After 11 days of celebrities, premieres, lines and exhaustion, the 40th Toronto International Film Festival has finally ended. The conclusion is bittersweet as it means I can return home and to a normal sleep schedule, but it also marks the end of celebrity encounters, new friendships and almost 300 news films at my disposal.
Now that it is all said and done I can proudly say I survived 46 films at the 40th TIFF. Without further ado, here are the best (and worst) the festival had to offer.
5. “Desde allá” ★ ★ ★ ½
I knew nothing about Lorenzo Vigas’ directorial debut “Desde allá” until it won the top honor at the Venice Film Festival in September. I also didn’t know that the Venezuelan film would be touching on one of the most taboo topics in Venezuela: homosexuality. Armando, a middle-aged man and closeted homosexual, likes the company of younger men and often picks up teenagers off the streets and pays them for their time. He meets Elder, a 17-year old gang leader, who refuses his passes until he realizes what Armando has to offer. The relationship that materializes between Elder and Armando is tense and represents internalized homosexuality and the effect comfort has on someone’s love life. “Desde allá” is a twisted love story and even by the end the viewer never knows who is in control.
4. “Son of Saul” ★ ★ ★ ½
"Son of Saul" is one of the most visceral and unforgettable movies from this year's festival circuit. When it premiered at Cannes in May it came out of nowhere and shocked everyone. It made debut director Lázló Nemes a force to look out for. Nemes creates a unique Holocaust story that follows one of the Nazi-captured Jews that were forced to kill their brethren. What makes “Son of Saul” so intense is the filming style that follows Saul as he tries to give a proper burial to a young boy who was killed. Nemes risked a lot to create a new look into the horrors of Auschwitz during Nazi occupation and it resulted in the most horrifying film at TIFF.
3. “Youth” ★ ★ ★ ★
After winning the 2014 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film with “The Great Beauty,” Italian director Paolo Sorrentino reflects on aging and acceptance in his return to English-language “Youth.” Childhood friends Fred (a retired composer played by Michael Caine) and Mick (a filmmaker performed by Harvey Keitel) join each other for a summer at a resort in the Swiss Alps. “Youth” tackles everything from the importance of friendship to the struggles of aging in a really reflective manner. Sorrentino’s self-indulgent tendencies don’t seem faux pas this time around as his vision is cohesively thought out and beautifully executed with a mix of intelligence and surrealism.
2. “Sunset Song” ★ ★ ★ ★
"Sunset Song" comes from one of the U.K.’s most prolific auteurs, Terence Davies. Davies combines his affinity for the past and one of Scotland’s most well-known novels by author Lewis Grassic Gibbon. “Sunset Song” tells the story of Chris, a young farm girl, and her family over the course of a couple decades. Filmed completely on 65 mm and screened on IMAX, “Sunset Song” is perhaps the most beautiful movie of the year. Every shot is so bright, elegant and natural, completely capturing the beautiful Scottish environments. On top of the beauty aesthetic is a personal epic of love, freedom and escape. A true odyssey about the human condition and everything a period film should aspire to be.
1. “Arabian Nights” ★ ★ ★ ★
Not just the best film of the festival or the year, “Arabian Nights” is fighting for a place in my list of best films ever. To call “Arabian Nights” Miguel Gomes' love song to Portugal is an understatement. The three-volume, six-and-a-half hour masterpiece takes inspiration from the epic and classic “One Thousand and One Nights.” What is most impressive about “Arabian Nights” is its resilience to taking the easy way out. Gomes weaves documentary, satire, fable, comedy, essay and drama in and out of each other and never fails to captivate even in a hypnotizing, hour and a half long segment about bird songs. It is impossible to even pick the best of the three volumes as each is better than the last in its own way. The runtime will deter many, but those who are brave enough will be completely engulfed in Gomes' vision and cherish the experience for years to come.
Now for the worst:
5. “Sky” ★ ½ ✩ ✩
“Sky” tries too hard to be everything and fails to really be anything other than a failed tear-jerker. The first act is a lighter version of "Gone Girl" and the back half is about the main character living as a nomad. Along the way, she falls in love with a dying man and finds herself living in the desert among cowboys and Native Americans. “Sky” is wholly uneven and has too much plot so the audience can’t really get invested in the life of the sweet and likable Romy.
4. “I Saw the Light” ★ ½ ✩ ✩
“I Saw the Light” was one of TIFF’s biggest question marks in the weeks leading to the festival and after its premiere it proved to be one of the biggest disappointments. The over two hours long biopic about the late Hank Williams is tiresome for even the biggest of fans. The film’s focus is muddled and insignificant aspect of William’s life seemed to get more attention than important ones. Tom Hiddleston as Williams and Elizabeth Olsen as his first wife, Audrey Mae Sheppard, both deliver excellent performance, especially the latter. Sadly, the movie around them is so under-directed and bland that minutes felt like hours and the entire theater seemed restless by the end.
3. “The Man Who Knew Infinity” ★ ½ ✩ ✩
For those who love the likes of "The Theory of Everything" and "The Imitation Game" comes another middling and bland biopic about a genius who deserves better. “The Man Who Knew Infinity” follows the life of Srinivasa Ramanujan, a poor Brahmin who excelled at math and eventually became a fellow at Cambridge. Dev Patel plays Ramanujan and does a commendable job despite an underwritten part, but all other elements of the film are conventional and artless. Unfortunately, the film never rises to Patel’s performance and belongs in the dreadful, boring category of failed biopic.
2. “Lolo” ★ ✩ ✩ ✩
"Aloha" and "Accidental Love" have competition for the worst romantic comedy of the year with “Lolo.” The humorless, low-brow French, rom-com is directed and lead by European arthouse royalty Julie Delpy. Delpy plays Violette, a middle-aged, divorced, Parisian fashion designer who falls in love with a dopey countryside man despite her son’s animosity for any of her suitors. The film focuses on crass humor and elaborate schemes instead of any sort of real humor. The screenplay, also written by Delpy, is so inherently basic that the whole film just earned a sustained eye-roll.
1. “Southbound” ½ ✩ ✩ ✩
“Southbound” avoided the biggest pitfall of anthology horror by creating five segments that were equal and similarly directed. What it fails to do is create any horror or element of suspense. Between cheap effects, abysmal acting a bland aesthetic, “Southbound” avoids "unmemorable" territory as most viewers will find it just "memorably awful." “Southbound” is destined to be a straight-to-VOD release only appealing to the 13-year old slumber party crowd.
Related links:
Toronto International Film Festival review: ’45 Years’ is as masterful as it is emotional
Eddie Redmayne and director Tom Hooper underwhelm in anticipated film "The Danish Girl"
Reach the reporter at tanner.stechnij@asu.edu or follow @tannerstechnij on Twitter.
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