GoKawiilHello once again from Toronto, where for a week every year I watch far too many movies and tell you all about them. The festival, better known as TIFF, is always a great preview of the months ahead in film, with a nice mix of mainstream fare, awards contenders, indie surprises, and genre flicks destined to be cult classics. The streamers also love to make their presence felt here, previewing some of their most anticipated projects. Last year, for instance, Netflix showed off both Guillermo del Toro’s long-awaited Frankenstein as well as the third Knives Out movie, and I was also able to watch everything from the terrifying video game adaptation Exit 8 to Park-Chan wook’s dark satire No Other Choice.
This year looks similarly promising. There are new films from directors like Takashi Miike, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, and Werner Herzog, and very intriguing features including a four-hour-long documentary on Elon Musk. There are also previews of a surprising number of Halloween-adjacent streaming series in the form of Netflix’s Below, Peacock’s Crystal Lake, and Amazon’s Carrie. I’m aiming to see just shy of 30 films and series over the next week or so, and, just like last year, I’ll be writing daily dispatches covering every single thing I see with a brief review.
And things have gotten off to a very interesting start. On my first day I watched four movies and the premiere of a streaming series, highlighted by John Turturro’s wonderful turn as a technophobic petty thief in The Only Living Pickpocket in New York. I also saw one of the most Canadian things I’ve ever watched and a three-hour drama that somehow doesn’t feel overlong.
Here, in no particular order, is what I’ve seen so far.
The Only Living Pickpocket in New York
In theaters on October 30th
Imagine if Uncut Gems was a little less stressful, but much more heart-wrenching. Harry (Turturro) is an aging pickpocket, one who sticks to what he knows while the world advances around him. He doesn’t understand smartphones, has no idea what USB means, and laments that no one carries cash anymore. But he’s still able to make a dishonest living and take care of his sick wife. Then one day he accidentally steals a crypto gizmo from the wrong guy, and is pulled into a tense thriller that puts everyone around him at risk. The film is a beautiful love letter to the city of New York, with lots of shots of busy streets and packed subways, but it’s mostly an incredible showcase for Turturro. He plays a genuinely bad guy, but you can’t help but love him in spite of it; at one point he literally steals candy from a child, and it made me smile. The final moments of the film are just about perfect.
All of a Sudden
In theaters on November 25th
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