Tim Robinson (left) and Paul Rudd star in "Friendship" which is among the titles in TIFF's Midnight Madness lineup. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-TIFF **MANDATORY CREDIT**
TORONTO – A body horror flick led by Demi Moore and a dark comedy starring Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson are among the films bound for Midnight Madness at the Toronto International Film Festival.
This year’s lineup of 10 unusual Hollywood star turns and obscure oddities will open with the North American premiere of Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance.”
Moore stars as an aging TV actress who signs onto a mysterious body-enhancement program to juice up her fading career.
Robinson stars in “Friendship” as an ordinary guy whose typical suburban lifestyle is upended by a new neighbour, played by Rudd, which sets off a chain of escalating events.
Other titles set to unspool in the late-night festival program include “Ick,” an alien movie set at a high school and “It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This,” a spin on the found-footage genre with its real-life directors as the stars.
TIFF runs Sept. 5 to 15.
“Else” is director Thibault Emin’s feature-length expansion of his mind-bending 2007 short film, which follows a strange epidemic that causes people to fuse into their surroundings.
Other films on the slate include Taiwanese director John Hsu’s “Dead Talents Society,” Japanese “punk” director Kenichi Ugana’s “The Gesuidouz,” and “The Shadow Strays,” the latest from Indonesian director Timo Tjahjanto, who earned acclaim for his 2018 crime-thriller “The Night Comes For Us.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 25, 2024.
