Tina Kakadelis
Lindsay Lanzillotta is a career producer who has worked on Karyn Kusama’s underrated The Invitation, the vérité documentary Cusp, and more over the past twenty years. With the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival world-premiering Purgatory, Lanzillotta is still a producer, but she also makes her debut as a director. In the post-screening Q&A, Lanzillotta emphasized that she wanted to make this production as Canadian as possible, a goal she wholly succeeds at. Lanzillotta developed the script for Purgatory alongside Christine Speer, who has the sole screenwriting credit, and together they’ve crafted a story of adolescent drama, joy, and family.
Set in the 1980s, Purgatory is a dramedy about a family in the throes of divorce. Sisters Beatrice (Ruby McGurrin) and Chloe (Lauren MacRae) head off to a month-long summer camp, only to return to news of their parents’ (Abby Elliott & John Reynolds) divorce. As the older sibling, Beatrice assures Chloe that she will get their parents back together using The Parent Trap as an almost sacred text to guide her. When the school year starts, the tension in the family rises as they all try to find some new definition of normal.
The separation of parents is often difficult for a child to comprehend. They don’t understand how the people who have been with them all their lives suddenly need space and time away. Beatrice and Chloe’s mom, Marianne, tells them she got married too young and needs to figure out who she is as a person. That makes no sense to the sisters. How could this person, who seemingly knows all, not even know herself? They take it personally. It’s a fundamental upending of one of the pillars of their existence. While Chloe is a little too young to have this change send her into a full crisis, Beatrice questions everything.
The Gravel family is Catholic, and Beatrice is fastidious about her confessions with Father Malone (J.K. Simmons). When all the other adults in her life have let her down, Beatrice relies on Father Malone to help her understand their actions. He won’t lie to her and she won’t to him. The scenes between these two are some of the funniest and most gentle moments of the movie. Father Malone doesn’t talk down to Beatrice or try to sugarcoat things, and it’s clear she deeply respects that. She knows things in her life are scary and unstable, but her parents’ platitudes don’t help. The only way she can find stability is in truth. Maybe that honesty from Father Malone will lead her further away from Catholicism because he’s unwilling to lie about the limits of religious beliefs, but the respect she holds for him trumps that.
Purgatory exists in the same sweetly biting world of adolescence that movies like Eighth Grade, Didi, and Lady Bird capture so magnificently. The teenage years are awful. They’re filled to the brim with emotion that will never be felt the same way again. It’s everything and nothing all at once in the beautiful contradiction of youth. Purgatory’s dry humor will make you smile through tears as you watch a young girl come into her own. McGurrin makes her feature film debut in Purgatory, but handles it so nimbly that it’s impossible to know. Her Beatrice is fiercely loyal to those she loves, which is why news of her parents’ divorce rattles her so deeply. Her genuine inquisitive nature about Catholicism, adulthood, and friendships allows Purgatory to capture the true essence of coming-of-age movies. It’s never been about the big issues, like divorce or a new school year. This genre is really about kids learning that adults, as together as they may seem, do not have all the answers. It’s both a jarring revelation and a reassurance for young people. Purgatory may be named for a place no one wants to find themself, but Lanzillotta’s directing and Speer’s script sure make it a nice place to visit.
