Best of TIFF ‘24

ANORA -- Pretty Woman meets Cinderella meets Spring Breakers. Sean Baker stuffs every scene with a bewitching mosaic of different emotions: love, hate, fear, disgust, euphoria, doubt. Not only does every scene allow each emotion room enough to breathe, each emotion magnifies every other one. It’s an absolutely magical screenplay.
DEAD TALENTS SOCIETY -- And you think living’s exhausting? In this fantastic story, the dead need to pull their own weight when it comes to the business of scaring the living. If you can’t contribute, you’re vaporized. The movie shines a rollicking spotlight on the downsides of hustle culture and capitalism.
MEET THE BARBARIANS -- A French village agrees to take in a family of Ukrainian refugees. A Syrian family arrives instead, stoking the political divide simmering in this sleepy little town. The screenplay’s comedic, satirical style allows the film’s serious commentary to ring loudly for all to hear.

ROMAIN DURIS (A Missing Part) -- A divorced man in Japan is forbidden from having contact with his daughter (a policy still practiced today, although public opinion seems to be moving toward change). Duris delivers a performance teeming with nuance. He’s not a simple, sympathetic character. He’s a human being with many flaws trying to navigate a life that hasn’t been easy. That sense of groundedness makes him all the more sympathetic and the story all the more stirring.
THE ENTIRE CAST OF THE PIANO LESSON -- This is a film that lives and breathes. Each member of the cast is a vital organ. You can’t possibly remove a single one of them without the whole thing failing. John David Washington is the film’s lungs, Danielle Deadwyler its heart. It’s a true, glorious ensemble performance.
LEXI VENTER (Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight) -- Arguably the best child performance since Home Alone. Unlike Caulkin’s over the top antics, Venter leads with a soul grown far beyond her young years as she observes the crumbling social order of 1980’s Zimbabwe.

KILL THE JOCKEY -- If the Oscars had an award for “The Most Mind Blowing First 15 Minutes of a Film,” this movie would win running away. The blocking, the lighting, the editing, and the cinematography combine to create an exhilarating entrance to the film’s beguiling universe.
SATURDAY NIGHT -- A general rule of movie making holds that each page of a screenplay amounts to one minute of screen time. Ergo, a 90 page screenplay should result in a movie lasting an hour and a half. This frenetic film’s runtime is 109 minutes, but I’d wager the screenplay is at least 400 pages long. The movie’s pace makes Usain Bolt look like Marcel the Shell. It’s an extraordinary act of editing.
QUEER -- Every needle drop in this film hits harder than a boxing glove full of bricks. Nirvana. Prince. Joy Division. Each tune elevates this film’s already too-cool vibe to soaring new heights.

OTHER GREAT FILMS I SAW: Dead Talents Society, The Mountain, Relay, Saturday Night, Will & Harper

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