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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 27 April 2026

THE WIZARD OF THE KREMLIN (France 2025) ***½

Directed by Olivier Assayas

 

  THE WIZARD OF THE KREMLIN (French: Le Mage du Kremlin) is a 2025 English-language French political satire film directed by Olivier Assayas, who co-wrote the screenplay with Emmanuel Carrère. It is based on the 2022 novel by Giuliano da Empoli.[2] It follows the fictional government official Vadim Baranov (Paul Dano) during the final years of the Soviet Union and the turbulent start of the Russian Federation, while a young Vladimir Putin (Jude Law) rises to power. It also stars Alicia Vikander, Will Keen, Tom Sturridge, and Jeffrey Wright.

Olivier Assayas is a French filmmaker who has delved into the serious and the comical.  The comical involves films like the vampire romp IRMA REP, and his serious films would include this alter film, which is part black comedy.

The Wizard of the Kremlin is a political drama/thriller based on the novel by Giuliano da Empoli. It offers a fictionalized, insider-style look at the rise of modern Russian power.

The story follows Vadim Baranov (Paul Dano), a shadowy political strategist who becomes a key spin doctor for a rising Russian leader clearly modeled on Vladimir Putin (Jude Law).  Baranov is not a public figure—he operates behind the scenes, shaping narratives, manipulating media, and engineering political outcomes. The “wizard” in the title refers to his almost magical ability to control perception and power without ever stepping into the spotlight.

The film follows real political figures.  For those in the know of political affairs, the film will be much more insightful and entertaining. For example, the film’s character Vadim Baranov is inspired by Vladislav Surkov, a Russian politician and businessman who served as First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration of Russia from 1999 to 2011, during which he played a central role in shaping domestic political strategy. During this period, he was widely credited with formulating and promoting the concept of sovereign democracy.  Surkov has been described as an influential political strategist and is sometimes referred to as a "grey cardinal" of Russian politics. He has also been linked to literary works published under the pseudonym Nathan Dubovitsky.

 The film was made with tons of effort and research, and the result shows.  There are no action segments or suspense elements.  Commercial audiences should beware, as this is not the typical American commercial film.  But the pleasure that can be derived from the film evolves from the dialogue, the book’s apt adaptation, and the parallels between fiction and the true Russian political performances are more than excellent. 

Though this is a political film, the universal story of greed and ambition should interest the general audience.

The film benefits from excellent performances, the best of these being delivered by Jude Law playing Vladimir Putin, looking more like Putin than himself.  This is an Oscar-worthy performance, which he hopefully should at least get an Oscar nomination. Paul Dano is also excellent in the pivotal lead role.

THE WIZARD OF THE KREMLIN, which was screened at last year's TIFF,  has a Canadian theatrical release beginning May 15th, 2026.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 17 April 2026

FILM REVIEWS:

 

 

APEX (USA/UK/Ireland 2026) ***
Directed by Baltasar Kormákur

 (to be posted)

Apex is a 2026 survival action thriller film directed by Baltasar Kormákur, written by Jeremy Robbins, and starring Charlize Theron, Taron Egerton, and Eric Bana. It tells the story of a rock climber in the wild who finds herself being hunted by a hunter as she works to survive.

If for nothing else, the film would be watched for its most suspenseful and exciting first 15 minutes, with the mountain climbers facing the Troll Wall in Norway.  (The wall is now banned from climbing.

From all the menace that the Charlize Theron character faces, the film feels very much like the 1971 Sam Peckinpah film THE STRAW DOGS.

Baltasar Kormákur is an Icelandic director famous for his 2000 film 101 101 Reykjavík and the 2006 JAR CITY, an apt filmmaker again showing his prowess in his ninth film.

APEX is a Netflix original action thriller, and a decent one, open for teaming on April 24th.

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BLUE ROAD: THE EDNA O’BRIEN STORY (Ireland/UK 2024) ****

Directed by Sinead O’Shea

 

In 1960, a young Irish woman named Edna O’Brien wrote a sexually frank debut novel, The  Country Girls. She became a literary sensation, writing for The New Yorker, delivering provocative interviews, and authoring screenplays. 

Her success enraged her writer husband and made her a pariah in her native Ireland, where herbooks were banned. She would make her home in London, where she conducted numerous love affairs, hosted star-studded parties, and made and lost a fortune. 

In July 2024, Edna passed away, and this film provides a final testimony from her, aged 93, as she reflects upon her extraordinary life for filmmaker Sinéad O’Shea’s camera. 

Granting the director access to her personal journals — read aloud in the film by the Oscar-winning Irish actress Jessie Buckley (HAMNET) — and offering additional perspectives from Gabriel Byrne, Walter Mosley, and an array of renowned writers, Edna does not shy away from any subject. 

Blue Road is as candid, dark, and enchanting as O’Brien’s wonderful novels.

One of the best biopics to be seen, BLUE ROAD: THE EDNA O’BRIEN STORY, tells the story from childhood to death of Irish writer Edna O’Brien with candid interviews right up to her death at the age of 94 in 2024.  Filmmaker Sinéad O’Shea taps into a wealth of material, including unpublished diaries, decades of television appearances, and new interviews with O’Brien, in her 90s and as incisive as ever. There are interviews with her sons, Carlo and Sasha, about their unconventional upbringing with a divorced mother whose house guests included Marlon Brando, Judy Garland, and Paul McCartney.  The Irish actor Gabriel Byrne explains how O’Brien broke taboos, while writer Walter Mosely describes how she changed his life as his teacher.  Her reflections on her life and what she has learned are most moving.  She says in her final interview that she wishes to be buried when she dies.  A remarkable, candid and riveting portrait of the life of the Irish writer given the highest honour of ‘wise one’ in Irish Literature.

BLUE ROAD: THE EDNA O’BRIEN STORY premiered at TIFF in September 2024 and finally opens in theatres on April 20th.

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I SWEAR (UK 2025) ***
Directed by Kirk Jones

 

I Swear is a 2025 British biographical drama film directed, written, and produced by Kirk Jones. It is based on the true life story of John Davidson, a Scottish man with severe Tourette's syndrome who was the subject of the 1989 television documentary John's Not Mad

The film focuses on Tourette's syndrome, an ailment that the protagonist of the film, John Davidson sufferers from.

Tourette's Syndrome (TS) is a neurological disorder that causes involuntary movements and sounds called tics. It usually begins in childhood (around ages 5–10).  This part i true in the film as John’s disease manifests itself at an early age.

Types of tics:

Tics fall into two main categories:

1. Motor tics (movement)

Eye blinking

Facial grimacing

Shoulder shrugging

Head jerking

2. Vocal tics (sounds)

Throat clearing

Grunting or sniffing

Repeating words or phrases

All the above categories are observed in John, and also swearing (hence the title I SWEAR)

Even though it is only a small percentage of people who may have involuntary swearing (coprolalia), but this is rare—despite being the most widely known stereotype, as in director Kirk Jone’ film.

The film is divided into two parts: when John is a kid in school, and later as a teen

In 1983, 12-year-old John Davidson lived with his working-class family in Galashiels in the Scottish Borders. Aspiring to become a football player, he begins high school at Galashiels Academy. John begins to inexplicably experience episodes of tics and uncontrollable swearing just before a scout is meant to assess his goalie skills.

In 1996, John, now 25, is still living with Heather and has been diagnosed with the incurable Tourette syndrome. He is medicated with haloperidol, but his tics and swearing outbursts remain an embarrassment. John's school friend Murray returns from Australia after his mother Dottie, is diagnosed with liver cancer. John turns down Murray's invitation to join the family for dinner, but Dottie, a mental health nurse, insists he come in and senses John's discomfort.

How the film fares otherwise:

Tics can come and go and often change over time; they may worsen with stress, fatigue, or excitement and many people can briefly suppress tics, but it’s uncomfortable and temporary.  The film demonstrates these.

Symptoms often improve in adulthood for Tourette Syndrome patients, which is not the case for John.

In the film, John and his mentor strive to learn more about Tourette's Syndrome, just as the audience learns more about it.  But the film does not really paint a true picture of it, but it highlights the intensity and severity of it.

Still I SWEAR is a brave film, promoting awareness with strong performances from the actors playing both John (young and older) and the mentor.  Robert Aramayo plays John Davidson and Scott Ellis Watson as a young John, while Maxine Peake plays John’s mentor Dottie Achenbach.  Aramayo won the BAFTA for Bet Actor for hi performance in the film.  Filmmaker Peter Mullan has a pivotal role as John’s boss in the film.

As in Kirk Jones other film WAKING NED DEVINE, I WEAR strives to be a feel-good film, rather than a dramatic tragedy.

I SWEAR premiered last year at the Toronto Interaction Film Festival and opens in theatres on April 24th.

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KONTINENTAL ’25 (Romania/Brazil/Switzerland/UK/Luxembourg 2025)  ****

Directed by Radu Jude

 

You would consider yourself a decent or even better, a more do-gooder person, helping any person less fortunate than yourself.  Then, the inevitable happens.  Your world is turned upside down.  The good deed that you did catapulted you in the opposite direction.  This is what the new film KONTINENTAL ’25 examines.  And really interestingly! 

KONTINENTAL ’25 is the new film directed by Radu Jude.  Radu Jude is a Romanian film director and screenwriter. He is most known for his Golden Bear-winning film Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn.

Fortunately,  this film is a more manageable, disciplined work.  His last films were close to 3 hours long - DO NOT EXPECT MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD (2023) and DRACULA (2025).  But most of Radu Jude’s humour is still found in this film, as can be observed at the beginning of the film, as the old guy goes around the city asking for or asking to borrow 5 to 10 lei because no one wants to hire him.   It is then comical to see him sitting in the park eating and then drinking vodka in the open, while coughing.  True, there are many people like him, but still, this is a funny and keen observation.

The premise is set in Cluj-Napoca. Bailiff Orsolya evicts a homeless man living in the basement of a building, leading to his suicide.  Consumed by guilt, Orsolya begins a desperate search for understanding.

The film, like Jude’s other films, is not without his sense of humour.  In one scene, Orsolya’s son, consoling her, tells her that she should have left the man alone.  He would have killed himself later anyway, and she would not have seen it.  Jude throws in another joke at a man also consoling Orsolya by telling her a joke about a young Korean man crushed by a food processing robot because it thought that the man was a can of food.  “I am telling you this story to cheer you up,” the man says.  More honour?  The homeless man committed suicide, she tells people, by hanging himself on a radiator.  How is this possible?  That is the joke.  Orsolya explains how this was done many times in the film when people ask her the same question. 

There is also a very funny segment in which shit is being discussed. The homeless man is described as leaving watery shit around, the shit the size of China.  And then a reference is made to the recent Japanese film PERFECT DAYS about the man cleaning Tokyo toilets. 

Jude’s film also feels Kafkaesque, as Orsolya goes around and around with her daily routine filled with guilt repetitively, in an absurd way.  And with more repetition, as in a Kafka story, Jude’s film gets funnier as the identical dialogue is heard.  And as in any Kafka tale, it is the government that is to blame.

The film is set in Cluj.  Cluj-Napoca or simply Cluj is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country and the seat of Cluj County, a contradictory-looking city, looking Hungarian though it is Romanian.

The film opens at the TIFF Lightbox on Thursday, 23rd April.

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MICHAEL (USA 2026) ***
Directed by Antoine Fuqua

 

MICHAEL is a 2026 American musical biographical drama film directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by John Logan.  It follows the life of American singer Michael Jackson, covering the period from his involvement in the Jackson 5 in the 60s to his early solo career. 

MICHAEL is unmistakably one-sided in not showing Michael’s flaws.  In the film, Michael Jackson is a top-talented superstar who can do no wrong.  His real-life drug addiction is omitted.  The only drug use mentioned is the use that was necessary to overcome the pain from the injuries of his burn while performing on stage.  In the second half of 1993, Jackson faced significant controversy following allegations that he had sexually abused 13‑year‑old Jordan Chandler, whom he met that year.  This incident was totally ignored in the film.  This incident is not to be included according to the legal rights of Michele’s estate. The film only goes halfway, and nothing is mentioned again about his death.

The villain of the piece is Jordan, Michael’s father, who used to beat him to discipline as well as control his life.  But the film just cannot get into the issue, with the feeling that the filmmaker does not want to deal with it.

The film is definitely a feel-good piece, especially when there are three Jackson spirited performances of “Beat It”, Thriller”, and “Billie Jean” all back-to-back in the middle of the film.  But this cannot hide what is eventually a basically hollow piece that dodges the real story behind Michael Jackson.  The film can basically be described as performances interspersed with family drama between Michael and his father, Jordan.

Michael, the film ends with the word. “The story continues…”   There were over 4 hours of footage shot during the making of Michael, which means that the second film is almost already made.  It would be great to see the other side, the drug abuse, Michael’s death, and the examination of his paedophile allegations, though this means a more serious, less feel-good film.  Nevertheless, one can never debate that Michael Jackson is one of the top performers, if not the top performer, of his time.

The director of the film is Antoine Fuqua, known for TRAINING DAY and THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN remake. His films, this one included, all benefit from Fuqua’s signature ability to elicit good performances (TRAINING DAY won Denzel Washington an Oscar) and exciting set-pieces.  His films were never strong narrative-wise.

Jaafar Jackson plays Michael Jackson with verve and conviction. His dance performances help make the movie.  Juliano Krue Valdi also surprisingly impresses as young Michael. The best performance belongs to Colman Domingo as Joe Jackson, Michael's father

while Nia Long as Katherine Jackson as Michael's mother is not,

Miles Teller has a smaller role as John Branca, an entertainment lawyer and manager.

MICHAEL had a $20 million reshoot in order to meet legal obligations, but apparently, the bill is reported to have been covered by Michael’s estate.   Still, the film is reported to have a budget cit of between $150-$200 million.  Box-office predictions are expected to be good.  Lionsgate is desperately in need of a hit.  Hopefully, this is it!

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LAINEY WILSON: KEEPIN’COUNTRY COOL (USA 2026) ***
Directed by Amy Scott

 

The documentary opens with Lainey Wilson at the height of her success.  She claims that it is not an overnight success, as she has been in it for 14 years.  One might call it a 14-year overnight success, he quips.

Lass a biopic of Lainey Wilson, the doc follows country music superstar Lainey Wilson as she redefines what it means to be a modern country star, exploring her personal journey and struggles while captivating fans on stage across the country.

LAINEY WILSON: KEEPIN’COUNTRY COOL is so called a that is the name of her tour that the doc focuses on.  Unlike the also recent and opening PRETTY UGLY: THE STORY OF THE LUNACHICKS, Lainey Wilson is the complete opposite of the Lunachick.  Lainey is pretty, decent, though he drinks a lot and is an angel compared to the bad-ass Lunachicks.

Lainey Denay Wilson is an American country singer-songwriter and actress. She performed at an early age, before going to Nashville to pursue a career as a pop music performer. In 2014, she released her first album on Cupit, followed by a second on Lone Chief in 2016. Wilson secured a publishing deal and later released an extended play (EP) in 2019, which included the song "Things a Man Oughta Know". In 2020, it was issued as a single through the BBR Music Group and eventually reached number one on the American country songs chart.

Wilson has received nine Country Music Association Awards, including winning the top honor, Entertainer of the Year, in 2023 and 2025. She has also received a Grammy Award and sixteen Academy of Country Music Awards.

At best, the doc shows how much hard work goes into becoming well-known as well as a country star.  Lainey sacrificed and moved to Nashville, living in a trailer with a mentor, Jerry, who, with Lainey, wrote many of her songs.  Jerry passed away, sadly, from cancer.  Lainey’s had a tough part of her life, but she stuck it out, owing it to both Jerry and to herself to keep moving on.

LAINEY WILSON: KEEPIN’ COUNTRY COOL, a Netflix original documentary, opens for streaming on Netflix on April 22nd, 2026.

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PRETTY UGLY: THE STORY OF THE LUNACHICKS (USA 2025) ***
Directed by Ilya Chaiken

 

The title of the doc was what the doc is all about.

The Lunachicks are an American punk rock band from New York City.  The band formed in 1987, went on hiatus in 2001, and reunited in 2019. The band cited influences including the Ramones, Kiss, and the MC5.  The doc is partly about this reunion.

Punk music icons, Lunachicks, reunite after 20 years in an unfiltered, hilarious, and electric documentary. Packed with rare archival footage, the film traces their rise from gritty NYC teens to feminist trailblazers of the 90s grunge era.

The band GWAR gets it right.  When on LSD, one member of GWAR says  Lunachicks look great as a bunch of gorgeous chicks, but when they get onstage, they look like a bunch of old ladies.

The lunachicks weren’t good girls.  They did drugs.  Becky had a 10-bag-a-day habit.  And also heroin.  And she was not afraid to say it on camera.  And Syd became a heroin addict.  She kept it  secret till she could no longer,  “If you mess with them, they will fuck you up.”  This is their mentality.  Once, one threw her tampon at the audience.

The Lunachicks were pro-choice and still fighting for the choice today.

Also shown in the doc are Joan Jett, with whom they performed, and Jon Stewart, who interviewed one of them.

The doc features the band members who are/were:

Current members

Theo Kogan – vocals (1987–2000, 2002, 2004, 2019–present)

Gina Volpe – guitars (1987–2000, 2002, 2004, 2019–p

resent)

Sydney "Squid" Silver – bass (1987–2000, 2002, 2004, 2019–present)

Chip English – drums (1994–2000, 2002, 2004, 2019–present)

Former members

Sindi Benezra – guitars (1987–1997)

Becky Wreck – drums (1989–1994)

Kate Schellenbach – drums (1994)

Gus Morgan (formerly Helen Destroy) – drums (1999–2000)

Others featured include Kate Schellenbach, Donita Sparks, Dexter Holland, Noodles, Gina Schock, Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, Jeanne Fury, Howie Pyro, Jennifer Finch, Mike Bishop, and Guy Furrow

Featured too were the points.

Lunachicks were signed to New York-based label Go Kart Records, on which they released 1995's Jerk of All Trades.  The follow-up, 1997's Pretty Ugly, produced by Ryan Greene and Fat Mike of NOFX, features their most well-known song "Don't Want You", which was promoted with a video. Guitarist Sindi then left the band, after which it remained a four-piece. They released their first live album, Drop Dead Live, in 1998, and then their final album to date, Luxury Problem. 

The Lunachicks were unique.  The band did not make much money, but nobody could be them. They carved a name or themselves as a female group that takes no hits.  The doc, at its best, achieves the notion.  The Lunachicks were not super intelligent or super intriguing, but they managed to create a bond for their followers, often gay, feminine boys or butch girls.

PRETTY UGLY: THE STORY OF THE LUNACHICKS gets a nationwide Canadian digital release on Friday, April 24.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 11 April 2026

THE LAST ONE FOR THE ROAD (Italy/Germany 2025) ***
Directed by Francesco Sossai

 

The film begins with two isolated incidents, each not too exciting.  As they say, if a film does not grab one's attention in the first few minutes, then the audience will be put off and leave. Well, the film does not get much more exciting; it just meanders on, as it is about two old drunks who keep having one more (drink) for the road.  Like the men, the film rambles on and on.  It is an Italian road trip film.  The two old men pick up a youth on their travels.  One good thing about the film is that it avoids clichés.  The two old men don't learn from the young one, and neither does the young one from the older men.  But their behaviour affects each party, so the audience has to be patient and see how the film unfolds.

The bottom has fallen out for Carlobianchi and Doriano, two small-time Italian crooks. They haven’t been able to mount an honest scam since the 2008 financial crisis and now face the impending mediocrity of middle age. The return of an exiled partner-in-crime from Argentina affords a second chance for long-buried riches, but can Carlobianchi and Doriano put down their beers long enough to keep their eyes on the prize?  Along their slow-motion, alcoholic grand tour of the Venetian countryside, they cross paths with Giulio, a shy architecture student who reluctantly warms to the sodden pair and indulges their rants about the folly of globalisation and the slow decline of local colour. Each roadside tavern offers the promise of one last drink – unless the next one ups the ante. “Never mixed the new wine with the old!”  The wine in the glass must be finished before the glass is filled.  Francesco Sossai’s dazzling sophomore feature is many things at once: a road movie, a casual caper, a tribute to a vanishing industrial Italy, a scruffy intergenerational odyssey, and a free-flowing bender through time and space.

In the story, the two men travel together.  The older men pull Giulio, as they share dubious advice, stories, and a carefree “live for today” attitude.  What starts as aimless wandering becomes a kind of coming-of-age journey for Giulio.  The film requires patience.  It is like hanging around a drunk friend, tolerating his or her nonsense.  The setting is rural Italy, where the audience is given, at best, a subtle look at economic and social changes.

This film has garnered rave reviews, which is a surprise considering that the film meanders all over the place with apparently not much direction or narrative.  A few unconnected segments, like a gay kissing segment, make little sense either.

THE LAST ONE FOR THE ROAD premiered at Cannes in 2025 in the United Certain Regard section.  The film screened in TIFF’s Centrepiece program, as well as at VIFF and NYFF, where it steadily built momentum on the festival circuit. It has since become one of the most nominated films at this year’s David di Donatello Awards, with 17 nominations.

The film opens in Toronto on May 8th.

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THE SHEEP DETECTIVES (UK 2026) ****
Directed by Kyle Balda

 

THE SHEEP DETECTIVES is an upcoming mystery comedy film directed by Kyle Balda and written by Craig Mazin, based on the 2005 German novel Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann. The film features an ensemble cast including Hugh Jackman, Nicholas Braun, Nicholas Galitzine, Molly Gordon, Hong Chau, and Emma Thompson, with the voices of Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Chris O'Dowd, Regina Hall, Patrick Stewart, Bella Ramsey, and Brett Goldstein.

The basic premise involves a flock of sheep setting off to solve the mystery of who murdered their beloved shepherd.

In the Irish village of Glenkill, George Glenn (Hugh Jackman) is a shepherd who is a loner, estranged from his wife, and is fond only of his sheep. Every day, after he lets them out to graze, he reads to them from romance adventure novels and textbooks on sheep diseases. At the start of the book, the sheep find George dead, pinned to the ground by a spade.  The film becomes a murder mystery - and quite a good one at that!  The rattled sheep decide that they must find their killer. This turns into a difficult task, as sheep can't talk to people, and though they understand the human conversations they listen in on, like the one between George's widow Kate and Bible-basher Beth Jameson, they do not always understand the details. Not even the smartest of them, Miss Maple type, renamed Iris  Othello and Mopple the Whale, can understand the humans' behaviour, and are particularly confused by the neighbourhood priest, though they conclude that his name is evidently God.  They are afraid to confront suspects like butcher Abraham Rackham, and are suspicious but fearful of their new shepherd, Gabriel O'Rourke, who is raising a flock of sheep for slaughter.  And even after a series of providential discoveries and brainwaves reveal the answer to the mystery, they still have to figure out how to let the humans know.

The film feels like a fairy tale fable that a mother would read to a child.  The film does have an endearing, wonderful and charming atmosphere, and with animals in the spotlight, makes the film even more delightful.

Sheep have always been depicted as stupid animals.  The film begs to differ.  Instead of human detectives, the sheep themselves try to solve the mystery - as stupid as sheep! In this case. Each sheep has its own personality:  Some are brave and curious, while others are fearful or easily distracted. A few try to think logically (with mixed success).  They interpret human actions in often humorous or misguided ways, leading to both comedy and genuine mystery-solving.

The film also balances light humour with a real murder plot, with a perspective shift of humans being seen through the eyes of animals, making everyday behaviour seem strange or suspicious

The film benefits from performances of heavyweights, Academy Award Winner Emma Thompson and Hugh Jackman, which should attract more adults to this family-oriented film.

THE SHEEP DETECTIVES opens in Theatres Friday, May 8, 2026.

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A YARD OF JACKALS (Patio de Chacales) (Chile 2024) ***1/2

Directed by Diego Figueroa

 

A YARD OF JACKALS is a claustrophobic Kafkaesque political thriller in every sense of the word, reminiscent of the recent TWO PROSECUTORS.

It is the winter of 1978, under Chile’s military regime in Santiago. Raúl Peralta, a lonely architectural model maker, lives a quiet life with only his ailing mother and a pet canary for company. His routine is upended by the arrival of new neighbours whose sinister activities seem to hide dark secrets. Desperately clinging to the last remnants of his sanity, Raúl’s life increasingly intertwines with Guillermo, a mysterious man in dark glasses. As reality unravels, the echoes of Raúl’s past collide with the horrors of his present in a psychological thriller that leaves behind a deep, indelible scar.

The film has an authentic feel throughout, for the director Diego Figueroa did a lot of research on such cases during his studies years earlier.

The genesis of the film began back in 2014 when \the director was working on my thesis project for the Film and Television program at the University of Chile. During an in-depth investigation into the dictatorship’s repressive forces and their relationship with civil society, he came across a series of studies on private homes that had been used as clandestine centres for detention, torture, and, in some cases, extermination. This led me to conduct further research into some of these well-known locations and connect with investigative authors like Javier Rebolledo, whose research into the civilian aspect of the dictatorship and its connections resulted in his book trilogyLos Cuervos.

It turns out the neighbours are secret police agents linked to the dictatorship, and the sounds coming through the walls are interrogations and torture of political prisoners.

As Raúl listens through a stethoscope-type instrument, he becomes aware of this as he hears loud music covering screams of confession under torture.  He is drawn into a nightmarish moral situation. His attempts to report or intervene are ignored—or dangerous.  He tries to contact through a radio station.  He becomes psychologically unravelled, haunted by what he hears but powerless to stop it.  To add to the anxiety, Ray is disabled and suffers from some foreign object inns le.  But he has a girlfriend who cares, but he cannot reciprocate.

The life and paranoia are effectively created and felt throughout the entire movie, a lowborn in which one can feel the heat of the burn.

One can feel and root for Raul, but things do not look too good for him.  His girlfriend escapes to Paris.  The film offers Raul a route of escape when his a=bedridden mother passes away, the excuse he always gives for not going out.  

One can feel and root for Raul, but things do not look too good for him.  His girlfriend escapes to Paris.  The film offers Raul a route of escape when his bedridden mother passes away, the excuse he always gives for not going out.  The only solace is his girlfriend who takes a liking to him.

The film has an ending (not to be revealed in this review) that is quite ambiguous and disturbing.  The audience might not like the ambiguity, but the disturbing factor is expected.

A YARD OF JACKALS premieres exclusively on IndiePix Unlimited on May 8th, 2026.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 09 April 2026

FILM REVIEWS:

180 (South Africa 2026) ***
Directed by Alex Jazbe

When an unexpected road rage incident puts his son in critical condition, an enraged father spirals down a dark path of emotional turmoil and vengeance.

In a way, 180 is the ultimate revenge movie.  What would be a more devastating tragedy that could happen to anyone?  When one loses a son.  In 180, a father exacts vengeance when his son is hot and killed in an accident that should not have happened - a question of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. 180 is a South African action movie that ramps up the ante in a film that feels similar to Lian Neeson's action TAKEN series of films.  Director Alex Jazbec knows his stuff (also following the footsteps of the vigilante Charles Bronson film DEATH WISH) and executes his action film without any inhibition.  The result is a satisfactory action flick, though it breaks no new ground,  in the fresh setting of South Africa, where violence is the more of the norm.

The film successfully blends emotional drama with revenge storytelling.  The basic premise follows Zak, a man who has left behind a violent criminal past to live a peaceful, law-abiding life.  But everything changes after a road rage incident spirals out of control and leaves his young son critically injured.  Overcome with grief, guilt, and rage, Zak loses faith in the legal system. His quest becomes a dark revenge journey, where the line between justice and vengeance gets blurred.

180 premieres on Netflix Friday, April 17th, 2026.

Trailer: 

AMRUM (Germany 2025) ***** Top 10

Directed by Fatih Akin

 

Amrum is a 2025 German historical drama film directed by Fatih Akin and co-written by Akin with Hark Bohm, based on Bohm's childhood on the German island of Amrum during the last months of World War II.   It stars Jasper Billerbeck, Kian Köppke, Laura Tonke, Diane Kruger, Detlev Buck, and Matthias Schweighöfer.

The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Premiere section of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, on 15 May,[4] where it was met with positive reviews from critics.[5][6] It was theatrically released in Germany on 9 October by Warner Bros. Pictures.

Bohm died two months after the film's theatrical release in Germany

The film AMRUM is set in the little-known island of Amrum.  Amrum is a German island located in the North Sea, part of the North Frisian Islands in the district of Nordfriesland within the state of Schleswig-Holstein.  Situated near the Danish border, it is known for its wide sandy beaches, dunes, and position within the Wadden Sea UNESCO World Heritage site.  Amrum is indeed a gorgeous, bright island that any tourist should look forward to visiting.  The bright setting contrasts with the bleak childhood experiences of a German Hitler Youth called Manning as he navigates the death of Adolf Hitler at the end of the war.  The island also serves as a metaphor for the story.

1945, in the final weeks of World War II, in a small village on the island of Amrum off Germany's North Sea coast. Twelve-year-old Nanning Bohm, the eldest child in his family, works in the potato fields or gathers driftwood for firewood to help his mother feed the family. She is a staunch Nazi and is in the later stages of pregnancy. He, his aunt Ena, and his two younger siblings had to flee to the island from bombed-out Hamburg.

Nanning's father is an SS-Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel) and is away at war; his wife is left to fend for herself on Amrum, while the villagers secretly listen to proscribed jazz on the radio.

As the war draws to a close, Nanning faces new challenges. Since the birth of his sister and the death of Adolf Hitler, his mother has fallen into a deep depression and refuses to eat.

This is where Nanning’s role in the story starts to take place.  He manoeuvres his life, keeping his head above the evil waters around him.

AMRUM is a remarkable, moving little film that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit, especially how the boy, Nanning, survives all the evils of his Nazi family’s evils, managing to do good above all the evil surrounding him.  He also manages to save the life of an enemy, a man who drowns while trying to steal butter from the boy.  If this quite little disquieting film does not move you, nothing probably will.  This is Fatih Atkin’s best film to date.

The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Premiere section of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, on 15 May, where it was met with positive reviews from critics.  It was theatrically released in Germany on 9 October by Warner Bros. Pictures.  Bohm, who wrote the film based on his own experiences, died two months after the film's theatrical release in Germany

AMRUM opens at the TIFF Lightbox on Friday, April 17th.  A must-see!

Trailer: 

ASSASSIN (China 2025) ***
Directed by Zhou Jiuquin

 

ASSASSIN (2025) (also known as Assassination: 1932) is a Chinese historical action-drama set during the early years of the Second Sino-Japanese conflict.

It is Shanghai in the 1930s. Occupied by the Japanese and on the brink of war.

  When elite fighter Mubai is recruited for a top-secret assassination, he is thrown into brutal battle against the Japanese military machine. Hunted through city streets, train lines, and enemy strongholds, Mubai fights his way through ambushes, explosions, and brutal close-quarters combat to reach a single target who could change history.  With time running out and bodies piling up, survival depends on speed, skill, and nerve.

The full story (including spoilers.  Skip next paragraph, in italics, as deemed fit.)

Zhang Mubai, the leader of a group of traitors, washes away the Japanese army at a celebration banquet and befriends Jin Yuanbao, a gangster. To assassinate Kurokawa, a think-tank for the invasion of China, they boarded a ship in disguise but fell into the trap of a body double, and were tortured by the secret agent Sato. When they escape by blowing up the arsenal, they witness Sato's disfigurement and run away. After the tragic death of a gangster, Mr Hu Baxi, his funeral triggers the public to blockade the wedding of Kurokawa's son. Zhang Mubai takes advantage of the chaos and kills Sato, while Kurokawa is intercepted and killed by a wall of people's flesh and blood as he flees.  As his comrades perish, Zhang Mubai throws his ashes into the Huangpu River and turns to the underground resistance - the courage of a mole cricket becomes the spark that tears apart the dark night.

Despite the film’s historical setting, the setting and story are an excuse for the following in the lineage of nonstop combat films like John Wick, The Raid, and Ong Bak, very popular and successful box-office hits.  Assassin does not disappoint as a relentless action thriller, as it features elite fight choreography that will leave fans of the genre breathless amidst a few ultra-violent eye-gouging scenes.  But the film differs from the other Chinese action films for the following reasons.  It includes action, espionage, and war drama with a strong emphasis on patriotism and collective resistance.

Besides the high-octane action scenes, one must commend the impressive effort to accomplish the period atmosphere of 1930s Shanghai.  From the costumes that include both Chinese and Japanese military to the props, decor, and furniture to the vehicles used at the time, everything looks immaculate.

The introduction of a comedic romantic subplot also works really well.  It also shows how love can comically transform one into a true hero.  Take it for what it is worth.  The film, unfortunately, contains a few really nasty elements that could have been done away with, such as the multiple rapping scenes of a captured female resistance fighter.  The Japanese are shown to be truly evil beings, though with a bit of comic villainy.

ASSASSIN premieres, arriving on VOD & Digital on April 17th, 2026.

Trailer: 

 

THE CHRISTOPHERS (USA 2025) ***½

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

 

Director Soderbergh teams up again with writer Ed Solomon to create a stylish chamber piece rich with dialogue and colourful characters set in the art world of forgery and deception.

The film centres on Julian Sklar (Ian McKellen), a once-celebrated painter now reclusive and dwindling in relevance, and his estranged children who see his unfinished series of paintings ("The Christophers") as a potential posthumous windfall. They hire Lori Butler (Michaela Coel), a struggling art restorer posing as his assistant, to finish or forge these works so they can profit from them after his death.  Lori and Julian begin a relationship that is both hateful and tolerant, which grows for the queerest of reasons.   McKellen is excellent in delivering his lines, exhibiting black humour, pathos, and respect for both his character and for himself as an actor. Again, another small but wonderful entertainment from Soderbergh.

LEE CRONIN’S THE MUMMY (UA 2026) **
Directed by Lee Cronin

 

The film begins in Aswan, Egypt, where a man, a woman, and their daughter, Layla, arrive home to find their pet bird dead.  The parents go to the cellar, which is revealed to be built on a buried black pyramid.  Inside, a black basalt sarcophagus contains mummified human remains that begin moving, and the father is killed by a supernatural force.  Apparently, it is revealed that the father and mother are aware of the human remains.  And the mother, all to be revealed as a mysterious Layla, has something to do with the rest of the story.  So far, the film works well.

The story moves to Cairo, where investigative TV reporter Charlie Cannon lives with his pregnant wife, Larissa, and their children Katie and Sebastián. Katie is friends with Layla. One morning, Katie is visited by the woman from Aswan, known as the Magician. She identifies herself as Layla's mother and uses candy to lure Katie away before kidnapping her.  Charlie gives chase but loses them in a sandstorm. He and Larissa report the kidnapping to the authorities, working with an English-speaking junior detective, Dalia Zaki, while the lead detective suspects the parents.  Eight years later, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Charlie, Larissa, Sebastián, and their third child, Maud, now live in the home of Larissa's Catholic mother, Carmen. In Aswan, a teenager witnesses a cargo plane carrying the sarcophagus crash. Inside, archaeologists find Katie wrapped in parchment inscribed with an ancient language. Katie, who is in a catatonic state and habitually self-harms, is moved back home with Charlie and Larissa.  The family refuses to seek further medical help despite Katie's erratic behaviour, in which she frequently escapes her room and mutilates herself. 

This is where the film starts to fall apart.  The incidents following get more un likely to happen.  The criss-cross of paths, the possession of Sebastian and Carmen at the end of the film, make littl4 sense.  The horror action set pieces are, however, scary enough for a horror film.  But for a lengthy over 2-hour feature, even this gets boring with nothing really freeing her that is added to the horror genre.

The film has so far received mixed reviews.  Horror fans should not complain as the film delivers, but for the more discerning viewer, more is expected from this budgeted horror.  The film opens in theatres on April the 10th.

Trailer: 

LITTLE LORRAINE (Canada 2025) ***½

Directed by Andy Hines

 

LITTLE LORRAINE is based on a song by Alex Baldwin.  The song, which pretty much tells the whole story depicted in the film, can be heard during the closing credits of the film, so that spoilers will be revealed.  Baldwin was awarded the titles of Male Artist of the Year and Musician of the Year during the Nova Scotia Music Week in 2014.   

A 1986 mining explosion that left 10 men dead in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, launches this thrilling drama, inspired by a true story, that merges coastal fishing with an international cocaine smuggling ring.

With the closing of the mine, Jimmy (Stephen Amell) is suddenly out of work, just as his untrustworthy great uncle Henry (prolific Nova Scotian actor Stephen McHattie) saunters in with a business proposal: join him on his lobster fishing boat.  Believing it’ll be a way to safely support his family, Jimmy also convinces his friends Tommy (Joshua Close) and Jake (Steve Lund) to join him, and very quickly, the three are rolling in the cash.

The film begins with the news of underwater mining in the waters around Cape Breton, where the audience is told that 148,000 people lived at the time. Most were miners, but the mines closed, and employment was at its lowest.  The film’s very Nova Scotian, and yes, Canadian.

The film title is derived from the name of a village in Nova Scotia, located on the east coast of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada.  It is known to have had several different names in the past, such as Little Loran, Lorembec, Cap-de-Lorembec, Petit Laurenbec, and, between 1750 51, Petit Lorembec was in use.  The small village is known for its rough seas and heavy fog.

But in this film, Little Lorraine, a North Atlantic seaside town with a population of 60, becomes embroiled in an international cocaine smuggling operation under the noses of multiple governments, distributed in coffins through a network of funeral homes.

The film includes a few nice touches, mostly when the Hispanic Interpol investigator (Colombian musician J. Balvin) arrives at the town.  Some humour is injected at the little hotel where he stays.  The conflict between the locals and the foreigners is also heightened.  The audience could take either side.  Should the drug smugglers be caught?  Or the drug investigator be sent home.   Stephen McHattie, a veteran actor of dozens of movies, plays the uncle who started it all.

“Good men don’t end up in situations like this!”  says a fisherman caught up in a violent situation.  Fate takes a turn, and bad or good things can happen.

A few suspenseful segments are present, too.  The one where the police stop the fishing boat with the cocaine hidden on board.  “We are coming on board,” says the officer.

The emotional toll also takes effect, particularly on Tommy, one of the crew members.  He ends up confessing to the priest during confession.  The moral issue of whether to support one’s family also comes into the equation.  Also included in the story are the effects of drug use, such as cocaine use by the locals.  LITTLE LORRAINE  is a solid film with a good story reflecting the atmosphere and period of Cape Breton with credible performances all around.

LITTLE LORRAINE premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and opens in theatres on April 17th.

 

 Trailer: 

LORNE (USA 2026) **

Directed by Morgan Neville

 

LORNE is a documentary on Lorne Michaels, the brains behind Saturday Night Live, the Saturday Night Live broadcast show known to fans as SNL.

The doc opens not too enthusiastically, preparing the audience to expect the worst.  The audience is told that Lorne Michaels had finally agreed to be interviewed for a doc to be made. And then what does the man do?  He dodges everyone, making it difficult to pin him down for a conversation.  The audience is also warned that this could be the most boring documentary made, and in a way, the statement is true as the doc meanders among different topics while trying to get a footing.  And the first question Michaels is asked?  “What is funny?”  The audience does not get the answer, not that there is a satisfactory answer to that too general a question,

SNL has always been a hit and miss, with some Saturday evening programs a complete dud.  This can be compared to the much funnier but lesser known Canadian SCTV (Second City Television), which is consistently good and much funnier, though SCTV followed the footsteps of SNL.

At best, the audience sees the working of how SNL works, after the director of the doc is given unprecedented access to the man who built and sustained the institution for five decades.  Shown for example, are simple procedures like updating a board and on the cardboard board are pinned the skits that work in the order that are to be performed.  Many are discarded among those few selected.  Lorne Michaels is one of the judges.

The performers of SNL, past and present, are seen in the doc, from the likes of the late John Belushi and Steve Farley to old favourites like Chevy Chase.  A few hosts are also seen, though some very briefly, for just a glance, like Elon Musk.

The story about the pumpkin farms is the most interesting story to note.  After travelling along pumpkin fields where hundreds of pumpkins are sold, there is a pumpkin stall selling pumpkins.  The man asks the guy at the stall: “There are pumpkins all over the place, and I can pick any one for free.  Why would I come to you to pay for a pumpkin?  The reply: “Because it is I who can pick the good pumpkins.”  This is analogous to Lorne Michael able to pick the best skits, the best comedy performers, and to keep the program going all this time.

A few of the skits are shown, including a weird one about a paedophile featuring a scout leader and a scout, the leader played by Alec Baldwin.

LORNE is a documentary, less a biography of Lorn Michales than a celebration of SNL.   SNL has survived hard and difficult times and has quite the following, despite being unfunny, with often quite a high miss and hit ratios, though not for want of trying.

LORNe opens in theatres on April 17th. Recommended only for true SNL loyalists.

Trailer:

 

MILE END KICKS (Canada 2025) ***
Directed by Chandler Levack

 

The film is called MILE END KICKS as the film is set in Mile End in Montreal (Mile End is a neighbourhood and municipal electoral district in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located in the city's Plateau-Mont-Royal borough.), and Kick refers to the shoe store where the lead singer of the band that Grace is in love with works.

The story centres on Grace Pine (Barbie Ferreira), a 24-year-old aspiring music journalist from Toronto. Feeling stuck—both creatively and personally—she moves to Montreal’s Mile End neighbourhood, hoping to reinvent herself.  Her main goal is ambitious: to write a book about Alanis Morissette’s iconic album Jagged Little Pill. But from the start, she struggles:  She is broke and underemployed, even though she is given an advance for writing her book.  She gets distracted, she doesn’t speak French, and she feels like an outsider in a tight-knit indie scene.

Grace is not particularly what one might call a sex bomb or a ravishing beauty.  One of the items on her Montreal checklist is to have sex, and she has a lot of turn-downs, a few of these used for humorous content.

Grace becomes romantically involved with both Archi and Chevy, creating a messy love triangle. Each relationship represents something different:  Archi = emotional connection, artistic idealism, while Chevy = stability, realism.  Rather than a neat romance, the film portrays awkward intimacy, jealousy and confusion, blurred lines between work and relationships.  Though one might feel sympathy for Grace, the underdog, she is still neither an ideal nor a perfect person.   

At best, the film encompasses youthful aimlessness and ambition (or they do not really know what they want), which is characteristic of every young person while navigating the intersection of art and romantic identity in a male-dominated scene.  The Montreal music scene, too, is accurately enough represented.

One can hardly describe MILE END KICKS as a feel-good, entertaining movie because of its content.  Yet, one must give credit to the director for trying his best (even though his protagonist is female)  to keep her film realistic and effective,

MILE END KICKS is essentially a younger person’s film about a young person’s coming-of-age.  It takes one individual, with many faults but with some positives as well. Most of the other characters are all youngsters, with Jay Baruchel (GOON) and Devon Bostick (from DIARY OF A WIMPY KID, both films) being the most famous of the cast.

MILE END KICKS opens in theatres April 17th.

Trailer: 

PANDA PLAN 2: THE MAGIC TRIBE (China 2025) ***

Directed by Derek Hui

 

A Jackie Chan film is almost always meant to be taken in good fun, including this one, PANDA PLAN 2: THE MAGIC TRIBE.  Jackie Chan rose to fame playing drunken king-fu Masters, fighting while being drunk. comically.  He is seldom meant to be taken seriously, not like the other Kung-fu actors.  But Jackie Chan does not mind.  At heart, he is a good-hearted soul who means no one any harm, an actor who is known to perform all his own stunts.

PANDA PLAN 2: THE MAGIC TRIBE is cartoonish, silly, goofy, but always well-meaning and entertaining.  There is no swearing, and the film contains good messages for all in general. The action set pieces are decent, with Chan’s Martial-Art kills.

When lovable Panda Hu Hu and international superstar Jackie Chan stumble upon a hidden primitive tribe, Hu Hu is hailed as a “divine beast” believed to be the key to saving the tribe from disaster.  As quirky warriors and magical leaders close in, Jackie must protect Hu Hu while uncovering the secrets of this mysterious land.  Jackie also wants to return to the modern civilisation he is comfortable with.

The jokes can be silly, but funny too.  One involves a fighter given a magic pill by the high priest so that when he fights a duel, he can get superpowers, enough to defeat a bull.  The only problem is that he has to swallow the pill as a whole, not taking any water to dilute the potency.  But the pill is larger than an apple.  Chan always provides a laugh or two with his silly antics.  And the panda, Hu Hu, featured in the film, though CGI-generated, is also cute enough to harm the audience.

PANDA PLAN 2: THE MAGIC TRIBE opens in Toronto and the GTA on April 17th.

Trailer: 

ROOMMATES (USA 2026) ***
Directed by Chandler Levack

 

ROOMMATE is a 2026 American black comedy film directed by Chandler Levack and written by Jimmy Fowlie and Ceara O'Sullivan.  The film stars Sadie Sandler (the eldest daughter of Adam Sandler) and Chloe East. It tells the story of two college freshmen – one naive, the other cool and confident – who become roommates as they face different obstacles of living in the same dormitory.

A hopeful, naive college freshman, Devon (Sandler), asks the cool and confident Celeste (East)to be her roommate, seeing a blossoming friendship spiral thereafter into a war of passive aggression.

If the film’s premise sounds uninviting, one should wait a minute and look deeper.  This is a Happy Gilmore production, and anything that has to do with Adam Sandler is not all that bad, unless one cannot stand him.  The film stars his daughter, and the family in the film, the father uses cuss words like cunt and fuck, as the other characters do.  The humour is also crude but Sandler-type funny.  And the director is Canadian.

And the last time they made a black comedy about high school protagonists, they came up with a hit, Olivia Wilde’s BOOKSMART.

ROOMMATES is released on Netflix on April 17, 2026.

Trailer: 

WASTEMAN (UK 2025) ****

Directed by Cal McMau

 

The prison drama benefits from two outstanding performances.  David Jonsson plays Taylor in the lead role, while Tom Blyth, last seen in the late Terence Davie 2021 drama BENEDICTION, plays the supporting role of Dee, Taylor’s new cellmate who changes everything around.

Wateman is the British slang UK for someone seen as useless or a loser, but ironically used in the film for someone toxic and destructive.

The film follows Taylor, who is relentlessly bullied and humiliated by a more dominant, aggressive peer, Dee—the kind of guy often dismissed as a “wasteman”.

Taylor, a prison cook who has been incarcerated for 13 years, is informed he is eligible for early release on the basis that he maintains good behaviour. Taylor regularly does haircuts for fellow prisoners Gaz and Paul, from whom he buys drugs to fuel his addiction. He manages to make contact with his now 14-year-old, estranged son, Adam.

While struggling to fill out the form for his release, Taylor is assigned a new cellmate, Dee, who starts selling drugs not long after his arrival, taking business away from Gaz and Paul. Taylor and Dee start to form a friendship, with Taylor opening up about how he accidentally killed a teenager by selling him drugs to provide for Adam, which landed him in prison with a manslaughter charge. Dee lets Taylor use his phone to contact Adam, also sending Adam a pair of expensive trainers via his friend on the outside as a present from Taylor. Frustrated with how Dee has taken away their control over the prison's drug trade, Gaz and Paul violently attack and beat him unconscious while Taylor stands back helplessly. Afterwards, the pair force Taylor to punch Dee, filming it to share around the prison. Dee is taken to the hospital to recover.

As the story unfolds, Taylor tries to navigate daily life under intimidation while Dee exerts control through mockery, threats, and social dominance under the pretend off freidnhip.  The more Dee does for Taylor, the more control he has over Taylor.  Tension builds toward a moment where the victim must decide whether to submit, escape, or retaliate.  This forms the climax of the film.

Principal photography took place in London and Somerset in the summer of 2024. Filming locations included Shepton Mallet Prison.  The gritty cinematography was provided by Lorenzo Levrini.

For a prison film, the script plays with a few clichés that follow the tory, and the plot thickens. But though what happens might be a bit predictable, the sheer brutal violence and tension built up for the many scenes are enough to make the audience forget the film’s flaws as they are shocked out of their seats.

WATEMAN clearly ranks as one of the most violent films of 2026, horror films included.

WASTEMAN premiered in the Centrepiece programme at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.  The film was released in the United Kingdom on 20 February 2026 and opens at the TIFF Lightbox on April 17th. 

Trailer: 

 

THE WOLVES ALWAYS COME AT NIGHT (Australia/Mongolia/Germany 2024) ***
Directed by Gabrielle Brady

 

THE WOLVES ALWAYS COME AT NIGHT -- Australia’s official submission for the 2026 Academy Awards for both Best International Feature Film and Best Documentary Feature -- offers a sweeping, yet deeply personal, docu-fiction set on the Mongolian steppes, chronicling one family’s displacement after climate catastrophe.

  A hauntingly intimate portrait of a family forced to confront the unraveling of their world, the film follows Davaa and Zaya, a young herding couple raising four daughters in a life shaped by tradition, livestock, and the rhythms of the land. Their quiet resilience is shattered when a catastrophic climate-driven storm devastates their herd — and with it, their livelihood. Suddenly unmoored from generations of nomadic identity, the family must join the growing wave of rural migrants relocating to the fringes of Ulaanbaatar in search of survival. Blurring the boundaries between documentary and narrative cinema, Brady crafts a deeply personal docufiction drama co-scripted with Davaa and Zaya themselves, who courageously reenact their own journey of displacement. The result is both epic and intimate: a sweeping visual meditation on climate change’s human toll and a tender study of love, pride, and parental responsibility under crushing uncertainty.

 The film has a documentary feel as the camera closely follows this Mongolian family of 6 (parents and four children) who have to relocate near the city after the story's tragedies, in which the herd is lost.  Born to generations of herders in Mongolia’s immense Bayankhongor region, young couple Daava (Davaasuren Dagvasuren) and Zaya (Otgonzaya Dashzeveg) are raising their four children as they were brought up: with an intimate connection to the land and the animals they share their lives with.  

Pressing topics like climate change and urban migration are also drawn to the story.  Director Brady’s film captures the family's plight, especially when they start talking about how they miss the animals.

THE WOLVES ALWAYS COME AT NIGHT was shown at TIFF last year and premieres on FILM MOVEMENT PLUS April 17th, 2026.

Details

Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 03 April 2026

FILM REVIEWS:

18TH ROSE (Philippines 2026) **
Directed by Dolly Dudu

 

 

The 2026 Netflix film 18th Rose is a coming-of-age romantic drama set in the early 2000s Philippines, centred on a teenage girl preparing for a life-changing tradition—her 18th birthday debut.

The story follows Rose, a lively, free-spirited teenage girl approaching her 18th birthday.

In Filipino culture, turning 18 is marked by a grand celebration (a “debut”), symbolizing entry into adulthood.  Rose dreams of having the perfect, fairy-tale debut, complete with romance, status, and validation. However, she feels pressure to make the night unforgettable.  She worries she doesn’t yet have the “perfect” love story to match the occasion.

Rose makes a deal with a stranger, Jordan, a quiet, somewhat lonely newcomer.

Jordan is an outsider—socially awkward, mysterious, and emotionally guarded.  Rose proposes a mutual arrangement.  He will act as her date/romantic partner for the debut.

In return, she offers him companionship, inclusion, or help with his own struggles.

In summary,  18TH ROSE is about a fake relationship that becomes real—

and a girl who learns that growing up means letting go of the perfect story she imagined. 

For information, the 18 Roses is a traditional part of a Filipina debut that symbolises the debutante’s transition from childhood to womanhood. It involves 18 important men in her life, each offering her a rose and sharing a dance with her. This gesture represents love, guidance, and respect from the male figures who have played meaningful roles in her life.  Jo..rdan is clearly the 18th ROSE

The “fake relationship turns into real love” trope is one of the most beloved in romantic films. It works because it lets characters fall in love accidentally, often while pretending not to.   This also, unfortunately, means that audiences have seen this premise once too often with many classics that can be watched again or for the first time, and then sit down to watch an overlong 2-hour Filipino teen romance.  A few of the best and most notable films that use this idea include THE PROPOSAL (2009), SHE’S ALL THAT, and 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU (both from 1999), just to name a few.

  18TH rose is an overlong teen romance that uses the once-again, all-too-familiar fake relationship-turned-into-real-love premise.  There is hardly anything funny, original, or memorable, except the Filipino setting.

18TH ROSE streams on Netflix beginning April 9th.

Trailer: 

BIG MISTAKES (USA 2026) ***½

Directed by Dean Holland (1st 2 episodes) and various others, including  Etan Frankel and Timothy Greenberg

 

BIG MISTAKES is an upcoming American crime comedy television series for Netflix, created by Dan Levy and Rachel Sennott. Levy (best known from the hit Canadian series SCHITT’S CREEK) also acts as showrunner and leads the cast. The series will premiere on April 9, 2026.

BIG MISTAKES is about, obviously, big mistakes - mistakes that are almost impossible to correct.  This means that the characters have to do their utmost best to deal with the consequences, which makes for a good opportunity for comedy.

The film opens in a hospital ward.  The grandmother is almost about to die, which she does in the scene, but not before declaring that her dying wish is to have a diamond necklace, real or not.  The daughter is constantly screaming in the hospital ward at her three adult children, two of whom, Nicky (Levy) and Morgan (Taylor Ortega) decide to go to a local store to get a present.  Taylor sees a necklace in a showcase at the store, which she assumes is not real.  But the store salesman, at the counter, Yusuf (Boran Kusum), is hiding real diamonds, as there is nowhere to hide something that can be displayed in plain sight.  Taylor nicked it, and the necklace is put around the grandmother’s neck just before she is buried 6 feet under.  This is when Yusuf shows up, threatening  Nicky and Morgan with a gun.

The episodes move at a manic pace, with the characters constantly screaming and arguing with each other as the events turn for the worse.  As the siblings try to make do with the situation, there is plenty of suspense and opportunity of comedy.  Nick also plays a gay priest, a factor that allows more insane comedy into the series.

The casting of BIG MISTAKES works well from the dynamic Chemistry (always fighting in this case) between siblings played by Dan Levy and Taylor Ortega, nothing short of outstanding.  And why not get a real Turk like Boran Kuzum to play Yusuf, a Turk heavy.  A Canadian is nicely cast in the role, too, Jack Innanen, who plays a lovable loser who tries so hard to make his romantic dreams come true.  Elizabeth Perkins is also excellent, appearing on and off in the episodes beginning with Episode 3.

The introduction of the family members to the audience is done in a remarkable first act in which the family is all gathered, arguing in a hospital ward.  No nonsense, right into the story, with the action moving fast and furious.  The BIG MISTAKES arrive with more consequences, all ripe for suspense comedy, a genre that this series excels in.  And an amazing soundtrack!

There are 8 episodes in all, all opening on Thursday, April 9th, Thursday, each 30 minutes in length.  There was a special press screening of the first 2 episodes of the series, and judging from the first two, the whole 8 episodes should all be thoroughly entertaining.  All 8 episodes are available for streaming on Netflix, which picked up BIG MISTAKES in May last year.

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EXIT 8 (Japan 2025) ***
Directed by Genki Kawamura

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Mazes and maze puzzles have always fascinated people.  Trying to get out of a seemingly endless puzzle is the goal.  In the new Japanese movie EXIT 8,  Arashi superstar Kazunari “Nino” Ninomiya plays the Lost Man, a backpacked commuter trapped in an endless, sterile subway corridor. To escape at Exit 8 — where his ex awaits his thoughts about her pregnancy — he must obey one rule: if anything looks off, turn back. Miss a single anomaly, and he’s snapped to the start, condemned to loop again. The premise becomes a taut metaphor for guilt, responsibility, and the paralysis of indecision.  There is nothing really much more in the story, but Nino makes turn after turn in one corridor after corridor for the full length of the movie.  Definitely a movie that is NOT to be seen twice, credit should be given at least to the filmmaker to capture the attention of audiences for a full 90 plus minutes without incident and with much repetition.  No one walked out during the screening - a rare achievement.  The eerie and creepy film comes with a music soundtrack of Ravel's Bolero.

Trailer: 

THRASH (USA 2026) ***

Directed by Tommy Wirkola

 

One thing to note right away is that the film is titled THRASH, not trash, the two words obviously having two different meanings.  Thrash means a violent or noisy movement, typically involving hitting something repeatedly, as the storm called Hurricane Henry does, and the word trash means rubbish, which the story could be relabelled as.  Be that as it may, writer/director Tommy Wirkola knows what the film should succeed as, and the film works in a trashy kind of way, being entertainingly corny at the same time. THRASH, the film is a hurricane disaster movie + shark survival horror, where ordinary people must survive both nature’s fury and deadly predators at the same time.  If you think the title is bad, the former titles BENEATH THE STORM and SHIVER are worse!

The film follows multiple characters (an ensemble cast) trying to survive as the town is submerged.  These characters include:

Phoebe Dynevor as Lisa Fields: A pregnant woman trapped in a car in the middle of a hurricane, trying to get away from the raging waves and the sharks they bring

Whitney Peak as Dakota Edwards: Dale's agoraphobic niece, who at first, skeptical, dismisses the idea of a Category 5 hurricane approaching her town, but soon realizes the gravity of the situation;

Djimon Hounsou as Dale Edwards: A marine researcher trying to help people trapped in the town as they had been cut off from any rescue attempts.

Alyla Browne as Dee Olsen: Sister of a trio of foster siblings trying to survive while trapped in their own home as sharks invade and terrorize them.

Stacy Clausen as Ron Olsen: Older brother of a trio of foster siblings trying to survive while trapped in their own home as sharks invade and terrorize them;

Dante Ubaldi as Will Olsen: Younger brother of a trio of foster siblings trying to survive while trapped in their own home as sharks invade and terrorize the town.

The setting is the fictional coastal town of Annieville, supposedly in  South Carolina (the film was shot on a lot in Australia). 

Director Workload takes his trashy disaster horror flick seriously enough. It begins with a note that storms have increased tremendously since 1980, never mentioning climate change as the reason, assuming audiences are bright enough to make the deduction.  The film then gets right to business, with scenes of the townsfolk rushing to leave Annieville, though a few refuse to acknowledge the forthcoming danger.  The various characters are introduced into the story as done in many disaster films.  The Hurricane is Category 5, nearing Category 6, though the film never explains how the categories are listed. 

The film gets a bit ridiculous and over the top with segments like Lisa trying to bear a child amidst the flood waters and a family trying to keep the house door shut to stop the sharks.  All this is done in good fun and R-rated style.

Director Wirkola is a Norwegian filmmaker who is no stranger to this kind of thriller, which combines horror, action, and satire, including DEAD SNOW (2009) and DEAD SNOW 2.

THRASH opens for streaming on April 10th on Netflix.

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UNTOLD: CHESS MATES (USA 2026) ***½

Directed by Thomas Tancred

 

First thing to note is that one need not be interested or know anything bout chess to enjoy this chess drama documentary,

The new Netflix original doc wastes no time and gets straight to the point.  The audience knows exactly what to expect within the first 3 opening minutes. The documentary starts by introducing the two main characters, and immediately the scene is set: this is an all-time great versus a young grandmaster who initially rose to fame through the world of online chess.

First up in the opening montage is Carlsen, beating people blindfolded.  The Norwegian five-time world champion said: “I’ve been the definite best player in the world now for 12 to 13 years.”  The doc then immediately moves to American Niemann, described as someone with an “insane level of self-confidence,” who pulls no punches. “All I did was play a chess game, and I beat him,” he says. “He’s entered a level of paranoia that’s not sane.”

The two chessmates referred to in the film’s title are Norwegian Magnus Carlsen and American Hans Niemann.  As they say, a doc is as interesting as its subjects, and the two subjects are as interesting as any human being can get.  They are geniuses, temperamental, and full of ego.  When fitted against each other, as the doc shows, all hell breaks loose.

  The first chessmate, Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen, is a Norwegian chess grandmaster. Carlsen is a five-time World Chess Champion, reigning six-time World Rapid Chess Champion, reigning nine-time World Blitz Chess Champion, and the reigning FIDE Freestyle Chess World Champion. Carlsen has held the No. 1 position in the FIDE rankings since 1 July 2011, the longest consecutive period, and trails only Garry Kasparov in time spent as the highest-rated player in the world. Carlsen's peak rating of 2882 is the highest in history. He also holds the record for the longest unbeaten streak at the elite level in classical chess at 125 games.

The second chess mate, Hans Moke Niemann, is an American chess grandmaster and Twitch streamer.   He first entered the top 100 junior players list on March 1, 2019, and became a FIDE grandmaster on January 22, 2021.   In July 2021, he won the World Open chess tournament in Philadelphia. He achieved a peak global ranking of No. 15 in October 2025.

After rather extensive coverage oft he two subjects, the doc focuses on the scandal.  How to start, where it leads, and how it ends.  Knowing the two subjects injects more interest in the scandal, making the doc even more intriguing.

“I feel it must be so humiliating for him to lose to such an idiot as me,” says Hans after winning against Carlsen.

In September 2022, Niemann became embroiled in a controversy after defeating reigning World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen in the third round of the 2022 Sinquefield Cup.  This is what this doc is primarily about.

The doc aims to entertain, and this it does, moving at a pace fast enough to put any chess player to shame.  As a sports drama, it incorporates courtroom drama, and the result is an artistically dramatized entertainment to be totally enjoyed.

UNTOLD: CHESS MATES opens for streaming on Netflix beginning Tuesday, April 7th.

Trailer: 

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 29 March 2026

The big ones opening for Easter are the new Mario Brothers Galaxy movie and THE DRAMA.  Best film opening is THE BLUE TRAIL, and best one not opening is LIVING THE LAND.

 

FILM REVIEWS:

AGATHA’S ALMANAC (Canada 2025) ***

Directed  by Amelie Atkins

 

AGATHA’S ALMANAC is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Amalie Atkins and released in 2025. The film is a portrait of her aunt Agatha Bock, a 90-year-old woman who still lives a fiercely independent life revolving around her passion for gardening.  The film unfolds over the course of a year, using the changing seasons as its structure—much like a traditional almanac, and hence the film’s title.

AGATHA’S ALMANAC will inevitably be compared to Chantal Akerman’s 1975 masterpiece, Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, which was ranked the greatest film of all time in Sight & Sound magazine's 2022 "Greatest Films of All Time" critics poll, making her the first woman to top the poll.  Both films show the subject working in real time, doing daily chores in their daily routines.  Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles depicts long moments of the life of Jeanne Dielman in real time, which Akerman said "was the only way to shoot the film – to avoid cutting the action in a hundred places, to look carefully and to be respectful. The framing was meant to respect her space, her, and her gestures within it.” This also holds true for Agatha in AGATHA’S ALMANAC.  The main difference is that the reviewed film is all true, while in the latter, the subject sees male clients during the day, and the film ends with her committing suicide.

The doc also tells of Agatha’s personal life, which she narrates in her own voice.  She tells of her men numbered 1 to 3.  Her number 3 is the one who told her that two people living together can do so cheaper than one.  He took her for breakfast because it is cheaper than lunch.  I am not going to marry someone like that, she says.  She suffers from old age ailments, like bleeding, but she is happy that she has lived up to the age of 85.  Story number 3 ended up getting married, according to Agatha, but not to her, Agatha jokes.   As Agatha goes on her daily chores like harvesting her fruits and vegetables, jarring them, she talks about how they are done.  For example, she seals fresh strawberries in air-sealed jars, and they are as fresh and crispy 10 days later as the first day.  Agatha has remained single all her life, and in her own words, with no regret, as she has always found something to do and does not get lonely.

As pristine as Agatha’s lifestyle, the film is also a very pleasant and easy watch in which one can sit back and easer its the doc.  Agatha lives a lifestyle of the past, she belongs to one of the old religious groups, the Mennonites, and she is self-sufficient and also self-sufficiently happy. 

AGATHA’S ALMANAC also comes away with much critical acclaim.  They won the juried award for Best Canadian Feature Documentary.  The film was also long-listed for the 2025 Jean-Marc Vallée DGC Discovery Award and was named to the Toronto International Film Festival's annual year-end Canada's Top Ten list for 2025.

The film opens on Apr 3rd at the TIFF Lightbox.

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THE BLUE TRAIL (Brazil/Mexico/Chile/Netherlands 2025) ****

Directed by Gabriel Mascaro

 

It is a dystopian future in Brazil, and seniors are given a hard time.  They are forced to stop work and leave work for the younger population. At the same time, the government is forcing them to socialize in ways they deem acceptable to them.  Tereza, 77, has lived her whole life in a small industrialized town in the Amazon until one day she receives an official government order to relocate to a senior housing colony.  The colony is an isolated area where the elderly are brought to « enjoy » their final years, freeing the younger generation to focus fully on productivity and growth. Tereza refuses to accept this imposed fate. Instead, she embarks on a transformative journey through the rivers and tributaries of the Amazon to fulfill one last wish (her bucket list wish) before her freedom is taken away—a decision that will change her destiny forever.  This is a very funny and timely film and one of the best films about seniors in a long time, and I am not talking COCOON here.  The stunning cinematography of the rivers in the Amazon is simply breathtaking.  

THE DRAMA (USA 2026) ***
Dieted by Kristoffer Borgli

 

The new romantic comedy drama is so-called for the main reason that there is constant drama occurring in almost every scene.  As such, it is a compelling film, though one might wish a break might be given for the audience to take a breather.

The story follows Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson), an engaged couple preparing for their wedding.  But there is drama, i.e., trouble in paradise. Their relationship is suddenly shaken days before the ceremony when disturbing truths about one partner come to light.  During a gathering with friends, they play a game where everyone must reveal “the worst thing they’ve ever done.”

Each of the 4 reveal the worst thing they had done, but Emma confesses the worst thing that she actually, ironical did not do.  While the others reveal cyber-buying to locking a kid in the closet, Emma reveals she once planned a school shooting but never carried it out—a revelation that horrifies everyone and destabilizes her fiancé. This confession occurs at the 20-minute mark of the film and sets the story in motion.

Emma’s shocking confession completely derails the relationship and the wedding plans, although the others also contribute to the chaos.

Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli is no stranger to personalized drama-based films, having written and directed SICK OF MYSELF in 2022 as well as working with Nicolas Case in the 2023 film DREAM SCENARIO.

One can see that director Borgli tries very hard to make his film different and distinct with the set-pieces to stand out among other romantic comedy dramas, sometimes trying too hard.  The film first opens with a close-up of Emma’s stud earring before revealing that she is deaf in that ear.  The sex scenes are filmed differently.  The film unfolds generally in chronological order with a few jumps.  For example, Charlie is shown badly beaten up before showing the fight scene. There is no need to change the chronological order of things except to try to make the film look smarter than it actually is.

On a more serious note, the film raises the big question of whether true love can conquer acceptance.  The film takes the message one step further (spoilers not revealed in this review) of what happens after,

For all the boundary pushing and creativity, director Kristoffer Borgli opts out for a tacked-on, cop-out, clichéd happy ending, which goes against the flow of this otherwise original and fresh romantic comedy drama.  Spoiler alert: (Though one can argue that the ending is an open one that the two attempt to start again, and not that they have agreed to part or stay together, the latter is implied from the fact that Emma sits down with Charlie at the end.)

Overall, one must give credit to director Borgli for his bravery in tackling a sensitive subject and its consequences.  Though it does not always work, it is still better to watch a film that fails, though one can hardly consider this film a failure, than one that never attempted anything and comes up with nothing.

THE DRAMA opens in theatres on April 3rd.

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LIVING THE LAND (China 2025) ****
Directed by Hugo Meng

 

LIVING THE LAND immediately brings to mind the pastoral literature classic Pearl S. Buck’s THE GOOD EARTH, which was also adapted to Sidney Franklin’s 1937 film about poverty and a Chinese farmer, Wang Lung, living the land.  This reviewer studied the novel in secondary school, and watching LIVING THE LAND is indeed nostalgic as it captures all the drama, poetry, and hardship of farmers and traditions.

The film is set in the village of Bawangtai in 1991, where time appears to have stood still. Despite the rapid industrialization happening in cities across China, everyday rural life for farming families in Henan province remains steadfastly tied to the demands of the land. 10-year-old Xu Chuang, the third-born child of one such family, is unceremoniously left with his wheat farmer uncle when his parents and older siblings set out to find work in the Southern city of Shenzhen. Cared for though unable to shake the feeling he doesn’t belong with the extended Li family, Chuang finds comfort in a young aunt, who feels similarly uneasy as she is pressured to marry, and his surly but kind nonagenarian great-grandmother. However, what is different from THE GOOD EARTH is that, as the trend of becoming migrant workers grew, the younger generation slowly departed for city life, subtly transforming the rural landscape.

The Silver Bear winner for Best Director at the 2025 Berlin Film Festival, Chinese filmmaker Huo Meng’s elliptical and elegant sophomore feature proves “a cinema of patience is also a cinema of assurance” (Indiewire). Equal parts coming-of-age tale and epic portrait of provincial life, Living the Land exists at an apex for Chinese culture in the 1990s, “a time when major reforms were transforming China from a nation of rural labourers into the industrial powerhouse it is today.” 

The film also explains the culture and work ethics of the Chinese folk.  Unlike their western counterparts, particularly Trump’s America, who are lazy and want everything given to them, the Chinese are willing to suffer and work hard to achieve the bare minimum for essential living, while often under pressure by an unrelenting government that would punish their citizens with re-education and sometimes death.  The modern Chinese cities are a stark contrast to their countryside.

At best, the film examines and demonstrates the resilience of the human spirit of any person willing to go all out to achieve their goal in life.

LiIVING THE LAND had its world premiere on 14 February 2025, as part of the 75th Berlin International Film Festival, in Competition. On 10 October 2025, it will be showcased in the Showcase section of the 2025 Vancouver International Film Festival.  Later, it competed in the 'Official Section' of the 70th Valladolid International Film Festival for Golden Spike. It will be presented in the 'Rising Stars - 2025' section of the 56th International Film Festival of India in November 2025.  The film was overlooked by the Toronto International Film Festival and also currently has no theatrical or Digital opening.

PALESTINE 36 (Palestine/United Kingdom/France/Denmark/Qatar/Saudi Arabia/Jordan 2025) ***

Directed by Annemarie Jacir

 

One of the largely neglected international films last year and now finally opening is PALESTINE 36.  Why 36?  Because that is the year you were born, comes the voiceover.  That is the year the Palestinians said enough is enough and stood united to fight the oppressors who came to steal their land.

PALESTINE 36 is a historical drama set during the 1936–1939 Arab Revolt in Mandatory Palestine, a major uprising against British colonial rule and increasing Jewish immigration.

The film follows a group of Palestinian villagers and resistance fighters as they become caught up in the early days of the revolt in 1936.  A quiet rural village is disrupted by British military crackdowns.  Ordinary people—farmers, families, and local leaders—are drawn into armed resistance.  The story traces how personal lives, loyalties, and survival instincts change under occupation and conflict

PALESTINE ’36 is Annemarie’s decade-in-the-making fourth feature that tells the story of the Arab revolts against British colonial rule in the period 1936-39, just as Jewish refugees were fleeing Europe and arriving in the region.  The revolt and fighting with the Brits takes place most ferociously at the ¾ mark of the film.   Before that it is all talk, especially from Jeremy Irons playing the British Commissioner. It is a consequential period of Palestinian history that’s not as well-known as the Nakba and later chapters, but it shaped everything that was to follow and helps contextualize what’s happening in the region today. As director Annemarie said in Vogue, “One cannot understand the Nakba, the Intifada, or today without understanding how the stage was set in those years.”

PALESTINE 36 is a powerful film, though one might complain that it only takes the side of the Palestinians.  The refugee Jews are also given a hard time, being displaced just before World War II, and they are just a mass of people with no sympathy given to them in the film.  Why the Brits are more sympathetic to the Jews distributing land to them that belongs to the Palestinians is never explained.  Jewish communities—who were also targets during the revolt—are largely absent, minimized, or portrayed as passive.  The result, according to detractors, is a partial narrative rather than a fully balanced historical account.  The film, instead, becomes a “morality play” emphasizing colonial cruelty and Palestinian unity.

PALESTINE 36 highlights Palestinian suffering and British brutality, while downplaying Jewish experiences, internal divisions, and key historical figures, especially the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini.  This is the standing flaw of the otherwise well-shot epic that might be the reason the film failed to make the final 5 Best International Academy Award nomination list.

But the mixing of the fictional characters into the historical storytelling keeps the film compelling at an emotional level, of course, with certain dramatization used to enhance the entertainment factor, as they say.

Watermelon Pictures will be releasing renowned Palestinian writer and director Annemarie Jacir’s PALESTINE 36 – Palestine’s Academy Award-shortlisted selection for Best International Feature.  The film opens in Toronto on April 3 at TIFF Lightbox.

Trailer: 

THE TRUTH AND TRAGEDY OF MORIAH WILSON (USA 2026) ***

Directed by Marina Zenovich

 

This is a true crime documentary that thrives on emotions and attempts to relive the incidents through realistic re-enactments for artistic dramatization.

The audience is to be tapped for the full emotional weight of the tragedy from the very first frame.  Moriah (Anna Moriah Wilson), the cyclist’s middle name, is first shown as a bright and energetic cyclist with everything going right for her.  She is bubbly, athletic, and smart.  She grows into a cyclist, winning the Time Life race, coming in Number 1.  Then, tragedy strikes.

Caitlin Cash calls Austin 9-1-1 to report a fried, i.e., Moriah, lying with blood on the bedroom floor.  The police arrive while she is doing CPR under instruction from the first responder.  This is obviously a re-enactment (how can the camera be there during the call?), which is done so realistically that many would not even think twice about it being real at that moment.

Beyond the subject of true crime, the film also explores the life of the person, Moriah.

Raised in a family of athletes, Wilson developed a passion for cycling as a young girl, as shown in archive footage.  Her parents and brother are interviewed in the doc. She was a nationally ranked junior skier, but had become a gravel cyclist. Before her full-time career as a professional cyclist, she had worked as a demand planner for Specialized. This girl has an engineering degree.

The film revisits the shocking 2022 murder of rising cyclist Moriah Wilson, combining:

police bodycam footage, interviews with friends and family, a deeper look at the investigation and trial.

It focuses not just on the crime, but on who Wilson was and the emotional aftermath for those close to her.  The film works as a real-life drama with the murder and investigation slowly moving in, as the tension mounts, creating a good-paced true crime drama.  The film would be more entertaining if one did not know the events of the crime.
The film ultimately revisits the shocking 2022 murder of rising cyclist Moriah Wilson, combining police bodycam footage, interviews with friends and family, and a deeper look at the investigation and trial

THE TRUTH AND TRAGEDY OF MORIAH WILSON, a Netflix original true crime drama, opens for streaming on Netflix Good Friday.

Trailer: 

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 14 March 2026

FILM REVIEW:

A MAGNIFICENT LIFE (Marcel et Monsieur Pagnol)(Belgium/France/Lux 2025) ***½

Directed by Sylvain Chomet

 

When one hears of a film made about Marcel Pagnol, nostalgia comes immediately to mind.  Two of the most beloved French films of all time, JEAN DE FLORETTE and MANON DES SOURCES, are based on his novels.

In 1955, 60-year-old Marcel Pagnol was a well-known and acclaimed playwright and filmmaker. When the editor-in-chief of ELLE magazine commissions a weekly column about Pagnol's childhood, he sees this as a great opportunity to go back to his artistic roots: writing. Realising his memory is failing him and deeply affected by the disappointing results of his last two plays, Pagnol begins to doubt his ability to continue his work. That is, until Little Marcel - the young boy he used to be - appears to him as if by magic. Together, they will explore Marcel Pagnol's incredible life and bring back to life his most cherished encounters and memories.

Marcel Pagnol, born on February 28, 1895, in Aubagne ( Bouches-du-Rhône ) and died in Paris on April 18, 1974, is a French writer, playwright, filmmaker, and producer.

He became famous with Topaze, a play created in Germany in 1927 and then presented in France in October 1928In 1934, he founded his own production company and film studios in Marseille, then made numerous films with the great actors of the period, including Raimu, Fernandel and Pierre Fresnay, in films such as Angèle (1934), Regain (1937) or La Femme du boulanger (1938).  After 1956, he withdrew from film and theatre and began writing his childhood memoirs, including  La Gloire de mon père* and Le Château de ma mère.   Both were also made into films.  Finally, in 1962, he published L'Eau des collines, a two-volume novel: *Jean de Florette * and *Manon des Sources *, inspired by his film *Manon des Sources *, made ten years earlier and starring Jacqueline Pagnol.

A MAGNIFICENT LIFE is directed by Chomet, who has never failed to impress.  In this film, wonder is everywhere, especially when he shows Paris to his audience.  As Marcel and his wife arrive in Paris from Marseilles, raining and just getting a last-minute, drab room, the camera shifts to the animated lights of the night, sous les toits de Paris, beautifully animated and accompanied by classical French music.  There is a certain magic in Paris that emerges from the ground. Marcel tells his wife only to hear her rebuttal about the water (the rain) that drops from the sky.  Director Chomet also takes his subject through the world wars.

The film opens with Marcel in his senior days, where his writing has failed to attract audiences, though he is still respected by the readers of Elle Magazine.  He reminisces about his youth, and the film goes back in time to his arrival in Paris to teach Latin.  He meets Paul and begins his new career as a writer, but his wife, who hates Paris, eventually leaves him.  The film’s story follows Marcel’s life closely, including his efforts to cast actor Raimu to perform his play set in Marseilles, as well as the writing of the play Topaze, originally titled The Beauty and the Beast.

The animated feature is screener here in English, spoken with an English accent.  It would be more accurate to have a French soundtrack with English subtitles.

What is impressive about director Chomet’s tactic is the use of a younger Marcel that takes the older version of himself through a reflective look at his entire life.  The framing device — a somewhat fading artist reconnecting with his younger self — gives the movie both emotional weight and a sense of “looking back,” making it a character study about aging, regret, memory loss, and creative doubt

A MAGNIFICENT LIFE is full of wonder and magic, with a soundtrack, animation, and dialogue that captures Marcel Pagnol’s magnificent life, doing the writer, playwright, and filmmaker justice.

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THE RED LINE (Thailand 2026) ***½

Directed by Sitisiri Mongkolsiri

 

Three women fall prey to a ruthless phone scam. To settle the score, they decide to ‘take back their lives’ by taking on the criminal network that stole their money and their dignity.  But will they?  This is the RED LINE that the film title refers to.  The “red line” is crossed when

They stop being victims seeking justice… and become people willing to break the law to get it.

The film begins with a housewife and mother called Orn being scammed in what sounds like a typical scam that most audiences would already be familiar with.   Orn loses both her and her husband’s money and her daughter’s trust educational fund.  The police do nothing.  “I am an idiot mother,” she tells her husband, Benz, who is a little sympathetic.  But Orn lives in a nightmare, and needs to show that she is no idiot mother and smart enough to get her money back.  She is the brains of the trip, a vigilante, and three female musketeers.  This is also a strong, female-character-driven story.

The other two scammed are a cosmetics cream seller with her grandmother, who has lost all her savings through the scam.  The third is a physical therapist (whom the other two call a doctor) who has lost all her savings for the condo that she has saved to buy.

Other characters include a hacker and Aood, the scamming crew supervisor who also steals a lot of the money that belongs to his Chinese bosses.  Aood is given a loving wife and son, for the audience to feel a bit more sympathetic for this villain, who is only too glad to see the scammed lose all their money.  Stupid bitches is what he calls them.

The scammers are good.  This is one of the first films that has gone into the intricate scamming network, which exists internationally between the Chinese and Thai borders.  The Chinese are greatly depicted as the bad guys - no surprise since this is a Thai production.  The film also goes into the computer details, and how scamming accounts and hacking can also occur.  This makes this Thai thriller stand out among other scam movies.  The emotional element is also strong in the film, with each scammed victim losing much more than the money

THE RED LINE serves as a successful action-driven morality tale that, though running long at two hours and fifteen minutes, moves fast enough with sufficient action set pieces (climactic car chase and shoot-outs included) that it is entertaining as it is thought-provoking.

The film shows that removing the villain does not solve the problem.  That person will be replaced.  The system still goes on, and people will be continually scammed.  The film also questions how far one would go to cross the red line.

The intriguing characters drive the narrative as well as make the movie.  One of the secondary characters featured is the hacker known as OJ.  OJ enables everything.  He provides the technical means to track and expose the scammers.  Without him, the group couldn’t act.  By the end, He stands slightly apart—less emotionally invested.  But he still crosses legal lines by helping them.

THE RED LINE, one of the better Thai Netflix original movies, opens for streaming on March 26th.

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TWO PROSECUTORS (France/Germany/Netherlands/Latvia/Romania/Lithuania/Ukraine 2025) ****

Directed by Sergey Loznitsa

 

In 1937, amid Joseph Stalin's Great Purge, Kornyev, a young Soviet prosecutor who recently graduated from law school, comes across a letter written by a prisoner in Bryansk. Believing the man to be the victim of NKVD corruption, he attends the prison and obtains a visit through his oversight role in the local prosecutor's office.

In the prison, after much unnecessary waiting, Kornyev meets Stepniak, an imprisoned Old Bolshevik and local party stalwart. He earns the old man's trust by recounting how he had attended one of Stepniak's speeches about truth and Bolshevism at his law school. Stepniak shows Kornyev torture wounds received after refusing to falsely confess and begs him to tell Stalin or members of the Politburo about the wrongful convictions and illegal actions taken against loyal citizens who learn of or resist the NKVD's corruption.   After enduring a long wait, Kornyev meets Vyshinsky, tells him about the conditions in Bryansk, and shows him Stepniak's bloody letter. Kornyev also explains that he came directly to Vyshinsky because he fears the local prosecutor's office is cowed by the local NKVD. Vyshinsky tells him that without strong documentary evidence, his office cannot open an inquiry into the NKVD and sends him back to Bryansk with documents authorizing him to conduct further investigations.

TWO PROSECUTORS has a Kafkaesque (from the writer Franz Kafka), feel of unsettling, absurd, and oppressive quality—like the worlds in his novels such as The Trial or The Metamorphosis.  This is where the greatest pleasure of the film lies, in the creation and delivery of this mood and atmosphere.  This is often created with a static camera with almost no movement and long takes, minimal editing, resulting in an effective and cold, controlled visual composition that almost makes the film look as if it is in black and white.

The Kafkaesque absurdity if felt in many of the film’s set pieces.  One is the bureaucratic nightmare in which the young prosecutor, Kornyev, faces when he enters the government building to make an appointment with the prosecutor general - a sequence that lasts 15 minutes of screen time.  At the Procurator General's office, Kornyev struggles to navigate the Soviet bureaucracy but is given a chance at an appointment after an earnest plea to Procurator General Andrey Vyshinsky's secretary.  When a lady worker sees him searching for the office. She asks him who he is looking for.  When he replies to the prosecutor general, she replies that if he had an appointment with him, he would know where to find him.  When Kornyev finally finds who appears to be the secretary, he is told that he is not only on a doubtful list of appointments.  The system, especially the prison system, does not make any sense with the authority figures unreachable, vague, or arbitrary.  Kornyev is trapped in this absurdist world.

The TWO PROSECUTORS of the film title are Kornyey and the Procurator General.

The film had its world premiere in the main competition of the 78th Cannes Film Festival on 14 May 2025, where it won the François Chalais Prize.  The film opens on March 27th and is definitely worth a look.

Trailer: 

THEY WILL KILL YOU (USA 2025) ***½

Directed by Kirill Sokolov

 

Asia Reeves and her sister Maria attempt to flee from their abusive father but are cornered at an unnamed convenience store.  Asia shoots him and is arrested, while Maria remains stuck in the custody of their father.  This is the exciting introduction to the film, which sets the tone for the rest of the fast-paced film.

The basic premise of the film follows Asia Reaves, an ex-con trying to rebuild her life, who takes a job as a live-in housekeeper in a luxury New York high-rise called The Virgil.

But almost immediately, something feels wrong:

The building has a history of mysterious disappearances

The residents are secretive, wealthy, and unsettling

Strange rituals and symbols begin to surface.

She soon realizes she hasn’t taken a job…
She’s walked into a trap.

The twist in the story is that the building is actually run by a Satanic cult made up of elite residents. Housekeepers (a =nd there are quite a lot of them) are being used as human sacrifices

Ten years later (from the introduction of the film), Asia arrives at The Virgil, an exclusive high-rise building in New York, posing as the new maid.  She is greeted by building manager Lily, who explains that Virgil is 100 years old and occupied by the wealthy and elite. Asia goes to sleep in her quarters, where several masked intruders, including residents Kevin and Sharon, break in and attack her. They are shocked to discover Asia is armed and highly skilled at defending herself, managing to kill all of her assailants.  The best line of the film is then uttered by Lily,  “Who the fuck are you?”Asia confronts Lily and demands to know the location of Maria, who works at the Virgil as a maid. Asia’s attackers resurrect, and she flees into the vents.

Asia is saved by Lily’s husband, Ray, who explains that Virgil is a temple to Satan and the residents have been made immortal by performing human sacrifices. The human sacrifice allows the worshippers to be immortal.  Unless they fail, and then they will die.  The two travel up a floor, unaware they are being followed by Sharon’s sentient eyeball. The two meet with Maria, who reveals she is aware of what is happening at the Virgil and does not want to leave. Asia knocks her unconscious, but she and Ray are attacked by the cultists. 

Besides Zazie Beetz in the title role, the film contains two heavyweights.  One is Patricia Arquette as Lilith Woodhouse (i,e, Lily) and the other is Tom Felton (one of Harry Potter’s roommates, the one who is his rival) as a cult member.

With a running time of and you and a half, THEY WILL KILL YOU is an efficiently and effectively made action horror comedy that is at least original enough (it is not a sequel) besides the human sacrifice premise.  The title says what the film is all about, and horror aficionados should be pleased.

THEY WILL KILL YOU opens in theatres Friday with early showings Thursday night.

Trailer: 

WHAT DOES THAT NATURE SAY TO YOU (South Korea 2025) ***
Directed by Hong Sang-soo

 

WHAT DOES THAT NATURE SAY TO YOU is the latest film from South  Korean director Hong Sang-soo, considered one of the most distinctive contemporary filmmakers.  His films often look simple on the surface, but they have a very recognisable style and philosophy.

WHAT DOES THAT NATURE SAY TO YOU (2025) is a South Korean comedy-drama by Hong Sang-soo about a 30-something, struggling poet named Donghwa (Ha Seongguk). He takes his girlfriend, Junhee (Kang Soyi), to meet her parents at their suburban home, where he spends a long, drunken day with them that ultimately leads to the unravelling of his romantic and artistic ideals

Hong Sang-soo’s films are deemed ‘special’ because they turn ordinary conversations and small moments into philosophical cinema—using repetition, awkward humour, and minimalist filmmaking to explore how people misunderstand each other.

The repetitive part of the director Hong is immediately noticeable at the start of the film. Junhee mentions to her boyfriend that her father built the house for her grandmother, not twice but three times. There is a lot of dialogue before Donghwa is invited to the house.

There are different ways of showing the love between a couple in a film.  One is to watch a passionate kiss between the two lovers.  Another is the profession of love between the two, and yet another might be an erotic sex scene.  In Hong’s film, the love between Donghwa and Junhee is shown by a quiet conversation between Junhee’s father and Donghwa.  The father first talks about his love for his wife, and this is followed by Donghwa saying that he loves his daughter.  When the couple are shown in the film before this moment, there is not a whole lot of affection shown in one form or another.

The film unravels in unnamed chapters, 1, 2, 3 and so on, offering different stages of the evening.  The film, as in all of director Hong’s other films, is a slow burn.  The pleasure to be obtained is often in the observations that the audience makes and not from any action scenes.  Patience is a virtue and is definitely required here to appreciate Hong’s film.  But it must be said that a lot comes from the actors’ performances as well.  If a character gets annoying, as Junhee’s father occasionally does, the film gets annoying too.

Whether one can enjoy Hong’s film depends on the individual.  For that reason, the film WHAT DOES THAT NATURE SAY TO YOU is given 3 stars (out of 5).  There is nothing really distinctive between this film and Hong’s other films that would warrant it an extra star.  Or anything really awful for the film to be considered a failure.  It is a Hong Sang-soo film, and his fans will get what they expect.

WHAT DOES THAT NATURE SAY TO YOU is in itself a question that is posed to the audience to answer as the film progresses.

Trailer:

WHAT DOES THAT NATURE SAY TO YOU screens in Toronto at the Bell Lightbox on April 2nd. Other dates and cities listed below....

 

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 14 March 2026

FILM REVIEWS:

MIROIR No. 3 (Germany 2025) ***½

Directed by Christian Pertzold

 

MIROIR No. 3 is a character study of the subjects on screen and a moody character study at that.  Though one can say that nothing much happens in terms of action, there are tons of emotional exchanges among the characters, so that what might appear to be a slow burn of a drama isn’t really one.

On a weekend trip to the countryside, Laura miraculously survives a car crash.  Physically unhurt but deeply shaken, she is taken in by a local woman who witnessed the accident and now cares for Laura with motherly devotion. When her husband and adult son also give up their initial resistance to Laura’s presence, the four of them slowly build up some family-like routine. But soon they can no longer ignore their past…

The first line of the synopsis unfolds in 15 minutes with much to explore.  Laura is studying piano at he universe and is travelling with her boyfriend, together with another couple, his producer and girlfriend.  Laura is aloof.  “There is something wrong with your girlfriend,” the producer tells the boyfriend.  Laura tells her boyfriend that she is not feeling well and wants to go home.  The producer lends them the car for Laura to be driven to the translation, where he remarks angrily that she should have told him earlier and that he had been planning this outing a long time.  A sudden accident occurs in which he is killed, and Laura miraculously survives. Laura is still moody and requests to stay at a local woman’s.  With one line, a whole story can be made up here, the source of Laura’s guilt for the death of her boyfriend.

The woman is called Betty, and the two men are Richard and Max, her son.

The details of what happens next go like this: As Laura recovers, she gradually becomes part of Betty’s household, which includes Betty’s distant husband and son.

The family dynamic feels strange and slightly off

Betty seems emotionally attached to Laura for a deeper reason

Laura begins to fill a kind of “missing role” in the family

It is a strange but that God uplifting tale, where Laura brings good into the fractured household, like  gift to the family from heaven.  The men are also intrigued by being able to fix anything from soldering a bike seat to modifying the speedometer (illegal though that may be) of a car,

The film works for its somewhat brilliant creation of  mood and psychology:

Grief and loss (especially unresolved grief)

Identity and substitution (taking someone else’s place)

Human connection and emotional dependency

A subtle ghost story / gothic fairy tale feeling

At the ⅔ mark of the film, the film poses he question off hotel Laura’s replacement of the deceased Yelena is helping the family or entrapping them in a web of despair.

The film is cleverly titled Mirror 3.  The title refers to a piece from Miroirs, reinforcing the film’s ideas of reflection, doubling, and emotional mirroring.  (Laura is repaving the woman’s deceased daughter).

Christian Pretzold is a German, internationally renowned director of acclaimed films like UNDINE and ALFRE.

Trailer: 

PEAKY BLINDERS: THE IMMORTAL MAN (UK 2026) ***
Directed by Tom Harper

 

Peaky Blinders is a British historical crime drama television series created by Steven Knight.  Set in Birmingham, it follows the exploits of the Peaky Blinders crime gang in the direct aftermath of the First World War. The fictional gang is loosely based on a real urban youth gang active in the city from the 1880s to the 1920s.  The series (lasting in total) features an ensemble cast, led by Cillian Murphy, starring as Tommy Shelby, Helen McCrory as Elizabeth "Polly" Grey, Paul Anderson as Arthur Shelby, Sophie Rundle as Ada Shelby, and Joe Cole as John Shelby, the group's senior members. Netflix acquired the rights to release the show in the United States and around the world. A feature-length film titled Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, which is set a few years after the series finale, is scheduled to be released on 6 March 2026.  The film also opens two weeks later on the streaming service, Netflix.

The crime drama film is directed by Tom Harper and written by Steven Knight.  It is a continuation of the British television series Peaky Blinders (2013–2022), and stars Cillian Murphy in the lead alongside an ensemble cast including Sophie Rundle, Ned Dennehy, Packy Lee, Ian Peck, and Stephen Graham, reprising their roles, alongside new additions Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Roth, Jay Lycurgo, and Barry Keoghan.  The bad guy is played by Tim Roth, while Barry Keoghan generally steals the show.

The film is set in Birmingham in 1940.   The film begins with the real-life historic bombing and the death of the entire night shift of 53 at the Birmingham small arms factory.    Amidst the chaos of World War II, Tommy Shelby (Murphy) is driven back from a self-imposed exile to face his most destructive reckoning yet.  Tom Shelby’s son, Erasmus (Keoghan), is up to no good with his gangster dealings, stealing the ammo to be sold to the Germans.  At the same time, the Germans are planning to flood the U.K. and Europe with counterfeit currency brining down the banking system and might lead to Germany’s victory in the War.  With the future of the family and the country at stake, Tommy must face his own demons and choose whether to confront his legacy or burn it to the ground.  This he does, to save the country and to forge a palace in History.

Many would have followed the lengthy TV series.  This film is a new version of the story set during World War II that also serves as a direct continuation of the TV series. As stated, Tommy Shelby is in a central role.  The time is more urgent.  Fascism in Britain (via Mosley and his Blackshirts) becomes more dangerous. Britain is on the brink of invasion. The Shelby family would be older, wealthier, and more politically entangled.

With more at stake in the film, the film is understandably more tense with more action, intrigue, and excitement.  The action set pieces are laid out mainly at the end, with some artistic jumps in time and imaginings. These could have been left out for a more linear storytelling.

PEAKY BLINDERS opens on Netflix on the 20th.

 

THE PLASTIC DETOX (USA 2026) ***

Directed by Josh Murphy and Louie Psuhoyos

 

The primary subject and main driving force of this eye-opening doc is Dr. Shanna Helen Swan, an American environmental and reproductive epidemiologist who is Professor of Environmental Medicine and Public Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where she has taught since April 2011.   She is known for her research on environmental contributions to sperm count and the male infertility crisis.  She is introduced at the beginning of the film, and she leads the audience right to the very last frame of the film. 

The doc essentially discusses and examines the link between human infertility and plastic poisoning.

The structured film unfolds in 4 layers:

Personal stories → 6 couples trying to conceive

Scientific investigation → hormones, chemicals, microplastics

Experiment → removing plastic from daily life

Global perspective → industry, environment

The doc takes off, occasionally with the handling of other subject terms related to global perspectives.

Many would go into the doc not knowing much about plastic detox, but will come out most enlightened on the subject and the power of human resilience.  The doc is more educational than manipulative or dramatic but one cannot deny that the doc’s power lies in the demonstration of this power of human resilience.

Each couple’s infertility story adds emotional weight in terms of:

Frustration and grief over infertility

Hope tied to the experiment of going on a plastic detox and then checking for results

Lifestyle struggles (it’s very hard to avoid plastic)

At the end of the experiment, for a very big global problem

The couple’s bodies are tested again.

Some show reduced levels of plastic-related chemicals and

There are signs of improved health markers

It should be noted that, as anyone studying Statistics knows, 6 is too small a sample for any conclusive result.  Though the film does NOT claim definitive proof, it presents the results as suggestive, not conclusive. Still, PLASTIC DETOX has a hopeful drive for a huge global problem.

The doc achieves several educational objectives that include the fact that plastics may be silently affecting human health and fertility, and avoiding them completely is nearly impossible

As the opuses demonstrate, small lifestyle changes can reduce exposure.  As the couples change their living habits, the audience sees how the detox can be achieved by the use of glass/metal instead of plastic, avoiding heating food in plastic, choosing natural fibres, and limiting packaged foods.

And where are the plastic detox couples now?

By the end of the documentary, several couples see major drops in chemical exposure — with BPA falling to undetectable levels for many participants. And because it takes the male body roughly 70 days to produce new sperm, the 90-day window also allowed for measurable improvement in several of the men’s key fertility measures, like sperm count and concentration.

The doc leads to the conclusion that when it is revealed whether the plastic detox worked for the 6 couples, whether the female eventually got pregnant.  No spoilers will be revealed in this review, though.

In the words and surprise of Dr. Swan: “And that’s what the film really shows — when these couples took action and reduced their exposure, they saw differences.  THE PLASTIC DETOX opens for streaming on Netflix this week.

 

 

PROJECT HAIL MARY (USA 2026) ***½

Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller

 

The main story takes place on the Hail Mary spacecraft and is intercut with flashbacks.

Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) awakens from a coma on a spacecraft. Initially erratic with retrograde amnesia, Grace discovers that he is the sole survivor of three, and that he is light-years away from Earth in a distant star system.  Grace slowly remembers, as shown in flashbacks in this non-chronological linear film. that he is a middle school science teacher and a former molecular biologist. Scientists observe the Sun dimming, coinciding with the formation of an infrared line from the Sun to Venus called the Petrova line.  The dimming, caused by a microorganism known as Astrophage, will result in a catastrophic global cooling of Earth within 30 years. Government agent Eva Stratt (Sandra Huller) approaches Grace and asks him to study Astrophage in the hopes that he can defeat it.

Grace discovers that Astrophage is a cell that is impenetrable to any form of electromagnetic radiation, and that it breeds via carbon dioxide from Venus and energy from the Sun. Other scientists find Astrophage to be an effective, if volatile, fuel source. Grace learns that Astrophage has infected all nearby stars except Tau Ceti. Stratt discloses Project Hail Mary, a plan to send a crew on a suicide mission to Tau Ceti. Humanity can only produce enough Astrophage as fuel for a one-way trip, but Hail Mary will carry probes to send the crew's findings back to Earth.  In the present, as Grace approaches Tau Ceti, he sees an alien spacecraft. The spacecraft approaches Grace and docks a tunnel, made of "xenonite" (solid xenon), to Hail Mary. The pilot of the other ship is a rock-like five-legged alien from 40 Eridani, whom Grace names "Rocky" after the alien's shape and Rocky Balboa.

Kudos should be given en to the film’s special effects, sound, and visual crew for the creation of a visually arresting, suspense-creating look that provides the audience suspense and scares while the only human person seen on the screen is Grace.

Once Grace meets Rocky, they form the common bond of friendship because hey she the same purpose of having to save their planets and also the universe.

The film gets unnecessarily sappy at the end when the two friends have to separate.  The directors go overboard with the emotions, so one might be advised to bring plenty of Kleenex to the movie.

Both Gosling and Huller make the movie.  Huller gets to sing impromptu at a Karaoke function, Harry Styles’ “Sign of the Times.”   This sequence is a direct nod to Sandra Hudler’s rendering of Whitney Houston’s “The Greatest Love of All which she also sang impromptu in Maren Ape’s TONI ERDMAN.  After the song, Huller’s character just walks away in both films.

PROJECT HAIL MARY should be seen in IMAX because of its special visual effects and high technology. The film opens everywhere on March 20th.  The film has so far garnered rave reviews and should be the year’s first full-blown hit.  Looks like Ryan Gosling gets to save Hollywood’s box office at the same time.

Trailer: 

READY OR NOT 2: HERE I COME (USA 2025) **
Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett

The sequel to READY OR NOT aims at louder, bloodier, and much more of the same.  READY OR NOT is a 2019 American comedy horror film, directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, and written by Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy. It stars Samara Weaving, Adam Brody, Mark O'Brien, Elyse Levesque, Nicky Guadagni, Henry Czerny, and Andie MacDowell. It follows a young bride, Grace, who is hunted by her spouse's wealthy family as part of a wedding night ritual to worship the Devil.

Set immediately after the events of the first film, READY OR NOT 2: HERE I COME follows Grace (Samara Weaving) as she must protect her estranged sister, Faith (Kathryn Newton), while being hunted by four rival elite families in a high-stakes ritual to claim a seat of ultimate power.  The film begins with Grace sitting on the steps of the mansion, the ending of the original film.

Grace MacCaullay, the sole survivor of a brutal "game" that resulted in the deaths of her husband and in-laws, learns that her victory comes with a price: now, the wealthiest and most influential families on Earth have to kill her in a new game - or risk losing their power and fortunes. Grace refuses to participate at first but is left with no choice when she learns that her younger sister, Faith, has also been marked for death and must protect her at all costs.

Ready or Not = one deadly family game

Ready or Not 2 = a worldwide tournament of killers, with Grace at the centre

Despite the fact that the writers have upped the ante with two victims, Grace and Faith, providing some emotional drama in the story and the introduction of a total of 4 families instead of one, the first film had more tension, direction, and emotion.  More gore in the sequel does not necessarily translate to more horror comedy.  Grace and Faith are constantly on the run.

and they must outwit different families with distinct methods and personalities.  The tone blends dark comedy, action, and brutal horror, as in the first film

READY OR NOT 2: HERE I COME opens in theatres March 20th.

Trailer: 

THE THINGS YOU KILL (Canada/Poland/Turkey/France 2025) ***

Directed by Alireza Khatami.

 

This review contains spoilers that are integral to the writing.  The spoilers are all contained in the one paragraph in bold italics.  Please skip the paragraph as deemed necessary.

If one is unfamiliar with the film THE THINGS YOU KILL before seeing it, one might wonder what language the characters are speaking at the start of the film.  The film is a Canadian, Polish, French and Turkish co-production, and it is this year’s Canadian pick for the Academy Award for Best International Feature.  French films from Quebec are rarely selected, a big omission since the Oscar has been won only once by a Quebec film for Canada.  Last year’s Best Canadian Film was from Quebec (in this critic’s humble opinion), BERGERS (Shepherds).  Instead, last year’s Canadian entry was the Iranian co-production, UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE. The language spoken in this film sounds Iranian, which I thought it was.  But it is Turkish. THE THINGS YOU KILL uses dream-like sequences, symbolism (mirrors, seeds, the garden, etc), and a somewhat disorienting narrative structure - often a favourite for a country’s pick for the Best Oscar International entry.

THE THINGS YOU KILL is a psychological mystery thriller with the protagonist, Ekin Koç’s character Ali, a university professor living in Turkey (or connected to Turkey) who returns (or remains) home when his ailing mother dies under suspicious circumstances.

The film covers several issues.

One is Ali’s inability to conceive, due to his low sperm count.  The fact that he hides from his wife, Hazar.  It takes a toll on their marriage.  In fact, the audience gets nervous seeing them being intimate.  “Maybe I don’t want children,” he tells her at one point.

Another issue is Ali’s discovery of his father's abuse of his mother.  He learns it only after the mother’s death.  The hostility towards his father increases.

Another is his garden in the country, where he hires a gardener to care for it.  The garden is a metaphor of Ali’s bliss in life.

And important too is the cause of Ali’s mother’s death.  Ali thinks that she could have been killed by his father, especially after finding out that his father had a bandaged hand and that his mother was found with her face on the ground.

The Turkey seen is bleak, reflecting the characters' emotional states as they are displayed on screen.  There is no sight of the beauty of the county, as in the sea surrounding the country, anywhere to be seen in the film.

In the second half of the film, director Khatami dishes out a whole bunch of metaphors to be interpreted by the audience.  This is a very bold move that does not always work for as much as Khatami wishes to lift his film to a higher level; it is also quite confusing in parts.

The film ends with the saying “Kill the light”, used instead of the usual phrase shutoff the light.  The sayings uttered by Ali’s father are supposedly killed earlier in the movie.  Two things could have happened.  Either the father did not die, or the scene is Ali’s dream sequence; most likely the latter.  The gardener that Ali hires could also be interpreted as his other alter ego.

THE THINGS YOU KILL ends up a somewhat muddled but still ambitious film.  Director Khatami chose not to play it straight, a decision that won his film the prize of Canada’s submission for Best International Feature at the Oscars.  It did not make the nominated list.  The film opens in theatres on March 20, 2026.

Trailer: 

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 09 March 2026

March 24 - 29, 2026

Join Canada Filmfest in celebrating the 20th Anniversary edition of #CanFilmFest at Scotiabank Theatre.

For complete program listing and for more information, checkthe Canfilmfest website at:

https://www.canfilmfest.ca/

Capsule Reviews of Select Films:

 

BEST BOY (Canada 2025) **
Directed by Jesse Noah Klein

 

After the death of their tyrannical, abusive father, not seen on screen, three adult children and their elderly mother return to their long-dormant summer home to take part in a bizarre, sadistic competition not done since it tore the family apart 30 years before.  The mother reads the last wishes of their late father, who did not tell the solicitor that he wanted to give $100,000 to the Best Boy.  The Best Boy is the one who wins the competition of sorts.  Lawrence, the eldest, appears most keen to win, while Eli looks disinterested.  Philip wins the first race.  But there is more to this rather absurd story than the competition that one could care about.  Performances are credible enough with the dysfunctional family apparently heading for some healing, though the confusing ending shows otherwise.  Not a really satisfying film, but director Klein successfully creates the absent lingering presence of the dead abusive father.

JAMES (Canada 2026) ***
Directed by Max Train

 

JAMES (Winner of the Best Film, Oldenburg '24 // Nominated Best Debut, Raindance '25) is a Hoser-Noir comedy about an East Vancouver nihilist known as James, who finds new purpose after restoring a race bicycle salvaged from the trash.  When a crooked dealer, aware of the bike's true value, steals it, Jame becomes trapped in a relentless pursuit, navigating Vancouver’s underbelly to reclaim his ride—or risk slipping back into the garbage heap of nihilism.  Though the film bears similarities to stolen bike films like Vittorio De Sica’s BICYCLE THIEVES or the more recent SOULEYMAN’S STORY, in which the film’s protagonist spends more than half the movie’s time trying to get his bike back.  The same can be said for the film JAMES, except that in the other two films, the bike is needed for the protagonist to earn a living. While the plot revolves around retrieving the stolen bike, the film gradually reveals that the journey is really about James trying to find meaning in his life.  The arthouse black and white film, which requires some patience to sit through, shows that the bike represents his purpose, self-worth, and the search for identity, which were missing before the bike existed.

 

LUCID (Canada 2025) **
Directed by Ramsey Fendall, Deanna Milligan

A 1990s art student uses a lucid dreaming elixir to break through her creative blocks and finds herself trapped in a surreal dreamscape where her inner demons become real-life monsters.  In one key and perhaps the film’s funniest moment, which encapsulates the tone of the whole movie, a fucked up medicinal guru, in reality played by a drag queen(the film’s funniest moment), tells Laura of the LUCID pill she is about to take: Take only a bit.  It is not to make you high! It is made out of Tibetan snowdrops.  If you overdo it, you are fucked.  It opens a door, and don’t forget to close the door!”  LUCID is a fucked up film for sure, like the amazing fucked up film last year, WEAPONS.  Unfortunately, LUCID does not take the audience anywhere except to dwell on its main mother-daughter issues.  The extensive conclusion playing far too long is an example of craziness carried out way too freely with no purpose or reason.   LUCID is a worthwhile watch in its first impressive half before moving into disappointment.

MINHEA (Canada 2025) ***

Directed by Mike Doaka

 

The Romanian name MINHEA is difficult to pronounce, so Minhea goes by the simpler-sounding name Mike.  Mike Doaha directs himself in an earnest story, a Romanian Canadian only son navigates mental illness and identity in his last term of university.  Wonder how much of the plot of the film comes from his real-life story.  Minhea or Mike has an overly strict father who screams at him constantly, calling him a loser.  The father forces him to drive his Uber car business while still studying to become a doctor in University.  The mother is more sympathetic.  Mike gets to meet a sympathetic, good-hearted girl who also likes him, a dating experience that gives the man some hope.  Everyone loves to root for a likable loser, and Mike is one of the best there is in this category.  MINHEA, the film does not overdo it in cheap theatrics or over-acting, and succeeds as a heart-warming family coming-of-age Canadian drama.

PLAN C (Canada 2025) ***

Directed by Scott Anthony Cabvalheiro

 

Siblings Clare and Danny find themselves fugitives after a bungled robbery, leading them on a perilous journey filled with high-speed pursuits, moral dilemmas, and shocking revelations in the crime thriller "Plan C.”  Nothing really fresh about the story here.  The goods are being given to the criminals so that they are after the brother/sister as well as the cops for the robbery.  Bits of the plot are revealed as the film progresses so that the audience is in the dark for most of the time.  The film contains lots of swearing, with almost all the characters speaking the same way, while angry most of the time.  It is a fierce, angry, and nuanced film where there set sot be little hope in the world.   Despite Claire’s love (she is nicknamed Claire-Bear by her brother) for Danny, they argue most of the time.  The only good and hope comes at the very end of the film, a little too late for goodness in a story full of hate, anger, and spite.

 

 

LOS RIOS (Canadá 2025) ***½

Directed by Ryan Fyfe-Brown, and Dale Bailey

 

A determined Honduran mother and her three daughters are swept into the currents of the contentious migrant caravan as it pushes relentlessly toward safety, opportunity, and the United States.  The mother left Honduras and never returned.  Now 30-year-old Johana is escaping the country to make a long walking trek to the U>S with her two sisters Yalin and Yosselin,

The absorbing doc, aided by the telling of a personal family also making the difficult journey,  covers the key issue of refugee who have to flee their country, in this case because of violence and gang oppression.  The travel as a huge group of some 5,000 Hondurans, as they believe the huge number of them will save them.  The film is called “The River” because with 5000 people strong, they are like water (used here as a metaphor), that cannot be stopped, except by God.