Category: Film Review

An actor for some time now, Matthew Shear makes his directorial debut with “Fantasy Life,” and he’s trying to keep the feature as small and contained as possible. It’s a film about a handful of characters going through a rough, confusing time in their lives, with mental health issues providing an unexpected connection over the course of a year. Shear (who also scripts) doesn’t add anything explosive to the material, offering a mild take on developing anxieties and strange responsibilities, always putting focus on relationships and personal problems. “Fantasy Life” opens like a Woody Allen tribute, but it develops its own personality as it unfolds, and Shear has a cast capable of mastering small moments and delivering some internalized intensity as well. It’s not an overwhelming viewing experience, but for those who can appreciate a picture of modest intentions boosted by terrific performances, it’ll scratch a few indie film itches. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The state of young American males is explored in “Our Hero, Balthazar,” with co-writer/director Oscar Boyson hoping to crack open fragile mental states and dig around strange behaviors and buried feelings. In many ways, it’s a deeply unsettling picture, examining impressionable young men who have nothing but social media and toxic influences to rely on as they figure things out in all the wrong ways. Boyson tries for a little black comedy along the way, sniffing around for small hits of humor while examining character reactions and impulses. However, most of “Our Hero, Balthazar” is pretty severe, taking a look at an unlikely bond developing between two people who need more help than they could possibly imagine. Boyson (joined by co-writer Ricky Camilleri) doesn’t stick the landing, but this tale of trouble has its moments of disturbing behavior and commentary on adolescent issues. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s important to note that “Forbidden Fruits” is an adaptation of a stage play by Lily Houghton (titled “Of the women came the beginning of sin, and through her we all die”). The picture isn’t a sprightly understanding of Mean Girl attitudes and games of social sabotage, but something more character-based and expository, focusing on extended conversations among the characters as they experience a mall-based crisis. Houghton shares screenwriting duties with director Meredith Alloway, attempting to find some cinematic emphasis to enjoy, but the pair maintain contact with the material’s theatrical roots, keeping the feature involving with personalities but static in staging. “Forbidden Fruits” is being sold as a genre offering, but it’s not exactly that, taking time with interpersonal issues before bloodshed arrives, and even violence is muted in this strange and well-acted film. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Veteran actress Nat Boltt (“District 9,” “Riverdale”) makes her feature-length directorial debut with “Holy Days,” also handling screenwriting duties with this adaptation of Joy Cowley’s 2000 novel. The story is a step back in time, following three nuns and their young charge in 1974 as they attempt to save their convent from land developers and the destructive ways of a wrecking ball. It’s an audience-pleaser from Boltt, who understands the tonality of such a tale, capably blending a few stretches of broadness with plenty of tenderness, examining the fragile mental state of a boy who’s lost his mother and nuns about to lose their home. “Holy Days” isn’t big on surprises, but it offers time with fantastic actors who capably deliver nuanced emotions and bits of humor as Boltt creates a consistently entertaining road trip movie. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Giallo cinema is generally beloved by horror fans, celebrated for its ways with violence and reality-bending atmosphere, also providing mysteries to solve for those interested in puzzling. It’s a secret-handshake subgenre for those in the know, and one fan of it all is certainly writer/director Josh Heaps, who doesn’t have any money or interest in working with HD gear, out to craft his own little homage to giallo events in “City Wide Fever.” It’s a low-res valentine to the brain-bleeding aspects of European storytelling, with Heaps placing attention on the seductive qualities of the unknown and the hunt for information. The picture isn’t going to win hearts and minds from a technological standpoint, but for those who really enjoy filmmaking that’s in love with filmmaking, “City Wide Fever” has its highlights, with genuine enthusiasm for the storytelling mission, even during its most underfunded scenes. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2019 seems like such a long time ago, and the film year was brightened by the arrival of “Ready or Not.” It offered directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillet a chance to upgrade their fondness for genre entertainment, working with a decently twisty script by Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy, which embraced ghoulish fun with its macabre take on relationship issues and the game of hide-and-seek. The filmmakers (a.k.a. “Radio Silence”) used their hit movie to jump to the big leagues, eventually taking possession of the “Scream” franchise (helming sequels in 2022 and 2023), and they went deep into blood and guts in 2024’s “Abigail,” which failed to attract much of an audience. Looking to regain career momentum, Radio Silence returns to “Ready or Not” with a sequel to a feature that enjoyed a mostly definitive conclusion. “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come” reopens old dramatic wounds and shouts at the devil once again, and while a few enjoyably grisly moments remain, the sequel doesn’t have much in the way of freshness, acting more as a remake than a continuation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Inspired by a true story,” “Tow” finds screenwriters Jonathan Keasey and Brant Boivin out to turn the saga of Amanda Ogle and her lengthy battle to get her car back from a towing company into a dramatic study of persistence. There are a lot of layers to Ogle’s experience, and the writing respects most of them as it hunts for a way to merge the power of personal difficulties with the more audience-pleasing elements of underdog cinema. Grittiness isn’t tested with the picture, but director Stephanie Laing does a capable job working through characterization, getting a sense of life out of the players in this game of frustration, and emotional intimacy is protected. Laing also has star Rose Byrne, who contributes another excellent performance as Ogle, working with a nuanced dramatic arc that gives her plenty to play while surrounded by a colorful supporting cast. “Tow” is a little unusual as it straddles the line between mainstream and indie moviemaking, but it delivers heart and significance with its unusual understanding of persistence. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Late Shift” is a German and Swiss production about nurses and all the difficulties they encounter while trying to do their jobs. It’s not a melodrama about heroism or a tale about a bustling hospital and all the craziness contained within. Writer/director Petra Volpe (“The Divine Order”) does away with expanse to remain strictly focused on a single character enduring an average night of employment as she handles the wants and needs of many patients. Volpe is looking to identify a “global health crisis” in the making as nursing staff numbers plummet everywhere, creating an intense understanding of struggle for a woman who’s doing her best, facing an impossible demand for constant multitasking. “Late Shift” isn’t an easy sit, but it’s an important one, vividly dramatizing the challenges of a difficult vocation, taking moments to understand the endurance and concentration the job demands, generating a riveting sit. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

John Davidson is a Scottish man who’s been the focus of several documentaries and news reports throughout his life. He lives with Tourette syndrome, and he’s used his days to help educate others on the motor disorder, trying to spread the word about its symptoms, which brought him great trouble during his formative years, surrounded by a world that didn’t understand his situation. Writer/director Kirk Jones (“Waking Ned Devine,” “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2”) elects to dramatize such a life experience in “I Swear,” exploring the woes and sense of self-discovery as John learned more about Tourettes, trying to balance physical issues with emotional needs. “I Swear” is pretty standard as bio-pics go, but the lead performance by Robert Aramayo is sensational, delivering full-body work that captures the turmoil within John as he endures a lot of pain before finally finding his way to a level of peace. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher are a comedy duo known as “BriTANicK.” They specialize in short-form internet clips, creating funny business for companies such as College Humor and FunnyOrDie, and the pair even did time on “Saturday Night Live” for a bit. They’re out to conquer a feature-length film with “Pizza Movie,” taking directing and writing credits on a picture that’s working hard to be R-rated streaming catnip for teen viewers. It’s profane, violent, filled with non sequiturs, and contains some of the broadest acting likely to be found in 2026. McElhaney and Kocher found success with goofballery that was brief and straight to the point. Now they’re faced with extending their brand of silliness to 90 minutes, and they can’t manage the workload, trusting obnoxiousness and overkill will be enough to please their target audience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

If people purchase tickets for “Vampires of the Velvet Lounge,” expectations will certainly be in place to see something frightening, or maybe seductive. Writer/director Adam Sherman doesn’t possess much interest in finding the horror in bloodsucker activity, instead creating a study of the online dating scene that’s periodically interrupted by monster and demon hunter encounters. “Vampires of the Velvet Lounge” is a very bizarre picture, and not in an engrossing manner, watching Sherman work to assemble something coherent out of different tones, performances, and ideas that are meant to deliver a wild cinematic ride. Confusion tends to dominate the viewing experience, as viewers are offered a feature that doesn’t really know what it wants to be, but it has a defined purpose to spill as much fake blood as possible. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

As an actor, Josh Duhamel typical gravitates toward more serious roles, often portraying characters struggling with life or troubled people stuck in bad situations. When he directs, Duhamel only makes comedies, and broad ones at that, highlighting his love for slapstick and crudeness in two installments of the “Buddy Games” franchise (yes, two). He’s back with silliness for “Preschool,” joining screenwriter Richard D’Ovidio (“Thirteen Ghosts,” “The Call”) for an examination of two dads engaged in a destructive battle to join an elite school for their young children. It’s not the most inspired story, and the writing doesn’t go out of its way to deliver laughs. Duhamel plays it safe with the picture instead, providing a tired sense of mischief with a movie you’ve seen before. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The next step in the Hoover-ication of romantic cinema is “Reminders of Him,” which is an adaptation of a 2022 book by Colleen Hoover. The picture arrives after the enormous success of 2024’s “It Ends with Us” and 2025’s “Regretting You” (which did decent business), keeping Hollywood on the hunt for material from the prolific author, who specializes in melodramatic beach reads. It’s been tough to recognize the writer’s power over readers, and the previous two films were difficult to digest. Enter director Vanessa Caswill, an English helmer who previously turned in fine work with 2023’s “Love at First Sight,” and now has the challenge of transforming Hoover’s iffy imagination into reasonably interesting cinema. Caswill remains remarkably committed to preserving a human touch to “Reminders of Him,” delivering a feature with some honest emotions and a less manipulative way of doing business. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Project Hail Mary” is the first film from directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller since 2014’s “22 Jump Street,” not counting their hands-on approach to overseeing production on the two animated “Spider-Verse” movies. It’s been quite some time since “The Lego Movie” and “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” filmmakers have been in control of a production, and their latest certainly plays like a purging of ideas build up over the years. They’re put in command of an adaptation of Andy Weir’s 2021 “hard science” novel, with “The Martian” writer cooking up another tale of desperation in space and all the intellect required to solve problems. Screenwriter Drew Goddard handles the literary translation (returning to duty after work on 2015’s “The Martian”), and the production team is clearly out to make an epic with “Project Hail Mary,” which offers space exploration, a complicated mission to save Earth, and contact with a helpful alien. Lord and Miller attempt to go very big with the offering, which remains engaging enough, but the directors are definitely out to win hearts with the feature, getting a little too pushy with sentimentality as the story unfolds. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Amy Wang makes her feature-length directorial debut with “Slanted,” and she takes on an interesting storytelling challenge with her screenplay. It’s a teen-friendly introduction to body horror, examining the emotional struggles of a young Chinese woman hoping to find a way to fit in with the white society that surrounds her. There’s satire in play, but the picture is mostly sincere in its concern for a fragile mind taking a big health risk to alter her identity, which only manages to create even more complications. “Slanted” has an angle on low self-esteem and acceptance issues that’s worth examining, and Wang offers an appealing cultural perspective to help support dramatic entanglements. The movie isn’t razor sharp and doesn’t get weird enough, but Wang’s creative voice remains clear in this thought-provoking offering. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

2009’s “Paranormal Activity” was the surprise hit of the year, launching a haunted house-style viewing experience created with extraordinarily little money and story. The whole event was made up of loud noises and the occasional offering of threatening imagery, managing to win its audience over by trying to rattle nerves. The same concept for minimalist horror returns in “Undertone,” with writer/director Ian Tuason endeavoring to create a brain-melter with a severely limited budget, keeping the tale of a podcaster experiencing a week of torment to the confines of a single house. It’s not a found-footage effort, but more of a psychological chiller, putting Tuason to work building a sound design capable of carrying an entire feature, placing the main character in the middle of an aural hell. And sound is basically all “Undertone” has, unable to cook up a more dynamic haunting to follow as everything in the movie goes crash, bang, boom. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The “V/H/S” series of anthology films has been going strong in recent years, and just last year welcomed the release of the franchise’s eighth installment. The features focus solely on found-footage/POV horror, giving viewers a sense of immediacy as wicked things happen to hapless characters. “Bodycam” isn’t a lost chapter of the “V/H/S” saga or even a spin-off title, though it basically offers the same viewing experience. Co-writer/director Brandon Christensen (“Superhost,” “Night of the Reaper”) return to the chaos of gradually building insanity facing personalities who don’t understand what they’re up against, with two police officers involved in trouble, recording their night of terror on body-worn cameras. “Bodycam” isn’t anything genre fans haven’t seen before, and there are long stretches of the endeavor where little is happening, but Christensen gives minimalist horror a try, coming up with a few involving points of pressure and a decently hellacious conclusion. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Stephen Lang plays tough guys. He’s been doing it throughout most of his career, and he’s done it very recently, keeping up a villainous presence in “Avatar: Fire and Ash” and doing B-movie duty in the recent “Hellfire.” For “The Optimist,” Lang offers a welcome change of pace, tasked with portraying Herbert Heller, a Holocaust survivor who decided late in life in begin sharing the story of his experiences during World War II, with hopes to reach others carrying considerable pain. Writer/director Finn Taylor (“Dream with the Fishes”) looks to make an intense but sensitive drama from the tale, creating a study of unexpected connection found during troubling times, and Lang is there to hold the picture together with his sturdy, gentle performance. “The Optimist” runs into storytelling issues late in the film, but it remains a powerful understanding of endurance, providing intimacy with crisis and compassion. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

For her second feature-length directorial effort, Maggie Gyllenhaal goes from the smallness of the psychological thriller “The Lost Daughter” to the bigness of “The Bride.” Armed with a massive budget and her own screenplay, Gyllenhaal sets out to redefine 1935’s “Bride of Frankenstein” with help from the ghost of author Mary Shelley and the pumping heart of cinema, submitting a significant effort to transform the endeavor into a lawless, anarchic overview of monster love. “The Bride” goes for broke with its tone and character creations, putting Gyllenhaal to work transforming the idea into a meditation on feminism and askew empowerment. It’s hard to fault her intentions, but sitting through the picture is an exceptional endurance test at times, finding the helmer showing little interest in telling a viable story while the rest of the offering becomes an overacting convention from performers left alone to do anything they please. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While co-writer/director Patrick Hughes came on the scene with the grittiness of 2010’s “Red Hill,” the helmer has largely abandoned reality for most of his career. Hughes favors the world of action/comedy, looking to charm and pummel audiences with endeavors such as “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” (along with its 2021 sequel) and “The Man from Toronto.” He’s not the most inspired architect of entertainment, but Hughes finally puts his funny bone to rest for “War Machine,” which hopes to become a more destructive sci-fi/thriller, pitting U.S. Army Ranger hopefuls against a heavily armed alien menace. It’s a straightforward tale of survival from Hughes and co-writer James Beaufort, and they mostly deliver an exciting ride with the picture, investing in heated scenes of confusion and defense, giving star Alan Ritchson plenty of panic to play as he carries the periodic intensity of the offering, which is always most confident in battle situations. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com