Ben Stiller’s ‘Nutcrackers’ Opens Toronto Film Festival

The Toronto International Film Festival kicked off its 49th edition with the world premiere of “Nutcrackers,” a crowd-pleasing fish-out-of-water comedy from director David Gordon Green and Ben Stiller in his first film role in seven years.

Stiller’s big screen homecoming wasn’t the only major return to TIFF. Star power is back, baby! Last year’s festival was hobbled by labor strikes that left actors and screenwriters on the picket lines and unable to promote their films. So, it’s a huge relief to not only TIFF organizers but also studios and agencies (who were tasked in 2023 with drumming up excitement for movies without many boldface names in attendance) that A-listers like Cate Blanchett, Lupita Nyong’o, Selena Gomez, Elton John, Ana de Armas, Dakota Johnson and Mark Hamill scheduled to touch down in Toronto over the next 11 days.

It’s not just Hollywood that’s bringing energy to TIFF. At Thursday’s premiere, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a surprise appearance and was greeted with a warm welcome. He praised filmmaking efforts in the country and thanked the festival’s CEO Cameron Bailey for “help[ing] put Canada on the international map in terms of film, where it needs to be.”

As for Stiller, he says it wasn’t intentional to take this much time away from acting. “It was just how things evolved,” he told Variety prior to the premiere. For a better part of the last decade, he’s been focused on directing the 2018 prison-break miniseries “Escape at Dannemora” and 2022’s workplace sci-fi thriller “Severance.” However, after the strikes forced “Severance” to pause production of its second season, Stiller found himself available to shoot “Nutcrackers” (which received a waiver from the unions to film because it was produced and financed outside of the studio system). In the film, Stiller plays a strait-laced, work-obsessed city slicker who suddenly becomes the caregiver for his four orphaned nephews, who live on a farm in Ohio.

Although there were some empty seats at the Roy Thomson Hall, audience members in attendance were enthusiastic, laughing and applauding at the film’s family-friendly high jinx involving fart jokes, a nativity scene gone hilariously wrong and interactions with various farm animals (including a scene that’ll make people look differently at rotisserie chicken). The story takes a sentimental turn as the boys work to stage a dance production in hopes of courting foster parents — although as Stiller’s character says in the movie, this rendition of Tchaikovsky’s holiday classic “isn’t your grandmother’s” “Nutcracker.” Their performance, complete with samurais, swords and kooky mustaches, highlights the young actors’ ballet chops — and the film’s final sequence prompted some misty eyes in the room.

Stiller and his four fresh-faced costars — brothers Homer Janson, Ulysses Janson, Atlas Janson and Arlo Janson — were greeted at the Q&A with a standing ovation. 

“I made a choice a few years ago I was only going to do something if it really resonated with me,” Stiller told the crowd. “I wanted to meet these boys and be part of this.”

Green, the filmmaker of “Pineapple Express” and the “Halloween” reboot franchise, said he got the idea for “Nutcrackers” while editing the horror sequel “The Exorcist: Believer,” which was released in 2023. He turned to his long-time friend, who was a film school classmate and worked on his debut feature 2000’s “George Washington,” and found inspiration in her four sons, none of whom had ever acted.

“There was a part of me who thought there was a time to do something different,” he said. “I challenged myself to make a movie without cynicism and viciousness.”

Green expressed a desire for “Nutcrackers” to be seen in theaters, and Stiller echoed those sentiments, adding that “it’s important for us to experience a movie like this in a theater. We need more movies like this on screen. It’s nostalgic for us, but it’s what people enjoy.”

Then, Stiller steered the conversation to a major theme of the movie.

“I would like to talk about the farting,” he said.

One of the Janson brothers took it from there, sharing one of the smellier on-set experiences. “I farted for like 20 seconds… I don’t know.”

“It was incredible,” Stiller assured the movie buffs in the room. “This is probably the only fart conversation of the whole festival.”