TIFF 2022 capsule reviews: 'Causeway,' 'Prisoner's Daughter,' 'The Return of Tanya Tucker: Featuring Brandi Carlile'

CAUSEWAY

A scene from 'Causeway' starring Jennifer Lawrence (Courtesy of TIFF)

In the low-key drama “Causeway,” Jennifer Lawrence once again shows why she is one of her generation’s best actors. She delivers a performance driven by subtlety, without a hint of affectation.

As the survivor of an IED blast while serving in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, her road to recovery is paved with difficulty. Now, living in her New Orleans childhood home with her negligent mother, she longs to get back to the army to escape the memories of the trauma of growing up as a bright young woman in a home marred by substance abuse.

The person who grounds her, an auto mechanic names James (the brilliant Brian Tyree Henry), has his own crosses to bear.

“Causeway” is a movie about the healing power of friendship and choosing -- as Armistead Maupin said -- your logical, not biological family.

Director Lila Neugebauer, working on a heartfelt script by Luke Goebel, Ottessa Moshfegh and Elizabeth Sanders, has crafted a movie that defies the usual “coming home” drama in favour of a quiet, slice-of-life story that is actually a character study of broken people who find comfort in the company of one another.

THE RETURN OF TANYA TUCKER: FEATURING BRANDI CARLILE

Tanya Tucker (left) with Brandi Carlile (Courtesy of TIFF)

“The Return of Tanya Tucker: Featuring Brandi Carlile” is not a regular musical bio-doc.

We get bits and pieces from Tucker’s legendary career, how she had her first hit with “Delta Dawn” when she was just 13-years-old, and her cocaine fuelled relationship with country superstar Glen Campbell, but the focus here is the making of the 2019 album “While I’m Livin.'”

Produced by Shooter Jennings and country singer Brandi Carlile, it was Tucker’s first album in 17 years and earned a Grammy, her first ever.

Director Kathlyn Horan takes a fly-on-the-wall approach that lends itself to revealing many organic and intimate moments of Tucker and her producers, capturing the magic that is Tucker in full flight.

It is a portrait of a legend who calls herself “just a country singer,” but with a voice that is imbued with the texture of a woman who has lived a life, and brings that experience to her art.

At the heart, this is a love letter to Tucker, whose career has had as many ups as it has downs. Come for the story, stay for the incredible music.

PRISONER’S DAUGHTER

Kate Beckinsale and Brian Cox (Courtesy of TIFF)

Kate Beckinsale stars with Brian Cox in Catherine Hardwicke’s “Prisoner’s Daughter,” a movie that blends redemption tale with family drama.

Beckinsale is Maxine, a struggling former Las Vegas showgirl and mother to Ezra (Christopher Convery), a 17-year-old with epilepsy. Her father Max (Cox) is a former boxer and bruiser who, when he wasn’t beating people up in the ring, was an enforcer for the mob.

Estranged for 12 years, Maxine and Max are thrust back into one another’s lives, when Max, diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, is given a compassionate leave from prison, as long as he moves in with his daughter.

“Prisoner’s Daughter” has many predictable elements as the ex-con father and his extended family find a new way to be a family, but Hardwicke’s delicate world building, as she presents the stark realities of Maxine’s life, and her efforts to atone for the mistakes of her past and point Ezra on the right track, bring great humanity to the tale.

Cox brings his trademarked fierceness to Max, but he is a lion in winter, and his softer gentler side is more exposed now than ever.

It’s a movie that wonders if there are best before dates on amends, or if blood is truly thicker than water. Not a gamechanger story wise, but strong performances and interesting filmmaking earn it a recommend.