TORONTO — Moviegoers are going to have one hell of an autumn.
I just spent 11 days at the Toronto International Film Festival, previewing the movies that will start hitting theaters around the time Starbucks hits peak pumpkin spice latte, and I’m happy to report the future is looking pretty bright.
There were a few themes. Sharp eyes at those with power, including Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch. Genre-mixing musical elements, comedy, drama and horror in increasingly creative ways. More than one protagonist finding the world moving on without him.
But one stood out. When you think of film festivals — or even the word “film,” instead of the word “movie” — there’s a solid chance you think of somber, glacial dramas designed to win Oscars.
And sure, there were a few of those, but for the most part, I found this year’s crop to be energetic, heartfelt and often gut-wrenchingly funny.
You can see a full list of what I saw on my Letterboxd. But here are the top movies, erm, films, you should keep an eye out for, listed in order of release date.
A riveting documentary
Documentarian Alex Gibney’s proposal that you might want to watch a 3-hour 45-minute documentary about Elon Musk might seem like a tall order, so let me make it easy for you: You do want to see “Musk.”
As I wrote last week, “The documentary, which spans from his early Silicon Valley days through his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) dalliances and Twitter acquisition to his ascent to becoming the world’s first trillionaire, paints Musk as an emotionally unstable grifter with more power and influence than perhaps any other human who has ever lived.”
It’s filled with interviews from former colleagues, his parents, an ex-wife and other former romantic partners, and journalists who have covered him. And it all revolves around a computer-generated animation of Musk, who gives an “interview” by stating things he’s previously said in the press and in the public.
Musk has worked diligently to amass more power than anyone else on the planet.
Gibney has a simple question: What does he plan to do with it?
“Musk” has a limited release on Oct. 9 followed by a nationwide release on Oct. 16. It will later stream on HBO Max.
A sweeping Spanish-language epic
The queer Spanish epic “La Bola Negra” spans eras, from the beginning of the Spanish Civil War to modern times, with a dip into the fictional and fantastic. At its heart, the movie is a celebration of the work of the celebrated playwright and poet Federico García Lorca.
The film is sort of a triptych, save for the fact that the stories are all intertwined and fit within one another like puzzle pieces. One follows a young man conscripted into the fascist army who begins falling in love with a prisoner. Another follows a man in the 1930s who cannot get into a social club because he is gay. The third follows a gay historian who wants to unearth the secrets of his family.
The movie might have a bit too much crosscutting, but ultimately I found it to be aching, surreal, poignant and beautiful.
“La Bola Negra” has a limited U.S. theatrical release on Oct. 16, and will be streaming on Netflix on Dec. 2.
A thrilling ode to NYC
From the opening song — LCD Soundsystem’s “New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down” — it’s clear director Noah Segan’s new movie, “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York,” is a love letter to the city. But it’s also a love letter to ’70s crime thrillers.
John Turturro gives a deeply lived-in, weary performance as a charismatic man who finds it increasingly difficult to make his living as a pickpocket in the digital age. His circumstances are already tough but, as they tend to do in these kind of movies, take a turn for the worse when he steals from the wrong guy.
What could be a by-the-numbers thriller turns into an exploration of modern life, the digital age, family, regret, forgiveness and, of course, New York itself, from Queens to the Bronx to Manhattan.
“The Only Living Pickpocket in New York” opens in select theaters on Oct. 23 and nationwide on Oct. 30.
A darkly funny debut
“Club Kid” Peter Green (Jordan Firstman) parties. It’s all he knows. He makes his living off throwing parties, and spends most of them pouring GHB down his throat or falling into ketamine holes. He sleeps with whoever’s within arm’s length, and goes to actual sleep after the sun rises.
Then, one day, he wakes up to find a woman at his door with a 10-year-old son who she claims is his. Oh, and his mom recently died by suicide. And then said woman leaves the boy with Green. (This is all confusing to Green, who didn’t know he ever had sex with a woman, but, yes, the boy is his.)
This all might sound, well, pretty dark. And Firstman’s feature debut, in which he also stars, at times can be. But it’s also belly-achingly funny and heartwarming and deeply felt.
If you’re imagining the A24 version of Adam Sandler’s “Big Daddy,” you’re not insanely far off.
But, as much you might think you’ve seen this movie before, with all its familiar trappings, trust me: You haven’t.
“Club Kid” hits theaters on Nov. 6.
A top awards contender
Martin McDonagh’s best work focuses on unlikely pairs of friends, enemies or people somewhere in between, as evidenced by “In Bruges” and “The Banshees of Inisherin.” “Wild Horse Nine,” the best movie I saw at TIFF, is further fodder for this argument.
It follows two CIA hit men (John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell) as they travel to Easter Island to see the “big heads,” as they call them, on the eve of the 1973 coup d’état in Chile, which Malkovich keeps telling everyone is about to happen thanks to him and his CIA pals, usually when he’s in the company of good-looking women.
Rockwell is his usual cool, quippy self, which provides a perfect foil for Malkovich’s magnificent performance as a man nearing the end of his life, one filled with bloodshed, and wondering what it all meant.
That might sound like a downer, but this is a McDonagh movie, so it’s also one of the funniest you’ll see all year, as Malkovich opines that the quality of cheese exported by a country is directly related to the size of its homosexual population; worries about killing moths in his apartment while having no issues killing people; and wondering if heaven is actually filled with dinosaurs because, you know, not all dinosaurs were bad.
“Wild Horse Nine” hits theaters on Nov. 6
An extraordinary true story
In “Elsinore,” Andrew Scott gives the performance of his career as Ian Charleson, the “Chariots of Fire” actor who performed the lead of “Hamlet” at London’s National Theatre while he was dying of AIDS.
Director Simon Stone’s camera hangs on Scott throughout the movie, often in extreme close-ups, as the actor sweats and screams and fights death itself for the sake of his art.
There is almost no question that Scott will be a major contender for the best actor Oscar this year. In the film, he has to do multiple things at once: play a man dying of AIDS, play a man who is pretending he is not dying of AIDS, play Hamlet as a man dying of AIDS who is pretending he isn’t.
It is extraordinary. And breathtaking. And it will break your heart.
“Elsinore” has a limited release on Nov. 20, with a nationwide release to follow.
A surreal sidesplitter
This was, by far, the most boisterous screening I attended. The audience broke into applause and deafening laughter throughout the film, and for good reason.
What if a neglected, mousy housewife suddenly became a hard-bitten method actor at the cost of everything, including her own safety and sanity?
That’s the animating question behind “The Debut,” Jesse Eisenberg’s latest directorial outing. Julianne Moore gives a thrilling, sidesplitting, surprisingly affecting performance as Mona Friedman, as she gets casts in a community theater production helmed by the hard-nosed Jerry (Paul Giamatti) and begins to … change.
The less said about her metamorphosis, the better.
Just do yourself a favor, and try to catch this in a packed theater.
“The Debut” hits theaters on Dec. 11.
An effervescent rom-com
It’s really, really difficult to write about good comedies, particularly when you’re recommending them. Because what do you say, other than, “It’s soooo funny”?
So, I’ll keep this brief. “All That She Wants” is soooo funny. Annie Murphy of “Schitt’s Creek” stars in this warmhearted hug of a rom-com between a millennial and a Zoomer that may or may not be a Christmas movie (roughly a third of it takes place during the holiday). But unlike most of the (very few) rom-coms we get these days, this one is both truly romantic and actually hilarious — and might announce Murphy as the rom-com’s new Sandra Bullock/Meg Ryan/Julia Roberts.
“All That She Wants” does not yet have a release date.
Honorable mentions
“Alpha Gang” stars Léa Seydoux, Dave Bautista, Lily-Rose Depp, Riley Keough, Cate Blanchett and Chris Pine. Which leads to the question: How is arguably the most star-studded cast of any movie at TIFF intentionally made to look like schlocky 1950s sci-fi B-movie aliens who assume human form and get the “emotion disease”? No clue, but it is. This movie will not be for everyone, but it’s bizarre and hilarious and Pine and Blanchett throw 100. I have no idea if this will even get distribution.
“Atonement” moved me enough to write about it last week. As I noted, it’s “based on the true story of American troops who fire on what they believe are hostile vehicles in 2003 Baghdad, killing three men. Instead, the cars contain several generations of one family, all civilians. Years later, members of that family have moved to the United States, and one of the veterans wants to meet them, to apologize.” This is a quiet, deeply heartfelt film with a final scene that will stick in your memory. (Out Oct. 2)
“I Play Rocky” is exactly the kind of glossy, feel-good movie you’d expect from a Peter Farrelly depiction of a young Sylvester Stallone betting it all to make “Rocky.” The movie is fun but not particularly substantive. At its center, though, is an incredible transformation by Anthony Ippolito, who fully embodies Stallone. You could have showed me a clip and said it was the real Stallone, and I’d have believed it. (Limited: Nov. 6; wide: Nov. 20)
“Sunburn” follows a group of kids on a hot day in Toronto, a Canadian version of “Dazed and Confused.” It’s touching and sweet, with far more impressive filmmaking and camerawork than the movie needed. Let’s all keep an eye on director Serville Poblete. It currently doesn’t have a release date.
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