My Courses

There’s an interesting dynamic wherein artists are often fascinated by the lives and processes of other artists. It’s probably both the act of witnessing a kindred spirit and a desire to elevate the aspect of the human condition that produces timeless creativity. This habit led to three of the films I saw this year at…

After its splashy debut at Sundance in January led to a pricey acquisition by Netflix, Chloe Domont’s high finance romantic thriller “Fair Play” finally made its international debut at TIFF. The (mostly) two-hander, about the implosion of a secret relationship between two hedge fund analysts, has lost none of its urgency in the interim, largely…

There were several coming-of-age and coming home films at this year’s festival. Both kinds of movies allow a personal story to be told with a universal lens. This is the case for writer/director Billy Luther’s “Frybread Face and Me,” a semi-autobiographical film about a pivotal visit to his grandmother’s house in the Navajo Nation in…

In the hustle and bustle of big narrative premieres, which often showcase major movie stars, documentaries can be easy to overlook in Toronto. But with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike significantly curtailing the talent attending the festival, it’s worth remembering how bountiful the doc medium is. This year offers three films about subjects battling repressive…

Hulu’s “The Other Black Girl” is initially like a fine mystery-thriller, sparingly using popular genre tropes and weaving them with unpopular subject matter. But, as the show continues, it becomes clear that this adaptation will unfortunately succumb to the same failings of its source material. What starts as a run-of-the-mill thriller becomes an even more…