Tag: Douglas Booth

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VIFF Review: ‘My Salinger Year’ is a fine coming of age tale

Margaret Qualley / My Salinger Year

You have seen this story before. A young, bright-eyed person has to New York City to pursue their artistic dreams and gets waylaid in a job adjacent to their dreams in the meantime. It has been told so many times before that I doubt you could count them, so it takes a lot to stand out.

My Salinger Year, based on the memoir of the same name by Joanna Rakoff, has everything going for it. An up and comer in Margaret Qualley in the lead role. A major star in Sigourney Weaver in the main supporting role. It is set in a nostalgic period, recreated in exquisite detail. What a film like this needs to become truly great is that certain extra something, the Je ne sais quois that can make something add up to more than the sum of its parts.

This film does not have that. But that’s not an indictment because the film is perfectly lovely as it is, adding up to exactly what it is.

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Review: Noah

Noah

Darren Aronofsky is a film maker who has made some of my all time favourite films, _Requiem for a Dream_ and _The Fountain_ being two of them. His films are not always pleasant to watch but always leave a lasting impression. He’s able to craft a story and a message in such a way that resonate, and characters who are at once larger than life and relatable. _Noah_ is a good example of these skills, though maybe not the best he’s done.

I am just going to say this above the fold though: you should see this movie if you get a chance. I’m about to tell you that it’s good but not great but here’s the thing: we don’t see films like this much. This is a weird movie that takes a story held sacred by many (literally sacred, not Trekkies and Star Trek sacred) and re-imagines parts of it, changes others, and plays with the motivations and struggles of the lead character. It’s a big effects movie with creatures and animals and battle scenes but it’s not a tent pole action movie. TL;DR version, this movie represents a unique film maker taking a lot of chances and a studio taking a chance on him, this is the type of behaviour we need to support. Good? Good.

Now on to the review.

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