December 5, 2025

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

We are now accepting applications for the 2026 Telefilm Canada Emerging Critic Award! Please see all details here and apply by Dec. 30 at 5:00pm EST. Friendly reminder that an essential part of working in media is filing by deadline!

And stay tuned! We will announce the winners and runners-up for the TFCA Awards on Sunday, Dec. 7 beginning at 2:00pm EST on X and BlueSky, and unveil the nominees for Rogers Best Canadian Film and Rogers Best Canadian Documentary.

In Release this Week

Cover-up (dir. Laura Poitra, Mark Obenhaus)

“President Nixon is heard on tape saying, ‘This fellow Hersh is a son of a bitch.’  As they say, Hersh might be a son of a bitch, but he is our son of a bitch,” writes Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “One often hears about the cover-ups, but this doc combines news of cover-ups with the man behind them.”

“Fearless and a fine writer, Hersh launched his career as a free-lancer but by the early Seventies, he began working at the New York Times, a paper he contributed to until he began to write books on subjects like The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House on the controversial foreign affairs advisor and Secretary of State during the Nixon and Ford years and The Dark Side of Camelot, a devastating exposé of John F. Kennedy’s political career,” says Marc Glassman at Classical FM. “Later on, he wrote many articles for The New Yorker including the notorious three-part series on the torture and humiliation of Iraq prisoners in Abu Ghraib by members the American military.”

“Even though Hersh finds himself seated across from a colleague and a filmmaker among the most trustworthy artists in the field, he observes, ‘It’s hard to know who to trust. I barely trust you guys.’ He then exits the project,” writes Pat Mullen at POV Magazine. “The journalist only quits for about five minutes (of screen time, anyway) and the departure speaks to his idiosyncratic run at outlets like The New Yorker. But it also reflects the weight of carrying so many secrets for years and holding so close to the sacred trust of sources that their stories take a personal toll. Secrets are a burden, but Cover-Up credits Hersh for admirably doing the heavy lifting. The film’s a call for a new generation of journalists to accept the challenge.”

I Wish You Had Told Me (dir. Shaira Advincula)

“I Wish You Had Told Me is a well-intentioned Filipino LGBTQ+ drama about family secrets and intimate emotions that, like many Filipino tearjerkers, end up too melodramatic for their own good,” says Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “There is no real ash material here – discovering one’s father is gay is a premise that has been seen in a few other American films before.  The film is well performed, in one can be described as a decent though mediocre drama.”

Jay Kelly (dir. Noah Baumbach)

At the National Post, Marriska Fernandes chats with stars George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, and director Noah Baumbach about their dramedy in which a veteran actor reflects on his career and relationships. “I don’t look at it as a legacy, because somebody else is going to have to decide what your legacy is, but I do look at it as: At every one of those crossroads, did I take the more difficult challenge?” says Clooney. “I didn’t always. I haven’t always, but I have often and those have been and you fail, as we do, but I found some great successes from doing that. So that’s an exciting thing to do in life.”

“The film almost hits the mark during an extended sequence in which Jay faces off against his acting-school buddy Timothy (Billy Crudup), who blames Jay for stealing both a pivotal role and his girlfriend,” writes Barry Hertz at The Globe and Mail. “Yet as great as both performers are in that moment – especially Crudup, who somehow makes the concept of “Method” acting interesting again – Baumbach struggles to make Jay feel anything more than the magazine-cover image of Clooney that so many of us already hold dear.”

Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (dir. Quentin Tarantino)

“It is not only that the entirety of Kill Bill hangs on Thurman’s remarkable emotional, physical, almost existential versatility, but that the actress and her director together reach a level of cinematic syncopation, the creation of an entirely new on-screen groove,” says Barry Hertz at The Globe and Mail. “The film’s end credits still retain the words ‘Based on the character of ‘The Bride’ created by Q & U.’ There’s no cute ‘4VR’ tacked onto that recognition, but the message is clear. It is only a shame that the final chapter of The Whole Bloody Affair marked the last stab of that relationship. It could have been glorious.”

Love+Wine (dir. Amanda Lane)

“The film plays on the familiar romantic-comedy tropes of mistaken identity, social class differences, and the ‘rich person pretending to be common’ plot — but even though it is charming in a feel-good way, the film is too forced and clichéd,” says Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto.

Merrily We Roll Along (dir. Maria Friedman)

“Expecting it to feel hemmed in, limited to a single set, “theatrical” and confusing, it’s a brilliant experiment that casts a strong spell.  Should make a splash in no small part thanks to Stephen Sondheim’s score and George Furth’s book that inspired the stage play,” writes Anne Brodie at What She Said. “This is a thrilling, exhilarating experience, and experiment. It’s visceral; even great.”

“But for this Merrily, we’re watching a stage version, so why pretend otherwise?” asks Glenn Sumi at Go Ahead Sumi. “When the camera swoops in and shows us close-ups of individual chorus members as they sing the title song — seemingly directly to the camera — it awkwardly resembles those moments in beauty pageants when contestants smile and tell you what state they’re representing.”

“Perhaps there’s another reason why Merrily We Roll Along was a hit in 2023 and a flop in 1981,” says Marc Glassman at Classical FM. “The past 40 years have been difficult ones, full of atrocities, scandals and betrayals. We’ve survived, but our belief systems have become tougher, more weathered. In 1981, having a character like Franklin Shepard as the lead, a man who perhaps unwittingly betrays his friends and lovers in pursuit of status and money would have been tough to take, especially in a musical. Now, such a figure seems normal, or at least acceptable.”

“Combining three live shows with audience-free tapings, Merrily straddles the line between stage and film production. Friedman carefully guides our eyes with closeups that omit much of the action outside of the frame. The camera moves with the actors, and only occasionally allows the applause or reaction of the audience to bleed through,” says Jackson Weaver at CBC. “It’s a subtle break from most other pro-shots, which do more to maintain the expansive experience of being in the theatre. While this does run the risk of removing some of the magic, the raw emotionality delivered here more than makes up for it… It might not be the real Broadway experience, but does it ever come close.”

My Secret Santa (dir. Nick Rohl)

“My Secret Santa is too predictable, gearing towards its obvious happy ending, despite the festive setting,” says Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “The humour is too slight to be funny, and there is hardly any laugh-out-loud dialogue either. The romance is gentle but not especially deep. The disguise premise occasionally feels stretched.”

The New Yorker at 100 (dir. Marshall Curry)

“The immediate question trailing this doc is whether the doc is a marketing instrument for the magazine or it is a reflexive and critical piece of the magazine,” notes Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “The doc does not stop at any praise for the magazine from the ideas put forward from its talented team of writers (first wooden satellite?  for example) to the scrutiny of fact accuracy (the name of three cats? for example).  But at least director Curry keeps the film entertaining despite its marketing bias.”

The Secret Agent (dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho)

“Wagner, who most North American audiences might know best from his role as the villainous cartel kingpin Pablo Escobar on Netflix’s Narcos, is tremendous as the avatar Mendonça Filho deploys to pull back the darker pages of Brazil’s history. (The actor also makes the best use of the film’s unbuttoned-shirt aesthetic – you will never see so much chest, or chest hair, in your life.) And the late Udo Kier, who made such a memorable pop-up appearance in Bacurau, is just as enjoyable a wild card here, playing a Holocaust survivor who endures the worst possible case of mistaken identity,” writes Barry Hertz at The Globe and Mail.

“The Secret Agent is a film the director reportedly wanted to make for years, and it is not only an excellent film but one of the best to hit screens at both TIFF and in theatres,” says Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “The film pays homage to several films of the 70s when the film is set (actually 1977).  Most noticeable is the 1975 Steven Spielberg’s Jaws.  Recife, the film’s setting, is also a seaside town.  Other films that can be noticed in Filho’s film include actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, most likely in Philippe De Broca’s 1964 film That Man in Rio.”

“Besides spy guys with such bountiful chest hair that puts Sean Connery to shame, The Secret Agent also pays homage to 1970s’ cinema with its fiercest player: a shark. The mystery takes a surreal turn when a local cop fields a call from a researcher who’s discovered a leg in the belly of a shark,” writes Pat Mullen at That Shelf. “The problem, though, is that nobody at the hospital or morgue needs a leg. Recife finds itself in a feeding frenzy as a particularly violent run of Carnival festivities leaves the city in a bloodier wake than Bruce the shark’s rampage at Amity Island. And when the leg itself becomes a perpetrator of violence, Mendonça Filho plays his surreal secret weapon.”

Still Single (dir. Jamal Burger, Jukan Tateisi)

“Burger and Tateisi don’t quite deliver a film as energetic and unpredictable as their subject,” dishes Barry Hertz at The Globe and Mail. “The two filmmakers possess some wonderfully idiosyncratic visual chops – I don’t think I’ve ever seen the act of slicing fish rendered so beautifully, so meticulously perfect, as in the kitchen scenes captured here – but the doc’s narrative bobs and weaves to diminishing effect. Saito is on a personal journey, no doubt, but to what end the filmmakers struggle to articulate. Is he trying to better himself, or his dishes, or both? We get the jocularity and colour of a character, but not the layers lurking underneath.”

The Tale of Silyan (dir. Tamara Kotevska)

“A great deal of the film’s emotional power stems from the cinematography, with shots carefully composed as if plucked from a fantasy world,” writes Barbara Goslawski at POV Magazine. “Cinematographer/ producer Jean Dakar showcases his own interest in environmental and sociopolitical issues in the ways that he fixes his gaze on both the avian and human subjects in the film. Not just an observer, his framing of both bird and farmer is carefully crafted. He is not always going for realism in what he captures; he is instead adding an impressionistic look to this often-fable-like story. He treats the people and the natural world with great sensitivity.”

“This true story – documentary – is also part fairy tale but we can drop our definitions for this exquisite film experience,” agrees Anne Brodie at What She Said. “The stork knows Aleksandar’s farm but traverses it in a pondering manner because the once bountiful fields are now ruined.  Over time Aleksandar begins to hope and think that the bird is indeed his son and healing begins. Is the documentary a projection of the filmmakers or is what they’ve captured miraculous? Bold, gorgeous – sweeping weather patterns play a big role – and full of hope and love.”

At POV Magazine, Pat Mullen chats with director Tamara Kotevska and cinematographer Jean Dakar about observing the storks and their wonderful clacking: “‘You have to know as much as possible about the animal so that you can anticipate what he’s about to do,’ explains Dakar. ‘Let’s say, for example, the moments when they’re clacking.’ The documentary features striking shots where the birds arch their long necks and flip their beaks backwards, clacking in a disquieting chorus that builds the film’s rhythm while stressing the power dynamics at play within the human story. ‘That was something that happened a lot during April, which is when the storks are returning and are starting to nest,’ says Dakar. ‘There’s a lot of competition between the storks and who gets to conquer which nest.’”

The Wailing (dir. Pedro Martín-Calero)

“The Wailing is a better film than the one (It Follows) it followed, as The Wailing skips the traditional happy ending normally inserted for good measure, but it still has a twisty shock ending.  A totally female horror film all the way and a solid one at that.  It is well-written, well-directed and aptly performed by the three main leads,” writes Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto.

The Best of 2025

At Sharp, Marriska Fernandes picks the top movie moments of the year, including when the internet’s favourite boyfriend Jonathan Bailey brought sexy back and topped the box office. “People magazine’s 2025 Sexiest Man Alive started the year by going viral for his slutty little glasses after starring in Jurassic World: Rebirth. The internet was obsessed with him and his wits. He then reprised his role in the Wicked: For Good, which is now playing in theatres and is getting awards buzz yet again.”

At POV Magazine, Pat Mullen and Marc Glassman pick the best documentaries of 2025 with Come See Me in the Good Light topping the list. “Come See Me in the Good Light starts with a dire prognosis, but does any film this year make you feel so alive?” writes Mullen, while Glassman shares praise for BLKNWS: “an epic effort to come to terms with the brutal racism that begins with the slave trade and continues to this day.”

File Under Miscellaneous

At The Globe and Mail, Barry Hertz reports on the revolving door at Heritage: “Late last week, Culture Minister Steven Guilbeault resigned from cabinet, spurred by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new energy accord with Alberta and the Liberal government’s overall track record on climate policy. Stepping into the role as of Monday: Montreal MP Marc Miller, a staple of former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet but initially kept on the outside by Carney when he first took office.”

At The Globe and Mail, Barry Hertz chats with Chris Ferguson about the B.C. film scene: “Well, I didn’t go to film school or anything like that, I just made movies with my friends. So when it came time to professionalize everything that we were doing, I did so by hitting up VIFF, and then also going to Whistler. We rented a cabin with 20 people, filmmakers just sleeping all over the floor, and hit the festival up there in a big way. It’s been a foundational piece of me learning how to make films. And it made me realize that I could make cool movies and stay in Vancouver. That’s where I saw Beyond the Black Rainbow, which aesthetically spoke to me and showed me that it was possible to make with the people who I already knew out here.”