EMP Clients scored some of the most well-received films at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival!
The Holdovers (scored by Mark Orton) , His Three Daughters (scored by Rodrigo Amarante) Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make Believe (scored by Jonathan Goldsmith) and Hit Man (scored by Graham Reynolds) have all caught amazing reviews.
Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe took home the TIFF peoples Choice doc Award! Directed by Robert McCallum, the film was named the audience favourite for documentary at the awards breakfast at TIFF Lightbox. Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe celebrates the legacy of Ernie Coombs and the beloved children’s television character who entertained and inspired generations of Canadians. The film opens in theatres beginning September 29.
Azazel Jacobs’ latest film His Three Daughters is a tense, captivating, and touching portrait of family dynamics starring Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen, and Natasha Lyonne as sisters who converge after their father’s health decline. Variety lauded the film as “funny, moving and true” and “the work of a filmmaker who has finally come into his own. Jacobs was always gifted, now he is major.”
Collider calls His Three Daughters “tremendous” and “a work of big emotions and heart in the middle of the worst time of a person’s life that is also one of the best films of the year”.
“The generally muted color palette comes alive with the intensity of emotion at hand and a delicately deployed score by Rodrigo Amarante that really does deliver grace notes.” – The Moveable Fest
Hitman, directed by Richard Linklater, follows Gary Johnson (Glen Powell), a staff investigator who plays the role of a hit man to catch individuals ordering a hit.
“Richard Linklater’s Hit Man stands out among the vast array of films at TIFF 2023 as a novel fusion of humor, action, and philosophical reflections. In a time when the local cinema is crowded with CGI-filled sequels or spin-offs, Hit Man is a breath of fresh air that I could not look away from.” – CG Magazine
“Linklater once again takes on yet another style of film, creating his own version of a film noir, and ends up making his best film since Boyhood.”- Collider
“Hit Man, a phenomenally entertaining movie that has you smiling for its entire running length. Nothing else at TIFF has tickled me as much as this flick, which is an absolute delight from start to finish.” – Awards Radar
The Holdovers, directed by Alexander Payne, follows a curmudgeonly instructor (Paul Giamatti) at a prestigious American school who is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually, he forms an unlikely bond with one of them — a damaged, brainy troublemaker (newcomer Dominic Sessa) — and with the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam (Da’Vine Joy Randolph). The Holdovers will screen in select theaters October 27th, followed by a wide release on November 10th.
Deadline calls the film “movie magic”, and “ funny, sad, witty, poignant, filled with snark and heart and great acting”, with “Mark Orton’s wonderful music score setting the tone with a Fred Karlin-ish vibe that seems perfect for the snowy story set at Barton Academy”.
Next Best Picture said that “The use of holiday-themed songs and Mark Orton’s lovely score which feels plucked directly from a decades-old movie, add to the atmosphere, placing the audience right back in the past.”