Stories in Motion

Our twenty fourth film at Toronto sets up a genuinely fascinating medical and family dilemma and then barely scratches the surface of it. We talk about Antonio Banderas and Eva Birthistle bringing real emotional weight to an otherwise uneven script, why the film sidelines its most compelling character just when her story matters most, and how a movie this ambitious ends up feeling strangely incomp...

Our twenty third film at Toronto revisits one of the strangest true crime cases in recent memory, and somehow finds a fresh, sharp way to tell it. We talk about Patricia Arquette's fearless performance as one of the most self assured criminals you'll ever see onscreen, David Harbour's quietly clueless partner in crime, and how Courtney Cox's long awaited return to directing turns o...

Our twenty second film at Toronto brings back the kind of juicy, star driven melodrama Hollywood barely makes anymore. We talk about Sarah Paulson, Naomi Watts and Dianne Wiest all going completely all in on a story about motherhood, denial and decades of buried family secrets, and why watching this level of talent tear into material this dramatic feels like such a rare treat.

Our twenty first film at Toronto tells the wild true story of how Sylvester Stallone refused every payout Hollywood offered him just to star in his own script. We talk about Anthony Ippolito's uncanny transformation into Stallone, the scrappy low budget decisions that accidentally made Rocky a classic, and why this story of stubborn self belief hits just as hard as the movie it's about.

Our twentieth film at Toronto is Lauren Miller Rogen's personal, funny take on the constant pressure to have children, starring real life husband Seth Rogen alongside Anna Kendrick. We talk about their effortless onscreen chemistry, how the film balances celebrating parenthood with celebrating the childfree life, and why one particular voiceover line feels like years of unwanted interview ques...

Our nineteenth film at Toronto took a kidnapped surgeon premise and turned it into one of the most purely entertaining watches of the festival. We talk about Michelle Yeoh delivering a masterclass in calm, calculated menace, the film's wild visual trick of showing anatomy beneath the skin during fight scenes, and why this genre blending thriller feels destined for cult classic status.

Our eighteenth film at Toronto is a blistering, funny, and genuinely moving look at the entertainment industry through the eyes of a fading television star. We talk about Rosalind Eleazar's phenomenal lead performance, why Chris Rock's return to directing after over a decade feels like such a major event, and how the film manages to indict Hollywood's rot without ever letting its compl...

Our seventeenth film at Toronto blends family drama with dark comedy and action in one of the stranger genre mashups we've seen at the festival. We talk about Mahershala Ali's quietly devastating performance as a widowed contract killer trying to hold his family together, the film's wild gallery of side characters exploring faith, guns and money in modern America, and why its most powe...

We're recording this one from TIFF, but before we dive into what Toronto has in store, we're closing the book on Venice - our full ranking of all thirty-one films from the Lido. The Golden Lion surprise, the Malkovich performance we can't stop talking about, and the ones that looked gorgeous and said nothing. Venice, settled - then it's on to Toronto.

Our sixteenth film at Toronto takes us to rural Missouri for a family dramedy about grief, hoarding, and going home to a place you swore you'd never return to. We talk about Caleb Hearon's promising screenwriting debut, why Zooey Deschanel steals nearly every scene she's in, and how the film manages to avoid easy small town stereotypes while still keeping things funny and familiar.

Our fifteenth film at Toronto flips the script on dating app culture with a curse that turns a serial womanizer into everyone's unwilling obsession. We talk about Taron Egerton's fully committed performance, why the film's cleverest idea about performative modern masculinity never gets the follow through it deserves, and how its final twist tries to let itself off the hook the same way...

Our fourteenth film at Toronto gave us a math prodigy love story that looks great on paper but struggles to actually connect emotionally. We talk about why Chase Infiniti's talent gets buried under a character we're only ever told about, how one scene with Jason Isaacs and Gillian Anderson accidentally becomes the best part of the whole movie, and why so many small details in this story ju...

Our thirteenth film at Toronto is Andrew Haigh's slow burning family drama set on an isolated 1950s mountain farm, and it completely earns every ounce of its patience. We talk about the film's stunning use of landscape as storytelling, Caitríona Balfe's devastating performance as a mother unraveling in plain sight, and how the film handles a young man's quiet queer awakening with a tenderness we d...

Our twelfth film at Toronto brought Anna Biller back after a ten year absence, and she picked medieval times as her new canvas for exploring beauty standards and toxic chivalry. We talk about how gorgeous this film looks, why its frequent detours into monologues about womanhood actually work in its favor, and how a story about disfigurement and revenge somehow becomes one of the most colorful, fun...

Our eleventh film at Toronto pulls back the curtain on a real 1974 assassination attempt that Korea's own government worked hard to keep quiet. We talk about how director Hur Jin ho turns a suppressed historical event into a genuinely gripping conspiracy thriller, why the film's family drama subplots slow down its momentum, and why its abrupt ending left us wanting one more act.

Our tenth film at Toronto follows a group of ordinary people through October 6th, 2023, and the devastating morning that followed. We talk about how director Avi Nesher approaches an incredibly difficult historical moment through deeply personal stories, why the film centers connection and humanity over politics, and how one storyline in particular, involving a young woman's night that tests her f...

Our ninth film at Toronto is a quiet coming of age story set inside a fading literary magazine in 2010s New York, and it snuck up on us more than we expected. We talk about Lily McInerny's internalized lead performance, why the film's small, unglamorous disappointments hit harder than any big twist could, and how a story about losing your illusions somehow ends up feeling warm instead of b...

This film at Toronto had us completely locked in for most of its runtime thanks to two incredible lead performances, and then it took a hard left turn we're still trying to process. We talk about Erin Doherty's devastating portrayal of grief, why James McAvoy's quiet stillness works so well early on, and how a story this grounded ends up derailed by a supernatural twist that just doesn...

Our seventh film at Toronto tells a genuinely incredible true story about resistance fighters faking an entire issue of a Nazi controlled newspaper, and somehow turns it into one of the slower sits of the festival. We talk about why a heist movie about printing presses gets bogged down in its own logistics, whether the film's message about truth reaching the masses still holds up today, and th...

Our sixth film at Toronto gave us one of the most gripping opening acts of the festival and then completely changed direction on us. We talk about Naomi Watts delivering a genuinely unsettling performance as a hidden war criminal, why the film's twist lands so much harder than its courtroom heavy back half, and how a story this compelling somehow ends up feeling conventional by the credits.

Our fifth film at Toronto took one of literature's most legendary writers and completely stripped away the reverence, and we are so here for it. We talk about Johnny Flynn playing Dostoevsky as a gambling, drunken disaster of a man, why Aimee Lou Wood quietly steals the entire film as the wife holding everything together, and how a random needle drop of Take On Me somehow becomes the perfect s...

Our fourth film at Toronto this year takes us into one of the more quietly terrifying stories of the festival, a cult drama that skips the usual charismatic male leader trope entirely. We break down Carrie Coon's incredible dual performance as a suburban housewife pulled into a commune, why Lily James makes for one of the most unnervingly effective cult recruiters we've seen onscreen, and...

Toronto kicked off its festival this year with a film that sent us straight into the archives, a dramatization of the 1977 disability rights sit in that most people never learned about in school. In this episode we dig into Siân Heder's long awaited return five years after CODA, why casting disabled actors as disabled characters completely changes how this story lands emotionally, and how Mark...

Our second stop at Toronto this year is the one nobody warned us about, a taxidermy musical starring Jodie Comer and Harry Melling that somehow made us tear up. We talk about how a film this weird earns real emotion, why the music leans sincere instead of ironic, and how two actors fully committing to a deeply strange premise turns it into one of the more unexpected highlights of the festival so f...

We kick off our Toronto International Film Festival coverage with the first film on our list, Mike Leigh's Tender Loving Care. In this episode we talk about why this might be Leigh's final film, how it compares to his earlier work like Another Year and Hard Truths, and why a movie about tea, gossip and social workers ends up hitting so much harder than expected. We dig into the performance...