44th Toronto International Film Festival Coverage: Day Three

Saturday, September 7th, 2019 by Ian Evans

Hustlers courtesy of TIFF.

It’s day three as we greet the first Saturday morning of TIFF.

There are three big galas at Roy Thomson Hall today, starting with a matinee premiere of the animated film Abominable from director Jill Culton. The film is an adventure for the whole family as a teen girl, Yi (voiced by Chloe Bennett), discovers a young Yeti on her Shanghai rooftop. He’s being chased by the team doing research on him and Yi enlists the aid of her friends to get him back to his Himalayan home and family. The voice cast also includes Sarah Paulson, Tenzing Norgay Trainor, Albert Tsai, Eddie Izzard, Tsai Chin, and Michelle Wong.

The theme of family continued with the gala for A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, which I’ll be screening tomorrow morning. Marielle Heller’s film stars Matthew Rhys as a jaded journalist assigned to write a profile on beloved children’s TV host Fred Rogers (Tom Hanks). Initially wary of Rogers — can he really be that kind? — the more he digs the more it changes his world view and his own complex family situation.

We then take a turn from Mister Roger’s Neighborhood, to the strip clubs of Manhattan for the gala premiere of Hustlers, director Lorene Scafaria’s look at a group of strippers who band together to turn the tables on their wealthy Wall Street customers. Based on a 2015 New York Magazine article, the movie looks at a the moment when the 2008 financial crisis started to affect the flow of money at the strip clubs. Facing their own bills and family troubles, the strippers cooked up a way to keep the money flowing, even if it was risky and illegal. The all-star cast includes Constance Wu, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Stiles, Keke Palmer, Lili Reinhart, Mercedes Ruehl, Cardi B, and Tia Barr.

Meanwhile, the VISA Screening Room was playing host to a couple of anticipated premieres. Rian Johnson’s Knives Out. An wealthy crime novelist (Christopher Plummer) is dead and the famous detective in charge (Daniel Craig) has his hands full with a group of eccentric suspects. Johnson mixes crime drama, intelligent twists and witty dialogue and gives it over to an ensemble cast that features Toni Collette, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ana de Armas, Chris Evans, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, and LaKeith Stanfield.

Eddie Murphy is back with a bang in Dolemite Is My Name from director Craig Brewer. It’s based on the true story of black comedian Rudy Ray Moore. It’s the early 1970s and Moore is struggling. He builds a routine around a character, Dolemite the pimp, and gets a following with his profane act which leads him to star in his own self-produced blaxploitation films. Murphy, supported by an ensemble cast featuring Wesley Snipes, Craig Robinson, Keegan-Michael Key, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Tituss Burgess, is getting early buzz on his fearless portrayal of the comedy legend.