Ryan McNeil
We’re less than a week away from the 41st annual Toronto International Film Festival…or as it’s known around these parts, “TIFFmas”. Things will be a bit lean where screenings are concerned this year, but on the bright side it gives me a chance to see some of the cinematheque screenings that I’ve been ignoring for way too long.
…I think ALIEN in 2003 was my last one, actually!
On the bright side, the smaller slate pushed me to look in programmes I usually tend to ignore (like City to City and Discoveries). Gotta love silver linings, don’t ya?
So here’s what’s on-tap for your humble narrator…
THINGS TO COME
Isabelle Huppert stars in this delicate and affecting tale about a middle-aged professor whose carefully structured life is thrown into disarray when her husband leaves her for another woman, and who finds an unlikely new companion in a former student and radical young communist.
ONE SINGS THE OTHER DOESN’T
Cinematheque screening of Agnès Varda’s 1977 masterwork: simultaneously a musical, a protest film, a portrait of a generation and, most importantly, a tender and insightful exploration of female friendship.
WEREWOLF
The hardscrabble existence of two homeless, twentysomething drug addicts is portrayed with sensitivity and brutal honesty in the debut feature by Ashley McKenzie.
A UNITED KINGDOM
Biopic of Seretse Khama (David Oyelowo), the former African royal who courted controversy with his interracial marriage to Englishwoman Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike) and later led his nation to independence from the British Empire as the first president of Botswana
DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST
Cinematheque screening of a landmark in the history of American independent cinema, Julie Dash’s masterpiece was the first American feature directed by an African American woman to receive a general theatrical release.
BUSTER’S MAL HEART
A troubled man (Mr. Robot’s Rami Malek) on the run recalls the mysterious events that brought him to his present fugitive state, in the enigmatic, elliptical and moving second feature from director Sarah Adina Smith (MIDNIGHT SWIM)
AMERICAN HONEY
A crew of hard-partying teenagers criss-crossing the Midwest while working as travelling magazine salesmen.
THE BAD BATCH
A young girl wanders a savage desert wasteland in a dystopian future United States, in Ana Lily Amirpour’s highly anticipated follow-up to A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT
JEAN OF THE JONSES
The multigenerational family comedy into fresh new territory with this whip-smart tale about the twentysomething scion of an all-female Brooklyn clan wrestling with her literary aspirations, romantic mishaps, and the chaotic preparations for her estranged father’s funeral.
BELOW HER MOUTH
Canadian actor-director April Mullen (Dead Before Dawn) tells the story of an unexpected romance between two women whose passionate connection changes their lives forever.
THE EMPTY BOX
A young woman in Mexico City who is forced to care for her estranged father as he descends into senile dementia
OKAFOR’S LAW
A slick serial seducer bets his friends that he can bed three old flames in six weeks
If you’re going to TIFF maybe we’ve got a screening in common! Here’s my TIFFR list with the specific screenings of all the films listed above.
Merry TIFFmas!
Oooh I saw Daughters of the Dust for University but the quality made it tough to watch on my small laptop screen, it would be great to watch it where I could really appreciate it.
Jealous about American Honey, I want to see it NOW. Looks like you’re still seeing a fair few! 🙂
Excellent line up!!! I think a few of these are playing at LFF – hoping to see American Honey too, looks good.