“Mami Wata” is populated by men and women who dress and act as if they’re still in a previous century, resisting modernity. The title refers to the Nigerian goddess of water, wealth, and health, who watches over individual lives. This is a matriarchal society. The anointed priestess and interpreter of Mami Wata, as well as the arbiter and problem-solver for

Will Grady (Justin Timberlake) is a Scarborough real estate mogul dating an agent named Summer (Matilda Lutz). They flip foreclosures on expensive homes in the area under the watchful eye of Will’s mom, Camille (Frances Fisher), and there seems to be some brewing tension in the relationship. One day, Will meets Summer at a house

“Savior Complex” gets even richer when one considers the flaws of No White Saviors, an organization with a vocal, outspoken leader who just happens to be a white American woman. Seriously. She jokes it away, but the idea that Kelsey Nielsen doesn’t understand that she too is kind of a white savior saving Ugandans from

The Toronto International Film Festival 2023 had a very strong lineup. We are all mindful and supportive of the ongoing actor and writer strikes. Still, there was plenty to see and talk about. However, as you can see, I’m still in my Barbenheimer mode. Congratulations to Greta Gerwig for being the first woman director to bring

Cousins’ narration gets a bit MFA fiction workshop at certain points, but that’s a feature of his work, not a bug (in another life, he might’ve been a novelist, possibly in a Beat writer mode). The film is organized around storms and divided into numbered chapters with titles like “Sex” and “Death.” It gets a bit fanboyish when delving

Grace is at least given a much richer personal history, which is slowly teased out. At first, it seems she is just overprotective and controlling of her father’s life. Then, she appears jealous, as she reacts poorly to Howard’s relationship with Annie and the joy he seems to take in becoming part of Annie’s large,

That last film is by far the most interesting of the ones that Penn gives us in this grab-bag of a movie. And it’s a shame because the few relatively brief sections of “Superpower” that scrutinize Zelensky as a self-created political icon (in the tradition of Ronald Reagan, Fred Dalton Thompson, and Donald Trump) are

From this unusual starting point, Michel Franco (“Sundown”) weaves a tale of a unique relationship. Sylvia knows how to care for people as a worker at a public home, but she co-exists with her trauma in a way that has led to addiction in the past. She alternates work, AA meetings, and caring for her

Should you ever find yourself bitten and transformed into an eternal creature with a taste for vital fluids, know that a smoothie made from liquified human hearts straight from the chest of an unsuspecting victim—a hearty beverage, if you will—does wonders for your undead body. At least that’s part of the lore in Chilean director

“The Other Black Girl” attempts to uncover and display the competitiveness that can mar female friendships. When Hazel does something nice for Nella, the latter questions if it’s done solely from the goodness of her co-worker’s heart. The two are constantly pitted against each other by those around them, though they attempt to free themselves from