Toronto Film Festival: 2011 - The Rundown

With a total of 48 films viewed, TIFF 2011 will be hard to beat, quantity wise. As far as quality goes, I had the chance to see some great new films, some about to be released and others that may take a while to get distribution. My eyeballs feel burned, and this year I will not be reviewing everything I watched. However, I did review a great deal of these for ioncinema.com. Reviews that have posted are hyperlinked. Also, I had the opporunity to interview director Todd Solondz concerning his new film, Dark Horse, as well as directors Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Maury for their latest, Livid. I hope to have links available as they post to ioncinema. Without further ado, here is my rundown of TIFF 2011:

BEST OF FEST:
1. Beloved (Les Bien-Aimes) Dir. Chrisophe Honore - France
2. ALPS - Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos - Greece
3. Killer Joe - Dir. William Friedkin - US (review available)
4. Kill List - Dir. Ben Wheatley - UK (review available)
5. We Need To Talk About Kevin - Dir. Lynne Ramsay - US/UK
6. The Kid With A Bike - Dir(s). Jean & Luc Dardenne - Belgium
7. Pariah - Dir. Dee Rees - US
8. Once Upon A Time in Anatolia - Dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan - Turkey
9. Michael - Dir. Markus Schleinzer - Austria
10. My Worst Nightmare - Dir. Anne Fontaine - France (review available)

Rest of the Best:
11. The Skin I Live In - Dir. Pedro Almodovar - Spain
12. Three Lives (Drieleben) - Dir(s). Christian Petzold; Domink Graf; Christoph Hochhausler - Germany
13. House of Tolerance - Dir. Bertrand Bonello - France
14. Oslo, August 31st - Dir. Joachim Trier - Denmark
15. Smuggler - Dir. Katsuhito Ishii - Japan
16. That Summer - Dir. Philippe Garrel - France
17. The Deep Blue Sea - Dir. Terence Davies - UK
18. Livid - Dir(s). Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Maury - France (review available)
19. Among Us - Dir. Marco Van Geffen - Netherlands
20. Rampart - Dir. Oren Moverman - US
21. Outside Satan - Dir. Bruno Dumont - France
22. You're Next - Dir. Adam Wingard - US (review available)
23. The Patron Saints - Dir(s). Brian M. Cassidy & Melanie Shatzky - Canada (review available)
24. Carre Blanc - Dir. Jean-Baptiste Leonetti - France (review available)

25. Dark Horse - Dir. Todd Solondz - US (review available)
26. A Dangerous Method - Dir. David Cronenberg - Canada/Germany
27. Snowtown - Dir. Justin Kurzel - Australia

Additional Films Of Interest:
1. Generation P - Dir. Victor Ginzburg - Russia
2. The Loneliest Plant - Dir. Julia Loktev - US/Germany
3. Alois Nebel - Dir. Tomas Lunak - Czech Republic (review available)
4. Headshot - Dir. Pen-Ek Ratanaruang - Thailand
5. Extraterrestrial - Dir. Nacho Vigalando - Spain (review available)
6. Keyhole - Dir. Guy Maddin - Canada
7. Leave It On the Floor - Dir. Sheldon Larry - Canada (review available)
8. The Hunter - Dir. Daniel Nettheim - Australia (review available)

Disappointing:
1. The Woman In the Fifth - Dir. Pawel Pawlikowski - UK/France
2. Albert Nobbs - Dir. Rodrigo Garcia - UK/Ireland (review available)
3. The Moth Diaries - Dir. Mary Harron - Canada/Ireland (review available)
4. Violet & Daisy - Dir. Geoffrey Fletcher - US
5. Twixt - Dir. Francis Ford Coppola - US (review available)
6. Intruders - Dir. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo - Spain (review available)
7. Bunohan - Dir. Dain Said - Malaysia (review available)
8. Romeo Eleven - Dir. Ivan Grbovic - Canada (review available)

And the Merde cinema:
1. Killer Elite - Dir. Gary McKendry - US (review available)
2. Lost In Paradise - Dir. Ngoc Dang Vu - Vietnam (review available)

Titles Previously Viewed Before TIFF:
1. Melanchola - Dir. Lars Von Trier - Denmark
2. Tyrannosaur - Di. Paddy Considine - UK