Variety's review covers "Stuffed," a debut feature from director Theo Rhys that casts Jodie Comer and Harry Melling in an unusual musical about taxidermy, premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival alongside Comer's "Prima Facie" adaptation. The reviewer finds the film slow to establish its tone but ultimately distinctive and surprisingly humane, praising the commitment both leads bring to a high-concept premise that could easily have collapsed into gimmickry.

The story follows Araminta (Comer), an isolated amateur taxidermist obsessed with permanently preserving a human body, and Bernie (Melling), a lonely factory worker who volunteers to be killed and stuffed, believing it is the only way he will ever truly be seen. Expanded from Rhys's BAFTA-nominated short, the film is scored by writer-composer Joss Holden-Rea in an earnest Broadway-ballad style, and features striking production design from Beck Rainford that lends a Wes Anderson-esque, thrift-store Northern-English backdrop; the review notes the opening stretch leans too heavily into twee whimsy before the characters' grounded, melancholy backstories help the film find its footing.