November 13, 2026

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

TFCA Critics’ Picks: Up next in our screening series at Imagine Cinemas Carlton is The King Tide, selected by member Joe Lipsett, on Monday, Dec. 7 at 7:00pm. Get tickets here.

In Release this Week

Avedon (dir. Ron Howard)

“The amount of archival footage allows the audience to experience Avedon working, talking and interacting with his subjects, providing a sense of his restless personality, together with interviews with models, photographers, editors, friends and family members offer different perspectives, giving a good perspective of Avedon,” says Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto.

Being Heumann (dir. Siân Heder)

“For a movie all about breaking down barriers and being bold, Being Heumann plays it pretty safe,” admits Rachel West at That Shelf. “Heder’s movie makes a compelling case for the power of collective action and the importance of refusing to accept less than equal treatment. It may not have quite the fire of its subject, but it leaves no doubt that the fight for accessibility and equality is far from over.”

Club Kid (dir. Jordan Firstman)

“Is there a movie cliché more cloying than prodigal adult and life-redeeming kid?” asks Peter Howell at the Toronto Star. “Have no fear, because Jordan Firstman is here and he’s not interested in making your heart go pitty-pat – not at first, at any rate. The web-video maker and I Love LA TV star writes, directs and stars as Peter, a pretty vacant NYC party promoter who discovers 10 years after a coked-up heterosexual encounter he’s the gobsmacked gay dad of a precocious son named Arlo (Reggie Absolom, aces). Firstman takes a few narrative liberties – fatherhood comes all too easily to Peter – but he doesn’t sand off the rough edges of this accidental dad story.”

“A great film grabs your attention from the opening frame and never lets you go. It announces what it is, and what you’re in for while still leaving space to surprise you,” observes Victor Stiff at That Shelf. “Club Kid sets things off like a cocaine-infused glitter bomb. It’s a loud, brash, and vibrant hit to your senses. But once you work your way through the sensory overload of thumping dance music and larger-than-life personalities, Firstman applies an unexpectedly gentle touch.”

The Deputy (dir. Matt Sukkar; Nov. 17)

“Director Matt Sukkar’s film is perfectly paced with his meticulously calculated character driven subject in a well created moody atmosphere. The plot has a solid story, based on the novel by Victor Gischler.  Totally enjoyable watch of a well-made thriller,” says Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto.

Ebeneezer (dir. Ti West)

“In spite of some minor deviations, the film is a mostly faithful adaptation — which one didn’t necessarily expect from Depp or director Ti West,” writes Sarah Gopaul at Imagery at the Movies. “But it’s more about bringing their flavour to the traditional narrative rather than forcing their signature styles onto the picture. It still unfolds in 1843 with a primarily British cast. It’s not as sappy as some other versions, instead focussing on Scrooge’s slow-evolving epiphany.”

“Two things elevate Ebenezer exponentially: fantastic set design that plops viewers smack into frosty, dreary Victorian London in late December, and Johnny Depp. A Christmas Carol succeeds or fails on the actor performing Scrooge, and whether they can authentically convey the emotional arc of a person wholly transformed in just a few hours, albeit with supernatural intervention,” says Kim Hughes at Original Cin. “Scowling and muttering beneath a balding pate and fat hook nose — and in his first major Hollywood role in nearly eight years — Depp nails it. Scrooge’s redemption feels authentic; wisely, the filmmakers opted to soften Scrooge’s morning-after turnaround, leaving the kooky histrionics to Sim’s version and instead highlighting the saved miser’s contrition and newfound joy.”

“Ebenezer isn’t destined to become a Christmas classic — Alastair Sim’s legacy as tight-fisted Scrooge is secure — but Johnny Depp’s dallying with Dickens is not to be missed, either,” adds the Toronto Star’s Peter Howell at Night Vision. “Merry and macabre combine appealingly as Depp plays Ebenezer Scrooge with pirate charm, reviving his stalled Hollywood career while redeeming the titular Yuletide misanthrope. Horrormeister Ti West (X, Pearl) directs with jump-scare aplomb.”

“Honestly, this isn’t a bad performance. Grimacing and grunting with the best-ish of them, your comedically wide-eyed shrieks and sad-eyed, sentimental monologues pull audiences along Dickens’s classic if admittedly saccharine storyline of bitterness to redemption,” Jackson Weaver tells Johnny Depp at CBC. “This isn’t a generational Depp performance, nor is it one with much depth or originality. But it is similar to the stuff you used to do. The idiosyncratic smirk and offhandedly humorous patter that undergirded multibillion-dollar movies is still there. That’s worth something, isn’t it?”

A Good Lawyer (dir. Tristan Seguelo)

“What is interesting is that the relationship between the lawyer and his intern turns out to be more interesting than the courtroom case, which seems quite superfluous,” says Gilbert Seah at Toronto Franco. “Initially, Noé is merely an employee who happens to own a car. Gradually, he becomes Landry’s conscience, protector, and ultimately his moral superior. The film is aided by the performances of two veteran French actresses, Mélanie Laurent and Carole Bouquet, not to mention Lafitte’s nuanced performance as the troubled lawyer.”

The Gospel of Christmas (dir. Tyler Perry)

“The weaknesses of the film include the over-sentimentality and predictability of the story as well as the sudden burst of music and song in the midst of the storytelling,” shares Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “The predictability: include the struggling church, reluctant preacher, dying father’s wish and Christmas deadline are all familiar ingredients. The eventual triumph of faith is hardly anything new either.  Because of the supernatural aspect of the story, credibility is also thrown out the window.   The musical Gospel numbers are quite lively at least, and lift the film above the usual.”

How to Rob a Bank (dir. David Leitch)

“David Leitch’s heist film has a great cast and an energetic aura, but the movie loses its way within the first 30 minutes. There are issues with tone — things ping awkwardly from comedy to tragedy to rousing (or not) social commentary — and with message. How to Rob a Bank looks as if it has something to say, but it doesn’t,” admits Liz Braun at Original Cin. “For all the hyper-showy visuals, How to Rob a Bank is generally slow and feels self-indulgent at two hours long. The storytelling is of the vaguely insulting variety: an hour is spent showing how meticulous and skilled the bank robbers are, and then the plot turns on exactly the kind of stupid mistake that a viewer has just been shown these bank robbers would never make. Come on, people.”

“As scripted by Mark Bianculli, the film thinks it’s making some grand statement about how the little people are being screwed over by big corporations (in this case: the banking industry). The viral social media campaign of ‘The Wolf Pack’ is popular principally because they appeal to this ‘every man’ notion that regardless how hard any of us are working – bank tellers, security guards, teachers, or parents – we’ll never be rich and we’ll always be exploited by millionaires and companies,” says Joe Lipsett at Queer Horror Movies. “It’s a bit of a ‘duh’ thesis, but in the world of the film, it’s enough to incite a full blown proletariat revolution.”

“Where Leitch succeeds is in his formally audacious filmmaking,” notes Prabhjot Bains at Range. “Despite borrowing from the sensory overload of YouTube content creation, the film is steeped in gorgeous grain and rich visual textures that lend its elaborate heists surprising depth. An impressive long take moving between apartments and a bustling street showcases Leitch’s assured command of composition and movement.”

“Not only does Leitch know exactly what he’s doing, he’s happy to tell the audience,” writes Steve Norton at ScreenFish. “With references to Robin Hood, Breaking Bad, and most aptly Point Break, Leitch uses his pop culture obsession to inform the viewers of his intent. From the outset, this is meant to be furious fun, an angry response to frustrations about corporate greed and rising prices. The cynical might argue that that’s the lowest common denominator for reaching the general public. Still, it also taps into the populist mindset in a way that keeps the film relevant and engaging.”

I Play Rocky (dir. Peter Farrelly)

“Rocky, made on a budget of about $1 million, was a genuine phenomenon back in the day. It won best picture at the Oscars and became the highest-grossing film of 1976,” says the Toronto Star’s Peter Howell at Night Vision. “I Play Rocky, on the other hand, is considerably more calculating. Farrelly, who went from TIFF to Oscar glory with Green Book, aims for a similar crowd-pleaser with this film, a runner-up for the People’s Choice Award at TIFF’s 2026 edition. Ippolito delivers a solid Rocky Balboa and even better Sylvester Stallone. The film around him is an underdog story that plays like a safe bet, but the popcorn crowd isn’t likely to complain.”

“It’s funny, feisty and entirely heartfelt. And lighting the way is Ippolito. As the young, struggling Stallone, Ippolito is utterly remarkable and offers one of the best performances of the year. Resisting the temptation to exaggerate his behaviour, Ippolito’s portrayal never feels like an impersonation. Every well-known twitch, growl and quirk of the veteran actor is brought to life with earnestness, but never goes over the top,” notes Steve Norton at ScreenFish. “He doesn’t act like Stallone. He is Stallone.”

“From schmaltzy musical stings to cute puppies and picture-perfect romantic interests, I Play Rocky holds every biopic button within arm’s reach and seems determined to press them all. For a film set in the ’70s, it retains little of the source film and era’s character-study sensibilities, often feeling less like a lived-in portrait than a grand exercise in playing dress-up,” adds Prabhjot Bains at Range. “Still, as the film itself specifies, what separates a bad movie from a good movie, and a good movie from a great movie, is the ‘thing.’ And while I Play Rocky may reach the latter heights, the thing that helps it land a stunning knockout blow is Anthony Ippolito, whose lead performance is so uncannily believable that he often feels indistinguishable from the real Stallone.”

“This well-worn tale of Sylvester Stallone touting and succeeding with his Rocky script and film is given a fresh look with new perspectives resulting in a surprising entertaining film,” notes Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto.

“It makes perfect sense that a dramatization of the making of the most crowd-pleasing movie of the ‘70s would itself be a potent combination of humour and heart. Director Peter Farrelly comes to the project with the alchemy he previously used in Green Book, while Anthony Ippolito absorbs the essence of a young Sylvester Stallone, who poured his belief in himself into a script about a pug boxer who believed in himself,” says Jim Slotek at Original Cin. “There’s a lot of meta in that statement. The meta would go into meltdown if I Play Rocky were to win a Best Picture Oscar, as Rocky did a half-century ago.”

“Director Peter Farrelly once again foregoes the slapstick for a heartfelt narrative about a man dedicated to making his dream a reality. Like Rocky, this film has a relatively simple storyline boiled down to its key parts,” observes Sarah Gopaul at Imagery at the Movies. “To some degree, the movie pulls back the curtain and invites audiences into the turbulent world of low-budget filmmaking. The behind-the-scenes moments are fascinating, particularly as they reveal how certain iconic scenes were produced. It’s as much about the making of Rocky as it is Sly’s rise to stardom. In fact, it feels as if the film ends just as Sly’s life is starting.”

“Simply put: You’ve gotta see I Play Rocky with an audience. This is one of those movies that energizes a crowd with infectious enthusiasm. It shakes every iota of cynicism from one’s body. Even a Network fan will be cheering by the end,” says Pat Mullen at That Shelf. “Written by Peter Gamble (Office Uprising) and directed by Peter Farrelly (Green Book), I Play Rocky is crowd-pleasing Hollywood entertainment at its finest. It’s an underdog take on the ultimate underdog movie as the film dramatizes Stallone’s dedication to getting Rocky made. One probably gets far more out of the film with a screening of Rocky under one’s belt, but one also doesn’t need to have seen the 1976 Oscar winner to enjoy this upbeat tale of a scrappy movie shoot.”

Never Surrender (dir. Sidharta Tata)

“The film pays a nod to a few classics without any outright plagiarism.  One is the Home Alone movies, with the family laying out boobytraps bin preparation for the bad guys to attack,” says Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “The other is the western masterpiece High Noon. As in the picture, the family awaits the critical hour when the bad guys attack, just as Sheriff Gary Cooper waits for high noon for the villains to arrive by train. At high noon, his bride, Grace Kelly, decides to stay behind in the town to help her fiancé at high noon, just as the two children return to the compound to aid their grandfather fight the thugs. These are clear tactics used before in previous films that have worked and work again in Never Surrender. The unfamiliar Indonesian setting adds an additional round of intrigue, as does the fact that the hero, though cliched as an ex-military operative, is now a grandfather with white hair.”

The Optimist (dir. Finn Taylor; Nov. 17)

“There are many shocking scenes in the films can be expected from a film tour of a Holocaust concentration camp from a young boy’s post of view.  Moving though at times the film gets sentimental,” writes Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto.

Victorian Psycho (dir. Zachary Wigon)

“Creepy comedy is the aim and the exuberant outcome for star Maika Monroe, whose unhinged performance gives wicked life to the vision of director Zachary Wigon and screenwriter/novelist Virginia Feito, although there’s more blood than chuckles,” writes the Toronto Star’s Peter Howell at Night Vision. “Scream queen Monroe, usually a sane character amid the madness of such films as It Follows and Longlegs, plays wickedly against type as title maniac Winifred Notty. She’s the unforgiving new governess for horrid 19th-century English family the Pounds, who make the vile Dursleys from the Harry Potter tales seem positively pleasant.”

“The trouble is that director Wigon opts more for a cartoonist and stylist approach for the scares, so that his film misses out on the really scary aspects of the novel and of the story,” says Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “The potential for genuine horror is lost because of the director’s approach to the material.  The greatest missed opportunity is the relationship between individual madness and societal madness. Winifred could have been a fascinating embodiment of the violence and evil, repression and hypocrisy of Victorian England.  Instead, the film too often settles for the novelty.”

A Festival of Festival Coverage: The festivals just don’t stop!

At Original Cin, Alice Shih previews the 30th anniversary edition of Reel Asian: “Film screenings are complemented by workshops and panels in the Industry Section for the public and filmmakers to connect. Topics range from the more traditional crafts training like writing and cinematography to the newly emerging artform of ‘Vertical Storytelling’ which refers to scripted video content filmed in a vertical (9:16 portrait) aspect ratio to be watched upright on smartphones,” writes Shih. “Reel Asian plays a very important part in raising awareness of visible minorities on-screen. The entertainment industry has moved forward as multicultural characters and colour-blind casting were unheard of 30 years ago.”

At Afro Toronto, Gilbert Seah offers capsule reviews of Reel Asian selections including Ba’s Book: “Beyond its historical background, Ba’s Book explores the long-term consequences of war and forced migration. It asks how the trauma experienced by one generation affects children who grow up far from the country their parents left behind. Rather than relying on conventional interviews, she invites family members to reenact events from their own lives. Relatives play themselves or other family members, while younger performers portray her father and his siblings as children. The film recreates aspects of his childhood in war-torn Vietnam, his experiences in Iran during the 1979 revolution, and his eventual journey to Canada. The film even reconstructs the family’s childhood home as a set. A different kind of documentary, but no less captivating and engrossing in telling a story.”

At POV Magazine, Pat Mullen chats with Understory director Su Rynard about examining the lives of plants anew: ““There’s this concept called plant blindness where we see plants as a green background against the backdrop of our lives, says Rynard. “People don’t distinguish between them.” The director says it was a bit depressing, if enlightening, to encounter research saying that people are more likely to recognize a diversity of hockey team logos than to distinguish different kinds of plants. If we’re going to start to appreciate plants for the capable creatures that they are, we need to really take a close look.”

At POV Magazine, Pat Mullen interviews As Far Back As I Can Remember directors Lisa Downs and Ashley Pugh about their Goodfellas doc that premiered at the Windsor International Film Festival, and why nostalgia is all the rage: “I’m sure it feels like we’re always 20 years ahead of nostalgia, so kids from the ’80s are now old enough to be able to celebrate nostalgia,” says Downs. “There’s social media so you’re more aware of people celebrating nostalgia. They’re in positions now that they can be making shows about their nostalgia. Whereas if you had someone in the ’70s reminiscing about their time in the ’50s, there was no real way that they could embrace it other than talking to a friend or picking up a landline. I think there’s always a nostalgia. It’s just it hasn’t been able to be widespread.”