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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.

 MIHNEA (to be posted)

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.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 03 March 2026

FILM REVIEWS:

THE BRIDE! (USA 2026) **

Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal

This is the second film in recent years that is a re-invention of classic literature.  I am not a fan of re-inventions of classics, though one can argue that a lot of work and effort goes into re-telling of stories, so as not to offend anyone.  I did not like “WUTHERING HEIGHTS’, the reinvention emphasised from the quotation marks of the film title, and in THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, the exclamation mark THE BRIDE! emphasising the fact.  The film draws inspiration from the 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein, which was based on Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein.

In 1930s Chicago, Frankenstein's monster asks Dr Euphronius to create a companion for him. Together, they give life to a murdered woman known as "the Bride", sparking romance, police interest and radical social change.

This Bride of Frankenstein speaks and speaks too much, her dialogue full of vulgarities and insults of everyone, from her lovers and sex employers.  And even when not, she might be better silenced.  Jessie Buckley gives good performances, but one wishes it would be one that shows more of her acting versatility.   Buckley redoes her boisterous role in HAMNET, where sometimes enough is enough and silence might be used with more subtle storytelling.

A lot can also be said about the performances besides Buckley’s. Christian Bale returns after a hiatus playing the titular Frankenstein (called Franky in the movie), and he is still as attractive as ever despite his makeup to look like a monster. Penelope Cruz is largely wasted as an ambitious detective supporting her boss, played by Peter Skarsgard. Academy Award Nominee Annette Bening also stands out as a doctor who supports Frankenstein. The director’s younger brother, Jake Gyllenhaal, also plays a matinee idol, Ronnie Reed.
The otherwise serious and depressing nature of the film is lifted by musical numbers, as the love-lorn Frank loves to watch old romantic musicals. Uplifting musical numbers, including “Put it on a Ritz”, add a much-needed uplift to the film.

THE BRIDE! feels like BONNE AND CLYDE as the two lovers are pursued by the police.  It also feels like the recent “WUTHERING HEIGHTS” for the disturbing romance between the leads.  But it is a horrific film and a horrific romance, with the world not used in a favourable context.   Despite all the effort expended together, what might be admired for its stunning cinematography and period atmosphere, the overlong film feels much too long and boring before its ending.

THE BRIDE! Opens in theatres this Friday, March 6th, counter-programming with Disney/Pixar’s HOPPERS, an excellent, feel-good, very funny animation feature.

Trailer:  

HOPPERS (USA 2026) ****
Directed by Daniel Chong

HOPPERS, the new Disney/Pixar animated feature, is budgeted at an estimated $ 150 to $200 million and, as expected from Pixar, an absolute delight.

After a group of scientists invent a way to "hop" human minds into lifelike robotic animal bodies, an animal-lover named Mabel Tanaka uses their technology to embody a robotic beaver and thwart a construction company's plot to destroy the local animal habitat, unwittingly starting an animal uprising against all humans.

It seems that the filmmakers had checked every box that makes a good film, including:

• a protagonist who is female with lots of female characters, such as Dr Sam and her assistant, instead of male characters
• a male villain, who is political with shades of Trump, but this one goes into a change unlike Trump
• An eclectic cast of characters, like Dr Sam’s assistant, is black
• humour that caters for both kids and adults
• good musical numbers and an original song

    (Mark Mothersbaugh composed the film's score, marking his first composition for a Pixar feature film after composing for the Toy Story Toons short Hawaiian Vacation and several Cars Toons shorts for the studio.[In addition, the film features an original end credits song written and performed by SZA titled "Save The Day”._

• colourful creatures that includes insect and mammals
• impressive animation that includes fire and water
• a timely premise within spice-fiction and an AI robotics plot
• an urgent premise involving saving the world
• comedy and adventure
• important current world issues like environmental commentary (corporate expansion vs. conservation)
• emotional coming-of-age themes (Mabel grows from a little girl with her grandmother to an undergraduate student

The plot involves an undergrad Mabel trying to save her town glen from destruction.  Mayor Jerry wants a highway through it, but if Mabel can show that wildlife is in the glen, the project will be halted.  Mable waits and looks for a creature, like a beaver, to show up.  A beaver shows up, but Mable trails it to a lab where she discovers the process of hopping.  She becomes a hopper, taking her brain into the body of a robot beaver.

The theme of death, Mabel’s grandmother’s passing, is not shown on screen, but the death affects Mabel for the rest of her life.

Three heavyweights lend their hand to the voice characterisations, while having a lot of fun winning the princess.  Jon Hamm voices the greedy Mayor Jerry, Meryl Streep the insect queen, while James Franco voices Titus, the insect queen’s son.

Director Dabile Chong has worked extensively as a storyboard artist with Disney and Pixar on hits like the TOY STORY franchise.  Chong said that one of his inspirations for the films was the nature documentaries in which robot animals are placed in the animal world; "It felt like it was ripe for comedy.  His sense of humour should be appreciated by kids and adults alike.

Through the theme of empathy across species, including corporate responsibility, identity and belonging and seeing the world from a different perspective — literally,  HOPPERS succeeds as a feel-good sci-fi fantasy that is one absolute winner.

HOPPERS opens in theatres this Friday, March 6th.

Trailer: 

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

Review Embargoed till Thursday9am ET.   Please check back later.

PEAKY BLINDERS opens in theatres on March 6th and opens on Netflix on the 20th.

STRANGERS IN THE PARK (SPAIN 2026)
Directed by

The 2026 Netflix film STRANGERS IN THE PARK, directed by Juan José Campanella, is a character-driven comedy-drama about two elderly men with very different political views who form an unexpected friendship through a series of conversations on a park bench in Buenos Aires.   One can complain that the film looks staged as it is based on the Argentine stage play Parque Lezama.

The film takes place mostly in Parque Lezama, a historic park in Buenos Aires. Nearly the entire narrative unfolds through conversations between two men who meet repeatedly on the same park bench over months and eventually years.  The park becomes a symbolic neutral ground where strangers share memories, regrets, and political beliefs.

Their first meeting is shown at the start of the film, but through the course of frequent meetings, their relationship turns from hostility to warmth.

The hostile first meeting begins with León Schwartz (played by Luis Brandoni), an elderly Jewish man who regularly visits the park.  León is blunt, politically outspoken, and somewhat grumpy. In his youth, he was a committed left-wing activist who once believed deeply in revolutionary politics.  He sits beside another older man, Antonio Cardozo (played by Eduardo Blanco), who has a far more relaxed and tolerant philosophy about life.  Their first conversation quickly becomes an argument. León complains about politics, corruption, and how society has abandoned its ideals. Antonio counters with a simpler view: life is too short to cling to ideological battles.

Despite the disagreement, the men begin talking again whenever they encounter each other in the park.  The film progresses.

If one cannot bear listening to two old folks arguing about politics or listening to the failure of Argentina’s democracy and other political agendas, stay away from the film.  But the film also contains other issues, such as aging and mortality, and the loneliness of old age as experienced by the two men. At best there is a reflection of the meaning in their lives, whether each has lived a satisfactory one, in their own eyes.

STRANGERS IN THPARK opens for streaming on Netflix Friday, March 6th.

Trailer: 

BANLIEUSARDS 3 (STREET FLOW 3)(France 2026) ***
Directed by Kery James and Leïla Sy

STREET FLOW 3 (Banlieusards 3)is the third and supposedly final instalment of the STREET FLOW trilogy on three brothers growing up in a tough Paris suburb.

Street Flow (original French title Banlieusards) is a French drama film series on Netflix that has grown into a trilogy with continuing storylines.

The story follows the lives of three brothers from the Traoré family growing up in a working-class neighbourhood (banlieue):

Noumouké — a 15-year-old teenager trying to find his path.

Soulaymaan — the studious brother who’s training to be a lawyer.

Demba — the eldest brother involved in street life and crime.

The story centres on Noumouké’s struggle to choose which path to follow — whether to pursue education and opportunity with Soulaymaan or get pulled into crime and danger through Demba’s world.

STREET FLOW 3 continues and concludes the story of the Traoré brothers — Noumouké, Demba, and Soulaymaan — against the backdrop of life in the Parisian suburbs (banlieue) as they face critical turning points in their lives.

The core theme of the film is choices and consequences: each brother must decide which path to follow, and those decisions will not only shape their own futures but also affect their family and community.

Noumouké has made significant progress in his music career, reaching a major milestone and gaining recognition.  However, his old environment and the pull of the street world — with its temptations and dangers — threaten to derail his ambitions.

A central tension in his storyline is balancing artistic success with loyalty to his roots, and resisting influences that could undo his hard-earned progress.

Demba is building a New Life.  Facing the Past, Demba has been trying to put his criminal past behind him and build a more stable life alongside Djenaba (his partner).

Despite his efforts to start fresh, past choices and mistakes reemerge, challenging the peace he’s attempting to create.  His arc explores themes of redemption, responsibility, and whether one can truly escape earlier life decisions.

The third brother, Soulaymaan, deals with Law, Love, and Civic Commitment.

Soulaymaan has developed his career as a lawyer and finds romantic love again, indicating personal growth and stability.  As municipal elections approach, his commitment to representing and serving the residents of his neighbourhood is tested.

The family crime drama dynamics work well in what is a tense, character-driven story with more drama than action.  The story also demonstrates how one’s past will always catch up with one, and how difficult it is to change one’s path in life, especially when it is a life of crime.  One can sympathise with the three brothers not for want of trying.  Though this film is touted as the final instalment, there is more of the story that can be continued.

Tough Paris suburbs as a setting have been a favourite setting for tough action dramas ever since Ladj Ly’s LES MISERABLES b rose into the scene, winning it also an Academy Award nomination for Best International Feature.

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WAR MACHINE (USA 2026_
Directed by

LIONSGATE, the studio that had its heyday with the TWILIGHT and DIVERGENCE franchises, and now struggling to have a hit, joins forces with Netflix for a no-nonsense action sci-fi film, WAR MACHINE.  LIONSGATE specializes in action and horror films.  Their last success was THE HOUSEMAID.

The final recruits of an Army Ranger selection course face a deadly force from another world.  Hence, the sci-fi component.

The film tries its best to cover all bases.  The script goes into the deep reason 81 joins th range training program called RASP.  The Rangers are the best of the best and are always on the fighting front lines.  Alan Ritchson plays81.  The recruits are given a number an don longer have a name.  81 joins the Rangers because he had promised to join the training program with his brother so that they can make a difference serving America.  But the brother and his unit were all killed by a surprise Taliban attack when 81 showed up to help them in the desert with a broken vehicle.  Now, 81 joins the Rangers alone.  He is one angry, dedicated ward machine.

The story takes place largely in a remote wilderness training zone where the U.S. Army conducts the final stage of its brutal Ranger selection program. Only the toughest candidates make it through this last 24-hour survival exercise. The trainees are led by an experienced Ranger instructor and veteran soldiers observing the test. The central character is “81”, a stoic and highly skilled combat engineer who is considered one of the strongest candidates in the program.

WAR MACHINE is an action-packed male’s wet dream.  There is no female slant on doing what is right or any message championing minorities.  But it celebrates men at war, supposedly doing the American good, to a fault.  At best, the film mixes military realism with sci-fi action: a Ranger training mission turns into a fight for survival when a powerful alien-like machine begins hunting the soldiers.  Silly but exciting enough!

WAR MACHINE is available to stream on Netflix starting Friday, March 6th.

Trailer: 

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 03 March 2026

FILM REVIEWS:

BODYCAM (Canada 2025) **
Directed by Brandon Christensen

Two police officers investigate a domestic dispute, and there is an accidental shooting. Not wanting to be crucified by the public, the officers attempt to cover it up - only to uncover that the cameras aren't the only things watching them. The cover-up situation

This is what has been said by the D.P. of the movie:

Lots of takes. Which was afforded by the fact that every scene had a maximum of two camera angles. 

So we had a camera vest with a wireless pack on it, sending it to my monitor. And we would rehearse it over and over, and the blocking had specific beats to hit to make sure they saw what we needed. They had 360-degree turning ability in any space, so we had to be far, and it gave them a real sense of being in the scene. 

Then, when one angle was set, the other angle always worked faster because it was locked in. 

On set, we had… Me, the DP, but he was running sound too, since he didn’t have to operate the cameras, Grip/Gaffer (one guy), Make up/Hair (one girl), production designer, a PA, and the producers (one did costumes, locations, and the other handled DIT).

Then my wife did the wardrobe from home. 

It is clear that it is a labour of love from many of the filmmakers, but the result is mixed.

The film hits high expectations in the first 15 minutes when the two police officers enter a house on a call, with what is seen by the audience from what is viewed from their body cams.  The film has the look of the found footage film THW BLAIR WITHC PROJECT.  The images are genuinely scary, but the tactic slowly gets too familiar too soon.  The segments also feel too manipulated and too jittery.

The cover-up situation at the start of the film is totally discarded by the end of the film.  The story shifts to a cult that appears to be going on, but nothing is really sure with what is happening.  The weak narrative hurts the film badly.  No doubt there are many scary images, THE BLAIR WITCH style, but a strong story and narrative would definitely have made a more satisfactory movie.

BODYCAM is a Canadian feature.  Director Brandon Christensen is a Canadian film director recognized for his distinctive contributions to the horror genre, focusing on complex familial dynamics, particularly those involving mothers and children. He began his filmmaking journey early in life, making home movies with his siblings, which ignited his passion for storytelling and cinema.  Christensen's professional career includes notable works such as Night of the Reaper, Still/Born, Z, and The Puppetman - films that explore psychological and supernatural themes against the backdrop of parenting fears. His unique approach often incorporates daytime horror, challenging conventional genre norms to intensify the scare factor, showcasing his knack for crafting compelling narratives from everyday situations.

BODYCAM is a Shudder original film and opens for streaming on Shudder on March 13th.

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BUSHIDO (Japan 2024) ***½

Directed by Kazuya Shiraishi

The new Japanese samurai movie is called BUSHIDO because it focuses entirely on BUSHIDO.  Bushido, meaning "Way of the Warrior," is the ethical code of conduct for Japan's samurai class, focusing on honour, loyalty, martial skill, and self-discipline. Emerging from Buddhist, Shinto, and Confucian principles, it demands righteousness, courage, and fearlessness toward death, with its roots in the Kamakura period.  There is minimal swordplay in the whole movie.  But the movie is tense and compelling.

Key aspects of Bushido include: The Seven Core Virtues: Righteousness (Gi), Courage (Yu), Benevolence (Jin), Respect (Rei), Honesty (Makoto), Honour (Meiyo), and Loyalty (Chugi).

The film's central hero, Taciturn Kakunoshin, renowned for his formidable skills both with a sword and in the game of Go, embodies the purest ideals of the samurai code.

The film follows Kakunoshin Yanagida, a respected samurai living during Japan’s Edo period.  After his wife dies, he is wrongly accused of theft by powerful members of his clan. Without a fair hearing, he is stripped of his status and forced to leave the domain, becoming a ronin (masterless samurai).

With his young daughter, Okinu, he moves to the city of Edo and lives in poverty.  Kakunoshin refuses to abandon the principles of bushidō, the samurai code emphasizing honour, discipline, and fairness. To survive, he takes humble work and spends his spare time playing the strategy board game Go, which mirrors his disciplined way of thinking.

Years later, another accusation of theft threatens to ruin him again. As the truth slowly emerges, it becomes clear that his original disgrace was part of a conspiracy by corrupt officials. Kakunoshin must decide whether to quietly endure the injustice or reclaim his honour.

Supported by his devoted daughter, he eventually confronts the men responsible for his downfall. The story builds toward a final reckoning in which he tries to restore his reputation while remaining faithful to the ideals of bushidō.

The Go board flips, and a hellstorm of righteous vengeance follows.

The Go game serves as a metaphor for what is happening in Kakunoshin’s life.  Though the game is unfamiliar to Westerners, the scenes in the game, I imagine, are similar to chess, delivered with precise accuracy and seriousness, with expert editing while exhibiting tension and anticipation.

The main themes in the film include:

Honour and reputation in samurai society - Kakunoshin remains honest and gains the reputation of the villagers.

Father-daughter loyalty - the daughter gives up her life to work in a brothel for the father to prove his innocence and get revenge for the family.

Justice versus revenge - Kakunoshin deserves both, to get deserved justice while also seeking revenge for the wrong done to him and his family

The moral meaning of the samurai code (busidō) - the 7 aspects of Bushido are the core to Kakunoshin’s way of life

The Japanese Edo era is masterfully crafted in this 2024 film, thanks to cinematographer d.p Jun Fukumoto’s excellent look.

From stoic honour to righteous hellfire, BUSHIDO, makes a triumphant return to the golden age of Japanese Samurai cinema, opening in theatres March 13th.

Trailer: 

THE FORBIDDEN CITY (La città proibita) (ITALY 2025) ***
Directed by Gabriele Mainetti,

When the phrase FORBIDDEN CITY is heard, what immediately comes to mind is China’s largest and most famous palace in all of Chinese history, and it is the largest preserved royal palace complex still standing in the world.  This palace gained its name from its enormous scale and severely restricted access to all but the Emperor, the Imperial family, and eunuchs; hence, the Chinese term "Forbidden City" emerged. The punishment for unauthorised entry to the palace was immediate execution.  But in the new WELL GO film, THE FORBIDDEN CITY is the name of a Chinese restaurant in the heart of Rome, where questionable goings-on are carried out.

From Gabriele Mainetti, director of THEY CALL ME JEEG (that was screened a few years back at the ICFF), comes the ambitious dual-language, action-packed tale of two strangers seeking the truth and vengeance. Mei arrives in Rome looking for her missing sister and, along the way, meets Marcello, who is desperate to find his father. Together, they will fight their way through the Roman underworld.

The film begins with what looks like a Chinese-made swordplay auctioneer.  The setting is 1995.  Yun and Mei are two sisters born in China during the one-child policy period, which lasted from 1979 to 2015. To protect Mei, their parents decide to keep her presence a secret and raise the girls with martial arts training.

In the present day, Mei arrives in Rome to find her sister, Yun. In the Esquilino Chinatown neighborhood, she finds the restaurant "La città proibita", run by the Chinese boss Wang, which is a place of prostitution and illegal dealings. Mei confronts Wang's men in an attempt to find her sister, possibly held prisoner for sexual exploitation. She discovers that Yun is no longer there and that she might be connected to Alfredo, the owner of a nearby trattoria. Mei then goes to the "Da Alfredo" trattoria and assaults his son, Marcello, who runs the place with his mother, Lorena, since his father disappeared. Marcello claims he knows nothing about his father Alfredo, as he is said to have run away with a Chinese prostitute.

Later, Marcello tells everything to Annibale, a small neighbuorhood gangster who exploits illegal immigrants, his creditor and partner, as well as Alfredo's best friend. Annibale suspects Wang, from the rival restaurant, is behind the attack on the trattoria, and threatens him with severe retaliation.

What happens following is a cross-cultural unlikely romance between Mei and Maarcello.  The cliched romance feels forced, and the chemistry is questionable, not helped by the fact that one is Italian and the other Chinese, unable to communicate easily.  The action and vengeance potion of the story also feels forced, but is more interesting, and this is the pattern that propels the story forward.  The action fight sequences and action set pieces are impressive and make up for the uninspiring romance and the cliched storyline.  Director Mainetti tries hard, but his previous film, a simpler one, THEY CALL ME JEEG, fared better.  At best, the film effectively combines both Hong Kong–style martial-arts action with Italian crime drama

The film is a lengthy 140 minutes and is in both Italian and Mandarin with English subtitles.   Availability:t  *On DIGITAL: MARCH 17th*

On DVD, BLU-RAY, & 4K: APRIL 21st

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LOUIS THEROX: INSIDE THE MANOSPHERE (USA 2026) ***
Directed by Adrian Choa

The documentary is primarily features the MANOSPHERE.  It is important to know what it is.  The manosphere is a varied collection of websites, blogs, and online forums promoting masculinity, misogyny, and opposition to feminism.  Communities within the manosphere include men's rights activists (MRAs), incels (involuntary celibates),[3] Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW), pick-up artists (PUA), and fathers' rights groups.[6] While the specifics of each group's beliefs sometimes conflict, they are generally united in the belief that society is biased against men due to the influence of feminism and that feminists promote misandry (hatred of men).   Acceptance of these ideas is described as "taking the red pill", a metaphor borrowed from the film The Matrix.  The doc highlights al the features of the manosphere while largely denouncing it.

Firstly, who is Theroux?  Louis Sebastian Theroux (born 20 May 1970) is a British and American documentarian, journalist, broadcaster, and author. He has received three British Academy Television Awards and a Royal Television Society Television Award.  After graduating from Magdalen College, Oxford, Theroux moved to the United States and worked as a journalist for Metro Silicon Valley and Spy. He moved into television as the presenter of offbeat segments on Michael Moore's TV Nation series.  His work includes studies of unusual and taboo subcultures, crime and the justice system, and celebrities. The majority of his documentaries are set in the United States, but he has also studied cultures in South Africa, Israel, Nigeria, and the UK. The New Yorker described Theroux's work as "a piercingly humane, slyly funny guide through the funkier passages of American culture”. In this film, he documents Harrison Sullivan and a few other male influencers.

Secondly, who is Harrison Sullivan?  Harrison Sullivan (born 6 October 2001) known online as HSTikkyTokky, is a British TikTok influencer who makes fitness, crypto and dating content.   He is the main subject of an upcoming documentary by Louis Theroux. On camera, he is shown to be sexist and homophobic and shows to be proud of it.  He also claims that women are given a gift - their vagina.

The doc works best with the most striking scenes or confro

The film examines a network of internet personalities—podcasters, livestreamers, and influencers—who promote hyper-masculinity, “red-pill” ideology, and traditional or controversial views about gender roles.

Louis Theroux immerses himself in this world as a presenter by meeting and interviewing several well-known figures in the movement, including:

Harrison Sullivan (HSTikkyTokky)

Myron Gaines

Sneako (Nicolas Kenn De Balinthazy)

Justin Waller

Ed Matthews

LOUIS THEROX: INSIDE THE MANOSPHERE features two highly popular male influencers.  These two influencers are all out to make lots of money despite morals.  In one way, the thesis is definitely the documentary to see on influencers -  a very eye-opening and compelling watch regardless of whether one agrees with the doc’s influencers’ content.

ntations—some of them are quite revealing about how these influencers operate, and often, too, revealing who they truly are and what their ultimate goal is, which is money. This ecosystem has become influential, and what its growing popularity says about modern masculinity and internet culture cannot be ignored.

LOUIS THEROUX: INSIDE THE MANOSPHERE is a 90-minute Netflix original documentary that opens for streaming on Netflix on March 11th.

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THE LOVE THAT REMAINS  (Icelandic: Ástin Sem Eftir Er) (Iceland 2025) ***
Directed by (Icelandic: Ástin Sem Eftir Er)

THE LOVE THAT REMAINS, written and directed by Hlynur Pálmason, stars Saga Garðarsdóttir as Saga and Sverrir Guðnason as Manus in a husband and wife relationship with their three children and pet dog, Pada (the dog has black and white colours looking like a panda).  Their relationship is still there, but they have each made the decision to separate and go their own ways.  But THE LOVE STILL REMAINS in this quiet, simple yet complicated love story

The film has a curious but somehow truthful look at how love manifests itself. Take these two examples.  When the husband says he should spend more time disciplining the kids because he loves them, the wife holds him and then says, “Now you know how it feels.  I am scolding you because I love you.  Another example happens a bit later when the horses escape from the pen.  The wife says: “If it is only someone I hated had forgotten to close the gate.  Then I would have a reason to kill him.”

The sequence of images in the film makes one think.  There is a scene of children playing with the young baby chicks, so cute and cuddly. The boy says the rooster will be fucking them if they are put together. The scenes of the chicks being cuddled are then followed by a scene where chicken wings and drumsticks are on the BBQ being cooked.

(Spoiler alert!)  The film has a rather puzzling ending that is to be examined literally and metaphorically.  One scene of a giant rooster that pecks Manus out of bed isan example of some surrealism found in the film.  One wishes that these segments be left out, as these odd segments only appear near the end of the film. It would be better if the film were clearer.  The ending suggests three core ideas that are not common in relationship-based films.

Love does not always conquer incompatibility.

Two people can care deeply for each other and still fail, which is not surprising since both have strong personalities.

What remains after love changes is nothing — it’s memory, growth, and sometimes quiet gratitude.

The love that remains is shown to be less tragic than it appears, with more acceptance and reflection on the couple than devastation.  This is what distinguishes this film as a whole, making it more thoughtful and interesting.   The three children also come into the picture, as they slowly grow in puberty and adulthood, thus adding to both problems and complicity.  The family dog Panda steals the show, demonstrating that most families should have a pet dog.

THE LOVE THAT REMAINS had its world premiere in the Cannes Premiere section of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2025, where the lead animal actor, Panda, won the Palm Dog Award. It was selected as Iceland's entry for Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards but was not nominated.  The film opens in Toronto at the TIFF Lightbox on March 13th.

Trailer: 

MADE IN KOREA (2026) **½

Directed by Ky Karthik

MADE IN KOREA is an odd film with a Korean title but made in India and not in Korea. Though filmed there.  Made in Korea is a coming-of-age drama about a woman who travels from India to Korea chasing a dream, only to be stranded and forced to rebuild her life in a completely unfamiliar world.

Shenba is from a small Indian village in Tamil Nadu, where there is no internet signal.  After being in a school play, she yearns to visit and be in Korea.  There is only one thing that she loves more than Korea.  And that is her boyfriend, Manu.  But Manu owes money and works as a bar server.  But before one can draw bad conclusions about Mani, it is revealed that the debt is derived from his father.  Mani grants Sheba’s wish, and both are supposed to board a plane to Korea.  But he abandons her to start a business in Mumbai with a friend instead, but still has her dreams fulfilled by paying for her flight, showing him to be a sweet chap.  Long story short, Shenba is left alone in a supposedly place of her dreams, but all alone.  As the saying goes, be careful of what you wish for.

One can tell that this is a learning coming-of-age story in which Shenba grows into a respectable, independent woman.  It is an ambitious film that does not always work.  The film is charming in a way, but also naive in the way it believes that the audience will fall for the many cliches it delivers on the way.  At best, it is also a unique cross-cultural film bout chasing one’s dreams regardless of consequences.

NASH THE SLASH RISES AGAIN (Canada 2025) ***
Directed by Tim Kowalski

Nash the Slash is a Toronto musician/singer, and songwriter who performs his gigs with his signature bandages, top hat, and white gloves.

The "Nash the Slash" persona came from silent film, and Nash said he took his stage name from that of a killer butler encountered by Laurel and Hardy in one of their first films, Do Detectives Think? (1927).

Nash was born in Toronto. He performed with surgical bandages covering his face starting in 1979. "During a gig at The Edge in the late 1970s to raise awareness of the threat from the Three Mile Island disaster, he walked on stage wearing bandages dipped in phosphorus paint and exclaimed: 'Look, this is what happens to you.' The bandages became his trademark.

Nash's music is a complex blend of progressive rock, new wave, new age, and punk rock, using electric mandolins, violins, drum machines, and a variety of effects and sonic devices. He wrote, played, and produced most of the material on his solo albums by himself, though he also worked with producers Daniel Lanois, Steve Hillage, and Bill Nelson.

The documentary tells the story of Nash the Slash, a classically trained violinist and multi‑instrumentalist famous for blending prog‑rock, punk, classic rock, psychedelic, techno, and industrial influences long before those categories widely existed. His signature stage persona—a face covered in surgical bandages, a white tuxedo, electric mandolin and violin, and walls of electronics—made him one of Canada’s most unique performers.

The film traces Nash’s early days with the theatrical prog‑rock band Breathless, his live scoring of silent films at Toronto’s 99¢ Roxy Theatre, and his evolution into an internationally touring solo act.
It also highlights his involvement in film, including composing music for early Bruce McDonald films and appearing in Roadkill.

NASH THE SLASH RISES AGAIN. The announcement of Nash’s death bookends the film.  Between his life, career, rise, and fall are documented.  As they say, a doc is often as interesting as its subject.  True, the subject Nash the Slash is an interesting enough subject, not a great person, but one with flaws and faults.  His coke addiction is also mentioned in the film, as are his anger outbursts.   His friends and family also speak about the man in the doc, and he is shown with friends and family when no in disguise.

Nash’s real identity and name were James Jeffrey "Jeff" Plewman (March 26, 1948 – May 10, 2014).  Better known by his stage name Nash the Slash, was a Canadian musician.b A multi-instrumentalist, he was known primarily for playing the electric violin and mandolin, as well as the synthesizer, keyboards, glockenspiel, and other instruments (sometimes described as "devices" on album notes).

The doc ends up an innovative, eccentric, and deeply influential figure in Canada’s underground music scene.  It also examines warts and all, his artistry, isolation, cultural impact, and the mythos surrounding his masked persona, while celebrating the strange and electrifying world he created.

NASH THE SLASH RISES AGAIN premiered in Toronto at Hot Doc and then last October at the BITS film festival, though there is no Blood in any snow.  The film opens at the Bell Lightbox on March 13th.

Trailer: 

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 22 February 2026

ACCUSED (India 2026) ***
Directed by Anubhuti Kashyap

The last time someone made a lesbian movie set in India, there were riots and protests, including the burning of a cinema.  That was the lesbian-themed movie FIRE, directed by Deepa Mehta, a 1996 Indo-Canadian romantic drama that portrays a developing love relationship between two women.  It’s one of the first mainstream films in Indian cinema to depict a lesbian relationship explicitly and sparked significant discussion and controversy upon release.  ACCUSED is a lesbian bas3d drama opening on Netflix. The Indians cannot burn down the cinema this time, unless they want to burn down their own home.

ACCUSED centres on Dr Geetika Sen, a highly respected and accomplished surgeon and gynaecologist working in London.  She is not only celebrated in her field but also seen as a rising leader — poised for even greater responsibility at her hospital.  Geetika and her partner, Dr Meera (her wife), are planning to adopt a child together. The announcement was made at a family gathering, in which the audience was introduced to everyone.  Then comes trouble in paradise.  An anonymous complaint of sexual misconduct lands in the hospital’s human resources department. This allegation brands Geetika as a “sexual predator,” sending shockwaves through her professional and personal world.

The fallout affects both Geetika’s work and relationship.  While Meera initially stands by her, as the scandal grows and rumours intensify, doubt begins to creep into their relationship. Meera wrestles with loyalty, trust, and the disturbing possibility that the person she loves might have crossed boundaries she never expected.

The film plays as a psychological mystery thriller with two issues of whether Geetika is actually guilty of the sexual predator accusation, and also whether her relationship with Meera will survive.  The film also explores how public judgment can form. and the emotional toll that serious allegations can take on someone’s life.  ACCUSED is an entertaining enough thriller, directed efficiently and moving at a fast enough pace.

ACCUSED is available to stream on Netflix starting Friday, February 27th.

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IN COLD LIGHT (Canada 2025) ***
Directed by Maxime Giroux

At her mandatory social worker meeting, Maya (Maika Monroe) is asked, “What do you want from all of this?  (i.e., how do you want to see your life go?).  This is the hard part.

Ava, just released from prison after a drug bust, is considering either making a new, clean life for herself or continuing with her drug-dealing business, the one she was forced to leave behind since she has to serve time.  To make matters worse, she is hunted down by a crime boss as well as the police.  She was beside her twin brother in their car when he got shot, and she i prime suspect.

IN COLD LIGHT is a fast-moving crime thriller centring on Ava and her need to manoeuvre her life after prison.  The film is at times difficult to figure out, as the story never makes that clear.  When the price first chased her during a drug bust and arrested her, the segment looks as if he was entering a drug den to make a purchase.   The reason the other drug lords want her out of the picture is also never made clear.

The film, a Canadian production shot in Alberta, features plenty of ranch and rodeo scenes.

The introduction of her deaf and mute father, Will, into the story adds a welcome difference to the story.  Like many other points in the story, the deaf and mute man is only revealed to be her father after they have already appeared in a few scenes together.  The man who picked Ava up after her prison release and hung out with her for a while is only revealed to be her twin after a cop stops them in their car and asks them for identification.  The cause of the brother’s death is also only revealed much later in the story.

The relationship between Will and Ava is emotionally complicated and marked by old wounds.

This aspect adds depth to the thriller as Will slowly becomes both an emotional anchor and a liability.  Given their complicated relationship, Ava must decide whether she can trust her family.  The story explores cycles of damage and survival.

Most of the action takes place at night.  With the neon-lit buildings and cool colours, the mood reflects the cold nature that Ava has to adapt to survive, in the cold light.

Maika Monroe is sufficiently apt inhere role of Ava.  Monroe is an American known as a scream queen, being in films like LONGLEGS and IT FOLLOWS, two highly successful horror films.  Maxime Giroux is a French Canadian director whose third feature, Félix & Meira (2014), a love story between a forty-year-old loner and a young Hasidic wife and mother, received international acclaim.  This is his first English-language film.

The film also has a mystery element.  The mystery element is how Ava will outmaneuver the forces closing in, though it is difficult to root for a druggie and former drug queen.  

Still, the film could do more of the thriller element.

IN COLD BLOOD opens in theatres February 27th, 2026.

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THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE (Iraq 2025) ***½

Directed by Hasan Hadi

In the tradition of Jafar Panahi’s 1995 Iranian film THE WHITE BALLOON, THE PRESIDENT'S CAKE has a young protagonist spending the entire film trying to find ingredients to make a cake in celebration of President Sudan Hussein’s birthday.   It is 1990s Iraq, and Young Lamia (Baneen Ahmed Nayyef) lives with her ailing grandmother, Bibi (Waheeda Thabet Khreiba), eking out an existence in a remote village where the best means of travel is by meshouf, a kind of canoe.  Disaster strikes when Lamia is “honoured” with bringing the cake for her school class’s mandatory celebration of Saddam Hussein’s birthday.  In other circumstances, this might be an innocuous responsibility, but Bibi and Lamia can’t afford the ingredients — and the last family that didn’t comply was dragged through the streets.  Director Hadi takes his audience around the poorer streets of Iraq, showing how people eke out a living, and it is not a pretty sight.  People are poor and often dishonest.  Hadi paints the wonderful innocence of children, especially of Lamia, not even knowing at the film’s start that her grandmother was selling her off for good.  The film has premiered and been lauded at Cannes.

Trailer: 

SCREAM7 (USA 2026) ***½

Directed by Kevin Williamson

  Many SCREAM aficionados are unaware of the origin of the SCREAM killer with his iconic mask.  The Scream is an art composition created by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch in 1893. The Norwegian name of the piece is Skrik ('Scream'), and the German title under which it was first exhibited is Der Schrei der Natur ('The Scream of Nature'). 

A bit to know about the SCREAM franchise in order to appreciate SCREAM 7.  Scream is an American slasher franchise that includes seven films, a television series, merchandise, and games. The first four films were directed by Wes Craven.  SCREAM 7 is directed by Kevin Williamson.  The series was created by Kevin Williamson, who wrote the first two films and the fourth.  Dimension Films produced the first four films. Spyglass Media Group took over the rights from the fifth film on, with Paramount Pictures distributing. The film series has grossed over US$910 million at the global box office.  Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, and Roger L. Jackson (who voices the various Ghostface killers) starred in the first five films and will return for the seventh. Cox and Jackson reprised their roles for the sixth film and are the only cast members to feature in all films to date, with Cox also being the only actress to appear in seven consecutive films of a horror franchise.  Cox and Campbell both executive-produced SCREAM 7.

The film starts with a slashing in Woodsboro, California, Scott. A fan of the Stab series takes his girlfriend, Madison, to the Macher house, where murders happened in both 1996 and 2021, noting there are rumours that one of the original Ghostfaces, Stu Macher, might have survived having a television thrown in his head. Ghostface shows up, kills Scott and stabs Madison before dousing her with gasoline and setting her and the house on fire.  This is a lively introduction that takes the audience close to 30minutes into the movie.  The intro demonstrates director Williamson in top form, with shocks and surprises, with enough humour to keep the audience attentive and entertained.

The film can be considered to be a series of horror set pieces allied together with the common tread SidneyPrescott’s killer stalking her and her daughter. There are plenty of innovative scares, including one that is guaranteed to make one jump out of one's seat.  This is the one most likely inspired by the scene in WAIT UNTIL DARK in which Alan Arkin suddenly jumps on an unsuspecting blind Audrey Hepburn. Here, the masked killer suddenly appears, jumping on his victimless, out of nowhere,

SCREAM 7 respects the franchise. Director Williamson understands slasher movies, and it shows in his direction of SCREAM 7.  There is sufficient explanation of the story details with reprisals of roles by Cox and Campbell.   The scares and shocks are both entertaining and unexpected.  SCREAM 7 is a worthwhile sequel, fun, entertaining and what every SCREAM fan expects.

SCREAM 7 opens February 27th, in theatres everywhere, including on iAMX screens.

SMOTHER (Austria 2023) ***½

Directed by Achmed Abdel-Salam

The story follows Michaela (“Michi”), a recovering alcoholic who has built a fragile new life with her young daughter Hanna. After the sudden death of her estranged father, Michi reluctantly returns to her childhood home to settle the inheritance.

From the moment she arrives, the house feels oppressive and emotionally charged. The visit is meant to be brief, but Michi secretly hopes the trip might help repair the strained trust between her and Hanna.

Michi spends time with her daughter alone in the house while her husband tends to a failing antique store back in town.

The psychological horror film succeeds for several reasons, primarily because director Achmed Abdel-Salam moves his film at a rapid enough pace, throwing in more surprising bits of detail into the plot as his film progresses.  The line between real and imaginary is always in question as one wonders whether Michi is suffering from a psychological horror or if the monster in the house is real.  Family drama is added with Mishsi’s daughter, Hannah, shown as a precocious child with an inquiring mind.  “Why do you never show photographs or talk about your mother?” asks Hannah to her mother.  Yet Hannah is a playful child, as children often are, as she hides in a field where her mother tries desperately to find her.

There is much sympathy that the audience can feel for the protagonist, Michi.  Michi is a recovering alcoholic, and she is trying very hard to bring her life back to a whole.

There are a few flaws in the film.  There is a funeral at the start of the film, and one wonders who the person is who has just passed.  There is a photo of the deceased at the casket, but it is never mentioned till way into the film that the deceased was the father.  (Unless I missed it, which means that others could have easily missed it too.)

The trouble starts once a disturbing discovery is made in the house by Michi.  While going through old belongings, Michi finds a childhood drawing that triggers fragments of buried memories. Strange things begin to happen in the house,e such as unexplained noises and unsettling visions, while Hanna behaves oddly, such as sleepwalking and possibly imagining things.

As the film progresses, so do the troubles.  The film gradually reveals that Michi’s childhood was marked by severe trauma, including the suicide of her mother. These memories had been repressed for years.  As the haunting intensifies, Michi’s sobriety becomes shaky as she grows paranoid and unstable, and her bond with Hanna deteriorates.  All of director Achmed Abdel-Salam's work is well-paced in a well-paced psychological mystery thriller leading to a satisfactory, compelling climax, aided by Cornelia Ivancan’s apt performance as the troubled mother.  The most disturbing segment comes in the film’s final act.

The film is called SMOTHER, as Michi smothers Hannah with her motherly love, and Michi is also emotionally smothered by her past.

SMOTHER makes its exclusive North American Premiere on INDIEPIX UNLIMITED on February 27th, 2026.

THIS IS NOT A TEST (Canada /USA 2026) **½
Directed by Adam MacDonald

This is not a test, a post-apocalyptic film with teenagers holed up in a school, is based on the young adult novel of the same name by Courtney Summers.  It is not great literature, and the source material’s shortcomings can be observed in the adaptation to the film.

The film is called This Is Not a Test to heighten urgency, evoke emergency-alert dread, and emphasise the story’s message that the characters are facing a real, irreversible crisis—not a drill.  The phrase is hear twice during the movie, first when announcements are made to the public about staying indoors and securing the safety zone that what is going on and that the announcement is to be taken in all seriousness and secondly when one of the characters say the phrase referring to g to a test that teachers give to their students, in this case Mr. Baxter.

Zombie movies are now a dime a dozen.  A zombie movie must be able to stand out above the rest.  Zombies can move about in slow motion, as in the George Romero zombie movies, or at lightning-fast speeds, as in the Brad Pitt zombie movie WORLD WAR Z.   In THIS IS NOT A TEST, the zombies move quicker than the average human being.

It all ends up with a bunch of school teens holding up in a school while the zombies are outside creating havoc and infecting everyone else.

So what happens when a group of teens is isolated together?  They argue and fight.  The two alpha males get into a fist flight with who is the one, who would take control and give the orders.  They debate on whether to stay in the school or make it out to a safe shelter that is announced on the radio.  And there is the obligatory romance that results.  All the subplots are nothing out of the ordinary and could be written by anyone who has seen a zombie movie at some time or another.

There are a few variations when Mr. Baxter shows up, who claims that he is not infected by the bite he got.  Of course, there is an argument among the students on whether this is true.  A bit of anxiety is created when Mr. Baxter proves to be a big asshole.  Another asshole in the movie is the protagonist, Sloan Price’s (Olivia Holt) stepfather.  Though he gets what he deserved, he is an abusive male who has hurt Sloan’s mother, sister, and also herself.  This is shown at the start of the movie.

The story takes a turn when the teens make it out of the school safe house and try to make it to a shelter.  But still, nothing really out of the ordinary in terms of plotting or story.

The necessary zombie violence occurs with the bashing of the zombies, particularly their heads, often shown to be a bloody mess. There is no mention in the original of the virus causing humans to transform into zombies.  The script never even tries, and what is going on with the rest of the world?

THIS IS NOT A TEST opens in theatres February 27th.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 14 February 2026

BLADES OF THE GUARDIANS (China 2025) ***`1/2
Directed by Yuen Woo-ping

Based on the comic by Xianzhe Xu, the historical action film BLADES OF THE GUARDIANS is directed by master filmmaker and action director Yuen Woo-ping; boasts an all-star cast including Wu Jing (Wolf Warrior series), who also produced the film, Jet Li (Once Upon a Time in China), Nicholas Tse (Raging Fire), Yosh Yu (Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms), and boyband sensations JUN (Wen Junhui) of Seventeen and Winwin of NCT. BLADES OF THE GUARDIANS was produced by Peace Film Production and written by Yu Baimei, Chao-pin Su, Chan Tai Lee, and Larry Yang.

Set during the Sui Dynasty under the rule of the oppressive Emperor Yang Guang, BLADES OF THE GUARDIANS follows a skilled mercenary, Dao Ma (Biao Ren), as he treks across the harsh deserts of the Western Regions. Tasked with a seemingly simple escort mission, the warrior unknowingly becomes caught in a perilous scheme that promises danger at every turn.  Dao Ma, a hardened mercenary, carries the title of the empire’s second-most-wanted fugitive. Despite his outlaw status, Dao Ma is hired for a high-risk mission:

He must escort Zhi Shilang, the number-one most-wanted fugitive, from the western desert regions to the imperial capital of Chang’an.

What appears to be a straightforward transport job quickly proves suspicious. The prisoner is mysterious, highly valuable, and wanted by multiple powerful factions.

Dao Ma accepts the job anyway—motivated by debt, obligation, or his own moral code 

The film is directed by legendary Director Yuen Woo-ping, who is widely regarded as one of the most influential martial-arts choreographers ever, with credits including:

CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, THE MATRIX, and KUNG FU HUSTL,E among countless others.  His involvement signals high-quality, authentic fight choreography, which is a big selling point.  The choreography is evident in the ultra-impressive fight sequence at the film’s first 10-minute mark between a governor and Dao Ma.

BLADES OF THE GUARDIANS has been elected as the prime movie to celebrate the Lunar New Year, a time for Chinese as important as the movie Christmas season.  As this is the only wuxi film, there is little competition to this much-anticipated auctioneer.

The film is one up on Hollywood productions, as unlike many CGI-heavy films, the production prioritizes real horseback chases, practical and exciting combat with lots of actor training, and is choreographed by Yuen.  The cast includes major action names like Wu Jing,

Nicholas Tse and Jet Li.

The film boasts old-fashioned filmmaking with little AI, CGI, and prosthetics used.  To meet director Yuen Woo-ping's high standards for action scenes, all main actors had to join the crew in advance before filming began, undergoing systematic closed training including traditional martial arts, swordsmanship, and horse riding. To closely resemble the protagonist's character, Wu Jing made long-term physical preparations, growing a beard and long hair in advance, and undergoing rigorous equestrian and action training.  The film is to be praised for this and many other reasons, another being the replacement of the actress with Chen Lijun playing Ayuyah, which caused a delay in the film’s release and an increase in budget.

The film is shot on location in Xinjiang deserts with sweeping IMAX-style visuals.

Yuen Woo-ping’s BLADES OF THE GUARDIANS is set for a Chinese New Year theatrical debut opening Tuesday, February 17th.  A worthwhile action-packed film to watch, like in the good old days of cinema.

Trailer: 

HOW TO MAKE A KILLING (UK/France 2026) **

Directed by John Patton Ford

Many black comedies have been made about doing away with human obstacles by killing in order to secure an inheritance.  The new black comedy HOW TO MAKE A KILLING is one of the latest ones, inspired, according to press notes, by the film KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS and perhaps, a little by THE WRONG BOX.  But HOW TO MAKE A KILLING fails, for several reasons, the most important one being that it is not funny nor remotely credible.

Disowned at birth by his obscenely wealthy family, blue-collar Becket Redfellow (Glenn Powell) will stop at nothing to reclaim his inheritance, no matter how many relatives stand in his way.

The film goes on with the relatives being done away with one after another, with a cop and an assistant investigating.  The film is bookended with Becket in a prison cell waiting for his death, akin to Jane Fonda waiting for her hanging in Elliot Silverstein’s CAT BALLOU.  But in all films with a beginning like this, when an unexpected hero is to be saved at the last moment, just as CAT BALLOU was by her friends in one of the best comedy westerns of all time.

Glenn Powell, one of the fastest rising good-looking hunk actors of all time, is in cruise mode in this movie, showing non-emotions as well not revealing any physical attributes.  Being in romantic comedies and supporting (Clint Eastwood and Tom Cruise) roles in action films, Powell is an actor who deserves better to show his true colours.

It does not help that there are two romantic females involved with Beckett. For a black comedy, there is one action scene, quite a ridiculous one, involving Ed Harris with a rifle and Beckett with a crossbow, shooting at each other in a family mansion.  The action set-piece comes from nowhere and is as silly as it is laughable.

HOW TO MAKE A KILLING is not the sophisticated crime movie it intended to be, for the many reasons laid put already.

HOW TO MAKE A KILLING opens in theatres Friday.

Trailer: 

MEDUZA (USA 2025) ***
Directed by Roc Morin

MEDUZA is a many-layered film about a few subjects.  Though labelled a documentary and is actually one, it feels like a live-action fiction story.  The film is called MEDUZA as it is the Ukrainian/Russian word for “jellyfish” and also evokes Medusa from Greek mythology. The filmmakers use this layered meaning to reflect the film’s themes.

The film begins with a voiceover talking about travelling faster than the speed of light across the universe before focusing on the manufacture of ammunition in an American arms factory.  The bullets are on display, the ammunition of snipers, the sniper being the subject of this mysterious feeling documentary.

When his hometown is invaded, a Ukrainian actor who once played a sniper in a movie becomes a real sniper on the front line. Meduza follows Ukrainian artist-turned-sniper Pavlo Aldoshyn from the first days of the war in 2022.  Pavlo is from a small village near a salt lake.  The film follows the real-life transformation of a Ukrainian actor into a frontline soldier.  When Russia invades Ukraine in 2022, his life imitates art: he joins the military and becomes an actual sniper.

Through all this, the film tracks Pavlo’s journey from artist to combatant, which includes the psychological toll of war with his inner reflections as he confronts real violence

This documentary stars famous Ukrainian actor Pavlo Aldoshyn (“White Raven”), who was also a contestant on Ukraine's version of The Voice before the war. The shoot took place over two years following the invasion, with some pre-invasion footage obtained from Pavlo and his wife, Katarin. The team was Director Roc Morin and Leïla Wolf, Morin’s producer and longtime film collaborator, who passed away in January. Morin had reported on the war starting in 2014 as a print journalist, and following the full-scale invasion, flew to Poland, walked across the border, and hitchhiked to Lviv because there was no organised transportation heading into the country at that time.

Throughout the film, Pavlo's inner life connects to a range of stories around the globe, including a Japanese widower searching the ocean for his wife, and an Amazonian tribesman describing the loss of a mythical ladder connecting earth and sky.  The interwoven global stories that echo themes of loss and survival.

 The doc shows Pavlo’s unique spiritual perspective of himself in the context of the war. Witnessing Pavlo’s psychological transformation over the course of the two years of filming, and the impact of his involvement in the war on his spiritual mythology and relationships, forms the core of the film and shows the intimate costs of war. Pavlo is still fighting on the front lines for his country, even today.  Beware:  If you are not into new age beliefs, healing, reincarnation nd the like, you might consider all that is shown mumbo-jumbo nonsense.

The film was shot in the United States, Ukraine, Japan, India, and Ecuador. The film is tied to the 4th anniversary of the war in Ukraine.

MEDUZA is a slow-burning film that allows the audience to appreciate life while meditating on the effects of war and its futility.  The audience sees the world through the eyes of different characters, with a focus on Pavlo, who is an artist at heart and not really a sniper.  He says that the military is not his profession.

MEDUZA opens on digital platforms on February 20.

MIDWINTER BREAK (UK/Netherlands 2025) ***½

Directed by Polly Findlay

MIDWINTER BREAK is a film based on the novel of the same name by Bernard MacLaverty.  He is a Northern Irish writer who has moved to Scotland, much like the protagonists in the story of the film.  Bernard MacLaverty is regarded as one of the greatest living Irish writers.

In MIDWINTER BREAK, retired couple, Gerry (Irish actor Ciaran Hinds) and Stella Gilmore (British actress Leslie Mann), fly from their home in Scotland to Amsterdam for a long weekend—a holiday to refresh the senses, to do some sightseeing, and generally to take stock of what remains of their lives. Their relationship seems safe, easy, and familiar.  They enjoy each other's company.  But over the course of the four days, the deep uncertainties that exist between them are revealed.

Gerry, once an architect, is forgetful and set in his ways. Stella is tired of his lifestyle, worried about their marriage, and angry at his constant undermining of her religious faith.  Things are not helped by memories that have begun to resurface of a troubled time in their native Ireland.  As their midwinter break comes to an end, we understand how far apart they are—and can only watch as they struggle to save themselves.

The film, thanks to the source material, is an accurate, compassionate observation of a couple’s relationship that is a tender, intimate, heartrending story.  Yet it is also a profound examination of human love and how a couple can live together, with a lot of gives and fewer takes.

The film takes its time to unfold, but the wait is well worth it.  Both Hinds and Manville are superb, and besides the writing, performances, and direction, MIDWINTER BREAK is indeed a masterful film.

Trailer: 

PAVANE (South Korea 2016) **

Directed by Lee Jong-pil

The film PAVANE comes from the classical music piece called PAVANE, which is the favourite musical piece of the girl in the story.

Pavane pour une infante défunte (Pavane for a Dead Princess) is a work for solo piano by Maurice Ravel, written in 1899 while the French composer was studying at the Conservatoire de Paris under Gabriel Fauré. Ravel published an orchestral version in 1910 using two flutes, an oboe, two clarinets (in B♭), two bassoons, two horns, a harp, and strings.  The Pavane lasts between six and seven minutes and is considered a masterpiece.

Pavane (Korean: 파반느) is an upcoming South Korean romantic drama film directed by Lee Jong-pil. It stars Go Ah-sung, Byun Yo-han, and Moon Sang-min. Produced under The Lamp, the film is based on the novel Pavane for a Dead Princess written by author Park Min-gyu, and it tells the story of a woman who was deemed unattractive by society and a man who sees beyond her looks. 

One would expect the film about an unattractive girl pursued by a beau who sees beyond her outside appearance to be charming and engaging.  Instead, this all-over-the-place teen romance is both dull and boring, especially running at close to two hours.  A few silly CGI segments serve to show how disorganised everything is.

The film is to be released on Netflix on February 20, 2026.

Trailer: 

THE SWEDISH CONNECTION (Sweden 2026) ***

Directed by Therese Ahlbeck and Marcus Olsson

Swedish Foreign Ministry bureaucrat Gösta Engzell, overlooked during WWII, rescued thousands while turning supposedly neutral Sweden into a moral force. His efforts challenged the status quo and left a lasting humanitarian legacy.

In 1942, Sweden remained neutral, though surrounded by German-occupied countries.  Sweden remained neutral, according to the film and history, by granting whatever Hitler wanted.

But when it is learnt that Jews are sent to death camps, Jews with a Swedish connection (i,e. Swedish citizenship) are then questioned if they could be exempt because of the country’s neutral status.

The film is based on little-known historical events, but it is still based on true events.

The hero of the story is a mild-mannered employee named Gösta Engzell.  Gösta Engzell (14 February 1897 – 7 March 1997) was a Swedish jurist and diplomat who is known for his activities to rescue Jews during World War II. He was the ambassador of Sweden to Finland between 1954 and 1963 and served in other diplomatic posts.  On 7 September 1942, a Latvian refugee named Gillel Storch met Gösta Engzell and informed him about the increasingly negative conditions of Jews in the German-occupied territories. Engzell then began to influence the policy of the Swedish government, which would help Jews in Nazi-controlled regions.  He initiated actions to save Jews in Norway and Denmark.  In addition, Engzell encouraged Swedish diplomats Carl Ivan Danielsson and Per Anger to take steps to protect Jews in Budapest in 1944.   As a result of the activities of Engzell and his staff, approximately 30,000–40,000 Jews were rescued.

Henrik Dorsin plays the hero Gösta Engzell.  Dorsin is a pudgy, balding family man, not the typical hero one would expect to save thousands of Jews.  The film notes that this is a timid man, at first just letting the atrocities go, until he is unable to any longer because of his conscience, especially urged on by his son, to whom he tells stories at bedtime.  The son asks his father what he does for a living, working for Hitler?  A diplomat, comes the answer.  The son takes it that when there is trouble, the father’s job as a diplomat is to offer a song and cake to calm the troubles.  But when Engzell finally stands up for the Jews, one can applaud the man for finally becoming the hero he was meant to be.

THE SWEDISH CONNECTION is based on true events and on a hero who is driven by conscience and humanity.  This is not an action film, but one that shows the difficult processes of red tape and conflict that went through for Jews to be saved.  And there are sympathetic Germans, too.  The film covers themes of how one overcomes obstacles through moral courage within a rigid system, and how the power of small bureaucratic actions can be used.  Sweden’s wartime neutrality vs. humanitarian duty prevailed.  This is quiet, non-violent resistance.

THE SWEDISH CONNECTION premieres on the streaming service Netflix, a Netflix original film from Sweden that is an important watch for historical education and also for entertainment.

Trailer: 

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 13 February 2026

Had the privilege of viewing 7 little gems screened at this year's BERLINALE, courtesy of the PR Factory.

Capsule Reviews of the 7 films:

CHIMNEY TOWN: FROZEN IN TIME (Japan 2026) ***
Directed by Yusuke Hirota

After losing his friend Poupelle, young Lucchini wanders into a mysterious realm where a clock in a tower is frozen at 11:59. To return home, he must restart it – and find the courage to believe again.  Based on the 2020 film POUPELLE OF CHIMNEY TOWN, CHIMNEY TOWN: FROZEN IN TIME follows a similar story in which Lucchini searches for his friend Poupelle as he is transported to a place where time stands still, at least for the huge clock in the clocktower between one to midnight and midnight  There is also the twin story of the clock keeper who lost Nagi, his girl and cannot accept the fate. These are two stories in different times, which pose a problem in the narrative storytelling, despite some really outstanding animation.  The film that boasts Japanese folklore and animation from Studio 4C reminds one of the Studio Ghibli animated films.  The animated feature is a blend of drama, whimsical fantasy and cuteness.

I UNDERSTAND YOUR DISPLEASURE (Ich verstehe Ihren Unmut)(Germany 2026) ****

Directed by Kilian Armando Friedrich

Heike, a customer service manager at an understaffed cleaning company, must secure more working hours and revenue for a subcontractor after she is caught trying to poach an employee from his company.  As the film follows the main character, Heike, as she goes about her troublesome and busy job, one is immediately reminded of the films of the Dardenne Brothers.  Heike, who has the job of customer service but also supervises all the cleaning after she tells her boss: I Understand Your Displeasure”, is required to satisfy interests that systematically contradict one another: low prices, maximum efficiency, and humane and working conditions of a cleaning service.  Is there any satisfaction at all for Heike in the cleaning industry, and for her to search for a moment of happiness instead of saying f*** it all?  The film also moves into Ken Loachch territory as director Friedrick tackles social issues.  The film is inGerman and Bosnian as many cleaning workers come from Bosnia.  Director Kilian Armando Friedrich shows great talent with his debut feature, with emotions felt for his characters in a situation that seems to lead to a dead end.

NARCISO (Paraguay/Brazil/Portugal/Germany/Spain/France/Uruguay2025) ***½

Directed by Marcelo Martinessi. 

Impressive and ambitious Paraguayan movie set in 1958, follows the sad tale of a Paraguayan rock star, known as Narciso, who is found dead at the height of his career.  Rock and rollin the U.S., with the likes of Elvis Presley, Bill Haley and the Comets, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry, is only eclipsed in Paraguay by their folk music.  Narciso is a charismatic young man who returns to Asunción from Buenos Aires, bringing rock ’n’ roll — a new and liberating musical rhythm — to his home city.

He becomes a radio personality and local sensation, captivating audiences with his music, energy, and sensual presence, and emerging as a symbol of freedom and desire in an oppressive political context.  The radio station opens its program to rock and roll, with immense popularity with the young, but leads to disaster with local politics, clamping down on gay practices of which the rock star (bisexual), Narciso, is involved.  NARCISO is a convincing period piece aided by solid performances all around.

PAPAYA (Brazil 2025) ***

Directed by Priscilla Kellen

The animated film follows a tiny papaya seed (a papaya seed is small, circular, and totally black but soft as shown in the animation) living in the Amazon rainforest who dreams of flying. Determined not to take root and become a tree, the seed keeps moving across the jungle in pursuit of freedom.  During its journey, the seed gradually discovers the surprising strength and importance of its roots. This realisation sparks a transformation that changes its world and ultimately allows it to fulfil its dream suddenly.  Because it is non-dialogue, it takes more concentration to follow the story. The film is aimed at the younger crowd, but if they can appreciate the animation seen, if the environmental message may be above them.

A RUSSIAN WINTER (UN HIVER DE RUSSE) (France 2026) ***
Directed by Patric Chiha

The film follows several friends focusing on Margarita and Yuri, who refuse to support the Russian regime and therefore face a stark choice: prison, military service, or leaving their country.  They choose exile and try to rebuild their lives abroad.  When the film opens, it is just after the Russian winter in March of 2022, and the war between Russia and Ukraine had begun.  The film shows how silly and devastating the war is, with the kids not understanding what is going on.  Yuri’s father brands him a coward for going into exile, tand he father was later killed when he enlisted in the war.  It is a quiet and slow-moving doc that might not appeal to many despite its sincerity and current importance.  The film is an intimate, character-driven documentary about a generation of Russians living in limbo after choosing exile over compliance.

EL TREN FLUVIAL (The River Train)(Argentina 2025) ***
Directed by Lorenzo Ferro and Lucas A. Vignale

A simply made yet very effective parable of a 9-year-old village boy who travels via THE RIVER TRAIN to the capital of Buenos Aires to achieve his dreams.  Nine-year-old Milo is growing up with the pressure to become a great Malambo dancer and the “perfect” son. He dreams of taking control of his life and escaping his responsibilities of washing dishes, cooking and practising the Malambo at night. Milo wants another life. He fantasises about travelling by train and exploring the city of Buenos Aires, which he has seen so many times in the movies and on television. However, in order to break free from his family and the countryside, and make his big dreams come true, he must dare to take a new journey: a journey into solitude, and the unknown adventures and pleasures of the big city.  The beginning scenes of Milo dancing the Malambo, done in one single take is nothing short of astounding.  But his father pressures Nino, and he lives unhappily in the family home.  This is an odd little movie about a boy, still too young to figure out his life, who decides to take charge anyway.  This is the beauty of the premise as the audio ones see Milo undertake the trip of his lifetime.  

YELLOW LETTERS (GELBE BRIEFE) (Germany/Turkey/France 2025) ***½

Directed by İlker Çatak

Directed by İlker Çatak, who co-wrote the screenplay with Ayda Çatak and Enis Köstepen. It follows Derya (Özgü Namal) and Aziz (Tansu Biçer), a couple of Turkish theatre artists who lose their jobs due to political persecution in Turkey.  When someone loses their job, they receive YELLOW LETTERS.  The political unrest is due to the government clamping down on democracy, which is happening in Turkey, known to be the country that persecutes journalists.  The story, however,r focuses on the marriage of an artist couple that begins to unravel after a state arbitration at their play's premiere.  The film demonstrates how familial tension arises from outside forces and how much it takes to keep a relationship together.  Director Çatak keeps his film tense and interesting with nary a dull moment, with a credible, satisfactory ending that should not disappoint.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 09 February 2026

The Live Action category is the strongest this year has two strong entries, THE SINGERS and A FRIEND OF DOROTHY'S.  THE SINGERS has the most dramatic segment I've seen so far this year, with the rendition of the song "I Need Your Love”.  JANE AUSTEN’S PERIOD DRAMA is the funniest, while TWO PEOPLE EXCHANGING  SALIVA is one of the best!

BUTCHER’S STAIN (USA 2025) ***

Directed by Meyer Levinson-Blount.

This student made short at the Steve Tisch (he wrote BREAKING AWAY and won the Oscar), also won the Silver Medal there.  The film follows Samir, an Arab Israeli butcher working at a Tel Aviv supermarket.  When hostage posters in the staff break room are torn down, suspicion quickly falls on him.  Determined to keep the job he desperately needs, Samir struggles to prove his innocence while facing growing scrutiny and mistrust from coworkers and management.  His supervisor tells him he was seen by a co-worker taking down the posters.  It is good to see an Israeli film taking the side of a Palestinian. Despite the timely premise, the short is quite simply made.

A FRIEND OF DOROTHY (UK 2025) ****
Directed by Lee Knight

Power-açtıng in this short, especially from Miriam Margoyles including a cameo from Stephen Fry as an executor.  Dorothy, an elderly widow (her ex-husband, who happens to be gay, whose health is declining but whose mind remains sharp, lives a quiet and solitary life. Her routine is unexpectedly disrupted when 17‑year‑old JJ sends a football into her garden, leading to an unexpected connection between them.  Despite their differences in age and circumstance, the two gradually form a meaningful friendship and discover unexpected common ground.  The film’s title refers to a historic phrase used as coded slang within gay culture, and the story itself touches gently on themes of loneliness, acceptance, queer identity (of both Dorothy’s husband and JJ), and the power of human connection across generations.  Charming and touching with a touch of humour, mainly provided by Dorothy’s character.

JANE AUSTEN’SPERIOD PIECE (USA 2025) ****
Directed by  Julia Aks and Steve Pinder

This 12-minute short is arguably the funniest short of all the Oscar shorts nominated.  As in the spirit of the Jane Austen novels, the short is set in England, 1813. In the middle of a long-awaited marriage proposal, Miss Estrogenia Talbot gets her period. Her suitor, Mr. Dickley, mistakes the blood for an injury, and it soon becomes clear that his expensive education has missed a spot.  The film gets funnier as it moves along, complete with chickens being asked to hush up as the drama intensifies.  What started as a short skit turned into a professionally made, handsome production complete with lavish sets and costumes,  A total naughty delight, as in the outrageous name of the film’s characters.

THE SINGERS (USA 2025) ****
Directed by Sam A. Davis

Who would think that a film made in a grubby bar with a slew of old misfits could be so engaging?  But director Davis’s film, based on a story by Ivan Turgenev Singers published in A Sportsman's Sketches an 1852 cycle of short stories. , depicts a downtrodden, improvised pub sing-off where the grand prize offered by the barkeeper is her and a hundred-dollar bill..  The first song rendered is Amazing Grace,e and as the short movies go along, the singer and the song get better till the final one tho will blow you away.  The film, featuring a cast discovered through viral videos and street casting, includes Mike Young and Judah Kelly.  Unbelievably and unexpectedly good!  Hail the power of song!  This short is also available to stream on Netflix Feb 13th.

TWO PEOPLE EXCHANGING SALIVA (Deux personnes échangeant de la salive)

(France /USA 2024) *****
Directed by Natalie Musteata and Alexandre Singh

Even at the halfway mark of the short, one will be wondering what the f*** is going on.  This is the wonder and pleasure of this short, which, in my opinion, is the best of the best in its delivery, concept and entertainment. The short is not just a quirky dystopia — it’s a sharp, darkly funny allegory about: the policing of intimacy, the fear of queer love and how modern societies can normalize violence while repressing tenderness.  Narrated by Vicky Krieps, the film starring Zar Amir Ebrahimi and Luana Bajrami explores a dystopian world where kissing is punishable by death.  The setting of the story in a luxury department store brilliantly highlights how capitalist transactions replace genuine human connection.  The bond between the two women reflects the historical policing of queer love and marginalized desire.  Unforgettable!

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 07 February 2026

ANIMATED

For all the categories, the animated is the most entertaining.  Two Canadian shorts make the cut, both excellent entries.  My fav is the one from Cyprus, THE THREE SISTERS, for its unique animation, simplicity and message of hope.

FOREVERGREEN (USA 2025) ***½

Directed by Nathan Engelhardt & Jeremy Spears.

The film begins with what seems to be a lonely bear cub, likely an orphan, as nothing is shown of its father or mother, left to fend for itself.  It is rescued from falling off a cliff and cared for by an evergreen tree — almost like a parent figure. The cub and the tree develop a deep, emotional connection as the cub learns to survive in the forest.  The cub is much loved by the tree, but the cub, being young and naughty, is tempted and learns the hard way that there is more to life than food. As the cub grows, it becomes tempted by human trash and easy food at a campsite, which leads it into dangerous situations. The film touches key components of adult and life themes, such as exploring themes of temptation, growing up, friendship, sacrifice, and the consequences of choices — all accomplished without spoken dialogue, using stylised animated visuals including music to tell the tale.

LA JEUNE FILLE QUI PLEURAIT DES PERLES (The Girl Who Cried Pearls)(Canada 2025) ****

Directed by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski

Stop-motion animation, time-consuming but worth every moment, is animation art in its purest form.  In this endearing tale from Canada, in Montreal, at the dawn of the 20th century, a poor boy falls in love with a girl whose sorrow turns into pearls.  He sells them to a ruthless pawnbroker, who hungers for more.  Tempted by greed, the boy must choose between love and fortune.  The choice could damn his soul. From the Oscar-nominated team of Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski (Madame Tutli-Putli), this meticulously crafted film is a testament to the craft mentioned with handmade puppets, mesmerizing narration by Canadian actor Colm Feore, and a haunting score by Patrick Watson. The Girl Who Cried Pearls is a timeless parable of desire, deception, and the price of innocence.   It helps that one can identify with a young, innocent boy down on his luck, without fate having dished out.  Watching this cautionary moral taleufold is pure delight!

THE THREE SISTERS (Israel/Cyprus/Russia 2024) ****

Directed by Konstantin Bronzit

This is my definite favourite short, and I hope it wins the Oscar for the following reasons. The animated short is fresh, simple, unique, imaginative, original, and mostly has the universal language of hope in a world of despair.  The film follows three different sisters, all of individual personalities, who experience. jealousy, love and finally happiness.  It is a story of three sisters living solitary on an island when they face challenges.  Not an easy achievement for any film!  The short combines comedy and drama,  a mixture of sad and funny. The director also has a unique animated style that is unlike anything I have ever seen.  The humour is subtle, the message universal and the effect of the short indescribable.  Ultimately, this one is the best!

PAPILLION (BUTTERFLY) (France 2024) ***½

Directed by Florence Miailhe

The 15-minute animated short begins with a man swimming the butterfly stroke in the sea.  As he swims, he reminisces about his childhood to his present life as a man.   All the memories are linked to water.  It turns out that the man is Jewish Olympic Butterfly Stroke swimmer Alfred Nakache, who has to endure anti-semitism during the Nazi years of the War.  He also loses his wife and child during the war as they are separated from him to be taken to a concentration camp.  Alfred eventually remarries and has another child.  The short is a bit confusing as one has to figure out what everything is all about, but this is more than made up for.

RETIREMENT PLAN (Ireland 2025) ***
Directed by John Kelly

In the throes of his overstimulated, energy-poor midlife, Ray fantasises about everything he'd love to do in retirement, once he finally has the “time."  The bucket list includes almost everything, including hiking, paragliding, swimming every morning and caring for others.  The short achieves an impressive blend of sadness, euphoria and charm.  And there are a few funny moments, too.  The short might seem ordinary at first, but it slowly but surely grabs you.   Narrated by young Irish actor Domhnall Gleeson.