Is there anything cooler than the knowledge that TIFF happens in our backyard every year? No matter where you’re located in the GTA, one of the biggest film festivals in the world is within your grasp. This year, I was able to make the most of two days enjoying the sights, sounds, and tastes of TIFF. Sights: amazing cinematography, visuals, and actors in the flesh. Sounds: incredible sound mixing, scores, and live DJs playing in the closed-down streets. Tastes: salty popcorn, crisp, bubbly soda, fried morsels from food stalls, free hazelnut spread sandwiches. And that’s just the things you can perceive with the senses. There’s also the ideas, thoughts, and emotionality of the films. Speaking of which, this is my round-up of the films I chose to see this year. Although the festival is still very much running, my experience of it is over until next year. I had an amazing time this year. If you’ve never committed to seeing multiple films, I would heartily recommend an extended TIFF viewing schedule. There are so many thought-provoking, relevant, groundbreaking, and entertaining movies to see. The first on our docket this time around was Clarissa, an adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s classic novel. What makes this one stand out from other adaptations over the years (most notably Michael Cunningham’s novel The Hours, inspired both by Woolf’s life and Mrs. Dalloway) is its setting in Nigeria. Woolf’s melancholy tale follows an upper-class Englishwoman as she spends the day in preparations for a party she’s throwing that evening. In co-directors Arie Esiri and Chuko Esiri’s film adaptation, the introspective hostess’ post-World-War-One London life is resituated in the history, landscapes, cultures, and religions of Nigeria. It was fascinating. The impressive cast and directors of Clarissa are in the picture on the left (minus the amazing Sophie Okonedo in the titular role). Excellent performances and cinematography abound here. Steel yourself for serious subject matter, but I would definitely recommend it. I started reading Mrs. Dalloway just to get a feel for it before the screening. I would recommend that too. The stream-of-consciousness narration was innovative at the time, and it still feels novel — the constant current of Clarissa’s thoughts, feelings, observations. It all carries you forward, keeps you reading. It’s amazing how many adaptations and iterations of one work there can be. Michael Cunningham’s novel was also adapted into a movie starring Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, and Nicole Kidman (below right).

Not counting the short films we saw on the Friday evening (please check out TIFF’s Short Cuts programming when you get the chance by the way), the next screening I saw was Babies. Written and directed by Lauren Miller Rogen, an actor, producer, director, and writer in her own right but often lumped in with her husband, Seth Rogen. The latter of whom started out as Canada’s stoner comedy darling and has moved into writing, directing, and producing hilarious and incisive content. He plays one of the leads in Babies. If it isn’t already clear by now, I loved everything I saw at the festival this year. Four screenings, and each one was thought-provoking, unique, and on the cutting-edge of innovative filmmaking. Everything was captivating, but Babies has a special place in my heart. The concept is that Anna Kendrick and Seth Rogen are a couple nearing the point of no return: the biological limit of their fertility. They’ve never officially decided whether or not to have children, and now they have to. It was gorgeously shot. LA looks sleek, glamourous, classy. Mid-century modern furnishings. Perpetual golden hour. It’s so much about the community around the central couple. The positive and negative impacts of having children. There are so many moments that have the texture of reality. A familiar sense of humour. The CEO of TIFF, when he introduced the screening, said something along the lines of ‘these feel like real people.’ They do feel real. Though she may have gone unnoticed, Lauren Miller Rogen has starred in several of the same acclaimed comedies as her husband Seth Rogen over the years. Without stepping too far into the limelight, she contributed performances to Superbad, 50/50, and Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Now, she’s turned to directing. Her directorial debut seems to have been a bit of a flop – a Kristen Bell/Kelsey Grammar father/daughter story that flew under the radar when it came out in 2018. Babies will be a breakout film for her, I’m sure. In her own discussion of the film in the Q and A afterwards, she said she was writing about a topic that was important to her. Her and Seth faced their own time of uncertainty and biological pressure to make a decision about kids. You can feel that in the film. We have Seth Rogen’s non-fiction collection of stories from his famous actor life in our catalogue. I imagine there’s a lot of fun to be had with that one. It’s called Yearbook.

There’s another film I’m dying to tell you about. I wish I had more time to gush profusely about its brilliance, but I will just say, if you get the opportunity to see The Surgeon with Michelle Yeoh — please take it! She supplies another brilliant, commanding, central performance in this film about a surgeon who is kidnapped and forced to operate on Martin Freeman’s villainous, crime boss. Below are three of Michelle’s most recognized films in our catalogue. Please check out one of them if you haven’t already. I’ll see you all soon to talk about Vaughan’s upcoming Municipal Election in October. Take care and bye for now.