TIFF 2024 Coverage Days 4-7: HERETIC, NIGHTBITCH, FRIENDSHIP, and More

by Joel Edmiston

It’s day seven as I write this. I’ve seen 21 movies. The days are starting to bleed into each other. I had lunch with a friend yesterday afternoon and it feels like that was a week ago. The movies are rhyming. There were turtles in two or three movies I’ve seen (maybe one was a frog actually). I am slightly fatigued -- very fatigued. I’m making odd decisions. I bought a 2 liter bottle of Sprite Zero today, having never drank Sprite Zero in my life. All that said, I’m having so much fun. Seeing this many movies in a week? In my own city, no less? I can go home and see my cats at the end of the day? I’m a lucky guy.

I come to you with another round up of a handful of movies I thought were worth highlighting. I've become slightly addicted to writing these things, to tell the truth. I’ve had to cut a couple, as I just thought it was too many. I’ll be honest. I have had some imposter syndrome occasionally. I’ve talked to a lot of industry people and other press people and they’re all tapped into the trades, publicists, distribution, etc. and I’m just like “I liked when the guy kicked that other guy in that movie I saw.” Maybe I don’t have to tell you all this, because I have had a lot of great conversations with people. These business people also like when the guy kicks the other guy in the head. I bonded with a business guy in line about Dolph Lungren’s directorial career. That’s pretty cool, right? Only at TIFF! Anyway, here are my thoughts.

Heretic (2024)
Dir. Scott Beck, Bryan Woods

I don’t know how good I am at predicting these things, but I believe Heretic has potential to be one of the most talked about and debated horror movies of the year. It has an intriguing premise and big ideas. I, however, did not connect with it. I know I am not alone, but I also know that many have loved it.

Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East play two Mormon missionaries knocking on doors for new recruitments to the church. They end up on the doorstep of Mr Reid (Hugh Grant), who invites them in. At first, they are charmed by his perma-smile and promises of blueberry pie, but he may not be the trustworthy British man he appears to be. I won’t say much more because this movie does have its surprises, but it takes a long time to get to them and by the time it did, I had stopped caring. It’s clear why Hugh Grant took the role. He’s given many villainous monologues which he chews on like an animal. Even though he’s having a lot of fun, it’s when the monologuing began that I really started to bump up against the movie. At a certain point I started questioning how much of these speeches were character and suspense-driven versus being vessels for the writers to grapple with their own ideas of religion, choice, and control. They slip in pop culture references and board game metaphors that I just don’t buy from this middle aged British man. I became less and less engaged with every monologue. It really becomes a slog. However, the audience I was with (at the world premiere) seemed to really be vibing with it. It’s difficult to gauge at a premiere how something will translate once it comes out and people watch it without the creators and actors in the room. I can see a world where Hugh Grant’s performance gets people talking and out to the theatre and I’m sure there will be a lot of people who love it. I take no joy being the guy that doesn’t like something a lot of people love, but this one really didn’t do it for me.

The Order (2024)
Dir. Justin Kurzel

Justin Kurzel’s The Order scratches all the right places for people looking for a thrilling cop procedural. We got Jude Law as a mustachioed detective and Tye Sheridan as the driven rookie. Jurnee Smollett is the fed up Sergeant and Nicolas Hoult is the steely, villainous leader of an Aryan brotherhood terrorist gang. Oh, and it’s set in 1984. If this sounds up your alley, you’re probably going to love it as much as I did. It doesn’t bring too much new to the genre, but the true-story nature and how it mirrors things that are still happening today certainly packs an extra punch.

Nightbitch (2024)
Dir. Marielle Heller

Marielle Heller’s Nightbitch is sure to be a big movie in the fall season conversations, but I couldn’t help but wish it was more rottweiler than golden retriever. Amy Adams plays Mother, a stay at home mother whose frustrations with her husband (Scoot McNairy) and struggles with losing herself amidst raising her son start to manifest through canine-like tendencies. I thought it was a neat premise when I first heard about it. Heller is less interested in the dog stuff than I expected, though. Motherhood takes a front seat. She’s raising points about balance in relationships, men’s weaponized incompetence, and how society treats women differently after they give birth that all deserve to be talked about more. I just thought the movie could’ve leaned on its clever metaphor a lot more.

I, The Executioner
Dir. Ryoo Seug-wan

South Korean action movies are widely a blind spot for me, but every time I see something like Ryoo Seung-wan's I, the Executioner, I am very compelled to fix that blind spot. I actually saw this one on day two but didn’t include it in my round up. The farther I’ve got from it, the worse I feel about excluding it, because it’s extremely fun and the kind of movie I think F This Movie! readers would love. It’s the kind of thing Patrick would recommend in “What Have You Seen Lately” that I would immediately add to my watchlist. I struggled with the tone at first. It’s simultaneously a comedy about a team of misfit cops and a serial killer mystery-thriller. It’s actually a sequel to Veteran (2015), which leans more into the comedy aspect. But once the plot got going, I really locked in with this one. The tone stopped bothering me because all of its aspects are working. The jokes are funny. The villain is creepy, with a provocative MO. Also, the action is quite good. There’s a foot chase about halfway through that I haven’t stopped replaying in my head since I saw it.

Conclave (2024)
Dir. Edward Berger

I try not to view movies at TIFF with the lens of their awards potential (not fun for me), but the fact remains that many pundits see the festival as the big kick off to awards season. The movie I hear people buzzing about the most awards-wise this year is Conclave, Edward Berger’s new thriller. I’ll frame like that no longer. I agree, it has an aura of prestige due to its setting (The Vatican) and a fantastic cast (Ralph Fiennes, John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci, and more). However, some of the plot points are quite silly. To be clear, I like the silliness. It is based on a book by Robert Harris, which I haven’t read, but I wondered if it’s one of those airport thrillers. It has that level of implausibility at times. That being said, the filmmaking at all times has you feeling you’re watching the most serious movie of all time. It’s also very funny. Fiennes plays Cardinall Lawrence who, after the sudden death of The Pope, is put in charge of the sequestering of his fellow Cardinals as they choose the next Holy Father.

Remember how I said that movies I’ve seen this week have been rhyming with each other? Well, weirdly enough, the film I kept thinking about while watching this was Saturday Night. Maybe it’s because I saw it only a day or two before (or maybe it was the same day). It does have a similar vibe of a ticking clock and guy bouncing around to different people who he wants different things from and who also want different things from him. Also, Dan Aykroyd is kind of like the Pope to some people (me). If you aren’t interested much in the church, they hold your hand in an accessible way. It’s one of those movies where you don’t quite understand sometimes why certain things are so devastating, but you feel it based on other character’s reactions and you are equally devastated. The Catholic Church has a lot of traditional rigidity and the first half emphasizes that heavily, so when the cardinals start behaving even slightly erratically, it is shocking and thrilling.

Queer (2024)
Dir. Luca Guadagnino

Walking out of Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, I wondered how much I liked it. I felt a bit detached from the story as I watched. I was impressed by the performances and filmmaking throughout, but I wondered how much I cared. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since watching it. The more I think of it, the more heartbroken I feel for the characters. Daniel Craig plays Lee, a stand-in for William S. Burroughs, who wrote the book on which this is based. Lee lives in Mexico among a community of fellow gay men (including an amusing Jason Schwartzman) and spends his nights getting wasted and seeking meaningless one-night-stands. Then, he meets Allerton, a handsome but distant young man played by Drew Starkey, and is immediately infatuated. People looking for another Challengers may find this, well, challenging. From the plot description, you may be expecting a down-the-middle romance, but I assure you, Luca is on his weird shit here. Especially in the second half, in dream sequences, drug-induced hallucinations, and other flights of fancy, he experiments with a visual style that, at times, is downright avant-garde. That being said, there is a tenderness and fragility to Craig’s character of which we never lose sight. Craig is on another level here. It may be the rawest performance I’ve seen this week. I expect that when I see this again I will become a puddle.

The Shadow Strays (2024)
Dir. Timo Tjahjanto

I’ve come to a few crossroads this week. In one direction is a Midnight screening and the other is going back to my apartment to sleep. Sleep is undefeated so far. This is regrettable. These screenings are a total blast, with easily the most enthusiastic audiences with whom I’ve ever watched a movie. The programming is fantastic and up my alley, of course, so I’ve been going to the screenings the next day. This is how I ended up seeing the new Timo Tjahjanto movie at 10AM. If you’ve ever seen one of his movies (The Night Comes For Us or Headshot for example), you’d know how peculiar this might have felt. His latest, The Shadow Strays, is more than a cup of coffee, I’ll tell you that. In my previous round-up, I promised that I may see a movie that prompts a certain type of crassness from me. This is that movie. Readers, this movie fuckin’ rips so hard. It kicks ass. I could leave it there, but I’ll explain. It stars Aurora Ribero as 13, a member of a secret society of assassins who, while on leave of absence, goes on a revenge mission against a drug/human trafficking ring. This movie is a nasty, gnarly, fuckin' grenade of blood, bullets, and blades. Ribero is a tour de force. Her intensity and commitment to fight scenes is matched by how emotionally present she is in the few quiet moments. This will be on Netflix in October and should be an instant “Press Play” for you, but If you get the chance to see it in the theatre, go. Even if it’s at 10AM.

Friendship (2024)
Dir. Andrew DeYoung

By far the funniest movie I’ve seen this week is Andrew DeYoung’s Friendship, a dark comedy starring Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd. This is the comedy we need right now. It feels like it’s been forever since I watched a movie like this with such a large audience. It’s truly a pleasure seeing Tim Robinson with a crowd. Guy makes everyone erupt just by lowering his eyebrows. I think it is his good will made up by his two fantastic shows, but I think even the uninitiated would love this. Robinson plays a lonely husband and father who begins spending time with his energetic new neighbour (Rudd). The plot plays out like an I Think You Should Leave sketch, especially in Robinson’s performance, but it exists in a different reality than that show does, a much darker one. If me saying that it’s like a sketch puts your back up, I will say that I don’t mean that in a derogatory way. It never feels stretched out or repetitive. The plot is rich and goes in many unexpected places. DeYoung’s script has a lot of peculiar, unremarked-upon details (such as a gun box that says “Storm’s a Coming”) that add to not only the comedy, but the strangeness of this world and its characters. When it was over, I wished so badly I’d seen it with a friend so we could just quote lines from it all night. It’s one of those, folks. I want to watch it again so badly, it hurts me.

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I have slowed down a bit as I went back to my day job today and will for the next two days. There will be more movies though, in the evenings and this weekend. I’ll come back for one more small round-up and a ranking at the end of the fest. Here is a picture of the Sprite Zero I bought: