> SCREENING TODAY AT TIFF
The Assassin
Every perfectly composed picture tells a story in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s original and transfixing genre take, set in the ninth century in feudal Asia with Shu Qi as the title killer. This Cannes 2015 winner of the director’s prize is resplendent with masterful mise-en-scène and images you won’t soon forget. A lethal title, to be sure, but the Taiwanese master’s high-flying wuxia action is far more about contemplation than it is about the body count. There will be blood, yes, but beautifully staged tests of will are more this picture’s pace. (5 p.m., The Bloor) Peter Howell
The Dressmaker
This is Jocelyn Moorhouse’s splendidly sardonic valentine to a variety of things: Australian small-town life in 1950, the joys of postwar French fashion and the roundabout way a brilliant (but twisted) woman can find her revenge. Kate Winslet is smashing as Tilly Dunnage, who returns to the town that drove her away at the age of 10 for murdering a schoolmate. She’s ostensibly there to care for her mother (the sublime Judy Davis), but she’s got a lot more on her mind, including showing off the high-fashion skills she’s learned in France. Along the way she has a steamy love affair with the hunky Liam Hemsworth and reunites with her BFF Hugo Weaving as the most unique town constable ever. It’s filmed in a true bravura style and manages to serve as revenge tragedy, romantic comedy and stylish entertainment all at once (2:45 p.m., Ryerson Theatre). Richard Ouzounian
Room
Called “Room” in the child Jack’s fanciful naming ritual (like “Sink” and “Plant”), a garden shed holds the whole world for the little boy who wakes on his fifth birthday beside the only other person he knows; Ma (exceptional Brie Larson, long overdue for this kind of role and the recognition it will doubtless bring). The man who abducted Ma and fathered Jack is a shadowy figure to the child. He’s Old Nick, the only one who can unlock Door, glimpsed through the slats of Wardrobe, where Ma hopes to shelter him from her torment during her captor’s nightly visits. Based on Emma Donoghue’s bestseller, the child’s interior monologue so effective in her novel is less evident in her screenplay, conveyed briefly through an awkward narration. But otherwise, made-in-Toronto Room is equally tender and chilling, a compelling mother-and-child story giving way to an agonizingly tense escape scene that sets up the second act of Lenny Abrahamson’s film, giving it space to explore differing definitions of captivity. The true revelation here is 8-year-old Vancouverborn Jacob Tremblay, with a poised and entirely believable performance as Jack. He balances credible emotion with a child’s wonder. Excellent supporting performances from Joan Allen as Ma’s mother, struggling to understand and find normalcy again, and Canadian Tom McCamus as her tender-hearted partner. They help with the somewhat less successfully realized second half of Room (6 p.m., Princess of Wales). Linda Barnard
Sleeping Giant
In this resounding feature debut, Andrew Cividino updates his 2014 short film by the same name to give his coming-of-age story the longform treatment. Set in a momentous summer around Thunder Bay, Ont., and Lake Superior, natural wonders shore up a grand leap for all, especially the three young men played by arresting newcomers Jackson Martin, Nick Serino and Reece Moffett. They’re on the cusp of adulthood, a time when jealousies and anxieties, especially about girls, loom as large as a dangerous local cliff that challenges the brave and crazy to jump. It gets inside a boy’s head as skilfully as Inside Out gets inside a girl’s (9 p.m., Winter Garden). PH