Troubled Times at TIFF? How the Hollywood Strikes Could Impact the Toronto Film Festival

Economists across the country woke up to surprising new inflation figures this morning.

When I was in college cinema courses I made a Super 8 film called Movie Girl. It was a Hollywood-set love letter to movies centered on a Musso & Franks waitress who put herself dreamily into the plots of classic films. It won an award there but was the highlight of the directing career I never had. However I have always been partial to filmmakers who put their own early film going experience and passion into their careers now. You may have heard of them. Kenneth Branagh won an Oscar for doing just that in Belfast. Steven Spielberg got several nominations last year for his very personal The Fabelmans . Woody Allen had his own charming take in The Purple Rose Of Cairo. Peter Bogdanovich made a lasting impression with 1971’s The Last Picture Show, as did Giuseppe Tornatore with his Oscar winner, Cinema Paradiso. It is a combination of the latter two especially that might describe the feel of the latest movie about the love of movies, The Movie Teller (La Contadora de Peliculas) which had its World Premiere tonight at the Toronto Film Festival. And just in sheer numbers of classic film clips incorporated into its near two hour running time, this one sets a record in the little sub-genre. For movie lovers everywhere The Movie Teller is a must see.

There’s a misconception that the British are a stoic people who just might get quite cross in the event of a zombie apocalypse. But the truth is rather different, as was shown in 2005, when six people were hospitalized and a man stabbed when an Ikea store in North London put 500 leather sofas on sale for less than 60 bucks each and a riot ensued.

Netflix’s Pain Hustlers is a largely fictionalized tale of a very real world, and rather eye-opening, business: selling an easy fix for what ails us, even if it leads to addiction and death. Although the names have been changed, the characters invented although inspired for some by actual cases and people, the original source material is all too real. Based on a New York Times article of the same name by Evan Hughes and then developed as Hughes was turning his research into the book, “The Hard Sell: Crime And Punishment At An Opioid Start-Up”, screenwriter Wells Tower has fashioned a riveting, if disturbing scenario brought to life by director David Yates who was looking for a less fantastical tale to tell other than the Harry Potter movies he was directing. He found it, and also his way into what might be quite a shocking expose of just how far of a grift some in big pharma business and the medical community may go in order to make a buck at the expense of our own well being and health. It has its World Premiere tonight at the Toronto Film Festival.

The Burial is a not-so-great title; it sounds like a horror film. I hope it doesn’t keep people away from this highly entertaining, crowd-pleasing movie that otherwise is an example of what good old fashioned Hollywood filmmaking can still be all about in the right hands. It feels bigger than life, but it is based on some pretty big lives indeed.

In 2019, Australian documentary filmmaker Kitty Green made her first narrative movie, a piercing almost cinéma vérité-style movie focused on an office assistant in a Tribeca film company run by a not-so-thinly disguised Harvey Weinstein. The male culture there and the sexual acts of the boss made it almost a modern horror story at the height of the #MeToo movement. For Green’s second narrative film she has changed up the filmmaking style considerably, but with The Royal Hotel which premiered last week at Telluride and now premieres tonight at the Toronto Film Festival, she is taking an even deeper look at the dark side of men as seen through the female gaze in a broken down hotel bar in a desolate part of the Australian Outback.

Colman Domingo shows off his award following the TIFF Tribute Gala during the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival over the weekend.

In an unexpected twist, the prison bars have transformed into curtains, drawing back to reveal a compelling story of redemption, humanity, and artistry. Sing Sing, adapted from the Sing Sing Follies by Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin,  and impeccably directed by Greg Kwedar, is more than just a film about prison life. It’s a love letter to the transformative power of performing arts, smartly penned by screenwriters Kwedar and Clint Bentley. This emotional drama stars Colman Domingo, Paul Raci, John “Divine G” Whitfield, Sean San Jose, Jon-Adrian Velazquez, David J. Giraudy, Sean “Dino” Johnson, and  Sean “Divine Eye” Johson. 

Fall film festivals are usually where we look for the more serious awards bait pictures, but occasionally as with tonight’s rousing World Premiere of Taikia Waititi’s long-gestating American Somoan soccer comedy, Next Goal Wins, you get a real commercial crowd pleaser.

Nicolas Cage, after more than 100 credits, finally has his dream role, at least as comedy fans are concerned. He knocks it out of the park as a schlubby balding college professor who suddenly starts appearing in people’s dreams, first his daughter’s, then an old girlfriend’s, and soon millions of people around the globe are seeing this ordinary looking, very plain guy walking throught their slumber in rather non-descript ways no matter what the situation. He becomes a phenomenon, until it reverses and the whole thing turns into a literal nightmare.

Take a bit of Kafka, throw in some Buñuelian realism, add a dose of John Cheever (circa The Swimmer) and then hand the recipe over to a first-time feature-making Swedish director with fond memories of a childhood spent in IKEA furniture stores, then put together an A-List cast, and you essentially have Mother, Couch.

In the realm of road movies, family ties, and the complexities of sisterhood, the Hulu/20th Century Studio offers up Quiz Lady a film that charts a familiar course. Directed by Jessica Yu and penned by Jen D’Angelo, the film boasts an ensemble cast led by the undeniable talent of Sandra Oh and Awkwafina, supported by the comedic prowess of Will Ferrell, Holland Taylor, and Jason Schwartzman.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Patricia Arquette, Lulu Wang, Finn Wolfhard, Barry Jenkins, Camila Morrone, Willem Dafoe and Colman Domingo mixed and mingled at Variety and Chanel’s annual female filmmaker dinner during the Toronto Film Festival. At the glamorous event, held on Saturday night at Soho House and hosted by Variety co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh, VIP attendees nibbled on tuna tartare, striploin steak and heirloom tomato salad as they toasted the recipients of Chanel’s Women Writers’ Network. The year-round program is designed to advance the careers of women and non-binary alumni of the TIFF Writers’ Studio.

You’ve seen Women Talking, welcome to Women Swearing: Wicked Little Letters, Thea Sharrock’s fantastically funny feature puts Jessie Buckley and Olivia Colman together in the filthiest pairing since Derek met Clive in the late 1970s. Set in 1920, it’s based on a story that, per the credits, is “more true than you’d think”, which, when you get to the end of it, is quite a claim. Think what a hip, modern and actually funny Carry On spoof of Call the Midwife might look like, scripted by the Coen brothers, shot with a little visual nod to Wes Anderson, and dictated by a screenwriter with Tourette Syndrome.

In a world that prioritizes perfection, Tony Goldwyn’s Ezra stands out as a touching testament to the power of love, acceptance, and the challenges of parenthood. Weaving together familial dynamics with the understanding of ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), the film offers a raw, emotional exploration of the lengths to which a parent will go to protect  their child. Written by Tom Spiridakis, the film stars Bobby Cannavale. William A. Fitzgerald, Rose Byrne, Robert De Niro, Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Goldwyn. and Rainn Wilson.

In Cord Jefferson cinematic adaptation of Percival Everett’s Erasure, American Fiction emerges as a hard-hitting commentary on identity, storytelling, and the microaggressive terrains of the publishing industry. With a powerhouse ensemble, led by Jeffrey Wright and supported by the likes of Tracee Ellis Ross and Sterling K. Brown, the film aims to deconstruct the publishing world as it relates to myriad facets of Black lives.

It is only appropriate that Sony’s terrific new comedy, Dumb Money starts with the Columbia Pictures logo. That was the studio that Frank Capra famously helped build with his movies where the little guy triumphs over the corporate bad guys. Dumb Money is positively Capraesque in the way it tells its David vs Golitath improbable story about how an internet geek started a movement that blew up the heretofore loser stock of shopping mall game store GameStop and became the toast of Wall Street while bankrupting a couple of billionaire hedge funds in the process. It had its World Premiere tonight at the Toronto International Film Festival before its theatrical release later this month.

The western genre has been so pervasive throughout the entire history of the movies, and it is hard to imagine doing anything in it that hasn’t already been done. Viggo Mortensen, in writing, directing, producing, and co-starring in only his second film behind the camera (after 2020’s Falling) finds a moving, if tragic, love story to play against the stunning landscape of the circa 1860’s west, and somehow it all feels new. John Ford and Howard Hawks would love this movie.

Flesh-eating sewer monsters, genitals with wings, grave robbing, two confused “identical twins” and 90 minutes of sexual innuendo is what you can expect from comedians Aaron Jackson and Josh Sharp’s stage show-turned-movie. Directed by Larry Charles and written by and starring the duo, the film also features Nathan Lane, Megan Mullally, Megan Thee Stallion and Bowen Yang. As a viewer, I often wondered how the hell this got turned into the movie because it is so outrageous. Thankfully, it succeeds at being fun and funny because anything less would have amounted to torture. 

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter A raucous, deliriously madcap midnight premiere of “Dicks: The Musical” closed out the first day of the Toronto Film Festival. A24’s first-ever musical, which leans hard into its R-rating and puts an irreverent, queer spin on “The Parent Trap,” played to laughs, cheers, audible gasps and shrieks and, yes, a few groans from the Royal Alexandra Theatre.