There are 70 films this year in my favorite TIFF block, Special Presentations—meaning I could easily build a fest schedule out of nothing but this slate and still not see everything I’d like to catch. Here are the films from the Special Presentations section of the Festival that are at the top of my “want to see these” list.

Anna Karenina
Joe Wright, USA

A sweeping drama about love and desire, compromise and adultery, social mores and self-realization, Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece of realist fiction has been adapted for the screen more than a dozen times. Yet it is safe to say that it has never before been realized with anything close to the imaginative brio of this latest incarnation from British director Joe Wright. With a script by playwright and Academy Award®–winning screenwriter Tom Stoppard, glorious production design by Sarah Greenwood and a stunning performance by Keira Knightley (collaborating with Wright for the third time) in the title role, this Anna Karenina is both a faithful rendering of Tolstoy’s novel and a brilliant piece of conceptually audacious showmanship.

Pedigree: TIFF World Premiere

Comments: Wright’s take on Leo Tolstoy’s classic tale of love and adultery, duty to convention and rebellion, uses the conceit that he’s set the story within the confines of a theater, which could prove to be an interesting approach that cinematically conveys the way Anna feels stifled by her life, marriage, and the societal consequences of the affair that simultaneously frees and destroys her. The trailer is certainly visually sumptuous, and Keira Knightley certainly has the chops to pull off the tales feisty, independent, tragic heroine. I’m most intrigued, though, to see what Jude Law brings to portraying Anna’s husband, the staunchly limp and dull Alexei Karenin, whose life outlook of all duty, no passion provides the catalyst against with Anna’s passions rebel. Law would seem, at first glance to be more suited to the role of Anna’s lover, the handsome, passionate, very human Vronsky, but perhaps casting against type serves well here. For some reason, all these Russian characters are speaking with Russian accents, but hopefully that won’t prove to be terribly annoying. Definitely hoping to catch this one at TIFF.

At Any Price
Ramin Bahrani, USA


Zac Efron, Dennis Quaid and Heather Graham star in this drama from acclaimed director Ramin Bahrani (Chop Shop, Goodbye Solo), about a rebellious son whose dreams of becoming a professional race-car driver are derailed when his father’s farming empire becomes the target of a high-stakes investigation … Set in the heartland of America, At Any Price dispels many of the antiquated myths around farming, revealing the fierce competitiveness of the industry. Meanwhile, Dean’s pursuit of racing yields some white-knuckle sequences at the track. The casting is inspired, offering Quaid the role of a lifetime, vaulting Efron out of teen-heartthrob roles, and allowing for memorable supporting turns from Heather Graham and West, previously seen in Bahrani’s Goodbye Solo.

Pedigree: Debuting at Venice and Telluride before heading to TIFF.

Comments: Bahrani, who’s been heralded as one of the strongest younger directors working in film today, has been a favorite of mine since I saw Man Push Cart, his first feature, at Sundance 2005. He’s consistently shown growth as a storyteller — usually small,intimate tales about realistic, complicated characters — and I’m looking forward to seeing him stretch his wings a bit here to work on what seems to be a grander scale. Here he’s once again working with his DP, Michael Simmonds, and the collaborative nature of they way Bahrani and Simmonds work get together tends to lend itself well to striking visuals that capture the feel and environment of the setting of Bahrani’s tales, such that place becomes almost like character (the gritty streets of NYC in Man Push Cart, the grittier Iron Triangle district in Chop Shop, the cab and the windy mountain peak in Goodbye Solo). Here they’re working in the heartland of America, Iowa, as Bahrani weaves a tale about a father and son (Dennis Quaid and Zac Efron) at odds over values, responsibility and independence. Efron in particular is getting some raves for his turn here out of Venice, which frankly, I don’t find at all surprising. There’s always been a very solid actor beneath that pretty-boy facade. Excited to see this one.

Cloud Atlas
Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, Germany

David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas was a landmark literary event of the past decade, a globe-spanning, time-tripping puzzle-novel, whose cavalier unruliness belied its intricate design. It was one of those books that instantly elicited the adjective “unfilmable” — but to visionary filmmakers Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) and Andy and Lana Wachowski (The Matrix), that was less caution than challenge. Spanning continents and millennia and borne aloft on the talents of a top-shelf cast — including Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving and Jim Broadbent — this collaboration on Cloud Atlas transforms Mitchell’s dazzling novel into a mind-bending, genre-hopping cinematic experience. No movie this year more deserves the label “epic.”

Pedigree: TIFF World Premiere

Comments: David Mitchell’s epic, genre-defying novel is one of my favorite books of the past couple years. I have no idea how the filmmakers are going to incorporate this dense, interwoven tale into a coherent cinematic experience, but I’m very intrigued to see how they pull it all off. Casting-wise, I’m most intrigued by Tom Hanks in multiple roles, and Ben Whishaw (who first caught attention with a striking turn as the serial killer in Tykwer’s Perfume) as Robert Frobisher, the free-spirited, black sheet, genius composer whose brief moment of musical brilliance is (in the novel at least) more-or-less the scaffolding of the tale.

Disconnect
Henry Alex Rubin, USA
With the aid of a first-rate cast — including Jason Bateman, Hope Davis, Paula Patton (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) and Alexander Skarsgård (Melancholia) — director Henry Alex Rubin (Murderball) explores the impact of the internet on our daily lives through a series of gripping, cunningly interwoven parallel narratives … zDirector Henry Alex Rubin’s previous credits include the extraordinary documentary Murderball. In this, his first fiction film, he explores real-world dilemmas through a network of gripping, cunningly intertwined narratives. Disconnect pursues a storytelling strategy similar to “we are all connected” movies such as Magnolia, Crash and Babel, but here the form uncannily echoes the film’s subject: living online truly does connect us, in ways we can’t always predict. The film’s implicit warnings are neither hysterical nor pat. Rubin simply poses difficult questions, using his carefully honed drama as a springboard for critical thought about the brave new virtual world we inhabit. With intelligence, empathy, and the aid of a first-rate cast, Rubin fashions a powerful vision of our increasingly interconnected world — and proves himself as adept with fiction as he is with non-fiction.

Pedigree:TIFF World Premiere

Comments: At first glance, the storyline seems done and overdone, but this is a case where both the director and cast involved have me interested in checking a film out. I loved Murderball, and the presence of Jason Bateman, Hope Davis and Alexander Skarsgård bodes well for the possibilities. The screenwriter, Andrew Stern, is an unknown element here; here’s hoping this film heralds a writer with a talent for telling a complicated tale well.

Everybody Has a Plan
Ana Piterbarg, Argentina / Spain / Germany


In this dazzling thriller from first-time feature filmmaker Ana Piterbarg, Viggo Mortensen (in his third Spanish-language film) is twice the badass as twin brothers whose deadly pact plunges them into the sordid depths of the Argentinean underworld … Mortensen, in all his rugged, four-fisted glory, gives a tour-de-force performance as two deeply complex men, each beset with their own demons, while first-time feature filmmaker Piterbarg offers a fascinating, immersive portrait of the delta’s isolated community, a strange mirror-world with its own inverted code of conduct and draconian laws. Vividly realized and punctuated with sudden, startling twists, Everybody Has a Plan is a gripping and suspenseful study of the costs of freedom.

Pedigree:
World premiere at TIFF

Comments: It’s always good to see a new femme director on the scene, and with Viggo Mortensen taking on dual lead roles, this one could be interesting. Worth a look.

Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang
Laurent Cantent, France / Canada

The latest film from Palme d’Or winner Laurent Cantet (Entre les murs) is a vivid adaptation of the celebrated Joyce Carol Oates novel about a small-town girl gang in the 1950s … Shooting in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Cantet and his art director do a stunning job of recreating the look and feel of fifties America, and the film remains faithful to Oates’ novel (unlike the 1996 version starring Angelina Jolie). No detail escapes their attention, but it’s also the spunky flintiness of the girls that sustains Foxfire — as in Entre les murs, Cantet also works with a cast of first-timers — all in the service of this vision of a world where young girls find the gumption to organize and fight back against men who treat them as playthings.

Pedigree: World premiere at TIFF

Comments: Cantent’s The Class, for which he won the Palme d’Or, was just superb; here, he’s again focusing on teenagers, this time mining a Joyce Carol Oates story about female empowerment in the pre-feminist era. Definitely one to look out for at TIFF.

Frances Ha
Noah Baumbach, USA

Greta Gerwig stars as Frances, an apprentice in a dance company who wants so much more than she has but lives life with unaccountable joy and lightness. This modern fable from Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale, Greenberg) explores youth, friendship, class, ambition, failure and redemption … As co-written by Baumbach and Gerwig, Frances Ha perfectly captures the rhythms of an over-educated, underemployed generation more intimate with their friends than their lovers. For Baumbach, already known and admired for The Squid and the Whale and Greenberg, this feels like a reboot. It’s as sharp and funny as his very best work, with a new openness and generosity towards the characters. For all the craziness Frances displays, this movie loves her.

Pedigree: Playing Telluride before TIFF, and the New York Film Festival after.

Comments: I was kind of on the fence about this one, but buzz coming out of Telluride is quite positive, with word being that Greta Gerwig co-authoring the script has made for a lighter perspective that the usual serious tone Baumbach tends to bring to his films. Buzz is also strongly circling Gerwig for her performance here. I’ve generally been a little lukewarm on Gerwig, but she was my favorite thing about Whit Stillman’s Damsels in Distress last year at TIFF. Telluride buzz sells this one for me: It’s been added to my must-see list now.

Ginger and Rosa
Sally Potter, UK / Denmark

As the Cold War meets the sexual revolution in 1960s London, the lifelong friendship of two teenage girls (Elle Fanning, Alice Englert) is shattered by ideological differences and personal betrayals. This new film from director Sally Potter (Orlando) also stars Annette Bening and Christina Hendricks … Potter strikes a perfect balance with her two central characters, making Ginger and Rosa at once emblems of Cold War youth and precisely defined individuals in their own right. Fanning, already so impressive in Somewhere and Super 8, conveys an entire inner world of conflicting emotions with the subtlest of gestures, while up-and-coming New Zealander Englert gives what is sure to be a breakout performance. Both young stars receive considerable help from a top-notch supporting cast, including Nivola, Annette Bening and Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks. Despite the very different paths their lives end up taking, both Ginger and Rosa speak to us of what it means to be young, alert to the world, and susceptible to all the riches and pitfalls it has to offer.

Pedigree: Playing Telluride before heading to TIFF, and the New York Film Festival after.

Comments: Elle Fanning is rapidly becoming one of the brightest young actors working today. Her turns in Phoebe in Wonderland, Somewhere and Super 8 were superbly nuanced, and I’m looking forward to seeing how Potter directs her in this role. Todd McCarthy gave the film a solidly good review out of Telluride, while Variety’s Peter DeBruge scathingly dismissed it with this: “It should be said that “Ginger & Rosa” will have its adherents — those who shine to its plotless, Nouvelle Vague-indebted depiction of adolescence, rendered fresh (or at least somewhat less cliched) by dint of its femme-centric outlook.” Translation: Anyone who doesn’t agree with my opinion on this film is an simpleton, a woman, or probably both. That kind of dismissive condescension gets my ire up right out of the gate; on the plus side, these dueling takes have made me want to catch this one myself at Toronto that much more. We’ll see if I take a shine to it.

*(All film descriptions are from the TIFF catalog.)

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