Monthly Archives: September 2014

TIFF FILM REVIEW: Bill Murray in ‘St. Vincent’

By Ray Bennett TORONTO – Bill Murray is just the way you want him in Theodore Melfi’s engaging comedy “St. Vincent” as an ageing ragamuffin and dedicated grouch whose gruff exterior is breached by a determined kid who won’t take any … Continue reading

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: Alan Rickman’s ‘A Little Chaos’

By Ray Bennett TORONTO – Handsome and creditable, Alan Rickman’s period drama “A Little Chaos”, about the only woman to design an attraction at Louis XIV’s Versailles gardens, is more dogged than inspired. Kate Winslett plays Madame Sabine De Barra, … Continue reading

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: Morten Tyldum’s ‘The Imitation Game’

By Ray Bennett TORONTO – Morten Tyldum’s engrossing drama “The Imitation Game”, about World War II codebreaker Alan Turing, gives Benedict Cumberbatch another complex character to explore and the result is a film that will please audiences and collect major … Continue reading

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: ‘This Is Where I Leave You’

By Ray Bennett TORONTO – Shawn Levy’s empty comedy “This Is Where I Leave You” has the same premise as last year’s “August: Osage County” as a family gathers reluctantly upon the death of a father but it replaces hateful … Continue reading

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: ‘The Riot Club’

By Ray Bennett TORONTO – Lone Scherfig’s pedestrian film “The Riot Club” follows 10 rich hooligans as they act out the delusion that they have class, style and taste as they gorge on excessive food and drink at a gastropub, … Continue reading

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: Jon Stewart’s ‘Rosewater’

By Ray Bennett TORONTO – U.S. comedian Jon Stewart took leave from “The Daily Show” to write and direct “Rosewater” and he has turned out an intelligent and gripping story about a newsman who is incarcerated in Iran as a … Continue reading

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: Jake Gyllenhaal in ‘Nightcrawler’

By Ray Bennett TORONTO – From his first appearance – cadaverous, unblinking and unctuous – Jake Gyllenhaal holds your attention in Dan Gilroy’s disturbing thriller “Nightcrawler” as a nocturnal creature that has emerged from under a rock fully formed as … Continue reading

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TIFF FILM REVIEW: Gemma Arterton in ‘Gemma Bovery’

By Ray Bennett TORONTO – Anne Fontaine’s “Gemma Bovery” is a witty Gallic fable with a sting in its tail that combines a celebration of glorious femininity with merciless mockery of men who are beguiled by it. Gemma Arterton stars … Continue reading

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TIFF Film Review: ‘Pawn Sacrifice’

By Ray Bennett TORONTO – Fast-paced editing, pumped-up music and an assortment of visual textures and styles serve to make a world chess tournament exciting for the uninitiated in Edward Zwick’s sprightly drama “Pawn Sacrifice”. The director, who has made … Continue reading

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TIFF 2014: A tale of three Equalizers

By Ray Bennett File under “it’s a small world”: I’m at my old pal Ron Base’s place in Milton for a Sunday brunch chatting with another guest, Hans Gerhardt, who ran the Sutton Place Hotel in Toronto when it was … Continue reading

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