Best of TIFF ‘23
Photo Credit: Yahoo Eurosport UK
STORIES: A
#3: Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person: Fitting in is never easy. But it’s especially tough when you’re a vampire who can’t bear the thought of eating innocent humans. The solution? Find the ones who already want to die.
#2: The Monk & The Gun: Democracy is coming to Bhutan, and not everybody is happy about it. A monk comes out of a two year meditation, demanding a gun so he can “take care of it”. And he’s not the only one who wants a gun. An international arms dealer is scouring the Asian countryside as well. The film’s summary may sound intense, but instead the story gives us a delightful, lighthearted goose chase.
#1: Origin: Writer-director Ava DuVernay’s film raises the bar for adapting non-fiction. She doesn’t just dish the facts; she fully immerses us in the times and places where these facts took place. Nazi Germany. Delhi, India. The ostensibly safe suburban neighborhood ofTrayvon Martin. On top of that, we follow Isabel Wilkerson as she researches and crafts her groundbreaking book, “Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents”.
PEOPLE: A+
#3: Domingo Coleman (Sing Sing): This isn’t the TIFF film he’s receiving Oscar buzz for (that would be Rustin, which I did not have a chance to see), but Domingo is amazing here as an incarcerated person who runs a theater program for inmates.
#2: Jamie Foxx (The Burial): Foxx could have easily phoned it in and turned Willie Gary into a cliche. Foxx joyfully dances close to that line, but he also infuses Gary with a surprising and touching vulnerability.
#1: Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall): A “did-she-or-didn’t-she-kill-her-husband?” role is difficult to do convincingly. Hüller may have delivered the best one yet. The argument with her husband should be enough to win her the Oscar.
FILM NERD STUFF: A+
#3: The Boy and the Heron soundtrack: As is often the case in Studio Ghibli films, Joe Hisaishi’s beautiful score guides us on a journey from Tragedy to Fantastical Realms, before we finally arrive at Hope. The music puts its arm around our shoulder, gently reminding us that we’re all going to be ok.
#2: The Culling broadcast fight scene, from Boy Kills World: It’s intense. It’s gory. It also takes place in a pastel colored, wintery wonderland. The juxtaposition of action and setting definitely fills the scene with a flavor to remember.
#1: The tiny piece of plastic, from Sing Sing: A small piece of plastic sheeting - which had been used just moments earlier to morph a makeshift stage in a maximum security prison into a stormy Mediterranean Sea - sits snagged on barbed wire. The image appears on screen for only a couple seconds. Yet that brief moment is more than enough to remind us that hope and freedom (within one’s mind) don’t always survive on the inside.
TOP TEN FILMS (Elective Class): A
NOTE: I saw 18 features and 5 shorts at TIFF. This is the best of what I got to see.
10. Dammi (short film)
9. Boy Kills World
8. Evil Does Not Exist
7. Copa ‘71
6. Sing Sing
5. The Burial
4. Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person
3. The Monk & The Gun
2. Anatomy of a Fall
1. Origin
FINAL COMMENTS:
This year’s festival may have lacked the usual big names and events. While we can’t wait to welcome back all of that, this year allowed us to focus more on the movies. And what we saw in them did not disappoint.