A quick two-film day and a traffic-filled three-hour drive home across the Rainbow Bridge later and phase one of TIFF is complete.
I’m 22 films deep (11 pre-fest and 11 on the ground) and have a few more days to add to the total at home. The hope is to get at least two more reviewed today (looking like AFTER THE FIRE and UPROAR right now) with some really intriguing titles in the mix for the rest of the week like FRYBREAD FACE AND ME, THANK YOU FOR COMING, and MADEMOISELLE KENOPSIA.
All in all it was a fun weekend. The organizers did a nice job balancing the desire for glitzy premieres and the necessity to honor the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. And while the schedule might not have been as high profile as recent years, I honestly think it’s for the best. TIFF is supposed to highlight new voices and Canadian voices, so hopefully the lack of studio participation meant more critics were willing to take a flyer on the smaller stuff.
As Chris and I were saying on the ride home, the ones we lament missing are probably the ones that we’ll definitely be able to see soon anyway—whether on VOD, streaming, or the big screen. Would I have loved to catch ANATOMY OF A FALL and ZONE OF INTEREST? You bet I would. But why rush? Why ignore the titles I’d never have another opportunity to watch?
REVIEWS:
HUMANIST VAMPIRE SEEKING CONSENTING SUICIDAL PERSON [Vampire humaniste cherche suicidaire consentant]
(North American premiere)
“Despite its darkly supernatural package, however, Louis-Seize's film adheres to its idiosyncratic tone of purposeful excitement for a future that’s hardly assured. Because death can be a beginning too.”
– Full thoughts at The Film Stage.
NEXT GOAL WINS
(world premiere)
“It's not going to win any awards, but it should do very well at the box office. Because despite there being zero surprises as it fulfills its mass-marketed for-profit formula, NEXT GOAL WINS never talks down to us.”
– Full thoughts at The Film Stage.
NOT A WORD
(world premiere)
“It's a testament to Slak's craft that the atmosphere proves so palpable, but sometimes it can distract from the nuanced performances beneath. Thankfully, the characters prevail.”
– Full thoughts at The Film Stage.
THE TUNDRA WITHIN ME [Eallogierdu]
(world premiere)
“Opens a window onto a culture that deserves recognition both on an international scale where environmental concerns lie and a human one where the desire for progress is too often wrongly confused with a denial of tradition.”
– Full thoughts at The Film Stage.
TODAY’S PLAN:
AFTER THE FIRE, d. Mehdi Fikri
UPROAR, d. Paul Middleditch & Hamish Bennett