Mike Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck took home the People’s Choice Award at this year’s TIFF, officially making it an Oscar contender. The winners for this year’s Toronto International Film Festival have been announced, with Mike Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck taking home the People’s Choice Award. Check out the full list of winners below: … Read more
In my final dispatch from this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, I watched three films about families in crisis. In Edward Burns’s drama “Millers in Marriage,” three fifty-something siblings contend with how relationships morph and change as you age. In Seth Worley’s imaginative film “Sketch,” the shared grief of a father and his children manifests … Read more
Honestly, I wish I could carve out time for more documentaries at TIFF. With over 200 films, it’s a massive endeavor, and the high-profile, star-packed fiction films often demand my attention. However, I did seek out three specifically this year that piqued my interest, and was satisfied with the results. My favorite of the three … Read more
At first glance, it would seem that Muriel (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her soon-to-be brother-in-law Julius (Jacob Elordi) might be harboring some secret feelings for each other. They hold hands and trade knowing looks just out of sight from Muriel’s fiancé, Lee (Will Poulter). But life–and love–is much more complicated in the 1950s America of “On … Read more
People were breaking into song and dance at TIFF this year. Mike Flanagan’s “The Life of Chuck” has one of the most charming dance numbers in years, and “Megalopolis” feels like it could become a Baz Luhrmann film on multiple occasions. Still, it was Jacques Audiard and Joshua Oppenheimer who brought actual, original musicals, with … Read more
You have to feel at least a little bit bad for “Shell,” purely based on timing; this is a mash-up of Hollywood satire and body horror, an exploration of the impossible standards of youth and beauty impressed upon women in general but on actresses in particular. It’s hitting the festival circuit riiiiiiiiiight behind the oxygen-sucking … Read more
With over two hundred films programmed at TIFF, you notice recurring thematic and narrative patterns. For this dispatch of films, Leo Tolstoy’s famed quote from Anna Karenina kept coming to mind: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its way.” Whether it’s Greek royalty, an ex-criminal family, or two writer friends … Read more
TIFF’s Platform Films section holds a special place in my heart; even though I never know what kind of movie I’ll get, at the very least, I’m guaranteed an uncompromising vision. The Platform section, in particular, is characterized by films from creatives who aren’t afraid to push boundaries in their storytelling techniques and narratives; these … Read more
There was an abundance of music documentaries at TIFF last year for what feels like an obvious reason: musicians aren’t actors or directors. The WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes so limited the red-carpet star power at the event that the programmers needed to find a way around them, and so getting Paul Simon, Lil Nas X, … Read more
Two of the three films in this dispatch were inspired by true events, while the third reflects the dire situation many women face regarding their bodily autonomy across the globe. Director William Goldenberg’s “Unstoppable” tells the remarkable story of NCAA champion wrestler Anthony Robles. Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov’s “Triumph” skewers Bulgarian politics through a … Read more