GENRE | Dave Franco and O'Shea Jackson Jr. Act Like 'Idiots'

"So, you're like The Transporter?"

Independent Film Company / VVS Films

Independent filmmaker and character actor Macon Blair writes and directs the aptly titled slacker road trip comedy, Idiots (originally titled The Sh*theads). Starring a degenerate Dave Franco (also a producer) and devout O'Shea Jackson Jr. as shady transport service co-workers and Mason Thames as the zonked-out, devilish rich kid addict they must forcibly escort to rehab, the film sticks to the usual The Hangover formula on its predictable things-go-wrong detour of a destination mission (think The Last Detail).

REEL | Willem Dafoe Waxes on 'Late Fame' in Life x SIFF 2026

"You must have been beautiful when you were young."

Magnolia Pictures / Vortex Media

Late Fame, based on Austrian dramatist Arthur Schnitzler's posthumous 1895 novella (translated and published in 2014) of the same name, is directed by New York film critic and programmer turned independent filmmaker Kent Jones and stars Willem Dafoe as an unknown, long-lost poet who, as the title suggests, experiences a bit of late-in-life interest and newfound resurgence in his previously published works within a privileged but affluent circle of wealthy, post-graduate literary admirers in present-day Manhattan.

REEL | Anne Hathaway Transports 'The End of Oak Street'

"Is that a f*cking dinosaur?"

Warner Bros. Pictures / Bad Robot

Genre filmmaker David Robert Mitchell and producer J.J. Abrams team up for the sci-fi survivalist film, The End of Oak Street. When an ordinary suburban family of four (Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, Maisy Stella, and Christian Convery) and their entire neighbourhood block in 1982 get cosmically transported back to prehistoric times, they must figure out what's going on while dodging ravenous dinosaurs.

REEL | 'Tony' (the Chef the Book the Movie) Tracks A Young Bourdain

"But I like you. You're the sin eater."

A24 Films

Toronto native Matt Johnson directs Dominic Sessa as the beloved chef, bestselling author, and travel host Anthony Bourdain in Tony, based on his formative experiences working at a Cape Cod seafood restaurant during the summer of 1975. As outlined in the memorable early chapters of his 2000 memoir Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, the film tracks the angry young cook longing to become a real "writer" (whatever that means) without having written anything or really experienced life at all at age nineteen.

GENRE | Slashing 'Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma' x Fantasia 2026

"Ride and take your revenge!"

Mubi / Plan B Entertainment

Talented trans filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun continues their intriguing horror genre-bending cinematic work in the teen slasher riff tribute, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. Set at an eerie campground (shot on Vancouver Island) in the woods à la Friday the 13th or Sleepaway Camp, the film has a meta-narrative about a young female indie director (Hannah Einbinder) remaking a niche but transphobic 1980s horror film franchise with its original but now reclusive former scream queen final girl lead actress (Gillian Anderson).

REEL | Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner Purge 'One Night Only'

"Maybe the fascists were right about this one."

Universal Pictures / Olive Bridge Entertainment

One Night Only, director Will Gluck's unusually authoritarian-tinged romantic comedy about a world where premarital sex is outlawed except for a single night a year, is clearly inspired by The Purge's dystopian horror premise. It stars Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner in an entirely charming romantic pairing, as two attractive New Yorkers looking to hook up on the only night they are legally allowed to.

REEL | Tom Holland Resets the Emotional 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day'

"Enough of this soft-serve bullsh*t!"

Sony Pictures / Marvel Studios

Spider-Man: Brand New Day refreshes Tom Holland's enthusiastic interpretation of the webslinger superhero in the current Marvel Cinematic Universe canon and continuity. Led by the talented Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton this time around, we find a lonely Peter Parker struggling with his powers after the multiverse-changing events of No Way Home.

REEL | Olivia Wilde Teases Gen Z – 'I Want Your Sex' x SIFF 2026

"You're a sexual astronaut just exploring the outer limits of experience."

Magnolia Pictures / Elevation Pictures

I Want Your Sex, provocative New Queer Cinema pioneer and Teenage Apocalypse trilogy director Gregg Araki's highly sexual but lo-fi erotic comedy, co-written with sex columnist Karley Sciortino of Slutever fame, is another intriguing exploration of young adulthood through acts of intimacy and explicit desire.

SCREEN | Jake Johnson Slams 'The Dink' on Apple TV

"When you piss off the Hammer, everyone's a nail."

Apple Original Films / Rivulet Entertainment

Funny everyman Jake Johnson (also a producer) stars as a cantankerous and washed-up former tennis pro turned reluctant pickleballer, Dusty Boyd aka "the Hammer," in the formulaic but appealing sports comedy, The Dink. Produced by and co-starring Ben Stiller, director Josh Greenbaum focuses on the basic athletic aspects of the film's humour to mine its well-worn material clearly inspired by the similarly themed Dodgeball movie that Stiller also appeared in and produced.