TIFF 2026 Film Review: All That She Wants – “The screenplay is smart and feels refreshing.”

Courtesy of TIFF

Torontonians LOVE a movie that is set in Toronto.  Look at the 2013 festival darling The F Word, and the recent success of Nirvanna the Band, the Show, the Movie which was the talk of the town. So while we will have to make some concessions with the fact the school in this film isn’t called the University of Toronto, one glimpse of the CN Tower makes it clear All That She Wants is set on our streets.  It also cements Canadian Annie Murphy as a new queen of rom-com.

At the film’s beginning, Emma (Murphy) is filming a panty-liner commercial.  She seems to be channelling her inner Alexis from her successful run on Schitt’s Creek, but don’t worry, Murphy isn’t re-treading her popular character.  Instead, Murphy plays a dancer, stuck in a relationship where her boyfriend has called all the shots and she realizes that she isn’t really where she wants to be in life.  She leaves that condescending man, and looking for a chance to move on, she goes to the club with her sister (Zosia Mamet) and ends up running into Luke (Cooper Raiff).  He’s funny and cute and… lives in a dorm? He’s in grad school but the age difference isn’t lost on Emma.  But for one night, what does it matter?

That is, until the next morning when she realizes that Luke is ‘Little Lukey’ the boy she used to babysit when she was younger.  The reveal is pretty great, but it doesn’t really bother Luke at all.  He seems transfixed with Emma, and their easy way about one another.  They are a little on again, off again with Luke being patient (perhaps frustratingly so) as Emma dictates the terms of their relationship and tries to grapple with their age difference.  Emma finds Luke amazing, but doesn’t want to take up his 20’s, a time she really missed out on in her previous long-term relationship.  But Emma does eventually feel her biological clock ticking and decides she really wants to be a mom.  After striking out at many sperm banks, she realizes she may already know the perfect donor.  Unless their relationship really is something more.

For rom-coms a lot of what makes them hit or miss is dependent on casting.  If you can’t root for the main couple your film is sunk.  So co-directors Scarlett Bermingham and Andrew Rhymer were fortunate to land the charismatic duo of Murphy and Raiff. Screenwriter David West Read was a producer and writer on Schitt’s Creek, so Murphy may have been an obvious pick.  And she’s fantastic here, the dialogue fast paced and funny, suiting her delivery.  She’s matched beat for beat by Raiff who was in 2022’s Sundance charmer Cha Cha Real Smooth (streaming on Apple+ and highly recommend).  Funnily enough, in that film his character also falls in love with a (slightly) older woman, played by Dakota Johnson.  Perhaps he’s created a bit of a niche for himself.  If so, he’s welcome to inhabit it, as he is so strangely magnetic and enchanting on screen.  I can’t even pinpoint why but you can’t help but be charmed by him.  He’s not your typical leading man, but perhaps he should be. The supporting cast also includes the always wonderful Christine Baranski as Emma’s mother.  Her father is played by the affable Bill Irwin, who has a sweet little dance number in the film, which will be a delight for many.

The screenplay is smart and feels refreshing even if you know where things are going.  The wheel doesn’t need to be reinvented, you just need a different spin on it, and that’s what the filmmakers deliver.  There’s something to be said for a film that is exactly as advertised.  All That She Wants hits a lot of the typical rom-com tropes but it does it with some much charm and sincerity that it’s apt to have you smiling ear to ear for the duration of the film.

All That She Wants had its world premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival Sunday, September 13th.  For more information head to tiff.net.