TIFF ’25: What to See at This Year’s Fest, Sept. 8

By Jim Slotek, Liz Braun, Thom Ernst, Karen Gordon, Kim Hughes, John Kirk, Chris Knight, Liam Lacey and Bonnie Laufer

It’s day five of the Toronto International Film Festival, and the tireless team at Original-Cin continues filing capsule reviews of what’s screening both to guide festival-goers on good choices at TIFF ’25 and to plant seeds for openings that will happen throughout the fall and winter. Thanks for reading.

Black Rabbit

Black Rabbit (Primetime)

Mon, Sept. 8, 9:30 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 13.

This intense family drama series set in New York stars Jude Law and Jason Bateman as estranged brothers with some seedy secrets. Law plays older brother Jake, owner of the successful bar-restaurant Black Rabbit. Things go awry when brother Vince (Bateman) returns to town after a long absence due to dealings with the mob and some unpaid debts that will cause problems for Jake and his plans for the Black Rabbit. Law and an almost unrecognizable Bateman offer outstanding performances. Bateman also directed a few episodes as did his onetime Ozark co-star Laura Linney. Black Rabbit streams in its entirety on Netflix later this month. BL

Blood Lines (Centrepiece)

Mon, Sept. 8, 6:15 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 4; Wed, Sept. 10, 11:30 am, TIFF Lightbox 3.

It’s understating things to say Gail Maurice’s Métis teen lesbian romance has a good heart. In fact, every single person in the film has a good heart (this was also true of her previous film, Rosie). With dialogue in the localized Michif language, we meet Beatrice (Dana Solomon), who rejects the return of her reformed alcoholic mother, and Chani (Derica Lafrance), who was raised by a white adoptive family and is looking for a mother to embrace. The two, with opposing mother issues, meet cute and quick. Extra twinkle is provided by “the Grannies,” a gaggle of proactive wise women who move things along. There’s also a twist you can see coming with your eyes closed. JS

Blue Moon (Centrepiece)

Mon, Sept. 8, 6:15 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 1; Tues, Sept. 9, 9:45 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 4.

There are multiple marquee actors in director Richard Linklater’s spellbinding Blue Moon, but the movie belongs to Ethan Hawke in the role of a lifetime, delivered essentially as a monologue and conveying both heartbreak and wit with shattering authenticity. It’s spring 1943, the opening night of the Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott) and Oscar Hammerstein musical Oklahoma! Both men repair to legendary New York bar Sardi’s to await early reviews, all raves. Already seated and deep in his cups is Lorenzo Hart (Hawke), Rodgers’ onetime lyricist, sidelined by booze and despair, now bearing witness to his former partner’s greatest achievement unfolding without him. Blue Moon stays within the bar’s confines as Hart sermonizes, memorializes, and evangelizes over Elizabeth (Margaret Qualley) while a seen-it-all barman (Bobby Cannavale) quips, a soldier plays piano, and random patron E.B White (Patrick Kennedy) births the idea for Stuart Little as the walls of Hart’s life collapse. He’d be dead within months at age 48. Expect awards buzz. KH

Dead Man’s Wire (Special Presentations)

Mon, Sept. 8, 3:30 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 2; Thurs, Sept. 11, 12:30 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 3; Sun, Sept. 14, 6:50 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 7.

This is Gus Van Sant’s first feature film since 2018’s messy biopic Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot. Worth the wait? You bet! He mines pre-Internet modern history for gold, telling the little-known tale of Tony Kiritsis (Bill Skarsgård), a small-time Indianapolis businessman who, on a cold February morning in 1977, kidnapped mortgage company executive Richard Hall with a shotgun attached to a (movie title goes here), meaning that if Tony gets killed by a sniper, his hostage will die too. Van Sant introduces a great cast of supporting players, including Colman Domingo as a local radio DJ, Myha’la as a TV news reporter looking for her big break, Cary Elwes as a grizzled detective, and Al Pacino as the vacationing father of the kidnapped exec, who is played by Dacre Montgomery. Skarsgård commands the screen from the first scene as the chain-smoking, proudly sober, mad-as-hell little guy. I can’t say we’re meant to root for him, but public opinion at the time was split. You decide. Either way, it’s a helluva ride. CK

Eleanor the Great (Special Presentations)

Mon, Sept. 8, 5:30 pm, Roy Thomson Hall; Tues, Sept. 9, 11:30 am, Scotiabank Theatre 1; Fri, Sept. 12, 1:15 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 2; Sun, Sept. 14, 1 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 10.

Scarlett Johansson’s feature directorial debut, a rumination on friendship, forgiveness, aging, and grief wrapped in a gentle comedy, has a ton of heart and committed performances. But its wholesale descent into sentimentality in its final act sinks an otherwise buoyant story. When her best friend and roommate dies, nonagenarian Eleanor (June Squibb) relocates to New York, where she stumbles on a Holocaust survivor group, falsely passing herself off as one. An unlikely friendship with a budding (and also grieving) young journalist gives Eleanor new vigour until her lie is exposed, upending all in both women’s orbit. Squibb’s Eleanor, conceptually easy to love, feels somehow unsympathetic on-screen and is frequently outshone by Erin Kellyman as journalist Nina, who serves as the film’s spiritual engine. Chiwetel Ejiofor co-stars. KH

Exit 8 (Centrepiece)

Mon, Sept. 8, 9 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 10; Fri, Sept. 12, 9:45 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 3.

“Based on a video game” may turn away as many potential viewers as it attracts, but you don’t need to know anything about Exit 8’s game version to enjoy this creepy puzzle box of a movie. Japanese multi-hyphenate Kazunari Ninomiya stars as “The Walking Man,” who witnesses (but doesn’t do anything about) some very rude behaviour on the Tokyo subway, before getting a call from his girlfriend, who has just learned she’s pregnant. He then enters a sort of infinite loop — trying to find a numbered exit, he instead ends up treading the same twisted tiled corridor, over and over. Every few corners is a sign that changes from zero to one to two and so on but frequently resets to zero whenever he breaks one of the vague rules of this commuter trek, most of which involve looking for anything out of the ordinary. Writer-director Genki Kawamura keeps his camera angles tight, the better to keep the tension at a boil, and makes the most of his minimal set. (Fans of the Canadian horror classic Cube should enjoy.) The conclusion felt a touch over-played and a little too didactic, but not enough to spoil the mood. Audiences may want to take surface transportation home rather than risk the subway. CK

Nirvanna the Band the Show, the Movie (Midnight Madness)

Mon, Sept. 8, 7:30 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 12; Sat, Sept. 13, 10:30 am, Scotiabank Theatre 2.

Writer-director Matt Johnson refurbishes his cult web series for the big screen. Despite ranking Johnson and crew among my favourite people making movies in Canada, I never caught the original, so I can only assume the film picks up with Johnson and musical partner Jay McCarrol scheming their way into a gig at Toronto’s Rivoli. The Rivoli, perfectly respectable on its own terms, is treated here as though it were Carnegie Hall. Their attempts to secure the stage are outlandish, reckless, and almost certainly criminal. Eventually, their schemes detour into time travel, and in true Abbott and Costello fashion, logic is tossed in the pursuit of a good gag. Some of the humour is unmistakably Canadian, even Toronto-centric, but for fans of the series (and, had I watched it, I suspect I’d be one of them), Johnson and McCarrol’s ramped-up antics are a riot. TE

No Other Choice (Gala Presentations)

Mon, Sept. 8, 9:30 pm, Roy Thomson Hall; Tues, Sept. 9, 8:45 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 1; Thurs, Sept. 11, 11:30 am, TIFF Lightbox 1.

Park Chan-wook’s latest, with a writing assist from Canada’s Don McKellar, is a dark social comedy about a well-paid paper company executive (Lee Byung Hun) who is let go after 25 years, and can no longer even afford Netflix, let alone dance lessons for his wife (Son Yejin). As the months pass, he begins hatching homicidal strategies for getting another job. The comedy is broad, and the criminal schemes are full of holes, turning the source material — the Donald E. Westlake novel The Ax — into something very much like a Coen brothers movie. That’s not a bad thing. JS

Orwell: 2+2=5 (TIFF Docs)

Mon, Sept. 8, 2:45 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 4; Tues, Sept. 9, 12:30 pm Scotiabank Theatre 8.

The title is from George Orwell’s 1984, his final book, and one that coalesced his long-evolving fear of totalitarianism, which, post-WWII, still seemed inevitable. Years before the phrase “gaslighting” entered the lexicon, he had Winston Smith being coerced to say 2+2=5 if Big Brother said so. Director Raoul Peck uses it as a springboard to tie the present to the author’s last words, from 1984 and Animal Farm, letters and diary entries (with actor Damian Lewis voicing Orwell’s thought). Some of it is staggeringly on the nose, like a Myanmar official denying genocide by claiming there is no such thing as Rohingya. As the doc goes on, the modern events pile up until the effect is more numbing than enlightening. But as a bio of Orwell, it works very well, tying his experiences as a colonial soldier with his later regrets and opposition to state brutality. JS

Rise of the Raven (Primetime)

Mon, Sept. 8, 8:45 pm TIFF Lightbox 2; Thurs, Sept. 11, 3 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 13.

Rise of the Raven is the grand story of Hungary’s greatest warrior, Janos Hunyadi, who managed to unite the armies of Central Europe to stand against the overwhelming power of the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century. Produced by Hungarian Canadian Robert Lantos and based on a series of novels by Mor Bans, this 10-episode series promises a heroic saga of the events leading up to the Battle of Belgrade in 1456. A tale worthy of the greatest fantasy genre epics, it is a compelling story with high production value that will mesmerize any history lover or reader of heroic fantasy. JK

The Last Viking

The Last Viking (Centerpiece)

Mon, Sept. 8, 5:45 pm, TIFF Lightbox 2; Tues, Sept. 9, 9:45 pm, TIFF Lightbox 4; Sat, Sept. 13, 8:45 pm, TIFF Lightbox 3.

Mads Mikkelsen excels as a man who insists he’s John Lennon in this latest collaboration with Danish director Anders Thomas Jensen. The Last Viking is a pitch-black comedy that delights in defying expectations. Jensen, who also penned the script, refuses the easy way forward, opting instead for sharp detours that land with both surprise and satisfaction. At its heart, this is a story about perception — how we see ourselves, how we see others, and the lies we stitch together to keep it all intact. It’s a marvel of storytelling, directed with wit, pathos, and clarity. In other words, not to be missed. TE

To The Victory! (Platform)

Mon, Sept. 8, 6:30 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 9; Fri, Sept. 12, 12:45 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 10.

It feels a bit weird to describe this film as charming. But it is. It’s also sad, funny, hopeless and hopeful, and really interesting. Set in the near future in post-war (fingers crossed) Ukraine, it seamlessly mixes reality and fiction on several levels, starting from the get-go. The film’s writer-director Valentyn Vasyanovych stars as a film director named Roman. He’s living in Kyiv with his handsome 18-year-old son Yaroslav (Hryhoriy Naumov), whom he has cast in the movie. He’s also cast his friend Vlad (Vladen Odudenko) as co-lead. The film he’s making appears to be about the way men have dealt with the dilemma of their wives and children having spent the war years living in other countries for safety’s sake, no longer wanting to return, which happens to be a fact for Vlad and Roman.

Roman also wants to rebuild his career as a filmmaker. He worries that the film he’s shooting is going to be too dull and won’t get into significant film festivals. He notes that his previous film Atlantis (a real film that played TIFF in 2019) had a war story, and a great sex scene, and this one has neither. The back and forthing between what’s being shot for the film within the film gives us a chance to get to know the characters and their emotional dilemmas without making the film heavy. The look of joy on Yaroslav's face as his father gives him a driving lesson is worth the price of admission. There’s life after wartime in To The Victory! KG

Tuner (Special Presentations)

Mon, Sept. 8, 2:45 pm, Visa Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre; Tues, Sept. 9, 11:55 am, Scotiabank Theatre 2.

Toronto-based documentarian Daniel Roher delivers an electrifying feature debut with the darkly funny Tuner. Niki (Leo Woodall) has a rare hearing sensitivity and perfect pitch, which makes him an ace piano tuner. It also makes him a spectacularly effective safecracker. That puts him in demand by a ruthless local hustler he meets when both men are plying their respective trades in an empty mansion. Niki initially demurs on the hustler’s overture but when medical bills threaten to topple his mentor and business partner (Dustin Hoffman), he agrees to moonlight as a thief, inviting towering risks, not least the loss of his new girlfriend, pianist Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), the brightest spot in Niki’s life. Roher, who won an Oscar for his portrait of the late Russian dissident Navalny in 2023 and who co-wrote the script, gets dazzling performances from his cast, especially Woodall, whose doe-eyed languor is strangely beguiling. KH