TIFF 2025 Coverage Day 1 & 2 (SENTIMENTAL VALUE, NO OTHER CHOICE, and More)

by Joel Edmiston

It’s the 50th ever Toronto International Film Festival, but more importantly (for everyone), it is my 10th! Second with a press pass -- happy to be here.

We’re back and I have been so excited for this all year. It’s been surreal and I’ll admit, I’ve already had some mixed emotions. It’s like I’m waiting for some sort of euphoria to hit me (and, no, I’m not talking about the list of many movies with actors from a certain show on the lineup this year, one of which I’ve already seen) and it hasn’t yet. I had this realization riding my bike home after my fifth movie on Thursday night that the whole thing is a bit of a whirlwind and it is in retrospect that I’ll realize how lucky I am to do this. Just gotta lock in. To be clear, I am. Locked in and lucky.

One thing I want to address about festival coverage as a whole that I’ve found to be a bit cheesy these days is how many people start talking about awards season already. We are in September and the Oscars are in March. I appreciate anyone who cares about that stuff (and to be clear, I do, when the nominations come out and like a week or two before the telecast), but it gets so boring if we keep tying all these movies’ merits to whether they have a shot at an awards play. With both awards and box office, I think people have started to talk about movies like they talk about sports. Honestly, I don’t love talking about sports, so maybe it’s a me thing.

I’m just going to take a vow that this will be the last time I bring up that subject and will only talk about movies in terms of if I liked them or not, if I recommend them or not, some brief (likely story) asides about my experiences watching them, what wine I recommend to pair with them (when I say wine, I mean hot dogs and my recommendation is always,yes), etc.

I want to treat myself with grace and not drive myself nuts by trying to break my record from last year (26), but I am going to see lots of movies and I’m going to try to write at least a little something about all of them. Some of them will come out soon. Some won’t be out for a while. Some may not even get a proper release. My intention here is to excite you about these movies, for however long it takes for them to become available to you. Even if it’s March 2026 (or 27 even) and you see a title pop up for 7.99 rental and you think “I think that fuckin’ Canadian guy told me I should eat a hot dog while watching that,” then I’m satisfied.

And off we go.

Sentimental Value
(dir. Joachim Trier)

I’ll often start my festival with one of my most anticipated movies. It seemed many Press and Industry folk had the same idea. Seeing it at 9AM is certainly an odd circumstance, but the excitement buzzing from all the lanyard-wearing weirdos (I include myself here) more than matched that of, say, a Saturday night screening of, hmm, Lilo & Stitch, Starsky & Hutch, Pride & Prejudice (&/or whatever other famous duo). But on Thursday morning, we were all locked in for Joachim & Renate.

Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value is a follow-up to his 2021 knockout, The Worst Person in the World, which, yes, reteams him with Renate Reinsve, who I just wanna say is probably our best working actor right now. Her ability to rivet an audience by being totally authentic stuns me. It seems effortless, as if she’s totally unaware there’s a camera on her, but the hard work she does to make this trick happen is clear. Anyway, if you loved The Worst Person in the World, you don’t need convincing about this one. It’s another knockout. Reinsve plays Nora, whose estranged filmmaker father (Stellan Skarsgaard) comes back into her life and is making his most personal film yet and now wants to reconnect with Nora and her sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, who I don’t think I’ve seen before and reminded me a lot of Amy Adams’ best work -- she kind of looks like her, but also has the same kind of technique of subtly letting the inner struggles bubble to the surface). The first 45 minutes or so moves briskly, stopping occasionally for small, powerful moments of interaction and introspection. Each character is introduced with verve unique to who they are. It had me caring deeply about them very quickly, despite not ever wanting to actually meet them in real life (except for Agnes. She seems chill).

My enthusiasm began to shift slightly in the second half. The filmmaking and editorial flourishes slow down as the story gets heavier. The moments of levity get less frequent. For a brief time after this drop, I’d wondered if maybe the energy of the first half had convinced me I was more invested than I was. It becomes a bit more (kill me) writerly. In its final stretch, however, Trier lets the characters take back the story and his ideas about family, home, and art become more simple and profound.

I could probably write a lot more about this, but I’m curious about this one’s rewatchability in comparison to Worst Person, as the subject matter is a bit more heady and difficult, maybe less universal. But who am I to say? I am not the Universe.

Sirât
(dir, Oliver Laxe)

To put this as eloquently as I can, Oliver Laxe’s Sirât put me in a weird-ass mood, man. It is a stressful, unpredictable bummer. It keeps entering and re-entering my brain. I’m not even sure if I like it all that much, but it’s staying with me. For this one, I will tell you only what I knew going in: a man goes looking for his missing daughter at a rave in the desert. I will also say that about halfway through, it becomes something totally different and what I thought this thing was going to be is in the rearview mirror of my nomad-Euro-hippy van (a reference to the film).

At this shift (in tone AND plot), I was at first thinking “ok, fuck off,” but there’s been a retrospective joy in discovering my naivetee just as the characters do. For me and them, the warning signs were all there: “Total Bummer Ahead; Manage Your Expectations Accordingly!” but I ignored them and just thought “I am worried for this man, but this is kind of fun -- let’s dance!” and then the movie punched me in the face. Impressively, it managed to trick me a couple more times into thinking I knew where it was headed...and then it kept punching me in the face.

Maddie’s Secret
(dir. John Early)

I’ve been finding it difficult to find a way to talk about this one. It may be an indicator that I have work to do on myself as a critic when it’s so difficult for me to express my dislike for something when so many people seem to love it. This is the directorial debut of popular alt-comedian John Early, in which he plays the titular Maddie, an aspiring chef who zooms to viral fame while keeping a painful secret from the people around her.

John Early brought out a big crowd of comedy fans to its world premiere. Among them were many of my friends and fellow stand-up comedians who I huddled with after the screening. All of them loved it and I was feeling very bummed about how disconnected I was from them and the entire audience -- the laughter was quite frequent in the room. I really want to like a movie like this: a movie (not a TV show) committed to being totally silly and full of funny people you recognize (likely from TV shows). It also has a subject matter that feels personal and is treated with a gentle touch. I just never got on it’s level. I like John Early and I laughed more at his speech to introduce it than I did at the movie. Its tone seems to be rooted in a parody of something I’m just not too familiar with, which I think is Lifetime TV movies about serious issues. There’s also a lot of exploration into the world of online test-kitchen content, which I also am quite disconnected from. If you pick through this, I think there could be a web series I could partially enjoy, or, I hate to say it, even just a sketch. There’s a dance sequence in the middle that is quite breathtaking.

A big issue I had with this movie’s comedy is that it relied very heavily on its actors’ established schticks rather than jokes. I like a lot of these actors, but it's not enough for me to just see them doing their thing. Funny line readings don't make a movie funny if that’s all there is. So, despite my issues with it, I would never say that the audience I was with (including my friends) were wrong to enjoy it. I think if you are a diehard fan of John Early’s work, this will probably work for you and goddamnit I want it to! I want to be wrong.

Mile End Kicks
(dir. Chandler Levack)

If you were (or are) an art-obsessed romantic and you're running out of money in your early twenties, prepare to feel seen and a little attacked by Mile End Kicks, directed by Chandler Levack. It’s her follow-up to I Like Movies, a movie I’m sure many readers of F This Movie felt seen by as well. That one was about the universal experience about being weird and rude as a teenager and the pain of finding out you can't always get what you want. This new one is about how everyone kinda sucks a bit in their twenties, especially in that stage where you desperately want to be independent but are waiting for external help but are afraid to ask, or worse, expecting it from people who only have interest in themselves (understandably!). As in I Like Movies, the protagonist is portrayed with deep empathy and you’re constantly rooting for them to figure it out, despite their frustrating qualities.

It stars Barbie Ferreira (from a certain TV show) as Grace, a young music critic who moves to Montreal for a summer to focus on writing a book. People who live driving distance from Montreal kind of know that’s not a great place to go to focus. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great place to go. Grace finds that out and is immediately distracted by the nightlife, the music, and the hot guys. Not to get too crass, but I know from experience that Montreal has the highest percentage of hot people of any city I’ve been to. It’s very intimidating and, yes, distracting. Another thing this movie gets right about Montreal is its disdain for Toronto. They hate us there.

I often have little patience for coming-of-age movies, because I feel there’s so many cliches and well-trod territory to get stuck in, but Chandler Levack has avoided all these by presenting authentic characters in personal yet universal stories. This one also really sticks the landing as a romantic comedy, as its ending circles back to an oddball connection you had forgotten you were rooting for. I really loved this and I think it could be a total classic that people will keep coming back to over the years.

Nirvana The Band The Show The Movie
(dir. Matt Johnson)

This is the best movie I’ve seen so far this week. This is the hardest I’ve laughed in a movie since I saw Friendship at last year’s festival. It’s the best Toronto-based movie I’ve ever seen. You don’t have to be a fan of the cult TV show to get into this. You don’t have to be from Toronto. You just gotta be ready for a beautifully dumb ride into the past, future, and up the CN Tower. It’s the type of movie where you think, “how the fuck did they actually shoot this?” It’s impressive that anyone even thought of some of the stuff, let alone that they actually made it. I had watched a couple episodes of the show, but I only really knew Matt Johnson’s work from The Dirties (which I saw years and years ago) and, most recently, Blackberry (and also I know him as a guy I always see walking in my neighbourhood; I think we might be neighbours). All I really knew about the show is that it was about two guys (Johnson and Jay McCaroll) who are in a band and they really want to play a show at the iconic Toronto venue The Rivoli. That’s also what this movie is about, but it also mixes in a Sci-Fi, time-travel premise and some wild stunts. I saw it at midnight on Thursday and the theatre was rumbling with laughter. There won’t be a screening I go to as fun as that was. Not to alienate anyone in any other place, but this thing is so jaw-droppingly Toronto-set (a rare thing already) that I don’t think it will ever play as well as it does here (but to be clear it will absolutely play well anywhere). It’s just very special to have something like this for us.

Good News
(dir. Byun Sung hyun)

It’s always a little weird seeing the Netflix fanfare on a big screen. I’ll be honest, it makes me squirm a bit. I just feel like I’m about to watch a true crime doc or a bad, too-long TV show. Good News is neither of those, but it definitely is too long. There’s a great 90 minute movie in it’s 136 minutes. It’s a thriller-satire about a plane hijacking in 1970 of a Japanese airline and a series of plans hatched by Japanese, US, and South Korean (who are the main players here) government officials to get the hostages to safety. At its height (plane joke), it’s as fast-based and biting as Armando Iannucci with its spineless bureaucrats and adults in serious situations bickering like children. At its lowest altitude (plane joke again, bit sweatier), it’s just kind of boring. It circles for a long while before landing (ok that one’s a bit better, and honestly yes it works with what I’m talking about. I’m right. This movie takes way too long to end). I did enjoy a lot of it, but I got quite impatient.

The Lost Bus
(dir. Paul Greengrass)

I don’t have much to say here. Matthew McConaughey plays a bus driver trying to get a bunch of kids to safety during a devastating forest fire. America Ferrara is a teacher on the bus with him. Paul Greengrass directs with the same style he’s had for all his true-story movies where he puts us right in the action, stresses us out. That kind of thing. I was into it, but it left my brain shortly after. Jamie Lee Curtis produced it and said during the Q&A that it was the most important movie she ever made. Cool, I suppose, but I feel she speaks in hyperbole a lot -- it's hard to believe these statements sometimes. I also think Terror Train is more important than this, for me at least. There was a security guard standing at the top of the stairs during the screening. After it was over, I asked if he’d watched the whole thing and he said “Ya”. He liked it, it seemed. He also asked me if that was the actor who played Batman. He was mistaken, but I suppose Christian Bale and McConaughey are kind of similar.

No Other Choice
(dir. Park Chan Wook)

I am extremely tired at the time of writing this. It's only day two. I wish I was writing about this movie at a time where I wasn’t so tired, because it’s a special and complicated movie, one I enjoyed greatly. It was my first movie today so my brain wasn’t clogged from previous screenings in the day, and I’d even given myself some extra sleep after the midnight screening last night, but I have to admit, I was tired when I saw the damn thing! That’s a downside to this wonderful yearly routine: you see so many movies when you are tired! It’s kind of like being tired at your own birthday party (I don’t know kind of -- I don’t know if this works as a metaphor -- I’m tired). I’m going to try and write something, but maybe I’ll try and be brief (yeah, sure dude).

Park Chan Wook is a favourite director of mine. I got into him very early when I was shaping my cinematic tastes and it’s been a joy watching him shift and bend his techniques over the years. Each of his movies speaks to each other, but I love that it always seems that he’s trying to do something a little different than the last time. It’s difficult for me to even pinpoint what makes each movie different, as he definitely has a genre, but he is always digging for a new way to tell a story. Maybe it is in tone. For example, No Other Choice and his most recent movie, Decision to Leave, could seem similar on paper, but are very different viewing experiences. Decision to Leave had a lot of its story told in subtext -- in the way its characters looked at each other -- an exercise in subtlety that makes the viewer a detective. In No Other Choice, it’s all out in the open. It's violent, vibrant, and wacky. This may be his funniest movie. It’s also extremely sharp about the times we live in. It stars Lee Byung-hun (performance of the festival for me so far) as Yoo Man-soo, a family man who is forced to warp his morality as things begin to fall apart after being ruthlessly laid off by a paper company. Yoo Man-soo is clumsy, emotional, and, every once in a while, very clever. In one scene, you think he is a mastermind. In another, you are yelling “you fuckin’ idiot!” It’s a total joy to keep up with him. Even when he’s doing awful things, you kind of root for him because he’s a guy who has been fucked by the system. The job market is a random and unforgiving wasteland these days, with shrewd capitalists turning people into numbers and A.I making workers obsolete.

This is classic Park Chan Wook, with beautiful scene transitions, impeccable blocking, monologues that leave you panting, but also stands out as something new, something now. It’s great seeing a modern master actually making something contemporary. Someone asked me right after where it ranks in my Park Chan Wook standings and what I should have said was “don’t ask me that kind of shit as I’m walking out of the movie, man -- of course I don’t have an answer to that -- give me five years,” but what I actually said was “I have to piss; I’ll catch up with you after,” and then I did not catch up with him after.