The sounds of war permeate the tent where retired Special Forces officer James Belmont (Brad Pitt) sleeps while on a trip in Alaska. The auditory chaos conveys a gruesome PTSD-induced nightmare. Yet, the one reliving the horrors is not the man, but his canine companion, Odin, a combat German Shepherd with plenty of battle scars of his own. For a short-lived moment, the narrative takes the animal’s perspective, introducing an unexpected element in director David Ayer’s most restrained movie to date, “Heart of the Beast.”

READ MORE: 88 Must-See Movies This Fall: ‘Dune: Part Three,’ ‘Digger,’ ‘Avengers: Doomsday,’ ‘The Adventures Of Cliff Booth’ & More

The rest of the film doesn’t live up to the inventiveness of that scene—last year’s horror outing “Good Boy,” for example, did commit to a dog’s point of view—but a story about a loving bond between a person and their animal friend is inherently disarming.

Continue reading ‘Heart Of The Beast’ Review: Brad Pitt Is A Hyper-Prepared Veteran With An Adorable Canine Co-Star In David Ayer’s Survivalist Drama at The Playlist.

Few things are more delightful in cinema than seeing new pairings of actors who play characters in opposition, and in “A Talent for Murder,” director Anton Corbijn (“Control,” “The American”) has gifted viewers a devilish duo in Helen Mirren and Alden Ehrenreich. The glee is often commensurate with just how different the characters are, and thankfully, Mirren and Ehrenreich make beautifully discordant music out of their characters’ foibles.

Continue reading ‘A Talent For Murder’ Review: Helen Mirren & Alden Ehrenreich Play a Dangerous Literary Game in Anton Corbijn’s Patricia Highsmith Thriller [TIFF] at The Playlist.

“Anchors Aweigh,” the excellent, profoundly absurd, and quietly horrifying film from Matt Barats, asks a critical question: what if the worst, most awkward guy you knew tried to make a Ross McElwee-esque documentary about his otherwise empty life to give it meaning? Even worse, what if he had just enough introspective capacity to recognize his shortcomings, only to lean into them even further, convinced this could somehow turn his life around?

Continue reading ‘Anchors Aweigh’ Review: Matt Barats Turns The Absolute Worst Guy You Know Into One Of TIFF’s Funniest Films [TIFF] at The Playlist.

Given the evidence of “Atonement,” it might surprise readers that Reed Van Dyk is a first-time feature filmmaker, though he was previously Oscar-nominated for the short “DeKalb Elementary.” Not least because “Atonement” is a war film, a character study, and an emotional drama rolled into one, and Van Dyk generally excels at all three, but also because it confronts the War on Terror head-on, the great bogeyman of the aughts that poisoned the world and reshaped modern life.

Continue reading ‘Atonement’ Review: A Powerful War Drama Of Guilt, Forgiveness, And American Accountability [TIFF] at The Playlist.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney,” the fascinating and hilarious new film from filmmaker Matthew Rankin, is not really about Brian Mulroney. Yes, the Canadian politician is very much at the center of this gloriously, pointedly anarchic archival documentary that charts his rise to become Canada’s 18th prime minister and the context in which he rose. However, he’s still also only a small part, a figurehead, of something much bigger that, piece by playful piece, the cheeky yet committed Rankin mines from the country’s political history. 

READ MORE: Toronto International Film Festival 2026 Preview – 30 Must-See Films To Watch

As the film uncovers, across multiple parts spanning decades, the slippery, shape-shifting, and self-serving Mulroney is not someone anyone can truly know.

Continue reading ‘Ladies And Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney’ Review: Matthew Rankin’s Anarchic Archival Doc Turns Canadian Political History Into a Biting Farce [TIFF] at The Playlist.

TORONTO – Somewhat surprisingly, “Diary of a Mad Old Man” is director Wayne Wang‘s first movie since 2019. As with much of the celebrated filmmaker’s work over the past 20 years, it harkens to an artistic, auteur perspective he essentially abandoned to work in the Hollywood studio system for a good decade around the turn of the century. And, in theory, that’s a tantalizing prospect. An adaptation of Jun’ichirō Tanizaki’s classic 1961 novel of the same title, first-time screenwriter Kevin Wyles has done an admirable job of updating the story for contemporary audiences.

Continue reading ‘Diary of A Mad Old Man’ Review: Wayne Wang Attempts To Bring New Life To A Japanese Literary Classic [TIFF] at The Playlist.

Director Joshua Giuliano seems to delight in imbuing—or perhaps unearthing—the horrific and violent sensibilities of beautifully tranquil locations. Whereas most horror films view evil as an outside force that contaminates, a kind of virus that infects the “pure,” Giuliano seems far more concerned with dissecting what’s already there, framing the bloodshed that occurs not as chance but consequence. Take his 2018 short film, “In Sound We Live Forever,” which subversively showed us the aftermath of a slasher attack while we heard what transpired play over it.

Continue reading ‘River’ Review: Jane Levy & Jessica Rothe Battle An Aquatically Apocalyptic Slasher In Joshua Giuliano’s Riveting Debut [TIFF] at The Playlist.

Writer and creator Sharon Horgan has never shied away from the painful, awkward, and hilarious realities of relationships. Between “Pulling” and “Catastrophe,” Horgan has made a career of mining the ugly truths of dating and partnership, with her acidic humor and surface-level abrasiveness often giving way to surprisingly sweet centers. Her latest, the HBO comedy “Youth,” runs parallel to those earlier romance-driven ventures, though its treacly center is harder to come by.

Continue reading ‘Youth’ Review: Sharon Horgan Finds Biting Comedy In The Indignities Of Middle Age at The Playlist.

Far too often these days, people want to crown something a “cult classic” before it has even had a chance to make its way out into the world. Seemingly driven by a desire to place a chaotic, freewheeling, or divisive genre film alongside works that endured despite many initially rejecting them outright, such a legacy can only be evaluated years, if not decades, into the future. With that skepticism in mind, there’s a genuine chance that “Vintage Violence,” the latest madcap, if slightly meandering, feature from writer-director Eugene Kotlyarenko, could eventually find itself in such esteemed company.

Continue reading ‘Vintage Violence’ Review: Cole Sprouse & Kiko Mizuhara Go Through Hell In Eugene Kotlyarenko’s Bloody, Bonkers Heist Romance [TIFF] at The Playlist.

Guy Ritchie has become almost absurdly prolific, particularly on television, where the filmmaker now has multiple variations on the British crime drama operating at once. “MobLand” occupies adjacent territory, but “The Gentlemen” remains the more mischievous of the two: a black comedy about aristocrats, gangsters, weed empires, and the increasingly meaningless distinction between respectable society and organized crime. Season 2 offers plenty more of what worked the first time around, but it also understands that simply repeating the same stylish criminal capers would eventually become diminishing returns.

Continue reading ‘The Gentlemen’ Season 2 Review: Guy Ritchie’s Crime Saga Raises The Stakes Without Losing Its Swagger at The Playlist.

Succession is rarely a graceful rite of passage, particularly when power is involved, and that fraught transfer of authority becomes a combustible force in “MobLand” Season 2. Elders don’t want to relinquish the throne; sons and daughters covet the crown. Before long, palace intrigue takes over: everyone jockeying for position, cutting private deals, nursing grievances, and trying to secure their slice of the kingdom. Meanwhile, everyone inside the palace becomes dangerously blind to the forces gathering outside its walls.

Continue reading ‘MobLand’ Season 2 Review: Tom Hardy Tries To Hold The Harrigans Together As Civil War Consumes The Empire at The Playlist.

Love, or the frequent, tragically inevitable absence of it, can be one of the most powerful forces in the world. It can reshape lives and instill them with immense joy you never thought you could have, just as it can break them into pieces when you least expect it. Finding someone you love deeply also means that, whether you like it or not, there will likely come a time when you must say goodbye.

This state of being serves as the heart of “Love of Your Life,” an initially engaging romantic drama about a woman (Margaret Qualley) who falls head over heels in love and then must find a way to keep living after it all falls apart.

Continue reading ‘Love Of Your Life’ Review: Margaret Qualley’s Heartbreaking Romance Struggles To Make Its Memories Last at The Playlist.

For 33 years, the knife that nearly killed Salman Rushdie was, in a sense, already hanging over him. In 1989, after the publication of “The Satanic Verses,” Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called for the author’s death, turning one of the world’s most celebrated novelists into the target of a religious vendetta that simply refused to die. Rushdie spent years in hiding, lived under constant police protection, and later said British intelligence had warned him of as many as half a dozen serious assassination attempts.

Continue reading ‘Knife: The Attempted Murder Of Salman Rushdie’ Review: Alex Gibney Helps A Survivor Rewrite His Story at The Playlist.

“Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo,” the latest from prolific director Takashi Miike, is a film that, even when it initially seems simple in structure, is full of so many baffling choices and swerves that you feel like you’re watching something not made by human hands, but born from the deepest recesses of a filmmaker’s subconscious. Don’t mistake that for saying it feels dreamlike in an interesting way, though. This strange police thriller is more like a meandering nightmare of disconnected sequences that never comes together into a compelling whole.

Continue reading ‘Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo’ Review: Takashi Miike Goes Full Gonzo With A Bloody, Bizarre Neo-Noir [TIFF] at The Playlist.

Something about “Pulp: What Do You Do For An Encore?” is inherently fascinating, but director Garth Jennings (“Son of Rambow,” “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”) never quite manages to unlock it. Pulp have always seemed slightly out of step with whatever moment they happened to inhabit, even when the culture eventually caught up with them. Their return decades after their commercial peak should make for a rich story about aging, survival, nostalgia, mortality, and what happens when a group built around alienation suddenly finds itself treated like an hallowed institution.

Continue reading ‘Pulp: What Do You Do For An Encore?’ Review: Jarvis Cocker & Filmmaker Garth Jennings Are Usually Much More Dynamic Than This at The Playlist.

The road to “Resident Evil” has been a strangely contentious one for Zach Cregger. For months, fans have worried his adaptation wouldn’t adhere closely enough to the franchise’s mythology, generating a kind of preemptive backlash before anyone had actually seen the movie. Even the 30-minute preview shown to critics and select fans probably didn’t ease those concerns, because what Cregger unveiled was stripped-down, minimalist, spare, and much closer to the claustrophobic spine of “Barbarian” than anything resembling the kind of elaborate “Resident Evil” spectacle audiences might have expected.

Continue reading ‘Resident Evil’ Review: Zach Cregger’s Minimalist Terrors Are Far More Effective Than Franchise Maximalism at The Playlist.

A genre mash-up with more atmosphere than plot or character, “Wild Wild East” seems content to play in the sandbox of its little world rather than do something particularly interesting with it. A slow-burn mystery thriller bolstered by compelling performances from top to bottom, it has an interesting idea at its center, along with considerable cultural nuance, yet little else.

READ MORE: Toronto International Film Festival 2026 Preview: 30 Must-See Movies To Watch

When Martin Wolff (Itay Tiran) rides into town alone on horseback in January 1943, he does so at a deliberate trot as the locals scurry about like startled stag beetles.

Continue reading ‘Wild Wild East’ Review: Atmospheric WWII Western-Thriller Can’t Find Enough Story Beneath Its Snowy Surface at The Playlist.

“Babies,” the joyously silly yet frequently moving and sincere dramedy from writer-director Lauren Miller Rogen, is not just about babies.

Yes, the decision of whether to have children drives the film, as a charming modern couple, Aaron (Seth Rogen) and Annie (Anna Kendrick), contemplates becoming parents. But with all the adorable young children in the film, “Babies” is really about adults trying to decide what shape they want their lives to take.

Continue reading ‘Babies’ Review: Anna Kendrick & Seth Rogen Face The Parenthood Question In Lauren Miller Rogen’s Warm, Bittersweet Dramedy [TIFF] at The Playlist.

It’s hard to deny that, when it comes to the image of a zombie we all know today, most of us would likely point an undead finger at the works of George A. Romero, mastermind behind such genre-definers as “Night of the Living Dead,” “Dawn of the Dead,” and… well, even if one were to stop there, little more needs to be said. His impact?

Continue reading ‘Black Zombie’ Review: Maya Annik Bedward’s Fascinating Doc Reclaims The Zombie’s Haitian Roots at The Playlist.

Building on the revisionary historical work of their first feature, “They Carry Death,” writer/directors Helena Girón and Samuel Delgado return to the Canary Islands with another searing portrait of colonialism in “The Fortunate Isles.” Trading out Christopher Columbus and the fifteenth century for the story of an aging Marquis (Lou Castel) and his enslaved, pregnant, North African caretaker Fátima (Luisa Ahl Laabiad) in the sixteenth century, it’s a film that deceptively packs a lot into its scant 80-minute runtime.

Continue reading ‘The Fortunate Isles’ Review: Helena Girón & Samuel Delgado Turn Colonial History Into A Haunting, Elemental Reckoning [TIFF] at The Playlist.

TORONTO – “Onwards and Sideways,” a world premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival, is a movie that is admittedly a tough sell. The premise is fairly straightforward: Tony (Ryan Ifans) and Emma (Laura Linney) meet each other in the lobby of a medical building. Coincidentally, they have both been diagnosed with Parkinson’s just minutes earlier. Their physician (well, Tony’s at least), Professor Ridge (Rory Kinnear), informs him they have “five good years left.” Over the next 115 minutes, and with an increasingly dramatic series of title cards, Tony and Emma’s lives intertwine as Paul Mayhew-Archer‘s screenplay checks on them every 12 months.

Continue reading ‘Onwards And Sideways’ Review: Laura Linney And Rhys Ifans Have Five Good Years In John Madden’s Parkinson’s Dramedy [TIFF] at The Playlist.

At this point, are Korean filmmakers more tapped into the zeitgeist of global inequality than anyone else? From Bong Joon-ho to Hwang Dong-hyuk to Park Chan-wook, the most striking narratives about surviving in this current economic environment have sprung from the imaginations of these auteurs from land on the far East Asian peninsula. Remarkably, one of their peers, Lee Chang-dong, has unleashed one of the most poignant depictions of these crises so far with “Possible Love,” which won the Silver Lion at the 2026 Venice Film Festival.

Continue reading ‘Possible Love’ Review: Lee Chang-dong’s Portrait Of Economic Disparity Is An Eulogy For The Working Class at The Playlist.

If time travel were real, would going back and killing Hitler be its most pertinent use to undo a historical injustice? That is one of several questions contemplated by Jenna Cato Bass’ heady, speculative “Future Tense.” Bass explores the ethics, morality, and politics of changing the past in novel ways, infusing a well-worn sci-fi trope with racial, economic, and sociological perspectives. Killing Hitler is perhaps the limit of what a white person can imagine, chides Bass’ Black protagonist Lwando (Lawrence Maleka).

Continue reading ‘Future Tense’ Review: Jenna Cato Bass Reimagines Time Travel As A Provocative Colonial Reckoning [TIFF] at The Playlist.

TORONTO – Something happened from script to screen with “Black in Black,” a world premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival, and whatever it was, it wasn’t good. Directed by Ron Murphy from a screenplay by Murphy and Nick Torokvei, “Black” has a smart premise, genuinely funny dialogue, and Christopher Walken’s undying charisma. And somehow, Murphy has squandered all that with a movie featuring the most uninspired and workmanlike execution you can imagine.

Continue reading ‘Back In Black’ Review: Christopher Walken & A Good Script Are Wasted In A Badly Directed Comedy [TIFF] at The Playlist.

In “Misty Green,” an acclaimed, talented, and dynamic actress is done dirty by an industry that, despite some occasional half-hearted gestures about giving her another shot, is mostly content to cast her aside. Boasting an engaging performance from Rosalind Eleazar, who, while likely best known for her excellent work on the series “Slow Horses,” was also great in the riveting recent film “Rose of Nevada,” it’s a work that’s never lacking in promise.

Continue reading ‘Misty Green’ Review: Rosalind Eleazar & Daniel Kaluuya Are Magnetic In Chris Rock’s Messy Hollywood Satire [TIFF] at The Playlist.