TIFF '24 Wrap-Up
A few words about calling it a day
I wrote in my last daily dispatch from TIFF that I was considering skipping Day Eleven, the last day of the festival, entirely. And so I did. Looking over the schedule for that day, while there were a few films I was interested in seeing, I simply no longer had the energy, and at some point it’s all just movies. The world won’t end if I dont see them. So I called it a day, not unlike the characters in People’s Choice winner The Life of Chuck, one of the last films I saw at this year’s fest, and which I seem to have liked (maybe even loved) a lot more than some of my more jaded compatriots. Perhaps that’s not fair. We’re not talking about the best movie ever made here, and I can understand why people struggled with its saaccharine style, but it spoke to me quite deeply nonetheless. Either way, it is to some degree a film about recognizing, in life, when a job is well done and knowing when to bow out. So I bowed out.
I spent a chunk of my “last day” writing a review of Russians at War to be published soon. TIFF has also announced that they will finally be screening the film publicly on Tuesday, Sep. 16, after having cancelled its screenings during the festival due to controversy and alleged threats. I also milled around a bit, simply enjoying a lazy day, before heading off to the Queen & Beaver for a small meetup with some longtime friends and fellow movie buffs to unpack our festival experiences. There were years that meetup would attract upwards of 20 people. One year, when I was unfortunately sick, Jemaine Clement even showed up to hang out. Damn the TIFF flu. Lately, the meetup has dwindled to just a few of us, but in a way I’m glad for that. It was good people, having good conversation, without the crush of too many voices.
The other thing I did on Sunday was count up some of my TIFF ‘24 stats. Here are the stats on the basic count of films I watched (too many, to be clear):
41 feature film screenings
3 shorts presentations with 13 films
1 screener during the fest
1 non-festival film on Netflix
4 advanced screenings, 1 advanced screener
3 features and 1 short at Midnight Dankness
total: 50(+1) features, 14 shorts
Here are some other random stats:
3 repertory screenings
1 movie projected on film
14 features director (or co-directed) by women
5 Canadian films (plus 1 by a Canadian director)
4 midnight screenings
2 movies involving psychedelic toads
2 Connor O’Malley appearances
2 Coldplay needle drops
2 movies shot by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom
Of course, it wouldn’t be a festival wrap-up post without talking about some of the highlights. Before getting to those, though, I’d like to share a couple of mea cuplas. Films that I may not have given the fairest shake to. The first is Harvest, from Greek filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari. While I expressed admiration for it after seeing it early in the festival, I struggled with its pace and tone, and came out feeling kind of negative. As the days wore on, though, I kept thinking about the movie, and it kept rising in my estimation, to the point that I might now think it’s among the festival’s very best. I can’t really say for sure. I think a rewatch would be necessary. It’s possible it’s one of those films of great images, moments, and ideas, but which I still find a chore to watch. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll update down the line.
The other is Joseph Khan’s Ick, which I described as having whiffed it, but I was maybe too harsh on it in my dispatch. In fact, as I began hearing people outright trashing Khan’s high school, creature feature comedy, I started feeling defensive about it. While I dont think the movie is quite up there with Detention or Bodied, particularly in how overextended its final act gets, I have to admit, I enjoyed it overall, and I think it’s smarter than many have given it credit for. It’s a film about a lot of things, including the desire to raise a child in a world seemingly going to shit, but if only we can hold on and get to higher ground, maybe things will be okay. It’s also beautifully anti-nostalgia, while being nostalgic as hell. A movie about all the shit I grew up with in the ‘00s that comes away with the message: the ‘00s kinda sucked, and things have only gotten worse since. Very true.
As for the highlights, in truth there are a lot of them. It was a good festival. Among those top of mind, in no particular order, are David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds, Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, Xin Huo’s Bound in Heaven, Johann Lurf and Christina Jauernik’s 3D short Revolving Rounds, Frederick Wiseman’s Essene, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, Anastasiya Trofimova’s Russians at War, Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language, Mati Diop’s Dahomey, Hong Sang-soo’s By the Stream, Danny Scharar and Conner O’Malley’s Rap World, Nelson Carlos de los Santos Arias’s Pepe, Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light, Jia Zhangke’s Caught by the Tides, Mahdi Fleifel’s To a Land Unknown, Raj Kapoor’s Awāra, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor’s No Other Land, Halina Reijn’s Babygirl, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cloud, Andrew DeYoung’s Friendship, Jean-Luc Godard’s short Presentation of the Trailer of a Film “Scénario”, Miguel Gomes’s Grand Tour, John Smith’s short Being John Smith, Rungano Nyoni’s On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, Roberto Minervini’s The Damned, and Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada.
Like I said, a good festival.
In the end, I’d be remiss if I didn’t provide an easy set of links to all of my daily dispatches from TIFF ‘24. This was the first time I’ve ever done any such thing, and it was an extremely rewarding experience. Thanks to those of you who’ve been reading along, and to those who reached out to say you appreciated them. It’s meant the world.
My TIFF ‘24
Day Zero - Local Legends, Coreys, Rap World, Local Legends: Bloodbath
Day One - The Shrouds, Dahomey, Bird, By the Stream, Cloud, The Substance
Day Two - Caught by the Tides, Harvest, Wavelengths 1, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, Bound in Heaven
Day Three - The Damned, Hard Truths, Mother Mother, Wavelengths 2, The Quiet Ones, Grand Tour, Ick
Day Four - Nightbitch, Conclave, Lázaro at Night, Wavelengths 3, (plus Rebel Ridge)
Day Five - The Wild Robot, Heretic, Pepe, To a Land Unknown, Gülizar, Else
Day Seven - Babygirl, Sharp Corner, Friendship, Universal Language, No Other Land
Day Eight - All We Imagine as Light, The Brutalist, (plus Anora, Presence, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, The End)
Day Nine - Time of Maturity, Awāra, Russians at War, It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This
Day Ten - The Shadow Strays, Oh, Canada, The Life of Chuck, Your Tomorrow