Sundance and Telluride may have the more marquee names, but the Toronto International Film Festival, perhaps more than any other in North America, has emerged as an embarrassment of cinematic riches. While a late-summer stupor sweeps multiplexes, TIFF plays host to all kinds of movies, from Oscar hopefuls to shoestring indies to foreign favorites and experimental genre fare. This year's fest was no different, and brought with it a ton of films sure to please crowds, whether they like lush fantasy (Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water) or midnight movie classics (James Franco's The Disaster Artist). Of all the TIFF films coming in 2017, these seven stood out most prominently; keep an eye out for when they make it to a screen near you.
The Shape of Water
Attuned to the world around him, Guillermo del Toro's latest project is set at the height of the Cold War, when fear outweighed trust. This is especially true for Elia (Sally Hawkins), an isolated government laboratory worker who makes an unexpected discovery during an experiment. Similar to Del Toro’s previous films, The Shape of Water is an amalgamation of fantasy and drama. Beautiful and sensitive, it has a surreal quality that's easy to get lost in. In other words, it’s everything Pacific Rim wasn’t.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Martin McDonagh’s third feature film is the type of knockout that takes days to recover from. Bolstered by an ensemble from heaven—Sam Rockwell, Peter Dinklage, Frances McDormand—Three Billboards focuses on a mother whose pain has turned into anger. In an attempt to antagonize the local cops into action, Mildred Hayes (McDormand) purchases ad space on the outskirts of town; the accusatory billboards suggest a failing police department uninterested in serving justice. The movie, written by McDonagh, shares the signature wit and bite of his past work (In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths), but also features an emotional complexity in Mildred that McDormand brings out of the writing. Rarely can films bring you to tears because of both comedy and drama. McDonagh's does.
The Disaster Artist
If the past few years has proven anything, it’s that James Franco is a true raconteur. The degree of skill involved in each endeavor varies, but the actor-writer-director deserves some points for trying. It seems fitting that Franco’s first true directorial success comes with The Disaster Artist, a sometimes earnest, sometimes satirical biopic of Tommy Wiseau and the making of his legendarily bad film The Room. Is this Franco's Ed Wood? Yes, completely, but it finds its strength in Franco’s personification of the unhinged, uncommonly optimistic filmmaker.
I Love You, Daddy
Louis C.K. made I Love You, Daddy to set the internet aflame. And if that wasn’t the intention, it will certainly be the result of C.K.’s black-and-white yarn about a seasoned showbiz director and his fresh-faced daughter (Chloë Grace Moretz) who entangle themselves with a (potentially) unseemly filmmaker (John Malkovich). The writing is on the wall here—and when the film hits theaters, expect endless essays to be published about how we grapple with art vs. artists, sexual assault, consent, and beyond. Whether you hate it or love it, C.K. is going out on a limb here. The risk is impressive.
Bodied
C.K.’s new film could make an excellent double bill with this, Joseph Kahn’s epic battle rap midnight movie. Yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like—produced by Eminem, and written by a longtime luminary of the battle circuit. Using a graduate student’s thesis as a catalyst, Kahn is poking at the PC police of 2017. Like I Love You, Daddy, the video director's sophomore film revels in the controversial. It’s a conversation piece about what we can and cannot say. It’s upsetting and frustrating—which I think is kind of the point.
The Current War
Its play-on-words title aside, The Current War is an effective retelling of how the modern world transitioned into using electricity. Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), it’s the story of two dueling egos—Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon)—racing to the finish line. The battle between Edison and Westinghouse is written with intensity by Michael Mitnick. Cumberbatch and Shannon, as per usual, breathe life into the dead. Even better, this time around they turn myths into men.
Thelma
Norwegian talents Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt turn their studied tenderness into something else in Thelma. A love story between two young women, a cautionary tale of abused power, a fantastical exploration into what a superhero movies could look like. The setup is simple: as a woman begins to fall in love, she finds herself being overrun with newfound powers. Otherworldly abilities that allow her to play with place and time. Trier and Vogt have a knack for humanizing by unearthing the idiosyncrasies of characters, and Thelma is no exception.
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