Author: Caitlin Abe Gokool

• Dune: Part Two

  

  Dune: Part Two is a force. More worlds. More psychotic Harkonnens. More sandworms. More Zendaya. Its sheer size and technical achievements are something to be astounded by, not to mention its stellar performances all around from its all-star cast. As director Denis Villeneuve has intended from the start, the film is not a sequel. Rather,…

  Caitlin Abe Gokool

  February 26, 2024

• Fitting In

  

  To be a woman is to be subjected to the health care system in a man-centric world. A topic remaining scarcely talked about on the big screen, Canadian director Molly McGlynn opens up about her own experience with the reproductive condition MRKH syndrome in her latest feature, Fitting In. Written and directed by McGlynn, the…

  Caitlin Abe Gokool

  February 16, 2024

• Oscars 2024: My Picks and Reactions

  

  Although awards season (in my opinion) has very much tainted the way a lot of viewers watch films these days, and the fact the Oscars has faced loads of backlash that effectively take away a lot of their integrity as a stage of merit for accolades in the film industry, I still love watching this…

  Caitlin Abe Gokool

  January 23, 2024

• My Top 20 Films of 2023

  

  I was lucky enough to see 89 of the new 2023 releases before the end of the year. The following ranking is mainly based on how much I enjoyed each film, rather than focusing on technical aspects, but of course, these aspects still did impact my viewing experience and thus each film’s place in the…

  Caitlin Abe Gokool

  January 10, 2024

• 2023, or: The Taking Back of All Things “Girly”

  

  Honestly, it would be wrong to call 2023 anything other than the year of the biopic. From billion dollar cautionary tales about the father of the atomic bomb, to lack-lustre retellings of the lives behind Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and the return of pinball, there was another phenomenon on the rise this past year. If 2022…

  Caitlin Abe Gokool

  January 1, 2024

• Origin [TIFF 2023]

  

  Acclaimed director Ava DuVernay brings her latest feature to the big screen with Origin, her unique take on the 2020 nonfiction book by the American journalist Isabel Wilkerson titled Caste: The Origins of our Discontents. While puzzling to many how DuVernay would bring this nonfiction book to the big screen in a narrative format, she once again proves…

  Caitlin Abe Gokool

  October 15, 2023

• Wildcat [TIFF 2023]

  

  With another biopic this year, Ethan Hawke directs a unique rendition of the telling of a part of writer Flannery O’Connor’s history, with his daughter in the lead. Starring Maya Hawke as author O’Connor, Ethan Hawke’s Wildcat borrows its name from one of the acclaimed author’s first short stories from 1947, to tell the story of the…

  Caitlin Abe Gokool

  October 9, 2023

• Dumb Money [TIFF 2023]

  

  The world of finance is an elusive one to many. With billions of dollars seeming to be funnelled almost daily into the pockets of a select few by their betting on the lives of businesses, is truly an area where a film can tell a good underdog story. Craig Gillespie’s latest film, Dumb Money, tells the…

  Caitlin Abe Gokool

  September 24, 2023

• Next Goal Wins [TIFF 2023]

  

  Next Goal Wins comes at a crucial time in the career of director and co-writer Taika Waititi. Following his acclaimed comedic drama Hunt For the Wilderpeople (2016) and Oscar-nominated film Jojo Rabbit (2019), viewers noticed a clear dip in the quality of films. Since then, his second Marvel Studios film, Thor: Love and Thunder, has gone on to earn a…

  Caitlin Abe Gokool

  September 19, 2023

• The Holdovers [TIFF 2023]

  

  The private all-boys school setting seems to historically be the setting of many stories exploring hypocrisy, tradition, and the dangers of forming assumptions about another person’s life. The Holdovers, the latest film from director Alexander Payne of Election (1999) and Sideways (2004) is no exception, but does something more with this tried and true setting and its wealthy, privileged boys…

  Caitlin Abe Gokool

  September 17, 2023