My 10 most anticipated films at TIFF 2026, an overly ambitious festival schedule, and my plans to eavesdrop on critics

Welcome to my Top 10 of 2025.

Thoughts on aesthetic and narrative (in)coherence and claiming provocation when there is none.

On commitment to the bit.

On learning the past in pieces.

On violence, inheritance, and learning how to live anyway.

The Testament of Ann Lee and why we’re so afraid to take faith seriously

The Testament of Ann Lee and why we’re so afraid to take faith seriously

by Billie Anderson, Staff Writer Bryan Fuller making his feature directorial debut with a movie about an assassin hired to kill the monster under an eight-year-old’s bed is exactly the kind of chaos ...

by Billie Anderson, Staff Writer Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet reminds us that art is not optional. It’s how we survive.

by Billie Anderson, Staff Writer With its conclusion, Hal & Harper knocks it right out of the park.

by Billie Anderson, Staff Writer As the finale swiftly approaches, Hal & Harper gives its audience an emotional break. In a Cooper Raiff kind of way.

by Billie Anderson, Staff Writer Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet reminds us that art is not optional. It’s how we survive.

by Billie Anderson, Staff Writer Hal & Harper continues to paint a full and truthful portrait of a family.

by Billie Anderson, Staff Writer Halloween on Hal & Harper shines a light on the emotional core of the holiday through an adult lens.

by Billie Anderson, Staff Writer Del Toro’s Frankenstein is less about historical accuracy than it is about the timeless ethical and existential questions Shelley posed: What is human? What is mons...

by Billie Anderson, Staff Writer The Testament of Ann Lee trusts that audiences can endure ambiguity, that we can sit with the strangeness of devotion without demanding neat answers.

by Billie Anderson, Staff Writer Lili Reinhart is a knock out in this week’s Hal & Harper .

by Billie Anderson, Staff Writer Hal & Harper ’s third episode sits in the past, living in it.

by Billie Anderson, Staff Writer The point of Blue Heron is to sit with the unspeakable, to look at it squarely, and to love through it anyway.

by Billie Anderson, Staff Writer Hal and Harper is creator Cooper Raiff’s new crowning achievement.

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by Billie Anderson, Staff Writer Del Toro’s Frankenstein is less about historical accuracy than it is about the timeless ethical and existential questions Shelley posed: What is human? What is mons...

by Billie Anderson, Staff Writer It’s one of those rare movies that feels both scrupulously controlled and wildly alive, the kind of thing that makes you realize you’ve been missing a whole dimension...

by Billie Anderson, Staff Writer Watching Dead Lover felt like being jolted with 100,000 volts of weird, beamed directly into my skull, and I left the theater grateful to be alive in a world where ...

by Billie Anderson, Staff Writer The Testament of Ann Lee trusts that audiences can endure ambiguity, that we can sit with the strangeness of devotion without demanding neat answers.

by Billie Anderson, Staff Writer Beyond the city, the film is a near–copyright-infringing comedic masterpiece: absurd, defiant, and meticulously structured.

Guillermo Del Toro’s ‘Frankenstein’ reconsiders the cultural imagining of ‘the monster’ and how stories reflect attitudes about difference — especially difference in embodiment.

by Billie Anderson, Staff Writer This year, the weirdness was everywhere, and it came in so many flavors: tender, chaotic, unsettling, hilarious, and occasionally horrendous.

by Billie Anderson, Staff Writer A small list of the Canadian films Billie Anderson especially enjoyed at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

On why movies never meet us in a vacuum, and why the context of watching matters as much as what’s on screen.

by Billie Anderson, Staff Writer Picking “most anticipateds” always feels like setting myself up for disappointment, but here are five films that I already know I’ll be in line for: three buzzy title...

by Ryan Silberstein, Managing Editor The highest praise I can bestow on The Fantastic Four: First Steps is that this is the MCU project that feels most like it came from Jack Kirby.

by Billie Anderson, Staff Writer April doesn’t just entertain, but implicates, forcing us to sit with discomfort long after the credits roll.

by Billie Anderson, Staff Writer If Garland wanted to avoid Hollywood’s usual glorification of war, he succeeded—but he didn’t go far enough.

by Billie Anderson, Staff Writer If Garland wanted to avoid Hollywood’s usual glorification of war, he succeeded—but he didn’t go far enough.