Film followers come to Toronto to get an early peak on the yr’s awards heavyweights. I didn’t see a knockout punch, however I noticed some sturdy contenders — and in a pair circumstances, I simply obtained bludgeoned.
Administrators Benny Safdie (“Uncut Gems”) and David Michôd (“Animal Kingdom”) confronted off with competing docudramas concerning the sufferings of two skilled brawlers whose careers peaked within the ’90s — i.e., new “Raging Bulls” for in the present day’s nostalgists. “The Smashing Machine” is a solo effort from the youthful Safdie brother after making a string of energetic cult hits along with his sibling, Josh. It stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as MMA fighter Mark Kerr, who might beat virtually anybody contained in the octagon however struggled to beat his personal demons at house along with his then-wife, Daybreak (Emily Blunt).
Based mostly on the names and expertise concerned, I used to be anticipating something apart from what I obtained: a traditional biopic. Its one little bit of aptitude is a dedication to wanting as if it was filmed on VHS. However projected in Imax, it simply appeared dreary (as did Johnson’s hairpiece). I’ll go one other spherical with it in a extra apropos ring.
Michôd’s “Christy” shares a number of of the identical touchstones — the bloodrush of victory, a bruising home life, a distracting wig — however gender-flipped. Sydney Sweeney throws a convincing jab as Christy Martin, the primary feminine boxer to make the duvet of “Sports Illustrated.” A lesbian from a conservative West Virginia household, she was pressured to cover her sexuality by carrying pastel pink within the ring and marrying her a lot older, emotionally abusive male coach, Jim Martin (Ben Foster). The script solely has just a few concepts below its belt, however they’re efficient, notably our dawning recognition that whereas Christy thinks she’s combating to show her price, she’s actually combating for the patriarchy.
Sweeney is nice, even when the leaden dialogue does her a disservice. It’s her first substantial, critical half since 2023’s underseen “Reality” and she or he seizes the chance to be talked about as one thing apart from the web’s most polarizing ingenue. (Social media is ceaselessly singling out one younger actress to be damned now and redeemed later, sigh.) As for Foster, who first snagged my consideration because the pathetic loon in “Alpha Dog,” he is aware of how you can play a hiss-worthy heel. You spend “Christy” aching to see him get socked within the face. When you want him to take extra punishment, he’s simply as vile in one other TIFF title, “Motor City.”
Tessa Thompson within the film “Hedda.”
(Prime Video)
At this yr’s pageant, girls in corsets did extra harm than gals in padded gloves. My favourite imply lady — maybe even my favourite movie of the pageant — was Nia DaCosta’s “Hedda,” a devilish and dynamic adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler,” wherein the lead character (performed by a unbelievable Tessa Thompson) begins firing off her daddy’s outdated pistols as quickly because the opening credit. DaCosta, who additionally tailored the play right into a script, restages the motion in order that the chaos all takes place throughout an enormous, drunken bacchanal at a rented mansion Hedda can’t afford. Thompson’s scheming newlywed manipulates the opposite characters with the arrogance of a queen who controls all of the items on the board, however on occasion she merely has to flip the desk over. The spirit is trustworthy; the subtext is contemporary.
“Mārama,” a hanging characteristic debut by Taratoa Stappard, payments itself as a Māori gothic and the mix works. In 1859 England, a white-passing girl from New Zealand named Mary (Ariāna Osborne) has sailed midway world wide searching for details about her mother and father. The globe-trotting lord Sir Cole (Toby Stephens) strong-arms her into turning into his niece’s governess, calling the Māori a “magnificent people” whereas amusing his visitors with parlor room reenactments of whale-hunting expeditions achieved with large puppets. “Mārama” doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it surely’s experience with first-rate cinematography and manufacturing design and a narrative with one or two extra surprises than we count on.
Equally, “Honey Bunch,” co-directed by Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli, is one other manor-bound thriller that toys with acquainted tropes. An amnesiac bride (Grace Glowicki, a go-for-broke oddball who all the time will get my consideration) arrives at an remoted and secretive trauma middle the place everybody appears to be screwing along with her recollections, together with her shady husband (Ben Petrie). Straightaway, we’ve got our suspicions about how that is going to go. The primary half of the movie doesn’t deviate from the method — it’s a little bit boring — however the second half is an excellent proper hook.
Guillermo del Toro’s grisly, sometimes nice “Frankenstein,” shot in Toronto and the U.Okay., hews extra faithfully to Mary Shelley’s novel than the 1931 Boris Karloff basic, scrapping the mob of pitchfork-wielding villagers and salvaging the wraparound story of an formidable explorer marooned within the the Arctic ice. Nevertheless it’s nonetheless very a lot Del Toro’s personal monster. Considered one of his smartest changes is retooling the romantic heroine, Elizabeth (Mia Goth), from the perfect childhood sweetheart to a science-loving pacifist with restricted endurance for egomaniacs like Oscar Isaac’s Victor Frankenstein. Costume designer Kate Hawley makes Goth seem like an unique beetle with antenna-ish plumes protruding of her hair.
Jacob Elordi because the Creature within the film “Frankenstein.”
(Ken Woroner / Netflix)
Jacob Elordi’s creature amps up the pathos a tad an excessive amount of for my style, however there’s no denying how a lot he’s invested within the function, or how nicely Del Toro’s critiques about narcissistic inventors go well with the current day. Nonetheless, Del Toro is aware of there’s a time and place to boast: On the movie’s Toronto premiere on the Princess of Wales Theatre, he playfully accused his native below-the-line crew of being too humble and made them get up for applause. “Stop being so Canadian,” he teased.
Del Toro advised the viewers that when he first noticed Karloff’s creation as a boy, he thought to himself, “That’s my messiah, that’s the guy I’m going to follow like Jesus.” However the prize for probably the most idol-worshipping movie within the pageant belongs to Baz Luhrmann’s “EPiC,” which stands for “Elvis Presley in Concert.” Constructed from hours of beforehand unseen reside footage from Presley’s stint in Las Vegas, its rapturous displaying felt like attending the church of Elvis.
Luhrmann insists that “EPiC” is neither a live performance movie nor a documentary. I don’t see the difficulty with calling it both, but it surely’s additionally honest to think about it a companion piece to Luhrmann’s 2022 “Elvis.” It actually reveals that Austin Butler’s Oscar-nominated portrayal of the King wasn’t one rhinestone excessive. Right here, the actual Presley is charismatic as hell, and appears nice beaded in sanctified sweat. At any time when he throws a moist scarf into the viewers, the ladies go so loopy you’d assume it was the Shroud of Turin.
Luhrmann continues to be outraged that Col. Tom Parker constricted Presley’s inventive development by parking him within the metropolis of buffet tables reasonably than letting him tour the world. Presley solely did one week of worldwide live shows throughout his complete profession: 5 reveals in Canada, two of them only a 10-minute drive from my theater. You may hear Presley’s resentment towards the better-traveled (and on the time, better-respected) artists stealing his spot on the charts. “It’s so dry in here, I feel like I’ve got Bob Dylan in my mouth,” he jokes. Later, he slings a guitar round his neck to strum “Little Sister,” after which accelerates the tempo and begins belting the Beatles’ “Get Back,” a refined dig that the boys from Britain weren’t all the time that unique.
A scene from the film “A Useful Ghost.”
(TIFF)
Talking of, I can’t wrap up my closing dispatch from this yr’s Toronto Worldwide Movie Competition with out mentioning probably the most artistic Oscar contender I noticed all week: “A Useful Ghost,” which gained the Grand Prix of Critics’ Week at Cannes and can be Thailand’s entry for an Academy Award. Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s arch hybrid of horror, comedy, romance and political thriller begins when a self-described “academic ladyboy” (Wisarut Homhuan) discovers that his new vacuum cleaner is possessed. From there, the film defies prediction at each flip.
I ducked into “A Useful Ghost” on a whim, questioning how it might pair with TIFF’s world premiere of “Dust Bunny,” a pleasant and nasty Roald Dahl-esque journey wherein a little bit lady hires Mads Mikkelsen to battle a man-eating monster below her mattress. I got here out of the theater abuzz with power. Although a few of this season’s noisiest awards hopefuls are rooted in basic genres, there are nonetheless administrators making motion pictures that really feel completely new — and nonetheless audiences delighted to cheer for a giant swing.
