Labor Day weekend has come and gone, and that can only mean one thing – it’s TIFF time, baby! Once again, I’ll be attending the Toronto International Film Festival on behalf of JoBlo.com. I’m looking forward to getting an early look at some of the prestigious awards fare we’ll all be hearing plenty about in the coming months. Crazy enough, this will be my sixteenth year in a row covering the festival!  

Here’s what I’m most excited to check out at this year’s edition:

Conclave:

Edward Berger’s All Quiet on the Western Front was one of the biggest surprises of the 2022 edition of TIFF, as that new adaptation of the classic novel/ film proved to be one of the most dazzling war films in recent memory. It put Berger on the map in a big way, with him tipped as potentially taking the reins of the James Bond franchise once a new 007 is cast. He’s back at TIFF this year with a buzzy adaptation of the Robert Harris novel Conclave, which follows the intrigue behind a papal election and is said to feature one of star Ralph Fiennes’s best performances ever as a Cardinal questioning his faith. His lapsing Catholicism aside, he might be the most qualified candidate for pope because, unlike many of the other Cardinals (which include sterling cast members like John Lithgow and Stanley Tucci), he doesn’t crave power. Apparently, this has a knockout twist ending that I hope isn’t spoiled for me before I finally see the movie.

Better Man:

Robbie Williams isn’t as big of a deal in North America as he is in Europe, but trust me when I say that in the UK, he’s a major icon who’s had more than his share of challenges, which should make for an intriguing biopic. However, I’ll admit that the main reason I want to see this is that director Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman) opted to have Williams be portrayed by a CG chimpanzee, which, apparently, is a dead ringer for Caesar in the Planet of the Apes movies. Yes, you read that right – the movie stars a CGI chimpanzee. But, let’s be honest, you want to see it now, don’t you?

The Brutalist: 

The breathless reviews out of Venice are calling Brady Corbett’s The Brutalist a masterpiece and a sure-fire Oscar contender for whoever picks it up. The film stars Adrien Brody as a Hungarian architect navigating his life and career in post-WWII America. The entire film was shot in 70mm VistaVision and is being presented at the festival on celluloid. It even gets an intermission, as it runs well over three hours. Brody and costar Guy Pearce are said to deliver Oscar-calibre performances. 

The Life of Chuck:

Mike Flanagan takes a break from limited series for a new movie (his first since Doctor Sleep), which – natch – is another Stephen King adaptation, this time of his novella of the same name. It stars Tom Hiddleston in the title role alongside Mark Hamil, Chiwetel Ejiofor, David Dastmalchian, Kate Siegel, Karen Gillan and more.

The Order:

This true crime tale from Justin Kurzel (Assassin’s Creed) stars Jude Law as an FBI agent in the 1980s trying to shut down a Neo-nazi cell run by a racist demagogue played by Nicholas Hoult. This is based on the real-life slaying of liberal Jewish radio host Alan Berg, who’s played in the film by Marc Maron, which also inspired the Tom Berenger/ Debra Winger film, Betrayed back in 1988. 

Heretic:

Hugh Grant dips his toe into the horror genre for this buzzy A24 release. In it, two Church of Latter-Day Saints missionaries (Yellowjackets’s Sophie Thatcher and Fabelmans star Chloe East) knock on the wrong door and are invited in for a chat about theology that goes…awry. This one is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the writers of A Quiet Place. 

Saturday Night: 

Jason Reitman’s chronicle of the hours leading up to the premiere of Saturday Night Live drew raves out of its Telluride Film Festival premiere, with many calling it his best movie since Up in the Air. Apparently, the casting is spot on (which includes Succession star Nicholas Braun in dual roles – Jim Henson and Andy Kauffman), and the pace is propulsive, leading to some truly breathless early reviews. As a lifelong SNL fan, I’m excited to hear that someone has finally done the crazy story behind the making of the show justice.

Megalopolis:

So, this one comes with a big caveat. While I’m excited to see Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis (reviews be dammed), I’m turned off by the fact that (so far) no press screenings have been scheduled for the film at the festival (unheard of), while press tickets to the two showings have been scant. I will do my best to get in, but I think it’s highly questionable that (again – so far) the press is seemingly being kept from seeing the movie.

Queer:

Luca Guadagnino is one of my favourite current directors. I’m keen to see his long-awaited William S. Burroughs adaptation, which stars Daniel Craig and features a deliberately anachronistic score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Apparently, Guadagnino’s been tinkering with this movie so much that he cut close to an hour out of it just before its Venice Film Festival premiere, but whatever the case, A24 picked it up and is planning an award-season run for it.

Ick:

Joseph Kahn is one of those directors who never gets enough credit. His movie, Torque, is a kind of hilarious spoof of mid-2000 era action movies (particularly The Fast and the Furious) but critics seemingly didn’t get the joke. His follow-up, Detention, was a genre-bending blast, while his rap battle movie, Bodied, absolutely killed at TIFF’s Midnight Madness a few years ago, only to sink into obscurity due to the fact that the short-lived YouTube Red bought it and gave it a streaming release a lot of folks missed. Now he’s back with Ick, another genre mash-up which stars one-time Superman Brandon Routh in a potential comeback role as a high school science teacher helping his students fight an alien grown which sounds an awful lot like The Blob. I love movies like this, and Kahn’s movies are nothing if not entertaining. 

Which TIFF movie are you most hyped-for? Let us know in the comments! 

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