By John H. Foote (***) In 2016, Pablo Larraín brought his film Jackie to TIFF, a haunting film about Jackie Kennedy in the moments, hours, days and weeks after the assassination of her husband, President John F. Kennedy. Portraying Jackie in the year’s greatest performance was Natalie Portman. She masterfully captured that whispery voice, that shell-shocked…
By Alan Hurst I love Melissa McCarthy. I think she’s one of the most inventive comedic actresses on the planet and she’s also a very fine dramatic actress. She won me over in a big way with Bridesmaids (2011), The Heat (2013), Spy (2015), Can You Ever Forgive Me (2018), and in the first few…
By John H. Foote (***) Barry Levinson was at his peak in the 80s and early 90s, directing box office hit and critically acclaimed films such as Diner (1982), The Natural (1984), Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), Tin Men (1987), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), his Oscar-winning Best Picture Rain Man (1988), which also won him the…
By John H. Foote (***) As a filmmaker and actor, Kenneth Branagh has run very hot and cold. Hailed as the heir apparent to Laurence Olivier (did we need one?), Branagh exploded into film with a bloody, realistic production of Henry V (1989) landing himself nominations for Oscars as Best Actor and Best Director. Never…
By John H. Foote (****) The song “You Oughta Know” begins with the singer spitting out each word venomously. “I want you to know….”, she tells her ex-lover, laying open her broken heart. That song launched Alanis Morissette to the top of the Billboard charts, won her a boatload of Grammys, and established her as…
By John H. Foote (***) Accolades came fast for Jessica Chastain, stardom did not. The beautiful red headed graduate of Julliard struggled for several years before finally landing a plum role in Al Pacino’s filmed adaptation of Salome (2009) as the dancing vixen who demands the head of John the Baptist. She had previously been…
By John H. Foote (***) Shot in a miraculous 11 days during the height of the pandemic, director Antoine Fuqua and actor Jake Gyllenhaal display remarkable artistry and discipline in creating this film. A straight remake of the Danish film of the same name, the major difference is Gyllenhaal, who racks up the intensity to…
By John H. Foote (***) First of all, thank you to the programmers at TIFF for grabbing Dune as a screening work. In doing so, they landed one of the years most anticipated films as they did a couple of years back with Joker (2019) and A Star is Born (2018). Well done, folks!! “This…
By John H. Foote (***) You know those actors you see from film to film, but never bother learning their name? They are strong character actors, sometimes something beneath being a character actor, and every so often they are given a chance to shine bright. That is the case with long time actor Clifton Collins…
By John H. Foote (****) The last great film Jane Campion made was the exquisite The Piano (1993), which made her just the second woman nominated for a Best Director Oscar. The Piano received universal acclaim and was the only challenger as the year’s finest film to Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece Schindler’s List. It has been…