The worst part about horror-thriller arrival is that it’s neither scary, or provides edge-of-your-seat entertainment. It’s a grotesque, bloody affair with no method to its unwieldy, messy madness. It’s an absolute drag to watch thespian Angus Macfadyen, who I really adore, trudge his way through this cardboard cutout mad scientist role, and he pushes and…

Director Aisling Chin-Yee’s last feature at the festival — The Rest Of Us — rocked me and I had no idea what I was in for. While I knew the beats of this intricate look at the life of American Jazz musician Billy Tipton, I wasn’t prepared for the emotional resonance that would come with…

I’m going to be honest with you, folks: Black Bear is the type of movie where the less you know going in, the better. Don’t bother with stills, trailers or reviews. Just go in blind, and become completely absorbed in this masterful work for two hours. Black Bear is an incredible, tumultuous, intensely meta film…

This incredible film about one man’s journey to land asylum in Europe or Canada is absolutely essential viewing. The documentary subject and director — Ahmad Ebrahimi — teams up with writer, producer and co-director Jawad Mir to make this intense exploration. Mir has been a Canadian force to watch since he dropped his Only 78,…

When writer-director Heigl Piccinin began shooting footage of his brother Stéphane, I doubt he imagined his home videos would become festival fare. But the love and dutiful care with which he chronicles Stéphane and his atypical friend Audrey Vincent’s accomplishments in track-and-field merits a curiosity watch at the very least. Champions is a feel-good, interesting…

There’s nothing better than the truth — this is especially true of films, and biopics done right are always a treat. While director Marjane Satrapi’s foray into Madame Marie Curie’s incredible story may be uneven, it’s also wholly engrossing and worth the wade in. Radioactive is a timeline-turning film showing the early days of pioneer…

There’s are few actors in this world who can seamlessly move from scaring the hell out of us to making us laugh hysterically, but Christopher Walken is just that kind of formidable thespian. Whether he’s running around as an off-kilter time traveler in Click, dancing to Fatboy Slim, crowned the King Of New York or…

This meditation on love, life, family and going out of this world on one’s own terms is one of the most wholly mesmerizing, beautiful pieces of film to come in this strange year. A remake of the 2014 Danish film Silent Heart, it arranges an incredible cast as a family gathering around a terminally ill…

This Canadian drama written and directed by Pasacal Plante is masterful in its approach to showing an Olympic athlete grappling with retirement. Nadia (Katerine Savard) is young and at the top her game, but she decides this will be the last Olympic Games she swims in. No one seems to understand why she’s finished, and…

It’s been a really, really long-time since a good-natured romantic comedy that didn’t revolve around getting laid or tricking someone into loving you hit theatres. But with The Broken Hearts Gallery, writer-director Natalie Krinsky has created a genre film worth shouting from the rooftops about. From helping write Gossip Girl to Grey’s Anatomy, Krinsky is…