The Danish Girl TIFF Movie Review

Article by Gabe Zia

Lazy Film Critic Movie Reviews

TIFF Movie Review: The Danish Girl

The Danish Girl is a drama based on the true story of Lili Elbe, who was either the first or one of the first people to undergo a sex change surgery. The film is directed by Tom Hooper, director of The King's Speech and Les Miserables. The film stars Eddie Redmayne, fresh off his Theory of Everything oscar, and Alicia Vikander from Ex Machina. Despite the films basis off a true story, it's actually based on a book, which is more or less a fictional story. 

When this movie comes out, I think I know what all the movie fans are going to be talking about, which is Eddie Redmayne. Due to his recent oscar win, it'll be easy to assume Redmayne gives the best performance in this movie. Now, while he's by no means bad in the movie, his performance wasn't the most memorable one. The real oscar nomination I see coming out of this movie is for Alicia Vikander. She had by far the most emotional, captivating, and well rounded performance of the film, and absolutely stole the show.

Another thing that was well done with The Danish Girl was the cinematography, this movie is amazingly filmed, with some absolutely stellar shots. The aesthetic of this movie is beautiful, with great landscape shots, and amazing shots of 1920s Denmark. That last part also goes hand in hand with the set design and costumes, which were perfect. If it weren't for the fact that everyone inexplicably has a British accent, it would feel as though I were in 1920s Denmark.

However, unfortunatley, The Danish Girl suffers from a problem last years Foxcatcher suffered from, and something I think a lot of these "oscar bait" movies suffer from. The writing and pacing in these movies, and in the end the actual entertainment of the film is given a back seat to putting an actor in a role for them to be nominated for an oscar. I said it in my review for Foxcatcher, and I'll say it again, it's not a difficult task to get me entertained, I find almost anything entertaining. But the Danish Girl wasn't entertaining, so I didn't really enjoy the movie as a whole.

Final Rating
The Danish Girl has all the makings of a top notch film. The acting is really good, the cinematography is fantastic, and is has great set design. However, the film fails due to a lackluster story, poorly written characters, and quite frankly I feel the need to point out that this film would have been a lot more effective in what it's trying to do if Lili was played by a woman. As for my recommendation, the movie Creed comes out on the same day as The Danish Girl, and Creed is probably much more worth seeing. 

The Danish Girl comes out November 27th.

The Martian TIFF Movie Review

Article by Gabe Zia

Lazy Film Critic Movie Reviews

TIFF Movie Review: The Martian

The Martian is a survival thriller based on a book of the same name by Andy Weir. The film is directed by Ridley Scott, famous for Blade Runner, Alien, and a bunch of other really popular and really great movies. It follows an astronaut who, through a series of accidents, ends up stranded on the surface of Mars. The movie follows both the astronaut struggling to survive on a planet with no natural resources, as well as scientists on Earth trying to figure out how to help him however they can. The film stars Matt Damon, Chiwitel Ejiofor, Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels, and Sean Bean.

I've said in other articles that - unlike almost any other movie based on a book - I've actually read The Martian. Anyone else I know who's read The Martian has agreed with me that Matt Damon was the perfect choice to play Mark Watney, which he truly is. He is absolutely stellar as Watney, selling his hilarious sarcastic monologues of the book, but also playing a convincing scientist, never at any point seeming like he's acting. Matt Damon isn't the only powerful performance shown in The Martian, the entire cast of this movie delivers fantastic performances, especially Chiwitel Ejiofor and Jessica Chastain.

Despite the tone depicted by the trailer, The Martian has a lot of humor throughout the story, between Watneys sarcastic jokes about his situation and a lot of nerd humor. While The Martian is definitely a serious film, it's by no means as grim and harrowing as other isolation films such as Castaway or Moon. Another great part of this film's tone is that there is never a dull moment, there's always something going wrong that has to be fixed to keep the audience on their toes for the entire movie.

Any time a book is turned into a movie, most of the time therez are some significant changes, and some minor ones. However, The Martian is a rare exception, with the only real differences between the book and the movie are minor scenes. This movie, with some very minor exceptions, follows the book verbatim. If anyone reading this has read the book, I guarantee you will love the movie. Honestly, I'd say try to read the book before the movie comes out, I read through it in about a week.

Final Rating
The Martian is by far one of the better films of 2015, it's Matt Damon's best movie in a while, and a fantastic comeback from Ridley Scott. This movie features powerful performances from the entire cast, a few of them I'd say are absolutely worthy of an oscar nomination at the very least. It's consistently entertaining, mixing both a great sense of humor, and constant action to keep the audience guessing. The Martian is one of those rare movies I think absolutely everyone should go see.

The Martian has a wide release on October 2nd.

Demolition TIFF 2015 Movie Review

Article by Gabe Zia

Lazy Film Critic Movie Reviews

TIFF 2015 Movie Review: Demolition

Demolition is a drama/comedy from director Jean-Marc Vallée, the director of Wild and Dallas Buyers Club. The film follows a guy coping with the death of his wife, although instead of therapy sessions or anything one would normally expect, his coping mechanism appears to be taking things apart, destroying parts of his house, and breaking things wherever he can find them. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Naomi Watts, Chris Cooper, and Judah Lewis.

Jake Gyllenhaal has been established for a while as one of the best actors currently working today, so the fact that he was absolutely brilliant in Demolition shouldn't come to much of a surprise to anyone. The character of Davis Mitchell is an incredibly three dimensional character, with a wide emotional range throughout the film, and Gyllenhaal plays all of them perfectly. Naomi Watts and Chris Cooper are as good as ever, both playing interesting characters with lots of emotional depth. However, the big standout (aside from Gyllenhaal) was Judah Lewis. Now, normally kid actors are forgettable, bland, or just annoying. And at first I was concerned this would be the case here. However, to my surprise, this guy managed to pull off a really complex role, so props to him.

I know, I'm using this photo a lot. The movie doesn't come out until 2016, I don't have much to work with here.

Demolition is the kind of drama/comedy I love seeing, although it's usually rare. Usually drama comedies will start out a comedy, and slowly become a drama. However, much like 50/50 or Me & Earl & the Dying Girl, Demolition is a perfect blend of drama and comedy, with most scenes having a mixture of both funny and emotional moments. The comedy part of this movie was surprisingly good. I say surprising because after Dallas Buyers Club and Wild were two very emotional films, it's a surprise to see a comedic side to his films. The humor worked, the writing worked, and this movie had this kind of deadpan sense of humor I really enjoyed.

As for the emotional parts of the film, this movie really hits you where you live sometimes. At its core, Demolition is about grief, loss, and moving on. That's something I'm sure just about anyone can relate to on some level, be it a family member, a friend, or a Game of Thrones character. So, with that, this movie has some really heart-breaking moments. This movie had me tearing up at some points, others turned me into a blubbering baby.

Final Rating

Demolition is a powerful, emotional, hilarious, and heartbreaking movie. It tells a story I'm sure many will be able to relate to in some way. Jake Gyllenhaal gives one of the most effective performances since Donnie Darko, and his most emotional role since Brokeback Mountain. We'll probably see more of Judah Lewis in future films, as he's one of the better young actors I've seen in some time. When Demolition officially releases, I recommend everyone go see it.

Demolition officially releases in April 2016

Next TIFF Review: The Martian

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Top 10 Most Anticipated Movies at TIFF 2015

Article by Gabe Zia
So it's nearing the time in the year when the Canadian equivalent of Cannes and Sundance happens, and that film festival is the Toronto International Film Festival, or TIFF if you prefer. Like last year, I'm going to be doing some coverage of some of the films there, and probably see some really good movies. However, before I know exactly what films I'm going to see, these are some of the films that were just announced a few days ago that I'm looking forward to.

10. The Martian

Ridley Scott has put together a huge film, The Martian has a lot going for it. It's got a massive cast, easily one of the most impressive casts I've seen in a movie recently. It has a really interesting premise, it's like Castaway only on another planet. And I've heard the book that this movie is based on is fantastic. I'm planning to get a copy of the book and read it before this movie comes out, because rarely can I ever talk about the books in a movie review.

9. The Lobster

Every year, there's always that one movie that makes you go "huh?", and this year that movie is The Lobster. Here's the premise. Colin Farrell plays this guy in a dystoptian future, who decides to go to this really expensive seeming hotel. Initially, the charge for the hotel is free. However, once you stay at this hotel, you have 45 days to find a "mate" I guess. If you don't, you're turned into an animal of the hotels choosing and released into the wild. Again, really bizarre.

8. Freeheld

I always like a good biopic, and I like topical films, so I'm really glad Freeheld exists and is coming out. This movie is based on the true story of Laurel Hester, who was a New Jersey cop, but was then diagnosed with lung cancer. And essentially what happened was that if a married cop dies, then a pension goes to the wife or husband of said cop. However, the same thing didn't apply to same-sex couples, which is essentially what this movie is about.

7. Black Mass

Johnny Depp is back in a dramatic role, and although it still involves a lot of makeup, at least it's not a weird quirky role like everything else he's done. Black Mass stars Johnny Depp as Whitey Bulger, one of US histories most notorious gangsters. What makes his story so interesting is that when other mobs started invading his turf, he became an FBI informant as a means to use the government to take down his competitors. All in all, not exactly the worst strategy.

6. Demolition

Demolition comes from Jean-Marc Vallée, the director of Wild and Dallas Buyers Club. Demolition follows a guy, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, who is in shambles after the death of his wife. So instead of going to therapy, spending time with other people in his life, drinking, or anything any other movie character would do, he decides to go all Fight Club and cause random acts of destruction. I'm assuming these aren't the kind of acts of destruction that cause random deaths, but who knows.

5. Trumbo

Trumbo follows the famous Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, in this biopic telling both the story of him as a writer for Hollywood, and the story of how he was famously blacklisted for aligning with the American Communist party. All this could be interesting enough to carry a film on it's own, but what's really caught my eye is the fact that this movie stars Bryan Cranston in a major leading role, which means he could be nominated for an oscar for this movie.

4. Eye in the Sky

I first heard of Eye in the Sky a long time ago, while looking at Aaron Pauls upcoming films. Similarly to Ethan Hawkes "Good Kill", Eye in the Sky follows the topic of unmanned drones being used in warfare, and the ethics of this. What makes Eye in the Sky different from Good Kill is that the premise of the movie is that a civilian girl enters the killzone of the drone, and that's the premise. Simple premises in movies are so rare these days, I'm so glad Eye in the Sky exists to give us exactly that.

3. Legend

Two Tom Hardy's for the price of one, that should be the add campaign for Legend. This movie follows the story of the Kray twins in London during the 50s and 60s. What makes this interesting is how vastly different Reggie and Ronnie Kray were, with Reggie Kray being intelligent and calm, running things with his mind. Ronnie Kray was apparently a violent schizophrenic, although a 50s diagnosis of schizophrenia is likely pretty different than now.

2. The Program

I'm honestly surprised it took this long for someone to make a Lance Armstrong movie. Ben Foster stars in the role that I'm sure will land him an oscar nomination as the infamous Lance Armstrong, who famously used performance enhancing drugs during all of his tour de France races, which he always won. The film tells the story of both him as a racer and the journalist who aided in exposing him. The reason I want to see The Program so badly is due to how good Ben Fosters performance seems like it will be.

1. Sicario

I've talked about this before in the past. In my opinion, Denis Villeneuve is the single most important director working today. Between Incendies, Enemy, and Prisoners, the man has made masterpiece after masterpiece, and Sicario looks consistent with that. Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, and Benicio Del Toro star in this accidentally topical film about the cartel. However, from the trailer, and knowing Villeneuve, I can bet this movie will be much more than simply that. I have high hopes for this movie, and it's my most anticipated film of TIFF 2015.