{"id":19085,"date":"2023-09-21T19:28:54","date_gmt":"2023-09-21T23:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=19085"},"modified":"2023-09-21T19:28:54","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T23:28:54","slug":"toronto-international-film-festival-review-fingernails-is-a-fun-examination-of-the-definitive-nature-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=19085","title":{"rendered":"Toronto International Film Festival Review \u2013 \u2018Fingernails\u2019 is a Fun Examination of the Definitive Nature of Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you could be certain that your love was real, would you want to know? That\u2019s the critical question posed by Fingernails<\/em><\/strong>, a light-hearted drama that imagines a world where a test exists to determine if two people are truly in love. There are three score options: one hundred percent, indicating mutual affection, zero percent, signifying incompatibility, and fifty percent, in which it\u2019s not clear which half of a couple possesses feelings the other doesn\u2019t. Though this topic has been explored before, this film is a thought-provoking and worthwhile look at the subject.<\/p>\n

Anna (Jessie Buckley) and Ryan (Jeremy Allen White) have taken the test administered by the Love Institute and earned a certificate documenting their love. As she sees and hears more about couples that have fallen out of love, Anna becomes obsessed with learning more about how it all works. She takes a job at the institute, working with Amir (Riz Ahmed) to prepare couples for the test and bolster their chances of passing. Everything may be perfectly fine in her relationship, but the knowledge that there\u2019s a way to know for sure haunts her too much to let it go.<\/p>\n

\"Fingernails\"
Jeremy Allen White and Jessie Buckley in “Fingernails,” premiering November 3, 2023 on Apple TV+.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This film gets its title from the method by which the test is administered: extracting one fingernail to put into a machine. Squeamish audiences fortunately need only avert their eyes for a few brief scenes that disrupt an otherwise calm retro-futuristic scenario in which relationships are undone by the concept that there\u2019s a way to prove if what they have is real. Nothing about the technology feels all that advanced, yet people trust it implicitly and make life-altering decisions based on their results when they might have been perfectly happy before someone told them they shouldn\u2019t be.<\/p>\n

This film has a dark sense of humor, expressed most prominently in the ways in which Duncan (Luke Wilson), the head of the institute, works to calibrate the test and how people might best be suited to pass it. Among his bright ideas are a shock one partner should administer to themselves when the other partner leaves the room, or a fake fire in a movie theater to see how people will instinctively react to protect their partners. Anna and Amir facilitate similar exercises that seem equally well-advised and are both funny and horrifying to see performed by hopeful couples who just want to ensure that they achieve the best score possible.<\/p>\n

\"Fingernails\"
Jessie Buckley and Riz Ahmed in “Fingernails,” premiering November 3, 2023 on Apple TV+.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Greek filmmaker Christos Nikou, who served as a second assistant director on Yorgos Lanthimos\u2019 The Favourite<\/em><\/strong>, makes his English-language debut, pivoting to lighter fare following his first feature, Apples<\/em><\/strong>. While this premise has been covered in previous projects like Soulmates<\/em><\/strong>, this film is magnetic because of its characters and the way they interact. The focus is on the scientists and not on the subjects, making it clear that the people that audiences should be paying attention to are those who think they know better but are just as clueless as those pining for a rubber stamp on their already-established affection.<\/p>\n

Buckley, an Oscar nominee for The Lost Daughter<\/em><\/strong> who reteams with Olivia Colman for another film at the Toronto International Film Festival this year, Wicked Little Letters<\/em><\/strong>, continues to demonstrate extraordinary range following earlier turns in Beast<\/em><\/strong>, Wild Rose<\/em><\/strong>, and Women Talking<\/em><\/strong>, among others. She brings a pleasant curiosity to Anna, pushing boundaries as she finds herself less and less able to think about anything but work. Ahmed doesn\u2019t return entirely to his comedic Four Lions<\/em><\/strong> roots but does incorporate a deadpan demeanor that\u2019s fun to watch. They lead a film that posits many interesting theories and finds an entertaining way to consider them onscreen.<\/p>\n

Grade: B+<\/strong><\/p>\n

Check out more of Abe Friedtanzer\u2019s articles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fingernails<\/em><\/strong> makes its international premiere in the Special Presentations section<\/a> at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival and will be released on Apple TV+ on November 3rd<\/sup>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you could be certain that your love was real, would you want to know? That\u2019s the critical question posed by Fingernails, a light-hearted drama that imagines a world where a test exists to determine if two people are truly in love. There are three score options: one hundred percent, indicating mutual affection, zero percent,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":19088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[18106,18105,14005,4626,18107,1834,4073,3123,17133,2077],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nToronto International Film Festival Review \u2013 \u2018Fingernails\u2019 is a Fun Examination of the Definitive Nature of Love | Cinema Daily US<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jessie Buckley and Riz Ahmed star in Fingernails, premiering at TIFF and coming this November to Apple TV+.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=19085\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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