Confidently directed by Lulu Wang, her follow-up to The Farewell received much critical acclaim out of Sundance and finally should establish her as “going Hollywood”. Expats is a six-part miniseries based on the book Expatriates by Janine K Lee. TIFF invited Lulu to share what was the penultimate episode of the series called Central. These…
When a pregnant Soo-jin (Jung Yu-mi) finds her husband, Hyun-su (Parasite’s Lee Sun-kyun), sleep talking one night, and when his actions in his sleep become increasingly harmful, she insists that they visit a doctor who diagnoses him with a sleep disorder. However, a shaman insists Hyun-su’s condition is supernatural. The couple does everything they can…
George C. Wolfe’s latest film, Rustin, shows that he finds scripts that give his generational talented actors the to shine. However, this one takes a step back in its originality and covers mostly familiar narrative and historical ground. Rustin stars Colman Domingo as Bayard Rustin, a charismatic civil rights leader who keeps getting pushed to…
The Contestant tells the true story of Japanese reality TV star, Tomoaki Hamatsu (nicknamed Nasubi), who was seized by prominent TV producer Toshio Tsuchiya in 1998 while he thought he was attending an audition. In order to acquire the prize of one million yen, he was forced to fill out contest coupons through magazines… with…
Set in an alternate reality, Fingernails tells of a world where cellphones don’t exist but love-matching machines are able to confirm whether two people are compatible by ripping off a fingernail and placing it into the machine. Looking for confirmation, Ryan and Anna have passed the fingernails test and obtained a certificate stating their true…
Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, Monster begins with the story of Minato (Soya Kurokawa), a young man who lives with his mother. Having lost his father as a young child, Minato begins behaving oddly, claiming that his brain has been switched with a pig. Confused and frightened for her son, Minato’s mother assumes that this is caused by…
Have you ever left a theatre and felt like your heart was in the sky? That would happen to me every time I went to the cinema as a kid; it would take me such a long time to return to reality afterwards. Now, possibly because I’m always watching something, those moments are few and…
What is the downside of a miracle? Directed by Christian Sparkes, The King Tide takes place in a close-knit—but isolated—community off the coast of Newfoundland. Let by its loving mayor Bobby (Clayne Crawford), the townfolk live simple lives as struggling fishermen. Things begin to change though with the arrival of Isla, an infant who literally washes up…
Is there another film at TIFF this year that is as pure-hearted and fueled with love as Robot Dreams? Set in 1980s New York City, Robot Dreams tells the story of Dog, a lonely pup who lives a quiet life alone. Then, while watching TV one night, he sees an ad for robot companions and he immediately springs…
In Motherland, writer/director Jasmin Mozaffari tells the story of Babak (Bahtash Fazlali), an Iranian immigrant who has found love in America in 1979. However, this is also a time when Iranians are viewed with suspicion on American soil. After accepting an invitation to meet his fiancé’s parents, he nervously attempts to connect with his potential in-laws….
