Robin D. Laws

September 12, 2016

TIFF16: Spaghetti Western Tibetan Buddhist Heroquest

Clement weather descends on the city as the first Sunday of the Toronto International Film Festivals opens a fresh box of duds and treasures. Let’s see what I picked, shall we?

Planetarium (France, Rebecca Zlotowski,2.5) In late 30s France, American sisters (Natalie Portman, Lily-Rose Depp) who perform as mediums join a studio head’s effort to film ghostly presences. Glossy period drama shows that when your script fails to create a strong drive for its protagonist, it is a paper bag that not even Natalie Portman can act her way out of.

My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea (US, Dash Shaw, 3.5) Uncool kids struggle to survive when a quake causes their entire high school to...well you get the idea. Animated feature drawn to look like the doodles in the back of a misanthropic teen’s geometry notebook. Voice talent includes Jason Schwartzman, Maya Rudolph, Reggie Watts, Lena Dunham and Susan Sarandon.

Guilty Men (Colombia, Iván D. Gaona, 4) When a political deal leads to the national demobilization of paramilitaries, the Farmers charged with delivering extortion money to one local group is left holding a dangerous bag. Slow burn contemporary Western with a trenchant Latin American twist.

Soul on a String (China, Zhang Yang, 5) Outlaw resurrected by lama must transport a sacred stone to a holy site. Tibetan heroquest draws on Ford and Leone as it drops the viewer into one staggeringly beautiful vista after another.

Capsule review boilerplate:Ratings are out of 5. I’ll be collecting these reviews in order of preference in a master post the Monday after the fest. Films shown on the festival circuit will appear in theaters, disc and/or streaming over the next year plus. If you’ve heard of a film showing at TIFF, I’m probably waiting to see it during its upcoming conventional release, instead favoring choices that don’t have distribution and might not reappear.

September 11, 2016

TIFF16: Kaiju Problems

Rained on, broiled, steamed, chilled, ketchup-spattered...I must be at the Toronto film fest, and these must be the films I saw on September 10th.

Colossal (Canada, Nacho Vigalondo, 4) After returning to her hometown to regroup, a hard-drinking ex-journalist (Anne Hathaway) discovers a link between her actions and the kaiju attacking Seoul, half a world away. Vigalondo delivers another delightful genre smush-up with this character-driven comedy/drama/monster piece. With Tim Blake Nelson and Jason Sudeikis, who gets to do a turn we haven't seen from him before.

The Red Turtle (France / Belgium / Japan, Michael Dudok de Wit, 3.5) Island castaway lashes out at sea turtle that thwarts his raft escape plans, only to see it transform into a woman. Wordless animated feature visually references Herge and Moebius, shows that in a world of mortality, beauty and sadness are just two sides of the same experience. From Studio Ghibli.

Just Not Married (Nigeria, Uduak-Obong Patrick, 2) Ambitious student with ex-con brother and mom who needs medicine hatches scheme to get through police checkpoints with stolen cars by posing dressing himself and an accomplice as a just married bride and groom. There's a big desire on the part of fest programmers and cinema fans for the rough-and-ready Nollywood scene to yield titles that stand with the best of the developing world. Judging from this entry in this year’s TIFF spotlight on Lagos, we’re kinda rushing them.

The Oath (Iceland, Baltasar Kormákur, 4) When his daughter’s drug dealer boyfriend threatens his family, a driven cardiologist (Kormákur) demonstrates a very surgical set of skills. Spurns the exploitation roots of the vigilante genre, placing its realistic action in a moral universe where transgressions incur consequences.

Capsule review boilerplate: Ratings are out of 5. I’ll be collecting these reviews in order of preference in a master post the Monday after the fest. Films shown on the festival circuit will appear in theaters, disc and/or streaming over the next year plus. If you’ve heard of a film showing at TIFF, I’m probably waiting to see it during its upcoming conventional release, instead favoring choices that don’t have distribution and might not reappear.

September 10, 2016

TIFF16 First Friday: Saint Jane

Capsule reviews and commentary from films seen Friday Sept 9th at the Toronto International Film Festival:

Citizen Jane: Battle For the City (US, Matt Tyrnauer, 4.5) Documentary recounts the David and Goliath throwdown between writer Jane Jacobs’ vision of a vibrant, street focused city took on Robert Moses’ modernist urban renewalism and its mania for towering housing projects and downtown expressways. Magisterially presents a web of information and ideas as a gripping conflict with real emotional stakes.

This jumps into the “Robin is disportionately moved by a documentary” slot inaugurated last year by Hitchcock/Truffaut. To contextualize this: if you are terrified of spiders, I am too, except cross out “spiders” and write “Toronto’s deliberately botched march to high-density condo development.” So what Arachnophobia was to you, this film is to me.

Toronto lets no city outdo its reverence for Jane Jacobs, After the events depicted in this film she moved here and led a fight against a colossally misconceived expressway proposal that would have cut the downtown in two. On her passing she transmigrated to the celestial spheres to become our patron saint of liveable urbanism. So a sequel might be titled Citizen Jane: the Spadina Reckoning.

This world premiere screening unspooled* not only in the neighborhood Jacobs lived in and saved, but in her local movie house. Though what she might make of its transformation from scrappy rep house The Bloor to high-falutin’, sightline-obstructed Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema might best be left to the imagination. Or we can ask her when a ritual summoning brings her back to smite John Tory and teaches today's activists the importance of putting on a good show.

When the film lacks archival audio for a quote from the high-handed Robert Moses, it turns to Vincent D’onofrio for a voice-over. I don’t know if director Matt Tyrnauer is a fan of the “Daredevil” TV show, but hearing D’onofrio step assume another urban renewalist antagonist role does add a certain piquancy.

The Empty Box (Mexico, Claudia Sainte-Luce, 4) Aspiring playwright) pieces together moments from the life of her distant father (Jimmy Jean-Louis) after he is stricken with dementia. Perfectly modulated drama, drawn from the experience of director/writer/lead actress Sainte-Luce, never strikes a note too hard.

The cast was present at the screening, include Jimmy Jean-Louis, whose nerdcentric credits include playing the Haitian on “Heroes.”

Pyromaniac (Norway, Erik Skjoldbjærg, 4) Young volunteer fireman goes on an arson spree. True crime character study fosters a strong sense of authenticity as it looks at how isolating it can be to live in a small town where everyone knows everyone and you can never quite bring off a social interaction.

*Yeah yeah I know few films unspool these days. But “spat ones and zeroes” just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Capsule review boilerplate: Ratings are out of 5. I’ll be collecting these reviews in order of preference in a master post the Monday after the fest. Films shown on the festival circuit will appear in theaters, disc and/or streaming over the next year plus. If you’ve heard of a film showing at TIFF, I’m probably waiting to see it during its upcoming conventional release, instead favoring choices that don’t have distribution and might not reappear.

September 09, 2016

#TIFF16: It Begins… Again

That time of year has come again. On the first Thursday after Labor Day, the Toronto International Film Festival launches with a narrow selection of evening screenings. Like every year the newly introduced elements in the festival’s system--this time bar code readers for theater entry--reveal a gap between planning and execution. The much-needed up escalator in the Scotiabank Theater has broken down a week ahead of schedule, they’ve forgotten how much AC they need when the place is packed to the gills, cell phone screens are lighting up in mid-film and it doesn't matter because we’re here to celebrate the love of cinema. Or at least survive for the next movie-packed eleven days. As usual I’ll be serving up capsule reviews and stray observations from each day’s experience. So join me in glaring back at that seat-kicker and strap in for a bumpy ride.

Mad World (HK, Wong Chun. 3) Hospital releases bipolar man to the care of his estranged truck driver father, who struggles to keep up with his needs. A showcase performance by stalwart Hong Kong actor Eric Tsang as the father adds dimension to this downbeat melodrama.

Heaven Will Wait (France, Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar, 4) Interwoven narratives show two French girls at different stages of being lured, via cult-style social media recruitment, to Syria to be given to ISIL soldiers—one being indoctrinated, the other, deprogrammed. Fragmented storytelling techniques lend texture to what might otherwise be a standard-issue social problem film.

Capsule review boilerplate: Ratings are out of 5. I’ll be collecting these reviews in order of preference in a master post the Monday after the fest. Films shown on the festival circuit will appear in theaters, disc and/or streaming over the next year plus. If you’ve heard of a film showing at TIFF, I’m probably waiting to see it during its upcoming conventional release, instead favoring choices that don’t have distribution and might not reappear.

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: It’s Pronounced “Executive”

In the latest episode of our triple-ENnie-winning podcast, Ken and I talk 3-act structure, Markus Wolf, Ars Magica GUMSHOE with Jeff Tidball, and Stranger Things.

September 07, 2016

Game Freelancer Escapes Sinister Chrono-Double, but Pelgrane Peeps Remain Affected

Oh no! In an attempt to mark the pre-order for TimeWatch, their new GUMSHOE game of temporal interference, Pelgrane Press inadvertently opened up a hole in reality allowing their evil counterparts from the darkest histories to come through.

These vile miscreants hail from an alternate timeline in which the entire run of the TimeWatch RPG was washed overboard during shipping. This catastrophe sent Simon and Cat over the edge into bottomless rage and nihilism, and Pelgrane Press became the most evil games company in the world. Now, the ruthless Evil Pelgrane works to undermine our timeline and ensure that their terrifying future comes to pass!

Only you can knit together the timelines by going to the above link and voting for either Evil Pelgrane, in which case the upcoming TimeWatch Resource Book will include a Time Crime heist against a Spanish treasure ship, or Good Pelgrane, instead endowing it with an adventure seed and illustration featuring TimeWatch members battling robot pirates.

Why only just now I fought off my own time counterpart, vanquishing him forever. (Pictured above.) Thank goodness, because my annual journey to the Toronto International Film Festival starts tomorrow, and it would be weird to be posting my capsule reviews under an evil profile pic. Plus there’s no way I’m letting a lizard person purloin my festival tickets!

Other Pelgranes, however, still remain woefully affected, as can be seen from their use of the hashtag #evilPelgrane.

Only you can save them!

September 02, 2016

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: They Had Hyenas In Inventory

In the latest episode of our ENnie three-peating podcast, Ken and I talk GUMSHOE hybrids, killing Pat Garrett, Will Hindmarch's gaming music secrets, and the Beast of Gevaudan.

September 01, 2016

The Birds: Advice

Click here for the complete strip archive.

August 29, 2016

Finding Me at FanExpo Canada 2016

Hey if Labor Day (or, given the context, Labour Day) is barreling our way yet again, that must mean I’ll be doing the panel thing at my hometown multitrack mega-show, FanExpo Canada. You know, me and William Shatner and Margaret Atwood, it’s how we roll. Hit the downtown Toronto convention center to find all three of us and more. I dunno about Bill and Peggy, but I’ll be at:

WORLD BUILDING IN GAMING Saturday, 1:00 PM, Room 714

GAME MASTER MASTER CLASS, Saturday, 3:30 PM, Room 713

GETTING STARTED WITH TABLETOP ROLE-PLAYING GAMES, Sunday, 12:15 PM, Room 703

I am not stationed at a booth at the show, so if you’d like to chat or have something signed, hit me up after any of the above events. Out of town luminaries this year include John Kovalic, Nicole Lindroos, Emily Care Boss, Epidiah Ravachol, Eddy Webb, and C.A. Suleiman, joining your usual area gaming pals, some more Greenwoodian than others.

August 26, 2016

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: The Complaining Hut

In the latest episode of our triple Gold ENnie winning podcast, Ken and I talk running con games, writing routines, Emily Care Boss and Agent 355.

August 25, 2016

The Birds: Shiny

Click here for the complete strip archive.

August 19, 2016

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Gen Con 2016

In the latest episode of our triple ENnie Gold-winning podcast, Ken and I make a lot of humble statements just like that one as we talk Gen Con, Gen Con, Gen Con, and also Gen Con.

August 18, 2016

The Birds: Mixtures

Click here for the complete strip archive.

August 12, 2016

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff: Pull the Damn Trigger You Coward!

In the latest episode of our triple gold ENnie-winning podcast, Ken and I talk backloaded continuities, Russian intelligence hacking for Trump, blueberries and ley lines.