Rating: R | Country: Canada | Languages: English | Year: 2026 // Description: "Jay Baruchel and director Michael Dowse (FUBAR, It's All Gone Pete Tong) re-team for a raucous yet heartfelt comedy about a Canadian stuntman who dared to dream big and fly (very) high. Even when compared with his fellow mavericks, misfits, and adrenaline junkies who wowed audiences with their high-speed stunts during the 1970s golden age of daredevils, Ken Carter was one of a kind. Known as “The Mad Canadian” and immortalized in Robert Fortier’s 1981 NFB documentary The Devil At Your Heels — a film whose creation is very much woven into this successor’s gonzo tapestry — Carter repeatedly risked his life for a series of car stunts that culminated in the most ambitious project of all: a historic jump in a rocket-powered Lincoln Continental across a mile-wide expanse of the St. Lawrence River. What could go wrong? In short: everything.

Powered by Jay Baruchel’s all-out performance as the man behind the wheel, Michael Dowse’s endearingly scrappy comedy honours its inspiration by portraying all the steps and missteps over the course of Carter’s years-long quest. The fact that The Stunt Driver frequently matches the anarchic energy of Baruchel and Dowse’s previous teaming on Goon (TIFF ’11) is no surprise. What’s more unexpected is the poignancy that the actor brings to his take on a man whose displays of bravado conceal a welter of fears and insecurities. It’s easy to see why he relies on steadfast allies like his wife Gloria (Laurence Leboeuf) and his car designer and technician Dick Keller (Ed Helms) — and why he’s so easily undermined by the machinations of his American nemesis, the legendary Evel Knievel (Ben Foster).

All this makes for a thoroughly mad and Canadian mostly-true-life tale that will reintroduce a new generation of viewers to Carter’s wild story and his reckless determination to tell the laws of gravity to shove it. - Jason Anderson, TIFF"