The Wrecking Crew (2026)

Soto knows how to make really fun films. The Wrecking Crew is another that is far more fun than it should be. The action is on point, the script is smart enough to support its story, and the chemistry between its stars is off the charts. It all comes together to make a really watchable film. 

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Bautista is the best actor to come from the world of wrestling and even when he is in something like this, less dramatic and more action comedy, he gives a strong performance. And Momoa has proven he can light up screen with his charm and is a good enough actor to deliver on the more dramatic moments. What really makes it work is how well they work together. They play off each other wonderfully.

I'm not saying The Wrecking Crew is anything more than it tries to be. It is a fun action comedy with some compelling leads. I do think it shows more films should be shot in Honolulu, a great city with far more story telling potential than has been exploited. 

The Wrecking Crew

Starring: Jason Momoa, Dave Bautista, Claes Bang, Temuera Morrison, Jacob Batalon, Frankie Adams, Miyavi, Stephen Root, Morena Baccarin 

Director: Ángel Manuel Soto

Writer: Jonathan Tropper

Back to the Future (1985) TOP 100

Few movies are perfect but this might be one of them. I saw this film as a kid in a cinema one afternoon and loved it so much I convinced my family to all go see it again that evening! It's the only time I have watched a movie twice in the cinema on the same day. I have no regrets. 

The script is such a masterful piece of keeping all the balls in the air. Like the mechanics of a ticking clock all working in synch, the way each little piece, even down to small details in the background, all work together to tell this story... and what a story... it is one of the most intricate pieces of film making I have witnessed and knowing more about how this film was made makes that even more remarkable. The fact almost half the film was reshot after the main character was recast, that it was filmed mostly at night since Fox was shooting his day job TV series at the same time. There are many stories of masterpieces being cobbled together as they went along (Casablanca) and Back to the Future is one of those masterpieces. It's a bit of a miracle this film exists. 

The film remains, after all these years, genuinely funny and satisfying. Marty is a charming everyman who both learns to be a better person through seeing his parents as people, and inspires them to be the best of themselves. I've come to see this is about growing up and entering into that adult to adult relationship we reach with our parents and our children as we/they come of age. It is letting go of seeing them in their roles and seeing them for the humans beings, the individuals, they are and love them. It is about how things change and how things stay the same. It is also about having agency and becoming who we want to be.

Each time I watch the film I am still on the edge of my seat during the remarkably filmed set pieces. Marty's making it back to 1985 is filmed so perfectly you can't help but hold your breath, even when you know how it all turns out. The jokes still make me laugh. And the film is just filled with great big heart overflowing from the characters and story. It is one of those films that is just so damn hard not to love. And love it I do time after time.

Back to the Future

Starring: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, Thomas F. Wilson, Claudia Wells, Marc McClure, Wendie Jo Sperber, George DiCenzo, Frances Lee McCain, Jason Hervey, Billy Zane, Harry Waters Jr., James Tolkan, Huey Lewis 

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Writers: Bob Gale, Roberts Zemeckis

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere (2025)

I was surprised when Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere didn't take off with audiences. Biopics of legendary musicians tend to do well, the Nebraska album (the recording of which this film focuses on) is considered a masterpiece, and White is a bit of a phenom (albeit a small one) as the film was released. But when I finally got around to watching it I started to see that it just didn't come together in a way that made it feel urgent or even that relevant. 

This film is about depression. Springsteen hasn't been shy about talking about his struggles and the film takes a single period in his life, just as his career is taking off and he decides to make a stripped down album without singles or tour promotions. He is unable to hold a relationship together and he is haunted by memories of an abusive father. Deliver Me From Nowhere's arc is about a man who has everything producing iconic art but unable to live happily in his life. 

Yet the film never quite finds it footing. Cooper doesn't find a way to make it flow or feel real. He brings an almost too subtle, quiet approach which never makes the story feel lived and so when the ending comes, a rather triumphant moment of a successful album, a cathartic moment with his parents, and the upcoming smash success of one of the biggest albums in rock history (Born in the USA) the pathos just don't feel earned. 

I appreciated White's performance. He plays it cool without big "acty" scenes, instead just quietly playing Bruce as a real human. While he finds the Boss' mannerisms and way of being quite well he doesn't feel like his doing an impression of the rock star. The film never quiet gives him the opportunity to tell this journey effectively. The film isn't badly put together it just isn't overly successful in making the story resonate. He does sing the songs well, sounding surprisingly true to the source. 

The challenge here is that Bruce's story isn't overly dramatic. His struggle with depression is quite average (weird to say when speaking of such a super star) and doesn't have the "rock bottom" style messiness that stories like these thrive on. His high functioning mental health struggles don't make for the sort of Oscar-baity cinema that people like to lap up. This isn't fatal. Perhaps a better film could have found the way to make this sort of more intimate, and frankly realistic, story leap off the screen, but this doesn't quite get there. And that's too bad because there is a good story here and one that might have been able to touch a lot of hearts. 

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere

Starring: Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, Paul Walter Hauser, Stephen Graham, Marc Maron, David Krumholtz

Writer/Director: Scott Cooper 

Mercy (2026)

I had hoped against hope a little with Mercy. It was directed by Bekmambetov (who has made some wonderful films), stars the insanely watchable Rebecca Ferguson, and is premise, about an AI justice system was poised to raise some fairly fascinating questions that I thought were ripe for a sci fi exploration. Sadly, Bekmambetov and Ferguson as pretty much phoning it in and the film abandons any real deconstruction of what an AI justice system could mean (beyond the most surface examination) early on. In the end it almost feels like its endorsing the idea. Im sure Sarah Connor is rolling over in her grave. 

But if you throw all that aside, Mercy ends up having a rather decent mystery and its wrapped up in a generally fun package. Mekmambetov may have moved into a rather director-for-hire stance but he still knows how to tell a story. Mercy shares more in common with his screenlife films (Searching, Missing, etc.) than the Nightwatch/Daywatch movies that broke him into western audiences' consciousness. It's realtime gimmick and fairly competent mystery keep you entertaining for the films relatively short runtime. And I guess there is nothing wrong with that.

I just kinda wish it had been what it promised to be and really dug into the complexities of integrating AI in to the decision making of a system whose role is to reduce crime/and or hold people accountable for their actions. But don't go into this thinking you'll get any of that. 

Mercy

Starring: Chris Pratt, Rebecca Ferguson, Kali Reis, Annabelle Wallis, Chris Sullivan, Kylie Rogers 

Director: Timur Bekmambetov

Writers: Marco van Belle

The Ugly Stepsister/Den Stygge Stesøsteren (2025)

The Ugly Stepsister might be a bit "on the nose" (pun intended) with its beauty-standards critique wrapped up in a retelling of Cinderella, but it remains rather darkly fun and sharply disturbing in its campy, lush style. The film would have been too much if it had leaned more serious instead of erring on the side of satire. The mutilation of a young woman to fit into an idea of what is attractive is a horrendously upsetting, although far too realistic situation, so presented here as (very adult) fairy tale makes it a film we can experience and a point we can take. 

The film sticks to its Cinderella roots quite closely, plot point to plot point, reframing the fairy tale to be from the step-sister's point of view. It is remarkable how little the film needs to change the story to make its point. Cinderella herself doesn't have to become a villain, and the Step-Mother remains nefarious, and we can see how the pitting of women against each other destroys them. The film manages to comment so much on our real world societal structures while managing to retell the myth rather closely to its roots. 

Still, The Ugly Stepsister remains an unpleasant watch. Those desensitized by films like The Substance or Titane won't see anything they haven't already, but the film does't cut corners (again pun intended IYKYK) on the gore and gruesomeness. The fantasy element of this helps make it a bit more palatable, and the camp lets us laugh a bit. This is a bold film that will challenge its audience while entertaining us.  

The Ugly Stepsister/Den Stygge Stesøsteren

Starring: Lea Myren, Thea Sofie Loch Næss, Ane Dahl Torp 

Writer/Director: Emilie Blichfeldt

The Rip (2026)

The Rip is one of those movies that really should have a been a lot better than it is. The Rip is pretty much exactly what one would expect from start to finish, never once surprising or impressing, delivering exactly the formula that it offers. That's perfectly okay. If you want to be able to scroll on your phone while you watch a film featuring A-listers doing what they always do, then The Rip is your film. If you want to watching something interesting that will give you something to think about, move along. '

I guess I really wanted to see Damon and Affleck reunite in something that was interesting to watch. Beyond them the cast here is stacked but everyone is just phoning it in. Again there is nothing wrong with formula films that give you exactly what you ordered but it's just not my jam. It isn't what I look for in a movie. 

I could see each "twist" coming and who was good and who was bad were never really much of a surprise. I say The Rip should have been better because the idea is one that is ripe for a lot of actually interesting twists, social commentary, and character development but the film doesn't really try on any of that, instead giving us the most elementary takes on all of it And the cast is good and could have been up for something more complex. Still if you're a fan of any of these actors and just want mindless escapism for a couple hours you could do worse. "Mindless" isn't a fair word to describe it but it doesn't take much brainpower to keep your eye on this ball. 

The Rip

Starring: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Steven Yeun, Teyana Taylor, Sasha Calle, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Scott Adkins, Kyle Chandler, Néstor Carbonell, Lina Esco 

Writer/Director: Joe Carnahan

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)

I think one of the challenges for many with the film 28 Years Later (this film's predecessor) was that it was marketed as a stand alone movie but was really a "chapter one" in a longer saga. Audiences in the 2020s have struggled with films like this. Despite its popularity Spider-man Across the Spiderverse elicited negative reactions to its "to be continued" end scene, Wicked for Good changed it's name away from Part Two to avoid some of this (and likely suffered in popularity for it), a cliff-hanger in Fast X has pretty much killed that franchise. Perhaps in an era when streaming full series in weekend binges has become de rigueur, not being able to see the next moment right away is something audiences can't handle. How many times do you hear people say they are waiting for the "whole series to drop" so they can binge it all at once? Even the once behemoth Marvel has struggled to keep people invested in their interconnected universe. Only the Dune films have seemed to be able to avoid this being a problem for them in recent years. 

What has become clear with The Bone Temple is that Garland and Boyle (along with DaCosta) have one longer story with multiple threads intended, a story bigger than just one film. They have parsed them into quite separate chapters, each with beginnings and endings of their own, but with one overarching story that crosses 3 films. I really appreciated 28 Years Later, even if it did introduce Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal with his dramatic backstory without giving us his story yet. But for many the film's ending, a tease for this portion of the saga, was too much of an a taunt and they needed the satisfaction NOW! But for those of us who perhaps enjoy the slower, richer forms of story telling, enjoyed the months of anticipation and conjecture that these sorts of stylistic choices make. 

This paragraph will be only very slightly spoilery so skip to the next if you don't want any spoilers. It is clear now this trilogy is the story of Spike and his coming of age. It's going to connect to Jim from 28 Weeks Later and will bring the franchise full circle. Along the way we're getting some fascinating side quests like the stories of Doctor Kelson, the Jimmys, and Samson, further growing the world of the rage virus. And we're reminded this isn't about zombies it's about the horrors of humanity. Perhaps with chapter 2 now logged with Bone Temple it makes more sense and the story can be even more satisfying. I know I found Bone Temple to be a gut-wrenching, emotionally powerful film and I am eager to get to the third instalment. But I am also satisfied to wait as Bone Temple works very much as its own film. Even without Spike's introductory story (nothing about the baby, his mother, the island, is mentioned here), Jimmy's childhood scenes, or the first meeting of Spike and Kelson, the film works completely on its own. You could even have no knowledge of Jim (and no speculation of the identity of the young woman with him) and the final moments work. Bone Temple is very much its own film with an introduction that gives you all you need to get into it and a fully developed story that wraps up its ending wonderfully.

DaCosta has been on my radar for years. She's made the best Candyman film and now she has made one of the best "28 ___ Later" films. Her film just before this, Hedda, is a remarkable movie that more people need to see. What she's done with this chapter two, besides making it fit visually and tonally with 28 Years Later, is make a truly terrifying (in the existential sense mostly but often in the cover-your-eyes way too) horror film that is rich with texture and complicated emotions. She's also set up Boyle who is supposed to return for the third film and now has to live up to this legacy. Chapter twos are often strong. There is something about not being the beginning of the story and having to set things up, and not being the end where things have to be "finished", that allows you just to focus on telling a good story. DaCosta has done that. 

Bone Temple is a bit of a tour de force for Fiennes whose Doctor Kelson is just an incredible character who gets to do a lot of wonderful stuff. By the end I found him just so friggin' compelling. Fiennes finds the right balance to make Kelson jump off the screen without ever feeling like too much. O'Connell is great as Jimmy as well. Pulling off characters that are this level of insane evil can be challenging. It's so easy for them to be caricatures, but O'Connell, like he did in Sinners, makes Jimmy both horrible and horrifying, with perhaps only a slight bit of tragedy thrown in for good measure. 

I think the film makers have made something uniquely strong here, a very good addition to the elevated horror cannon, but are also building something very satisfying with this entire trilogy. I'm sad we live in a time when audiences can't enjoy the deliciousness of waiting and speculating that serialized story telling offers (imagine the Before Trilogy being released today). I am very eager to see what comes next but also very satisfied to sit with this and imagine all the possibilities. 

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Jack O'Connell, Alfie Williams, Erin Kellyman, Chi Lewis-Parry, Emma Laird, Cillian Murphy

Director: Nia DaCosta

Writer: Alex Garland

Dead Man's Wire (2026)

After not directing a film since 2018, Van Sant comes back with a vengeance with this solid and unflinching Dead Man's Wire. This "based on real events" film tells a long forgotten story about a man who felt he was pushed over the edge and takes a mortgage company's CEO's son hostage to get what he's entitled to. Of coarse it doesn't go well, and much of Dead Man's Wire's point is to show just how little changes and how little consequences there are people who exploit the system, but the strength of the film is in the way it humanizes those involved, from those we may sympathize with or those we may not. 

Skarsgård has been making a career out of oddball rolls despite fitting a far more heartthrob type and this may be my favourite big swing of his. He does not play Kiritsis as a well man but he also doesn't play him stereotypically "crazy". He crafts a very relatable irrational personal in a way that walks a very thin line. Montgomery is strong opposite him, showing us his very human side while never quite vindicating him and his choices. While Pacino is always always great, especially as scumbags, my favourite "stunt" casting is Domingo as a radio personality who is all personality. 

But it is Van Sant's skilled direction which pulls it all together energizing this story in a way that makes it so compelling without sensationalizing it. In the end it is a sad tale with no happy endings but without a big American drama. It is the subtle things he does such as mixing in "news footage" and this brilliant moment when the news is about to interrupt regular TV programming which is footage of John Wayne receiving an award with clip after clip of him shooting people in movies. Sometimes legendary directors have these little gems in their oeuvre and sometimes it reminds us just how they became legends in the first place. 

Dead Man's Wire

Starring: Bill Skarsgård, Dacre Montgomery, Cary Elwes, Myha'la, Colman Domingo, Al Pacino, Kelly Lynch 

Director: Gus Van Sant

Writer: Austin Kolodney

Is This Thing On? (2025)

Will Arnet impresses with a rare dramatic role. His IN here is that he's playing a comedian but the film doesn't lean into that as his stand up tends to be more focused on life stories with humorous tones than full on jokes, and the stand up isn't a huge part of the film. The main focus of Is This Thing On? is the marriage between him and Laura Dern as they negotiate a separation... or not. Perhaps that's what the title is referring to. 

So much is refreshing here. This is a romance (rom-com??) between two people who have been together for 20+ years and who are in their 50s (the film implies they are in their 40s for some reason despite the actors being 10 years older than that). It's the sort of romantic relationship our media doesn't tend to focus on and it generally tackles it well, getting into the complications of long terms relationships, especially when they are focused on other pressures (career, children, etc.). In fact the film makes us of Under Pressure to highlight this. 

If anything Is This Thing On? is just too slight in the end with the depth of its analysis being fairly low key. That's common in rom-coms but the reason I hesitate to use that term to describe this is that it doesn't lead into the funny, or the typical structure of the genre. Still, Cooper has a real directing talent and this is a strong entry in his filmography even if the script itself is on the lessor side. 

Is This Thing On?
Starring: Will Arnett, Laura Dern, Andra Day, Bradley Cooper 

Director: Bradley Cooper, Amy Sedaris, Sean Hayes, Christine Ebersole, Ciarán Hinds, Scott Icenogle 

Writers: Will Arnett, Chappell, Bradley Cooper

Rosemead (2025)

There has been a lot of talk about Lucy Liu, her radically against type performance, and how she knocks it out of the park in the tragic drama Rosemead and it's all warranted. Liu is transformational here and truly remarkable in a difficult role. The fact that she has remained out of the "awards" talk is an additional tragedy as this is a stunning performance in a compelling film. 

The film is quietly powerful. The approach of the story is to stick pretty close to the plot and just let the story unfold. Liu and Shou build credible characters and tell a story that is so terribly sad. The story centres on Liu's character's physical health and Shou's character's mental health yet it is remarkable that the film never implies that anything failed him or his family. It just sits with how difficult their health issues are so challenging and unsolvable that this story has to play out. I think that made it even more challenging a reality to exist in. 

Together the two actors do a wonderful job and the film keeps its pacing strong so it all feels very real and engaging. By the time it reaches its conclusion it again takes a very quiet and thoughtful approach to let its audience sit with the immense sadness it is presenting. I hope this leads to Liu getting even more diverse roles as she clearly can stand out. 

Rosemead

Starring: Lucy Liu, Lawrence Shou

Director: Eric Lin

Writer: Marilyn Fu

The Plague (2025)

The Plague gives us both the exciting film making debut of Polinger and confirmation that Blunck may be one of the best actors of Gen Alpha. Following up on his incredible role in Griffin in Summer, Blunck goes in a completely different direction here with equally impressive results. And Polinger  manages to find a unique visual language to tell his powerful, if not revolutionary, story of bullying in a way that makes it feel viscerally raw. 

The Plague is a movie that will upset you. It offers no resolution and no solution. It presents us with a very real world situation of destructive male behavior and gives us no example of hope. Our central character is a complicit victim. The perpetrator faces no consequence that promises any sort of change (we even see him very slightly face his own source of bullying). The adult establishment is perpetually inert and ineffective in responding. Another victim is unable to respond in any manner. And the bystanders are all happy to go along with and support the system which continues the abuse. The Plague is almost nihilistic in its portrait of toxic masculinity. 

In contrast to this it is a beautifully shot film. From the opening sequence on Polinger shows us he knows what he is doing. He focuses on underwater views which are both beautiful and unnerving. It creates an uncanny sort of feeling which sets everything off just so. His thesis is quite a condemnation and he crafts it so lovingly. It is such a powerful juxtaposition that culminates in a moment that can be read equally as surrender and escape. Is our protagonist Ben collapsing in on himself in sheer desperation or liberating himself from the curse he's been under. So much remains rightfully unanswered. His physical manifestations of "the plague" are never explained. How much of it is in his head, how much is psychosomatic, how much is a narrative representation of his self-hatred?

To call The Plague an "impressive" debut is reductive. This is a declaration of a film maker arriving. And Blunck is an actor just getting started. 

The Plague

Starring: Everett Blunck, Kayo Martin, Kenny Rasmussen, Joel Edgerton 

Writer/Director: Charlie Polinger

We Bury the Dead (2026)

I am honestly always surprised when someone make a new zombie movie that feels fresh and is entertaining. There are so many zombie films that you'd think all the plots have been done and there were no more new stories to tell. The Zombie genre is a real zombie-genre... a genre that won't die, and writer/director Hilditch's new one shows that once again there are still narratives worth telling. 

While I didn't think We Bury the Dead is the second coming, or anything, I still felt it had a compelling story that didn't feel exactly like something we had seen before. The idea of a woman seeking closure after her husband dies in a catastrophic event, and she hopes that he will come back to undead life was quite interesting and emotionally powerful. The film explores some dark places with Smith's subplot which brings the film to a rather satisfying conclusion (no spoilers). This ends up being a rather worthwhile entry into this film category.

Anchoring this is Ridley who continues to show what a good actor she is especially in genre films. I found her performance was subtle yet moving and lent itself to the challenges of this particular story. Supported by Smith with a quietly demented performance and Thwaites as the himbo who manages to be three dimensional, the film works because its cast pulls it off. 

While We Bury the Dead may not be one of the essentials of zombie film making, it is a worthwhile addition. I do wonder if it is the sort of film that might have thrived more on streaming than in cinemas, as it might be the sort of film more people would be willing to sit down to watch than to go out to see. Perhaps there is where it will find life. 

We Bury the Dead

Starring: Daisy Ridley, Mark Coles Smith, Brenton Thwaites 

Writer/Director: Zak Hilditch

Endless Cookie (2025)

The unique visual style makes Endless Cookie catch your attention but what makes it really stick with you is the natural nature of how the stories are told. This is a film about story telling and Endless Cookie is such a compelling way to take these stories in. The Scriver's pairing of film making with story telling comes together so beautifully that you can't help but get pulling into their stories. 

There is a juxtaposition between how odd the visuals are, from the characters to the animation, and how much it feels like someone you know telling you about their lives. The stories are sometimes hilarious, and sometimes quite moving. Sometimes they are involved and sometimes they get cut off and are left without resolution. However they play out it's impossible not to get pulled in.

I find often animation can achieve a greater approximation of real life than "live action" can. Endless Cookie, with its naturalistic ways of bringing the Scriver's family stories to the world, is a wonderful example of this. 

Endless Cookie

Writers/Directors: Seth Scriver, Peter Scriver 

Or Something (2025)

Or Something should have been right up my alley. I love movies where two strangers meet and spend the next few hours walking around, having discussions, and learning about each other. Before We Go, Weekend, Rye Lane, Paris 05:59, the f@#kin Before Trilogy. These are my jam. I as excited to watch this one. But Or Something is missing the main component. It's about boring people. It's about normies. People who talk about very typical things with very unoriginal perspectives. 

Written by its stars, they just don't offer anything interesting for the 80 minutes they spend getting to know each other. I kept waiting for there to be something interesting discussed but instead they always talked like they were uttering an AI's version of what they think two people might talk about. 

I appreciated the film's tour of NYC's average neighbourhoods. It felt authentic in its New Yorkness. The characters felt quite real. That's not my critique. They felt like very real...  boring average people. And that just doesn't float my boat. So while I like the form, this content just didn't spark anything for me. 

Or Something

Staring: Mary Neely, Kareem Rahma

Director: Jeffrey Scotti Schroeder

Writers: Mary Neely, Kareen Rahma