TIFF Review: Roland Emmerich's Gay Rights Drama 'Stonewall'

In 2011, the moviegoing public finally received a response to the burning question, “What could a personal film from Roland Emmerich possibly look like?” That answer came in the form of “Anonymous,” a madman’s speculation on the true origins of the corpus of writing popularly attributed to William Shakespeare that played it fast and loose with historical accuracy. And yet, even with this revealing glimpse into the obscurer nooks of the blockbuster maestro’s tortured psyche, hardcore Emmerich-heads yearned for a more intimate project from the notoriously spectacle-driven, largely apolitical filmmaker.

“Stonewall,” the latest and most immediately revealing effort from the openly gay director, retains the freely interpretive relationship with historical facts witnessed in "Anonymous," but to decidedly more damaging ends. Emmerich reimagines the storied New York riots that ignited the queer rights movement with a cast of characters amalgamated from different real-life figures...