Toronto film festival 2023
Peter Bradshaw's film of the week
The Dead Don’t Hurt review – love blossoms amid violence in Viggo Mortensen’s western The star directs, writes, composes and acts in this beautifully shot and sombre film about an old-school hero in a 19th-century frontier community fraught with tragedy
From Poor Things to American Fiction: where does this year’s Oscar race stand?
With the major fall film festivals out of the way, this year’s unusual strike-affected awards season is starting to shape up
Literary satire American Fiction takes Toronto film festival’s top award
Cord Jefferson’s story of a novelist (Jeffrey Wright) grappling with the publishing industry’s expectations of black writers is now practically guaranteed serious Oscar consideration
Toronto film festival 2023 roundup – solidarity, swearing, swimming and one standout film
While a clutch of directorial debuts by actors mostly misfired, a return to form for Alexander Payne and award-worthy performances by Jamie Foxx and Jodie Comer offered plenty to get excited about
First look review
The Royal Hotel review – feminist thriller starts strong but can’t stay the courseJulia Garner and Jessica Henwick are both impressive in an uneasy Australia-set film toying with genre expectations but tension dissipates in the finale
Nyad review – swim biopic lifted by Annette Bening and Jodie Foster
First look review
Fingernails review – Jessie Buckley and Riz Ahmed’s chemistry can’t save paper-thin love story
First look review
The End We Start From review – Jodie Comer compels in solid survival dramaFirst look review
Wildcat review – Ethan Hawke directs daughter in mediocre literary biopic
Rustin review – Colman Domingo shines in by-the-numbers civil rights biopic
Story of Bayard Rustin, an often unsung Black queer man who fought alongside Martin Luther King, is adapted into a rousing, if creaky, drama
Pain Hustlers review – Emily Blunt rises above clunky pharma drama
A knockout central performance isn’t enough to save Netflix’s misfiring tale of seedy sales reps kicking off the opioid epidemic
Paul Simon says he is ‘beginning to’ accept his hearing loss
First look review
The Critic review – a devious Ian McKellen anchors uneven thrillerWhat can a new documentary tell us about the Louis CK scandal?
First look review
Next Goal Wins review – Taika Waititi’s football comedy is strikingly unfunnyA miscast Michael Fassbender plays a coach trying to save a team of underdogs in a lacklustre fact-based string-puller
The Pigeon Tunnel review – inside the extraordinary life of John le Carré
Errol Morris’s gentle interview allows the mesmeric writer to hold forth on how his relationship with dodgy dad Ronnie informed his life as a spy and novelist
Spike Lee: critics said Do the Right Thing would ‘incite riots’
First look review
The Holdovers review – Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti reunite for charming comedyFirst look review
Dear Jassi review – Hollywood maximalist makes first Indian movie
First look review
Daddio review – Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn take a bumpy rideThe two stars do their best with a psychologically limited two-hander that takes place in a taxi from JFK airport to Manhattan
About 38 results for Toronto film festival 2023 
