By Nicholas Porteous

Train Dreams is the story of Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton), a guy from the early 1900s. He cuts down trees. He gets married. He has a kid. He lives a life. I’m not going to get any more specific than that because you really need to see Train Dreams to uncover its indescribable depths. It’s about the inherent richness of a long life, and the way things come together, or the way they don’t. It’s poetic, soulful, and intent on defying any pat explanation for a lifetime of experiences.

A substantial element of the beauty of Train Dreams is its gorgeous cinematography. Director Clint Bentley uses a square frame which feels consistently generous, placing the characters among their breathtaking landscapes and hand-built interiors. Full-on close-ups are rare. These people feel part of their surroundings–organic as the trees. There’s a sensual quality to Train Dreams that echoes off the screen. I often felt as though I was sitting a few feet from a warm fire, with the wind at my back, and I could practically breathe the forest air, pet the dog fur, smell the snow.

It’s a vastly more epic movie than its runtime would suggest. At a mere 1 hour 42 minutes, Train Dreams somehow achieves a perfect balance of taking its time, letting every scene breathe, while maintaining a pace that feels like life flashing before your eyes.

Edgerton gives Grainier a deep and necessary interiority. He’s not a character who tends to verbalize, but on most occasions his eyes and breath say more than words could. Felicity Jones (as Gladys) is a wonderful partner to Edgerton. Their relationship feels as fresh in the early scenes as it does lived-in as they grow their family. William H. Macy and Kerry Condon also feel fully realized, even in their relatively shorter time on screen.

Train Dreams is a bounteous, cinematic gift. Take the journey. You’ll be richer for it.

Train Dreams screens at TIFF ’25:

Wed. Sept 10 at 12:15 PM and 3:45 PM at TIFF Lightbox

Fri. Sept 12 at 12:45 PM at TIFF Lightbox

By Mr. Will Wong

One of the Festival’s biggest surprises comes out of the Primetime programme in Netflix‘s WAYWARD, written, directed by and starring Toronto’s Mae Martin. The Limited Series centers is set in a small town. We meet a detective Alex (Martin) and their wife Laura (Sarah Gadon) who are expecting a child, as they move back to the town here Laura grew up. We also meet best friends Abby (Sydney Topliffe) and Leila (Alyvia Alyn Lind), who are in the rebellious years of their teens. What they don’t know though is that their parents secretly are plotting to have them admitted to a correctional youth institution.

WAYWARD is full of intrigue and mystery and we can’t wait to unpeel the layers of these characters as things were just beginning to get rolling in the preview we saw, but this looks very promising. Martin thoughtfully looks at the institutionalization of norms and standards, and refreshingly, maybe sometimes it’s the adults who aren’t always in the right.

This is a welcome turn of foot for Martin, who, though they have experience in episodic television, is exercising completely different muscles and showing their range here. Cast is rounded out by some very familiar names, including Toni Collette and Patrick J. Adams.

WAYWARD screens at TIFF ’25 as follows:

Tuesday, September 9
TIFF Lightbox
9:00 pm

Thursday, September 11
TIFF Lightboxlocation_on
9:45 pm

By Mr. Will Wong

Filmed right here in Toronto, Academy Award winner Daniel Roher gets a full circle moment with his Thriller TUNER premiering at TIFF ’25. The Film centers on Niki White (Leo Wooddall), a once aspiring Pianist whose aspirations were curtailed as he developed a condition that made him sensitive to noise. Niki translates his skills unexpectedly, using his special abilities to hear, the help mobsters execute their heists being able to hear safe combinations. He meets a talented pianist in Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), though she has no awareness of this double life he heads.

Wooddall solidifies his standing as a certified leading man after wowing many of us in The White Lotus Season Two. He beautifully balances Niki‘s unreconciled failure together with an ambition to win Ruthie‘s heart, all while navigating his challenging condition that both helps him and harms him at once. Liu also delivers a tremendous performance as a woman all-in to secure her future as a professional pianist, her focus thwarted by this looming relationship with Niki. Our only complaint is an under-utilized Dustin Hoffman as Niki’s grandfather Harry.

Roher makes a successful transition to fictional storytelling, keeping us invested in Niki’s trouble and resilience. TUNER screens TIFF ’25 as follows:

Monday, September 8
VISA Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre
Premium
Closed captions (CC),
Audio description (AD)
2:45 pm

Tuesday, September 9
Scotiabank Theatre Toronto
Closed captions (CC),
Audio description (AD)
11:55 am

Review by Amanda Gilmore

Director and Co-Writer Mélanie Charbonneau brings the inspiring story of Sandra Perron, Canada’s first woman infantry officer, to the big screen.

Based on Perron’s acclaimed memoir, Charbonneau crafts a Film as fearless as its subject. It depicts a system that simultaneously changed while remaining a hostile environment for women. The script is told through two timelines. One while Perron is at the training facility, and one following her resignation. When she returns home, she learns a controversial photo has surfaced of her from a prisoner exercise during her training.

Charbonneau throws the audience into the rigorous training Perron underwent to gain the title of infantry officer. She matches the intense physical training with the vicious, misogynistic mental abuse Perron and her fellow female trainees endured by their male counterparts. The darker cinematography and lighting create a gritty atmosphere for the Film, one that mirrors the atmosphere created by the system. 

Even with the success of all the above, Out Standing stands on the shoulders of its lead, Nina Kiri. She has a remarkable presence on camera and delivers a powerful performance as Perron. Kiri masters the emotional depth of Perron’s journey, taking the audience with her.

Out Standing screens at TIFF ’25:

Tues, Sept 9 at 5:30 PM at Scotiabank Theatre Toronto

Thur, Sept 11 at 11:00 AM at Scotiabank Theatre Toronto

By David Baldwin

Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) is a mechanic haunted by his wrongful imprisonment. By chance, he hears a familiar sound at the shop he works at: the squeaking shuffle of a wooden leg. In this case, it belongs to Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi), who has just come into the shop with his family after his car broke down. Vahid is certain Eghbal is actually the intelligence officer nicknamed “Pegleg” who tortured him and his friends in prison. So he follows and kidnaps Eghbal. But when Vahid confronts him, doubt is sewn over whether this man is really who he thinks it is. 

And so begins the morally and ethically nightmarish thrill ride that comprises prolific Writer/Director Jafar Panahi’s IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT. The film won the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival this year and it is not hard to see why. Each moment is composed with precision, with each passing revelation ratcheting up the tension to unbearable heights. It is just as darkly humorous as it is just plain bleak, and the questions and moral quandaries it asks of the audience are not easy ones to answer. There is at least one sideplot I could have done without, but I saw the film a few weeks ago and I have not been able to stop thinking about it since (especially the brilliant final third). 

Though Panahi’s direction is masterful, the incredibly talented cast really make the film riveting. Mobasseri carries the film wonderfully, really excelling at showing the emotional toll this ordeal takes on him as the film progresses. Azizi does well as Eghbal, who you too will not be sure of, with top notch supporting performances coming from Mariam Afshari and Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr, who both get some of the film’s most emotionally charged scenes. The intensity both actors bring to their roles may be offputting to some (as will their many yelling sprees); for others though, it will just be another reason why IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT is an immediate must-see.

IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT screens at TIFF ‘25:

Tues. Sept 9 at 8:45 PM at Royal Alexandra Theatre

Wed. Sept 10 at 3:30 PM at Scotiabank Theatre Toronto

Sat. Sept 13 at 9:15 PM at Socitabank Theatre Toronto

By David Baldwin

Much like her partner Brady Corbet’s Oscar-winning film The Brutalist before it, Oscar-nominated Director Mona Fastvold’s THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE is a challenging film to nail down succinctly. It is an audacious project revolving around the “speculated retelling” of the story of Ann Lee (Oscar-nominee Amanda Seyfried), who founded the religious movement known as the Shakers in the late 1700s and believed herself to be the female reincarnation of Jesus. 

My describing the film as audacious only really skims the surface of what Fastvold has crafted here. It is a visually breathtaking feminist period piece tackling themes of religion and misogyny at the same time as it is a highly energized song and dance film, with extended sequences of Shaker dancing taking up a large part of the runtime. Each one is choreographed and depicted more exquisitely than the last, with Oscar-winning Composer Daniel Blumberg providing another magnetic, unreal score to go alongside it. The spectacular visuals are wonderfully detailed and tactile, taking full advantage of the graininess of the film cameras the project was shot on (sadly the Press screening our team attended was presented in Digital as the 70mm Film print stopped working less than 20 minutes into the screening, so fingers crossed the Public screenings do not end the same way). 

While I think the storyline could have been better streamlined and that many of the actors do not have nearly enough to do – the lovely Thomasin Mackenzie does well as the Narrator but is criminally underutilized otherwise – I cannot say enough superlatives about Seyfried. She pours her entire heart and soul into this performance, shattering preconceptions and soaring head and shoulders above everyone else. She is captivating in every frame and is hard to take your eyes off of. Her work as Ann Lee might just be the best of her entire career.

THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE screens at TIFF ‘25:

Tues. Sept 9 at 5:30 PM at TIFF Lightbox

Wed. Sept 10 at 9:30 AM at TIFF Lightbox

By Nicholas Porteous

It’s the evening of the premiere of Oklahoma! and the show is a massive hit–cause for a big celebration among everyone involved. It’s also the first show Richard Rogers (Andrew Scott) composed without his lyrical collaborator Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke). Hart can’t stand the musical, and opts to head to the afterparty bar before the curtain call. He’ll be the first one there and the last to leave. Blue Moon is a classic Richard Linklater joint, which is to say one man enters a room, has roughly 15-20 conversations in real time, and then the credits roll. It’s also one of the most entertaining movies I’ve seen at this year’s fest.

Hart is a phenomenal character around which to build a real time, conversation-based movie. He treats everyone like his therapist. He doesn’t just wear his heart on his sleeve–his whole psyche is turned inside out for the world to see. He’s not an open book. He’s an exploded encyclopedia. You get the idea. And Hart isn’t a blathering fool either–the guy’s a legendary writer. He knows how to talk. And everything he says is, at its baseline, either funny or illuminating. The sum of his often hilarious conversations is a rich and painful mosaic of a tragic artist, unaware he’s nearing the end of his life.

Hawke completely transforms as Hart. The voice, the rhythm, the mannerisms, and have I mentioned he’s somehow a few feet shorter? The supporting cast crackles and pops as needed contrasts to Hart’s outrageous personality. But the real shining star of Blue Moon is the words themselves—I can imagine Hart would’ve loved that.

Blue Moon screens at TIFF ’25:

Tues. Sept 9 at 9:45 PM at Scotiabank Theatre

tiff50 day five is perhaps the most star-studded yet, taking the festival right to the summit! premieres for some of the festival’s most-anticipated titles: frankenstein, the testament of ann lee, eleanor the great, and the smashing machine all took place!

some of our day five highlights:

•amanda seyfried and lewis pullman at tiff for the testament of ann lee

•noah jupe at tiff for & sons

•lily james at tiff for swiped

•lee byung-hun at tiff for no other choice

•callum turner at tiff for eternity

•mia goth, oscar isaac, and jacob elordi at tiff for frankenstein

•scarlett johansson and june squibb at tiff for eleanor the great

•dwayne johnson, emily blunt, benny safdie at tiff for the smashing machine

(photo/video credit: mr. will wong)

By Nicholas Porteous

In Hamnet, Chloe Zhao enlivens an enduring masterpiece with a beautiful work of speculative fiction surrounding the real-life origins of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, adapted from a novel by Maggie O’Farrell. It’s a dark and dramatic counterpart to Shakespeare in Love, working backwards from the classic text (and the very little we know of Shakespeare’s life) to uncover a primal story of how we process our pain through art. In this case, it’s about a marriage, immeasurably rocked by the death of a child.

You likely know the broad strokes of the tale already: William (Paul Mescal) and Agnes (Jessie Buckley) meet, fall in love, and raise a family, until London pulls him away. The plague strikes, their only son Hamnet dies. Shakespeare is absent at the crucial moment. Shortly thereafter, Hamlet debuts. One of the great works of art. The connection between Hamlet the play and Hamnet the lost child is mysterious, but Hamnet will make you believe in Shakespeare’s potentially not-so-hidden intentions.

Bring. Kleenex. My press screening–typically more muted than a regular TIFF audience–sounded like a symphony of sniffles throughout, and I doubt yours will be any different. The ideas of enduring loss, love and transcendent creativity are simply too powerful. Jessie Buckley is the embodiment of motherly grief and spiritual devastation, and Zhao’s naturalistic, airy approach to the material enables both Buckley and Mescal to discover profound moments of pain in the spaces between their words. The children are also extremely impressive, with Hamnet himself (Jacobi Jupe) delivering more than a few stunning moments. The movie lives and dies by our memory of this child, and Zhao’s decision to put him front and center pays off enormously–rather than abstracting him for the audience to project upon. It’s near-impossible for me to imagine Hamnet won’t be recognized this awards season.

Hamnet screens at TIFF ’25:

Mon. Sept 8 at 6:30 PM at Scotiabank Theatre 

Thurs. Sept 11 at 2:00 PM at Royal Alexandra Theatre

Sat. Sept 13 at 12:30 PM at Scotiabank Theatre

we don’t believe we’ve finally made it through the first weekend of TIFF, but make no mistake, we’re still reaching for the peak! tiff50 monday is expected to be the biggest day of the festival with both FRANKENSTEIN and THE SMASHING MACHINE set to bow.

some highlights from day four:

•kerry condon at tiff for train dreams

•dustin hoffman and leo woodall at tiff for tuner

•alyvia alyn lind at tiff for wayward

•toni collette at tiff for wayward

•sarah gadon at tiff for wayward

•paul mescal at tiff for hamnet

•june squibb at tiff for eleanor the great

•édgar ramirez at tiff for it would be night in caracas

•wagner moura at tiff for the secret agent

•angelina jolie at tiff for couture

•rami malek, richard e. grant, leo woodall (with meghann fahy), james vanderbilt at tiff for nuremberg

highlights:

angelina content:

nuremberg afterparty:

the team also was thrilled to visit the much-talked-about CRITERION CLOSET pop-up, which runs only through today! it was epic!

(Photo/video credit: Mr. Will Wong)