Movie Reviews and Previews Ethan Hawke in Blue Moon If “theater kid” was personified as a film, it would be Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon, a very theatrical imagining of a real moment in time and the conversations that may have been had between people who definitely knew each other. It’s March 31, 1943, the opening night of By Sarah • Oct 24, 2025 03:41 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Jacob and Olivia make it more obvious Jacob Elordi showed up to the TIFF premiere of Frankenstein with Olivia Jade Giannulli last week about a month after it was reported that they’d broken up and two days after it was rumoured that she might have been seeing Glen Powell. Given her presence and the fact that By Lainey • Sep 16, 2025 01:50 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: Leo Woodall in Tuner There is nothing more fun at a film festival than the feeling of discovery, of seeing something new, or something that makes you see in a new way. Tuner, a heist flick with a musical bent, was just such a discovery as it features a standout performance from Leo Woodall. By Sarah • Sep 12, 2025 03:29 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: Paul Dano and Jude Law in The Wizard of the Kremlin They say the truth can be stranger than fiction, but sometimes the truth is so twisted that only fiction can cut through to something real. Such is the case with The Wizard of the Kremlin, a fictionalization of Vladimir Putin’s rise to power in post-Soviet Russia. Directed by Olivier By Sarah • Sep 12, 2025 01:14 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet In her 1929 essay A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf imagines a sister of William Shakespeare called Judith, every bit as creative and talented as her brother, to illustrate how gender historically limited opportunities for women. Denied education and opportunity, the imaginary Judith dies in obscurity and is By Sarah • Sep 11, 2025 02:59 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: Tessa Thompson in Hedda Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler invents a character, the eponymous Hedda Gabler, who is considered one of the greatest female dramatic roles ever written. Hedda is a tragic and doomed figure, often compared to Hamlet. Nia DaCosta, adapting Ibsen herself for a new cinematic iteration dubbed simply Hedda, discards Ibsen’ By Sarah • Sep 10, 2025 03:01 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is one of the most enduring works of English literature, often considered one of the first, if not the first, science fiction novels, as well as an early flagship in horror literature. It has been adapted and reimagined countless times over the centuries, the latest iteration By Sarah • Sep 10, 2025 10:42 am
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: Brendan Fraser in Rental Family There is a phenomenon that occurs when an actor wins an Oscar that they often go forth and almost immediately appear in a better film, giving a better performance. Recent examples include Emma Stone winning an Oscar for La La Land only to appear in The Favourite, a better movie By Sarah • Sep 09, 2025 02:46 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: Chris Evans and Anya Taylor-Joy in Sacrifice The last few years have seen a glut of “eat the rich” films—and TV shows—and Romain Gavras’s Sacrifice is another of the type. Co-written with Pulitzer-nominee Will Arbery, Sacrifice follows a clash of the rich and the idealistic, perhaps at the end of the world. Movie star By Sarah • Sep 09, 2025 12:42 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Jacob Elordi is unsingle, just in time Exactly a month ago, I posted about Jacob Elordi and Olivia Jade Giannulli’s breakup after PEOPLE reported it exclusively. The title of that post was “Jacob Elordi is single, just in time”. In time of course for Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein and, in a few months, Emerald Fennell’ By Lainey • Sep 09, 2025 11:33 am
Movie Reviews and Previews Wake Up Dead Man is the creepy one As I write this, it is my final night in Toronto for TIFF and Wake Up Dead Man did not fit into my schedule. I am bereft, I am bothered, I am bemused, I am bereaved(?), I am exhausted and running out of b-synonyms. The teaser for Wake Up Dead By Sarah • Sep 09, 2025 10:35 am
Gorgessity Tessa Thompson was first In one of his VMAs wrap-up posts today, MC posted about how many people showed up in red at the VMAs. That was on Sunday but on Saturday, Tessa Thompson set the red standard, in my opinion anyway. Tessa is at TIFF to promote Nia DaCosta’s Hedda – the world By Lainey • Sep 08, 2025 04:02 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: Angelina Jolie in Couture Alice Winocour is an idiosyncratic filmmaker who has yet to work in the same genre twice. Her latest film, Couture, is an anthological drama set during Paris Fashion Week following several different women through their journeys during couture’s most important week. Written and directed by Winocour, Couture is also By Sarah • Sep 08, 2025 12:53 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: Sydney Sweeney in Christy TW for domestic violence Christy Salters, known for much of her career by her married name, Christy Martin, put women’s boxing on the map, and was the first “lady fighter” to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated and compete in a Pay-Per-View match. She was a champion and a By Sarah • Sep 08, 2025 11:45 am
Movie Reviews and Previews TIFF Review: Riz Ahmed in Hamlet Hamlet is Hamlet is Hamlet, there’s only so much you can do with Hamlet, it’s been done so many times by so many people in so many mediums over the literal centuries since Shakespeare’s play debuted. The latest update comes from director Aneil Karia and stars Riz By Sarah • Sep 05, 2025 01:42 pm
Movie Reviews and Previews Sydney Sweeney changes the subject One of the highlights on the TIFF calendar today is David Michôd’s Christy, a biopic of boxer Christy Martin with Sydney Sweeney in the role. Ahead of the world premiere this afternoon, it was announced yesterday that the film will be released November 7, which means the distributor has By Lainey • Sep 05, 2025 11:32 am
