May 29, 2026

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

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In Release this Week

Backrooms (dir. Kane Parsons)

“The meandering plot of Backrooms begins to pick up after Clark starts missing his therapy sessions and Mary gets worried. She goes to Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire to look for him,” writes Peter Howell at the Toronto Star. “Ejiofor and Reinsve, both Oscar nominees with impeccable careers, strive hard to make this story seem at least a little terrifying. They can only work with what they’re given, which isn’t much. Ejiofor is a gifted actor stranded in a maze that doesn’t quite know what to do with him; ditto for the screenplay. Reinsve, so luminous in The Worst Person in the World, is similarly underused. She’s a warm presence in a very cold, very yellow room.”

“Parson’s film benefits from its nightmarish logic, uncertainty and cosmic dread that hangs throughout the film,” says Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “So the film almost certainly leave viewers with disorientation, unresolved fear, and the feeling that reality itself is unstable, which for many really is.”

Crossing a Dawn (dir. Badoun Zhau)

“Though light-hearted in nature, director Zhao’s film is quite a serious feature,” writes Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “The film is set over one night till dawn, and hence the title, during which a single woman and a single man experience a series of unique urban encounters that slowly become an unexpected date.”

Democracy Under Siege (dir. Laura Nix; May 30)

“Some of the arguments within Democracy Under Siege may be familiar to audiences keeping pace with the flood of Trump docs over the past decade. However, it remains a prescient capsule of this time, particularly as the talking heads position Trump within the makings of a ‘strongman’ candidate,” writes Pat Mullen at POV Magazine. “He’s the perfect Manchurian Candidate to stand for a history of white fragility eager to hold onto power. Interviewees rightly position his 2016 election as white supremacy’s last stand. It’s also the product of a broken electoral college that’s paralysed by a Constitution designed to favour white Republican states.”

Miss You, Love You (dir. Jim Rash)

“Janney and Rannells deliver one of the most ferociously compelling and well-matched duos that audiences will see on any screen this year,” writes Pat Mullen at That Shelf, who gets some words with the stars. “She’s very controlling, very hard on herself, hard on other people. She’s very prickly,” Janney says of her character. “I’m the opposite of her, so her traits were fun to play for me. I get to move quickly. It was fun to let that part of me out, like say what you feel. Playing Diane, I got to let out some of my inner anger at family members that I had in my mind.”

Muscle Beach (dir. Jacob Hurwitz-Goodman; May 30)

“In the end, Muscle Beach offers no big surprises. The functional plot involving Jay’s absence, sociopathic developers and tainted drugs could serve as a script for a vintage Baywatch or Law & Order episode,” writes Liam Lacey at Original Cin. “The film’s deeper appeal is about the afterglow of a faded popular subculture (think of Ron Mann’s documentaries on free jazz, comic books and van painting). The name ‘Muscle Beach’ is probably best known from the 1964 musical comedy Muscle Beach Party, the second in the seven Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello beach movies, about a group of weightlifters attempting to take over a gang’s primo Malibu surfing area.”

Pressure (dir. Anthony Maras)

“As Stagg, the exacting, sombre but brilliant Churchill-endorsed meteorologist parachuted into Eisenhower’s command centre just days before D-Day, Andrew Scott is the film’s lynchpin and flat-out owner. He is remarkably good at, paradoxically, chewing scenery with an unflustered expression and an unnervingly conversational voice,” notes Kim Hughes at Original Cin. “Arguably less successful is Brendan Fraser as soon-to-be-president Eisenhower who, though committed and suitably ugly-ed up, comes off as hammy and caricatured, his clenched-fist outbursts sounding more scripted than visceral.”

“The talk-heavy and stage play original can be felt and though this might put off action fans, Pressure is not an action film but a suspense drama that works wonders in the way it is delivered, thanks to all departments concerned, especially the performances,” says Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto.

Room to Move (dir. Alexander Hammer)

“Despite a bit of receptiveness, director Hammer’s doc should be praised for its raw honesty of both his subject (especially trying to show audiences how she undergoes the pain and discomfort as well as Jenn’s conflicted journey through life) and himself,” writes Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto.

Tuner (dir. Daniel Roher)

“It’s obvious from the word go that no good can come from this. And Ruthie will get caught up in it. But Niki’s generous intentions make that path even more achingly fraught to watch. Woodall’s work so far in projects like Vampire Academy and season two of The White Lotus hasn’t really allowed him to flex his acting muscle anywhere near this much. But here, he is the gravitational centre of the film. His face is simultaneously subtle and expressive, and his manner connotes stoic pain, in contrast to the medical hell we discover he has lived through since childhood,” says Jim Slotek at Original Cin. “Tuner is a distinctly urban romantic fable and tragedy, with a final act that is half-full or half-empty depending on your expectations of how a movie should finish. What’s clear is that Niki is an atypical protagonist, played by an actor who is up to the challenge.”