And so, another edition of TIFF is in the books. Overall, it was another great year at a festival I’ve been attending since way back in 2009. While a lot has changed over the seventeen years I’ve been attending (back then, many movies screened on celluloid, and there were loads more theaters in Toronto), one thing that hasn’t is the quality of the films.
While the industry isn’t what it was back then, when major studios often brought prestige movies to the fest (I notice many of them barely make movies like that anymore), there were still tons of amazing movies to watch, with TIFF remaining an important stop during awards season. Leaving the festival, potential frontrunners for the Oscars started to become clear, with certain films like The Debut, Wild Horse Nine, and Elsinore really pulling ahead of the pack.
Of course, they weren’t all winners. Zack Snyder laid an egg with the disastrously received The Last Photograph (to the point that one wonders if it will actually be released at all), while Takashi Miike made the dullest film of his career with Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo. On the whole, though, there were a ton of great movies, and here are our favourites:
I Play Rocky: I wasn’t overly excited about Peter Farrelly’s making-of-Rocky movie, simply because I felt that Sylvester Stallone had told the story himself quite effectively in his Netflix documentary Sly. I was wrong, though, as this was an inspiring, exciting film — just like the movie that inspired it. Anthony Ippolito is uncanny as the young Sylvester Stallone, and the film played like gangbusters. Amazon MGM should have a major hit on its hands.
The Debut: Jesse Eisenberg’s sophomore effort, The Debut, capitalizes on the promise shown by his debut, A Real Pain. That movie won Kieran Culkin an Oscar, and The Debut may well repeat that feat, with Julianne Moore seeming like a surefire nominee and potential winner for her role as a bored housewife who finds new purpose when she signs up to star in a community theater play.
Elsinore: Andrew Scott stars in this heartwarming true story, playing Ian Charleson, who famously starred in Chariots of Fire in 1981 before being diagnosed with HIV later in the decade. During the last few months of his life, while he was dying from end-stage AIDS, he somehow rallied his strength and gave the performance of a lifetime as Hamlet at the National Theatre in London. While a tragic story, Scott’s performance is inspiring and often quite funny. This should be a real crowd-pleaser.
Wild Horse Nine: As good as Scott was in Elsinore, I think John Malkovich might have the edge as far as the Oscar for Best Actor goes, with him getting the role of a lifetime as a dying CIA agent vacationing on Easter Island with a colleague (Sam Rockwell) on the eve of the Chilean coup d’état. Malkovich is alternately hilarious and menacing in a definitive part.
Being Heumann: Sian Heder’s follow-up to her Oscar-winning CODA is another inspiring true story, this time about Judith Heumann. Ruth Madeley is outstanding in a star-making role, with Heder opting to cast actors with real disabilities in all the key roles — to excellent effect, as everyone delivers an outstanding performance. It hits Apple TV this October.
So those are my favourites. You can check out all of our reviews here, but take this poll featuring all the major titles and let us know which ones you’re most excited for:
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