Day 5 Tiff blog

Miserable outside, but such great movies inside.. and the dog of the day was a gorgeous friendly police dog.

The Wedding Guest is the second Dev Patel movie at the festival, about a a young man travelling to attend a wedding in Pakistan, and the real reason why he is going which is revealed slowly. Lots of twists and turns. In the end, some of the character’s actions and plot are a little unbelievable, and it misses for this reason from being a second wonderful Patel movie at this festival.

The Public is the story of homeless people occupying a Public LIbrary at a time where a cold snap has killed several homeless, and the shelters are full. Terrific social commentary on the plight of homeless throughout the US (and we actually have a higher per capita in Canada), and how they are completely ignored, and well, the issue is a deeper one than simply these points made here. Emelio Estavez, Christian Slater Alex Baldwin etc. An excellent movie, which will have you looking at the person you step over to get the the subway in a different way. The QA was enlightening.

American Woman is a good drama following the story of the disappearance of a womans teenage daughter over decades, and her relationship with her grandson. Stars Aaron Paul of Breaking Bad fame.

First Man is the Gala at TIFF dramatizing the story of Neil Armstrong on his path to being the first man to walk on the moon. Wonderful information, good to great acting with Ryan Gosling, who is really a TIFF regular. Definately in Theatres soon, and may get best actor nominee for Gosling.

The Old Man and the Gun is reportedly Robert Redfords last film? It is true story about a brazened elderly (now) bank robber who has been at it for years and years, caught a few times, and continues his craft into his 70’s.. and never harms anyone, and is in fact depicted by his ‘victims’ as being polite and s nice guy always smiling. Stars Bob (as he liked to be called), Sissy Spacek, Danny Glover, Tom Waits, Casey Afleck. Directed by David Lowery. Excellent fllm, wonderful characterization by Redford.

Destroyer is a dark detective drama starring Nicole Kidman, who is unrecognizable as a strung out, sustance abusing cop caught up in an undercover operation facing brutal (and violent) events, while facing her own demons. A bit disjointed for me. Tough to follow the two timelines a little bit, and as a funny comment, a few of us thought the wigs used were crappy, a comment someone actually made during the Q and A afterwards, which clearly upset Kidman, who immediately looked elsewhere for another question.