TWO -''MEMORABLES''- TAP : MOVIE REVIEWS

 

TORONTO : TIFF's most memorable. Two unmissable films from the Toronto International Film Festival.

The Toronto International Film Festival wrapped up on Sunday, after a whirling 10 days chock full of world premieres, special presentations, talks with key filmmakers and TV debuts.

American fiction won the coveted People's Choice Award, which in the past helped to predict Oscars' success. The following is a look at two key movies shown in Toronto :

' AMERICAN FICTION ' : Which Black stories are told in American culture? Who decides? Those are some of the provocative questions addressed in Cord Jefferson's debut feature : American Fiction, a searing satire starring Jeffrey Wright of Westworld fame.

The film, which premiered in Toronto, tells the story of Thelonious ' Monk ' Ellison [ Wright ], an African American author and university professor who is told by his publishers that his writing isn't '' Black enough.''

So, he writes a novel using a pseudonym that features a litany of cliches about being Black. Of course, the book is a monster hit, movie producers want to adapt it, and Ellison must navigate his fallout from his own actions.

Adapted from Percival Everett's. novel Ensure, the movie from the 41-year-old Jefferson - an Emmy winning writer who has worked on shows like Succession and Watchmen - also stars Issa Rae, Sterling K Brown and Tracee Ellis Ross.

Awards prediction site Gold Derby has Wright and Jefferson among the early Oscar contenders for best actor and best adapted screenplay.

But the win in Toronto could boost its Academy Award stock.

The film opens in North America in November.

THE HOLDOVERS

Director Alexander Payne of Sideways is a perennial Oscars favorite, and he certainly has entered the award conversation with his latest effort, 1970s-set dramedy The Holdovers, on which he reunited with Paul Giamatti.

Giamatti plays Paul Hunham, a cantankerous prep school teacher forced to remain on campus over the year-end holidays to look after the ''holdovers'' - students with nowhere to go for the vacation.

EVENTUALLY, he is left with just one teen : Angus [ new comer Dominic Sessa], who is navigating family issues.

The pair, along with cafeteria manager Mary [ Da'Vine Joy Randolph, build their own unlikely family over the course of the holiday.

Gold Derby lists The Holdovers - the first runner up in Toronto - among the early top Oscar contenders for best picture, director, original screenplay, actor [Giamatti] and supporting actress [ Randolph].

The heartwarming movie, which had its world premier at the Telluride festival before screening in Toronto, opens in US theatres in November.

The Publishing continues. The World Students Society thanks The Express Tribune.