TIFF Jury of One - Chris Feil
Tuesday, September 17, 2019 at 11:22AM Chris here, giving my own quick rundown of TIFF! Overall, I was able to see 33 films in total, including some under-the-radar thrills and more Midnight Madness films than ever before. As ever, closing out the festival is always quite bittersweet - but I'll have a little pick me up sharing what I loved most (and a few misses). Climb in my fur, and recap TIFF with me...
Best Film: Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Best Director: Marielle Heller, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Best Original Screenplay: Bong Joon-ho, Parasite
Best Adapted Screenplay: Lorene Scafaria, Hustlers
Best Actress: Adèle Haenel, Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Best Actor: Robert Pattinson, The Lighthouse
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lopez, Hustlers
Best Supporting Actor: Tom Hanks, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Best Performer in the Best Ensemble: Yeo-jeong Jo, Parasite
Best Performer in the Worst Ensemble: Tilda Swinton, The Personal History of David Copperfield
Please Notice This Performer Over the More Famous Faces, Oscar Voters, I'm Begging You: Rob Morgan, Just Mercy
Breakthrough Performer: Julia Fox, Uncut Gems
Unsung Hero: Nora Navas, Pain and Glory
Most Underrated: Frankie
Most Overrated: Waves
Most In Need of a Rewatch to Decide: Uncut Gems
Best Subversion of Genre: Atlantics
Best Cinematography: Parasite
Best Production Design: Parasite
Best Single Set: the recreated Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Best Costumes, Overall: Knives Out
Best Costume, Singular: the mustard trenchcoat, Synonyms
Best Film Editing: Parasite
Best Opening Song Cue: Hustlers (but more on that tomorrow...)
Best Closing Song Cue: Knives Out
Best Original Score: Randy Newman, Marriage Story
Best Line Reading: "We love you, Gary!" - Keke Palmer, Hustlers
Best Pet: Catherine Deneuve's backyard turtle, The Truth
Best Meal: Two Fantas and a pizza, The Two Popes
Best Scene: Knife's out in Marriage Story
Best Ending: Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Worst Ending: Jojo Rabbit
Reader Comments (19)
Wow, happy again for the love for Parasite, singling out Yeo-jeong Jo as first among equals, the underratedness of Ira Sachs' Frankie, and Tilda Swinton.
Even more interested now to see The Lighthouse.
Hustlers is playing in my neighborhood but not sure I'll rush to see it. I am generally fine with J.Lo though.
Chris Feil: I mean, Rob Morgan was also the best part of Mudbound and his Turk Barrett was one of the only two consistently "fun" parts of the Marvel Netflix experiment, the other being Rosario Dawson's Claire Temple.
My goodness was that ending of Portrait Of A Lady On Fire spectacular. That final two minutes is burned into my brain.
Chris, I love your love for Lopez in Hustlers. Any worrd yet if she plans on campaigning in Lead or Supporting?
The only reason I see J-Lo getting in is that this looks like a soft year for Best Supporting Actress.
Besides some of the festival hits like Dern and Johansson, the roles feel too thin (Robbie), the films too on-the-margins (Bening, Spencer) or too dicey (Kidman, Smith, Monae). And of course Shuzhen's campaign will depend on how strong the voters' memory is. Plus, who knows whether they'll give Scarlett two nominations and which they'd choose to omit?
Anyway I'm sure a bunch of the women above will get nominated despite the headwinds. But if J-Lo makes it it will be because the overall field wasn't stronger. Nobody is dying to recognize her.
The mustard trenchcoat in Synonyms FTW. So, so stylish. The coat in Deerskin is a close second for me.
As for the acting winners, I contend that Dafoe >>> Pattinson. He's chewing the scenery, but what beautiful chewing!
Also curious about your placement of Tom Hanks in supporting. Did you put him there because he's being campaigned in that category or because you feel he's legitimately supporting?
i also really loved Rob Pattinson in THE LIGHTHOUSE
Go Pattinson ... and Dafoe .
That mustard yellow coat is truly one of the best costumes of the year.
It's a pity the Costume Designers Guild rarely nominates any foreign language film, because Synonyms would be a great Best Contemporary Costumes nominee.
Great choices Chris, as expected.
Obviously I still haven’t watched every movie this year so I don’t wanna get ahead of myself but I think it’s probably safe to say Portrait of a Lady on Fire is the movie of the year. At least for me. I haven’t stopped thinking about it and its gonna be hard for anything else to top it.
Also, Catherine Deneuve was phenomenal in The Truth! I want more people to be talking about this performance. Far from a prefect movie, it’s pretty messy, but if you love actresses I think you’ll enjoy it. Deneuve listing all the great actresses with same letter initials and then throwing shade at Brigitte Bardot was hilarious.
Hirokazu Koreeda must be an actressexual Stan too.
Tom Hanks is supporting in the Mr. Rogers biopic? Wow! I didn't see that coming.
Depends on who you ask, Peggy Sue. According to his studio, yes. And he does have less screen time so there's an argument to be made. But for me, when it's such a large part, when all the action revolves around him, and when he's the whole reason you'd watch that movie, it's hard for me not to think of him as the lead.
YES to Rob Morgan. He was my MVP for Mudbound and I loved him in The Last Black Man in San Francisco, which I just caught up with.
Peggy & Evan -- agree that he's a lead but he is less of a traditional lead than you'd think since it's not a biopic as it turns out. In some ways he's like Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs (and i realize that's a hilariously inappropriate comparison). The movie cannot even remotely exist without him but the screentime is limited. (the protagonist is the Matthew Rhys character)
Re: Lopez and Hanks - supporting for me in both cases, no question. It's integral to the text of both films that neither of their respective films ever come from their character's POV. Their stories belong to Wu and Rhys, though Hustlers is arguably more complicated because it's such an ensemble piece.
Loving all the love for Parasite, Portrait of a lady on fire, The lighthouse and Tom Fucking Hanks. If he is going supporting, I am sorry Dafoe, but we could have one more in the three oscars group! but, I must say: I want him with a leading Oscar for number three!
the J-Lo buzz: good for her, but, as someone say: in a more strong year, in really high high dreams Jenny in the block would achieve the nomination.
Surely Jennifer Lopez is a LOCK for the Golden Globes .... they love their huge stars (Madonna in Evita).... I’d say there’s no way she misses out on a Globe nomination