19 Winners and Losers of Toronto: Matt Damon, Jake Gyllenhaal Score, Tom Hiddleston Stumbles

“Spotlight” and “The Martian” emerged as contenders, though “The Danish Girl” didn’t fare quite as well

As the Toronto International Film Festival winds down, TheWrap looks back on the week that was.
Acquisitions have been slow but Oscar buzz circulated quickly for films such as “Spotlight” and “The Martian.”

Like any festival, TIFF had some hiccups but made up for them with exciting programming. Let’s take a look and see what worked and what didn’t north of the border.

1. Winners: Jake Gyllenhaal and Judah Lewis

The “Demolition” stars dominated Opening Night at TIFF, where Oscar buzz was palpable despite the film’s April 2016 release date. Gyllenhaal continued his streak of winning performances following “End of Watch,” “Prisoners” and “Nightcrawler,” while Lewis established himself as a young actor to watch with his charming turn as Naomi Watts‘ sexually confused son. Like that, a star is born.

2. Loser: “The Danish Girl”
 
I didn’t have a chance to see Tom Hooper‘s hot-button drama starring Eddie Redmayne as a man who undergoes gender reassignment surgery and becomes a woman, but the response out of Toronto was fairly cool. Critics were once again impressed by Redmayne, who won an Oscar last year for “The Theory of Everything,” but the repeat win that was once theorized is now considered unlikely, especially after his co-star Alicia Vikander earned better reviews. While both rising stars are likely Oscar nominees along with the film itself, the “Danish Girl’s” hopes of winning any major prizes took a blow.

3. Winner: Matt Damon

“In your face, Neil Armstrong” is right! Damon was excellent as abandoned astronaut Mark Watney, with Ridley Scott provoking the actor’s best work since “The Informant!” The strong response to the film bodes well for Damon’s chances of scoring an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

4. Loser: Tom Hiddleston
 
The “Avengers” star had a rough festival, between the lukewarm reception for his Hank Williams biopic “I Saw the Light” and the demented and divisive “High-Rise,” which prompted no less than 40 walkouts. He sure has a lot riding on next month’s release of Guillermo del Toro‘s “Crimson Peak.”

5. Winner: The Movies

TIFF artistic director Cameron Bailey and his team of programmers do a hell of a job each year picking a slate of films and the 40th edition of the festival was no exception — even if sales have been slower than usual. It may not be as fancy-shmancy as Cannes but it has plenty of class.

6. Loser: The Princess of Wales Theatre

What the hell was up with the sound system this year at one of the festival’s top venues? I was hardly the only journalist to have a hard time making out certain lines of dialogue. Perhaps it depends on your seat? The beginning of “Demolition” forced my ears to bring their A-game, while others with normally good hearing complained that Tom Hardy — both of them — was all but unintelligible during “Legend,” and not just because of his accent.

7. Winner: Netflix

The streaming giant earned exceptional reviews for “Beasts of No Nation.” Everyone I spoke to who had the guts to see Cary Fukunaga‘s tough-to-watch drama about the making of a child soldier was left devastated. Everyone agreed that it’s a tough sit, but if you can bring yourself to watch those kinds of harrowing horrors, you won’t be able to forget them.

8. Loser: Stephen Frears

The director of “The Queen” pulled another “Lay the Favorite” with this underwhelming drama starring Ben Foster as disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong. Everything about this movie feels a little off except for maybe Jesse Plemons as Floyd Landis. eOne-owned Momentum Pictures closed its deal to acquire “The Program,” which has a great trailer that made the mediocrity of the film all the more disappointing.

9. Winner: Festival Street
 
Cab drivers will complain, but I love that the City of Toronto shots down King St. for the first weekend of the festival. This year, “festival street” hosted several cool interactive exhibits and while I didn’t have time to check any of them out, kids seemed to dig it. Anything that gets kids excited about movies and how they’re made is cool in my book. This was a big win for TIFF, and the best part was, I was never really got fed up with the foot traffic on King. Go figure.

10. Loser: Late Start Times
 
I don’t expect movies to start on time at a film festival, but maybe we can start loading the theater a little earlier? For “The Martian,” no one had even been admitted inside the theater at 9:30 p.m., when it was scheduled to start. A 10-minute delay is to be expected, but 30 minutes is a lot of extra red carpet time. Plus you’ve gotta deal with introductions from festival personnel, filmmakers who introduce the cast for a quickie photo op, and then 10 minutes of ads and logos for everything from Dolby Sound and Christie Digital Projectors to Revlon and an Andy Warhol exhibit, not to mention volunteers appreciation videos and piracy warnings. I know TIFF’s gotta pay ‘dem bills, but wowzer!

11. Winner: Johnny Depp and Joel Edgerton

The stars of “Black Mass” made a great onscreen team despite being on opposite sites of the law. Depp is excellent as Whitey Bulger and projects real menace, but somehow, Egerton’s corrupt FBI agent John Connolly seems even scarier and the Australian actor ends up stealing the movie. Say what you will about the movie, but these two shine like the stars they are.

12. Winners: Ilya Naishuller and Sharlto Copley

The young Russian director behind “Hardcore” made sure the ultra-violent action movie lived up to its title, and he couldn’t have done it without Copley, who has a blast with his role(s). Naishuller proves to be as adept and inventive at staging brutal action sequences as anyone else out there, and we imagine he has a bright future ahead of him so long as he continues to push the envelope.

13. Winner: “Spotlight”
 
Director Tom McCarthy, writer Josh Singer and the entire cast should take a bow for their across-the-board excellent examination of the Boston Globe’s investigation into the Catholic Church priestly sex scandal and its subsequent cover-up. Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Stanley Tucci make the strongest impressions, though Liev Schreiber, Rachel McAdams, Brian d’Arcy James and John Slattery all do invaluable supporting work. “Spotlight” is a true triumph and cemented itself as a force to be reckoned with this awards season. Open Road has a major Oscar contender on its hands.

14. Winner/Loser: Cate Blanchett
 
“Spotlight” wasn’t the only movie about journalism to make a splash in Toronto, as Sony Pictures Classics unveiled James Vanderbilt‘s directorial debut, “Truth,” which works terrifically thanks to Blanchett’s formidable turn as Dan Rather’s “60 Minutes” producer Mary Mapes. The film explores Rathergate from all angles, and while Robert Redford, Topher Grace and David Lyons shine in supporting roles, the film belongs to Blanchett in every way. Between “Truth” and “Carol,” Blanchett could merit two Oscar nominations for Best Actress. Which means that her biggest competition might be… Cate Blanchett.

15. Winner: Bryan Cranston
 
The “Breaking Bad” alum delivers the best feature performance of his career as blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo in Jay Roach‘s “Trumbo.” A nomination may be a long shot given how comedic the role is. But he’s definitely in the awards conversation following Toronto, where the film received mostly positive notices.

16. Loser: Arrrrr!

Is anyone actually amused by shouting a pirate’s cry to the pre-movie antipiracy message? Has it simply become a social obligation at festival screenings? I mean, it’s not like you hear that at your local Regal Cinemas. Are TIFF (and Sundance) audiences going to be doing that 20 years from now? I don’t get it. Can we stop this next year?

 

17. Winner: Barkhad Abdi
 
Abdi scored on Oscar nomination for his very first film, “Captain Phillips,” but many Hollywood insiders doubted he’d have much of a career afterward. Well, judging by his turn as a Somali spy working in the Kenyan Special Forces in Gavin Hood‘s drone thriller “Eye in the Sky,” it’s safe to say he’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Abdi steals the movie from Oscar winner Helen Mirren and his more established co-stars Aaron Paul and Alan Rickman. I guess he’s still the captain now.

18. Loser: Poutine
 
You don’t have to pretend to like poutine just because you’re in Canada. We all know this dish of fries soaked in cheese curds and gravy. They serve poutine at the Scotiabank Theater’s concession stand instead of soft pretzels, which are the only reason I go to the movies sometimes.

19. Winner: The Volunteers
 
There were more than 3,000 volunteers wearing orange t-shirts and dutifully answering every question I had all week. They’re the friendliest, most patient people, and the festival couldn’t succeed without them. Hats off!

Jake Gyllenhaal: ‘I’m fascinated by my own anger’

In his new film Southpaw, Jake Gyllenhaal piles on the muscle to play a brawling boxer. He talks about his dramatic physical transformation – and what it means to be a man

'It may have all been a bit reckless’ … Gyllenhaal in Southpaw. Photograph: Allstar/The Weinstein Company

Jake Gyllenhaal could be any early-30s urbanite. He is sitting in front of me wearing a plain white T-shirt and huge pillowy Nikes, and with a semi-wildman beard and gleaming eyes. He may look normal now, but in his new film, Southpaw, a boxing movie in which he plays a troubled brawler called Billy Hope, he is a huge and sculpted light-heavyweight, a slab of murderous muscle.

The remaking of his own body is becoming a Gyllenhaal signature. His physique in Southpaw is a shocking leap from the skeletal Lou Bloom in Nightcrawler, the sulphurous LA noir about a ghoulish journalist selling footage of freeway pileups to TV news shows. “This transformation,” declared the film’s distributor Harvey Weinstein at Cannes, “is amazing.”

Weinstein was appearing onstage with Gyllenhaal to fire the starting gun for the 2016 Oscars race, telling guests the actor would have his full support in awards season. Known for his sharp-elbowed campaigning, the mogul announced: “We’ll get revenge” – the wrong to be righted being the Academy’s failure this year to recognise Gyllenhaal’s turn in Nightcrawler. Weinstein declined to comment further for this piece. Gyllenhaal smiles when the subject comes up.

A vision of Zen tranquility … Gyllenhaal. Photograph: Andrew H. Walker

“It’s flattering if someone mentions these things, but frankly it’s also unfortunate because everyone should see a movie and have their own experience. And I know your job is to create context …” He catches himself, keen not to get off on the wrong foot. “Look, it’s Harvey. And Harvey is Harvey. I love him, I really do. But everyone is entitled to their own opinion. And that’s the best I can say about that.”

For Southpaw, there were long months of learning to box, dawn runs, skipping, sparring. The fight scenes still freaked him out. “Even when you’re only filming a fight, even when it’s a movie, in the ring you feel totally naked.” He makes it sound like a sex scene, a monstrous test of nerve. “It’s a strange thing, 700 extras watching.”

Gyllenhaal is likable, inclined to the earnest but self-aware, quick to grin. “The thing was, whenever I took a real hit, my first thought was always: ‘Someone better have got a good fucking angle on that.’ That’s an actor.” He pauses, as he often does. “It may have all been a bit reckless.”

His willingness to get battered may have helped make the part feel like his own. For several years, Southpaw was to have been a vehicle for Eminem; Gyllenhaal was only cast once the rapper dropped out. In that first incarnation, the talk was of a parallel between the star’s hard-knocks youth in Detroit and Billy, a bruiser from a New York orphanage. With Gyllenhaal, the link is less clear: the son of a successful director and screenwriter, he grew up in LA, acting as a child. He appeared in his first film at 11, playing Billy Crystal’s son in City Slickers.

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Yet Southpaw is not his first high-profile role as a blue-collar dude in a bad situation. In the Gulf war drama Jarhead, he was a fragile marine; in End of Watch, a sturdy cop. He says the reason the boxing movie endures is because the boxer is such a universal figure, while few of us relate to actors.
“Believe me, I take acting seriously, I take it more seriously than …” Again, he reverses his train of thought. “I take it very seriously, let’s just say that. I do also recognise that it is absurd.”

To Dan Gilroy, the writer and director of Nightcrawler, there will have been a reason for the role. “I think Jake was probably attracted to Southpaw as a physical transformation and also as: ‘OK, here’s someone I’ve never played before, from a certain socio-economic background, a place of hardship and struggle.” I’m sure those things were the challenge for him.”

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 The film team review Southpaw 

 

By now, Gilroy says, Gyllenhaal could take his pick from any superhero movie in Hollywood; instead, he makes small, jagged films such as Nightcrawler. The weight loss was the actor’s idea – two stone in 10 weeks. “And to do that he had to fight the industry logic tooth and nail. Because their default position is ‘no’.” Gilroy mimics a nervous executive: “‘What do you mean, you want to lose weight? Don’t lose weight! People know you as Jake, we’re hiring you as Jake! Let me just give you a nice haircut so that you look personable and women will like you.’ That’s the industry. He doesn’t listen. He’s ballsy.”

But there has always been ambition. In 2002, at 21, Gyllenhaal came to London to do theatre, feeling that he should. He starred in the quickfire Kenneth Lonergan play This is Our Youth, at the time the third most famous member of a three-handed cast including Anna Paquin and Hayden Christiansen, then playing Anakin Skywalker in George Lucas’s second batch of Star Wars films.

The play’s director Laurence Boswell was alarmed to discover his only stage experience had been in a school play. He found himself stunned by how good Gyllenhaal was. “My sense was that he was tough enough, ruthless enough, ambitious enough and skilled enough to become a big star.” As well as his talent and his sweetness, Boswell also mentions his “political and strategic skills”, and the industry nous that comes from a Hollywood family. (Boswell mentions his older sister, actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, as a particular influence.)

At 34, having done nothing professionally but act, you wonder if Gyllenhaal feels the job needs to be gruelling to matter. Does he take parts and then find he wants to transform physically – or take parts precisely because they let him stretch and shrink and get weird with his body?

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“Does the arrow draw forth the target or vice versa?” He ponders in silence. “Well, I’ve realised I’m fascinated with what it is to be a man. And as a man, physicality is important. I’ve gone on searches …” He sees me squinting uncertainly. “I mean, pushing myself to the limit. With Nightcrawler, I was searching for a physical, chemical state that would come from depriving myself. I was interested in what that would bring out. It wasn’t about losing weight. It was about what happens with a certain kind of deprivation.”

Gyllenhaal has never had a reputation for hedonism, though his career has grazed against tragedy; to many he will always be linked with Heath Ledger, his lover in the pioneering Brokeback Mountain, who would die of a prescription drug overdose in 2008. His own drive sounds like a potent species of workaholism. “He pushes himself harder than I or any director could ever push,” Gilroy says. “He puts more of himself into his characters than any other actor I’ve heard of.”

Should Weinstein win the day, the lesson will surely be that you get an Oscar for playing musclebound orphans called Hope, not ghoulish LA hyper-capitalists. But Gyllenhaal says he thinks Billy might be just as dark as Lou, chewed up by rage. “That was a big reason for me to do this movie – I’m fascinated by my own anger, too.”
 
With Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain. Photograph: AP

He smiles, a vision of Zen tranquility. Really? Does he have a lot of anger? “I would aspire to be someone who is only ever angry at injustice. But frankly, I’m also angry in traffic. And I seriously wonder why. But not just that. There are things that …” He stalls as if there’s something on the tip of his tongue. “I mean, all I can say is: Look, my work expresses best what I’m trying to explore, and you can see from the work I’ve done lately the areas where I’m searching. And the answer to your question is yes, of course, I have anger. Not all the time. But yes. And I’m very curious about it. Not because I go: ‘Ooh, what’s angry like?’ It’s something I experience and want to understand.”I tell him, and it’s true, that as I was sitting with his people waiting to be ushered in here, I Googled his name. Prominent among the results was a MailOnline story detailing the lunch he enjoyed yesterday with a “mystery brunette” in Chelsea. The piece pointed out Gyllenhaal appearing to scratch his back with his fork. “Uncouth,” it sniffed, amid the paparazzi shots taken through the restaurant window. Does any of that make him angry?

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He takes a moment. “Well, to be frank, that had yet to sail past my consciousness. But no, I am no longer curious about that stuff. And it doesn’t make me angry. What does make me angry is how easy it is to destroy rather than create …” At this, he embarks on a meandering tangent on the theme of positivity that starts with the flaws of social media, veers into serving on the Cannes jury with the Coen brothers, takes in his enjoyment of the Broadway musical Fun Home, and rounds off with his new film. “Maybe I’m contradicting myself,” he says eventually, “and I hope I am, because the point here was to confuse you.”

A deeply traditional kind of boxing movie, Southpaw comes with a modern twist. Although Weinstein was the public face of its production, much of the finance came from the Chinese entertainment giant Dalian Wanda – owner of, among many other things, cinema chains across Asia and the US. For Gyllenhaal, such deals are part of the eternal balancing act between art and commerce. He was a producer on Nightcrawler, as well as its star; Gilroy thinks he may end up directing, too. His mood right now is, he says, less imperial: “At this point, I’m ecstatic if I’m in a movie that just works, even a little bit. Movies are so hard, just that is miraculous.”

A Ripped Jake Gyllenhaal Vacations in Italy with Longtime Best Friend Greta Caruso

 
Still sporting the muscle he amassed for his role in Southpaw, Jake Gyllenhaal heated up the Italian coast while on vacation with his friend, Greta Caruso.

Wearing nothing but shorts and bushy beard, the star was looking ripped as he relaxed by the pool in Amalfi, Italy.

To get in shape for his role in the boxing flick, Gyllenhaal followed an extreme workout schedule – including 1,000 sit-ups a day, 100 pull-ups, 100 dips, two sets of 100 squats, jumping rope and running eight miles a day.

"That's what I like to do – immerse myself in the world and soak up the molecules in the space that I train in, practice in," said Gyllenhaal, 34. "I feel in general people's fascination is on the physical, which I understand, but I also feel like it's not why I do what I do."

Accompanied by Caruso, who a source confirms is Gyllenhaal's "longtime best friend," the actor was taking some much-deserved time off after wrapping his next film, Everest.

Like Gyllenhaal, Caruso, 31, comes from a family of actors – she's the daughter of CSI: Miami actor David Caruso and his second wife Rachel Ticotin.

Jake Gyllenhaal Explains Why He Hasn't Gotten Married

 

Jake Gyllenhaal is one of Hollywood's most eligible bachelors, but it's a title he's excited to shake. 

The "Southpaw" star is hoping to get married, he told Howard Stern during a visit to his Sirius XM radio show. 

"There are a lot of beautiful women and there are opportunities," he acknowledged, "but... I believe in monogamy. I believe in, when you meet somebody who's right, it'll be right and you'll stay there." 

How Jake Gyllenhaal Transformed for Role in 'Southpaw'

 

Jake Gyllenhaal Did 1,000 Situps, 100 Pullups a Day for 'Southpaw'

 

How Jake Gyllenhaal Lost 30 Pounds for Latest Movie 'Nightcrawler'

 

Gyllenhaal, 34, told Stern that he's been in love two or three times in the past, but he's not in love now. He blames himself for those relationships not turning into more serious unions. 

"I think I probably got scared," he admitted. "But I also think at some point, I think you just decide to grow up." 

If and when he does tie the knot, the Oscar nominee said he will look to the relationship his sister, Maggie, has with her husband, actor Peter Sarsgaard, as a model. 

"They're definitely a standard for me... based on their kids and how great they are with their kids," he said.

Jake Gyllenhaal Talks Taylor Swift 'Good Morning America' Intro Music on 'Howard Stern': Listen

Jake Gyllenhaal attends SAG Foundation's "Conversations" series screening of "Southpaw" at Pacific Design Center on July 13, 2015 in West Hollywood, California. 

Vincent Sandoval/Getty Images

"When I'm doing an interview, when you're up at 5 a.m. and you can't really make sense of words, you're not thinking about the background music playing behind you."

The Internet had a bit of a laugh earlier this week when Good Morning America played Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood" as the intro music for an interview with Jake Gyllenhaal -- who, of course, briefly dated Swift back in 2010. If you believe Internet sleuths, he was the subject of a handful of songs off Red, most notably Swift's incredible tune "All Too Well."

'Good Morning America' Plays Taylor Swift Song During Jake Gyllenhaal Interview

On Thursday (July 23), Gyllenhaal stopped by Howard Stern's SiriusXM show and was asked about the Internet brohaha. As many suspected, Gyllenhaal was clueless.

"First of all, I did not hear that," he said of the (coincidental?) intro song. "When I'm doing an interview, when you're up at 5 a.m. and you can't really make sense of words, you're not thinking about the background music that's playing behind you."

When Stern followed up, asking if he would know a Swift song if he heard one, Gyllenhaal replied, "Yes, of course I would have."

His final thoughts on Swift: Calling her "a beautiful girl," Gyllenhaal feigned ignorance when asked about songs she may or may not have written about him. At minimum, we hope he's still got that scarf.