What does one expect when a documentarian partners with a co-writer to write and direct his first feature? If you guessed a riveting, pulse-setting, sensational thriller about a heist and love and the chaos that unfolds, then you’d be right… Read More ›
Toronto International Film Festival 2025
Samara Weaving and Kyle Gallner burn up the screen in the Bonnie and Clyde-inspired “Carolina Caroline.” [TIFF]
If you’ve never heard of Adam Rehmeier, you’re doing yourself a great disservice. The indie gem Dinner in America (2020) is a completely underrated, under-the-radar gem that deserves to be seen by all audiences. Rehmeier’s newest, Carolina Caroline, has him… Read More ›
Kenji Tanigaki’s “The Furious” delivers action, violence, chaos, story, and heart in well-balanced cinematic experience. [TIFF]
If you didn’t know who director Kenji Tanigaki (Enter the Fat Dragon) was before, then after you see his explosive newest feature, The Furious, you’ll know he is one to look out for if you’re a fan of movies like… Read More ›
“Dead Man’s Wire” is a well-rounded film that elevates the real-life event it’s based on. [TIFF]
If you were to say there was a new movie from Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting) about a real-life story of an armed kidnapping that is arguably justified with Colman Domingo (Sing Sing), an insane Al Pacino (Heat), and… Read More ›
“Obsession” takes the predictable trope and twists it to present new terrors into the genre. [TIFF]
Sometimes going into a movie without any sense of what to expect is the best way to experience a it, and knowing literally *nothing* about Curry Barker’s Obsession prior to seeing it other than knowing it was going to be… Read More ›
“Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” hosts another stellar cast with a less luminous mystery. [TIFF]
Rian Johnson is back with Benoit Blanc for a new mystery that is coming for a short theatrical window before hitting Netflix. His third entry in his murder mystery franchise is arguably the worst one unfortunately. This is not to… Read More ›
“Karmadonna” delivers dark delights, but that may not be enough. [TIFF]
Trigger Warning: The content of the film and supportive images within this review may be disturbing to sensitive individuals. Sometimes boasting about the director/writer’s previous work is a detriment to a film, and that is the biggest issue with Alexsandar… Read More ›
“Steal Away” with actors Mallori Johnson and Angourie Rice. [TIFF]
Clement Virgo (Brother) is back with another powerful drama while, again, pulling double duty as director and as part of the co-writing team with newcomer Tamara Berger. Steal Away balances a multitude of themes, ensuring that the film cannot get… Read More ›
The inherent whimsy of “Egghead Republic” overshadows the narrative within. [TIFF]
Egghead Republic, the newest movie from the pair of writer/directors Pella Kågerman (Aniara) and Hugo Lilja (Aniara), teases an interesting premise that is excelled by some terrific performance, but ultimately suffocates from its own ideas and on-the-nose reveal. While failing… Read More ›
“Wasteman” squanders nothing in its 90-minute run time. [TIFF]
First-time feature screenwriters Hunter Andrews (short Sunny Life Farms) and Eoin Doran (short Perched) along with first-time-ever director Cal McMau pull off maybe the definition of an impossible feat — they craft a perfect film. It’s something that doesn’t get… Read More ›
Bobby Farrelly’s “Driver’s Ed” forgets to disengage the brakes on the comedy. [TIFF]
The Farrelly brothers should be rather synonymous with crude, hilarious, and downright ingenious comedy, but something between the late ‘80s to early ‘00s and now has changed and that brand of sexualized, crude, frankly dumb comedy no longer is what… Read More ›
Mac Eldridge and Tom Dean’s “Charlie Harper” is a volatile romance that hits like a truck. [TIFF]
Tom Dean (writer for short Photo of the Day and Carolina Caroline, another TIFF 25 title) and Mac Eldridge co-direct their second project and first feature together, the heart-breaking, gut-punching young romance Charlie Harper. The film is a fly-on-the-wall story… Read More ›
Chandler Levack’s “Mile End Kicks” tangles with the struggles of early adulthood against the Montreal grunge scene of the 2010s. [TIFF]
Chandler Levack (I Like Movies) is back with her sophomore feature and Mile End Kicks makes one wonder what horrible tragedies and injustices Chandler went through herself or if there are a lot of creative liberties being taken in her… Read More ›
Filmmakers Dusty Mancinelli and Madeleine Sims-Fewer invite audiences to experience psychotic drama “Honey Bunch.” [TIFF]
Writers and directors Dusty Mancinelli and Madeline Sims-Fewer are back with another movie entrenched in trauma and decision-making. After their last outing, Violation (2020), which is a much more difficult watch content-wise, they deliver Honey Bunch which focuses on the… Read More ›
Wagner Moura gives an outstanding performance in “The Secret Agent,” an otherwise bogged-down thriller. [TIFF]
Writer/director Kleber Mendonça Filho (Bacurau) is back with The Secret Agent (O Agente Secreto) starring Wagner Moura (Civil War). A harrowing story of escape and refugee sanctuary, it feels more like a less comedic version of a serious take on… Read More ›
Gail Maurice, Dana Solomon, and Derica Lafrance make their marks with “Blood Lines.” [TIFF]
Family dramas are always difficult subjects and can either be rewarding or miss the mark entirely. Thankfully, Gail Maurice (Rosie) pulls off quadruple duty as writer, director, producer, and actor well, and leads Dana Solomon and Derica Lafrance (in their… Read More ›
“The Man in My Basement” walks a delicate moral and ethical line. [TIFF]
Co-writer/director Nadia Latif takes on double duty in their first feature while adapting Walter Mosley’s novel The Man in My Basement. While Mosley’s material has yielded something interesting in an adaptation before (Devil in a Blue Dress) and this adaptation… Read More ›
“Sentimental Value (Affeksjonsverdi)” drops audiences into the middle of a complex daughters/father relationship complete with Hollywood drama. [TIFF]
Audiences connected with the last outing by Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt as writers and Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World) in a lead role in a meaningful way. Back again in the same roles, the trio brings… Read More ›
The web series turned tv show now turned feature film “Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie” brings the familiar chaos of Johnson and McCarrol to the big screen. [TIFF]
Have you ever heard of the incredibly Canadian television show Nirvanna the Band the Show? No? It premiered on Vice in 2016 after being a web series in 2007. The show was about two friends who create a band called… Read More ›
Mystery thriller “It Was Just an Accident” engages audiences to explore their own morality. [TIFF]
Sometimes a title is crucial to the integrity of the movie, giving audiences an idea or an exploratory idea of what they’re about to get themselves into, and sometimes the title is something that feels like it could mean more… Read More ›