Margaret Bream

Author, photojournalist, editor at the Toronto Star. My column Wild in the City appears bi-weekly in the Insight section of the @TorontoStar Sunday edition

[Peter Howell 🖊 @peterhowellfilm]

LA GRADIVA: The past informs the present in this coming-of-age stunner. A group of French students travelling to Italy with their teacher (Antonia Buresi, “A Private Life”) set out to learn about the people of Pompeii vaporized by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Some 2,000 years later, they feel their own lives lack substance —especially the rebellious Toni (Colas Quignard). The film also follows cocky James (Mitia Capellier-Audat) and bookish Suzanne (Suzanne Gerin), as the students’ encounters with history begin to deepen their sense of themselves. A naturalistic, quietly transporting gem by Marine Atlan. #TIFF26

[Peter Howell 🖊 @peterhowellfilm]

"Obsession" horror hitmaker Curry Barker says he was "obsessed" with Harry Potter as a kid, while his film's star Inde Navarrette found inspiration from Natalie Portman's wannabe assassin character in "Leon: The Professional" and Charlize Theron's serial killer character in "Monster." She was also big on video games: "I was a very imaginative child." The two were talking to TIFF Midnight Madness programmer Peter Kuplowsky, who helped launch the "Obsession" skyrocket at last year's fest. #TIFF26

[Peter Howell 🖊 @peterhowellfilm]

THE STUNT DRIVER: Michael Dowse’s spirited and fact-based account of Canuck daredevil Ken Carter’s 1970s St. Lawrence River jump quest makes a cracking good yarn all by itself. But it takes on added resonance in these times when a bellicose southern bully keeps trying to tell us what Canadians can’t do. Jay Baruchel embodies Carter’s irrepressible optimism about leaping into danger, reminding me of Troy Hurtubise’s bear-rassling scheme in “Project Grizzly.” Ed Helms is the MVP supporting star as Dick Keller, the concerned but committed designer of the rocket-powered Lincoln Continental designed to make a jump that daunts even legendary U.S. risktaker Evel Knievel (Ben Foster). The film is a hilarious and harrowing reminder that the sky really is the limit when Canadians are put to the test. 🇨🇦 #TIFF26

[Peter Howell 🖊 @peterhowellfilm]

TENDER LOVING CARE: Cast members spontaneously sing torch ballad “The Great Pretender,” but there’s nothing the least bit false about Mike Leigh’s latest and possibly last film (or so he says). His compassionate eye and blue-collar instincts zero in on London social workers/BFFs Amy (Kate O’Flynn) and Rosie (Alice Bailey Johnson), who are struggling to stay positive while coping with difficult clients and useless boyfriends. Amy’s aging parents, Birdie (Marion Bailey) and Geoff (Paul Jesson), are sympathetic and helpful but Paul’s health has taken a turn for the worse. The plot is lean but the acting is true and the epiphanies, albeit small, are completely earned. Leigh has been making films for decades yet this one feels fresh enough to be his first; he’s never lost his fascination with the quotidian cares of the world. #TIFF26

[Peter Howell 🖊 @peterhowellfilm]

MISTY GREEN: Rosalind Eleazar mesmerizes as title star of Chris Rock’s Hollywood skewering, Rock’s first film as writer-director in a dozen years. “Slow Horses” breakout Eleazar plays Misty as a showbiz survivor, who has won an Emmy (and earned a Cosmo mag cover) for her role in a hit TV series. Pushing 40, she’s squandered her fame and money on booze, coke and sex, yet somehow still looks glamorous and still has the goods as an actor and singer. She also has a rep as a troublemaker, she’s considered too old and “too black” by some casting agents and she surrounds herself with dodgy people: a violently bipolar brother (Daniel Kaluuya), a scuzzy sex-and-drugs buddy (Adam Driver) who wants to pimp her out in Dubai for fast cash, a screwed-up BFF (Anna Kendrick) and Rock himself as Misty’s wisecracking ex-director, who might give her a career-reviving role in a reboot of “Dreamgirls.” The whole thing plays more like the pilot to a really interesting TV series rather than a standalone film, but Eleazar proves she’s got what it takes to be a genuine Hollywood presence. #TIFF26

[Peter Howell 🖊 @peterhowellfilm]

YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER: Movies about contract hitmen who live solitary lives and kill without conscience are legion. What makes Bassam Tariq’s film special, beyond Mahershala Ali’s superb lead performance, is the centrality of family and faith. The two-time #Oscars winner is a stoic bundle of contradictions as Latif, a lethal Texas bladesman and recently widowed, observant Muslim father of three —including a newborn who urgently needs breast milk.
His efforts to feed his baby while keeping his children safe leads Latif into increasingly strange and dangerous territory, including confrontations with an Iraq War veteran (John Cho) who now commands a trigger-happy band of radical Christians. We can never quite predict where the story is headed, but watching it unfold is consistently thrilling. British actress Adia is terrific as Latif’s teenage daughter, who acts as his conscience on the run and a vital reminder of his humanity. #TIFF26

[Peter Howell 🖊 @peterhowellfilm]

THE DEBUT: Julianne Moore makes acting look like a matter of life and death, onstage and off, in Jesse Eisenberg’s terrific new comedy. She gives an awards-worthy performance as Mona, a mousy suburbanite who, for reasons known only to herself, auditions for a small part in a corny community-theatre musical about life in a New York apartment building. Under the imperious eye of director Jerry (Paul Giamatti, never better), Mona goes from barely a squeak to the mouse that roared, with increasingly alarming Norma Desmond flashes along the way. Her “rent is due” showdown with Jerry is an audience-rousing scene for the ages. One of my favourite films at #TIFF26.

[Peter Howell 🖊 @peterhowellfilm]

BUCKING FASTARD: Werner Herzog’s wild follow-your-dreams tale stars Kate and Rooney Mara as Jean and Joan Holbrooke, Irish sisters who dress alike, speak in unison, and become equally obsessed with their neighbour Gareth (Orlando Bloom). When he marries another woman and casts them aside, their response is violent enough to bring them before a judge, where they explain: “We did it for love.” But Herzog is only getting started. The sisters rescue a fox they name Cupid and try to dig a tunnel by hand through an Irish mountain, certain “there must be a better world out there.” The film has divided festival audiences, but I fell for its strange magic: pitch-perfect work from the Maras, dreamlike images by Peter Zeitlinger and Herzog’s enduring tenderness for beautiful eccentrics. Jean and Joan could be ghosts haunting his “Cave of Forgotten Dreams.” #TIFF26

[Peter Howell 🖊 @peterhowellfilm]

WILD HORSE NINE: Laugh while you gasp. A South American revolution, the JFK assassination and assorted CIA skulduggery hardly sound like the makings of riotous buddy comedy. But Martin McDonagh has built a glorious career wringing chortles from the darkest circumstances and most combative of male pairings, from “In Bruges” to “The Banshees of Inisherin.” It is 1973. A bloody Chilean military coup is brewing, and squabbling CIA agents Chris (John Malkovich) and Lee (Sam Rockwell), longtime pals and habitual agents of mayhem, head to Rapa Nui to see “the giant heads,” a bucket-list wish for Chris. The trip has urgency: Chris is terminally ill and showing signs of cognitive decline. Worse, he has become a gleeful blabbermouth about his part in some of history’s most notorious atrocities, including JFK’s assassination a decade earlier. His plans for a tell-all memoir have put the CIA’s South American chief, MJ (Steve Buscemi), on high alert. It’s top-of-game work from everyone involved, especially Malkovich as the irrepressible Chris, casually voicing the sort of things the rest of us only have nightmares about. And Rapa Nui, magnificently, proves more than a scenic backdrop. #TIFF26

[Peter Howell 🖊 @peterhowellfilm]

POSSIBLE LOVE: South Korea’s Lee Chang-dong (“Burning”), auteur of buried truths and slowly unfolding secrets, returns after eight years with a coldly funny, increasingly caustic drama of class anxiety and unlikely friendship. Mi-ok (Jeon Do-yeon) and Ho-seok (Sul Kyung-gu), a blue-collar couple reeling from Ho-seok’s factory layoff, become close to the affluent Ye-ji (Cho Yeo-jeong, “Parasite”) and Sang-woo (Zo In-sung, “Hope”). Ye-ji, a documentarian making a film about workers facing layoffs and automation, insists that she is sincere: “I’m trying to love these people.” But cynical businessman Sang-woo congratulates her on her “great method acting,” while Mi-ok cautions her against wearing expensive clothes around people struggling to make their mortgage payments. As Ho-seok’s depression deepens, Mi-ok finds herself drawn to Sang-woo. Loosely inspired by “Thou Shalt Not Covet,” an episode of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s “Dekalog.” #TIFF26

[Peter Howell 🖊 @peterhowellfilm]

The 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀𝗼𝗿 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗙𝗶𝗹𝗺 𝗙𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝗹, Oct. 29 - Nov. 8, is always a great fest to catch quality 🇨🇦 films, including some overlooked by TIFF. This year’s 10 nominees for the $25,000 WIFF Prize in Canadian Film are: 𝗕𝗮’𝘀 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 (Ashley Duong), 𝗛𝗮𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 (Rafaël Ouellet), 𝗝𝘂𝗹𝗶𝗮́𝗻 (Louise Bagnall), 𝗟𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻, 𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗠𝘂𝗹𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘆 (Matthew Rankin), 𝗡𝗲𝗸𝗮𝗶 𝗪𝗮𝗹𝗸𝘀 (Rico King), 𝗡𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻 (Rodrigo Barriuso), 𝗡𝗶𝗻𝗮 𝗥𝗼𝘇𝗮 (Geneviève Dulude-Decelles), 𝗣𝗮𝘂𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 (Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette), 𝗥𝘂𝗻 𝗧𝗲𝗿𝗿𝘆 𝗥𝘂𝗻 (Sean Menard) and 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗕𝗲 𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗲 (Bachir Bensaddek). “This year’s WIFF Prize nominees reflect the exceptional creativity, diversity, and ambition of Canadian filmmakers,” said Vincent Georgie, WIFF’s executive director and chief programmer. “These 10 films offer a range of stories and perspectives, and we’re delighted to give our audiences the chance to discover some of the country’s most exciting talents.” 📽️ @WindsorFilmFest #TIFF26

[Peter Howell 🖊 @peterhowellfilm]

RIP 𝗔𝗻𝗱𝘆 𝗗𝗼𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗼, 89, legendary Toronto Sun cartoonist, who retired this month after 55 years of aiming his sharp and comic lance at the issues of the day. I worked at the Sun for the first 10 years of my journalism career and Andy was always a sunny and supportive colleague. I was proud when he illustrated my stories, even though his take-no-prisoners cartoons often outraged the people I was writing about. ✍️

[Peter Howell 🖊 @peterhowellfilm]

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, BRIAN MULRONEY: Presenting this year’s biggest #TIFF head-scratcher: an NFB doc about Canada’s 18th prime minister, slotted into the Midnight Madness program. Matthew Rankin is the wicked mastermind behind this delightfully daffy delve into an underappreciated era of Canada politics, the 1970s and 1980s. It was a time when being successful at business made you suspect in the public’s eye, despite Mulroney’s best efforts to portray himself as the humble “boy from Baie-Comeau” in small-town Quebec. Rankin hasn’t lost his knack for making Canuck history and culture seem strangely entertaining, as evidenced by previous films “The Twentieth Century” and “Universal Language.” Mulroney had a sense of humour; I have a hunch he’d have smiled at this film. #TIFF26

[Peter Howell 🖊 @peterhowellfilm]

Vincent Georgie, executive director and chief programmer of the Windsor International Film Festival, holds court at the annual “𝗪𝗜𝗙𝗙 𝗮𝘁 𝗧𝗜𝗙𝗙” party at the Bisha Hotel Toronto. He’s wearing his new Sgt. Pepper-style jacket for the occasion. WIFF runs Oct. 29 - Nov. 8. #TIFF26

[Peter Howell 🖊 @peterhowellfilm]

LA BOLA NEGRA: This queer Spanish historical drama from “Los Javis,” as co-directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi are known, sprawls with epic ambition. Three timelines swirl around Federico García Lorca’s real unfinished eponymous novel: a 1932 Granada casino where a young man is blackballed on suspicion of being gay; a 1937 Civil War romance between a young Nationalist soldier and the wounded Republican prisoner he’s guarding — who turns out to be Rafael Rodríguez Rapún, the poet’s own real-life last love; and a 2017 thread following a gay historian who inherits a mysterious bequest from the fascist grandfather he thought long dead. Penélope Cruz flat-out steals the picture in a small but vivid role as a sassy cabaret singer. Calvo and Ambrossi bring real passion to reclaiming Spain’s repressed queer history. #TIFF26

[Peter Howell 🖊 @peterhowellfilm]

SUNBURN: On a broiling summer’s day in Toronto’s St. James Town community, there’s not much to do when the power fails except ponder the existence of God and the meaning of life, while grappling with growing up, finding love and dealing with a pesky zit. Serville Poblete’s colourful and funny hangout movie shares inspiration with artfully drifting films by Richard Linklater, Kevin Smith and F. Gary Gray, among many others, but there’s a genuine feel of T.O. here in its blend of immigrant communities and diverse characters. Joshua Obra and Dashawn Blackwood play close pals Shay and Vince, who are sure there’s more to life than what they’re getting. #TIFF26

[Peter Howell 🖊 @peterhowellfilm]

JOSEPHINE: Beth de Araújo’s powerful sophomore feature introduces Mason Reeves as the eight-year-old title character, who becomes sole witness to a brutal rape in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park after getting separated from her father (Channing Tatum) during a jog. The violence is incomprehensible to the child and splits her life into a stark before and after. Tatum delivers a career-best performance as a devoted dad unequipped to help his daughter process what she’s seen. Her mother (Gemma Chan), a ballet dancer, is also adrift. As the adults navigate the moral and legal fallout, Reeves anchors the film with a heartbreaking, remarkably mature performance that announces her as a major new talent. #TIFF26

[Peter Howell 🖊 @peterhowellfilm]

BUNKER: The film’s flaws are many, mainly due to uneven writing. But the timing is impeccable, nailing the paranoia of a world where rich and poor are increasingly at odds and fearful of the future. Florian Zeller (“The Father”) features real-life spouses Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz as architect Miguel and book editor Sofia, a Madrid couple living in London with their two daughters. He’s a pragmatist, she’s an idealist, and their marital devotion is tested when Miguel considers a high-paying job designing a “pharaonic” security bunker for a billionaire tech bro (Paul Dano) who wants to shield himself from the social destruction he’s sowing. The narrative gets tangled by a privacy-invading neighbour (Stephen Graham), a smug author (Patrick Schwarzenegger, a casting mistake) and a rushed ending. But I got caught up in it all the same.
#TIFF26

[Peter Howell 🖊 @peterhowellfilm]

WOMAN UNKNOWN: In May el-Toukhy’s Golden Lion-winning Venice drama, postwar Copenhagen turns women suspected of Nazi collaboration into public targets: heads shaved, swastikas painted on their bodies. The “Queen of Hearts” director offers no comfort in this harsh but essential account of gendered retribution and self-preservation. Young nanny Marie (Mathilde Arcel, superb), has found protection in the home and bed of wealthy and widowed factory owner Christian (Carsten Bjørnlund), to whom she is engaged, but she faces ruin when a figure from her past returns. The hypocrisy is unmistakable: why are equally complicit men spared the same shaming? El-Toukhy’s film, which also won the Best Actress prize for Arcel at the recent Venice fest, understands that when survival requires subterfuge, every desperate deception can carry a tragic cost. #TIFF26

[Peter Howell 🖊 @peterhowellfilm]

As #TIFF26 draws to a close, here are 10 films I can’t stop thinking about, discoveries that deserve to be among the year’s most talked-about movies. 𝗠𝘆 𝗧𝗜𝗙𝗙 𝗧𝗼𝗽 𝟭𝟬: https://t.co/ZBgfNNAzQS