2024-09-18 21:46:13
The apocalyptic sci-fi about a bank clerk called Chuck’s Life, based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name, won the top prize at the Toronto Film Festival on Sunday night.
As the AFP agency reminds, this show differs from better-known events in Cannes, France or Venice, Italy, in that in Toronto the winners are not chosen by an expert jury, but by the audience. In the last decade, they have twice pointed to a film that was later successful at the Oscars, in the case of the drama Green Book and the road movie Land of Nomads.
This year’s winner, Chuck’s Life, was filmed by Mike Flanagan based on Stephen King’s 2020 short story of the same name, published in the Czech language in a collection called When the Blood Flows. Like the original, the film is notable not only for depicting the life of an ordinary bank clerk against the backdrop of the end of the world, but also because it is told backwards. It begins with the death of the protagonist.
Chuck is played by Tom Hiddleston, known as the superhero Loki from the Marvel saga, and Mark Hamill or Chiwetel Ejiofor also appear in the new film. The film does not yet have a distributor. The director is well-acquainted with King’s work, having already made the films Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep based on his works. “I’m so happy for Mike Flanagan and his talented cast,” King responded on the X social network.
The Daily Beast writes that Chuck’s life is a film “as sweet as it is scary”, with the horror in this case stemming from the everyday fear of ending up alone, disconnected from others, or unable to recall the events and faces of his mattered most.
The story begins at a time when the state of California is sliding into the sea due to an earthquake, large fires are ravaging Ohio, floods are raging in Europe and, for example, Germany is paralyzed by a volcanic eruption.
Actress Annalize Basso dances with Tom Hiddleston in the middle part of the film. | Photo: Reuters
Cars are falling into potholes, people are committing mass suicides, and the internet is down when a billboard congratulating bank clerk Charles Krantz on “39 great years” suddenly appears at a busy intersection in small-town America. Soon the same ad will be on the radio and, surprisingly, on TV after the cable signal is out.
Meanwhile, none of the locals know Chuck, who has just died of cancer, and the ads are apparently just the latest inexplicable symptom of a collapsing world.
In the middle part of the film, we get to know Chuck nine months earlier, when he passes a busker playing in the street and suddenly starts dancing to the beat. He has such an infectious joie de vivre that he is joined by a 20-something woman played by actress Annalise Basso, whose boyfriend has just broken up with her via text message.
The third and last part of the film then returns to his youth, when high school student Chuck grows up with his grandmother and grandfather after the untimely death of his parents. The boy is most interested in the locked door leading to a secret, haunted attic, Variety.com reports.
Emilia Perez’s non-traditional musical about a transgender leader of a Mexican drug cartel took second place in the Toronto festival audience vote. The film Anora, about a sex worker whose services are hired by a rich young Russian, finished third. This picture won the festival in Cannes, France, in the spring.
The Toronto festival kicked off on September 5, and according to AFP, this year continued its years of attracting showbiz stars and crowds. Last year, attendance was lower due to the Hollywood strike, but this year many celebrities came, such as actresses Jennifer Lopez, Angelina Jolie, Florence Pugh and Salma Hayek or actors Jude Law, Andrew Garfield and Denzel Washington, not to mention rockers Elton John and Bruce Springsteen.
Last year, the main prize at the Toronto festival went to the film American Fiction, which later received five Oscar nominations and turned it into a screenplay.
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