WTF? ‘Shadow In The Cloud’ Is A Relentlessly Schizophrenic Mess Of A Movie [TIFF Review]

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentMadrid-based The Mediapro Studio (TMS), one of Europe’s biggest independent film and TV players, had a smashing 2019 with the release of 126 titles. And then the pandemic struck, forcing the company to shut down 56 shows.

Set entirely in Wuhan, China during the 76-day COVID lockdown in early 2020, “76 Days” is a tight, tense, and, at times, unrelentingly emotional account of front-line pandemic medical combat. As a piece of high-impact experiential movie journalism, it feels close to the style of a standalone “Frontline” episode, missing only Will Lyman’s low and drama-heightening narration.

David Oyelowo’s directorial feature debut, “The Water Man,” plays like a kid-friendly throwback to Steven Spielberg’s ’80s movies. It’s a coming-of-age story filled with adventure, friendship, and some serious topics that don’t overshadow its young protagonist’s hopes.

Before J. Balvin became a record-breaking chart-topper, he was José Álvaro Osorio Balvín, just another boy in Medellín, Colombia, with big dreams and an even bigger drive to make them come true.

Irish mythology has found glorious ambassadors in director Tomm Moore and the team at animation studio Cartoon Saloon. Their Oscar-nominated titles “The Secret of Kells” (2009) and “Song of the Sea” (2014) are visionary renderings of their homeland’s lore, and with “Wolfwalkers,” an epic and dramatically mature triumph, a perfect trilogy is complete.

Thomas Vinterberg’s “Another Round” begins with the frenzied depiction of Danish youth completing a beer “case race,” though the debauched fun is fleeting for us – and them. The sequence collides with the film’s opening title cards, which quickly cede to a more sobering reality: a dry faculty meeting.

True to its name, “Violation” is about an unforgivable transgression. Written, produced, and directed by Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli, their feature debut follows Miriam (Sims-Fewer) on at least two (maybe more) trips to the woods.

The dream of every aspiring producer who shares "type beats" — instrumentals inspired by the existing work of their favorite artists — is to have the rapper they based their track on actually rap on it.

“The people who work for the city work for you,” explains Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, to a room full of his constituents. “They’re there to service you.” That simplest of ideas, a real gimme in the not-too-distant past, stands at the center of “City Hall,” the latest of Frederick Wiseman’s documentary deep dives into the nuts and bolts of America’s institutions.

Near the beginning of the film is a scene where Joe Bell (Mark Wahlberg) stands in front of an assembled group of high schoolers to speak about bullying. The gruff father shares two points: Understanding begins at home and everything will be fine if you are true to yourself.

No genre romanticizes America’s manifest destiny mythos more than the western. For decades, the construct featured white men conquering the frontier from Native Americans and law enforcement.

“Don’t take me for a psycho,” explains Alex, the protagonist of François Ozon’s “Summer of ’85,” explains in the film’s opening voice-over. “Corspes are not my thing… Corpses are not my thing.

No genre romanticizes America’s manifest destiny mythos more than the western. For decades, the construct featured white men conquering the frontier from Native Americans and law enforcement.

It’s 1963, and throngs of Black folks have packed the National Mall for the March on Washington. Images of jubilant men and women holding flags, and dressed in their Sunday best, strewn across the screen.

Fans of “Gone Girl” who have been patiently waiting for star Rosamund Pike to sink her teeth into another delectably devious role, rejoice. J Blakeson’s “I Care a Lot” provides the best showcase of Pike’s darkly ambitious drive since her Academy Award-winning breakthrough in 2014.

No one ever outruns their past. Momentary reprieves might mark your journey, but history always wins in the end.

Irish mythology has found glorious ambassadors in director Tomm Moore and the team at animation studio Cartoon Saloon. Their Oscar-nominated titles “The Secret of Kells” (2009) and “Song of the Sea” (2014) are visionary renderings of their homeland’s lore, and with “Wolfwalkers,” an epic and dramatically mature triumph, a perfect trilogy is complete.

How does a romance go from “Before Sunset” to “Blue Valentine?” Argyris Papadimitropoulos charts the dissolution of a passionate fling into domestic resentment in “Monday,” a film that succeeds at capturing the peaks and valleys of a relationship but sputters out when capturing the mundane moments in between.

“Mom’s not the same person she once was,” narrates adolescent Noah Bloom (Griffin Murray-Johnston) over the coda of “Penguin Bloom.” He continues, “She’s not the person she wanted to be, but for me, she’s so much more than that.” This is ultimately the place at which any movie centered around the experience of living with a disability should arrive, acknowledging that the paralyzing fall endured by Sam Bloom (Naomi Watts) does not mark the end of life as she knew it but rather a reconstitution

You’ve gotta give “Get the Hell Out” this much: it sure does try hard. This Taiwanese zombie-apocalypse action/comedy is the first feature from director I-Fan Wang, and it’s the kind of movie where you discover that tidbit after the fact and nod knowingly – yes, of course, this was their first feature.