Mike Flanagan’s “The Life of Chuck” surprised many this morning by winning the TIFF People’s Choice Award. The runners-up were “Emilia Perez” and “Anora.”
Historically, 12 of the last 14 People’s Choice Award winners at TIFF have gone on to earn Oscar nominations for Best Picture, and four of them won the big prize. Previous winners include “American Fiction,” “The Fabelmans,” “Belfast,” “Nomadland,” “Jojo Rabbit,” “La La Land,” and “12 Years a Slave.”
Whether ‘Chuck’ goes on to get nominated is still up for debate as reviews for the film might not be good enough for Oscar contention. Yes, it has an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes, but that 66 on Metacritic doesn’t hint at acclaim. ‘Chuck’ also still doesn’t have a distributor, although that might change in the coming days.
Last week, “The Life of Chuck” screened at TIFF. The reviews were fine — Flanagan diehards seem to like it a lot more than critics. I attended close to 20 premieres in these last 10 days, and ‘Chuck’ might have had the most rousing ovation out of all of them. It also no distribution deal, although that will likely change in the coming days.
Based on short stories in King’s 2020 book “If It Bleeds,” the cast includes Tom Hiddleston, Mark Hamill, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, and Jacob Tremblay.
“The Life of Chuck” is told in reverse order, from the end of a man’s life to the beginning. The film starts with the death of Chuck (Tom Hiddleston), then proceeding to showcase moments in his life, culminating with his childhood as an orphan in a supposedly haunted house.
In my review of the film, I called ‘Chuck’ a narratively “creative” film, but also a very “schmaltzy” one. Unlike Flanagan’s previous films, there’s nothing disturbing about ‘Chuck, and if anything, it’s easily his most wholesome and pandering film. Nevertheless, ‘Chuck’ is beautifully constructed and, as one can attest by today’s TIFF win, a true crowd pleaser.