Author: Caitlin Abe Gokool

• Young Werther [TIFF 2024]

  

  Of all the films I thought I would see this year, a modern day retelling of a 1774 Goethe epistolary novel set in Toronto was not one of them, but I am glad it ended up being made anyways. Young Werther, based on the novel The Sorrows of Young Werthe by Johann Wolfgang Goethe is…

  Caitlin Abe Gokool

  September 10, 2024

• The Fire Inside [TIFF 2024]

  

  I am a tough person to talk to about biopics and sports films. In a world where it seems like there are already so many great ones out there, everything else often feels like it is just repeating what it knows works. I was curious what my reaction would be, given this genre fatigue, to…

  Caitlin Abe Gokool

  September 9, 2024

• Can I Get a Witness [TIFF 2024]

  

  Can I Get A Witness? is a fascinating film. Director and writer Ann Marie Fleming depicts a future world, not so far off from ours, where climate change has ended and global poverty has been eradicated. This is thanks to a global agreement that states that places restrictions on electricity use, travel, and population, and…

  Caitlin Abe Gokool

  September 8, 2024

• We Live In Time [TIFF 2024]

  

  How do we live when we know that each moment could be our last? How does our outlook on life change when our future plans are forcibly changed, or possibly no longer possibilities at all? Almut and Tobias face these questions in director John Crowley’s We Live In Time, following a couple throughout their lives…

  Caitlin Abe Gokool

  September 7, 2024

• Maldoror [Venice Film Festival 2024]

  

  A police procedural film has a lot to live up to, and the latest Belgian film from the Venice Film Festival, Maldoror, faces this uphill battle. In this latest police crime drama after two young girls go missing, a young new police recruit, Paul, joins the small unit, Maldoror, tracking a sex offender in hopes…

  Caitlin Abe Gokool

  September 3, 2024

• Planet B [Venice Film Festival 2024]

  

  I am a simple girl. If I see Adèle Exarchopoulos in the cast, I will watch. This worked out in my favour last year introducing me to Passages, and got me interested in her latest work, Planet B, directed by Aude Léa Rapin. The film is a science-fiction thriller film, and resembles a long episode…

  Caitlin Abe Gokool

  August 30, 2024

• Dìdi (弟弟)

  

  If a movie is advertised as having anything to do with “coming-of-age”, you can bet I will be in the theatre to watch within the first week. The latest film to join this group is Sean Wang’s Dìdi (弟弟), a self reflective film focussed on portraying, through honest representation and full commitment to the time…

  Caitlin Abe Gokool

  August 12, 2024

• My Old Ass [Inside Out Film Festival]

  

  Despite its name, Megan Park’s unapologetically Canadian film My Old Ass is a heartwarming, delightful coming-of-age film, completely in tune with gen-z and all the anxieties that come along with it. Star Maisy Stella of Nashville (2012-2018) is brilliant as the down-to-earth, sarcastic Elliott, supported by Aubrey Plaza and a wonderfully fun cast, making this…

  Caitlin Abe Gokool

  July 30, 2024

• Twisters

  

  On the same weekend this year that Barbie (2023) hit theatres last year, the summer blockbuster of 2024 brought summer crowds to theatres and is finally here. In his follow up to his 2020 film Minari, director Lee Isaac Chung brings us Twisters, a sequel (that no one asked for) to its 90’s singularly named…

  Caitlin Abe Gokool

  July 25, 2024

• Seagrass and the Japanese Canadian Identity

  

  The Japanese Canadian identity is one that carries a lot of historical weight. An identity so faintly discussed in Canadian history classes, often reduced to a mere sentence by history teachers throughout the 5 months of mandatory history lessons in high school. Or, in my case, an identity only discussed because there were two of…

  Caitlin Abe Gokool

  March 9, 2024