#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 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

#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 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

#TIFF25: “BLUE MOON” REVIEW

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

#TIFF25: DAY FIVE HIGHLIGHTS – DWAYNE JOHNSON, EMILY BLUNT, SCARLETT JOHANSSON, JUNE SQUIBB, JACOB ELORDI, OSCAR ISAAC, MIA GOTH, AMANDA SEYFRIED, LEWIS PULLMAN AND MORE

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

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#TIFF25: “HAMNET” REVIEW

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

#TIFF25: DAY FOUR SIGHTINGS – ANGELINA JOLIE, DUSTIN HOFFMAN, KERRY CONDON, JUNE SQUIBB, LEO WOODALL, RAMI MALEK, WAGNER MOURA AND MORE

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:

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angelina content:

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nuremberg afterparty:

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

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#TIFF25: “MOTOR CITY” Review

By David Baldwin

Detroit, 1977. Blue collar ex-con John Miller (Alan Ritchson, sporting a ridiculous blonde wig for far too long) is in love with Sophia (Shailene Woodley). Unfortunately for him, she is the ex-girlfriend of local gangster Reynolds (Ben Foster), who has John framed and thrown back into jail for drug possession. 

That is the set-up for MOTOR CITY and you can guess (minus a few twists and a bogus ending) where it goes from here. Not content to just be a stereotypical period action thriller, Director Potsy Ponciroli alongside Writer Chad St. John strip away the majority of the dialogue – leaving the film to glide by on body language, aesthetic, music and a gratuitous amount of slow motion. It makes for a frustratingly uneven viewing experiment that does not always work but somehow manages to always be interesting. 

Beyond wishing Woodley had more to do beyond being the fridged damsel in distress (who somehow gets the most dialogue out of the approximately 78 words spoken over the course of the entire film) and that anyone could match or surpass Foster’s brilliantly expressive performance, MOTOR CITY deserves high praise for its nasty third act elevator brawl between Ritchson and dirty cop Savick (Pablo Schreiber). The claustrophobic fight choreography is stunning and the way these two actors throw their bodies around easily make this brutally violent fight scene one of the most memorable of the festival.

MOTOR CITY screens at TIFF ‘25:

Thurs. Sept 4 at 8:45 PM at TIFF Lightbox

Fri. Sept 5 at 2:15 PM at Scotiabank Theatre Toronto

#TIFF25: “THE CHRISTOPHERS” REVIEW

By Nicholas Porteous

The prolific and unpredictable Steven Soderbergh goes back to basics with The Christophers. It’s the story of two artists–one at the tail end of his life (Ian McKellen), and the other (Michaela Cole) near the start of her career, but drifting in a limbo of art-adjacent gigs–including forgery. His money-minded children (James Corden and Jessica Gunning) send her on a mission to secretly complete an unfinished series of his paintings–The Christophers–which reside at the top of his multi-story house, collecting dust. If she can finish the paintings and secretly return them, they’ll be worth several fortunes after he dies, which could be any day now. What follows is a very different sort of art heist.

The Christophers is a carefully-constructed character study which unravels largely through a series of dialogues. It’s theatrical, small in scale–mostly confined to McKellen’s enormous abode–but rich in scope. By the end, a complex portrait of both characters is uncovered. That’s not to say The Christophers is just talk. The twists and turns come fast, and the game changes, inverts, shimmies into a new form in practically every scene.

Ian McKellen is a true master at work here. Don’t let his character’s near-death status fool you–he’s the most electric presence in the movie by a mile. Every glance and gesture crackles, and he balances intense narcissism with a fiendish, cutting insight. He’s also funny as hell. Cole is tasked with a far less verbose and enigmatic personality. Half the fun of The Christophers is never quite knowing where her mind is headed next. She’s a captivating presence, but never totally steals the spotlight from McKellen, partly by necessity.

The production design is suspiciously fantastic. If you told me this was truly an aging artist’s apartment, plastered with layers upon layers of half-finished projects, memories, bits and bobs accumulated over a lifetime, I would believe you. I suspect it’s only the stunning work of more incredible artists.

The Christophers is another little Soderbergh gem. Minimalist by design, it won’t outshine any of the bigger films at TIFF 50, but if you can grab a ticket, you’ll find a clever character study with a performance at its center that only a living legend can give, after decades at the top of his craft.

The Christophers screens at TIFF ’25:

Mon. Sept 8 at 9:00 AM and 6:25 PM at Scotiabank Theatre

Fri. Sept 12 at 9:00 AM at TIFF Lightbox

Sat. Sept 13 at 9:00 PM at TIFF Lightbox

#TIFF25: “DEAD MAN’S WIRE”

By Amanda Gilmore

Director Gus Van Sant returns to telling stories about real world events with this unbelievable true crime story. Dead Man’s Wire recreates the fascinating true story of the 1977 kidnapping that made aspiring Indianapolis entrepreneur Tony Kiritsis (Bill Skarsgård) into an eccentric outlaw folk hero.

Tony feels swindled by Meridian Mortgage Company. A company he partnered with to open a local shopping centre. After years of hollow meetings, Tony’s had enough. So, he takes Meridian Mortgage Company president Richard Hall (Dacre Montgomery), who happens to be the Meridian founder’s son, hostage. He refuses to let him go unless he gets a public apology and his money back.

Van Sant transports us into 70s Indianapolis. The grainy cinematography, soundtrack, and costume design make us time-travel. It’s a time before social media. When primetime news anchors and radio jockeys were household names.

Dead Man’s Wire is a retelling of this strange kidnapping. Van Sant and Screenwriter Austin Kolodney don’t want to tell you how to feel. Instead, they give you the facts. This allows us to decide for ourselves if we judge Tony or the privileged elite. Tony became an outlaw folk hero for some in ’77 for what he did. How he stood up for himself against the corporate elite. Here, the filmmakers allow us to see him similarly, but also for his faults.

At the centre of this outstanding crime thriller is Skarsgård, who has easily given one of his finest performances. He’s a bucket full of charisma that allows us to empathize with Tony just as the citizens in Indianapolis did during those 3 days in ’77. There is an outstanding supporting performance from Coleman Domingo, who plays a pivotal role as a radio disc jockey who gets pulled into Tony’s negotiations.

Dead Man’s Wire screens at TIFF ’25:

Sun. Sept 7 at 12:00 PM at VISA Screening Room at the Princess of Wales

Mon. Sept 8 at 3:30 PM at Scotiabank Theatre Toronto

Thurs. Sept 11 at 12:30 PM at Scotiabank Theatre Toronto

Sun. Sept 14 at 6:50 PM at Scotiabank Theatre Toronto

#TIFF25: “BLACK RABBIT” REVIEW

By Mr. Will Wong

BLACK RABBIT has all the makings of prestige television and it premieres as part of this year’s Primetime programme. The suspenseful upcoming Netflix release sees among others, star Jason Bateman and Laura Linney taking turns directing episodes of this Limited Series.

We meet Restauranteur Jake (Jude Law) thriving with this Michelin-starred establishment, for which the Series is named, and he’s about to expand further. The New York Times is about to do a feature, and in comes his troubled brother Vince (Jason Bateman), who is dealing with vices and debt. His resurfacing could mean everything Jake working for getting destroyed as seams begin to split beneath him and other problems come to light and chaos begins to unravel.

While it takes a moment to get going, we were fully immersed by the second episode, as we witness for Jake how we can rise above the soil, though sometimes we are unable to escape our roots. Yet another tremendous performance by this talented Ensemble, led by Law and Bateman, the latter flexing his ability in a role unlike any other he’s played.

Thankfully, the Series arrives on the streaming service September 18, 2025 but those of us who can’t wait, can see it at TIFF ’25 as follows:

Sunday, September 7
TIFF Lightbox
Premium
Closed captions (CC). Audio description (AD)
3:30 pm

Monday, September 8
Scotiabank Theatre Toronto
Closed captions (CC), Audio description (AD)
9:30 pm