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