April 4, 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

825 Forest Road (dir. Stephen Cognetti; Apr. 8)

“The strengths include the director’s build-up of events and the scary set-pieces,” says Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “Director Cognetti has proven in his previous feature, also with a haunted house theme, the Hell House LLC franchise, that he can do wonders with the house hallways, and open doors, dolls and creates or shadows that lurk in the shadows of the background.”

The Ballad of Wallis Island (dir. James Griffiths)

“The Ballad of Wallis Island echoes the best of Irish filmmaker John Carney’s filmography, drawing similarities to his films Once and Sing Street,” says Victor Stiff at Exclaim!. “Like those movies, The Ballad of Wallis Island offers a soulful character study propelled by a clever screenplay, winsome performances and delightful original music. And much like Carney’s finest work, Griffiths’s film rings hopeful yet tinged with melancholy, delivering a moving experience that lingers long after the credits roll.”

“Now the male performers are comfortably in their 40s,” Chris Knight observes at Original Cin on the time since the short film on which it’s based. “Basden is more believable as a jaded performer living on the outskirts of has-been-dom. Key’s character looks old enough to have fully settled into his weird mannerisms, and to have felt true grief…And Mulligan has the star power to make the film happen. It’s a lovely, quirky tale, full of ruminations on regret, love coming from (and directed to) unexpected quarters, and a bizarre broken faucet that won’t not work. That last bit is a gag lifted directly from the earlier version of the film, which you can find on YouTube, although I’d suggest watching if after you see the new one, for a more spoiler-free experience.”

“It’s rare enough to see a movie like this with its predictable beats unfold for us in such an enjoyable fashion but with The Ballad of Wallis Island it’s all about the execution.  The movie itself is borderline corny but becomes so easy for us to get emotionally invested in the leads that we can’t help but get swept up for the ride,” says Dave Voigt at In the Seats. “As good as the guys are though you could easily argue that Carey Mulligan is the engine that makes this all tick as Nell Mortimer.  She’s moved on from her rock star days but needs the financial windfall from this unexpected reunion show.”

“Charles, simply put, may be one of the most annoying characters ever to grace the screen. He is not a person with whom one wants to be stranded on an island,” writes Pat Mullen at That Shelf. “Whenever Charles leaves the scene, The Ballad of Wallis Island hits the right chord… Much in the fashion of Inside Llewyn Davis, which also featured Mulligan’s wonderful vocals, The Ballad of Wallis Island should be remembered as one of the great movie soundtracks. Both in the context of the film and as stand-alone listening, the music really understands the place from which McGwyer Mortimer’s passion—shared ever-so-enthusiastically by Charles—emerged.”

Banger (dir. So Me)

“The premise looks simple enough, but the story, scripted by So-Me, Elias Belkeddar and Baptiste Fillon is given a huge twist in its setting of club music, drugs and the DJ clubbing experience,” notes Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “The result is a film that, though flawed, is totally entertaining for being over-the-top aided by the excellent nuanced performances especially of Cesar nominated Best Actor Vincent Cassel (READ MY LIPS, MESRINE 2) and a supporting performance of Alexis Malenti (LES MISERABLES) as one of the heavies called Molotov.”

Freaky Tales (dir. Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck)

“None of the ensemble get that much runway to shine, but Pedro Pascal as our anchor in the anthology and our punk kids (Ji-young Joo and Jack Champion) in the beginning and their burgeoning love affair do get us hooked for the rest of what is to come,” says Dave Voigt at In the Seats. “Ultimately Freaky Tales wants to paint some dry humor and day glow neon into our lives to find a place somewhere between thick grimy Grindhouse fun and a dialogue laden character driven narrative of the golden years of the 80’s in a celebration of all that is right with pop culture.  Sadly it’s a little too gentle and sweet to be real Grindhouse and not layered enough to make us care about these characters for more than say 50 minutes of the films 97 minute run time.”

The Friend (dir. Scott McGehee and David Siegel)

At The Globe and Mail, Johanna Schneller chats with Naomi Watts, Scott McGehee, David Siegel, and Bill Murray about going rogue, which the latter does all too well. ““They know they feel authentic,” Murray tells Schneller when it comes to rogues. “They see what else is there and they go, ‘Nah, I’m not going to be that. I hear a voice that is mine, that I’m going to respond to, and that’s the voice that’s going to come out of me.‘” Meanwhile, Watts talks about facing fear: “Naming your vulnerabilities, leaning into them and sharing them brings a freedom,” Watts says. “Fighting the fear of, ‘How do I stay relevant, how do I keep up?’ I don’t want to be invisible. I still have ideas, plans, things I want to do.”

“Naomi Watts and Bill Murray are well, if only briefly matched in Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s The Friend. It’s really about Watt’s Iris and a dog, an adult, philosophical feel-good film about love, death and becoming whole,” says Anne Brodie at What She Said. “Murray is Walter a respected, intimidating professor and author, whose philosophy is to embrace disorder and guard against anticipation. He and Iris are longtime friends; she’s collecting and editing his letters for a book but feels uneasy because she realises they won’t do him justice. He dies by suicide; Iris rejects the idea then tries to make sense of it. He’s left her Apollo, his 155-pound Great Dane (played persuasively by Bing) and fix his broken relationship with his daughter; both expectations are problematic. The dog is mammoth and tears up her apartment, won’t sleep or eat as he mourns his abandonment.”

“What makes The Friend work is the authenticity of the depiction of the milieu: all the details are accurate. This is the best film about New York’s literary scene since The Squid and the Whale back in 2005,” barks Marc Glassman at Classical FM. “Just on that basis, it’s a film worth watching. But for those who love dogs—and there are many—this is an extraordinary look at a Great Dane, one of the finest dogs in the world. Let’s give a celebratory huzzah to Bing, whose performance as Apollo is a highlight of the film.”

“Iris discovers that the unconditional love dogs provide can be life-altering,” notes Liz Braun at Original Cin. “There’s a lot going on under the calm, beautifully acted surface of The Friend. The story concerns love, grief and letting go, but it’s also about life in middle age and stepping outside one’s safety zone. The terrific cast includes Tom McCarthy and Ann Dowd; the performances are understated and affecting, and Watts is absolutely wonderful as Iris.”

“The film shows how dogs calm down and form companionship with human beings like many doggie movies, and it turns out to be quite a tearjerker,” adds Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “And the dog steals the show.”

“Watts, not to be upstaged by the pooch perfection of her co-star, gives a deeply heartfelt turn. Iris, a workaholic, has few people in her life following Walter’s departure. Walter’s daughter Val (Sarah Pidgeon) offers the closest thing to a friend, although they’re more a surrogate mother-daughter relationship,” says Pat Mullen at That Shelf. “Watts therefore essentially offers a one-woman show throughout much of The Friend. Iris wrestles with the various stages of grief, unable to share or even articulate the aching hollowness that pains her in Walter’s absence. And yet when Apollo later lets out a guttural howl, or mashes Walter’s old t-shirt in his jowls, Iris comes to understand that someone else shares her pain. If acting largely involves reacting, then Watts and Bing should jointly be commended for cross-species synergy.”

Grand Tour (dir. Miguel Gomes)

“What’s most interesting in Grand Tour is Gomes’s aesthetic approach. Mixing the modern—particularly using establishing shots showing the regions as they are now, in colour—with a narrative that’s mainly in black and white, Gomes adds in other elements, particularly scenes of puppet shows and shadow theatre that establishes his perspective: all the world, as the Bard has said, is a stage. The stories he tells are tales within tales; it’s all meta for him—and the meanings we extract are purely subjective,” says Marc Glassman at Classical FM. “Gomes’s images are gorgeous. Scenes exist which are simply poetic: two figures in a Japanese hut arguing over philosophy with snow falling in the background; a woman immersed in a muddy river slowly gathering orchids; a snake slithering by a man sitting on a railroad track in front of a fallen train.”

The Luckiest Man in America (dir. Samir Oliveros)

On In the Seats with, Dave Voigt chats with director Samir Oliveros about “the next level star making turn he got out of Paul Walter Hauser, the genuine batshit nature of the story, and so very much more.”

“Oliveros keeps the pressure high in his briskly running film that’s propelled by a bloopy, squelchy soundtrack and a volley between harried behind-the-scenes scenes and stage-managed on-set pieces. The script drops enough red herrings to keep everyone guessing about everyone else’s agendas, elevating an otherwise straightforward story,” says Kim Hughes at Original Cin. “Supporting players, including Walton Goggins as slick show host Peter Tomarken and Maisie Williams as frazzled page Sylvia, are committed, appropriately twitchy, and enormously watchable. And it’s often unclear what is real and fake in this cloistered environment where audience reactions are guided by prompters commanding ‘applause,’ ‘boos’ and ‘laughter.’”

A Minecraft Movie (dir. Jared Hess)

“The film could be cut up and sold as bacon because there’s so much ham acting in it. Not so much by the younger actors — Hansen, Myers and Brooks are more reactive that proactive — but the older ones practically oink with excitement at the chance to get their freak on,” observes Peter Howell at the Toronto Star. “Most welcome of all is the extraneous but hilarious character Marlene, vice principal of Chuglass High School where Henry and Natalie study. Played by Coolidge, she’s a bonus for viewers who have been missing her in this season’s The White Lotus.”

“While Barbie‘s corporate and beauty standard critiques may have been slightly undercut by its subsequent engagement and promotion of them, the intent of its moral at least survived. In A Minecraft Movie, we’re never actually entirely sure whether the world is an idyllic bastion of creativity for misunderstood kids, or an avoidant fantasy they use to hide from reality,” notes Jackson Weaver at CBC. “Given an ending that completely undercuts repeated proclamations about how perfect the world of Minecraft is, it’s clear some script advisers were worried parents may lean toward the latter. And so, after building up Minecraft as a champion of creativity in an otherwise hard, uncaring world, its characters basically do an about-face, yelling at you to touch grass.”

A Nice Indian Boy (dir. Roshan Sethi)

“Naveen and Jay plan the wedding and while there are bumps, miscommunications, an outrageous wedding planner and their gathered love makes for an upbeat, quasi-Hallmark love story; it’s easy, pleasant and doesn’t tax the brain,” notes Anne Brodie at What She Said. “The Indian music and dance numbers are sensational, and Zarna Garg who plays the mother provides a masterclass in acting in a monologue towards the end that is shattering in its wisdom and love.”

Calling the film “a charming, albeit slight gay rom-com with a healthy dose of cultural specificity,” Joe Lipsett discusses the film on the latest episode of The Queer Gaze.

“If knowing the tunes of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ) gives a guy the path to your heart, then A Nice Indian Boy will make you swoon. This irresistible romantic comedy adapts the play by Canadian writer Madhuri Shekar with heart and humour,” says Pat Mullen at That Shelf. “The script by Eric Randall lovingly recognizes the challenge—and thrill—of staging the perfect wedding when one’s family lacks precedent. But the vibrant colours and jubilant joy of classic Bollywood movies like DDLJ and their big and gay (but not in that way) weddings provides a template for two men to celebrate their love, Indian style. Get ready for the best gay wedding since Schitt’s Creek.”

Promised Hearts (dir. Anggy Umbara)

“The one plus of the movie is the Indonesian setting,” observes Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “It is exciting and educational to see the lives of the Indonesians in a typical fishing village.  The film is also shot in Indonesian Malay, which Malaysians are also able to understand.”

Queen of the Ring (dir. Ash Avildsen)

“Queen of the Ring offers an amusing look at the spectacle and fakery of wrestling. Here’s promoter Jack Pfefer (Walton Goggins), for example, coaching ‘rivals’ Jim Mitchell (Khalid Greenaway) and Gorgeous George (Adam Demos) to insult one another,” says Liz Braun at Original Cin. “And the film outlines some of the history of the sport. At its heart, however, the Ash Avildsen-directed Queen of the Ring is a feminist story about one woman’s determination to have a place in a male-dominated sport.”

The Spoils (dir. Jamie Kastner 🇨🇦)

“The Spoils shines a bright light on the tortuous business of returning stolen Nazi art to its rightful owners. What would seem straightforward is complicated by the passage of time, missing paperwork, dodgy provenance and ineffectual national laws, not to mention the old standbys — greed and antisemitism — currently enjoying a major renaissance,” writes Liz Braun at Original Cin. “Kastner fills in some of the general background on looted art by referencing The Monuments Men and Woman In Gold in his film, perhaps acknowledging that movies have done a lot to educate the general public on art restitution. His film will, too.”

“A series of failed attempts by the city of Düsseldorf to honour German-Jewish art dealer Max Stern, who barely escaped the war, settled in Montreal and became Canada’s most successful art dealer, cuts to the heart of the current crisis in Germany and the art world beyond around the restitution of Nazi-looted art,” says Dave Voigt at In the Seats with… “Through a combination of exclusive interviews, actuality captured over a four-year period, and a gold-mine of rarely seen stock footage, The Spoils traces the at times tragic, often irony-laced strokes in this ongoing battle.”

“The Spoils chronicles the efforts of the Max Stern Art Restitution Project and a major culture clash with the city of Düsseldorf, Germany. It’s a complicated, convoluted, and often downright dizzying story,” writes Pat Mullen at POV Magazine. “Dahomey, this is not though, as The Spoils illustrates the very different attitudes that two countries can have to their histories. But Kastner’s caper and Mati Diop’s experimental odyssey align in their underlying arguments. Artworks hold value greater than their monetary worth. The recognition of harms done, of lives upturned, and of culture stolen remains priceless. And, unfortunately, a tougher sell for victors who long enjoyed the spoils.”

William Tell (dir. Nick Hamm)

“Turns out there’s more to the famous Swiss William Tell fable than meets the eye. No, it wasn’t just the horrendous story of a father forced to point an arrow at an apple atop his son’s head and shoot. It was a result of geopolitical chaos in the 1400s when the Roman Empire fell and Europe underwent sweeping change,” writes Anne Brodie at What She Said. “Nick Hamm’s historical battle film is deeply violent and disturbing, veering into too much; sure, life may have been primitive and fighting up close and bloody but I chose to stop watching before the end; it was relentless.”

File Under Miscellaneous

At the Toronto Star, Peter Howell pays tribute to Val Kilmer and remembers some of his best work including Batman Forever and Top Gun: “Kilmer’s Iceman epitomized ‘80s cool, a cocky yet disciplined foil to his rival Cruise’s impulsive Maverick, delivering tension with a gum-snapping smirk,” says Howell of Kilmer in Top Gun. “His return decades later in Top Gun: Maverick was a heart-pull of nostalgia and poignancy, as Kilmer brought gravitas to a character weathered by illness but also marked by wisdom and vulnerability. A triumph of restraint and emotional resonance.”

TV Talk/Series Stuff

At What She Said, Anne Brodie proclaims, “We are reminded what a capable actor is Michelle Williams” in Dying for Sex. Meanwhile, Pulse offers “cool special effects, fulsome storylines and rapid pulses. But that’s kind of wearing right now.”