This Had Oscar Buzz - BONUS – Another Year, Another TIFF

Episode Date: September 19, 2021

Chris and Joe are back “at” the Toronto International Film Festival, and as we’re prone to do, we’re bringing you a bonus episode to recap the experience. We review our virtual TIFF experience from home with a quick mention of the films we missed and how this hybrid year has made for a more muted … Continue reading "BONUS – Another Year, Another TIFF"

Uh-oh, wrong house. No, the right house. I didn't get that! We want to talk to Marilyn Hacks. I'm from Canada. I'm from Canada water. Can I tell you about what I'm writing? Yeah.

A young woman looks into the distance. She's about my age, or maybe a bit younger. They loved each other passionately and awkwardly like teenagers do. I never mentioned it to my girlfriend. But she's jealous of you. Why her and not me? You spaced out. Laden.

David. Hello and welcome to the This Head Oscar Buzz podcast, the only podcast that's getting all nostalgic over a broken escalator. Every week on This Head Oscar Buzz, we'll be talking about a different movie that once upon a time had Lofty Academy Award aspirations, but for some reason or another, it all went wrong. The Oscar hopes died, and we are here to perform the autopsy, except today we are bringing you a special bonus episode, as we usually do, just recapping our experience with the Toronto International Film Festival. I am your host, Chris Fyle, and I'm here, as always, with my Princess of Wales, Joe Reed. I feel like we've made that joke before. It's a good joke. I'm ready to stick with it. In previous tip episodes, but I also don't care. I'm tired.

Well, like, what are our other options, I guess? I could be your winter garden, your... That sounds sexual. Right, it does. Your Roy Thompson Hall. I don't know how that works. Princess of Wales is good and right. I guess that this year that means I am half full and kind of depressing. Okay, so the photos from this tip. Obviously, we both attended virtually.

We did not go in person for a host of reasons, whatever. but you would see the photos from like the gala premieres that like it's reduced capacity which is good good and safe you know understandable that's Ontario's current restrictions but even on top of the reduced capacity things were not selling out in these in like Roy Thompson Hall which is gargantuan and the photos just looked a bummer I mean yes And yet also, as I was saying to you as we were sort of looking at these photos, I would have thrived in this environment. I would have, you know, arms outstretched, empty seats on all sides of me.

I would have really lived. I would have, my ideal theater-going experience is like 30% capacity. So truly, I am, it is a contradiction I'm trying to sort of grapple with. This thing where, like, I am so fiercely in favor of the survival of a theatrical experience. And yet I'm also just like, yeah, but nobody there when I'm there. Please just let me see these things with no other people who are breathing their articulated air into my presence that I could catch various variants of disease. Just stay the fuck away from me while I'm watching a movie, but also attended vigorously when I'm not around.

I am very conflicted about this because you know I miss my 9 a.m. screenings where it's maybe me and one older, lady that was my Tammy Faye screening yesterday I went and saw Eyes of Tammy Faye at 10.30 in the morning and there were two other people in the theater and I will get into that we will get into Tammy Faye but also part of

the festival experience that like I find so valuable is the you know vibe in the room the excitement on the ground when you're talking to people about what they've seen what they loved etc and by and large talking

to friends who were on the ground and seeing the reports from press who attended, there really wasn't a sense of that this year because of the, like, it just wasn't the same vibe. And like, good on tip for being able to put on what they could. And, like, clearly they, you know, put everything that they could into it. And with, like,

other restrictions we'll get into, like, from what the distributors were willing to provide. This is the big thing. And this is the thing. And this is the thing, and I want to get into that because I do feel like TIF is shouldering a lot of the frustration for this, and they deserve some of it. But the fact that so many of the major movies were not available to screen on the digital platform is because the studios were not making them available to screen on the digital platform. Like, that's not on TIF. That is on the studios. There, it does make you wonder what some of the contractual things are because, like,

like power of the dog. I don't know how interesting this is for listeners. Like we try not to be too inside baseball because like, you know, there's nothing that like I get a little bit more like, okay, about when I see tweets that are like, my screener, which I watched on a screener of this movie was not that great quality of a screener for a screener. You know, I hate things like that. I don't mind it. I mean, no, people can use their platform to talk about whatever they want. I'm not, you know, slapping anybody's wrist. but, like, you know, I just, I don't like to engage in that way, personally.

But also, just to loop back, so that's just to say, hope this isn't an annoying conversation for listeners. I've always liked inside baseball, even when I was outside of baseball. So, like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know who inside baseball is for me, as someone who might express something with inside baseball. But to loop it back to TIF,

It's not just, it makes you wonder what the kind of contractual agreements are between festival and distributor when something like Power of the Dog, which was always supposed to be available, gets pulled from press access the day before the festival. Yes. Well, it makes me think that the studios do not have a clear and cohesive plan on these things and that they are flying by the seat of their pants as much as anybody else is. well and when these festival movies that are virtually available to the public but not the press end up leaking during the festival oh oh so maybe it wasn't worth it to withhold your movie from the press because the press aren't the ones fucking leaking these things you dip shits well and i'm sure there's a certain level of strategy there but i don't see how you know you're not creating uh i don't know how it helps the movie to you know piss off you know also there has been no more critically

beloved film this year than the power of the dog like there I don't understand what good it is I can see some of these other movies where the reception has been more mixed where they would like to sort of you know curate these things like Belfast uh oh actually I think Belfast has been very very well received I've seen a lot of negative response to Belfast actually. Really? You and I have very different social media experiences. I mean, I've seen a lot of positive, but I've seen a lot of people that are like,

eh? Like, people who I would have expected to like the movie. All right. Based on what we know the movie is. Listen, it's got Jamie Dornan singing. I am all in. I am spectacularly all in for this. So Belfast is one of the movies we haven't seen.

Belfast is something that like, I'm going, I'm going to go. in with as open a mind as I possibly can, but between this and the Sorrentino movie, I'm like, I'm just, I don't care about these movies about these director's childhoods. I just don't. I don't necessarily feel like that's the reason why I'm

interested in this. Like on paper, I was like, oh, like, this is interesting but also this is, on paper, my main reaction to it was, oh, the Oscars are going to be very interested in this, because it feels like up their rally in a lot of ways. But after watching the trailer,

I was like, oh, this is less sort of dour and, you know, sad Irish than I thought it was going to be. So I'm interested in what this tone is presenting to me. I've seen the word goofy use. I'm into that. Goofy I like. Goofy is at least not what I would have been expecting from the premise of the film. Goofy and Northern Ireland in the 20th century don't really go hand in. hand. So I'm kind of interested in that contrast. But just sort of like wrote back for a second

when you were talking about the kind of odd vibe of, you know, hearing from people who were there on the ground and then also from people who were covering it digitally. I think the major disconnect is, TIF has always been a festival where you can kind of make your own TIF because there's so many movies and not everybody is seeing the exact. same films usually. So there's, you know, it's like trading cards. You can sort of, you know, I've seen X, Y, and Z, and you've seen A, B, and C, and we can kind of swap experiences.

And there's the handful of movies that everybody is sort of seeing. But then on the fringes, there's, you know, you can make discoveries and whatever. And I think because of the dual factors of A, it was a third of the number of movies that usually screen, roughly. And B, that unless you were there in person, you were even more limited as to what was available. So it feels like everybody saw the same sort of ten movies and are talking about the same kind of dozen, maybe, movies. And it's not just... It's less fun that way to me.

The way it was programmed, especially for press, too, there were significant movies that were like playing Roy Thompson Hall, playing Princess of Wales, the biggest venues, that they still, it's not, they weren't just available on the digital press platform. They weren't, they didn't host a press screening, period. Yeah. What were those movies?

Wait, lay those ones out. I know this Focus Features movie Wolf did not. I know that Melby Cruz, Antonio Banderas, official competition did not. I forget some of the others, but like, those are movies we would have probably seen at a press screening. Yeah, I would say.

I would say. I would say. So, yeah, I think the big ones that we were not able to see because we were digital only, we mentioned Belfast, Power of the Dog. Dear Evan Hansen, obviously, the opening night film, they were not going to make that available to anybody more than strictly necessary. Spencer, which screened late, Spencer doesn't even seem like a TIF movie. Spencer was so much more defined by Venice and Telluride. They only screened it once for the public. and then the press screening was several days after they told the press that they wouldn't even be hosting press screenings past.

Right. Dune screened, but again, the major news of the Dune screenings seemed to come out of Venice anyway. Last night in Soho, which was very mixed. I was surprised when I went and looked at its Rotten Tomatoes page and that there were more positive reviews than I thought. Yeah, people did not seem to like it. Everything that I've seen was negative about last night in Soho. And I'm still sort of intrigued to see it just because it seems like such a unique little movie just from what the trailer presents, that I'm, even if it's bad, I'm going to want to see how it's bad.

And I'm still also not ruling out that I will like it. But we were sort of talking earlier in the week, and I kind of realized, like, yeah, I maybe haven't liked, I haven't been all in on an Edgar Wright movie since Hot Fuzz. Like even, um, what was the third in that trilogy? World's End. I wasn't super into World's End. I was very, very sort of mixed to mix negative on Baby Driver. I was, I've always been kind of outside of the enthusiasm loop on Scott Pilgrim, even though I recognize certain parts of it that I like.

Um, and yet his movies seem to have enough of a kind of unique flavor that I'm interested in, at least seeing the swing. swimming, at least interested in seeing last night in Soho. I'd be curious to know why, unless they weren't expecting the kind of reception, it received, why they even took it to a festival, because they didn't need to. And, like, the festivals really kind of probably hurt this movie. Yeah, yes. And then a lot of these, I'm going to be seeing, a lot of the ones that I wasn't able to see on Digital TIF, I will be able to see. I will be able to see at New York Film Festival

where I am going to be able to go to in-person screenings and we'll have an episode on that where I'll sort of report back on that, but that's where I will be seeing Power of the Dog and Tatan, Tatan, how are we pronouncing Julia Durkernows? I think it's Teutan. Dune is screening there late in that festival. I'll also be seeing the tragedy of Macbeth

and the French dispatch, and Come On, Come On, which were, none of those were TIF movies, but Parallel Mothers, very excited for New York Film Festival, but that's getting ahead of ourselves. Unfortunately, I think the movie that I was shocked was not available to us. I think it was

one of the ones that was supposed to be, but you can see why it was ultimately not, that our listeners probably would like to hear our thoughts on, given the response to it, is the Naomi Watts movie Lakewood? Right, the Philip Noisse directed Lakewood.

If we could have seen that, we would have watched that. What's the name of that damn bird movie? Damn bird. It would have been that for this year. Penguin Bloom, it would have been this year's Penguin Bloom, which I've still not seen. Well, we have a penguin bloom that we'll get two in a second. Oh, God. We do indeed have a penguin bloom.

Yeah, if we could have. Penguin Tulum, like, how do you put a two in Penguin Bloom? Where would you put the two in Penguin Bloom? Penguin... Put it in the worst possible place because that's the only way to fulfill the cursed trajectory. But yeah, if we could have seen the Naomi Watts

Lakewood movie, which got horrible reviews. One of the reviews that I watched was just like, this is the worst movie I've ever seen at Tiff, which you don't want to get that review. They did not see Dashcam this year then because that is... I also have heard a lot of angry responses to Dashcam. Repulsive, absolutely.

irresponsible and repulsive. Wait, why irresponsible? I don't know enough about it. It is an anti-vax Maga protagonist, but thinks that she is... It is definitely in support of this character, and if the director says that he is not, he does not know how to make a movie or present a character. And this is the director who did that horror movie host

which is also terrible. I know some people liked it, but I watched it and I thought everybody was on another plan Oh, I really liked that. I enjoyed that. I thought it was horrible. Just go watch the unfriended movies. This one, I mean, we don't have to get into it. It's not really for our purposes. But, like, I watched all of the Midnight Madness movies, except for Teetan because it wasn't available to us.

And, like, this, it was just a reprehensible movie. And also just, like, poorly made for, like, the type of found footage slash, you know, streaming on the internet type of horror that is trying to be. It's just like, it's so messy. You can't ever tell what you're actually looking at. So it's not scary. It's not that thrilling. It's just, it's really poorly made on top of being an irresponsible movie. Wow.

All right. Well, no Oscars for Dashcam. All right. So let's talk about what we did see, especially because you saw probably double the number of movies that I did. So good. I saw third, well, after today, because we're recording this before the Zhang Yemu film screens, and I definitely want to watch that. I'll hit 35.

Okay, so you've seen triple the number of movies that I've seen. So, yes, you've seen a lot more than I have. Circumstances dictated that I had to kind of streamline my experience. That is part and parcel of not being there. And you'll also have opportunities at New York to be able to see some of the things you missed. Thank goodness. All right. But so what was, all right, I'll start with asking you a sort of double-sided coin of a question.

What was your favorite movie that you saw, and what was the movie that you think will do best with Oscar that you saw? Okay, that's definitely two different movies. If you're going to ask me, my favorite movie that I saw, we'll just get into it. I don't want to sound too hyperbolic because I definitely feel like I came away from this movie completely, like, head over here. felt like it was the movie that I've been waiting for to love as much as I did probably since I, since like, first cow. I haven't loved anything this much

and been like just really into the ideas that it's doing and the kind of surprise, emotionalism at the core of it is Mia Hanson loves Bergman Island. Ah, I was wondering where you were going with that. I, you know, don't hold me to it. We've got a lot of movies to see. It is absolutely unquestionably my favorite movie I've seen this year. So sum it up for the listeners, sort of briefly. Okay, so Mia Hanson Love, you can guess that she is basing some of this on her relationship when she was partnered with Olivier Asaiyaz. There's Vicky Creeps and Tim Roth are both filmmakers.

They go to Faroe Island or Furrah, how I'm not pronouncing it correctly, which was the late home of Ingmar Bergman. and they are both working on developing their next scripts, and they're taking inspiration from the island and from Bergman. There is kind of a story within a story that I don't want to spoil too much for listeners, but the movie really kind of, to me, is about a level of subjectivity of experience, you know? And when they talk about Bergman in this movie, everybody has a completely different idea of Bergman, who's obviously this huge presence in, like, film culture.

And, like, the idea that you can't have different interpretations from the canon or, you know, a very specific artist that you can come away with it with very different things. I think Mia Hansen Love does this incredible job that's really kind of almost hard to describe of tracking that also with relationships and romance and love and having an experience with someone and you can both come away with a totally different idea of what just happened or where you both are at, you know, whether for yourself or for the other person. Yeah, it's a movie that sneaks up on you. I thought it was very lovely.

It's a movie that you feel like it's one kind of thing for the first, probably 60% of the movie, even more so than even the first half of the movie. And that movie is good. Like, that is, there's a lot, obviously, being set up there. There's some, you know, good moments. Obviously, Vicky Creeps and Tim Roth are both very good. And then in the final, little more than a third,

it opens up in a way that I hadn't read very much of the movie. Mia Vasikovska comes into play. Mia Vaskiovska is... What about Mia Vyavkovska? I would go so far as to say, her best performance ever. She's really great in this.

In a way that I don't necessarily want to talk about until more people can see the movie. There's a music cue towards the end of this movie that I thrilled at. Like my heart sort of just like filled up. I started crying. There's a moment of somebody kind of dancing on their own. That is not the music cue, by the way.

Dancing on my own is not the music. If it was not as good of a movie. And yes, I'd still love it. If you have an emotional response to it, like I did and like, I'll cry at anything. But like, it's one of those complicated things where it's like, I don't really know why I'm crying right now. Yeah. And, like, I don't know the effect that this movie is having on me, but it's, you know, it's interesting to unpack as the movie continues.

Yeah, I really enjoyed it. I really liked it. Is this going to, does this have a chance to be, I guess it can't, obviously, it's not an American production, but it's not foreign language. It's basically entirely in English. It's entirely in English. Right. So there's no, obviously, international film implications, but, so this will probably exist outside of the Oscar conversation, but it's very good. I haven't quite seen anybody who's as enthusiastic as I am about it, but, like, it would probably be more of a critical thing. I mean, yes, I.C doesn't usually have a huge track record with Oscar, and they're distributing it, but you never know if there's enough critical noise.

it could be like an original screenplay type of thing. Yeah. So what did you see that, and then we can turn the tables and I can answer these questions. What did you see that you thought was the biggest Oscar contender in any category? To be honest, I feel like the biggest Oscar contender is probably not going to be a very big one. And that's the eyes of Tammy Fay. I loved Jessica Chastain in it. I think she's great.

I think it's hard to sustain the kind of reviews that this movie has so early in the race. They're mixed reviews. They are decidedly mixed reviews. Decidedly mixed, kind of mixed negative. Well, they're the kind of reviews that are like Jessica Chastain is good to great. The movie is average to bad. Like that's sort of the range that I'm seeing in the reviews. And it's not the same type of narrative that, like, Judy had for.

Renee Zellwecker, right? Right? Where it's like the negative reviews never ultimately hurt that movie. Plus, Tammy Faye Baker, eventually Tammy Fee Messner, is not the kind of revered figure in Hollywood that Judy Garland was. So it's a whole different situation there as well. Yeah. And I think, I mean, she definitely has a stronger idea of who Tammy Faye was than the movie itself does. Agreed. Yes. I really want to watch another movie. movie that is on Jessica Chastain's level. I mean, I think she's wonderful.

I think she kind of gets the tone of it right in a way that the movie really, really struggles to do. The movie doesn't, and this is sort of a common criticism about movies, but like I really feel like it's a problem here. I don't think the movie ultimately knows the story it wants to tell. Is it telling a story of a woman who sort of finds herself. complicit in a scandal and has to, you know, struggle her way out of it. Is it a story of a, you know, woman who was kind of kept in the shadows by her family

and then sort of found her spotlight in a way? Is it a story of a woman of faith who sort of bucked the system to do things like have a ministry towards LGBT people, which is a thing that, like, they linger on in the post script and there is basically the one scene

taken from the reality where on her talk show, on her Christian network, she had a interview with a man with AIDS, and it was a fantastically empathetic, sympathetic at a time when the fucking president of the United States would refuse

to say the word AIDS publicly. Exactly. But that's really the only scene in the film that sort of directly takes on her ministry to LGBTQ people. So I was sort of puzzled by that like the post script seemed to indicate a movie that had dealt with that a lot more strongly. I mean, that's what, I mean, like, I don't want to put this in terms of, you know, Tammy Faye was using. people ultimately are using the gay community but like that's what kept her bills paid later in life like she was somewhat of a gay icon and she would be basically touring around to gay prides and you know and i think that's an interesting avenue to go down that the movie ultimately

doesn't really go down because the movie is sort of juggling a lot of aspects of tammy's life but doesn't really settle on any one of them and so it feels a little i do think that's a problem the movie is so long and it has probably the opening half hour almost entirely unnecessary to the movie. Agreed. That being said, I think in terms of an imitation, I don't ever really feel like she looks or sounds all that much like Tammy Faye, but it doesn't matter because it is so clear that Jessica Chastain understands her as a human being and where she came from. I think the makeup is actually really good in it. I think the makeup does a really good job of... I mean, this is the reason why I'm like, this is probably the biggest Oscar player because I think

it is going to be a makeup nominee. Most makeup. Yeah, for sure. Any kind of... Not just necessarily... No, no, I know. I'm being glib, but yes. It's also a movie that that... You see this a lot where in a craft category, where if the craft is also a little bit the subject, that's a boon. You know what I mean? In Sound of Metal, the Sound of Metal, the sound of that movie is part of the plot, right? Right. The makeup in the eyes of Tammy Faye is part of the story there. So it shines a nice little spotlight on the craft.

I enjoyed watching it. It wasn't Judy also nominated for makeup, if I remember correctly. I enjoyed the experience of watching the movie, even though I think that as a film, there are some glaring weaknesses in it. But I agree with you. I really, really liked Jessica Chastain's performance. I also thought Andrew Garfield, did better than I thought he was going to

after watching the trailer. I was very worried watching the trailer. This is why I brought up, I don't think her, you know, mimicry of Tammy Faye is all there, and I don't care. Andrew Garfield's mimicry of Jim Baker is spooky.

Yeah. It's spooky. If you've ever watched any footage of Jim Baker, like, I get that, like, Andrew Garfield is in the stage of his career where he's going big. And, like, there is a part of it, like, knowing that it's off-putting, but, like, I think the dialect work is actually really good. I think he's very good in this movie.

And I think, and I was, again, prepared to be very, you know, puzzle-faced about all of it. But, yeah, I think he plays. And that's a character who you see sort of the margins of what's going on with him. But I think that he makes you fully understand. understand what the deal with Jim Baker is, even without it going into, even with keeping the sort of like the homosexual stuff, sort of like on the fringes. Even without getting the facts right in this movie? Oh, does it, does it misrepresent some stuff?

I did have some issues with how Jim Baker is presented with this movie. I realize that some of that is probably complicated by the fact that he is alive and what they are legally allowed to say. I see. Do you think they were too vague about certain things, or they were too, they let him They are too vague about the accusations against him, absolutely. About the sexual accusations against him or the financial? The sexual allegations against him.

Yeah, they don't really deal with the Jessica Hahn stuff at all besides like a They're incredibly vague about the Jessica Hahn stuff. And my assumption is because he was, those charges were never brought up against him, so they may not legally be able to say certain things. Right, right, right. But I still think it's a problem. Yeah. Yeah. I think Google exists. People can leave the theater and immediately go. And it's going to put a certain taste in your mouth about what the movie does and doesn't do right. And I don't think it does that right at all.

Yeah. I think the eyes of Tammy Fay will ultimately be a fringe Oscar contender. I think, I mean, to the degree to which we're going to get a Golden Globes, part of me feels like the Golden Globes are going to happen and we're just going to get a press release about them because they won't be televised. Well, I don't think they, I think they've said there's not a Golden Globes this year. There isn't a Golden Globe this year. It's at least not on TV. Well, then there goes, yeah, it's definitely, that's what I mean. It's not going to be on TV. But I also think the Globes aren't going to matter. They're going to matter as much as the satellites, even if they hand out these awards. I'm not saying that they don't. But what I'm saying is they're going to probably release a list of nominees for the Golden Globes and Jessica Chastain will probably be on there. But that's probably going to be the extent of it. Right.

I think more likely Oscar contenders from the ones that I saw were in the documentary slash animation realm. I was kind of saving this one for you. Yeah, I think both. I know what you're going to talk about, and I think I talked about it during Sundance, but I'm so excited to hear your thoughts on. Yeah. Go for it. I think there's a chance that I saw two, maybe even three of the eventual documentary nominees, and this is very early in the game. so, like, I could be tremendously wrong.

But I think between Flea and the Rescue and Attica, those are three very strong contenders, I think, for documentary prizes this year. Flea is also a very rare movie in that it's going to be eligible likely in documentary animation and we think also international film. It is on Denmark's short list of three films. I have to imagine that they will submit it. So I think it could be a contender in all three of those categories. I watched Flea last night.

It's the one that's freshest in my mind. It played Sundance, and I wasn't able to see it because it was one of the movies that was so popular at Sundance that I wasn't able to get a ticket for it, that and Coda, and I think there was one other movie that they really wanted to see that I couldn't. It's tremendous. It's very good. It's incredibly emotionally engaging. It is a animated, you're hearing the real-life sort of documentary interview with this man who had to flee Afghanistan in the early 90s to Russia and then try to get out of Russia to Western Europe and eventually make it to sort of a life of life of freedom. as a refugee, and with his family and sort of like having to leave his family behind in stages,

and when, you know, where they all end up is, it's just incredibly, it's a harrowing story, but it's also a really kind of, lovely in the way that it is told and in the way that is animated. It's also, this is a gay man, so we get a lot of kind of coming of age stuff from a young, sort of gay teen as he is in the process of fleeing his homeland. So like it's incredibly rich and complicated

and I would also say it is harrowing material but it is also kind of it's ultimately an uplifting story and not in these kind of hacky cheesy way that like some of these

kind of stories like try to be it lets you find the uplift It lets the audience come to the uplift, and it very much earns it. There is a moment of, like, this is somebody texted you last night, there's a rock set song that hops onto the soundtrack at what point at a very sort of like kind of touching moment, and I, again, my heart sort of like leapt into my throat. I really left it. I forgot that it happened, and when you text me that, it immediately like rushed back to my

mind. And I was like, oh, my God. Yeah, it's a really, really good movie. And I think it's going to be one of those movies that when people see it, critics and audiences, it's going to be very, very hard to deny the film. And good for it. And if it can pull that triple play of those three categories, the Oscars, it'll be the first time any film has done that.

It's going to get at least one of them. At least one of them. I would say it's, I would say the odds are likeliest that it'll get. two of three. But three is definitely in the game. Definitely is possible. I think the rescue, which is about the rescue of the Thai soccer team from the flooded caves in Thailand, from the people who made Free Solo, is an incredibly impactful and memorable film. And I can definitely see that one getting a lot of attention to. It is tense as hell. It is, And it tells its story in a very sort of like linear and sort of like forward momentum kind of a fashion.

It uses a lot of recreations, which to me, there's a ceiling on the impact of that. I think ultimately, if it doesn't get nominated, that's why. That's very probably true. But it's a really good story, and sometimes that matters more than anything else. Yeah. And I'm much, much colder on this movie. Yes, you are. Than just about anybody.

I think it's fine. I just like these filmmakers, they also made Free Solo. I also thought Free Solo was fine. I really, I mean, like the, I think there are also limitations to this. I'm sure there's a reason why, like, none of those kids are interviewed in this movie, but it feels like an essential piece that is not in the movie. Um, yeah, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, it's definitely, it's, it's, it's, it's, the, the, the lens of the movie and the perspective of the movie is on the rescue, as the title suggests. And so it does not, you're not in the cave with those kids and their experience of it. That is not sort of the movie that this is. And whether that, you know, whether you spend the whole movie wishing you are hearing about what these kids experience of it was, I, I, as somebody who my anxiety management levels

are important to me, I was kind of happy to not have to be in the mental space of being stuck in a cave for weeks on end because just the thought of it some of the times even as they're sort of like they're showing how long this path was that they had to like

dive underwater to get to them. and essentially if it goes wrong you are left to drown in a very small and tight and enclosed space and I'm sort of sweating

even thinking about it I totally hear you on that in like wanting a certain and like understanding why the movie is limited to a certain experience but like I think one of the things the movie does well is you do get a sense of

the massive scale of this effort simply in the amount of people that they have in talking head interviews in this movie. Yeah. It's a ton of people that they interview, which to me only, like, kind of exacerbated, okay, we literally don't see one of these kids in an interview. And I'm sure there's a reason for it. Do you think a reason for it, and I'm not saying that this is a good reason,

but do you think a reason for it is they want to keep the suspense with the audience that the kids survived or not? Which is a little gross to me. It is. I can see that being gross, but it's also very effective. Well, I mean, there's still a chunk of movie after they are rescued. That is true. That is true. Yes. And, like, we all know. We all, like, across the globe watched this. I didn't follow this story super closely. Like, I knew it was happening, but, like, you could have told me that, like, all of the kids survived, or you could have told me that most of the kids survived, and I would have thought both were equally plausible.

so I this this wasn't a new story to me but like the particulars of it were all new to me so and I think I probably won't be alone in in that audience talk to me about Attica because one of the things that I was really kind of profoundly shaken by with Attica is like it has a name recognition but I didn't know right very much about this right I think I think the sort of the common knowledge of Attica is that it was a prison riot in the 19, it's early 70s or late 60s. Nixon is president, so I can't, I'm not sure what year, I should be able to look it up. But anyway, during Nixon's presidency, prison riot in Attica Prison, which is in Western New York. And that's sort of, I think what most people know about it is just that, that there was a prison riot and that the line from Doug Day Afternoon, where Al Pacino yells Attica to try and sort of like rile up the people. But the particulars of it, the fact that it was this standoff with prison guards as hostages and the local community sort of demanding some kind of action and the state troopers being

brought in, and then ultimately the siege on Attica to take the prison back and the fact that this, you know, big loss of life happened in the siege and who was responsible for that and what happened there, like how that siege was carried out, the sort of militaristic barbarism of the police. National Guard committed war crimes on these people. Like, it is shocking. It's, it's, and that is a naive position to take. It's harrowing because they have, they have footage, it's grainy, but they have footage of them gassing them. That's the thing.

There's so much footage. I could, I was amazed by how much was actually on camera. And like, and kind of like, in many ways, like really high quality film of this. Like, it was, it was amazing that some of the most, um, obviously. their interviews with the prisoners, some of the most effective stuff was from recollections from media members who were there, or people who were brought in to essentially be, they didn't call them negotiators, but they were essentially brought in to be negotiators. They brought them in to be observers, I believe is the term that they used, sort of third-party

people to go in and try and work out a solution to this. And ultimately, the blame for this lies on Governor Nelson. Rockefeller and President Nixon and their decision to make the politically advantageous decision to take a hard line with these people and to not negotiate. And all these people wanted was better living conditions in the prison. Like ultimately, there's this, there's an interesting sort of part at the beginning about how there was a faction who wanted to demand things like extradition to Cuba or somewhere and the kind of internal arguments.

whether that was plausible and whether, but, like, ultimately, these people wanted better living conditions and more humane living conditions in prison, and the fact that that was ultimately out of the question for people like Nixon and Rockefeller, because they didn't want to appear to be soft on crime, it's obviously incredibly resonant to the current climate in a billion kind of ways, and it is, if audiences and Oscar voters can get past just the shock and the violence of the imagery

later in the movie and that it doesn't make them just want to forget about it, I think this could be a major contender because it is impactful as hell. It's my second favorite movie of the festival. It's impactful as hell. It really, really is.

Yeah, I can't say enough about how people should watch that movie. It's going to be theaters but it's also a showtime doc too so i believe it will be on showtime at some point this year but they are doing a theatrical run so it's going not to be snobby but it deserves better than showtime like not to be like you know whatever this fucking shit was showtime lately showtime all right so let's transition into the humans which i think is another one of the movies that really benefited from it's one of the few movies i think that really benefited from tiff i think it's reception

we didn't get to see but like it absolutely benefited in a way that doesn't feel like the studio it's clearly like a surprise yeah yeah like they weren't planning for it to go down as well because like definitely getting this showtime release too feels like

they're punting it a little bit and like their 84 is doing more for the rest of their false slate of movies than 824 is in a rough position as a company like 824

I don't know, like 824 tomorrow could announce that they are, you know, dissolving. 824 could announce that they are getting sold to any, like, there's 8 billion possibilities to what could happen to 824 in the next several months. So, like, I could, it doesn't surprise me that the plan for any of their movies is a little scattered. It's just heartening to me that the reception has been very good. good. So a little, why don't you sort of give a little background on what the movie is and the play and that whole kind of thing? Well, the play won the Tony for Best Play. It was a Pulitzer finalist. It is a family meeting in kind of like a shitty apartment in New York City. The cast includes Jane Howdy Shell, repriezing her Tony winning performance. But it also has Beanie Feldstein, Richard Jenkins. Stephen Yun, Amy Schumer, June Squibb. So it's like, it's a really interesting assemblage of a cast,

but there are like some family secrets that come out, but it also feels like kind of a ghost story at the same time. There's a lot of like bumps in the night, for lack of a better word, in this apartment building. Having seen it only on stage, I have not seen the film. There is a kind of, the audience is sort of left to wonder how spooky am I meant to be finding this?

How literally am I meant to be finding these sort of these bumps and noises? Is this this metaphor? Is this what is going on? Because most of the story is this very... It's really hard to reduce to say what this thing is. Right. It's a very earthbound story. It's very much presents itself as,

oh, this is a family in an apartment and their various troubles and conflicts and whatever are emerging through the course of this play, as does happen in plays. I was a little, I loved the play. I thought it was fantastic. And I was a little trepidacious about the film adaptation. The fact that Stephen Karam was adapting his own work and directing the film. And it's such a...

These plays that are, you know, in one room and very sort of contained, there's always a wonder of what, you know, how do you open this up into a film? You know, the sense of like you have to, you have to, you know, bring it into this sort of bigger reality as a film. And I was not sure how they were going to be able to do it. And I thought, at this movie could end up being great and a thing that I really like. but still sort of just like, oh, you know, you're watching a play. And I love movies where you're watching a play. You know what I mean? When that criticism comes around, it almost never matters to me because I'm just like, but I like plays.

And so I'm happy to be watching. Performance can be cinematic. Exactly, exactly. But to hear the reviews being so positive about this and to talk about how successful the film is at conveying this kind of quasi-creepy creepy. tone, this sort of ominous tone. I should also mention that the movie is the directorial debut of the playwright.

Yes, yes. Stephen Karam. Yeah, yeah. Like I said, adapting his own work. And I'm very excited to see it now. Incredibly excited to see it. Yeah, because it felt like it was kind of getting dumped at TIF a little bit. It was one of the few movies that came into TIF,

came out of TIF with better buzz than it had going in. A lot of the ones that emerged from Tiff with good buzz had good buzz coming in power of the dog being one of them spencer being another one of them this is one of the movies that actually feels like it got elevated by tiff and i love that and there's not very many that happen i think attica's another one um can i bring up a movie that we both have seen that i feel like is one of those that like came into tiff with its own buzz and stronger views but does feel like it got elevated what's it um selen siama's petite mamma okay this

was my favorite movie at the festival we sort of got away from we got away from that question we finally got that in there what your favorite was because part of it was it was available the first night of the festival and like against donkins night baseball like the digital platform for press basically crashed and nothing was available but this movie yeah so it got a huge like boost of like it's also press accredited people were talking about this one movie that they could watch but also it did actually feel like the movie where I was seeing response from the public breaking through, and there were so few movies that did. I would go so far, and, like, of course, there will be egg on our face because the announcement of people's choice is happening, like, however, it's later today. Yeah. But, like, I wouldn't be surprised to see this movie show up as a runner-up for people's choice.

Oh, I'd love it. I'd really love it. It is 72 minutes soaking wet. It is such a... It's an easy movie to watch because it is not a big time commitment, and it is very lovely. This is Celine Siamah, of course, a director of Portrait of a Lady on Fire. And it's such a delicate, lovely little story. It is about a family who goes to the mother's childhood home after her mother has died.

and her daughter, her young daughter, sort of goes out to play, and as after the mom has kind of, she goes away for a few days, right? She kind of exits the story, and you get the sense that the mother is... Struggles with depression. Yes, sad and haunted, struggling with depression, and is sort of removing herself for a few days from the situation because she can't really emotionally sort of handle it. And her daughter, her young little daughter, goes out to play and encounters another young girl. And I don't know how much of the plot is being revealed in things like plot descriptions

and trailers and stuff like that, so I don't want to go too far into it. But the reality of sort of what this friendship between these things, two little girls is on the surface and then what it ends up being is really beautiful and sort of says a lot while also being just like on its surface this really sweet story of two people finding a connection and this the daughter finding a particular connection and an understanding even at her very young age of her mom. of what her mom sort of is going through. And it's just a story that's the kind of story

that doesn't really get told very much because it's a hard story to tell with a child. A lot of people are going to connect to it. I think people are going to be impressed with the magical realism of it. Yes, yes. Yeah, it's one of my favorites of the festival too. I don't think we've gotten any word

about what France is submitting or what their finalists are. I think it will be knowing certain details about Teetan. It will be an utter shock if they go with Teetan. But I think if they go with Petit Maman, they could have a potential winner. And the literal translation of Petit Maman is Little Mom, which I adore. I adore that title so much. I said I wanted to see Little Mom and Little Men in tandem.

I saw people saying they wanted it programmed with Big Daddy. Also that. Yeah, it's really, it's a wonderful little movie. It absolutely is my favorite of the festival. I want to talk about what my runner-up for the festival is. We should maybe start plowing through these a little bit quicker. Yeah, we can go through some of these faster. I don't think we have a ton to talk about Oscar-wise, but let's, let's plow through some of these.

Benediction by Terence Davies is going to be one of my favorite movies. Yeah, man. What a wonderful, it's a body. Biopic of Sigfrid Sassoon, the poet from early 20th century UK. And just an absolutely, it's such, it's a much more fun movie than you think it's going to be when you see the sense of like biopic of a gay poet in the eras of World War I and towards World War II. it's so gossipy and kind of like bitchy and caddy and like and exists within its own queer community of the time and obviously in a way that had to be very particular

and very sort of set apart but there's a real sense of community there in its very sort of barbed and and you know scorpiony kind of a way with these characters and I was absolutely enthralled by it I love that we've both become Davies Babies. Yeah, we're in a very, very... We are officially a Davies Baby's podcast.

Yes. Go back and listen to our house MIRTH episode. Also, Jack Loudon, as Siegfried Sassoon, who I had only seen... I know he was in Dunkirk, but like, there's so many, you know, so many guys in Dunkirk. Namedless Twinks in Dunkirk. Exactly. But I had seen him in... And he was in fighting with my family, and he was in Mary Queen of Scots, both of the movies that I had seen.

but he was in a horror movie called Kindred last year that had um that also starred Fiona Shaw and he plays a real creeper in that movie and he's so good he sort of looks like um a softer version of Simon Pegg from the right angle you know what I mean if you sort of look at him the way but he's like he's so dreamy and he's so fucking good in this movie like he like I will be shocked if he doesn't end up on my best actor list at the end of the year because well this doesn't have distribution yet i would imagine oh you don't think it's going to come out this year this won't probably hit theaters until the spring i see that's kind of par for the course for davies's movies yeah that's true that's very true earth is the outlier that it gets released the same year as its festival run um but you have uh that ahead of you for 2022 yeah we both it's a it's another really really strong terence davies movies i think of his work it is the closest to a quiet passion, his Emily Dickinson movie, but, like, you're right that there are those elements of it that are fun, but then ultimately, I think it tells kind of a very...

Oh, it's a heartbreaking story. Yeah. ...movie about... Yes. I don't want to be so tritous to say, like, love and loss, but, like, World War I has an incredibly, incredibly long effect on him and his psyche, and you see him go through all of these romances where it's like it's kind of a movie about how each one takes something away from your soul.

I very much liked 1917 as a movie, and I know we kind of differed on that two years ago. But I will say, for as much as 1917 made an effort to put you into those trenches and into that moment to sell the kind of harrowing nature of World War I. I think you can't, you, it's absolutely bested by Benedictian in a movie that does not enter the battlefield of World War I once. But you see the tone that that war takes on people via the person of Siegfried Sassoon and just the way that these, the loss of these people, these men in this war, just takes, just takes big chunks of soul out of him. And just sort of, by the way that it haunts him, you get that impact of that war so very clearly. And then as he moves on from his life and his various relationships with different men, and you watch the toll that those end up taking on him. And it's truly like,

it is a movie kind of about the ways in which, and you see him towards, you know, the end of his life. He's played by Peter Capaldi in scenes that sort of come and go throughout the film. And it's not like he's this like shell of a man or anything by the end, but like you see the toll that a life takes on a man, especially a life that is defined by war and relationships that I mean, harm is a very specific word, but like relationships that have to exist on the fringes, and so become a lot more kind of win or take all, if that makes sense. Yeah, I mean, there is a certain, I don't want to use a weird like drama, but because of, the movie's very specific about the culture of the era and how it formed people and how the way that people are formed, they can hurt each other so profoundly. Yes.

And they're really, really compelling scenes of sort of viciousness. Some of these scenes are a little too long, but, like, that's ultimately part of the point. Like, this movie does really kind of get its hooks in you. Yes. I will say my one limitation with this movie, and it's a big one, is that Jeremy Irvine is horrendous. Yeah. He's really bad. I don't know why directors are still casting him as a gay man after Stonewall, but it's a worst

performance, if you can imagine it. It's definitely a bigger performance. Like, he definitely he throws a brick of emotion in this movie. He's playing Ivor Novello, the real-life

entertainer Ivernavello, who I mostly know of as being the Jeremy Northam character in Gossford Park. But, yeah, it's, but like, Simon Russell Beale rules in this movie. Matthew Tennyson rules in this movie, Gemma Jones.

Simon Russell Beale, I wanted to give him a little smooch. He was so wonderful. I really, really loved him. Yeah, yeah. Highly recommended whenever Benediction does come out. All right. Let's fly through some of these. What did you think of I'm Your Man?

I don't think we really talked about it. This is going to be Germany's Oscar submission that has Dan Stevens as a robot. Dan Stevens. For providing love and affection. It's such an adorable robot in this movie. Like, I really do like his performance in it quite a bit. The movie itself, I kind of wanted to be more than what it ultimately was. I feel like it's a little slight.

I thought there was a lot of cliches in this thing. It felt like... Even when it, like, does what you don't expect it to do, it still does that in a cliche way. It kept reminding me of a black mirror episode, but I've seen there is a better black mirror episode about a synthetic boyfriend. that this compares a little bit less to, which is kind of too bad when you're talking about that. Yeah, I wanted more from it. And ultimately, obviously, like,

I got a little thrill out of Dan Stevens' performance, and he really just, like, this movie weaponizes that face. I don't know if I've liked him as much as here, and it's probably because I haven't really liked him before. Oh, he's playing a robot. That's perfect for him. How dare you not appreciate everything he was giving in a Eurovision Song Contest, The Story of Fire Saga? He's so good in that movie.

I just wasn't on that level with that performance, so I didn't have a good time with that movie. Let's talk about The Starling, which you hated, and I didn't hate. I feel like that sort of... I thought it was a nightmare. Melissa McCarthy and Chris O'Dowd play semi-estranged parents of an infant daughter who had died. of SIDS and he is in a sort of a group home dealing with his mental breakdown and she is living at home alone on their kind of it's not a farm but it's like a house with a lot of outdoor space so like they've got a big old garden and whatever and she's being aggressed by a starling the titular

starling and so like as a plot like it is very similar to Penguin Bloom and that it is a a woman working through her grief via the metaphorical presence of a bird. But, and I haven't seen Penguin Bloom, so I can't really compare the two. It is a goopy, sappy movie when it comes to like, we are dealing with grief. I nonetheless really enjoyed watching Melissa McCarthy play this role. I loved her scenes with Kevin Klein, who plays a vet, who used to be. a shrink and who is sort of helping her through

her process and I thought Chris O'Dowd has a couple really good scenes in this and it is not a very good movie but I didn't I like I said me not hating it feels like I'm really taking a stand because I've talked to a few people who

really hated it. It's just going for pleasant vibes but like if you scratch below pleasant vibes I mean like I kind of thought it was borderline offensive and it's treatment of mental health in terms of like, you know, but it's also just like, it slams about four different luminaires needle drops at you. It does. It does. When I say slams, I mean slams. It's like the effect of when you're watching a TV show and the commercials are suddenly

10 times louder than the show. Yeah. That's how those needle drops are. All right. I mean, Melissa McCarthy, like, does not embarrass herself in any. way. Whereas this is also Theodore Melfy who did Hidden Figures and more notably St. Vincent because this is like a St. Vincent reunion sort of. I think it's worse than St. Vincent

but like has different problems. I think I think as a Melissa McCarthy entity it is serves her better than St. Vincent serves her I will say. I would like for Melissa McCarthy to be able to have a film career that does not shackle her to directors who don't serve her super well.

So this is her second Melfi. She's made any number of movies with her husband. And I get that, like, you know, you can't tell someone not to make movies with her husband. But, like, I will, and, you know, I'm one of the few people who am really enjoying Nine Perfect Strangers, the Hulu series, Nine Perfect Strangers. But, like, she's giving a great performance on that show. Like, even the people who don't like that show seem to be recognizing the fact that McCarthy is doing really good work there. So at the very least, there is something out there.

I couldn't make it past the first episode. I really like it. And everybody can fuck off. It's very fun. And anyway, I'm glad that there is something out there that is giving her very good work. Talk to me about the electrical life of Louis Wayne. Okay, so this is like the B-Side Benedict Cumberbatch movie that we'll be having this season. It's an Amazon movie.

they don't have a huge slate. So, like, I feel like because of that, you could maybe be hearing about this movie a little bit more than normal. He plays Louis Wayne, who was a real-life artist, who had his own mental health struggles, and as did his family.

He rose to prominence for his painting of cats and was credited with, like, changing the culture, cultural mindset towards cats. Did this make you think of a better version of big eyes, or is that just me? It maybe is a better version of big eyes, but like,

you know, and it's also a little bit weirder. It's definitely weirder, but I think to its benefit. I mean, I thought it was mostly fine. Andrea Reisbrough enters the movie like bellowing while brandishing a butcher knife. And I was like, yes, absolutely her. She's very...

I love Andrea Riceboro. She's very good. She's quite good. She's my favorite thing about the movie. Me too. made me want to watch all of her scenes in the death of Stalin again. I liked the movie better when it was more odd and when it was not in Finding Neverland territory.

Yes. Because that's when I was like, this is not good. This is bad. I think it's ultimately fine. I think it's ultimately, at times, very pleasant, at times sufficiently harrowing, but mostly it sort of meets me in the middle. And, you know. think anybody's going to be too enthusiastic about it, but it could be like a production

design nominee, that type of thing. I was really bummed out by Encounter, which I thought was... Sucks. I think Riz Ahmed is very good in that movie, but, yeah, as a movie, it does not deliver what I wanted to deliver. It sort of has kind of a what-if bug, William Friedkin's bug, but as a road trip movie, and like that... It's like bug meets Midnight Special.

minus Michael Shannon. Right, which, like, that's a good formula for me. Like, I was really intrigued by that. Like, all of those things are good for me. And yet, ultimately, it's not a good movie. It doesn't... It's also an Amazon movie. I don't think it would have entered any type of Oscar conversation if it wasn't playing festivals.

It's not that type of movie. It's not that type of movie. Yeah, I mean, like, I hate to be reductive in that way. And Resonnet is good, but... Was it Midnight Madness? No It was like one of the big Princess of Wales ones

But it also played Telluride And really That's so surprising to me The thing about Telluride that I think Is when people at Telluride Don't like a movie They just don't talk about it Right

Right So it's either it's something that's smaller At Telleride And people aren't always able to make the time for it But I always get the impression from a movie That if it's not talked about at that festival Like you don't see tweet responses for it Yeah

um people don't like it yeah and i think that's that was the case because i heard nothing about this movie out of tell you're right and it's the first thing like they always have a first screening before the press festival that's just for like donors and press yeah this was the movie and no one talked about um sort of last thing i was surprised that the the critical reception for antoine fuk was the guilty has been as strong as it was because I thought the knives would be out for this one, and they weren't. People seemed to find it. Well, they weren't raves about it, but I think most of the reviews that I saw thought

that it was a pretty kinetically-paced thriller, and Jake Gyllenhaal was very good. I thought Jake Gyllenhaal, I don't even know if I would go for very good, because I think this movie... I wouldn't say very good. I don't think he's bad, but I think the movie, I don't. do think the movie is bad. I really, really hated it ultimately at the end of the day. Yeah, I hated it too. I hated the original. I felt like I was on an island about the original when people loved it. And a lot of my problems with that one are my problems with this one. I think it has some kind of really, really, I mean, I don't want to be so hyperbolic to just be, like, offensive. But, like, some of the twists in this movie, I think, are really backhanded towards the audience in a way. that I find gross. Yeah.

I think there are there are a couple moments here where the film seems to be taking the position. God, I can't say anything without giving away any of the twists in this movie. It'll be on Netflix very soon, too. Yeah, it's just like there's some gross assumptions about, I would say, gendered issues

that really bugged me in this. There's also some issues of sort of perspective and sympathy and where this movie ultimately wants your sympathies to lie, which are puzzling to me. It's also very clearly a film. You know how sometimes you'll watch a movie and they'll be like, you know, they filmed that all in quarantine? And you'll be like, really, that is not the case with the guilty. It's very obvious that this movie was filmed in quarantine because it takes very, very great

pains to make it make sense in the story that you're only ever seeing Jake Gillen Hall at a desk with a headset. He plays a police dispatcher who ends up very much invested in this call from a woman who has been kidnapped by her husband and he's got to get her out of it. And which led me to be like, oh, like the great Halliberry movie, The Call that I loved. In its very top line setup, yes, that is. But where that movie is, exciting and kind of pulpy and kind of like trashy fun, the guilty is

very, very serious about its implications and very dark and very, I don't know. And I think part of the reason why some of the people like this movie is I think for people that this

movie works, it works because of the central performance and like, you know, that keeps people energized and excited by the movie, whereas, like, I feel like it's kind of the opposite. I feel like the performance is a little bit hurt by the lack of imagination

in the way that the movie is shot. I felt like it was incredibly repetitive. Yes, I agree. Did not like that movie. To me, best performance in the movie to Vinejoy Randolph as one of the many voiceover-only performances.

And, like, you can just... She's such an amazing performer that, like, you just... You can see the physical performance she would be giving if we were seeing her. I spent 15 whole minutes trying to place Ethan Hawke's voice in this movie. I was like, who is this voice? I know who this is. And it was like really, really bothering me and finally realized it was Ethan Hawk.

Yeah. Yeah, did not like this. All right. We have been, we've kind of outstayed our welcome. Any closing thoughts on TIF 2021? one. It was ultimately, with the exception of a few very, very fine movies. It was a bummer

of a festival for me, I got to say. I mean, like, I maybe was a little more aggressive than I needed to be. I watched some stuff that wasn't great. I would definitely say, I don't think it has distribution yet. I would tell people to seek out the documentary, Beba,

which is more of like a personal documentary from a young Afro-Latino woman in New York City. that it's incredibly like this personal poetic doc that is really fascinating interesting in terms of her narrative voice there's also compartment number six that I saw that was probably going to be a foreign language submission I thought it was fine people loved it out of can what quickly what were your thoughts on jockey because I saw that in Sundance I mean 6.5 out of a very very like a very like you know a a exactly a unremarkable b minus i of course will always enjoy

uh clifton collins and molly parker as actors i really love them the one who i really ended up thinking was quite good was moises arius as the son i thought he gave a very good performance that in a better movie that got more attention might get a little bit of a boost for him and maybe this leads to better and more interesting rules for him i mostly only know him from that movie The Kings of Summer with Nick Robinson. But, yeah, fine. Was it called Monos? I don't know.

That's a cool movie. You would like that movie. Yeah, cool. But anyway, yeah, that was sort of my thoughts on Jockey. It was, you know, it had gotten some good notices out of Sundance, which is why I saw it. But it was like the definition of solid but not spectacular. Right. That's what I think that movie is. And I think in a TIF where I had better options, there's just no way I would have seen it. And ultimately, sometimes you're like, I'm glad I got to see that movie that I had to go out of the way for.

And in this one, I'm just like, I would have been fine catching up with this movie six to eight months down the road. Like, whatever. Right. Not to be dismissive. Should we throw some potential egg on our face and predict the people's choice winner before it's announced later today? Well, I was going to say Belfast until you told me that there apparently. this wave of discontentment that I'm not seeing for this movie, but

that's sort of, I'm kind of stuck with that one, so I'm going to stick with it. I just wrote about the history of people's choice for Vanity Fair, and I think one of the things I really emphasized in the piece is that Toronto is an audience festival,

and because that's been so hard to track the audience impression, which is like, even Green Book, which was a surprise at the time, we at least heard on the ground that that movie had played through the roof weirdly on like you know the second to last day of the festival or whatever the hell that movie finally premiered yeah um and there's no real sense in it and it's like i i definitely saw audience reactions to petite mama i i mean apparently dune is not eligible because it was a special event and not uh like in the actual selection i mean belfast makes sense But, like, I wouldn't be surprised if it's going to be dear Evan Hans. I was going to, I was just about to say, for as much as the critics that I read, Lambaste did that movie, that is a, that is a movie for audiences.

And it also drew some of the biggest crowds to, like, I do wonder how much, like, I think that's a big part of the reason why a lot of the critics that I know seem so, seem to fume about that movie so much. Because I think there's a sense of just like, why do people like this? but, like, people really do like it. They like the play, or the musical, rather. And I have a feeling that audiences are going to really end up liking the movie as well. I mean, aside from Dune, that's probably had the biggest audience of the festival because they also added a bunch of screenings of that movie. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it would not surprise me in the slightest. And when was the last time that an opening night film at TIF did that? Like, normally opening night movies at TIF do not usually perform this strongly. At least in recent history has not happened. Yeah, yeah, so. What if it's like Flee, because Flee is incredible. Flea is incredible. That'd be wonderful.

That'd be very heartening to see. All right. I think that's our TIF episode, you guys. If you want more, this had Oscar Buzz. You can check out the Tumblr at this at oscarbuzz.com. Joe. Yes. Or also follow us on Twitter at had underscore Oscar underscore buzz.

Yeah. Joe, tell our listeners where they can find more of you. I am on Twitter at Joe Reed, read-spelled R-E-I-D. I am on letterboxed. as Joe Reed reads spelled the same way. Cool. I am on Twitter and letterbox at Chris V. File. That is F. E.I.L. We'd like to thank Kyle Cummings for his fantastic artwork and Dave Gonzalez and Gavin Mievious for their technical guidance.

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We'll fight this together. This is that? This is what? This is war. Open up your eyes in your real life. We're living in a civil war. What do you want?