June 27, 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

Enigma (dir. Zackary Drucker)

“While Drucker prods Lear to come out as trans, she also gives her permission to keep mum, recognizing that there’s a price to that silence, too. ‘Pioneers seldom understand the paths they’ve blazed,’ Drucker notes towards the film’s end,” writes Pat Mullen at POV Magazine. “By the final act, Ashley gets her due as a trailblazer who helped pioneer trans rights in the U.K. Meanwhile, Lear can claim a similar honour with this appreciative tribute. All the pieces are in place if she chooses to complete the story that honours the multiplicity of trans experiences. Lear remains playfully evasive to the end. Her playful, enigmatic silence facilitates one of the most richly complex character studies in recent memory.”

F1 (dir. Joseph Kosinski)

“Complaining about the structure feels like a fool’s errand — though it would be even more foolish not to mention how the ending seems to invalidate everything that came before. There’s a bait-and-switch that takes Hayes’s character arc and completely undoes it. The film uses a thousand symbols pointing out how the allure of racing glory has been destroying him, only to then twist them around to say he was always right to yearn for it,” says Jackson Weaver at CBC. “It’s a silly, counterproductive narrative failing. But really, who cares? We’re here to see cars go fast. And when Pitt’s behind the wheel, do they ever.”

“[T]he biggest sobering pierce to the ’90s beer goggle veil comes from the treatment of Academy Award nominee Kerry Condon’s Kate McKenna. Described as the first woman technical director of an F1 team, Kosinski and Kruger set Kate up as the lone female in a prominent position of a male-dominated industry. Kate’s ‘first woman’ standing doesn’t form her entire identity, but it’s certainly a pronounced part of her storyline,” says Rachel Ho at Exclaim!. “So when Kate suddenly becomes a giggling school girl at the whim of Brad Pitt’s good looks and magnetism, it starkly recalls how unjustly women were often written in ’90s movies. It’s great the film makes room for a female voice that’s older than 25 as a love interest and doesn’t dress her down, but how far have we really progressed when part of her story — an entirely unnecessary subplot at that — involves her jumping into bed against her better judgment, because Pitt’s just that dreamy?”

“Cinematographer Claudio Miranda (another Top Gun: Maverick veteran) starts things off with a bang, as racing cars appear to be driving through exploding fireworks. And he keeps things moving with shots from inside the cramped cars as well as from cameras perched on the vehicles’ edges (and sometimes swinging wildly through 90 degrees) and all around the track,” says Chris Knight at Original Cin. “Even pit stops, which are timed in tenths of a second, add to the frantic pace of the race scenes, though whether they conform to reality I’ll leave to more track-savvy specialists. For this non-racing-fan critic, the title is a perfect match for the film. Yes it’s formulaic. But it’s fast enough to finish strong regardless.”

“F1: The Movie is basically the equivalent of being able to sing all your favourite songs without needing the teleprompter.  It’s hardly reinventing anything but it’s a master class in execution with its visceral driving action and leading man swagger that makes this feel like a really big and bold piece of popcorn driven cinematic excellence,” writes Dave Voigt at In the Seats. “It leans on the sports movie formula pretty heavily but it does so perfectly because one minute we are on the edge of our seat with the race and in another we are engrossed by this story of the roguish veteran of the sport trying to import knowledge on a hot shot rookie in order to save both of their jobs.”

“With cinematography by Kosinski go-to guy Claudio Miranda, editing by Steven Soderbergh go-to guy Stephen Mirrione, and music by everyone’s go-to guy Hans Zimmer — all Oscar winners — F1: The Movie has an unimpeachable cinematic pedigree that might elevate it beyond popcorn status at awards season,” says Kim Hughes at Original Cin. “Reminiscent of popular ’90s-era fast food marketing crossovers (film merch cups at Taco Bell!), there is also a LEGO F1 lineup of products —‘keeping the excitement alive at home by building their own F1-inspired moments with LEGO sets designed for every age and skill level,’ so the pitch goes. Sigh. Digressive, sure, but hot damn the film is fun, its 155-minute running time as slick as the track at Monza in a rainstorm. And just in time for summer.”

“But the film fails to fully capitalize on the combustible pairing of Sonny and Joshua, as it zooms around the globe to a seemingly endless series of races in Italy, the U.K., Belgium, Las Vegas and finally Abu Dhabi. (I nearly cheered when ‘The Last Race appeared as a text note),” says Peter Howell at the Toronto Star. “Kosinski and Bruckheimer really want us to know how much effort and money went into making F1 look as convincing as possible – many real-world races, drivers and organizations were involved in the project – and they don’t care about redundancy. Bruckheimer even splashed out major moolah on acquiring Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’ for the soundtrack, classic rock chestnuts that compete with a Hans Zimmer score that inventively combines orchestral and electronic sounds.”

“The story contained within F1 The Movie is one audiences have been familiar with since the dawn of the medium, with little to no deviation,” notes Andrew Parker at The Gate. “But in terms of giving the viewer an experience unlike anything they’ve seen before, this thing is all gas and no brakes, even with a running time that coasts past the 2.5 hour mark, making it just as long to sit through as an actual Formula One race.”

“The racing scenes are slick, nerve-rattling affairs, Kosinski pushing his cameras so deep into the driver’s seat and so close to the asphalt that you feel every swerve and jerk. (It deserves to be seen in IMAX, even though it wasn’t shot with IMAX cameras.) The locations – an atlas’s worth of exotic pit stops that would make Carmen Sandiego blush – are almost consistently backlit by literal fireworks,” says Barry Hertz at The Globe and Mail. “The techno-by-way-of-Wagner score, courtesy of Hans Zimmer, pounds and rattles in the most hypnotic of ways.”

“Director Joseph Kosinski is no stranger to the action film genre, with box-office hits like Twisters, Tron Legacy, and Top Gun: Maverick in his resume,” notes Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “Kosinski knows how to up the ante in audience excitement. The sound mixing is evidence of the fact. Some layers can be heard on the soundtrack. Amidst the action, there is thundering music, race announcements and dialogue all mixed together instead of just a one-layered soundtrack. The music is by Hans Zimmer.”

Familiar Touch (dir. Sarah Friedland)

“Familiar Touch treads too much into familiar territory, having been seen many times before in films focusing on dementia or old age,” says Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “But the director’s slow pace, allowing the audience to observe Ruth’s every moment, turns out to be surprisingly effective. The film is aided by Kathleen Chalfont’s moving performance as Ruth.”

I’m Your Venus (dir. Kimberly Reed)

“Despite the filmmakers’ good intentions and hard efforts, there is not much that can be obtained about the murder after summary years have passed,” admits Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “One cannot get blood from stone, as they say. Director Reed elicits as much drama as she can from the meeting of the late Venus’ two families when they meet.”

At POV Magazine, Pat Mullen speaks with director Kimberly Reed about continuing the story of Venus Xtravaganza. “It is hard to describe because some of the stories in Paris Is Burning, especially Venus’s story, are so difficult, but at the same time, I was so desperate, so hungry, to see myself portrayed on screen and to see any examples of trans folks. It left a deep, deep impression on me,” says Reed. “Despite that cautionary tale, the more important impact that watching Paris Is Burning and meeting Venus for the first time through film had was that it gave me an example of how to live as a trans woman and be myself and be public. How to not be ashamed of anything, and be fierce, and be beautiful–and be all of the things that we want to have in life. This freedom of expression is so important. It marked me deeply. It marked me as a filmmaker, too.”

Last Take: The Story of Halyna (dir. Rachel Mason)

“Last Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna is a heartbreaking and infuriating account of the carelessness and stupidity leading up to Hutchins’ death,” says Liz Braun at Original Cin. “The movie features an array of arresting footage — from the set, from police interrogation rooms and first responder bodycams, from bystander phone video — and interviews with many of the cast and crew involved, including Frances Fisher and Josh Hopkins. The film also attempts to make Hutchins more than just the victim of a shooting, filling in details about her life, her family, and her ambitions. Hutchins was a gifted cinematographer, and Rust could have been her big break. But she was also someone’s daughter, wife, and mother.”

M3GAN 2.0 (dir. Gerard Johnstone)

“[T]hough the sequel racks up an even bigger body count, it somehow nudges the franchise closer to family-friendly territory. The result is an entertaining but cloudy hybrid of cutaway violence and Home Alone-style mayhem,” writes Thom Ernst at Original Cin. “The real draw—and by far the most entertaining element of both films—is M3GAN herself, voiced with snarky precision by Jenna Davis and brought to life through a seamless blend of puppetry, CGI, and a flesh-and-blood performance by Amie Donald. M3GAN 2.0 is loaded with callbacks to the first film (and, oddly, to Steven Seagal), reminding us not only of M3GAN’s original four-human-plus-one-dog kill count, but also of her uniquely droll sense of justice. That said, anyone hoping for more of her razor-edged vengeance may walk away underwhelmed.”

“Given the outrageous and generally difficult to follow plot (I bet the target audience for the film never expected to have to sift through all the plot details, which are many), one must give credit to the filmmakers and actors for giving 100% to the project as can be observed while viewing the film,” adds Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “The actors try hard as if their lives depend on it, and the script goes all out in trying to explain every detail, leaving no stone unturned.  The action set sequences involving fights are also well done and well thought through.  Pity that everything turns out silly at the very end.”

“Going into M3gan 2.0, my greatest fear was that Johnstone would take the path of least resistance, offering up two hours worth of memes that rehashed high points from the first movie,” says Andrew Parker at The Gate. “While there are callbacks, another (much less memorable) dance number, and a bit where M3gan awkwardly sings a famous pop song, Johnstone proves to be averse to such cheap pops from the audience. That would be commendable if anything about M3gan 2.0 was fun in the slightest, because I figured out very quickly that one of the things worse than two straight hours of cheap memes is a two hour movie where nothing happens.”

“Jenna Davis doing the voice of our title heroine is actually what brings the energy level up in the entire film,” notes Dave Voigt at In the Seats. “As the smart assed AI sociopath who is now on the side of good actually brings the bitchy mean girl fun to the proceedings.  Violet McGraw as Cady and M3GAN’s charge is still pretty fun, but Alison Williams is all over the map while Jermaine Clement is trolling the movie and our villain Amelia played by Ivanna Sakhno never got the memo that we’re trying to be campy in this one.”

My Mom Jayne (dir. Mariska Hargitay)

“The documentary often risks becoming the kind of family viewing that audiences have seen before. Natalie Wood and Donna Summer, for example, fuel well-intentioned docs about their daughters that get bogged down in nostalgia,” writes Pat Mullen at POV Magazine. “But the prismatic nature of the story means that Hargitay can’t rely on her own memories and must re-examine fragments from new angles. This reality means that she can’t ignore aspects of her mother’s personal life and facts that directors without a degree of separation from their subjects often leave to other biographers.”

Sweet Relief (dir. Nick Verdi)

“The film (which has a Todd Solondz feel) is indeed worth a look for its stylish horror, blending of different storylines culminating in violent horror and quaint small town setting of annoying losers trying to prove themselves better than they think they can,” writes Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto.

File Under Miscellaneous

At That Shelf, Pat Mullen, Courtney Small, and Rachel West join local writers in picking the best films of the year so far. For Mullen, it’s Come See Me in the Good Light: “Buoyed by infectious laughs and a heartfelt lust for life, this film will give you all the feels and then some.” For Small, it’s BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions: “An exhilarating and thought-provoking piece of cinema.” And for West, it’s Twinless: “James Sweeney is a revelation through the film’s exploration of grief, love, friendship, and obsession.”

At The Globe and Mail, Barry Hertz digs into why Denis Villeneuve is the perfect fit to direct the next James Bond movie: “Villeneuve has proven himself to be a true student of action cinema,” writes Hertz. “He finds the spine of a set piece – a slash of flesh, a blast of fire – and stretches it into something new. The filmmaker is as skilled at staging gigantic battles as he is in intimate brawls, his attention to detail – to the pure and brute physicality and motion of violence – is raw and enrapturing. It is a grand-yet-grounded sensibility that will be essential to bringing Bond into a bold new big-screen era.” Hertz also has news about TIFF’s latest additions.

At the Toronto Star, Peter Howell breaks down some movies that could—or might not—add juice to the summer box office, like Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing. “Pro: Aronofsky’s Bible-themed epic Noah (2014) saw epic audience numbers. And can a supporting performance by Bad Bunny, one of the biggest musical acts in the world, help fill seats?” asks Howell. “Con: The Bikeriders, Butler’s laboured 2023 motorcycle-gang drama made by another American auteur (Jeff Nichols), received middling reviews and essentially broke even at the box office. This type of made-for-grown-ups flicks has a ceiling.”