Stay Through the Credits

Our twenty first film at Toronto tells the wild true story of how Sylvester Stallone refused every payout Hollywood offered him just to star in his own script. We talk about Anthony Ippolito's uncanny transformation into Stallone, the scrappy low budget decisions that accidentally made Rocky a classic, and why this story of stubborn self belief hits just as hard as the movie it's about.

Our twentieth film at Toronto is Lauren Miller Rogen's personal, funny take on the constant pressure to have children, starring real life husband Seth Rogen alongside Anna Kendrick. We talk about their effortless onscreen chemistry, how the film balances celebrating parenthood with celebrating the childfree life, and why one particular voiceover line feels like years of unwanted interview questions finally getting answered.

Our nineteenth film at Toronto took a kidnapped surgeon premise and turned it into one of the most purely entertaining watches of the festival. We talk about Michelle Yeoh delivering a masterclass in calm, calculated menace, the film's wild visual trick of showing anatomy beneath the skin during fight scenes, and why this genre blending thriller feels destined for cult classic status.

Our eighteenth film at Toronto is a blistering, funny, and genuinely moving look at the entertainment industry through the eyes of a fading television star. We talk about Rosalind Eleazar's phenomenal lead performance, why Chris Rock's return to directing after over a decade feels like such a major event, and how the film manages to indict Hollywood's rot without ever letting its complicated heroine off the hook.

Our seventeenth film at Toronto blends family drama with dark comedy and action in one of the stranger genre mashups we've seen at the festival. We talk about Mahershala Ali's quietly devastating performance as a widowed contract killer trying to hold his family together, the film's wild gallery of side characters exploring faith, guns and money in modern America, and why its most powerful moments have almost nothing to do with violence at all.

We're recording this one from TIFF, but before we dive into what Toronto has in store, we're closing the book on Venice - our full ranking of all thirty-one films from the Lido. The Golden Lion surprise, the Malkovich performance we can't stop talking about, and the ones that looked gorgeous and said nothing. Venice, settled - then it's on to Toronto.

Our sixteenth film at Toronto takes us to rural Missouri for a family dramedy about grief, hoarding, and going home to a place you swore you'd never return to. We talk about Caleb Hearon's promising screenwriting debut, why Zooey Deschanel steals nearly every scene she's in, and how the film manages to avoid easy small town stereotypes while still keeping things funny and familiar.

Our fifteenth film at Toronto flips the script on dating app culture with a curse that turns a serial womanizer into everyone's unwilling obsession. We talk about Taron Egerton's fully committed performance, why the film's cleverest idea about performative modern masculinity never gets the follow through it deserves, and how its final twist tries to let itself off the hook the same way its protagonist always does.

Our fourteenth film at Toronto gave us a math prodigy love story that looks great on paper but struggles to actually connect emotionally. We talk about why Chase Infiniti's talent gets buried under a character we're only ever told about, how one scene with Jason Isaacs and Gillian Anderson accidentally becomes the best part of the whole movie, and why so many small details in this story just don't add up.

Our thirteenth film at Toronto is Andrew Haigh's slow burning family drama set on an isolated 1950s mountain farm, and it completely earns every ounce of its patience. We talk about the film's stunning use of landscape as storytelling, Caitríona Balfe's devastating performance as a mother unraveling in plain sight, and how the film handles a young man's quiet queer awakening with a tenderness we didn't expect from a story this remote and rugged.