#TIFF25: “SWIPED” REVIEW
By Mr. Will Wong
Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Lily James delivers a tremendous performance in Rachel Lee Goldenberg's SWIPED as Whitney Wolfe, founder and CEO of online dating platform Bumble, prior to that co-founder of Tinder. And she did it all before she turned 30. This Film however, isn't a celebration of success as much as it is a story about a woman's battle with misogyny, betrayal, and being resilient.
We first meet Whitney in her college days where she meets Justin (Jackson ...
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#TIFF25: DAY SIX SIGHTINGS – COLIN FARRELL, JODIE FOSTER, FALA CHEN, SHU QI, MATT JOHNSON, JAY MCCARROL AND MORE
it's a bittersweet feeling as we near the half-way point of tiff50. but we are thrilled that we finally get a chance to see some films, which is always what has made this festival so special for us! make no mistake though, there are still some very notable names in-town!
some day six sightings:
•shu qi (pronounced "shoo chee") at tiff for girl
•rebecca zlotowski and jodie foster at tiff for a private life
•colin farrell and fala chen at tiff for ballad of a small ...
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#TIFF25: “TRAIN DREAMS” REVIEW
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 ...
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#TIFF25: “WAYWARD” REVIEW
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. ...
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#TIFF25: “NOUVELLE VAGUE“ REVIEW
By David Baldwin
Today, we know (or at least know of) Jean-Luc Godard as one of the most famous and influential directors of all time. But before he became the legend, Godard (Guillaume Marbeck) was just a film critic writing for the prolific Cahiers du cinéma in the late 1950s. He is jealous of his colleagues for having made films, so he sets out to make his own. Despite never having made a feature-length film, Godard wants to do things his way and ...
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#TIFF25: “TUNER” REVIEW
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 ...
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#TIFF25: “OUT STANDING” REVIEW
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, ...
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#TIFF25: “THE SMASHING MACHINE” REVIEW
By Mr. Will Wong
Easily one of the hottest tickets at tiff50, Actor/Writer/Director Benny Safdie is coming into awards season with his latest effort, THE SMASHING MACHINE, in an admirable position. The Biopic about Mixed Martial Arts legend Mark Kerr diverts from the typical Sports Drama, giving us a film that more rests its focus on obstacle, resilience, and the emotional costs of success on a grand scale.
We meet Kerr at the top of his game, an undisputed king who fights for big prize ...
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#TIFF25: “IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT” REVIEW
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 ...
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#TIFF25: “THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE” REVIEW
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 ...
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