Toronto International Film Festival

Toronto International Film Festival offers promising slate of fall films
By Isaac Napell
September 19, 2017 - 9:11am
An arts journalism grad student returns from the Toronto International Film Festival with his pick of the festival’s most exciting movies

This year, Syracuse University graduate students from the Goldring Arts Journalism program traveled from Syracuse to Toronto to attend the 42nd annual Toronto International Film Festival. Here is a roundup of some of the notable movies that one student saw:

Toronto International Film Festival offers promising slate of fall films
By Isaac Napell
September 17, 2017 - 11:08pm
An arts journalism grad student returns from the Toronto International Film Festival with his pick of the festival’s most exciting movies

This year, Syracuse University graduate students from the Goldring Arts Journalism program traveled from Syracuse to Toronto to attend the 42nd annual Toronto International Film Festival. Here is a roundup of some of the notable movies that one student saw:

The Orange Pop: Toronto International Film Fest (Episode 1)
By Jack Thomas Williams
September 17, 2013 - 3:09pm
The team behind our new pop culture podcast discusses the major fall-opening film festival where Oscar buzz already has started.

This week we focus on our experiences at the recent Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) at which more than 360 movies were screened and 146 debuted.

Some of the films we touch on include Around the Block, The Station, The Green Inferno, 12 Years a Slave, The F Word, and Can a Song Save Your Life?

See video of TIFF and read reviews of select films.

'The Green Inferno' offers gore, commentary on youth culture
By Max B. O'Connell
September 13, 2013 - 10:21pm
Eli Roth's 'The Green Inferno,' which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, uses cannibalism to make a point about the naivete of young people.

In an early scene in Eli Roth’s The Green Inferno, college student Justine (Lorenza Izzo) sarcastically questions activist Alejandro’s (Ariel Levy) ludicrous plan to save Peruvian natives from a construction company. Alejandro calls her insolent.

Not 'The F Word' you're thinking of
By Nick Schmiedicker
September 13, 2013 - 10:17pm
Michael Dowse's 'The F Word,' starring Daniel Radcliffe, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. The romantic comedy doesn't transform the genre, but it offers a good time.

The F Word, directed by Michael Dowse, is a teenage romantic comedy set in Toronto starring Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan. An amalgamation of earlier films in the genre, The F Word is a love letter to romance and the city. What it lacks in innovation it makes up for in wit and charm.

'Prisoners' keeps knuckles white from start to finish
By Alejandra Acuna
September 13, 2013 - 10:13pm
Denis Villeneuve's 'Prisoners' changes the meaning of child abduction movies and pushes the detective genre. The film screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Prisoners is a perfect film for drama-loving masochists. Grief and injustice dominate the plot as a crude reminder that bad things happen to good people, but the film does so in a way where you cannot blink, let alone go to the bathroom, until the end.

The trailer was an unfortunate false advertisement of the film. It gives little justice to the intellectual thriller of fist-clenching tension, which kept the theater jumping at every unexpected turn.

In other words, be prepared to flinch.

'Can a Song Save Your Life?' doesn't live up to expectations
By Olivia Yang
September 13, 2013 - 10:07pm
'Once' director John Carney attempts to create another movie about music, but he can't live up to his own legacy. 'Can a Song Save Your Life?' screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.

John Carney, director of the acclaimed music film Once, attempts to make a comeback with Can A Song Save Your Life?

As the title suggests, Carney’s new movie follows Once in genre but is less gripping and more disappointing.

Greta (Keira Knightley), a heartbroken struggling musician, and Dan (Mark Ruffalo), a recently fired music producer, predictably bond through music and overcome their difficulties in life during the process. 

'12 Years a Slave' uses subtlety, preserves history
By Nick Reichert
September 13, 2013 - 9:55pm
Steve McQueen’s '12 Years a Slave,' screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, showcases brilliant performances and beautifully tells the true story of freeman Solomon Northup.

Billie Holiday’s haunting and passionate voice echoes over the song “Strange Fruit.” The 1939 blues standard is a harsh cry and protest against the brutal racism and lynchings that were an everyday occurrence in the United States.

Steve McQueen’s film 12 Years a Slave, depicting the true story of the enslavement of freeman Solomon Northup, echoes Holiday’s seminal song. It is a rapturous meditation upon America’s original sin and, like “Strange Fruit,” is brutally honest and yet tinged with a sorrow so personal and vivid that the film is transcendent.

Toronto International Film Festival features celebrities, world premieres
By Jack Thomas Williams
September 13, 2013 - 3:31pm
The Toronto International Film Festival runs from Sept. 5-15 this year, offering more than 360 movies for ticket-holders.

Since its inception in 1976, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has gradually become one of the premier events for showcasing new material worldwide.

Put on each year during the first few weeks of September, a large number of industry professionals like filmmakers, producers, agents and distributors, along with a hungry bunch of movie-lovers across all genres, descend on the Canadian metropolis.

This year’s festival runs through Sunday and will have screened more than 360 films, including 146 world premieres.

TIFF Review Roundup: "No One Lives"
By NewsHouse Staff
September 28, 2012 - 12:08am
Review: Two Arts Journalism graduate students offer their reviews of the upcoming slasher flick from WWE Studios.

The 2012-2013 Arts Journalism cohort had a chance to see a Toronto International Film Festival "Midnight Madness" screening of the latest horror film from "The Midnight Meat Train" director Ryuhei...