TIFF 2025 Review: Dinner with Friends

Eight longtime friends get together to discuss their lives over a series of intermit dinner parties.

Reviving the dinner party tradition with six of their closest friends are married couple Joy (Tattiawna Jones) and Malachi (Alex Spencer), with the main course being what is going on with their lives, which usually results in some guests being unhappy.  Personal turmoil is the only constant, as some relationships blossom while others are falling apart and threatening to unravel not just the gatherings but the friendships.

Check out all of our TIFF coverageTitle cards making good use of texting and a spinning date are a great, simple and effective way to transition between the different dinner parties.  The action does shift into various rooms and sometimes even outdoors, thereby avoiding a stage play feeling to the proceedings.  The conversations have a natural flow, though one wonders, given the constant commentary, snide remarks, and withholding of information, how do friendships endure in the first place?  There is an arc that develops for the couples, with each getting their own screentime, though the central relationship is the ups and downs associated with the Joy and Malachi as the former does not really live up to her name.

The acting is solid and the handheld approach certainly gives the viewer a seat at the dinner table, on the couch or in the backseat.  An interesting shot features a camera spinning around the table a couple of times focusing on each actor, which would have been hellish to choreograph but works dramatically.  Everything comes together at the final dinner party, where all of the themes are spelt out and a stolen inflatable Santa Claus adds much-needed levity and the sole action sequence, which allows for a nice change of pace and tone.

The 50th Toronto International Film Festival runs September 4-14, 2025, and for more information visit tiff.net.    

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada; he can be found at LinkedIn.

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