Capsule Reviews:
100 SUNSET (Canada 2025)
Directed by Kunsang Kyirong
Embargo lifted after 1130 am screening Sunday 7th.
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.
THE CONDOR DAUGHTER (La Hija Condor)(Bolivia/Peru/Uruguay 2025) ***
Directed by Álvaro Olmos Torrico
Embargo review lifted Sunday 7th, after 315pm
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.
HONEY BUNCH (Canada 2025)
Directed by Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli
Embargo lifted after screening: Thursday 4th, 915pm
LITTLE LORRAINE (Canada 2025)
Directed by Andy Hines
Embargo lifted Friday, 5th, after 945 am showing
NI-NAADAMAADIZ: RED POWER RISING (Canada 2025) ***
Directed by Shane Belcourt
Embargo lifted when Tuesday 9th screening at 830 am ends
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 BREATLESS 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.
MAMA (Israel/Poland/Italy 2025) ***1/2
Directed by O Sinai
Being a mama (mother) is no simple task but a full time responsibility as this new film called MAMA deomonstartes in a story of one tramumatic mother, 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 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. Observation proves that there is much truth and pain intros well well-delivered story.
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
Reviews and social media mentions for this title are embargoed until after the TIFF Press & Industry screening at 2:30 PM EST on Thursday, September 4th, 2025 (11:30 AM PST / 1:30 PM CST).
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.
SENTIMENTAL VALUE (Norway/Sweden/Denmark/France/Germany 2025)
Directed by Joachim Trier
Review embargo lifted after 4th Thursday, 9 am screening
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.
TO THE VICTORY! (Ukraine 2025)
Embargo lifted after screening on Sat Sept 6th 3:30PM ET
UNDER THE SAME SUN (Dominican Rep/Spain 2025)
Directed by Ulisis Porra
Review embargo lifted after 9 am Tuesday 9th screening
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.
