The Toronto International Film Festival has descended upon the city, and with hundreds of choices, picking the right film to see can be overwhelming. We’ll be bringing you recommendations every day, from major Hollywood features to compelling docs — the best from around the world. These are films that deserve to be seen, either during the festival or after.
Prisoners
Rating: 4/5
Montreal director Jacques Villeneuve presents Prisoners, one of the more anticipated films of the festival. It’s a dark, moody and tense crime drama that follows the aftermath of the kidnapping of two young girls. Everything seems ominous as the film opens on a dreary Thanksgiving Day in suburban Pennsylvania, especially the peculiar RV parked on the street in this quiet neighbourhood.
When two young girls go for a walk and never return, their respective parents are sent into their own private tailspins. Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) increasingly loses control of his mental and emotional states, trying to assume the duties of the police when he believes they have failed him.
Jake Gyllenhaal is Detective Loki, the hard-nosed cop on the case. He and Jackman make up some of the tensest scenes in the film. Prisoners doesn’t feel like its two and half hour runtime, and it’s hard not to be pulled in to this heavy, serious thriller.
What’s more, the two leads are supported by an impressive ensemble, including Maria Bello, Viola Davis, Terrence Howard, Melissa Leo and a very creepy Paul Dano.
Sept. 13, Visa Screening Room (Elgin), 2:30 p.m.
Cold Eyes
Rating: 4/5
A fun, entertaining and smart thriller finally makes its appearance at the festival this weekend, as Friday kicks off the first of three days of showings of Cold Eyes. This entry from South Korea is taut and stylish, following a group of savvy surveillance operators tracking a deadly criminal.
There is a sort of buddy-cop aspect to the film, though with less clichés. A folksy veteran codenamed Falcon recruits a young, auspicious woman to join the crew. The film smartly rests its success on the shoulders of these two characters and their colleagues, instead of hi-tech toys and dizzying action sequences.
Granted, there are both of those, but you may be surprised to suddenly realize you care about the characters as they romp around an urban playground. Cold Eyes is beautifully shot, sharply-edited and peppered with subtle, charming wit. It flies by, keeping the pace throughout, building towards one exceptionally exciting finish.
Sept. 13, Roy Thomson Hall, 9:30 p.m.
Sept. 14, Scotiabank 2, 5:15 p.m.
Sept. 15, The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema, 2:45 p.m.
R100
Rating: 3.5/5
Now for something completely different. This entry into the Midnight Madness programme comes from Japan, and it definitely adheres to the “madness” part of the category’s description.
It’s probably better to not know anything specifically about the plot of the film — the title and the director are telling enough. Hitoshi Matsumoto is known for some outrageous, subversive, wild, and well, weird stuff. R100 is especially odd, as whimsy blends with sex in this provocative film.
Centered around one seemingly normal man (well, he stops being normal pretty fast), it’s a steady escalation of absurdity. In Japan, movie ratings start from G, go up to PG-12, and then hit R-15 and R-18. So you can imagine where Matsumoto wants to go with a film called R100.
Sept. 13, Scotiabank 9, 11:30 a.m.
Sept. 14, Scotiabank 10, 9 p.m.