By Jim Slotek, Thom Ernst, Karen Gordon, Kim Hughes, John Kirk, Liam Lacey and Bonnie Laufer

We are nearing the home stretch of the 47th annual edition of the Toronto International Film Festival and there is still so much left to see before the festival wraps Sunday (Sept. 18).

Original-Cin writers are previewing as many films as possible to help you maximize the remaining days. Check out our TIFF preview piece and watch for our best-and-worst wrap piece coming soon. Note that because of TIFF embargoes, our capsule reviews are tied to a film’s second public screening, not its first.

Autobiography (Contemporary World Cinema)

Thu, Sept. 15, 5:30 pm, Scotiabank 13; Sun, Sept. 18, 10 am, Scotiabank 14.

A quietly impressive, horrible-boss story from first-time feature director Makbul Mubarak, Autobiography comes to TIFF direct from the Venice Film Festival. Rakib or “Kib” for short (Kevin Ardilova) is an aimless young man working as a housekeeper for an absent General Purna (Arswendy Bening Swara) who returns to his remote Indonesian town to launch a political campaign for mayor. Kib’s father’s in jail, his brother is working abroad, and soon the young man finds himself enlisted as the driver, confidant, and enforcer to the general who, beneath his charismatic presence and expressions of fatherly concern, is a petty, violent sociopath. Mubarak’s frequently stylized use of reflective surfaces becomes an effective metaphor for the way the weak observe and mirror the powerful. LL

The Banshees of Inisherin (Special Presentations)

Thurs, Sept. 15, 9 pm, Scotiabank 1; Sat, Sept. 17, 8:30 pm, Royal Alexandra Theatre.

A buzz film at this year’s TIFF and a rumoured top contender for People’s Choice Award, Banshees reunites the team from 2008’s In Bruges: writer-director Martin McDonagh, and actors Colin Farrell (who won best actor at Venice for this role) and Brendan Gleeson. Two men, lifelong best friends, live on Inisherin, a rugged island off the Irish coast where there is little to do, and everyone knows everyone’s business. It’s 1923. Life is routine, and although the inhabitants can see the explosions across the bay from the civil war, it barely raises an eyebrow, let alone a discussion. As the film opens, Colm (Gleeson) tells Pádraic (Farrell) that he doesn’t like him anymore, and doesn’t want to see him, or talk to him. Pádriac is blindsided and stricken, and despite the advice of many — including his beloved sister Siobhan (Kerry Condon) — to back off, Pádriac can’t be dissuaded. He keeps coming at Colm until things take a turn for the macabre. The film is jammed with odd characters, some tragic, and takes turns that are not predictable. The script, which works both as a straight-ahead narrative and as an allegory, is great as are the performances, including one from Barry Keoghan. KG

Bones of Crows (Contemporary World Cinema)

Thurs, Sept. 15, 11 am, TIFF Bell Lightbox 1.

Heartbreaking, harrowing, and yet also quietly triumphant, writer-director Marie Clements’ film follows fictionalized Cree woman Aline Spears from the 1920s to the present day. Born into a large happy family, Aline and her siblings are ripped away from their parents, and forcibly taken to a residential school, causing them all permanent trauma. Clements tells Aline’s story by jumping around in time, showing her as a young girl, as an adult in love, and working for the Canadian military during WWII, through her marriage, her children, through to old age. Moving us through time in a non-linear way is a clever choice. We get to know Aline and the choices she’s made despite what she experiences. In this way, the film takes us past the headlines and opens the characters on an emotional level. Though fictional, Aline’s story is a composite based on real life experiences, ones many of us know from news stories and from what we learned through Truth and Reconciliation testimony. Clements is covering a large time span in this film, with different actors playing the same characters, and that makes the film uneven, but it remains affecting and human. KG

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Special Presentations)

Fri., Sept. 16, 1 pm, Royal Alexandra Theatre; Sat, Sept. 17, 9 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox 1.

Keep Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery a mystery for as long as possible. Don’t even risk accepting an invitation to a dinner party in case someone at the table has seen the movie and can’t wait to tell you about it. Even being told that director Rian Johnson’s sequel to the sleeper hit Knives Out is notably different than the first could be too much information. And for sure, don’t let them tell you that Glass Onion is funnier and, in ways unexpected, cleverer than the first—these are things you should discover on your own. I am comfortable telling you that Johnson has, perhaps unintentionally, created a franchise for Daniel Craig that is a worthy successor to his James Bond—but you heard none of this from me. Glass Onion has two screening lefts at TIFF. See them both. TE

The Prisoner’s Daughter (Gala Presentations)

Thurs, Sept 15. 5:30 pm, Royal Alexandra Theatre.

His role in Succession may be the most powerful recent reminder of Brian Cox’s talent, but it seems as if he’s always been a part of filmgoers’ lives. Here, directed by Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight), he plays Max, an ex-boxer-turned-mob-enforcer-turned-convict who is given humanitarian leave after a cancer diagnosis — provided he is taken in by his estranged daughter, Maxine (Kate Beckinsale) and her gifted and epilepsy-stricken son Ezra. There’s bullying at school, a violent ex-husband, and a daughter who resents both him and the late mother he couldn’t save. All of this — save the clever ending — plays out pretty much exactly as you’d expect. But to see Cox portray such a dormant volcano is worth the ticket. JS

Saint Omer (Special Presentations)

Fri, Sept. 16, 8:30 pm, Scotiabank 4; Sun, Sept. 18, 3:30 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox 4.

Rama (Kayije Kagame), a successful novelist and professor, is working on her new book, a contemporary telling of the story of Medea. As part of her research, she travels to hear the court case of Laurence (Guslagie Malanda), a young immigrant woman from Senegal who abandoned her daughter on a beach just as the high tide was rolling in. Laurence is a quiet, serious young woman who admits the crime but believes she was compelled by a curse from her family in Africa. As her story unfolds, it’s clear that her time in France has been complicated. She’s been isolated and of course, there has been racism. Still, Laurence is calm, intelligent, and draws our compassion. Meanwhile Rama, who is pregnant, descends into what is either fear, grief, or panic. This is the feature debut of France’s Alice Diop, who has previously made several documentaries. She co-wrote the script, based on an actual event, with Marie NDiaye, who has collaborated with Claire Denis. The film is slow and ambiguous and doesn’t neatly tie things up. Yet terrific performances by its leads make it hard to look away. KG

Sick (Midnight Madness)

Thurs, Sept. 15, 10 am, digital TIFF Bell Lightbox.

Sick is nicely summed up in the TIFF program book, which states that director John Hyams doesn’t reinvent the slasher film here. It’s an accurate statement but sounds like it’s warding off inevitable criticism. I get it, originality is good, but some things don’t need reinventing, and a slasher film is one of them. This story involves Parker (Gideon Adlon) and Miri (Bethlehem Million), two friends who want to spend time together away from the hassle of ex-boyfriends, Zoom classrooms and COVID restrictions. But their quiet getaway is interrupted by an unwanted visitor. If the film seems as though it could fit into the Scream franchise, it’s likely because Scream creator Kevin Williamson is a co-writer on the script. There are nice touches in Sick, including a few decent kills, even though the reveal is not too hard to figure out. TE

So Much Tenderness (Contemporary World Cinema)

Thurs, Sept. 15, 3:30 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox 3; Fri, Sept. 16, 3:40 pm, Scotiabank 5.

Aurora (Noëlle Schönwald) — an environmental lawyer for an NGO in Colombia who has endured death threats because of her work — flees to Toronto after her husband is murdered. Her teenage daughter Lucia (Natalia Aranguren) joins her, and they get on with making a life for themselves. They’re thousands of miles away from the threats and violence, but also far from their roots and family. In her fourth film, Toronto-based Colombian Canadian filmmaker Lina Rodriquez focuses on how refugees move forward even if the ghosts of the past are never quite in the rear-view mirror. Rodriquez makes her confident, artful films with the lightest touch and limited exposition, preferring to let us observe her well-drawn characters as they go about their day-to-day lives, leaving us to draw our own conclusions. KG

Valeria Is Getting Married (Contemporary World Cinema)

Sat, Sept. 17, 4:15 pm, Scotiabank 11.

Though essentially a mail-order bride, Ukrainian immigrant Christina seems happy with her new life in Israel as she learns Hebrew and works as a dog-walker and manicurist. As least, that’s what she insists to younger sister Valeria, who Christina’s husband David has matched, for profit, with Eitan. But on Valeria and Eitan’s first in-person meeting, things go seriously sideways, jeopardizing Valeria’s promised new life in Israel while exposing fault lines in Christina’s relationship with David. Filmmaker Michal Vinik — who scripted 2018’s Working Woman, another superbly insightful female-gaze import from Israel — doesn’t lard this fleet tale with exposition. Instead, she lets Christina and Valeria’s increasing urgency over the course of a single day scribble in the narrative. Watching feels a bit like eavesdropping, which makes Valeria Is Getting Married feel strikingly real. KH

Women Talking (Specials Presentations)

Fri, Sept. 16, 8:30 pm, Royal Alexandra Theatre; Sat, Sept. 17, 6 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox 1.

This is director Sarah Polley’s take on Miriam Toews’ novel about women in a closed-off religious colony. They take advantage of the men’s absence to conduct a lengthy, heated discussion over what to do about revelations that they’ve been drugged and abused for years. The legal system is apparently involved, since the men are trying to raise bail. But Women Talking is entirely what its title suggests — an extended conversation about the fear of leaving the only life they ever knew, versus an awareness of wrongdoing that may make them willing to risk losing their entry into the kingdom of heaven. The cast is stellar: Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Frances McDormand, Rooney Mara, Sheila McCarthy. Each personality is sharply defined. Ultimately the film is play-like in nature, like listening in on heated jury deliberations, with plenty of fodder for discussion later. JS

TIFF ’22: What To See at This Year’s Fest, Round 7

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