April Hale | Film Festival Today

“Queen Rising” Never Soars

June 17, 2024

TIFF Review: “Club Kid”
By Hannah Tran
September 22, 2026
Club Kid (Jordan Firstman, 2026) 5 out of 5 stars It’s an awe-inspiring feeling like no other to witness an artist create something they seem born to make. It’s even more remarkable if that thing is their debut. In Jordan Firstman’s Club Kid, in which Firstman is the writer, director, and lead actor—a combination at which I would usually raise an eyebrow for first-time feature filmmakers—it feels as if he has aligned every star by hand to create ... >>
TIFF Review: “Long Long Night”
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
September 20, 2026
Long Long Night (Youm Kyu-Bock, 2026) 3½ out of 5 stars South Korean director Youm Kyu-Bock’s debut feature, Long Long Night, is an adaptation of a 2021 prize-winning children’s book that was later turned into a stage musical. It tells the tale of the last white boulder rhinoceros on Earth, who protects—and journeys across the African continent with—a baby penguin. The film mixes gentle drama and humor with serious tragedy in a combination that ... >>
“The History of Concrete” Offers Hilarious Meditation
By Patrick Howard
September 18, 2026
The History of Concrete (John Wilson, 2026) 4½ out of 5 stars Have you ever heard of the old idiom “this is like watching paint dry”? A classic phrase to describe an act that will most certainly bore you to tears. With that idea in mind, hearing about filmmaker John Wilson’s new documentary The History of Concrete may send a shiver of tedium down your spine. Remarkably, John Wilson (HBO’s How to with John Wilson series) transforms material that ... >>
TIFF Review: “Fjord”
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
September 17, 2026
Fjord (Cristian Mungiu, 2026) 4½ out of 5 stars Norway is a beautiful country with majestic landscapes, home today to a people steeped in progressive Western European principles, its violent Viking past a distant memory. In Fjord, the latest film from Romanian writer/director Cristian Mungiu (Graduation)—who won his second Cannes Palme d’Or in May of this year—we find ourselves immersed in the life of a small waterside town, following the ... >>
TIFF Interview: “The Hummingbird Paints Fragrant Songs” Directors Èlia Gasull Balada and Matteo Norzi
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
September 17, 2026
TIFF Interview: “The Hummingbird Paints Fragrant Songs” ... >>