The Debut, Club Kid and more land as decisive triumphs at the Toronto International Film Festival
Like every year, the Toronto International Film Festival's 51st iteration boasted a basket of incredible, now-buzzy titles for the coming year.
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iteration → land → year
And like most years, the best of those films seemed to fit a theme.
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best → seem → theme
This year, it was characters in a sort of psychic crisis: people — overwhelmingly young people — grappling with a confusing and fracturing world and the feeling they weren't made for it.
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they → grapple → it
To navigate those stories of crying and comedy, we've put together a list of some of the best.
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we → navigate → best
In short, Jesse Eisenberg's The Debut is a sure-to-be-divisive, sure-to-entertain work of art.
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Debut → entertain → art
Showcasing Julianne Moore as a terrifyingly terrible community theatre actress and Paul Giamatti as her Whiplash meets Dead Poets Society mentor, its offbeat narrative style is paired with Moore's transformative performance of a lifetime.
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style → showcase → lifetime
You might love it.
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You → love → it
You might hate it.
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You → hate → it
But either way, you shouldn't miss it.
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you → miss → it
Club Kid
Writer/director/star Jordan Firstman's first-time feature feels anything but amateurish.
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feature → feel → ?
The familiar story it tells, that of a disaffected young man (Peter) suddenly tasked with taking care of a son (Arlo) he never knew he had, would be enough for a good movie.
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he → tell → movie
But as soon as the sentimental comedy/drama steamrolls through the normal "reluctant mentor" story beats, it flips and crashes into something more.
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it → steamroll → something
The result is a star turn for just about everyone you see on screen (including Peter's odd roommate Nicky, played by Debut supporting actor Eldar Isgandarov).
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you → see → Isgandarov
It also just might make you cry.
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you → make → ?
- REVIEW
The Debut is totally going to win an Oscar
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Debut → go → Oscar
It might make you cry
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother
Bassam Tariq's singular vision — both in terms of the movie's religious themes and gorgeously stylized cinematography — makes Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother something special.
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vision → make → something
On top of that, star Mahershala Ali as Latif and his co-stars make it something incredible.
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it → make → Latif
But it is Latif himself, a reluctant hitman who's lost his wife, nearly lost his faith, and is soon sent on a whirlwind mission to help a lost rich brat survive the week, that propels the story forward.
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that → lose → story
It's a near-indefinable collage of styles and genres — birthdays, broken glass, smiles and tears — but one that is nearly impossible to look away from.
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that → look → styles
As he's dropped off at his grandma's house in Brooklyn for the summer, the star of hand-drawn Canadian co-production Julián (Knyght Darius Jack) is already off-balance.
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star → drop → balance
But a niggling sense of unease sets everything on edge: there is something pushing back against the person whom Julián wants to be, how he wants to act and what he's allowed to care about.
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he → niggle → what
That confusing, bigger-than-him battle pitches into a higher gear when he tries to join the local girls in making glamorous mermaid costumes for an upcoming parade.
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he → pitch → parade
For some reason he can't fathom, the world keeps telling him the person he wants to be is wrong.
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he → fathom → him
And as the movie proceeds to show, the world is better when we fix that.
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we → proceed → that
Iron Boy
From Pixar animator Louis Clichy (and starring his own son, Gary, in the lead role) Iron Boy is another animated tale of fitting in.
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A French farm boy with a pernicious case of scoliosis, Christophe, 10, can't seem to keep things straight.
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boy → seem → things
He's fighting with his overbearing father, getting into trouble at school — and literally falling over at every opportunity.
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He → fight → opportunity
Our young hero is soon fitted with an iron back brace to keep things from tumbling into chaos.
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hero → fit → chaos
Unsurprisingly, things don't go exactly to plan.
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things → go → plan
Iron Boy's resultant charting of failure to meet expectations, first loves and redemptive self-acceptance is as much grounded character study as it is magical realism.
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it → meet → expectations
Its entirely hand-drawn animation style is also a rare and beautiful sight to behold.
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style → draw → ?
Like if the infamously over-the-top "Montana Meth Project" anti-drug ads from the early 2000s had made a feature film, Toy Gun Bandit says "not even once" to robbing your local gas station.
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Bandit → make → station
Unfortunately, our star apparently never saw those ads.
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star → see → ads
Instead, French-Canadian teen Félix makes bad choice after bad choice, sending his legal situation spiralling from bad to astronomically worse in a cautionary tale that reads like a modern day Reefer Madness.
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that → make → Madness
What keeps the eclectic, almost incidental plot from fraying into nothingness is Felix himself: first-time actor Félix Munger — a true revelation — plays the desperate-for-attention eponymous protagonist with an electric, vulnerable and mesmerizing charisma.
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Munger → keep → charisma
The film pairs wonderfully with TIFF's other Canadian teen-on-the-run film, In Alaska, as both are character studies grounded by powerhouse young performances.
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both → pair → performances
With Munger in front of the camera of Toy Gun Bandit, you cannot help but root — and mourn — for the bright future he constructs, then inevitably destroys.
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he → help → future
Like street photography in motion, Sunburn makes the everyday fascinating — with serious thanks owed to François Truffaut's Small Change.
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everyday → make → Change
The plot is as subtle as it is personal: a group of young people try to make sense of themselves, and each other, in Toronto's St. James Town neighbourhood during a heat wave.
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group → try → wave
What lifts Serville Poblete's coming-of-age hodgepodge to the next level despite its conversely light tone is the serious talent he displays for capturing and evoking senses and sensations.
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he → lift → senses
…and 11 more, not listed.
The Aporia
