TIFF 2023: Our Thrills, Yawns, and Suggestions for a Better Future Festival
By Jim Slotek, Liz Braun, Thom Ernst, Karen Gordon, Kim Hughes, Chris Knight, Liam Lacey, and Bonnie Laufer
Another year, another Toronto International Film Festival. As usual, the event was equal parts exciting, exhausting, and energizing. But screening films — and writing about them, as our group did extensively throughout the festival’s 11 days —sure beats hanging drywall for a living.
With the 48th annual edition now in the rearview, we look back on what made us tingle and what made us yawn while offering the gentlest of gentle suggestions about how the whole operation could be even better next year.
Dream Scenario
Jim Slotek
Biggest Thrill: Dream Scenario. Put “Nicolas Cage” and “surrealist” in the same sentence and my expectations are already pretty high. But this story about an innocuous college professor who suddenly shows up in millions of people’s dreams (and becomes famous for it) is an intelligent mix of comedy and horror, and a stunningly sly comment on the culture of celebrity. Fame poisons the spirit and the rebound-dream effect poisons the phenomenon. And when things go violently south on a global mind-scale, Cage is all in.
Biggest Disappointment: Richard Linklater’s Hit Man. How could something based on a true story come off so fake? It’s the tale of a college instructor whose side gig was posing as a hit man for the police, to nab the people seeking his “services.” But the noir-ish love story injected into the plot is contrivance upon coincidence upon contrivance and with an ending that makes no sense at all. And a director known for creating believably colourful characters doesn’t manage to make anyone seem real here.
Message to TIFF: Barring the media from publishing capsule reviews before the first public performance of any film is counter-productive and a disservice to paying customers. Worse, it makes it look like you’re hiding movies instead of celebrating them.
Liz Braun
Biggest Thrill: I had an extraordinary conversation with Canadian author Kim Thuy about seeing the film version of her novel, Ru, with a TIFF audience. Various world-famous directors also spoke about how much they love TIFF audiences — proud to be Canadian.
Biggest Disappointment: The first media screening of Nicolaj Arcel's The Promised Land was cancelled due to tech issues. Hope critics had another chance to see it, because it's an absolutely transporting film and Mads Mikkelsen's performance is superb.
Message to TIFF: It's Bell's loss.
Thom Ernst
Biggest Thrill: The opening scene of American Fiction.
Biggest Disappointment: Dumb Money. Not because it was bad, but because it wasn’t great. Paul Dano climbs above a script that panders to all things rabblerousing, and while there are strong moments, the middle finger it raises against corporations and money-keepers — represented through a montage of people watching the business report — might not be the payoff they think it is. Plenty to like in Dumb Money, but it was my biggest disappointment. And Pete Davidson is still not quite ready for the big screen although his brief stint as Blackguard in The Suicide Squad was fun.
Message to TIFF: My message to TIFF is to thank them for responding to my ‘message to TIFF’ from last year. The press room is bigger and better. It made writing between films a lot easier. Now can we talk about getting a beer sponsor?
Karen Gordon
Biggest Thrill: I had good luck this year. Some extraordinary, moving, and beautiful movies with fantastic performances. Experiences I can’t shake and are still living with me. Top two favourites: The Zone of Interest. Writer-director’s Jonathan Glazer’s examination of the commandant of Auschwitz and his wife building their dream life next to the concentration camp is deeply affecting and troubling. And Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days, with lead actor Kôji Yakusho, is a simple, beautiful movie about an older man quietly savouring the routine of his life.
Biggest Disappointment: You always have to make choices at TIFF because of the schedule. Between that and a strain to my Achilles tendon which slowed me way down, I didn't get to see about a third of the movies on my wish list.
Message to TIFF: Too many early morning press screenings with start times lined up like horses at a racetrack and overlapping screening times forced choices that cut out too many films. Please consider starting some screenings a bit later. Also, embargoes limit our coverage, especially for the first few days. I’d love to see that embargo lifted so we can cover even more films for our readers!
Kim Hughes
Biggest Thrill: Peering into different corners and eras of the world, a perennial thrill with film. These included Sweden via Malta (Shame on Dry Land), northern Wales (Chuck Chuck Baby), Germany (The Teachers’ Lounge, Not a Word), Brazil (Toll), and the Australian outback (The Royal Hotel, Limbo) plus 80s-era Italy (La Chimera), post-WWI Britain (Wicked Little Letters), and 19th century France (Widow Clicquot).
Biggest Disappointment: So many films, so little time.
Message to TIFF: Packing the first day of the festival with press and industry screenings — as happened this year but not always in the past — is smart and very helpful, allowing members of the press to get a leg up. That’s especially true since the TIFF-imposed embargo prevents even capsule reviews prior to a film’s first public screening… even if a film has already screened at another festival and been reviewed.
American Fiction
Chris Knight
Biggest Thrill: Seeing Jeffrey Wright knock it out of the park with his performance as an author whose tongue-in-cheek “Black novel” gets away from him in American Fiction. I remember thinking ‘Who is this guy?’ when I saw him in Broken Flowers in 2005. I’ve followed and enjoyed his work since then. I hope it’s Oscar time at last.
Biggest Disappointment: Next Goal Wins. I thought this was a perfectly adequate sports-underdog story. But I expect greater things from Taika Waititi. After Thor: Love & Thunder, this is his weakest film to date.
Message to TIFF: Please redo your volunteers spot that plays before every screening. It’s the same as last year and contains the same error: that no moviegoer will go “unmeeted, ungreeted or unseated.” Unmeeted is not a word. It’s not even slang. It’s on par with “I brung something with me.” The word you want — and no, it doesn’t rhyme — is “unmet.” I appreciate the volunteers. I also appreciate good grammar.
Liam Lacey
Biggest Thrill: I was surprised and moved by Wildcat, Ethan Hawke’s drama about author Flannery O’Connor, starring his gifted daughter Maya Hawke and Laura Linney, which blended a biographical drama with vignettes from the author’s stories.
Biggest Disappointment: Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s About Dry Grasses doesn’t lack for ideas or striking imagery but this talky, distended character study of a misanthropic art teacher stuck in the Turkish countryside has little emotional payoff.
Message to TIFF: In my experience, the biggest source of frustration with TIFF is the ticketing gauntlet. It would be great if we could spend a little more time looking at, writing, and talking about films and less watching the spinning wheel of dashed hopes on our phones.
One Life
Bonnie Laufer
Biggest Thrill: As accredited press we are allowed to choose 10 tickets for public viewings. I hit the jackpot with all 10 of my picks, so that was a thrill. But movie-wise, it was a toss up. Seeing Sing Sing with star Colman Domingo and the entire cast — which included the real-life ex-inmates who were in the film and were rehabilitated by the prison theater program —was unforgettable. Also, experiencing One Life with Anthony Hopkins. It’s the true story of British humanitarian Nicholas Winton, who helped groups of Jewish children in German-occupied Czechoslovakia to flee just before the beginning of WWII. At the end of the screening, director James Hawes asked who in this audience is here because of Nicholas Winton? About three dozen audience members stood up. I am getting goosebumps just writing this. I will never forget that moment.
Biggest Disappointment: Not being able to fit more screenings into my schedule. So many movies I wanted to see were unattainable. Oh well, I will look forward to their eventual release.
Message to TIFF: Why didn’t you fight harder for Bradley Cooper’s Maestro. Although Netflix had a stunning selection of their upcoming films showcased at TIFF, I selfishly wanted Maestro.
