July Talk frontwoman Leah Goldstein’s Diamond Tongues debut dazzles.
BY NORMAN WILNER AUGUST 5, 2015 7:00 PM
Rating: NNNN
A dramedy about a young woman (Leah Goldstein) trying establish an acting career in Toronto, Diamond Tongues works both as a character study and an exercise in cringe comedy: you spend an hour and a half watching someone make a lot of bad choices, hoping that she’ll learn from at least one of them.
Pavan Moondi’s script is sharp and thoughtful, and he and co-director Brian Robertson create a terrific sense of place, bouncing around their downtown locations with just the right level of now-what exasperation.
The movie bristles with musical talent: Brendan Canning composed and supervised the score, and Goldstein – you may know her better as July Talk frontwoman Leah Fay – gives a great, twitchy performance as the self-sabotaging Edith.
But Goldstein’s bandmate Peter Dreimanis turns out to be the picture’s secret weapon: his alert, nimble camera is as important to the storytelling as any other element of Diamond Tongues, making the drama feel alive and immediate in exactly the right way.
Source: NOW MAGAZINE