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The Toronto International Film Festival just wrapped up after screening nearly 300 feature films. Here are six standouts that wowed audiences and will be must-sees when they arrive in theatres.
The Debut
Release Date: December 18
More Moore Please
Julianne Moore earned a Best Actress Oscar for 2015’s Still Alice, but she could very well add another statue to her mantle as critics are raving about her turn in writer-director Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut.
Moore plays Mona Friedman, a mousey New Jersey wife and mother who auditions for a role in a musical being staged at her local community theatre. The theatre director, Jerry (Paul Giamatti), is a tough taskmaster and sets out to turn Mona from a laughably bad performer into a passionate actor, and more importantly, help her find her voice as a person.
This is the kind of underdog performance that beguiles audiences. Eisenberg, who also stars in the film alongside Halle Bailey and Colton Ryan, is a gifted comedic writer who favours observational humour, which Moore and Giamatti both do so well.
Moore, who turns 66 in December, really does deserve to move out of the ‘One and Done’ Oscar category. Here’s hoping Oscar voters agree.
La Bola Negra
Release Date: October 23
Must-See People’s Choice Award Winner
TIFF audiences opened their hearts and bestowed the coveted People’s Choice Award to this Spanish drama from directing team Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi.
The nearly three-hour film intertwines three separate stories focusing on three gay men at different times in Spanish history. In 1932, Carlos (Milo Quifes) sets out to join a men’s club but is refused as rumours of his homosexuality swirl. In 1937, trumpeter Sebastián (real-life musician Guitarricadelafuente) is forced to join the fascist army and becomes infatuated by the prisoner he’s guarding, and in 2017 playwright Alberto (Carlos González) travels to his late grandfather’s hometown while navigating intense relationships with his mother and boyfriend.
Penelope Cruz was such a fan of the filmmakers (who were a couple but amicably called it quits while making the film) that she asked if they could write a small part for her – Cruz plays a blonde singer who comes to entertain the troops in the 1937 section.
Lush, painful, erotic and meticulously constructed, La Bola Negra (The Black Ball) is a testament to queer love and gives voice to gay men who have been silenced in the past.
I Play Rocky
Release Date: November 13
Yo, We Got a Crowd Pleaser
Talk about walking a tightrope.
Anthony Ippolito stars as a young Sylvester Stallone in director Peter Farrelly’s retelling of how struggling actor Stallone decided that the only way to break into Hollywood was to spend a few fevered days writing a script called Rocky and casting himself in the lead role.
Ippolito is not simply doing a spot-on impression of Stallone, he’s digging deep to show us a man who refuses to give up his dreams and we’re here for it. Ippolito is no stranger to playing famous Italian American actors, he was marvellous as a young Al Pacino in the TV series The Offer, recounting the making of another Hollywood classic, The Godfather.
Elsinore
Release Date: November 20
Great Scott!
Andrew Scott has been a stealthy, scene-stealing supporting actor in so many small-screen shows. He was the hot priest in Fleabag, the cunning Moriarty in Sherlock and the serial killer Tom Ripley in Ripley.
We’ve been waiting for his breakout movie role and here it is. Scott portrays the late actor Ian Charleson, best known for his role in the film Chariots of Fire. However, his first love was theatre and in 1989 when Daniel Day-Lewis abruptly quits the role of Hamlet at London’s National Theatre, Charleson bravely takes over part despite the fact he is fighting AIDS.
We watch a dying man dealing with his mortality, both personally and on stage. Johnny Flynn, who plays theatre director Richard in the film, says of the play, “It’s about being alive and becoming dead.” Scott’s performance is being hailed as “shattering,” “towering” and a “career best.”
Welcome to the leading man club Andrew Scott.
River
Release Date: 2027
TIFF may be known for showcasing high-profile films, but in recent years it’s become the launch pad for horror films such as Obsession which made waves at the box office when it hit theatres.
This year, it’s director Joshua Giuliano’s debut feature River that terrified audiences while also playing for laughs. It set off a bidding war between studios with Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Atomic Monster prevailing, paying more than $10 million for the film.
Cinematic scream queens Jane Levy (Evil Dead, Don’t Breathe) and Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day) portray sisters, who along with their brother (Max Mattern), travel to a remote river to scatter their father’s ashes. Their boat breaks down and the squabbling siblings face a bigger problem when a faceless killer comes after them.
It’s a simple premise that delivers the scares and gory horror, and Giuliano is a deft director who allows the actors to act, not just react, to terrifying situations.
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother
Release Date: October 9
Ali Sharpens His Sword
When Marvel Studios pulled the plug on their Blade film fans were devastated. Bassam Tariq was set to direct, and Mahershala Ali would star as the sword-wielding hero. However, the duo did not put Ali’s knife/sword training to waste. They team up for this fascinating action flick that casts Ali as devout Muslim Latif, who is raising his three children, including an infant daughter, after his wife dies.
Latif is also a contract killer who follows a code – he does not use guns, and he kills only those who deserve to die. There are all kinds of complexities and contradictions in this film concerning justice, grief and faith.
It’s also a kick-ass action film that allows Ali to showcase his action hero persona and his Muslim faith. TIFF reviewers were blown away by Ali’s performance and we only have to wait until October 9th to see it in theatres.