2025 Toronto International Film Festival Reviews: ‘The Fence,’ ‘Fuze,’ ‘Good Fortune’
In this review roundup out of the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, three films from across the world, over three different genres, explore similar issues of male insecurities, backstabbing, profound inner looks at one’s life and if they can change before it’s too late. From acclaimed director Claire Denis taking us to West Africa, to director David Mackenzie causing chaos on the streets of London, to first time feature filmmaker Aziz Ansari dropping us into to the comic world of Los Angeles, each of these films here represent a look at the struggles of the modern men in larger than life circumstances of their own creation, with varying degrees of seriousness.
The Fence (Dir. Claire Denis)
In the opening sequence of Claire Denis’ latest cultural examination thriller, we see a palm leaf being placed on a pile of red dirt, signaling the burial of someone who recently passed away. It’s a quiet, patient ritual, a process not uncommon in West Africa but is different because this was no ordinary death, as an accident occurred at a work site involving a worker and his supervisor having a conversation that went haywire, causing the boss’ to kill the worker by shooting him with his gun. With this, The Fence has its launching point as – we see Alboury (Isaach de Bankolé) arrive in the middle of the night to the construction site where his brother was killed so he could bring home the body to his family and have the burial we see in the opening frames of the film. When he arrives, he’s met with hostility by Horn (Matt Dillion), the foreman of the construction site, as well as the spokesman for the company in charge of the site, who is about to sell the site to a Chinese company and take over the operations side of things. The two men get into a polite yet increasing tense conversation about giving over the body. For Alboury, he’s firm in his stance in wanting the body back while Horn is reluctant, and wants to come to some sort of cash deal in order to bypass this whole incident given the supervisor that shot Alboury’s brother is Cal (Tom Blyth), Horn’s second in command and someone who’s had the kids back for a long time. It’s a standstill of epic proportions, as one man won’t budge and the other’s guilt and frustration starts boiling to the top with every offer of getting Alboury away from the fence and the site overall.
Based on the play Black Battles With Dogs by Bernard-Marie Koltès, Denis deeply examines the racial root of this act of violence with precision and understanding, having empathy for Alboury’s request while showcasing the lengths white men will go in order to make a situation worse than it already was before. Dillion and de Bankolé give fine work as two opposing views colliding with one another until one has to cave, reaching their breaking point with the other so they can both somehow put this tragedy behind them. But it’s Blyth’s Cal that steals the show, as an angry, aggressive, pathetic shell of a man who is unwilling to face his fears and accept what he did by pulling that trigger. In a dinner scene where he controls Dillion’s Horn, he spills his heart out to his longtime friend and mentor about how unfair all of this seems, and within that desperation lies the best work of Blyth’s promising young career (side note: Blyth kills it wearing a tuxedo in this scene, maybe a future look as a certain famous secret agent? You never know). While the three men are the focus of most of this story, there is a very weak side character of Leonie (Mia McKenna-Bruce), Horn’s new wife and has the eye of young Cal from the moment he picks her up at the airport. If Denis, alongside her co-writers Suzanne Lindon and Andrew Litvack could’ve found a way to make this character in any way as compelling, or even necessary to the film, then this would’ve been a special new entry into Denis’ acclaimed filmography. Instead, it’s a perfectly handsome thriller that is cut short of being something great.
Grade: B
This review is from the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival where The Fence had its world premiere. There is no U.S. distribution at this time.
Fuze (Dir David Mackenzie)
It’s a peaceful day on the streets of London, traffic is moving at a good pace, people are going about their lives without a care in the world. As Chief Superintendent Zuzana (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is taking on her shift as supervisor of the London Police Department, her team gets a call that an unexploded WWII bomb had been discovered at a construction site in the center of town. She deploys the military bomb squad to investigate, and if there is an explosive, to defuse the bomb. Enter Major Will Tranter (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), one of the best leaders the London military bomb squad has that doesn’t always like to follow protocol when conducting his work. As Tranter’s team is discovering the bomb, which has an active timer that could go off anytime within the next 48 hours, and Zuzana and the police are clearing the surrounding area, a group men lead by Karalis (Theo James) and X (Sam Worthington) are waiting for the right moment to strike, as the city is about to cut the power, and they are about to rob a bomb containing uncut diamonds worth more than 90 million dollars. Screenwriter Ben Hopkins is able to work well alongside Mackenzie in the first half of the film to build tension, as Matt Mayer’s tense editing cuts back and forth to each of the three storylines effortlessly, raising the drama with each second as we get closer and closer to the bomb going off and the heist’s completion.
The problem with Fuze isn’t the first half of the film but rather everything in the second half, when the movie decides it wants to be six movies all at once, and can’t decide which one it wants to be. Between there being around five to six twists in the matter of forty minutes of screen time, characters connecting to each other for no reason other than “hey, wouldn’t that be cool,” Fuze takes what was a promising thriller and transforms into a nothing-burger heist film that is so convoluted, it gives you a flash back sequence to explain its messy ending, only for the film to conclude shortly after it. It’s like if David Mackenzie turned The Hurt Locker into a Guy Ritchie movie within the span of an hour and a half, with characters like Zuzana and others abandoned for the sake of a “fun” ending. Alongside Mbatha-Raw, James and Worthington are wasted in this film, with Taylor-Johnson being the only one that comes out of this movie looking good, both in terms of him having a fleshed out character that you can understand his motivations and inner conflicts in the decisions he makes at the end of the movie, as well as just physically looking good as well (saw this movie in the IMAX, and people, the views did not disappoint). Fuze will no doubt a streaming hit (the easiest comparisons many were making after my screening was Carry On) if someone picks it up, but it will more likely become the film your Dad will try recommend to you in about six months to a year to check out, and you’ll look at them and say “is that even a real movie?” That’s how forgettable and disappointing this film is.
Grade: D
This review is from the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival where Fuze had its world premiere. There is no U.S. distribution at this time.
Good Fortune (Dir. Aziz Ansari)
Don’t you wish some times that you had a better life than the one you have right now? That’s the dilemma Arj (Aziz Ansari) in Good Fortune is faced with as he is turning himself upside down to work two dead-in jobs to make enough money to just live in his car in abandoned parking lots in the greater Los Angeles area. His latest chance at getting a career going was working as an assistant for Jeff (Seth Rogan), a wealthy businessman for whom trust Arj to take care of everything for him, only for Arj to use his company credit card on a date with Elena (Keke Palmer) when Jeff tells him to take her somewhere nicer than just for street tacos. So when Jeff fires him, Arj wants to end his life, leaving him as “lost soul” in the eyes of his guardian angel named Gabriel (Keanu Reeves) and in need of rescuing. But Gabriel is more of a “budget” angel as he mostly deals with saving people from crashing their cars while texting and driving (one of the better early gags in the film), and when Arj hears this, he gets even sadder, as his life seems meaningless to him at this point. In a not so brilliant move (but one that moves the plot forward), Gabriel switches Arj life with Jeff’s life so each can experience what it is like in the other person’s shoes, ala the comedy classic Trading Places. The problem is, when Jeff wants to switch back, Arj refuses to do so, causing Gabriel to lose his wings for doing such a “miscalculated” act in the eyes of the other angels, led by Martha (Sandra Oh), and must find a way to live like a human till Arj changes his mind and everything is back to normal.
It’s a convoluted comedic plot we’ve heard and seen before plenty of times, but that’s not the issue with Good Fortune, nor is the commentary on consumerism, capitalism, AI driven jobs, finding happiness within your life, or embracing the little things; all of that is fine. The problem with Ansari’s first feature directorial film is that it’s barely funny at all and suffers for the lack of humor that’s needed from a major studio comedy. Ansari and Rogen are two of the funniest people on the planet and yet, their performances invite crickets to chirp as they try to get through the lackluster material Ansari provided for them. Besides a minor yet touching performance from Palmer, the only actor to land significant, hilarious moments consistently throughout the film was Reeves, who’s childlike persona as Gabriel is matched by the smooth, sad reality the character faces in the back half of the film when he has to get a job washing dishes, or when he eats a food for the first time and asks “how long do you need to chew before you know you’re done?” Reeves is no stranger to comedy as he was hilarious in a small role in Always Be My Maybe, and isn’t the first actor turned action star to star in a comedy this year as Liam Neeson crushed his performance in The Naked Gun reboot. But unlike that film, where ten jokes are happening every minute, Good Fortune is a one trick pony that sadly doesn’t reach the heights of the comedies that inspired it, nor even the standards for the talent attached to it.
Grade: C-
This review is from the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival where Good Fortune had its world premiere. Lionsgate will release the film theatrically in the U.S. on October 17.
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