Tag / josh hamilton

by Jaime Rebanal

2018: Another Year of Cinema Come and Gone

This year was a real game changer for a person like myself. To kick things off, it was the first year in which I was able to attend TIFF as a press member rather than as any other audience member. It was a defining moment for myself, though I don’t want to brag a little too much about what happened there. It was just a good year for cinema in general. That’s all I can really say, and I want to bring more attention to the many films that I absolutely loved this year – and so many of them came around this year and so forth. We’re already nearing the end of a decade, and through the good and the bad, the cinema has always been able to provide nothing but the greatest pleasures through and through. Although as we look through the films that have come to define 2018 as a whole, there were many surprises that came along the way just as there were disappointments – all of which came in between the very best and the worst in cinema through the year. So without further ado, let us begin. Continue reading →

by Jaime Rebanal

Eighth Grade Review: It’s Awkward and Painful, But Incredibly Heartfelt

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Part of me was fairly nervous about stepping into Eighth Grade because given the sort of comedy that Bo Burnham is known for, I was already set for it to become something incredibly uncomfortable. But beyond that set expectation already having been placed in mind, what I certainly did not expect out of Bo Burnham’s own directorial debut was that he would have created something that was nearly half as heartfelt as Eighth Grade was for as painful as the memories of having gone through elementary school have been for me. Perhaps it might have already been that I only remember the worst moments as they start coming back to me continuously, which was everything that made me so uncomfortable about the very idea of watching Eighth Grade – but in seeing Bo Burnham’s own portrait of a move from one phase of life to another, it still feels every bit as real as it should. Maybe it can be too much for some, but remembering what it was like going from elementary to high school, I just remember everything being too much to take in at the time for myself.

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