A FESTIVAL & FALL FILMS
Many of TIFF’s biggest titles are headed to local theatres ... and sooner than you may think
If you can’t make it to the Toronto International Film Festival before it wraps on Sept. 16, fear not. The festival is coming soon to a cinema near you. Even before the event ends, a few of its titles will be in theatres, with more than a dozen others over the autumn months. Here’s what to watch out for, on the festival grid and off. And remember, as always, dates are subject to change.
FESTIVAL FAVOURITES
Old movies get sequels with Shane Black’s The Predator (Sept. 14) and David Gordon Green’s Halloween (Oct. 19), while the thrice-made A Star Is Born has a new remake from director-co-writer-star Bradley Cooper (Oct. 5). Meanwhile, past Oscar winners have new films at the festival, including Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk (Nov. 30), Damien Chazelle’s First Man (Oct. 12) and Steve McQueen’s Widows (Nov. 16).
Also from the festival screens: White Boy Rick (Sept. 14), about a young FBI informant; Oscar Isaac and Olivia Wilde in the romance Life Itself (Sept. 21); Keira Knightley in Colette (Sept. 28); Jennifer Baichwal’s documentary Anthropocene (Sept. 28); The Sis- ters Brothers (Oct. 5), based on the novel by Patrick deWitt; Melissa McCarthy in Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Oct. 19); the Canadian drama Giant Little Ones (Oct. 19); politics in The Front Runner (Nov. 7); the civil rights-era drama Green Book (Nov. 21); and two with rising star Lucas Hedges — the gayconversion story Boy Erased (Nov. 2) and the addiction drama Ben Is Back (Dec. 7).
DOCU-PALOOZA
This fall’s straight-up docs include: Love, Gilda (Sept. 21), which looks back on the life of comedian Gilda Radner; Bad Reputation (Sept. 28), about rock star Joan Jett; and American Chaos (Oct. 12), which examines how the most recent guy got elected president. But there are a slew of basedin-fact dramas. The Old Man & the Gun (Oct. 5) gives us Robert Redford as San Quentin escapee Forrest Tucker; Lizzie (Sept. 28) is based on the 1892 Borden murders; and Welcome to Marwen (Dec. 21) has Steve Carell as Mark Hogancamp, subject of the 2010 doc Marwencol. Gay icons get biopics, with Rami Malek playing Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody (Nov. 2), and Rupert Everett writing, directing and star- ring as Oscar Wilde in The Happy Prince (Oct. 19). Royalty watchers get The Favourite (Nov. 23), which is set in the court of Queen Anne, and the more obviously titled Mary Queen of Scots (Dec. 7). And Felicity Jones stars as a young Ruth Bader Ginsburg in On the Basis of Sex (Dec. 25).
FOR THE KIDS
Animated antics this season include the yeti comedy Smallfoot (Sept. 28), the Wreck-It Ralph sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet (Nov. 21) and a new telling of The Grinch (Nov. 9) with the voice of Benedict Cumberbatch. Slightly darker is Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (Nov. 16), while Disney delivers the live-action The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (Nov. 2), and Mary Poppins Returns hits theatres after a 54-year absence on Dec. 19. Straddling the line between kids’ fare and horror is The House with a Clock in Its Walls starring Jack Black (Sept. 21) and Goosebumps 2 (Oct. 12). Which brings us to ...
THE HORROR!
Mandy (Sept. 14) stars Nicolas Cage as a man on the trail of a murderous cult. Hell Fest (Sept. 28) gives us a horror-themed amusement part. And Overlord (Nov. 9) is a Second World War drama, but with zombies. Then there’s A Simple Favor (Sept. 14) and Bad Times at the El Royale (Oct. 5), which seem to mix death and comedy, and provide a decent segue to ...
COMEDY
Kevin Hart hits the books in Night School (Sept. 28), while Tiffany Haddish and Tika Sumpter get schooled in a different way in Tyler Perry ’s Nobody ’s Fool (Nov. 2), and a college student decides to date an older man in The New Romantic (Oct. 12). Meanwhile, Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne skip the romance and head straight to child rearing in Instant Family (Nov. 16); Rowan Atkinson brings back his bumbling spy in Johnny English Strikes Again (Oct. 26); and Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly team up again for Holmes and Watson (Dec. 21).
ACTION TALES
Robin Hood (Nov. 21) brings the outlaw hero back to the screen, this time starring Taron Egerton, with Jamie Foxx as Little John. A Transformers spinoff provides the origin story of Bumblebee (Dec. 21). And if you’re in the mood for post-apocalyptic adventure, the season has two. Alita: Battle Angel (Dec. 21) is based on a graphic novel, while Mortal Engines (Dec. 14) is adapted from a novel.
SUPERHEROES
It wouldn’t be a movie season without a few superheroes. Tom Hardy wears a mask (again!) as Venom (Oct. 5), while Jason Momoa gets his first stand-alone movie as Aquaman (Dec. 21). And there are two spider-related superheroes, sort of: the intriguing, animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Dec. 14); and Claire Foy as feminist avenger Lisbeth Salander in The Girl in the Spider’s Web (Nov. 9).
THE REST
A few additional titles don’t quite tick a single genre box. Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce star in The Wife (Sept. 21), in which a woman questions her life choices after her husband wins a Nobel Prize. In Serenity (Oct. 19), a man’s ex-wife re-appears with a quest for help. From Denmark, The Guilty (Oct. 19) is a thriller about a police officer trying to rescue a kidnap victim. And because scrapping with Russians never gets old, Creed II (Nov. 21) pits the son of Apollo Creed against the son of Rocky IV’s Ivan Drago.