TIFF ’26: What to See at This Year’s Fest, Sept. 15

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

Just another Tuesday, right? Not quite. The 51st edition of TIFF continues until Sunday, and Original-Cin writers are still screening as many films as possible in an effort to guide filmgoers now and into the coming months when many of these titles open in general release.

A scene from The Surgeon. (Hint: it’s great!)

All That She Wants (Special Presentations)

Tue, Sept. 15, 6:15 pm Scotiabank 14; Sun, Sept 20, 7:30 pm, Scotiabank 1.

All That She Wants reunites the effervescent Annie Murphy with her Schitt’s Creek executive producer David West Read who wrote this delightful rom com with Murphy in mind. Following a brutal breakup, thirty-something dancer Emma (Murphy) goes out clubbing, hooks up with a charming younger guy named Luke (Cooper Raiff), and wakes up to the horror of realizing she used to be his babysitter. Fast-forward a bit: Emma decides she wants a baby on her own terms, but as she searches for a donor, Luke keeps boomeranging back into her orbit. Murphy is magnetic, messy, and wickedly precise, giving the movie its bite and bruised heart. An outstanding supporting cast includes the incomparable Christine Baranski, Bill Irwin, and Zosia Mamet as Emma’s mom, dad, and sister, respectively. BL

A Talent for Murder (Gala Presentations)

Tues, Sept. 15, 3:30 pm, Scotiabank 1.

My understanding of a chamber thriller is a film limited in location, cast, and character. None of these seem particularly limited when the setting is a mountain-view home in Switzerland, the protagonist is a fictionalized Patricia Highsmith (author of The Talented Mr. Ripley and Strangers on a Train), and the star is Helen Mirren. Yet director Anton Corbijn has taken the chamber thriller and opened it up, creating a story within a story, a mystery within a mystery. In this highly fictionalized tale, Edward Ridgeway (Alden Ehrenreich) — a young, underling from a New York publishing house — is tasked with convincing the renowned crime writer to pen one final Tom Ripley novel. Despite agreeing to the meeting, Highsmith resents the intrusion and seeks ways to dismiss him. Mirren goes beyond imitation, suggesting something of the novelist’s documented disdain for her fellow humans and her famously reclusive nature. What emerges is less a character study than a murder mystery nested inside Highsmith’s fictional world: a wealthy family, a Ripley-like opportunist, and, in the meeting of strangers on a train; the novel that became a classic Alfred Hitchcock film. TE

Ba’s Book (TIFF Docs)

Tue, Sept. 15, 6:40 pm, Scotiabank 9; Thu, Sept. 17, 12:35 pm, Scotiabank 14; Sun, Sept. 19, 12:45 pm, Scotiabank 8.

Director Ashley Duong’s Ba (“dad” in Vietnamese) wrote a memoir titled Dear Da-Lê: A Father's Memoir of the Vietnam War and the Iranian Revolution (2024) chronicling his life story before settling in Canada. Yearning for home, Da-Lê — the name of the village where he came from — is also the given name of his daughter at birth. Duong uses the “meta approach” to connect past and present. Every camera movement, lighting, and transition component are scripted with precision in this hybrid documentary salted with fiction. Emotion runs high for estranged siblings meeting after years of separation, and their hope for resolution. AS

Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo (Special Presentations)

Tues, Sept. 15, 9:40 pm, Scotiabank 1

The location is different, the character is different, the director is different, but the behaviour is still bad. None of the three Bad Lieutenant films are explicitly connected beyond the title and their protagonist’s flawed, self-destructive behaviour. What began as Abel Ferrara’s one-off dark character study of a crooked, drug-addled cop (he initially saw it as a comedy) was followed by Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, neither sequel nor remake. Now Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo, directed by notorious genre anarchist Takashi Miike, relocates the damage once again. This unofficial franchise is starting to rack up locations like CSI. Shon Oguri’s lieutenant is unable to manage his demons or his debts, risking the good things he has left — a broken-hearted wife and two adorable children — while pursuing a killer whose victims include a crime kingpin. Brash and brutal, if tame by Miike’s standards, the film still manages to provoke and entertain. TE

Bitter Christmas (Special Presentations)

Tue, Sept. 15, 3 pm, Scotiabank 3.

In what might be called his “meta-tative” 24th feature, Pedro Almodóvar explores the art-life balance in a film with two timelines. In a contemporary story, Almodóvar proxy Raúl (Leonardo Sbaraglia), an aging gay screenwriter, is reduced to stealing experiences from his friends’ lives because he has run out of ideas. A mirroring film-within-the-film based on Raúl’s screenplay is set in 2004 and follows Elsa (a mesmerizing Bárbara Lennie), a fictional filmmaker who is also suffering from a creative block along with panic attacks and grief for her late mother. As one expects from the director, every scene is meticulously framed with intoxicating colour choices. The script has flourishes of camp humour and melodrama, linked by Alberto Iglesias’ intense score. Although this may not be first-rank Almodóvar, it provides many of the director’s familiar pleasures. LL

Brace Your Heart (Platform)

Tue, Sept. 15, 6 pm, TIFF Lightbox 1; Thu, Sept. 17, 9:15 pm, Scotiabank 11; Fri, Sept. 18, 12 pm, Scotiabank 4.

Brace Your Heart is a film about reindeer herding in Sámi, a remote high-altitude village in Sweden. Director Amanda Kernell’s family are real herders; what we see is authentic. Twenty-year-old Ejva (Sara Valkeapää) has just lost her father. She inherited the herd, but needs help. The other herders are not keen on accepting a woman into their team except one, who takes a romantic interest in her. Feeling helpless, Ejva yields to his advances until Mr. Right appears. Things take a downturn when jealousy arises followed by betrayal. Ejva ends up leaving town to work in the city until her true calling beckons her to reclaim what’s rightfully hers. AS

A scene from Cheyenne.

Cheyenne (TIFF Docs)

Tue, Sept. 15, 3:30 pm, Scotiabank 9; Sun, Sept. 20, 1:05 pm, Scotiabank 8.

I did not expect to be moved to tears watching this surprisingly powerful documentary. Director Taimi Arvidson focuses on a group of female competitive bronco riders, four in particular, as they work through the circuit vying for a berth in the world competition in Cheyenne. The doc was shot during the first year the American rodeo circuit allowed women to compete in such a dangerous sport in nearly a century. Arvidson’s subjects are driven athletes, all intelligent, articulate, self-aware and willing to be open. Watching them compete is both thrilling and terrifying. But their stories and motivations give the film its heart. My tears started when Ally, who has competed against boys and won, talks about a prolonged violent rape that caused her to withdraw from life. There's true camaraderie here. But in the end, they all know only one can win. KG

Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been (TIFF Docs)

Tue, Sept. 15, 7:30 pm, Scotiabank 12.

Under practically a deal with the devil, Darlene Love was the uncredited big voice — practically to a Milli Vanilli level — behind many of the Wall of Sound hits produced by Phil Spector. She would go on to become one of the most sought-after background singers of the ‘60s and ‘70s. Her highs and lows, capped in 2011 by induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, are chronicled here with copious archival material by Canadian director Barry Avrich. A gleam in the eye of everyone from Sinatra to Elvis to The Righteous Brothers’ Bill Medley (with whom she had a three-year relationship in defiance of Jim Crow echoes), she proves she still has her chops at 85 with footage of a recent studio session. An infectiously positive personality in the face of every possible obstacle, Love’s story is terrific and emotionally moving. JS

Read our interview with the film’s director and star

Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! (Centrepiece)

Tue, Sept. 15, 8:30 pm, Royal Alexandra Theatre; Wed, Sept. 16, 12 pm, Scotiabank 1.

Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! is a whimsical look at how life carries on despite one's deepest despair. Set in Tokyo, the film stars Rinku Kikuchi as a ballroom dancer whose world shatters when her husband and dance partner collapses and dies. Reluctantly, she returns to the dancefloor where she meets her sexy new dance teacher, who inevitably helps her deal with grief, life, and her sexuality which slowly leads to getting her groove back. Kikuchi is mesmerizing in the role and balances heartbreak, absurdity, embarrassment and charisma with charm and grace. Bound to be a crowd-pleaser and destined to inspire folks to take up ballroom dancing. BL

A scene from Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney (Midnight Madness)

Tue, Sept. 15, 11:59 pm, Royal Alexandra Theatre; Thu, Sept. 17, 6:10 pm, Scotiabank 13; Sat, Sept,19, 9:45 am, Scotiabank 8.

The phrase “unapologetically Canadian” sounds like an oxymoron, but the latest satiric collage from Mathew Rankin (The 20th Century, Universal Language) is exactly that. It’s a dense, deep dive into our supposedly boring national politics and complacent national myths, employing dramatizations, surreal digressions, and hilariously edited documentary clips. In Rankin’s dream narrative, Joe Clark is the sincere fall guy, Pierre Trudeau a mocking floating head, and the self-styled “boy from Baie-Comeau” a three-dimensional cartoon logo of corporate branding. Rather than a retrospective of Mulroney’s legacy as prime minister, it’s the origin story of a handsome, glad-handing politician with a mean streak who never managed to fake sincerity convincingly. A film worth seeing more than once to catch the jokes and surreal flights of fancy, and insights into our current crisis vis-à-vis our southern neighbours. LL

Minotaur (Special Presentations)

Tue, Sept. 15, 4:45 pm, Royal Alexandra Theatre; Wed, Sept. 15, 6:15 pm, Scotiabank 3.

On the surface, exiled Russian writer-director Andrey Zvyagintsev’s subtle, complex, and masterful film is about people who seem like they’re sleepwalking through their lives. Gleb (Dmitriy Mazurov) is the wealthy CEO of a transport company in Russia. His financial status gives him special standing in the local corridors of power, but at a cost. He’s forced to support the war effort in Ukraine in many uncomfortable ways. Adding to his stress is the discovery that his wife Galina (Iris Lebedeva) is having an affair. Gleb’s money gives him certain freedoms and the appearance of a very good life, but how do you define your moral centre in a society that doesn’t even pretend to hold to its own moral standards? The film plays like a drama but telescopes out to darker truths about the compromises we make with ourselves. KG

Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People? (Special Presentations)

Tue, Sept. 15, 6:15 pm, TIFF Lightbox 2; Wed, Sept. 16, 6:30 pm, Scotiabank 11; Fri, Sept. 18, 6 pm, Scotiabank 10.

When Truffaut famously suggested there could never truly be an anti-war film, he might have been prophesying Shinya Tsukamoto’s Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People? Based on Allen Nelson’s account of his nightmare tour in Vietnam, the film contrasts the young Nelson (Mark Merphy) — participating in the dehumanization and slaughter of non-combatants — with his traumatized older self (Rodney Hicks), struggling to live with what he did. Tsukamoto leaves little room for ambiguity: war is obscene, and the film repeatedly tells us so. But the harder it condemns the violence, the more enthusiastically it stages it. Killings grow nastier, suffering more graphic, atrocities more elaborate, until an emphatically anti-war film begins resembling war porn. Nelson’s moralizing voiceover only underlines horrors the images have already made clear. Hicks gives it everything, sometimes to hyperbolic extremes. Truffaut wins another round: the film condemns the spectacle while making a spectacle of its condemnation. TE

Once Upon a Time in Harlem (TIFF Docs)

Tue, Sept. 15, 6:20 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 4; Wed, Sept. 16, 10 am, TIFF Lightbox 4.

In 1972, documentarian William Greaves invited more than a dozen artists, journalists, poets, historians and activists who had been associated with the Harlem Renaissance to a cocktail party at Duke Ellington’s townhouse, though Ellington was not present. The event ran for three hours with Greaves lightly directing the group conversation alongside breakout one-on-one interviews. Greaves did not finish the film, but more than 50 years later, his son David Greaves — one of the cinematographers on the original shoot — did the job for him. The result is a cinematic time capsule of Black cultural and political history, a bridge between our present day and what journalist George Schuyler called the cultural and political “awakening” that took place a century ago. Of the guests, the best-known today is ragtime pianist and composer Eubie Blake, a regular on The Tonight Show in the 1970s. But there are some wonderful personalities here, who quote poems, argue vigorously, exchange reminiscences about figures such as Marcus Garvey, Paul Robeson, Zora Neal Hurston and Langston Hughes, and reflect on the state of the civil rights movement at the end of the sixties. What a privilege it is to be a guest, even virtually, at their party. LL

A scene from Once Upon a Time in Harlem.

Pretenders (TIFF Docs)

Tue, Sept. 15, 3 pm, Scotiabank 14; Fri, Sept. 18, 2:15 pm, Scotiabank 12; Sat, Sept. 19, 2:45 pm, Scotiabank 2.

Joss Crowley’s documentary could be titled Chrissie Hynde: A Life, as Pretenders is hyper-focused on the famously blunt singer-songwriter and activist’s story, though not quite to the exclusion of her bandmates. Fair enough: Hynde’s history and that of the brilliant band she formed in 1978 London when no other outfit of the era would have her — an American and a woman? Pass — are inseparable. On the plus side, Crowley has uncovered reams of fantastic archival footage, and his film’s many smitten talking heads, from Paul McCartney to Johnny Marr, appear off-camera, allowing the film to drench itself in its subject, who sat down for a trio of contemporary interviews with the director. Yet some of the film’s biggest revelations are presented but unexplored, notably a harrowing incident in Hynde’s youth in the company of Hells Angels. Still, her reputation as the coolest of the cool remains firmly intact. KH

Tehran, Under the Skin (TIFF Docs)

Tue, Sept. 15, 5:15 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 6; Thu, Sept.17, 5 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 8.

Iran, a country where morality laws dictate women must be covered from head-to-toe in loose clothing, is also a world centre for plastic surgery. In this provocative documentary, Paris-based Iranian filmmaker Afsaneh Salari examines the country’s cosmetic surgery “epidemic” as a kind of maladaptive perfectionism, a response to internalized misogyny, which she compares to the dangerous network of geological fault lines underlying the Iranian capitol. Salari’s voice-over rumination overlays graphic surgical footage in scenes from two Tehran clinics, which operate on a near-industrial scale. In the film’s final section, Salari takes her camera to the streets of contemporary Tehran before the current war, showing young women on street corners and parks, sans hijabs, smoking cigarettes and challenging the inconsistently applied laws in the aftermath of the Woman, Life, Freedom protest marches of 2022. “As I look at Tehran today,” concludes Salari, “beneath all this desire for change and reconstruction, I see a body that simply wants to belong to itself.” LL

The Surgeon (Centrepiece)

Tue, Sept. 15, 9:20 pm, Scotiabank 2; Fri, Sept. 18, 9:10 pm, Scotiabank 8.

Imagine someone with the fighting prowess of Sherlock Holmes, the medical knowledge of a modern-day Dr. Watson, and the brains of both. That’s Michelle Yeoh in The Surgeon, from writer-director (and physician!) Roshan Sethi. Eliza has just retired from 40 years as a surgeon, only to be kidnapped and forced to operate at gunpoint on a crime lord (Martin Freeman) with a tumour and an attitude. But he didn’t count on her bedside manner under duress. Scalpel. Gun. Phone. Bluff! And I’ve never seen someone use a defibrillator as… I guess you’d call it a fibrillator? Stuffed with fantastic rock music and “woo!” moments, the film clocks in at 92 minutes, because the script doesn’t waste a second and neither does its star. CK

The Unknown (Special Presentations)

Tue, Sept. 15, 3:15 pm, TIFF Lightbox 3; Thu, Sept. 17, 7 pm, Scotiabank 7.

This arthouse body horror film — which gives off David Cronenberg vibes — centres around a reclusive photographer (Niels Schneider) who follows a mysterious woman (Léa Seydoux) after meeting her at a party. Following an intense encounter, David awakens to discover he has swapped bodies with Eva, launching a desperate attempt to navigate Paris in an unfamiliar frame while tracking down his original self. Seydoux is mesmerizing in the role and intentionally used her own postpartum body and weight changes following childbirth to embody the character. Moral of the story: never follow strangers home after a party. One of the most bizarre films I've screened so far, and I mean that in a good way. BL

Dear reader, just for kicks, please also see…

The Unknown (Special Presentations)

Tue, Sept. 15, 3:15 pm, TIFF Lightbox 3; Thu, Sept. 17, 7 pm, Scotiabank 7.

Director Arthur Harari takes the familiar body-switching premise — usually played for comedy — and turns it into a psychological game of three-card monte. After a few swaps, it becomes increasingly difficult to know whose personality is under which skin. There will be viewers sufficiently gifted, or sufficiently patient, to follow along. I did my best. At the centre is a missing girl who, somehow, now inhabits the body of a male photographer. It’s an intriguing premise, ripe for an exploration of sexual, gender, and even transgender politics. Others have told me that’s a stretch. They’re probably right. The film flirts with these ideas but never seriously pursues them. That doesn’t make The Unknown a failure. Harari has made something genuinely unsettling, and the confusion is clearly intentional. But I was never able to keep the characters straight. I left the theatre questioning not only what had happened, but who it had happened to. TE

We Are All Strangers (Centrepiece)

Tue, Sept. 15, 11:45 pm, Scotiabank 10; Wed, Sept. 16, 2:50 pm, Scotiabank 14; Sat, Sept. 19, 5:30 pm, Scotiabank 5.

We Are All Strangers explores the great wealth divide in Singaporean society. A promising church-going girl gets pregnant by her boyfriend. They scramble to establish a family, living under the same roof as his father and stepmother, who help with the baby. But the breadwinning father succumbs to illness and things go south. Boyfriend finds work at a high-end real estate firm hoping to change things, but misfortune won’t leave his family alone. Singapore gives the world the impression that it offers good social support, but the story here shows that the underprivileged are constantly being exploited by rich. AS

We Are Born Good (Discovery)

Tue, Sept. 15, 11 am, Scotiabank 13; Sun, Sept. 20, 10:15 am, TIFF Lightbox 4.

When the going gets tough, the tough go crazy! A wrong restaurant order starts a verbal exchange between two stressed individuals, which gradually escalates to retaliation of cyberattacks and violence, totally out of proportion. Director Leung Chuen Yeung utilizes this absurdity and turns it into unexpected bonding, when both parties realize the initial conflict might just be a precipitating factor of their own personal problems. Golden Horse Best Actress award-winner Suet Ying Chung and Wai Lun Yeung share real chemistry on screen, reminding viewers of the importance of empathy and forgiveness rather than upholding justice at all costs. AS