Frankly, my time at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was a mess. I lost my prescription sunglasses, I destroyed my feet in nice shoes, I stayed at afterparties for a single drink and then left because I find those events to be stuffy and weird and very straight. Let the record state I would MUCH rather speak to an actor in an interview context than socially at a reception of their movie. I got sick like I do at every film festival. Press lines were chaotic because the festival cut its press screenings by 50% in order to make room for “market screenings.” It felt, tangibly and spiritually, like the festival didn’t care as much about critics this year. Some confirmed that the vibes were off.
And yet, I still cried at my screenings of Club Kid and Elsinore. I still felt extremely grateful sitting in on a press conference with Jordan Firstman where A24 provided a lavish lunch buffet and Uber vouchers to make sure we could get to/from the hotel efficiently. I absolutely loved his movie, even if I wished it was a miniseries (classic tvscholar reaction—but wow, what a rich world he created). Here’s what he said at the press conference when I got to ask a question:
Michel Ghanem
Hi, Jordan. I’m Michel. I was super touched by the movie — I can’t wait for gay guy Twitter to grab onto it, for better or for worse. I’m primarily a TV critic, and I’ve followed your roles on TV over the years. Were there aspects of working in television for so long that ended up shaping this project, or influencing you?
Jordan Firstman
I think story. Being in TV writers’ rooms really taught me about story and character arcs, so I never wanted this movie to meander. It takes its time within scenes, but the actual beats of the story — I think that’s from television, where every episode needs its own beginning, middle, and end, and then you have to do it again, while still peppering through the overarching arc of the season. So I learned a lot about structure from writers’ rooms. To me, a set is a set — a TV set doesn’t feel that different from a film set, except the way we made this movie felt more experimental, because we shot at real parties, which we never could have done on an HBO show. There are certain rules you can only break at a certain budget, and I think that’s part of what made this movie thrive.
Otherwise, my friends at MUBI took me out for lunch, I spent lots of time with fellow TV critic Kaiya Shunyata, I ran into familiar faces, and on days when I felt too exhausted to engage, I stayed at my friend’s place who generously hosted me for the festival and watched virtual screeners for shows that were also premiering at the festival. In a way, I was lucky to be there as a TV critic. I wasn’t pumping out reviews of every movie I saw between screenings or forcing myself to see four to five movies a day—I don’t envy movie criticism in that way.
But anyway, luckily I was able to watch a good chunk of TV featured at the fest, everything from Yaga to Carrie and Crystal Lake (a lot of horror!) in TIFF’s biggest primetime selection yet. These capsule reviews are only based on the first two episodes of each season, which is what they showed at TIFF. Let’s get into it.
Crystal Lake (Peacock, premiering Oct. 15)
