November 7, 2025

Welcome to the TFCA weekly, a round-up of reviews and coverage by members of the Toronto Film Critics Association.

In Release this Week

300 Letters (dir. Lucas Sanata Ana)

At Afro Toronto, Gilbert Seah calls it “an anti-romantic comedy that subverts or rejects the usual conventions of a romantic comedy with many lessons can be learned here about relationships, whether gay or straight.”

Baramulla (dir. Aditya Suhas Jambhale)

“The (Indian) film is a rare blend of detective mystery of disappearing children with family drama and supernatural mystery interspersed with some fine humour,” says Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “The film examines fear, and what it does to destroy how a human can function.”

Christy (dir. David Michôd)

“While Euphoria has tested the actress’s resolve in the face of wide-eyed adolescent terror, the material in Christy pushes that trauma vortex further, requiring Sweeney to shed any sense of preciousness or vanity. Every step of the way, she grins and bears it, first convincing herself, and then the audience, that she is up for the fight of her life – not dissimilar, of course, to how Martin herself approached each of her own doubters and competitors,” notes Barry Hertz at The Globe and Mail. Hertz also chats with co-star Ben Foster about transforming himself as Christy’s sleazy husband/coach. “If you have the time, it makes your job easier – you don’t have to think about it on the set, that way that one lives in their body, in their character. Because behaviour is character,” Foster tells Hertz. “While Syd was putting in five hours of extra training, I was just eating a lot of extra burritos.”

“But as mired in its genre as Christy is, every actor in it is better than the movie. Sweeney plays Martin as convincingly tough and inwardly vulnerable, all the way back to high school in small-town West Virginia, when she answers the homophobic taunts of a mean girl with a knockout punch,” observes Jim Slotek at Original Cin. “Martin had a contradictory complexity. She was closeted, but adopted a girl-next-door image complete with pink frilly clothes (a look created by her violently controlling manager/husband Jim Martin, played with absolute villainy by the always solid Ben Foster) and openly and publicly taunted same-sex fellow women boxers.”

“Director David Michôd and his scenarist wife Mirrah Foulkes have combined with Sweeney to recreate both the tough talking blue collar environment that was Christy’s world as—genuinely—a coal miner’s daughter, and the rough high-spirited atmosphere of boxing rings and clubs,” says Marc Glassman at Classical FM. “Sydney Sweeney has a great shot at garnering an Oscar nomination for her interpretation of Christy Martin. Though Sweeney is often glamorous, she shows that she can embody a resilient athlete, willing to do anything to make a living in sports. If there’s a word for Sweeney’s interpretation of Christy, it’s ‘feisty.’ Sweeney exudes confidence and presumably mirrors Christy’s belief that she can fight the odds and emerge a winner.”

“The film could be shortened but included a few distractions that lengthened Martin’s story,” says Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “Whether the distractions are good or bad depends on the viewer.  (The film, to its credit contains strong character developments and study, that unfortunately also could be discarded to shorten the film’s length.)”

“Sweeney takes advantage of the depth of these scenes, too, injecting the biopic with far more than a confident makeover,” writes Pat Mullen at That Shelf. “Opposite Foster, who is surprisingly, almost unwatchably, bad here—his over-the-top performance suggest that he at least thinks they’re making I, Tonya—Sweeney conveys a morally and mentally grounded nature that keeps Christy sharp and nimble. She delivers a turn with layers and stamina, allowing Christy’s strength of spirit hits hardest. The star ensures that Martin’s story should inspire audiences to hold their own in whatever fight they might find themselves.”

Die, My Love (dir. Lynne Ramsay)

“Watching the new film Die My Love, I could feel my arteries sizzling. Where had a woman like this been all my life?” asks Johanna Schneller at The Globe and Mail, who speaks with star Jennifer Lawrence about her career’s new act. “I’ve done some movies that are more literal about my beliefs – The Hunger Games, rising up against tyranny,” Lawrence says. “Die My Love is less literal, but it does explore and remind us about this new concept, that mothers are humans…It reminds us that taking care of children and looking after a house is an exhausting, full-time job. It’s extreme manual labour – it’s just unpaid manual labour.”

“Die My Love has gorgeous cinematography, delicious nudity, way-cool music and Robert Pattinson, but the irresistible urge to check one’s watch kicked in early — at the one-hour mark. That’s not a good sign,” advises Liz Braun at Original Cin. “It’s exhausting, watching someone who is the emotional glue in the family juggle three generations of needy men; you’ll pardon the redundancy, but that juggling happens in an isolated rural area where spooky sleepwalking, midnight garden waltzing and gun-toting seniors appear to be the norm.”

“In Die, My Love, the cause of Grace’s madness is hinted at in one party scene where she is warned of Postpartum depression (PPD), also called perinatal depression,” notes Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “But it is not the cause of madness that writer/director Ramsay is interested in. In Die My Love, the mad madness is displayed on screen with all its horror, destruction and damage, with no excuse for it.”

“Here, everything arrives dripping wet with artifice, from the rotting-before-our-eyes country home to the buzzing-flies on the assaultive sound mix to the forest-fire imagery that bookends Grace’s journey,” writes Barry Hertz at The Globe and Mail. “In a more controlled and less punishing film, Lawrence’s deeply committed performance would be the discussion of the year. Yet she has tossed herself to the wolves here, the star provided no care or cover by her director. What is the point in going so raw, so feral, if the result is so scattered, so interminable, so irredeemably silly? It is The Emperor’s New Clothes of empty, naked-for-naked sake acting, and no one here with the brief exception of Spacek – who leapfrogs over the ludicrous dialogue she is handed – walks away clean.”

“Ramsay sustains a tone that oscillates between lyrical observation and psychological suspense. The rhythm is deliberately unstable, measured at first, then quickening as Grace’s mind unravels. This push-pull between control and collapse gives the film a hypnotic, almost tidal emotional flow that keeps viewers locked in her shifting perspective,” writes Peter Howell at the Toronto Star. “Die My Love sidesteps melodrama, laying bare the subtle dread of coming undone from within. Lawrence’s stripped-down performance and Ramsay’s attentive direction linger, leaving us with Grace’s rough vulnerability and the paradox that intimacy can feel most isolating.”

“The casting of Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson in Die My Love is wonderfully ironic. A decade ago, the two were top teen icons as the leads in the top franchises then: Lawrence as Katniss in The Hunger Games and Pattinson as the vampire Edward Cullen in the Twilight Saga. Now, they’re mature performers dedicated to art films, but they no longer have millions of fans who will faithfully go to their movies,” says Marc Glassman at Classical FM. “Perhaps that’s just as well. The notion of millions lining up for a Lynne Ramsay film seems absurd. She and her great cast have made a tragic tone poem that will appeal to those with poetic and artistic sensibilities, but not to the masses.”

In Your Dreams (dir. Alex Woo)

“In Your Dreams is huge on fun and wonder with magic and family values thrown in for good measure,” shares Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “The goofy humour is dished out for both kids and adults and the family setting makes the film an excellent family outing at the cinemas or at home on the Netflix streaming service.  A winner for Netflix and one definite contender for the Best Animated features of the year!”

Love+War (dir. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin)

“This story offers a wake-up call for Addario, but it also encapsulates the sense of duty that can’t be shaken,” writes Pat Mullen at POV Magazine. “Much like they burrowed deep into the psychology of Alex Honnold and his partner Sanni McCandless, Vasarhelyi and Chin find an avenue into Addario’s mindset by taking audiences along for the climb, so to speak, as she scales the heights of global conflict to deliver compelling snapshots. Meanwhile, Paul does for Love+War what Sanni does for Free Solo in offering a window into the impact that such risky business takes on a partner. But he also conveys how having the right person who totally understands their partner’s passion is the best safety harness one can have. This is a fascinating snapshot of a woman who knows the power of a well-placed shot.”

Nuremberg (dir. James Vanderbilt)

“Vanderbilt’s thriller set in post-war Germany looks at Hitler’s men who carried out what became known as the Holocaust – the determined, official extermination of German Jews, Roma and other groups. Nuremberg follows the architects of Hitler’s evil dream as they prepare to go to trial,” notes Anne Brodie at What She Said. “U.S. Army psychiatrist Lt. Col. Douglas Kelley (Malek) carries out in depth interviews with, among others, Hitler’s second in command and former Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, Crowe in a powerful physical transformation and performance, to determine if he is fit to stand trial. Göring’s outgoing, gregarious personality masks true evil; he drew up the blueprint to wipe out, in the end, six million souls and is proud of what he achieved. Kelley and Göring are polar opposites; Kelley hears things that are life changing and sobering, Göring never drops his bravado or outrage.”

“The ponderous storytelling is such that you’re always aware you’re watching a movie. Visually, Nuremberg takes great pains to set itself in a particular past, that olde-timey past underlined by exploding flashbulbs and fake archival black and white footage. It’s more like an olde-timey cinema past than anything actually historical though; witness a soldier peeing on a swastika as the movie opens. There seems to be a lot of acting going on. There is overwrought music to emphasize it, too,” says Liz Braun at Original Cin. “The point of Nuremberg is to make clear that the atrocities of WWII were preventable, but happened because people allowed them to — because, ‘They didn’t stand up until it was too late’ as one character says.”

“[The] one [actor] who seems wildly miscast only to then prove himself to be the sole performer who genuinely understands and explores the responsibility that he is given,” writes Barry Hertz at The Globe and Mail. “That last fella is, perhaps surprisingly, Russell Crowe, whose casting as Goring initially seems to be a terrible joke. The one-time Gladiator Maximus Decimus Meridius, reduced to cosplaying a bulging Nazi in his final days. Yet as the film goes on…it is Crowe who nails what Vanderbilt seems to be going for yet cannot achieve himself: a layered exploration of the moral binaries that govern society, and which some men live to obliterate.”

“The script contains lots of smart talk, sometimes too much, as everyone in the story appears able to give the best rebuttal,” says Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. Example: Göring says, I will also show you a magic trick, how I am going to escape the hangman’s noose.” When asked by Col. Kelly how he was going to do that, his reply is: ‘If I were to tell you, then it would not be a trick.’  But the small talk helps in the film’s entertainment as smart talk is always entertaining to listen to.”

Predator: Badlands (dir. Dan Trachtenberg)

“The action pieces are more than solid as the production threw the bulk of the budget on the screen and when you drop some tasty universe building nuggets throughout the narrative (Wayland-Yutani anyone?) it makes Predator: Badlands an entertaining enough affair but there’s just one thing this film can’t shake,” writes Dave Voigt at In the Seats. “Had this been the movie that went straight to Disney+ during COVID over the more adult Prey which really deserved a proper theatrical run fans would have been overjoyed. Predator: Badlands is a fun action ride that opens it up to a wider audience and gives the franchise a place to go in future installments which is always important, but it’s not necessarily the movie the hard core fans of the franchise wanted either.”

“The computer-generated imagery, the cinematography, and the makeup all deserve mention,” writes Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “For a film with few humans and little opportunity for emotions. Predator Badlands more than makes it up with silly by mind mind-boggling action.”

“Blood might still be spilled by the barrel, but because it is either neon blue or cream-coloured, Trachtenberg can walk away with a PG rating that theoretically broadens his film’s audience, even if it in practice neuters the property’s core appeal,” says Barry Hertz at The Globe and Mail. “The lack of genuine slaughter in Badlands isn’t the film’s only problem. While it flips the franchise’s history by making the Yautja a hero instead of a villain – the threadbare story involves a warrior clan’s “runt” being exiled to a hostile planet to prove himself – there is not nearly enough tension or world-building on display to become invested in this particular game of kill-or-be-killed.”

Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk (dir. Sepideh Farsi)

“There’s certainly no denying the tragic nature in being able to tell a story like Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk but there’s also something inspiring and aspirational about it too,” says Dave Voigt at In the Seats. “The title which was coined by the subject in the film in many ways is a call to arms in the myriad of ‘first world problems’ that we are all confronted with daily to remember the simply power of being able to go outside with worrying about the world around, quite literally falling on top of you.”

“There is a stealthy artfulness to the way Farsi turns practical difficulties into a potent lo-fi aesthetic, as the two women, a generation apart, speak in awkward English through bad internet connections,” notes Liam Lacey at Original Cin. “Farsi used one iPhone to record the video on another phone, often to the rumble of Israeli Apache helicopters. The fragmented calls are interspersed with grainy clips of war coverage, television broadcasts on her laptop (CNN, Al Jazeera, France 24), and images of Hassona’s carefully composed digital photos of Palestinian men, women and children, against the backdrop of their city’s broken buildings and mounds of grey rubble.”

“These conversations offer a window into a soul who yearns to remain in her homeland, free of occupation. The conversations obviously prove encouraging for Hassouna as they remind her that somebody cares. She especially perks up when Farsi asks about her dreams,” writes Pat Mullen at POV Magazine. “They’re fairly relatable too, like having the ability to visit faraway places. But Hassouna’s dreams shift from travel and mobility to basic things that audiences may take for granted, like a piece of chocolate or chicken for dinner. When she shows Farsi a bag of chips she received in a care package, she lights up as if the treat is the best delicacy in the world.”

Train Dreams (dir. Clint Bentley)

“Edgerton delivers a restrained and understated performance that nevertheless keeps us aware of what’s going on under his skin. He says little, but it’s enough. Meanwhile, the film, as a whole, made me think of some other great American filmmakers. There were shades of Terrence Malick in its use of nature as a character in its own right, and of Kelly Reichardt in the way it delivers a period piece so alive it feels like you could walk into its world,” writes Chris Knight at Original Cin. “But ultimately, Train Dreams is a unique concoction, and a journey worth taking for its own keening moments of grief and simple wisps of joy.”

“Train Dreams is quietly melancholy, finding beauty in nature and fate that often humans never have any control of, a film about a man on his own, orphaned as a child and dies returning back to the dust of the Earth,” says Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “He has not achieved milestones in his life, is not a hero (he observes a racist killing and does nothing) but is just an ordinary man living his life, but in an extraordinary film.”

“Train Dreams and its star-studded ensemble marks a different pace from their previous dramas. Jockey and Sing Sing were anchored by lead performers supported non-traditional actors who lived the story brought to screen,” writes Pat Mullen at That Shelf. “However, for all the star-power on display here, Train Dreams retains that authentic salt-of-the-earth quality in the ensemble. Edgerton and company do find themselves surrounded by real players who can’t be portrayed by anyone else: those grand trees. The landscape proves the real star here. The lush greenery lends every frame of Train Dreams a lived-in, of-this-earth nature. Let’s hear it for the trees: every branch of the film resonates with their power.”

A Festival of Festival Coverage

At Toronto Franco and Afro Toronto, Gilbert Seah offers capsule reviews of Ciné Franco and Reel Asian, respectively.

At Original Cin, Alice Shih previews Reel Asian highlights, including Akashi: “Yoshida not only adds colour to differentiate the time frames; she also presents to us how doubts and compromises can wash out the colour in our lives. At the end, can love bridge the social class gap, or compel a lover to venture out of his comfort zone without a safety net? To love is to risk, regardless of the era.”

TV Talk/Series Stuff

At What She Said, Anne Brodie checks out Netflix’s Death by Lightning: “Then there’s the deeply modern twist on language, score and overall feel. The language is casual and contemporary to 2025, same cuss words, dispensing with the usual presentation of earlier times as wooden, rigid and with Hollywood-esque period language.”

At Original Cin, Liam Lacey breaks bad with Pluribus: “Yet, even when nothing much is happening but there is a constant trickle of rewards, an unusual close-up, a furtive eye movement here, a funny pop music cue, a distorted reflection in a hub cap, or a helicopter appearing through a swarm of bugs.”

At POV Magazine, Pat Mullen chats with director Niobe Thompson about his documentary Hunt for the Oldest DNA and its portrait of biologist Eske Willerserv: “It’s not something you see when you see scientists in films,” says Thompson. “They typically have a real facade. They present to the public and they’re very controlled about the image they give you. In this case, Eske was willing to really say it how it was, and I took that invitation and pushed it as far as we could.”