16 book-to-movie adaptations and literary films to watch for at TIFF
Film lovers, it's TIFF time again! Here's a comprehensive list of literary inspired films at the festival this year.
TIFF runs from Sept. 6 to 16, 2018.
Aniara
What it's about: A ship carrying settlers to Mars is knocked off course, causing the consumption-obsessed passengers to ponder their place in the cosmos.
Based on: The 1956 science fiction poem written by Swedish Nobel laureate Harry Martinson
Beautiful Boy
What it's about: This biographical drama film stars Steve Carell, Timothée Chalamet and Maura Tierney. It's based on the real-life story of meth addiction through the eyes of David Sheff, who watches his son Nic struggle with drug abuse and recovery.
Based on: The 2008 memoir Beautiful Boy by David Sheff and the 2009 memoir Tweak by Nic Sheff
If Beale Street Could Talk
What it's about: Director Barry Jenkins' follow-up to award-winning 2017 film Moonlight is an adaptation of the James Baldwin novel. It's about a woman fighting to free her falsely accused husband from prison before the birth of their child.
Based on: The 1974 novel of the same name by the American writer James Baldwin
Boy Erased
What it's about: This film, starring Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe and Lucas Hedges, is about the son of a Baptist pastor being forced to attend a gay-conversion program.
Based on: The 2016 memoir of the same name by Garrard Conley
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
What it's about: Melissa McCarthy stars as Lee Israel in Can You Ever Forgive Me? based on the celebrity biographer who made her living in the 1970s and 1980s documenting the lives of names like Katharine Hepburn, Tallulah Bankhead, Estée Lauder and journalist Dorothy Kilgallen. When Israel finds herself in a financial bind, she becomes a literary forger and thief.
Based on: The 2008 memoir of the same name by Lee Israel
Colette
What it's about: Gabrielle Colette, the talented French novelist nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948, gets the biopic treatment in this film. Keira Knightley stars as the celebrated writer who struggled for proper recognition during her career.
First Man
What it's about: First Man is the story of Neil Armstrong, the astronaut who became the first man to walk on the Moon on July 20, 1969. The film stars Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy and Jason Clarke.
Based on: The 2005 book of the same name by James R. Hansen
The Good Girls
What it's about: Set during the 1982 economic crisis in Mexico, this film revolves around a wealthy couple grappling with the prospects of financial uncertainty.
Based on: The 2004 novel Las Niñas Bien by María Guadalupe Loaeza
The Hate U Give
What it's about: When Starr Carter watches the police shoot and kill her best friend, her community demands action. And, as the only witness, Starr must decide if she wants to go public with what she saw — and possibly become the face of a movement.
Based on: The 2017 YA novel of the same name by Angie Thomas
Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy
What it's about: A woman named Savannah Knoop spends six years masquerading as writer Laura Albert's literary persona JT LeRoy.
Based on: The 2008 Girl Boy Girl: How I Became JT Leroy by Savannah Knoop
Manto
What it's about: Saadat Hasan Manto was an Indo-Pakistani writer, playwright and author. This biopic explores the tumultuous life of the daring writer, considered to be the most controversial short-story writer in the Urdu language.
A Million Little Pieces
What it's about: This Sam Taylor-Johnson-directed film adapts James Frey's controversial 2003 bestseller about an drug addict who finds solace in the company of a past crime lord and a former sex worker.
Based on: The 2003 book of the same name by James Frey
The Sisters Brothers
What it's about: Two sibling assassins — Eli and Charlie Sisters — are hired to kill a prospector who has stolen from their boss. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Joaquin Phoenix, John C. Reilly and Riz Ahmed.
Based on: The 2011 novel of the same name by Patrick deWitt
Tell It to the Bees
What it's about: Winnipeg's Anna Paquin stars in this Annabel Jankel-directed film about a woman who finds herself growing close to the town's new female doctor in 1950s Scotland.
Based on: The 2009 novel of the same name by Fiona Shaw.
Through Black Spruce
What it's about: Through Black Spruce, which stars Tantoo Cardinal, Brandon Oakes, Graham Greene and Tanaya Beatty, follows Annie Bird, a Cree woman from James Bay, as she travels to Toronto to locate her missing sister.
Based on: The 2008 novel of the same name by Joseph Boyden
Vita & Virginia
What it's about: Vita & Virginia, which stars Gemma Arterton and Elizabeth Debicki, gives us the love story between Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf. Their affair and friendship in the 1920s has been said to be what inspired Woolf to write Orlando.