by Jacqueline Valencia Director: Miles Warren Toxic masculinity hurts everyone. It carries itself through intergenerational trauma and can prevent tenderness and empathy in times of conflict. In Bruiser, Miles Warren explores the complexities of toxic masculinity in a nuanced coming of age story. Fourteen year old Darious (Jayln Hall) comes
by Jacqueline Valencia Directors: Sam Soko and Lauren DeFilippo The answer to ending poverty is to share and not to hoard the means by which everyone in the world can have their basic human needs met and rights protected. World poverty is very much tied into capitalist ventures and climate
by Jennifer Valencia (Director: Anthony Shim) This is a story that is not new to me. It may not be the exact same story, circumstances, or culture but it is a story many of us children of immigrants or immigrants ourselves know all too well. Riceboy Sleeps (2022) tells the
by Jacqueline Valencia It’s Toronto Film Festival time and as accredited press, Critical Focus is ON IT. First thing’s first, I would like to acknowledge the work of a lot of film PR companies who have reached out with screeners for those of us who can not make it entirely
by Jacqueline and Jennifer Valencia Jacqueline: The weeks of TIFF21 have been full. Full of work from home in the middle of the pandemic and finally sending my child to school again. Our intentions with covering TIFF this year were to review as much as we had time for in
by Jacqueline Valencia After Blue (Dirty Paradise) Directed by Bertrand Mandico Bertrand Mandico is back from The Wild Boys with another gender bending and all encompassing world builder. After Blue is a planet where only women can survive. The men who tried to live there died from having their hair
Review by Jennifer Valencia Medusa Directed by Anita Rocha da Silveira In Anita Rocha da Silveira’s Medusa (2021) a gang of creepy masked girls wearing creepy roam the streets at night beating up and “converting” any other women who they deem sinful, in the name of Jesus. This gang is
by Jacqueline Valencia I’m Your Man (2021) Directed by Maria Schrader A successful, but lonely archaeologist (Marren Eggert), Alma, is talked into test driving a romantic robot companion (Dan Stevens), Tom, for extra funding of one her projects. At first, she barely goes through the motions, but Tom is charmingly
by Jacqueline Valencia Earwig Directed by Lucile Hadžihalilović Sometime in the 1940s, a silent little girl named Mia lives in an dark apartment with a man called Aalbert who takes care to install teeth of ice in her mouth every day. This little ritual translates into other odd routines throughout
by Jacqueline Valencia Part of Critical Focus’ ongoing coverage of the 2021 Toronto Film Festival. Festival schedule can be found here: https://www.tiff.net/films?schedule On September 9, 1971, the largest prison rebellion in U.S. history took place at the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York. Director Stanley Nelson takes his audience
Critical Focus 