TOP 10 FILMS TO SEE AT TIFF 2018

It’s that time of year once again where FERNTV begins the new festival season with the Toronto International Film Festival.  The CEO of TIFF Piers Handling will be stepping down after 25 years so this year should be unforgettable.  We start our list with director Damien Chazelle and actor Ryan Gosling who return together to TIFF with First Man.  Damien Chazelle takes it to the next level as he focuses on the life of Neil Armstrong played by Ryan Gosling.  From the time Neil Armstrong first entered NASA to the time where he first stepped on the moon, this biopic of Neil Armstrong will be a cinematic experience.  With the success of La La Land, the expectations for this film is high but Chazelle should deliver.

2. WIDOWS

Director Steve McQueen is finally back with a star studded film that will sure have the whole film universe buzzing.  Widows is his latest instalment where he drives in a different direction from his 2014 Best Picture 12 Years A Slave.  The film is co-written by Gone Girl’s Gillian Flynn and a deep cast that includes Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Colin Farrell, Liam Neeson and Robert Duvall.   Widows is a heist thriller about four women who must take on their dead husbands’ debt because of criminal activity.

3.  THE PREDATOR

Sure there may have been some bad Predator follow-up films to the original but when the world heard that Shane Black would be taking over the reigns in this follow up, there was faith in the franchise once again.  Having been in the first film, Shane Black brings all those elements and characteristics of what made the original so special back in the day to this modern day instalment called The Predator.  This time around the extraterrestrial monsters come to do what they always have done in the past but this time in a small suburban town.  The film will premiere under the Midnight Madness programme and it is set to put the programme on fire.

4.  BEN IS BACK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwxmCO_-mYc

Holly, which is played by Julia Roberts, plays the mother to Ben, played by Lucas Hedges, who makes an unexpected return to home from rehab on Christmas Eve morning.  Ben is Back might be this year’s major tearjerker.    The film shows within a 24 hour span what Holly does in order for her son to not go back to bad habits.   The film does comment on the opioid crisis that is killing many individuals, families and of course the country that we live in.   But most of all Ben is Back is about what people must do in order to prevent their family from falling.

5.  CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?

Academy Award nominee Melissa McCarthy plays best selling writer Lee Israel who made her living in the 70s and 80s as a celebrity biographer.  As the world started to turn a little faster, Lee Israel starts to struggle with the current tastes and her latest books takes quite the nosedive.  Can You Ever Forgive Me? is directed by Marielle Heller who films this tantalizing biopic of  writer Lee Israel who sold historical and forged letters to the black market.  She couldn’t have done it without her good friend Jack who just got out of jail for armed robbery.  Jack is played by Richard E. Grant who we can see already being nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

6. THE PUBLIC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StNfkQrdoGM

It’s really nice to see Emilio Estevez back in the fold again alongside Christian Slater and Alec Baldwin.  This time around Emilio Estevez  directs and plays a manager of a library in The Public.  The library’s regular patronage consists of people who are homeless and mentally ill.  The library staff bond and connect to these regulars but things start to escalate when an Arctic blast in the city of Cincinnati causes a big group of them to want to stay at the library overnight.  This beomes a police standoff and a media sideshow as these homeless people start to resist what America has given to them.  Which is nothing but pain.

7.  A STAR IS BORN

Bradley Cooper makes his directorial debut and stars in this film as a seasoned musician named Jackson Maine who finds and falls in love with an amateur musician Ally, played by Lady Gaga.   He takes her on a musical journey to success and stardom after making her believe in herself.  As the lights start to shine on both of these musicians, Jackson Maine continues to fight his own demons.  Supported by actors Sam Elliot and the one and only Dave Chapelle, Bradley Cooper brings a nice ensemble together.  A Star is Born will show whether or not Lady Gaga is a proven actress and that she can hold it down like the rest of them.    There are many storylines to the premiere of this picture at TIFF which will have everyone listening in.

8.  THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER

Maggie Gyllenhaal plays The Kindergarten Teacher Lisa Spinelli who becomes obsessed with a child by the name of Jimmy Roy played by Parker Sevak (maybe this is the next Jacob Tremblay) who has the gift of putting poetry together at 5 years old.  Director Sara Colangelo who won for best director for this film at Sundance leads the way for females in the film industry as well as Maggie Gyllenhaal giving an Oscar worthy performance.  The film comments on the way adults treat children and whether or not we push them to the brink of their destruction.  Soccer mom beware.

9.  HALLOWEEN

What kind of Halloween would it be without Michael Myers?  Maybe this year’s Midnight Madness will be much different and a lot scarier when they install this follow up to the horror franchise. Directed by David Gordon Green, Halloween follows Laurie Strode once again, played by Jamie Lee Curtis,  40 years after the traumatic event that happened between her and Michael Myers on that Halloween night.  This time Michael breaks free from a prison transfer the night before Halloween and embarks on his quest to find Laurie along with her family.  John Carpenter is back at the helm as the composer and the executive producer of this film which brings more smiles to this slasher franchise.  This instalment of Halloween will be one to remember and will make Midnight Madness one hell of a year.

10.  FAHRENHEIT 11/9

What would the Toronto International Film Festival be without the legend himself Michael Moore?  Well apparently he has much to say in his latest instalment Fahrenheit 11/9 where he documents the rise of Donald Trump into becoming the American president.  Director Michael Moore once said six months before the election in his essay “5 Reasons Why Trump Will Win” and everyone was saying that he was ludacris.  Now that Trump is in power, everyone is asking how the hell did that actually happen?  Which is why this documentary was made.