#FIRSTLOOK: “LURKER” COMING TO MUBI CANADA

LURKER arrives August 29, 2025 in theatres and today we get a new Trailer for this Film by Alex Russell. This will premiere at the Fantasia Festival in Montreal!

Writer & Director: Alex Russell

Producers: Alex Orlovsky, Duncan Montomery, Galen Core, Marc Marrie, Charlie McDowell, Archie Madekwe, Francesco Melzi D’Eril, Olmo Schnabel, Jack Selby

Executive Producers: Mal Ward, Matt Aselton, Alfonso Angoitia Legorreta, Gabriele Moratti, Lily Collins, Nicholas Wirth, Nicol Pone, Ben Shafer

Principal Cast: Théodore Pellerin, Archie Madekwe, Zack Fox, Havana Rose Liu, Wale Onayemi, Daniel Zolghadri, and Sunny Suljic

Score By: Kenny Beats, Dijon, Rex Orange County; Performed by Archie Madekwe

2025 / United States / 100 minutes

ABOUT WRITER/ DIRECTOR ALEX RUSSELL

Alex Russell is the writer & director behind LURKER, which premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. He most recently served as a Co-Executive Producer on Netflix/A24’s BEEF, for which he won an Emmy award for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series. And he was recently a Supervising Producer on FX’s THE BEAR. His episode – ep 207 – titled “Forks,” was one of the best reviewed episodes of television last year and nominated for a WGA award. He got his start as a staff writer on the first two seasons of DAVE – and was also recently a Producer on Hulu’s series INTERIOR CHINATOWN.

About MUBI

MUBI is a global streaming service, production company and film distributor dedicated to elevating great cinema. MUBI creates, curates, acquires and champions visionary films, bringing them to audiences all over the world.

MUBI is a place to discover ambitious films, from both iconic directors and emerging auteurs. All carefully chosen by MUBI’s curators. With MUBI GO, members in select countries can get a free ticket every week to see the best new films in cinemas. And Notebook explores all sides of cinema culture — both in print and online.

Some previous and upcoming MUBI Releases include: Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, Joshua Oppenheimer’s The End, Magnus von Horn’s The Girl with the Needle, Pinny Grylls & Sam Crane’s Grand Theft Hamlet, Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, Ira Sachs’ Passages, Pedro Almodóvar’s Strange Way of Life, Molly Manning Walker’s How to Have Sex, Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves, Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun, Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave, Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World, Lukas Dhont’s Close, and Céline Sciamma’s Petite Maman.

MUBI Productions include Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind starring Josh O’Connor, Christopher Andrews’ Bring Them Down starring Christopher Abbott and Barry Keoghan, Elizabeth Sankey’s Witches, and Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross’ Gasoline Rainbow. MUBI Co-productions include Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother starring Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Tom Waits, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Indya Moore and Luka Sabbat, Karim Aïnouz’s Rosebush Pruning starring Callum Turner, Riley Keough, Jamie Bell, Lukas Gage, Elena Anaya, Tracy Letts, Elle Fanning and Pamela Anderson, and Michel Franco’s Memory starring Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard.

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#FIRSTLOOK: “LURKER” COMING TO MUBI CANADA

MUBI, the global film distributor, streaming service and production company, will release Lurker, the boundary-pushing debut feature from writer/director Alex Russell (The Bear, Beef), in Canadian theatres on August 22, 2025.

The film received its World Premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, its International Premiere in the 2025 Berlinale, and is the Closing Night selection for 2025 New Directors/New Films. Praised as “unsettling… audacious” (IndieWire) and “darkly compelling” (The Guardian), Lurker stars Canadian actor Théodore Pellerin (Becoming Karl Lagerfeld, Franklin, Beau is Afraid), Archie Madekwe (Saltburn, Midsommar), Sunny Suljic (Mid90s), Havana Rose Liu (Bottoms, Hal & Harper), Zack Fox (Abbott Elementary, Pause with Sam Jay), and Daniel Zolghadri (Y2K, Eighth Grade).

Lurker was produced by Alex Orlovsky (His Three Daughters, Memory, Never Rarely Sometimes Always), Duncan Montgomery (His Three Daughters, Memory), Galen Core (Pet Shop Days, The Sweet East), Charlie McDowell (The One I Love, The Summer Book), Jack Selby (His Three Daughters), Marc Marrie (His Three Daughters), Francesco Melzi d’Eril (Bones and All, Suspiria), Olmo Schnabel (Pet Shop Days), and Archie Madekwe. Production companies include High Frequency Entertainment, MeMo, Arts & Sciences, TWIN Pictures and Case Study Films.

SYNOPSIS

When a twenty-something retail clerk encounters a rising pop star, he takes the opportunity to edge his way into the in-crowd. But as the line between friend and fan blurs beyond recognition, access and proximity become a matter of life and death.

The directorial debut from The Bear and Beef writer-producer Alex Russell, LURKER is an exhilarating cat-and-mouse thriller made for the moment. Online fixation meets reality in this parasocial, paranoid film driven by a brilliant score and star-making performances.

DIRECTOR’S BIO

Alex Russell is the writer & director behind LURKER, which premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. He most recently served as a Co-Executive Producer on Netflix/A24’s BEEF, for which he won an Emmy award for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series. And he was recently a Supervising Producer on FX’s THE BEAR. His episode – ep 207 – titled “Forks,” was one of the best reviewed episodes of television last year and nominated for a WGA award. He got his start as a staff writer on the first two seasons of DAVE – and was also recently a Producer on Hulu’s series INTERIOR CHINATOWN.

#TIFF23: “SOLO” REVIEW

By George Kozera

SOLO takes us into the world of Montreal’s illustrious drag queen scene, where Simon (Theodore Pellerin) is a rising star. Simon is a make-up artist during the day and has a wonderful and loving relationship with his supportive family (his sister, a seamstress, even creates his outfits), though it’s been over 15 years since he last saw his estranged mother. Claire (Anne-Marie Cadieux) left the family to go to Europe to pursue a career as an opera singer and is now world renowned. One night at the club, Simon meets recent recruit from France, Olivier (Felix Maritaud), and before you can say “Mama Ru“, they embark on a steamy and drug-fuelled relationship, and, as a duet, they entertain the audience with highly charged and erotic performances at the club. Very quickly, their relationship turns toxic as Olivier becomes increasingly domineering. Meanwhile, Simon learns that Claire will be back to Montreal to perform for a short time, and he desperately wants to reconnect with her. Simon becomes stretched emotionally.

Writer/Director Sophie Dupuis’ unique vision is impressive, but the story is muddled and borderline overly melodramatic. The drag performances in the club are visually-compelling, but the poisonous relationships Simon has with his mother and his lover is presented in a bewildered and not fully formed fashion.

What takes SOLO to stratospheric heights is the magnetic performance from Canadian Screen Award winner, Theodore Pellerin. It is unabashedly hypnotic and compelling, and he almost obliterates everyone he shares the screen with. His drag performances are equally captivating.

SOLO screens at TIFF ’23:
Sunday September 10, Roy Thomson Hall, 9:30PM
Monday September 11, Scotiabank, 3:30PM