Toronto International Film Festival
7-17 September, 2017






[NOTE TO SELF: All screenings at Scotiabank unless otherwise noted.]


Thu 7

Loveless (Andrei Zvyagintsev, Russia/France/Belgium/Germany)
[Cannes Comp.] (10am-12:07pm)

Happy End (Michael Haneke, France/Austria/Germany)
[Cannes Comp; Haneke.] (12:30pm-2:17pm)

The Square (Ruben Östlund, Sweden)
[Cannes Comp; NYFF.] (3:30pm-5:55pm)

Western (Valeska Grisebach, Germany/Bulgaria/Austria)
[Cannes UCR; NYFF; rare Sicinski rave. And I quite liked Be My Star back in 2001.] (9pm-10:59pm)




Fri 8

The Rider (Chloé Zhao, USA)
[Cannes Fortnight; NYFF.] (9am-10:43am)

Zama (Lucrecia Martel, Argentina/Brazil/Spain/France/Netherlands/Mexico/Portugal/USA)
[NYFF; Martel.] (11:30am-1:25pm)

The Florida Project (Sean Baker, USA)
[Cannes Fortnight; NYFF. Really doubt I can get into this, as I only have a 20-minute window after Zama. It's in Scotiabank 2, though, so there's a chance.] (1:45pm-3:40pm)

A Fantastic Woman (Sebastián Lelio, Chile)
[I dug Gloria. Couldn't find room for Lelio's other film, alas.] (3:45pm-5:28pm)

The Motive (Manuel Martín Cuenca, Spain)
[Cannibal was interesting enough that I'm curious to see more.] (6:30pm-8:22pm)

Omertà (Hansal Mehta, India)
[Dead slot (though I may blow this off as it'd be film #6 for the day). Also I see too few Indian films.] (9:45pm-11:21pm)




Sat 9

PROTOTYPE (Blake Williams, Canada)
[I have roomed with the director many times at Cannes, will be sleeping several nights in his apartment during this festival, etc. Also the alternative is the David Gordon Green which I happened to see the trailer for the other day and ugh.] (9am-10:12am)

Downsizing (Alexander Payne, USA)
[Payne.] (11am-1:15pm)

Redoubtable (Michel Hazanavicius, France)
[Cannes Comp. DAMN YOU FREMAUX!] (2pm-3:37pm)

Let the Corpses Tan (Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani, Belgium/France)
[Cattet & Forzani, plus one of the greatest titles of all time.] (5pm-6:32pm)

The Ritual (David Bruckner, UK)
[Bruckner was the high point of both The Signal and V/H/S; curious to see what he can do with a full feature.] (7pm-8:35pm)

Winter Brothers (Hlynur Pálmason, Denmark/Iceland)
[Dead slot; Blake apparently heard good things at Locarno. (On the other hand, I tend to dislike most films that come out of Locarno.) ((And now Blake says he heard middling things.))] (9pm-10:34pm)




Sun 10

Brad's Status (Mike White, USA)
[Assigned review.] (9:15am-10:56am)

The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland/UK)
[Cannes Comp; Lanthimos.] (11:15am-1:15pm, POW. PUBLIC SCREENING)

Outside In (Lynn Shelton, USA)
[Shelton, though Humpday seems like a long time ago now. Hope she's gone back to semi-improv.] (2:15pm-4:04pm)

Directions (Stephan Komandarev, Bulgaria/Germany/Macedonia)
[Cannes UCR.] (4:30pm-6:13pm)

Never Steady, Never Still (Kathleen Hepburn, Canada)
[Dead slot. In all likelihood, never staying, never stuck.] (7pm-8:50pm)




Mon 11

Faces Places (Agnès Varda & JR, France)
[Cannes Out of Comp; NYFF.] (8:30am-9:59am)

The Shape of Water (Guillermo Del Toro, USA)
[Grudging acceptance that others consider Del Toro important. I'm not a big fan. Will swap out for anything opposite that gets notable buzz.] (11:15am-1:15pm)

Manhunt (John Woo, Hong Kong/China)
[Woo. Woo woo!] (2pm-3:46pm)

I Love You, Daddy (Louis C.K., USA)
[I'm a little worried because it looks like C.K. stars in this, and I think he's a terrible actor, to the point where I gave up on Louie. But there's little competition.] (5pm-7:03pm)

Vampire Clay (Soîchi Umezawa, Japan)
[Dead slot. Looks like nightmare fuel.] (9:15pm-10:36pm)




Tue 12

Ex Libris: The New York Public Library (Frederick Wiseman, USA)
[Wiseman.] (9am-12:17pm)

Plonger (Mélanie Laurent, France)
[Laurent.] (2pm-3:42pm)

The House by the Sea (Robert Guédiguian, France)
[Dead slot. Been a while since I checked in with Guédiguian—2002, to be exact, when he was last in Cannes Comp. But I did like that film. Plus this has a great cast, if nothing else, including crush object Anaïs Demoustier.] (3:45pm-5:32pm)

Ravens (Jens Assur, Sweden)
[Dead slot.] (6:30pm-8:17pm)

The Future Ahead (Constanza Novick, Argentina)
[Another dead slot. Really have to hope they add a screening on this night of some big film that many people got shut out of.] (9:30pm-10:54pm)




Wed 13

Lean on Pete (Andrew Haigh, USA/UK)
[Haven't disliked a Haigh film yet, though I haven't yet loved one, either. And I'll watch Chloë Sevigny in anything.] (8:45am-10:44am)

Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig, USA)
[NYFF.] (1:45pm-3:19pm)

Who We Are Now (Matthew Newton, USA)
[From Nowhere is one of the best films I've seen this year, though that's a low bar at the moment.] (4:30pm-6:05pm)

Submergence (Wim Wenders, France/Germany/Spain)
[Wenders, though I'll likely regret this.] (7pm-8:52pm)

Mom and Dad (Brian Taylor, USA)
[Hoping for Cage on his A-game. And it's short.] (9:30pm-11pm)




Thu 14

Jane (Brett Morgen, USA)
[Morgen, especially since this looks like it's in the vein of Chicago 10.] (8:45am-1015am)

The Third Murder (Kore-eda Hirokazu, Japan)
[Kore-eda, though it worries me that this isn't in NYFF.] (11am-1:04pm)

Thelma (Joachim Trier, Norway/Sweden/France/Denmark)
[NYFF.] (1:30pm-3:26pm)

Brawl in Cell Block 99 (S. Craig Zahler, USA)
[Let's see if Bone Tomahawk was a fluke.] (4:15pm-6:27pm)

Caniba (Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel, France)
[Castaing-Taylor & Paravel. Mola Ram voice: "Caniba! CANIBA!!!"] (7pm-8:30pm)

I Am Not a Witch (Rungano Nyoni, UK/France)
[Cannes Fortnight. PUBLIC SCREENING.] (9pm-10:32pm)




Fri 15

Dark River (Cleo Barnard, UK)
[Barnard.] (9:30am-10:59am)

If You Saw His Heart (Joan Chemla, France)
[Dead slot, previously occupied by Brad's Status but now I have to see an earlier screening of that in order to file a professional review.] (Noon-1:26pm)

Oh Lucy! (Atsuko Hirayanagi, USA/Japan)
[Cannes Critics' Week. PUBLIC SCREENING] (2:30pm-4:05pm)

Mademoiselle Paradis (Barbara Albert, Austria/Germany)
[Albert, even if Falling appears to be an anomaly. Possible alternate: Euphoria.] (6pm-7:34pm)

First Reformed (Paul Schrader, USA)
[Am I really gonna walk all the way to the Ryerson for what's likely to be another shitty Schrader film, just because he made Blue Collar over 30 years ago? In all honesty, probably not. (UPDATE: I now have reliable word that this film is not in fact shitty.) PUBLIC SCREENING.] (9pm-10:52pm, RYE)




Sat 16

[Only public screenings from the point forward, obviously. Only the high-priority titles are noted here; I can likely fit in two or three others, but will improvise those based on buzz/reviews.]

A ciambra (Jonas Carpignano, Italy/France/USA/Germany)
[Cannes Fortnight.] (9:30am-11:30am)

The Day After (Hong Sang-soo, South Korea)
[Cannes Comp; NYFF; Honger.] (3:15pm-4:47pm)

Radiance (Naomi Kawase, Japan/France)
[Cannes Comp. CURSE YOU FREMAUX!!] (6:45pm-8:26pm, LBX)

Félicité (Alain Gomis, France/Senegal/Belgium/Germany/Lebanon)
[NYFF.] (9:45pm-11:48pm)




Sun 17

Kings (Deniz Gamze Ergüven, France/Belgium)
[Let's see if she slows that Mustang down.] (12:30pm-2:02pm)

The Nothing Factory (Pedro Pinho, Portugal)
[Cannes Fortnight; Sicinski dug it.] (2:30pm-5:27pm, LBX)

In the Fade (Fatih Akin, Germany/France)
[Cannes Comp.] (9:30pm-11:15pm)


WILLINGLY SACRIFICED:

BPM (Robin Campillo) [opens commercially 20 Oct]
Call Me by Your Name (Luca Guadagnino) [opens commercially 24 Nov]
Mudbound (Dee Rees) [on Netflix in November]
Stronger (David Gordon Green) [opens commercially 22 Sep; looks awful]
Victoria & Abdul (Stephen Frears) [see Stronger]
Darkest Hour (Joe Wright) [opens commercially 22 Nov]
Makala (Emmanuel Gras) [might be in video library]
Jim & Andy: [Very Long Subtitle] (Chris Smith) [it'll turn up]