The big ones opening for Easter are the new Mario Brothers Galaxy movie and THE DRAMA. Best film opening is THE BLUE TRAIL, and best one not opening is LIVING THE LAND.
FILM REVIEWS:
AGATHA’S ALMANAC (Canada 2025) ***
Directed by Amelie Atkins
AGATHA’S ALMANAC is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Amalie Atkins and released in 2025. The film is a portrait of her aunt Agatha Bock, a 90-year-old woman who still lives a fiercely independent life revolving around her passion for gardening. The film unfolds over the course of a year, using the changing seasons as its structure—much like a traditional almanac, and hence the film’s title.
AGATHA’S ALMANAC will inevitably be compared to Chantal Akerman’s 1975 masterpiece, Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, which was ranked the greatest film of all time in Sight & Sound magazine's 2022 "Greatest Films of All Time" critics poll, making her the first woman to top the poll. Both films show the subject working in real time, doing daily chores in their daily routines. Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles depicts long moments of the life of Jeanne Dielman in real time, which Akerman said "was the only way to shoot the film – to avoid cutting the action in a hundred places, to look carefully and to be respectful. The framing was meant to respect her space, her, and her gestures within it.” This also holds true for Agatha in AGATHA’S ALMANAC. The main difference is that the reviewed film is all true, while in the latter, the subject sees male clients during the day, and the film ends with her committing suicide.
The doc also tells of Agatha’s personal life, which she narrates in her own voice. She tells of her men numbered 1 to 3. Her number 3 is the one who told her that two people living together can do so cheaper than one. He took her for breakfast because it is cheaper than lunch. I am not going to marry someone like that, she says. She suffers from old age ailments, like bleeding, but she is happy that she has lived up to the age of 85. Story number 3 ended up getting married, according to Agatha, but not to her, Agatha jokes. As Agatha goes on her daily chores like harvesting her fruits and vegetables, jarring them, she talks about how they are done. For example, she seals fresh strawberries in air-sealed jars, and they are as fresh and crispy 10 days later as the first day. Agatha has remained single all her life, and in her own words, with no regret, as she has always found something to do and does not get lonely.
As pristine as Agatha’s lifestyle, the film is also a very pleasant and easy watch in which one can sit back and easer its the doc. Agatha lives a lifestyle of the past, she belongs to one of the old religious groups, the Mennonites, and she is self-sufficient and also self-sufficiently happy.
AGATHA’S ALMANAC also comes away with much critical acclaim. They won the juried award for Best Canadian Feature Documentary. The film was also long-listed for the 2025 Jean-Marc Vallée DGC Discovery Award and was named to the Toronto International Film Festival's annual year-end Canada's Top Ten list for 2025.
The film opens on Apr 3rd at the TIFF Lightbox.
Trailer:
THE BLUE TRAIL (Brazil/Mexico/Chile/Netherlands 2025) ****
Directed by Gabriel Mascaro
It is a dystopian future in Brazil, and seniors are given a hard time. They are forced to stop work and leave work for the younger population. At the same time, the government is forcing them to socialize in ways they deem acceptable to them. Tereza, 77, has lived her whole life in a small industrialized town in the Amazon until one day she receives an official government order to relocate to a senior housing colony. The colony is an isolated area where the elderly are brought to « enjoy » their final years, freeing the younger generation to focus fully on productivity and growth. Tereza refuses to accept this imposed fate. Instead, she embarks on a transformative journey through the rivers and tributaries of the Amazon to fulfill one last wish (her bucket list wish) before her freedom is taken away—a decision that will change her destiny forever. This is a very funny and timely film and one of the best films about seniors in a long time, and I am not talking COCOON here. The stunning cinematography of the rivers in the Amazon is simply breathtaking.
THE DRAMA (USA 2026) ***
Dieted by Kristoffer Borgli
The new romantic comedy drama is so-called for the main reason that there is constant drama occurring in almost every scene. As such, it is a compelling film, though one might wish a break might be given for the audience to take a breather.
The story follows Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson), an engaged couple preparing for their wedding. But there is drama, i.e., trouble in paradise. Their relationship is suddenly shaken days before the ceremony when disturbing truths about one partner come to light. During a gathering with friends, they play a game where everyone must reveal “the worst thing they’ve ever done.”
Each of the 4 reveal the worst thing they had done, but Emma confesses the worst thing that she actually, ironical did not do. While the others reveal cyber-buying to locking a kid in the closet, Emma reveals she once planned a school shooting but never carried it out—a revelation that horrifies everyone and destabilizes her fiancé. This confession occurs at the 20-minute mark of the film and sets the story in motion.
Emma’s shocking confession completely derails the relationship and the wedding plans, although the others also contribute to the chaos.
Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli is no stranger to personalized drama-based films, having written and directed SICK OF MYSELF in 2022 as well as working with Nicolas Case in the 2023 film DREAM SCENARIO.
One can see that director Borgli tries very hard to make his film different and distinct with the set-pieces to stand out among other romantic comedy dramas, sometimes trying too hard. The film first opens with a close-up of Emma’s stud earring before revealing that she is deaf in that ear. The sex scenes are filmed differently. The film unfolds generally in chronological order with a few jumps. For example, Charlie is shown badly beaten up before showing the fight scene. There is no need to change the chronological order of things except to try to make the film look smarter than it actually is.
On a more serious note, the film raises the big question of whether true love can conquer acceptance. The film takes the message one step further (spoilers not revealed in this review) of what happens after,
For all the boundary pushing and creativity, director Kristoffer Borgli opts out for a tacked-on, cop-out, clichéd happy ending, which goes against the flow of this otherwise original and fresh romantic comedy drama. Spoiler alert: (Though one can argue that the ending is an open one that the two attempt to start again, and not that they have agreed to part or stay together, the latter is implied from the fact that Emma sits down with Charlie at the end.)
Overall, one must give credit to director Borgli for his bravery in tackling a sensitive subject and its consequences. Though it does not always work, it is still better to watch a film that fails, though one can hardly consider this film a failure, than one that never attempted anything and comes up with nothing.
THE DRAMA opens in theatres on April 3rd.
Trailer:
LIVING THE LAND (China 2025) ****
Directed by Hugo Meng
LIVING THE LAND immediately brings to mind the pastoral literature classic Pearl S. Buck’s THE GOOD EARTH, which was also adapted to Sidney Franklin’s 1937 film about poverty and a Chinese farmer, Wang Lung, living the land. This reviewer studied the novel in secondary school, and watching LIVING THE LAND is indeed nostalgic as it captures all the drama, poetry, and hardship of farmers and traditions.
The film is set in the village of Bawangtai in 1991, where time appears to have stood still. Despite the rapid industrialization happening in cities across China, everyday rural life for farming families in Henan province remains steadfastly tied to the demands of the land. 10-year-old Xu Chuang, the third-born child of one such family, is unceremoniously left with his wheat farmer uncle when his parents and older siblings set out to find work in the Southern city of Shenzhen. Cared for though unable to shake the feeling he doesn’t belong with the extended Li family, Chuang finds comfort in a young aunt, who feels similarly uneasy as she is pressured to marry, and his surly but kind nonagenarian great-grandmother. However, what is different from THE GOOD EARTH is that, as the trend of becoming migrant workers grew, the younger generation slowly departed for city life, subtly transforming the rural landscape.
The Silver Bear winner for Best Director at the 2025 Berlin Film Festival, Chinese filmmaker Huo Meng’s elliptical and elegant sophomore feature proves “a cinema of patience is also a cinema of assurance” (Indiewire). Equal parts coming-of-age tale and epic portrait of provincial life, Living the Land exists at an apex for Chinese culture in the 1990s, “a time when major reforms were transforming China from a nation of rural labourers into the industrial powerhouse it is today.”
The film also explains the culture and work ethics of the Chinese folk. Unlike their western counterparts, particularly Trump’s America, who are lazy and want everything given to them, the Chinese are willing to suffer and work hard to achieve the bare minimum for essential living, while often under pressure by an unrelenting government that would punish their citizens with re-education and sometimes death. The modern Chinese cities are a stark contrast to their countryside.
At best, the film examines and demonstrates the resilience of the human spirit of any person willing to go all out to achieve their goal in life.
LiIVING THE LAND had its world premiere on 14 February 2025, as part of the 75th Berlin International Film Festival, in Competition. On 10 October 2025, it will be showcased in the Showcase section of the 2025 Vancouver International Film Festival. Later, it competed in the 'Official Section' of the 70th Valladolid International Film Festival for Golden Spike. It will be presented in the 'Rising Stars - 2025' section of the 56th International Film Festival of India in November 2025. The film was overlooked by the Toronto International Film Festival and also currently has no theatrical or Digital opening.
PALESTINE 36 (Palestine/United Kingdom/France/Denmark/Qatar/Saudi Arabia/Jordan 2025) ***
Directed by Annemarie Jacir
One of the largely neglected international films last year and now finally opening is PALESTINE 36. Why 36? Because that is the year you were born, comes the voiceover. That is the year the Palestinians said enough is enough and stood united to fight the oppressors who came to steal their land.
PALESTINE 36 is a historical drama set during the 1936–1939 Arab Revolt in Mandatory Palestine, a major uprising against British colonial rule and increasing Jewish immigration.
The film follows a group of Palestinian villagers and resistance fighters as they become caught up in the early days of the revolt in 1936. A quiet rural village is disrupted by British military crackdowns. Ordinary people—farmers, families, and local leaders—are drawn into armed resistance. The story traces how personal lives, loyalties, and survival instincts change under occupation and conflict
PALESTINE ’36 is Annemarie’s decade-in-the-making fourth feature that tells the story of the Arab revolts against British colonial rule in the period 1936-39, just as Jewish refugees were fleeing Europe and arriving in the region. The revolt and fighting with the Brits takes place most ferociously at the ¾ mark of the film. Before that it is all talk, especially from Jeremy Irons playing the British Commissioner. It is a consequential period of Palestinian history that’s not as well-known as the Nakba and later chapters, but it shaped everything that was to follow and helps contextualize what’s happening in the region today. As director Annemarie said in Vogue, “One cannot understand the Nakba, the Intifada, or today without understanding how the stage was set in those years.”
PALESTINE 36 is a powerful film, though one might complain that it only takes the side of the Palestinians. The refugee Jews are also given a hard time, being displaced just before World War II, and they are just a mass of people with no sympathy given to them in the film. Why the Brits are more sympathetic to the Jews distributing land to them that belongs to the Palestinians is never explained. Jewish communities—who were also targets during the revolt—are largely absent, minimized, or portrayed as passive. The result, according to detractors, is a partial narrative rather than a fully balanced historical account. The film, instead, becomes a “morality play” emphasizing colonial cruelty and Palestinian unity.
PALESTINE 36 highlights Palestinian suffering and British brutality, while downplaying Jewish experiences, internal divisions, and key historical figures, especially the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini. This is the standing flaw of the otherwise well-shot epic that might be the reason the film failed to make the final 5 Best International Academy Award nomination list.
But the mixing of the fictional characters into the historical storytelling keeps the film compelling at an emotional level, of course, with certain dramatization used to enhance the entertainment factor, as they say.
Watermelon Pictures will be releasing renowned Palestinian writer and director Annemarie Jacir’s PALESTINE 36 – Palestine’s Academy Award-shortlisted selection for Best International Feature. The film opens in Toronto on April 3 at TIFF Lightbox.
Trailer:
THE TRUTH AND TRAGEDY OF MORIAH WILSON (USA 2026) ***
Directed by Marina Zenovich
This is a true crime documentary that thrives on emotions and attempts to relive the incidents through realistic re-enactments for artistic dramatization.
The audience is to be tapped for the full emotional weight of the tragedy from the very first frame. Moriah (Anna Moriah Wilson), the cyclist’s middle name, is first shown as a bright and energetic cyclist with everything going right for her. She is bubbly, athletic, and smart. She grows into a cyclist, winning the Time Life race, coming in Number 1. Then, tragedy strikes.
Caitlin Cash calls Austin 9-1-1 to report a fried, i.e., Moriah, lying with blood on the bedroom floor. The police arrive while she is doing CPR under instruction from the first responder. This is obviously a re-enactment (how can the camera be there during the call?), which is done so realistically that many would not even think twice about it being real at that moment.
Beyond the subject of true crime, the film also explores the life of the person, Moriah.
Raised in a family of athletes, Wilson developed a passion for cycling as a young girl, as shown in archive footage. Her parents and brother are interviewed in the doc. She was a nationally ranked junior skier, but had become a gravel cyclist. Before her full-time career as a professional cyclist, she had worked as a demand planner for Specialized. This girl has an engineering degree.
The film revisits the shocking 2022 murder of rising cyclist Moriah Wilson, combining:
police bodycam footage, interviews with friends and family, a deeper look at the investigation and trial.
It focuses not just on the crime, but on who Wilson was and the emotional aftermath for those close to her. The film works as a real-life drama with the murder and investigation slowly moving in, as the tension mounts, creating a good-paced true crime drama. The film would be more entertaining if one did not know the events of the crime.
The film ultimately revisits the shocking 2022 murder of rising cyclist Moriah Wilson, combining police bodycam footage, interviews with friends and family, and a deeper look at the investigation and trial
THE TRUTH AND TRAGEDY OF MORIAH WILSON, a Netflix original true crime drama, opens for streaming on Netflix Good Friday.
Trailer:
