TIFF 2026 Dispatch - Day 1

This is an entire new venture, writing about the day-to-day excursions throughout TIFF and not after. Well, stranger things have happened before. Here I am right on  the ground floor at TIFF 2026, TIFTY-ONE as nobody says. Should be called that but I guess it’s not catchy. Go figure. Believe it or not this is Rendy Reviews’ eighth time covering the fest; by year ten I get a free cookie! Thankfully I’ve got to screen a ton of titles prior to the fest in my good ol’ [Matt Berry voice] New York City, so I can get ahead of the curb despite the pile growing so rapidly. Seriously, at the time of this writing I am at about 20 movies. It’s not a flex, just a fact, because I want to cover them all Ash Ketchum style. 

So to make keeping track easier on my end, publicists happy, and less emails to send, and not to forget anything, here’s a little diary daily/dispatch of everything I’ve screened at TIFF on the ground floor. 

Tender Loving Care

This year’s TIFF started off on an exceptionally high bar to clear with Mike Leigh’s Tender Loving Care, the supposed final project of the 83 year old filmmaker's career. If this is the definitive last one, it’s a hell of a way to go. Katie O’Flynn and  Alice Bailey Johnson co-lead as Amy and Rosie, two London-based social workers and best friends traversing about their nine to fives. It finds Amy following a horrendous break-up and moving in with Rosie and having a hard time telling her loving parents Birdie (Marion Bailey) and Geoff (Paul Jesson).

It’s a slice of life that captures their day to day lives, performing their job wonderfully, being patient and present to people who have been abandoned and lost. And then on their off time, seeing them live full lives: gossip, drink wine, hang out. Leigh concentrates on the titular themes with every frame, providing a riveting human portrait of people needing people to be there when situations become dire. Leigh pens such rich, loving characters you want to spend endless time with are so fleshed out. It’s extremely critical about the ripple effect within the government where social workers, who famously have a bad rap in cinema portrayals (shoutout Cobra Bubbles), are also people  and can only do so much, and governments like London’s don’t do enough. Each scene captures generational and classist struggles dampening everyone in the system and yet, subtly dissecting connectivity being life’s greatest beauty and all we have with each other. 

O’Flynn, whose having a killer fucking year with Widow’s Bay, demonstrates such deft range in possibly one of my favorite most lived-in performances this year. This woman is a star and then some. Same with the rest of the small ensemble as well, but O’Flynn–wow. It’s a damn near perfect film, if not outright perfect because I am clamoring to see it again.

Shout out to that guy below me who kept loudly whispering his commentary to his friend next to him and loudly groaning when the extremely earnest, human movie was being heartfelt. Wouldn't shut up even after I shushed him. We're so back, baby!

THE STUNT DRIVER

Now I knew the downgrade from Leigh  to everything onward would be steady but I didn’t know it’s be steep. I did walk out of a movie that was actively pissing me off prior to The Stunt Driver, which I’m not gonna put on blast like that. But man, I probably should’ve seen anything besides Michael Dowse’s dull and monotonous bio-dramedy starring Jay Baruchel-led as capital-c Canadian stunt driver Ken Carter. Baruchel tries his might and delivers a passionate performance as the film chronicles his endless struggle to set the longest mile long jump stunt record to jump the Saint Lawrence River in a rocket powered car, despite his fear. But of course all the mechanical systems in producers and investors that factored in to screwing him over. That said, there’s not much underneath the hood to make the story soar. Dowse takes the safest, cliched direction to Carter’s story that while impressive in its nested 4:3 film and traditional widescreen style, the film is automatic. I couldn’t help but think, “If Matt Johnson were here, he would give this engine some real gas.” 

ROGUE TROOPER

Can’t talk about Duncan Jones’ latest just yet on main but I saw it. And will leave it at that. 

CLUB KID

My final flick on day one was Jordan Firstman’s CLUB KID, which initially I wasn’t going to see and save for NYFF with because, well, I like watching a NYC story in my town. Nevertheless, this was exactly worth all the hype I’ve been hearing. I was not aware of Firstman's game behind the pen (sorry, never seen Rotten in the Sun). Was completely blown away by the raw honestness of his portrait of a gay man who can’t get his shit together having to step up when his half Brit 10-year old son arrives and turns his life upside down. Extremely funny and warm, like Big Daddy and About A Boy was for the Brooklyn gays who rather spend their nights at Knockdown Center than applying themselves to life, which is so relatable for modern NY'er. Firstman's performance is so down to earth and his chemistry with that adorable kid Reggie Absolom brings it so much to life. Absolutely incredible and tender in a way that makes you want to become a better person for yourself and the people around you. Truly among one of my favorites of the year. Can't wait to see this again. Need to experience at NYFF. The NYC crowd is going to eat this up. Love how my only complaint is that "forgets that it has Diego Calva. Doesn't really develop that romance as carefully as the father-son, but also.....it works because Diego Calva." Another one of the “yeah this Cannes banger is indeed a banger” added to the pile.