The Kingmaker (2019) TIFF19 Movie Review

                                                         

   Jim Pagiamtzis
     Imelda Marcos reign of the Philippines began 21 years and until this day her journey has had it highs and lows and this film illustrates the choice and decision that affected the Philippine people in so many ways.

            The arc begin and ends many people trying to end her reign she build with her husband Ferdinand Marcos.   The money spent. lost and not found has brought disappoint by many all over the world. 

                   Event though some may of succeeded in take some thing away from  Imelda Markos she is still the serves at the ultimate Kingmaker to this day.

                    9 out 10 stars

  Movie plot
  The documentary film focuses on the political career of Imelda Marcos, former First Lady of the Philippines for 21 years, known as the Iron Butterfly due to her extravagance during the rule of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

                              

                                 

Just Mercy (2019) TIFF Movie Review

                                              

   Jim Pagiamtzis Review
           True story of  Bryan Stevenson (Michael B Jordon) and the journey he went through to prove the innocence of  Walter McMillian ( Jamie Foxx) in 1987. 
 
                This film has twist and turns that will have on emotional ride until the very end. Just Mercy is a powerful story of  determination and the search for the truth and the justice of the wrongly convicted.

                10 out of 10 stars


       Movie plot
Michael B. Jordan (“Black Panther,” “Creed,” “Creed II”) and Oscar winners Jamie Foxx (“Ray,” “Baby Driver,” “Django: Unchained”) and Brie Larson (“Room,” “The Glass Castle,” “Captain Marvel”) star in “Just Mercy,” an inspiring drama that brings one of the most important stories of our time to the big screen. Award-winning filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton (“The Glass Castle,” “Short Term 12”) directed the film from a screenplay he co-wrote, based on the award-winning nonfiction bestseller by Bryan Stevenson. A powerful and thought-provoking true story, “Just Mercy” follows young lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Jordan) and his history-making battle for justice. After graduating from Harvard, Bryan had his pick of lucrative jobs. Instead, he heads to Alabama to defend those wrongly condemned or who were not afforded proper representation, with the support of local advocate Eva Ansley (Larson). One of his first, and most incendiary, cases is that of Walter McMillian (Foxx), who, in 1987, was sentenced to die for the notorious murder of an 18-year-old girl, despite a preponderance of evidence proving his innocence and the fact that the only testimony against him came from a criminal with a motive to lie. In the years that follow, Bryan becomes embroiled in a labyrinth of legal and political maneuverings and overt and unabashed racism as he fights for Walter, and others like him, with the odds—and the system—stacked against them.


                                           

Lucy in the Sky (2019) TIFF19 Movie Review

                                                     

           Jim Pagiamtzis review
            Lucy (Natalie Portman)  come back to earth and her life will never be same, she goes on long and winding journey and makes personal decision and professional choices what will have dramatic changes to her life. 
 
                The climatic end will have you wondering was it all worth it and is she truly happy with her life.

           6 out of 10 stars       



            Movie plot


The story of a female astronaut who, upon returning to Earth from a life-changing mission in space, begins to slowly unravel and lose touch with reality.

                                        

Bad Education (2019) TIFF19 Movie Review

                                                         

   Jim Pagiamtzis review
   Spectacular cast Frank Tassone (Huge Jackman) Pam Gluckin (Allison Janney and Ray Romano on how a educators at Roslyn Highschool got themselves in a fine mess of trouble and unwittingly affected the faith the town had in this well regarded school


              Based on true events this movie will have you ask all sort of questions and by the time you get to the climatic end  you will ask  the main question How was this allowed to happen?

       9 out of 10 stars


      Movie Plot

Hugh Jackman, Allison Janney, and Ray Romano star in this fact-based dramedy directed by Cory Finley (Thoroughbreds), about an infamous school-larceny scandal that rocked Long Island in the early aughts.

Long Island school superintendent Frank Tassone (Hugh Jackman) and his assistant superintendent for business, Pam Gluckin (Academy Award winner Allison Janney), are credited with bringing Roslyn School District unprecedented prestige. Frank, always immaculately groomed and tailored, is a master of positive messaging, whether before an audience of community leaders or in an office with a concerned student or parent. In short, it seems Frank can do no wrong. That is, until a plucky student reporter (Geraldine Viswanathan, also at the Festival in Hala) decides to dig deep into some expense reports and begins to uncover an embezzlement scheme of epic proportions, prompting Frank to devise an elaborate cover-up — by any means necessary.

Inspired by a true story, Bad Education is a smartly assembled, darkly hilarious, at times squirm-inducing chronicle of the most astonishing financial crime in the history of the US school system. Directed by Cory Finley (Thoroughbreds) from a script by Mike Makowsky, who was a student in the Roslyn School District when the scandal became public in the mid-'00s, the film is a master class in duplicity, with the charismatic Frank taking extreme measures to not only shield himself and his colleagues from the law, but also to keep his carefully constructed façade from crumbling to pieces.
The breadth of Tassone's deceptions and double life were startling, and Bad Education is similarly complex in its scope. Every new twist requires nuance to convey, and Jackman and Janney are the perfect pair to carry off their characters' journey of camaraderie, conspiracy, and betrayal.




                                            

The Antenna (2019) TIFF19 Movie Review

                                                                   

   Jim Pagiamtzis review
             An interesting horror film with some cinematic scenes that will have jumping from the very beginning to the climatic end!

    6 out of 10 stars


        Movie plot


An under-the-radar horror film that we're extremely excited to catch at the forthcoming Toronto International Film Festival is The Antenna, the Orçun Behram-directed Turkish film with political elements that stands as an allegory for the lack of the freedom of speech in today’s Turkey. Bloody Disgusting has an exclusive look at the film's first trailer in which the inhabitants of an apartment building are caught in a living nightmare when a radical new communications technology goes horribly awry. There's flashes of terror and tons of creepy black ooze - I'm dying to know just how much horror The Antenna actually delivers.

                                                 

Heroic Losers (2019) TIFF19 Movie Review

                                                           

 Jim Pagiamtzis review
          An hilarious film that takes you on journey on group of Argentina men and women who hatch a plan to get  their money bank from a bank manager who took their money.

             This cat and mouse journey will have you laughing and wondering will their plan work.

   9 out of 10 stars


 Movie plot
When some neighbours in rural Argentina are swindled out of their savings by an unscrupulous lawyer and bank manager, they join forces to plan an elaborate heist and take back what’s theirs.

                                    

Endings, Beginnings (2019) TIFF19 Movie review

                                                             

   Jim Pagiamtzis review
        The journey of Daphne (Shailene Woodley) and her life is not going well, recently breaking up with her boyfriend that she thought was the lifetime partner. Her life takes a twist when she meets two men bad boy Framk  (Sebastian Stan) and his best friend Jack (Jamie Dornan)

   She makes all sorts of  choices that ends in powerful ending that will affect her in deeply emotional way.

  7 out of 10 stars



  Movie plot
 An idealistic woman (Shailene Woodley) attempts to get her life on track financially and romantically, but gets caught in a love triangle with a free-spirited bad boy (Sebastian Stan) and his more stable, scholarly best friend (Jamie Dornan), in this tender exploration of love and heartbreak from Drake Doremus (Like Crazy).
Reeling from a bad recent break-up, Daphne (Shailene Woodley) finds herself adrift in life. Living in her sister's guesthouse, she regularly witnesses her sibling and her brother-in-law fighting, which only exacerbates the once-idealistic Daphne's growing despair regarding long-term love.
Then, at one of her sister's parties, Daphne meets Frank (Sebastian Stan) and Jack (Jamie Dornan, also at the Festival in SYNCHRONIC). Both are enormously attractive to her, albeit in very different ways: one is the free-spirited bad boy, unpredictable, and always ready for adventure; the other is sober, intelligent, sensitive, and invested in his career as an academic. Unable to choose between these almost polar opposites, Daphne finds herself bouncing between them instead, enjoying the distinct ways each man sees her — it's as though she's auditioning different versions of herself and the life that might be waiting for her. But fate has a way of making decisions for us, and the time soon comes when Daphne is forced to accept that having it all might just be a disguise for having nothing.