Closing Night Review: TIFF Premiere Misfires Despite Star Cast — SkimNews
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- Closing Night, Cody Fern's directorial debut co-written with Devon Bostick, premiered at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival and is currently seeking U.S. distribution
- The film assembles an "enviable" cast including Sarah Paulson, Naomi Watts, Dianne Wiest, Odessa A'zion, and Toby Wallace, yet the review calls it a "brain-breaker of a misfired melodrama"
- Toby Wallace is singled out for delivering "the film's only well-calibrated performance" as Theo, the only family member excited about the reunion
- The review criticizes Fern's direction as lacking focus, noting the melodrama starts "darkly amusing" before "plunging headlong into soap opera-style twists" and heavy depression
- Plot details paint a chaotic picture: Sandra invites estranged family to her Broadway "Mother Courage" opening, sister April rips up the invitation in her Michigan hotel room, and mother Diane refuses to attend
- Specific flaws called out include Sandra having no staff for a world-famous actress, April's kleptomania "mentioned only once" to drive plot, and Wiest's character being a "miserable drunk" constantly clutching a vodka bottle
Why it matters: A TIFF premiere with Paulson, Watts, and Wiest attached should have been a distribution shoo-in, but the review's consensus — tonal incoherence, a miscast director, and stars unable to rescue the material — explains why the film is still hunting a U.S. buyer. For distributors, the takeaway is that festival pedigrees and name-brand casts don't guarantee commercial viability when reviews this brutal surface.
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