Mon: Welcome to a bonus Stereo Geeks episode from Toronto International Film Festival 2026. I’m Mon and today, I’m reviewing The Beloved, which had its North American premiere at TIFF.
Ron: Before we start our episode, we would like to acknowledge that the land we are recording on is the traditional territory of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples. It is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. We also acknowledge that Toronto is covered by Treaty 13 with the Mississaugas of the Credit.
Mon: While we are making this land acknowledgement, we understand that this is not enough and that positive action is required by the people of Canada to make substantive change for the Indigenous nations and communities whose lands we now reside on.
What is the film about?
Mon: In The Beloved, an estranged father and daughter reunite for a film shoot. Emilia (Victoria Luengo) hasn’t seen Esteban (Javier Bardem) in years. But suddenly he reenters her life offering her a big opportunity.
He’s an award-winning film director; she’s a struggling actress. But there’s so much more to their strained relationship—much of which is unspoken, and worse, unheard by the other party.
And that’s just the start of their woes. When the shoot begins, their tense relationship bubbles out and makes the production stressful and at times, unprofessional. How will they survive this production from hell?
What did the film do well?
Mon: The Beloved takes its time. Every sequence is given plenty of screen time to breathe and to submerge the audience in. The opening scene is around 20 minutes long. And it’s integral to lay the groundwork of the central tension. Bardem and Luengo shot the whole thing in one take over 90 minutes. They mixed script dialogue with improvisation. And that was then edited down.
There are lots of other scenes throughout the film that just stay in the moment. Several awkward meetings, for example—moments we’d love to escape from but can’t, just like the characters. There’s a particularly bad shoot day that is filmed over and over with the tension rising. It places the audience in the moment, raising our hackles just like that of the characters involved.
These scenes are made possible by an accomplished performance by Javier Bardem. He is effortless as Esteban. Natural and imposing. He has incredible screen presence and he owns it.
The film also looks incredible. So rich and visually stunning.
What could have been improved?
Mon: Unfortunately, that’s all that’s going for The Beloved. The long sequences deserved long, single takes, without cuts to undermine the emotion of the scene.
The film also has absolutely no gravitas. Things happen. But there’s no tapestry for the story. No interweaving threads.
The synopsis on the TIFF website likens The Beloved to Sentimental Value. Listen, I was surprised at how much I liked Sentimental Value, but there was a reason why. That film found a way to organically explain the dynamics of the characters. And this then made the actions and reactions of the characters plausible.
It doesn’t help that in The Beloved, Bardem is the only one who has any screen presence. The rest of the actors just don’t pop off the screen. In fact, at times I was like who is this actor supposed to be playing? I was so confused.
And well, I’m sure Luengo is a very good actress. But she’s so washed out and vapid in this film. I couldn’t be remotely invested in the character. She also doesn’t really get an arc. Truthfully, there are no arcs.
As I said. Things just happen. They’re contrived and intentionally cringe-y. But not organic. This is the biggest problem with the film.
At the TIFF Q&A, Bardem talked about how men, especially of the generation that Esteban is from, are used to having their way. And he said outright that it is up to men to make that change and support women. That, to him, is the message of the film. Glad he told us, because it was not apparent in the text of the film.
Final thoughts
Mon: Hollywood loves films about filmmaking, but I didn’t exactly mind that The Beloved goes into the technique and logistics of filmmaking. But at the same time it’s trying to tell a broader story—a personal story—of human beings and their relationships with each other. And these are always very complicated. I’m OK with that.
The problem is, I didn't feel like director Rodrigo Sorogoyen was that invested in the human dynamics. Working off a script written by himself and Isabel Peña, The Beloved works best as vignettes rather than a satisfactory tale of complex human relationships. It’s not enough to show us the relationship in action, what’s the point of it all? The cinematography is striking, but with only Bardem’s performance to grab our attention, The Beloved misses the mark at being an immersive and powerful human tale.
Mon: That’s it for this bonus review episode of The Beloved. Tune in next time for another TIFF 2026 review.
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Mon: See you next time.