​An architecturally mouth-watering house is situated upon a hill. Within it is a family, beautiful and graceful, with a life meticulously curated to aid total and thorough comfortability. A maid waits hand and foot, ever ready to meet the needs of the family. The one thing this family is not allowed to have, quite frankly, are peaches.

Add another amazing movie to the list of movies produced by A24 films. At this point, they have cemented themselves as one of the defining production/distribution studios of this decade, and I think that sentiment will only be solidified with time. Their main attraction at TIFF 2019 is Waves, telling a timeless story of love and loss while simultaneously giving a thoughtful critique of contemporary suburban American life.

Waves crash softly against the river bed; a light mist fills the air, quenching the heat from the golden afternoon sun. The stalks of wheat beneath you wave quietly in the wind. The faint sound of children frolicking in the distance reminds you of a certain innocence that soothes you. Close your eyes; now open them. No, you are not dreaming – you are simply at the centre of a Terrence Malick film.

​In 2001, the country of Argentina experienced a great financial depression, leaving almost 70% of the population in deep poverty. In November of the same year, a great deal of trepidation ensued, causing people to empty their bank accounts just as quickly as they filled them up. In a bid to mitigate the growing bank panic, the Argentine government effectively froze all bank accounts, limiting withdrawals to the minor sum of $250 a week. Eighteen years later, Argentine filmmaker Sebastian Borensztein takes this crisis and turns it into the setting for his latest crowd-pleasing comedy, Heroic Losers, finding humour in a time in Argentina’s history was characterized by fear and misery. His heart is in the right place, but the middling execution halts the film’s potential.

​The Toronto International Film Festival is back in full force with a star-studded cast translating a classic tale to the modern era. Armando Iannuci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield made an opening night premiere at the Princess of Wales Theatre – a fitting venue for a tale set in Victorian England. 

​Here’s the gist of Destin Daniel Cretton’s Just Mercy: a Black man is stopped, arrested, and baselessly convicted of a murder he clearly did not commit. A White felon is coerced into making a false testimony against him. The convicted is put on death row, while a young black lawyer fresh out of Harvard is hell bent on exonerating the accused. It is based on a true story, and it is a finely told one.