Rotten Tomatoes
Movies Tv shows RT App News Showtimes
Publications list

Original Cin

Tomatometer-approved publication.

Prev Next
Rating Title | Year Author Quote
B
Monica's News (2024) Liz Braun Monica’s News is the sort of understated storytelling that sneaks up on you. It’s an unexpectedly powerful depiction of childhood and the way children move through the world, observing everything, even things they don't fully understand.
Posted Mar 20, 2026  Edit critic review
B+
undertone (2025) Thom Ernst This terrific Canadian entry is a reminder that horror doesn’t need to be loud to be effective.
Posted Mar 19, 2026  Edit critic review
A-
Project Hail Mary (2026) John Kirk The latest cinematic adaptation of an Andy Weir novel is a crowd-pleaser loaded with humour, charm, and tropes galore.
Posted Mar 19, 2026  Edit critic review
A-
What Does that Nature Say to You (2025) Liam Lacey The prolific Korean auteur’s version of Meet the Parents hits some familiar notes in chronicling a family’s civilized demolition of their daughter’s suitor.
Posted Mar 18, 2026  Edit critic review
B
The Things You Kill (2025) Liz Braun A challenging movie about the world men inhabit, patriarchy, intergenerational trauma and the exigencies of "masculinity." Iranian-Canadian writer/director Alireza Khatami presents a family drama that has rich social and political underpinnings
Posted Mar 18, 2026  Edit critic review
B
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (2026) Thom Ernst The film leans harder into comedy this time, and for the most part, it works. The performances are pitched at exactly the right frequency with everyone fully committed to the film’s ridiculous premise without tipping into parody.
Posted Mar 18, 2026  Edit critic review
A
Space Cadet (2025) Alice Shih Though dialogue-free, this heart-warming animated film by Montreal DJ and multimedia artist Kid Koala, based on his own graphic novel, gives audiences a beautiful and relatable story with clarity and humour.
Posted Mar 12, 2026  Edit critic review
B
Nash the Slash Rises Again! (2025) Kim Hughes Though director Tim Kowalski’s fascinating documentary ends on an unmistakably bittersweet note, it shines a spotlight on a Toronto musician many feel was underappreciated.
Posted Mar 12, 2026  Edit critic review
A
Islands (2025) Kim Hughes Writer-director Jan-Ole Gerster’s low-boil psychological drama unfolds gradually but lands impactfully, its fantastic cinematography and deeply committed performances propelling it throughout.
Posted Mar 10, 2026  Edit critic review
B+
Protector (2025) Chris Knight Milla Jovovich stars as Nikki Halstead, a special forces super badass whose daughter is kidnapped by human traffickers, setting off 72 hours of female-driven revenge-porn fantasy. Simple but satisfying.
Posted Mar 06, 2026  Edit critic review
A-
THE BRIDE! (2026) Thom Ernst This is a movie that loves cinema, the 1920s, spectacle, and being weird. For those willing to throw themselves into that, it's like wandering through someone else’s delirious movie dream stitched from horror, romance, camp and reckless imagination.
Posted Mar 05, 2026  Edit critic review
B
Hair of the Bear (2025) Jim Slotek There are "beats" they could use to make the storytelling smoother. But, given this is Trudeau and McLellan’s first time doing this, they have managed to create a workable revenge story that gets you to the "revenge" part with only a few distractions.
Posted Mar 05, 2026  Edit critic review
A-
Sweetness (2025) Chris Knight This solid Canadian thriller provides a teen take on Misery, with Kate Hallett as an obsessed fan who gets the chance of a lifetime when her idol basically ODs in front of her. Thunder Bay subs nicely as Smalltown USA.
Posted Mar 05, 2026  Edit critic review
B-
In Cold Light (2025) Liz Braun At times, the tension is terrific. But you’ll eventually stop caring about what happens or who it happens to. There is a bit too much pseudo-Freudian yammer in the middle of this crime drama.
Posted Feb 26, 2026  Edit critic review
A
Dreams (2025) Liz Braun This is pared-down storytelling that operates simultaneously as a disturbing tale of passionate obsession as well as a dark social/political commentary. Suffice to say, nobody's dreams are coming true.
Posted Feb 26, 2026  Edit critic review
B+
The President's Cake (2025) Chris Knight In 1990 Iraq, Saddam Hussein was at the height of his powers, and if he wanted citizens to bake cakes, they did. Writer-director Hasan Hadi mines his childhood memories for this touch-too-sweet story of a little girl’s quest for flour, sugar, and eggs.
Posted Feb 25, 2026  Edit critic review
B+
The Bluff (2026) John Kirk The swordplay, epic battles and the physicality of Jonas, Urban and Morrison is epic. What is really exciting is the planning that goes into Ercell’s protection of her family as she sets up defences, traps, and cunning stratagems.
Posted Feb 23, 2026  Edit critic review
C+
Midwinter Break (2026) Kim Hughes There is a mountain of unmined dramatic possibility in Midwinter Break, which manages to be frustrating yet kind of boring at the same time. Its saving grace is actors Lesley Manville and Ciarán Hinds, both terrific, who do so much with relatively little.
Posted Feb 20, 2026  Edit critic review
A-
2026 Oscar-Nominated Short Films - Animated (2026) Chris Knight The first and last are best - The Three Sisters, a funny story in which the arrival of a man on an island populated by three women causes upheaval, and Retirement Plan, with Domhnall Gleeson as a middle-ager imagining things he’ll do with his free time.
Posted Feb 20, 2026  Edit critic review
A
EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert (2025) Thom Ernst Luhrmann is not a subtle filmmaker. But here, his maximalism finally has a worthy target. EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert doesn’t ask you to worship Elvis so much as to remember what it felt like when the man took control of a room.
Posted Feb 19, 2026  Edit critic review
A
Kokuho (2025) Liam Lacey Fine as a backstage drama about artistic ambition, Kokuho rises to a glorious level during the kabuki performance sequences.
Posted Feb 19, 2026  Edit critic review
B
Wuthering Heights (2026) Karen Gordon Wuthering Heights is a sensual feast. But, while there’s plenty to admire and lots of passion and heat, the film doesn’t quite add up in a way that brings the feels. The stripped-down adaptation doesn’t give us enough of a sense of the characters.
Posted Feb 13, 2026  Edit critic review
A
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (2025) Chris Knight The big-screen version of Matt Johnson’s and Jay McCarrol’s web/TV series Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is a love letter to Toronto, to Back to the Future and to 2008. It’s also very funny.
Posted Feb 12, 2026  Edit critic review
B
Montréal, ma belle (2025) Liz Braun This lovely, award-winning film is a quiet but moving tale about identity. It is also a love letter to the vibrant Canadian city.
Posted Feb 12, 2026  Edit critic review
B-
Cold Storage (2026) Jim Slotek Cold Storage has a terrific opening that promises a lot. For any writer, the premise is pure gold. Unhappily, the gold is tarnished as the rest of the movie plays out.
Posted Feb 11, 2026  Edit critic review
A
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die (2025) Chris Knight Imagine if Bill Murray in Groundhog Day had to put together the Dirty Dozen. That’s the job of Sam Rockwell as he recruits a bunch of strangers to save the world from AI. It’s energetic, bonkers, and very funny.
Posted Feb 11, 2026  Edit critic review
B+
Finch & Midland (2025) Liam Lacey Vivid individual performances and fluid direction make this anthology of stories a memorable debut, though one feels left hanging at the film’s conclusion.
Posted Feb 11, 2026  Edit critic review
B+
Pillion (2025) Liam Lacey Like Lone Scherfig’s An Education, Pillion rides the line between a rueful English coming-of-age story and a sentimental black comedy.
Posted Feb 10, 2026  Edit critic review
B-
Soul's Road (2025) Liam Lacey Country musician Dallas Smith stars as a fallen former hometown hero trying to make amends in an over-familiar story, bolstered by an all-Canadian alt-country soundtrack.
Posted Feb 06, 2026  Edit critic review
B
Sway (2024) Thom Ernst Sway wants to be a noir where words replace weapons, and that ambition mostly pays off. Tension comes less from actions than dialogue. It's a smart, contained thriller with a social edge, even if it doesn’t always hit every note as sharply as it aims to.
Posted Feb 05, 2026  Edit critic review
B
Whistle (2025) Thom Ernst Structurally, this is a wait-your-turn teen horror: who goes next, and how messy will it be? There’s nothing wrong with that, as Final Destination proved. But Whistle also seems to want gravitas, and never earns the emotional weight it's reaching for.
Posted Feb 05, 2026  Edit critic review
B+
Scarlet (2025) Chris Knight In an animated and loose adaption of Hamlet, Mamoru Hosoda gives us a female protagonist whose quest for vengeance takes her to the afterlife. Not as strong as the original, but beautifully animated in a style all its own.

Posted Feb 05, 2026  Edit critic review
B
The Moment (2026) Liz Braun A good-natured mockumentary about singer-songwriter Charli XCX and the exigencies of fame, The Moment falls into the ‘did-we-need-this?’ category of filmmaking but is nevertheless entertaining.
Posted Feb 05, 2026  Edit critic review
A
Dracula (2025) John Kirk This is more than just protecting the world from a supernatural evil; it is a righteous battle between the forces of Satan and God to return a worthy soul to the fold. Its exact recipe may be the finest realization of the Dracula story.
Posted Feb 02, 2026  Edit critic review
B+
All That's Left of You (2025) Liam Lacey A multi-generation Palestinian epic can seem over-explanatory but is redeemed by the morally thorny last act.A multi-generation Palestinian epic can seem over-explanatory but is redeemed by the morally thorny last act.
Posted Jan 30, 2026  Edit critic review
B+
Back to the Past (2025) Alice Shih With a relatively simple sci-fi plot of wisdom and loyalty triumphing over greed and deceit, this genre film is punctuated with humour, martial art fights and a full blast of CG generated military action sequences.
Posted Jan 29, 2026  Edit critic review
A-
The Testament of Ann Lee (2025) Liam Lacey Audacious and eccentric, Mona Fastvold’s musical biography of Shaker leader Ann Lee is undoubtedly impressive though it could benefit from being more about the person rather than the legend.
Posted Jan 29, 2026  Edit critic review
B+
Shelter (2026) Chris Knight A standard action-adventure (assassin saves orphan) is elevated by Statham doing what he does (be gruff and murderous), by stuntman-turned-director Rick Roman Waugh’s viscerally physical style, and by child-in-distress Bodhi Rae Breathnach.

Posted Jan 28, 2026  Edit critic review
B+
Send Help (2026) Thom Ernst A vicious, relentless dark comedy, it takes the well-worn "unlikely duo forced to work together" premise, strips it to the bone—then starts gnawing. The film is a two-hander between McAdams and Brien, and both lean hard into Raimi’s tonal gymnastics.
Posted Jan 28, 2026  Edit critic review
A-
A Private Life (2025) Chris Knight In my notes scrawled at a Toronto International Film Festival screening last fall are the words "only murders in l’arrondissement." And this darkly funny thriller does indeed feel like a French version of the popular TV series.
Posted Jan 22, 2026  Edit critic review
B
Mercy (2026) Thom Ernst A courtroom drama without the courtroom? A futuristic action film featuring precisely one flying vehicle? A cop drama told in semi-real time? Mercy is all of those things—and so much less.
Posted Jan 22, 2026  Edit critic review
B
The Well (2025) Chris Knight The Well is a lesser entry in the Canadian post-apocalyptic sub-genre, but it features lovely dystopian production design and excellent performances, notably Sheila McCarthy playing against type as a quietly menacing despot.
Posted Jan 22, 2026  Edit critic review
B-
Honey Bunch (2025) Jim Slotek There is a point in the first act of Honey Bunch where mood alone suggests you might be watching something that will pay off. Unfortunately, that mood simply sets expectations too high.
Posted Jan 21, 2026  Edit critic review
A-
H Is for Hawk (2025) Kim Hughes This lovely film, which arrives with a sterling pedigree, remains faithful to its source material.
Posted Jan 20, 2026  Edit critic review
A-
Dead Man's Wire (2025) Chris Knight Van Sant mines pre-Internet modern history for gold, with the tale of a 1977 kidnapping of mortgage company executive Richard Hall (Dacre Montgomery). With a great cast (led by Bill Skarsgård) and loads of ’70s music, it’s a helluva ride.

Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
B
SHEEPDOG (2025) Liz Braun Reminder: war is hell. And for veterans and viewers, Sheepdog packs an emotional wallop.
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
B+
The Chronology of Water (2025) Karen Gordon Imogen Poots shines in Kristen Stewart’s impressive directorial debut, a film about a young girl who refuses to let trauma break her. 
Posted Jan 15, 2026  Edit critic review
B+
Yunan (2025) Liam Lacey Downbeat drama about an Arab writer in exile seeking to end his life on a remote island is raised above the conventional by charismatic German star, Hanna Schygulla, and the cinematography of Ronald Plante.
Posted Jan 15, 2026  Edit critic review
A
Sound of Falling (2025) Liam Lacey Schilinski’s film is a bravura example of the unapologetically enigmatic, visionary art film, in a gothic collage of young women’s repressed experiences set against the background of Germany’s brutal 20th century history.
Posted Jan 14, 2026  Edit critic review
B+
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026) Jim Slotek In The Bone Temple, Fiennes' gonzo performance is the feature attraction. It’s not the only story to be told in this continuation of the tale of Spike (Alfie Williams). But without it, this film would be little more than a narrative place holder.
Posted Jan 13, 2026  Edit critic review
Prev Next