Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 08/10/2026RIP to Salah Bachir, a titan of Canadian cultural philanthropy, an advocate for HIV research, and the former president of Cineplex Media. After suffering through years of medical complications, Bachir underwent MAID today, at age 71. 294
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 08/10/2026NEW: I sat down with TIFF's market head Charles Tremblay for a wide-ranging postmortem interview about the highs and lows of the organization's biggest bet since opening the Lightbox — and why next year's edition will look different. #TIFF26 www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...theglobeandmail.comWhere TIFF’s big-bet market goes from hereThe challenge will be finding the identity of the market, how it’s useful to those who it should be useful to, market head Charles Tremblay says 011
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Sorkin’s THE SOCIAL RECKONING is one of the most insipid, ugly, flat films of the year — an insufferably sanctimonious fantasia of blue-state Boomers that traps Jeremy Strong in a man-child performance that unintentionally echoes Martin Short in CLIFFORD. www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...theglobeandmail.comThe Social Reckoning, Aaron Sorkin’s dreadful Facebook follow-up, is fit to be de-friendedSorkin’s docudrama tracing Mark Zuckerberg’s corporate malfeasance in the early 2020s will turn even the most hardcore Facebook hater into a true-blue Facebook believer 010
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 07/10/2026I had a great conversation with YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER YOUR MOTHER's Mahershala Ali and Bassam Tariq about living by the Blade, and dying by the Blade. www.theglobeandmail.com/culture/film...theglobeandmail.comLive by the Blade, die by the Blade: How Mahershala Ali and Bassam Tariq carved their own action-movie pathYour Mother Your Mother Your Mother is wildly entertaining but also soulful and solemn 030
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Good problem to have, in a way, but there are simply too many movies opening in Toronto on Oct. 16. 191
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 05/10/2026NEW: In Toronto, NAZA was the No. 1 film at the TIFF Lightbox this weekend, earning a very strong $19,539, more than double the theatre's next most popular title (which was Lan Hongchun's family drama DEAR YOU). 0126
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Here’s a normal statistic: a record 9,600 films were made globally in 2024. www.screendaily.com/features/can...screendaily.comCan 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. 030
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 01/10/2026The 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.comChilling documentary NAZA offers behind-the-scenes portrait of Israel’s war machineYuval 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 061
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 29/09/2026With 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.comTom Cruise gets buried alive in Iñárritu’s obnoxiously preening satire DiggerThe movie is so convinced of its own brilliance that it cannot see it is in fact the most banal variety of idiot 001
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 28/09/2026NEW: 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. 063
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 28/09/2026DIGGER: 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. 161
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Missed 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. 043
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 26/09/2026GODZILLA 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. 040
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 25/09/2026NEW: 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. 0141
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 24/09/2026It'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! 151
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 23/09/2026No 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.comHilarious and profound The History of Concrete cements John Wilson’s cinematic reputationWilson’s overarching vision is ugly yet beautiful, simple yet profoundly strange 000
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 23/09/2026NEW: 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.” 021
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Robert 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.comPrimetime’s Robert Pattinson delivers the performance of the year in sharp, sickening media satirePattinson plays Chris Hansen, the journalist whose series, To Catch a Predator, marked an inflection point for trash TV 000
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 TVThe film dramatizes the rise and fall of NBC’s controversial To Catch a Predator reality series 021
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 21/09/2026From 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.comTIFF 2026 exposed festival’s stellar cinematic taste, and worst institutional instinctsThis year’s festival felt as if it was using a handful of exhilarating moments to paper over many, larger structural fissures and fault lines 131
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 20/09/2026ELSINORE 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 040
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 20/09/2026For 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 020
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 19/09/2026That’s a wrap on TIFF (“It’s a burrito”) #TIFF26 boxd.it/4sWr 051
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 19/09/2026TIFF 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 050
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 18/09/2026NEW: 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 001
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 17/09/2026When I ask if there are tickets left for the TIFF Hudson Williams panel 020
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Like many TIFF attendees, the Scotiabank escalator could only last till Day 7. #TIFF26 1142
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Cregger'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.comResident Evil reboot is as funny as it is disgusting, which is a good thingZach Cregger’s gory video-game adaptation moves into a wildly entertaining new direction 140
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 16/09/2026LA 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 000
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 16/09/2026TENZING: 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 000
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 16/09/2026WILD 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 010
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 15/09/2026INK: 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 030
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 15/09/2026POSSIBLE 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 041
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 14/09/2026There 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 000
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 14/09/2026ELSINORE: 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 010
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 14/09/2026NEW: 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.comAt TIFF, and in Washington, Quebec’s film industry finds itself in the hot seatRarely making a dent outside of the province, it has now become crucial to the existential battle for Canadian cultural sovereignty 061
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 14/09/2026EXCLUSIVE: 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.comOttawa must be smarter about how it supports Canadian film and TV industry, Miller saysTop of mind for Canadian producers is uncertain state of Online Streaming Act during trade war with U.S. 053
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 14/09/2026THE 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 030
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 14/09/2026THE 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 010
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 13/09/2026JOSEPHINE: 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 140
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 13/09/2026The 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 041
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 13/09/2026MISTY 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 010
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 12/09/2026Don’t expect I’ll ever get over hearing the words, “Presented by TikTok” during intros for the Special Presentation films. #TIFF26 031
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 12/09/2026Leigh 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 031
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 12/09/2026YOUR 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 081
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 12/09/2026The stretch of John Street between Adelaide and Richmond is extremely me-coded this morning. #TIFF26 030
Barry Hertz @hertzbarry.bsky.social · 11/09/2026At 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.comCurry Barker, the obsession of Hollywood, returns to TIFF for film festival victory lapBarker recounts his journey from budding filmmaker to creator of a cultural craze 020