I am thrilled to cover TIFF for The UnderSCENE again.

You all know the drill. Here are the movies I’m looking forward to playing at this year’s festival. I don’t want to spend too much time on the lack of press screenings for the schedule. It is upsetting that they’re making the festival harder to cover. But I’m sure they know that, and others will have discussed it ad nauseam by the time the fest is over, so I’m far happier to talk about things that excite me. 

For one, I grew up here in Toronto and always looked forward to when the festival would begin. To hear whispers of names of movies to anticipate their release before the “general public” would find out about them. I then worked for Cineplex and at Scotiabank Theatre, where I would watch industry and critics spend their days at the theatres, treating me and my coworkers with a spectrum of respect, to say it kindly. Around then, I started film criticism and started reviewing as much as I could. I couldn’t stop writing those days.

Since then, the input has decreased a bit, and every year, I wonder about when I’ll no longer be able to attend. Last year, I had pulled back a bit from it. I briefly wrote about it during the festival, but now I have a bit more information since I did last September. The timeline is iffy in the sense that no one knows which occurred first, but I had a seizure, and I fell and had a fractured back. And then shortly after, I grabbed a cane and got my badge before tackling the festival. So, there are some emotions about returning, a little less injured, and after so many years and moments of covering the festival.

As I said, I’m always just thrilled when I’ve been approved to cover the festival. We’ve been approved to cover the festival as press for a few years now, and I cherish it every year. TIFF is my favourite time of the year. As the festival gets closer, we worry about the scheduling, the timing, the travel time, the costs, and a dozen more. And then it’s here, and it’s wonderful.

Here are the films, or titles, I’m looking forward to seeing this September.

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Carrie
Dir. Mike Flanagan

This is why I made the distinction of titles instead of just films, but any previous readers would know I am not going to miss out on seeing a new Flanagan project, such as Carrie, at the festival. I’ve been writing about him for ten years as his work has heavily resonated with me. While I can not wait for his take on The Exorcist, and what elements of his stay for upcoming Clayface.

I don’t think he’s made a project I haven’t loved in some capacity. And to an extent, he’s just getting better at being more specific about his feelings and things he wants to express. So, yes, sign me up for The Exorcist, Clayface, but also, just so happy to have another show by Flanagan. They’re always something special that permeates from there and makes us all become a sobbing mess. Or maybe I’m just describing myself there.

Crystal Lake
Dir. Brad Caleb Kane, Michael Lennox

To continue with the Primetime section of the festival, I am looking forward to seeing Crystal Lake. Last year’s It: Welcome to Derry surprised me and floored me. I’m still in awe of it, and news of a second season excites me immensely. I am curious to see what Crystal Lake has in store. 

Who am I, but not a massive fan of the slasher villains? The Friday the 13th series may not be the favourite of the franchises, but who can deny Linda Cadelini from playing Pamela Voorhees? This is likely to give the franchise a significant boost in its potential to return from the dead. If so, I hope so. There have been rumblings of a reboot for a while now, and I’d hope they give it to someone new to make it interesting.

River
Dir. Joshua Giuliano

Who would I be if I didn’t bring up my excitement for a slasher film that’s part of Midnight Madness? One starring horror royalty too. The TIFF write-up mentions Boy Kills World for Jessica Rothe, but we know and love her from Happy Death Day. It then mentions Bang Bang Baby for Jane Levy, and that’s a film I do love and love her in, but it’s Evil Dead that I return to yearly.

The Debut
Dir. Jesse Eisenberg

When Arianne and I launched The UnderSCENE, I was working at a different Cineplex theatre. We met Alex there, and before he became a big writer and contributor for the site, he helped me come up with some questions and clean up the current ones I was working with. I still have vivid memories of where I was when I got confirmation of being able to interview Eisenberg in 2019, and how I punched the air out of excitement when it was over and thought it went great.

I’ve always been a big fan of Jesse Eisenberg, and was so curious to see what type of movies he would make as a filmmaker. I was a bit mixed on his first film, When You Finish Saving The World. It felt and reminded me of a film he would have been in the early 2000’s, and while that didn’t mean it was a bad film, it just didn’t resonate with me on my initial watch. A Real Pain hit me like a truck in comparison. The praise and reaction to the film and Kieran Culkin’s performance are deserved. He’s reteaming with Julianne Moore and is starring in the film as well. I’ll be there.

Vintage Violence
Dir. Eugene Kotlyarenko

Sign. Me. Up.

Having previously seen 0s and 1s at the Unnamed Footage Festival, I was blown away. Talk about an imaginative way of using the screen that felt natural, but also new and refreshing. A clear understanding of what it means to be online. That continued with Spree, which turned some heads but didn’t make as much noise as I expected. I feel there may not be enough fans of Screenlife films, found-footage films, or this middle ground that Eugene has grown to be wonderful at.

A Long Winter
Dir. Andrew Haigh

I already fear this is one of those films that is going to slip through my fingers at the festival. Not for lack of trying, but rather the timing of it; this and the next film don’t really work with my schedule, but I hope I make it into a screening. Haigh’s films stand amongst themselves at this time, and his last, All of Us Strangers, exemplifies that. Walking out of that viewing had me walking in a daze for weeks, and I’ve almost been too scared about revisiting it.

All this to say that I am eagerly expecting A Long Winter to destroy me equally as much.

Josephine
Dir. Beth de Araújo

Josephine won the Grand Jury prize at Sundance and has been the murmuring film that is going to be impactful this year. I’ve also heard great things about Araújo’s first film, Soft & Quiet. It’s one of the films I would like to visit as part of preparation for TIFF. Similarly, I’m not too sure how this will align with my schedule, but I’m going to keep an eye out for trying to catch this while it’s playing at the fest.

Love of Your Life
Dir. Rachel Morrison

I still have clear memories of my first time watching Fruitvale Station at the Varsity theatre. I remember being transported by the cast and crew. At the time, my introduction to the film was Michael B. Jordan, but during the credits, I made sure to keep track of the names behind the film too. Coogler, Göransson, and, of course, Rachel Morrison.

That quartet of names have kept me coming back to the movies since then, and I continuously saw their names pop up on other films I started loving, and it didn’t take long before I knew I had to seek out some of their individual projects as well. Morrison is still one of my favourite cinematographers, and I really liked The Fire Inside. It showed a lot of promise of what Morrison will hopefully be able to continue to do and expand narratively. With Love of Your Life starring Margaret Qualley and Aaron Pierre, two actors I am massive fans of, I’d happily see her new film debut at the festival.

Ink
Dir. Danny Boyle

Speaking of imaginative filmmakers, I recently got to see Boyle’s Sunshine on the big screen at The Revue. What a miracle of a film. Boyle loves to tackle different genres, and he gave us a space film about the weight of person vs people, religious themes and an all-timer score that has helped me write hundreds of articles. It is also a slasher set in space. A filmmaker I’ve been following on-and-off since I was aware of 28 Days Later. His newest reteams him with Jack O’Connell, seen briefly in his 28 Years Later, but expertly used in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. Ink covers Rupert Murdoch (played by Guy Pierce) as he buys The Sun, and he talks to Larry Lamb (played by O’Connell). Boyle and journalism have me curious about what kind of extremes he’s going to pull off in this film.

Wild Horse Nine
Dir. Martin McDonagh

Each year I cover the festival, I feel as if I have a different reason for doing so, and which films I’m looking to cover. At first, I tried to see whatever I could, as much as I could, and fill in the entire festival. Like I said, I used to write a lot more and was far more eager to stay busy and soak in as much of the festival as I could. There is part of me that wants to continue in that vein, but I find it surprising how much I would do on so little sleep. Now, I’m looking for films that might not have a big release coming up, or discovering new voices. But then, they mention that Wild Horse Nine is playing at the festival. The trailer of which only briefly brings up how they’re about to help in the assassination of the Chilean President in 1973, which starts the coup that changed my family’s lives, which brought them to Canada. So, I am conflicted. It will be easily accessible when out, but I also feel I need to see it.

McDonagh’s films have such a bruteness to them in the vulgarity that the eventual tender moments sting heavily. These are the moments that I think about and return to in his films. Yes, Ralph Fiennes’ incessant swearing is comical, but there is pain in his movies that makes them loom larger after it’s over. Now, he has Sam Rockwell and John Malcovich in the lead of this, and I’m positive that during the course of watching this, I will have cried, laughed, and laughed so hard I cried some more.

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There are many other films I’m looking forward to seeing. Some of the bigger titles include Club Kid, The Stunt Driver, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, Fjord, or a lot of the Midnight Madness titles, like Kick On, The Face of Horror, and The Spiral. This is where the scheduling of the films comes back up. While nearly every year there are some overlaps of big titles, or bigger releases that have around 3-4 screenings when an entire festival wants to see it (Fjord, I’ll see you eventually, but not possible), this year, most titles have a small number of screenings, and far fewer press screenings, as I already mentioned. These are films I am hoping I will be able to see soon. But then, sometimes they take longer to be released, and you get to experience the joy of it again. I’m thinking of when I’ll be able to see last year’s Poetic License again and got sad all over again about it. But those are the parts of film festivals we get to appreciate for how brief they end up being. Except for those who go on the festival run from country to country. There are still random one-off viewings I’ve seen that still linger years later, and some that I may never get to watch again (Second Star on the Right, I remain on the lookout). Only time will tell what I’ll be able to see this September.

Hope to see you there.