TIFF Day 1: Netflix’s ‘Golden’ Moment & the Most Toronto-y Movie Ever
Katey watched the ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ cast sing karaoke; plus: Rushfield’s Midnight Madness report
Greetings from the sparkling shores of Lake Ontario! I’m Katey Rich, and I’ve been in Toronto for less than 24 hours, but I’ve already caught an emotional world premiere complete with a live onstage pre-show, gotten caught up in the selfie-taking crowds on King Street and scream-sung karaoke with the voices behind the year’s biggest hits. And somehow that still doesn’t beat what’s been going on with my colleague Richard Rushfield, who exited a midnight movie at 2:30 a.m. to encounter a time-traveling RV and spontaneous fireworks.
Welcome to the first installment of our limited edition Prestige Junkie Daily, where I’ll bring you regular dispatches about everything happening at the Toronto International Film Festival, including the videos and portraits captured in The Ankler’s first-ever Prestige Junkie interview studio. Before I even set foot in the studio, though, I got to hop the line at the viral mobile Criterion Closet and bring Richard with me on a frantic journey to pick out three discs and sound like I knew my film history — all live on Substack. If you missed it, relive the mayhem here:
Now, let’s rewind to last night. One of my first interviews on the ground in Canada today is with a group that doesn’t actually have a movie at the festival: the team behind KPop Demon Hunters. Still, they already conquered both the world and, as I witnessed myself, a packed Toronto karaoke bar. Netflix kicked off what will be a busy fest for the studio (awards contenders Frankenstein, Train Dreams, Nouvelle Vague and Left-Handed Girl will screen) with a karaoke party in the wee hours on Thursday for the streaming platform’s biggest movie ever and its unexpected Oscar hopeful. As directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans greeted well-wishers, three of the film’s singing stars — Kevin Woo (aka Mystery Saja), Audrey Nuna (aka Mira) and Rei Ami (aka Zoey) — took over the mic multiple times, singing the film’s hit songs like “Golden” and “Soda Pop.” There are a lot of people out there doing the Saja Boys dance right now, Novak Djokovic included, but you can very quickly tell that Kevin Woo is the real deal.
Of course, you don’t technically come to a film festival to sing karaoke. But the KPop Demon Hunters event was a good indication of how bullish the Netflix awards team is on the title — and probably a preview of how they’ll go all-out for their other titles at the fest like Train Dreams, Frankenstein, and Ballad of a Small Player. If this inspires Guillermo del Toro or Jacob Elordi to try their own hand at karaoke, I will be all for it.
I did manage to catch a movie yesterday, too, with another team I’ll be talking to in the studio today. The Eyes of Ghana was the opening night feature for the TIFF Docs program, with director Ben Proudfoot, a two-time Oscar winner in the short documentary category, on hand to introduce the film along with producer Nana Adwoa Frimpong, a Toronto native whose overjoyed parents were in the audience. They were both, however, overshadowed a bit by a video introduction from the film’s executive producers, whom you may know better from their other work — Barack and Michelle Obama.
It’s a moving story, with a huge score from fellow Oscar winner Kris Bowers (who co-directed the Oscar-winning short The Last Repair Shop with Proudfoot) to go with it, about the official photographer for Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, but also very sincerely about the power of filmmaking and moviegoing. There’s no distributor for the title yet, but with the best documentary feature race still very much in flux, I’d be shocked if there wasn’t a deal soon that will put Proudfoot right back in the mix.
The crowd at The Eyes of Ghana was enthusiastic and clearly moved by the story, but it’s hard for any audience to hold a candle to Toronto’s famous Midnight Madness crowds. Not that I would know — my midnight moviegoing days are long past. But Richard Rushfield is a devoted soldier and sent me this dispatch from the Midnight Madness opening night film, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie. Richard, take it away…
Meet Me At Midnight
My favorite part of the Toronto festival, perhaps my favorite night of any festival, is the opening night of the Midnight Madness program. Under programmer Peter Kuplowsky, Madness has regularly booked some of the most exciting, provocative films of the fest, of a breed that don’t generally get much space in the festival world, with a particular emphasis on irreverent comedies and far-out genre films. Last year, The Substance made its North American debut in what was one of the most unforgettable cinematic experiences I’ve ever had.
Midnight Madness also packs the Royal Alexandra Theatre with the sort of boisterous, wild crowd of young cinema enthusiasts you generally don’t meet on the festival circuit. Spirits couldn’t have been higher for Thursday night’s opening — Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, a half-reality, time-traveling, genre-bending comedy. Based on a web series with a fanatical cult following, the film came to Midnight not only with a legion of ardent devotees, but having been shot on the streets of Toronto — in fact, much of it on the street in Toronto where the festival takes place — came as a big hometown favorite.
“Nothing Toronto likes more than seeing Toronto in a movie,” one friend exclaimed. Scott Pilgrim currently holds the title of most Toronto-y movie, an honorific referred to several times during the night.
The enthusiasm for a local film was so great that the mayor herself, Olivia Chow (pictured below), attended the screening, in the company of actor Cary Elwes, for reasons not entirely clear at press time.
During the pre-film remarks, director and star Matt Johnson pleaded to Mayor Chow, “If the crowd applauds enough, can we be granted immunity for some of the things you’re about to see?”
Indeed, the film, which is Borat-like in its blend of reality and scripted elements, contains enough genuine shenanigans to get the crew locked up for a while — including hijinks atop Toronto landmark the CN Tower. But if the applause-meter was the key to their freedom, the film easily earned mayoral pardons. The film is hilarious, weird and shocking in the best Midnight Madness tradition.
It’s certainly hard to imagine a more Toronto film than this, and I think Scott Pilgrim’s reign has come to an end. But in the Q&A after, Johnson urged filmmakers to embrace local idiosyncrasies as what makes a film interesting, explaining you never know how people will take your particular affects. He told of a German group that saw the movie and was scandalized. “So much jaywalking!”
Afterwards, at 2:30 a.m., the crowd spilled out onto the deserted sidewalk and gathered around the antique RV that becomes a time machine in the film. Suddenly, fireworks burst overhead, illuminating the aforementioned CN Tower. Only at Midnight Madness! — Richard Rushfield
What’s Ahead
Thanks, Richard! Today, the star power will truly be in full force. The Sydney Sweeney star vehicle Christy has its world premiere this afternoon, fresh off the news that its production company Black Bear will also release it from their newly established distribution arm (look for it in theaters on Nov. 7). Black Bear is also backing two other major TIFF titles — Train Dreams, which picked up a distribution deal with Netflix at Sundance earlier this year, and Tuner, which has no distributor that we know of yet (but may follow Christy as a future Black Bear title). Releasing Christy itself could be a significant flex for Black Bear as they move into distribution, particularly if Sweeney can break into the Oscar conversation for her performance as the boxer Christy Martin — I’ve been hearing some buzz that she brings the goods.
A few other big premieres today I’ll keep an eye out for: Steve, starring Cillian Murphy, which Netflix will release next month; The Choral, starring Ralph Fiennes, which is backed by Sony PIctures Classics and sounds exactly like the kind of films they aim squarely at sophisticated adult audiences; Hamlet, which is the Riz Ahmed-starring modern adaptation of the play and not to be confused with Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet; and then Fuze, from David Mackenzie, whom I recently spoke to about his latest film Relay and is already back with this new one.
Assuming his flight from Newark actually takes off today, my pal Christopher Rosen — currently stranded in New Jersey due to a canceled flight, boo! — will close out the day with Sirât, another Cannes hit now arriving in Toronto. Chris will get to do the honors of talking to director Óliver Laxe in our studio on Saturday. Meanwhile, I’ll be at the world premiere of The Lost Bus, the Paul Greengrass thriller with Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera that’s set during Northern California’s 2018 Camp Fire. I’ve heard rumors that it’s stressful, which tracks for both the subject matter and the director of United 93 and Captain Phillips. So it will be interesting to try and get a good night’s sleep after that and wake up in time to do more studio interviews. Stay tuned to see how I do!