
Radheyan Simonpillai
Radheyan Simonpillai is the pop culture columnist for CBC Syndicated Radio and film critic for CTV's Your Morning and CTV News Channel. Formerly the editor of Toronto's NOW Magazine, Rad currently contributes to The Guardian, CBC Arts and more.
Latest from Radheyan Simonpillai

Gen Z TikTok star Jack Innanen tackles generational tension head on in Adults
Toronto-born viral sensation makes his TV debut in new FX series about a group of 20-something New Yorkers trying to figure out adult life

Canadian Film
It's the end of the world and Sudbury, Ontario is 'the last romantic city left on earth'
Peak Everything (Amour Apocalypse) may be the French-Canadian answer to Punch-Drunk Love — a romantic comedy about a Quebec/Ontario love affair with a unique point of view on national unity. We spoke to director Anne Émond at the Cannes Film Festival 2025.

Canadian Film
'I wanted to make an October crisis film meets Alice in Wonderland'
Death Does Not Exist is a richly-animated film from Quebec appearing at Cannes 2025. We talked to the director Félix Dufour-Laperrière about the paradox of political violence and the unbearableness of reality.

Killer filmmaking: Meet the Vancouver-based duo who made the new Final Destination 'a classier affair'
The filmmakers behind Final Destination: Bloodlines, Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, tell us about embracing death and cinematic details

Canadian Film
A dystopian animated short featuring Jay Baruchel leads Canadian films at Cannes
Jay Baruchel and Alex Boya tell us about Bread Will Walk, their nihilist fairy tale for the climate emergency era, one of a handful of Canadian films at Cannes Film Festival 2025 dealing with darker themes.

Sarah Polley is back on camera — and doing slapstick — thanks to Seth Rogen
The Oscar-winning Canadian filmmaker on her return to acting in Rogen’s new comedy series now on Apple TV+

His mom's in every date movie. Now, Jack Quaid stars in the anti-Valentine
The actor best known for The Boys leads the new film Companion, an AI horror that stabs at the heart of rom-com tropes.

Brady Corbet's The Brutalist has grand ambitions, but The Master it is not
The sweeping post-war drama has garnered comparisons to the work of Paul Thomas Anderson and Francis Ford Coppola. Critic Radheyan Simonpillai interviews the buzzy film's director about vision and influence.

Babygirl revives the erotic thriller for a new generation
Director Halina Reijn discusses bringing her ‘darker fantasies’ to the screen in the era after #MeToo. The Dutch filmmaker's steamy new psychological drama starring Nicole Kidman is out on Christmas.

Colman Domingo and Clement Virgo unpack their new paranoid political thriller series
The actor and director discuss their their new Netflix show The Madness and the big questions it asks about the extreme division of the present moment.