Our screenings take place at 162 Mackenzie St. (unless otherwise noted.)
A captivating and sharply directed, written, and acted courtroom procedural, Anatomy of a Fall also functions like a trenchant autopsy of confirmation bias and ambiguity itself, with the court an operatic arena in which every gesture, word, and past interaction are ripe for judgment. As scrutiny turns to Sandra’s complex character and her tumultuous relationship with Samuel — their artistic rivalries, romantic jealousies, and contempt — the couple’s young son becomes the key witness. Taut, suspenseful, and thrilling until the final moment, Anatomy of a Fall progresses like a heady puzzle that tackles the messiness of existence and the often-elusive nature of truth itself.
Beautifully bittersweet, The Holdovers marks a satisfying return to form for director Alexander Payne. The Holdovers follows a curmudgeonly instructor (Paul Giamatti) at a New England prep school who is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Amidst this year’s Oscar contenders for Best Picture, The Holdovers stands out as a feel-good movie amid a sea of misery.
During World War II, Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves Jr. appoints physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer to work on the top-secret Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer and a team of scientists spend years developing and designing the atomic bomb. Their work comes to fruition on July 16, 1945, as they witness the world's first nuclear explosion, forever changing the course of history.
Carla Nowak (Leonie Benesch) is a dedicated, idealistic young teacher in her first job at a German middle school. Her relaxed rapport with her seventh-grade students is put under stress when a series of thefts occur at the school, and a staff investigation leads to accusations and mistrust among outraged parents, opinionated colleagues, and angry students. Caught in the middle of these complex dynamics, Carla tries to mediate—but the more she tries to do everything right, the more desperate her position becomes.
In France 1885, cook Eugénie and her boss Dodin grow fond of one another over 20 years, and their romance gives rise to dishes that impress even the world's most illustrious chefs. However Eugénie has never wanted to marry Dodin. She ends up getting sick. He then decides to cook by himself for the first time for his beloved. The Taste of Things is a loose adaptation of the 1961 novel La Vie et la Passion de Dodin-Bouffrant, Gourmet by Marcel Rouff.
Hirayama works as a toilet cleaner in Tokyo. He seems content with his simple life. He follows a structured everyday life and dedicates his free time to his passion for music and books. Hirayama also has a fondness for trees and photographs them. More of his past is gradually revealed through a series of unexpected encounters.
Based on the Governor General’s Award–winning novel by Kim Thúy, Ru is the story of the arduous journey of a wealthy family fleeing from Vietnam in 1975 after the fall of Saigon, then spending time at a refugee camp in Malaysia, before landing in Quebec. This film adaptation, directed by Charles-Olivier Michaud, tracks the events through the eyes of the daughter of the family, Nguyen An Tinh. She’s trying to make sense of her new French-speaking life while also fully aware of the horrors that she and her family have escaped.
Origin is a 2023 American biographical drama film written and directed by Ava DuVernay. It is based on the life of Isabel Wilkerson, played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, as she writes the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Over the course of the film, Wilkerson travels throughout Germany, India, and the United States to research the caste systems in each country's history.
Judith (Ally Maki) is Japanese Canadian; her husband Steve (Luke Roberts) is white. They’re having some problems communicating with each other, so they’ve found a family retreat on the Pacific coast where kids can hang out while their parents confront one another in group-therapy sessions. But the time together exposes new fractures in the family’s internal dynamic: 11-year-old Stephanie (Nyha Breitkreuz) starts acting out, while six-year-old Emmy (Remy Marthaller) insists she can feel Judith’s recently departed mother watching over them all.
Middle-aged Samet (Deniz Celiloglu) is a quick-witted and quick-to-anger elementary school art teacher–cum–amateur photographer in a traditional village who dreams of a posting in his native Istanbul. He shares lodging with his more attractive and likeable colleague Kenan (Musab Ekici) and spends his nihilistic days developing an inappropriate fixation on 14-year-old teacher’s pet Sevim (played by the scene-stealing Ece Bagci). When a love note written by Sevim is confiscated in a school-wide search, Samet’s rotten-to-the-core fantasies grow. Meanwhile, Sevim, who suspects her teacher of stealing the letter, makes her heightened discomfort with his behaviour known to the school authorities and an investigation is launched. Enter Nuray (Merve Dizdar, TIFF ’22’s Snow and the Bear), a fellow teacher whose past political activism has rendered her disabled, allowing her to choose postings anywhere in the state — just the escape Samet needs. The only problem is that Nuray seems to favour Kenan.
In Hey, Viktor!, actor Cody Lightning, who played the child version of Beach’s character, revisits that beloved film as director, co-writer, and — playing an outsized version of himself — mockumentary lead. Eager to boost his floundering acting career, the fictional Cody looks to cash in on his old childhood role. He wants to make a sequel for Smoke Signals, in which he would star (as “Viktor,” to avoid a potential lawsuit), alongside the original cast. His first move: hijack the film crew which is documenting his intervention.
One day, Bruno and Albert crash a meeting held by a group of activists dedicated to fighting overconsumption. The guys came for free beer, and have zero interest in speeches about climate change or new-agey, energy-boosting hugs… well, maybe they’d like the hugs, especially if they come from the group’s beautiful leader (Merlant), who manages to persuade them to participate in elaborate demonstrations that Bruno hopes will spark a love affair — if he doesn’t get arrested first.