TIFF 2021 Review: ‘Jockey’

There’s nothing quite like a film that completely hooks from its first shot, and that’s the case with Clint Bentley’s Jockey. It opens with a conversation, where aging jockey Jackson (Clifton Collins Jr.) and fellow jockey Leo (Logan Cormier) discuss a young rookie on the tour named Gabriel (Moises Arias). It’s a standard conversation that hooks because of how it’s shot, shadows in front of a sunset as they watch horses gallop. I must gush about Adolpho Veloso’s cinematography because I can’t remember when I’ve fallen in love so quickly with the look of a film. The bulk of the outdoor scenes are shot at the “golden hour,” highlighting the gorgeous oranges, blues and reds of Phoenix, AZ. In these scenes, the characters could be reciting the dictionary and I’d still be in awe.

Luz: The Flower of Evil (2020)

In Juan Diego Escobar Alzate’s feature debut, Luz: The Flower of Evil, there’s a focus on man corrupting nature and corrupting everything he touches. This man is a preacher called El Señor (Conrado Osorio) who leads a small commune in the mountains. One day, he brings back a child he calls Jesús (Johan Camacho) who will be the new Messiah. Coinciding with this, his “daughters” Uma (Yuri Vargas), Zion (Sharon Guzman) and Laila (Andrea Esquivel), who is his only birth daughter, are coming-of-age and begin to challenge his teachings.   This aspect of the film challenging him is fascinating, especially when Laila finds a music player in the woods and El Señor claims that this is “the devil’s music.” There’s a lovely discussion by the three “sisters” as they discuss what she found and discuss a music box given to them by their mother, the titular Luz. Luz’s presence is felt throughout the film, as some members of the commune believe her death has brought bad luck to the small commune as the tree where El Señor buried her has not yet bloomed.