DUST BUNNY(USA 2025) ***½
Directed by Bryan Fuller
Like many children, Aurora (Sophie Sloan) fearfully believes a monster lurks beneath her bed. And she has good reason to: her foster parents have been eaten by one. Fortunately, she arrives at a practical solution. She will hire the enigmatic hit man who lives next door (Mads Mikkelsen) to slay the beast. But procuring her neighbour’s services will not be easy, for he believes her family was mistakenly dispatched by an assassin’s bullets that were meant for him.
So what is a dust bunny, and why is the film entitled such? Dust bunnies (or dustbunnies) are small clumps of dust that form under furniture and in corners that are not cleaned regularly. They are made of hair, lint, flakes of dead skin, spider webs, dust, and sometimes light rubbish and debris and are held together by static electricity and felt-like entanglement. The DUST BUNNY in the film is the monster under Aurora’s bed, assumed, used as an analogy for the accretion of cosmic matter in planetoids.
The film boasts two stars who love to take on weird character roles. One is the Dane actor Mads Mikkelsen (THE LAST VIKING, LAST CALL, THE PROMISED LAND) and Sigourney Weaver (ALIENS, WORKING GIRL). But it is the writer/director Bryan Fuller who is the architect of this somewhat fresh take of adult and child horror that meshes together reality and horror imagination.
Bryan Fuller is an American writer, TV producer, and film director, best known for creating the television series Pushing Daisies (2007–2009) and Hannibal (2013–2015). Fuller is also known for his work as a showrunner for the first season of the show American Gods (2017–2021), a writer on the Star Trek television series Voyager (1997–2001) and Deep Space Nine (1997). He also wrote the recent PREDATOR: BADLANDS, though credited for "additional literary material (not on-screen).
What is admirable about the film is the blend of fantasy and reality. Aurora believes that the hit man kills monsters, thus hiring him with her limited child funds to kill the monster under her bed. She follows the hitman, her neighbour, one night to Chinatown, where he kills some evil people that he calls monsters. She sees him fighting the lion as in a lion dance and believes he can kill monsters. During their meeting, he believes that she is imagining the monster under her bed, but it turns out that the monster is real, and the monster erupts to eat people who have their feet on the floor.
The film’s last 30 minutes turn up to be a large action set-piece, complete with special effects and a large encounter between monster and victim(s). All this could be taken as a giant metaphor as well as tongue-in-cheek, and Sigourney Weaver is excellent at playing tongue-in-cheek.
DUST BUNNY, though uneven at times, has a fairy tale, nightmarish feel with emotional undercurrents, and its balancing act between horror and wonder is impressive.
DUST BUNNY had its world premiere at the.2025 Toronto International Film Festival in its Midnight Madness program on September 9, 2025 and its U.S. premiere at American Cinematheque’s Beyond Fest on September 30, 2025. The film opens widely in theatres on December 12th.
Trailer:
ELLA McCAY (USA 2025) ***
Directed by James L. Brooks
Set in an unnamed state, an idealistic 34-year-old lieutenant governor, Ella McCay (Emma MacKey) juggles familial issues and a challenging work life while preparing to take over the job of her mentor, the state's longtime incumbent governor (Albert Brooks), who suddenly accepts a cabinet position in the incoming Obama administration.
The film takes a while to get a solid footing. The first 30 minutes of the film have the look of dealing with privileged white folk problems that only relate to the upper tier of American society, but the story slowly gets to the audience as the material slowly moves into more universal issues like family drama, doing good,, relationship problems and ambition.
The film explores how Ella tries to manage the high-stakes demands of political leadership while navigating complicated and emotionally charged family dynamics. The family problems deal with Ella’s father (Woody Harrelson) and younger brother, creating two of the film’s subplots. Ella is totally disgusted wither father’s sexual behaviour, sleeping around while her mother (Rebecca Hall) keeps forgiving him because she loves him. Ella loves her agro-phobic younger brother, Casey (Spike Fearn), who’s not gotten over a failed love proposal with Susan (Ayo Edebiri). These two form the most awkward couple seen in any movie this year, but there is something really sincere in their emotions which writer/director Brooks taps effectively and to the fullest, making their story a real term of endearment.
With all the family problems, not to mention her marriage and political chaos, Ella confides in Aunt Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis). Aunt Helen is the one who keeps the family together.
The entire plot is nicely put into perspective with narration by Julie Kavner, a worker in Ella’s office. This is a sharp and observant drama comedy related to today’s times. There is one thing Trump should take notice. The line that states that it is easy blame reporting on one’s mistakes.
The film’s political setting is interesting to note. Director Brooks does not judge the American system, though it must be tempting for him to do so. The political setting highlights the personal trauma that Ella goes through, and it is tremendous. Ella has to weigh what is more important.
The casting director should be praised for eclectic casting, especially with Kumail Nanjiani (THE BIG SICK) and Ayo Edebiri (AFTER THE HUNT). The two Indians are quite good, bringing humour and pathos to their roles.
ELLA MCCAY is a James L.Brooks film. Brooks made his name with three big hits: TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, AS GOOD AS IT GETS and BROADCAST NEWS. ELLA MCCAY is more of the same, good, solid writing and direction, though a bit mushy, especially at the end. There is also a long monologue by Ella, which demonstrates the director’s indulgence. Take the film’s last line: There is no word that is opposite to trauma, but the word hope comes a close second.
Despite the horrendous reviews the film has received so far, it is actually not that bad!
ELLA MCCAY opens in theatres December 12th.
Trailer:
THE FAKENAPPING (Saudi Arabia 2025) **
Directed by Amine Lakhnech
The story follows Sattam, a down-on-his-luck entrepreneur and struggling dad who’s drowning in debt and bad luck. Desperate to solve his financial problems, he comes up with an absurd idea: he decides to “kidnap” his own father to demand money from him and pay off what he owes.
The beginning of the film has Sattam being chased and then threatened by the man, a loan shark he had borrowed money from, Mr Amo Atek.
Sattam has a father who owns a company; Sattam intends to kidnap his dad and then force him to pay the ransom. This is where the FAKENAPPING comes to play. What should’ve been a simple scam quickly spirals out of control as Sattam’s equally hopeless friends get involved and a ruthless loan shark starts closing in. Their bad timing, lies, and terrible decisions lead to a series of comical though hardlyfunny chaotic moments. Although it centres on a false kidnapping, the film treats the plot as a lighthearted, farcical comedy, blending slapstick, misunderstanding, and social commentary about pride, financial pressure, and family dynamics. Though well-intentioned with good motives, the film is less an entertaining watch than just going through the motions with the incidents in the story.
It does not help one bit if the protagonist, Sattam, has no redeeming qualities that the audience can identify with. For one, Sattam has that annoying childish grin, making him look like an Arabic Mr Bean. At least this part works, as the film is being billed as a comedy. He has borrowed money but pretends he has lots of it to his mother and daughter. And he borrows Peter to pay Paul, involving often little scams. Sattam has no shame in lying, and even his own father has refused to help him out, as Sattam is too proud to work as a labourer.
THE FAKENAPPING, filmed inArabic, opens on Netflix this week for streaming.
Trailer:
INFLUENCERS (USA/Canada 2025) ***⅓
Directed by Kurtis David Harder
At best, one can say that both INFLUENCER and INFLUENCERS films both offer nods to the films of Patricia Highgate and Alfred Hitchcock. The films feature good-looking characters with villains that are cunning, rather clever, but downright evil. The films are set in exotic locations, in this case, Bali, Indonesia, for INFLUENCERS. There are nice pop-up twists in the plot, with a few arising from the original INFLUENCER. INFLUENCERS is also set in the current time,s where social media, influencer followings and living it up are key goals for many people, even to those who cannot attain them. Thus arises the character of CW, which stands for Catherine Weaver, a nasty bitch who lures influencers to their death, steals their identities and lives it up, following one victim after another. Until fate catches up with her. Which happens twice,e both in the first and in the second film.
It would be good to know what happened in the first movie before watching the sequel. For this reason, Shudder is releasing both on its streaming service.
This is what happens in the first movie. Madison is an influencer who has been using her vacation in Thailand as a way to promote herself and several advertisers online. The reality is that Madison spends most of her time in her hotel eating food and is upset that her boyfriend Ryan did not come with her. Madison is befriended by CW, who takes her on a tour of hotspots. It is slowly revealed that CW lures different influencers to a remote Thai island and leaves them there to die, thus stealing their identity. When Ryan suddenly shows up, Madison has to deal with the outcome of her deeds.
In INFLUENCERS, in Southern France, CW and her French girlfriend Diane are celebrating their first anniversary as a couple when they are bumped from their hotel room and forced stay in a smaller one because of a popular British influencer, Charlotte, who befriends Diane and won't leave the couple alone, which irritates CW, who wants to put an end to that CW murders Charlotte and Charlotte’s girlfriend before Madison, who survives the first film discovers what CW is up to and hunts her down. This occurs at the one-hour mark of the film. Interest and curiosity are enough to glue audiences to the screen as another influencer, this time a male played by Canadian Jonathan Whitesel,l discovers CW and threatens her.
Writer/director Kurtis David Harder is one of the hardest-working directors today. Born in Calgary, Alberta, Harder has directed at least five feature films. Harder made his feature-length debut with Cody Fitz. His second feature film, Incontrol, was released in 2017. Harder wrote the first draft of the screenplay for Incontrol in 2013. Another feature film, Spiral, was released in 2019. In 2022, he directed the feature film Influencer (2022), which was acquired and released by Shudder. Influencer had its world premiere on October 16, 2022, at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival.[13] Brandon Yu of The New York Times wrote, "Harder has made good and entertaining use of a premise that could have become a simple gimmick, and Naud and Saper prove strong leads as their characters try to read each other between the lines. A sequel titled INFLUENCERS premiered at the 29th Fantasia International Film Festival in July 2025. Cassandra Naud reprised her role from the first film. It was also the closing film at FrightFest, where it made its UK premiere in August 2025. The film will be released on Shudder on December 12, 2025, after screening as the closing night film at Blood in the Snow in Toronto.
INFLUENCERS is a satisfying, sophisticated young adult sexy horror thriller set in a social media setting with shades of Patrica Highgate and Hitchcock.
LOST IN THE SPOTLIGHT (original title: Lupa Daratan)) (Indonesia 2025) ***
Directed by Ernest Prakasa
The light comedy drama follows the exploits of an actor, Vino Agustian (played by Vino G. Bastian), a somewhat middle-aged, good-looking actor who is quite full of himself, making himself look a fool some of the time. When the film opens, he has just won the 2024 Best Actor award. His acceptance speech involves him giving credit to the other nominees and then saying that the next year, he assures that one of them will win, then adding the comical line, “if I am not around.” The camera edits catch the somewhat disgustedlooks from the other nominees - annoyed and then forcing out a smile. The film is quite silly, but the parody is right, and all turns out quite entertaining. One can tell that something is turning bad for actor Vino. And it does.
Vino Agustian is a narcissistic and beloved actor whose life and career suddenly take a shocking turn just as he’s about to land the biggest role of his life. At the peak of his success, he inexplicably loses his acting ability—forgetting lines, failing to tap into emotion, and generally being unable to perform.
As Vino’s confidence collapses and public pressure mounts, the film tracks his emotional journey of self-reflection and rediscovery. Through a mix of humour and heartfelt moments, actor Vito is forced to confront his ego, identity, and what truly matters beyond fame and talent. Through light-hearted comedy instead of drama, the film offers a decent and heartfelt look at how a performer copes when the very thing that defined him disappears.
LOST IN THE SPOTLIGHT (Lupa Daratan) will stream on Netflix beginning December 11, 2025.
Trailer:
PETER HUJAR’S DAY (USA 2025) ***
Directed by Ira Sachs
The film is set in December 1974 in New York City and is about the photographer Peter Hujar and his friend Linda, with Sachs telling IndieWire it is "a film about what it is to be an artist among artists in a city where no one was making any money".
There are a few celebrities one should be familiar with when watching this film. This puts their reputation in place for a greater appreciation of their effect on the film’s subject.
One is Susan Sontag. Susan Lee Sontag (January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American writer and critic. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on 'Camp' ", in 1964. Sontag was active in writing and speaking about, or travelling to, areas of conflict, including during the Vietnam War and the Siege of Sarajevo. She wrote extensively about literature, cinema, photography, media, illness, war, human rights, and left-wing politics. Her essays and speeches drew backlash and controversy, and she has been called "one of the most influential critics of her generation.”
The other is the subject, Peter Hujar. Peter Hujar (October 11, 1934 – November 26, 1987) was an American photographer best known for his black-and-white portraits. Hujar's work received only marginal public recognition during his lifetime, but he has since been recognized as a major American photographer of the 1970s and 1980s.
Another is Linda Rosenkrantz. Linda Rosenkrantz was born and raised up in the Bronx, New York, the daughter of Samuel, a garment industry executive, and Frances, an artist. She is a graduate of the High School of Music and Art in Manhattan and the University of Michigan. In 1974, Linda Rosenkrantz embarked on another tape-centric project. She asked a number of her friends and acquaintances, including artist Chuck Close and photographer Peter Hujar, to write down everything they did on one particular day, then to meet with her to report and record in conversation the events of their day. Forty years later, in 2021, a transcript of the Hujar chapter was published in book form by Magic Hour Press as Peter Hujar's Day. The book was adapted into a film, Peter Hujar's Day, directed by Ira Sachs and starring Ben Whishaw as Peter Hujar and Rebecca Hall as Rosenkrantz.[
Director Ira Sachs is a gay filmmaker, and so is his subject Peter Hujar. Hujar does talk about sucking cock at one point in the film. Sachs makes impressive, often gay themed indie films.
The film is obviously not for everybody. It is a two-handler with all talk - and talk that might not appeal to or interest everybody, even though the talk might intrigue those interested in photography or writers. The film is all about, as intended, a day in the life of the photographer, which can be described as getting up, preparing for an interview and then going back to bed. Peter talks about his musings, and Linda, who has not much to say in the film, basically reads and makes sight comments. It is all about PETER HUJAR’S DAY.
Trailer:
RESURRECTION (China/France 2025) **
Directed by Bi Gan
In a future where humanity has surrendered its ability to dream in exchange for immortality, an outcast (Jackson Yee) finds illusion, nightmarish visions, and beauty in an intoxicating world of his own making.
If the above premise sounds like an artsy-fartsy film. RESURRECTION, touted as a science fiction drama written and directed by Bi Gan, surely is, and a complete mess of a meandering narrative that it is. The film runs an unbearable 160 minutes, and though the cinematography is stunning, reminiscent of the Wong Kar-wei classics, the film is a chore if not a torture to sit through.
So who is this filmmaker known as Bi Gan? Apparently, he is a rising art and drama director. Bi’s feature directorial debut, KAILI BLUES (2015), earned him Best New Director at the 52nd Golden Horse Awards, Best Emerging Director at the 68th Locarno Film Festival (Locarno being a venue for a lot of art films), and the Montgolfière d’Or at the 37th Three Continents Festival in Nantes. His follow-up feature, LONG DAYS JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (2018), was selected for the Un Certain Regard section at the 71st Festival de Cannes and earned him a Best Director nomination at the 55th Golden Horse Awards. RESURRECTION is Bu Gan’s third movie, and despite its flaws, it premiered in Competition at the 78th Festival de Cannes and was presented with a Special Award by the jury.
The movie is set in a future world where humanity has abandoned the ability to dream. The beginning of the film is basically a silent film, complete with titles, to indicate what is happening. The central characters are Shu Qi as “Miss Shu” and Jackson Yee as a mysterious “inhuman creature” (or “dream-entity”). Miss Shu discovers that this creature is one of the few beings still able to dream — something lost to almost all of humanity. The film moves into romantic drama on an extra weird level, in which vampires suddenly appear on the floor.
The film, already at the 2-hour mark, stretches its way past the tolerance level with the two lovers on a boat moving off the dock and then goes on and on and on, as if never-ending.
The film’s narrative is not straightforward. Resurrection is divided into six chapters, each corresponding to one of the five human senses — supposedly, though never made clear, sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch — plus the “mind.”
RESURRECTION can be more accurately described as an experience than a conventional story: a “dream made film,” where one feels rather than one can understand. Act its best, it is a bold and ambitious film, successful or not, which is debatable.
The film is shot in Mandarin and a little Cantonese.
All flaws aside, Bi Gan is still a gifted filmmaker and a talent to be reckoned with. It would be excellent if he delivers a more disciplined work with a strong narrative, perhaps controlled by the studio executives.
RESURRECTION premiered in the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2025 — and won the festival’s Special Jury Prize. The film opens in Toronto on December 12th.
Trailer:
SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT (USA/Canada 2025) ***
Directed by Mike P. Nelson
The SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT film franchise is a slasher horror film franchise in which the slasher is a killer in a Santa Claus costume.
The SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT franchise has gone through a whole slew of changes beginning with the first one made in1984. There were altogether 7 films in all, with only the first two being released theatrically. The others were straight to video. Not included in these 7 films is the newest 2025 remake, which is the film being reviewed.
Silent Night, Deadly Night is a 2025 slasher film written and directed by Mike P. Nelson, based on Silent Night, Deadly Night by Michael Hicke and Paul Caimi. It is the second remake of the 1984 film of the same name after Silent Night (2012), as well as the seventh overall installment of the Silent Night, Deadly Night series.
The only common element in all the films, including the 2025 version,n is the character Billy. The 2025 version is supposed to be a remake of the original rather than a continuation of some sort, though it is quite different, as it includes a supernatural element, the spirit of Christmas, who is actually a very, very bad spirit.
The story of the first film is set in 1971, when 5-year-old Billy Chapman and his family visit a nursing home in Utah where his catatonic grandfather lives. When Billy's parents leave the room, his grandfather suddenly awakens and tells Billy to fear Santa Claus, as he punishes the naughty. On the way back home, a criminal dressed in a Santa suit – who had just robbed a liquor store and killed the owner – attempts to carjack the family. As Billy's father tries to drive away, the criminal shoots him dead and attempts to sexually assault Billy's mother; when she hits him, he slits her throat with a switchblade. Billy flees and hides, leaving his baby brother Ricky in the car.
The 2025 version follows the same start except for a few differences. The killer in the Santa suit kills both the father and mother immediately. There is no brother Ricky. And Santa is shot by someone not seen or mentioned. Billy (played by Rohan Campbell) is the only common character. Director/writer Nelson reveals bits of the plot as his film progresses, so that there is always something surprising to come. The slasher film is necessarily violent, as is expected of such slasher films. The supernatural element added in the remake serves to add another level of incredibility to the story, making slasher films more credible in the first place. With the gore, blood and multiple killings, horror fans can easily dismiss the implausibilities as long as their desire to see blood is satisfied.
SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT opens in theatres on Friday. December 12th.
