With TIFF in the midst of a gender equity campaign and diversity push among accredited media, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that some of the buzziest films playing at this year’s fest are about old white men. And not just any old white men – some of the world’s grossest political figures and tyrants. Most of the films on this list are documentaries examining the current political moment, but one big movie has the words “old man” in the title so obviously we had to include it.
1. Divide and Conquer: The Story Of Roger Ailes
Alexis Bloom (Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher And Debbie Reynolds) turns a lens on the late right-wing propaganda baron and Trump bestie, who resigned in disgrace as Fox News chairman following sexual harassment allegations two years ago. It’s also the first of several Ailes projects out the gate: Russell Crowe is set to play Ailes in an eight-episode Showtime series based on Gabriel Sherman’s biography and Margot Robbie, Nicole Kidman and Charlize Theron are reportedly starring in an yet-to-be-titled movie about the women of Fox News. Who says Hollywood doesn’t love conservatives?
Sep 9, 9:30 pm, Scotiabank 4 Sep 11, 9:30 pm, Scotiabank 3 Sep 16, 9:30 pm, Scotiabank 2.
2. Fahrenheit 11/9
The opener of the TIFF Docs program is being billed as political commentator Michael Moore’s Donald Trump documentary and will get a general theatrical release on September 21 in the lead up to the U.S. mid-term elections. It’s the sequel to his 2004 film about the presidency of George W. Bush, Fahrenheit 9/11 – still the highest grossing documentary of all time. Details are scant, but the trailer features Parkland school shooting survivor-turned-activist David Hogg and progressive politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Moore’s last film, Where To Invade Next, premiered at TIFF in 2015 and enjoyed a lengthy standing ovation.
Sep 6, 6 pm, 8:45 pm, Ryerson Sep 8, 5:45 pm, Scotiabank 3.
3. American Dharma
Documentarian Errol Morris has described this film about the alt-right media doyenne, former Trump chief strategist and prolific White House leaker Steve Bannon as “kind of a horror movie.” American Dhamra is Morris’s latest conversational doc portrait of a right-wing politician, following The Fog Of War (Robert McNamara) and The Known Unknown (Donald Rumsfeld). Apparently Bannon likes the doc and will attend the world premiere in Venice. No word on whether he’s coming to Toronto.
Sep 9, 12 pm, TBLB1 Sep 10, 11:45 am, Scotiabank 1 Sep 15, 9:45 pm, Scotiabank 2.
4. Meeting Gorbachev
Directed by Werner Herzog with his long-time producer André Singer, this film promises to take a more affectionate look at its subject – former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev – than the preceding three films on this list. According to TIFF’s official description, Herzog treats historical events with a serious tone but applies his signature metaphysical absurdism in his narration and archival footage choices: one sequence features a news report about catching slugs with beer.
Sep 10, 9 pm, TBLB1 Sep 11, 4 pm, Scotiabank 4 Sep 15, 12 pm, Scotiabank 1.
5. Putin’s Witnesses
Vitaly Mansky charts the rise of Vladimir Putin in a doc that will surely benefit from first-hand footage shot among the Russian president’s inner circle when the now-exiled director was head of docs for Russia’s main state-controlled TV channel. Putin is a notoriously cagey interview subject – as Oliver Stone’s fawning series The Putin Interviews demonstrated – but this film promises a more revealing portrait.
Sep 9, 7:30 pm, Scotibank 13 Sep 10, 3 pm, Scotiabank 13 Sep 16, 9:45 am, Scotiabank 3.
6. Loro
Highly overrated Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino has been making movies about old men for the past decade, including This Must Be The Place, The Great Beauty and Youth. His latest is a satirical biopic of four-time Italian prime minister, billionaire media magnet and bunga bunga party thrower Silvio Berlusconi. The director has described this film “neither pro- or anti-Berlusconi” and “a tender look at the weaknesses of an old man.” However, some Italian critics were less ambivalent when the film was released (in two parts) in Italian cinemas earlier this year. One called it “a porn film without a moral issue.” The trailer is as “male gaze” as it gets.
Sep 6, 9:15 pm, Elgin Sep 7, 9:30 pm, TBLB2 Sep 14, 9:45 pm, Scotibank 2.
7. The Old Man & The Gun
Writer/director David Lowery (A Ghost Story, Pete’s Dragon) stars Robert Redford as Forrest Tucker, a career bank robber who famously bragged that he escaped from prison – including Alcatraz and San Quentin – 18 times. Tucker, who was profiled by the New Yorker in 2003, kept robbing banks well into his 70s. The 82-year-old Redford has said Old Man will be his final film as an actor.
Sep 11, 1 pm, Elgin Sep 13, 6 pm, Ryerson Sep 14, 6 pm, Princess of Wales.
8. Searching For Ingmar Bergman
Influential Swedish cinema icon Igmar Bergman would’ve been 100 this year and to mark the occasion German filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta has created this film delving into his career and legacy. The doc, which premiered at Cannes, is on the loving homage end of the spectrum and features interviews with admirers such as Olivier Assayas, Carlos Saura, Mia Hansen-Love and Ruben Ostlund. Bergman’s 1966 psychological horror classic Persona is also screening at TIFF as part of the TIFF Cinematheque program.
Sep 13, 5:45 pm, TBLB 2 Sep 14, 12:45 pm, TBLB 2 Sep 15, 9:30 pm, TBLB 3.
