ed helms – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

SMUDGE THE BLADES (TIFF 2026) – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

September 22, 2026September 23, 2026 Valerie Kalfrin Best Canadian Discovery Award, Cody Lightning, ed helms, Edmonton City League, Jana Schmieding, Samuel Miller, Smudge the Blades, TIFF 2026, toronto international film festival, Treaty 6 Blades

Smudge the Blades, which earned writer-director Cody Lightning a “Best Canadian Discovery” award from the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival, is not the type of sports film where the down-on-his-luck coach gets a second chance, inspiring a team of scrappy underdogs in the process. Rather, it’s about finding a precious space that validates one’s worth, even if no one calls it that. Smudge the Blades builds to a championship hockey game, but it’s down-to-earth in its ambivalence about what happens to the teams afterward. There’s more to life for a lot of these people than hockey, but hockey also is a haven, offering seconds of glory but often just a way to fight through everything else.

Reviews

TOGETHER TOGETHER – Review by Martha K Baker

April 23, 2021April 23, 2021 Martha K. Baker (Archived Contributor) anna phillips, ed helms, Movie of the Week, mtow, Nikole Beckwith, together together

Ed Helms hauls his silly reputation from The Daily Show and Hangover to where’er he appears to act. When you see his name leading the cast, you expect a film of fluff. Major fluff. Plus naughty bits. But Together Together offers more, surprisingly and subtly, under Nikole Beckwith’s writing and directing. Helms plays Matt, a technician in his forties who wants a family. Matt hires Anna to be his gestational surrogate. Played so very well by Patti Harrison, Anna is in her 20s and nobody’s fool. She can use the money. She’s had one child, a teen-ager’s oopsie, so she’s not new to this pregnancy routine, but she is new to Matt.

Movie of the Week Reviews

MOVIE OF THE WEEK April 23, 2021: TOGETHER TOGETHER

April 18, 2021April 23, 2021 Jennifer Merin betsy bozdech, Cate Marquis, ed helms, jennifer merin, leslie combemale, liz whittemore, loren king, Marilyn Ferdinand., marina antunes, motw, Movie of the Week, nell minow, Nikole Beckwith, Pam Grady, patti harrison, sandie angulo chen, sherin nicole, surrogate mother, susan wloszczyna, together together

The romantic comedy gets a power up in Nikole Beckwith’s effortlessly charming Together Together. Ed Helms is surprisingly lovable and charming as Matt, a single 40-something ready to take the next step in his life: fatherhood. Rather than keep searching for the perfect someone, he opts to go at it alone with the help of a surrogate. Enter Anna, Patti Harrison, a young woman looking to get her life back on tack and she sees surrogacy as a way to get there. What begins as a transactional relationship soon turns into a beautiful and all too real story of friendship and sacrifice. Beckwith’s script is smart and often drifts into too-close-for-comfort reality and its gorgeously brought to life by Helms and Harrison.

Reviews

TOGETHER TOGETHER – Review by Susan Wloszczyna

April 12, 2021April 18, 2021 Susan Wloszczyna ed helms, motw, Movie of the Week, Nikole Beckwith, Pam Grady, patti harrison, surrogate mother, together together

Think of Nikole Beckwith’s rather off-beat and charming maternity comedy Together Together as Knocked Up for the enlightened era of wokeness. Instead of two strangers whose drunken one-night stand ends in a pregnancy, we are presented with what is known as a gestational surrogate who agrees to carry a single 40-something man’s baby so that she can finally afford to attend college.

Festivals Reviews

TOGETHER TOGETHER (Sundance2021) – Review by Leslie Combemale

January 29, 2021April 18, 2021 Leslie Combemale ed helms, Nikole Beckwith, patti harrison, Sundance Film Festival 2021, together together

Together Together is the kind of love story to which anyone who has ever had a baby, a friend, or felt alone can relate. Platonic love can be every bit as powerful as any other we feel as we humans go through our lives. Watching it through the lens of the pandemic, especially for those experiencing it as a single person living alone, will be a balm to film lovers who seek this surrogacy dramedy out.