And So It Begins…
There’s always magic in the air in Toronto when the festival starts. The TIFF takeover buzzes with excitement; thousands of people descend on the city to experience everything the festival has to offer. Movies, events, markets, celebrities, and great food that even a spoiled Californian can enjoy. It’s all lights, camera, action from morning to night, and we dove right into the line up to kick things off with a bang. Here’s some quick reviews of some of the best films we’ve watched in Toronto so far!
Quick Note: This will only be films we say IN Toronto and not anything we were able to check out pre-fest. This eliminates some Sundance holdovers, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, Atonement and a few others. And at the time of this writing, this is only from the first 3 days of the fest. Big premieres like Wild Horse 9, Club Kid, and The Debut will all be featured in an upcoming piece after we get a chance to check them out!
All Of A Sudden
Confession: I’m a faux Hamaguchi fan and have not seen his Academy Award nominated film Drive My Car. So kicking off the festival with a 3.5 hour slow burn about a senior living care facility in France didn’t leave me clamoring to be seated. But FOMO is very real and not wanting to be found a fraud, I took my seat bright and early on day one. I am happy to report that All of Sudden blew me away. A beautiful portrait of humanity and living, full of community and empathy amid the frameworks of the end of life. Any film that celebrates life and community while also white boarding the inevitable collapse of capitalism was always going to work for me, and All of a Sudden hit me like a ton of bricks.
Remarkably patient but emotionally rewarding, All of a Sudden keeps itself from getting stuck in manufactured melodrama by simply letting things play out as we would imagine them too. Just people being people, living and dying and all searching connection somewhere. Virginie Efira is incredible, but it’s Tao Okamoto that shines the brightest, delivering a tender, heartbreaking yet hope filling performance that powers the core of this beautiful film. All of a Sudden was the first film I saw on the ground, and it may have set the bar too high now.
Everybody Wants To F*ck Me
Yes, that’s really the title and yes it will most certainly be changed before it releases wide. But it’s still a great title to match a surprisingly hilarious, dark and twisted thriller. Very little can prepare you for where Everybody Wants to F*ck Me goes, and it’s a movie that is best served going in completely blind, unspoiled. The way it constantly subverts expectations and pushes its premise to its limits in the best of ways is undeniably entertaining and great with a rowdy, locked in crowd. Taron Egerton flexes his comedic chops and natural charm to this evisceration of performative men and uses everything we love about him as a movie star to shatter the proverbial ‘nice guy’ persona.
You can throw your expectations out the window when you come to Everybody Wants to F*ck Me, which is always my favorite kind of thriller. Unpredictability can overcome a lot of filmmaking flaws, and along with perfect casting and great performances you can look the way on a lot. Thankfully, EWTFM has enough juice to power through when the pacing starts to drag and it starts searching for a worthwhile to wrap it up. It gets there in the end, and doesn’t overspend its goodwill. This one is a blast, and I really hope a studio is brave enough to leave the title in tact.
Stuffed
By far and away the most niche but made for me film on the lineup, Stuffed was everything I wanted it to be and more. A uniquely bizarre genre hybrid homage that relishes in its absurdity and lets its stars commit hard to it all. Full disclosure here: Stuffed is for a very specific kind of moviegoer and is almost certainly incapable of broad appeal. But as a musical theater kid, this weird little Burton-esque Sweeny Todd mashup about human taxidermy, this one spoke to me way more than it will for many others. Of course, Jodi Comer adds another notch on her unassailable “I can do anything” belt, stealing nearly every scene she’s in and singing her heart out in wonderfully weird ways.
There’s a surprising amount of sweetness beneath the macabre of its strangeness, something I didn’t expect in Stuffed. Somehow human taxidermy and the celebration of death itself is the most romantic movie of the year. I’m usually down for things off the beaten path and audacious filmmakers trying something new, and Stuffed makes the top of list of films that actually make good on that promise and wholly embrace the most singular aspects of its ideas. If you’re not put off by dead eyes and lots of dead animal displays while people sing showtunes, Stuffed may be your jam.
The Assassin(s)
Though not initially on my radar as a lowkey banger, The Assassin(s) snuck up on me to make the best of list. This is a film I had to sit with for a bit before I decided where to place on it on my TIFF list, and after a little rumination it landed itself here. A densely plotted, meticulous investigative thriller that – if you can make it through the breakneck pacing and bloated character introductions in the first 40 minutes, you’ll be rewarded with a riveting back half that will lock you in and keep you on the edge of your seat. Of course, any film that champions free press as hard as The Assassin(s) is always going to get a nod from me.
I Play Rocky
Color me shocked, but I was left buzzing after I Play Rocky. As this genre’s biggest hater, I walked in with my arms crossed and left with them raised in triumph. Predictably crafted and well within the wheelhouse of standard biopics, I Play Rocky smartly uses its uncanny lead and surrounding performers to deliver a heavy dose of heart and humor that charms its way over its shortcomings and transcends into a genuine crowd pleaser. I felt the dad movie core activate in me like a sleeper agent, and sat there in awe of how much this worked for me. It doesn’t do anything new – you know exactly what this is and what you’re going to get – but what it does it does well and is sure to put a big old smile on your face.
I Play Rocky is laugh out loud hilarious too, with Tracy Letts taking some well written swipes at Paramount that electrified my early morning press crowd. It’s a cheat code to success using the greatest underdog story every made as a blueprint for your own, and this making of Rocky reminds us all of just how good Rocky is and of all the reasons it’s beloved decades later. I don’t know what it’s ceiling is, but I Play Rocky played like gangbusters at its premiere and did pretty well in the stuff morning critics crowd, too. If it can win me over, I think it can win anyone over. Can’t wait to see how this plays to general audiences.
Tangles
Easily the biggest surprise of the fest, Tangles left me absolutely devastated. I was big, giant, blubbering mess after this one, the hardest I’ve cried in a long time and the most moved I’ve been by any film at TIFF so far. A deeply personal yet universal story of family, living, dying, and memory, Tangles expresses the deep sadness of losing loved ones to alzhiemers, but also celebrates the cherished memories those of us who survive hold so dear. Gorgeously animated, riotously funny and profoundly heartfelt, Tangles is the best animated film of the year by miles and may be one of the best films, period.
Tangles is soul stirring cinema, the kind of film that – when you finally compose yourself and get it together – will make you want to call your mom as soon as you leave the theater. I knew this one was gonna get me, but I didn’t know how much and how hard and how well it was going to do that. I know it’s early, but Tangles just may be my personal favorite of the festival so far. There is maybe one single scene that took me out of it for a second, but a one minute misstep in an entire feature is a near perfect track record, and I’m inclined to give this a near perfect score. Yes, Tangles is THAT good. Seriously, see this movie. And call your mom.
Plenty more to come, so stay tuned!
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