We are officially at the halfway mark of TIFF, and boy are my eyes tired. Staying up at all hours, staring at screens all day is not, in fact, the form of self-care that works for me. But I endure, all to bring you readers all the highlights from on the ground. To borrow a phrase from AEW’s MJF:
But I digress.
I started out the day with Jan Komasa’s Good Boy (not that one). This thriller/drama, led by Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough, and Anson Boon would have made a compelling double feature with The Man in My Basement as films with the theme of subverting the captor/captive relationship. In this one, Graham and Riseborough play Chris and Kathryn, who kidnap teenage troublemaker Tommy (Boon) with the intent of forcing him to reform into – you guessed it – a ‘good boy.’ Theirs is a meticulously planned and elaborate scheme which goes much further than simply chaining Tommy in the basement, though that’s definitely how it starts. It’s such an interesting twist on what you’d think would be a pretty predictable formula, and the performances are all stellar – in particular from Boon and Graham. This is one of my favourite TIFF 2025 selections so far.
My pal Karen Shute also attended Exit 8 which I spoke a bit about on Day One, and had some thoughts on Genki Kawamura’s adaptation of the video game:
The rules of the game are straightforward:
Don’t overlook any anomalies.
If you find anomalies, turn around immediately.
I’m always interested to see how a filmmaker chooses to adapt a video game into a movie. For a simple game like The Exit 8, how do you get the audience to connect with the story so that they aren’t just watching a loop for 95 minutes? The film immediately accomplishes this by presenting us with a situation that feels familiar to anyone who takes public transit. A young man on a subway sees someone viciously berate a young mother whose baby will not stop crying. Rather than step in to the woman’s defense he pops his earbuds back in to drown out the noise. His inaction weighs heavily on his mind throughout the film and also caused me to reflect on what I may have done (or not done) in a similar situation. Most of us spend our days doing the same routine, like taking the subway to work, and nothing out of the ordinary happens. But every once in a while we face an anomaly that offers us a chance to act in a way that aligns with our values, and we don’t take it. Unfortunately life isn’t a video game, and we don’t get to go back to zero and start over, so the next time you spot an anomaly as you’re going about your day, don’t just keep walking. Turn back.
Karen Shute
Being a massive fan of Raoul Peck’s documentaries, in particular his I Am Not Your Negro, it was an easy pick to attend Peck’s profile of George Orwell’s ‘1984’ in Orwell 2+2=5. Peck was given unprecedented access to Orwell’s archives and previously-unreleased writings and uses the author’s words, narrated by Damian Lewis, to explore the climate in which he lived and crafted his influential texts (‘1984’, ‘Brave New World’, and ‘Animal Farm’ get special attention, as you’d expect) in order to inform the world of misinformation and general dystopia that we’re currently experiencing. Said Orwell, “I knew that I had a facility with words and a power of facing unpleasant facts,” and there’s a reason why his work is so chillingly prescient and relevant to today.
As compelling as the presentation and the depth of Orwell’s writing is, and how well Peck connects it to current events, I didn’t find Orwell to be quite as incisive as I Am Not Your Negro. I think that juxtaposing images of Trump and footage of armed conflict around the world with Orwell’s ‘Ignorance is Strength’, ‘Freedom is Slavery’, and ‘War is Peace’ statements makes a lot of sense, but isn’t exactly new if you’re at all plugged into political commentary or people like Jon Stewart and John Oliver. Still, there’s a lot here to recommend and 2+2=5 works as a beautiful tribute to Orwell’s life and legacy.
I capped off the day with one of my most-anticipated screenings of the Festival, Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, starring the saviour of both the WWE’s last three or so Wrestlemanias and the DC Cinematic Universe, Dwayne Johnson. In this biopic of MMA pioneer Mark Kerr, Johnson seems to unlock a new vulnerability in his performance, showing a lot of growth as an actor with a softer treatment than his previous action roles have had, while also undergoing a remarkable physical transformation for this role that actually required him to gain weight, if you can believe it. In general, Safdie retains a documentary quality in the film, maintaining a carefully observed feel to the true life events at their most brutal but also with a kind of tenderness that you might not expect. Fights are presented with a jazz score, showing their unique improvised artistic quality over simple aggression and intensity.
Backing up Johnson is a pretty stellar cast of current and former MMA stars including Bas Rutten as himself. Ryan Bader is a wonderful surprise and his role as Kerr’s good friend and fellow fighter Mark Coleman is far meatier than I would expect. He punches far above his weight as a newcomer and I really hope to see him in future projects. Emily Blunt is terrific as always and brings a layered portrayal to the role of Dawn, Kerr’s devoted wife who has to manage a home life with the sort of physical presence of a heavyweight fighter who’s dealing with addiction and the new-to-him possibility of losing fights.
Today’s photo dump features some photos and vids from the premieres of Orwell and The Smashing Machine!
Raoul Peck and producer Alex Gibney for Orwell 2+2=5:
Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, and the rest of the cast of The Smashing Machine including director Benny Safdie and the inspiration for the film, Mark Kerr:
The 50th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 4-14, 2025. Ticket and lineup information can be found at the TIFF website, and stay tuned to Biff Bam Pop for our coverage all week!
