TIFF '24: The Art of Dying in One's Own Terms

by Cláudio Alves

THE ROOM NEXT DOOR won the Golden Lion on the same day it first screened at TIFF.
Whether programmed with that intention or bonded by coincidence, one can often find films in conversation at festivals. Echoed themes and varied approaches to the same idea occur, often across sections, tying works together that were never meant to be considered in those terms. Some might disagree, but I find it to be a valuable experience, oft conducive to deeper thought, comparison and contrast. At this year's TIFF, for example, mortality was on many an artist's mind, from Godard, knowingly at the end of his rope, to the apocalyptic visions of Oppenheimer, Ostrikov, and Thibault Emin. From Cannes, there came meditations from Cronenberg and Schrader, films laden with grief, loss, and the need to take control. In documentary land, there are the recollections of an erstwhile death row inmate in The Freedom of Fierro.

Still, the most apparent conversation partners were two Spanish filmmakers, Pedro Almodóvar and Carlos Marques-Marcet, telling two euthanasia stories in The Room Next Door and They Will Be Dust…

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TIFF '24: Produced by Ken Loach

by Cláudio Alves

Before Toronto, HARVEST premiered in Venice's official competition.

In 2023, Ken Loach premiered what the world assumes is his last film, The Old Oak, which earned a mixed reaction at Cannes and seems to have been quickly forgotten. Regardless of his swan song's reception, Loach's legacy is indisputable, and one year later, we can see that it extends beyond the films that bear his directing credit. Sixteen Films, a production company he co-founded with Rebecca O'Brien in 2002 that, until now, had been dedicated to Loach's directorial efforts, is now supporting the work of other filmmakers, a fair share of up-and-comers. As Loach recedes even further behind the scenes, Sixteen Films is reborn into a new life. Harvest and On Falling, two of their first productions, bowed at TIFF, though only the latter was a world premiere…

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TIFF ’24: Counting It All in “Addition”

By Abe Friedtanzer

We all hide things from people when we first meet them, and sometimes it feels like it’s too late to share them by the time a relationship has gotten more serious. Some secrets are more significant than others and can have a drastic effect on the way people communicate with and relate to each other. Addition portrays a scenario where one woman forces herself to hide her crippling anxiety from her new boyfriend, creating turmoil for herself and a difficult, if not impossible, path forward for their romance...

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TIFF '24: “Hard Truths” hits hard

by Cláudio Alves

It's been six years since cinemas have been left waiting for a new Mike Leigh film. Moreover, the British portraitist of working-class life and struggle, joy and pain, secrets and lies, had for a while abandoned the contemporary stories upon which his early career was built. Though the director's forays into historical pasts have produced naught but great cinema, it's fair to say it's been over six years since the world has encountered what most associate with the words "a Mike Leigh film." Well, the wait is over, and I'm pleased to say Hard Truths is well worth the wait.

Not so much a return to form as a return to familiarity, the film also finds the auteur reuniting with Marianne Jean-Baptiste, the Oscar-nominated star of his Palme d'Or victor who also scored the director's Career Girls. And if what Leigh delivers behind the camera could be called a triumph, what his leading lady accomplishes demands a stronger word. She's the stuff of legend and what actressing dreams are made of…

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TIFF '24: "Grand Tour" confirms Miguel Gomes has the Magic Touch

by Cláudio Alves

Some directors wish to transcend the artform they practice. Watching their creations, one senses a force pressing upon you, pushing toward a prescribed and somewhat contradicting immersion. Their hands are forever busy, guiding the viewer away from the theater, from their awareness of the cinematic device. Such artists want you to forget you're watching a film. They beckon surrender, but not to cinema. Instead it's to their story, their vision, sometimes their message. And there's nothing wrong with this approach. But there's nothing right either, not necessarily. I know I fell in love with cinema because of its particularities, not in spite of them. So, I don't wish to forget or abstract myself from the lot. Maybe that's why I adore the cinema of Miguel Gomes as I do. 

Regard his filmography and you may realize he is the antithesis of those other cineastes. Moreover, Gomes is all the better for it. If you want proof, look no further than Grand Tour, for which the Portuguese filmmaker won a well-deserved Best Director prize at Cannes…

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