TIFF 2026 · Volume 2 of 4
Here’s Volume 2 of my TIFF 2026 coverage: 11 more films, in the order I saw them.
Seen Sept. 11 · Roy Thomson Hall
Man in Motion: The Rick Hansen Story
Director: Adrian Buitenhuis
Starring: Rick Hansen, Amanda Hansen, Mike Reid, Tim Frick, Nancy Thompson
In 1985, Canadian athlete Rick Hansen sets out to wheel more than 40,000 kilometers through 34 countries, a 26-month world tour that raises $26 million and changes how a lot of people think about disability.
I’ve watched St. Elmo’s Fire more times than I can count. Somehow I never knew its theme song, “St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion),” was inspired by a real person.
That person is Rick Hansen, a Canadian athlete who uses a wheelchair after a spinal cord injury. In 1985, he set out on his Man in Motion World Tour. Over 26 months, he wheeled more than 40,000 kilometers through 34 countries. He raised $26 million and changed how a lot of people thought about disability.
The tour came just a few years after Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope, and Hansen carried that spirit to the rest of the world. Along the way, he even wheeled up the Great Wall of China.
Seeing the world premiere of Man in Motion: The Rick Hansen Story with Hansen in the room was a real treat, and a moving one. He and his wife, Amanda, were watching the film for the first time right along with the rest of us. When she came out, her ovation was so loud you’d think she was a co-star. After seeing the film, I’d say she is.
Director Adrian Buitenhuis keeps things moving at a good clip. He leans on terrific archival footage to walk a new generation through a tour they may have only heard about. Ryan Reynolds is among the producers, and the whole thing radiates big-hearted Canadian pride. You come away understanding just how much it took, physically and emotionally, to get one man around the planet.
What lifts this above the usual triumph-over-adversity doc is something no one has seen until now. Hansen’s arrival at the end of the tour was captured on 35mm film. That footage sat untouched for decades and never saw the light of day.
Buitenhuis finally shows it, and he catches Hansen watching it for the first time. That’s the moment the film goes from a good story to something you won’t forget. Watching him relive it, in a theater full of people who were moved right along with him, is something I won’t forget.
Inspiring, and an important piece of history, Man in Motion is a documentary worth seeking out.
Seen Sept. 11 · Roy Thomson Hall
Girl Group
Director: Rebel Wilson
Starring: Rebel Wilson, Randall Park, Jennifer Coolidge, Guz Khan, Chabely Ponce, Daniela Couso, Lilah Pate, Mia Kaplan, Bailey Stender, Loren Gray, Miracle Washington, Ana Yi Puig
A former member of a ’90s-style girl group takes on a new challenge: mentoring seven young singers chasing their shot at an international stage.
I was at TIFF for the world premiere of Rebel Wilson’s The Deb in 2024. The two films share some DNA, but Girl Group feels more naturally inclusive. Wilson also shows off some real filmmaking style this time around.
Wilson plays a former member of a ’90s-style girl group who takes on a new challenge. She mentors a band of seven young singers chasing their shot at an international stage. The project started life as a K-pop comedy before Wilson reshaped it into a broader pop story. The result is a big, colorful comedy aimed at anyone who grew up with the Spice Girls on repeat, and at their kids.
The musical numbers are staged with serious flash. Every dance sequence is eye-popping, and the songs are bright, sugary, unapologetically girly pop. It helps that Wilson cast actual pop royalty as her old bandmates, including Mel C of Spice Girls and Shaznay Lewis of All Saints.
Then there’s Nicole Scherzinger, who is wildly funny, sending up her own image as a former Pussycat Doll. She clearly knows exactly how people see her, and she has a blast turning it into a punchline. Every time she’s on screen, the energy spikes. Jennifer Coolidge is on hand too, along with Randall Park and Sheridan Smith.
The film does feel overstuffed. Between the seven band members and a big adult cast, not everyone gets their full due. A few characters come and go without leaving much of an impression.
In general, though, this took me back to the great “mall movies” of years past. You know the ones. Your parents dropped you and your friends off at the theater. Afterward, you grabbed lunch at the food court and argued about your favorite parts.
That’s exactly the spirit here. Girl Group isn’t trying to change your life. It’s pure, harmless fun, and sometimes that’s just what the festival needs in the middle of all the bleak prestige offerings.
Seen Sept. 11 · Princess of Wales Theatre
Everybody Wants to Fu*k Me
Director: Jonathan Schey
Starring: Taron Egerton, Jessica Henwick, Mia McKenna-Bruce, Charly Clive, Herbert Nordrum, Antonia Clarke, Sophie Simnett
A serial charmer who performs decency to get women into bed gets exactly what he wants when every woman around him becomes fixated on him, and learns that being desired and being hunted are the same thing.
Loud and Clear score: 8/10
Taron Egerton plays a man who has built an entire personality out of seeming decent, and Jonathan Schey’s debut takes a hard left into territory you will not see coming. An absolute blast, even if the script never fully makes its case against his punishment.
Seen Sept. 12 · Scotiabank Theatre
Trash Mountain
Director: Kris Rey
Starring: Caleb Hearon, Zooey Deschanel, Jacki Weaver, Jaboukie Young-White, Kyle Marvin, Holmes
When his father dies, a gay twentysomething in Chicago heads home to rural Missouri to deal with a house crammed wall to wall with his dad’s hoarded stuff, and a family that hasn’t figured out how to talk about any of it.
Caleb Hearon has been working the comedy scene for about a decade. Over the last few years, his career has exploded and Trash Mountain proves he’s more than a funny guy with a big following.
Hearon plays a gay man in his twenties living in Chicago. When his father dies, he has to head home to rural Missouri to deal with what’s left behind, including a house crammed wall to wall with his dad’s hoarded stuff. It also includes a family that hasn’t figured out how to talk about any of it.
Hearon co-wrote the script with Ruby Caster, and it’s a solid one. It finds big laughs and real heart, often in the same scene.
I appreciated how little filler there is. The film doesn’t waste time on detours. It sticks close to the kinds of situations real families face when someone dies and leaves a mess behind.
There are some brutal truths here, too. The characters have to confront things about their father and each other, and nobody gets off easy.
Kris Rey’s direction lets those moments sting without losing the humor. Kyle Marvin and Jaboukie Young-White round out the cast and are more than just sounding boards for our leads. They are their emotional outlets, though neither Hearon’s nor Deschanel’s characters know how to fully tap that resource.
Hearon holds his own as an actor. He’s funny, of course, but he’s also open and raw when the script asks for it. He and Zooey Deschanel make a great sibling pair. Their rhythm feels easy and with a history to it, like two people who have been bickering and making up since childhood.
Jacki Weaver is especially hilarious as their addled, overreactive grandmother. She steals nearly every scene she’s in without ever turning the character into a cartoon.
This is one of those films where all the right pieces click into place. The result is funny, sad, and a really good time at the movies. Hearon has a bright future on both sides of the page, and I’m excited to see what he writes next.
Seen Sept. 12 · Princess of Wales Theatre
Closing Night
Director: Cody Fern
Starring: Sarah Paulson, Naomi Watts, Dianne Wiest, Odessa A’zion, Toby Wallace
After thirty years of silence, a celebrated stage actress invites her estranged family to the opening night of her new play, and a collapse onstage forces three generations into a room with everything they never said.
Loud and Clear score: 10/10
Sarah Paulson gives the best performance of her career, and Naomi Watts and Dianne Wiest are right there with her. Cody Fern’s debut turns his own family history into the rarest thing going: three great roles for women in one scorching film.
Seen Sept. 12 · Roy Thomson Hall
Babies
Director: Lauren Miller Rogen
Starring: Anna Kendrick, Seth Rogen, Issa Rae, Dan Stevens, Kate Berlant, Zach Cherry, Ed Helms, Ashley Park, Sharon Stone, David Strathairn
A happily married couple of seventeen years who have never settled the question of children get a trial run at parenthood when a newly separated friend and her four-year-old move in for a while.
Loud and Clear score: 7/10
Lauren Miller Rogen wrote what she knew, and Anna Kendrick delivers it like she’s thinking it up on the spot. An honest, warm comedy about not knowing whether you want kids, generous to everyone on both sides of the question.
Seen Sept. 12 · Royal Alexandra Theatre
The Surgeon
Director: Roshan Sethi
Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Martin Freeman, Dónall Ó Héalai, Laurie Davidson, Yuri Kolokolnikov, Joseph Mydell
A bored, retired surgeon is drugged, kidnapped and ordered to cut a tumor out of a crime boss in an abandoned hospital, and she works out fast that the only thing keeping her alive is the operation itself.
Loud and Clear score: 8/10
Michelle Yeoh is a retired surgeon kidnapped by criminals who need an operation, and she fights back with the only weapon they can’t take off her. Gruesome, precise and ridiculously fun, with Martin Freeman relishing every second as the villain.
Seen Sept. 13 · TIFF Lightbox
Evil Genius
Director: Courteney Cox
Starring: Patricia Arquette, David Harbour, Michael Chernus, Garret Dillahunt, Ryan Eggold, Tom McCarthy, Owen Teague
In 2003, a pizza delivery man robs a bank in Erie, Pennsylvania, with a bomb locked around his neck, setting off a tangled investigation into who put it there and why.
Courteney Cox has spent four decades in the business, so it’s no shock she could assemble a cast this weird and wonderful. Evil Genius dramatizes the bizarre (like, really really bizarre) true crime story told in the Netflix docuseries of the same name. Even if you’ve seen that documentary, this adaptation is worth your time.
In 2003, a pizza delivery man named Brian Wells robbed a bank in Erie, Pennsylvania, with a bomb locked around his neck. What followed was a tangled investigation into who put it there and why. Even the FBI called it one of the strangest cases it had ever worked.
The real surprise is how slick and entertaining Cox’s film turns out to be. A story this dark could easily have felt exploitative. Instead, Cox keeps it moving with a sure hand and a wicked sense of humor.
New Emmy winner David Harbour and Oscar-winner Patricia Arquette run wild with their roles. They skate right along the edge of parody, and somehow never tip over into bad taste.
Arquette in particular is on fire. She’s completely fearless about being, and looking, truly wretched. She’s also in total control of every frame she’s in. It’s a big, bold performance, and it gives the whole film a laser jolt of electricity.
Danielle Macdonald and Garret Dillahunt are also part of a supporting cast packed with familiar faces. Keep an eye out for David Arquette and Christine Taylor, too. They pop up in such low-key roles that I almost didn’t recognize them.
That casting made me smile for another reason. Cox and David Arquette were once married. Seeing him and his sister in her film is a sweet reminder that they’ve stayed on good terms. She’s kept his family in her life, and in her movie.
Evil Genius is a true crime tale told with confidence, style, and a real appetite for strangeness. If this is what Cox can do behind the camera, I hope she doesn’t wait long to direct again.
Seen Sept. 13 · Shangri-La Toronto Screening Room
Ink
Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce, Claire Foy, Bertie Carvel, Jonathan Hyde
In 1969, Rupert Murdoch buys a struggling British paper called The Sun and hires an editor with a chip on his shoulder to beat the rival Daily Mirror at its own game, whatever it takes.
Watching a Danny Boyle movie is starting to feel like watching Shakespeare for me. I need a good 15 minutes to adjust to the frantic energy and rapid-fire editing before I can settle in.
Ink is adapted from James Graham’s hit play. In 1969, media mogul Rupert Murdoch buys a struggling British paper called The Sun. He hires Larry Lamb, an editor with a chip on his shoulder, to turn it into a paper people actually want to read. The goal is simple: beat the rival Daily Mirror at its own game, whatever it takes.
Once I found my footing, there was plenty to chew on. The film has a lot to say about journalistic ethics, and about what a newspaper is really for. Is it there to inform people, or just to give them what they want?
It never slides into a “this happened, then this happened” history lesson either. That’s a credit to the strength of Graham’s original play, which gives every scene a clear purpose.
Jack O’Connell is aces as Lamb. He plays him as scrappy, hungry, and a little dangerous. You can see him get more comfortable with each line he crosses. It’s a thrill to watch, and a little chilling, too.
Claire Foy plays Jules Davies, a reporter caught up in Lamb’s new direction. Foy keeps finding roles with real meat on them, and this is another good one.
As much as I adore Guy Pearce, I’m not quite as high on his Murdoch as some people have been. He’s solid and convincing, but I didn’t see anything here that belongs on an Oscar shortlist (though I’m still pained he didn’t win for The Brutalist, which I saw first at TIFF two years ago.)
Still, this is sharp, fast, and smart filmmaking about how the tabloids we know today came to be. Give Boyle’s style a few minutes to win you over, and it will.
Seen Sept. 13 · Princess of Wales Theatre
The Beloved
Director: Rodrigo Sorogoyen
Starring: Javier Bardem, Victoria Luengo, Raúl Arévalo, Marina Foïs, Melina Matthews
A celebrated filmmaker who walked out on his daughter more than a decade ago casts her in his new film, and the two spend their working days pretending the past can wait until after the shoot.
Esteban is a celebrated filmmaker who walked out on his daughter more than a decade ago. Now he casts Emilia in his new film, and they have to spend their working days together pretending the past can wait until after the shoot.
Javier Bardem plays the father, Victoria Luengo the daughter, and neither lets the reunion feel simple. Esteban may genuinely think she’s right for the role. He may also believe a set gives him a way back into her life without having to ask for one. Emilia gets a career opportunity, but she also has to take direction from the person whose approval she once needed most. That’s a terrific knot for a film to pull at, and The Beloved masterfully lets both of them tug until something gives.
Rodrigo Sorogoyen, who co-wrote the film with Isabel Peña, understands how a set can make a private argument everybody’s business. A note about a performance can sound like a father telling his daughter who she ought to be. A missed cue can carry years of anger. The crew still needs to get through the day, which gives their conflicts an awkward, believable audience.
I liked that the film doesn’t hurry Emilia toward forgiveness just because Esteban has brought her close again. He’s better at managing a scene than admitting what he did, and she can tell the difference.
The filmmaking details feel right, but they never become a tour of equipment or industry gossip. They show why these two people can keep working together when talking plainly might send one of them home.
Bardem makes Esteban maddening without reducing him to a monster. He can listen closely to Emilia as an actor and still fail to hear her as his daughter. Luengo is every bit his match; she gives Emilia the watchfulness of someone who won’t be talked into calling a job offer an apology. Their scenes together carry the film, especially when neither gets to win the argument cleanly.
Sorogoyen gives them space and lets the tension build through the work they’re doing. I found myself invested in both the scene they were trying to shoot and everything they refused to say between takes.
This is a smart, moving film about the strange access art can give us to someone we’ve hurt. It also knows that access is no guarantee of repair.
Seen Sept. 13 · John Bassett Theatre
The Last Photograph
Director: Zack Snyder
Starring: Stuart Martin, Fra Fee, Costanza Andrade, Marlon Moreno, Quique Mendoza, Gustavo Angarita
After his niece and nephew’s parents are murdered, a former DEA agent searches the South American mountains for the missing children, joined by a war photographer who witnessed the killings.
Weeks later, I find that I’m still working through my feelings about The Last Photograph, but my first reaction out of the theater was simply: “ick”.
Zack Snyder follows Ethan Black (an excellent Stuart Martin, who should be considered for James Bond), a former DEA agent searching the South American mountains for his missing niece and nephew after their parents are murdered. A war photographer (a fine Fra Fee) who witnessed the killings joins him. As they travel, the search grows increasingly surreal. Snyder has reportedly spent about twenty years trying to make this film, and you can see the care he’s put into its scale and imagery. What I couldn’t get past was who the movie asks to suffer while Ethan moves toward the children. Its women endure one form of cruelty after another, yet almost none is allowed a life or a choice outside that suffering. By the end, I felt the film cared far more about the images than the people inside them.
The violence against women isn’t incidental here. They’re assaulted, brutalized, humiliated, and sold. The camera repeatedly exposes their naked bodies, even when they’re vulnerable or dead, without giving them a perspective of their own. The film also includes material involving child sexual abuse. I left those scenes feeling Snyder had reached for the most upsetting thing he could show without reckoning with what it means for the children.
A story can confront terrible acts and still treat its victims as people. I didn’t feel that care here. The surreal turns made it even harder to understand why I was being asked to watch. I kept waiting for these choices to serve a purpose beyond making Ethan’s journey feel darker. For me, they never did.
Snyder still knows how to stage an image. I can appreciate the size and control of some sequences on a technical level, even as I recoil from what they depict. That skill makes the film more frustrating: it can make me look, but it never persuaded me that looking was worthwhile. In its current version (Snyder himself told the crowd that this work-in-progress print might never be seen again), I can’t recommend The Last Photograph. Its cruelty kept piling up, and the people subjected to it had too little room to be anything but evidence of a brutal world.
I know some viewers will be drawn to Snyder’s visual approach or the long road this project took to the screen. Neither changed my experience of it. I walked out feeling that its most vulnerable characters had been used, and that feeling hasn’t faded as I’ve tried to sort through the film.
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