‘Wicked Little Letters’ Review: Thea Sharrock’s Eye-Wateringly Funny Period Comedy Is A Four-Letter Tour De Force – Toronto Film Festival

Pop the cork and celebrate Haley Bennett in Widow Clicquot, a fast-paced and sexy biopic of the woman known as Madame “Veuve” Clicquot, or by her actual full name, Barbe Nicole Ponsardin-Clicquot, who triumphed over all odds to become the force that created and brought to the world the leading brand of Champagne. The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.

“Wicked Little Letters” narrates the bizarre tale of several foul-mouthed anonymous letters that began terrorizing the small British town of Littlehampton in the 1920s. Against all odds, what might seem like a contrived, ridiculous story is almost entirely true.

A new trend on the fall festival circuit this year is the biopic of the unknown hero, something that seems unthinkable now in the digital age. There’s One Life, about the Schindler-like achievements of Nicholas Winton, who saved nearly 700 Jewish children from certain death in German-occupied Prague. There’s Rustin, about the gay, Black activist who organized the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom — literally, right down to the toilet facilities — and had to wait 50 years for an official thank-you.

Watching Mountains, which just made its international debut as part of the Toronto Film Festival’s Centerpiece program, I could not help but think of two other landmark films it seems to recall in its own way. One was 2019’s The Last Black Man In San Francisco, a remarkable story of gentrification and its effect on those being edged out of their home that starred Jimmie Falls and launched the career of Jonathan Majors. The other was the 1960 film version of Lorraine Hansberry’s oft-performed A Raisin In The Sun in which Sidney Poitier as Walter Lee Younger played a struggling husband, son, and father with a dream for a new house and a better life for his family.

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.

Depending on who you speak to, Aggro Dr1ft has either been a hideous blight on the fall festival circuit or… Well, currently, there’s not exactly a consensus on what there is to love about Harmony Korine’s in-your-face fantasia, a nightmare vision of Florida made all the more hellish by its refusal to resemble anything you might expect even — or perhaps especially — from the director of Spring Breakers.

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.

The passing pleasures of watching the fine young actors Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed and Jeremy Allen White can’t make up for the increasing distaste that develops from contact with Fingernails, an irritating and, finally, ridiculous examination of relationship matchmaking carried far too far. Greek director Christos Nikou won unanimous critical plaudits for his compellingly eerie debut feature Apples, which dealt with amnesia patients, and here again he appears drawn to troubled and mysterious states of mind that develop in the quest for love, commitment and some sense of security in modern life. The film debuted at the Telluride Film Festival and screened at the Toronto Film Festival.

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.

Making a grand entrance into the world of directing, Billy Bryk and Finn Wolfhard present their feature debut, Hell of a Summer. With the vibes reminiscent of Friday the 13th and Sleep Away Camp, this film delivers nostalgia that captures the essence of the golden age of horror slasher cinema. Each character checks off the 1980s horror trope boxes, ensuring that every campy moment feels both authentic and delightfully over the top. Bryk and Wolfhard also star.

Michael Keaton, after making his directorial debut with 2008’s The Merry Gentleman, steps behind the camera for only the second time with his latest film, Knox Goes Away in which he also delivers one of his finest and most poignant performances as a man facing a rare form of fast moving dementia, but who is racing the clock to save his estranged son’s life before it is too late.

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 a cinematic landscape built on tried-and-true formulas, Moritz Mohr’s Boy Kills World dares to be different, blurring the boundaries between absurdity and adrenaline-pumping action. Written by Tyler Burton Smith and Arend Remmers, this audacious venture is steeped in a dystopian backdrop plays by its own rules. Dive into a world where chaos meets comedy, and gory kills are an everyday thing. The film stars Bill Skarsgard, Famke Janssen, Yayan Ruhian, Sharlto Copley, Andrew Koji, and Brett Gelman.

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.