This year’s Toronto International Film Festival has concluded, and TIFF's 2024 lineup shows that moviegoers have a lot to look forward to in the near future. For certain TIFF selections — like The Wild Robot, The Substance, Megalopolis and Conclave — we already have reviews of those!
Below are 15 of the most exciting films of the festival. Trailer links are in our titles where available.
Babygirl
Director: Halina Reijn; in theaters Dec. 25
Nicole Kidman stars in this kinky erotic thriller in which her character Romy, the CEO of a major company, has an affair with an intern named Samuel (Harris Dickinson). It's not not about romance — it's about the fetishized submission and provokes the question: Can we have our kinky sex and our romance with different people?
Cloud
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
An online reseller named Yoshii (Masaki Suda) finds himself in trouble as customers who feel cheated conspire against him. Featuring director Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s signature element of suspense, Cloud also dives into new territory with action. In my conversation with Kurosawa at TIFF, he mentioned being influenced by American action movies such as Sam Peckinpah’s 1971 film Straw Dogs. We also talked about the change in his feelings about the internet between when he made 2001's Pulse and this year's Cloud.
He told me (via interpreter Aki Takabatake): “I made Pulse in 2000. Of course there was internet, but it felt like there was something evil or some kind of monster hiding inside. So that made me start to imagine. Right now everybody is using the internet, including me, and I think it's a very useful tool. So I don't think there's anything evil in the internet anymore. However, I feel people [online] are getting worse because they cannot see hope in the future, and they have a nervous negativity among normal people that piles up. They can come together to do something dangerous, something scary."
Dead Talents Society
Director: John Hsu
When the dead lose something important to them, their spirits have to either get a haunting license or disappear. When a recently departed young woman (Gingle Wang) is about to disappear, she attempts to get into the world of haunting and become an urban legend ... even though she has no talent for scaring people. Director John Hsu's Dead Talents Society plays like a combination of Monsters, Inc. and Sadako vs. Kayako.
When I spoke with with Hsu and Wang, Hsu spoke about his inspirations in comedy: “One of my inspirations is Edgar Wright. I really like the fast pace and visual [style] he was doing. The way he cuts, and puts shots together, it's so daring and sometimes a little bit naughty. I really like that vibe, so I tried a lot of similar techniques that he was using.”
Wang spoke about the entire experience: “We got a lot of feedback, and for the past two days, even though our languages and cultures are different, I feel that our emotions that we are sending to the audience are universal. So I'm really glad people are relating to the story itself, and that means a lot to me as an actress.”
Escape From the 21st Century
Director: Li Yang
To call this one maximalist is a drastic understatement. It's maximalism of maximalism. Three teenagers on Planet K are thrown into a chemical that gives them the ability to time travel between their current time and 20 years into the future every time they sneeze. Escape From the 21st Century comes complete with over-the-top martial arts action and themes about contemplating both your past and your future. It's a special blend of zany and heartfelt, similar to Everything Everywhere All at Once but somehow even more ridiculous.
Flow
Director: Gints Zilbalodis; in theaters Dec. 6
Made entirely on open-source 3D modeling software Blender, Flow is a dialogue-free animated film about several animals trying to survive a flood. During my conversation with director Gints Zilbalodis, he said: “The most direct influence on the story is my own personal experience making this film. I used to work alone in all the shorts I made, and my first feature, Away, I made myself. This was the first time I worked with a team with a proper budget, and I wanted to incorporate this experience into the story itself. I thought the cat's character would be a good way to represent that independent personality, who wants to do things his way, like I did when I made films myself. The cat is forced to work in a team with the other animals.”
The Gesuidouz
Director: Kenichi Ugana
The Gesuidouz are a punk band based out of Tokyo. And they are bad ... really bad. In a last-ditch effort to get one good song out of the band, their producer sends them to the countryside to find inspiration and finally make a song worth listening to. The film captures the artistic process as lead singer Hanako (Natsuko) finds inspiration through a shiba inu named John Cage and inspires her bandmates with oddball lines that send a creative jolt into their playing.
During my conversation with director Kenicho Ugana (via interpreter Aki Takabatake), he said: “My creative process is very similar to Hanako’s. I think the creative process is similar to giving birth, because it causes so much pain and suffering, but after that you get joy.”
Kill the Jockey
Director: Luis Ortega
After an injury sustained during a horse race, Remo (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) has an intense case of gender dysphoria and wanders out of the hospital. They explore the city and discover themselves, with a mob in hot pursuit. It's a Buster Keaton-esque dive into gender dysphoria that becomes an increasingly surreal experience that is better to simply behold than to try to understand.
The Last Showgirl
The Last Showgirl
Director: Gia Coppola
What used to be the hottest show in Vegas is now just a relic of the past. When Shelly (Pamela Anderson) gets the news that her show is being pulled after decades in the business, she struggles to cope with the reality of the situation as she looks for a new gig in Vegas. Also featuring stellar performances from Jamie Lee Curtis and Dave Bautista, The Last Showgirl shows the sometimes harsh reality of being a woman in the adult entertainment industry.
The Life of Chuck
Director: Mike Flanagan; in theaters summer 2025
The people have spoken! This year’s TIFF 2024 people’s choice winner is The Life of Chuck, an adaptation of Stephen King’s novel of the same name. It's told in reverse order starting with the end of the world and mysterious messages congratulating Chuck (Tom Hiddleston) on 39 great years. It dives into existentialism and asks questions about our place in the universe and the meaning of life, but has already proven to be a major crowd-pleaser, taking home TIFF’s top honors.
Nightbitch
Director: Marielle Heller; in theaters Dec. 6
Amy Adams stars in this portrayal of an existential crisis of motherhood depicting all the stress and rage of being a stay-at-home mother ... which manifests as she maybe turns into a dog. With its satirical tone and inner screaming monologues combined with very light body horror, Nightbitch is a unique foray into the mind of a mother who is overcome with the responsibility of child rearing.
The Order
Director: Justin Kurzel; in theaters Dec. 6
The Order is a cat-and-mouse action movie with visual set pieces that evoke Christopher Nolan or Micheal Mann. The film stars Jude Law as FBI Agent Terry Husk, who aims to take down a radicalized group of white supremacist terrorists called The Order in the Pacific Northwest. It’s a dad movie through and through, and it comes with a thrilling plot and action choreography to get the blood pumping.
The Piano Lesson
Director: Malcolm Washington; on Netflix Nov. 22
Adapted from August Wilson’s 1987 stage play, The Piano Lesson has an all-star cast including Danielle Deadwyler and Samuel L. Jackson. In 1937 Pittsburgh, a debate over whether to sell an old grand piano takes place. Family member Boy Willie Charles (John David Washington) wants to sell the piano to buy his own farm land, while Berniece Charles (Danielle Deadwyler) refuses to sell because of the piano's sentimental and historical value. Through their debate, they explore their ancestry and the horrors their family endured to get to that moment.
Presence
Presence
Director: Steven Soderbergh; in theaters Jan. 17
An experimental horror movie told from the point of view of a ghost observing a family of four, Presence shines in its unique form of storytelling. You'll identify with the ghost, whose emotions are portrayed only via the film's cinematography and the spirit's poltergeist actions. It's a crazy experiment that works, as the Payne family drama unfolds with Jurassic Park writer David Koepp bringing the whole thing together for a truly unforgettable experience.
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Director: Mohammad Rasoulof; in theaters Nov. 27
The Seed of the Sacred Fig was made in secret, hidden from the Iranian government. When the film was announced, director Mohammed Rasoulof fled to Europe after being sentenced to eight years in prison and a flogging. Needless to say, this is a film the Iranian government doesn’t want you to see, but you need to. The Seed of the Sacred Fig takes place shortly after the death of Mahsa Amini, which sparked protests in Iran. Through the perspective of the family of a revolutionary investigating judge, we see what the media won’t tell them, featuring Instagram Reels and real-life footage of the crimes of the Iranian regime.
The Shadow Strays
The Shadow Strays
Director: Timo Tjahjanto; now streaming on Netflix
The Shadow Strays is a brand-new addition in the hyper-violent Indonesian action wave. The Night Comes for Us director Timo Tjahjanto delivers another high-intensity blood bath with new stars Aurora Ribero and Hana Malasan shining brightly in their debut in the action genre. During my conversation with the two actresses, they told a story in unison recalling an action scene they had together: “I remember, it was at the end of the schedule, the final fight scene. We were so exhausted and covered with blood. We cried and sweated, then we looked into each other's eyes and cried, and then we started to laugh. You know that feeling when you are so tired it's just funny? We were so hot and drenched in blood, and you feel super wet all over, and then we meditated and held each other's hand. We imagined we were in Alaska, and there's bears and it's really cold, and then we said the same thing. We said at the same time, 'It's all white!'”
