While TIFF ’21 wraps this coming Sunday, today will be our final day our and about. And what an awesome way to cap things off! We saw the amazing Steven Soderbergh arrive at Princess of Wales Theatre. While it remained a mystery what Film exactly he’d be screening at the Festival, we can confirm that the Film that screened tonight was called MR. KNEFF, a Silent Film with only music and background noises. The Film is subtitled and 15 years ago he had a second go at it, though the Film still is incomplete. The Film originally was titled KAFKA starring Jeremy Irons, though all dialogue has been removed and some hues were adjusted. The Film was made originally about 30 years ago.
Soderbergh arrived together with Cameron and his wife Carolynne at the screening, and they waited as he signed an endless line of autographs, doing Selfies as well. He finally arrived at our side joking that we were waiting on the wrong side of the barricade. A true Class Act. And an epic way to cap-off a great Festival! So many of our faves were made under his meticulous vision and crafty storytelling: Ocean’s Eleven, Traffic, Erin Brokovitch, Behind the Candelabra, Magic Mike (lol!)….
Earlier, Lily-Rose Depp arrived at Princess of Wales Theatre for her second Film at the Festival, WOLF in which she co-stars alongside rising star George MacKay. The Film is about a boy who believes he’s a wolf and is set in a clinic which treats the condition. Depp arrived in Toronto fresh-off the Met Gala which took place earlier this week in New York City. Once again, she wore pink Chanel as she did to her Premiere last night at Roy Thomson Hall for SILENT NIGHT. Director/Writer Nathalie Biancheri also was in attendance.
Do not forget to check-out the TIFF TRIBUTE GALA AWARDS, airing Saturday, September 18, 2021 at 7PM ET on CTV and the CTV App!
… and that’s a wrap! We appreciate so much your following our adventures and Reviews this TIFF once again. While we’re a bit exhausted, next week we’ll be counting down the days to TIFF ’22!
Tomorrow we’ll be sharing our Highlights, Best-Ofs and Predictions for the People’s Choice Award!
(Photo credit: Mr. Will Wong)
By Amanda Gilmore
Weâve seen many Films about Christmas, but none quite like this. Itâs Christmas Day and also the last living night for humans on Earth. The Government and Scientists have proclaimed that poison will sweep across the world, wiping out humanity. A group of upper-class friends decide to spend their last Christmas and night together at a cosy house in the English Countryside. They are part of the fortunate who get to choose between taking a Government-approved âexitâ pill or letting the poison take them.
Silent Night takes on the challenge of the Dramedy. Feature-Debut Writer-Director Camille Griffin successfully navigates these tonal changes with control and ease. Her Script is laced with deep themes on climate change and wealth. Typically with apocalyptic-type films, itâs zombies or aliens who are to blame for the end of the world. However, Griffin blames the more likely culprit, climate change. In a powerful scene set around the dinner table, Art (Roman Griffin Davis) informs the guests that this is happening because the Earth is sick of consuming the garbage we have given it. The theme of wealth is highlighted in regards to the âexitâ pill. In one scene, Simon (Matthew Goode) informs his son, Art, how theyâre lucky to be given the pill as others werenât.
Additionally, itâs through wealth that we get these comedic, self-absorbed yet lovable characters. Griffin has assembled a strong cast consisting of Keira Knightley, Goode, Griffin Davis, Annabelle Wallis, Lily-Rose Depp, Sope Dirisu, Kirby Howell-Baptiste and Lucy Punch. Each is perfectly cast for their respected characters but Wallis and Griffin Davis are standouts.
Wallis is hilarious as self-centred Sandra. She believes everyone is in love with her yet yearns for the love of her only daughter. She truly knocks it out of the park. Then there is young Griffin Davis, who youâll remember from Jojo Rabbit. Here he plays a cheeky, intelligent boy who is frightened to be facing his death. Both Knightley and Goode give touching performances as parents spending their last night with their children.
Overall, Silent Night is a delightful British Dramedy that turns the traditional Christmas Film on its head.
Silent Night screens at TIFF ’21:
Thu, Sep 16 at 7 PM at Roy Thompson Hall
Fri, Sep 17 at 5 PM on Digital TIFF Bell Lightbox
Sat, Sep 18 at 7 PM on Digital TIFF Bell Lightbox
By Mr. Will Wong
Screen legend Sigourney Weaver returns in THE GOOD HOUSE from Co-Directors Maya Forbes and Wallace Wolodarsky. The Film is a portrait of a successful Real Estate Agent Hildy (Weaver), who is a high-functioning Alcoholic. She reunites with a former love interest in Frank (Kevin Kline), but must confront her own destructive behaviours, despite maintaining a well-kept presence to others in her affluent neighbourhood.
Weaver does a superb job embodying Hildy. She is a mother paying her adult children’s bills, coping with the fact that business is a bit tougher than it used to be, finding herself involved in others’ personal problems, all while a rekindled romance looms between her regal self and garbage man in Frank. She speaks to us from the Fourth Wall where we witness her most genuine self and when she blacks-out from her drinking binges we are just confused what she missed.
If anything, THE GOOD HOUSE is an intimate glimpse how insecurities and troubles exist even among the wealthy. While they can be rich in ways, they can be poor in others and even at Hildy‘s stage in life and despite all her success, there still is room for another chance at growth and self-discovery.
THE GOOD HOUSE screens at TIFF ’21:
Wed, Sep 15 IN-PERSON Roy Thomson Hall Premium 7:00pm
Thu, Sep 16 DIGITAL PREMIERE SCREENING digital TIFF Bell Lightbox Premium Availability:Â Canada 7:00pm
Sat, Sep 18IN-PERSONTIFF Bell Lightbox11:00am
Sat, Sep 18 DIGITAL SECOND SCREENING digital TIFF Bell Lightbox
PremiumAvailability:Â Canada 5:00pm
By Amanda Gilmore
Writer-Director Stephen Karam exquisitely adapts his Tony-winning Play for the big screen.
The Film follows the Blake family over one eventful Thanksgiving. Brigid (Beanie Feldstein) and her boyfriend Richard (Steven Yeun) host the holiday event at their new rundown duplex in downtown Manhattan. They are joined by Brigidâs parents Erik (Richard Jenkins) and Deirdre (Jayne Houdyshell), dementia-afflicted grandmother, Momo (June Squibb), and lawyer big sister Aimee (Amy Schumer). Throughout the holiday, the family make niceties that soon turn to cruel jokes, past grievances are revived and secrets unfold.
The Humans is rich in character study and a meditation on existential dread, told during a holiday that is rarely explored in Film â particularly in this way. Karam places the camera in unique angles and closes up on rundown things, such as water damage. This, along with a supernatural aspect where sounds are heard, a ball drops from above and lights break at an alarming rate, give an eerie feeling that something isnât quite right about this particular Thanksgiving.
This Story is anchored in the textured characters all experiencing their individual dread. Jenkins gives a momentous performance thatâs both expressive and contained. Going between moments of mentioning how close his daughter lives to where 9/11 happened and how their home will be wiped out in the next Hurricane Katrina, and moments of staring off into the distance like he can see the distressing future ahead.
Yeun shines in showing the need Richard feels to get his girlfriendâs family to like him. Feldstein is wonderful as the ever positive yet secretly cruel Brigid. Her natural charm aides in making audiences still like Brigid in her crueller moments. Schumer does outstanding work as career-driven Aimee who is going through a breakup. A powerful moment comes when Aimee calls her ex-girlfriend in a quiet area of the apartment complex.
However, the real knockout of the Cast is delivered by Houdyshell, who is the only member reprising her role from the play. She gives a tour-de-force performance as the matriarch. Karamâs Script is loaded with the intimacy families have. They know each other best, meaning they know how to console and how to obliterate each other. This is truly examined through Deirdre and Houdyshell excels at showing the anguish and gratification her family give her.
Overall, The Humans is a powerful film about the human condition and is perfectly cast.
The Humans screens at TIFF ’21:
Sun, Sep 12 at 1:30 PM at Princess of Wales
Sun, Sep 12 at 7 PM on Digital TIFF Bell Lightbox
Sat, Sep 18 at 1 PM on Digital TIFF Bell Lightbox
Review by David Baldwin
Decorated Marine Malik Khan (Riz Ahmed) has been living off the grid, studying a parasitic threat that could put all of humanity in danger. Fearing for their safety, Khan kidnaps his two children from the home of his ex-wife and takes them on a road trip to find the cure. With the authorities in hot pursuit and general skepticism abounding, Khan must stay a step ahead in order to save his childrenâs lives.
ENCOUNTER is emotionally resonant and poignant in its exploration of the lengths a parent will go to in order to keep their children safe while adding emphasis to the plight of veterans suffering from mental illness and PTSD from their time at war. The Film moves at a consistent clip, knowing just when to flip the switch between an intimate Character Drama and an anxiety-ridden Thriller. Sometimes it jumps between both styles in a matter of seconds. Though I never imagined Ahmed in a fatherly role before, he soars here and really builds on his previous work depicting the ticks and peculiarities of a man facing a crisis. His chemistry with both children, especially Lucian-River Chauhan, is rich and feels lived-in. He knows he is making up for lost time and really hones-in on that heroism that all young children believe their fathers imbue. Above all else, Ahmedâs work here is intensely captivating and suggests this past yearâs Oscar nomination will not be his last.
Where ENCOUNTER falters for me is how Director Michael Pearce (last at TIFF with Beast in 2017) reveals his cards explaining what is going on. It comes far too early in the picture, and genuinely throws off the rhythm and enigmatic nature of everything that follows. What was initially riveting and mysterious becomes stale all too quickly. The power of the reveal would have landed substantially stronger had it been unveiled much later on. Spelling it all out so quickly does a disservice to Ahmedâs performance, as well as the supporting turns from the likes of Oscar winner Octavia Spencer and Rory Cochrane. While I would not call the Film disappointing by any stretch, I feel like ENCOUNTER might be a bit of a letdown for anyone expecting a very different kind of movie.
ENCOUNTER screens at TIFF â21:
Fri, Sep 10 Princess of Wales 8:45 PM
Sat, Sep 11 digital TIFF Bell Lightbox 7:00 PM
Sat, Sep 11 West Island Open Air Cinema at Ontario Place 9:00 PM
Tue, Sep 14 digital TIFF Bell Lightbox 7:00 PM
Review by David Baldwin
FLEE is one of the most celebrated and talked about films of the year. It won the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema â Documentary at Sundance this past January and has been on the tip of nearly every Oscar Bloggerâs tongue ever since. The Film is a mostly animated tale telling the âtrue storyâ of Amin, who fled Afghanistan with his family during the 1980s in search of a better life and ended up being separated from just about everyone.
To say that FLEE is extraordinary is an understatement. What Writer/Director Jonas Poher Rasmussen has committed to film is a vital and emotionally eviscerating exploration of the refugee experience, told in an unbelievably compelling fashion. Rather than stitch together narration over a series of real life news clips, Rasmussen and his team have concocted a script that tackles a huge, sprawling timeline that feels wonderfully suited for the material covered. The animation style is mostly hand drawn, though it differs in terms of crudeness at certain intervals. By factoring in the constant narration from Amin and his discussions with high school friend Rasmussen, FLEE bypasses the trappings and melodramatic recreations of other documentaries of its ilk and instead creates a uniquely animated experience that will no doubt influence a generation of Documentary Filmmakers to come.
For me, FLEE is a masterwork that needs to be seen to be believed. Full stop. Yet I found myself at odds with the narration of the piece, which alternates between being incredibly somber and intensely distressing. There is no real inflection given to anything said aloud here (though to be fair, I did not expect there to be much), and the tone sounds the exact same no matter the context. I found myself being lulled to sleep more than once, despite how invested I was in this incredibly relevant story. This is original and bold work worthy of the praise it is has received â and I wish the narration better reflected that.
FLEE screens at TIFF ’21:
Tue, Sep 14 Ontario Place Cinesphere 4:00 PM
Tue, Sep 14 digital TIFF Bell Lightbox 9:00 PM
Fri, Sep 17 digital TIFF Bell Lightbox 3:00 PM
By Mr. Will Wong
Catherine Hernandez adapts her award-winning Novel SCARBOROUGH to the big screen with Co-Directors Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson. What we get is a Film that feels very “now” addressing with a fly-on-the-wall’s authenticism the issues facing under-heard and under-seen voices in a low-income part of the story’s titular town.
The Film centers on three children: Bing (Liam Diaz) who is gay and struggling with bullying and racism at school, living with his recently-single mother who just found work at a nail parlour; Laura (Anna Claire Beitel) who is sent to live with her temperamental, unfit father; Sylvie (Mekiya Fox) is an Indigenous girl without a permanent home.
Hernandez uses some of her experiences working at a Day Care and gives us some real lived-in insight here. Her characters feel very real and in all honesty, I see a lot of myself in Bing, a boy who always felt excluded and an outsider looking-in at their classmates. Subtly, he is grappling with society’s standards of masculinity, but also a lack of acceptance from his peers who tell him repeatedly the rice he eats is disgusting. The performances by the Film’s young Cast are phenomenal, with Beitel delivering a great depth in her quiet stillness. Fox‘s strength and bravado is the BFF we always wish we had. Another standout is Aliya Kanani as Ms. Hina, an empathetic teacher with a good soul, whom herself is dealing with rigidity in a system which might not be setting these children up for success.
There aren’t big climaxes or payoffs in SCARBOROUGH, but what it gives us is compassion in understanding some very real problems and troubles facing people every day who are close to home. One of the most important films to come out of Canada in quite some time.
SCARBOROUGH screens at TIFF ’21:
Fri, Sep 10 IN-PERSON TIFF Bell Lightbox 4:00pm
Fri, Sep 10 DIGITAL PREMIERE SCREENING digital TIFF Bell Lightbox
Availability: Canada 9:00pm
Tue, Sep 14 DIGITAL SECOND SCREENING digital TIFF Bell Lightbox
Availability: Canada 5:00pm
Sat, Sep 18 IN-PERSON TIFF Bell Lightbox 6:00pm
By Mr. Will Wong
Kate (Ruth Wilson) lives a mundane life as a Benefits claims worker. She encounters a former convict claimant (Tom Burke), whom she is seduced by into an all-consuming affair. Her world quickly unravels, finding herself obsessed with him completely. Unsure where she stands, we ride Kate‘s highs and lows waiting on his unpredictability. And through this affair, we see her really come to life as those around her discourage her from moving ahead with this mysterious stranger who can’t seem to give her stability.
Directed by Harry Wootliff, TRUE THINGS successfully captures the feeling and repercussions of lust so authentically. Wilson is a real revelation giving us pure vulnerability as a woman figuring out what she wants as she throws herself into something potentially catastrophic. And this is part of the Film’s allure, we want to see where this all leads even if it might not be clear in the end.
While the pace is languid at times, and we wish we get the clarity we desire through it all, such is life and Wootliff gives us a precise slice of it. Wilson‘s fantastic work is something that perhaps others in similar type relationships can take away and reflect on their own paths.
TRUE THINGS screens at TIFF ’21:
Tue, Sep 14 IN-PERSON TIFF Bell Lightbox 12:00pm
Wed, Sep 15 DIGITAL PREMIERE SCREENING digital TIFF Bell Lightbox
Availability:Â Canada 9:00pm
Thu, Sep 16 N-PERSON TIFF Bell Lightbox 9:30 am
Fri, Sep 17 DIGITAL SECOND SCREENING digital TIFF Bell Lightbox
Availability: Canada 5:00pm
By Amanda Gilmore
Kristen Stewart and Director Pablo LarraĂn do Princess Diana justice with Spencer.
It follows Diana over her final Christmas with the royal family. She arrives at the mansion willing to comply with the strenuous rules the family demand over the holidays. But as the long days and night tread on, Diana begins suffocating in the life she lives. Over the three days of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, Diana decides to break free. The Filmmakers have stated this Film is a mix of history and speculation. This is further clarified with the opening title cards that read the film is âA Fable of a True Tragedy.â
Screenwriter Steven Knight refreshingly puts the focus on Diana instead of the royal family and gives a rounded look at the Princess of Wales. There are difficult to watch scenes of Diana binge eating, purging, and self-harming. These are matched with heartfelt intimate moments of Diana with her sons, showing the immense love and bond they shared.
Ever the master of atmosphere, LarraĂn covers the mansion in a thick, dense fog that envelopes the grounds like dread. Like his previous film Jackie, long tracking shots follow Diana walking or running. Itâs here we see the depth of the physical change in stature and stride Stewart has made to embody Diana. One beautiful moment comes in a montage of tracks that pays homage to Dianaâs love for dance. Additionally, his close-ups mirror the claustrophobia, horror and immense pressure Diana felt. Dianaâs inner world is further highlighted by one of the best Scores of the year from Radioheadâs Jonny Greenwood.
Yet, none of this would work if it wasnât for Stewart. She embodies Diana while refreshingly making her, her own. She fully encapsulates the suffocation Diana felt, and expertly expresses both desire and fear in leaving. Itâs truly one of the best performances of the year. Sheâs joined by Timothy Spall, who gives a textured performance as staff hired to keep an eye on Diana. And the charming Sally Hawkins, who plays a personal attendant to Diana, is delightful to watch. Particularly, in a scene towards the end, she shares with Stewart.
Overall, Spencer is a perfect balancing act of history and speculation, is impeccably shot, and showcases a top-tier performance from Stewart. Even if you take away the fact that itâs about Diana, this Film works as a story of a woman reclaiming control and agency over her life.
Spencer screens at TIFF ’21:
Wed, Sep 15 at 6 PM at Princess of Wales
Review by David Baldwin
Neil Bennett (Tim Roth) is vacationing with his family at a luxury resort in Acapulco. The wealthy travelers are thrown for a loop when they find out Neilâs Mother has passed away suddenly and need to return to London immediately. When they get to the airport however, Neil discovers that he has forgotten his passport at the hotel. He tells them to go on while he stays to look for it, but instead of heading back to the resort, he decides to check into a different hotel and does not seem intent on ever returning home.
Revealing anything more would be a disservice to Michel Francoâs SUNDOWN, which manages to remain moody and mysterious throughout its brisk 84-minute running time. I was hesitant to watch after being genuinely repulsed by Francoâs nihilistic film New Order at last yearâs Festival, and was surprised by just how blown away I was at this Filmâs simplicity and depth. We know something is holding Neil back from returning to his former life, yet Franco only gradually reveals the truth. Instead, he lets Roth drink beers on the gorgeous beach and spend time with a beautiful local woman named Berenice (Iazua Larios). All the while, Franco hints at class struggle and the benefits Neilâs family have over the less privileged Mexican people who surround him, and takes a few shocking turns to ensure that message is crystal clear for the audience.
Despite the breezy pacing, I found myself riveted by the journey Rothâs character Neil goes through. He speaks few words and rarely shows any emotion; rather he relies entirely on body language and the characterâs melancholic demeanour to carry the Film. That may sound less than ideal on paper, but Rothâs performance is a masterclass in minimalism. He says and conveys everything he needs to in a way that few Actors can. He holds your gaze no matter the circumstance, breathing life into a character who some may despise and others might admire. He is not an inherently bad person per se â Franco just never makes it easy to sympathize with him or his repugnant actions. Roth uses that to his advantage and makes every frame of his performance more compelling than the last. Supporting work from Larios, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Henry Goodman are all solid, though they are difficult to notice whenever Roth is acting beside them. His towering work here makes SUNDOWN practically unmissable.
SUNDOWN screens at TIFFâ 21:
Sun, Sep 12 Scotiabank 2 7:30 PM
Mon, Sep 13 digital TIFF Bell Lightbox 3:00 PM
Fri, Sep 17 digital TIFF Bell Lightbox 5:00 PM
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