The Toronto International Film Festival continued to impress with its 10-day run. It was easy to get swept up in the spirit of the absolute love of film that flowed through King Street and beyond. Seeing films projected in beautiful movie palaces like The Princess of Wales Theater and The Royal Alexandria was infectious. The Lightbox Cultural Center was a treat as well as it is a hub for all things TIFF with several screens, a wonderful film reference library (had a private view at items from the Cronenberg Collection), galleries, and workshops.
The world premiere of Riff Raff was a riot. Dito Montiel’s latest film was great fun with great performances by Jennifer Coolidge, Ed Harris, Gabrielle Union, Lewis Pullman, and Bill Murray and an excellent ensemble including Miles J. Harvey, Emanuela Postacchini, and Sage Spielman. The film evokes a feeling of 90’s black comedy and crime film with no agenda other than to entertain, and the rapturous applause at the end of the film was a testament to this achievement. Roadside Attractions is giving this a theatrical release, where it should be experienced with an audience.
Flow is pure cinema, a mesmerizing animated tale of a cat and his friends on a wordless odyssey of survival and friendship. Director Gints Zilbalodis has crafted a stunning meditative film that you experience with your senses. Zibalodis wisely entrusts the audience to make up their minds about what the film means. There are some truly remarkable sequences in this film. One of the absolute highlights of the fest for me in more ways than one.
The Girl With the Needle is stunningly bleak, a masterful adaptation of a truly shocking true story, told in expressionistic tones, black and white images set to a hauntingly harsh score by Frederikke Hoffmeier (Puce Mary), and a stunning wide-eyed performance by Vic Carmen Sonne tied together by Director Magnus Von Horn. There is never a dull moment in this film, a WWI-era story of a woman whose husband has been missing for years (he does resurface later, disfigured and scarred by war), she gets pregnant by a rich man who can’t marry her and she is left alone to fend for herself in a bleak reality where there is no right way to move forward other than to just survive. This film will stay with me for some time. MUBI acquired the film during Cannes and release dates are forthcoming.
Oh Canada is the latest by legendary writer, director Paul Schrader which reunited him with his American Gigalo star Richard Gere. Based on a novel by the late great Russell Banks, it is a small but potent film. A pensive and somber reflection on the life of Leonard Fife who is a celebrated anti-war activist and documentarian who reveals himself in a all day interview as someone who is less heroic and more concerned with matters of the heart than anything else. Gere is a great actor, his classic understated ability is on full display here. Jacob Elordi, as well, is fantastic as Gere’s younger self.
Emilia Pérez is a sensation, a whirlwind tale of identity, duality, love, and everything really. It is a musical crime comedy based on an opera which was loosely based on a novel. This is a wildly emotional film that takes you on the journey of a brutal Mexican cartel leader who wants to affirm her gender and entrusts a disgruntled lawyer to help. Zoe Saldana, Karla Sofía Gascón, Adriana Paz, and Selena Gomez are uniformly amazing in their historic Cannes-winning performances.
Gascón is a revelation here delivering an unforgettable multi faceted performance. Master director Jacques Audiard (A Prophet, Rust and Bone) ties this very powerful and thoughtful film together. This is the top contender of the season in my opinion. It is at once playfully experimental and joyously crowd-pleasing. Netflix is rolling this out in select theaters and on streaming. Don’t miss it.
Well, that is all for now. I had a most excellent time at the festival and I’m looking forward to next year’s event. There were several films that I missed that I’m looking forward to seeing in the months ahead: Anora, Hard Truths, Bird, The Order, and The Shrouds to name a few.
