TIFF 2026: Our Review of ‘The Remotes’

Posted in Movies, TIFF 2026 by - September 12, 2026
TIFF 2026: Our Review of ‘The Remotes’

Let’s face it, reckless drivers are not only a danger to themselves, but a danger to society as well. With their actions, they cause accidents and death across every city in the world. What if an app existed that could help retrain these drivers? Should we force them to use this app for everyone’s safety? And what if this app had an agenda of its own? Filipino director John Torres takes a look at a society that has such an app, and the consequences of using that app in The Remotes.

Detective Mijares is grieving the death of his wife, but he doesn’t allow that to stop him from investigating a series of road accidents. These accidents involve previous offenders, who have all used the same app to improve their driving. The crash scenes however are all bizarre, each raising more questions about the effectiveness of the app. His investigation leads him to sisters Eva and Gill Cantero, leading to a mystery that asks if this ubiquitous app is unexpectedly controlling drivers.

The first thing that strikes you about The Remotes is how dark everything looks. While the film does take place at night, and during rain a lot of times, that doesn’t mean the film has to be as dark as it is. The Remotes will have an audience, but unfortunately it will be a small one. It doesn’t really offer anything new, and comes off as a wannabe artistic movie instead of truly offering anything truly unique.

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While Roderick has only been writing movie reviews for a relatively short time, he's been a fan of film for as long as he can remember. It's a love affair that started when he saw Star Wars at a drive-in theatre in Kitchener when he was four years old. In the past decade he's fulfilled his dream of interviewing celebrities, attending red carpets events at festivals such as TIFF and writing reviews for outlets such as Realstylenetwork.com. He's always on the hunt for the next big thing to hit the screen.
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