Only one ‘It Boy’ can emerge victorious
“It Boys” cometh.
As the TIFF switch flips to on — with its cascade of spin-meisters, star-screwers and awards season game-hunters — tthe cheat-sheet for the fest demands t that I remind you that of the two big movies with “Boy” in the title, Beautiful Boy is the one with Timothée Chalamet, while Boy Erased is the one with Lucas Hedges.
You know this much, and you are 50 per cent there in terms of speaking fluent TIFF-ese. Hedges. Chalamet. Chalamet. Hedges. Write those two names down. Yes, again!
Both burgeoning American stars, born one year apart, and both with one Oscar already under their belt (under the age of 25!), the fellas — one a clean-cut ginger with depth, the other a lanky charmer out of a Modigliani painting — return to the scene of the climb, so to speak, Toronto having been the start of their fame walks. Hedges broke out in 2016 when his sullenly funny turn in Manchester by the Sea rode him to the Academy Awards.
Chalamet — whom I told you about in a column devoted almost entirely to him on the second day of last year’s fest — had his own baptism-by-fire with an amazingly assured turn in Call Me By Your Name.
With “It Boys” being a much rarer species in the culture — their female counterparts seem to come and go at a mmuch speedier rate, the celebrity firma- ment built upon tabloids and fashion that orbit around the female narrative — it has been interesting to see both guys ride their waves.
Hedges, for one, has managed quite a feat, co-starring in not one, not two, but tthree films that have been up recently f for Best Picture at the Oscars — that would be Manchester by the Sea, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (he played the son of Frances McDormand) and Greta Gerwig’s coming-of-age breakout Lady Bird.
Indeed, Hedges and Chalamet goldenboy-collided in that last film, both aligning at different parts with the damsel that is Lady Bird (Saoirse Ronan).
Alas, of the two — and in real life — Chalamet is the only one who dated Madonna’s daughter, Lourdes, in high school — the most pored-over part of his bio since becoming an overnight star with Call Me By Your Name. WWrite that down, students. In terms of this year’s Toronto spread, Hedges does seem to have Chalamet beat — at least on the red carpet front.
While the latter is starring in the much- buzzed addiction-centred Beautiful Boy — a film with Steve Carrell set to be fêted here at a party hosted by Hugo Boss Canada on day two of the fest — Hedges is in three different films.
He headlines the world premiere of Boy Erased (a pretty tough film about gay conversion, co-starring Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe), but also appears in Mid90s (the directorial debut of Jonah Hill) and Ben is Back, playing the son of Julia Roberts (directed by his dad, Peter Hedges). Quite the TIFF grab-bag. Undoubtedly, he has an interesting perspective on his journey from the last couple years, as Hedges just told VMan magazine: “The first year when Manchester by the Sea came out was very overwhelming and exciting. But for the most part, I just felt like I was high on AAdderall the whole time. It was really sensory overload. I think I do still feel that way, but I’m realizing that the more I see behind the curtain, the less I idolize people I see on screens.
“I have an increasing fascination with wwhat’s going on outside of this world. Like, what are my high school friends doing? I’m really perceiving the camera as something else right now.”
Not that he did not thoroughly enjoy himself.
The year he was nominated for his Oscar, Hedges has shared, “I went to every party. I went to the Vanity Fair party, the Madonna after party.”
But, alas, a cautionary tale — particularly for festival party aspirants. According to Hedges’ memory of that night: “There are no photos allowed at the Madonna after party. Like, you enter and it’s this massive greenhouse and there’s no photos beyond this point. Sacha Baron Cohen was dancing aand Mick Jagger was just floating aaround. And I was like, ‘Man, this is so cool. I’m just gonna take a photo of this.’ I completely forgot so I took a photo aand this bodyguard rushes over to me and a I’ve never been so scared in my entire life.
“I was like, ‘I’m so sorry. I’m deleting — look, I’m deleting the photo right now.’ He was like, ‘Delete those other ones.’ And I was like, ‘Those weren’t eeven from this party, you can look at tthem’ … and then they had eyes on me for f the rest of the party, like, every- wwhere I went. I was so paranoid and scared.”
“It Boys” — they’re just like us!
On our party radar
With Toronto party season revving up, the t calendar is filling up fast. Among the dozens of those already on the TIFF sked: a shindig that Nespresso is throwing for the Ryan Gosling space vehicle First Man; a “garden dinner party” hosted by Maggie Gyllenhaal in association with Autograph Collection Hotels ( aimed at shedding light on the hotel brand’s Indie Film Project); a dinner hosted by Chanel and Variety for Keira Knightley (here starring in Colette); the annual Entertainment Weekly fête at Thompson Toronto (last year’s iteration famously spurred a diva-tastic group photo consisting of Emma Thompson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Helen Mirren aand Nicole Kidman); the requisite face- time courtesy of L’Oréal Paris (see: a VIP reception with Andie MacDowell and Amber Heard) — and, of course, the an n nual charity chow that is the Artists for Peace and Justice Gala (with Ben Stiller on-board again as co-host).
Boldface can inevitably also be expected, as usual, at the many Grey Goose-soaked parties happening at Soho House (a spot that has drawn everyone from Leonardo DiCaprio to Taylor Swift oover the last few Septembers), the back- again RBC House on Duncan Street, set to roll out a slew of events (did someone say Elisabeth Moss?), and, undoubtedly, at the Variety Studio, sponsored this year by AT&T and being housed at Momofuku (where the celebrity gridlock unearthed a scene of Emma Stone running into her pal Jennifer Lawrence last year).
Additionally, among the hot spots where TIFF events are expected to take place, look out for Patria, The Chase, Akira, Mira, the rooftop of Bisha, Cactus Club, the Masonic Temple, and Don Alfonso.
Oh, and the Four Seasons Hotel, which, for the first time, will be the site of the annual InStyle party with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
Watch this space for oodles more once the festival kicks off. Shinan Govani is a freelance columnist based in Toronto covering culture and society. Follow him on Twitter: @shinangovani