The problems with Close to You aren’t immediately apparent. It’s a quiet film about Sam (Elliot Page), a trans man, living in Toronto. He’s trying to decide whether or not to return home for his father’s birthday party. Sam comes from a family whose uneasiness with his transition sometimes manifests as an aggressive insistence on their progressive values. He considers whether he can endure their performance.
Written and directed by Dominic Savage, Close to You focuses on the drama of Sam’s homecoming. Returning to his small town near Lake Ontario forces him to confront long-buried feelings about his family and an old friend (Hillary Baack). The film yearns to capture the stages of this emotional exhumation, but a clunky screenplay makes for a less affecting watch.
The film’s visual grammar is built on intimate close-ups that try to capture the imperceptible awkwardness of the past and present colliding.
Written and directed by Dominic Savage, Close to You focuses on the drama of Sam’s homecoming. Returning to his small town near Lake Ontario forces him to confront long-buried feelings about his family and an old friend (Hillary Baack). The film yearns to capture the stages of this emotional exhumation, but a clunky screenplay makes for a less affecting watch.
The film’s visual grammar is built on intimate close-ups that try to capture the imperceptible awkwardness of the past and present colliding.
- 9/12/2023
- by Lovia Gyarkye
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
A sense of dread permeates every frame of Disappearance at Clifton Hill, a noir type tale that evokes an hypnotic mood from start to finish. Now, this isn’t your traditional film noir, trafficking in cliches and men gritting their teeth. No, this has a female centric true north, making the investigator/protagonist a woman, and it pays dividends. Whenever you can upend a genre, even in a small way, it matters. Plus, when you have a high quality lead performance to latch on to, that helps as well. Hitting theaters this weekend, the movie is an independent effort that has large ambitions. To its credit, they mostly pay off. The film is a mystery/thriller, though largely content to be a character based drama with ominous moments. After an intense prologue, we move to the present day. Returning to her Niagara Falls hometown after the death of her mother,...
- 2/28/2020
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Clifton Hill is a Canadian thriller set in the backdrop of one of the country’s most famous landmarks: Niagara Falls. But even a city this beautiful can’t escape the horror of murder and corruption.
Family is a key theme that drives Albert Shin’s film. But Clifton Hill is not family fun like the entertainment tourist draw it’s named after. Rather, it introduces the viewer to a tight-knit family that is no more. Families are complex and can be broken by many things. In this film’s case, it’s Abby’s compulsion to lie that causes her estrangement from her family.
Played by Tuppence Middleton, the trauma that triggers Abby’s pathological lying is revealed straight away in the film’s introductory scenes. Accompanied by one of the most unique scores of the year by Alex Sowinski and Leland Whitty, Abby witnesses the kidnapping of a...
Family is a key theme that drives Albert Shin’s film. But Clifton Hill is not family fun like the entertainment tourist draw it’s named after. Rather, it introduces the viewer to a tight-knit family that is no more. Families are complex and can be broken by many things. In this film’s case, it’s Abby’s compulsion to lie that causes her estrangement from her family.
Played by Tuppence Middleton, the trauma that triggers Abby’s pathological lying is revealed straight away in the film’s introductory scenes. Accompanied by one of the most unique scores of the year by Alex Sowinski and Leland Whitty, Abby witnesses the kidnapping of a...
- 9/9/2019
- by Sara Clements
- DailyDead
If you go to film festivals long enough, you end up getting cynical about a few things. For example, it becomes clear that for political reasons, programmers are often pressured to support filmmakers from the country where the fests take place. Instead of getting first dibs on the best of what’s created in their own backyards, they wind up making room for local movies that got turned down by other festivals. That means, when in Berlin, you’re better off skipping the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section. Venice is the wrong place to see Italian films. And when it comes to Toronto, don’t waste your time on Canadian fare.
Now, if you’re not a film-festival burnout, you might (rightly) ask: But isn’t that a little harsh? Surely there are some treasures stashed away among all those homemade movies? And to that, I would offer up Jasmin Mozaffari’s “Firecrackers,...
Now, if you’re not a film-festival burnout, you might (rightly) ask: But isn’t that a little harsh? Surely there are some treasures stashed away among all those homemade movies? And to that, I would offer up Jasmin Mozaffari’s “Firecrackers,...
- 7/14/2019
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
“Mouthpiece,” Patricia Rozema’s defiantly experimental drama, gives voice to many conflicts. Most of these are cleaved bluntly down the middle: internal dichotomies, familial divides, generational gaps, gender inequality. But it’s the singular, and universal, pain of loss that proves most shattering.
Rozema (“I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing”) was inspired to adapt the award-winning play of the same name when she saw it in Toronto, and she works in striking synchrony with her collaborators, Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava. Nostbakken and Sadava, who co-wrote the play and the screenplay, also portray simultaneously co-existent versions of our protagonist, Cassandra.
Confused? The approach is indeed destabilizing at first. As they move in perfect tandem or argue with evident intimacy, we wonder if the two women are lovers, or perhaps sisters. But their duality quickly comes to feel utterly normal.
Also Read: Top 10 Highest-Grossing Music Biopics, From Tupac to Queen (Photos)
Ultimately,...
Rozema (“I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing”) was inspired to adapt the award-winning play of the same name when she saw it in Toronto, and she works in striking synchrony with her collaborators, Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava. Nostbakken and Sadava, who co-wrote the play and the screenplay, also portray simultaneously co-existent versions of our protagonist, Cassandra.
Confused? The approach is indeed destabilizing at first. As they move in perfect tandem or argue with evident intimacy, we wonder if the two women are lovers, or perhaps sisters. But their duality quickly comes to feel utterly normal.
Also Read: Top 10 Highest-Grossing Music Biopics, From Tupac to Queen (Photos)
Ultimately,...
- 5/30/2019
- by Elizabeth Weitzman
- The Wrap
“Grief manifests itself in unexpected ways,” muses an extraordinarily understanding mortician in Patricia Rozema’s “Mouthpiece,” as a grieving client climbs into a cedar casket. But the most unexpected way grief manifests itself in the film is that the bereaved heroine is played by two actresses, Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava, who aren’t entirely in sync about the best way forward.
Based on Nostbakken and Sadava’s stage play, this metaphysical two-hander about a young woman’s struggle to write a eulogy for her mother roils in guilt, resentment, sadness, and thorny notions of feminine identity. The conceit isn’t a natural for the screen, despite Rozema’s attempts to give a strong visual dimension, but it’s a thoughtful interrogation of modern womanhood, leavened by gallows humor. A warm reception in Rozema’s native Canada seems assured, but its intimate scope and semi-experimental device presents a challenge in other territories.
Based on Nostbakken and Sadava’s stage play, this metaphysical two-hander about a young woman’s struggle to write a eulogy for her mother roils in guilt, resentment, sadness, and thorny notions of feminine identity. The conceit isn’t a natural for the screen, despite Rozema’s attempts to give a strong visual dimension, but it’s a thoughtful interrogation of modern womanhood, leavened by gallows humor. A warm reception in Rozema’s native Canada seems assured, but its intimate scope and semi-experimental device presents a challenge in other territories.
- 9/7/2018
- by Scott Tobias
- Variety Film + TV
An unlikely combination of elements — the children’s pop-up book and X-rated adult relationship stories — collide in one of the more unusual series of shorts at this year’s Sundance Film Festival: Pop-Up Porno. Toronto-based director Stephen Dunn was inspired by friends’ tales of online dating, and he worked with various graphic designers to come up with actual book illustrations. The resulting three films premiered in Park City, where the books were also exhibited. Bringing the turning pages to life is cinematographer Catherine Lutes, who below talks about the Canon C300, realizing the film on a tiny budget and accenting […]...
- 2/13/2015
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
An unlikely combination of elements — the children’s pop-up book and X-rated adult relationship stories — collide in one of the more unusual series of shorts at this year’s Sundance Film Festival: Pop-Up Porno. Toronto-based director Stephen Dunn was inspired by friends’ tales of online dating, and he worked with various graphic designers to come up with actual book illustrations. The resulting three films premiered in Park City, where the books were also exhibited. Bringing the turning pages to life is cinematographer Catherine Lutes, who below talks about the Canon C300, realizing the film on a tiny budget and accenting […]...
- 2/13/2015
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.