TOP 10 FILMS TO SEE AT TIFF 2019

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Summer is over for the most of us because the weather is getting cooler at nighttime and the children are going back to school.  For those who love film and are in the film industry, summer is always extended at this time because of the Toronto International Film Festival.  The 2019 edition is quite the interesting slate as Joaquin Phoenix spearheads the film season with Joker.  We were all waiting for this film to be released in October, but only a select few will get the chance to watch this massively buzzed film.  This updated version of the Joker which has been untouchable since Heath Ledger‘s Joker in The Dark Knight.  Known as to be the best actor on the planet, Joaquin Phoenix is sure set to deliver the goods or rather the tricks in the movie.  Not only the city of Gotham will be turned upside down but the city of Toronto will too after this screening.   Here is FERNTV‘s top 10 film to watch at TIFF this year.

The madness continues in The Lighthouse which stars both Robert Pattison and Willem Dafoe as two lighthouse keepers on a mysterious New England island in the 1890s.  Director Robert Eggers who was responsible for the slow burning horror The Witch follows up with this black and white condensed aspect ratio film with an obscure story.  These two lighthouse keepers drive each other up the wall in the film and it is said that these two actors really hit out of the park or rather island.  The manner to which Robert Eggers put this miserable yet beautiful film together is like no other.  He is truly becoming the director to keep both of your eyes on because The Lighthouse will prove to be a cinematic masterpiece.

The film world was shocked when director Bong Joon-Ho‘s film Parasite won the Palmes D’Or at Cannes this year because the horror genre rose up to the occasion to gain the top prize.  This Korean film focuses on an unemployed family of four who live in a basement apartment struggling to make ends meat.  Ki-woo is the son of the family who is brought an opportunity to pose as an English tutor to the wealthy Park family.  Director Bong Joon-Ho has made a name for himself because of the film Snowpiercer and of course the cult classic Okja.  But now this film Parasite has really put him at the upper echelons of film.

Ford vs. Ferrari is a story of an endearing friendship between American car designer Carroll Shelby and his British race driver Ken Miles who are played by Matt Damon and Christian Bale.   They both set to design an automotive race car for the Ford Motor Company to compete against Enzo Ferrari at the 24 hours of Le Mans in France in 1966.  Ford vs. Ferrari is set to speed things up at the Toronto International Film Festival and maybe that film could be a blockbuster hit without having any comic book relations to it.  Is that possible?

Actor Eddie Redmayne seems to always make it to the TIFF lineup every year but The Aeronauts in which he plays alongside Felicity Jones seems very promising.  Eddie Redmayne plays scientist James Glaisher who takes pilot Amelia Wren in a hot air balloon to make some great discoveries.  Set in the year of 1862, the two are to make the greatest ascent in the history of mankind and to make discoveries about the weather.  The Aeronauts may fly high during the Toronto International Film Festival but may also prove worthy for being an Amazon Original.

Do you remember when the movie Raw made people ill during its screening at Midnight Madness at TIFF.  Well it might happen again with the movie The Platform (El Hoyo) which is set to make is debut at Midnight Madness because the film deals with food.  Director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia‘s focuses on a future dystopia, where prisoners are housed in vertically stacked cells which is brilliant because it seems like everything is stacked lately.  Food descends from above where the upper tiers get the icing on the cake and those who are below get nothing but crumbs.  The Platform which is also known as El Hoyo might put the shock in shock cinema this year at Midnight Madness.

Too bad that there is no trailer for director Lijo Jose Pellissery‘s film Jallikattu but maybe its mystery is better to be unravelled during its screening at the Toronto International Film Festival.  Cameron Bailey has mentioned this film as one of his picks which falls under the Contemporary World Cinema slate.  Jallikattu follows a remote village who goes into chaos and violence when a buffalo escapes and where many men are trying to play hero by catching it.  The film community in Toronto will be exposed to a new voice in Malayalam cinema and director Lijo Jose Pellissery is ready to take the bull by its horns at TIFF.

Director Destin Daniel Cretton made quite the film called Short Term 12 a few years back with Brie Larson which has a limited release in the film circuit but never really got the recognition it truly deserved.  Cretton is back with Brie Larson, Jamie Foxx and Michael B. Jordan in a film called Just Mercy focusing on justice in America.  Michael B. Jordan plays Harvard educated lawyer Bryan Stevenson who goes to Alabama to fight for Walter McMillan who has been sentenced to the death penalty despite evidence that he proves that he is innocent.  The buzz is already happening that Jamie Foxx is set to be nominated for an Oscar for this film but that shouldn’t be surprising.

Blood Quantum will be the opening film for Midnight Madness which will set the bar for TIFF programmer Peter Kuplowsky who has said that this year will be different than most as he journeys to other communities and discovering their monsters. Director Jeff Barnaby makes a cultural critique in this film as it focuses on a Mi’gmaq community who is immune to a zombie plague.  The biggest problem that presents itself in Blood Quantum is that when the outsiders from surrounding cities try to break in the Mi’gmaq community to seek refuge from the apocalypse of zombies.  If you ever read the book Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice, you will see that there are many similarities between this novel and this film.  The bottom line is that this indigenous community is trying to save itself from extinction.

There’s been a lot of underground buzz going around in the film circuit about how great of an actress Nina Hoss is.  Director Ina Weisse puts this visual concerto together as Nina Hoss plays a violin teacher who becomes obsessed with one of her pupils at the expense of her family.  The Audition maybe this year’s Whiplash but if there is going to be a rising star that does not really have any Hollywood connotations, it may be Nina Hoss.  It is going to be great to see her on this side of the pond and how much impact she is actually make it in the global community.  It’s time for the city of Toronto to discover her.

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