I arrived in Toronto two hours ago and finally made it to my hotel room from the airport as the next eight days will be dominated by the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). It will be my second time covering the event following last year’s first visit and I cannot wait. However, this year is already looking like a completely different beast.
To begin with, several of the top films showing in this year’s festival have already screened either at Telluride or Venice, films such as David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, Alexander Payne’s The Descendants, George Clooney’s The Ides of March and others including Shame, Albert Nobbs and Butter. However, instead of being frustrated it certainly helps with coverage as this year’s fest remains packed to the teeth with hot features, many of which play at the same time. So, when films don’t necessarily perform as we’d like them to I can feel a little better about choosing one film over another at TIFF, Madonna’s W.E. being the first that comes to mind.
With all of that said I have sorted through my schedule and come up with the top ten films I can’t wait to see once I land in Toronto. To my knowledge, six have screened, or will screen, at other film festivals and four are exclusive to Toronto. Either way, it will be the first time I have seen any of them and I’m looking forward to it.
Let’s dig in…
10.
Rampart
It may be at #10 on my list, but I have a feeling it could come out being my number one by the time the festival is over. Something tells me Oren Moverman‘s Rampart is going to be a gritty hard-nosed corrupt cop thriller as Woody Harrelson plays the last of the LAPD police force’s renegade cops, officer Dave Brown. When Dave is caught on tape “doing the people’s dirty work” and finds himself at the center of a vicious scandal the days of being above the law are over. Now a poster boy for police corruption, Dave learns he’s been targeted by cop killers looking for revenge. Nothing is what it seems as Dave descends into the L.A. underworld and exacts his own brand of justice.
Moverman brought us The Messenger in 2009, which ended up earning Harrelson an Oscar nomination, but this looks like a film of a different sort. Along with Harrelson, Rampart stars Ice Cube, Ben Foster, Sigourney Weaver, Robin Wright, Steve Buscemi, Cynthia Nixon, Anne Heche and Ned Beatty and it was co-written by famed crime novelist James Ellroy (“L.A. Confidential”). Sign me up.
9.
Killer Joe
Corruption in the ranks continues, only this time we’re looking at a dark comedy as Matthew McConaughey plays the titular “Killer Joe.” Directed by William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist), Killer Joe centers on Chris (Emile Hirsch), a 22-year-old drug dealer who has his stash stolen by his mother and has to come up with six thousand dollars quick or he’s dead. Desperate, he turns to “Killer Joe” when he finds out that his mother’s life insurance policy is worth $50,000. Although Joe usually demands cash up front, he finds himself willing to bend the rules in exchange for Chris’ attractive younger sister, Dottie (Juno Temple), who will serve as sexual collateral until the money comes in… if it ever does.
I really want to see Friedkin deliver a film that brings him back to form and with McConaughey in such a role he just might be on the right track.
8.
Shame
Shame just played in Venice and Telluride to rapturous reviews. I have been debating over whether my Monday, September 2, screening time would go to Shame or Albert Nobbs and considering Nobbs already has a distributor and will hit theaters in December, it looks like Shame will get my pair of eyes. Why the TIFF organizers scheduled the fest in such a manner is beyond me, but I have to take what I can get.
Shame centers on Brandon (Michael Fassbender), a 30-something man living in New York who is unable to manage his sex life. After his wayward younger sister (Carey Mulligan) moves into his apartment, Brandon’s world spirals out of control.
The film marks the sophomore directorial effort from Steve McQueen who last teamed with Fassbender in the heart-wrenching feature Hunger. If early word means anything, lightning has struck yet again.
7.
Moneyball
This will be the first film I see on Thursday, September 8 and I have mixed expectations. On the one hand I’m a big fan of Brad Pitt and the fact he remained with this film through all its production ups and downs says something and Bennett Miller (Capote) is a quality director. With a script from Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin based on Michael Lewis’ book, this could be a top notch feature, but that first trailer still has me concerned.
In the film Pitt stars as Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A’s who is forced to work on a tight budget and eventually teams with Ivy League grad Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) who comes up with a plan for recruiting bargain players that may not be top prospects, but they can get on base. I’ve heard the book is excellent and sports stories are typically layups, so it should be interesting to see how this one turns out.
6.
Coriolanus
I had to work a little magic to get to see this one as the first screening is up against George Clooney’s The Ides of March and scheduling meant I had to see Ides at that time so off I went to look for a ticket to one of the public screenings. I landed one as I did not want to miss Ralph Fiennes’ directorial debut, a modern age thriller adapted from William Shakespeare’s (or is it the the Earl of Oxford?) play of the same name.
Fiennes has brought with him Gerard Butler, Brian Cox, Vanessa Redgrave, James Nesbitt and Jessica Chastain and this is said to be a film that will very likely earn Redgrave an Oscar nomination as she plays Volumnia, mother to Fiennes’ Caius Martius ‘Coriolanus’. I can’t wait to see it.
