Train Dreams. Directed by Clint Bentley
For anyone who has played the Red Dead Redemption video games, there are moments where you abandon the story and just wander around the game map hunting, fishing, and exploring. These moments of the game are possibly some of the most calming and cathartic moments that I have had while engaging with media. I had that same feeling while watching Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams. Simple, yet soul-igniting, we follow the life of a man who is finding his place in a rapidly changing world. Beautifully shot, featuring a career best performance from Joel Edgerton, Train Dreams is sure to stir your soul.
The President’s Cake. Directed by Hasan Hadi
The President’s Cake is a beautifully shot, and haunting portrait of life under the Iraqi dictatorship through the eyes of a young girl. What starts off as a whimsical premise, baking a birthday cake, turns into a nightmare as a child is forced to confront the harsh realities of living under a dictatorship, sanctions, and the ensuing chaos that environment brings. Featuring one of the best child performances of the year from Banin Ahmad Nayef, at the end of The President’s Cake, you didn’t just watch Lamia’s life, you literally stepped into her shoes for the day.
The Love that Remains. Directed by Hlynur Palmanson
The key to success in Hlynur Palmanson’s The Love That Remains lies in its simplicity. We simply follow a family in Iceland navigating their complicated feelings and absurd impulses over a course of a year. It’s simple yet it has this sincerity that is quite heartwarming and it is filled with jokes that made me laugh till I cried. Ultimately it is a quiet meditation on family, nature, and the changing of time, that is soul soothing. If you need a breath of fresh air, The Love That Remains may be what you need.
Wasteman. Directed by Cal McMau
My impulsive last minute screening switch turned out to be a good one as my TIFF ended with a bang. Wasteman is an intense, claustrophobic, and gripping prison drama. Set entirely in a single cell block, you feel the tension relentlessly build in its tight space where violence is the only way that these men in prison know how to communicate. Led by David Jonsson and Tom Blyth, the pair push each other to their limits in this tightly paced prison drama.
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