It’s an exciting time to be in Toronto, and I put a lot of energy into making sure I was in the city for the Toronto International Film Festival, a not-for-profit cultural organization with a mission to transform the way people see the world through film. I’m well aware I’m not the biggest movie reviewer like I am in the theatre world, but this fantastic film event brings out that same excited part of my soul, and I’m super excited about what I have lined up. 9 films over 10 days. Sounds like me, if you ask any of my theatre-going friends.
Film # 1: The World Premiere of R.T. Thorne’s “40 Acres“
Canada | 2024 | 113m | English, Cree
In a post-apocalyptic future where food is scarce, the last descendants of a Black family of farmers who settled in Canada after the American Civil War must protect their homestead from an organized militia hell-bent on taking their land.
In a post-apocalyptic future where food is scarce, the last descendants of a Black family of farmers who settled in Canada after the American Civil War must protect their homestead from an organized militia hell-bent on taking their land.
After a series of plagues and wars leaves society in ruins, the Freemans are surviving — even thriving — on a farm in the middle of nowhere… so long as they repel the occasional raiding party. But what good is surviving the end of the world if it means snuffing out your own humanity?
Former soldier Hailey (Danielle Deadwyler) made that choice years ago, believing that isolation was the only way to protect her family. She and her partner Galen (Michael Greyeyes) fled the collapse along with their children, training them to fight (and, yes, kill). But now Hailey’s eldest Emanuel (Kataem O’Connor) is a young man, and when he meets a young woman (Milcania Diaz-Rojas) in the forest beyond the fence, his need for human contact could place the whole family in jeopardy.
Writer-director R.T. Thorne infuses the dystopian narrative with contemporary relevance and an inescapable historical metaphor, placing Black and Indigenous characters at the centre of a story about people defending their land from those who would kill them for it without a second thought.
Deadwyler is electric as the driven Hailey, whose refusal to consider even the slightest deviation from her shoot-first philosophy is rooted in the fear that she won’t be able to protect her people. And Greyeyes finally gets a role that synthesizes his paradoxical strengths as a charismatic badass and deadpan comic player. But Toronto’s own O’Connor is the real discovery as Emanuel, a young man realizing that he might need to defy his family in order to save it. – NORM WILNER
Film #2: The World Premiere of Janicza Bravo’s “The Listeners“
United Kingdom | 2024 | 82m | English
Rebecca Hall (Resurrection, Christine) stars as Claire, a schoolteacher who begins to hear a sound that no one else around her seems to, in this enigmatic adaptation of author Jordan Tannahill’s novel of the same name, directed by Janicza Bravo (Zola).
Claire (Rebecca Hall, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, TIFF ’17) is perfectly contented, if sometimes slightly underwhelmed, by the tranquil life she leads. As an English teacher with a loving husband (Prasanna Puwanarajah, The Crown, Patrick Melrose) and daughter, Claire’s life holds few surprises. When she suddenly begins hearing a low, persistent humming sound — which, it appears, no one else around her can hear or account for — Claire begins to withdraw into herself, suddenly knocked off-balance by the bizarre shift in her life.
In her search for answers, Claire comes to learn that her student Kyle (Ollie West, The Sparrow) can also hear the sound. They embark on a tentative, faltering journey together, leading them towards a neighbourhood support group led by a mysterious but compelling couple, and away from their own respective families. As Claire and Kyle each navigate their own experiences of the sound, and its impact on their lives, they begin to unravel its meaning — is it a hoax? A curse? A gift?
Director Janicza Bravo (Zola, Poker Face, Mrs. America) deftly manages the complexities and doubts that come with Claire and Kyle’s explorations. Canadian author and playwright Jordan Tannahill adapts his own bestselling novel, and brings to vivid life this haunting story of isolation, faith, mysticism, and longing. The effects of this heady mixture stay with you long after the screen has gone dark — like a persistent, low hum that you can’t quite get out of your head. – GEOFF MACNAUGHTON
Film #3: The Canadian Premiere of Andrea Arnold’s “Bird“
United Kingdom, United States of America, France, Germany | 2024 | 119m | English
Andrea Arnold returns to the Festival with a story about a distracted father (Barry Keoghan) and his lonely and imaginative 12-year-old daughter, Bailey (Nykiya Adams), who must seek attention (and adventure) elsewhere.
Twelve-year-old Bailey (played by charismatic newcomer Nykiya Adams) lives with her father Bug (a devoted but emotionally chaotic Barry Keoghan) in a graffiti-strewn tenement. When Bug informs her that he’ll be marrying his new girlfriend soon, Bailey is furious and hurt, for what will become of her? Her mother lives with a violent, cruel man, and while Bug sports a ferocious love for his daughter, he can be oblivious to the needs of a fledgling teenage girl.
As she often does, Bailey retreats to the open fields on the outskirts of her hometown to seek comfort. It is here she is most herself, with an uncanny ability to communicate with animals and experience nature in a profound way. It is on one of these walks that Bailey has a mysterious, yet deeply meaningful, encounter that helps her when she must force a confrontation with her mother’s vicious partner.
This latest film from renowned English filmmaker Andrea Arnold is a compelling, ultimately joyous story that tackles themes of identity, sexism, loneliness, and class struggle. The director’s empathy and skill at showing us beauty despite dire circumstances elevates Bird beyond its roots. Add to that a crystalline thread of magic realism and the result is an ode to the wondrous transition from childhood to adolescence. – JANE SCHOETTLE
Film #4: The World Premiere of Scott Beck & Bryan Woods’ “Heretic“
United States of America | 2024 | 110m | English
Starring Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, and Chloe East, this fiendishly irreverent chamber horror from writer-director duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (the celebrated scenarists behind A Quiet Place) considers how an innocent chat about theology can go terribly awry.
Deliciously dark and frequently hilarious, this chamber horror from writer-director duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (the celebrated scenarists behind A Quiet Place) considers how an innocent chat about theology can go terribly awry. Starring Hugh Grant in a brilliantly against-type performance, Heretic is a fiendishly irreverent tale of battling convictions.
Sister Paxton (Chloe East, TIFF ’22’s The Fabelmans) and Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher (Prospect) are cheerfully going about their mission to spread good news about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Working down a list of doors to knock on, they arrive at the quiet suburban house of Mr. Reed (Grant), who seems not only polite and hospitable but also genuinely fascinated by the history and teachings of Mormonism.
In fact, Mr. Reed is quite knowledgeable about all the world’s major religions and is eager to discuss them with the women. Perhaps too eager. With the rain coming down outside and Mr. Reed’s wife making pie in the next room, the setting is utterly cozy. The only thing that could spoil it would be if Sister Paxton and Sister Barnes wanted to leave.
Half the fun of Heretic is waiting to see where it leads you next. Beck and Woods take the familiar and turn it on its head, while their characters ask serious questions about the role of faith and piety in a world rendered incomprehensible by chaos and violence. It’s a chilling, provocative thrill ride, and it showcases Grant’s immense talents. – ROBYN CITIZEN
Film #5: The North American Premiere of Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer“
Italy, United States of America | 2024 | 135m | English
Brilliant, audacious author, meet brilliant, audacious director: it takes risk to translate the work of William S. Burroughs for the screen, but Oscar-nominated filmmaker Luca Guadagnino’s (Call Me by Your Name, TIFF ’17) spin on the Beat legend’s autobiographical novel matches its source material in vulnerability and taboo-smashing adventurousness. Starring Daniel Craig (Knives Out, TIFF ’19) and featuring supporting turns from Jason Schwartzman (Quiz Lady, TIFF ’23) and Oscar nominee Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread), Queer is a hallucinogenic odyssey bathed in desire.
Lee (Craig) mingles with the expatriate set in postwar Mexico City, wandering its streets, frequenting its gay bars, and ingesting whatever illicit substances are available. He is a consummate raconteur who has no trouble finding an audience, but he is also a desperately lonely, middle-aged addict with an alarming fondness for guns. Early in Queer, Lee sets his sights on a journey to the Amazon in search of the potentially telepathic ayahuasca — and he wants handsome young bi-curious Oklahoman Allerton (Drew Starkey, The Hate U Give, TIFF ’18) to accompany him. Their travels will yield a string of unexpected encounters and provide Lee with sobering lessons in what Burroughs dubbed “the algebra of need.”
Adapted by Justin Kuritzkes (who wrote Guadagnino’s Challengers), Queer is both faithful to the book and a radical re-imagining. Period detail is offset by anachronistic musical choices, while an eerie epilogue alludes to the real-life tragedy that prompted Burroughs’ writing career. Through it all, Craig makes Lee his own, creating a fully lived-in protagonist whose unruly obsessions lead to something akin to enlightenment. – ANITA LEE
Film #6: The World Premiere of Samir Oliveros’ “The Luckiest Man in America“
United States of America | 2024 | 90m | English
Featuring Paul Walter Hauser (Richard Jewell), Walton Goggins, and David Strathairn, this stranger-than-fiction drama resurrects a hugely popular 1980s game show and the “luckiest man in America” who broke it.
This stranger-than-fiction drama resurrects a hugely popular 1980s game show and the “luckiest man in America” who broke it. Directed by Samir Oliveros (Bad Lucky Goat) and featuring performances from Paul Walter Hauser (Richard Jewell), Walton Goggins, and David Strathairn, The Luckiest Man in America illuminates a forgotten turning point in television history, when a network executive took a gamble and inadvertently made an obsessive eccentric into a folk hero.
Michael Larson (Hauser) shouldn’t even be there. An unemployed ice cream truck driver from Lebanon, Ohio, Michael only made it into auditions for Press Your Luck because he stole someone else’s appointment. The show’s casting director (an excellent Shamier Anderson) thinks Michael is a creep, but co-creator Bill Carruthers (Strathairn) likes Michael’s chutzpah and sees him as a Middle-American everyman the audience can cheer for — the dark horse is in.
Michael fumbles through the first several minutes of play, but once host Peter Tomarken (Goggins) moves onto the second “spin” section of Press Your Luck, where contestants try to get a randomly lit electronic game board to stop on a winning tile, Michael suddenly can’t lose. In fact, he quickly breaks the show’s record — before breaking its savings account. Is Michael cheating? Or does he understand something about Press Your Luck that no one has seen before?
Written by Oliveros and Maggie Briggs (TIFF ’22’s Joyland), the film ushers us behind the scenes of Press Your Luck’s most infamous episode and speculates on Larson’s motives. With his unruly mane and beard, and his thrift-store blazer and khaki shorts, Hauser’s Michael is the embodiment of nerdy desperation, a man who’s banked everything on the chance to win the American Dream as millions watch. – ROBYN CITIZEN
Film #7: The World Premiere of Fleur Fortuné’s “The Assessment“
United Kingdom, Germany, United States of America | 2024 | 114m | English
Set in a future world destroyed by climate change, a couple must pass an assessment before they are allowed to have a child in this sci-fi thriller starring Alicia Vikander and Elizabeth Olsen.
In the future depicted in The Assessment, everyone gets to live a calm life but the government maintains a strict control of resources. As part of that, and to ensure the world doesn’t become overpopulated, it decides who can and can’t have children.
Mia (Elizabeth Olsen) and Aaryan (Himesh Patel) are nervous about their application to become parents, but they have everything going for them. They live in a peaceful, secluded home where Aaryan has a studio for his genetic research and Mia maintains a greenhouse as part of her work as a botanical scientist. The two are assigned an assessor named Virginia (Alicia Vikander), who comes to evaluate them in their home over seven days.
Virginia asks them invasive and awkward questions about everything from how they first met to how often they have sex. But this is just the beginning as Virginia puts Mia and Aaryan through simulations of the potential horrors children can inflict on their parents. As the tests become increasingly abstract and confounding, the right answers seem less obvious and the assessment foments a rift between the couple.
This debut from director Fleur Fortuné is striking for its precise control of story, performance, and production design. Olsen and Patel capture the psychological turmoil of two people having their lives forensically examined, while Vikander gives an exceptional performance that’s surprising all the way to the end. – ROBYN CITIZEN
Film #8: The Canadian Premiere of Alfonso Cuarón’s “Disclaimer“
United Kingdom | 2024 | 134m | English, Italian
Five-time Academy Award winner Alfonso Cuarón adapts Renée Knight’s novel into a seven-part psychological thriller about a journalist, played by Cate Blanchett, who is threatened with the exposure of her darkest secret.
In Disclaimer, celebrated journalist Catherine Ravenscroft — played by two-time Academy Award winner and TIFF Share Her Journey Groundbreaker Award recipient Cate Blanchett — has made a career out of exposing the transgressions of others. One day, she receives a mysterious book in the mail. Reading it, she soon realizes the novel’s protagonist is based on her younger self, and the plot reveals her deepest, darkest secret.
Who sent it? What do they want? And how will Catherine protect her husband Robert (Sacha Baron Cohen), her son Nicholas (Kodi Smit-McPhee), and her own reputation if others connect the novel to her past? These are the questions Alfonso Cuarón explores in his seven-part psychological thriller adapted from Renée Knight’s 2015 novel of the same name. In his first foray into serialized storytelling, Cuarón takes full advantage of the format, jumping from past to present, exploring how perceptions, even flawed ones, can be unwavering, and how love can obscure truth.
Matching Blanchett’s brilliance is Kevin Kline, who plays Stephen Brigstocke, one of many characters wrestling with the implications of the mysterious book. Rounding out the incredible cast is Lesley Manville, Louis Partridge, Leila George, and Hoyeon, all at their absolute best. The moral trajectory of their characters and the complexity of the narrative illustrate the best aspects of a 21st-century novel. Luckily, it’s also in the meticulous hands of one of cinema’s greatest filmmakers. – GEOFF MACNAUGHTON
Film #9: The World Premiere of Marielle Heller’s “Nightbitch“
United States of America | 2024 | 98m | English
An overworked stay-at-home mom (Amy Adams) tries to catch a break, any break, while caring for her rambunctious toddler. Also, she might be turning into a dog.
Based on the bestselling 2021 novel of the same name, director Marielle Heller (Can You Ever Forgive Me, TIFF ’21) has created a profoundly original exploration of motherhood and identity, destined to be one of the most talked-about films of the year.
Amy Adams plays Mother, a former city-dwelling artist and curator who chooses to stay home (now a suburban home) with her toddler son as her husband travels frequently for business. She loves her son deeply, but that does not prevent her from feeling isolated and exhausted. How did her life become a numbing grind of diaper changes and cutting bananas into little pieces?
Still unstrung from an extremely unsuccessful attempt to connect with other mothers at the library’s Baby Book Time, and unable to keep her emotions bottled up inside any longer, Mother begins to see and hear things in the night that beckon to her. Soon, something primal and feral rises up within her, allowing her to unleash — and return to — her inner power and identity.
Scoot McNairy plays Mother’s Husband, a relatable, sensitive man struggling with his own challenges around parenthood. But make no mistake, this is Adams’ film. It is her fearless, unselfconscious, and fiercely intelligent performance that makes Nightbitch such a memorable experience. Heller weaves drama, comedy, and significant elements of magic realism into an audacious and important film, examining those aspects of motherhood — both dark and darkly humorous — of which we rarely speak. – JANE SCHOETTLE
