TIFF 2026: HALF

 

    If you’re looking for a cinematic experience like no other, a film that is more than likely to feel like you’re holding your breath for 90-minutes straight, HALF may be just the thing you need in your life right now. Seriously entertaining and inspired by golden age action cinema (with a touch of Raid 2 for extra style), HALF often feels like a chemical adrenaline rush more than it does a high concept narrative. 

Rumours were floating around all day before the midnight showing— at one point, I even heard a whisper that this was going to be a full blown, classically stylized vampire romp. While that is not entirely untrue, it would be foolish to sell the core meat and potatoes of the movie like that. It’s a narrative instigator that is more akin to Sisu than deep, fantastical lore, and this mode works to Samjad’s advantage heavily. As, just like a lot of the greatest movies in its genre, it validates its stakes without bogging down and writing itself into a corner with hypocritical rules; who needs rules when you’re running off of intense fight spectacles and seriously gnarly action scenes? 

Ranjith Sajeev and Aiswarya Raj have ping-pong chemistry that works like gangbusters. The emotion of their relationship can be deeply felt almost instantly, and Samjad wastes no time before allowing his narrative template to crank every imaginable knob relating to style, gratuity, and flat-out outlandishness all the way to 11, in a truly midnight-natured vein. No matter how whacky the movie gets within its sense of style, it always takes the main sibling relationship as seriously as frostbite. 

Samjad P S’ vision is singular and cutthroat; it divides the grand scheme of contemporary (and classic) action movies like a pie, and proudly ingests every piece for the viewing audience to see; it wears its influences on its sleeves (once again, we’re looking at Raid 2 and the work of Gareth Evans heavily here), but never feels negatively indebted to these ideas. Instead, it uses them as a jumping board to create a lightning-fast and just-as-electric rollercoaster. It’s all gas, no brakes, and is the perfect movie to show a room full of friends just after midnight (nevermind 1200+ people at the Royal Alexandra Theatre). 

It’s a film that will more than likely have words failing you, if you dare attempt to describe the ambitious and adrenaline filled narrative to another person (you’re bound to miss a stylistic branch that is destined to be somebody’s selling point; there’s too much to love here). So, the best thing you can do (or, the very least you can do) is tell everybody— friends, family and strangers alike: “Go see HALF!”

Written by: Ben Scanga