With the the major U.S. studios doubling down on bullshit CG comic-book fantasy destruction porn, it’s a glorious thing to be facing a Toronto Film Festival that will be showing roughly 62 intelligent, quality-calibre films aimed at people like myself. I’m not exaggerating — I’ve scanned the final list and that’s how many films I’d like to see up there. As usual I won’t be able to fit in much more than 30, and more likely 25 or so. I will have seen at least a few of these at Telluride when Toronto begins, but if I wasn’t doing Telluride the following would be my early picks with unmissable powershot films in bold italic:
Gala Presentations (9): The Art of the Steal (d: Jonathan Sobol); August: Osage County (d: John Wells); The Fifth Estate (d: Bill Condon), Life of Crime (d: Daniel Schecter); Mandela: The Long Walk to Freedom (d: Peter Chadwick); Parkland (d: Peter Landesman); The Railway Man (d: Jonathan Teplitzky); Rush (d: Ron Howard); Words and Pictures (d: Fred Schepisi).
Special Presentations (11): All Is By My Side (d: John Ridley); The Armstrong Lie (d: Alex Gibney); Bad Words (d: Jason Bateman); Blue Is The Warmest Color (d: Abdellatif Kechiche); Burning Bush (d: Agnieszka Holland); Can a Song Save Your Life? (d: John Carney); Child of God (d: James Franco); Dallas Buyers Club (d: Jean-Marc Vallee); Devil’s Knot (d: Atom Egoyan); The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him and Her (d: Ned Benson); Dom Hemingway (d: Richard Shepard).
Special Presentations (14): The Double (d: Richard Ayoade); Enemy (d: Denis Villeneuve); Enough Said (d: Nicole Holofcener); Fading Gigolo (d: John Turturro); Felony (d: Matthew Saville); Gravity (d: Alfonso Cuaron); Hateship Loveship (d: Liza Johnson); How I Live Now (d: Kevin Macdonald); The Husband (d: Bruce McDonald); The Invisible Woman (d: Ralph Fiennes); Joe (d: David Gordon Green); Labor Day (d: Jason Reitman); The Last of Robin Hood (d: Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland); Lucky Them (d: Megan Griffiths);
Special Presentations (9): Man of Tai Chi (d: Keanu Reeves — AVOID AT ALL COSTS); Mary, Queen of Scots (d: Thomas Imbach); Night Moves (d: Kelly Reichardt); One Chance (d: David Frankel — ABOUT FAT OPERA SINGER); Only Lovers Left Alive (d: Jim Jarmusch); The Past (d: Asghar Farhadi); Philomena (d: Stephen Frears); A Promise (d: Patrice Leconte); Quai d’Orsay (d: Bertrand Tavernier).
Special Presentations (14): Southcliffe (d: Sean Durkin); Starred Up (d: David Mackenzie); Therese (d: Charlie Stratton); Third Person (d: Paul Haggis); Tracks (d: John Curran); 12 Years a Slave (d: Steve McQueen); Under the Skin (d: Jonathan Glazer); Unforgiven (d: Lee Sang-il); Visitors (d: Godfrey Reggio — AWFUL TRAILER); Walesa, Man of Hope (d: Andrzej Wajda); Watermark (d: Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky); We are the Best! (d: Lukas Moodysson); Le Week-End (d: Roger Michell); You Are Here (d: Matthew Weiner).
TIFF Docs (6): At Berkeley (d: Frederick Wiseman); Filthy Gorgeous: The Bob Guccione Story (d: Barry Avrich); Jodorowsky’s Dune (d: Frank Pavich); The Last of the Unjust (d: Claude Lanzmann); The Mayor (d: Emiliano Altuna Fistolera); The Unknown Known (D: Errol Morris).
