Once again transmogrifying old-school exploitation into her own feminist styling of New French Extremity, Coralie Fargeat trades in the empowered bloodletting of 2018’s Revenge for body horror. The Substance is one-note, obscene, and about as subtle as a sledgehammer — and it also happens to be one of the best movies of the year. Minor spoilers ahead…

Mike Leigh returns after six years away from the director’s chair with Hard Truths, a work of pure alchemy transforming misanthropic comedy into a brutal downer. Reuniting with his Secrets and Lies star, Leigh excavates the nooks and crannies of a small-scale drama with a towering deftness on the things left unspoken: Marianne Jean-Baptiste is absolutely titanic in what is likely the best performance of 2024. Minor spoilers ahead…

Welcome to my dispatch from this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Like always, I won’t be writing full reviews of everything I see at the festival, but this year has plenty of notable features worth at least a quick write-up: Sean Baker’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner, Kiyoshi Kurosawa like you’ve never seen him before, and Steven Soderbergh’s haunted house flick are just some of the highlights at 2024’s TIFF. Here are the capsule reviews for Presence, Cloud, Nightbitch, Anora, The Shadow Strays, and Conclave.

Welcome to my dispatch from this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Like always, I won’t be writing full reviews of everything I see at the festival, but this stacked year has outpaced my pen more than ever: the latest — and perhaps final — Miyazaki, a new Bertrand Bonello, a brutal Indian actioner, and Demián Regna’s nasty followup to 2018’s Terrified are just some of films screening at 2023’s TIFF. Here are the capsule reviews The Boy and the Heron, The Royal Hotel, Knox Goes Away, Kill, and Boy Kills World.

Richard Linklater’s confectionary romcom tears the house down at the Toronto International Film Festival this year. Paradoxically breezy yet unpredictable, Hit Man is a full-blooded rejuvenation of its genre, buoyed by volcanic chemistry and capital “M” movie star performances from Glen Powell and Adria Arjona. A movie about self-actualization and the moral chasms we pave over, it’s sexy, funny, and just a little twisted. Minor spoilers ahead…

My coverage of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival begins with possibly the most horrifying — and masterful — film of 2023. A picturesque idyll conjured by history’s most monstrous as hell seeps around all its corners, Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest is a haymaker display of a filmmaker’s restraint and precision — a masterwork in a career full of them. Minor spoilers ahead…

The superstar team of Steven Spielberg, Tony Kushner, and Janusz Kaminski ripping another one out of the park is the least surprising development at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. The entirety of Spielberg’s being splashed upon the big screen, The Fabelmans sidesteps the treacly sentimentality of your typical autobiography to deliver a moving form of self-therapy: the legendary director’s heart and soul, delivered through his masterful craft. The Fabelmans is Spielberg’s most personal film, and one of the year’s best. Minor spoilers ahead…

Director Martin McDonagh reunites with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson in The Banshees of Inisherin, a darkly comedic portrait of an imploding friendship amidst mounting pettiness. Men and their decimated kinships unraveled upon the screen, richly textured and frequently uproarious, it’s McDonagh at his best as he explores evaporating bonds, crushing loneliness, and enmity in grotesque escalation. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson are unsurprisingly in top form in what will likely be my favorite film of the year. Minor spoilers ahead…

A knock-down-drag-out battle of wits within the confines of a hotel room, Zachary Wigon’s Sanctuary is a two-handed chamber piece for the ages. Sexy, twisted, and eager to draw blood, the film explores the whirlwind disintegration of a relationship that slowly chips away at the barriers between fantasy and reality, class and control. One of my favorites of the festival. Minor spoilers ahead…

Welcome to my dispatch from this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. As usual, I won’t be writing full reviews of everything I see at the festival, but there are plenty of notable films in this year’s slate that deserve attention. Here are the capsule reviews for 2022’s TIFF: Devotion, The Whale, My Policeman, and Sick. Minor spoilers ahead…

Coverage of TIFF’s Midnight Madness begins here! The Golden Age of Hollywood meets the bloody end of a pitchfork, Ti West’s colorful prequel is the perfect companion piece to this year’s X. Expanding Mia Goth’s performance into an unhinged showcase with a jaw-dropping, single-take monologue, Pearl leaves behind the grimy 70s porn slasher for the pastures of a technicolor nightmare. Spoilers for X and minor spoilers for Pearl ahead…

Detective Benoît Blanc is back in another intricate whodunit in Rian Johnson’s sprawling sequel, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. A new location, a new mystery, and a new cabal of suspicious, bumbling elites are at the center of yet another murder, and it’s up to the world-renowned gumshoe to solve the case. Glass Onion is frantic and far from the airtight elegance of its predecessor, but Johnson’s wit and craft remain electrifyingly. Frequently surprising, frequently uproarious, this is one mystery you won’t want revealed ahead of time. Minor spoilers ahead…

Another entry in this year’s Midnight Madness slate, Congolese filmmaker Jean Luc Herbulot’s Saloum is a confident genre mashup. Part Spaghetti Western, part crime thriller, part folk horror, the film packs a potent cocktail of tones within its brisk 84-minute runtime. With tinges of Robert Rodriguez and John Carpenter, coupled with a crackling performance from Yann Gael, Saloum is a lean, breakneck journey into the terrifying unknown and the wildest surprise at TIFF this year. Minor spoilers ahead…

Kicking off TIFF’s documentary slate is Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vaserhelyi’s The Rescue, a deeper look at the daring mission to save 12 children and their soccer coach from a flooded cave in Thailand. A film naturally picking up the mantle of the filmmakers’ Oscar-winning Free Solo, it’s a rousing tale of humanity that crescendoes into an unbelievable climax of selfless individuals coming together.

I may be missing the big headliners of TIFF, but that only gives me more time to cover Midnight Madness and the festival’s less splashy titles. My first review roundup from this year’s TIFF includes an alien invasion road trip with Riz Ahmed, Jake Gyllenaal in a remake of a Danish hidden gem, and Naomi Watts in a misguided school shooting thriller. Here are the capsule reviews for Encounter, The Guilty, and Lakewood…

My TIFF 2021 coverage starts here! Kicking off this year’s Midnight Madness slate is Rob Savage’s followup to his 2020 “screenlife” hit, Host. Extrapolating COVID found footage beyond just a Zoom lobby, DASHCAM doubles down on pandemic horror to very mixed results. Ramping up the scope and intricacy - but not the ingenuity - of Host, the film gets wildly uneven mileage out of its grating protagonist and its everything-but-the-kitchen-sink terrors. Minor spoilers ahead…

A vérité mix of fiction and documentary, Chloé Zhao’s enthralling Nomadland captures a lost sliver of American life. Frances McDormand is astounding as the understated Fern, bringing a quiet dignity to one of the most soulful performances of the year. Adapted from Jessica Bruder’s book, Nomadland jettisons melodrama and traditional narrative tensions, choosing instead to explore life on the road with lightly-fictionalized versions of real-life nomads. A graceful elegy and a hopeful portrait, Nomadland - like Zhao’s The Rider before it - is a new standard for the American western.