Review: TIFF 2018 – First Man, Destroyer, Widows

By: Curtis Sindrey –
Follow @Aesthetic_Mag

First Man is the inspiring true story of NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong and America’s mission to the moon.

Director Damien Chazelle (Whiplash, La La Land) pulls no punches as he expertly hurls you into a claustrophobic cockpit with Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) and suddenly you’re catapulted into a world of unshakeable danger. You feel the urgency in every scene and you feel the emotional weight of the duty that Armstrong and his fellow Apollo astronauts were tasked with.

Using tight shots and natural lighting, Chazelle brings the 1960s space program to life with understated performances by Gosling and Claire Foy, who plays his wife, Janet.

The question isn’t whether you should see this film; it’s how many times over you will feel compelled to see it.

First Man will be released on October 12th, 2018.

In a career-defining role, Nicole Kidman stars as LAPD detective Erin Bell, a rough-around-the-edges type who is more John McClaine than Marge Gunderson.

Set in a neo-noir Los Angeles, Bell struggles to get her life back on track. Following a bank robbery gone wrong while undercover with a gang of young criminals, Bell must take her demons head on before they destroy her future ends up like her tarnished past.

Kidman is fully absorbed in this role. Her physical transformation into Bell is a feat by itself and her engrossing performance will linger long after the credits roll.

Destroyer will be released on December 25th, 2018.

Steve McQueen’s new film, Widows, isn’t your typical heist thriller. With an all-star cast featuring Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Colin Farrell, Robert Duvall, and Liam Neeson, we’re taken on a journey of survival of a group of widows who take the plunge into a criminal world unfamiliar to them.

McQueen expertly maintains a balance between popcorn heist film and something deeper touches on interracial marriage, marriage dynamics, sexism, and police brutality in a way that similar films don’t, which serves as a refreshing reminder of what the genre is capable of in the right hands.

Ultimately, Widows is a welcomed new addition to McQueen’s already impressive filmography.

Widows will be released on November 16th, 2018.