Frontmezzjunkies reports: My TIFF50 Schedule – My Gala Openings (5of28)
By Ross
As a proud theatre critic lucky enough to receive a press pass invite to TIFF50, I couldn’t be more excited to dive into a few of the official Gala Presentations—part of the spectacular 2025 Official Selection lineup that includes 291 films, 28 of which I hope to see in total. I’ll be soaking it all up during the exciting Toronto International Film Festival. These screenings are just a few of the festival’s glittering crown jewels, featuring some of the most buzzworthy and talked-about titles of the year. From star-studded premieres to groundbreaking new voices, I’m ready to be transported, challenged, and inspired by the magic of cinema on a grand scale. Stay tuned, because I’ll be sharing all the highlights, surprises, and must-see moments from this cinematic celebration—an event that promises to be nothing short of unforgettable.
Ever so luckily, I’ve been granted a press pass to TIFF50, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. I’ll be diving into over 28 films over ten jam-packed days, but I’m most eager to share a sneak peek of the ones I’ll be checking out during their Gala Presentations—each promising a rollercoaster of emotion, wit, and bold storytelling. From hilarious teen mishaps to heartfelt ecological love stories, these films have already got me salivating for what promises to be one of the most exciting festivals yet.
John Candy: I Like Me
Colin Hanks
WORLD PREMIERE
United States of America | 2025 | 113m | English
Featuring candid testimonies from John Candy’s friends and family — including Steve Martin, Tom Hanks, Catherine O’Hara, and more — Colin Hanks’ wildly entertaining documentary celebrates one of the most beloved comedic actors of our time.
Among the most beloved comedic actors in the history of film and television, John Candy was one of a kind. This inspiring, wildly entertaining documentary from director Colin Hanks celebrates Candy’s life and work through brilliantly curated archival materials and heartfelt testimonies from those who had the privilege to be part of the great man’s world.
John Candy: I Like Me begins and ends with eulogies, one from his The Great Outdoors co-star Dan Aykroyd, the other from Candy’s SCTV teammate and fellow Torontonian Catherine O’Hara. Between these touching tributes are candid interviews with the likes of Steve Martin, Tom Hanks, Martin Short, Eugene Levy, and Macaulay Culkin, who still remembers how kind Candy was to him as a child actor during production on Uncle Buck. It’s a delight to revisit Candy’s endlessly hilarious body of work, from the ingenious array of characters he created for SCTV to his big-screen roles in Splash, Spaceballs, Home Alone, and Planes, Trains and Automobiles — the John Hughes film from which I Like Me takes its title.
Hanks’ buoyant portrait pays tribute to Candy’s genius as a thespian, improvisor, and creator, taking care to highlight the tenderness and depth found in quieter performances. Through insight from Candy’s family members, I Like Me also draws attention to fatphobia and anxiety disorder, issues that shadowed Candy’s life and career. Candy died three decades ago, but his legacy endures in the hearts and funny bones of millions. I Like Me is a worthy tribute that will provoke tears of joy, loss, and blissful laughter.
Two Pianos
Deux Pianos
Arnaud Desplechin
WORLD PREMIERE
France | 2025 | 115m | French
Featuring François Civil and Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling, the latest from Arnaud Desplechin (Kings and Queen) is an alluring mystery in which music, memory, and identity merge and threaten to overwhelm the tender psyche of a virtuosic pianist.
Featuring François Civil (Mon Inconnue), Nadia Tereszkiewicz (Rosalie), and Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling, the latest from prolific French filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin — last at the Festival in 2008 with A Christmas Tale — is an alluring mystery in which music, memory, and identity merge and threaten to overwhelm the tender psyche of a virtuosic pianist.
Following an extended, self-imposed exile in Asia, Mathias Vogler (Civil) travels to his hometown of Lyon, where his childhood mentor Elena (Rampling) convinces him to collaborate on a series of concerts at the city’s historic auditorium. This long-delayed return and its accompanying reunion should be a cause for celebration, but Mathias’ life is about to take an uncanny turn: in a park, he encounters a boy who seems to be his doppelgänger. This strange child leads Mathias to Claude (Tereszkiewicz), a woman he once passionately loved — and whose reappearance threatens to destabilize Mathias’ already-fragile mental state.
Written by Desplechin and Kamen Velkovsky, Two Pianos is a tale rich with intrigue, in which past and present blur and doubles spring forth and accumulate. Working with Oscar-nominated cinematographer Paul Guilhaume (TIFF ’24’s Emilia Pérez), Desplechin makes beguiling use of the ancient streets of Vieux Lyon, cultivating an air of eeriness and mischief, drawing upon myriad stories of doubles from cinema and literature while pushing into new frontier.
Adulthood
Alex Winter
WORLD PREMIERE
United States of America | 2025 | 97m | English
Family ties are pushed to the limit in this devilishly comic neo-noir from actor-director Alex Winter. Starring Kaya Scodelario (The Maze Runner) and Josh Gad (Frozen), Adulthood follows a pair of grown-up siblings forced to cover their tracks after making a grisly discovery.
Friday, September 12: This film will be presented with open captions. Live captions will be provided for the live onstage components.
Saturday, September 13: This film will be presented with open captions, but please note, ASL interpretation will not be available for the live onstage elements of the screening.
Family ties are pushed to the limit in this devilishly comic neo-noir from actor-director Alex Winter. Starring Kaya Scodelario (The Maze Runner) and Josh Gad (Frozen), Adulthood follows a pair of adult siblings forced to cover their tracks after making a grisly discovery.
When their already ailing mother is hospitalized following a stroke, Meg (Scodelario) and Noah (Gad) decide it’s time to go through the decades’ worth of stuff that has amassed in their childhood home. That’s when they find something shocking behind the basement wall. With their mother incapacitated and their father having long since passed, Meg and Noah don’t know quite how it got there, but they know they need to make it disappear. Thus begins a bizarre, hilarious, twist-laden campaign to keep the past buried, one that involves a resentful nurse, an annoyingly inquisitive detective, and a long-estranged weird cousin with a predilection for swords.
From his legendary role in the Bill & Ted films to his prolific career helming documentaries such as Zappa, Winter has proven himself a versatile talent with a knack for sly, irreverent — not to mention gruesomely entertaining — stories. Adulthood, written by Michael M.B. Galvin, is as irreverent as they come. Meg and Noah never wanted any trouble, but one misguided deed has a way of prompting another, until there’s blood on everyone’s hands.
Driver’s Ed
Bobby Farrelly
WORLD PREMIERE
United States of America | 2025 | 98m | English
Bobby Farrelly’s charming Driver’s Ed follows a high school senior (Sam Nivola from The White Lotus) who hits the road to save his relationship with his college-bound girlfriend, with his principal (Molly Shannon) and driving instructor (Kumail Nanjiani) in hot pursuit.
High school senior Jeremy (Sam Nivola, The White Lotus) and his college freshman girlfriend Samantha (Lilah Pate) are committed to a long-distance relationship. After all, it’s not that far between their home and Chapel Hill, North Carolina where she’s attending school. But the separation is wearing on Jeremy.
It’s embarrassing enough that he’s obviously lovelorn — and that the high school principal (Molly Shannon) hassles him for sexting in class. But when a drunken call from Samantha — during a frat party no less — makes him doubt where they stand, Jeremy decides to take matters into his own hands. He steals the driver’s ed car from his school and hits the road. He’s accompanied by a decidedly motley crew: weary drug dealer/stoner Yoshi (Aidan Laprete); prudish valedictorian Aparna (Mohana Krishan); and loner Dakota (Ella Stiller). Plus his principal and driving instructor (Kumail Nanjiani) are in hot pursuit.
Directed by Bobby Farrelly (There’s Something About Mary, among countless other hits) and written by actor/writer Thomas Moffett, Driver’s Ed is a charming and lively romantic comedy about what happens to young love when it runs smack into different realities, new opportunities, and the fact that absence does not necessarily make the heart grow fonder.
Propelled by a talented young cast playing memorable characters, Driver’s Ed is a genial reminder that heartbreak and loneliness are powerful no matter where you are on the road of life.
Peak Everything
Amour Apocalypse
Anne Émond
TORONTO PREMIERE
Canada | 2025 | 100m | French, English
Featuring the winsome pairing of Patrick Hivon (TIFF ’17’s Les affamés) and Piper Perabo (Coyote Ugly), this inventive rom-com from Anne Émond (TIFF ’11’s Night #1) suggests that there’s no better time to open your heart than when the world seems on the cusp of collapse.
Writer-director Anne Émond (Night #1, TIFF ’11) has reinvented the romantic comedy for the age of ecological anxiety. Winsomely pairing Patrick Hivon (TIFF ’17’s Les affamés) and Piper Perabo (Coyote Ugly), Peak Everything suggests that there is no better time to open your heart than when the world seems on the cusp of collapse.
Despite his regimen of exercise and antidepressants, Adam (Hivon), proprietor of a Quebec kennel, cannot help but despair over the ever-escalating climate catastrophe. One night, while feeling especially hopeless, he calls the tech support line for his newly acquired therapeutic desk lamp, believing it to be a crisis help line. He gets lucky: on the other end is Tina (Perabo), who’s relieved to talk about something more meaningful than assembly instructions.
The pair connect over their shared existential worries and, when an earthquake rocks Tina’s Ontario town, Adam takes the opportunity to drive there and help this woman he’s never seen. Environmental dread brought these two together on the phone, so it’s only fitting that a natural disaster prompts them to meet. This sets the couple off on a path of romance and adventure.
Peak Everything is a wild ride, populated by conspiracy-theorizing drug dealers and comically entitled Gen Zers, and offering Adam numerous opportunities to confirm his worst fears about the state of the planet. But at the core of this over-the-top love story are eternal questions about how best to use our time on this Earth, how to truly care for each other — and how to accept ourselves as we are.
And when the tickets go on sale later this month, I’m gunning for the following movies that I won’t be able to schedule into my press screening schedule (which I’ll share over the next few days).
Blue Moon
Richard Linklater
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
United States of America, Ireland | 2025 | 100m | English
Ethan Hawke delivers a charming, lived-in performance as lyricist Lorenz Hart, holding court at Sardi’s on the historic night of his former collaborator Richard Rodgers’ (Andrew Scott) greatest triumph: the premiere of Oklahoma!
In Blue Moon, director Richard Linklater (Hit Man, TIFF ’23, and at this year’s Festival with Nouvelle Vague) crafts a riveting chamber piece set in real time at Sardi’s on the historic night in 1943 of Richard Rodgers’ (Andrew Scott) greatest triumph: the premiere of Oklahoma! Ethan Hawke (also at the Festival in The Lowdown) delivers a charming, lived-in performance as Rodgers’ former collaborator, lyricist Lorenz Hart, an alcoholic and marginally closeted raconteur grappling with the fact that Rodgers’ biggest success now belongs to a new partnership with Oscar Hammerstein.
As flowers and accolades pour into the restaurant, heralding a new era of American musicals, Hart holds court at the bar, regaling a plainspoken bartender (Bobby Cannavale) and a young, aspiring composer and military officer with stories. His current fixation is a 20-year-old Yale student, Elizabeth Weiland (Margaret Qualley), whom he reveres with a fervour that drifts between romantic longing and aesthetic worship.
Among the guests is essayist E. B. White (Patrick Kennedy), perched in a corner, making his presence known to offer le mot juste — “ineffable” — during one of Hart’s rhapsodic monologues about Elizabeth. The film imagines White, the author of Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little, drawing creative inspiration from Hart as he contemplates a shift into children’s literature.
Hart and Rodgers affectionately spar throughout the night, working through the regrets in their partnership and promising to start anew. Ultimately, through Hart’s reflections on love, art, and legacy, the film becomes a bittersweet elegy for his overshadowed place in musical history — a graceful tribute to the man behind Pal Joey, A Connecticut Yankee, “My Funny Valentine,” and the titular “Blue Moon.”
A Private Life
Vie privée
Rebecca Zlotowski
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
France | 2025 | 103m | English, French
Oscar winner Jodie Foster stars in this slyly comic psychological thriller from director Rebecca Zlotowski (TIFF ’22’s Other People’s Children), in which a suspicious death yields a series of twists that lead back to old grievances — and maybe even to past lives.
Academy Award winner Jodie Foster stars in this scintillating, slyly comic psychological thriller from French director Rebecca Zlotowski (TIFF ’22’s Other People’s Children), in which a suspicious death yields a series of twists that lead back to old grievances — and maybe even to past lives.
Lilian (Foster), an American psychoanalyst in Paris, is devastated to learn that her client Paula (Virginie Efira) has taken her own life. Or has she? Visits from Paula’s furious widower Simon (Mathieu Amalric) and taciturn daughter Valérie (Luàna Bajrami), along with the discovery that files have been stolen from Lilian’s office, suggest that Paula may have fallen victim to foul play.
Assisted by her ex-husband Gabriel (Daniel Auteuil), Lilian undertakes some amateur sleuthing. Her initial investigations prompt more questions than answers until a session with a hypnotherapist causes Lilian to wonder whether her relationship with Paula began in a previous incarnation.
Written by Zlotowski with Anne Berest (Mythomaniac) and Gaëlle Macé (TIFF ’24’s Little Jaffna), A Private Life deftly rides the delicate line between intrigue and zaniness. Perfectly paced and loaded with diverting supporting turns — including a cameo by legendary documentarian Frederick Wiseman — the film is partly a whodunnit and partly a story of revisited relationships, with a French-speaking Foster and Auteuil delivering effortlessly charismatic performances as long-time exes whose teamwork creates the film’s other big mystery: why did these two ever break up?
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Rian Johnson
WORLD PREMIERE
United States of America | 2025 | 140m | English
Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) faces his most dangerous mystery yet in the latest entry in Rian Johnson’s beloved Knives Out series.
Sunday, September 7: This screening will be presented with open captions. Live captioning will be provided for the live onstage components.
In 2019, Oscar nominated writer-director Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig revitalized the British drawing room murder mystery with the gleeful, star-laden Knives Out, creating their own version of Agatha Christie’s unflappable detective Hercule Poirot with Craig’s brilliant Southerner, Benoit Blanc. The follow-up, Glass Onion (TIFF ’22), focused on a tech-bro billionaire, ratcheting up the humour and evoking Herbert Ross’ cult classic The Last of Sheila. (It also threw in the added fun of seeing obscenely rich people’s gaudiest stuff get trashed.) Wake Up Dead Man shifts gears again with a relatively sombre look into the tensions between faith and logic.
This time, Johnson riffs on the dark, gothic elements of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue — a seemingly impossible locked-room scenario involving a corpse — while still incorporating many of the series’ signature elements. Set in a small town and focusing on its local church, Wake Up Dead Man is packed with stars, including Josh O’Connor as a the younger cleric to Josh Brolin’s autocratic, abrasive priest, Glenn Close as his right-hand person, plus Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Jeremy Renner (whose likeness had a memorable appearance in Glass Onion), and Mila Kunis as a local cop who is as determined as Blanc to solve this seemingly insoluble case. And there’s a murder that presents itself as an impossible crime. All that and Craig delivers perhaps his best Blanc yet.
The latest entry in one of the most successful mystery series in recent film history is as strong, inventive, and entertaining as ever.
So stay tuned and tuned in to the Toronto International Film Festival. And check out the schedule by clicking here.
