by Billie Anderson, Staff Writer

The 28th Toronto International Film Festival has come to end and the burden of seeing films that won’t release for months, films that are still seeking distributors, and films that are generating Oscar buzz already that I cannot talk to anyone about, because no one else can see them yet. 

I saw some really incredible and surprising films this year, and also saw a few that left me disappointed and wanting more. I’ve highlighted a few big anticipated releases (including the 2023 People’s Choice and gay cowboys Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal) as well as some smaller scale, no-buzz films. Three strong directorial debuts are also featured here. Enjoy! 

Pictures of Ghosts 
Written and directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho

My only documentary of the festival was also the only film I outright cried throughout. Pictures of Ghosts tells the story of writer, director, and narrator Filho’s hometown of Recife, Brazil through archival footage of the apartment he grew up in. It was there that Kleber made his first short films, in various formats, VHS, Super-8; years later, his first feature, the award-winning "O Som ao Redor", was also shot in the same apartment. A review of these hours of images shows something else: the verticalization of the surrounding buildings, the appearance of railings and barbed wire fences. The second half is dedicated to the center of Recife and its large cinemas; once full and lively, today, the theaters have given way to evangelical churches, department stores, and shopping malls.

Pictures of Ghosts is more than a documentary about movie theaters. It's about the organic relationship between cinemas and their audiences. Filho says early on in the film that marquis are timekeepers. Audiences are shown as time stamps throughout the film, the marquis of the cinemas: what is playing tells us when the footage was taken. At the end of the film, he takes an uber ride through the city streets and through the window you can see pharmacy after pharmacy, illuminated, open, and shining. 

Sometimes cities are about cinemas and the people that visit them, and sometimes cities are wall to wall pharmacies. Sometimes those cities are the same cities. 

Pictures of Ghosts does not yet have an American distributor, but was released in Brazil through Vitrine Filmes on August 19th, 2023. 

Hell of a Summer 
Written and directed by Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk

Premiering as one of TIFF’s Midnight Madness films, Hell of a Summer received a weird level of immediate backlash, calling it . I loved this movie. A directorial debut from two twenty-year olds that fits into that perfect camp/slasher/90s horror genre that is so often replicated but so special when done well? A film about Gen Z written by Gen Z? You can’t get any better than this. 

Starring as a pair of horny teenagers looking to score with their fellow counselors at the rustic Camp Pineway, Wolfhard and Bryk join a veritable murderer’s row of would-be victim archetypes from himbo to mean girl, in a collective fight to survive the night after a slasher begins to wreak havoc the weekend before the campers are due to arrive. It’s a simple premise with dare I say even campier than Scream. For sure, it doesn't reinvent the slasher comedy or anything, but it is very entertaining with some really funny jokes, a lightning-fast runtime, and a stellar cast that bring it to life really well. 

TIFF Midnight Mass programmer described this as a “feel good slasher movie,” and if doesn’t sell you, I don’t know what will. I think when people revisit/visit this without the festival tinted glasses, it will become a classic. I can’t wait to see more of what this duo can do.  

Hell of a Summer is still seeking distribution. 

Mother, Couch! 
Written and directed by Niclas Larsson

The premise of this film is silly–on the way to his daughter’s birthday party, David (Ewan McGregor), his brother Gruffudd (Rhys Ifans) and their mother (Ellen Burstyn) stop at a furniture store to look for a dresser, and once arrived, their mother will not get off one of the store’s couches, she refuses. The film starts off quick and clever, simple family disagreements and frustrations something all audiences can relate to. However, the film quickly transitions into a surrealist (heavy on the surrealist) family drama, highlighting the experiences of abusive parents and the question of forgiveness. 

It’s really hard to describe any details of this film without giving key aspects of it away. Mother, Couch! was very much my type of film. A character-driven dramedy that nicely balances its more absurdist, surrealist touches with moments of slowness, kindness, and care. Ellen Burstyn is fantastic as the titular mother on sofa, Ewan McGregor grounds it with his deeply poignant work, and Taylor Russell enchants as the kooky furniture store-owner’s daughter. A solid directorial debut from Niclas Larsson in the vein of Beau is Afraid, The Father, or Mother! One of those: “I loved this, but I never want to see it again,” kind of movies.

Mother, Couch! is still seeking distribution. 

Strange Way of Life 
Written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar

Two cowboys reunite after twenty-five years apart in Pedro Almodóvar's latest short, a morsel of romance set in the Wild West, sometime in America's past. Jake (Ethan Hawke) is a sheriff whose disposition matches a blue color palette, loneliness corroding him from the inside out. In contrast, Silva (Pedro Pascal) is an unmoored figure, traveling without a set path through the desert. As they meet, their love reignites the flames of desire rekindled after a quarter century lying dormant. However, their meeting circumstances are not ideal: Silva’s son was spotted committing a crime, and Jake must act against the desires of his long-lost lover to protect his town. 

There was plenty to enjoy about this film: Pascal and Hawke are an enticing pair to watch, their chemistry undeniable on screen. The framing of the film is beautiful, of no surprise to any Almodóvar fans, and the costuming is even more spectacular–particularly Pascal’s Silva in a bright green coat and orange plaid shirt. The short feels warm and comforting, even in its time of action. 

The issue I have with Almodóvar's short is not the length of its film, nor its cinematography, but the limited breadth that the narrative achieves in the face of its ambitions. There are so many stories that are hinted at within the short-30 minutes audiences are granted, stories that seem far more interesting than the one we are saddled with. The narrative feels rushed and incomplete, bringing in too high of stakes without any payoff. The best line of dialogue is the last one, followed by a swift cut to the credits. 

If you read this like a telenovela, it’s a lot more enjoyable than if you are expecting arthouse. I was just left a little unsatisfied with both stories and visuals.  

Strange Way of Life is distributed by Sony Pictures Classics in the US and Mongrel Media in Canada.

American Fiction
Written and directed by Cord Jefferson 

This film felt like two films: at the center of both is Thelonius “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey Wright). On the one hand, dealing with family illness, the curse of growing old, and death; on the other hand attacking the publishing industry–and by extension, the whole of media culture–for the constraints it puts on Black expression. A cultural satire about the prevalence of tragic, almost bordering on misery porn, stories of marginalized communities (particularly African American stories) that are deemed "important" and "worthy" to be given the spotlight. 

Jeffrey Wright delivers his best performance to date in this hilarious crowd pleaser about the state of art in America, and the frustrations that the art people want to make often does not line up with the art that the masses want to consume. Cord Jefferson’s script is crackling with biting satire that takes aim at intellectuals, academics, Hollywood, hacky artists, and especially, audiences that show no curiosity beyond their current worldview. 

My biggest problem with this film is that it was two films. Two thirds family drama and one third comedy, where the comedy was exceptional, original, and biting and the family drama was nothing special. I would have loved to see this film lean into the absurdist aspects of satire that it hinted at and just dropped the family drama all together. Maybe I’m being too critical because of the festival tinted glasses I complained about other people having in their critiques of Hell of a Summer, so I cannot wait to revisit this when it’s released. 

American Fiction will be released and distributed by MGM on November 3rd, 2023.