TIFF '23: What To See at This Year's Fest, Sept. 17

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

Well, that’s a wrap!

The Toronto International Film Festival officially turns out the lights today after one more round of screenings, and awards announcements that should mark the start of the Oscar race, notwithstanding the state of negotiations between the studios, actors and writers.

As for us, we have happily, and sometimes wearily, watched some 80 films and capsule-reviewed them to maximize your viewing pleasure. See you again soon. (And be sure to check out our best and worst of the fest list coming tomorrow).

Riddle of Fire

A Normal Family (Gala Presentations)

Sun, Sept. 17, 7:15pm, Scotiabank 11.

Morality is at the centre of South Korean director Hur Jin-ho’s complex and layered drama. The film — based on the 2009 novel The Dinner by Dutch author Herman Koch — centres on two brothers. Jae-wan (Sol Kyung-gu) is a rich and successful criminal defense lawyer, married to Ji-Su (Claudia Kim), a beautiful, much-younger woman. His brother Jae-Gyu (Jang Dong-gun) is a socially minded pediatrician, an ethic he shares with his wife Yeon-kyung (Kim Hee-ae). There is plenty of tension, and some resentments between the brothers and their wives. That is exacerbated by the fact that Jae-wan has taken on the case of a very rich kid who killed a man, and gravely injured his young daughter, who is now a patient of Jae-Gyu. The couples meet at a monthly dinner to bond and talk about family issues. Each couple has a teenager, and the cousins are close friends. When the kids get into serious trouble, the dilemma challenges the moral standards of each member of the family. The film is at times surprising, at other times cliché, but it very effectively challenges the viewer to wonder how fluid their own morality might be under certain circumstances. KG

His Three Daughters (Special Presentations)

Sun, Sept. 17, 5:30 pm, Scotiabank 12.

Filmmaker Azazel Jacobs (Momma’s Man, The Lovers, French Exit) has created a chamber drama, set in a Bronx apartment, that serves as a dazzling showcase for its three actors playing sisters: Katie (Carrie Coon), Christina (Elizabeth Olsen), and Rachel (Nathasha Lyonne). The trio are overseeing their father’s last few days of life. Despite the gloomy subject and inevitable ending, the film is filled with lively energy and the precision of the performances, sharp moments of humour, and well-paced emotional progression. Oldest sister Katie is a furrowed-brow control freak with a weakness for wine who lives in the city but only manages to visit her father once a month or so. Her younger sister Christina is a one-time Deadhead, now a yoga-practicing mother, whose calculated calm barely disguises her emotional fragility. Rachel, a stepdaughter from the father’ second marriage, is the black sheep, a dope-smoking rebel who has lived with, and cared for, the father through his illness and stands to inherit his rent-controlled apartment. Each of them is terrific, and the interplay between their distinct personalities takes on an almost choral effect. The two male actors who briefly appear — Rachel’s boyfriend Benji (Jova Adepo) and, in a surreal twist, the dying dad (Jay O. Sanders) are similarly impressive. LL

Riddle of Fire (Midnight Madness)

Sun, Sept. 17, 11:30 am, TIFF Bell Lightbox 3.

Riddle of Fire is like being on an extended, but really great, playdate; a 70s-like version of Stranger Things if written and directed by the folks who made Pipi Longstocking movies a thing. But for the life of me, I can’t figure out why it made me think of a 1970s cop show called Mannix. Riddle of Fire is an odyssey film: the heroes are three adventurous children who ride dirt bikes like they were steeds and arm themselves with paint guns. The quest is for a blueberry pie recipe—the one request from their ailing mother. This is the very cool debut from a director with a very cool name: Weston Razooli. And judging from his IMDb photo, Weston looks to be as cool as his name, and his movie would suggest. I’m not buying the connection to Stand by Me which is the low-hanging fruit waiting for comparison. Stand by Me is slick whereas Riddle of Fire thrives on being raw, and clumsy. Its charm is in the imperfections. TE

The Delinquents (Centrepiece)

Sun, Sept. 17, 10:45 am, Scotiabank 2.

This three-hour masterpiece of slow cinema from Argentine writer-director Rodrigo Moreno might be the most wonderfully understated heist film since Bottle Rocket. It’s Ocean’s Two. Mission: Possible. Reservoir Pups. Bank employee Moran (Daniel Elias) robs his employer of $650,000, passes it to his coworker Roman (Esteban Bigliardi), and then turns himself in. He figures he’ll be out in three-and-a-half years, and then the two men can split the money — roughly what they would have made over another 25 years of employment at the bank, he calculates. What happens to Moran in prison, and to Roman on the outside, is unexpected and sometimes wonderful, backed by inventive musical choices and camerawork. CK