January 30, 2026

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

In release this week!

All That’s Left of You (dir. Cherien Dabis)

“With All That’s Left of You, Palestinian American director Cherien Dabis is determined to put the Palestinian history of the last 75 years on the cinematic record,” explains Liam Lacey at Original Cin. “This is a challenge made more so by the circumstances of its production, shot in Cyprus and Jordan, after the start October 2023 war forced production to move from the West Bank. Not only does Dabis write and direct, but stars in a pivotal role, as a mother who ages over 30 years during the course of the story. Though sometimes over-explanatory, the film gains in complexity as it progresses, raising thorny questions about the duty of victims to maintain their humanity.”

“The film takes a personal approach to the story rather than a political one,” says Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “But the effects are just as effective, with the film working best this way.  A historical epic, the powerful film chronicles the story of the land through the eyes of one family and three generations of struggle.   Despite the flaws, the film moves at a good pace, making it an absorbing watch.”

Arco (dir. Ugo Bienvenu)

“Neither Arco’s nor Iris’s worlds will feel familiar to 2026 audiences, yet they are not the kind of post-apocalyptic visions moviegoers are so used to staring down, either,” writes Barry Hertz at The Globe and Mail. “There are problems, and there are solutions – as in Iris’s timeline, where emotionally-sensitive robots seem to do everything from manual labour to raising children (her household robot is aurally embodied by mixing the voices of her absent mother and father, played by Natalie Portman and Mark Ruffalo). By mixing the styles of Japanese animation a la Studio Ghibli (My Neighbor Totoro) and French animator Jean Giraud (a.k.a. Mœbius), Bienvenu and his team create a world (or worlds, rather) that are eerie yet inviting, strange but comforting.”

“Arco is wonderfully animated in a traditional style,” says Marc Glassman at Classical FM. “Bienvenu’s backgrounds are exquisite, whether it’s rendering the folkloric small town and verdant forest or giving depth and detail to Arco’s futuristic home which contrasts nicely with Iris’ typically rural bedroom and kitchen. When it comes to big scenes, like the burning forest or Arco flying in the sky, Bienvenu’s team are more than up to the challenge.”

Atropia (dir. Hailey Gates)

“One of the main pleasures in the film is seeing Alia Shawkut in the lead role as Fayruz,” notes Marc Glassman at Classical FM. “Many of us remember her with great fondness as Maeby Funke in the great TV comedy Arrested Development. It’s wonderful watching her as the feisty Fayruz, still fearless and funny. Shawkut’s father, who plays the Mayor in Atropia, is Iraqi so her part is actually based on reality.”

Back to the Past (dir. Ng Yuen-fai and Jack Lai)

“Hong’s harmonious family and Ken’s dysfunctional relationship with his daughter fuel the viewers’ emotions,” observes Alice Shih at Original Cin. “But the heart-wrenching throughline is the mentor-student vs ruler-minister dichotomy between Hong and the emperor, which adds complexity and conflicts to the narrative. Audiences who have no previous knowledge of the TV drama might find their interactions and behaviours a bit puzzling at first. But those who know their intricate past will fall in with empathy and concerns. Koo and Lam nail their characters masterfully, generating great chemistry in every scene. Nostalgia also helps to entice the audience, in place of flashy special effects or script and directorial reliance. Going to see this film is like a reunion with old friends reminiscing of glory days and catching up with each other’s present challenges in lives.”

“For the almost 2-hour running time that includes an alternative ending, compared to the series, the film is a condensed narrative that would be more appreciated of one has some familiarity with the TV story,” notes Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “The focus of the film is the continuation/sequel, not a full retelling.  A solid take on the time travel fantasy, the story also considers the consequences of time travel including the importance of not changing historical events that occurs at a cost of interfering with history.  Still, Back to the Past is a fun-filled romp that should satisfy fans of period Chinese action flicks.”

Pike River (dir. Richard Sarkies)

“The audience is led to believe that all went well in the end, but the film ends with the hope, but things turned south afterward, facts that were omitted in the film,” says Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto.

Send Help (dir. Sam Raimi)

“Equal parts hilarious, tense, and savage,” writes Rachel West at NOW Toronto. “McAdams is dynamite as Linda. The sometimes Toronto resident transforms from mousy, meek, and mild into a powerhouse boss whose survival skills would make Jeff Probst weak with envy. On the island, she gets to leave office politics behind and play by her own rules. McAdams and O’Brien carry the film almost entirely on their own, spending most of Send Help’s nearly two-hour runtime as the only actors on screen.”

“Send Help is pure Raimi. His hand is unmistakable in set pieces involving a hostile office environment, a spectacular plane crash, and a pig hunt that ranks among the funniest—and most excessive—bursts of cartoon violence since Shaun of the Dead. Raimi has long championed escalation as comedy’s most reliable tool, especially when it’s also horrifying,” says Thom Ernst at Original Cin. “The convenient but entirely unnecessary act of placing Send Help within Raimi’s oeuvre would put it somewhere beyond A Simple Plan and The Gift, and before Drag Me to Hell. And yet there’s a strong argument that Raimi breaks new ground here, creating something that stands slightly apart from his previous work.”

Shelter (dir. Ric Roman Waugh)

“Shelter does not have the most action of all the Statham films, say The Beekeeper,” admits Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto, “but it includes many other elements like setting, character emotions and sets that complement the action set pieces, a big plus in an action film, distinguishing Shelter as one of the better action films of the year.”

“What follows is a pretty standard action-adventure story, with Mason and Jessie on the run, managing to stay one ahead of their would-be killer, all while racking up a fair bit of collateral damage and calling in favours. In a parallel storyline, Nighy paces the corridors of Whitehall and is gradually discovered to be a real bastard by those who work for him,” writes Chris Knight at Original Cin. “There are, however, three things that elevate Shelter above a C average score. The first is Statham himself, an actor who knows how to stay in his lane (all those driving movies!) and do what he does best, which is to be brusque and to kill people.”

File Under Miscellaneous

On In the Seats with…, Dave Voigt chats with Bugonia composer Jerskin Fendrix, an Oscar nominee and a special guest for the podcast’s 750^th episode!

How do you cover a movie without being allowed to see it? Barry Hertz rolls up his sleeves for Melania at The Globe and Mail: “Make of that timing what you will – just as you can infer whatever you like from the WSJ report about how Melania kept roughly 70 per cent of that US$40-million licensing fee for herself. Melania is also, it should be noted, an executive producer on the film. Melania, by Melania, for Melania.”

At The Globe and Mail, Barry Hertz lets Shelter and The Wrecking Crew duke it out to be the meathead alternative to Melania: “All the bloody, emphatically R-rated chaos (I didn’t think I’d laugh at the sight of a severed arm, but here we are) is also stitched together by genuinely warm and funny performances from its two leading slabs of beef. Unlike Statham’s tendency to bring death-stare solemnity to his material (with such notable exceptions as his Crank films and Spy), Momoa and Bautista are having an unhinged blast in The Wrecking Crew, as eager to rip each other a new one as they are to compare themselves (unfavourably and intentionally) to such contemporaries as John Cena and Dwayne Johnson. What more could you want this January?”

TV Talk/Series Stuff

At POV Magazine, Pat Mullen chats with Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier about their Netflix series Glitter & Gold and their preparations for the Winter Olympics, including changes to the Rhythm Dance: “When we got back from the Grand Prix final, Piper really wanted to create a freer energy for the programme in a lot of ways and suggested we go to something that’s a little bit more contrasting and complementary instead of matching with the two costumes,” says Poirier. “It was a really positive change that gave us a freer and more open energy for the programme. It really brings a positive energy.”

At What She Said, Anne Brodie rocks out with the gals of Riot Women: “Beautifully paced, written and performed, with heart and realism discussing issues facing middle age, ‘as one menopausal woman to another,’ ill parents, iffy children, loneliness, job issues, sense of abandonment etc., from the point of view of these four souls, galvanised by the idea of performing together – ‘loud and angry.’  It’s not sentimental, just authentic, ballsy and oh so relatable.” As for dudes, Matty Matheson Unleashed is a different story: “I don’t want any of the food that he slaps, tears and manhandles with those unwashed hands.”