#TIFF2018 Diaries Day Two

It's the second day, and thankfully I remembered to have breakfast before leaving this morning. My slate was light today, but I managed to see some fantastic films that I'm pretty excited about. These will be brief as always, but I hope they'll encourage you to seek these movies out when they are available near you:

RAFIKI: I will be writing a more in depth review for Nylon in the coming month, but suffice it to say that you should RUN to see this film, especially if queer representation and romance is something that appeals to you. The film is light, romantic and sweet, with a sobering dose of reality. As romantic comedies have come back into focus recently, it was striking to see how well the film uses the act of looking as something to connotes desire, longing, love and betrayal.

THE FRONT RUNNER: Wolverine Goes To Washington keeps all the best parts of political biopics and ditches the rest. A genuinely fun and engaging movie about the failed presidential run of Senator Gary Hart, the movie explores ideas about privacy and public life, morality and hypocrisy, and what we can reasonably expect from candidates when they ask us to put our faith in them. The movie subtly but expertly tackles the ideas at the root of the #metoo movement in a way that is cutting and accurate, and I really enjoyed the film. Will definitely by writing more about it if I can find the time.

GRETA:  I genuinely cannot overstate how much I loved this movie. As with Rafiki, I'll be writing about this for Nylon later this month, but please believe me when I tell you that this would have been my pick for the Oscar's now defunct "Popular Film" category. It is a campy, delicious delight that starts with the impeccable veneer of a prestige drama and slowly descends into camp madness. Isabelle Huppert absolutely carries the film with a kind of crazed calm that is unnerving and incredibly unsettling. In many ways a conventional thriller, the focus on women makes it fun and novel. Absolutely make time to see this if you can!

*Header photo courtesy TIFF