TIFF Review Index
Thursday, September 24, 2015 at 3:25PM Let this serve as the official TIFF Review reference guide since the festival closed up shop Sunday night after the Free screening of the People's Choice winner Room. We hope you enjoyed reading along with our reviews. Amir and I saw about 50 movies between us but we'll have to wrap up now as NYFF screenings have already started and Oscar charts MUST be updated and so on.
Fall Film Season is finally upon us!
3 of my favorites of the 29 I saw...
37 Films Reviewed
45 Years British marital drama (Nathaniel)
3000 Nights Palestinian prison drama (Amir)
Anomalisa Existential stop-motion dramedy (Nathaniel)
Arabian Nights: Vol 2 Portugueuse art film with politicial satire vignettes (Nathaniel)
As I Open My Eyes Tunisian music drama (Nathaniel)
Baba Joon Israel's immigrant family drama & Oscar submission (Amir)
Bang Gang French teen sex drama (Nathaniel)
The Clan Argentine true crime drama (Nathaniel)
Closet Monster Canadian LGBT drama (Nathaniel)
Dégradé Palestinian hair salon set female drama (Amir)
Demolition Canadian grief dramedy (Nathaniel)
Desde Allá Venezuelan LGBT Drama & Venice winner (Amir)
Dheepan French Immigrant drama, Palme d'or winner (Amir)
The Dressmaker Australian revenge dramedy (Glenn)
Embrace of the Serpent Black & White Colombian Amazon journey (Nathaniel)
Eva Doesn't Sleep experimental Argentine corpse drama (Nathaniel)
The Family Fang US Dramedy about a performance art family (Nathaniel)
Girls Lost Swedish LGBT Teen Drama (Nathaniel)
Granny's Dancing on the Table Swedish animated/live-action hybrid (Nathaniel)
The Here After Swedish School Drama (Nathaniel)
Homesick Norwegian incest drama (Nathaniel)
I Saw The Light US musical biopic (Nathaniel)
Invisible Filipino immigrant drama (Nathaniel)
Love French 3D sex drama (Nathaniel)
Much Loved Moroccan docudrama on sex workers in Marrakech (Amir)
Mustang Turkish coming of age drama (Amir)
Phantom Boy French animated adventure (Nathaniel)
Room US family/crime drama, and People's Choice Winner (Nathaniel)
Spotlight, US journalist drama (Nathaniel)
Stonewall US gay history drama (Nathaniel)
Taxi Jafar Panahi's comedy & Berlinale Winner (Amir)
Truth US TV news political drama (Nathaniel)
Victoria German continuous shot crime drama (Nathaniel)
The Wave Norwegian disaster epic (Nathaniel)
The Witch this year's Sundance horror sensation (Nathaniel)
Youth Showbiz drama (Nathaniel)
upside down, VICTORIA turned me, inside out. and round and round
Other TIFF Articles
Best Actress Contenders (Nathaniel)
Red Carpet Opening Weekend (Jose)
Red Carpet Post-Venice (Jose)
Victoria's Single Take / Birdman Comparison (Sebastian)
People's Choice and Other Awards (Nathaniel)
Women He's Undressed - The Interview (Jose)
IndieWire Critics Poll (Nathaniel)
TIFF Juries of One
I polled the podcasters who stayed the whole fest. Here's what they said...
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| Nathaniel R | Joe Reid | Nick Davis | |
| Film | Room | Son of Saul | Arabian Nights |
| Director | Cirro Guerra, Embrace of Serpent | Ridley Scott, The Martian |
Laszlo Nemes, Son of Saul |
| Actress | Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years |
Cate Blanchett, Truth |
Kalieaswari Srinivasan, Dheepan |
| Actor | Jacob Tremblay, Room |
Abraham Attah, Beasts of No Nation | Frederick Lau, Victoria |
| Supp. Actress | Kate Dickie, The Witch |
Julianne Moore, Maggie's Plan | Ghalia Benali, As I Open My Eyes |
| Supp. Actor | Stanley Tucci, Spotlight |
Scoot McNairy, Our Brand is Crisis | Abdella Didane, Much Loved |
| Craft Contribution | Sound, Victoria |
Cinematography, Son of Saul |
Cinematography, The Assassin |
| Cinematography, Embrace of Serpent | Art Direction, Room |
Sound, Son of Saul |
|
| Score, Spotlight |
Costumes, The Danish Girl |
Camera Operator, Victoria |
Reader Comments (19)
Awesome coverage!
And a good year for child actors, it seems.
OH NOOO. I forgot to respond to your email with my favourites :(
well, what are they then :) ?
will we see a full on review of all the volumes of miguel gomes arabian nights, on TFE eventually? i was really looking forward to said reviews.
Oh God, this Kate Dickie is the same that rocked my world eight years ago in Red Road. I haven't seen her ever since, except in tiny roles. So glad to know she is still awesome!
Now I need to know about MAGGIE'S PLAN!
Never heard about this one before and Julianne Moore is great (as usual) ini it?!
Milton -- i hope so but Amir wants to see them again before he attempts it.
Craver -- all i heard from anyone was that Julianne was super FUNNY (?!?) in it. It's an Ethan Hawke, Greta Gerwig, Julianne Moore love triangle or something and she apparently sports a Danish accent.
What are Brie Larsons's chance of an Oscar nom?
Nick, so thrilled you chose Srinivasan as your Best Actress of the fest. Hers is the performance that resonates most with me from the handful of films I saw. And of course, the Son of Saul love is so well earned.
Hey--did you, Nick, and Joe see any of the same films? Your favs lists are SO different. Great work and coverage for this festival! Hard to keep track of all the good ones you've recommended when they don't get released until a year or so later.
Albatross -- i think very good.
Pam -- we all went to THE WITCH together and we all saw ARABIAN NIGHTS and VICTORIA i think... but yeah, there are hundreds of films there so we saw a lot of different things.
I saw 34 films and I only regret sitting through one, and even that had the redeeming presence of Toni Collette.
My top 13 includes some more conventional choices and I wish I could squeeze London Road and Rams on to the list:
45 Years, Brooklyn, The Danish Girl, Eye in the Sky, The Family Fang, Forsaken, Louder Than Bombs, Magallanes, The Man Who Knew Infinity, Mississippi Grind, Spotlight, Veteran, Youth.
The two films that had me laughing nonstop that did not make the list were both directed by women: Maggie's Plan and The Meddler.
I regret I didn't see Room but it played opposite two films I wanted to see more.
I found Maggie's Plan was hysterical though Moore's accent was kind of terrible. Though it added to the loopy humor.
I love that there are no double ups in that critics' poll. If only the end of year critics' awards could be that diverse!
david --- well you made the right choice. ROOM is awesome but it's opening soon so you probably saw something less available.
Love the different choices and opinions in your awards. Great coverage. Will you be coverig BFI London?
Can Sundance Selects really pull off a nomination for Charlotte Rampling? I'm cautiously optimistic.
Thank you so much for your coverage guys - it's been phenomenal and invaluable and awesome and brilliant and and and