Every once in a while, at a major film festival like Toronto – where hundreds of titles are shown over the duration of the fest – you take a chance on a movie that you think is going to be in your wheelhouse … and it knocks you on your ass.
For me, that movie this year is John Carney’s Can a Song Save Your Life? It’s John Carney’s follow-up to his award-winning musical romance Once, and it also deals with affairs of the heart (and of the ear). It’s decidedly more polished than his beloved indie, and it has a bankable cast – with Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo, Catherine Keener and The Voice co-stars Adam Levine and Cee-Lo Green co-starring – which will help at the box office. And it’s a crowd-pleaser … a stand-up-and-cheer celebration of songwriting and losing yourself in a perfectly constructed pop song. I’ll explain why I loved it so much in the podcast below.
I’ll also try and explain why Richard Ayoade’s The Double has been recommended by virtually every person I’ve run into up here. And why Stephen Frears’ Philomena works well – but targets a specific audience. Here’s the latest update from TIFF.
For more coverage from this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, click here!
