Sheila McCarthy Archives

Review: ‘All the Lost Ones,’ starring Jasmine Mathews, Douglas Smith, Vinessa Antoine, Lochlyn Munro, Matthew Finlan, Anthony Grant, Sheila McCarthy and Devon Sawa

May 22, 2025

by Carla Hay

Douglas Smith, Jasmine Mathews and Vinessa Antoine in “All the Lost Ones” (Photo courtesy of Epic Pictures)

Directed by Mackenzie Donaldson

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in the United States, the dramatic film “All the Lost Ones” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some black people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A group of left-wing, racially diverse environmentalists fight for survival during an apocalypse in which a right-wing, white-supremacist militia group has taken over the northeast part of the nation.

Culture Audience: “All the Lost Ones” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in apocalyptic movies, no matter how ridiculous the stories are.

Jasmine Mathews in “All the Lost Ones” (Photo courtesy of Epic Pictures)

“All the Lost Ones” is the title of this frustrating movie but could also describe the plot points that lose their way. This apocalyptic drama, which takes place during an environmental crisis, is a mess of contradictions, plot holes and hokey acting. “All the Lost Ones” is certainly not the only movie about people on opposite sides of the political spectrum who battle for survival and control during an apocalypse. The problem with “All the Lost Ones” is that the movie sets up this intriguing concept, but then constantly sidelines and undermines it with nonsensical action scenes, corny dialogue and sloppy film editing.

Directed by Mackenzie Donaldson, “All the Lost Ones” was written by Anthony Grant and Cheryl Meyer. The movie seems to have the intention of being a provocative commentary on what can happen when people are dealing with not only a climate-change apocalypse but also a civil war. However, the reasons for the sociopolitical divides are ultimately superficial gimmicks that come and go in the story. Most of “All the Lost Ones” consists of poorly staged chase scenes and a mopey pregnant woman wondering why people who are close to her keep dying.

“All the Lost Ones” takes place in an unspecified 21st century period of time in an unnamed city in United States. The movie was actually filmed in Canada, in the Ontario cities of North Bay and Mattawa. The crisis depicted in “All the Lost Ones” wants to trigger images and memories of how the COVID-19 pandemic spawned political battles over wearing masks and getting vaccines. But so much of the crisis in “All the Lost Ones” gets lost in the shuffle of distracting subplots and baffling erasures of crucial things that would be at the forefront of people’s minds if they’re trying to survive the apocalypse that’s described in the movie.

The beginning of “All the Lost Ones” shows a news montage reporting that thousands of people have died from contaminated tap water. Protestors (most of whom are left-wing liberals) who want the controversial Clean Water Bill to be passed into law have occupied the U.S. Capitol building. A right-wing militia group called the United Conservancy opposes the bill because the United Conservancy says that the Clean Water Bill violates people’s right to choose what type of water they want to drink.

The death toll rises. A caption on screen reads, “Six months later, the United Conservancy has occupied a large portion of the North Eastern Seaboard. Groups of civilians find themselves in hiding, torn between two sides of a civil war.” “All the Lost Ones” gives no explanation for how a fringe militia group was able to invade and take over the northeast part of the nation without the U.S. military still not putting up a fight. That’s not a huge issue for the movie, which doesn’t have flashbacks, but it’s the first indication that the movie’s flimsy plot brings up questions that are never answered.

“All the Lost Ones” focuses on a specific group of eight environmental protestors, who are part of a now-scattered community of “resistors.” During the United Conservancy takeover, these eight fugitives have been hiding away at a well-kept, two-story lake house. The synopsis of the movie describes this hideaway dwelling as a “cabin.” It’s not a cabin. It’s a contemporary lake house that’s large enough for eight people to live.

If these resistors are living in discomfort and extreme fear, or are trying to lay low by not calling attention to themselves, you wouldn’t know it from the first time they’re seen on screen. They are having a house party, where they’re playing music and dancing, as if they don’t have any worries. It’s a very strange way to start the movie, after viewers are told that there’s a civil war that has led to a rogue military invasion, there’s a pandemic from contaminated water, and the death toll is rising.

These are the eight people in this group of resistors:

Nia (played by Jasmine Mathews), the moody chief protagonist who is conflicted about being a fugitive in hiding, finds out during the story that she is pregnant.
Ethan (played by Douglas Smith), Nia’s sensitive boyfriend, is more certain than Nia that he wants to settle down and get married.
Penny (played by Vinessa Antoine), Nia’s practical-minded older sister, is a medical doctor who used to work as a radiologist before the apocalypse happened.
Mikael Allen (played by Steven Ogg) wants to be the “alpha male” of the group to make leadership decisions.
Raymond Allen (played by “All the Lost Ones” co-writer Grant), nicknamed Ray, is Mikael’s easygoing cousin.
Nancy Allen (played by Kim Roberts) is Raymond’s nurturing mother and Mikael’s aunt.
Dawn (played by Sheila McCarthy) has a calm personality and is good at planning.
Jacob (played by Matthew Finlan) is Dawn’s outgoing 18-year-old son.

“All the Lost Ones” has such underdeveloped characters, the movie never reveals what anyone in this group (except for Penny) did for a living before the apocalypse. This background information wouldn’t have to be told in flashbacks. It could just be briefly mentioned and would go a long way in explaining who in this group has any particular skills or job experience that could be helpful to their survival.

During the house party, everyone seems to be having a great time. Mikael even gives a drinking toast to say that the party is to celebrate their “six-month anniversary.” But viewers might be wondering, “What’s there to celebrate about going into hiding from an extremist militia group?”

Not everyone at the party remains in a festive mood. Nia goes into the bathroom to vomit. And when a woman of child-bearing age vomits in a movie, it’s usually because she’s intoxicated or pregnant. Nia is not intoxicated. Penny notices that Nia isn’t feeling well, but Nia denies that she’s having any health issues.

During this party, observant viewers will notice that all of the partygoers are drinking out of open plastic cups. Each cup is taped with a piece of paper that has the name of the person who’s holding the cup. What is the purpose of having their plastic cups labeled? Don’t expect the movie to answer that question.

This environmental crisis is about contaminated tap water, not keeping track of who is using what cup, as if they’re afraid of being drugged. Labeling the cups with individual names is also a pointless tactic because an open plastic cup isn’t exactly secure if it’s set down somewhere and could easily be contaminated if someone wanted to contaminate what’s in the cup. It’s yet another example of the movie’s disconnect from logic.

And this is where the logic continues to fall off the rails: For unexplained reasons, during this party, Nia decides now would be a good time to strip down to her underwear and swim in the lake. If you’re in the middle of a pandemic where people are dying from contaminated tap water, the last thing you should want to do is jump in water that is the source of tap water, such as lakes, rivers or reservoirs.

But time and time again, there are scenes in “All the Lost Ones” where people jump in unfiltered and unsanitary bodies of water, with no mention or concern about the water contamination crisis. And keep in mind, these are the same “resistors” who believe that the Clean Water Bill should’ve been passed into law. You’d never know it from the hypocritical and counterproductive ways in which they are acting.

Nia’s impromptu swim is interrupted by the horror of seeing a dead young man in the lake. The movie doesn’t give a clear look at the man, but he looks like he has a bullet hole in the middle of his head. Nia is understandably frightened as she rushes out of the lake. Other people at the party see the floating corpse too.

“Did you see his eyes?” an alarmed Nia asks Penny. It turns out that this dead man’s eyes have been removed. Don’t expect an explanation for that either. The dead man is never seen or mentioned again. This is the movie’s clumsy way of showing that in this apocalyptic world, you could get murdered by gun violence and could end up a corpse floating in a lake without anyone caring to find out who you are because they’re too busy celebrating that they’ve spent six months successfully hiding from the extremist militia group that has taken over the region.

All of this means that it’s only a matter of time before “All the Lost Ones” devolves into a series of chase scenes with shootouts. The resistors are armed with mostly rifles and shotguns, but there is no mention of how they are able to refill the supply of ammunition that they use. There are some almost-laughable scenes where some of the resistors waste their ammunition on lousy-aim gun shots.

Before the shootouts and chase scenes happen, “All the Lost Ones” has some awkward and poorly written scenes that show a few of the romantic entanglements in this group of resistors. During the party, there’s a weirdly toned scene of Jacob and Penny flirting with each other and being touchy-feely, as if they’re sexually attracted to each other. Penny is old enough to be the mother of barely legal Jacob, so this scene looks out-of-place and a little creepy.

Why is Penny acting like she wants teenage Jacob to be her next boyfriend? Don’t expect the movie to answer that question either. There is no personal background or context for the main characters’ personal relationships, although the movie eventually shows who and where Jacob’s father is.

Meanwhile, “All the Lost Ones” has some dull scenes of Nia being pouty with Ethan because she openly expresses doubts about her decision to join Ethan in hiding. Nia tells anyone who listens that she feels guilty and helpless for hiding out when she believes she has an obligation to be fighting in the civil war that’s currently raging. Based on Nia’s inept fighting skills and bad decisions in protecting people around her, she’s better off staying in hiding.

To be clear: “All the Lost Ones” isn’t a real war movie that has massive bombings, air combat or extensive military operations. “All the Lost Ones” is a movie that looks like it’s about a bunch of progressive liberals fighting to survive in a wooded lake area while they are being hunted by a rampaging, ragtag group of white supremacist militia people. In case it isn’t clear that United Conservancy members are white supremacist racists, there’s a Nazi flag proudly displayed in one of the member’s homes.

The United Conservancy members who hunt down the resistors are led by a snarling redneck type named Conrad (played by Devon Sawa), who looks like he stepped out of a doomsday prepper recruitment video. Also part of the United Conservancy are “angry dad” Hank (played Lochlyn Munro) and his teenage son Wyatt (played by Alexander Elliot), who has better aim in his gun shooting than almost all of the adults. And lest you think that United Conservancy only has male fighters, there’s a teenage girl named Ripley (played by Stefani Kimber), who’s part of the group, although she is literally a token female.

During this pandemic where thousands of people are dying from contaminated tap water, “All the Lost Ones” doesn’t show anyone actually dying from contaminated tap water. A clever movie with this subject matter would have shown how bottled and filtered water has become a precious resource that is highly sought-after and exploited for profits. But you get none of that in “All the Lost Ones,” which spends the entire movie acting like contaminated water isn’t a life-or-death danger, even though the contaminated water was the catalyst for this apocalyptic pandemic and this civil war.

Before the violent mayhem starts, there’s a scene where Nia, Dawn and Raymond walk to an abandoned part of the city to look for food and supplies. They go inside a general store, where Nia finds a pregnancy kit. Nia takes a pregnancy test to confirm what she suspected: She’s pregnant.

Nia later tells Ethan, who seems more thrilled about the pregnancy than Nia is because Nia seems to want to be some kind of heroic social justice warrior fighting for The Cause, and motherhood might derail those plans. By the way, Mathews and Smith aren’t very believable as a couple in love. And so, the movie fails at the one romance featured in the story.

There are some rats scurrying around this abandoned store. Raymond hands a mouse trap to Nia and tells her to set the trap because they need rats for their group’s next meal. Wait a minute: These are the same people who just a day or two before were partying like they didn’t have any big worries. And now they’re supposed to be so starved for food, they have to resort to eating rats. The contradictions in this movie start to become very annoying.

The acting performances in “All the Lost Ones” become grating and are made worse by some of the insipid dialogue. There’s a scene where Nia and Penny are in the lake (there they go again, being in possibly contaminated water), as they’re trying to hide from United Conservancy gunmen. Penny has been wounded by a gunshot and questions Nia for putting her pregnancy in jeopardy by trying to hold Penny afloat in the lake. Nia quips, “My body, my choice.” Apparently, we’re supposed to believe that when you’re about to be hunted by raging militia extremists, it helps to quote slogans that you see at pro-choice rallies.

Possibly the only thing that “All the Lost Ones” gets right is composer Trevor Yuile’s music score, which is very effective at creating tension in the scenes that need it. Some of the movie’s cinematography is good, but not consistently so. Ulimately, with a weak and contradictory story, mediocre-to-bad acting, and terrible action scenes, “All the Lost Ones” is an apocalyptic movie that sinks faster than a rock in the movie’s lake.

Epic Pictures released “All the Lost Ones” in select U.S. cinemas on April 18, 2025. The movie was released on digital and VOD on April 22, 2025.

Review: ‘Women Talking,’ starring Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Judith Ivey, Ben Whishaw and Frances McDormand

December 3, 2022

by Carla Hay

“Women Talking”

Directed by Sarah Polley

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2010, in an unnamed part of the United States, the dramatic film “Women Talking” features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: At a patriarchal religious colony, the colony’s women have conflicts in deciding what to do next when almost all of the men in the colony have temporarily left because they are dealing with legal problems related to several of the colony’s men being arrested for drugging and raping the colony’s women and girls.

Culture Audience: “Women Talking” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the Miriam Toews book on which the movie is based; the stars of the movie; and well-acted dramas about female empowerment in oppressive and misgoynistic environments.

Ben Whishaw, Rooney Mara and Claire Foy in “Women Talking” (Photo by Michael Gibson/Orion Pictures)

“Women Talking” is an accurate description for this tension-filled drama, because most of the movie centers on conversations rather than a lot of physical action. Sarah Polley directed and wrote the adapted screenplay of “Women Talking,” which is based on Miriam Toews’ 2018 novel of the same name. The movie comes across as a stage play in many areas, but it’s a worthy cinematic adaptation of the book, mostly because of the admirable performances from the talented cast members. The pacing is sluggish in some parts of the movie. However, viewer interest can be maintained if people are curious to see how the story is going to end.

The “Women Talking” movie, which is set in 2010 in an unnamed part of the U.S., makes some interesting and unexpected changes to the book, but largely remains faithful to the story’s plot. (The movie was actually filmed in Canada’s Ontario province.) “Women Talking” had its world premiere at the 2022 Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. The movie than made the rounds at several other film festivals in 2022, including the Toronto International Film Festival, the New York Film Festival and the BFI London Film Festival.

One of the main reasons why “Women Talking” looks so much like a stage play is that the movie is mostly confined to the rural and isolated property where this religious colony lives. Several of the movie’s best scenes take place in a hayloft, where crucial decisions (and several arguments) happen during a crisis that will affect the future of the colony. “Women Talking” is a fascinating psychological portrait of what oppression can do to people and how people can deal with trauma in different ways.

The movie begins with this statement: “What follows is an act of female imagination.” Even if viewers don’t know anything about the “Women Talking” book, the movie tells viewers in the first 10 minutes what the crisis is in this colony. Several men in the colony have been drugging and raping the colony’s women and girls. As a result, most of the men of the colony have been arrested, while the other men who have not been arrested have gone to the city to get the men bailed out and attend to other legal matters.

Before these rapes were discovered, the women and girls who were raped were told that by the men that their assault injuries were the work of ghosts or part of the rape victims’ imaginations. Much harder to explain were the underage pregnancies that resulted from these rapes with girls who were supposed to be virgins. Some of these rapes were also incestuous. Toews (who was raised as a Mennonite) has said in interviews that “Women Talking” was inspired by a real-life Mennonite colony in Bolivia, where several men were arrested in 2009 for drugging and raping the colony’s women and girls.

“Women Talking” never shows these rapes—only the aftermath. It’s a wise decision on the part of Polley and the other filmmakers, because what’s more important is for the movie to show how rape survivors can try to heal from the trauma instead of recreating the rapes in ways that could easily become exploitative. The movie never names the religion of this colony, but it’s implied that it’s an extremist Mennonite community, just like it is in the book.

In this community, the people are taught that the male gender is always superior to the female gender. The women of the colony are not allowed to get a formal education and don’t know how to read and write, whereas the men are allowed to be educated. The colony also preaches that anyone who disobeys what the men want will have eternal damnation in hell.

The women have an emergency meeting in a hayloft to vote on one of three options: (1) Stay and fight; (2) Leave; and (3) Do nothing. The first and second options get the most votes, but the votes are deadlocked in a tie. Most of “Women Talking” shows the women trying to break this stalemate by getting a majority vote for one of the options. Things are also complicated because some of the women have underage sons, so if the women choose to leave, they also have to decide if the boys will go with them.

There are three families involved in this grueling process:

Family #1

Agata Friesen (played by Judith Ivey), a level-headed matriarch, is emotionally torn because her two daughters have very different opinions about what to do.
Ona (played by Rooney Mara), Agata’s bachelorette eldest daughter who is pregnant by rape, is open-minded, believes in female empowerment, and is inclined to make the decision to leave.
Salome (played by Claire Foy), Agata’s married younger daughter, also believes in female empowerment, but outspoken and feisty Salome wants to stay and fight, because she’s furious about her 4-year-old daughter Miep (played by Emily Mitchell) being raped.
Neitje (played Liv McNeil), Agata’s granddaughter, who is in her mid-teens, is being raised by Salome because Neitje’s mother Mina (the younger sister of Ona and Salome) committed suicide after Neitje was raped.

Family #2

Greta Loewen (played by Sheila McCarthy) is a soft-spoken matriarch who is inclined to want to leave.
Mariche (played by Jessie Buckley), Greta’s elder married daughter who is sarcastic and cynical, wants to stay, but she is very skeptical that the women could win against the men in a fight.
Mejal (played by Michelle McLeod), Greta’s younger bachelorette daughter, is inclined to stay, and she’s considered the most rebellious and “unstable” of the group because she smokes cigarettes and sometimes has panic attacks.
Autje (played by Kate Hallett), Mariche’s daughter, who is about 13 years old, is the best friend of Neitje.

Family #3

Scarface Janz (played by Frances McDormand), a stern matriarch, is adamant about her decision to do nothing and firmly believes any other option will doom the women to an afterlife in hell.
Anna (played by Kira Guloien), Scarface’s adult daughter is quiet, passive, and seems to be living in fear of her domineering mother.
Helena (played Shayla Brown), Anna’s teenage daughter, just like Anna, doesn’t say much.

One of the movie’s departures from the book is that Neitje is the narrator, and she is speaking in the future to Ona’s child, who has now been born. Near the beginning of the movie, Neitje says in a voiceover narration: “I used to wonder who I would be if it hadn’t happened to me. I don’t care anymore.”

Only one man has been left behind on the property while the other men are in the city. His name is August Epp (played by Ben Whishaw), a kind and gentle teacher who has been allowed to come back to the colony to teach the boys of the colony. August spent most of his childhood in the colony, but when he was a boy, his parents were excommunicated from the colony for questioning the authority of the colony’s leaders. August helps the women by taking notes during the meeting and doing any other reading and writing that the women might need.

August has an additional motivation to help the women: He’s been in love with Ona for years, but she just wants August as a friend. August stays neutral during the women’s arguments and debates. However, it’s very obvious that he wants to be wherever Ona is.

Also part of the story is a mild-mannered teenager named Nettie (played by August Winter), who likes taking care of the colony’s younger kids. Nettie identifies as a transgender male who prefers to be called Melvin. (Winter is non-binary in real life.) Because this colony is isolated from the rest of society, the colony members (including Melvin) don’t know what transgender means, so many of the colony members treat Melvin as a girl who likes to dress and wear her hair like a boy.

Because this colony is very insular and doesn’t believe in using modern technology or cars, “Women Talking” often looks like it takes place in the mid-20th century. The biggest indication that the movie takes place in the 21st century is when a census employee drives his truck on the road near the property and uses a speaker to remind the residents to take the 2010 census. The Monkees’ 1968 hit “Daydream Believer” memorably plays on the speaker and is heard again later in the movie during the end credits.

The colony’s women hide themselves inside buildings when this census employee drives by, but Neitje and Autje run to the truck to have a friendly chat with the census taker. Things aren’t so friendly inside and outside the hayloft, as the debate continues over what to do, and as time is running out before the colony’s men return to the property. Some of the women think that if they stay, they can demand new rules for the colony, such as the right to be educated and to be treated equally. Others think the women and children are better off leaving and starting a new community on their own.

In this showcase for powerhouse acting talent, Foy and Buckley have the flashiest roles as the women who clash with each other the most. Salome is filled with defiance and rage and shouts things like, “I will burn in hell before I allow another man to satisfy his urges with the body of my 4-year-old daughter!” Mariche raises her voice too, but she also expresses her anger in some “are you insane” expressions on her face that are very entertaining to watch.

Whishaw’s sensitive and nuanced performance is thoroughly believable and sometimes heartbreaking, as August experiences unrequited love. Because he is the primary teacher the boys of the colony (who are all homeschooled), there are glimmers of hope that these boys will be raised to have more respect for women and girls than how they were taught before August returned to the colony. Rooney’s performance as Ona, who speaks in calm and measured tones, is very good, but Ona is often overshadowed by the sassiness of Salome and Mariche.

One aspect of “Women Talking” that might disappoint some viewers is that McDormand is only in the movie for less than 15 minutes. She’s one of the producers of “Women Talking” and shares top billing, but her on-screen appearance in the movie—although effective—still doesn’t seem like enough for someone McDormand’s high caliber of talent. In the production notes for “Women Talking,” McDormand explains: “I did not option the book with the idea of acting in the film, I optioned it because I wanted to produce a film based on the book, with Dede [Gardner, one of the producers] and Sarah [Polley]. But I love Scarface dramaturgically.”

Even with all the friction and arguments between the women, Polley’s thoughtful direction never lets the movie devolve into a “catfight” story. The women might not know how to read and write, but they are very articulate in exposing their wants, needs, hopes and dreams. Luc Montpellier’s brown-tinged cinematography in “Women Talking” might look dull to some viewers, but it’s supposed to be a reflection of the drab existence that the colony’s women have experienced for too long. Observant viewers will notice that scenes that have more hopeful emotions have more vibrant lighting.

“Women Talking” is not a man-bashing film, as some people might mistakenly think it is. It’s a movie against gender oppression and against sexual violence. The villains of the story are not given the type of agency and screen time that other filmmakers would choose to put in their version of “Women Talking.”

“Women Talking” is not the type movie that people will quickly forget after watching it. Whether people like or dislike the movie, “Women Talking” is the type of film that will inspire thought-provoking discussions for viewers. And that’s an indication of cinematic art that can make an impact.

Orion Pictures will release “Women Talking” in select U.S. cinemas on December 23, 2022, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on January 20, 2023.