‘We Live In Time’, ‘Nutcrackers’, More

The Toronto Film Festival kicked off September 5 with a multi-move opening night that included David Gordon Green’s family comedy Nutcrackers starring Ben Stiller. It kicked off a slate of world premieres and buzzy movies across 11 days for the 49th edition of one of North America’s biggest film festivals.

Other key titles making their debuts in Toronto include The Luckiest Man in America starring Paul Walter Hauser, the Amy Adams-starring Nightbitch, theatre guru Marianne Elliott’s The Salt Path, DreamWorks Animation’s The Wild Robot and Mike Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck.

Documentaries set to make a splash include Elton John: Never Too Late and Paul Anka: His Way.

Click below to read Deadline’s reviews from the ground in Toronto and keep checking back as we add more. The festival wraps September 15.

Bonjour Tristesse

Section: Discovery
Director-screenwriter: Durga Chew Bose
Cast: Chloe Sevigny, Claes Bang, Lily McInerny, Nailia Harzoune, Aliocha Schneider, Nathalie Richard
Deadline’s takeaway: This in debuting Montreal-based director and screenwriter Durga Chew Bose‘s hands feels more true to Françoise Sagan’s novel and becomes a more complex tale of the nature of female relationships, the mysteries within and their winding paths.

Hard Truths

Section: Special Presentations
Director-screenwriter: Mike Leigh
Cast: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Michele Austin, David Webber, Tuwaine Barrett, Ani Nelson, Sophia Brown, Jonathan Livingstone
Deadline’s takeaway: Jean-Baptiste carries the film on her shoulders and she is magnificent. If you want to watch acting of the highest order look no further, but if you want to invest in a character worth spending 97 minutes with, look somewhere else. 

The Last Showgirl

Section: Special Presentations
Director: Gia Coppola
Cast: Pamela Anderson, Dave Bautista, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kiernan Shipka, Brenda Song, Billie Lourd, Jason Schwartzman
Deadline’s takeaway: This look at the lives of the infamous Vegas showgirls is smart, touching, funny, honest and wise. It’s Pamela Anderson’s moment to shine and, boy does she ever shine — right up to an ending that leaves us hopeful.

The Luckiest Man in America

Section: Special Presentations
Director: Samir Oliveros
Cast: Paul Walter Hauser, Walton Goggins, Shamier Anderson, David Strathairn, Maisie Williams, Patti Harrison, Johnny Knoxville, Haley Bennett, Shaunette Renee Wilson, Brian Geraghty, Lilli Kay, James Wolk
Deadline’s takeaway: With Hauser in charge, this whole scenario keeps us engaged thanks to the actor’s ability to breathe some humanity into these oddball characters. You can see why he couldn’t resist this one. 

Nutcrackers

Section: Gala Presentations
Director: David Gordon Green
Cast: Ben Stiller, Linda Cardellini, Tim Heidecker, Edi Patterson, Toby Huss, Homer Janson, Ulysses Janson, Atlas Janson, Arlo Janson
Deadline’s takeaway: This is the kind of movie Hollywood used to deliver all the time but has clearly forgotten how to make — until now. Among the inspirations for director David Gordon Green were The Bad News Bears, Six Pack, Uncle Buck and Overboard. You might expect John Hughes was back from the dead, along with this genre.

Unstoppable

Section: Gala Presentations
Director: William Goldenberg
Cast: Jharrel Jerome, Jennifer Lopez, Bobby Cannavale, Don Cheadle, Michael Peña
Deadline’s takeaway: You really can’t compare Unstoppable to any inspiring sports drama that has come before, either in terms of what the main subject has achieved in athletics or the obstacles he had to overcome at home. Its fate rests on the ability of star Jharrel Jerome, in making us root for him and to believe.

We Live In Time

Section: Special Presentations
Director: John Crowley
Cast: Andrew Garfield, Florence Pugh, Heather Cranney, Matt Kennard, Sam Kennard, Laura Guest
Deadline’s takeaway: Through it all in Nick Payne’s sharply written screenplay we add up the individual pieces we are being presented and get a strong picture of Pugh’s and Garfield’s characters, something that wouldn’t be possible in a more linear structure. If we didn’t believe these two were destined for each other, the whole soufflé would fall. It doesn’t, but the fact Crowley is in charge should guarantee it won’t.