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| Michael Caine stars in Youth. Photo courtesy of TIFF. |
Me, personally, I like to break the festival into about 4 streams: Canadian films, documentaries, adaptations, and high profile buzzy stuff. (With an odd film here or there to check off boxes.) This strategy lets me enjoy the festival, catch films that are a good fit for the blog/coverage, cover films repped by people I work with throughout the year, and get a decent survey of various pockets of the programming without being too concentrated on one area or spread too thin across several.
I’m still playing festival Tetris on TIFFR, the handiest festival planning tool,
but here are the fifteen films I’m most excited to see at TIFF ’15:
Top picks: #1 must-sees for each “Pat programme”
Ville-Marie
Dir. Guy Édoin (Wetlands)
| Canada
TIFF programme: Special Presentations
Pat programme: Can-con
Why it’s a TIFF must: Ville-Marie
checks all the boxes for a plum festival film. It ushers in the sophomore work
of a promising Canadian filmmaker, but shows an altogether different side of
his approach to film form. Ville-Marie
looks like a stylish and sophisticated turn from the dark, poetic Wetlands. This intriguing puzzle,
previously profiled on the list of Canuck Oscar contenders (although it’s a
better bet for next year if it delivers), also boasts what looks to be a striking
performance from international star Monica Bellucci.
Youth
Dir. Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty) | Italy/France/United Kingdom/Switzerland
TIFF Programme: Special Presentations
Pat Programme: High Profile Buzzy Stuff
Why it’s a TIFF must: Youth
makes its North American debut at TIFF after a sensational premiere at Cannes
where many critics/pundits tapped it for top honours. It went home
empty-handed, presumably because of the
recent Oscar victory of director Paolo Sorrentino and of the star status of its veteran cast that
includes Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, Rachel Weisz, and Jane Fonda. If the Cannes jury felt that
Youth simply didn’t need the boost,
then Toronto audiences can (and probably will) give a second wind to this
gorgeous looking film that reportedly boasts an award-calibre performance from
Caine and a volcanic cameo from Fonda.
Miss Sharon Jones
Dir. Barbara Kopple (Harlan
County USA) | USA
TIFF Programme: TIFF Docs
Pat programme: What’s Up, Docs?
Why it’s a TIFF must: 2015 is the year of the music
documentary with What Happened, Miss
Simone?, Amy, and Montage of Heck re-writing the art form,
so it will be very exciting to see how one of documentary’s most seminal voices
contributes to the field. Kopple will also be on hand in the TIFF Cinematheque
to present Harlan County, USA, which
screened at the inaugural edition of TIFF in 1976 before going on to win the
Oscar for Best Documentary. Is there a better way to satisfy one’s doc bug than
with a one-two punch of the best documentary ever made and the latest film
from its creator?
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| Miss Sharon Jones! Photo courtesy of TIFF. |
Room
Dir. Lenny Abramson (Frank) | Canada/Ireland
TIFF programme: Special
Presentations
Pat programme: From Page to
Screen
Why it’s a TIFF must: The book.
OMG the book! Room brings to the
screen the fantastically imaginative novel by Emma Donoghue, which tells the
harrowing story of Jack (played by Jacob Tremblay), a boy born into captivity
when his mother (played by Brie Larson in the film) is kidnapped, raped, and
held in an isolated prison. Room sees
the world through Jack’s innocent eyes and Donoghue’s disarming play on
language. The film brings a screenplay penned by Donoghue herself, which always
adds an extra layer of novelty to an adaptation. This year’s Gone Girl?
Runners-up, in alphabetical order:
Al Purdy Was Here
Dir. Brian D. Johnson (feature
debut) | Canada
TIFF programme: TIFF Docs
Pat programme: Can-con; What’s Up,
Doc?
Why it’s on the list: English-lit
filmgoers can dust off their anthologies and return to the Quinte Hotel this festival. This
doc by film critic Brian D. Johnson pays tribute to Canada’s unofficial poet Laureate
Al Purdy
with a who’s who of the Canadian literary and music scene. (Boasting a credit
list with Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Gord Downey, and Sarah Harmer, it’s
hard to find a film with bigger star status in the Canadian film programming at
TIFF this year.) Purdy’s slice-of-life blank verse invites one to liken him to
being the Alice Munro of Canadian poetry, and this doc invites audiences to
celebrate the timeless character of his work through interviews and songs inspired
by his poetry.
Brooklyn
Dir. John Crowley (True Detective) | Ireland/UK/Canada
TIFF programme: Special
Presentations
Pat programme: From Page to
Screen, High Profile Buzzy Stuff, Can-con
Why it’s a must: I’ve mentioned
Colm Tóibín’s lovely book Brooklyn here
a few times, and this Sundance hit is an award-season hopeful looking to
connect with Toronto audiences who swoon for feel-good period films. Brooklyn mostly holds promise for Saoirse
Ronan’s first real grown-up performance as young Irish lass Eilis Lacey who
forges a new life for herself in America. Anyone looking for a bittersweet love
story at the festival is bound to find it in Brooklyn.
Closet Monster
Dir. Stephen Dunn (We Wanted More) | Canada
TIFF programme: Discovery
Pat programme: Can-con
Why it’s a must: Stephen Dunn’s
short films mark him as an one of the rising Canadian filmmakers to watch. This
feature debut, a coming-of-age and coming-out-of-the-closet drama, expands upon
the promise of his shorts (and looks like it delivers on them, too). The film
stars Blackbird’s Conor Jessup
alongside Isabella Rossellini as talking hamster because why not?
The Danish Girl
Dir. Tom Hooper
(Les Misérables) | UK
TIFF programme: Special Presentations
Pat programme: From Page to Screen / High Profile Buzzy
Stuff
Why it’s a must: Tom Hooper and Eddie Redmayne carry “Academy
Award winner” statuses to their names that owe some credit to the successful
TIFF launches of The King’s Speech
and The Theory of Everything, respectively. The Les Mis teammates
are back together in this adaptation of David Ebershoff’s novel The Danish Girl, which tells a
fictionalization of the story of Lili Elbe, one of the first people ever to receive
a successful gender reassignment surgery. The heart of the book, however, lies
in Lili’s wife and friend Gerda, played by Alicia Vikander in the film, who
guides her husband Einar through the transformation and struggles to accept
that love changes along the way.
Demolition
Dir. Jean-Marc Vallée (Wild) | USA
TIFF programme: Galas
Pat programme: High Profile Buzzy
Stuff
Why it’s a must: C’est Jean-Marc! Wild was my favourite film of last year's festival and of 2014 overall, so I'm very excited for whatever Mr. Vallée has in store!
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| Jake Gyllenhaal stars in TIFF's opening night film Demolition. Photo courtesy of TIFF. |
He Named Me Malala
Dir. Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) | USA
TIFF programme: TIFF Docs
Pat programme: What’s Up Docs?
Why it’s a must: Malala Yousafzai
became an odd sort of celebrity in 2012 after she was shot in the head while riding
a bus after campaigning for a girl’s right to have an education. She could have
become another sort of pseudo-celebrity, but this doc tells the story of how
she uses the experience to champion her cause on a wider scale. Malala brings one of the more topical
stories to the documentary sidebar of the festival and offers the ideal gateway
drug for audiences who don’t usually pick non-fiction films.
HURT
Dir. Alan Zweig (15 Reasons to Live) | Canada
TIFF programme: Platform
Pat programme: Can-con; What’s Up, Docs?
Why it’s a must: HURT
marks a notable entry in the inaugural edition of TIFF’s competitive Platform
sidebar for being both the only documentary and the only Canadian film
(correction: only North American
film) in the running for the $25 000 prize. The home team better be rooting for
Zweig, who brings this underdog story of Steve Fonyo, a runner who ran across
Canada after losing his leg to cancer, but has never found the same level of
fame or national mythology as Terry Fox. It seems like a fitting choice of
subject matter for Zweig with which to get the next boost with Platform, since he’s an
underdog of his own sorts despite winning a Genie in 2009 for A Hard Name and a TIFF prize in 2013 for
When Jews Were Funny.
Hitchcock/Truffaut
Dir. Kent Jones (A
Letter to Elia) | France/USA
and
Women He’s Undressed
Dir. Gillian Armstrong (Little
Women) | Australia
TIFF programme: TIFF Docs
Pat programme: What’s Up, Docs?
Film buffs get a double-bill of insider’s insight with the
docs Hitchcock/Truffaut and Women He’s Undressed. The former film explores
the legacy of François Truffaut’s book Hitchcock/Truffaut,
which features a series of interviews between the filmmakers examining Alfred Hitchcock’s
career. The latter film shines a spotlight on the life and work of three-time Oscar-winning
costume designer Orry-Kelly (An American
in Paris). Both films pay tribute to some maverick talents in the film
industry while looking behind the curtain at changes in the field that shaped
the careers and lives of both men.
The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble
Dir. Morgan Neville (20 Feet from Stardom) | USA
TIFF programme: TIFF Docs
Pat programme: What’s Up, Docs?
Why it’s a must: How’s this for prolific? Morgan Neville
follows his 2013 Oscar win for 20 Feet
from Stardom with two docs at TIFF, the Yo-Yo Ma film and another on Keith
Richards, which top off an impressive year that began with the acclaimed Best of Enemies. The Music of Strangers is higher on my list than the Keith Richards
doc is (although I plan to see both) simply because the film hints at another
deep look at the universal connections music makes in our lives. The director
skilfully draws voices together in Stardom,
so let’s see how he creates a chorus with this doc that chronicles cellist
Yo-Yo Ma’s effort to bridge cultures with music.
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| The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. Photo courtesy of TIFF. |
The Witch
Dir. Robert Eggers (feature debut) | Canada/USA
TIFF programme: Special Presentations
Pat programme: Can-con
Why it’s a must: This year’s festival features two horror
films shot in the 613—The Witch and February—but thunderous Sundance buzz
said that The Witch officially threw
down the gauntlet for horror movies in 2015 and it’s spine-tingling trailer
confirms it. This eerie-looking film about a village mired by evil spirits in
the years before the Salem Witch Trials promises to scare the bejeezus out of
audiences. It’s a horror show without the beach ball.
Honourable mentions: Beasts
of No Nation, Freeheld, In Jackson Heights, Into the
Forest, Remember, The Waiting Room, Where to Invade Next, Zoom
Plus, check back soon for reviews of additional great films!
(Winners so far include Invention and Dégradé!)
(Winners so far include Invention and Dégradé!)
TIFF runs Sept. 10-20.
Please visit www.tiff.net for more info on this year's festival.
