TIFF ’25: What to See at This Year’s Fest, Sept. 7
By Jim Slotek, Liz Braun, Thom Ernst, Karen Gordon, Kim Hughes, John Kirk, Chris Knight, Liam Lacey and Bonnie Laufer
Seen anything great yet? We certainly have though there have been some disappointments in the mix. But that’s the beauty of the Toronto International Film Festival, celebrating it’s 50th year in 2025. You just never know what the next screening might hold. Herewith, Original-Cin’s intrepid writers offer tips via capsule reviews.
Ky Nam Inn
At the Place of Ghosts (Platform)
Sun, Sept. 7, 2:30 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 14.
Bretten Hannam, a young L’nu filmmaker, juggles multiple themes in this scary tale of two estranged Mi’kmaw brothers (Blake Alec Miranda and Forrest Goodluck) who are forced to put differences aside and seek to put a stop to a vengeful ghost that is pursuing them. There are elements of time travel (long-dead familiar faces, colonial soldiers), the past hurdles of staying true to two-spiritedness, Indigenous lore, spirit animals, etc., and the draining of their energy as they get near the source of their pain. Hannam has maybe a bit too much to get off his chest for one movie, and not all these elements connect seamlessly. Still, the film has a look and a mood that works for those of us who’ve always found the woods a little spooky. JS
Bad Apples (Special Presentations)
Sun, Sept. 7, 9:45 pm, TIFF Lightbox 1; Mon, Sept. 8, 3:15 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 1; Sat, Sept. 13, 10 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 11; Sun, Sept. 14, 6:45 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 3.
In this biting satire directed by Jonatan Etzler, we meet Danny (Eddie Waller), a disruptive, distracting, even violent student whose behaviour is negatively impacting his classmates. Parents seek to blame teacher Maria Spencer (Saoirse Ronan), unaware of the challenges in the classroom and her life. The school’s administration is also unsupportive, threatening Maria with job action if she cannot keep this recalcitrant student under control. Real-life teachers may feel triggered by this nightmare scenario though the story takes on subtle yet irresistible notes of dark comedy. A satirical look at the state of education in the western world, Bad Apples promises no solutions but a thoroughly entertaining treatment of the problem that won’t fail to thrill an audience. JK
Good Fortune (Gala Presentations)
Sunday, Sept. 7, 5:45 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 2.
Aziz Ansari’s debut Good Fortune plays like an Aesop fable with Frank Capra’s DNA (and maybe a dash of Wim Wenders). Think The Prince and the Pauper, Trading Places, It’s A Wonderful Life, even A Christmas Carol. Keanu Reeves, channeling his inner Ted, is Gabriel, a sweet but over-eager angel hoping to climb the celestial ladder by improving the life of Arj (Ansari), a man living out of his car while juggling dead-end jobs. A botched swap with a tech executive (Seth Rogen) sends the story into comic chaos. It’s a morality tale about learning to love the life you’ve got. The movie-lover in me laughs along, while the cynic rolls his eyes at wealthy people (played by wealthy people) discovering the joys of humility. I know, I know; relax, Thom, it’s only a movie. TE
Ky Nam Inn (Special Presentations)
Sun, Sept. 7, 11 am, TIFF Lightbox 3; Tue, Sept. 9, 11:15 am, Scotiabank Theatre 10; Sat, Sept. 13, 11:30 am, Scotiabank Theatre 13.
Fans of wistful romantic dramas such as Before Sunrise and In the Mood for Love will find much to like in Vietnamese director Leon Le’s beautifully filmed drama, set in Saigon in 1985, a decade after the war, and cast as a literary memoir. Young translator Khang (Lien Binh Phat), whose uncle has influence in the Communist party, takes temporary rooms in a dilapidated collective housing unit to work on a translation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince. The building is filled with various small business owners, gossips, chickens, and occasional rats, which must be caught to satisfy local quotas.
While the young women in the complex eye the handsome Khang as a potential catch, he is drawn to a quiet widow (Do Thi Hai Yen, The Quiet American) who makes a living as a caterer. When her arm is injured breaking up a fight, Khang offers to help her in exchange for meals, and we gradually learn about the things that connect and divide them and the threat of the police state There’s a great night walking scene through Saigon, as the markets are just about to open and, more broadly, the film offers a colourful social portrait of the post-war city, though at 140 minutes, the slow-burn romance may burn about 15 minutes more than it needs to. LL
Mārama (Discovery)
Sun, Sept. 7, 11 am, TIFF Lightbox 3; Mon, Sept. 8, 12:30 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 11.
Post-colonial literary scholars have speculated on the racial identities of two of the Brontë sisters’ most famous characters: Heathcliff in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and Bertha Antionette Rochester in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Those Victorian antecedents are clearly present in Mārama, a handsomely shot Māori gothic tale written and directed by half-Māori London-based director Taratoa Stoppard. The story follows Mary Stephens, a young Māori woman raised by Europeans who is invited to serve as a governess for the granddaughter of a rich Yorkshire Englishman, Sir Nathaniel Cole (Toby Stephens), who made a fortune as a whaler — an animal sacred to Māori — and now lives with his widowed son. And then comes the gothic part: Sir Nathaniel’s interest in Māori culture and collecting cultural objects is patronizing and fetishistic, in ways that disgust and horrify Mary and trigger a series of visions, dreams, flashbacks and transformations that are challenging to follow.
But tensions come to a head in a fabulous birthday scene, where one of Sir Nathaniel’s servants performs a grotesque parody of a warrior dance to amuse the guests, and Mary explodes in response with a challenging haka dance, a combination of stamping, chanting, grimacing and gesturing that previews the upcoming vengeance she unleashes on her tormentors. LL
Nika & Madison (Discovery)
Sun, Sept. 7, 3:45 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 11; Mon, Sept. 8, 6 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 5.
In her first solo feature, Eva Thomas follows through on her plan to flesh out to full length her intriguing 2023 short Redlights, about an Indigenous woman pursuing police who are abducting her friend. Though initially inspired by Thelma and Louise, what we end up with is not an extended chase film, but a drawn-out police procedural over an assaulted cop. There are Oka-like standoffs between First Nations and investigators, good cops and bad cops, and two mutually antagonistic women, played by Ellyn Jade (who was also in Redlights) and Star Slade, who mend fences while waiting for an arrest warrant. Some steam is lost from the fast-moving short, but it’s probably closer to the slow reality of what would actually happen. JS
Nuns vs. the Vatican (TIFF Docs)
Sun. Sept. 7, 9:50 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 9.
Nuns vs. the Vatican defines an important chapter in the ongoing reckoning about clerical abuse. It opens with a letter that Gloria Branciani, a former nun, wrote to the Vatican hierarchy in 1993, alleging that Marko Rupnik — a Slovenian priest, theologian, and celebrated mosaic artist who came to fame under the Paul John Paul II papacy — had subjected her to years of abuse. More than 30 years later, she made her story public for the first time.
Director Lorena Luciano’s film scrambles about, accumulating accounts by various journalists, investigators, lawyers and activists, who reveal a broad pattern of abuse of nuns, and the church’s slowness to respond to allegations. According to Anne Barrett Doyle, a Catholic activist founder of Bishopsaccountability.org, the subject of nun abuse has been suppressed even while exposés of clerical child abuse became common. Because clerical abuse has been framed as a homosexual issue, “half the victims have been made to disappear.”
One astonishing sequence sees Rupnik himself, on the inauguration of one of his mosaics, espousing his creepily sexualized theology. “If you want to caress God, you must give that love to a brother or sister.” A moment later, he hastily pushes past as investigative journalist Federica Tourn puts a microphone in his face asking him if he really claimed to his victims that sexual three-ways were in the image of the Holy Trinity. LL
Roofman (Gala Presentations)
Sun, Sept. 7, 10 am, Roy Thomson Hall; Fri, Sept. 12, 3 pm, TIFF Lightbox 1; Sat, Sept. 13, 9:20 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 4; Sun, Sept. 14, 9:15 am, Scotiabank Theatre 3.
Channing Tatum let's it all hang out in Roofman, based on the true story of Jeffrey Allen Manchester, a convicted spree-robber and former soldier known as the “Rooftop Robber” due to his MO of breaking into places by drilling through the roofs. On the run, he made a Toys R Us his home for six months. But things get complicated when he falls for store employee Leigh (Kirsten Dunst). The film was a chance for Tatum to work with director Derek Cianfrance, who approached him 20 years ago to star in Blue Valentine, a role that went to Ryan Gosling. Tatum delivers a tour de force performance as Manchester, deftly handling the humour and heart of the film. Co-stars include Peter Dinklage, Juno Temple, LaKeith Stanfield and Ben Mendelsohn. Roofman hits theatres October 10. BL
You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution… (Special Presentations)
Sun, Sept. 7, 9:15 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 3; Fri, Sept. 12, 9:30 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 13.
Prepare ye! If you’re a fan of Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Victor Garber and many more notable Canadians who ended up with stellar careers, you’re going to love this film, which takes us back to 1972 when these powerhouse talents came together for a live production of Godspell at Toronto’s Royal Alexandra Theatre, launching their incredible careers. With barely any footage of the show (no cell phones back then), director Nick Davis creatively uses animation, stills, audio from the show and interviews to create an engaging and nostalgic documentary. The most delightful discovery? Every single living member of this spectacular troupe remains friends to this day. BL