TIFF Review: ‘Everything Else Is Noise’ Is a Comedy of Errors That Investigates the Contemporary Struggles of Female Artists

Despite the cacophony of invasive urban sounds that pester the trio of women at the core of Everything Else is Noise, Canadian-Mexican filmmaker Nicholás Pereda’s latest possesses a unique cadence and atmosphere that feels like a cinematic sedative, in the very best way. Built around a simple premise and a single filming location, the movie’s modest scale makes way for furtive (and funny) social criticism that never feels didactic, instead inviting viewers to focus on the existential plight of its characters and the poignant nuances they offer.

The movie begins with its camera fixed on a noisy intersection in Mexico City, where roadwork and congestion have created a comically unimaginable traffic jam. Unable to escape the honking horns and souped-up cars that loudly traverse the boulevard is Rosa (Rosa Estela Juárez Vargas), whose apartment overlooks the street below. A trained cellist and plant lover, the beautiful crafts Rosa dedicates herself to cannot keep the outside world at bay, including a grumpy, entitled downstairs neighbor who repeatedly refers to her playing as “making noise.”

We soon learn that Rosa will host a friend’s interview at her apartment that day: Tere (Teresita Sánchez), a late-blooming composer set to be interviewed by a national news channel. Tere first claims Rosa’s apartment is much more attractive than her own, a more suitable place for the filmed interview, but eventually reveals that her husband was actually rather disapproving of her decision to go through with it, especially “at her age.”

Before the interview crew even arrives, things start to go haywire: Rosa’s building keeps losing electricity for short spurts of time and the dog next door will not stop barking. Rosa and Tere do an impromptu rehearsal, wondering what questions will be asked, and the former all but encourages her younger musical colleague to beef up her responses, even if that means sidestepping the truth and blurring the line between honesty and performance for the sake of bravura.

When the crew (Lázaro G. Rodríguez and Francisco Barreiro ), an aspiring filmmaker and a classical music aficionado, finally shows up, it becomes clear that the hiccups Rosa has faced throughout the morning will follow them into the interview. Between more power outages, their distraction from their proposed subject, Tere, and the introduction of Rosa’s struggling, rebellious daughter Luisa (Luisa Pardo), Everything Else is Noise descends into a quiet comedy of errors that deftly showcases the fascinating, musical women at its core.

Pragda

Although clocking in at a tight 70 minutes, Pereda’s new work never feels hurried, using static shots or a slowly roving camera to capture Rosa and her cohort’s everyday life, as authentic as the sunlight that slowly crosses the apartment walls as the day moves forward. This deliberate pacing grounds the movie in a relatable space, made absurd by the increasing tribulations its characters face. The movie relishes, and sometimes excoriates, the diegetic sounds of the city that creep through Rosa’s open windows and make Tere’s interview a logistical nightmare, a soundscape most punctuated by an avant-garde cello piece performed to a room of closed eyes by Luisa, a moment that breathes sustaining life into the movie’s narrative as it approaches its final moments.

Everything Else is Noise delves into the social and psychological influences that shape the identity trajectories of its central female characters. Capturing three women at very different points in their lives, the movie explores the generational contrasts between them and examines how those contrasts shape them, never feeling like throwaway analysis. Through this investigation, the movie critiques the often male-dominated art worlds, whether in classical music or cinema, before toppling such misogynistic tendencies through the way it treats its male characters (who are often the butt of the joke, and to great effect, I might add). This honest portrayal of typically overblown male hubris is counterbalanced by the tight-knit relationships between Rosa, Tere, and Luisa.

Pragda

Brimming with subtle but chuckle-inducing humor, Everything Else is Noise is a delightful, albeit unusual, work that offers fascinating analysis as soon as you scratch its surface, making it both quietly entertaining and purposeful. True to Pereda’s docu-fiction sensibilities, the film is well-tuned to the inequities women still face in the artistic world and beyond, particularly as societies around the globe continue to hurtle into a downward spiral of nationalist inclinations.

4/5

‘Everything Else is Noise’ world premiered at the 2026 Berlinale in the festival’s Forum section before making its North American debut in the Toronto International Film Festival’s Wavelengths program on Thursday, September 10.