Rhayne Vermette’s sophomore feature, Levers, requires intensive patience from its audience, but is singular in its execution.
Director: Rhayne Vermette
Genre: Drama
Run Time: 93′
New York Film Festival Screening: October 6-7, 2025
U.S. Release Date: TBA
U.K. Release Date: TBA
Every once in a while, you have the opportunity to witness a filmmaker who is so unapologetically and unabashedly devoted to their vision that it genuinely changes your understanding of how artful cinema can be. With Rhayne Vermette’s sophomore feature Levers, it’s clear that a true auteur is cementing herself within the film industry.
Coming off of her 2021 avant-garde debut, Ste. Anne, Vermette returns to the New York Film Festival with her latest experimental feature, Levers. The film takes place in the Canadian province of Manitoba, where something strange has happened. The sun has not risen. While news outlets report on this semi-apocalyptic, semi-biblical blackout, the lives of the Manitobans are forever altered as they try to navigate how to move forward.
Levers is told through out-of-order vignettes. Every portion of the film is introduced by a tarot card hinting at each plotline’s spot within the grand scheme of the story. The emphasis in Levers is that we are all levers; our actions, whether we know it or not, have consequences we could never predict on levels we could never anticipate.
The message of the film is eloquently and expertly emphasized by its experimental format. While we, as the audience, may not fully understand what is happening before us, by the end of the movie’s runtime, there is a deep appreciation you will feel for the investment you’ve made in watching this story unfold.
This is to say, Levers does require a hefty investment from its audience in order for them to meaningfully engage with the film. Oftentimes dizzying or disorienting and even at moments flat out seemingly impossible to understand, Levers does not concern itself with any degree of instant gratification.
While confusing, there is something entirely refreshing about the film’s devotion to its slow burn and its lack of concern in ensuring its audience is still on board with the story. In that sense, Vermette really allows the audience to take from the film what speaks to them without pressing the idea that there is only one correct way to interpret the story.
Levers completely disrupts its viewers’ sense of reality, much like the sun not rising completely disrupted the people of Manitoba. It drifts between nature and civilization in a dream-like haze, creating a visual unlike anything you have ever seen before. While Levers may not be for everyone, it is undoubtedly one of the most conceptually interesting and optically unique films 2025 has to offer. With it, Vermette has proven she is an artist who should be on everyone’s radar.
Levers: Movie Plot & Recap
Synopsis:
In the wake of a complete, almost biblical, blackout, the citizens of Manitoba, a Canadian province, grapple with their new reality.
Pros:
- Rhayne Vermette’s vision is singular in its execution
Cons:
- Levers is a slow burn that requires an extreme degree of patience for its ultimate payoff
Levers will be screened at the New York Film Festival on September 6-7, 2025.
