“Mindhorn”
Another of Lowe’s oft-overlooked Brit comedy colleagues gets a major showcase this year, with the world premiere of “Mindhorn,” written by and starring Julian Barratt (co-written by Simon Farnaby), of “The Mighty Boosh” and more recently “Flowers.” It sees the actor play the washed-up star of a 1980s detective show about a cop with a robotic eye who’s forced to reprise his trademark role. It sounds like it could be a curio cult item, but there’s some serious talent involved: theater director Sean Foley helms, Ridley Scott produces (!), David Holmes scores, and the cast includes Andrea Riseborough, Russell Tovey, Steve Coogan and “The Babadook” and “Game Of Thrones” breakout Essie Davis. Could this be the next Alan Partridge?
“Raw”
There’s no better way to pass instantly into horror movie legend than by causing a bunch of people to pass out in your screening, and “Raw” managed that feat at TIFF this year, with paramedics called to the movie’s Midnight Madness screening. But the qualities of Julia Ducournau’s feature debut go way beyond that. Following a young vegetarian girl whose first taste of meat leads to cannibalism, the film was praised in our Cannes review as a mix of “Suspiria” and “Carrie,” of Cronenberg and Lynch, with an “uncompromising vision” that shows “sharp command” from its director. Go, but probably bring a sickbag.
“Neruda”
Pablo Larrain is in the middle of one of the great runs in cinema history. Four years ago, his “No” was an Oscar nominee, eighteen months ago his “The Club” was an utterly devastating look at the darkest secrets of the Catholic Church, and in December he looks to get serious mainstream exposure with much-praised English-language debut “Jackie,” starring Natalie Portman. But in between the last two came this joyously playful anti-biopic of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, told through the eyes of a cop chasing him (Gael Garcia Bernal). Jess called it “an effusive love letter to the very concept of fiction,” and given Larrain’s current form, we’re sure she’s right.
“Nocturama”
Having been something of a favorite on the Croisette, it was a surprise to see that Bertrand Bonello’s latest film was apparently rejected not just from Cannes, but Venice too, bowing instead at TIFF and San Sebastian. And it’s more surprising still given that the word on it is positively glowing. Then again, with the film hitting the hot-button issue of terrorism — in following a group of young Parisians who detonate a bomb before holding out in a department store — it’s perhaps more understandable. Either way, we’re excited to see the latest film from one of our most provocative filmmakers, particularly given the comparisons to both Alan Clarke’s “Elephant” and Gus Van Sant’s, uh, “Elephant.”
“Your Name”
You likely haven’t heard of it yet, but “Your Name” is kicking all kinds of ass in Japan — the anime film, from “Garden Of Words” director Makoto Shinkai, called the new Miyazaki in some circles, is by some distance the biggest film of the year in the country, and is currently the twentieth biggest ever in the country while still sitting atop the top 10. We’ll get to see what the fuss is about at the LFF, where the film is the first animated film to play in competition. On paper, it’s an animated take on the body swap comedy, about two teens who swap consciousnesses, but from what we hear, there’s a lot more going on, and we’re psyched to check it out.
Those are some of the potential gems of the line-up, but there are tickets still available for some of the hot-ticket items, and return queues are always worth a try for those that are sold out. And the LFF has almost every one of the big pics from the fall festivals to check out as well as the more under-the-radar ones above.
“A United Kingdom” opens the festival on Wednesday, while “The Handmaiden,” “A Monster Calls,” “American Honey,” “Sierranevada,” “Toni Erdmann,” “La La Land,” “Manchester By The Sea,” “Elle” and the world premieres of Michael Winterbottom’s new docudrama “On The Road” and Dreamworks Animation’s “Trolls” all screen before the end of the first weekend of the festival.
And after that, there’s also films like “Paterson,” “Arrival,” “Personal Shopper,” “Their Finest,” “City Of Tiny Lights,” “Nocturnal Animals,” “Free Fire,” “Lady Macbeth,” ”Trespass Against Us” and “The Salesman,” to name but a few. Look over the full line-up over on the website, and stay tuned for our full coverage from Wednesday onwards.
