A cozy rom-com, a 'Mrs. Dalloway' adaptation, and more favorites from TIFF

By Aisha Harris

It’s still technically summer for a few more days, but one indicator that we’re already in fall movie season is the Toronto International Film Festival. As is the case every year, the fest showcases features and shorts from across the globe, many of them seemingly destined for awards buzz. I spent a few days at the festival and checked out 25 films, and it’s likely you’ll have the chance to check many of them out, too. Here are a few of my favorites.

All That She Wants

Of course Annie Murphy (Alexis on Schitt’s Creek) would make for a great rom-com leading lady. Here she plays 30-something Emma, who’s newly single, at a career crossroads, and desperately wants to become a mom. Enter Luke (Cooper Raiff), a charming grad student who’s 10 years her junior and makes for a perfect one-night-stand, and … possibly more?

I won’t pretend this is breaking the genre’s mold, but it doesn’t need to; Murphy is unsurprisingly a hoot and has sweet chemistry with Raiff, while the familiar beats wrap around you like a cozy blanket. (This isn’t explicitly a holiday movie, though several crucial scenes take place around the Christmas season. So it could easily become a perennial fave a la When Harry Met Sally, one of its obvious cinematic forebears.) As a bonus: Christine Baranksi, Bill Irwin, and Zosia Mamet co-star as Emma’s mom, dad, and sister. As of this writing, it doesn’t yet have a distributor.

Babies

Annie and Aaron (Anna Kendrick and Seth Rogen) are a happy, longtime couple wrestling with a question many couples eventually have to answer: To parent, or not to parent? Ensconced in a friend group in which everyone else has already made the decision for themselves, with Annie quickly approaching “advanced” maternal age, the pressure grows more intense for the duo and threatens to upend the inner circle’s dynamics. Writer-director Lauren Miller Rogen (Seth’s wife and frequent collaborator) mines a lot of great comedy and warmth out of this existential crisis, and the leads unsurprisingly have beautiful chemistry. (If you’re familiar with the Rogens’ real-life relationship, you’ll recognize this as a subject very close to their hearts, which shines through in the script’s bold and unfiltered approach.)

Just as good is the supporting cast, which includes Issa Rae, Zach Cherry, Kate Berlant, and David Strathairn — the film doesn’t shortshrift their characters, allowing room for various perspectives and stages of life. Babies already has a distributor, with a likely release sometime in 2027, so add this to your watch-list now.

Clarissa, in theaters Dec. 11

Twin brothers Arie and Chuko Esiri’s second feature is a luminous adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, transported to modern-day Lagos, Nigeria. Sophie Okonedo is transfixing as Clarissa, an influential socialite whose long-buried past unexpectedly resurfaces in the form of old friends and lovers while she’s planning an extravagant fête. (India Amarteifio is equally striking as her younger self.) Flashbacks and interweaving storylines bring immersive insight into the city’s complex social and economic dynamics, but at the forefront are the quiet moments and simmering tensions among the central friend group, which includes writer and intellectual Peter (Toheeb Jimoh and, as an older man, David Oyelowo) and free-spirited Sally (Ayo Edebiri and Nikki Amuka-Bird).

The Debut, in theaters Dec. 11

With his latest directing venture, Jesse Eisenberg makes a hard pivot from the grounded exploration of generational grief in A Real Pain to a dark surrealist comedy about late-in-life self-discovery. Mona Friedman (Julianne Moore, fantastic per usual), bored by her suburban housewife existence, is cast in a community theater show directed by the prickly yet passionate Jerry (Paul Giamatti, also fantastic per usual). While her raw talent is questionable, Jerry encourages her to dig deep to find the character — but maybe she takes his instruction a little too much to heart? Because then things get really, really weird. This is very much a “your mileage may vary” kind of situation, but if you have any sort of affection for the quirks and low-ball stakes of local theater, and/or are a fan of Moore, then this will definitely be for you.

Everytime

There’s no shortage of cinematic explorations of grief, yet Sandra Wollner’s latest feature (and winner of this year’s Un Certain Regard award at Cannes) finds unexpected and at times ineffable ways to tap into one of the defining human experiences. When a teenager dies in a terrible accident, the loved ones she’s left behind — her mother Ella (Birgit Minichmayr), younger sister Melli (Lotte Shirin Keiling), and her boyfriend Lux (Tristán López), who was with her at the time of her death — try to make it through the day-to-day in their own distinct ways, bringing them closer together. This is the kind of narrative that hazily and meditatively carries you along for the ride, with an open-ended destination that’s as liberating as it is confounding.

At the time of this writing, Everytime doesn’t have an official U.S. release date, though it has been selected as Germany’s entry for the Oscars international feature race.

The Face of Horror

Using the famous Japanese ghost story Yotsuya Kaidan as her launching pad, filmmaker Anna Biller (The Love Witch) crafts a biting and fun critique of patriarchy — and does so in a stylistic homage to the Technicolor age (the rich colors and costuming evoke The Adventures of Robin Hood or a Powell & Pressburger film), as well as Roger Corman-era schlock horror. Jonah Hauer-King makes a strong impression as an arrogant, treacherous medieval knight whose actions have devastating consequences for his devoted wife (Kristine Frøseth, fully locked in on the assignment). This played in TIFF’s Midnight Madness section and was a treat to enjoy with a packed audience — it blends blood and gore with smart commentary, beautifully. At the time of this writing, it doesn’t yet have U.S. distribution.

Look Back

Hirokazu Kore-eda has made a live-action adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s manga of the same name, and the result is one of the most emotionally devastating films I saw at the festival. Schoolgirls Fujino (Furi Nanase) and Kyomoto (Rokka Okada) bond over their love and talent for creating manga, a passion that eventually brings them professional recognition and draws the reclusive Kyomoto out of her shell. (Natsuki Deguchi and Aju Makita play the adult versions of Fujino and Kyomoto, respectively.) All four performances hit hard in their naturalism and intimacy, and Kore-eda’s vision effectively depicts the meticulous artistic process without feeling inert or tedious for the viewer.

Tender Loving Care, in theaters Dec. 4

If this does indeed turn out to be Mike Leigh’s final film — as he’s said it might be — then what a way to go. Quiet, ruminative, and heartbreaking, Leigh and his formidable cast bring profundity to the mundane: Amy, a social worker (Widow’s Bay’s Kate O’Flynn), has broken up with her boyfriend and moves in with her dear friend Rosie (Alice Bailey Johnson). From there, Tender Loving Care gracefully grounds the storytelling in simple but emotionally rich conversations, many of them involving Amy’s winsome parents, played wonderfully by Paul Jesson and Marion Bailey.