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February 10, 2023

WIFF’S WEEKEND WATCH LIST — 2/10

Cheers to the weekend! It’s time to sit back and relax with a great film (or two). Check out our recommendations of what to watch this weekend.

IF YOU want a high-quality drama

empire of light

Vincent Georgie: Selected as the Opening Night Film for WIFF 2022, director Sam Mendes’ new film is a top-tier production about love, hope, mental health, race, and unexpected romances all set in the world of an old movie theater. The film has a lot of layers to it and will lead to meaty post-film conversations. Olivia Colman – big surprise – is incredibly good here. She has a natural ability to connect with her audience. Newcomer Micheal Ward and stallwarts Colin Firth and Toby Jones are all terrific, as well. The film is Oscar-nominated this year for Roger Deakins’ expectedly polished cinematography. 

Synopsis: The duty manager of a seaside cinema, who is struggling with her mental health, forms a relationship with a new employee on the south coast of England in the 1980s.

Watch Disney+.

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if you want to be touched

the last bus

Vincent Georgie: Timothy Spall strikes much emotion and laughter in this satisfying true story about valuing every moment of one’s life, and revelling in old memories as we create new ones. And don’t write this film off as being only for an audience of a certain age: some of the strongest feedback I received on this film were from Essex High School students who caught the film on a class trip to WIFF 2022. A terrific story will always cross the boundaries of age. 

Synopsis: An old man whose wife has just passed away uses his free local bus pass to travel to the other end of the UK, to where they originally moved from, using only local buses, on a nostalgic trip but also carrying his wife’s ashes in a small suitcase, `taking her back’ and in doing so he meets local people. By the end of his trip he’s a celebrity.

Watch on iTunes.

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Watch on YouTube.

if YOU want a terrific ensemble cast

the dead girl

Vincent Georgie: Generally underseen and underappreciated, filmmaker Karen Moncrieff has created an engrossing drama that works thanks to its intriguing narrative structure and, most especially, to its perfect ensemble cast loaded not with celebrities but some of the best character actors that we have. Toni Collette, Josh Brolin, Marcia Gay Harden and, most especially, Mary Beth Hurt are real standouts. 

Synopsis: In a quintet of stories, the murder of a young runaway connects a group of unrelated women. Lonely Arden discovers the body; Leah, a forensics student, thinks the victim may be her long-missing sister. Melora arrives in Los Angeles to piece together the last days of her daughter’s life, while Ruth makes a disturbing discovery in the storage facility she and her husband manage.

Watch on iTunes.

Watch on YouTube.

DOUBLE FEATURE

Shakespeare in love

As we look towards celebrating Valentine’s Day, we can remind ourselves of two youth-driven but widely appealing adaptations of some of Shakespeare’s best romances. The incredible energy and innovative design work of the first film, is counterbalanced by the humour and lightness of the second film. Both films are very entertaining romances. 

William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet

Baz Luhrmann helped adapt this classic Shakespearean romantic tragedy for the screen, updating the setting to a post-modern city named Verona Beach. In this version, the Capulets and the Montagues are two rival gangs. Juliet is attending a costume ball thrown by her parents. Her father Fulgencio Capulet has arranged her marriage to the boorish Paris as part of a strategic investment plan. Romeo attends the masked ball and he and Juliet fall in love.

Watch on iTunes.

Watch on Crave.

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Watch on Amazon Prime.

Watch on YouTube.

10 things I hate about you

Kat Stratford is beautiful, smart and quite abrasive to most of her fellow teens, meaning that she doesn’t attract many boys. Unfortunately for her younger sister, Bianca, house rules say that she can’t date until Kat has a boyfriend, so strings are pulled to set the dour damsel up for a romance. Soon Kat crosses paths with handsome new arrival Patrick Verona. Will Kat let her guard down enough to fall for the effortlessly charming Patrick?

Watch on iTunes.

Watch on Disney+.

Watch on Amazon Prime.

Watch on YouTube.

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