The Invite (2026)

I knew how much I was enjoying The Invite by how uncomfortable it was making me. The way the characters spoke to each other, injuring themselves and each other made me cringe and react. It treated its characters a flawed human beings in imperfect relationships and it did it all with a sense of humour and heart. 

Wilde is an exciting film maker who makes films that are fascinating. Some have worked better than others but The Invite is especially interesting. It has to walk a fairly challenging line. It could have easily fallen into farce or become too heavy. But Wilde and her cast keep just the right balance of humour and pathos to make this story of one eventful evening work. 

I appreciated how much the film treated its characters with respect. While recognizing the inherent humour in their humanness, The Invite still gives each character the space and integrity to be real people with all their flaws and strengths. The smart and funny script by McCormack and Jones has been compared to Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe and that's not much hyperbole. There is sensitivity and insight going on here and it hits more than most films do. It's characters are awkward and sometimes cruel; they are vulnerable and sometimes petty. But they are honest.

The Invite is the sort of film that gets you thinking about relationships, both through asking some challenging questions but also through evoking real emotional stakes. I appreciated that its ambigous ending doesn't attempt to necessarily solve anything but reminds us of the love that we have even when things may be falling apart. 

The Invite

Starring: Seth Rogen, Olivia Wilde, Penélope Cruz, Edward Norton

Director: Olivia Wilde

Writers: Will McCormack, Rashida Jones

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass (2026)

This film is ridiculously silly and clearly no one involved is taking it seriously in the slightest. Unlike a lot of comedies, it's not trying to say much about anything (relationships, agency, whatever) it's just a group of people getting together to have a fun silly time. And in that it works. Deutch's charisma and the connection she has with her cast-mates carries this little wacko exercise and makes it funny most of the time and at least charming when the jokes are a bit much. 

It becomes clear part way through this is a bit of a retelling of The Wizard of Oz, in an odd way, from plot beats to direct references. Dorothy Gale and Gail Daughtry... 

Mostly this feels like a group of actors and film makers got stoned one night at a party and laughed themselves silly over this idea and this is what we got. But who's complaining when it's as delightful as this. 

Probably best to watch it stoned. 

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass

Starring: Zoey Deutch, John Slattery, Ken Marino, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Ben Wang, Sabrina Impacciatore, Jon Hamm, Michael Ian Black, Richard Kind, Thomas Lennon, Jennifer Anniston, Henry Winkler, Elizabeth Banks, Weird Al Yankovitc, Paul Rudd, Penn Jillette, Elizabeth Perkins 

Director: David Wain

Writers: Ken Marino, David Wain 

The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo (2026)

There is a simple beauty to this story and how it is brought to the screen. The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo is told from the point of view of a young girl raised in a community of trans/queer sex workers in a remote part of Chile during the AIDS crisis. It explores very heavy issues through the perspective of youth and love. It is a beautiful film that finds joy in the creation of family. 

Chosen family stories are nothing new in queer worlds but they are also not exhaustive. New film maker Céspedes has crafted a new take on this trope that is inspiring and moving. It comes together with its beautiful cast who play a mix of complicated and honest feeling characters. Throughout we are transported to a time and place that evokes so much which has changed but remains relevant to who we are today. Céspedes has made something powerfully surprising in his first film. 

The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo

Starring: Tamara Cortés, Matías Catalán

Writer/Director: Diego Céspedes

In the Hand of Dante (2026)

I'm all for big swings. I like it when a film really tries for something bold. But sometimes those swings miss and In the Hand of Dante is a pretty big miss. I admire it for trying but I'm sorry to say it does not land this plane. 

In the Hand of Dante is a mystery mixed with mob film, mixed with historical epic, mixed with romance, and none of it really works. Most of the time you are just reminded of much better films that do what it is trying to do much better. Its attempts at witty, audacious banter feel cringey instead of clever. Its gratuitous violence is missing the sort of playfulness to make it cartoony and missing the sort of gravitas to make it impactful. It is lacking the connectivity to make its two timelines work together to create something bigger than the two halves. 

Again I'll give credit to the cast for trying. No one phones it in here. It is just that what they are working with doesn't give them the chance to shine. There is an overall sense that there is a big, consequantial movie somewhere in this story and this just isn't it.

In the Hand of Dante

Starring: Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler, John Malkovich, Louis Cancelmi, Sabrina Impacciatore, Benjamin Clementine, Martin Scorsese, Al Pacino, Jason Momoa

Director: Julian Schnabel

Writers: Louise Kugelberg, Julian Schnabel

Wasteman (2026)

First time director McMau has shot out of the gate with this impressive and visceral debut that is raw with emotional vulnerability and manages difficult violence without exploiting it. Wasteman keeps its story tight, hits all the necessary beats, and focuses mostly on the interiority of its characters in a way that makes it a powerful gut punch of a film that will leave its audience with a lot of feelings. 

The cast is great and Blyth really shines here but I'm here to talk about Jonsson who has become one of the most exciting young actors to come along in a very long time. Every time I see him in something he not only stands out but he surprises me. Wasteman is a new high for him, giving a complicated and rich performance that really takes it all to the next level. He has become the kind of actor I will be excited to see a movie just because he is in it. 

Wasteman isn't an easy film despite its short runtime and rather straightforward plot. Its focus on people who are complicated at best and often quite despicable, its refusal to sugarcoat the realities of prison life and (at the same time) refusal to exploit that into melodrama, and its attention to the details of its sad story make it a bitter pill but well worth it. 

Wasteman

Starring: David Jonsson, Tom Blyth

Director: Cal McMau

Writers: Hunter Andrews, Eoin Doran

Supergirl (2026)

The makers of Supergirl have done it right. Making a movie about a character that isn’t the top tier of comic book icons (and is *gasp* a woman) can have its challenge in this era when competition is high for butts in cinema seats. But Supergirl is a tight, entertaining movie with a fully realized character that sticks to its story which both entertains and gives audience less familiar with her all they need to know. 

Instead of doing an “origin” story, they instead took the story from a popular recent graphic novel, a story that helped redefine the character in comics to give her more of her own identity. Derivative comic characters (“spin off” characters of other popular ones - in this case Superman) can sometimes feel like copies but the Woman of Tomorrow story line set up Kara as her own person. It also gives in-world opportunities for her origin to be explained in backstory. 

And the story is straight forward but emotionally powerful. Best of all Alcock delivers a truly centred performance that brings the movie to life. It’s relatively short runtime and a strong story featuring a good performance at its centre… that makes for a good movie and Supergirl is a good movie that shouldn’t be slept on. 

Supergirl

Starring: Milly Alcock, Matthias Schoenaerts, Eve Ridley, Jason Momoa, David Krumholtz, Emily Beecham, David Corenswet

Director: Craig Gillespie

Writter: Ana Nogueira

 

Toy Story 5 (2026)

It very much feels like the Toy Story movies are repeating themselves. After the original trilogy which very effectively made the case for a story about kids growing past the influences of their youth and the need to move on, we are now ironically stuck in a pattern of that message being recycled over and over. 5 adds something fresh with a slightly nuanced take on tech's influence on children, but doesn't go any further beyond this point than 4 did. Still Toy Story 5 still have the mojo to be entertaining enough for fans and general audiences alike to have a good time. I'm just not sure it's kept all the mojo for these films to be as iconic as they used to be. 

So while the rather saccharine story of children needing to find connection mixed with the standard they-can't-stay-kids-forever theme played out there were a few things that stood out for me as why Pixar still does Hollywood animated features better than the competitors generally. For one I want to shout out to Cusack who's voice performance truly stood out. She remains a talented actor and her Jesse is one of her most iconic rolls. Here she is not only given a lot to work with but she truly steps up and gives a heart-wrenching turn in what may be her best work yet. It's easy to dismiss voiceover performances but when they are good they can be really good and I'd argue her work here is tremendous. 

I also appreciated that the film didn't just do the easy thing of jumping on the screen-time-is-bad-for-kids bandwagon and tried to present a somewhat more complex presentation of how technology is integrating into children's lives. Sure a major media company has an interest in not telling too negative a tech story but still, it could has just pandered to the suburban moms a bit more and doesn't quite fall into that trap. 

More points to them for finding generally organic ways to fit in the franchise's growing cast of characters. The film centres Jesse even more than before giving Woody and Buzz a more backseat role which is also brave in this age of internet rage at anything that doesn't centre white males. 

So for me Toy Story 5 was a bit of a mixed bag that was mostly enjoyable if still on the rather sleight side. I'd argue 1-3 of this series truly hold up and hold a special place in cinema's canon so perhaps it is just too much to expect that level of film making to continue long term. At least the films haven't yet become intolerably reductive or, worst of all, unenjoyable. This is still a fun movie. It just won't have the hold that previous instalments have managed to.

Toy Story 5

Starring: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Greta Lee, Conan O'Brien, Tony Hale, Craig Robinson, Shelby Rabara, Scarlett Spears, Mykal-Michelle Harris, Matty Matheson, John Ratzenberger, Wallace Shawn, Blake Clark, Jeff Bergman, Anna Vocino, Annie Potts, Bonnie Hunt, Melissa Villaseñor, John Hopkins, Kristen Schaal, Ernie Hudson, Bad Bunny, Keanu Reeves, Ally Maki, Alan Cumming

Director: Andrew Stanton

Writers: Kenna Harris, Andrew Stanton