Toronto was abuzz this past weekend as droves of people attended the Canadian National Exhibition, and there will be little respite for the city this week as the Toronto International Film Festival is set to kick off Thursday, September 4th. As is the case each year, there is an abundance of tantalizing features screening at Canada’s premiere film festival, and I am here to narrow it down to my 5 most anticipated entries that are sure to make waves with audiences and awards voters alike.
- Ballad of a Small Player
I begin this list with the latest film from one of the most highly regarded international filmmakers of this decade, Edward Berger. The Swiss and Austrian filmmaker won the Academy Award for Best International Film for directing the 2022 World War II epic All Quiet on the Western Front, and last year’s Vatican-based political thriller Conclave made positive waves with critics as well as at the box office.
Berger is looking to continue this streak with his latest effort starring Colin Farrell, Ballad of a Small Player. Adapted from the book of the same name by Lawrence Osborne, Farrell plays an alcoholic and degenerate gambler named Lord Doyle who is running from his past and hiding out in Macao. His debts in the city are ever rising until he is given a lifeline from a mysterious casino worker (Fala Chen), but his past is also catching up with him in the form of a private investigator played by Tilda Swinton.
Berger and Farrell’s involvement alone is enough to generate buzz for this intriguing drama, and you can be sure there will be an Oscars push for Farrell throughout the awards season.
- The Smashing Machine
Speaking of the Oscars, none have made their intentions for a nomination clearer than a near-unrecognizable Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who dons facial prosthetics to portray former UFC fighter Mark Kerr in The Smashing Machine.
While the film might initially evoke a sense of “Oscar-baiting,” as it’s a biographical drama featuring a physically altered star, this is a biopic that is much more in the vain of The Fighter than The Babe, as it is written, directed, and co-produced by Benny Safdie, marking his first solo outing as a filmmaker. Safdie has worked with his brother Josh on previous projects, most notably the acclaimed dramas Good Time and Uncut Gems. Both films boasted incredibly strong performances from their leads, Robert Pattinson and Adam Sandler respectively, with the latter even being singled out as a notable snub when he was overlooked for a Best Actor nomination at the Oscars. Perhaps Dwayne Johnson can be the first Safdie actor to get over that hump and land a first nomination of his own.
- Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Just as James Cameron has dedicated the more recent years of his illustrious career devoted to his passion project, the Avatar franchise, Rian Johnson has been committed to the Knives Out films, which stand as a clear love letter to the works of Agatha Christie.
Daniel Craig returns for his third outing as the private investigator Benoit Blanc, who is the only constant presence in the franchise, though as was the case with Knives Out and Glass Onion, he is joined by a stellar cast that includes Josh O’Connor, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renn, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, and Thomas Hayden Church.
This time around, Blanc finds himself in a small-town community with a mystery involving the church. Not too much is known otherwise about the overarching crime and the ensuing mystery as of yet, though there was a teaser released several months ago, in which Blanc remarks – with Johnson’s usual verbal flair – “The impossible crime. For a man of reason this is the Holy Grail. This was dressed as a miracle. But it’s just a murder, and I solve the murders.” How delightfully gothic!
If you can hardly wait to unravel another Agatha Christie-inspired mystery from Rian Johnson, then this should be at the top of your list.
- Frankenstein
While Rian Johnson might be leaning into the gothic with his latest Knives Out entry, Guillermo del Toro is the quintessential gothic filmmaker of his generation, delivering master works such as Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, and his two live action Hellboy films. It makes total sense, then, for del Toro to tackle arguably the most famous piece of gothic fiction, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
There is rarely a more fitting pairing to be found between the adapter and the adapted, as it is not just del Toro’s gothic visual aesthetic that makes him the best filmmaker in the industry for this film, but also his affinity for the monster as an allegory for the social ‘other’. Even more intriguingly, this will not be a direct adaptation of the Mary Shelley novel, but rather he will adapt certain elements of her book, while inserting narrative elements of his own.
His take on Frankenstein boasts a striking cast that includes Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz, Canadian actress Lauren Collins, Lars Mikkelsen, David Bradley, Charles Dance, and the increasingly ubiquitous Ralph Ineson.
- Hamnet
I conclude my list, then, with Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet, and for good reason. Early reviews are calling it a return to form for Zhao, with the praise being so effusive that it has become an early front-runner in the Oscars race.
After a run of acclaimed films that saw Zhao become a critical darling, even nabbing Best Picture and Best Director statues at the Oscars for Nomadland, many were surprised at just how disappointing her subsequent feature, the Marvel film Eternals, had turned out, which became the worst reviewed entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe at the time. After four years, the longest gap between films since her featured debut in 2015, Songs My Brothers Taught Me, Zhao has responded with Hamnet, a fictional story centered on the life of William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and Agnes Shakespeare (Jessie Buckley) after the death of their 11-year-old son, the titular Hamnet. It is adapted from the book of the same name by Maggie O’Farrell, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Zhao.
Co-produced by Hollywood heavyweights Steven Spielberg and Sam Mendes, as the reviews continue to pour in it has become abundantly clear that the buzz surrounding Hamnet is legitimate. The writing, directing, and performances of Irish actors Mescal and Buckley are being singled out for particular praise, with IndieWire notably calling it an “Unspeakably Devastating Shakespeare Fanfic” and a “nuclear-grade tear-jerker.”
As such, Hamnet is unquestionably one of the must-see features of the entire film festival.