VIFF 2020 | Margaret Qualley Catches 'My Salinger Year'

"Writers make the worst assistants."

Vancouver International Film Festival

VIFF 2020—Rising starlet Margaret Qualley leads Quebec writer/director Philippe Falardeau's faithful screen adaptation of acclaimed poet/journalist Joanna Rakoff’s understated mid-'90s literary memoir My Salinger Year. Based on Rakoff's actual experiences working as a meager assistant for notoriously reclusive author J.D. Salinger's literary agency, Falardeau never quite elevates the irresistible true story of sneaking your way into a writing career through publishing despite the promising material and cast.

VIFF 2020 | Mads Mikkelsen Drinks Hard – 'Another Round'

"I couldn't just sit here and wait for you."

Vancouver International Film Festival

VIFF 2020—Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg and actor Mads Mikkelsen reunite for a mid-life crisis film about overcoming general antipathy in your everyday life of routine and predictability. Another Round (aka Druk or "Drunk") has the basic yet somewhat ingenious premise of self-medication by maintaining a base-level of alcohol in your system throughout the day to keep a peak level of enthusiasm or engagement by way of inebriation.

VIFF 2020 | Brandon Cronenberg Controls 'Possessor'

"You've gone strange on me."

Vancouver International Film Festival

VIFF 2020—Canadian filmmaker (and son of David) Brandon Cronenberg's second feature proves to be a nightmarish sci-fi thriller in interesting and twisted ways. Possessor revolves around a futuristic brain-implant technology deployed here for use in strategic corporate assassinations. While that's a seemingly expected but still inventive premise, how it's executed is deeply unsettling but rich in its dark exploration of personal identity, experienced trauma, and committing acts of violence in a digital age.

VIFF 2020 | Aubrey Plaza Escapes from 'Black Bear'

"I've been lying since the second I got here."

Vancouver International Film Festival

VIFF 2020—Writer/director Lawrence Michael Levine takes a cabin in the woods approach to his twisty relationship psychodrama Black Bear. Essentially a single-location three-hander starring Christopher Abbott and Sarah Gadon as a couple, Gabe and his pregnant partner Blair, who rent out their picturesque Adirondack lake house to frustrated filmmaker Allison (Aubrey Plaza), the basic indie feature revels in its sharp-tongued dialogue and intimate performances.

CINEMA | Regina King Knocks Out 'One Night in Miami…' x TIFF 2020

"This is one strange f*cking night."

Toronto International Film Festival

Acclaimed actress Regina King makes her feature directorial debut (after extensive experience directing episodic television) adapting the 2013 stage play and work of historical fiction, One Night in Miami… written by Kemp Powers (who also penned the screenplay), into a sprawling African-American drama about the struggle of race and Black activism.

CINEMA | Frances McDormand Leaves 'Nomadland' x TIFF 2020

"See you down the road."

Toronto International Film Festival

Beijing-born filmmaker Chloé Zhao has made a quietly lyrical drama about another American subculture on the margins of society. National treasure Frances McDormand (also a producer) stars as an aging widow and temporary worker from a small ghost town in northern Nevada who lives nomadically. Based on the non-fiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century written by journalist Jessica Bruder, the film tells an expansive and richly textured story about human connections.

CINEMA | Jude Law and Carrie Coon Seduce 'The Nest'

"He was exactly the right blend of old British and new American."

IFC Films / Elevation Pictures

Martha Marcy May Marlene writer/director Sean Durkin's sophomore feature, the seductive mid-'80s domestic marital drama The Nest, is a sleekly composed examination of wealth. Starring Jude Law and Carrie Coon as a married couple with kids, the slowly-unraveling chamber piece has a sizzling iciness to its intimate material of living large without the means to.

SCREEN | 'I'm Thinking of Ending Things' Breaks Up on Netflix

"The world's larger than inside your own head."

Likely Story

Idiosyncratic writer/director Charlie Kaufman returns to his singularly unique style of cinematic storytelling for another surreal existential drama, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Canadian author Iain Reid. Framed as a relationship road trip movie, Kaufman's confounding film quickly veers off into deeply disorientating contemplation of reality and anxiety.

FEAST | Modern Italian x Tutto Restaurant x Opening x Yaletown

"Provare un po'di Tutto—try a little of everything."

Yaletown—(August 18, 2020) The brand new Tutto Restaurant & Bar quietly opened its doors in the historic location previously occupied by Harrison Galleries' former café and art dealer space at the base of the old Bulman Brothers Ltd. heritage brick building (originally constructed in 1910) on the bustling corner of Homer and Smithe.