TIFF Is Done, 12 Years A Slave Wins, Gravity Is All We Can Talk About, Emma Thompson Remains Amazing

RT if you’re exhausted.

It doesn’t matter if you see one movie or if you see 25, TIFF is taxing. It’s really silly to explain this to people because they’re all like “oh, you’re tired from waiting in line to see a movie” and you’re all like “yes” and then they just feel sorry for you because of your life choices, but, I swear, it’s really tiring.

Yesterday, on the final day of the festival, the Blackberry People’s Choice winner was announced & to absolutely no one’s surprise, it was 12 Years A Slave. I called this the day it premiered, I called it the day after I saw it. It’s very much the obvious choice and clear frontrunner, because as much as I and everyone else loved Gravity, this is the People’s vote and I don’t know if the People loved it as much as we loved it. You see, the audience at TIFF is about 80% people with money who haven’t been to the movies in a while and 20% critics/cinephiles. You may think I’m exaggerating but yesterday in line I overheard someone note that they didn’t see any of the movies at the festival, didn’t know who Michael Fassbender was until this week and might watch Shame because they now find him attractive. I mean, this is what we’re dealing with.

So what does this mean for 12 Years? I think this can go very far. I didn’t see it having a mass appeal initially but I didn’t think Silver Linings had mass appeal when I saw it last year (also the Blackberry People’s Choice award winner) and we all know how that one turned out. The key to Silver Linings success was that it maintained it’s momentum post-TIFF which is very hard to do. I think 12 Years can do the same but there is also a lot of heavy competition it has to face, like American Hustle, Wolf of Wall Street, Walter Mitty, etc. What a great time for movies. Completely makes up for the mediocrity that came before it.

Anyways, Gravity. I wrote about it a little in one of my TIFF recaps from last week – click here to revisit but I can’t stop thinking about it. Peter from SlashFilm tweeted this last night:

Not to be hyperbolic, but Alfonso Cuarón's #Gravity may be the best film I've seen since starting /Film almost a decade ago.—
Peter Sciretta (@slashfilm) September 16, 2013

Hyperbolic for sure, but not wrong. Gravity blew me away because it’s a cinematic achievement and that’s the best way to describe it. I’ve heard this a lot. People in line yesterday were calling it a masterpiece and, well, when was the last time you heard that word thrown around about a movie? Right. And the thing is – the praise isn’t far off. What Alfonso has done is genuinely amazing. The film is stunning, it’s a visual feast, the score is incredible, the story is tight and overwhelming in the best sense of the word, and the acting, from Bullock in particular, is sensational. This is the best she’s ever been and might as well scratch off The Blind Side on her Oscar and replace it with Gravity because this is where she deserves all the praise. It’s just so fucking good.

And lastly:

I just came across this video of Emma Thompson arriving on the red carpet during TIFF. You will need to see nothing else this week. I promise.