In its first five minutes, Toll does a great job of showcasing how life is for lower-class Brazilians. Waking up at the crack of dawn, contemplating a house in dire need of maintenance all around, running to catch a shuttle because the public transportation system in poor neighborhoods is precarious. All so that you arrive in time to start a job that pays the bare minimum for you to survive and come back the following day. That initial segment is essential for us to understand Suellen (Maeve Jinkings) – especially when you consider what she will do in the following hour and a half.

Directed by award-winning filmmaker Carolina Markowicz (Charcoal), Toll centers around Suellen and her son Toninho (Kauan Alvarenga), a duo that is simply trying to survive adult life and adolescence but can’t help finding themselves at odds with each other when it comes to sexuality and masculinity. While Toninho posts performance videos online, Suellen gets infuriated because she just wants to have a life that is peaceful and free of (more) humiliation.

Toll makes it clear pretty quickly that its central theme will be hypocrisy. You can find it all across the movie in several characters, but mostly with those who use religion as an excuse to justify their prejudice against LGBTQIA people. The movie also makes the case that ignorance is a frequent companion of prejudice. This may sound obvious, but it can’t be overstated considering conversion therapy is still a thing in 2023. As the movie kicks off, Suellen is at her wit’s end as to what to do with her son and starts to consider coming up with money she doesn’t have so that Toninho would get “treatment” for his “condition.”

Were it not for those initial five minutes of Toll, Suellen could come off as a bigoted and stupid mother who just wants to impose her will over her son’s. The reality is not wildly different from that, but Jinkings’ performance is so delicate that from the very start of the movie you can see her hesitation in every decision that she makes — which signals to us that, deep down, she knows that what she’s doing is wrong. At the same time, Markowicz’s script does a great job of peeling back the layers of Suellen one by one so that we can see that the woman is so dedicated in pointing out what’s supposedly wrong with her son’s life that she overlooks her own shortcomings.

To discuss what those shortcomings are would be to spoil some good moments of Toll, but suffice to say that it’s not hard to find echoes of the story in real life. More often than not, religious fanatics are a deep well of contradictions that are too quick to point the finger at everyone else while forgetting to take a good look in the mirror. This is better represented with Telma (Aline Marta Maia), a woman who is able to minimize and justify her own behavior and even use God’s name to forgive herself, but can’t show the same sentiments when it comes to sexuality and identity.

‘Toll’s Nuance Is Gold
Image via TIFF

The more time we spend with Suellen, the more we see that she too is full of contradictions. We empathize not only because we know what kind of reality she lives in, but also because we can be contradictory ourselves. Also, we can’t ignore that people who live at the margin of society are often forced to make questionable decisions when they hit a wall. It doesn’t mean it’s right or even that the movie supports it – it just happens in real life.

RELATED: ‘American Fiction’ & ‘Dicks: The Musical’ Win Big at TIFF 2023 People’s Choice Awards

Toll does a great job of exploring Suellen as a character, but unfortunately, Toninho isn’t afforded the same care. The movie places him as a victim of the people around him and the environment that he inhabits. However, Toninho is rarely given any agency, and throughout most of the movie he gets by just reacting to what gets done to him. We end the movie none the wiser about his ambitions, dreams, how he sees himself or his defining characteristics or personality traits.

A Heavenly Problem Lurks in ‘Toll’
Image via TIFF

However, no arc in Toll is worse than the one involving the pastor. In an attempt to weave all of its storylines together, the movie forces a huge coincidence to happen just to make a point it already had made several times before. And the worst part is, there is no set-up to the coincidence; it just happens with no further explanation and no follow-up. The movie does a good job of illustrating what the pastor’s thoughts ultimately represent though. His visions are presented in such a way that you can quickly realize what a joke what he proposes is, and how ridiculous his methods of dealing with LGBTQIA+ people are.

From its simple but effective production design right down to Jinkings’ excellent performance, Toll provides a multi-layered picture of what Suellen’s life is like. By getting to know her struggles, we’re not quick to judge any decision she makes, especially considering that she has second thoughts about them for most of the movie. Ultimately the movie links its title to the fact that, sometimes, people need to pay a price in order to realize that they aren’t being the best people and there’s always time to take a step back and reconsider one’s actions. The movie hardly resolves the mother-son conflict, but makes a pretty good suggestion that Suellen, at the very least, will be forced to confront her own notion of what is right, wrong, and what is up for debate.

Rating: B

The Big Picture

Toll showcases the harsh reality of lower-class Brazilians, highlighting the daily struggles they face to survive. The movie explores the theme of hypocrisy, particularly in how religion is used to justify prejudice against LGBTQIA+ individuals. The nuanced portrayal of Suellen’s character reveals her contradictions and forces viewers to question their own biases and questionable decisions made in difficult circumstances.

Toll had its World Premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.