TIFF 2024 Movie Round-Up (Part 1)

Reviews for 'The Room Next Door,' 'The End,' 'Universal Language,' 'Eden,' and 'Cloud'

Hunters,

Hello from TIFF, where The Schmear’s averaging approximately 3 movies a day. Days are certainly long when the movies are lacking. They fly by when the movies are great.

It’s been so amazing running into so many old and new friends, be they former Hollywood colleagues, producers, filmmakers, or some of the voices I most admire in film criticism today.

If you’re here, hit me up and let’s grab coffee or a movie. Follow along on Schmear Hunter socials on Instagram and TikTok.

The next set of reviews will release Wednesday, so stay tuned.

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Today’s round-up comprises my first few days of the festival.

Up ahead, we’ve got:

• New Pedro Almodóvar film THE ROOM NEXT DOOR — winner of Venice’s top prize — starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton

• Joshua Oppenheimer’s wildly ambitious follow-up to The Act of Killing, apocalyptic musical THE END (also with Tilda Swinton)

• A remixing of Iranian cinema and Wes Anderson, Canada’s pick for Best International Feature, UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE

• Sydney Sweeney and Jude Law survival thriller EDEN from Ron Howard

• Cure director Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s new, violent social media thriller CLOUD

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The Room Next Door

Schmear’s Verdict: Pedro Almodóvar's first English-language film struggles initially with uneven pacing and clichéd flashbacks but ultimately redeems itself through stunning visuals and the powerful performances of Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore.

Watch if you like: Pedro Almodóvar movies, Still Alice, Persona, A Single Man, Far From Heaven

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Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language feature film is so aesthetically stunning that you might forget you’re watching a melancholic story featuring our two greatest living actresses.

This is nothing new for the Spanish auteur, who adapts Sigrid Nunez’s What Are You Going Through, a taboo tale of euthanasia. Tilda Swinton plays Martha, a war photographer dying of cancer. Julianne Moore is Ingrid, an old friend and author, who agrees to be in the "room next door" when Martha takes a dark-web-acquired euthanasia pill.

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