There is so much excitement for this year’s Toronto International Film Festival that TIFF-goers crashed the website when the schedule launched. TIFF’s technical gaffes are a time honoured tradition, especially with the approaching Single Ticket Day after Press and Industry folks make their pulls over the weekend. (Friendly reminder: something that is “off-sale” isn’t necessarily “sold out.” Whatever doesn’t get pulled from the P&I allotment goes back into the free-for-all on the day of the film screenings.)
To help TIFF goers with their picks, That Shelf’s contributors offered the films that they are most excited to see at this year’s festival. Godspeed with the ticket pulls, folks!
Rachel West
Heretic
The trailer for Heretic was just a tease. Seeing Hugh Grant play against type as the villain in Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ horror is such a delight that it’s worth the price of admission alone. Beck and Woods co-wrote the screenplay for A Quiet Place, proving that they have a unique and thrilling take on the horror genre.
Relay
Hell or High Water director David Mackenzie always seems to make interesting choices when it comes to his film projects. This time around he directs a high-concept thriller with Riz Ahmed at the centre as a man who brokers deals between whistleblowers and corporations, all without sharing his identity. Promising to be an exciting cat-and-mouse game, Relay sounds like a lively addition to your TIFF schedule.
We Live in Time
Irish director John Crowley has helmed three of my favourite films: Brooklyn, Intermission, and Boy A. Now, he reteams with Boy A star Andrew Garfield for We Live in Time, a sweeping romance told in a non-linear fashion. The trailer already has audiences swooning, leaving no doubt that this will be a tearful screening.
Also excited about: Conclave, The Girl with the Needle, The Assessment, Daniela Forever, Disclaimer, Sharp Corner
Pat Mullen
(I’m sticking to dramas here since I’ve done lots of documentary previews at POV.)
Nightbitch
Amy Adams is going to the dogs. The actress promises to have a juicy role as a nameless woman who loved her career as a gallerist until it was cut short by a new gig: motherhood. As she learns that parenting’s a real bitch, she becomes convinced that she’s turning into a dog. (No spoiler: that’s literally the first line of the spectacular book by Rachel Yoder.) With a dash of American Beauty and a splash of Black Swan, the story sees Nightbitch embrace the feral elements of her persona. Adapting this wickedly funny black comedy won’t be easy, but it’s sure to hinge on Adams’ performance and how well writer/director Marielle Heller (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood) pulls off that tricky ending. This is one you’ll want to see with the pearl-clutching TIFF patrons.
The End
After making perhaps the most influential documentary of the last decade with The Act of Killing, which heralded a new appreciation for hybrid approaches to non-fiction by inviting mass murderers to revisit the scenes of their crimes with re-enactments and musical performances, Joshua Oppenheimer is back after a long winter’s nap. The End marks his first film a decade after the Killing follow-up The Look of Silence. This time, he’s giving drama a whirl. The End offers a full-fledged musical from the end of the world. A stacked cast includes Tilda Swinton and George Mackay—great actors, but ones not really known for singing. Do we have the next anti-musical à la Dancer in the Dark or A Woman Is a Woman, or is this cast going full Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia?
Emilia Perez
How many boxes can a film check? Jacques Audiard is one of my favourite contemporary directors with works like Rust & Bone, The Beat that My Heart Skipped, Paris 13th District, Dheepan, and A Prophet among a filmography that consistently delivers. At 72 years young, the French auteur doesn’t just step out of the box with Emilia Perez—it sounds like he blows it apart. This crime thriller / narco musical promises an intoxicating globe-trotting exploration of identity and hybridity as Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldana star in Audiard’s adaptation of his own opera libretto. The duo shared the Best Actress prize at Cannes with newcomer Adriana Paz and Karla Sofia Gascón, who made history as the first trans actor to win at Cannes and is widely expected to be part of the awards conversation this year for her acclaimed turn as a drug lord who transitions. Get ready for the wildest musical of the season—or second wildest, depending how The End fares.
Also excited for: Queer, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, Flow, The Last Showgirl, Piece by Piece, All We Imagine as Light, The Room Next Door, Conclave, and On Swift Horses just to see Diego Calva and Jacob Elordi bang.
Emma Badame
Hard Truths
Is it necessary to explain why a new film from auteur Mike Leigh is exciting? Not to most film fans. His singular, unflinching takes on modern British life have led to some of the most respected films from the last 40 years, all of which contain some truly great performances from some of the best actors around. Hard Truths sees Leigh reunites with the great Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Secrets & Lies) and looks to be yet another insightful and darkly funny entry into his ultra-realistic look at what it means to be human.
The Life of Chuck
It’s been a while since we’ve seen Tom Hiddleston take on a role that wasn’t a mischievous Marvel God, and this Stephen King adaptation from filmmaker Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House) may just be what the actor (and his fans) has been looking for. Flanagan is no stranger to bringing the author’s works to the big screen, having helmed Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep, and he’s assembled a truly intriguing supporting cast–including Mark Hamill, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, and Jacob Tremblay. With buzz indicating the tone is more in the Stand By Me and Green Mile end of King’s storytelling spectrum…good things may await us come the film’s premiere on September 6.
Presence
Speaking of filmmakers with a proven track record, Steven Soderburgh is back with his unique take on haunted house horror. Written by David Koepp (Jurassic Park), the award-winning filmmaker brings us a ghost story told from the perspective of the spirit itself. Think The Haunting, if the trapped spectres had been able to show us their POV of the odd cohort assembled to look into what makes Hill House tick. In this case, they’re overseeing a troubled family who can’t outrun troubles of their own. It’s an intriguing and potentially fresh take on a genre always ripe for original ideas.
Also excited for: Queer, Heretic, The Salt Path, Harvest, Bird, Bring Them Down, Conclave, Bonjour Tristesse, Dahomey, The Return, Rumours, and We Live in Time.
All of these titles will screen as part of the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. Get more That Shelf TIFF coverage here.
