Since its world premiere this weekend at TIFF, Richard Ayoade‘s latest film The Double, has been eliciting high praise from the critics who have managed to see the film (screenings have been selling out).

The Guardian awarded it an exceptional 5 stars, saying of it, “There’s a real creative energy at force,” and of its role at the Festival, “It might just be the best thing we’ll see all week.”

David Ehrlich of Film.com said of The Double, “Take Dostoyevsky, add 1 part Gilliam, 1 part Tati & a thimble of early Woody Allen. Stir to near-perfection. Ayoade wows.” and Indiewire awarded it an A-, describing it as a, “Dystopian Treat”.

Global cinema website Twitch is full of superlative praise, saying of Ayoade himself and the film he had made: “What we have here is a fiercely intelligent, hugely idiosyncratic talent who is seemingly capable of going in any great number of directions and making all of them entirely his own. Two films is too soon by far to be labeling someone a master but Ayoade stands alongside Ben Wheatley as vibrant proof that the future of British film is both quite odd and very, very bright. The Double is simply fantastic.”

Alex Billington of First Showing also had this to say: “Wuthefuh!! Richard Ayoade is a mad genius channeling Gilliam/Jeunet in this Dostoyevsky mindfuck. Instant cult classic.”

In fact, only The Telegraph was anything less than blown away, giving the film 3 out of 5 saying, “Consider this a pre-emptive warning that the British director has served up a curio, taking a detour from the friendly-quirky sensibility of Submarine into potentially more divisive territory.”

We’ve also picked up a couple of interviews with Ayoade, including one with the Los Angeles Times, in which he compares Dostoevsky to Larry David and explains how they tried to avoid creating a filmic world that too closely resembles Tarry Gilliam’s Brazil. The interview finishes with a cracking comment from Ayoade too – well worth reading for that alone!

Then there are a few filmed interviews about the film from this week’s TIFF, which you can watch below (whilst admiring a fabulous brown suit/polkadot shirt combo). The second one is bloody funny too:

And there’s also this one from tribute.ca, featuring Ayoade and Jess Eisenberg, which we’re not able to embed.

The film has yet to be give an official general release date, but it’s likely to be in 2014. We’re counting down the days…