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Celebrating its 40th anniversary, the Toronto International Film Festival (originally named “The Festival of Festivals” in 1976) has become a staple in the film industry. It’s now a go-to, post-Labor Day destination for anyone working in movies: directors, journalists, distributors, actors, actresses, programmers. With nearly 400 films on the festival’s docket, TIFF continues to steadily expand with each passing year. With expansion comes a shifting ethos. While press releases will claim the festival’s primary mission is to illuminate independent cinema, TIFF has become increasingly indentured to Hollywood’s Oscar marathon.

As a result, the festival finds itself ideologically conflicted. To be part of the publicity machine (which pays well), or to unearth movies no one has ever heard of for an audience eager for discovery. By-in-large, the fest’s artistic director Cameron Bailey and the rest of the staff spearheading the event do a fine job maintaining a balance. But for those placing bets and keeping tabs, awards season begins here in The Great White North, roughly 2,500 miles away from Tinsel Town.

This is not to suggest that there aren’t quality films in this embarrassment of riches. Mathematically, the odds of showcasing a handful of excellent movies are in the festival’s favor. So, in between innumerable servings of poutine and coffee, good movies were consumed. Here are the six best viewing options out of The Six.

The Lobster

For most, finding love is a long, arduous pursuit. Now imagine being placed in a hotel replete with single people with the goal of finding your future husband or wife. There’s just one vital hitch: You are given 45 days to do so, and if you come up empty, you will be turned into an animal of your choosing. This is the plot synopsis of Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster, an absurdist confluence of comedy, drama, and the peculiar. The true standout from the pack is Colin Farrell, who turns in a performance unlike anything else in his varied body of work. As David, our lonely, recently heartbroken and despondent protagonist, Farrell does laconic and wry like never before. When this movie does see the light of the day (or, rather, the darkness of a theater) in 2016, it’s bound to polarize audiences. You will either love or hate the crustacean.

The Martian

The best compliment we can bestow upon Ridley Scott’s The Martian is that it isn’t an unmitigated disaster. It certainly could’ve been, given the film’s Homeric scope and Scott’s risible recent output (Prometheus, The Counselor, Exodus: Gods and Kings). And yet, Scott’s opus on Mars is the rare, crowd-pleasing sci-fi flick with a sense of humor. Much of the comedic credit can be chalked up to screenwriter Drew Goddard and his dexterous adaptation of Andy Weir’s beloved book. Equipped with sarcasm and self-awareness, Goddard imbues The Martian with the qualities that made his directorial debut The Cabin in the Woods so special. The movie isn’t without its faults—at times serving as a piece of propaganda promoting NASA—but as the titular character, Matt Damon carries the film to the finish line, mostly unscathed. When Damon is firing off silly one-liners and touting the virtues of science, it’s hard to not rally behind Scott’s epic, if idiosyncratic, journey to Mars.

Youth

If you’re looking to be dazzled, challenged, and entertained, look no further than Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth. Three-quarters into 2015 and there’s yet to be a movie as intellectually and aesthetically ambitious as Sorrentino’s followup to The Great Beauty. In the style of Italian surrealist Federico Fellini, the movie revolves around two old friends who take a vacation in the Alps. Those two friends, one a piano composer, the other an aging filmmaker, begin collaborating on a project to rejuvenate their stagnating careers. The kicker: These friends are played by Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel. Need we say more?

Louder Than Bombs

Like Sorrentino, Norwegian auteur Joachim Trier made his English-speaking debut at TIFF with his latest film, Louder than Bombs. Thankfully, the heart and intellect of Trier remains intact in the transition. The power of his work (see: Oslo, August 31st and Reprise) isn’t lost in translation. Propelled by the death of wife and mother Isabelle Reed (Isabelle Huppert), every sequence in the film is a reaction to this loss in the family. Lyrical and hypnotic, Trier allows his movie to unfurl like a fractured memory, toggling back and forth from the past to the present. It’s an intensely personal piece of cinema—one that brims with nuance, originality, and feeling. Without being mired in undeserved sentimentality, Louder than Bombs captures the irreconcilable sadness of losing someone you love.

Born to Be Blue

Arguably the greatest jazz trumpeter in the medium’s history, Chet Baker managed to produce a staggering amount of music despite his debilitating heroin addiction. This dependency on the life-ruining opiate is in the foreground of Born to Be Blue from beginning to end. In fact, the film posits a very serious question: Does the world receive the sounds of Baker if he weren’t hooked on the euphoria provided by the drug? Played by Ethan Hawke, Baker repeatedly says he needs heroin to play. Is this just a crazed addict justifying his addiction, or is there an ounce of truth in his desperate pleas? Directed by Robert Burdreau, the movie very seriously considers this inquiry throughout. Regardless of the answer, here’s a biopic that avoids the genre’s typical trappings. Burdreau’s first foray into features doesn’t aim to tell the definitive life story of Chetty. This is an intimate snapshot of a man on the rebound, determined to work his way back to the top after hitting rock bottom. For those familiar with Baker’s trajectory, the film doesn’t manufacture inspiration. Born to Be Blue isn’t uplifting Oscar-bait built to garner nominations. Like Baker’s music, Burdreau offers up a flawed work of art, oozing with vulnerability and grace, underscored by melancholy.

Sicario

In Denis Villeneuve’s muscular, pulse-pounding crime saga, Sicario, Emily Blunt plays a moral FBI agent ensnared in an amoral world. For the uninitiated, the dilapidated milieu presented here is not a work of outright fiction. The film thrusts its characters into Ciudad Juárez, a hellish land run by vicious cartels and crooked cops. Aside from its incisive commentary on the ever-escalating drug war between Mexico and the United States, Villeneuve’s scintillating thriller is really about the erosion of ideals. Blunt’s Kate Mercer has been chastised by critics for being passive and ineffectual. Such dunderheaded readings neglect the film’s emotional depth. In Kate we have a whip-smart, resourceful officer whose worldview is slowly crumbling before her eyes. To bare witness to this destruction of principles is equal parts heartbreaking and enlightening. In a way, the film offers up an updated version on Gordon Gecko’s mantra: Greed isn’t necessarily good, it just is.

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6 Movies From the Toronto Film Fest That’ll Be a Big Deal

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