5 Days at TIFF, 5 Big TakeawaysMarianne Jean-Baptiste and Adrien Brody enter the chat, 'The Substance' has just that, the fight to see 'The Brutalist' and why you always need to be open to surprise
Hello from Toronto, where the brisk fall weather has officially set in and the festival remains buzzy and busy five days into one of the most jam-packed TIFF lineups in recent memory. Today I’ll be catching two titles that already popped up at other fall festivals — Conclave, which debuted at Telluride, and Queer, straight from Venice — and attending parties for two others, Better Man and Emilia Perez. If you see me, as ever, please say hi. During my live Prestige Junkie podcast event with special guest Hugh Grant on Saturday, I got a new perspective on TIFF’s famed audiences, who were generous with their laughs and their enthusiasm as I talked to the star of A24’s thriller Heretic. (You’ll be able to hear that full conversation on the podcast tomorrow — stay tuned!) Toronto’s audiences hold much more power than making a lowly podcaster feel welcome onstage. When the TIFF People’s Choice Award is announced on Sunday, it will kick off a round of speculation from pundit types about whether said film will be on the fast-track to a best picture nomination; for the past 12 years, it’s meant exactly that. (2012’s winner, the Lebanese drama Where Do We Go Now, was the last to defy this remarkable trend.) There’s still plenty of festival left to go before it makes sense to speculate about that award. But TIFF’s audience enthusiasm can mean much more than just a best picture boost, and whether you’re witnessing a standing ovation or just eavesdropping on what people are talking about in line, it’s a fantastic way to take the temperature about the titles we’ll be talking about between now and Oscar night. So in today’s newsletter, I’ve got a field guide for what to look out for from Toronto premieres and press screenings, and what I’ve witnessed over the past five days that feel like it means something about the awards race to come. With Toronto still in full swing, it’s also time to say goodbye to the Venice Film Festival, which announced its awards at the very moment I was onstage podcasting. Nicole Kidman, whose film Babygirl will play here in Toronto tomorrow, won the best actress prize for what’s being hailed as a fearless performance even by her own high standards, and Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door won the top prize, the Golden Lion. The Venice awards also dovetailed nicely with what’s been the only major acquisition of the festival so far. A24 picked up domestic rights for Brady Corbet’s epic The Brutalist, just a few hours after the actor-turned-director won the best director prize at Venice. (Universal and Focus Features have the international rights.) More on The Brutalist in a bit, but with plans for release this fall, Adrien Brody is now a near-certain addition to a very busy best actor race, where A24 is already fielding Colman Domingo in Sing Sing and Daniel Craig in Queer. Later this week I’ll take a closer look at each studio’s slate, but A24’s is looking mighty strong — and crowded.
Standing Ovations Matter, No Matter How Long They LastThe trades have made a bizarre, sometimes cringe-worthy sport of timing the length of standing ovations at Venice and Cannes — as my Toronto sidekick Richard Rushfield lampooned last week — where for some reason clapping for a full 10 minutes seems like a reasonable response even to the hugest of future bombs. TIFF audiences show their enthusiasm in shorter but no less memorable ways — such as the mid-movie applause during Hit Man’s premiere last year, or the wave of cheers that met Regina King’s credit following the world premiere of If Beale Street Could Talk, the start of a very successful Oscar campaign. I was reminded of that moment following Friday night’s world premiere of Hard Truths, the new film from Mike Leigh, which reunites him with his Secrets and Lies co-star Marianne Jean-Baptiste. Though the film’s scale is incredibly small, focusing on six family members in their modest London homes, Jean-Baptiste gives a towering, darkly hilarious lead performance, every bit as ferocious as Brody’s in The Brutalist or Amy Adams in Nightbitch. When Jean-Baptiste took the stage following the premiere, the crowd leapt to its feet — not a long ovation, but an extremely heartfelt one, and clear evidence of the power of her performance as a woman who hurls insults at anyone who crosses her path. My friend David Ehrlich keeps comparing it to putting Daniel Day-Lewis’s Bill the Butcher from Gangs of New York into a domestic family drama. As you might remember, that was an Oscar-nominated role too. As one of the highest-profile world premieres at TIFF, Hard Truths is the title I’ve been hearing about the most from colleagues who were as thrilled as I was to see Jean-Baptiste’s performance and Leigh back to working in his deceptively simple contemporary style. It’s set for a qualifying release in December, primed for discovery by awards voters later in the year after they’ve seen some of the bigger contenders. But despite the incredible competition already shaping up in best actress, it’s hard to imagine anything bigger or more impactful than what Jean-Baptiste does here. It’s Never Too Late at Night to Find Something You Love That said, I still haven’t seen Demi Moore’s hugely acclaimed work in The Substance, which played as part of TIFF’s Midnight Madness section on Thursday night. I personally had to admit defeat after initially securing a ticket, knowing that no matter how thrilling Coralie Fargeat’s body horror film is, I would not survive watching anything until almost three in the morning. My colleague Richard and hundreds of Toronto’s most devoted moviegoers, however, forged onward, and I’ve since spent days hearing about the wild enthusiasm pouring out of that theater while the rest of us were asleep. TIFF’s Midnight Madness section doesn’t often produce awards contenders, but when you’ve got the genre fanatics as well as the critics going gaga over your movie, you know you’re onto something special. Listen for the Laughs
At a breakfast for the cast of Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night, which plays here on Tuesday, I briefly got to talk to star Corey Michael Smith (who plays Chevy Chase) about the unique power of playing a comedy for a live audience. With a drama, you have to have your antennae up and sense whether that’s a tense, engaged silence or a totally bored one. But for a comedy like Saturday Night, the laughs tell you everything you need to know. That’s true even for films that aren’t outright comedies, like both Hard Truths and Anora, the Palme d’Or winner that played for a lively TIFF crowd on Sunday night. The film’s big comic home invasion set piece got laughs, of course, but so did tiny glances and line deliveries, evidence that the audience had tuned in precisely to the humor of Sean Baker’s unique world. Even if these films will never get as many outright laughs as they do from these hyper-engaged festival audiences, it’s a good barometer for when a film is doing exactly what it ought to do, and taking the crowd right along with it. Even If a Fight Breaks Out in Line, Stay In Line I knew I had to come prepared for the 9:45 a.m. press screening of Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, which wouldn’t get picked up by A24 for a few days still, but was already a hot ticket. Except at festival press screenings, you don’t actually get a ticket — your badge gives you the opportunity to get in line, and you’d better hope they let you in before the room is at capacity. When I showed up an hour early for The Brutalist, the line had already stretched out onto King Street, and the chattering film enthusiasts around me were speculating nervously about whether we’d get in. Just before it was my turn, a film bro mysteriously turned up to join his friends in line in front of me. The man behind me shouted in outrage to the volunteer in charge of managing the line, but to no avail. Luckily, we all got in, line-cutter included.
I tweeted about the minor dustup because I knew it was the kind of small-scale festival drama that makes for great gossip, and it also felt indicative of the white-hot anticipation out there for The Brutalist, which for me felt well-earned. I don’t think I was the only person who turned to my companion during the film’s 10-minute intermission with a look of awe on my face, confirming that everyone else was having as great a time as I was. I’m not sure the second half quite lives up to the first — hell, neither does Lawrence of Arabia’s — but The Brutalist will be extremely fun to discuss all season, and I’m anticipating robust campaigns not just for Adrien Brody’s towering lead performance but for Guy Pearce and Felicity Jones in their supporting roles, Corbet’s direction as well as the score from composer Daniel Blumberg, working on only his second feature. If you hear about shouting matches in line for Academy screenings of this one, you’ll know they’ve really got a contender on their hands. Leave Room for the Element of Surprise
I’m perhaps more susceptible than most to film festival herd mentality. I felt a pang of jealousy realizing almost everyone I knew was attending the evening premiere of We Live In Time, even though I had plans to see it at the following morning’s press screening and I was seeing Hard Truths, which was incredible. But you cannot go to a festival as expansive as TIFF without making time for something way off everyone else’s radar. Before the festival started, I got the chance to see The Mountain, the directorial debut of New Zealand actress Rachel House, which is winning and charming and a delightful surprise. My first screening was the Latvian animated film Flow, a gorgeous post-apocalyptic tale starring five animals — especially a very cute cat — that you will very likely be hearing about when the best animated feature Oscar race heats up. I’m still mostly chasing the awards season buzz here at TIFF — it’s in the job description — but grateful every time I can steal two hours for something completely new. Follow us: X | Facebook | Instagram | Threads ICYMI
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