CFTCA Digest: October 2024 - Cascadia Film & TV Critics Association

Welcome to CFTCA’s monthly digest for October 2024, a roundup of recent reviews, features, interviews, and more by CTFCA critics.

Film Reviews

Rumours | Reviewed by Eric Zhu | Read the full review

“I think many critics aren’t giving Rumours enough credit. As a comedy about world leaders, indifferent to the dire state of current affairs, orating their empty platitudes to a masturbatory, brain-dead audience of their own imagination, it takes easy targets and satirizes them without any of the self-righteousness that plagues any number of recent cinematic disasters (The Menu, Triangle of Sadness, American Fiction).“

Find more of Eric’s writing on The Insert.

Universal Language | Reviewed by Taylor Beaumont | Read the full review

“During a walking tour of a craftily re-imagined Winnipeg in Universal Language, we are told the Portage Place shopping mall no longer screens 3D films. ‘They’re too exciting,’ says pink earmuff-adorned tour guide Massoud (Pirouz Nemati), ‘Now they only screen one-dimensional films.’ Call this a bit of absurdist humour, a playful jab by writer-director Matthew Rankin at his own hometown, but within a single dimension—that is, a single coordinate, a point—is precisely how Rankin’s new film was conceptualized.”

Find more of Taylor’s writing on For Reel.

Megalopolis | Reviewed by Pierre Frogon and Jeff Bulmer | Listen the full review

Pierre Frogon and Jeff Bulmer sit down to talk about the experience of seeing Megalopolis in a crowded theatre on opening night.

Find more episodes of Classic Movies Live here.

La Cocina | Reviewed by Marta Djordjevic | Read the full review

“I need a stiff drink after this one. Alonso Ruizpalacios’ La Cocina is every bit the ‘anti-food-porn’ movie he declares it to be. On the surface, the film is a tragicomic tribute to the undocumented immigrants working under crushing conditions in the heart of New York’s food industry. Even more so, however, it’s a look at how these people lose sight of their dreams or sense of community — because time never stops for the capitalistic grind.”

Find more of Marta’s reviews on her Letterboxd.

Interviews

Jason Reitman on Saturday Night | Read the full interview

Ethan Simmie caught up with Jason Reitman during a Toronto International Film Festival roundtable, where Reitman spoke about the making of Saturday Night, what movies inspired him during the process, and his favorite films of 2024.

Find more of Ethan’s work on Agents of Fandom.

Podcasts

Giallo on Contra Zoom Pod | Listen to the Episode

For a special Halloween edition of Contra Zoom Pod, Matthew Simpson joined Dakota Arsenault to a discuss a few of their giallo blindspots. They review Blood and Black Lace⁠, ⁠Don’t Torture a Duckling⁠ and ⁠Deep Red⁠.

Find more episodes of the Contra Zoom podcast here.