Every year we both go to the Toronto International Film Festival and soak up as many movies and celebrities as we can pack into one weekend. We thought some of you may be interested in going and for the readers in our lives, we've compiled a list of all the book adaptations at the festival this year.
This is obviously not a film, but TIFF will be showing the first episode of this miniseries coming to Netflix. The script was written by Sarah Polley who I am obsessed with. A Canadian filmmaker adapting Margaret Atwood, the greatest Canadian writer, in my opinion. This is a book I have prioritized to read because I would like to go through it before the TV show starts. It's going to be soooo good. - Meghan
This is a book I would actually be interested in reading, and it's also one of the mutual TIFF choices Meg and I had. We were probably sold because we both loved A Bigger Splash (2015) directed by Luca Guadagnino. Unfortunately it conflicted with a few other films we are more interested in at the festival. The soundtrack is by Sufjan Stevens which is very cool. I am interested in seeing if the soundtrack will sound just like something off his record or if it will have a more European feel. The book is set in the 80's so who knows. I also love a good coming-of-age story. - Meghan
I would definitely read this because I have become super fascinated with Orthodox Judaism since working with my friend Kayla over the summer. She did her master's in journalism at Ryerson and wrote her MRP on sexism in the orthodox community. Like Call Me By Your Name, this book is centered around a homosexual relationship. I also love that it stars the two Rachels - Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams. We did really want to see this at the festival but unfortunately it conflicted with Submergence (below) and we had to prioritize. - Meghan
This book has an amazing title and that is enough for me to want to read it. This is also a memoir, so by nature I'm already interested. I also think Annette Benning is so so charismatic and also very hilarious. The book is about Peter Turner and his former lover / actress Gloria Grahame. He gets a call one day that she has collapsed and he takes her to his home in Liverpool for her to spend the remaining days she has. Meg and I love celebrity culture so I'm sure there will be plenty for us to hold on to in this adaptation but we aren't seeing it at the festival. - Meghan
I actually almost bought this at Indigo on the weekend. This is another memoir from Cambodian author and survivor Loung Ung. I am also a pretty big fan of Angelina Jolie's directorial pictures - I have always wanted to see In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011), but I really enjoyed By the Sea (2015). My only concern with this movie is that I CANNOT handle gore and torture, and I can only imagine the graphic imagery that will accompany this movie. Of all the movie adaptions at TIFF this year, this is probably the book I will read first. - Meghan
Honestly not really interested in seeing this at all. It's also coming to Netflix so I don't need to worry about trying to see it. These are the kind of period dramas I hate. I hate the deep south and I hate horses. The only thing that seems sort of redeeming is that Garrett Hedlund is a star and is incredibly attractive. Meg and I were devastated when he split with Kirsten Dunst. - Meghan
To be honest I've never heard of this book or author and I had no clue Simon Baker from The Devil Wears Prada (2006) (also the star of this movie) was into directing... as it turns out he did direct several episodes of The Guardian (2001-2004) and then this... While something about it does remind me of Trespass Against Us (2016) which we loved, I don't care if I ever see this or read this book. It has a ton of good reviews but I just know it's something I'd be bored to death with... - Meagan
I'm reading this book right now! I'm actually really enjoying it and am looking forward to seeing the movie at the festival so I can include it in my review. It goes back and forth between two characters and the time they spent together in France and their current situations. Danielle is a oceanographer / math prodigy, so the book pretty much had me sold at that. James is a counterintelligence agent (i.e. spy) who ends up abducted in Somalia and held is captivity. So the sections of him dealing with his captivity are really harrowing but also very interesting to read about. I can't even imagine trying to cope with that isolation. Anyways, review coming soon!! - Meghan
I know Meghan would have liked to see this but it unfortunately (for her) isn't screening over the time we'll be in town for the festival. I am glad it's not showing because I do have a weird fear of Glen Close (no doubt due to Fatal Attraction and then her uncanny portrayal of Cruella DeVil). Anyways... I know I won't ever read this book because I didn't really enjoy Meg Wolitzer's The Uncoupling (which we read for book club). I also am not entirely buying the plot line: a wife leaves her Nobel Prize winning husband to pursue her own writing career? WHO would ever do that? Definitely not relatable to me... I'm also pathetic so... - Meagan
I have already read this book and let me tell you it was THE most boring book I've ever read... new idea for a top 10 list??? To give McEwan some credit... I did read this at the wildly inappropriate age of ~13 and it's about the very adult topics of marriage, virginity, maintaining romance, etc. whereas I was in a more Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants stage in my life... Writing this, I honestly feel like it's something I'd love to read again now... I really love Saoirse Ronan and would love to see this movie but it wasn't a priority for either of us for the festival. - Meagan
Meg and I were both really excited to see this on the TIFF schedule this year for a number of reasons but unfortunately couldn't get tickets. We both really love Mélanie Laurent as an actress (Meghan has also seen both of the films she directed but I have not), and we both really love a story about a woman picking up a new-passion project as an act of self-discovery (in this case, deep sea diving). I anticipate we'd see it and immediately obsess about diving for the next year in the form of tons of non-fiction diving books and random blabbering of unnecessary diving facts. The book, by Christophe Ono-Dit-Biot, has somewhat mixed reviews online, and I unfortunately will never read it because it's in French. I am 99% sure the movie will be in French as well with English subtitles, which I can only watch in theater because I otherwise miss crucial plot points staring at my phone. - Meagan
This book was written by Jeff Bauman and Bret Witter based on Bauman's experience as a Boston Marathon Bombing victim. I know I absolutely will never read this book because Witter is the exact kind of media author I hate who partners with people like Bauman for the sole purpose of writing bestsellers. This is my own issue, I'm sure it's great. The movie I will for sure see as I love a true story but we won't be seeing at the festival because we do try to avoid seeing movies that will undoubtedly circulate mainstream theaters shortly after. Jake Gyllenhal plays Bauman in the movie adaptation which looks 100x better than Peter Berg's Patriot's Day (2016) although I'm sure that's comparing apples to oranges. - Meagan
This is the type of Jodi Picoult moral dilemma fiction that I love to blitz through on the weekend (although I'm sure McEwan would be horrified at this comparison). I did purchase this book to hopefully read in advance of seeing this adaptation. In the past I've had mixed feelings about Ian McEwan novels as sometimes there are sooooo boring (On Chesil Beach, for example) but this plot line appeals to me. I would also love to see this movie adaptation at some point as I love Stanley Tucci and Emma Thompson but we aren't going to see it at the festival. I also want to note that it seems really weird and incredible that McEwan has two adaptations going at this year's festival... - Meagan
This wasn't on either of our lists despite an all star cast (Alison Brie, Zac Efron, James Franco)... but I'm super glad Meghan didn't want to see it because it looks terrible. Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell wrote about the making of Tommy Wiseau's The Room (2003). I don't care about what was going on behind the scenes of one of the worst movies ever... but maybe I do? Who knows. I will never read this book because the only reason I'd ever watch the movie is the casting. It did win the best nonfiction book award at the 2014 Bookish Oscars however, so it must be good? - Meagan
This is the exact romance-disaster genre I absolutely love. I ordered this book after watching the trailer. A doctor and a writer are stranded in the mountains after a plane crash and have to survive together while trying to journey to safety. Ugh. I've never read anything by Charles Martin before but there's a first time for everything. Not to mention, my loves Kate Winslet and Idris Alba play the main characters in the movie adaptation which also includes DERMOT MULRONEY who I've had a deep crush on since My Best Friend's Wedding (1997). We definitely won't see this at TIFF because it will be in theaters probably before Christmas... unless we somehow manage to get to the premiere where I will leap over any barrier in my path to kiss Dermot Mulroney on the lips. - Meagan
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