Reviews - Contra Zoom Pod

Reviews: Hey Viktor! from ImagineNATIVE 2023

November 3, 2023

In Cody Lightning’s debut film Hey Viktor!, Lightning plays a lightly fictionalized version of himself attempting to revitalize his failing career with a spiritual successor to his most famous film. Named for a notable line in Smoke Signals, Lightning’s 1998 acting debut, Hey Viktor! is a wildly funny look at minor fame that packs a surprising amount of heart.

Reviews: The Delinquents

November 2, 2023

When you work at a bank, it’s fraught with temptation knowing a lifetime of freedom lingers at your fingertips. This is essentially the premise of the argument that Morán, a bank employee in Buenos Aires puts forth in The Delinquents.

Reviews: Late Night With The Devil from Toronto After Dark Film Festival

October 25, 2023

Presented as the original master tapes from the most scandalous episode of a fictional TV talk show, Late Night is a slow-burn psychological horror that’s as funny as it is terrifying and as gripping as it is kitschy.

Reviews: Fancy Dance from ImagineNATIVE 2023

October 23, 2023

Centred around the coming-of-age of a young Seneca-Cayuga girl on a road trip with her aunt, Fancy Dance deftly weaves in themes of cultural assimilation, missing and murdered indigenous women, and apathy towards crime against Native Americans.

Reviews: Joan Baez I Am a Noise

October 19, 2023

This story is as much about Joan Baez’s legendary career as her own struggles with mental health issues, and the film weaves together old home movie footage from her childhood, and animates her teenage journals, which help enrich the narrative, ultimately painting a picture of a tortured soul.

Reviews: The Zone of Interest from New York Film Festival 2023

October 13, 2023

The chilling juxtaposition of the evils of Nazism against the humdrum of household life is at the core of Johathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest.

Reviews: Evil Does Not Exist from New York Film Festival 2023

October 11, 2023

While not as long as his most recent film Drive My Car, Evil Does Not Exist still has a gripping pace and beautiful and creatively minimalist cinematography.

Reviews: The Royal Hotel from VIFF 2023

October 2, 2023

Kitty Green is back with another searing indictment on the hostility that men bring into the world and the danger, both real and imagined, that women must contend with on a day to day basis.

Reviews: Only The River Flows from VIFF 2023

September 29, 2023

To be a truly dedicated detective you must not only question everything you are finding, but you must also be constantly questioning yourself. Only The River Flows is the latest film from Beijing filmmaker Shujun Wei that causes you to second guess every discovery made.

Reviews: Mr. Dress-Up The Magic of Make-Believe from VIFF 2023

September 27, 2023

Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe, directed by Robert McCallum, is a new documentary that tells the history of the Mr. Dressup character and program along with details about Coombs’ life and family. Along the way we get plenty of celebrity interviews that extolled the virtues of the program for them and their children growing up.