Christopher Llewellyn Reed | Film Festival Today

Middleburg Review: I Choose to Stay for Marvelous “Decision to Leave”

October 22, 2022

Film Review: “TÁR” Is a Powerful Symphony of the Mind

October 20, 2022

MIddleburg Review: “Good Night Oppy” Beautifully Chronicles Humanity’s Enduring Quest

October 15, 2022

Middleburg Film Festival Celebrates Its 10th Year! Here Are Five Films to See

October 12, 2022

Film Review: The Performances Are the Thing in “Amsterdam”

October 6, 2022

Film Review: “Hellraiser” Barely Raises Cinematic Hell

October 6, 2022

Film Review: “Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon” Proves a Misfire

September 30, 2022

Film Review: This Imperfect “Smile” Still Creeps You Out

September 29, 2022

Christopher Llewellyn Reed’s TIFF 2022 Wrap-Up

September 25, 2022

TIFF Review: “Nanny” Proves Pointedly Poignant

September 23, 2022

TIFF Review: The Bromance is Real in “Bros”

September 22, 2022

TIFF Review: “Franz”
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
September 10, 2025
Franz (Agnieszka Holland, 2025) 4 out of 5 stars The writer Franz Kafka (1883-1924), though he died far too young (of tuberculosis), left behind a literary legacy that has lasted into our present. Works such as his story “In the Penal Colony,” his novella The Metamorphosis, and his novel The Trial have proved enormously influential, even though most of his works were only published after his death. We have his friend Max Brod to thank for us ... >>
TIFF Review: “Steal Away”
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
September 9, 2025
Steal Away (Clement Virgo, 2025) 4 out of 5 stars Set in a land that exists outside of a specific era and place, yet suggestive of many different locations and moments (including the here and now), director Clement Virgo’s Steal Away plunges the viewer into a simultaneous idyll and nightmare. The freshness of youth—and youthful desire—runs directly into the brutality of human greed, destroying the innocent dreams of our teenage protagonists. ... >>
TIFF Review: “Good Boy”
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
September 8, 2025
Good Boy (Jan Komasa, 2025) 3½ out of 5 stars Tommy is a problem child (young adult, really, at 19). A hard-drinking and drug-taking bully—violent and oversexed, to boot—he provides no service to the world beyond making a mess that others have to clean up. So if he were to vanish, who would miss him? ... >>
TIFF Review: “Wake Up Dead Man”
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
September 7, 2025
Wake Up Dead Man (Rian Johnson, 2025) 3½ out of 5 stars With the 2019 film Knives Out, writer/director Rian Johnson (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) added the whodunit to his repertoire, continuing with the 2022 sequel, Glass Onion, and now the 2025 follow-up, Wake Up Dead Man. All three movies tell entirely standalone stories, with their only connecting tissue the presence of preening private detective Benoit Blanc (played each time by James Bond ... >>
TIFF Review: “Sentimental Value”
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
September 6, 2025
Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier, 2025) 4½ out of 5 stars Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier (The Worst Person in the World) won the Grand Prix (or second-place award) at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for his latest, Sentimental Value, which just had its Canadian premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. Starring his frequent muse, Renate Reinsve (the aforementioned Worst Person plus Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man), Stellan ... >>

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