COVER-UP (USA 2025) ***
Directed by Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus
This is a doc about a brave and risk-taking reporter nicknamed Sy who exposes the deeds of the wicked. “It’s complicated to know who to trust. I barely trust you guys,” says Seymour Hersh. He’s speaking to the directors, Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus, about his career as an investigative reporter. The film goes back and forth with Hersh’s interview. He is shown with all candidness, displaying eagerness, energy, anger, and anger as the director pushes his boundaries. Time after time, Hersh has exposed brutal realities that governments and corporations wanted to cover up. He shares behind-the-scenes details of how he reported the My Lai massacre, Watergate, the operation of CIA spying on Americans, and the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, to name a few of his major headlines. Every step of the way, he faced fierce pushback from powerful interests. President Nixon is heard on tape saying, “This fellow Hersh is a son of a bitch.” As they say, Hersch might be a son of a bitch, but he is our son of a bitch. One often hears about the cover-ups, but this doc combines news of cover-ups with the man behind them.
I WISH YOU HAD TOLD ME (Sana Sinai Mo) (Philippines 2025) **
Directed by Shaira Advincula
When a young missionary uncovers his late father's long-held secret, he travels from the Philippines to Spain in search of his dad's forbidden love.
The film begins with hen young missionary attending his father’s funeral service, where praise is bestowed upon him before a lady makes her appearance, accusing the dead man of having nuked more cocks than anyone else. Despite this fast beginning, the rest of the film is a surprising slow burn as his son discovers secrets about his after and comes to terms with the secret.
The missionary ends up in Portugal but makes a trip to Spain to meet his late father’s pen pal. This is where the story heads. But not really surprises, really.
I WISH YOU HAD TOLD ME is a well-intentioned Filipino LGBTQ+ drama about family secrets and intimate emotions that, like many Filipino tearjerkers, end up too melodramatic for their own good. There is no real ash material here - discovering one’s father is gay is a premise that has been seen in a few other American films before. The film is well performed, in one can be described as a decent though mediocre drama.
The film deals with emotion, grief, and acceptance, and can hardly be described as a feel-good movie.
I WISH YOU HAD TOLD ME premieres on Netflix this week. A Ok watch!
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LOVE + WINE (South Africa 20225) ***
Directed by Amanda Lane
California is known for its Californian wines and its Hollywood romantic comedies. But how about South Africa? The country has a solid fair share of romantic comedies, mostly commissioned by Netflix, and it also has a bustling wine industry. Netflix’s rom-com LOVE + WINE (the title says it all) demonstrates both. The film is a rom-com set in the scenic vineyards and wine-estate region of the Cape Winelands, South Africa, including real locations like the estate Quoin Rock Wine Estate and coastal areas around Cape Town.
There are actually two romances going on in the film’s premise of role switching. They involve he rich heir of the billionaire wine estate owner Ovee and the other, his childhood friend, Nathi, who is his driver. The film’s premise involves a bet on getting girls leads them to swap identities, but then things get too complicated. If the idea sounds familiar, it has just been done in the Seth Rogen film, GOOD FORTUNE, which was just so-so. LOVE + WINE is also just so-so. The not-too ingenious plot is at least helped by some South African flair, though the film leads to the typical Hollywood ending.
The film plays on the familiar romantic-comedy tropes of mistaken identity, social class differences, and the “rich person pretending to be common” plot — but even though it is charming in a feel-good way, the film is too forced and cliched.
LOVE + WINE premieres for streaming this week on Netflix. There are two other rom-com originals this week on Netflix, both with a Christmas setting - JINGLE BELL HEIST and MY SECRET SANTA, with the former being the best of the three.
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MY SECRET SANTA (USA 2025) **
Directed by Mike Rohl
Some films are subtle, and others are right out in the face. In the case of MY SECRET SANTA, the title says it all; the film belongs to the second category. First, it is right in one’s face that this is a female film. It is a single mother and her teen daughter who are the focus of the story. No mention of the husband. It is a Christmas film, as evident by the Christmassy song heard at the opening credits and the Christmas decorations shown all around. The mother is fired during Christmas as the store is downsizing its Christmas cookies.
The centres on Taylor, a struggling single mom whose daughter gets accepted into an exclusive snowboarding program at a ski resort. To afford the tuition, Taylor — desperate for a job — secretly disguises herself as an elderly man named “Hugh” and takes a seasonal job as Santa Claus at a resort. While working as “Santa,” she meets Matthew, the resort owner’s son. As she and Matthew start to develop feelings, the deception — her secret identity — threatens to unravel everything.
The movie is a holiday-themed romantic comedy — mixing festive charm, humour (including the disguise/gender-swap comedy), family stakes, and romance.
As this is a rom-com movie, the first thing is how the couple (Taylor and Matthew) will meet. The random meeting at a record store is quite a lame one, even though she reveals that it was one of the band members (Screaming Kittens) in a record that he really liked.
Then the couple has to dislike each other. He is filthy rich, and she is as poor as a church mouse. Taylor gets a job as Santa in his hotel store, the Sun Peaks Ski resort. So he does not recognise her as Santa, and she is also speaking in a very low voice. This is also the school that the daughter, Zoey, wishes to attend.
A few side jokes. The landlady (remember that this is a female slanted film) has a thing for Taylor’s Santa, who she believes is her father. Ryan Eggold, who plays Matthew, looks like a poor man’s version of Jake Gyllenhaal. Alexandra Breckenridge does her best despite the rather lame script. Both actors have a history of winning acting awards, primarily in short films.
As far as Christmas rom coms go, Netflix had another one that opened last week, an American one set and filmed in London (Shh… Don’t let Trump know) that is fresher, funnier, and more endearing. MY SECRET SANTA is too predictable, gearing towards its obvious happy ending, despite the festive setting. Taylor is also dating averse. The humour is too slight to be funny, and there is hardly any laugh-out-loud dialogue either. The romance is gentle but not especially deep. The disguise premise occasionally feels stretched.
The only good thing about the film (besides it being short at 90 minutes) is that it gave a good chance to the two budding actors, Eggold and Breckenridge, to show their wares. But there is little opportunity to shine in the film.
MY SECRET SANTA is a Netflix original film that opens for streaming this week.
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THE NEW YORKER AT 100 (USA 2025) ***
Directed by Marshall Curry
THE NEW YORKER AT 100 is a 2025 American documentary film that explores the history of The New Yorker magazine, which celebrated its 100th year of publication in 2025. premiered at the 52nd Telluride Film Festival in August 2025.
The film’s introduction to the magazine explains it as an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, (as shown in the doc with the magazine cover) by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for The New York Times.
The film celebrates the 100-year history of The New Yorker magazine, exploring its evolution from its founding in 1925 to the present. It offers unprecedented access to the magazine’s inner workings: its editors, writers, fact-checkers, cartoonists, and other contributors as they work toward producing the special 100th-anniversary issue.
At best, viewers get a glimpse of the intense process of fact-checking, editing, cartoon selection — the labor and thoughtfulness that go into producing each issue. Through archival materials and interviews with longtime contributors, the film traces the magazine’s history — while also capturing the concerns and dedication of current staff navigating journalism in the modern era.
Director Curry intercuts the film’s history with its current workings, showing the amount of diligence and detailed scrutiny that goes into a successful magazine.
The cover needs to speak for the moment as well as to be a piece of art, says the art director of The New Yorker, as the cover of the 100th anniversary of The New Yorker is contemplated. The cover would set the personality of the issue.
The immediate question trailing this doc is whether the doc is a marketing instrument for the magazine or it is a reflexive and critical piece of the magazine. The doc does not stop at any praise for the magazine from the ideas put forward by its talented team of writers (first wooden satellite? for example) to the scrutiny of factual accuracy (the name of three cats? for example). But at least director Curry keeps the film entertaining despite its marketing bias. The New Yorker has survived as a publication where too many others have failed due to the cu
rrrent times of the internet and free news. The mag has a niche, as declared at the start of the film, its humour and wealthy clientele.
THE NEW YORKER AT 100 premiered at the 52nd Telluride Film Festival in August 2025 and opens for streaming on Netflix this week on Friday, December 5th.
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THE SECRET AGENT (O AGENT SCRETO) (Brazil/France/Germany 2025) ***** Top 10
Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho
Brazil, 1977. Marcelo, a technology expert in his early 40s, is on the run. He arrives in Recife ( seaside town in Brazil) during carnival week, hoping to reunite with his son, but soon realises that the city is far from being the non-violent refuge he seeks. Marcelo is told by the police chief that perhaps 100 people will die during the carnival, a joke that carries on throughout the movie. Marcelo’s past is catching up with him, but he hopes to bring his life to a close with the satisfaction of spending the rest of his life with his son. His son is presently staying with Marcelo’s parents, who care very much about the boy.
Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho, who also wrote the script for the film, is a familiar name to many cinephiles and film critics, making his name in his 2012 multiple award-winning NEIGHBOURING SOUNDS, also set in his birthplace of Recife in North East Brazil and also his recent 2023 documentary PORTRAITS OF GHOSTS. THE SECRET AGENT is a film the director reportedly wanted to make for years, and it is not only an excellent film but one of the best to hit screens at both TIFF and in theatres.
The film pays homage to several films of the 70s when the film is set (actually 1977). Most noticeable is the 1975 Steven Spielberg’s JAWS. Recife is also a seaside town. Other films that can be noticed in Filho’s film include actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, most likely in Philippe De Broca’s 1964 film THAT MAN IN RIO.
The film suffers from a rather overlong epilogue with a conversation taking place between two individuals in a hospital, a bit of a let-down after a spy-like chase through the streets.
Trailer:
THE WAILING (El Llanto) (Argentina/Spain/France 2024) ***
Directed by Pedro Martín-Calero
THE WAILING is a slow-burning movie, but by no means boring. of a psychological horror thriller, with a premise somewhat similar to the horror cult IT FOLLOWS. A group of young people inadvertently resurrects a seemingly invisible evil. The story spans different times, places, and victims.
The film begins with Andrea. Andrea, a university student in present-day Madrid, lives a seemingly normal life until one day when her boyfriend is killed in a shocking act of violence. She soon begins to notice a mysterious entity that follows her no matter where she turns. Twenty years prior, Marie, a woman in Buenos Aires, suffered the same fate. Camila, a documentarian, learns of the threat these women faced, but no one will believe her. Across time and space, these three unconnected women are bound together by an inescapable terror in Martin-Calero’s feature film debut, for which he was nominated for a Best New Director Goya Award in 2025.
The film begins with as stated:
Andrea, 2022, Madrid
Andrea is presumed to be followed by some entity that no one, including herself, knows anything about. For those who watched the 2015 horror flick IT FOLLOWS, an identical premise is found, though in IT FOLLOWS, the purpose of the entity following is there, to seek a vessel. In THE WAILING, a figure, the entity is only seen in videos or in photos taken by the camera of a cell phone. The entry follows Andrea in Madrid but somehow gets to Sydney (how? No one knows. Perhaps some superpower the entity possesses?) to kill Andrea’s boyfriend while they are speaking on the cell phone. An additional subplot was added, that which Andrea discovers she had been adopted and that her mother, recently released from prison for murder, has died in an apartment.
The film shifts to:
Camilla, La Plata 1988
Camilla is a film student who films Marie, unknown to her, a woman with many problems. Marie is a free spirit who suspects that she is being controlled by an unknown force. The two finally meet with disastrous results.
The film has played and won accolades across many international film festivals. These include:
Goya Awards (2025) | Nominee, Best New Director
San Sebastian International Film Festival (2024) |Winner, Silver Seashell, Best Director, Nominee, Golden Seashell, Best Film
Argentinean Film Critics Association Awards (2024) | Nominated, Best Film in Co-production with Argentina
Sitges Film Festival (2024) | Official Selection
BFI London Film Festival (2024) | Official Selection
Tokyo International Film Festival (2024) | Official Selection
The story shifts to Marie, as seen at the start of the film.
THE WAILING is a better film than the one (IT FLLOWS) it followed, as THE WAILING skips the traditional happy ending normally inserted for good measure, but it still has a twisty shock ending.
A totally female horror film all the way and a solid one at that. Well-written, well-directed, and aptly performed by the three main leads, THE WAILING, shot mainly in Spanish and French, is definitely worth seeing, especially for horror fans.
THE WAILING, the Spanish horror premieres on VOD and Digital on December 5th, 2025.
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