Based off of the steady stream of crowd-pleasers, critical darlings, and uneven oddities that hit Toronto this past week, the Toronto International Film Festival could already be considered a runaway success. But an entire week more of cinematic gifts await, and we’ve got clips and trailers for a slew of them, including the latest efforts from Lukas Moodysson, Kurt Russell, and Ben Mendelsohn. While the buzz might have slightly died down about the festival, there’s a whole lot still left to go!
Making its world premiere off at Venice, Lukas Moodysson’s “We are the Best! (Vi är bäst!)” is set to screen tonight in Toronto, and we’ve got a 5-minute clip (via Bleeding Cool) from it to tide you over until its eventual release. The film, which follows three 13-year-old girls who buck convention and form a punk rock group, returns Moodysson to the more vibrant tone of his earlier films (“Fucking Åmål,” “Together”), and from the new footage, it looks like an absolute romp as well. Take a look below.
There’s also new crime flick starring Kurt Russell that carries that lighter tone, as the actor traffics on his history of bad-ass personae to topline “Art of the Steal,” directed by Jonathan Sobol (“A Beginners Guide to Endings”). Also starring Terence Stamp, Matt Dillon, and Jay Baruchel, it sees Russell as a former-thief-turned-motorcycle-daredevil who brings his old crew together again for one last job. A new trailer for the film has landed; watch below and see for yourself just how different from “Ocean’s Eleven” it succeeds in being. If you miss it at Toronto, you won’t have to wait long; the movie is set to debut theatrically on September 20th.
“Young Adam” director David MacKenzie traveled to Telluride to showcase his gritty prison drama, “Starred Up”—the title refers to under-21 prisoners leveling up to adult status—and now the film, starring rising actor Jack O’Connell, has a new clip and trailer ahead of its TIFF premiere. Following O’Connell’s young character as he enters British prison and reconciles with his locked-up father (played by Ben Mendelsohn), the film drew solid notices from Telluride that suggested a familiar but gripping ride.
After directing a short film with the same name, actor Leland Orser will bring his feature directorial debut “Morning” to TIFF, which focuses on five days in the life of a middle-aged couple dealing with their child’s accidental death. Orser and Jeanne Tripplehorn play the two grieving parents, while Laura Linney, Jason Ritter, Kyle Chandler, and Elliot Gould co-star. Check out the festival trailer below, which looks almost oppressively bleak but still quite powerful.
Finally, we have a first look clip at director Arie Posin‘s “The Face of Love,” which dovetails nicely into TIFF’s seemingly overarching festival theme of double identity (“Enemy,” “The Double,” “Prisoners,” “12 Years a Slave,” etc). The film stars Annette Bening as a woman who, five years after the death of her husband (Ed Harris), spots and falls for a man that looks exactly like him. The clip starts to investigate the murky territory surrounding her secret, but as yet unseen is a look at Robin Williams, who returns to dramatic acting in a supporting role (he can be seen this fall on the gonzo CBS sitcom “The Crazy Ones“).
