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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55 I Love You, Daddy

Co-written (with Vernon Chatman), directed by and starring Louis C.K., this late addition to the TIFF schedule became one of the most talked-about films of the festival. Knowingly provocative, the divisive film stars C.K. as a very successful television writer-producer whose 17-year-old daughter (Chloë Grace Moretz) becomes involved with a much older film director (John Malkovich) whose reputation with younger women parallels Woody Allen’s. The Film Stage’s Daniel Schindel admits it’s a great “thinkpiece generator,” but “by every other metric, it’s a failure.” However, Chris Machell of CineVue believes that “in its tackling of difficult themes, infused with C.K.'s unvarnished introspection, his latest is among the most complex and mature comedies of the year.”

I Love You, Daddy

Comedy/Drama | USA
Directed by Louis C.K.

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