TIFF Review: Romain Gavras' Sacrifice is a Pop Satire That Misses the Mark

      It isn’t an exaggeration to state that the environment in which you view a film significantly influences your feelings about it. This was true for Sacrifice, which aims to satirize the ultra-wealthy and the worship of celebrities. However, when screened at the gala world premiere of a film festival, where the audience erupted in cheers for every notable name in the credits, the film felt somewhat disingenuous.

      The film primarily explores the world of the one-percenters through Hollywood actor Mike Tyler (Chris Evans), who is experiencing a downturn in his career following a public breakdown. He seeks redemption by attending a black-tie charity gala in Greece dedicated to climate-change activism. Other attendees include tech mogul Bracken (Vincent Cassel), who insincerely speaks the language of environmentalism while advocating for more resource extraction; his ex-musician wife, Pinault (Salma Hayek); and even Charli XCX, appearing as a pop star who performs the iconic track “Supernature” by Cerrone from Gaspar Noé’s Climax.

      However, the event is disrupted by a youth-led eco-terrorist group helmed by the cold-eyed Scandinavian Joan (Anya Taylor-Joy) and her brother (Yung Lean), who justify their environmentalist goals with folkloric reasoning. Joan insists that Mother Earth has directly instructed her to avert an impending catastrophe by sacrificing three wealthy individuals in a volcano. Struggling with his growing self-loathing—and perhaps sensing a pathway to genuine transcendence in a spirituality-free celebrity landscape—Mike engages with the group, discovering that their delusions may possess deeper significance than initially apparent.

      Anya Taylor-Joy’s portrayal of Joan is captivating and stands out as the film’s strongest aspect; it’s unfortunate that much of the film focuses on Mike’s rather uninspiring journey and Evans’ bland performance. While it’s commendable that Evans is attempting various roles following his Marvel tenure, it’s difficult not to notice a self-awareness that limits him as a compelling actor.

      Behind the scenes, Romain Gavras—a seasoned director known for some of the past decade’s most polished music videos and a few genre-influenced films—displays a keen visual sense, ensuring that Sacrifice is visually appealing throughout. Nevertheless, the film feels surprisingly lacking as a pop satire. The elements of danger, mania, and, importantly, humor never truly materialize. Although it makes a visual nod to the liberation group from Jean-Luc Godard’s Weekend in the eco-terrorists’ costumes, the actual political commentary feels thin and avoids any real edge.

      Ultimately, this may stem from the fact that Sacrifice is fundamentally a fairly traditional redemption story, with its glimpse into celebrity culture serving more as superficial theatrics than a sincere critique. The film ends up being overly sentimental and insufficiently incisive, as it struggles to genuinely critique the world from which it emerges. If there's a sense that it resembles a humorless inside joke, perhaps that's reflective of the grim reality we face: it shies away from making the true sacrifices needed to address the problem.

      Sacrifice had its premiere at TIFF 2025.