation and the parents walking in. Very seldom does this happen when the main character is a teenage girl. But writer-director Molly McGlynn immediately tackles the taboo. Opening the film is not only a quote from “Jennifer’s Body” – “Hell is a teenage girl” – but also a scene with protagonist Lindy (Maddie Ziegler) masturbating. “Fitting In” distinguishes itself from the get-go, making the audience aware that they’re in for not just any film....

With her debut feature, “The Assistant,” writer-director Kitty Green came out of the gate with ferocity, creating what would be defined as the #MeToo movie. Her critique of workplace harassment is claustrophobic and full of unsettling tension. This time, Green paints on a bigger canvas; “The Royal Hotel,” much like her previous work, is suffocating, controlled, and anxiety-inducing. A combination of a road movie and a thriller, “The Royal Hotel” has Green reuniting with Julia Garner as the filmmaker continues to masterfully create a tension-filled dissection of male and female power...

Our 2011 retrospective has come to an end. Our final review is Michel Hazanavicius’ “The Artist,” starring Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, James Cromwell, Penelope Ann Miller, Malcolm McDowell, Missi Pyle, Beth Grant, Ed Lauter, Joel Murray, Ken Davitian & John Goodman. The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, and it went on one of the most unlikely award season runs we’ve ever seen. Suddenly, in 2011, everyone was charmed and transported back to the age of silent film and f...

In philosophy, an aporia is defined as a conundrum. It’s a fitting title to use for Jared Moshe’s latest film. Aporia, in theatres now, is the best embodiment of the ultimate conundrum, of the quantum and emotional kinds. The immense psychological struggle that the film’s characters experience comes with a once-in-a-lifetime leap. Exploring both the beauty and cruelty of the universe, the film grapples with the consequences of actions that offer one family a second chance. It’s a human story ...

What if you wanted to have children but they could grow in detachable, artificial wombs? For women who want children but can’t carry them on their own or simply don’t want to, that seems like a dream. According to Sophie Barthes’ science fiction film, The Pod Generation, a world where that is a possibility isn’t far off from reality — but it’s not as satisfactory as imagined.

Rachel (Emilia Clarke) often has dreams about motherhood, whether these dreams see her cradling her pregnant belly or ...

Based on Casey McQuiston’s critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Red, White & Royal Blue is a delightfully entertaining and queer romantic comedy. Following the enemies-to-lovers romance of a prince and a president’s son, Matthew López’s feature debut, now on Prime Video, is the most modern of fairytales, defying conventions with an abundance of emotion, engaging drama, and steamy hotness.
Prince Henry (Nicholas Galitzine) is Britain’s heartthrob. Spare to the throne, he greets the ...

Twenty years after Rob Minkoff’s The Haunted Mansion, Disney is back with another take on the spooky attraction. Taking its audience on a ride that has similar beats to the Eddie Murphy-lead version, Haunted Mansion (minus “The”) sees the Mouse House once again on its grief shtick. Exploration of this theme in almost all of their films may seem tiresome for many, but it acts as the only affecting thing to come out of these remakes. Director Justin Simien and writer Katie Dippold bring quite a...

Womanhood and what it means in today’s world are explored often in media, but discussed alongside the doll that for many children represented womanhood makes Barbie a wholly unique exploration of that topic. Barbie the product creates unrealistic expectations for little girls, and Barbie the character learns exactly what those expectations are. Life in Barbie’s perfect plastic world is just a fantasy, and not truly fantastic, as Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” indicates. Greta Gerwig’s vision is eye-pop...

There are many horror franchises, dabbling in everything from science fiction to slasher. One subgenre that has also been frequent is supernatural horror. Franchises like Paranormal Activity, The Ring and The Exorcist have become supernatural staples, but one tops them all: The Conjuring Universe. The eight-film, two-billion-dollar franchise is the highest-grossing in horror history, and with two upcoming films, The Nun II and The Conjuring: Last Rites, it will add even more figures to its gr...

For this week’s main podcast review, I am joined by Sara Clements, Brendan Hodges, Danilo Castro & Isaiah Washington. Today, we’re discussing the latest film in the “Mission: Impossible” franchise, Christopher McQuarrie’s “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” starring Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Esai Morales, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Pom Klementieff, Shea Whigham & Henry Czerny. With an all-star cast led by one of the industry’s last bonafide movie st...