Top of TIFF ‘25
The Toronto International Film Festival was held Sept. 4 - 14, 2025.
TOP 3 STORIES:
Hamnet
1. HAMNET
Something feels off about the story at first. Chloe Zhao withholds the familiar narrative beats we’ve all seen countless times before (think: the Hero’s Journey). At some point it dawns on us, we’re not watching a story about life. We’re watching life itself. Once that idea clicks, the story’s power seizes hold of you and drags you to an emotional height you never imagined existed.
2. BAD APPLES
There are no rainy alleyways or half empty bottles of booze. This is noir nestled into the innocent world of an Irish primary school. A hardworking, idealistic staff. Troublemakers. Perfect teacher’s pets. A concerned community. No one is spared, and watching it all unfold is delightful. Satire is rarely as sweet as this.
3. DUST BUNNY
The logline is about as perfect as can be: A young girl hires a hitman to kill the monsters under her bed. What’s not perfect is the screenplay’s structure. Contradictions abound. Plot holes multiply and prosper. Suspension of disbelief hangs on for dear life. And yet … none of that matters. The power pulsating through Dust Bunny proves that heaps of tone and tons of attitude are sometimes all you need for a rollicking good time.
TOP 3 PEOPLE:
Renate Reinsve, from Sentimental Value
1. JESSIE BUCKLEY (Hamnet)
Imagine a blank graph. Let’s label the X axis “Intensity.” Let’s label the Y axis “Emotion.” If you were to plot every moment that Jessie Buckley appears on screen, the dots would cover the entire graph. In other words, she does everything. She hits every note known to mankind (“acting-kind”?) pitch perfectly, even inventing a few new ones along the way. It’s the bravest, most complete performance in years.
2. RENATE REINSVE (Sentimental Value)
If not for Buckley’s otherworldly performance, we might be calling Reinsve’s performance the best we’ve seen in years. The film asks her to do so much, to feel so many things, and to express it all in the most human, honest, and enthralling way possible. At one point she’s suffering the mother of all panic attacks. Other times, she’s sharing tender moments with her adoring nephew. It’s a masterclass in both acting and navigating this messy thing called life.
3. TANIA MARIA (The Secret Agent)
Walter Moura will likely (and if so, deservedly) hear his name called when the Oscar nominations for Best Actor are announced. But Tania Maria, a septuagenarian newcomer to the world of acting, gives the performance I’ll never forget. Her performance slots into a wonderful category that might be called: “Natural Performance by Someone Who You Would Just Absolutely Love to Hang Out With.” She steals every scene she’s in, and most of those scenes are with the dude who’s likely Oscars bound.
TOP 3 FILM NERD STUFF:
It Was Just an Accident
1. NUNS VS. THE VATICAN (Cinematography)
We so often see a person’s pain on their face. But when a former nun sits down to recall the horrific abuse she suffered at the hands of a powerful man within the Catholic church, she understandably doesn’t want her face shown. The camera instead closes in on her hand. It grips the side of the kitchen table, twists the tablecloth, and lets go. She does this over and over and over again. A tiny, terrified hand filling up a gigantic movie screen. The shot reveals more pain than her words alone ever could.
2. IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (Sound Design)
A group of formerly jailed Iraqi citizens believe they’ve finally found the soldier who tortured them. The only identifying trait they have is the sound of his voice and the distinct sound of his artificial leg. Like the characters in the film, that sound will haunt us as well, long after the film’s unnerving final sequence.
3. BALLAD OF A SMALL PLAYER (Production Design)
The neon glitz, the gaudy casinos, and the lavish hotel rooms of Macau must be catnip for filmmakers. But the finest production touch occurs as Tilda Swinton chases Colin Farrell through a crappy laundromat. A conveyor belt of colorful clothes hangers swings across its ceiling. As each actor stands in silence beneath it, the colorful, clacking chaos communicates their frazzled, racing states of mind beautifully.
MY TOP TEN FILMS (out of the 27 that I saw):
Bad Apples
1. Hamnet
2. Sentimental Value
3. Bad Apples
4. Train Dreams
5. Ballad of a Small Player
6. The Secret Agent
7. Dust Bunny
8. True North
9. It Was Just an Accident
10. Good Fortune
Big films I missed (but wish I hadn’t):
Frankenstein
Christy
Frankenstein
Knives Out: Wake Up Dead Man
The Lost Bus
No Other Choice
Rental Family
Roofman
The Smashing Machine