Articles by Alisha Mughal

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  TIFF Review: 'Huda's Salon' Lays Bare the Absurdity of War

  Directed by Hany Abu-Assad

  PUBLISHED Sep 10, 2021

  The first ten minutes of Huda's Salon are a revelation. This movie works through a simultaneously sympathetic and satirical lens to subtly...

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  The New 'Candyman' Misses the Point

  Directed by Nia DaCosta

  PUBLISHED Aug 31, 2021

  It's impossible not to compare Candyman to its source material — Bernard Rose's 1992 film of the same name — especially since it's a sequel...

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  Survival Thriller 'Till Death' Shows Off Megan Fox's Comedic Side

  Directed by S.K. Dale

  PUBLISHED Aug 27, 2021

  The Megan Fox-starring survival thriller Till Death starts off with the kind of campy melodrama that makes one wonder whether they will be...

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  'The Protégé' Has Much to Learn

  Directed by Martin Campbell

  PUBLISHED Aug 26, 2021

  The Protégé could have worked: the Martin Campbell-directed (Casino Royale, Goldeneye) film has got the trappings of a modern, trenchant ac...

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  'The Exchange' Delivers Laughs While Mocking Canada's Racism

  Directed by Dan Mazer

  PUBLISHED Jul 30, 2021

  The triptych poster for Borat co-creator Dan Mazer's The Exchange is a bit confusing. Looking at it after seeing the movie, you feel jolted...

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  'Kandisha' Is a Frightening Glimpse into a Paris Rarely Seen on Screen

  Directed by Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury

  PUBLISHED Jul 28, 2021

  In Arabic mythology, jinn have as much being as humans do, though they are a separate entity: they are created of fire, while we mere morta...

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  TJFF Review: 'True Mothers' Is as Beautifully Complex as Life Itself

  Directed by Naomi Kawase

  PUBLISHED Jun 8, 2021

  Deep within his novel In the Skin of a Lion, Michael Ondaatje writes: "The first sentence of every novel should be: 'Trust me, this will ta...

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  'The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It' Is Entertaining Despite a Disappointing Lack of Haunted Toys

  Directed by Michael Chaves

  PUBLISHED Jun 4, 2021

  Here's the thing about the Conjuring Universe: it's damn good at giving us terrifying monsters. A haunted doll, a burnt-out husk of a nun,...