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It’s back.
The city is awash in TIFF madness. One can’t walk down the street without running into pop-up mobs of star-gazers out front of Toronto’s swankiest hotels (okay, maybe even we cast a glance at the entrance when passing hot spots like the Templar (Target) Hotel, the Drake Hotel, the SoHo, the Hyatt and Le Germain). Most bars have an extended 4 a.m. license for the duration of the festival, even if half the hopeful partiers find themselves standing outside Soho House hoping to spot one of the many A-listers coming and going.
But it’s not really about catching a glimpse of Ryan Gosling, is it? Toronto’s film fest is known as an Academy Award barometer and is truly all about the films. Here are the films we’re most excited about, or have seen and loved the most thus far:
Billed as a “mind-bending futuristic thriller,” Looper features Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a young Bruce Willis on a mission to kill his future self. By all accounts, director Rian Johnson’s ability to blend genres and create something fresh and interesting is at play again here and the result is both action-packed and mentally stimulating. Jo-Go’s star is on the rise and, apparently, neither his nor co-stars Willis and Emily Blunt’s performances disappoint.
An adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic and the third collaboration of Keira Knightley and director Joe Wright (previously Atonement and Pride & Prejudice), this film is a shoo-in for Academy nods. The trailer alone attests to the film’s sumptuous settings and costume design and we are excited to see Jude Law in the role of Alexei Karenin.
It was said that the novel Cloud Atlas would be impossible to adapt to film. Apparently not for the Wachowski siblings (previously brothers) behind The Matrix and Tom Tykwer, who have directed a movie of “epic” proportions (according to TIFF co-director Cameron Bailey himself). The cast includes Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving and more with appearances from Susan Sarandon and Hugh Grant.
The premise of this film is a dog-napping scheme gone awry. Directed by Martin McDonagh and boasting a star-studded cast, including Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Christopher Walken and Tom Waits, we can’t wait to see what happens following the theft of a ganster’s Shih Tzu…right?
Based on a true story this film, directed and starred in by Ben Affleck, is a movie about a fake movie made by the CIA in order to get six stranded Americans out of Tehran. It promises to be filled with suspense and sprinkled with humor. John Goodman, Bryan Cranston and Barry Livingston support and, darn it, Ben Affleck looks good with a beard.
The list of films we’re excited about goes on. Here are some more you should definitely check out: Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang, Rebelle, Laurence Anyways, The Master, Silver Linings Playbook, Hyde Park on Hudson, Dredd 3D, Midnight’s Children, Inescapable, Stories We Tell and My Awkward Sexual Adventure starring Jonas Chernick and Emily Hampshire.
TIFF is also a great time to check out some up-and-coming talent. The Rising Stars Programme features young Canadian actors and actresses Charlotte Sullivan, Charlie Carrick, Tatiana Maslany and Connor Jessup. Jessup stars in the Independent Film and Festival 2012 selection Blackbird as Sean Randall: an angry and troubled teenager who finds himself in juvenile detention after being accused and arrested for a crime that he did not commit – forever reshaping his life. Maslany stars in Picture Day, directed by Kate Melville, which premieres at TIFF. She has also started filming the Jason Priestley-directed Cas & Dylan with Richard Dreyfuss.
