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

Well, this is it. Our final roundup of capsule reviews of films playing the Toronto International Film Festival, which wraps its 49th edition Sunday with a full slate of weekend screenings.

As well, we also offer a deeply considered response to the controversial documentary Russians at War, written by our own Thom Ernst, who has particular insight into the film’s backstory. It’s below.

We sincerely hope our reviews have assisted in making good choices of films to see. We’d hate to think we steered anyone wrong. That said, film is subjective, like wine and music: your Nickelback could be my Mozart, your Greta Gerwig my Tommy Wiseau. You like what you like, no judgment.

On Monday, we return with our annual TIFF post-mortem feature, summarizing what we loved, what broke our hearts (and not in a good way) as well as our suggestions for how to keep TIFF the festival we all deserve. Wishing you a cinematic weekend.

Dead Talents Society (Midnight Madness)

Sat, Sept. 14, 12:20 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 7.

In the afterlife, relevance matters, as does fame, celebrity, and public recognition, even if your audience is a society full of dead wannabes. Catherine (Sandrine Pinna) is an A-list superstar in the spirit world who bends backwards to keep her position as the most terrifying urban legend ever haunting a hotel room. But then comes the Rookie (Gingle Wang) with a few frightful tricks of her own. Dead Talents Society feels like a comedic-horror take on All About Eve, even if only in—ahem—spirit. Director John Hsu has created a mystical, dangerous, and extreme universe where those who have passed into the netherworld must make their presence known by scaring hapless victims from the world of the living. Failing to do so will cause their ghostly form to glitch and evaporate. It’s the ultimate distinction between the relevant and the has-beens. Hsu fills the film with violent slapstick accidents and huge, deadly egos. It’s a dizzy ride behind the scenes of the world’s best hauntings. TE

Do I Know You From Somewhere? (Discovery)

Fri, Sept. 13, 6:45 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 5.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind meets Sliding Doors in The Twilight Zone when a couple, Olive and Benny (Caroline Bell and Ian Ottis Goff) find they are beginning to forget one another. This as unfamiliar items pop up in their home, and a series of mysterious fridge magnets starts counting down to zero. A feature debut from Fredericton director Arianna Martinez, this is a slightly underdeveloped story, enlivened somewhat by delightful acting by the leads, and by Mallory Amirault as Ada, who is slowly replacing Benny in Olive’s memories. At 79 minutes, it doesn’t overstay its welcome, and it’s a fun, freaky concept that may leave you wondering: What if…? CK

Else (Midnight Madness)

Fri, Sept. 13, 3:45 pm Scotiabank Theatre 9.

In Else, people are literally melting into their surroundings — fusing with the concrete, the walls, the bedsheets. It’s a viral disease that spreads through eye contact. For Anx (Matthieu Sampeur) and his newfound love interest Cass (Èdith Proust), resisting the urge to gaze into each other’s eyes is a constant struggle. Locked inside their apartment with nothing but the voices of neighbours traveling through the garbage chute to keep them company, Anx and Cass find their fledgling romance deepening. Anx, whose crippling anxiety and pronounced germophobia have long kept him at a distance from others, is perhaps the most surprised by this unexpected connection. Cass, eccentric and carefree, is less concerned with germs, and she manages to unlock a sense of joy in him. But inevitably, the virus makes its way into the building. This stylized, well-acted debut from director Thibault Emin has moments of both horror and tenderness. It’s one of those rare gems that make festival-going such a rewarding experience. TE

Emilia Pérez (Special Presentations)

Fri, Sept. 13, 9 pm, TIFF Lightbox 1; Sat, Sept. 14, 9:45 pm, Princess of Wales Theatre.

A hearty ¡Ay, caramba! seems the only appropriate response to Emilia Pérez, an amazingly ambitious (possibly overstuffed?) narco-crime drama and gender-fluid pop opera from French director Jacques Audiard, a gifted stylist best known for tough realist dramas A Prophet and Rust and Bone. Loosely adapted from Boris Razon’s 2018 novel Écoute, this women-centred tale stars a never-more-compelling Zöe Saldaña as Rita, a low-paid Mexican junior attorney who opts upwards to become a rich fixer for a cartel boss. There’s also Selena Gomez, who plays a drug lord’s pampered but ruthless trophy wife. But it’s Spanish transgender actor Karla Sofia Gascón who dominates the film in a role in which she transitions from the violent cartel leader Manitas to the titular sleek and maternal Emilia Pérez. Throughout the film, characters break into dance and occasionally song when the spirit moves them, usually musical soliloquies to express their hidden feelings. At other times, business deals and courtroom addresses turn into rap, and a medical team spins gurneys and IV tubes while singing about vaginoplasty. A genuine hybrid film, Emilia Pérez echoes the camp noir tone Pedro Almodóvar but also delivers on brutal midnight gun fights, spectacular car crashes, and grisly excavations of corpses with a core of rage within the frivolity. LL

Happyend (Centrepiece)

Fri, Sept. 13, 9 am, TIFF Lightbox 4.

In a near-future Tokyo under threat of an imminent earthquake, five rebellious high schoolers push back against rules that curtail their freedom in the name of safety and security. That includes attending an illegal rave, balancing the principal's sports car on its tail (an act he defines as “terrorism”), and staging a sit-in when the school installs Panopty, a surveillance system that tracks all students and issues automatic demerits for uniform infractions, smoking or public displays of affection. With themes of xenophobia and racism (one of the students is Korean, another has a Black father in America), Happyend has the potential to go to some dark places, and I rather wish it did lean into the consequences of the characters’ actions a little more. But writer-director Neo Sora keeps the mood light, more Breakfast Club than Rumble Fish. I mean, just look at that title. CK

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (Special Presentations)

Sun, Sept. 15, 6:15 pm, Scotiabank 10.

The guinea fowl, we learn from a vintage Zambian educational show, is a friend to other animals on the savannah because it squawks a warning when a predator approaches. Zambian Welsh writer-director Rungano Nyoni (I Am Not a Witch) associates the bird with On Becoming a Guinea Fowl’s protagonist Shula (Susan Chardy), who first appears behind the wheel of a car at night, on her way home from a fancy party, dressed in a black balloon-like costume and glittering mask, like a plump exotic bird. Shula stops when she sees the corpse of her Uncle Fred lying on the road outside a brothel and calls home to her father. The news of Uncle Fred’s death spreads through the family, relatives congregate, eat and drink, revelations are made, and sides are taken. The core issue is that Shula, along with other female cousins, was sexually abused by Fred through her childhood. The older generation, out of family solidarity, greed, or sustaining patriarchal dominance, prefer to ignore the past. As well as being funny and aggrieved, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl is beautifully crafted, featuring the ethereal night cinematography of David Gallego and subliminally unnerving sound design. LL

On Swift Horses (Special Presentations)

Sat, Sept. 14, 9:45 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 14; Sat, Sept. 15, 12:30 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 4.

This finely drawn adaptation of Shannon Pufahl’s 2019 novel is a persuasive reminder that while all choices carry consequences, we can rarely if ever foresee what their outcomes will be. In 1950s America, newlyweds Muriel and Lee (Daisy Edgar-Jones, Will Poulter) settle in suburban San Diego, mostly to fulfill Will’s dream of having a safe, secure home. The pair hope Will’s beloved but untethered brother Julius (Jacob Elordi) will leave Vegas, where he is working as a cheat-spotter in a casino, to complete their family. Unknown to Will, both Julius and Muriel are pursuing potentially risky secret lives, revelations of which will divide the trio in ways both heartbreaking and liberating. Director Daniel Minahan draws nuanced performances from his terrific cast, which includes Diego Calva as Julius’ best-worst friend. KH

Pedro Páramo (Platform)

Sun, Sept. 14, 3:45 pm, TIFF Lightbox 4.

Based on the 1955 canonical magic realist novel by Juan Ruffo, Pedro Páramo marks the directorial debut of celebrated cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (Killers of the Flower Moon, Barbie, 27 Grams). This epic ghost story, which defies synopsis, begins with Juan, who travels through the Mexican desert to an apparently abandoned town with the goal of fulfilling his dying mother’s wish that he locate his father Pedro Páramo (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), and get what he is entitled to. Juan ends up in a ruin of a house where various characters, apparently ghosts, introduce him to the history of his father, a local tyrant, father of many illegitimate children, and protector of his violent, sexually abusive son. While each scene, from the dusty home to the historical re-enactments, are hauntingly rendered, the abrupt narrative shifts are impenetrable and ultimately, the viewer is left surrendering to the hallucinatory imagery. LL

Queer (Special Presentations)

Sat, Sept. 14, 4 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 2; Sun, Sept. 15, 5:45 pm, Scotiabank Theater 2.

Describing a William S. Burroughs adaption as “hallucinatory” is unhelpful but somehow essential. Yet it’s the way director Luca Guadagnino teases out the psychedelic crinkles of this 1940s-era autobiographical story that makes Queer such a maddening head-spinner. Guadagnino drags viewers into a kaleidoscopic vortex of sumptuous visuals but disorienting sonics, as when Nirvana’s “Come As You Are” blasts into a scene where protagonist Lee (Daniel Craig, fearless) first spies Allerton (Drew Starkey) as the pair observe a cockfight in a post-war Mexico filled with starving dogs, clouds of cigarette smoke, and primary colours.

Lee has retreated south to pound both tequila and young men while gamboling with other gay American expats, notably an almost unrecognizable Jason Schwartzman, who has likewise come, paradoxically, to mine a measure of normalcy from this hedonistic place. To its midpoint, the film is direct and beautifully garlanded. But as Lee and his nemesis-lover Allerton head to Ecuador in search of a rare psychedelic drug and the American botanist studying it (Lesley Manville, channelling both Gollum and the woman in the bathtub from The Shining), all narrative bets are off, and the film slaloms into weirdsville. Open minds with a deep appreciation of cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom's gorgeous use of light will be richly rewarded. KH

Seven Days (Centrepiece)

Sat, Sept. 14, 5:10 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 6.

From director Ali Samadi Ahadi and scriptwriter Mohammad Rasouloff, both Iranians in exile, comes this somewhat predictable thriller combined with a domestic drama focusing on the morality of fleeing prison or staying to fight for justice. Maryam (Vishka Asayesh) is a prisoner in her mid-forties who has been given a seven-day medical pass from jail to treat her suspected coronary disease. But her brother, a teacher friend, and smugglers arrange to transport her over treacherous mountain route by night out of the country into Turkey, where her husband and two children have flown from their home in Germany to meet her, expecting her to rejoin the family. Seven Days was inspired by 2023 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Iranian feminist activist Narges Mohammadi. LL

The Gesuidouz (Midnight Madness)

Sun, Sep. 15, 6:15 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 14.

The latest from Japanese cult writer-director Kenichi Ugana is an wacky movie about the artistic process. The Gesuidouz is a punk band led by the gloomy, dramatic Hanako (Natsuko), who is in a big rush to play the Glastonbury Festival. She’s just turned 26 and expects to die on her 27th birthday, as rock legends do. Problem: the band doesn’t have a hit. Or music that anyone, including their manager, wants to listen to. So, their manager arranges for them to spend a year at a country retreat where, in exchange for some farm work, they can live for free and work on their music. Things don’t quite go to plan as Hanako rolls around trying to force inspiration out, writing lyrical fragments on rice paper and pasting them up around the rehearsal space. Add in a talking dog, a talking cassette tape, farm owners as eccentric as their guests, and other weirdnesses. It’s silly as heck. KG

The Last Republican (TIFF Docs)

Sat, Sept. 14, 1 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 9.

A deeply poignant, brilliant examination of the price of integrity, this doc follows the end days of former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger whose career was destroyed when he dared to hold Donald Trump accountable for the January 6 insurrection. Despite fitting the model of a true son of the American Midwest, doing the right thing, and prioritizing the welfare of his country, Kinzinger and his family were demonized and harassed as director Steve Pinker — who Kinzinger knew, somewhat humorously, from his film Hot Tub Time Machine — filmed. This is as real as politics gets and a case study for upholding personal values in the face of certain defeat. JK

The Penguin Lessons (Gala Presentations)

Sat, Sept. 14, 6:30pm, TIFF Lightbox 3; Sun, Sept. 15, 9:15am, Scotiabank Theatre 10.

Steve Coogan and a Magellanic penguin take turns stealing scenes from one another in this charming, based-on-a-true-tale story that, if it doesn’t take home the People’s Choice, is at least a shoo-in for the Penguin’s Choice Award. Coogan plays Tom Michell, an itinerant English teacher whose latest posting is in a British-run school in Buenos Aires. But the year is 1976 and the military coup arrives just after he does. During a brief trip to Uruguay, he rescues the flightless fowl from an oil slick, and I guess it imprints on him because it refuses to be left behind. What follows is a classic bird-out-of-water story as Tom tries to keep his new friend from being discovered by the stuffy headmaster — Jonathan Pryce, priceless — oh, and also comes to terms with the brutal regime that is systemically kidnapping people. Lest you thought it was all fun and feathers. CK

The Quiet Ones (Discovery)

Sat, Sept. 14, 3:15 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 13.

The spiritual and visual antithesis of Ocean’s Eleven, this stark, dark, and violent heist movie from Danish director Frederik Louis Hviid and based on the biggest-ever robbery in Denmark sets its tone with the senseless deaths of two security guards in Sweden in 2006 before zipping forward two years to Copenhagen, where failed boxer Kaspar (Gustav Giese, haunting), part of the deadly Swedish crew, is recruited to choreograph the robbery. The steely rigour of the thieves and ruthlessness of ringleader Slimani (Reda Ketab) is juxtaposed against Kaspar’s love for his family. His desire to provide for them makes resistance to the undertow of the crime all but impossible. Director Hviid worked with the actual thieves to get his story right and the heist scenes — filmed at night and as jittery as the men doing the stealing — are genuinely white-knuckle. How we should feel about the obviously complex and conflicted Kaspar is ambiguous, which may be the point. KH

The Shadow Strays (Midnight Madness)

Sat, Sept. 14, 11:30 pm, Royal Alexandra Theatre; Sun, Sept. 15, 11 am, TIFF Lightbox 2.

The Shadow Strays is a vicious blast of kinetic thrills from director Timo Tjahjanto. His new actioner is in-your-face violent, with Aurora Ribero as 13, a teenage heroine hacking, slicing, chopping, and maiming her way through to the film's end in service of a recently orphaned boy. The action is relentless, rarely letting up, not even when setting up exposition. However, there is a moment of clarity when the film acknowledges the violence as if the filmmakers were suddenly alarmed by what they were creating. The scene has a character lamenting the inhumanity of their actions and condemning the violence to which they had dedicated their lives. The moment feels like an attempt to justify the violence by acknowledging the violence. I can't say for sure because I wasn't listening. I was waiting for the fighting to start again. TE

The Substance (Midnight Madness)

Fri, Sept. 13, 5:45 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 3.

Paging David Cronenberg. This body horror extravaganza from filmmaker Coralie Fargeat finds Demi Moore as a faded starlet using a magic substance that permits her to spin off a youthful, more successful mini-me (Margaret Qualley) in a reverse Alien scenario; all these two connected women need to do is swap the life-force every seven days. That gets old soon. Gross, bloody, hilarious send-up of the sexism and ageism that rule showbiz — and the planet in general— with Dennis Quaid as an inspired casting choice to underline gender inequity. LB

They Will Be Dust (Centrepiece)

Sun, Sept. 15, 3:45 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 9.

The subject of death is treated with both solemnity and snazzy modern dance moves in They Will Be Dust, in which an elderly Spanish couple — film director Flavio (Alfredo Castro) and his terminally ill life partner and actress Claudia (Ángela Molina) — book a trip to Switzerland for medically assisted deaths. She hasn’t long to live, and he can’t live without her. But first they must spring it on their three adult children. The children, not without merit, blame their parents for being too theatrical, choosing to conclude their lives with a flourish and indeed, there’s the sense that Flavio and Claudia see themselves as characters who are determined to write the script for their final act.

Their romanticism contrasts most dramatically with the dully pleasant Swiss caregivers who handle the final details. While some sequences evoke the medieval tradition of the danse macabre, the film also implies that life is all about bodies in motion: Paramedics rushing into the family home when Claudia has a crisis, who snap into a tango with the patient. Passengers on the swaying bus begin weaving among each other, and gardeners in a flower garden begin gyrating and popping to the drone of leaf blowers and relentless snap of garden shears. LL

A Note About the Film Russians at War

By Thom Ernst

Full disclosure: the producer of Russians at War is a friend of mine. While this prevents me from officially reviewing the film, it doesn’t stop me from discussing it — especially since it has become a topic of widespread conversation during its screening at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Russians at War is a documentary by Russian Canadian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova. Its official TIFF description says it’s a “gripping first-person documentary [that] takes us beyond the headlines to join Russian soldiers in Ukraine placing themselves in a battle for reasons that become only more obscure with each gruelling day.”

Russians at War has been accused of “whitewashing" the atrocities committed by Russian soldiers in Ukraine. As of September 12, the Toronto International Film Festival says it has been forced to pause upcoming screenings of Russians at War due to “significant threats” to festival operations and public safety. TVO has severed ties with the project and launched an investigation into how it was greenlit in the first place.

At the heart of this storm lies a powerful, heartbreaking documentary about an unjust war. The controversy, largely driven by protests, seems rooted in speculation — primarily from those who likely haven’t even seen the film.

The title alone, Russians at War, is enough to stir strong emotions, but the film’s content goes deeper, offering a nuanced portrayal of Russian soldiers. Some of these soldiers are, in fact, Ukrainian, and many of them express views shaped not by blind loyalty, but by a lifetime of indoctrination.

While a few voices in the film do support Russia, their sentiments are presented not as justifications for war, but as complex reflections of internal conflict. At its core, Russians at War is an anti-war film.

Trofimova embedded herself on the front lines, asking soldiers to share their feelings about the invasion. The overwhelming sentiment among those interviewed? Regret. Many express a longing to lay down their weapons and end the violence.

Trofimova doesn't shy away from confronting them about accusations of atrocities committed against civilians, forcing the audience to wrestle with these difficult, uncomfortable moments.

The backlash against the film — claims that it is “convenient for the Kremlin” or that it downplays war crimes — feel misplaced when compared to the film's clear anti-war stance. Protestors, citing grievances in brief handouts, seem to overlook the fact that many of the soldiers in the documentary openly oppose the invasion.

Even before its official release, Russians at War has become one of the most misrepresented films in recent memory. Much of the outrage stems not from the film itself, but from assumptions about its content.

This isn’t to dismiss the concerns of those who have seen the film and disagree with its perspective. The war it depicts is ongoing, and it’s understandable that some will resist a film that dares to ask for empathy for the “enemy.” Accepting the film’s anti-war message will be difficult for many. That’s a valid response.

Awareness is good. Peaceful protest is good. Even disagreement in cinema is good. But disrupting screenings, where people have made a conscious decision to watch the film, isn’t fair. Shouting “You’re watching propaganda!” while disrupting the viewing experience, only to cry “Don’t touch me!” when security escorts you out, is less productive.

Pulling the film from festivals or cutting broadcast support represents the worst kind of censorship — the kind we might expect from the very forces the film is trying to criticize.

TIFF ’24: What to See at This Year’s Fest, Sept. 13

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