As the 49th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival wraps, it’s fair to say it’s been another stellar year for festivalgoers. This year’s TIFF slate featured a whopping 278 films. Nobody can watch all 278 titles in 11 days, but that won’t stop me from screening films from sunup to well past midnight.

Here’s a rundown of the films that I enjoyed, and the ones that for better or worse, left people talking.

After dazzling Cannes audiences, Sean Baker’s Anora was the hottest ticket in town, leaving plenty of festivalgoers on the outside looking in. French auteur Jacques Audiard’s gangster musical Emilia Pérez wowed audiences, while Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis had folks divided before it even screened. Was it a self-indulgent mess or the legendary director’s next masterpiece? Regardless of which, people made it their mission to catch a Megalopolis screening.

The cinema diehards showed up for Brady Corbet’s three-and-a-half-hour epic The Brutalist.  Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, and Guy Pearce all turned in first-class performances but it was The Brutalist’s 70mm screenings that sent cinephiles into a tizzy.

Jason Reitman worked some movie magic to celebrate the American comedy institution, Saturday Night Live. His film Saturday Night takes viewers back to 1975, inside 30 Rock’s hallowed halls for the 90-minute leadup to its debut. 

Andrew DeYoung’s cringe comedy Friendship sent audiences into a frenzy. Led by a cuckoo bananas Tim Robinson performance opposite a eccentric Paul Rudd, Friendship is the funniest comedy in years and has the makings of the next cult classic.

The Substance — Coralie Fargeat

Coralie Fargeat’s latest film, The Substance, examines a chilling interplay between beauty and celebrity. The film offers a stylish, and often unhinged look at what a former Hollywood star endures to remain in the spotlight. Fuelled by a once-in-a-lifetime Demi Moore performance, The Substance offers a riveting interrogation of Hollywood’s toxic ideals.

Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) used to be a major Hollywood star but her career lost its lustre as she aged out of “It-girl” status. She’s about to turn 50 and hasn’t headlined a hit film in years. She now makes a living as the host of a TV fitness program but learns her sleazy boss is about to replace her with a younger woman.

A desperate Elisabeth tries out an experimental treatment guaranteed to reinvigorate her looks, and in turn, her career. The treatment works but causes complications. Elisabeth struggles to manage the treatment’s side effects while clinging to the remains of her fading career.

The Substance is as subtle as a jackhammer and it isn’t for the squeamish. Fargeat will go to any length to drive home a point (usually in over-the-top fashion). Expect brutal acts of violence, stomach-churning body horror, and geysers of blood. 

Everything unfolds with a tongue-in-cheek tone, which makes the extreme visuals more palatable. It’s closer to the irreverence of an Itchy and Scratchy segment than the brutality of Human Centipede.

With its knockout lead performance and audacious tone, The Substance is destined to be one of the year’s most discussed films.

The Quiet Ones — Frederik Louis Hviid

Set against the looming 2008 financial crisis, Frederik Louis Hviid’s Danish crime thriller tells the real-life story of Denmark’s biggest robbery.

The film stars Gustav Dyekjær Giese as Kasper, a prizefighter moonlighting as a criminal mastermind. He’s training to win a title and make his wife and daughter proud. But — there’s always a but — a chance at an easy score pulls him back inside the criminal underworld.

The Quiet Ones hits all the heist movie cliches out there but does it with gusto. There’s the easy plan that hits a snag, a hothead crewmember stirring up tensions, and a do-gooder standing in the villains way at the worst possible moment.

The film has style to spare. Martin Dirkov’s grimy electronic score sets the tone, sounding like the pulse pounding tunes from ‘80s crime flicks. And cinematographer Adam Wallensten’s moody visuals bathe scenes in shadows, constantly draping the film’s crooked characters in darkness. 

There’s no fat to trim on this lean, mean caper flick. The Quiet Ones hits the ground running, hurtling you into the world of desperate criminals hellbent on taking back what they believe the world owes them.

It hits with the intensity of a cinematic panic attack, and at several points, the film gave me Sicario vibes. The Quiet Ones scratches a specific type of itch — it’s catnip for heist movie junkies. If you love films like Den of Thieves and Triple Frontier, I can’t recommend this film enough. 

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