THE MOTHER AND THE BEAR
When her grown daughter Sumi has a bad fall in Winnipeg, anxious widow Sara (Kim Ho-jung) travels from Korea to be with her — and discovers she doesn’t really know Sumi at all.
Johnny Ma brings TIFF 2024 audiences a story where motherhood and meddling collide in a spectacularly magical fashion. Following a slip and fall on the ice, Sumi’s mother, Sara, arrives from Korea filled with worry and judgment. THE MOTHER AND THE BEAR is akin to a late-stage coming-of-age film, where an estranged mother-daughter blossoms in surprising ways.
Kim Ho-jung is magnificent. Sara’s journey spans motherhood, friendship, sleuthing, romance, and identity. Ho-jung embodies silliness, anxiety, boldness, and worldly naivete. She masters each moment with ceaseless charm. She is a star.
The film delves into culture, generational gaps, and familial boundaries with stunning levity. The score is lovely. Ma utilizes fantasy elements such as childish animation and slow-motion sequences. Sound editing plays a huge role in the film’s whimsical nature, with magical windchimes highlighting essential moments in Sara’s thought process. Ma gives her a loveable quality that is nothing short of captivating. Even if we cringe at her scheming, the audience roots for her growth at every turn. THE MOTHER AND THE BEAR is an undeniable gem at this year’s festival.
https://tiff.net/events/the-mother-and-the-bear
Sook-Yin Lee
Joseph Kahn
CLOSE TO YOU
CLOSE TO YOU
CLOSE TO YOU
Filmmaker Luke Genton tells the story of a wannabe influencer living in Paris looking for a hook. Short on cash, she accepts a cleaning job, not knowing the location is an infamous murder castle. Thinking this might be her internet 15 minutes, she brings her nonexistent audience on the job. CHÂTEAU gives Popcorn Frights 2024 the YouTube ghost-hunting treatment. 
Young lovers Tom and Maria are interrupted by a chainsaw-wielding maniac. After Maria’s kidnapping, aided by the eternally upbeat Jaan, Tom tracks her down only to discover the dark secrets surrounding the killer’s past and present. If Monty Python and Mel Brooks decided to make a slasher film, Estonian filmmaker Sander Maran’s CHAINSAWS WERE SINGING would be their demented little offspring. It is the kind of instant cult classic ripe for Midnight screenings. 
The film perfectly captures the absurdity of most musicals – cheating toward the audience, over-the-top gestures, and breaking into song, often at inexplicable moments. These are facts about the genre. I know. I majored in it at a conservatory in Manhattan. Like Anna and The Apocalypse, Bloodthirsty, Rocky Horror, Little Shop, Sweeney Todd, Repo! The Genetic Opera, CHAINSAWS WERE SINGING enters the fray of outstanding subgenre 
The plot takes from films like Wrong Turn, Texas Chainsaw, and Robin Hood: Men In Tights. Hands down, one of the most catchy numbers belongs to The Killer, in which he sings about his murderous penchant. Jaan’s song made me guffaw more than once. (Think an even more insane version of “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life.”) 
For all things Fantasia 2024, 
The longer Eric waits to tell his loved ones, the stranger his life gets. An alien threatens to take him back to outer space. He is losing time, and his body parts are falling off. This aspect is particularly upsetting because he is literally missing his mouth. This creative metaphor becomes the backbone of THE MISSING. 
I wasn’t aware that I grew up on Rotoscope films before doing a quick Google search. Some of my most beloved childhood films fall into the genre- The Lord of the Rings (1978), The Secret of NIMH (1982), and Anastasia (1997). First introduced in 1918, I had no idea the process was so old. THE MISSING stylistically mirrors The Spine of the Night rather than Alice In Wonderland. 2D animation illustrates Eric’s childhood memories in a stunning visual contrast that serves a dual purpose. The choice to childishly scribble over Uncle’s face speaks volumes. It is a visually captivating film. 
Abandonment and unresolved trauma collide with a monster movie and mad scientist in Tilman Singer‘s (
The script plays like one carefully curated test after another, skillfully crafted to test Rob’s and our moral compass. screenwriter Dan Kelly-MulhernIt has Nina lull Rob into a sense of safety and care, playing on his desperation and redemption arc. The double-entendre dialogue is delicious. 
Eddie Izzard owns the titular role of Nina Jekyll. Delivering two fully fleshed-out personalities, one can only imagine the personal stake in Izzard’s performance. She is utterly mesmerizing, devouring Kelly-MulhernIt’s versions of Nina and Rachel. It is one hell of a turn. 
DOCTOR JEKYLL is endlessly intriguing, playing on the raw emotions and hitting every horror note, with precision. The finale is visually spectacular. DOCTOR JEKYLL is a prime example of keen manipulation.
DIRECTOR Joe Stephenson 
Desperate to keep her promise to host the best superhero party for her 6-year-old, young mother Sid, a sex worker, takes extreme measures and books a last-minute client with a dark fetish. Dirty Bad Wrong is a drama/body horror that explores the darkest sides of capitalism, and just how far we’ll go for the ones we love.
Life changes when you become a mother. It is impossible to describe to someone who has never protected another human with every ounce of their soul. In 
Jack Greig
Graphic novel animation serves as visually delightful childhood memories surrounding Lola’s backstory with the villain. The poster is undoubtedly an homage to Black Christmas, and the classic trope of a killer in a Santa suit plays, ala Silent Night Deadly Night, still rules.
Jeremy Moineau gives Lola an effortlessly badass persona but beautifully balances toughness with authentic vulnerability. Her monologue about the town’s history is perfection. 
A road trip through Canadian oil fields conjured up fantasies of secrets deep in the dirt for the Adams family, and inspired them to create HELL HOLE, an indie rock-n-roll monster movie set at a far-away fracking site. Known for their DIY ethos, John and Lulu Adams and Toby Poser, partnering with Shudder, have joined the team behind The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs and FX legend Todd Masters to shoot their latest in Serbia with a local cast and crew. Absurd, mutinous, and transgressively comical, Hell Hole is old-school sci-fi horror, yet in typical family fashion, they subvert the genre with textures of biological and environmental horror in tandem with questions of gender and bodily autonomy. This will be the fourth time Fantasia World Premieres work from the gifted filmmaking family, following launches of 
After the success of 
Peter Vack (ASSHOLES) and Dasha Nekrasova (THE SCARY OF SIXTY-FIRST) star as couple on the rocks during the early part of the Covid-19 pandemic in American filmmaker Eugene Kotlyarenko (
It’s been 21 long years since Scooter McCrae (SHATTER DEAD) released a new feature, and he’s lost none of his smart, transgressive bite. Desperate for work, Derek (Damian Maffei, THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT) accepts a job at a shady tech start-up, working intimately with Susan (Yvonne Emilie Thälker in a powerful debut role), a bleeding-edge BDSM sex doll meant to receive and appreciate sexual punishment as an integral part of her evolving AI. Shot on Super 16, BLACK EYED SUSAN counterbalances its dark, vulgar core with a surprisingly tender vulnerability, creating a lo-fi science-fiction landscape infused with surprising fragility, as legendary Italian composer Fabio Frizzi (THE BEYOND, ZOMBIE) lends the picture a lush, atmospheric backdrop. Not for the faint of heart, BLACK EYED SUSAN delves into themes and questions that will only become more pertinent with the continued evolution of artificial intelligence. World Premiere.
The stunning sophomore feature from award-winning director Carlota Pereda (
My favorite shorts collection of the year, this wildly eclectic and insanely talented group of female filmmakers aims to please, shock, and gag audiences. You never know what you’ll get with each passing year and I get giddy in anticipation. Fantasia 2024’s Born Of Woman lineup includes the following films:
THE BLEACHER
WILDFLOWER
DEAD TOOTH
Tribeca 2024 Shorts
Short | United States, France | 18 MINUTES | English, French | English subtitles
Danell Leyva does a great job of being entirely unlikeable. Victoria Vertuga gives Tasha a fierce presence. She is very watchable. It is Jamie Bernadette who steals the show playing Briar. Everything from her blunt haircut to her unsettling delivery is star quality. I want a prequel where she and Torrey Lawrence lead.
Filmmaker Eric Williford starts his new film off with a bang. The editing by Timothy Widmann is effective. Practical FX are solid and in your face. Cold Blows The Wind is a mysterious story of body-snatching possession on unholy ground. So much of the film feels inspired by the Evil Dead franchise, with a few other classic homages mixed in. Williford offers bits and pieces of backstory. Even though we are left to fill in the blanks, the potential is clear. There is enough meat on the bone (pun intended) to keep audiences hungry.
SWEATY LARRY
Our introduction to Sweaty Larry is as ridiculous as it should be, and the original song saying over the credits (written and performed by ATL’s 
TIM TRAVERS AND THE TIME TRAVELER’S PARADOX
Stimson Snead takes us on a comedy of trial and error in DWF: LA sci-fi feature TIM TRAVERS AND THE TIME TRAVELER’S PARADOX. This film is a story of a mad genius’s guide to what if, get ready to have your mind blown.
Samuel Dunning is Tim Travers. He is funny, charming, and owns this role. Travers is stubborn as hell and honest to a fault. The character has authentic mad scientist vibes. The number of alternative death scenes and distinctly unique versions of the same character is Multiplicity on crack. Dunning eats it up.
It is easy to see why Kat Rohrer‘s Frameline 48 feature WHAT A FEELING played to a sold-out crowd last night. This authentic love story is everything you want it to be. Workplace shenanigans and complicated family dynamics genuinely ground the film. This naturally progressing script has it all.
Fa is a wildly unpredictable woman who enjoys creating things with her hands and bouncing from woman to woman. Marie is a doctor whose husband demands a divorce on their 20th wedding anniversary. When the two run into each other, almost quite literally, they discover an unexpected spark between them.
Caroline Peters delivers laughs and heart in the role of Marie Theres. Proschat Madani gives Fa a firecracker spirit. Both offer depth to roles that could easily remain surface-level clichés. Their chemistry is magic, and Rohrer thoughtfully crafts their characters’ journeys.
The film leans into conversations of identity, both sexual and national, with Fa being Iranian. It tackles inherent bias and standing up for what’s right, no matter the issue. WHAT A FEELING dives into the nuance of relationships and the mistakes we make that either force us to grow or flee. It’s a lovely film.
The revelations in the film are astounding. In a collab session, Ani confides in Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) that she’s never written a song with anyone else. Her warmth and honesty are not simply for show. Witnessing this creative potion-making is chill-inducing. At 18, Ani and Scot Fisher created Righteous Babe Records. Their partnership proved to be an emotional rollercoaster, for better or worse. The remnants of that time echo in her present-day reclamation of her power. 
1-800-ON-HER-OWN is a celebration of an artist in a league of her own. Ani DiFranco‘s relentless magic hangs in the air in my house. This film reintroduces her to the world. 
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