The 30 Most Anticipated Films Of The 2016 Toronto International Film Festival - Page 4 of 5

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“Moonlight”
If there had been more justice, Barry Jenkins’ “Medicine For Melancholy” would have made him an immediate hot prospect — a deeply lovely African-American take on “Before Sunrise,” but also a lot more, it won him rave reviews and the respect of Steven Soderbergh and others, but it’s taken him eight years to follow it up. Don’t expect “Moonlight” to disappear in the same way: An adaptation of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s play “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue,” it’s a coming-of-age story about Chiron, a young man struggling with his upbringing and sexuality in Florida. It’s the first film that A24 have directly financed as well as distributed, partnering with Brad Pitt’s Plan B for the film, and Jenkins has a killer cast led by newcomer Trevante Rhodes, André Holland, Janelle Monáe, Naomie Harris (who’s already gathering awards buzz) and Mahershala Ali. Buzz is already electric, especially after the recent trailer: It seems like we might be talking about this one all fall long.

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“Norman: The Moderate Rise And Tragic Fall Of A New York Fixer”
It might have one of the most…precious titles in the festival, but we’re nevertheless intrigued by “Norman,” which marks the American debut of Israeli filmmaker Joseph Cedar, whose “Footnote” was Oscar-nominated in 2011, as was his previous film “Beaufort.” The new film stars Richard Gere, who’s been on a hell of a run of late, as the proverbial NYC fixer, whose friendship with a man (Lior Ashkenazi) who’s now become the Israeli Prime Minister threatens to undo the comfortable lifestyle he’s built. It’s an unusual, literary set-up for a film, and has a promising group of actors gathered — Steve Buscemi, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Dan Stevens, Michael Sheen and Hank Azaria, among others — while Playlist favorite Oren Moverman serves as a producer on the film too. It’ll be a little bit of a roll of a dice, but the fact that Sony Pictures Classics have snapped up the rights before the festival begins certainly bodes well.

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“Paris Can Wait”
There seems to be an ever-growing stream of Coppolas coming out and making impressive movies — only a few years ago saw Gia Coppola, still in her 20s, make the striking “Palo Alto.” TIFF sees another one of the clan make their fiction filmmaking debut, but remarkably, it’s actually Eleanor Coppola, the 80-year-old wife of Francis Ford (and mother of Sofia and Roman), who’s debuting her latest movie here. Coppola’s hardly a filmmaking newcomer — her seminal documentary about the making of “Apocalypse Now,” “Hearts Of Darkness,” is a classic — but it’s still impressive to see her doing something new in her ninth decade. The film looks to be a low-key romantic road movie about a fiftysomething woman (Diane Lane) who travels the French countryside with a charming Frenchman (Arnaud Viard) when she becomes fed up with her workaholic film producer husband. Expect beautiful landscapes and finessed filmmaking, and knowing the success of the grey dollar recently, this could well become one of the top-grossing films to emerge from the festival.

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“The Promise”
So we were wrong. We saw “X-Men: Apocalypse,” and it turns out that Oscar Isaac can give a bad performance. Still, when he’s not buried under terrible prosthetics, the actor’s still one of our very finest performers, and “The Promise” should give him the best showcase he’s had in a while. The actor stars with Christian Bale and “The Walk”’s Charlotte Le Bon in a new film from “Hotel Rwanda” helmer Terry George, with Isaac playing an Armenian medical student who falls for a French girl (Le Bon) already in a relationship with an American photographer (Bale), against the backdrop of the First World War and the genocide of the Armenian people that followed. Don’t expect it to perform well in Turkey, but it’s an important subject, and George has good form on sensitively tackling difficult subject matter. With a cast like this, this could prove to be a bit of an awards sleeper if the TIFF premiere goes well.

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“The Rehearsal”
To say that we’ve missed Alison Maclean would be an understatement. The Canadian-born, New Zealand-raised director made her debut with 1992’s Cannes-approved “Crush,” and followed it up with the powerful addiction drama “Jesus’ Son” starring Samantha Morton in 1999, but hasn’t made a feature since, though she’s cropped up in TV occasionally (including, oddly, an episode of “Gossip Girl”). But “The Rehearsal,” which will also screen at NYFF, marks her real comeback, and it’s a very promising one. Based on the excellent novel by author Eleanor Catton, it’s set at a New Zealand drama school, and follows a student who falls for a girl whose family are embroiled in a scandal, only for his class to want to use their relationship as a basis for devised drama. It’s potent stuff, led by a cast of new talent (with Alice Englert of “Ginger & Rosa” the most recognizable, while the great Kerry Fox plays the school’s principal), and the trailer looks highly intriguing. For a film we weren’t aware existed until recently, we can’t wait to see it.

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“The Secret Scripture”
The label of ‘this year’s “Brooklyn”’ will be a hard one to shake off for “The Secret Scripture.” It’s an Irish period romance based on a book from an acclaimed novelist (Sebastian Barry, in this case), and stars Rooney Mara, who was originally set to play the lead in John Crowley’s acclaimed film of last year. But we suspect that this, from “My Left Foot” director Jim Sheridan, will be a slightly different kettle of fish. The film sees a psychiatrist (Eric Bana) interviewing a woman (Vanessa Redgrave) who’s been in a mental institution for 50 years, and her telling the story of her youth (with Mara playing the younger version), when she fell into a love triangle with a fighter pilot (Jack Reynor) and a priest (Theo James). Sheridan can be hit-or-miss (see, or rather don’t, “Dream House”), but when he’s on form, few do this sort of melodrama better, and he’s certainly amassed some intriguing actors.

Academy Award® winner MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY stars as dapper Koala Buster Moon and director GARTH JENNINGS voices elderly lizard Miss Crawly in Sing, a musical comedy about finding the shining star that lives inside all of us. Credit: Illumination Entertainment and Universal Pictures

“Sing”
A big, broad, starry animated musical that isn’t due out until Christmas is a rather unusual bit of programming even for the mainstream-friendly TIFF, so it’s mildly surprising to see “Sing,” an “American Idol“-ish kids flick from the studio behind “Minions” and “The Secret Life Of Pets,” bowing at the festival. At least it is, until you realize that it’s the first film in nearly a decade from Garth Jennings, the visionary music-video director and helmer of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy” and “Son Of Rambow.” Now hooked up with Illumination Entertainment, Jennings’ film involves a koala (Matthew McConaughey) who tries to save his crumbling theater with a singing contest, with competitors including Reese Witherspoon’s overworked pig, Taron Egerton’s gangster gorilla, and Seth MacFarlane’s egotistical crooning mouse. Trailers haven’t completely sold us on it yet, but the same was true of the excellent “Zootopia,” and a premiere three months ahead of release bodes very well for Universal’s confidence in the film.