TORONTO – It’s that time of year when Hollywood and its Oscar-ready movies heed the call of the Tim Hortons maple-glazed doughnut and the Great White North.
Celebrating its 50th iteration, Toronto International Film Festival has been a major launching pad for best picture winners like “Parasite,” “Nomadland” and “Spotlight” – and it was also a stop along the way for “Anora” in capturing the Academy Awards’ biggest prize earlier this year. So who might the choice candidates be in 2025? Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” looks to be one, after making a major splash at Venice Film Festival. The Norwegian film “Sentimental Value,” starring Stellan Skarsgård and Elle Fanning, has buzz and accolades, as does Dwayne Johnson’s MMA movie “The Smashing Machine.”
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We’re on the ground at the fest (which runs through Sept. 14) watching as many films as possible. Here are the best we’ve seen so far, ranked:
The ideal action thriller for those who think there’s way too much chit-chat on “Reacher.” In a 1970s-set crime drama with almost no dialogue but plenty of period tunes, Alan Ritchson continues his rise as a two-fisted, rough-and-tumble juggernaut, playing an ex-con recently engaged to his sweetie (Shailene Woodley). He’s sent back to the slammer after being framed by a local drug kingpin (Ben Foster), and when he escapes, our jacked hero goes on a quest of ultraviolent, bone-breaking vengeance. It makes up for what it lacks in words and character development with gritty style and Ritchson’s beefy brooding.
Boxing movies often involve some sort of scrappy underdog coming from behind for a rousing victory, so presenting Sydney Sweeney’s title pugilist as a rather unlikable punch-out queen who leaves everybody in her dust is certainly a choice. Sweeney is both brash and vulnerable in a biopic that follows Christy Martin from West Virginia teen to most famous female boxer in the world. The sports stuff very much leans into formula and clichés, though David Michôd’s film finds its way depicting the gripping, toxic marriage of Christy and her detestable trainer/husband Jim (Ben Foster in a Donald Trump wig) and the nuanced relationship between Christy and fellow boxer Lisa (Katy O’Brian).
From “SCTV” to his ’80s movie roles in “Stripes,” “Uncle Buck” and “Spaceballs,” John Candy became a beloved comedy figure in pop culture who died way too young at 43 in 1994. Directed by Colin Hanks and produced by Ryan Reynolds, “I Like Me” digs into Candy as a man and as an icon, using archival material and interviews with family and A-list friends. The movie explores a gentle legend whose father’s premature death gave him his own ticking clock and gives new context to some of Candy’s most memorable screen moments, showing how the man and his characters often melded in magical ways.
Wry and quite moving when it wants to be, director Joachim Trier’s Norwegian dramedy stars Stellan Skarsgård as an aging filmmaker named Gustav aiming to make a heartfelt movie tying into the family’s traumatic history that’ll be his comeback. However, because he prioritized art over loved ones, he’s now estranged from his daughters: determined stage actress Nora (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), a one-time child star who chose being a wife and mom over all else. Elle Fanning is the Hollywood ingenue brought on by Gustav but it’s Lilleaas who’s the revelation amid a top-notch cast as the one trying hard to mend broken fences.
