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REVIEWS

September 4 - 14, 2025

Ballad of a Small Player

United Kingdom | 2025 | 101m | English

This seductive character study from Oscar-winning director Edward Berger (TIFF ’24’s Conclave), stars Oscar nominee Colin Farrell as an obsessive travelling gambler and Oscar winner Tilda Swinton as the dogged detective determined to track him down.

Review By Kurt Morrison

Christy

United States of America | 2025 | 135m | English

Featuring a career-best performance from Sydney Sweeney (TIFF ’24’s Eden), the latest from David Michôd (Animal Kingdom) chronicles groundbreaking boxer Christy Martin's fierce story of self-actualization in the face of terrifying adversity.

Review By Darren Zakus

Eleanor The Great

United States of America | 2025 | 98m | English

Oscar nominee June Squibb (The Humans, TIFF ’21; Nebraska) stars in Scarlett Johansson’s thoughtful, provocative, and very funny feature directorial debut, about a nonagenarian who passes herself off as a Holocaust survivor.

Review By Darren Zakus

Frankenstein

United States of America | 2025 | 149m | English

Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro’s visually sumptuous adaptation of Mary Shelley’s gothic masterpiece finds Oscar Isaac as the brilliant scientist whose unearthly creation, eerily and ingeniously conjured by Jacob Elordi, blurs the boundaries between life, death, and madness.

Review By Darren Zakus

Hamnet

United Kingdom | 2025 | 125m | English

Academy Award–winning director Chloé Zhao (Nomadland, TIFF ’20 People’s Choice Award) helms this lush and tender drama about William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his family, as seen through the eyes of his thoughtful wife Agnes (a luminous Jessie Buckley).

Review By Darren Zakus

John Candy: I Like Me

United States of America | 2025 | 113m | English

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.

Review By Darren Zakus

Modern Whore

Canada | 2025 | 80m | English

Andrea Werhun and Nicole Bazuin challenge toxic misconceptions about sex work and sex workers with great audacity and high style.

Review By Darren Zakus

Nouvelle Vague

France | 2025 | 106m | French

Richard Linklater’s love letter to the French New Wave tells the story of Jean-Luc Godard making his legendary 1960 feature debut, Breathless.

Review By Darren Zakus

Orwell 2+2=5

United States of America, France | 2025 | 119m | English

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro) takes a deep dive into the writing of George Orwell (1984) to explore its potent relevancy to our current times.

Review By Kurt Morrison

Sentimental Value

Norway, France, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, United Kingdom | 2025 | 135m | English, Norwegian

Stellan Skarsgård and Renate Reinsve lead an incomparable cast in Joachim Trier’s moving drama about a director’s bid to revive his career and repair his family’s broken bonds.

Review By Kurt Morrison

Swiped

United States of America | 2025 | 110m | English

Starring Lily James, this drama from director Rachel Lee Goldenberg (Unpregnant) is inspired by the real-life story of Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd.

Review By Darren Zakus

The Last One for the Road

Italy, Germany | 2025 | 100m | Italian

Francesco Sossai’s latest is an effortlessly charming and utterly delightful romp through the Italian countryside from the POV of a passenger in a car with two old-timers reliving their long-gone glory days.

Review Coming Soon

Wake Up Dead Man

United States of America | 2025 | 144m | English

Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) faces his most dangerous mystery yet in the latest entry in Rian Johnson’s beloved Knives Out series.

Review By Darren Zakus

Ballad of a Small Player

United Kingdom | 2025 | 101m | English

This seductive character study from Oscar-winning director Edward Berger (TIFF ’24’s Conclave), stars Oscar nominee Colin Farrell as an obsessive travelling gambler and Oscar winner Tilda Swinton as the dogged detective determined to track him down.

Review By Eden Prosser

DISC

United States of America | 2025 | 14m | English

Jim Cummings and Victoria Ratermanis hit it out of the park in Blake Rice’s singular spin on the hookup trope, in which an intimate crisis involving a feminine hygiene product brings two strangers closer than they ever imagined.

Review By Darren Zakus

Eleanor The Great

United States of America | 2025 | 98m | English

Oscar nominee June Squibb (The Humans, TIFF ’21; Nebraska) stars in Scarlett Johansson’s thoughtful, provocative, and very funny feature directorial debut, about a nonagenarian who passes herself off as a Holocaust survivor.

Review By Eden Prosser

Frankenstein

United States of America | 2025 | 149m | English

Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro’s visually sumptuous adaptation of Mary Shelley’s gothic masterpiece finds Oscar Isaac as the brilliant scientist whose unearthly creation, eerily and ingeniously conjured by Jacob Elordi, blurs the boundaries between life, death, and madness.

Review By Eden Prosser

Hedda

United States of America | 2025 | 107m | English

Transplanted to mid-century England, Candyman director Nia DaCosta’s bold reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s play features a magnetic lead performance from Tessa Thompson (Passing) in a fresh, feminist game of power.

Review By Darren Zakus

Little Lorraine

Canada | 2025 | 115m | English

A small town in Cape Breton becomes home to an international drug smuggling ring, featuring Stephen Amell, Stephen McHattie, Sean Astin and Colombian musician J Balvin.

Review Coming Soon

Motor City

United States of America | 2025 | 103m | English

Alan Ritchson, Ben Foster, and Shailene Woodley propel this violent revenge tale. When a ’70s-era everyman is framed by a ruthless local gangster, he emerges from prison determined to reclaim his life by any means necessary. Detroit native Jack White curates the propulsive score.

Review By Darren Zakus

Nuremberg

United States of America | 2025 | 148m | English, German

Featuring powerhouse performances from Oscar winners Russell Crowe and Rami Malek, this gripping historical drama from writer-director James Vanderbilt (TIFF ’15’s Truth) chronicles the events that brought the Nazi high command to justice in the wake of World War II.

Review By Darren Zakus

Rental Family

United States of America, Japan | 2025 | 110m | English, Japanese

Oscar winner Brendan Fraser stars as an American actor in Tokyo who suffers a colossal case of impostor syndrome when he becomes a professional surrogate in this wise and whimsical dramedy from director HIKARI (TIFF ’19’s 37 Seconds).

Review By Kurt Morrison

Sentimental Value

Norway, France, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, United Kingdom | 2025 | 135m | English, Norwegian

Stellan Skarsgård and Renate Reinsve lead an incomparable cast in Joachim Trier’s moving drama about a director’s bid to revive his career and repair his family’s broken bonds.

Review By Eden Prosser

The Captive

Spain, Italy | 2025 | 134m | Spanish, Arabic, Italian

In 1575 Algiers, a young soldier named Miguel de Cervantes is held for ransom — unaware he’s on the path to becoming one of history’s greatest storytellers. This bold, visually stunning film is a reimagining of the true story behind Cervantes’ transformation.

Review Coming Soon

The Lost Bus

United States of America | 2025 | 129m | English

Based on events that transpired during the California Camp Fire, this tale of heroism from Oscar-nominated director Paul Greengrass (United 93) stars Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera in a desperate struggle to bring a busload of children to safety.

Review By Darren Zakus

Blue Moon

United States of America, Ireland | 2025 | 100m | English

Ethan Hawke delivers a charming, lived-in performance as lyricist Lorenz Hart, holding court at Sardi’s on the historic night of his former collaborator Richard Rodgers’ (Andrew Scott) greatest triumph: the premiere of Oklahoma!

Review By Eden Prosser

Dandelion's Odyssey

France, Belgium | 2025 | 77m | No Dialogue

Four dandelion achenes escape the nuclear destruction of Earth, launching themselves into the corners of space and working together to survive on a strange new world in this landmark hybrid of live-action and animated storytelling.

Review By Eden Prosser

Eternity

United States of America | 2025 | 112m | English

Set in the afterlife, this stirring drama from director David Freyne (TIFF ’17’s The Cured) features Elizabeth Olsen (TIFF ’24’s The Assessment) and Miles Teller (Whiplash) as souls in transit — and a troubled love triangle.

Review By Kurt Morrison

Good Fortune

United States of America | 2025 | 98m | English

Actor-writer-director Aziz Ansari co-stars with Keanu Reeves, Seth Rogen, Sandra Oh, and Keke Palmer in this hilarious modern fantasy in which the angel Gabriel, dissatisfied with performing minor acts of divine intervention, attempts to improve the lives of several struggling mortals.

Review Coming Soon

Honey Bunch

Canada | 2025 | 113m | English, French

Undergoing an unconventional therapy after a recent injury, a woman begins to experience strange occurrences in Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli’s genre-bending thriller.

Review By Darren Zakus

Mile End Kicks

Canada | 2025 | 111m | English

I Like Movies director Chandler Levack’s Mile End Kicks is a bright romantic comedy starring Barbie Ferreira as Grace, a young music critic who moves to Montreal to figure out life and love.

Review By Eden Prosser

No Other Choice

South Korea | 2025 | 139m | Korean

Adapted from a novel by Donald E. Westlake (Payback), this incisive, darkly comic satire from Park Chan-wook (TIFF ’22’s Decision to Leave) follows a newly unemployed man who, desperate to land a coveted position, hatches a ruthless plan to dispatch his competition.

Review Coming Soon

Obsession

United States of America | 2025 | 108m | English

When a hopeless romantic makes a wish that his long-time crush falls in love with him, a sinister enchantment ensues in writer-director Curry Barker’s freaky and frightening feature debut.

Review By Darren Zakus

Roofman

United States of America | 2025 | 126m | English

Starring Channing Tatum and Oscar nominee Kirsten Dunst, this wildly entertaining drama from Oscar-nominated director Derek Cianfrance (TIFF ’10’s Blue Valentine) tells the real-life story of Jeffrey Manchester, the “Rooftop Robber,” and his efforts to evade capture.

Review By Darren Zakus

Steve

Ireland, United Kingdom | 2025 | 92m | English

Oscar winner Cillian Murphy anchors this gripping adaptation of a bestselling novella from 2023. Faced with ever-increasing pressures, the head of a crumbling reform school for boys navigates a pivotal, fraught day while clinging to a fading sense of hope.

Review By Darren Zakus

The Cost of Heaven

Canada | 2025 | 116m | French, English, Arabic

Stymied by socio-economic insecurities and determined to get a taste of the good life, a family man resorts to increasingly dark and desperate measures in Mathieu Denis’ enthralling drama.

Review Coming Soon

The Smashing Machine

United States of America | 2025 | 123m | English

In one of the year’s most unexpected team-ups, indie icon Benny Safdie and star Dwayne Johnson unite for The Smashing Machine, the powerful and gritty account of the career of MMA and UFC pioneer Mark Kerr, co-starring Emily Blunt and a variety of UFC legends.

Review By Kurt Morrison

tiff trailers

GREEN BOOK Trailer | TIFF 2018
LIFE ITSELF Trailer | TIFF 2018
A STAR IS BORN Trailer | TIFF 2018
FIRST MAN Trailer | TIFF 2018
HIDDEN MAN Trailer | TIFF 2018
SHADOW Trailer | TIFF 2018
BEAUTIFUL BOY Trailer | TIFF 2018
THE PUBLIC Trailer | TIFF 2018

pics at tiff

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