Yes, we’re right in the middle of TIFF, one of the craziest fortnights on the cinephile calendar. With the sheer volume of films playing at the festival, premiere or otherwise, following how each of these films perform can be overwhelming. Which is why we traditionally put together a handy guide for those looking to get a quick critical overview of the fest in one concise blog post.
For a constant stream of updating critics’ grades throughout TIFF and beyond, check in at the Criticwire homepage. If you’d like to see a comprehensive overview of all the coverage across the network, Indiewire’s TIFF Bible is here and our lineup page with links to pages for the entire festival slate can be found here.
As with the cheat sheet that we put together from Sundance earlier this year, some of the titles listed below have played at other festivals (or may even have premiered in theaters by the time TIFF officially closes). So a handful of Sundance, Cannes, Venice, Telluride and Locarno grades/reviews will be included in some of these averages.
[Note: For a film to be included below, it must have grades from at least four different Criticwire members.]
The Films of TIFF 2014 (Last updated: Monday, September 15th at 11:45 AM)
A
“Journey to the West (Xi You),” directed by Tsai Ming-liang
“The Look of Silence (Senyap),” directed by Joshua Oppenheimer
“The Tribe” (Plemya),” directed by Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy
A-
“’71,” directed by Yann Demange
“Amour Fou,” directed by Jessica Hausner
“Clouds of Sils Maria,” directed by Olivier Assayas
“Coming Home,” directed by Zhang Yimou
“The Duke of Burgundy,” directed by Peter Strickland
“Eden,” directed by Mia Hansen-Love
“Force Majeure (Tourist),” directed by Ruben Östlund
“Goodbye to Language 3D (Adieu au langage 3D),” directed by Jean-Luc Godard
“Horse Money (Cavalo Dinheiro),” directed by Pedro Costa
“It Follows,” directed by David Robert Mitchell
“Leviathan,” directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev
“Li’l Quinquin (P’tit Quinquin),” directed by Bruno Dumont
“Love & Mercy,” directed by Bill Pohlad
“Mommy,” directed by Xavier Dolan
“National Gallery,” directed by Frederick Wiseman
“Nightcrawler,” directed by Dan Gilroy
“Phoenix,” directed by Christian Petzold
“A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron),” directed by Roy Andersson
“Red Army,” directed by Gabe Polsky
“Seymour: An Introduction,” directed by Ethan Hawke
“Spring,” directed by Justin Benson/Aaron Moorhead
“Sunshine Superman,” directed by Marah Strauch
“Tales of the Grim Sleeper,” directed by Nick Broomfield
“Top Five,” directed by Chris Rock
“Two Days, One Night (Deux jours, une nuit),” directed by Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne
“What We Do in the Shadows,” directed by Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement
“Whiplash,” directed by Damien Chazelle
“Wild Tales (Relatos salvajes),” directed by Damian Szifron
B+
“99 Homes,” directed by Ramin Bahrani
“Foxcatcher,” directed by Bennett Miller
“The Guest,” directed by Adam Wingard
“Hill of Freedom (Ja-yu-ui eon-deok),” directed by Hong Sang-soo
“The Imitation Game,” directed by Morten Tyldum
“Jauja,” directed by Lisandro Alonso
“The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness (Yume to kyôki no ohkoku),” directed by Mami Sunada
“Mr. Turner,” directed by Mike Leigh
“St. Vincent“, directed by Theodore Melfi
“Still Alice,” directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland
“The Tale of The Princess Kaguya” (Kaguya-hime no Monogatari),” directed by Isao Takahata
“Theory of Everything,” directed by James Marsh
“Timbuktu,” directed by Abderrahmane Sissako
“Tokyo Tribe,” directed by Sion Sono
“The Voices,” directed by Marjane Satrapi
“While We’re Young,” directed by Noah Baumbach
“Wild,” directed by Jean-Marc Vallée
“Winter Sleep (Kis uykusu),” directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan
B
“Big Game,” directed by Jalmari Heleander
“Bird People,” directed by Pascale Ferran
“The Drop,” directed by Michael R. Roskam
“Escobar: Paradise Lost,” directed by Andrea Di Stefano
“Girlhood (Bande de filles),” directed by Céline Sciamma
“Infinitely Polar Bear,” directed by Maya Forbes
“The Keeping Room,” directed by Daniel Barber
“Laggies,” directed by Lynn Shelton
“The Last Five Years,” directed by Richard LaGravenese
“Maps to the Stars,” directed by David Cronenberg
“Merchants of Doubt,” directed by Robert Kenner
“Miss Julie,” directed by Liv Ullmann
“My Old Lady,” directed by Israel Horovitz
“Ned Rifle,” directed by Hal Hartley
“Rosewater,” directed by Jon Stewart
“Time Out of Mind,” directed by Oren Moverman
“Tusk,” directed by Kevin Smith
“Welcome to Me,” directed by Shira Piven
B-
“The Good Lie,” directed by Philippe Falardeau
“A Little Chaos,” directed by Alan Rickman
“Manglehorn,” directed by David Gordon Green
“Men, Women and Children,” directed by Jason Reitman
“This is Where I Leave You,” directed by Shawn Levy
C+
“Alleluia,” directed by Fabrice Du Welz
“Cake,” directed by Daniel Barnz
“The Search,” directed by Michel Hazanavicius
“Still the Water (Futatsume no mado),” directed by Naomi Kawase
C
“The Equalizer,” directed by Antoine Fuqua
“The Humbling,” directed by Barry Levinson
“The Judge,” directed by David Dobkin
“The Riot Club,” directed by Lone Scherfig
C-
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