Articles

THE BIG FAKE (Il Falsario)(Italy 2026) ***
Directed by Stefano Lodovichi

THE FORGER would be a more appropriate title for the new Netflix crime drama opening this week than THE BIG FAKE.  Based on true events, with incidents made up, obviously, as he film looks quite commercially oriented, for dramatic purposes, THE BIF+G FAKE opens with the voiceover of its protagonist says g hat he was to attend a meeting but had to miss it for he reason that he is dead.  The next scene shows him shot dead.  The film moves back earlier, after whetting the audience’s appetite, as to what led to the protagonist, Toni’s (Toni with an ‘i’, as Toni insists) demise.

As the story unfolds, it soon becomes clear that this is not a mystery crime thriller but more of a character study with some messages put forward, as the narrative is more character-driven. The story introduces Toni with two other friends, and the three travel to Rome.  Toni is an artist, while the other two are a worker in a factory and a priest.  They are all childhood friends, with fate leading each of their lives differently.

Directed by Stefano Lodovichi, the film has a luscious beauty, being meticulously choreographed and staged, like the ride of a bicycle by the two lovers, for example, in the middle of the night, as sights in Rome are seen in the background.  High production values follow throughout the film, making it an impressively photographed work, complementing the fact that its lead character is an artist.

Pietro Castellitto, a 35-yearold actor of past Italian films like THE PEDATORS and TWICE BORN, an ordinary looker but with a nice body, plays Toni with sufficient credible gusto, supported by a strong ensemble cast including Giulia Michelini, Andrea Arcangeli, Aurora Giovinazzo, Edoardo Pesce, and Claudio Santamaria.  His performance is key to the success of the film, as rather than a fast-paced action thriller, the film focuses on Toni’s internal struggle and the consequences of his choice.

Director Lodovichi spends a lot of time orchestrating Toni’s ‘doownfall’ into the crooked forgery world.  Toni is first shown as an ambitious painter who is poor but honest as he first enters the city of Rome. Toni’s talent for reproducing masterpieces is so convincing that it catches the attention of criminal gangs and underworld figures.  What starts as an opportunity to make money quickly turns into something much more dangerous and morally complicated. Over time, Toni becomes one of the most prolific art forgers of his era, using his skills to create counterfeit works that blur the line between genius and deception.  The film assumes that Toni automatically falls into the temptation of money and success, factors that lead to his death, and what he had said earlier in the film as voiceover.

The 70s era atmosphere is captured by the wardrobe and scenes like the disco segment with 70’s hits like RASPUTIN,

THE BIG FAKE, with a character driven Story of Ambition and Identity opens on Netflix, Friday, 23rd January.

Trailer: 

COSMIC PRINCESS KAGUYA! (Japan 2026) ***
Directed by  Shingo Yamashita

Co-written and directed by  Shingo Yamashita, COSMIC PRINCESS KAGUYA! (Why the title has an exclamation mark is left to the audience to figure out) arrives with much fanfare.  Japanese or those who follow Japanese books are already familiar with the source material for the film.

A similar animated film was made in 2013. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is a 2013 Japanese animated historical fantasy film directed by Isao Takahata from a screenplay he co-wrote with Riko Sakaguchi. It is based on The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, a 10th-century Japanese literary tale.  Themes in the film centred on feminism, freedom, nepotism and responsibility. A bamboo cutter makes a living with his wife until he sees a living nymph who turned into a beautiful young woman.  It was produced by the famous Studio Ghibli for Nippon Television Network, Dentsu, Hakuhodo DYMP, Walt Disney Japan, Mitsubishi, Toho and KDDI.

The story of the novel follows a bamboo cutter who discovers a small girl inside a glowing bamboo shoot. Believing her to be a divine presence, he and his wife decide to raise her as their own, calling her "Princess". The girl grows rapidly, earning her the nickname "Takenoko" "Little Bamboo") from the village children.   But in COSMIC PRINCESS KAGUYA !, it is not a woodcutter but a young girl who finds thermal scar girl inside a glowing rainbow telephone pole.  But the woodcutter tale is mentioned in the film.

COSMIC PRINCESS KAGUYA! begins when a 17-year-old high school student called Iroha finds a baby girl inside a glowing telephone pole (voiced by Dawn M Bennett in the English dub version, but is in Japanese and voiced by Anna Nagase, with subtitles in the Netflix version I viewed).  She is a sensible kid, a talented musician and a grade-A student who has already moved out of the family home, as she and her mother are always having unhealthy fights, and is living alone, working all hours to pay the rent of her tiny studio flat. In any free time she does have, Iroha follows her idol, AI musical megastar Yachiyo, in a crazy, chaotic virtual reality world called Tsukuyomi.  Eventually, they bond over their shared love for virtual idols in the metaverse "Tsukuyomi".  But like the original "Princess Kaguya” novel and film, Kaguya cannot stay on earth forever.

COSMIC PRINCESS KAGUYA! has a different style of animation compared to Studio Ghibli’s hand-painted animation, with a more stylised Japanese anime look, making it look more modern than folklore.

The film runs over 2 hours, which is pretty lengthy for an animated feature.  But COSMIC PRINCESS KAGUYA! is an easy, undemanding watch, and quite a pleasant one, as one sees a young female manoeuvre through her puberty, with the child of a moon princess.  The film does not reach any potential it might be aiming at, with a lagging middle.

COSMIC PRINCESS KAGUYA! opens on Netflix, one of the series of films Netflix has in contract with the studio (Studio Colorido, Studio Chromato), on January 22nd, 2026.

Trailer: 

THE BIG FAKE (Il Falsario)(Italy 2026) ***
Directed by Stefano Lodovichi

THE FORGER would be a more appropriate title for the new Netflix crime drama opening this week than THE BIG FAKE.  Based on true events, with incidents made up, obviously, as he film looks quite commercially oriented, for dramatic purposes, THE BIF+G FAKE opens with the voiceover of its protagonist says g hat he was to attend a meeting but had to miss it for he reason that he is dead.  The next scene shows him shot dead.  The film moves back earlier, after whetting the audience’s appetite, as to what led to the protagonist, Toni’s (Toni with an ‘i’, as Toni insists) demise.

As the story unfolds, it soon becomes clear that this is not a mystery crime thriller but more of a character study with some messages put forward, as the narrative is more character-driven. The story introduces Toni with two other friends, and the three travel to Rome.  Toni is an artist, while the other two are a worker in a factory and a priest.  They are all childhood friends, with fate leading each of their lives differently.

Directed by Stefano Lodovichi, the film has a luscious beauty, being meticulously choreographed and staged, like the ride of a bicycle by the two lovers, for example, in the middle of the night, as sights in Rome are seen in the background.  High production values follow throughout the film, making it an impressively photographed work, complementing the fact that its lead character is an artist.

Pietro Castellitto, a 35-yearold actor of past Italian films like THE PEDATORS and TWICE BORN, an ordinary looker but with a nice body, plays Toni with sufficient credible gusto, supported by a strong ensemble cast including Giulia Michelini, Andrea Arcangeli, Aurora Giovinazzo, Edoardo Pesce, and Claudio Santamaria.  His performance is key to the success of the film, as rather than a fast-paced action thriller, the film focuses on Toni’s internal struggle and the consequences of his choice.

Director Lodovichi spends a lot of time orchestrating Toni’s downfall in the crooked forgery world.  Toni is first shown as an ambitious painter who is poor but honest as he first enters the city of Rome. Toni’s talent for reproducing masterpieces is so convincing that it catches the attention of criminal gangs and underworld figures.  What starts as an opportunity to make money quickly turns into something much more dangerous and morally complicated. Over time, Toni becomes one of the most prolific art forgers of his era, using his skills to create counterfeit works that blur the line between genius and deception.  The film assumes that Toni automatically falls into the temptation of money and success, factors that lead to his death, and what he had said earlier in the film as voiceover.

The 70s era atmosphere is captured by the wardrobe and scenes like the disco segment with 70’s hits like RASPUTIN,

THE BIG FAKE, with a character driven Story of Ambition and Identity opens on Netflix, Friday, 23rd January.

Trailer: 

HONEY BUNCH (Canada 2025) ***1/2

Directed by Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli

A genre-bending sci-fi thriller with a 1970s look and setting, this film is as unconventional as anything can be in a tale that explores love in a remote rehabilitation facility.  The story follows Diana, who wakes from a coma with fragmented memories.  Her husband, Homer, takes her to an experimental trauma centre hidden in the remote wilderness, yet the reason eludes her.  As fragments of her memory start to return, and just as more of the plot is revealed to the audience, so do disturbing and sinister revelations about her marriage.  Grace Glowicki and  Ben Petrie are marvellous as the troubled couple, with two British veterans, Kate Dickie and Jason Isaacs lend their hands as well.  Character actor Julian Rching, who has appeared in more than 200 films, also has an appearance here.  The film is bookended by the segment in which Diana carries Homer into the sea, but the climax before the ending scene is something really out of the ordinary.   Be prepared for one of the most gross-out set pieces seen in a film this year.

KIDNAPPED: ELIZABETH SMART (USA 2026) ***
Director:  Benedict Sanderson

Before the film title KIDNAPPED: ELIZABETH SMART appears on the screen, director Sanderson injects enough information to whet the appetite of viewers who have just come in to watch the film’s first 5 minutes.  First, it is declared that the abduction of a 14-year old girl in her bedroom in an affluent community is extremely rare.  It is no surprise that the police think the parents are somehow responsible.  But the father interviewed says on camera that he does not trust the cops and will do his best to find his kidnapped daughter.  When Elizabeth’s younger 9-year old sister, Mary, is asked how she dealt with the kidnapping, she sobs, saying that she is still dealing with it.  The adult Elizabeth says to the camera that she would do anything to escape her kidnapping.  Enough fodder sown to whet audiences appetite?  Definitely.  The kidnapping is based on a true story of a kidnapping in Utah.

Elizabeth has been rescued.  Currently, Elizabeth Ann Gilmour (born November 3) is an American child safety activist and commentator for ABC News.   She gained national attention at age 14 when she was abducted from her home in Salt Lake City by Brian David Mitchell.   It is a Mormon affluent community.  Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee, held Smart captive for nine months until she was rescued by police officers on a street in Sandy, Utah.  Smart has since gone on to work as an activist and advocate for missing persons and speaking out against abstinence-only education. Her life and abduction have been the subject of numerous non-fiction books and films.

Among those interviewed in the doc are Elizabeth herself, her father, her uncle, the police captain in charge of the case, a TV journalist, and Elizabeth’s 9-year old sister, Mary.  Mary was the most witness in the case, as the police captain says.  As Mary is the only witness to the kidnapping, she is the key to solving the case.  When questioned, Mary says he heard the voice of the kidnapper, a familiar one, telling Elizabeth that she would be killed unless she remained silent; then no harm would come to her.  Mary cannot recall who the voice comes from, except that it is a familiar one.  This fact prompts the police to interview all the members of the Smart family and their extended family.

The doc plays like a murder whodunit rather than a kidnapping mystery.  Director Sanderson places a few red herrings.  The suspects were first Elizabeth’s parents, then Richard Ricci, a previous violent felon who had worked as a contractor on the family's house.  Ricci died while in prison leading the police to lose their prime suspect, and whatever secrets he kept with him.  The mystery suspense pacing is excellent right up to the very end, where the doc starts lagging with the doc trying to offer some messages about life.

The doc is the most disturbing and creepy when Elizabeth, as a grown-up, recounts to the camera the abuse she endured and how she attempted to escape.

The true crime doc KIDNAPPED: ELIZABETH SMART, a worthy suspense and mystery, opens on the streaming service Netflix on Wednesday, January 21st.

Trailer: 

MERCY (USA 2026) **

Directed by Timur Bekmambetov

This week’s Hollywood blockbuster (estimated at a non-disclosed $60 million) opening is a sci-fi, futuristic thriller drama (with some action).  It contains a timely AI premise, AI being the rage of the future.

MERCY is a near-future action thriller set in a world where artificial intelligence controls law enforcement and the justice system.  As the film introduces, MERCY is the name of the court system consisting of an AI-generated judge, jury, and executioner.

The story follows a former U.S. Army operative, detective Chris Raven (Chris Pratt), who suddenly wakes up, after a drunken night, arrested and accused of the violent crime of murdering his wife,e he insists he did not commit.  With the odds stacked against him—including an AI-driven policing system that assumes guilt over innocence—he goes on the run to prove his innocence, protect his family, and expose the dangerous flaws in a justice system that has surrendered human judgment to machines.  Raven is strapped in a chair in the MERCY court building throughout the movies. He attempts to prove his innocence in a totally unbelievable scenario that includes so many twists in the plot that make the story even more silly, not to say confusing.

Written by Marco van Belle and directed by Russian Timur Bekmambetov, the latter famous for box-office successful Russian action films like DAY WATCH and NIGHT WATCH, the film contains both lots of flaws and a few positives.  In terms of pace and tension, director Bekmambetov delivers an absorbing edge-of-the-seat thriller, despite the credibility factor.  His incorporation of layered, superimposed images, showing closed-captioned text and dates across the screen as a scene unfolds, gives the film a futuristic look suitable to its premise.  He succeeds in establishing the credibility of an AI-controlled justice system in the film.  Placing a human face to the AI, Rebecca Ferguson as Judge Maddox, an AI who is part of the Mercy program. For example, it creates credibility.  The ticking away of time as Chris Raven tries to prove his innocence aids the film’s intensity.  Van Belle’s script contains the plot twists that is normally required in action thrillers, but he carries it a bit too far.  The script has multiple twists and too many twists, so that the final villain revealed serves to confuse matters rather than create a better story. ,

MERCY is a sufficiently satisfying thriller that pushes its credibility promise at the end to detrimental results, creating a silly twist for the sake of just creating one.  The incorporation of AI into the promise is a timely and important one.  As expected, the moral dilemma of an AI with a human court justice system comes into the equation.  The debate is not carried out that intelligently and ends up with some really corny dialogue.   An example is Raven trying to convince the AI robot of what a hunch is.  For the undemanding action-seeking audience, MERCY should or might satisfy.  Others looking for something more should best turn away,

MERCY opens in theatres on  January 23rd.

 Trailer: 

MOTHER OF FLIES (USA 2025) **

Directed by the Adams Family

In dreams, reflections glimmer, and death grows again. I do not pray as it shows a lack of faith, that one does not take what fate brings.  These contemplations, from the start of the film abounds throughout the film.  Not much happens in this terribly slow-burning film with a narrative that is as weak as its premise.   The visuals and sound, in contrast, are detailed and impressive, if one can sit through the tedium.

Something is not right with Mickey (Zelda Adams), the young teen protagonist of the movie.  The College student has dark circles and a pale complexion as she taps at the communal piano in her dorm, and a friend tentatively enquires if  “it is back.”  The audience learns from her father, Jake (John Adams), that Mickey has cancer; that her (admittedly stylish) short hair has only recently grown in; and that she has exhausted all of the conventional medical options.

That leaves them with the witch in the woods - the MOTHER OF FLIES.  This is The Adams Family meets the Mother of Flies, with flies and maggots filling the screen at the film’s start.

  The Mother of Flies, Solveig (Toby Poser), is introduced first in the film, revealing her naked body, covered in blood, and caressing a rotting corpse in the woods. The grotesque, evocative imagery is contrasted by the witch’s beautifully philosophical voice-over about life and death, which is a recurring motif throughout the film.

Mickey embraces death.  Yet contradicting herself (in fact, many of the poetic voiceovers do the same), she says she will do everything in her mother-fucking opera to procrastinate death.  Yes, the voiceover is also not share pf foul language,

Mickey sees Solveig, also known as the witch in the woods, with her accompanying father, with whom she does not get along.  But when things get weirder and stranger, he opts out.  Despite Jake’s concern, Mickey has elected to stay with Solveig for three days of intensive treatment. En route, however, the red flags begin to pop up: it was Solveig who reached out to Mickey, and she’s not charging the girl anything. When father and daughter pull up at the witch’s forest house, they discover it is literally built out of a tree and features an enormous rock pile/totem in the front yard. The set-up bears all of the hallmarks of a fairy tale crone who lures the heroine to her doom.  All the hype and build-up do not warrant the anti-climactic ending

MOTHER OF FLIES can be described as a folk-horror/occult thriller from the U.S. filmmaking trio John Adams, Zelda Adams, and Toby Poser (often referred to as the Adams Family), known for indie horror works like Hellbender.  It premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival 2025 and won the festival’s top prize (the Cheval Noir Award for Best Film).

The film was acquired by Shudder and is set to stream on Shudder, the horror streaming service, beginning January 23, 2026.

Trailer:

A PRIVATE LIFE (Vie privee)(France 2025) ***
Directed by Rebecca Zlotowski

Lilian (Foster), an American psychoanalyst in Paris, is devastated to learn that her client Paula (Virginie Efira) has taken her own life. Or has she? Visits from Paula's furious widower, Simon (Mathieu Amalric) and taciturn daughter Valérie (Luàna Bajrami), along with the discovery that files have been stolen from Lilian's office, suggest that Paula may have fallen victim to foul play.  Assisted by her ex-husband Gabriel (Daniel Auteuil), Lilian undertakes some amateur sleuthing.  Academy Award winner Jodie Foster stars in this strange murder mystery black comedy, playing an American psychiatrist working in France.  Foster speaks perfect French and it is strange but wonderful to watch her totally inhabit the role.  She works with French veterans Daniel Auteul, who plays her ex, and Matthieu Amaric, in an angry, deranged encounter among others.  The script contains a lot of crazed characters, Jodie’s psychiatrist being one of them, with her conspiracy theories of murder and her past life.  It all turns out well at the end with a happy ending, though a bit too far-fetched for the film’s own good.