Fall Film Festival Recap: The Best & Worst of TIFF, Telluride and Venice

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor
and Keith Kimbell, Metacritic Film Editor – September 17, 2017

The fall film season kicks off each year with a trio of prestigious festivals: the just-completed Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the Venice Film Festival (now in its 74th year), and the smaller but no less interesting Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. It is at these festivals where many of the year's Oscar contenders typically make their debuts. (Last year, five best picture nominees—including eventual winner Moonlight—had their world premieres at one of these festivals.) And this year's crop includes promising upcoming releases from Guillermo del Toro, Greta Gerwig, Aaron Sorkin, Joe Wright, and Armando Iannucci ... as well as more divisive films from the likes of Alexander Payne, George Clooney, and Louis CK.

Below, learn more about the critical response to these and other notable films (and TV shows) debuting at the three festivals in 2017.

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86 First Reformed

The latest from writer-director Paul Schrader (Affliction, American Gigolo, The Canyons) stars Ethan Hawke as a tortured ex-military priest struggling with grief and guilt over the death of his son. Eric Kohn of Indiewire believes it’s “the best work in years for both men, a fascinating meditation on inner turmoil in which doing the right thing can lead down many wrong directions.” And Screen Daily’s Tim Grierson claims Hawke “delivers a performance full of grace and sorrow.”

First Reformed