The Toronto International Film Festival 2019.

September 5th was the official start of TIFF 2019 and the second festival in the circuit heading towards awards season. I had the pleasure of attending the first three days of the two week long event and in that time I saw 4 films in their world premiere. This will be a ranking (worst to best) and review of those films.

4. The Giant by David Raboy

If you're squinting just trying to see the figure in the poster then get ready, because this film was shot entirely in the dark. I mean it, you will barely see anything except some flashing colorful lights or candles, and on top of that you won't hear anything either because everyone is whispering. The only thing you'll be able to hear is the floor creaking loud enough to wake up a bear, but dialogue? Forget it! This film is supposed to be about a young girl, Charlotte (Odessa Young), whose town is startled by a series of murders the night her ex-boyfriend Joe (Ben Schnetzer) coincidentally rolls back into town. However, the murders didn't seem to really matter to any of the characters, not even Charlotte's police chief father. The plot was most certainly not that because there was no actual plot and the little bit that I got from it made zero sense. I've read all the articles that have been published about this work just trying to figure out what happened and every single one has a different description of what went on. The only thing that kept me in the theater was the performances from Odessa Young and Madelyn Cline. Both of them delivered emotionally driven performances with the very little substance they were given. This was not enough for many people in the audience as people were filing out steadily. When the lights in the theater went up there was scattered applause. Odessa and director/writer David Raboy prepared to take the stage, but half the theater was already gone. In the end, this is one of the worst movies I've ever seen in my life, bypassing my all time least favorite and the programmer who selected this should absolutely be fired.

3. The Friend by Gabriela Copperthwaite

This film truly is fantastic. It was hard to decide to rank it 3rd because it simply doesn't deserve such a low rank, but ultimately the formatting of it was what differentiated it for me. The Friend is a true story about "When Dane (Jason Segel) moves in to assist his best friends from college, Nicole (Dakota Johnson) and Matthew (Casey Affleck) Teague, all three expect a short stay. Nicole has been diagnosed with cancer and Matthew is struggling to keep up with her needs while trying to help raise their two daughters. But as a temporary gesture extends into an indefinite living arrange-ment, he all but leaves his own life behind. A sweet and stalwart source of support, Dane's commitment extends beyond the call of duty and comes at the cost of his own job and relationships. As Nicole's condition worsens, the lines between friendship and family begin to blur." This film was beautifully crafted, aside from the fact that it jumped around from date to date every couple of minutes, but the choice made sense as director Gabriela Copperthwaite said "It can't just be downhill the whole time, it would be unbearable". The thing that shined most about this film was the dedication and raw talent from Dakota Johnson, Casey Affleck, and Jason Segel. They each stole focus at one point during the film and truly delivered what was asked of them. The movie was purely heartbreaking and had the crowd on its knees, especially when the real life Matthew Teague came out to speak about his journey.

2. Tammy's Always Dying by Amy Jo Johnson

This film had every good quality about it, fabulous writing, directing, acting, and a perfect balance of drama and comedy. The film is about "For what seems like forever, Kathy MacDonald (Anastasia Phillips) has been taking care of her train wreck of a mother, Tammy (Felicity Huffman), an alcoholic who's the life of the party when she's in her cups, but a sharp-tongued, vicious monster when sober. The strain is finally getting to Kathy. Her only real relief is heading to a posh hotel bar in the city with her boss and Tammy's oldest friend, Doug (Clark Johnson), where they pretend to be other people. When Tammy is diagnosed with cancer, Kathy must move back into her house to help care for her — and suffer her abuse. But escape may be on the horizon. Kathy has been selected as a guest on a sordid Jerry Springer-ish talk show, where she's coached by the imperious and cynical Alana Wiseman (Lauren Holly), and may be set for a big payday." Felicity Huffman truly is the standout in this film, her portrayal of Tammy is off the charts fantastic. You can tell how committed she is to the role and when you watch it it feels like a completely different entity. The film creates dynamic characters and still manages to throw you for a heartbreaking plot twist that no one saw coming, the whole theater gasped. This is a film that should be seen and I hope it's picked up by a distributor. If you want a better idea at how great this film is, my father who I forced to go with me who is by no means a lover of movies, especially not dramas, has been talking about this movie for 6 days now because of how much he loved it.

1. Blackbird by Roger Michell

This film was by far the best of the bunch, every intricate detail was well thought-out and beautifully presented to you. Every single actor in this film brought their A-game, the performances were unparalleled, the level of talent unmatched. This film had epic laugh out loud moments where the entire theater couldn't hold it in and intense lows where 3,000 people were sobbing together. The film follows Lily (Susan Sarandon) who has been terminally ill for sometime and is choosing to end her life on her own terms with assistance from her husband Paul (Sam Neill). She has requested for her whole family to join her in her last weekend alive despite underlying conflicts between siblings Jen (Kate Winslet) and Anna (Mia Wasikowska). The turbulent weekend seems to threaten Lily's wishes to go out in peace. Clearly the cast is stacked, with the standouts intending to be Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet, Rainn Wilson, and Sam Neill, but instead the most unlikely of the actors/characters becomes the scene stealer. Jen and Michael's (Rainn Wilson) son Johnathon (Anson Boon) really delivers a stellar performance. In my opinion his was the most underrated in the film, he added a lot that I think goes unnoticed. The thing I enjoyed most about this film was that I didn't feel like I was in a theater watching a movie, I felt like I was peering in on their life and private moments. Roger Michell went above and beyond to make it feel normal but also cinematic. For example, normally in a scene where two characters are delivering dialogue there's not much going on in the background, but in this case there's separate conversation going on about things like cooking dinner that make it feel so real. It gives the movie such and authentic and genuine feel. This is definitely a movie to see and the premiere provided me with the coolest moment ever, the opportunity to see Sara Sarandon, Rainn Wilson, and Sam Neill standing right in front of me, in the flesh. See this film!

Have you seen any of these films or been to TIFF? Leave a comment below!