FILM REVIEWS:
CAROLINA, CAROLINE (USA 2026) **
Directed by Adam Carter Rehmeier
CAROLINA, CAROLINE is a 2025 American fictional romantic crime thriller focusing on a couple robbing banks while also making petty cash as con-artists. The film aims high but turns out to be a poor man’s version of PAPER MOON (think con-artists played by father and daughter Ryan O’Neal and Tatum O’Neil) or BONNIE AND CLYDE. The lead, Samara Weaving (niece of Hugo Weaving) is certainly no Faye Dunaway, and neither does Kyle Gallner even remotely come close to Warren Beatty.
Caroline (Weaving) is a gas station attendant in rural Texas. Her father (Jon Gries) has raised her since her mother abandoned her as an infant. She meets Oliver (Gallner), a con-artist who runs a short-change scam on her employer. They fall in love, and Caroline agrees to travel with Oliver as they search for her mother. The two engage in scams throughout the South, including small bank robberies. Eventually, they find Caroline's mother, who is a alcoholic who rejects Caroline. Distraught, Caroline demands they escalate to larger bank robberies. They are successful in carrying out a string of bank robberies, but the police have noticed their modus operandi and are looking for the pair. During one robbery, Oliver threatens a mother and child with a gun, which creates tension with Caroline. After a robbery goes wrong, they are forced to flee in a stolen car, abandoning their previously obtained loot. While they flee, they are pulled over by a police officer. Oliver shoots and kills the officer, which disturbs Caroline further. The two reconcile in a roadhouse, but police find them and surround the establishment. Oliver fires a gun into the air to create a distraction, allowing Caroline to escape as the police storm the building in reaction to the shots. He then fires in the general direction of the police, committing suicide by cop. Caroline manages to reclaim the lost money, throw the police off her trail, and buy a plane ticket out of the country, but not before pulling one last short change scam on the airport ticket window, which is cliched territory, 100%.
Despite the high rating on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing, as well as the tremendous effort put in by the two lead actors and the filmmakers, the film tries too hard, and it shows. The first half is extremely slow and boring to sit through, especially when the two characters are slowly introduced to audiences in the film. The film picks up in the second half.
There are flaws in the film, such as the total absence of Oliver’s background. Oliver is initially shown as a conscious good guy who cares for the innocent person, but in the second half of the film, he goes on to kill innocent people who stand in his way. Weaving is also afraid to show skin in the film’s explicit scenes, and it shows. The sex scenes never show full or even partial nudity. Weaving has her bra on throughout, which compromises the supposed intense love and sexual attraction they have for each other.
CAROLINA, CAROLINE opens theatres Friday, June 5th,
THE MARKED WOMAN (La Desconocida) (Spain 2026) ***
Directed by Gabe Ibáñez
THE MARKED WOMAN (La Desconocida)is a Spanish Netflix original crime thriller open for streaming on Netflix on June 5, 2026. It is directed by Gabe Ibáñez and is based on the novel by Rosa Montero and Olivier Truc.
The film begins in an airport washroom, in which a woman is escorted to a plane, passing a key as insurance to a girl she had arranged to meet in the next stall. The film then moves to the port of Barcelona, where police discover a young woman unconscious inside a shipping container. She has been bound and gagged, is severely injured, and has no memory of who she is or how she got there. The mystery deepens when someone attempts to murder her while she is recovering in the hospital, suggesting that powerful people want her silenced before she can recover her memories. Veteran detective Anna Ripoll, played by Candela Peña, and officer Quique Zárate, played by Pol López, investigate the case. Their search for the woman's identity becomes a race against time as they uncover links to organized crime, human trafficking, and an international conspiracy stretching beyond Spain.
The film blends both the solving of a crime and a crime mystery. Things do get a bit confusing, especially at the beginning of the film, when one wonders what the beginning airport scene has to do with the woman found in the containment. Also, the women all look the same; it takes time to figure out who is who. Other than that, the film also works like an European noir film with international intrigue.
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MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE (USA 2026) ***
Directed by Travis Knight
A bit of history is necessary to appreciate the MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE 2026 action film.
Masters of the Universe (sometimes referred to as the He-Man or She-Ra series) is an American sword and planet media franchise created by Mattel. The main premise revolves around the conflict between He-Man (the alter ego of Prince Adam) and Skeletor on the planet Eternia, with a vast lineup of supporting characters in a hybrid setting of medieval sword and sorcery and sci-fi technology. Mattel released the original "Masters of the Universe" 5.5-inch action-figure toy line in 1982. The series mythos began through the minicomics that came packaged with the toys throughout the 1980s. These initial mini-comics were soon followed by several children's books and serial comic books published by DC Comics. However, the setting and cast of characters became best known through Filmation's animated series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, which debuted in the fall of 1983 and ran for 130 episodes over two seasons until November 1985.
Masters of the Universe has usually focused on two primary characters, the blond, muscular He-Man, "the most powerful man in the Universe", and his nemesis, the evil skull-faced, blue-skinned sorcerer Skeletor, and their many moral-themed encounters on the planet Eternia. This is kept faithful in the film adaptation. Set in a hybrid science fantasy world, He-Man battles with Skeletor to prevent him from conquering Eternia and discovering the secrets of Castle Grayskull, a mysterious ancient fortress with a skull-shaped facade, containing great power and magic.
In the film, the story begins with Prince Adam as a little weak boy training on his home planet when attacked by Skeletor. Prince Adam lands on Earth, losing the Sword of Power. After being separated for 15 years, the Sword of Power of King Grayskull leads Prince Adam (Nicholas Galitzine) Glenn back from his mother's home planet, Earth, to his father's home planet, Eternia, where he discovers his home has been destroyed and is now under the rule of powerful warlord and sorcerer Skeletor Jared Leto). In order to reclaim his family legacy and save the world, Adam must join forces with his closest allies, Teela (Camila Mendes) and Man-At-Arms (Idris Elba) and embrace who he is truly meant to be: He-Man, the most powerful man in the universe.
Realizing the character's origin, the filmmakers have therefore opted for a friendlier, more comical tone. There is a certain goofiness in the film, which provides humour for the family despite some really nasty adult humour, like a character called Fisto (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson), so-called because he fists people, and He-Man has a dangling sword. The childishness might be a put-off for adult audiences, but one must understand the target audience for this movie, and with this respect, the film succeeds, despite its rather lengthy 2 hours and 20 minutes running time. Think CONAN THE BARBARIAN for kids.
The main lead, Nicholas Galitzine, is convincing as the goofy but terribly sexy blonde He-Man superhero. Action set pieces are impressive, as the fighting techniques combine fantasy swordplay, military-style weapons training, superhuman strength, and magical warfare.
MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE opens everywhere June 5th.
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MEXICO 86 (Mexico 2026) ***
Directed by Gabriel Ripstein
Football is everything, as one footballer says in one of the recent football movies. This week alone, as interest in the FIFA World Cup peaks, two football films are opening on Netflix. The first is a doc called POLDI, and the other is called MEXICO 86.
Some events might be true, but the main one in Mexico is hosting the FIFA World Cup. As the words go, at the start of the movie: “These events could happen…”, everything indicates a sports satire,
Mexico appears to have almost no chance of hosting the World Cup. The country is still recovering from disaster, rival bids are emerging from powerful nations, including the United States, and many FIFA officials doubt Mexico's ability to organize such a massive event on short notice.
Mexico's improbable bid to host the 1986 World Cup was an audacious, against-all-odds feat made possible only by pure Mexican ingenuity.
Martín (Diego Luna) therefore launches a campaign built on improvisation, political maneuvering, deception, and sheer audacity. The film follows him as he navigates meetings with football executives, politicians, businessmen, and FIFA power brokers. He forges alliances, manipulates rivals, bends rules, and exploits every loophole available. The story portrays the world of international football as a chaotic arena where influence matters more than fairness.
Alongside the political intrigue is Martín's personal life. His relationship with Susana (played by Karla Souza) becomes increasingly complicated as she witnesses how far he is willing to go. She serves as both his confidante and moral compass, frequently questioning whether his pursuit of victory is worth the ethical compromises.
As the campaign intensifies, Martín's schemes become more reckless. The film mixes factual events with fictionalized anecdotes and urban legends, presenting a humorous but critical portrait of corruption, nationalism, and political opportunism. The tone remains satirical, highlighting how major sporting events are often shaped by negotiations and backroom deals rather than athletic achievement.
Director Ripstein’s film benefits from being timely with the FIFA World Cup just weeks away, and also a timely controversy on FIFA, with this political satire showing the business and occasional crooked part of the sport. Diego Luna delivers a nuanced performance of an all too-eager-to-succeed, at all costs personality similar to the character in MARTY SUPREME.
MEXICO 86 opens for streaming this week on Netflix and is a Netflix original film.
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THE MURDER OF RACHEL NICKELL (UK 2026) ***
Directed by Lucy Bowden
THE MURDER OF RACHEL NICKELL is a Netflix true crime drama, a genre that Netflix delivers successfully ever so often.
Rachel Jane Nickell (23 November 1968 – 15 July 1992) was a British woman who was stabbed to death on Wimbledon Common in southwest London on 15 July 1992. The initial police investigation of the crime resulted in the arrest in controversial circumstances of an innocent man, who was acquitted.
Nickell was walking with her two-year-old son on Wimbledon Common when she was stabbed 49 times in the neck and torso and died at the scene. A lengthy police investigation to find the perpetrator followed, during which a suspect was wrongfully charged and later acquitted—before the case went cold.
The doc follows the narrative convincingly in real time, resulting in the doc being an often chilling watch. The doc is interspersed with many interviews, with Rachel’s boyfriend of the time, André Hanscombe, often with their son, Alex, as well as various police investigators of the crime. The doc also contains lots of archive footage, both on the interviews taken as well as shots of the crime scene, especially of Wimbledon in South London, where the crime took place.
There are quite many separate segments in this true crime documentary that, though related by the common topic of the murder, have little to do with each other.
The first are the reactions to the killing. This can be divided into two parts: the reactions of the boyfriend, Andre, and then their son, Alex. The father, Andre, is a dispatch worker who delivers outside as well as inside London. According to him, things were going really well, especially with Rachel furthering her career. It is, in his own words, like reality destroyed. But his first response is to look after his son, Alex. He questions his son, at the start of the film, who, at the time, saw the mother’s killer approach her and take a knife out of the bag.
When Rachel was murdered, the boy was seen clinging to the mother’s body. The child psychiatrist says that children are very resilient and understand what has happened. So, when Alex was informed by his father that he would never see her mother again, Alex never asked again. Ale would sleep very soundly for hours only to be awakened very suddenly, often during his last hour of sleep.
The other part is the police investigation of the murder. An expert from the United States was consulted as well as Paul Britton, a criminal psychologist, to create an offender profile of the killer. Thirty-two men were questioned in connection with the killing; the investigation quickly targeted Colin Stagg, a man from Roehampton who was known to walk his dog on the Common. They decided that he fitted the profile and asked the psychologist to assist with designing a covert operation, code-named Operation Edzell, to see whether he would eliminate or implicate himself. The media later criticized this operation and the trial judge as effectively a “honeytrap’.
There is more to the plot that will not be revealed, but it is safe to say that there is much more to this true crime drama. Director Bowden keeps her film well-paced and intriguing throughout, in what is a solid mystery, with details how the police go about doing their work diligently to find the killer.
THE MURDER OF RACHEL NICKELL opens for streaming on Netflix Thursday, June 4th.
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POLDI (Germany 2025) ***
Directed by Nicolas Berse-Gilles, Simone Schillinger and Kai Sehr
In POLDI, there is a certain playfulness, which livens the events and makes the doc a Netflix original sports biopic documentary on the legendary footballer born in Poland but played for both Poland and Germany, including when Germany entered the finals of the World Cup.
The film traces Podolski's life from his childhood as the son of Polish immigrants in Germany to becoming one of the country's most beloved football players and a member of Germany's 2014 World Cup-winning squad. It explores his rise from street football in Cologne to international stardom, highlighting both his successes on the field and his popularity off it.
Rather than focusing solely on match highlights, the documentary examines the man behind the public image. Viewers see Podolski balancing his football career with his business ventures, including restaurants and other enterprises, while reflecting on his identity, family roots, and connection to Cologne, the city where he became known as "Prinz Poldi" ("Prince Poldi").
A major thread involves what was intended to be Podolski's farewell season as a professional footballer. The filmmakers follow him through a period when retirement plans become uncertain and repeatedly change. Instead of presenting a neat ending, the documentary portrays the emotional reality of an ageing athlete trying to decide when—and whether—to step away from the sport that defined his life.
The film also explores themes of belonging and national identity. Born in Poland and raised in Germany, Podolski became a symbol of modern German football while maintaining strong ties to his Polish heritage. Through interviews, archival footage, and observations of his present-day life, the documentary reflects on how he navigated those dual identities throughout his career.
POLDI occasionally parodies sports biopics. Largely narrated by Poldi himself, his real name being Lukas Podolski, he claims that this doc is not your usual sports doc, describing, with a sly eye, the most sports doc biopics centre 80% of the success of its subject, elevating this doc above the norma; conventional documentary. But this biopic does circumvent including what most sports docs do, even though Poldi makes the criticism.
Most biopics’ subjects suffer a bad phase in their lives, be it being on drugs, depression or other indulgences. For Poldi, it is spat when he was hounded by the media during the phase when he did not perform well on the football field. The film also focuses on what it is like for a sportsman to retire. Poldi faces the dilemma at the age of 40, at the time of making this doc.
The film can be praised for presenting a more personal portrait of football legend Lukas Podolski rather than a conventional sports documentary. Instead of focusing heavily on goals, trophies, and statistics, the documentary explores his family life, Polish-German identity, business ventures, and uncertainty about retirement. He retires at the age of 40, when this doc begins. The film benefits too from Podolski's good looks and natural charisma.
POLDI is a Netflix original doc that opens on June 4th and is available for streaming on Netflix. Good timing as the doc opens as the fever of the 2026 World Cup begins.
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POWER BALLAD (USA/Ireland 2026) ***½
Directed by John Carney
POWER BALLAD is a 2026 musical comedy drama film directed and co-written by John Carney and starring Paul Rudd, Nick Jonas, Havana Rose Liu, and Jack Reynor.
Carney is an Irish director who shot to fame with his debut film ONCE, followed by SING STREET, also a musical comedy drama about a song called ONCE. The title POWER BALLAD is so-called because the ballad or song is written by a guy called Rick Power. It is also a power song, which is called “How to Write a Song About You”.
Rick Power (Paul Rudd) is the lead man in a Dublin-based wedding band, having given up on his dreams of headlining Madison Square Garden after he met his wife, Rachel, and they had a daughter, Aja. Rick is settled in Ireland, after giving up his dreams of becoming a famous singer/songwriter,
When the film opens, things start to take a turn, not necessarily for the better, depending on how one looks at it. He and the band are invited to perform at a castle wedding, and there they meet famous singer Danny (Nick Jonas), who is trying to release his first solo album after a successful boy-band career. Danny joins them on stage for one song, and later on in the evening, he invites Rick to play together privately.
Whilst drinking and doing drugs, Rick plays a song he wrote for Aja when she was a baby, "How to Write a Song (Without You). When he returns to Los Angeles, Danny struggles to come up with a meaningful album, especially as his producer Mac (Jack Reynor, SING STREET) is unimpressed with the generic lyrics that are only fit to be album covers. Trying to find inspiration, Danny plays "How to Write a Song (Without You), and his girlfriend, Marcia, overhears it.
Six months later, Danny has released it, claiming it to be his original song. Rick tries to convince everyone it was actually his song, but without evidence, he is quickly dismissed. After a bride at a wedding requests the song, he refuses and is fired from the band. Rick then crashes his van, with Rachel and Aja both inside, resulting in him being thrown out of the family home. Director Carney keeps his drama light, also thanks to Rudd, who is excellent at playing comedy.
This is a story that covers several issues, the main one being a famous artist being sued or questioned in this case by someone who claims to have written the song. The rest of the film follows Rick's struggle to reclaim recognition for his work. What begins as a story of revenge gradually becomes a more nuanced examination of artistic ownership, friendship, ambition, and what success really means. Danny is not shown here as the villain, but a sympathetic one, who, at one point, asks his manager to cut Power a check. At best, the film cleverly explores how both men are trapped by their own insecurities and desires for validation
POWER BALLAD had its world premiere at the Dublin International Film Festival on March 1, 2026, and will be released in select theatres on May 29, before expanding wide on June 5.
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SCARY MOVIE (USA 2026) ***
Directed by Michael Tiddes
SCARY MOVIE is a parody film gone absolutely mad. It is fast and furious, and with a joke or even a parody, every few minutes. It might be all a bit too much to take, especially when quite a few of them fall flat. Thankfully, a funny one will appear right around the corner. At times, including the conclusion, the gags get too many, especially when Ghost Face (known here also as fuckface) is revealed to be more than half a dozen different identities.
This 2026 reboot of Scary Movie (often called Scary Movie 6) brings back the original stars: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, Marlon Wayans, and Shawn Wayans. There are 6 of the Mayan family listed in the cast. The story follows the group 26 years after the events of the original film, when a masked killer resembling Ghostface returns, forcing them to reunite and survive another wave of horror-movie chaos. The original spoofed SCREAM and I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER horror films, but this one aims for everything
Rather than parodying a single movie, the film spoofs modern horror and franchise trends, including films such as Scream VI, Smile, M3GAN, Sinners, Terrifier, and many others, with GET OUT getting the most credit. It also pokes fun at reboots, sequels, spin-offs, "legacy" franchises, and aspects of modern pop culture.
The film's basic plot is intentionally simple: a new killing spree begins, Cindy and her friends become targets again, and the movie uses that setup to launch a barrage of horror spoofs, outrageous gags, and self-aware jokes about the current state of Hollywood horror franchises.
The plot is mostly a framework for gags rather than a coherent mystery. Not every parody lands well, and the humour can be extremely hit-or-miss depending on the viewer's taste. But as they say, a good laugh-out-loud joke covers a dozen flaws, and SCARY MOVIE has quite a few of these moments.
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SEVEN SNIPERS (Australia 2024) ***
Directed by Sandra Sciberras
SEVEN SNIPERS is a lean, mean, no-nonsense action thriller about snipers. The villain of the piece is played by Tim Roth again, a no-nonsense evil bee guy with no remorse for his bad deed whatsoever. The heroine of the piece is played by Rahan Mitchell, who has to protect her daughter from being shot. She recruits seven snipers who are done away with one by one by villain Tim Roth.
A retired elite sniper, Kris Hendricks (Radha Mitchell), and her daughter (Annabel Wolfe) live a quiet life in the remote Australian countryside. That peace is shattered when a ruthless warlord, aka The Dragon (Tim Roth), from her past returns for retribution. Calling in her old crew, she prepares to defend her family.
The film benefits from its hard-edged, tactical intensity. From the beginning of the film, director Sciberras holds a controlled pressure that never really lets go, reminiscent of past thrillers like Sicario, Zero Dark Thirty, and The Hurt Locker. But what works best is the creation of the sniper’s world, though one can argue that the plot is a bit implausible, in which camaraderie is imminent, though not without limits. The audience is often forced to view the action through the lens of a sniper’s rifle.
The Aussie rural landscape of Kris’ farm, where the action takes place, becomes a tactical environment. The farmhouse feels like a defensive position rather than a home. The sound design and score carry a low, restrained tension that mirrors the mindset of people who have been trained to anticipate danger long before it appears.
Director Sciberras and her writer also include a human element in the action, though again, one might argue that this treads cliched territory. At the centre of the film is an emotional story about the cost of trauma and the way a past life can follow someone long after they have tried to escape it.
Everything that occurs leads to the climactic 19 minutes or so at the end of the film. This is where the heroine and villain get to duel it out in a death match - sniper style. The suspense is engaged primarily by expert editing with close-ups, an ending that includes a little unexpected twist at the end.
Radha Mitchell's performance as former sniper Kris Hendricks is one of the film’s positives is Tim Roth (who is always good) plays the villain. The supporting cast and characters are not too bad either. forgettable. Annabel Wolfe stars as Hendricks’ daughter, alongside AACTA winner Lee Tiger Halley as her boyfriend, with Charles Cottier, Damien Ryan, Bianca Wallace, and Pacharo Mzembe rounding out the seven snipers behind the title.
SEVEB SNIPERS is a competently made, lean action thriller with a running time of less than 90 minutes and a modest budget of $20 million, that succeeds through tension, atmosphere, and Radha Mitchell's performance rather than through story complexity. This is yet another survival-thriller setup, and it is likely to satisfy, but don't expect the depth.
SEVEN SNIPERS is available on Digital June 5th, 2026
SIGNAL ONE (Canada/USA 2024) ***
Directed by Jonathan Sobol
SIGNAL ONE is a sci-fi first contact with an alien thriller with a twist. The twist is that aliens are not always hostile, as is widely received. “All alien forms are hostile” is the idea formulated by writers of Sci-fi like H.G. Wells. But the aliens are not the typical ones envisioned. The alien form in this movie is re-imagined to be energy, and energy that hovers, transforms and inhabits. The idea does not always work, as it is less cinematic in nature, but the Canadian filmmaker tries his utmost best to provoke thought and change the audience’s perspective of an alien force. Director Sobol imagines the true horror is not giant spaceships, but that of
human identity, free will, and civilisation itself, which can be rewritten simply through communication.
Unlike alien invasion films focused on war, Signal One treats contact as psychological, informational, and existential.
When tech billionaire Sam Houston hires the brilliant computer scientist Annika, she ventures to an isolated facility run by the brilliant, nihilistic creator of LITTLEMOUTH, a machine which can communicate with alien intelligence. Annika soon learns some humanity-altering facts: that we are not alone in the universe, that alien intelligences are communicating around us at every moment, and that we are likely too primitive to even remotely understand what they are trying to tell us. But when the goal of the endeavour shifts from listening to talking back, the project rapidly devolves into chaos. With contact comes consequences, and soon Annika and the team must work to ensure the very survival of our species.
The title of the film, “Signal One”, refers to the first confirmed extraterrestrial contact,
the primary transmission frequency, and humanity’s first irreversible step into cosmic communication.
The film proposes a strong female protagonist, Annika, a brilliant (more than her male counterparts) but socially withdrawn computer scientist played by Isabelle Fuhrman.
Annika specializes in pattern recognition, deep-space signal analysis, and machine-learning systems designed to detect non-human communication. She trusts algorithms more than people,
avoids close relationships, and becomes increasingly obsessed with strange mathematical anomalies appearing in deep-space transmissions. Another strange minor female role is Lena (Kiera Allen), a disabled cryptographer who believes the signal may already be altering human cognition.
Director Sobol complements the sci-fi aspect by introducing character interaction. The main male antagonist, who propels the events of the film, is a billionaire similar to Elon Musk. Marcus Vale (Dennis Quaid), a charismatic technology billionaire, runs a secretive private research operation on a remote Caribbean island. Publicly, he is known as a futurist, AI entrepreneur, and aerospace investor. Privately, he has spent years searching for extraterrestrial intelligence. Vale tells Annika that her discovery matches signals his organisation has secretly monitored for decades. He invites her to join his isolated facility called Signal One. Annika initially refuses, but after discovering her university files have mysteriously disappeared and government agents begin following her, she realises larger forces are involved.
The other male antagonist is Perry (British actor David Thewlis), the brilliant but deeply nihilistic creator of the “Littlemouth” machine, a man obsessed with communicating with alien intelligence, and one of the key figures behind the dangerous experiment at the centre of the film.
Though apparently functioning as the film’s philosophical core. Perry seems motivated by existential despair and scientific obsession.
SIGNAL OMNe is the most ambitious film from Canadian Jonathan Sobol, who broke into the filmmaking scene with CITIZEN DUANE.
SIGNAL ONE is an edge-of-your-seat story that asks what happens when we learn we aren't alone in the universe, that opens in select theatres and on demand everywhere June 5, 2026.
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WETIKO (Mexico 2022) ***
Directed by Kerry Mondragon
Deep in the dense jungles of the Yucatan, where the air hums and the ground seems alive, the new Indigenous film WETIKO follows Aapo, a young Maya man trying to survive the modern hustle without losing his roots. When he takes a quick-cash job for his family-owned pet store, delivering hallucinogenic bufo toads to a remote jungle ceremony, it feels like an easy score. Aapo (Juan Daniel García Treviño) doesn’t wrestle with deep thoughts like that. He works in his mother’s pet store and patiently listens to her explain the restrictions on toad sales and toad “use” to the slim, sexy customer (Dalia Xiuhcoatl) who flashes a lot of cash in an effort to “rent” toads when buying some is out of the question. One trip in, one trip out. Aapo is also enchanted by the pretty girl who enters the shop to purchase the toads,
What begins as a promise of transcendence inside a shady eco-village quickly reveals itself as something far more dangerous. Led by Zake Zezo (Neil Sandilands, Sweet Tooth, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes), a smooth-talking, bloodthirsty shaman who feeds on belief, fear and control, the ceremony peddles enlightenment to Western spiritual tourists and new age seekers. But as the powerful drugs kick in, reality fractures -- time bends, the jungle pulses, and Aapo is trapped in a hallucinatory war zone.
The film title is WETIKO, a term from some Indigenous North American traditions, particularly among certain Algonquian-speaking peoples.
Wetiko refers to a malevolent spirit or condition associated with:
Extreme selfishness and greed
Consuming others for one's own benefit and
A loss of empathy and human connection
In traditional stories, a person possessed by Wetiko could become cannibalistic, especially during times of famine. In modern usage, some writers and thinkers use "Wetiko" metaphorically to describe destructive greed, exploitation, or societal behaviours that prioritize self-interest at the expense of others.
As the film progresses through its first 30 minutes, which is the film’s best third, before it transcends into the typical horror film of a person trying to escape some cult, with supernatural forces at hand. The film is based on a true story, as the words indicate at the start of the film. The beginning is engaging, it features an innocent young kid, Aapo, who sells and has to deliver a bunch of toads right in the jungle for a ritual. Zake needs the venom extracted from the toads, but apparently Aapo does not know how to it - only his mother does.
` As paranoia spikes and alliances collapse, Aapo realizes Wetiko isn’t a myth but a sickness -- greed, consumption, and spiritual rot spreading fast. Hunted, high and unravelling, he must choose whether to become another casualty -- or break the cycle before the jungle swallows him whole.
Despite its late release in North America, it premiered only this year. WETIKO is an intriguing watch, especially in the beginning one-third. The film is shot in Maya, Spanish, English, and the Language of Love.
WETIKO is finally available on VOD and all leading digital platforms on June 9th, 2026.
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THE YEAR BEFORE THE WAR (Gads pirms kara) (Czech Rep/Lagvia/Lithuania 2021) ***1/2
Directed by Davis Sivanis Jr.
THE YEAR BEFORE THE WAR, in the context of WWI, has the setting in 1913, when the world is about to be radically transformed. Soon, millions of men will march, singing, into the trenches, in other words, go to war. On the precipice of the monumental events leading up to WWI, a young Latvian man named Peter (Petr Buchta) - but who claims to be called Hans - travels around Europe with little apparent purpose. Beginning as a doorman in Riga, he is unexpectedly embroiled in a series of bizarre events that place him at the dead centre of political warfare of a number of emerging and defiant forces, falling into the literal and ideological crossfire of anarchists, communists, and nationalists alike. Peter's unpredictable, often absurd, and sometimes tragic journey takes him through the untamed wilderness of Central Europe, ultimately bound for Vienna via the radical Lebensreform wellness community at Monte Verita in Switzerland. Everyone he meets somehow knows him, calling him Peter. He is shot at and forced to commit murder, has a romance with the spy Mata Hari, and is psychoanalyzed by Sigmund Freud. Meanwhile, more notorious figures of the early twentieth century embark on their journey towards more violent revolutions, leading Peter to commit a series of life-changing acts that alter the course of history.
As implied by the synopsis, this is a surreal film with German impressionist art direction and sets that put the audience in an absurd world. The many patterns of architecture and repetitions of Peter’s unending journeys, as well as the absurdities, give the film a Kafkaesque feel, which should impress Kafka fans. Though the film meanders without a narrative that is normally found in a commercial film. There is no dull moment, as something unexpected always pops up, such as naked figures in a sanatorium or beheaded bodies. True historical figures like Sigmund Freud, Lenin, and others also appear, and even if their names are not mentioned, the characters can be recognized by their looks. The film is playful and intriguing, while being puzzling and complex.
It should be noted that the narrative can be difficult to follow, especially if one is unfamiliar with the historical figures. As director Sivanis’ film deliberately avoids a conventional plot, the film feels like a dream or hallucination where nothing is real, and incidents are deliberately blurred and confusing. Despite the film’s unassuming title, it is not a historical drama but an intentionally intellectual art film exercise. Accolades for the film’s art direction, costumes, and cinematography,
Though THE YEAR BEFORE THE WAR was made in 2021, it has never had an official run in Canada. The film had its world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (Netherlands), and the first documented Canadian screening was at the European Union Film Festival in November 2021. The film finally comes to Toronto and will be available via VOD and all Digital Platforms on June 9th, 2026.
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