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THE VERY BEST IN CINEMA
CHRIS KNIGHT RECOMMENDS FILMS TO SEE DURING THE FINAL WEEKEND OF TIFF.
The Toronto International Film Festival wraps up this Sunday — a weird, pared-down, largely virtual affair, but a festival nonetheless. There was Oscar buzz — Anthony Hopkins as Olivia Coleman's aging dad in The Father, for example. There was even that TIFF oddity in which the across-the-pond Venice fest helps drive the conversation. This year the top prize at Venice went to director Chloé Zhao's Nomadland, starring Frances McDormand as an itinerant worker in the U.S. of 2012. It also played TIFF.
But as we move into the final weekend, here's a roundup of some of TIFF's offerings, with festival screening times where appropriate, and release dates where known:
PENGUIN BLOOM
Australian director Glendyn Ivin delivers a real tear-jerker, starring Naomi Watts as a surfing enthusiast paralyzed below the waist in a freak accident, and the injured magpie that her children nurse back to health, which in turn helps her reconnect with life. It's based on a real story too! ∏∏∏∏ (Screens Sept. 17 at 8:30 and 9 p.m. at the Lightbox.)
INCONVENIENT INDIAN
One of two TIFF films from First Nations director Michelle Latimer (the other is the drama Trickster), this documentary is based on Thomas King's 2012 book The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America. It's a little infuriating — I'm a stickler for speakers to be identified — but also beautifully shot and a powerful conversation-starter on the long-term effects of colonialism. ∏∏∏ (Screens Sept. 17 at 5 p.m. at the Lightbox, and coming to Crave.)
CONCRETE COWBOY
Hard to believe Ricky Staub's feature directing debut is based in fact, but the Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club is a real equine organization in north Philadelphia. The fictional part of the story concerns a troubled youth (Caleb McLaughlin) sent to live with his father (Idris Elba), who is so into horsemanship that he has one of the beasts in his apartment. What follows is a combination of father-son bonding and beautifully horsey drama. ∏∏∏½ (Screens Sept. 19 at 9 p.m. at the Lightbox.)
FALLING
Viggo Mortensen wrote, directed, produced, scored and stars in this story of a gay man whose aging father is suffering from dementia, and who is (and as flashbacks show always has been) homophobic and also insufferable to those around him. The plot isn't perfect, but there are some lovely grace notes that make this clearly more than the vanity project it might at first seem. ∏∏∏½ (Available online Sept. 17 at 6 p.m. through tiff.net, and coming to Crave.)
FIREBALL: VISITORS FROM DARKER WORLDS
Werner Herzog's latest documentary, co-directed with scientist Clive Oppenheimer, examines the mythology and science of meteorites, delving into both their cultural and physical impact on humanity. From Mecca to Antarctica, Hawaii to Russia, it's a fascinating survey of our relationship with what falls from the sky. ∏∏∏½ (Coming to Apple TV+ on Nov. 13.)
DAVID BYRNE'S AMERICAN UTOPIA
Spike Lee turns his cameras on former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, who turned his 2018 studio album American Utopia into a raucous Broadway show, equal parts philosophy and toe-tapping musical numbers. Pure ecstasy! 5 stars out of 5 (Coming to HBO and Crave in October.)
ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI
Regina King directs Kemp Powers's adaptation of his 2013 play that imagines a conversation among boxer Cassius Clay (soon to change his name to Muhammad Ali), singer Sam Cooke, football player Jim Brown and civil rights activist Malcolm X on a pivotal evening in 1964. Sadly, the topics are just as relevant almost 60 years later. ∏∏∏½ (Coming to Amazon Prime this fall.)
THE FATHER
Anthony Hopkins knocks it out of the park portraying a dementia-addled father, with Olivia Colman (and, in one mind-bending scene, Olivia Williams) as his concerned daughter. Director and co-writer Florian Zeller captures the confusion of dementia by putting the viewer in the thick of it, uncertain what's real or whom to believe. It's devastatingly effective. ∏∏∏∏ (Coming to cinemas Dec. 18.)
AMMONITE
Paleontologist Mary Anning has been widely celebrated in books, including the excellent Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier. Writer/director Francis Lee casts Kate Winslet in the part and imagines a lesbian love interest in Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan). An emphasis on romance over science will no doubt invite comparisons to Portrait of a Lady on Fire, but this film doesn't achieve the same transcendence. ∏∏½ (Coming to cinemas Nov. 13.)
NOMADLAND
Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice film festival, Chloé Zhao adapts Jessica Bruder's non-fiction book Surviving America in the 21st Century, and casts Frances McDormand and David Strathairn as two U.S. neo-nomads, living out of their vehicles as they travel the country in search of work. Like her breakout indie hit The Rider, Zhao's newest is a quiet, observational story about a corner of the U.S. few others notice. ∏∏∏∏ (Coming to cinemas Dec. 4.)
WOLFWALKERS
Cartoon Saloon in the best animation studio you've never heard of, Oscar nominated for The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea and The Breadwinner. Its latest feature, set in 1650s Ireland, is a beautiful tale of friendship between a “townie” and a girl who can turn into a wolf. From its 2D animation style to its mythical storyline, it's original in every respect. ∏∏∏∏ (Coming to Apple TV+ this fall.)