Wag’s Toronto List

After Venice and Telluride, what pictures are there left to hype? Toronto has loads, all coming to a theater or streamer or whatever near you. Here are some to watch out for. —Marcello Rubini and Sarah Brown

Next Goal Wins. Wags Mike Brett and Steve Jamison made an endearing documentary by this name. Mad Genius Taika Waititi has turned it into a crowd-pleasing dramedy about soccer coach Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender) and his effort to help the American Samoa national football team qualify for the 2014 World Cup. Expect these Bad News Bears to win lots of hearts.

Silver Dollar Road. Documentarian Raoul Peck depicts a black North Carolina family’s fight to hold onto their ancestral coastal property, despite intense pressure from rapacious developers. Based on investigative journalism from ProPublica and The New Yorker, the film charts the struggles of the Reels brothers, who were imprisoned after standing up to officials in Carteret County.

Pain Hustlers. The opioid crisis gets another dramatization in Smarty Chris Yates’s Big Short-style takedown. Emily Blunt stars as a single mom who teams up with a pharma hustler (Chris Evans) to make a mint off American addiction. Based on the book by pill rep Evan Hughes, it’s a pusher’s eye view of an epidemic.

Rustin. Hopes are sky-high for Wag Supremo George C. Wolfe’s take on the life of civil rights visionary Bayard Rustin. Sir Colman Domingo steps into the role of a lifetime as Rustin, the brains behind the March on Washington who clashed with movement leaders because he was gay and later drew heat for rejecting militant politics. Barack and Michelle Obama are co-producers. Clear the runway.

Photo: Toronto International Film Festival

Wicked Little Letters. Dame Olivia Colman, Awards Magnet, reunites with Bright Young Thing Jessie Buckley in this tale of a 1920s seaside town roiled by scandal. Somebody’s sending the local dowagers obscene letters, but who? A Mapp & Lucia tale with serious undertones, directed by Thea Sharrock.

Photo: Toronto International Film Festival

Dream Scenario. Snap out of it! Sir Nicholas Cage is a very good actor who took some fun detours. Wag Kristoffer Borgli directs him in this story of a schlumpy academic who pops up in other peoples’ dreams. A loopy takedown of contemporary groupthink, and quite possibly the start of the Cage renaissance.

Photo: Toronto International Film Festival

Lee. The life of Wag Emerita Lee Miller, fashion model turned courageous war correspondent, is given epic treatment by acclaimed cinematographer Ellen Kuras. Dame Kate Winslet, Another Awards Magnet, is the flinty photog. None Other Than Andy Samberg plays her comrade, David E. Scherman. Marion Cotillard, Andrea Riseborough, and Noémie Merlant also come under fire.

Photo: Toronto International Film Festival

Seven Veils. Honestly, what would Toronto be without Local Hero Atom Egoyan? Luckily, we don’t have to think about it, since he’s reunited with Amanda Seyfried for this drama about a young director who confronts her twisty family history while mounting a production of the opera Salome. The Canadian Opera Company provides the arias.

Photo: Toronto International Film Festival

The Critic. Anthony Quinn (Sharp Irish writer, not Zorba the Greek) wrote a 1930s-set thriller called Curtain Call. Genius Scribe Patrick Marber (Closer) teamed with director Anand Tucker for this adaptation starring Wizardy Ian McKellen as a gay critic who joins forces with an actress he’s savaged (Wonderful Gemma Arterton) to save both their careers in the bitchy West End. Mark Strong and Lesley Manville join out a classy cavalcade.

Dumb Money. Remember the Great Gamestop Short Squeeze? It only happened like a million years ago, in 2021! Anyhow, the tale of ragtag Redditors (led by Paul Dano) who gave Wall Street swells ulcers is realized with comic flair by Wiseacre Craig Gillespie. Seth Rogan and Nick Offerman are one percenters. Shailene Woodley, America Ferrara, and Pete Davidson are on the side of the people.

One Life. Nicholas Winton, an unassuming British stockbroker, helped rescue hundreds of Jewish children in Czechoslovakia at the beginning of War War II. Now Wag James Hawes (Slow Horses), brings the saga to the big screen with Anthony Hopkins and Johnny Flynn playing Winton at different stages of life. Into the Oscars chute, you go!

Photo: Toronto International Film Festival

The End We Start From. Wag Alice Birch adapts Megan Hunter's novel about a young mother (Jodie Comer) fleeing apocalyptic London with her newborn in a film directed by Mahalia Belo and produced by Mr. Benedict Cumberbatch, who also appears in these dystopian hijinks. Bring a lifejacket.

Photo: Kerry Brown/The North Star

The New Auteurs

(Actual) Dame Kirstin Scott Thomas leads a flock of actor-directors with TIFF premieres. Her film, North Star is a gently comic tale of three sisters (Scarlett Johansson, Sienna Miller, and Emily Beecham) who face the truth of their lives when their widowed mum (Scott Thomas) remarries. Anna Kendrick makes her directorial debut with Woman of the Hour, the true story of a contestant on The Dating Game who encounters a bachelor contestant who also happens to be a serial killer. Chris Pine co-wrote, produced, and directed Poolman, a comic noir about a pool cleaner (Pine) who uncovers sinister doings in L.A., with Jennifer Jason Leigh, Annette Bening, and Danny DeVito. Sir Michael Keaton is also in the director’s chair with Knox Goes Away, playing a hitman losing his memory who must help his son (Mr. Everywhere Jimmy Marsden) cover up a crime. — S.G Westbrook