Movie Reviews (Toronto International Film Festival): You Are Not My Mother and A Banquet
Beginning with one of the most harrowing scenes in recent memory, writer/director Kate Dolan’s Halloween-set Irish horror outing You Are Not My Mother serves up traditional European folklore in a modern urban setting. The result is one of the most thrilling, eerie cinematic experiences of this year. High-school student Char (Hazel Doupe) reluctantly accepts a ride to school from her seemingly depressed mother Angela (Carolyn Bracken), who almost drives the car straight into a horse. Angela disappears later that day but returns in a few days; however, she now seems to be in lighter moods, more active, and more engaged regarding spending time with Char. At first the bullied teen seems cautiously optimistic about her mother’s new behavior, but soon Angela begins displaying increasingly disturbing bearings. Char’s grandmother Rita (Ingrid Craigie), who makes talismans for protection, warns Char about a supernatural presence behind Angela, but Char wants none of that because she has heard schoolmates and neighbors mock her family
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