Articles

Capsule Reviews:

100 SUNSET (Canada 2025) **
Directed by Kunsang Kyirong

Though Canadian in production, 100 SUNSET looks very much like a Tibetan production, mostly because large part of the films shot in Tibetan and most of the players in the film are Tibetan.   The story is driven by the activities of Kunsel (Tenzin Kunsel), the taciturn introvert at the film’s centre. Kunsel’s fascination with others manifests in her two primary pursuits: spying on her neighbours with a newly acquired video camera and committing petty thefts. vBut after she meets Passang (Sonam Choekyi) — an enigmatic newcomer with a much older husband — Kunsel must venture beyond her comfortable position as a wary, watchful outsider.  The film suffers from a weak narrative, giving the effect that the film looks aimless in the director’s delivery.  It is also difficult to tell who is whom and how the characters are related at the start of the film.  !00 SUNSET is the apartment block in the Parkdale district, where the protagonists live.  The film has familiar sights of Toronto, mainly in the poorer suburbs.

AKI (Canada 2025) ***½

Directed by Darlene Naponse 

 

The doc is told in seasons beginning with winter and closes one full cycle.  The largely wordless doc is compensated for by the beauty of Northern Ontario. All of the seasons pass in bright blooms, vivid foliage, and white shining snow, in director Darlene Naponse’s AKI. Set on Atikameksheng Anishnawbek (formerly known as Whitefish Lake First Nation), her home community in Northern Ontario, Naponse’s latest captures soundscapes, the natural world, and the generations of inhabitants and all types of creatures calling this territory home.

In a documentary that is almost completely wordless — except for some Anishinaabemowin — Aki finds beauty in the smallest of moments, from the kids playing hockey on an outdoor ice rink, to the joy of a dog running through a lake.  The best way to enjoy this wonderful doc is to just sit back and enjoy!

 

AMOEBA (Singapore/Netherlands/France/South Korea 2025) **½
Directed by Siyou Tan

 

AMOEBA is a coming-of-age story of one young rebellious student in the city-state of Singapore, where rebellious behaviour is very much discouraged, if not severely punished.  There is one scene where a girl is punished by caning.  Sixteen-year-old tomboy Choo Xin Yu (Ranice Tay) seems like a misfit when she joins a highly competitive, elite all-girls school in Singapore. But she quickly befriends three others who share her rebellious nature. While the girls struggle to fit in, they pledge loyalty to each other and vow to start a gang as a form of resistance. When their rebellious acts — recorded by the girls on a camcorder — are discovered by their teacher, their lives are upended.  What keeps haunting Choo may be more than just the ghost she suspects is in her room.  The film is a worthy first feature, but her first feature can be noticed from her lack of detail or the depth of her story.  There are no signs for the reason that Choo’s school is an elite one, except for the fact that it is mentioned that it became number one in Singapore.  The students and families live in cramped HDB flats and not in big houses with parents who are doctors or lawyers, which is typical in an elite school.  Even though a fiction film, the claim that the school is the first to build an Olympic-sized swimming pool is not true (the first was ACS, where this critic was educated).  The depth of rebellion is only superficial and could be looked upon with greater depth, such as the problems with the overly strict government.    

 

 

 

AMOUR APOCALYPSE (Peak Everything) (Canada 2025) **
Directed by Anne Emond

Director Anne Emond tackles male trauma with her forty-year-old protagonist suffering from insecurity and a need for acceptance.  Adam is a kennel owner, Adam grappling with climate anxiety. Amid a natural disaster, he embarks on an adventurous, bilingual romantic journey to find her.  Adam has issues that the story blames on his affection-avoidant father, and lets his young assistant take advantage of his good nature.  To help combat his eco-anxiety, Adam orders a therapeutic solar lamp. Through the lamp's supplier's technical support line, he meets Tina, a radiant woman with a voice that soothes all of his worries.   The film is a strange love story of sorts.   Director Emond gets her character, Adam, to cry, mope, and come to terms with himself.  Her female characters, those that Adam encounters, like Tina and his kennel helper, have stronger personalities.  It is hard to identify with a protagonist with self-worth issues, but the film feels too like one with too much of a female slant.

BAD APPLES (UK 2025) ***

Directed by Jonatan Etzler

 

A British satire directed by a Swede with that rare Nordish humour with a stir that involves with Saoirse Ronan playing Maria, an elementary teacher at a ritzy private school.  But her \s plagued by the epic bad behaviour of one extremely foul-mouthed and disruptive child, Danny. After he has a violent altercation with another student, Maria is forced to take action.  This involves unexpectedly kidnapping him and locking him up in her basement while Danny is declared missing and searched for by the police and local community.  While watching the events unfold, the one question on everyone’s mind is how everything would end, and one is sure that it would be in Maria’s favour.  However, the ending is kind of awkward with credibility issues. Otherwise, not a bad and amusing look at desperation and coping with one’s problems.

 

THE BALLOONISTS (USA/UK/Austria 2025) ***½

Directed by John Dower

 

Wonder is the one aspect in film that wows audiences. THE BALLOONISTS is about explorers with dreams and how they do their utmost best in life to achieve them.  The doc begins with a history of explorers trying to travel around the world in an air balloon, but failed, or as the film says. learns from their failures, before settling on two who achieved their dreams - Biran Jones and Bertrand Piccard, Piccard himself being an extremely difficult person to work with, reminiscent of the CEO who designed the disastrous vessel to explore the Titanic wreck.

Filmmaker John Dower focuses his narrative on the 1990s when the race intensified among competitors to be the first in history. He taps into a rich archive that captures all the highs and lows on camera. Virgin mogul Richard Branson was among the highly publicized aeronauts to encounter successive failures. The perils were numerous: technical malfunctions, changing winds, severe storms, ice formation, and the threat of certain countries shooting down unauthorized aircraft.  Central to this story is the Swiss explorer Bertrand Piccard, who became obsessed with hot air balloons as a boy. He was driven to match the legacy of his father, Jacques Piccard, a renowned inventor and explorer. Bertrand partnered with the English pilot Brian Jones on the custom-built Breitling Orbiter 3.  Wonderfully entertaining and plain wonderful!  And one can learn a thing or two about engineering as well.

BLOOD LINES (Canada 2025) ***½

Directed by Gail Maurice

 

Canadian Indigenous director Gail Maurice returns after her acclaimed ROSIE with another entertaining hit that also encompasses current Indigenous issues.  Maurice plays a mother, riddled with cancer, who returns to reconciliation with her daughter, taken away from her because of drink.  Meanwhile, the daughter, also a storyteller and store clerk, Beatrice (Dana Solomon) is completely taken by a new woman who arrives in her Métis community looking to find her biological family. Beatrice decides to help Chani (Derica Lafrance) in order to spend more time with her.  Meanwhile, a chorus of older women, collectively referred to as “The Grannies,” tries to get Beatrice to mend things with her mom. Director Maurice’s tale is also full of humour that lifts the dramatic tale up several notches.  Entertaining while making a point with an important message.

THE BLUE TRAIL (Brazil/Mexico/Chile/Netherlands 2025) ****

Directed by Gabriel Mascaro

 

It is a dystopian future in Brazil, and seniors are given a hard time.  They are forced to stop work and leave work for the younger population. At the same time, the government is forcing them to socialize in ways they deem acceptable to them.  Tereza, 77, has lived her whole life in a small industrialized town in the Amazon, until one day she receives an official government order to relocate to a senior housing colony.  The colony is an isolated area where the elderly are brought to « enjoy » their final years, freeing the younger generation to focus fully on productivity and growth. Tereza refuses to accept this imposed fate. Instead, she embarks on a transformative journey through the rivers and tributaries of the Amazon to fulfill one last wish (her bucket list wish) before her freedom is taken away—a decision that will change her destiny forever.  This is a very funny and timely film and one of the best films about seniors in a long time, and I am not talking COCOON here.  The stunning cinematography of the rivers in the Amazon is simply breathtaking.  

CALLE MALAGA (Morroco/Fr/Spa 2025) ***
Directed by Maryam Touzani’

 

This is Carmen Maura’s movie all the way, the esteemed veteran actress who appears in almost every frame of the movie.  Maura won fame and acclaim from Pedro Almodovar’s films, including his first hit, WHAT HAVE I DONE TO DESERVE THIS?  María Ángeles (Carmen Maura) is a fiercely independent senior living in the Spanish quarter of Tangier. When her daughter Clara (Marta Etura) arrives for a long-overdue visit, she comes with an agenda: to pressure María into selling the home — left in Clara’s name by her late father — to offset her own post-divorce financial struggles. But María, deeply embedded in her community and cherished by her neighbours, quietly resolves to stay.  Determined not to be displaced, she devises a resourceful plan to earn enough money to keep the apartment and buy back the cherished belongings her daughter hastily sold to an antique dealer in preparation for the sale of the property. In the process, María unexpectedly finds a romantic spark with someone she once viewed as an adversary.  The film is shot in the director’s home in Tangier and shows the local street vendors' shops and surrounding architecture.  Quite slow-moving and sentimental, this is the film, however, that Maura’s fans will love.

THE CHRISTOPHERS (USA 2025) ***½

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

 

Director Soderbergh teams up again with writer Ed Solomon to create a stylish chamber piece rich with dialogue and colourful characters set in the art world of forgery and deception.

The film centers on Julian Sklar (Ian McKellen), a once-celebrated painter now reclusive and dwindling in relevance, and his estranged children who see his unfinished series of paintings ("The Christophers") as a potential posthumous windfall. They hire Lori Butler (Michaela Coel), a struggling art restorer posing as his assistant, to finish or forge these works so they can profit from them after his death.  Lori and Julian begin a relationship that is both hateful and tolerant, which grows for the queerest of reasons.   McKellen is excellent in delivering his lines, exhibiting black humour, pathos, and respect for both his character and for himself as an actor. Again, another small but wonderful entertainment from Soderbergh.

THE CONDOR DAUGHTER (La Hija Condor)(Bolivia/Peru/Uruguay 2025) ***
Directed by Álvaro Olmos Torrico

 

A female coming-of-age cautionary fable of the conflicts between tradition and modernization and between duty and personal desire.  The film follows Clara (Marisol Vallejos Montaño),a young, smart and resourceful woman living in the community of Totorani, high in the Bolivian Andes.  Her adoptive mother, Ana (María Magdalena Sanizo), has dutifully taught her the ancient traditions of midwifery, including the tender Quechua songs believed to help safely usher newborns into the world.  But while Clara loves, respects, and is expected to continue this tradition, she dreams of discovering the wider world on her own, and maybe even conquering the city with her gifted voice.  The film benefits from director Torrico’s attention to detail in both her characterization of Clara as well as the capture of the rural period and atmosphere, despite the film’s somewhat languid pace.  Torrico moves the film towards the expected ending with a conflict showdown between mother and daughter.

 

THE COST OF HEAVEN (Gangne Ton Ciel)(Canada 2025) ***
Directed by Mathieu Denis

 

As the film title implies, there is a cost, and a very expensive one, to get to heaven, and it takes fight to do it. The cost of Heaven is a cautionary tale of a hardworking man, Nacer (Samir Guesmi), who figures that life has cheated him and he has not gotten the riches he deserved.  Of course, he does not realize that he has a loving wife and three children.  But the film shows him appreciating them at the start during a Christmas dinner, but his greed causes him to lose sight of things, till a life-altering lesson causes him to become a sort of prodigal son.  The film was inspired by a true crime Montreal incident, it seems.  Director Denis gets his details correct on the investing wheeling and dealing, including the crypto safe haven.  Nacer and his wife speak French with a French accent, showing them to be likely immigrants, while the rich and powerful speak with a Quebecois accent.  The happy ending seems too convenient for one.

COPPER (Cobre)(Mexico/Canada 2025) ***
Directed by Nicholas Pereda

 

Mexican Canadian director Pereda has a unique sense of storytelling.  It is slow-framed, weird in execution, and has a Kafka-ish feel of mystery and intrigue.  What seems to be happening high not and nothing is what it seems.  The story focuses on a poor worker named Lazaro, who, one wonders, is a liar or one who is really suffering health issues as he keeps asking the docket for days off work.  Facing skepticism, suspicion, and scorn from just about everyone he encounters, Lázaro doesn’t fare much better with his own family members, including the aunt who seems to be the object of a special longing.  Wry humour is also present, making this slow-burning film entertaining in a surprising way.

COVER-UP (USA 2025) ***
Directed by Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus

 

This is a doc about a brave and risk-taking reporter nicknamed Sy who exposes the deeds of the wicked.  “It’s complicated to know who to trust. I barely trust you guys,” says Seymour Hersh. He’s speaking to the directors Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus, about his career as an investigative reporter.   The film goes back and forth with Hersh’s interview.  He is shown with all candidness displaying eagerness, energy, anger, and also anger as the director pushes his boundaries.  Time after time, Hersh has exposed brutal realities that governments and corporations wanted to cover up.  He shares behind-the-scenes details of how he reported the My Lai massacre, Watergate, the operation of CIA spying on Americans, and the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, to name a few of his major headlines.   Every step of the way, he faced fierce pushback from powerful interests.  President Nixon is heard on tape saying, “This fellow Hersh is a son of a bitch.”  As they say, Hersch might be a son of a bitch, but he is our son of a bitch.   One often hears about the cover-ups, but this doc combines news of cover-ups with the man behind them.

 

DANDELION’S ODYSSEY (France/Belgium 2025) ***½

Directed by Momoko Seto

  

Following the footsteps of the Oscar-winning animated FLOW from Latvia, DANDELION’S ODYSSEY is a stunning animation with little plot, though penned by three writers, but it is more than made up for by the imaginative journey that defies time and space.  Dendelion, Baraban, Léonto and Taraxa are four odd friends; four seeds used to belong to the same dandelion. Rescued from a nuclear explosion that destroyed the Earth, they find themselves hurled into the cosmos, travelling through planets and constellations. When they land on an unknown planet, they set off on an unforgettable adventure to find a new home and settle for good, through planets and constellations. When they land on an unknown planet, they set off on an unforgettable adventure to find a new home and settle for good.  The story is told through sounds and music, with a little cuteness thrown in as the seeds with their tentacles often dance in the wind.  This is director Momoko Seto’s first full-length animated feature after three shorts.

 

DEAD LOVER (USA 2025) **

Directed by Grace Glowwikcki

 

DEAD LOVER, as the film title implies, is one weird movie.  If one likes very, very weird movies, then this is your kind of movie.  I myself, this critic loves fucked up films, but thiamine is just too much for me..  The reason is that director Glowwicki just does what she likes, regardless of anything anyone thinks, or crypto or narrative, or logic.  Writer-director Grace Glowicki stars as a wily gravedigger whose stench has left her bereft of amorous suitors. That is, until a horny dandy (co-writer Ben Petrie) with a penchant for her fetid funk enters this vibrantly chiaroscuro picture. The two consummate their love, but when a misbegotten voyage reduces the gravedigger’s lover to a mere severed finger, she feverishly turns to unnatural sciences to concoct a means of literally resurrecting the relationship.  There is a reference to  Mary Shelley at the film’s start, but all in all, this is one bad, indulgent, crazy, weird film..\

 

DEUX PIANOS (Two Pianos)(Franc 2025) **
Directed by Arnaud Desplechin

 

The French film bears two heavyweights - director Arnaud Desplechin and Oscar nominated French speaking actress Charlotte Rampling.  But the story revolves around a virtuosic pianist, Mathias Vogler (Francois Civil), who travels to his hometown of Lyon, where his childhood mentor Elena (Rampling) convinces him to collaborate on a series of concerts at the city’s historic auditorium.  Elena is a supporting characte,r but the main character’s (Mathias) story is cliched all the way from start to end.  In a park, he encounters a boy who seems to be his doppelgänger.  This strange child leads Mathias to Claude (Nadia Tereszkiewicz), a woman he once passionately loved — and whose reappearance threatens to destabilize Mathias’ already-fragile mental state.  Mildly entertaining at best, that at least avoids melodrama.

DINNER WITH FRIENDS (Canada 2025) **
Directed by Sasha Leigh Henry

 

A film that aims high to be the new THE BIG CHILL or HUISBANDS, the Canadian first feature DINNER WITH FRIENDS is one boring, clichéd dinner party.  The film attempts to cover many issues, like a gay couple, a straight couple breaking up, and another couple having their first baby.  The film takes a while before one can figure out who is who.  The audience only ever sees the group together, with the exception of the first scenes introducing long-married couple Joy (Tattiawna Jones) and Malachi (Alex Spencer) as they debate whether to put in the effort to reunite the friend group. Once together, long-held tensions and inside jokes lend authenticity, suggesting these friends have spent their twenties together.   There are many, many dinners during the course of the film, so that a more appropriate title for the film would be DINNERS WITH FRIENDS.  Another major flaw of the film is that all the characters speak the same way; for example, they all use the word ‘shit’, because it is one writer penning the dialogue for all the friends.

DIYA: Prix du Snag (Chad, France, Germany, Côte d’Ivoire 2025) ***½

Directed by Achille Ronaimou

 

Fast-paced with the urgency that the protagonist faces, DIYA is the local African term for the price of blood.  Dane (Ferdinand Mbaissané, winner of the Best Actor award at FESPACO 2025), a driver for an NGO in the capital, has the misfortune to run over a schoolboy.  His pregnant wife (Marina Ndormadjingar Solmem) runs to his aid to pay the hospital bills, but it’s too late: the child succumbs to his injuries, and his family summons Dane’s. He will be subjected to the diya, the blood debt, the payment of an exorbitant sum he doesn’t have.

Cleverly orchestrated, Diya puts us right at the heart of Dane’s torment: repaying the debt or languishing in prison far from his soon-to-be-born first child.   Dane is a good person depicted in the film as one who is sympathetic to the child’s mother.  It is a much scramble for funds as the director takes his audience through the colourful and informative journey of the villagers and people.  All ends well with a surprise ending in what can be described as a well-orchestrated and entertaining yet powerful movie.

EPIC: ELVIS PRESLEY IN CONCERT (Australia 2025) ***
Directed by Baz Luhrmann

 

Baz Luhrmann returns to the subject of his most audacious film — 2022’s Elvis — with the extraordinary EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert. Free of contemporary interviews with experts, critics, or other stakeholders.  The doc is exactly what the title implies,  a series of Prestley’s concerts.  Brilliantly compiled with an aficionado’s enthusiasm and sensitivity, the film shifts skilfully between rehearsals, where Presley is cheerful, hard-working, even goofy, and live performances that vary from powerful and grandiose to rushed. There are moments where he can’t keep up with the breakneck arrangements and loses his breath. (He was booked to do at least two shows most days.) Among the standouts are “Polk Salad Annie” and “Burning Love,” a chart-topper he cut in early 1972.  Director Luhrmann is known for his quick edits and again is true in the doc.  There are hardly any segments that last more than 12 seconds without a cut.  One of Presley’s songs is intercut with 4 performances of the same song - not bad for a nouvelle achievement.  Prestley’s fans will enjoy this doc immensely.

 

EXIT 8 (Japan 2025) ***
Directed by Genki Kawamura

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mazes and maze puzzles have always fascinated people.  Trying to get out of a seemingly endless puzzle is the goal.  In the new Japanese movie EXIT 8,  Arashi superstar Kazunari “Nino” Ninomiya plays the Lost Man, a backpacked commuter trapped in an endless, sterile subway corridor. To escape at Exit 8 — where his ex awaits his thoughts about her pregnancy — he must obey one rule: if anything looks off, turn back. Miss a single anomaly and he’s snapped to the start, condemned to loop again. The premise becomes a taut metaphor for guilt, responsibility, and the paralysis of indecision.  There is nothing really much moe in the story, but Nino makes turn after turn in one corridor after corridor for the full length of the movie.  Definitely a movie that is NOT to be seen twice, credit should be given at least to the filmmaker to capture the attention of audiences for a full 90 plus minutes without incident and with much repetition.  No one walked out during the screening - a rare achievement.

FLANA (Iraq/France/Qatar 2025) ***
Directed by Zahraa Ghandour

 

Ever since the fateful day her 10-year-old friend and neighbour, Nour, went missing, Ghandour has been looking for answers. Focusing on the concept of “flana,” an Iraqi term for forgotten or anonymous women, Ghandour links past and present, connecting with her elders and peers while attempting to find her childhood playmate in the context of disappearances that still happen every week.  Director Ghandour adds her own words (i.e., her view) in many scenes.  She says that the homeless females are placed in prison-like conditions in Central Baghdad, while those guilty of putting the girls there remain free.  The effect of the American invasion of Iraq makes all the matters worse, especially for the girls who have no guidance or anyone to tell them or teach them what is going on.  Nour is first born a girl, then abandoned by her mother, adopted before being abandoned again by her adoptive parents, and left deserted when her adoptive parents tell her that they will return with cookies, only never to return.  Ghandour’s tale is a heartfelt one, and her aim of getting the news and stories of abandoned women in Iraq is a sad eye-opener.

THE FURIOUS (HK/China 2025) ***

Directed  by Kenji Tanigaki

 

Action movies make a lot of money.  Examples being the John Wick franchise, the Bourne Identity franchise, the EQUALIZER series, just to mention a few.  The key to all these is the choreographed action scenes and maybe a little plot.  THE FURIOUS satisfies the plot criterion with a deaf-mute kung-fu expert father who trains his daughter before she is kidnapped in a human trafficking scheme involving top brass.  The plot is only secondary to the film, but at least the film plays the plot as if it is all important, which is a good plan.  The action sequences are excellent and better than the average Hollywood action flick.  The introduction of an archer bad guy and a strong man bad guy helps, too.  Just sit back and enjoy the violence!

 

FUZE (UK 2025) **½
Directed by David MacKenzie

 

Brit David MacKenzie, known for the excellent HELL OR HIGH WATER and the recently released RELAY, returns to TIFF with a high-stakes thriller with lots of twists and turns entitled FUZE.   When a World War II-era bomb is found in a construction site in a busy area of London, the authorities quickly spring into action, determined to save the throngs of innocent bystanders in the vicinity. Scripted by Ben Hopkins (the mind-bending The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz, TIFF ’00), Fuze moves at a breakneck pace. As the tension mounts and time threatens to run out, it soon becomes clear that no one can truly be trusted.  MacKenzie has the clout to attract high-profile actors like Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Theo James, Sam Worthington, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw.  The film also benefits from famous London sights like Edgeware Road, where the robbery takes place.  But the script written by the writer of THE NINE LIVES OF TOMAS KATZ is too over-the-top to be credible unaided by the supposedly humourous closing credits, not as funny as the filmmakers think.

HONEY BUNCH (Canada 2025) 

Directed by Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli

A genre-bending sci-fi thriller with a 70s look and setting, this film is as weird as nothing normal can be expected in a tale that involves love in a remote rehab facility.  The story follows Diana, who wakes from a coma with fragmented memories.  Her husband, Homer, takes her to an experimental trauma centre hidden in the remote wilderness, yet the reason eludes her... As fragments of her memory start to return, and just as more of the plot is revealed to the audience, so do disturbing and sinister revelations about her marriage.  Grace Glowicki and  Ben Petrie are marvellous as the troubled couple, with two British veterans Kate Dickie andJason Isaacs lending their hands as well.  Character actor Julian Rching, who has appeared in more than 200 films, also has an appearance here.  The film is bookended by the segment in which Diana carries Homer into the sea, but the climax before the ending scene is something really out of the ordinary.   Be prepared for one of the most gross-out set pieces seen in a film this year.

IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (French title: A Simple Accident)(Iran/Fr/Lux 2025) ***

Directed by Jafar Panahi

 

If one recalls the premise of a victim recognizing his or her torturer and kidnapping him for revenge, one will definitely remember the disturbing play and film DEATH OF A MAIDEN.  A variation of this premise is utilized in director Panahi’s latest Palme d’Or Winner IT WQW JUST AN ACCIDENT.  Panahi has been jailed for his political activities.  Its driver, Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi), is heading home with his wife (Afssaneh Najmabadi) and daughter (Delmaz Najafi) when he hits a dog, killing the poor animal and destroying his engine. Seeking roadside assistance, he wanders into a warehouse. Here, a worker named Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) spots him, and it's possible they are not meeting for the first time. Vahid’s life has been in shambles since his hellish time in prison, due to the actions of a torturer he calls Pegleg — and he thinks Eghbal is this man. While his impulse for revenge is swift-acting, doubt is sewn by his captive, and Vahid must seek out help from other survivors, including Shiva (Mariam Afshari), a spitfire wedding photographer, and a bride named Golrokh (Hadis Pakbaten) who brings her groom (Majid Panahi) and their impetuous friend (Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr) along for the ride.  The film isn't half bad, but it suffers from an overwrought and too lengthy melodramatic ending.

 

JOHN CANDY: I LIKE ME (USA 2025) ***
Directed by Colin Hanks

 

The doc on Canadian comedian JOHN CANY: I LIKE ME is so-called as Candy has a problem of being comfortable with himself, being overweight, as the doc shows time and again.  Despite his talent and losing quite a bit of weight in the past, which included hiring a personal trainer, the man is still feeling the problem.  The doc, featuring candid testimonies from John Candy’s friends and family — including Steve Martin, Tom Hanks, Catherine O’Hara, and more — Colin Hanks’ wildly entertaining documentary celebrates one of the most beloved comedic actors of our time.  Included are clips from his hits like PLAINS, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES and UNCLE BUCK, while not forgetting his flops such as WAGONS EAST.  The doc goes through all the processes required for a doc like showing Candy’s childhood, family, rise to fame, and fall from grace.

 

KARMADONNA (Serbia 2025) *

Directed by Aleksandar Radivojević

 

What happens if you get a call from God on your cell phone?  This is the premise of a horror first, Midnight Madness in Serbia.   Aleksandar Radivojević (co-writer of A Serbian Film) makes his directorial debut with an audacious satirical thriller about an expectant mother (Jelena Djokić) who receives a phone call from a deity that demands she obey a list of murderous instructions.  After a sinister demonstration of the self-proclaimed deity’s omniscient powers, the voice offers an ultimatum: murder a select list of individuals or lose her unborn child. And this is how Yelena finds herself descending into the Serbian criminal underground to cross names off a divine hit list, from corrupt cops to toxic social-media influencers.  The film becomes increasingly bloody and ridiculous as it progresses, and by the last 30 minutes, nothing makes sense.  Walk out of this one while you can!

THE KING FOX (Malaysia/Indonesia 2025) ***
Directed by Woo Ming Jin

 

The Malaysian film shot in the country’s native language of Malay in an unnamed fishing village, probably the east coast of Malaysia, judging from the white sandy beaches, is a story of twins Ali and Amir.  Having lost their mother at birth, the pair are left to depend on each other after their father leaves them for a new, younger wife. This proves to be especially burdensome for Ali, who looks after his brother. Amir’s vocabulary is limited to a few words, and his difference makes the two of them prone to bullying. But Ali never doubts this brother’s brilliance. One day, the twins come across a mesmerising woman, their new English teacher, Ms. Lara (Dian Sastrowardoyo), dancing on the beach. Her arrival ushers in changes to their seemingly unbreakable relationship.  The film is mainly a growing-up, coming-of-age film with some sensitive moments that lift the film out of the ordinary.  The film also depicts what local school life is like, despite the film’s occasional choppy narrative.

KOKUBO (Japan 2025) ***½

Directed by Lee Sang-il

 

Directed by Lee Sang-il and starring two of Japan’s most prominent actors, Ryo Yoshizawa and Ryusei Yokohama, Kokuho is a gripping tale of friendship and rivalry in the world of Kamigata kabuki.  The story opens in Nagasaki in 1964 and unfolds over five tumultuous decades. It follows Kikuo — the son of a slain yakuza boss — who, at fourteen, is taken in by a celebrated kabuki master and raised alongside Shunsuke, the master’s son and designated heir. Their bond — part brotherhood, part rivalry — drives an epic saga of ambition, sacrifice, scandal, and devotion, culminating in the emergence of a singular kokuho: a living “national treasure.”    The film educates the audience on the world of kabuki with all the lavishness and splendour of the disciplined choreography, costumes, makeup up and voices.  The kabuki is so controlled that all the female roles are played by males.  As such, the two male actors are extremely good-looking, with the film bearing lots of homo-eroticism.  The only problem is that the film his way too long at 3 hours, stretching the last bit way too far.  The film is a hit in Japan.

THE LAST VIKING (Denmark 2025) ****
Directed by Anders Thomas Andersen

 

THE LAST VIKING teams director Anders Thomas Andersen with Mads Mikkelsen after MEN & CHICKEN and RIDERS OF JUSTICE in yet another weird, violent, and fucked-up (but in a good way) movie.  Mikkelsen and Nikolaj Lie Kaas play Anker and Manfred, brothers who are reunited after Anker’s years-long jail stint for a bank robbery. Since Manfred is the only one who knows where the loot is buried, Anker has no choice but to contend not only with his brother’s many psychological issues but the legacy of the traumas they suffered in their childhood.  Andersen assembles a highly memorable gallery of misfits, miscreants, and many other unique individuals with their own foibles and fixations, one of which may involve re-forming the most famous pop band ever.  Mikkelsen is simply marvellous as the mentally challenged John aka Manfred, who, if not jumping out of cars or windows, is trying to harm himself by stabbing his hand with fondue forks.  Likely the most fucked up but entertaining movie of the year.  And by the way, it is also ultra-violent.

 

LAUNDRY (South Africa/Switzerland 2025) ***1/2
Directed by Zamo Mkhwanazi

 

 

 

 

A small yet powerful movie about Apartheid.  Filmmaker Zamo Mkhwanazi’s quietly powerful debut LUANDRY crafts an intimate portrait of a Black family navigating the uneasy privileges and hidden costs of exemption within the violently unequal system of apartheid South Africa.  The film is set in 1968, the same year that negative international opinion against apartheid fomented during the Summer Olympics, but 26 years before the end of the institution.  A family owns a laundry business, the store set up, unfortunately, in the white section of the city.  The patriarch of the family, Enoch, goes to see the mayor in order to be able to get permission to continue his business, only to be insulted and thrown into prison when he finally speaks out.  The story also focuses on the son, a talented instrument player, wishing to play for the black celebrity of the city, who has had an affair with the father.  Director Mkhwanazi films the conflict segments with crafted finesse, creating some very intense scenes, scenes that lift he film out of average family drama.  Of course, worse are the abuse and the degrading Apartheid scenes that are to be seen to be believed—Shot in Zulu (the family’s background) and English.

 

LILITH FAIR: BUILDING A MYSTERY (Canada 2025) ***
Directed by Ally Pankiw

 

 

Back in the ’90s, conventional “wisdom” suggested that commercial radio couldn’t play two women in a row. Frustrated by this, Sarah McLachlan went on tour with Paula Cole to offer audiences an entire night of women’s artistry. That tour went so well that the next summer, McLachlan debuted Lilith Fair, named after the Lilith of Jewish lore:  Adam’s renegade first wife. It became the year’s top-grossing festival simply because the artists were so good. Besides the luminaries noted above, the Fair’s eventual roster included Fiona Apple, Tracy Chapman, Dixie Chicks, Sheryl Crow, Suzanne Vega, Indigo Girls, and Pat Benatar.  The doc celebrates the empowerment of movement that includes black women and gay women at the same time.  Of course, there are the evil morons who fight against Lilith, including the likes of Jerry Falwell and anti-choice Americans.  The doc stays away from Trump, who is yet another moron who should be denounced in the doc.  The film also mentions the revival of Lilith, which was a failure, but ends on a high note with McLachlan performing a song at the conclusion of the film.

LITTLE LORRAINE (Canada 2025) ***½

Directed by Andy Hines

 

 

 

 

 

The film begins with the news of underwater mining in the waters around Cape Breton, where the audience is told that 148,000 people of the time.  Most were miners, but the mines closed, and employment was at its lowest.   The film title is derived from the name of a village in Nova Scotia, located on the east coast of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada.  A 1986 mining explosion that left 10 men dead in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, launches this thrilling drama, inspired by a true story, that merges coastal fishing with an international cocaine smuggling ring.  With the closing of the mine, Jimmy (Stephen Amell, television’s Arrow) is suddenly out of work, just as his untrustworthy great uncle Henry (prolific Nova Scotian actor Stephen McHattie) saunters in with a business proposal: join him on his lobster fishing boat.

Believing it’ll be a way to safely support his family, Jimmy also convinces his friends Tommy (Joshua Close) and Jake (Steve Lund) to join him, and very quickly, the three are rolling in the cash. The emotional toll also takes effect, particularly on Tommy, one of the crew members, when he ends up confessing to the priest during confession.  The moral issue of whether to support one’s family also comes into the equation.  Also included in the story are the effects of drug use, as in cocaine use by the locals.  LITTLE LORRAINE  is a solid film with a good story reflecting the atmosphere and period of Cape Breton with credible performances all around.

LUCKY LU (USA 2025) ***

Directed by Lloyd Lee Choi

 

LUCKY LU is far from lucky in yet another story of an immigrant who strives for a living using a bike. We have seen it all before in Vittorio De Sica’s classic BICYCLE THEIVES and the recent SOULEYMAN’S STOY, both films are much better than this one.  LUCKY LU is set in NYC, where Lu awaits the arrival of his wife and daughter.  New York food delivery driver Lu has been in the US for five years, hanging onto his dream of running a restaurant while doing whatever it takes to get by. As Lucky Lu begins, Lu has just acquired his first apartment, a sparsely furnished one-bedroom with a single window that lets in morning light. And he has found the place just in time — his wife and daughter are on their way from China. “A new place. A new beginning,” says his landlord. But Lu’s fresh start will prove agonizingly difficult to secure. A pretty dismal film, even if Lu gets the rent at the end, as it is just the beginning of a whole off of struggles.  Message in this film?  Do not immigrate.

MAMA (Israel/Poland/Italy 2025) ***1/2
Directed by O Sina

O MAMA tells the story of a mother, Mila (Evgenia Dodina, in a devastating and powerful performance), told from the character’s point of view of a suffering mother who has given up her family to work abroad in order to provide for her family financially.  She returns after an accident involving her arm, only to discover family problems like her cheating husband and her daughter pregnant and getting married.  Mila is no saint, having an affair with a younger black gardener ( a steamy sex scene), as well.  Director Sinai steers her drama away from melodrama and cheap dramatic theatrics while concentrating on the details of what can be called a character-driven story of human relationship decay within a family.  No one is perfect in this story, and no judgment is made. 

MEADOWLARKS (Canada 2025) **
Directed by Tasha Hubbard

 

 

MEADOWLARKS is based on director Hubbard’s  2017 documentary Birth of a Family.  Director Hubbard’s Meadowlarks is an emotional, fictionalized true drama that follows four siblings, separated by the Sixties Scoop, as they come together over a week.  Sixties Scoop refers to the term given for the then-common practice of removing Indigenous children from their families, often without consent, and placing them with the child welfare system.  There are no fewer than 3 Canadian films dealing with his topic at TIFF this year.  Instead of dealing of issues like how the siblings got to each and reunite, how they got taken away, Hubbard concentrates more on awkward small talk, gifts, and forced bonding events, the one brother and three sisters do their best to get to know one another after decades apart, their interactions and how they come to terms with one another.  Unfortunately, Hubbard stays on melodrama and emotional theatrics to tell her story, resulting in forced sentiment and overlong hugging and screaming sessions that go on with dysfunctional families that one has already seen too much of.  The audience is also forced to sit through one of the siblings, Justine’s full rendition of her ‘treat singing’.

MEMORY OF PRINCESS MUMBI (Kenya/Switz/Saudi Arabia 2-25) **
Directed by Damien Hauser

Drawing on modern technology i.e. AI) to visually restore kingdoms, director Hauser presents us with sumptuous settings while focusing on the human aspect: namely, the life and death of Princess Mumbi (Shandra Apondi), as told by the filmmaker Kuve (Abraham Joseph), who is threatened by his rival, the prince (Samson Waithaka), to whom the beautiful princess has been promised…  The film appears to b all over the place, with making doc to a romance and then death all summarized at the end of the film.  Princess Mumbi emphasizes in the film that filmmakers should make what audiences wish to see and not what they think international audiences like.  This amateurish-looking film with pastiched colours does not seem to heed either saying.

MILK TEETH (Romania/Denmark/France/Greece/Bulgaria 2025) **
Directed by Mihai Mincan

 

MILK TEETH is the story of how the younger sister copes with her missing elder sister after she goes missing while taking the trash to the dumpster, while she continues to play.  Maria feels guilty, as it was actually her turn to take out the garbage, and her sister was angry at her before she went missing.  But director Mincan is less interested in solving the case, instead reflecting on Maria’s feelings in the setting of a socialist Romania.  He could have done both.   While her mother (Marina Palii) loses her grip on the day-to-day and her father (Igor Babiac) loses his hope, Maria takes matters into her own hands, determined to find her sister. As Maria’s investigation begins taking a toll on her own mind, and her family continues slipping through the cracks, the auspicious political revolution dawning in Romania acts as a backdrop for their own personal nightmare.  The blurred narrative does not help the slow pace of the narrative.  There is no happy ending or solid closure to Maria’s demise.

 

 

NI-NAADAMAADIZ: RED POWER RISING (Canada 2025) 
Directed by Shane Belcourt

Armed with only having eight minutes of archival footage of 90 days in 1974, when 150 people took over Anicinabe Park in Kenora in protest over the ongoing mistreatment of Indigenous people at to work with, director Shane Belcourt — collaborating with acclaimed author and journalist Tanya Talaga who also serves as writer and producer — crafts a captivating and educational documentary of the struggle, injustice and racial prejudice of the Indegnuous people.  The movement is led by the charismatic and eloquent Louie Cameron, leader of the Ojibway Warriors Society. The protest reached all the way to the nation’s capital and beyond — it even caught the eye of the American Indian Movement, whose members joined the cause.  There are interviews carried out with Cameron’s close family like his wife and son, who bring an urgency and credibility to the story.  There is much to be learned, and the doc really puts one in the shoes of the mistreated.  Indian beaters, gay bashers, and  KKK members - why is there so much unnecessary and stupid hate in the world?

 

NO OTHER CHOICE )South Korea 2025) ***½

Directed by Park Chan-wook

 

The film starts with a family group hug, and Man-soo has it all: a loving wife, two talented children, and two happy dogs.  He even bought the beautiful forest-enclosed house where he grew up.  Then, after 25 years of dedicated work for Solar Paper — where he was awarded Pulp Man of the Year in 2019 — Man-soo is suddenly given the axe.  Soon, he is falling behind on his mortgage payments, and his wife Mi-ri insists they put the house up for sale.  Man-soo is desperate to scoop a coveted position with Moon Paper, but he knows there are other job seekers who match his pedigree. So he hatches a plan: invent a phony paper company, reach out to each of his rivals, lure them into a meeting… and, one by one, dispatch the competition.  It is a wicked and occasionally hilarious satire based on the novel THE AX by Donald Werstlake. Director Chan’s film takes its time to establish the plot, but it is all worth it in this deliciously wicked thriller.

NOMAD SHADOW (USA/Spain/France 2025) ***

Directed by Eimi Imanishi

 

American Japanese director Eimi Imanishi’s debut feature NOMAD SHADOW is an ambitious drama following a young Sahrawi woman as she determines her future after a major shakeup in her life.  The film begins with a dance club in Madrid as Mariam is escorted out of the club for drug selling.  As a result, she is deported from Spain to her home country in the Western Sahara.  Matters get worse as she tries to assimilate into life with her family.  The film shows what life in eh Shra is like and how people, particularly when faced.  Director Imanishi adds a surreal touch with scenes of Mariam on a boat at sea.  Through Mariam’s journey, he audience examines what both home and belonging mean.

NOVELLE VAGUE (FRANCE 2025) ****
Directed by Richard Linklater 

 

 

Having spent several years writing for Cahiers du cinéma, Godard (Guillaume Marbeck), not yet 30, declares, “The best way to criticize a film is to make one.” So off he goes, convincing George de Beauregard (Bruno Dreyfürst) to fund a low-budget independent feature and whipping up a treatment — there was never a proper script — with fellow New Waver François Truffaut (Adrien Rouyard) based on a news item about a gangster and his girlfriend.  A meticulously and handsomely delivered black and white homage to the French New Wave aka NOUVELLE VAGUE, sees the homage paid through the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s A BOUT DE SOUFFLE, also known in English as BREATHLESS.  Cinephiles will definitely delight in all the film references as well as the depiction of New Wave greats like directors Claude Chabrol, Francois Truffaut, Agnes Varda and husband Jacques Demy.  The film also depicts the idiosyncrasies of Godard, who shot BREATHELESS sans script and sand continuity, much to the chagrin of his financial backers, makeup artist and collaborators.  Seberg wanted to quit many times, but Belmondo finds all this absolutely amusing.

 

NUNS VS. THE VATICAN (USA 2025) ***
Directed by Lorena Luciano 

 

Like other docs about the abuse and misconduct of the Catholic Church, NUNS VS. THE VATICAN focuses on abuse by the priests on female nuns instead of male boys.   The thread of the doc is nothing out of the ordinary as it covers the abuse, the cover-up, the testimonies and possible prevention of further misconduct.  This doc by director Luciano covers the material from a more personal perspective, mainly from the abuse of an informer nun, Gloria, as she identifies the abuser, Marko Rupnik, who has gained much fame from his artistic works that have been displayed in churches around the world.  One can see the torment and trauma Gloria has experienced,d which makes this doc all the more relevant.   Ultimately, all of Rupnik’s art has been removed, but still, this man should be in prison.

 

 

OCA (Mexico/Argentina 2025) ***½

Directed by Karla Badillo

 A young nun sets off on a poetic, mystical pilgrimage to save her dying congregation, encountering others whose own trials of faith, privilege, and contradiction mirror her haunting search for divine meaning in a fractured, material world.  The film is described as Bunuel-ish for the reasons that the events in the film feel surreal and also for the religious overtones.  The protagonist is a catholic nun who travels to San Vincente on a motorcycle.  She is full of faith and believes that God has a plan not only for herself but also for others, especially those she meets on the way to a sort of pilgrimage.  She encounters a variety of odd characters, including a wealthy femme fatale driven in her car by her trusty chauffeur, a pilgrimage of villagers hoping to meet the arch-bishop in San Vincente and also robbers who steal her motorcycle.  OCA , the film title is a Spanish game in which there are twists and turns to get to the winning pots, just as the nun has to manoeuvre her way out of tricky situations.  A very intriguing film with lots of intriguing characters and events.

OLMO (USA/Mexico 2025) ****
Directed by Fernando Eimbcke

14-year-old Olmo is going through adolescence..  The film begins mischievously with Olmo’s dream, and he steps inside a hot rod with his sexy teen neighbour.  The toilet roll beside his bed shows him ready to finish off the dream with a happy ending.  OLMO tells the story of his quest for sex with his neighbour, who needs a stereo for her party.  To be invited, he has to steal and repair the broken one that belongs to his parents.  His father is bedridden with MS, and his mother is stressed, overworking, and behind with 3 months' rent.  The film is beautifully shot with the setting of 1979, bearing the mischievousness of the early John Hughes teen comedies, but this one has a message.  Director Eimbcke balances his family drama and growing-up story with plenty of humour, while avoiding sentimentality and melodrama. Totally remarkable and delightful performances all round, especially from Aidan Uttapa as Olmo.  Family is everything, even at the end of the film, when the mother still does not have enough money to pay the rent, when one knows everything is going to be all right. 

ORWELL: 2+2 = 5  (USA/France 2025) ***
Directed by Raoul Peck

 

 

ORWELL: 2+2 = 5 is high high-profile documentary produced by heavyweights Alex Gibney (TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE; ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM) and Raoul Peck (I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO; ERNEST COLE: LOST AND FOUND), who also directs the doc.

George Orwell, born George Blair, is an English writer famous for 1984 and ANIMAL FARM.  He started to write 1984 on the Scottish isle of Jura in 1948.  This doc is a blend of Orwell: his life and works with current events that include Trump’s fascist rule, the Ukraine invasion by Russia and the Palestinian/Israel War.

The doc includes old photos of Orwell as a baby and as a boy in school.  He belonged to the poorer end of the middle class.  His father, having the same status, assumed a higher status by taking a military post in the British colonized countries.  Orwell hated those in authoritarian power, as evident in his two most famous works, 1984 and ANIMAL FARM.  Orwell’s writing drew from his personal experience of poverty in Down and Out in Paris and London, of colonialism in Burmese Days, and of revolutionary uprising in Homage to Catalonia.  Most notable: At age 46, nearing death from tuberculosis, the last sentence he wrote was: “All that matters has already been written.”

The doc is most entertaining with clips of related movies, particularly Michael Radford’s 1984, which starred John Hurt as Orwell.  More than a dozen films are featured, particularly from multiple different adaptations of 1984 and ANIMAL FARM

The doc evokes a very depressing look at today’s world, at what it has become.  The doc concludes with a solution for what can be done.  This is reflected in organized protests by the people, like the Black Lives Matter walk.  But these solutions are difficult to come by and take lots of time and dedication from the people involved.

A POET (Un Poeta) (Colombia/Germany/Sweden 2025) ****
Directed by Simón Mesa Soto 

 

Coming right from Cannes, where A POET, in the Un Certain Regard section, won the Jury Prize, the film revolves around Óscar Restrepo, an aging poet who once had hopes of literary success but whose life has since drifted into obscurity, melancholy, and self-destructive habits.  He lives with his mother, struggles with unemployment, and drowns some of his disappointments in alcohol.  While teaching in a secondary school, he mentors Yurlady, a teenage student who shows raw talent in writing.  But fate is not on his side, as things go south for the poor soul.  A POET is tragedy in its most gruesome form, with Oscar brilliantly played like a monstrous troll by Ubeimar Ríos.  Dream big but achieve chaos!  One of the best of the festival!

THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE (Iraq 2025) ***½

Directed by Hasan Hadi

In the tradition of Jafar Panahi’s Iran 1995 film THE WHITE BALLOON, THE PRESIDENT'S CAKE has a young protagonist spending the entire film trying to find ingredients to make a cake in celebration of President Sudan Hussein’s birthday.   It is 1990s Iraq,  Young Lamia (Baneen Ahmed Nayyef) lives with her ailing grandmother, Bibi (Waheeda Thabet Khreiba), eking out an existence in a remote village where the best means of travel is by meshouf, a kind of canoe. Disaster strikes when Lamia is “honoured” with bringing the cake for her school class’s mandatory celebration of Saddam Hussein’s birthday.  In other circumstances, this might be an innocuous responsibility, but Bibi and Lamia can’t afford the ingredients — and the last family that didn’t comply was dragged through the streets.  Director Hadi takes his audience around the poorer streets of Iraq, showing how people eke up a living, and it is not a pretty sight.  People are poor and often dishonest.  Hadi paints the wonderful innocence of children, especially of Lamia, not even knowing at the film’s start that her grandmother was selling her off for good.  The film has premiered and been lauded at Cannes.

A PRIVATE LIFE (Vie privee)(France 2025) ***

Directed by Rebecca Zlotowski

 

Lilian (Foster), an American psychoanalyst in Paris, is devastated to learn that her client Paula (Virginie Efira) has taken her own life. Or has she? Visits from Paula's furious widower, Simon (Mathieu Amalric) and taciturn daughter Valérie (Luàna Bajrami), along with the discovery that files have been stolen from Lilian's office, suggest that Paula may have fallen victim to foul play.  Assisted by her ex-husband Gabriel (Daniel Auteuil), Lilian undertakes some amateur sleuthing.  Academy Award winner Jodie Foster stars in this strange murder mystery black comedy, playing an American psychiatrist working in France.  Foster speaks perfect French and it is strange but wonderful to watch her totally inhabit the role.  She works with French veteran Daniel Auteul, who plays her ex, Matthieu Amaric, in an angry, deranged encounter among others.  The script contains a lot of crazed characters, Jodie’s psychiatrist being one of them, with her conspiracy theories of murder and her past life.  It all turns out well at the end with a happy ending, though a bit too far-fetched for the film’s own good.

 

RENOIR (Japan/Singapore/France/Philippines/Qatar 2025) ***        

Directed by Chie Hayakawa

RENOIR captures the delicate and troubled transition from childhood to adolescence through the eyes of Fuki, an 11-year-old girl grappling with her father’s terminal illness, portrayed by incredibly talented newcomer Yui Suzuki.  Drawing on her own childhood experiences and set in the late 1980s when the director was the same age as her protagonist, Hayakawa’s narrative unfolds through the eyes of Fuki (Yui Suzuki), an 11-year-old girl coping with her father’s terminal illness. As Fuki navigates the emotional turbulence of preadolescence, she is left to fend for herself, with her mother (Hikari Ishida) overwhelmed by work and the stress of caring for a dying husband (Lily Franky).  The film is a slow burn but covers effectively the subjects of grief, emotions, adolescence and a parent/daughter relationship.  The heart of the story of Fuki’s father having cancer while her mother is working and stressed out over the situation, leaving Fuki much to herself.  The film covers too many issues, such as a sex predator and leaves too many unanswered questions about the issues brought forward.  One can argue that life is similar without many solutions, and director Jayakawa is providing a nuanced, though authentic, story of her past.

RETREAT (UK 2025) ***1/2

Directed by Ted Evans

 

Directed by Ted Evans, who is himself deaf, debuts his first and impressive genre-bending thriller with a deaf and deft thriller set in a commune of deaf inhabitants.  The story begins with a German newcomer, Eva (Anne Zander), entering the facility only to discover that nothing is what it seems.  Unlike other thrillers where the newcomer tries to escape, Eva is converted to start, while another, Matt, who has stayed there since 4, wishes to escape.  And all hell breaks loose as nothing is what it seems in this dark institution.  Director Evans builds his film to a credible and frightening climax.  The film has the feel of classics like LOGAN’S RUN and THE HANDMAID’S TALE.  An impressive, remarkable first feature!

ROOFMAN (USA 2025) ***½

Directed by Derek Cianfrance

 

ROOFMAN is the true story of a thief/robber named Jeffrey, aka ROOFMAN, who enters many McDonald’s through the roof, and hence the nickname.  A US military veteran unable to make ends meet, Jeffrey (Channing Tatum) gets caught robbing McDonald’s restaurants to provide for his kids. He’s tried, sentenced, incarcerated — and promptly breaks out.  While on the run, he finds his way into a Toys “R” Us, where he crafts a makeshift hideout behind a wall. Months pass, the manhunt is all but forgotten, and Jeffrey finds himself falling for Leigh (Kirsten Dunst), one of the store’s employees. A connection is forged, though Leigh knows nothing of Jeffrey’s criminal status nor his current residence inside her workplace.  Director Cianfartnce, who also co-wrote the script, ups the ante on charm with the film’s subject’s personality of always being a good guy, meeting the story.  The film plays as a romance, a comedy with a few very funny parts and a bit of a thriller.  Everyone loves to root for an underdog, especially with one as nice as Roofman, Jeff.  ROOFMAN is better and more entertaining than the film looks.

SACRIFICE( UK/Greece 2025) ***

Directed by Romain Gravas

 

A satire in its most energetic and blackest form, with nuanced actors like John Malkovich and Vincent Cassel who add to the mayhem, makes this climate change satire SACRIFICE an unforgettable experience, even if it is often too over-the-top and ridiculous.  Bracken (Vincent Cassel), a fusion of your least favourite billionaires, is present to muster support for a highly questionable deep-sea mining effort targeting essential minerals.  Complicating his efforts is Joan (Anya Taylor-Joy), the leader of a doomsday eco-cult.  She and her acolytes are convinced the only way to prevent the catastrophic, world-ending eruption of the huge volcano burbling off the coast is to offer up suitably famous sacrifices.  But the film centres on a self-centred Mike Tyler (Chris Evans) who is more concerned about his toupee than the proceedings.  Watch this one for all that it's worth!

SAIPAN (UK/Ireland 2025) ****

Directed by Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn

 

SAIPAN is the real-life drama behind star player Roy Keane’s rift with manager Mick McCarthy on the eve of the 2002 World Cup, Saipan is a story of ego, loyalty, and identity that resonates beyond the world of sports.  What began as a dispute over professionalism and pre-tournament training conditions on the remote Pacific Island of Saipan escalated into a national reckoning, dividing a country where football can be sacred. It was a moment that transcended sport, sparking pub debates, tabloid frenzy, political commentary, and even parliamentary mentions.  Steve Coogan delivers a riveting turn as McCarthy, opposite a formidable performance from Éanna Hardwicke as Keane.  This is a film not only for those who love the game of football.  What is most surprising is how the directors turn a story without a happy ending into an uplifting one.  There are a lot of solid quotes in the film as well, with a standout confrontation scene between the two men.

THE SECRET AGENT (O AGENT SCRETO) (Brazil/France/Germany 2025) ***** Top 10

Directed by  Kleber Mendonça Filho

 

Brazil, 1977. Marcelo, a technology expert in his early 40s, is on the run. He arrives in Recife ( seaside town in Brazil) during carnival week, hoping to reunite with his son, but soon realizes that the city is far from being the non-violent refuge he seeks.  Marcelo is told by the police chief that perhaps 100 people will die during the carnival, a joke that carries on throughout the movie.  Marcelo’s past is catching up with him, but he chooses to bring his life to a close with the satisfaction of spending the rest of his life with his son.  His son is presently staying with Marcelo’s parents, who care very much about the boy.

Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho, who also wrote the script for the film, is a familiar name to many cinephiles and film critics, making his name in his 2012 multiple award-winning NEIGHBOURING SOUNDS, also set in his birthplace of Recife in North East Brazil, and also his recent 2023 documentary PORTRAITS OF GHOSTS.  THE SECRET AGENT is a film the director reportedly wanted to make for years and it is not only an excellent film but one of the best to hit screens at both TIFF and in theatres.

The film pays homage to several films of the 70s when the film is set (actually 1977).  Most noticeable is the 1975 Steven Spielberg’s JAWS.  Recife is also a seaside town.  Other films that can be noticed in Filho’s film include actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, most likely in Philippe De Broca’s 1964 film THAT MAN IN RIO.

The film suffers from a rather overlong epilogue, featuring a conversation between two individuals in a hospital, which is a bit of a letdown after a spy-like chase through the streets.

Actor Wagner Moura, who plays Marcelo in the film, also serves as one of the film’s producers.  Some humour is provided by a cameo by Udo Kier who plays a German showing off his bullet scars on his leg.  Some of the supporting cast provide terrific performances.

Director Filho keeps his audience guessing most of the time about what is happening.  There is always a sense of intrigue and mystery from the film’s start when the hero, Marcelo, is driving through a gas station in which a deadman has been shot and covered with a blanket just outside the vicinity of the station at the film’s start to two sudden thugs suddenly appear out of the blue in pursuit of Marcelo.

THE SECRET AGENT has won multiple awards at Cannes, where it premiered.  It runs a lengthy 160 minutes, but every minute is worth it.  A major surprise, THE SECRET AGENT proves intrigue, mystery, action, some biting humour while reflecting the urgency of one’s times, whether the past and present, and how one needs to come to terms with one’s past, despite the risks involved.

 

 

 SENTIMENTAL VALUE (Norway/Sweden/Denmark/France/Germany 2025) ***
Directed by Joachim Trier

This is the Grand Prix Jury Cannes Winner that reportedly received a 19-minute standing ovation, a film that arrives with high expectations, too high to meet.  At its worst, the film is a predictable, artistic, pretentious, but layered film that heads straight to a cop-out happy ending in which telling a story heals wounds.  The story centres on two estranged sisters—Nora, an intense stage actress, and Agnes, who leads a more stable life—who are forced to confront the return of their father, Gustav, a once-celebrated but now forgotten film director. Stellan Skarsgard shines in his performance despite the film’s faults.  Again, too many added components create a hardly believable story of reconciliation (the healing of old wounds) and trauma.

STEVE (UK/Ireland 2025) ****

Directed by Tim  Mielants 

 

Reminiscent of the French classroom drama BETWEEN THE WALLS, done cinema-verite/doc style, or a more maverick styled TO SIR WITH LOVE, the film follows a head teacher STEVE (Cilian Murphy) working in troubled school of boys, somewhat before they become SCUM in a borstal  Steve (Murphy) is the passionate head of a crumbling “last chance” reform school for teenage boys. With meagre resources, overstretched staff, and a mounting sense of futility, Steve must navigate one pivotal and precarious day made more tense by the arrival of a documentary news crew profiling the school, and the result may prove to be more exposé than commendation. The school is part institution and part last-ditch social experiment conducted in a shoddy rural manor house run by tired adults who believe their students still have something to offer the world. The boys, meanwhile, navigate an uneasy border between volatility and vulnerability. Mielants' score top marks in his storytelling technique using a combo of flashbacks and forwards, added by Murphy’s and Emily Watson’s stunning performances,

THERE ARE NO WORDS (Canada 2025) 
Directed by Min Sook Lee

 

The image above shows an old photo of the director and her mother.  Piecing together old letters, photos, and a few videos of her past childhood, director Min assembles and makes sense of the past that wraps an entire family's history, its mysteries and controversies, its lies, and its truth. 

Review embargo lifted after Thursday, 4th 10 pm screening.

 

TRUE NORTH (USA/Canada 2025) ***
Directed by Michele Stephenson

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A bold, informative, and disturbing documentary, Michele Stephenson’s TRUE NORTH is a compilation of archive footage telling of the fight against black racism.  The documentary centres on the 1969 student protests against racism at Montreal’s Concordia University and their contribution to the story of Black liberation.  Director Stephenson lets the events and the activists captured on camera speak for themselves and lets her audience decide for themselves how to make sense of all the information at hand.   The main difference between this doc and others is that it does not hammer you with the filmmakers’ views through their voiceover or writings.

THREE GOODBYES (TRES CIOTOLE) (Itay/Spain 2025) **

Directed by Isabel Coixet

 

 

 

The Italian title of this wonderfully delivered film on the wonder of life as experienced, ironically by the protagonist diagnosed with stage 4 cancer after an emotional breakup, is ‘three riceballs’, which are served in Antonio’s restaurant.  The balls are peeled like an onion to reveal different, unexpected aspects of life.  There are natural surprises in the films, just as a dog happened to walk past in a scene where Marta is speaking with her sister.  Marta (Alba Rohrwacher), a high-school teacher, and her partner, Antonio (Elio Germano), a chef, live in Rome.  While Antonio’s star is rising, Marta seems to lack passion and interest in Antonio’s recipes. One day, after many years together, the pair split after a seemingly trivial argument. Marta withdraws into herself while Antonio jumps into his new endeavour, a restaurant of his own creation. Soon after, everything changes in Marta’s world when she discovers that her loss of appetite has more to do with her health than the pains of separation. Now, with time running out, Marta must learn who she is and what she lives for.  Life is shown in the film as an accidental wonder, with a message that one should do things for oneself, with wonderful, unexpected results. just like watching this strange yet wonderful film from director Coixet.

 

TO THE VICTORY! (Ukraine 2025)

Embargo lifted after screening on Sat Sept 6th 3:30PM ET  

THE UGLY (South Korea) ***½

Directed by Yeon Sang-ho

 

Director Yeo of TRAIN TO BUSAN  tackles a more intimate subject in a lower-budget but no less engrossing movie about abuse (sex abuse, bullying, spouse abuse) of many sorts.  THE UGLY follows Dong-hwan (Park Jeong-min), a young man searching for answers about his mother’s mysterious past.  Park skilfully portrays both Dong-hwan and the younger version of his father, Yeong-gyu (in flashbacks), a blind stamp carver obsessed with the beauty he cannot see.  The film quietly interrogates what beauty really means — who defines it, who owns it, and what it conceals. Ironically, the film’s clearest insights into beauty come from its blind characters, further challenging the audience’s assumptions.  Yeon’s story moves slowly, though not without much drama and material, unfolding through flashbacks in chapters from Interview Number 1 to Interview Number 4.

UNDER THE SAME SUN (Dominican Rep/Spain 2025) ***
Directed by Ulisis Porra

UNIDENTIFIED (Saudi Arabia 2025) ***
Directed by Haifaa Al Mansou

 

Saudi Arabian director Haifaa Al Mansour (Wadjda)’s latest film is a mystery crime thriller that unfolds like a true crime drama.  It is a female gender slant that pushes against gender norms and challenges simplistic narratives of femicide,  a female-driven detective story that transgresses all manner of jurisdiction in its dogged pursuit of justice.  A young woman’s abandoned body is found in the desert and bears no identification.  When the Riyadh authorities go to investigate, they recruit police department receptionist Nawal (Mila Alzahrani) to help the otherwise all-male team discover details only a woman would notice.  The intelligent and observant Nawal, a true-crime fan, possesses an unusual degree of knowledge when it comes to homicide investigations. While the police drag their heels, she quietly takes matters into her own hands, going to different all-girls’ high schools to ask about missing students, only to find the administrators uncooperative, wanting no part in any story about supposedly “sinful” girls.  But if it appears all too convenient that Nawal eventually finds all the clues and solves the case, there is more than meets the eye in a clever twist that one would never expect, lifting the film from what one would think is the typical murder mystery.  Well-plotted and delivered in a seldom-seen setting, UNIDENTIFIED is a surprise gem.

A USEFUL GHOST (Thailand/Singapore/France/Germany 2025) **
Directed by Ratchapoom Boombunchachoke

 

Described as a black comedy, A USEFUL GHOST is an over 2-hour slow-burning deadpan comedy that moves so slowly that it takes great effort to stay awake, especially when watching the film during a festival.   The film boasts a fresh idea.  March is mourning his wife, Nat, who has recently passed away due to dust pollution. He discovers her spirit has returned by possessing the vacuum cleaner. Being disturbed by a ghost that appeared after a worker's death shut down their factory, his family rejects the unconventional human-ghost relationship. Msrch’s family accepts the fact and allows him to communicate with the ghost vacuum.  Trying to convince them of their love, Nat offers to cleanse the factory. To become a useful ghost, she must first get rid of the useless ones.  It is weird to see actors talking or making out with a vacuum cleaner, and the director Ratchapoom Boombunchachoke uses the fact for the utmost effect.  The film is mildly amusing and one wonders the point in all of this.

WAYWARD (Canada 2025) ***½

Directed by Mae Martin and Ryan Scott

 

WAYWARD is a Canadian-made limited series by Netflix.  What is the screen are the fruit 2 episodes of an 8-episode series.  Wayward follows rebellious teens Abby (Sydney Topliffe) and Leila (Alyvia Alyn Lind) in the early aughts as they skip classes, get high, and listen to their Discmans, unaware that their parents are scheming to remedy their “bad” behaviour by involuntarily admitting them to a mysterious correctional school.  As Abby and Leila innocently enjoy their final days of slacker freedom, detective Alex Dempsey (Martin) arrives in the town of Tall Pines with their wife, Laura (Sarah Gadon), who grew up there and feels drawn to return in her final months of pregnancy.   Tall Pines is the kind of place where everyone knows your name, and homemade preserves are left on your front porch by neighbours, a gesture Laura finds comforting and Alex finds jarring.   It is a creepy place, and the film has an exciting mystery air reminiscent of THE STEPFORD WIVES and the recent WEAPONS.  In case on is wondering, Martin is non-binary, playing a husband.  The first two episodes are nothing but excellent,t making one eager to watch the rest of the series.

YOUNGBLOOD (Canada 2025) **
Directed by Hubert Davis

 

Director Davis, known for his award-winning racism hockey do BLACK ICE directs YOUGBLOOD that looks like a fictionalized doc.  Conditioned by his father, Blane (Blair Underwood) to match any slight with a greater show of aggression, Dean (Ashton James) is a black player whose potential for greatness is stymied by his short temper on and off the ice.  A chance to play for the Hamilton Mustangs could be Dean’s last opportunity to course correct.  But that means contending with toxic teammates and finding a way to work with Murray (Shawn Doyle), the Mustangs’ skeptical coach.   The story, however, is riddled with cliches. made worse with a relationship between Dean with the bench boss’s daughter Jessie (Alexandra McDonald).   Everything goes on as expected in a sports drama, including a final win at the climactic hockey match.  The film is dedicated to the legendary late Canadian director Charles Officer, who was originally slated to direct the film.