Would you like a sneak peek at what might be the best picture at next year’s Oscars? Look out for the Toronto International Film Festival.
After all of last year’s events were hit by COVID-19, the fall film festival season in Venice, Telluride and now Toronto (through September 18) is back in full swing, which is a hybrid personal / online affair. Whatever the presentation, the Toronto Fest has hosted the last six best picture winners, including Nomadland in 2021. So all eyes will be on the hottest movies including the musical “Dear Evan Hansen”, the biopic “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” starring Jessica Chastain, the winning science fiction epic “Dune” and “Spencer” Kristen Stewart has raved about as Princess Diana so far.
As with the 2020 edition, we’ll be watching from afar, keeping readers updated on the coolest things we see (by rank, of course):
Oscars 2022:Kristen Stewart jumps to the top of the Best Actresses Race as Princess Diana
7. ‘Mother Sunday’
Talky and a little bland, but full of young love (and hot sexual energy of the early 20s Olivia Colman) who was off on a particularly beautiful Mother’s Day in 1924. Arky). There isn’t nearly enough Firth or Colman, although Jane’s story is skillfully told over several decades, as it weaves a constant sense of the premonition of tragedy but also the birth of a writer’s spirit.
6. ‘kicking blood’
The thoughtful Canadian horror film uses vampirism as a metaphor for addiction and it absolutely works. Living immortal and drinking human blood to get high just doesn’t work for Anna (Alanna Bale), who works in a library during the day and attacks victims – and usually not nice people – at night. She takes in Robbie (Luke Bilyk), a suicidal alcoholic, when he needs it most, her pack.
5. ‘A banquet’
The pre-apocalyptic film from “Donnie Darko” meets family drama in Ruth Paxton’s female psychological horror. Jessica Alexander impresses when a young woman who stops eating after a night of partying believes that a catastrophic event is imminent and her body is now a vessel for what is on the way. Your widowed mother (Sienna Guillory) is concerned and obsessed with getting her to eat, even a few peas – there are a number of culinary close-ups that will make you lose your appetite – though weeks go by and she’s not losing any weight. It’s a thought-provoking, often daunting view of parenting / adolescent and eating disorder dynamics.
4. ‘Infernal’
Directed by Yeon Sang-ho (“Train to Busan”), the six-episode supernatural Netflix drama will die tried in Toronto and demonic monsters come to drag them to Hell in a fairly public and freaky manner. A widowed policeman (Yang Ik-june), a radio journalist (Park Jeong-min) and a lawyer (Kim Hyun-joo) are investigating the growing public concern and obsession with the selection of “sinners” and the involvement of a popular religious group a charismatic young leader (Yoo Ah-in).
3. ‘Titan’
Written and directed by Julia Ducournau (who shot the fantastic “Raw”), this wild and extremely weird French thriller, which won the coveted Palme d’Or in Cannes, gives the term “auto-erotic” a new meaning. Alexia (Agathe Rousselle), who has a titanium plate in her head when she had a nasty motorway accident as a child, is a well-known dancer who works on a flame-adorned Cadillac, has “sex” with the four-wheeled machine and becomes pregnant. (No, really.) Alexia happens to be a serial killer too, but this insane story of murder and disturbing body horror also has a heart, shown when Alexia on the Lamb meets a troubled aging firefighter (Vincent Lindon). and both realize that they need each other.
2. ‘The culprits’
Director Antoine Fuqua’s suspenseful remake of the Danish thriller from 2018 will keep your stomach cramping for most of the 90 minutes – before the inevitable belly blow. Jake Gyllenhaal plays a quick-tempered LAPD detective who has been demoted to 911, and a phone call comes in from what appears to be a woman in great danger, which sends his night into an emotional downturn. A formidable cast including Riley Keough and Peter Sarsgaard literally summon the various key players the cop is dealing with, and Gyllenhaal skillfully navigates a stirring arc of characters in a twisting tale of responsibility and redemption.
1. ‘Attica’
This week marks the 50th anniversary of the infamous rebellion at the Attica Correctional Facility, New York State, and director Stanley Nelson’s gripping documentary takes a deep dive into the incident that left 1,000 inmates during a five-day standoff that turned into a bloody Clash ended, guards held hostage with police. In interviews with former prisoners, the current film discusses the virulent racism and violence that led to the uprising of the predominantly black and brown population against the all-white guards, but also the society that developed during the rebellion before the Muslim convicts the guards protected others who tried to harm them. How to remember the turbulent times: “It’s us against them.”
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