Stronger
The only way Stronger wouldn’t rack up nominations is if director David Gordon Green trips up and bungles the material. Based on an inspirational true story, the movie stars Jake Gyllenhaal in a performance that screams Oscar! His physical transformation includes looking dehydrated after all the sweat and tears. He plays Jeff Bauman, the Boston Marathon bombing survivor who lost his legs and overcame the tragedy to become a monument to hope.
Canada’s own Tatiana Maslany plays Bauman’s girlfriend (now ex-wife), Erin Hurley. She could use a few trophies to keep her Emmy company.
Sep 8, 6:30 pm, Roy Thomson Hall Sep 9, 10:45 am, Winter Garden
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Martin McDonagh’s feature films, like In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths, have been a little too dark to woo middle-of-the-road awards voters. But this film – about a divided population – could strike a nerve with pissed-off American voters.
Frances McDormand plays a middle-aged woman who resorts to drastic measures to get the town’s police chief (Woody Harrelson) continue investigating the unsolved murder of her daughter. Problem is he’s dying of cancer, so the town turns against her. And a dumb, racist cop (Sam Rockwell) gets in her way as well.
Sep 11, 6 pm, Ryerson Sep 12, 2 pm, Sep 15, 6 pm, Princess of Wales Sep 17, 3 pm, Elgin
Kings
Kings
Oscar winner and former Bond girl Halle Berry teams up with current 007 Daniel Craig in this possibly awards-bound pic. According to the TIFF synopsis, Craig plays a recluse who aids Berry’s character in a race for safety during the L.A. riots. The limited synopsis smells like a white saviour narrative.
Add to that the racial and sexual politics that have chased Berry’s career: she’s the rare (mixed-race) African-American cast in steamy roles opposite white men, often as a modern version of the tragic mulatto. This could be disastrous – or it could be an opportunity for writer/director Deniz Gamze Ergüven (who nabbed an Oscar nomination for Mustang) to challenge those tropes with a critical eye.
Either way, we’ll be watching.
Sep 13, 6:30 pm, Roy Thomson Hall Sep 14, 2:30 pm, Elgin Sep 17, 12:30 pm, Scotiabank 1
Novitiate
Novitiate
Melissa Leo is no stranger to Oscar attention (she won the best supporting actress trophy for her scenery-chewing in The Fighter) and not above paying for it (she personally bought up “For Your Consideration” ads, not trusting the studio campaigners to do so).
The buzz from Sundance says Leo’s performance, as a Reverend Mother who violently refuses to adapt to changing times, isn’t the only reason to catch writer/director Maggie Betts’s fiction feature debut. Margaret Qualley and Glee alum Dianna Agron are also picking up raves as young nuns in this coming-of-age tale that probes the values, limitations and personal tragedies surrounding faith.
Sep 10, 5:45 pm, Scotiabank 1 Sep 12, 4 pm, Scotiabank 1
The Current War
The Current War
Keep in mind that these are films we believe will be up for awards, not necessarily ones we want to be. The combination of producer Harvey Weinstein, A-list thesps like Benedict Cumberbatch and Michael Shannon and a story about real-life inventors Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse racing to bring marketable electricity to Americans sounds like a no-brainer.
Add the fact that the film’s set for a mid-November release and no lightbulb moment is needed to figure out the film’s Oscar hopes.
Sep 9, 9:30 pm, Princess of Wales Sep 10, 11 am, Elgin
Downsizing
Downsizing
Honey I Shrunk the Kids rejigged for the condo boom generation doesn’t necessarily scream Oscar bait. But writer/director Alexander Payne’s idiosyncratic and bittersweet films, from Sideways to Nebraska, typically land in the nominations circles.
Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig star in an absurd comedy about humans downsized to rodent stature, a gambit to reduce their environmental footprint and live large amidst overcrowding. The film was shot in Toronto, where the real estate market has everyone desperately clinging for a little more room.
Sep 11, 6 pm, Sep 12, 11:30 am, Elgin Sep 13, 6 pm, Princess of Wales Sep 16, noon, Roy Thomson Hall
Molly’s Game
Molly’s Game
In an excerpt from the book Molly’s Game – a memoir from competitive skiier turned elite, high stakes poker host Molly Bloom – former friendly neighbourhood Spiderman Tobey Maguire doesn’t come off so nice. According to Molly, he offered her a $1,000 chip but insisted that she “bark like a seal” for it. It wasn’t just a dumb joke but another example of hostility towards a woman on the job that seems to reflect Hollywood in general.
That’s what I hope to see vocal feminist Jessica Chastain tackle. The Zero Dark Thirty star plays Molly in Aaron Sorkin’s directorial debut, for which he also wrote the screenplay. That duo is fire.
And hey, Idris Elba’s in it, too.
Sep 8, 6 pm, Sep 9, 11 am, Elgin
Battle Of The Sexes
Battle Of The Sexes
Emma Stone just won an Oscar for La La Land, but she could be up for another gold guy playing real-life tennis pro Billie Jean King, who in 1973 accepted self-professed male chauvenist pig Bobby Riggs’s challenge to play a match for $100,000 to prove that the sexes were equal. Steve Carell plays Riggs, and his Little Miss Sunshine directors, the audience-pleasing Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton, are at the helm.
But look for Stone as the closeted King, a smart, talented woman up against a braying, sexist dude (sound familiar?), to get most of the attention.
Sep 10, 6 pm, Ryerson Sep 11, 2:30 pm, and Sep 15, 3 pm, Princess of Wales Sep 16, 5 pm, Ryerson
Suburbicon
Suburbicon
He’s an Oscar-winning actor, but George Clooney has a pretty decent track record as a director as well, getting major awards attention for Good Night, And Good Luck and The Ides Of March.
In his new pic, Matt Damon plays a 1950s family man who falls in love with his wife’s sister (both women are played by Julianne Moore) and plots to get rid of his spouse. Farce can be tricky, but this looks like it combines suspense and dark humour with a scathing critique of post-war optimism.
And Clooney’s writing partners – frequent collaborator Grant Heslov and Joel and Ethan Coen – know how to balance laughs and social critique in award-winning pictures.
Sep 9, 6:30 pm, Princess of Wales Sep 10, noon, Roy Thomson Hall
Call Me By Your Name
Call Me Be Your Name
Luca Guadagnino’s films like I Am Love and A Bigger Splash are critically beloved but haven’t yet reached into mainstream award territory – partly because of the timing of the release. (Ralph Fiennes was robbed of a nomination in the latter film last year.)
But this could be Guadagnino’s year, with this adaptation of André Aciman’s sensuous novel about a 17-year-old American-Italian (Timothée Chalamet) who’s attracted to a 20-something American doctoral student (Armie Hammer).
The director’s received some heat for not casting queer actors in the roles, but the film wowed everyone at Sundance, and the combination of the burgeoning tender relationship played out against the gorgeous northern Italian landscapes sounds like a winner.
Sep 7, 7:15 pm, Ryerson Sep 8, 9:30 am, TIFF Bell Lightbox 1
