For a film to get its own page on the main 2025 links page, it must receive at least 5 link submissions from our members with few exceptions. Here is a list of all films that haven’t quite reached that threshold yet. When it does, it will be moved to the main page and removed from this page.
33 Photos From The Ghetto
Dennis Schwartz @ dennisschwartzreviews
- Excerpt: The film is needed as more proof of the Holocaust.
A Primeira Pessoa do Plural
Paulo Portugal @ Cinema7Arte [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: https://www.cinema7arte.com/a-primeira-pessoa-do-plural-ou-a-tropical-malady-de-sandro-aguilar/
Accused
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
All About the Money
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: An alarming, hypnotic documentary about a radical, asshole 0.01%-er and the short-lived “revolutionary” lifestyle he bankrolls, only to run away when his interests shift, leaving others to carry the consequences.
All That’s Left of You
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: Apparently too honest and too courageous a film for final Oscar consideration, distribution is also challenging. Still, Dabis’s film, along with “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” ranks among the best of the decade if not the best ever made.
Maxance Vincent @ Loud & Clear Reviews
- Excerpt: Cherien Dabis draws one of the most important movies of the year with All That’s Left of You, a difficult but necessary watch to bear witness to past and present-day atrocities.
All You Need Is Kill
Eddie Pasa @ DC Filmdom
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: Alpha’ is well-written, well-acted, well-shot, well-scored, and has an serious emotional core… and yet, for some reason I can’t find it in my stony heart to unconditionally recommend it. The problem here is that, while ‘Titane’ succeeded because it was a weird movie that slowly developed a deep emotional appeal, ‘Alpha’ underwhelms because it starts as a humanist drama and then tacks on unnecessary surreal accoutrements.
Alpha
Gregory Carlson @ southpawfilmworks.net
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: A muddled story weirdly free of shocks.
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: Julia Ducournau’s third French body horror ‘Alpha’ is a concussive portrait of a family strained by the specter of a deadly virus, equal parts formally ambitious and puzzle-box cerebral mania. It’s not her strongest film, but it continues her tradition of bold, esoteric art.
Shelagh Rowan-Legg @ ScreenAnarchy
- Excerpt: Alpha is a body-beauty-horror-coming-of-age-accepting-loss film (seriously, so many ways to look at this film, all of them valid, and all of them blending in a mostly seamless tapestry that shows just how much love is possible in the world.
American Doctor
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: ‘American Doctor’ is not easy to watch, and it shouldn’t be. The images are gruesome. The message is clear. The outrage is palpable. Anything less would be journalistic malpractice.
An American Pastoral
- Excerpt: I couldn’t blame anyone for wondering, on the strength of this documentary alone, if Americans have lost their entire minds.
Amrum
Jared Mobarak @ The Film Stage
- Excerpt: Because it’s not just about Nanning breaking free to acknowledge a better way. It’s also the reality that he must now carry [his parents’] mistakes with him forever.
André Is an Idiot
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Benna’s documentary begins with zaniness, incorporating everything from game shows to toilet POV shots, gradually leaning into harsh reality…André lived life well, serving up his death as a helpful and humorous warning to the rest of the human race.
Ballistic
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: That’s where Ballistic succeeds most: guaranteeing we know Nance’s actions are a projection. They’re the product of self-loathing and a belief that she’s no longer worthy of friendship, love, or empathy.
Beam Me Up, Sulu
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: These through lines make Beam Me Up, Sulu a relevant addition to the property’s expansive media footprint by contextualizing the big picture aspects of the show’s legacy with the personal impact necessary to help make its dream of a true meritocracy real.
Bedford Park
Sebastian Zavala @ Cinencuentro.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Bedford Park’ tends to be a bit too subtle, and it relies at times on coincidences to move the plot forward. But overall, it’s a delicate, realistic, and impeccably acted drama.
Been Here Stay Here
Christopher Reed @ Film Festival Today
- Excerpt: Both Usui and his co-cinematographer, Peter Steusloff, provide breathtaking images that showcase the beauty of the region. It’s hard to believe that such a postcard-perfect place will soon disappear, and this despite the deep-seated religious beliefs that animate much of the community.
The Best Summer
Gregory Carlson @ southpawfilmworks.net
The Big Fake
Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
- Excerpt: It plays a song we have heard too many times. It doesn’t give us enough of a reason to go down this familiar path one more time.
Big Girls Don’t Cry
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: Paloma Schneideman’s ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’ is a tender and intimate New Zealand coming-of-age story circa 2006, following a young girl navigating where she belongs when she doesn’t quite fit anywhere, all while entering the early stages of queer self-discovery.
Sebastian Zavala @ Cinencuentro.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: By being set in a very specific place and time (those of us in our thirties will recognise the interactions via MSN Messenger) and featuring excellent performances, the film ends up feeling intimate, believable, and emotional.
Bight
Sebastian Zavala @ MeGustaElCine.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: There’s nothing particularly provocative about the film, which will surely disappoint fans of the subgenre, but probably won’t matter to those just looking to pass the time.
Blades of the Guardians
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: When the brutal, bloody action starts, the movie entertains. When it ends, the fun comes to a screeching halt.
Sebastian Zavala @ LoudAndClearReviews.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Blades of the Guardians (based on a comic book), is a fierce, violent and entertaining wuxia epic, full of impressive fight choreography, some solid character work and efficient drama.
Blue Heron
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: Blue Heron isn’t an easy watch by any sense of the word, but it’s an important one to reduce the stigma associated with the torment of people like Jeremy and the anguish of those who love them.
- Excerpt: Her debut feature, based on her childhood and her 2020 short film Still Processing, allows Romvari to time travel between the late ’90s, with its shrine-like computer room, hefty camcorders, and Chia Pet infomercials, and the present, exposing the sepia memories of childhood to the cold light of adulthood. This subtle magic, applied to achingly detailed realism, relitigates the past and the perspective one had while living it, performed with the regret and acceptance that sadly only comes with time.
The Bluff
Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
- Excerpt: This is one of those “Turn Your Brain Off For Two Hours” movies and shouldn’t be seen as anything more than that.
Dennis Schwartz @ dennisschwartzreviews
- Excerpt: Unfulfilling Caribbean swashbuckler.
Bodycam
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: Not for the timid.
By Design
- Excerpt: Amanda Kramer’s comic body-swapping fantasy is precise, mannered, and warmly kooky.
Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?
- Excerpt: Newly restored in 4K, Henry Jaglom’s Can She Bake a Cherry Pie? was originally released in 1983: five years before I was born, and many more years before I ever thought about living in New York. An oddball rom-com about a pair of middle-aged divorcees who meet cute on the Upper West Side, it also functions as a time capsule of a rough-and-tumble Manhattan that has largely faded away, replaced by shiny high-rises that no one can afford to live in.
ChaO
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: The hand-drawn animation style is wonderfully unique with myriad different character designs [that lead] to many humorous moments and physical comedy as each interacts with their environment.
The Christophers
Alex Bentley @ CultureMap Dallas
- Excerpt: Soderbergh’s last three films — Presence, Black Bag, and now The Christophers — have nothing in common other than the expert filmmaker helming all of them. When you can make a ghost story, a spy film, and a small film about artists equally interesting, you know you’re doing something right.
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Soderbergh delivers his best film since “Traffic.” Casting Coel and McKellen was inspired, two actors of different generations and backgrounds who are simply dazzling paired together.
- Excerpt: McKellan and Coel have a crackling chemistry and play off each other, his dancing around, deflecting, his trying to be shocking, her steady intelligence.
- Excerpt: McKellan and Coel have a crackling chemistry and play off each other, his dancing around, deflecting, his trying to be shocking, her steady intelligence. And it reflects a very deep understanding of the world of art, the people who create it, struggling to realize their visions — to capture them, in both senses of the word.
- Excerpt: McKellan and Coel have a crackling chemistry and play off each other, his dancing around, deflecting, his trying to be shocking, her steady intelligence. And it reflects a very deep understanding of the world of art, the people who create it, struggling to realize their visions — to capture them, in both senses of the word.
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: Ian McKellen is phenomenal in ‘The Christophers’ – and Michaela Coel more than holds her own – a film that manages to be both thematically rich and genuinely crowd-pleasing. What begins as a professional collision in the art world gradually turns into something more personal, more complicated. It’s one of Steven Soderbergh’s more restrained, human-scale efforts, and it’s all the better for it.
City Wide Fever
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: Everything and nothing make logical sense. There’s a nice commentary on fandom in this notion because it reveals just how blind we become to evidence that refutes subjects we hold onto so religiously.
Closure
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: Men will literally search every inch of a river before going to therapy. In ‘Closure’, a captivating documentary about a Polish man’s relentless search for his presumed-dead son, that line isn’t just a meme. It’s the devastating truth. Staggering, philosophical, and deeply cinematic, ‘Closure’ is an overwhelming meditation on life, death, and man’s search for meaning.
Collapse
Panagiotis Kotzathanasis @ Asian Movie Pulse
- Excerpt: Although “Collapse” offers little in the way of resolution, it succeeds as a chronicle of both current and past devastation and the consequences of war across all levels of society. In that regard, Anat Even’s work ultimately stands as a vital contribution to the cinematic documentation of an ongoing conflict.
Days and Nights in the Forest
- Excerpt: Few filmmakers could make a movie that initially appears to be a casual boys’ trip comedy a la The Hangover before smoothly revealing itself as a masterful exploration of race and class, but few filmmakers have ever been as adept at the art form as Satyajit Ray.
Dead Lover
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: I’d be lying if I didn’t say my overall feeling was more appreciation than enjoyment. Its ingenuity, on-screen excitement, and comical depravity ensured that I was never at risk of stopping altogether, though.
Do Deewane Seher Mein
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Dog 51
Maxance Vincent @ Loud & Clear Reviews
- Excerpt: “One leaves Dog 51 with the crushing disappointment that it could’ve been something much greater than what Jimenez ultimately puts on screen.”
Dolly
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Cinematographer Justin Derry achieves a 70’s look shooting on 16mm and the film’s trailer goes heavy on the “Texas Chainsaw” influence, but Blackhurst offers gore instead of scares in a film that is merely unpleasant. Even the dolls aren’t creepy.
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: It sort of feels like the gates of hell opened up and spat out this movie.
The Dreadful
Dennis Schwartz @ dennisschwartzreviews
- Excerpt: A 15th century story about jealousy and suspicion.
Eagles of the Republic
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: I was riveted throughout because I was desperate to find out what was actually going on. Saleh isn’t interested in delving into the big picture. He’s concerned with the characters and their impulses, flaws, and humanity.
Erupcja
- Excerpt: Erupcja captures the fleeting magic of vacationing in a foreign land and wanting it to somehow last forever…even though if it did, it wouldn’t be very magical anymore.
Everybody to Kenmure Street
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: ‘Everybody to Kenmure Street’ sees spontaneous civil disobedience break out on the streets of Glasgow circa 2021 as the police attempt to forcibly disappear alleged-immigrants. A story that’s tragically even more poignant today.
Everyone Is Lying to You for Money
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: [McKenzie is] an entertainer who couldn’t ignore an obviously predatory scheme enriching the rich with the life savings of the poor. So, he entertains us with the rabbit hole he fell through to prove it.
Exit 8
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Genki Kawamura’s addition of a psychological basis for the lost man’s plunge into an endless loop of an underground subway corridor isn’t integrated into his adaptation of the video game well enough to make its rules representative of the man’s conundrum
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: A subway corridor becomes a looping maze of dread. It’s a minimalist nightmare where every step forward could be a mistake.
- Excerpt: Adapting the hit game with an engrossing aesthetic, the psychological film is tedious, but smart enough to use that to its advantage.
Fantasy Life
Chris Barsanti @ Slant Magazine
- Excerpt: ‘Fantasy Life’ Review: Amanda Peet Steals Matthew Shear’s Low-Key Directorial Debut
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: an off-kilter romcom set within a sprawling Jewish family that errs on the side of restraint despite its combustible climax.
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: Finds its power in the small, messy moments of human connection. Even when it meanders from one minor scene to the next, it still resonates with sincerity.
Flies (Moscas)
Dennis Schwartz @ dennisschwartzreviews
- Excerpt: Reminds us we all need some love.
Frank & Louis
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: Kingsley Ben-Adir and Rob Morgan lead ‘Frank & Louis’, a delicate two-hander about an incarcerated man caring for a fellow prisoner with Alzheimer’s, built around a powerful conceit about finding purpose through care.
The Gallerist
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: Cathy Yan’s high-concept art world dark comedy ‘The Gallerist’ boasts an impressive cast of Natalie Portman, Jenna Ortega, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Sterling K. Brown, and more but can’t manage to deliver sharp satire or laughs.
Dennis Schwartz @ dennisschwartzreviews
- Excerpt: A misfire indie arthouse comedy.
Ghost in the Cell
- Excerpt: Set in a high-security prison haunted by a mysterious entity, the film blends gore, political commentary, action and dark humor in a bold genre spectacle.
Ghost Train
Greenland 2: Migration
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: An efficient post-apocalyptic disaster sequel that delivers steady action but doesn’t leave much of a footprint once it’s over.
- Excerpt: Greenland 2: Migration is a modern-day equivalent to a direct-to-DVD sequel. You can wait to see this one at home.
Sebastian Zavala @ MeGustaElCine.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Its focus isn’t on the spectacular recreation of grand disaster scenes. Like the first film, it tells an intriguing survival story that, for about two hours, keeps us on the edge of our seats.
Ha-Chan Shake Your Booty
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: A crowd-pleasing and playful story about finding the will to move on through the power of dance, ‘Ha-Chan Shake Your Booty’ shines brightest when it embraces its goofiness and lets the music lead. It’s a delightful, high-spirited burst of joy.
Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Heel
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: achieves squirmy black humor with a film that appears to condone the unthinkable even as it condemns it, a modern take on “A Clockwork Orange.”
Hellfire
Eddie Pasa @ DC Filmdomm
Dennis Schwartz @ dennisschwartzreviews
- Excerpt: Whose story is over drugs and not cattle like it was back in its pioneering days.
Histórias do Vale Bom
Paulo Portugal @ Insider.pt [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Vale a pena descobrir as histórias de um bairro de resistentes captadas pela câmara amável de José Luis Guerin. Um dos filmes descobertos no passado Festival de San Sebastián (embora exibido também no LEFFEST), Histórias do Vale Bom devolve aquele prazer de um cinema antropológico, direto, com verdade.
Hold Onto Me
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: hristos Passalis and Maria Petrova deliver subtle devastation in Myrsini Aristidou’s ‘Hold Onto Me’, a graceful and potent portrait of a daughter desperate to re-enter the life of her huckster, absentee father.
How to Divorce During the War
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: ‘How to Divorce During the War‘ is a powerful kitchen table drama that uses the backdrop of the Ukraine-Russia war to explore the quieter war of domestic selfishness, anchored by two strong leads and Andrius Blaževicius’s assured direction.
Sebastian Zavala @ Cinencuentro.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: A drama about ideals versus reality; about intentions to help versus what can actually be done. And yes, also a good film about relationships, family, and divorce.
The Huntress
Sebastian Zavala @ Cinencuentro.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: The Huntress’ avoids generalisations and melodrama, presenting us with a desolate and dangerous Ciudad Juárez, where the system has forced women to take justice into their own hands.
I Grew an Inch When My Father Died
Panagiotis Kotzathanasis @ Asian Movie Pulse
- Excerpt: https://asianmoviepulse.com/2026/02/i-grew-an-inch-when-my-father/
I Swear
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Davidson’s story is an important one, a call for tolerance and understanding of a syndrome that may not be easy to be around, unleashing uninformed abuse, but one which also has no known cure
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: Touches your heart and opens your eyes.
Icefall
Dennis Schwartz @ dennisschwartzreviews
- Excerpt: Middling action B-film.
If I Go Will They Miss Me
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: ‘If I Go Will They Miss Me’, the debut from writer-director Walter Thompson-Hernández’, is an impactful portrait of a frayed relationship between a distant father and his impressionable son in the projects. In its best moments, the work is reminiscent of Barry Jenkins, marking Thompson-Hernández as someone to keep a close eye on.
Ikkis
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not
Gregory Carlson @ southpawfilmworks.net
The Incomer
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: A strange little gem powered by plenty of heartfelt laughs and feral charm, ‘The Incomer’ is a hilarious treatise of solitude vs. connection, complete with seal-man mythos, and folkloric bangers, and the glorious madness of being human anywhere on earth.
Dennis Schwartz @ dennisschwartzreviews
- Excerpt: An off-beat character study which at times is cringe-worthy.
Infirmary
C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore
- Excerpt: Pineda spins what could be a run-of-the-mill found footage horror film into something darker and more unsettling on a much larger scale than just another creepy old hospital.
The Invite
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: ‘The Invite’ from Olivia Wilde is a wildly funny swinger comedy that explores how relationships open, close, and end in hilarious and heartfelt ways. Seth Rogan, Olivia Wilde, Penelope Cruz, and Edward Norton are all fantastic.
Islands
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: as languid as a lazy day at the beach, a perfect ploy for a story that sneaks up on you…Riley keeps us guessing, right up until the film reveals itself to be something else entirely from what we may have thought it was.
Josephine
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: Dark and potent, Beth de Araújo’s ‘Josephine‘ is a feel-bad movie about the downstream effects of trauma on someone too young to intellectualize what they’ve witnessed. The cast is tremendous across the board, even if the film itself will be too uncomfortable, and too unrelenting, for many to sit through.
Dennis Schwartz @ dennisschwartzreviews
- Excerpt: A remarkable family drama.
Kill Bill – The Whole Bloody Affair
Paulo Portugal @ Cinema7Arte [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Finalmente, o filme como foi projetado. Uma avassaladora obra-prima em formato de ‘revenge movie’, em 4h e meia de puro deleite e cinema de género.
Paulo Portugal @ Insider.pt [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Finalmente, o filme como foi projetado. Uma avassaladora obra-prima em formato de ‘revenge movie’, em 4h e meia de puro deleite e cinema de género.
The Killing of Meghnad
Panagiotis Kotzathanasis @ Asian Movie Pulse
- Excerpt: Still, whether the visual beauty alone is enough to sustain interest for 93 minutes is questionable. While the experimentation has artistic value, “The Killing of Meghnad” is likely to appeal mainly to viewers who appreciate demanding, festival-oriented cinema rather than to a wider audience.
Kontinental ’25
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: His point is always clearly elucidated and the actors embrace the dialogue and emotions to lean into the tragedy of our current world and the absurdity of it getting worse. Soon it will just be empty buildings and unmarked graves.
- Excerpt: This warped, slimy riff on Roberto Rossellini’s Europa ’51 refocuses that classic cinematic guilt trip on the amusing insufficiencies of modern self-righteousness.
The Lake
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: Utah-native Abby Ellis makes an urgent plea for environmental intervention in ‘The Lake’, a science-driven documentary that convincingly makes its case. Just don’t expect to feel good about any of it.
The Last First: Winter K2
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: A layered documentary about the costs of chasing records in modern mountaineering as the pursuit becomes increasingly “accessible” to paid adventurers. ‘The Last First: Winter K2′ from documentarian Amir Bar-Lev is a foreseeable tragedy of epic proportions with one hell of a backdrop.
Last Ride
Sebastian Zavala @ MeGustaElCine.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Could “Last Ride” have been more original and less redundant, and of course, more satisfying, if it hadn’t included the present-day scenes? Absolutely. But what Lee and company deliver is still not bad at all.
The Little Sister
Maxance Vincent @ Movies We Texted About
- Excerpt: “[Nadia Melliti] is a total revelation. She will break your heart into a million pieces by the time you reach the film’s final scene.”
Lorne
- Excerpt: We have to keep coming back to Michaels, who is not introspective beyond saying how much he loves nature or analytic about what does and does not work in the show (we see him re-arrange the order of the sketches but we don’t know anything about why).
Dennis Schwartz @ dennisschwartzreviews
- Excerpt: Lightweight documentary on Lorne Michaels.
The MacGuffin
Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
- Excerpt: I may not have liked every artistic or stylistic choice, but I appreciated the care and delicacy Taylor and the rest of the crew brought to the production.
Made in Korea
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
A Magnificent Life
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Sylvain Chomet employs his distinct animation style of hand drawn, exaggerated characterizations cast in autumnal nostalgia to bring decades of one of France’s most prolific literary figures to life.
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: Delights the eye, but that’s about it.
Marc by Sofia
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …this one is coming from shared experience and has the aesthetic of a scrapbook, memories and cultural signifiers laid out like fabric swatches on a designer’s work table.
Maria Vitória
Paulo Portugal @ Esquerda.net [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Estreia auspiciosa de Mário Patrocínio nas longas de ficção. Um registo potente que filma aquilo que não se vê.
Le Massacre de Gilles de Rais
Paulo Portugal (Cinema7Arte) @ Cinema7Arte [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: É um exercício de risco e provocação, onde Juan Branco transforma um dos episódios mais sombrios da História num duelo íntimo de palavra, culpa e representação
Paulo Portugal (Insider.pt) @ Insider.pt [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: Há um desafio de cinema a desvendar em Le Massacre de Gilles de Rais, assim mesmo, o título em francês, como desejava o autor, Juan Branco, no seu filme de estreia, depois da passagem, em Novembro, pelo LEFFEST.
Mayilaa
Panagiotis Kotzathanasis @ Asian Movie Pulse
- Excerpt: Despite some minor issues here and there, “Mayilaa” emerges as a very competent debut that manages to communicate its themes eloquently through a story that remains engaging from beginning to end.
Melania
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Texan Reviews
- Excerpt: Melania is a slickly produced film that gives one little insight into the enigmatic First Lady. It is also not without some positives that make for an interesting albeit curious viewing.
Midwinter Break
Gregory Carlson @ southpawfilmworks.net
Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: Vince Vaughn and James Marsden banter across timelines, which is as fun as it sounds. Too bad the movie doesn’t know what to do with that energy.
Miroirs No. 3
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: a most peculiar ghost story, a case of post-trauma shifting identities told with humor, heart and a dash of mystery…may have a light touch, but its psychology digs deep.
- Excerpt: Miroirs No. 3 coats its small-scale tragedy in the realistic emotional debris of avoidance, obsession, and transference.
The Moment
Alex Bentley @ CultureMap Dallas
- Excerpt: The Moment may not be as effective a mockumentary as something like This is Spinal Tap, but it still has enough memorable moments to make it worth seeing for both fans and non-fans alike.
Andrea Chase @ KillerMovieReviews.com
- Excerpt: What we have here is a delightful and thoughtful delectation on the eternal struggle between art and commerce, and yes, the irony of making a film about an artist who doesn’t want to compromise to reach a wider audience doing just that.
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: I couldn’t have picked singer Charli XCX out of a lineup before this faux documentary, but it makes her pop-stardom crisis oddly compelling and occasionally funny.
Kristian Lin @ Fort Worth Weekly
- Excerpt: A huge pop star goes all Spinal Tap in her movie. It doesn’t work.
The Mortuary Assistant
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: All we need is a healthy mistrust of what we see and gnarly practical effects. With that realism, some nice cinematography to enhance the jump scares, and The Mimic’s memorable creature design, it’s easy to invest in the ride.
Eddie Pasa @ DC Filmdom
Sebastian Zavala @ LoudAndClearReviews.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: The video game […] does work as a creepy, atmospheric and frequently scary story. Its film adaptation, unfortunately, lacks all the atmosphere, coherence, believability and – of course – interactivity of the final product.
Mother Mary
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: It would appear that writer/director David Lowery has watched Peter Strickland’s “In Fabric,” a fellow A24 release, one time too many.
Mother of Flies
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: The Adams’ folk horror tale is full of stunning imagery, from practical effects involving a python to a Caesarean birth, a climatic one something akin to a magic act…if you think you know where everything is headed, guess again.
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: Yes, there are a lot of demonic earmarks from burning corpses to parasites and the unnatural, but there are just as many examples of love transcending reason too.
Mouse
Dennis Schwartz @ dennisschwartzreviews
- Excerpt: Beautifully written, directed and acted.
Mr. Nobody Against Putin
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Working secretly with Talankin, who codirects the film by choosing what to document, writer/director David Borenstein exposes how Putin, in his quest to restore the Soviet Union and Imperial Russia, is brainwashing a generation of children to become cannon fodder.
- Excerpt: An elementary school teacher fights back against a regime’s mandates in this small-scale, secretly shot documentary.
Mum, I’m Alien Pregnant
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: ‘Mum, I’m Alien Pregnant’ may not stick every landing, but it oozes enough charm, filth, and DIY spirit to earn its place in the Sundance midnight movie canon. Troma fans need apply.
The Musical
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: Powered by Will Brill’s fearless performance and the audacious pairing of director Giselle Bonilla and writer Alexander Heller, ‘The Musical’ emerges as one of the funniest comedy debuts in years, built around the truly unhinged idea of a broken middle school English teacher staging a 9/11 musical to destroy his principal.
My Father’s Shadow
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: an emotional knockout….Sopé Dìrísù rises to the immense challenge of portraying this man determined to right his own father’s wrongs
Nadja
- Excerpt: Ever since Count Orlok stalked through the shadows of the 1922 German Expressionist masterpiece Nosferatu, filmmakers and audiences alike have been under the spell of the vampire. Yet among all the variations on the vampire legend that have haunted our screens over the past century, Michael Almereyda’s Nadja stands out as one of the most memorable.
Natchez
- Excerpt: It is about the personal, cultural, and commercial pressures in a small Mississippi town where the economy depends on a sanitized version of the era of wealthy plantation owners who used enslaved people to pick cotton, a version that is increasingly more difficult to maintain as residents and paying visitors want a more honest story.
Night King
- Excerpt: A glossy and energetic Lunar New Year hit, “Night King” blends neon-soaked nostalgia, sharp comedy, and emotional rivalry into a glamorous tale of survival in Hong Kong’s fading nightclub scene.
Night Nurse
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: Unreachable and strange, ‘Night Nurse’ very much goes to the beat of its own bizarro drum but this twisted psychosexual midnight movie is too often caught up in its own weirdness to deliver much in the way of connection.
Night Patrol
Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
- Excerpt: I admire its energy and willingness to go as big and bold as possible. Not everything about it works, and that’s totally ok.
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: What I really enjoyed beyond the over-the-top gore and humor is the way in which this character complexity is handled. Carr and Hawkins each seek to play both sides and bridge the gap, but they chose [an irredeemable] third side to do so.
C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore
- Excerpt: Night Patrol plays with the gothic figure of the vampire alongside American history to confront how little the country has progressed over the past 160 years, and to deal with the rightful growing rage of communities tired of living under the thumb of white supremacy.
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: A scrappy, low-fi comedy very much on its own wavelength.
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is Meta All the Way Down
Christopher Barsanti @ PopMatters
- Excerpt: Matt Johnson’s goofy Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is so laden with tricks, gags, and irony that it somehow registers as sincere.
No Good Men
Paulo Portugal @ Insider.pt [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: A afegã Shahrbanoo Sadat provoca humor e sexualidade na transição entre uma sociedade patriarcal e o inferno dos talibãs.
No Other Choice
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: It hits close to home, as Americans worry about inflation, job security, and the oncoming effect of Artificial Intelligence on job growth.
Nuisance Bear
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: A thoughtful documentary about the intersection of human interests and animal instincts, ‘Nuisance Bear‘ is a beautifully-mounted tone poem about the consequence of humanity reshaping the land.
Numakage Swimming Pool
Panagiotis Kotzathanasis @ Asian Movie Pulse
- Excerpt: “Numakage Swimming Pool” is an excellent documentary, one that highlights a specific phenomenon while putting it into a wider context, while also focusing on individuals, whose stories, though, echo far beyond the neighborhood the doc takes place in.
Omaha
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Cole Webley makes his feature debut and all the right moves with things both said and unsaid in Robert Machoian’s screenplay, using the wide open landscape of the American West to present the death of the American Dream in the most heartbreaking terms.
One in a Million
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes’ documentary ‘One in a Million’ charts a ten-year span as 11-year old Israa flees Syria, only to return a decade later. A powerful portrait of the refugee experience and the challenges of assimilation.
The Optimist
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: Taylor’s script succeeds in bridging the gap by stripping his present-day leads of age and impact to simply exist as victims with the capacity to see their pain in the other’s face and recognize they aren’t alone.
O’Romeo
Outcome
Sebastian Zavala @ LoudAndClearReviews.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: A plodding and uneven dramedy that works best when it’s trying to be sincere rather than funny.
Palestine ’36
- Excerpt: The only feature film to shoot in Palestine in the past two years, while having to stop and start production numerous times due to the ongoing genocide, Palestine ‘36 is remarkable just by virtue of existing. The fourth feature from writer-director Annemarie Jacir, the film follows a sprawling ensemble of characters across rural and urban Palestine as frustration with colonial rule, including the growing takeover of Palestinian land by Zionist settlers, eventually erupts in armed rebellion.
Panda Plan 2: The Magical Tribe
- Excerpt: Even two of China’s most beloved exports, Jackie Chan and an adorable panda cub, cannot save the Chinese-language “Panda Plan 2: The Magical Tribe” from being a bit of a slog.
Sebastian Zavala @ LoudAndClearReviews.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: A “comedic” sequel that manages to be even worse than its questionable predecessor.
People We Meet On Vacation
- Excerpt: People We Meet on Vacation is a great rendition of a tried-and-true formula.
Pillion
Andrea Chase @ KillerMovieReviews.com
- Excerpt: A kiss is not just a kiss.
Pizza Movie
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: Pizza Movie will get weirder, funnier, and more inventive as it goes. The result is probably the best “this shouldn’t be as good as it is” film since Will Gluck’s Fired Up!
Post Truth
Paulo Portugal @ Cinema7Arte [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: E depois veio “Post Truth”… a devolver-nos a potência do cinema e confrontar-nos com a manipulação da verdade. Poderoso documento este sobre o não muito admirável mundo em que vivemos.
Power Ballad
Dennis Schwartz @ dennisschwartzreviews
- Excerpt: It’s a breezy film, whose gentleness covers up how sardonic it is.
Preschool
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: Preschool truly lives and dies by how you embrace Duhamel and Socha in these very flawed yet relatable roles. This is the sort of comedy that demands its performances elevate the plot’s rote machinations and I believe they do exactly that.
The President’s Cake
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: Brimming with emotion and political relevance.
A Private Life
Alex Bentley @ CultureMap Dallas
- Excerpt: A Private Life is not the type of thriller that American audiences might be used to, but its slow, methodical storytelling and subtle humor make it an interesting watch from beginning to end. The film is not up for any awards, but Foster’s performance shows she remains a top-tier actor.
Protector
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: Cynical junk.
- Excerpt: Sleazy and cheap, the fearmongering get-your-kid-back action film at least stars Milla Jovovich.
The Proud Princess
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come
Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
- Excerpt: A looser, more scraggly undertaking than the first entry…While the overall result is still entertaining in the action and dark comedy, its cohesion is more muddled.
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: Competent but unremarkable, ‘Ready or Not 2: Here I Come’ is a horror-comedy sequel that’s mostly just a forgettable extension of the original’s eat-the-satanic-rich premise, expanding the mythology without recapturing the spark that made it sing. Samara Weaving remains the MVP, and the cast is easily the film’s strongest asset, but it’s not enough to elevate a sequel that never quite justifies going down the aisle once more.
Sebastian Zavala @ MeGustaElCine.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: It’s a bloodbath, and one that will leave you wanting a third instalment (which will surely come out in a few years). If Samara Weaving returns, I’ll be back in the cinema.
Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model
Glenn Charlie Dunks @ reDocumented
- Excerpt: Reality Check is trash non-fiction. Streaming content for the permanently preoccupied that really isn’t any different to, say, one of Netflix’s many true crime series. Content that, yes, I admit, is still entertaining in its own way.
Redux Redux
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: The film grabs you by the throat from the first second and doesn’t let go.
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: Despite the science fiction premise and pulpy violence, this is first and foremost a character study. It’s McManus and Marcus providing authentically complex performances that refuse to shy from the survival instincts [they rely upon].
Reminders of Him
- Excerpt: It may sound like damning with faint praise, but Reminders of Him is a competently made film that knows how to serve its core audience without insulting anyone who may not automatically be all-in for such a story. The filmmakers don’t try to force any of the key moments down the audience’s throat, and that stands out in a genre that’s not always known for its subtlety.
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: It stretches a simple story into a drawn-out test of patience. Lots of glossy emotion, but no spark.
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: This one certainly gives off “glorified soap opera” vibes from the trailer, but it’s actually an affecting romantic drama that I admit got me a little choked up at the end.
Replica
Panagiotis Kotzathanasis @ Asian Movie Pulse
- Excerpt: At the same time, a rather timely question emerges. Having an AI boyfriend is sad when compared to having a happy, actual relationship, but is it actually worse than being in a toxic relationship, or being miserable and alone, constantly longing for a relationship but never managing to achieve it? The question and the thinking about it actually emerges as one of the biggest traits of the documentary.
Revelations of Divine Love
- Excerpt: An anchoress who withdrew from secular society to lead an isolated life within a cell attached to St. Julian’s Church in Norwich, England, Julian spent her days devoted to writing and prayer; little else is known about her, including whether her given name was indeed Julian or whether she took the name of the church where she lived. Nonetheless, she and her work come to vivid life in filmmaker Caroline Golum’s sophomore feature, which boasts a highly stylized, homespun aesthetic that is guaranteed to charm you.
Sebastian Zavala @ Loud and Clear Reviews [Spanish]
- Excerpt: It’s the exact opposite of what many contemporary productions aspire to be, which is why I’m sure some audiences won’t be able to even finish it.
The Rip
Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
- Excerpt: This is a good, albeit imperfect, crime drama. It features a strong cast, a compelling mystery, and some exciting set pieces.
Alex Bentley @ CultureMap Dallas
- Excerpt: Damon and Affleck have had their individual ups and downs throughout their careers, but when they choose to work together, the results are usually good-to-great, as they are in The Rip. It’s a different take on a crime thriller that features a story that will keep viewers guessing until the very end.
Marcio Sallem @ Cinema com Critica [Portuguese]
Dennis Schwartz @ dennisschwartzreviews
- Excerpt: Enhanced by the star power of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.
Rock Springs
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: ‘Rock Springs’ is an audacious debut of a horror movie from Vera Miao, thematically rich and complete with goopy practical effects even if not every element soars equally high.
Scent of Pho
Panagiotis Kotzathanasis @ Asian Movie Pulse
- Excerpt: In the end, “Scent of Pho” definitely has enough elements to appeal to mainstream audiences, particularly through its presentation of food and its family drama. However, the make or break factor is the style of humor, which seems to demand a particular taste in order to be fully appreciated.
Scream 7
Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
- Excerpt: A low point for the franchise. Despite the efforts of Williamson and a committed performance from Neve Campbell, there just isn’t enough here to make this a worthy installment.
See You When I See You
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: Cooper Raiff leads a strong ensemble in Jay Duplass’ ‘See You When I See You’, a tragicomedy about a young man stuck in the loop of grief. Duplass threads heavy subject matter with surprising warmth, capturing the mess and absurdity of surviving the unthinkable.
Seeds
Bev Questad @ itsjustmovies.com
- Excerpt: On the top 15 Oscar nomination list for Best Documentary, the answer, and the now obvious double entendre of the title, prove good enough for the price of the ticket to this subtle but informative work of art.
Seized
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: Sharon Liese’s ‘Seized’ captures the breakdown of free press in a rural Kansas town, when a personally-motivated police chief decides to interrupt their operations. A poignant examination of how the First Amendment can be trampled – and how to fight back.
Sentient
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: A harrowing but necessary watch, Tony Jones’ Sentient offers a clear-eyed look at the primate testing industry. It’s hard to endure but harder to ignore.
The Seoul Guardians
Panagiotis Kotzathanasis @ Asian Movie Pulse
- Excerpt: There is not much more to add. “The Seoul Guardians” is exceptional in all aspects and definitely one of the best documentaries (and films) of the year.
The Serpent’s Skin
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: By supplying its messaging via universally understood packaging, maybe its intent can be better absorbed too. The final product is quite messy, but its earnest desire to open minds is not.
The Serpent’s Skin
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Mackay displays a similar sensibility to “I Saw the TV Glow’s” Jane Schoenbrun with themes of finding one’s identity, a nostalgia for 90’s television and love of shocking pink.
Shame and Money
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: Albanian-language family drama ‘Shame and Money’ is a thought-provoking slow-burn about the injustice of trying to earn a buck while providing for a family, with a simmering performance from lead Astrit Kabashi.
Silenced
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: Selina Miles’ Silenced examines how defamation laws are weaponized against women who speak out about abuse, turning high-profile trials into warnings. It’s clear-eyed, well-presented, and refuses to stay quiet.
Slanted
Gregory Carlson @ southpawfilmworks.net
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: crosses the generational conflicts facing immigrant families found in such films as Neon’s 2023 horror outing “It Lives Inside” with The Twilight Zone’s ‘Number 12 Looks Just Like You’ and a dash of “Mean Girls” to explore racial inequality in America.
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: Think of Slanted as the reverse Get Out. It also very effectively points to the shame inherent to being a non-white citizen of a country hellbent on infantilizing, exploiting, destroying, and/or becoming you.
Solo Mio
Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Texan Reviews
- Excerpt: Simple, sweet and direct, Solo Mio charms the viewer with its story of love lost and found.
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: A sweet and swoon-worthy romance that lifts your spirits.
Sound of Falling
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Mascha Schilinski’s generational family trauma reverberates through one German farmhouse, cinematographer Fabian Gamper’s camera the ghostly presence that glides around it as editor Evelyn Rack seamlessly weaves back and forth among different eras…
The Spin
Storm Rider: Legend of Hammerhead
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: Like ‘Waterworld’ fan fiction written by a 12-year-old.
The Story of Documentary Film
- Excerpt: Mark Cousin’s Ambitious New Series Celebrates Documentaries’ Power To Connect & Enthrall
The Stranger
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Composer Fatima Al Qadiri combines Middle Eastern instruments and synthesizer to eerie, haunting effect, a call to something other than prayer. With his adaptation, Ozon has created the definitive cinematic version of the existentialist classic.
- Excerpt: The Stranger is a film that feels scared: scared to diverge too much from the words of Camus, but also scared that people won’t take the right message from those words. The result is visually stunning, well-acted, and rich with the heady atmosphere one gleans from the pages, but still leaves you wanting more.
Subedaar
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
- Excerpt: I’m all for family movies that are meant to be fun and entertaining, but that doesn’t mean they must be this empty.
Alex Bentley @ CultureMap Dallas
- Excerpt: The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is the worst kind of fan service, delivering a shiny product that might make some people feel good in the moment, but something that is forgotten the second they step out of the theater. If Nintendo is to continue adapting their properties, they’d do well to give their fans a film they want to see more than once.
Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: A dazzling sensory rush that rewards devoted fans with nonstop references, but moves too fast to let anything truly connect. It’s a film for those already fluent in this world.
Sebastian Zavala @ MeGustaElCine.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: It feels more like a series of situations and gags than a cohesive story or one with interesting characters, superficial in its ambitions and rushed to include as much as possible into a single package.
Take Me Home
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: ‘Take Me Home’ is a quiet but impactful debut feature from Liz Sargent, centering on her sister Anna Sargent as a cognitively impaired adoptee who must navigate the world and her father’s cognitive decline after their fragile family dynamic suddenly collapses.
Teacher’s Pet
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: Offers multiple shocks while also saying something poignant about the power of the written word.
Tell Me Everything
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: A father-son drama that aches with unspoken tenderness, ‘Tell Me Everything’ finds what it means to lose a father, and what it takes to face him again.
This Is Not a Test
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: It’s ‘The Breakfast Club’ meets ‘The Walking Dead.’
Thrash
- Excerpt: Thrash is pretty simple as far as thrillers go, even with its hybrid plot and complete genre switch.
Sebastian Zavala @ MeGustaElCine.com [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Wirkola has better films, Dynevor has better performances, and Hounsou deserves a better filmography.
The Ties That Bind Us
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: The 2026 César winner for Best Film…is a moving, deeply human example of the old adage ‘it takes a village to raise a child.’
Time and Water
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: ‘Time and Water‘ moves at the pace of a glacier, and unfortunately feels just as cold. Sara Dosa’s anticipated follow-up to ‘Fire of Love’ is ultimately a major snooze about ice loss that struggles to thaw.
Toaster
Kathy Gibson @ Access Bollywood
Touch Me
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: Those impulses are as much a drug as narcotics, pharmaceuticals, and space slime. The emotionally parasitic cycle of relationships mirroring the actual parasitic cycle of an alien’s ambitions. The stranger things get, the more real the message becomes.
Tow
Alex Bentley @ CultureMap Dallas
- Excerpt: Tow will be a disappointment for anyone hoping to see more great stuff from Byrne. While she remains a fine actor, her performance and the story as a whole are nowhere near the level shown in her previous film.
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …appears to be a labor of love, but Jonathan Keasey & Brant Boivin’s ripped-from-the-headlines screenplay bogs down its pacing with too many details which don’t matter much in the overall scheme of things.
Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Excerpt: Rose Byrne is fabulous.
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: The scene where Amanda does share with the group is the standout moment because the whole thing is working towards that release, but also because Byrne imbues it with an authenticity that rises above the obvious pathway there.
The Travel Companion
- Excerpt: “The Travel Companion” is a remarkably assured first narrative feature from directors Alex Mallis and Travis Wood, who wrote the screenplay with Weston Auburn. It draws us in with acutely observed details and relatable characters that portray universal conflicts, all with nuance and good humor.
Two Prosecutors
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: The film’s progression through bureaucratic black holes and intentional tactics meant to wear down the Soviet Union’s last honorable citizen is thus toeing the line between farce and thriller. We’re watching in a constant state of unease.
A Useful Ghost
- Excerpt: The hilarious and affecting Thai ghost story is an assured and absurd debut.
Gregory J. Smalley @ 366 Weird Movies
- Excerpt: … the dynamic shifts from romantic comedy to political screed, and the film raises an unusual question: is it possible for a ghost to be a quisling?
We Bury the Dead
Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: Perhaps the scariest element of writer/director Zak Hilditch’s unique take on the zombie genre is that it is the first time in my recollection where the U.S. has been made the bad guy by a country we consider an ally.
C.H. Newell @ Father Son Holy Gore
- Excerpt: We Bury the Dead doesn’t reinvent the zombie subgenre wheel, but remains a very emotional zombie story that’s more about confronting loss and grief than survival.
The Weight
Matt Oakes @ Silver Screen Riot
- Excerpt: ‘The Weight’ is an effective survival Dad movie, buoyed by intoxicating production design and a killer Ethan Hawke man-on-a-mission performance.
The Yeti
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: Yes, there’s an ample amount of blood and gore to satisfy the horror lovers taking a chance on a low-budget, soundstage-shot indie such as this, but the feel of the whole is conversely driven by emotion.
You, Me & Tuscany
Allen Almachar @ The MacGuffin
- Excerpt: For those of you that like your movies sweet, airy, and without a lot of fuss, this might be right up your alley.
Alex Bentley @ CultureMap Dallas
- Excerpt: There are glimpses of a fully successful film in You, Me & Tuscany, enough to keep it watchable for its entire 104-minute running time. But then they have the Italian grandmother say a gobsmacking line like “If you wanna tap-a that ass, you should tap-a that ass,” and you remember exactly what type of film you’re watching.
- Excerpt: Take a random selection of Hallmark movies, add two cups of “While You Were Sleeping,” half a cup of “The Proposal,” and a tablespoon each of “The Family Stone,” “Cinderella,” and “Under the Tuscan Sun,” a sprinkle of self-awareness for a wink at the audience, and you’ve got this film. It is utterly predictable, but thanks to the charm of its charismatic stars, some of the world’s most spectacularly beautiful scenery, and that fairy-tale gloss, it is beguilingly watchable.
Young Mothers
- Excerpt: The Dardennes, frequent recipients of awards at the Cannes Film Festival, won the Best Screenplay Prize for this, as well as the Ecumenical Jury award, given to “honor works of artistic quality which are witnesses to the power of film to reveal the mysterious depths of human beings through what concerns them, their hurts and failings as well as their hopes.” That describes this film perfectly.
Christopher Reed @ Hammer to Nail
- Excerpt: Each actress delivers a heartfelt performance, the rawness of the characters’ desperation palpable from the very first scenes. Little by little, we grow to understand more of how each person found themselves in such dire straits, while also rooting for them to succeed.
Maxance Vincent @ InSession Film
- Excerpt: “Every emotion feels so natural and in tune with the harsh reality of the women’s lives that we can’t help but feel immense compassion for the stories they share.”
Youngblood
Jared Mobarak @ Hey, have you seen …?
- Excerpt: Now that’s how you do a remake. Rather than glorify the misogyny, hazing, violence, and homophobia, this Youngblood uses it all as a reason to evolve. To be better than the past.
