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Barry Hertz

@hertzbarry.bsky.social
7.9K followers 152 following 1.1K posts

Film Editor, The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada). Author of Welcome to the Family: The Explosive Story Behind Fast & Furious. linktr.ee/barryhertz

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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Here’s a normal statistic: a record 9,600 films were made globally in 2024. www.screendaily.com/features/can...
screendaily.com
Can films make good money from a decent festival run?
With distribution so hard to come by, festivals have become an increasingly important way for arthouse films to connect with audiences.
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The testimonies contained in NAZA build to an indictment that is all the more damning for how precisely dispassionate they are. Is it “Never Again” — or not? www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...
theglobeandmail.com
Chilling documentary NAZA offers behind-the-scenes portrait of Israel’s war machine
Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor break down the mechanisms of Israel’s war machine, including those with their hands on its levers and those who are mere cogs within
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
With DIGGER, Cruise has mistaken Iñárritu as a trusted collaborator of great depth and dimensions, when the director is instead simply a man of heaving weight, immovable and unyielding. www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...
theglobeandmail.com
Tom Cruise gets buried alive in Iñárritu’s obnoxiously preening satire Digger
The movie is so convinced of its own brilliance that it cannot see it is in fact the most banal variety of idiot
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
NEW: Mongrel Media will release Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor’s NAZA theatrically in Canada starting Oct. 2 at the TIFF Lightbox and Edmonton’s Metro Cinema, with additional cities throughout October.
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
DIGGER: By choosing his own interests over the audiences’, Cruise — who is genuinely dynamite here, on all levels — subjects even his hardest core acolytes to Iñárritu’s most obnoxiously self-satisfied drivel yet. At least the popcorn bucket doubles as one to catch your barf.
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Missed the FORGOTTEN ISLAND press screening, but my kids went nuts for it today—best possible result of SPIDER-VERSE’s influence on industry aesthetics, plus sharp cultural specificity, killer voice work, and Dreamworks Animation’s only inter-textual reference to the work of John McTiernan.
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
GODZILLA MINUS ZERO: Despite opening with massive, Cuarón-esque set piece, takes a beat for Yamazaki's sequel to gain momentum—but once it does, it's a perfectly calibrated gut punch of melodrama, geopolitics and rolling-in-the-aisles kaiju mayhem. Final few minutes will test you, though.
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
NEW: Our long national nightmare is over as VVS Films has secured Canadian rights to Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING. Opens in Canadian theatres same day as A24 releases it stateside, Oct. 16.
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
It's an unusually strong post-TIFF weekend for Toronto theatres: PRIMETIME, THE STUNT DRIVER, THE HISTORY OF CONCRETE, HA-CHAN SHAKE YOUR BOOTY! are all very worthy of your time, in very different ways. There’s also a Brad Pitt-and-a-dog movie, which I haven’t seen. Go see a movie! Again!
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
No one makes the most glamorous situations imaginable look like cheapo garbage quite like John Wilson — just as no one else can find beauty in the raw day-to-day shit of life. All of which makes THE HISTORY OF CONCRETE one of the year's best films. www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...
theglobeandmail.com
Hilarious and profound The History of Concrete cements John Wilson’s cinematic reputation
Wilson’s overarching vision is ugly yet beautiful, simple yet profoundly strange
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
NEW: After long search, Cineplex appoints former Landmark Cinemas chief exec Bill Walker as its new CEO, with current chief Ellis Jacob to serve as Special Advisor to the Board through Dec. 31, 2026. Board also has initiated ominous-sounding “review of strategic alternatives.”
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Robert Pattinson gives the performance of the year in PRIMETIME, a movie that asks if it's possible to feel good about getting sick to your stomach. www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...
theglobeandmail.com
Primetime’s Robert Pattinson delivers the performance of the year in sharp, sickening media satire
Pattinson plays Chris Hansen, the journalist whose series, To Catch a Predator, marked an inflection point for trash TV
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
"This goes way beyond Chris Hansen – the concept of public punishment, of the spectacle of punishment": I talked with PRIMETIME's Lance Oppenheim, the director of the moment, about how the road to Hell is paved with memes. www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...
theglobeandmail.com
‘This goes way beyond Chris Hansen’: How Primetime’s Lance Oppenheim turned the tables on trash TV
The film dramatizes the rise and fall of NBC’s controversial To Catch a Predator reality series
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
From its inaugural market to its "international" People's Choice Award, there is a clear pattern inside TIFF of introducing a new problem for itself instead of finding a solution to the challenges it already has. My take on an up-and-down #TIFF26: www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...
theglobeandmail.com
TIFF 2026 exposed festival’s stellar cinematic taste, and worst institutional instincts
This year’s festival felt as if it was using a handful of exhilarating moments to paper over many, larger structural fissures and fault lines
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
ELSINORE gets TIFF’s International People’s Choice Award. And LA BOLA NEGRA gets the regular People’s Choice Award. Which all begs the question of just what the heck these People’s Choice Award distinctions are for any way. TIFF, please explain yourself. #TIFF26
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
For reasons I can’t articulate, now rearranging my chips to put it all on ELSINORE for TIFF People’s Choice Winner (the real one, not International). I have no embargoed information. #TIFF26
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
TIFF Pre-Show Ads, Ranked #TIFF26
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
That’s a wrap on TIFF (“It’s a burrito”) #TIFF26 boxd.it/4sWr
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
TIFF Awards best guesses: People’s Choice: THE DEBUT PC Runner-Up: I PLAY ROCKY PC 2nd RU: CLUB KID International: LA BOLA NEGRA Doc: MUSK Midnight: MULRONEY Canadian Discovery: STILL NIGHT, BURNING HOUSE Canadian Feature: NOBODY’S VIOLENCE Platform: THE SMELL OF APPLES #TIFF26
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
When you make it to TIFF Day 10
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
NEW: TIFF reveals inaugural Market stats, though helps to have context: -7K industry delegates (6K reported in 2025; TIFF subsidized travel this year for 200; fest aims for 12K by 2030) -196 market screenings (TIFF originally advertised 650 slots; unclear if that included press screenings) #TIFF26
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
When I ask if there are tickets left for the TIFF Hudson Williams panel
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Like many TIFF attendees, the Scotiabank escalator could only last till Day 7. #TIFF26
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Cregger's RESIDENT EVIL is worth burning down my cherished memories of Milla Jovovich scaling up the side of Toronto City Hall. Hell, the synthesis of gore and gags here is worth burning all Toronto landmarks down to the ground. www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...
theglobeandmail.com
Resident Evil reboot is as funny as it is disgusting, which is a good thing
Zach Cregger’s gory video-game adaptation moves into a wildly entertaining new direction
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
LA GRADIVA: To borrow words of the teacher corralling French high-school seniors in Pompeii, there's "seismic activity" here, and then some. Excepting a finale that insists on moment of unnecessary drama, Marine Atlan's debut makes the tectonic look deceptively easy. #TIFF26
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
TENZING: In DEEP IMPACT/ARMAGEDDON terms, the first of TIFF's two Mount Everest movies is firmly in the Mimi Leder camp — conventional, well-cast polite period piece that aims for the heart more than the eye. Why Apple made a mountain flick that you'll watch on a phone is their business. #TIFF26
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
WILD HORSE NINE: Malkovich is great in The White Lotus: Easter Island — and Buscemi gets one killer line — but this isn’t nearly as airtight as McDonagh might think. I do enjoy, though, a film-festival-tilted movie that baldly declares its love for Venice, over and over. #TIFF26
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
When I intentionally break embargo
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
INK: O'Connell delivers his second-best Boyle villain, and direction sporadically breaks free of stage origins to deliver firecracker bursts of muckraking energy. But errors both unforced (generative AI, c'mon guys) and inherent (Murdoch would love this) spike the story. #TIFF26
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
POSSIBLE LOVE: You could crassly reduce this to PARASITE without the genre trappings, but Lee Chang-dong’s DEKALOG-inspired journey into the depths of yearning is so much deeper and knottier, building up to a true fight against the tides of misplaced desire. Superb stuff. #TIFF26
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
There are a lot of actors double dipping with movies at TIFF, but my vote for festival breakout is Eldar Isgandarov, who injects pure joy into CLUB KID and THE DEBUT. This generation’s Hank Azaria, perhaps. #TIFF26
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
ELSINORE: There’s a magnificent Andrew Scott performance if you can ignore Simon Stone’s utter lack of trust in both his leading man and audience, the director papering over any patience with swollen montages and feel-this-now-dammit score. What’s the soul of wit, again? #TIFF26
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
NEW: My deep dive into the state of Quebecois cinema, which thrives inside its own provincial borders, rarely makes a dent outside of them, and has now become crucial to the existential battle for Canadian cultural sovereignty writ large. #TIFF26 www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...
theglobeandmail.com
At TIFF, and in Washington, Quebec’s film industry finds itself in the hot seat
Rarely making a dent outside of the province, it has now become crucial to the existential battle for Canadian cultural sovereignty
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
EXCLUSIVE: In Toronto for launch of TIFF Market, I sat down with Culture Minister Marc Miller to talk about state of C11, the yet-to-be-delivered $600M cultural sector stimulus, and Ottawa’s response to Trump’s federal tax incentive for film production. www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...
theglobeandmail.com
Ottawa must be smarter about how it supports Canadian film and TV industry, Miller says
Top of mind for Canadian producers is uncertain state of Online Streaming Act during trade war with U.S.
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
THE LAST PHOTOGRAPH: Snyder’s version of The Quiet American represents a certain nadir for TIFF programming. But don’t worry — this lurid, turgid, and not a little bit racist tour up river will likely never escape Toronto in its current form. #TIFF26
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
THE DEBUT: Eisenberg's "A Streetcar Named Marge" filtered through feature-length Shouts & Murmurs essay — best not to think about reality of it all and submit to deep pleasures of watching Moore and Giamatti spar, including the *scene* of the year, which demands a crowd. #TIFF26
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
JOSEPHINE: Likely the best evidence yet that we might want to rethink the whole hiring-child-actors element of filmmaking. I'm simply unsure how Mason Reeves can possibly emerge from this (effectively) harrowing drama emotionally and psychogically unscathed. #TIFF26
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
The breadth of TIFF is such that the festival can host Barbara Kopple’s fierce doc UNION TOWN the same week it premieres I PLAY ROCKY, which goes out of its way to vilify unions as mobbed-up boogeymen. That’s range! #TIFF26
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
MISTY GREEN: For film about how Hollywood uses people, Rock doesn't quite know how to use his cast. Eleazar is perfect; Kaluuya is aces but in too-small role; Kendrick is totally wrong (and you won't find bigger Kendrick fan); and Rock should've let Driver step in for him #TIFF26
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Don’t expect I’ll ever get over hearing the words, “Presented by TikTok” during intros for the Special Presentation films. #TIFF26
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Leigh tallies up the little things so delicately, but not preciously, that by point it all adds up, you’re left gobsmacked by the weight of the everyday. “Walk past the street, and for every 10 people there are 10 films,” as Leigh tells TIFF crowd. #TIFF26
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER: If only all abandoned MCU projects evolved into something as electric and enjoyably confounding as Tariq & Ali's LONE WOLF AND CUB riff on righteousness, halal porn, and how all paths lead to Hell. Also: John Cho is on another planet. #TIFF26
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
The stretch of John Street between Adelaide and Richmond is extremely me-coded this morning. #TIFF26
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
At TIFF for an OBSESSION victory lap, Curry Barker split a pizza with me (cheese for him, pepp on my half) to talk about the bidding war that felt “like an episode of Entourage,” industry expectations, and his vision for TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. #TIFF26 www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...
theglobeandmail.com
Curry Barker, the obsession of Hollywood, returns to TIFF for film festival victory lap
Barker recounts his journey from budding filmmaker to creator of a cultural craze
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
With four titles at TIFF, plus COYOTE VS. ACME in theatres, Canadian Joe Cobden is going for the Brady Corbet TIFF Record of '14. I talked with the STUNT DRIVER/AMERICAN HOSTAGE/BEING HEUMANN/VILLENEUVE: RISE OF A LEGEND costar about a stealth #TIFF26 run. www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...
theglobeandmail.com
With four premieres, Canadian actor Joe Cobden might be TIFF’s stealth MVP
Cobden is walking into Toronto feeling like decades of hard work have paid off
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
How does Canada’s biggest cultural institution kick off a celebration of all things cinema – including and especially Hollywood – in the midst of a trade war with the U.S.? In the case of TIFF: very, very carefully. My report from #TIFF26 opening night www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...
theglobeandmail.com
TIFF 2026: Opening night delivers odd dose of America for this era of Canadian cultural sovereignty
There was a cognitive dissonance in the geopolitical air that the festival could not help but uneasily brush against
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
NEW: Justin Trudeau is taking the Obama route, launching “multidisciplinary media and entertainment enterprise,” alongside his former chief of staff Katie Telford, called Hope & Hard Work. Do with this information what you will. #TIFF26
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
RIVER: A nihilistic audaciousness surfaces (not apologizing) every so often — and one point it looked like slasher was turning into something else entirely, a promise that unfortunately isn’t kept. Two scream queens (Levy and Rothe), but a prolonged sense of finality. #TIFF26
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
CLUB KID: Firstman borrows from the best (mostly BIG DADDY and ABOUT A BOY, but also Scorsese and Haigh) to craft the most effective crowd-pleaser of the year. Bonus: a stellar advertisement for cocaine (looks fun tbh!). Tell yourself you won't cry, and see what happens. #TIFF26
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Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
IN THE HEART OF THE SOUTH: Unsure it sticks the landing, but bulk of Innuksuk's satiric thriller is crackling, wonderfully impolite stuff – a film best measured in how many times it makes audience gasp or shift uncomfortably. Anna Lambe is great but Zorga Qaunaq is a star #TIFF26
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