What to Watch
Supported by
Park Chan-wook’s “No Other Choice” and Agnieszka Holland’s “Franz” led a strong festival slate, even with clunkers like a Paula Deen documentary.
By Manohla Dargis
On my last day at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, I attended a cinematic revival in the form of Mona Fastvold’s “The Testament of Ann Lee.” A rousing portrait of the titular 18th-century religious leader, the founder of the Christian sect known as the Shakers, the film is a balm. At times, the festival felt similarly revitalizing. The French critic André Bazin once likened festival-going to “an amazing albeit hard-working retreat, with cinema as its unifying spiritual focus.” Among other things, events like Toronto are reminders that despite the industry’s gloom and doom, what matters is what is on the screen.
