This year’s Toronto International Film Festival (otherwise known as TIFF) is underway, with a super sturdy batch of films, including more world premieres than we can fit in this piece. Steve Newall has the following titles (and more) on his watchlist.
Bros
Satirical rom-com sees podcast host Bobby (Billy Eichner), a self-proclaimed authority on queer culture who prefers hookups to romance, explore coupledom when he meets Aaron (Luke Macfarlane). “No matter one’s stance on versatility, Bros is tops,” says POV Magazine of this collaboration between Eichner (Difficult People) and writer-director Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall).
Butcher’s Crossing
Nicolas Cage leads this western as a buffalo hunter who convinces a Harvard dropout to finance an expedition to a remote valley in the Colorado Rockies. Everyone thinks they’re going to get rich, of course, but what kind of movie would that be? We’re happy to predict that not everything goes according to plan, but what can be confirmed is that Cage moves from subdued to manic in what The Wrap calls “a characteristically wild, wholly effective performance”.
Catherine Called Birdy
Lena Dunham adapts the novel of the same name, writing and directing this 13th-century comedic tale of a young woman (Game of Thones‘ Bella Ramsey) trying to avoid the arranged marriages set up by her destitute and greedy father (Andrew Scott, Fleabag). “Leave it to Girls creator Lena Dunham to deliver what’s been missing from the field of princess movies all these years: namely, permission for young women to be themselves, regardless of what their parents or the patriarchy might think,” said Variety.
Dalíland
Mary Harron (American Psycho) directs Sir Ben Kingsley as Salvador Dalí, depicting his marriage to fellow surrealist Gala (Barbara Sukowa) as seen from the starstruck perspective of a young assistant in the 1970s. Dalíland hasn’t premiered yet, but the TIFF programme promises “Kingsley, whose magisterial career has led him directly to this role, embodies both the gargantuan ego and the fragile psyche behind Dalí’s outsized moustache and persona”.
The Fabelmans
Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical drama based on his childhood stars Paul Dano and Michelle Williams as parents of young aspiring filmmaker Sammy Fabelman (what has to be a breakout performance by Gabriel LaBelle). “A vivid capturing of the auteur’s earliest flashes of filmmaking insight and a portrait, full of love yet unclouded by nostalgia, of the family that made him,” says Hollywood Reporter.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
The first of two Knives Out sequels that Netflix reportedly stumped up an astonishing $450 million for, Glass Onion sees the return of Benoit Blanc for a new Rian Johnson mystery ensemble. Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Madelyn Cline, Jessica Henwick, Kate Hudson and Dave Bautista join the whodunit hilarity in Greece. “An immensely enjoyable movie which is at least as funny as the first outing, if not more,” says Screen International.
The Grab
Gabriela Cowperthwaite, director of Blackfish, follows the Center for Investigative Reporting on a seven-year journey following a trail of money linked to covert land grabs—and the terrifying, borderline apocalyptic rationale behind them. “Unspools like a thriller in one sense and a dystopian science fiction movie in another,” reckons Variety.
How to Blow Up a Pipeline
2021’s non-fiction climate activism book of the same name comes to the screen as a dramatic thriller following a crew of young environmental activists who set out to sabotage an oil pipeline. Dissatisfied with failures to confront the climate crisis, their operation is methodically observed in what sounds like both a gripping ensemble drama and call to action. Slashfilm calls it “a startling and white knuckle-inducing visual manifesto”.
The Inspection
Drawing on director Elegance Bratton’s own life story, The Inspection follows a young man kicked out of his mother’s house for being gay who subsequently joins the Marine Corps at a time of deeply entrenched homophobia (and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Pursue”). Forced to conceal his sexual identity and growing attraction to a drill instructor, Ellis French (Jeremy Pope) fights for a sense of belonging. “Bratton crafts a raw and surreal viewing experience with The Inspection,” says Deadline.
The Menu
Mark Mylod (Emmy-winner for Succession) assembles a tasty acting ensemble for his haute cuisine satire set on an exclusive fine dining island. A young couple (Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult) and other diners including a former movie star (John Leguizamo), food critic (Janet McTeer), and a trio of tech bros are at the whim of chef Ralph Fiennes and his lavish, shocking menu. “A vengeful dark comedy that probes percolating class anxieties,” says Hollywood Reporter.
Sick
Director John Hyams (Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning and 2020’s Alone) teams up with Scream writer Kevin Williamson for this pandemic-set horror. College student Parker and her best friend Miri decide to self-quarantine at her family’s lake house, where they will be alone—or so they think. In the giant home, things are going to get messy: “A white-knuckle slasher that goes hard,” declares Bloody Disgusting.
The Swimmers
Two sisters, Yusra and Sara (played by real-life sisters Nathalie Issa and Manal Issa), train as swimmers in Syria before fleeing the country’s catastrophic civil war. The perilous journey they undertake doesn’t just take them away from carnage, but towards the 2016 Rio Olympics. “The power of this movie is it turns out to be an unlikely underdog sports saga,” says Deadline.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
Not to be confused with Funny Or Die’s 2013 fake trailer for a Weird Al biopic (seriously, spot the difference!), Daniel Radcliffe stars as the accordion-wielding king of parody songs in this comedy biopic. Co-written and produced by Yankovic, and reportedly requiring Radcliffe to spend months torturing his partner as he learned the accordion, this looks wonderfully ridiculous. “A funny, welcome reminder of a time before the internet and Marvel made being a nerd so ordinary,” says Hollywood Reporter.
Wendell & Wild
Animation legend Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline) teams up with Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key for this tale of mischievous demon brothers. Summoned to the Land of the Living by a goth teen, they get swept up in an animated fantasy that looks typically Selick-spectacular. “The more characters Selick has to work with, the more room there is for his deliciously strange and comic visual craft. That’s what we’re here for, ain’t it?” ponders The Guardian.
The Woman King
Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu and John Boyega lead this true story about the all-female Agojie warriors who fought to protect the West African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 19th century. Young Nawi (Mbedu) joins the Agojie to escape a guardian who wants to marry her off and cash in, and her demanding training leads to battling slavetraders, colonisers and violent neighbours. “It’s stirring but slightly stodgy, designed to stand the test of time,” says Variety.
