Vita & Virginia is Beautiful, But Disappointingly Surface Level: TIFF Review

✯✯✯

Virginia Woolf has always been a fascinating subject for research, but many films that seek to cover the sort of person she was never really find themselves living up to what a complicated figure she was. In order to get the most obvious out of the way, she truly is one of the greatest authors ever to have lived, but it’s difficult to pinpoint the sort of person that she was. When talking more about Chanya Button’s portrait of the British author and her own relationship with Vita Sackville-West, there’s already potential for a film that can be made with a greater reach yet I only found myself conflicted about what to make of the final product. There are many admirable qualities present in what Chanya Button presents for the screen in Vita & Virginia, but in the end I’m not entirely sure about how well do all of them fully connect with one another. Not that it makes Vita & Virginia anything of a failure – but it just feels a crucial part of this story remained missing.

Continue reading →

Advertisement

The TIFF Diaries Entry #3: Hiking Back and Forth Around Toronto, Red Carpet Talks

Saturday has been yet another busy day, if also quite slow – and to some extent boring. However, I think it also happens to be the best day for me in terms of the films that I had caught at the festival all day because I had the pleasure of seeing Beautiful Boy once and for all after having failed to get into its premiere screening due to commitments to see Gloria Bell at its premiere. And in the time that I had spent in the festival since then, waking up near six in the morning and lining up for nearly an hour, I have not been able to get the film out of my head. It all had to start with being able to attend the press line at the red carpet the previous day, but now that I finally got the chance to see it for myself after promising some friends (and failing) to get a picture of Timothée Chalamet at the premiere. But I will be honest, if he was only sticking in the fan zone, I can’t say I do blame him.

Continue reading →