TIFF 2021 Preview: Last Night in Soho, Dune and more

Once again it’s time for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). While last year’s festival was an all digital affair thanks to the ongoing pandemic, the City of Toronto has opted to make the TIFF 2021 edition partially in-person, with a hybrid of physical and digital screenings despite the on-going Delta variant wave.

Being a hardcore devotee of the festival, I’ll be going in person, and I’ll have access to a few exclusive reviews, with several big studio films including Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho, Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast, Dear Evan Hansen and Dune only showing in-person. I’ll be there to see them all, in addition to a whole bunch of other, high profile movies. 

Here are some of the movies I plan on catching!

Dune

While JimmyO previously raved about Denis Villeneuve’s epic adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune, I cannot possibly pass up the opportunity to see it myself. I feel like I’ve been teased enough, as I got to attend a special screening in Montreal earlier this summer where they showed about twenty minutes of footage, in addition to the WB presentation at CinemaCon. At this point, I’d be shocked if I didn’t at least like Villeneuve’s film, but will audiences love it as much as Jimmy did? One thing’s for sure, the TIFF audience is often the best judge of what kind of movie breaks through and what doesn’t. If Dune plays like gangbusters here, we can expect a major hit even if it is coming out simultaneously on HBO Max.

Last Night in Soho

Edgar Wright is among my favourite directors, and his ode to swinging sixties London seems like my cup of tea. Thomasin McKenzie plays a young fashion designer in 2021 who finds herself living out a sixties fantasy through the eyes of a vivacious model (Anya Taylor-Joy in a role that apparently convinced George Miller to cast her in Furiosa). Of course, being an Edgar Wright movie there are loads of red herrings, with this apparently the closest thing he’s done to a straight-up horror film (would we call Shaun of the Dead horror?). At any rate, it looks amazing.

The Guilty

Jake Gyllenhaal stars in this adaption of the acclaimed Danish film, with True Detective’s Nic Pizzolatto writing, and the great Antoine Fuqua directing. Gyllenhaal stars as a cop turned 9/11 operator who tries to help an abducted woman over the phone. Gyllenhaal is among one of the best actors of his generation, and the original Danish film is widely considered a classic, so this could be a big feather in his cap as an actor. Ethan Hawke, Riley Keough, Peter Sarsgaard and more co-star. 

Dear Evan Hansen

I must admit that I’m not 100% sold on this feature adaptation of the Tony-winning play. For one thing, even if he won a Tony playing the lead on-stage, twenty-seven year old Ben Platt seems miscast as a high-school student ten years his junior. The first trailer didn’t convince me, but at CinemaCon I saw an extended musical number from the film which makes me think this could be good, even if I’m still a little weary. We’ll see. Amy Adams co-stars.

The Power of the Dog

No, this is not an adaptation of the Don Winslow novel. Rather, it’s a psychological western directed by Jane Campion (The Piano) in her first film in years (she’s been concentrating on TV – such as the excellent Top of the Lake). Benedict Cumberbatch stars as a cowboy with a mean streak who psychologically tortures his kind-hearted younger brother and his new wife (played by real-life partners Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst). Despite the pedigree of the cast, early reviews say The Road’s Kodi Smit-McPhee steals the show as Dunst’s son, who goes mano-a-mano with his step-uncle in a psychological showdown that apparently makes this a must see. 

And there you have it. Of course, I’ll be seeing a lot more movies at the festival, including Kenneth Branagh’s well-received Belfast, the “woman gets pregnant by a car” thriller Titane, the Jessica Chastain-vehicle The Eyes of Tammy Faye and more. Stay tuned for plenty of reviews from the festival starting tonight!