Tag / robert redford

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

The Old Man & the Gun’s Unabashed Sentimentality Sets the Perfect Sendoff for Robert Redford: TIFF Review

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David Lowery’s latest film pays an homage to the days of classic Hollywood crime films often led by a charismatic actor just simply being themselves on the screen, and in The Old Man & the Gun, we have one last spin for Robert Redford. At least what’s supposedly going to be, at that – but as a modern day tribute to the films that we’ve come to love Robert Redford for over the years, there’s a sentimental value present in The Old Man & the Gun that may also make the ride more heartfelt as it keeps going. But of course to those who have stuck so closely with the films of Robert Redford for as long as they have, we don’t simply view Redford as being any other “old man,” he personified a gentlemanly attitude that not many other actors could copy – and it’s not hard to be won over by that charm. Yet if this were truly going to be Robert Redford’s final film, you can still feel how much he really loves living in his prime; as if that wouldn’t already make a longtime fan feel so warm inside.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Truth – Review

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Despite the underlying importance of its subject matter, Truth is nothing more than a slog to sit through from start to finish. Screenwriter James Vanderbilt of Zodiac fame seems to have headed down somewhere else afterward and now with him going behind the camera, what could only have come up was something that’d go either way on the map. In the case of Truth, something frustrating comes along and in turn dampens the impact of what was said to come afterward. There’s a fascinating story going behind it, and quite frankly it’s the underplaying of the subject matter that keeps it from being much more as a whole.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Pete’s Dragon (2016) – Review

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Having never grown up with the original Pete’s Dragon film I was unsure what exactly I was in store for with this new live action rendition. After Disney has been churning out many live action remakes of their own animated films which started out with Alice in Wonderland and Cinderella, they’ve brought out what may be the best of such but whether that says a lot is completely up to you. I’ve never seen the original Pete’s Dragon yet because even as a kid it never seemed like something I was into. Walking out of this recent remake indeed leaves me curious to watch the original, but even with that said, I’m still indifferent to what we had been left with – it’s a live-action remake from Disney that could have offered much more but rather disappointingly, just never delivered. Continue reading →

by Jaime Rebanal

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid – Review

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I know many tend to recognize George Roy Hill’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as a classic but I always had been struggling to connect with it in the manner I see others do. That’s not to say it’s a bad film in the slightest but given the film’s reputation, I strangely found it of all things to be quite a slog to sit through from beginning to end in spite of elements that come along that could easily provide an entertaining ride. I’ve grown up on Paul Newman when I was younger, but even with that said I was never all that big a fan of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid at a younger age. Hoping to find much more to appreciate this time around, instead I found myself at distance like always. Continue reading →