Wicker (2026)

Early into Wicker I realized that Fischer and Wilson, a male/female couple in real life, were telling a queer story. I don't mean in a literal sense. There is one character who appears to be either Ace or Queer but otherwise this is a story about heterosexuals. What is queer about it is in how it is about gender and sexual non conformity with the norm, a norm that is oppressive and restrictive and a non conformity which is liberating. That's queerness, however it is packaged. 

Colman's Fisherwoman (because everyone in this town is named for their role) is a woman who does not behave like the other women, taking on roles that men are understood to be suited for. She has no romantic relationship and questions the institutions around such relationships (such as marriage itself). She is berated and even bullied for her divergence and ends up being driven to go to the margins to seek out a love that ends up not being accepted. The relationship itself is attacked by the community. It is how the relationship by definition is structured differently than how relationships are supposed to be structured which brings on the turmoil. And it is through her attempts to normalize that relationship, through pressures from outside, that she damages it. 

This is queerness. And Wicker is about how queerness is a liberating force even for heterosexuals. The asks us to question our connections to gender roles, carnality, means of finding connections, and how we present and perform our relationships to the world. It is asking us if we really wish to be in the collars we put around us (no shade to BDSM loving folks). 

As I mentioned there may be some literal queerness in the story. Dinklage's character is presented as happily single living outside of the community and has a one line that suggests he would never pair with a woman (perhaps gay or asexual). And it is his character who offers the solutions that not only liberate Colman's Fisherwoman but end up undoing most of the town. In Wicker it is the queers that will save us all. Wicker is, in my opinion, a straight longing for the magic and lust for life that queerness offers, and perhaps a path towards it. 

Wicker

Starring: Olivia Colman, Alexander Skarsgård, Peter Dinklage, Elizabeth Debicki, Richard E. Grant
Writers/Directors: Alex Huston Fischer, Eleanor Wilson

Wildwood (2026)

It is rare that a film continues to exceed your expectations more and more as it plays out, building from a strong start into something truly magical and epic until its ending leaves you breathless. When a film like that comes along it is something to celebrate. Wildwood is that sort of movie. Wildwood is a modern fairytale which understands that fairytales are brutal stories packed with emotion, terror, beauty, pain, loss, and growth. It is part Labyrinth, part Lord of the Rings, part Disney's Robin Hood, part Narnia, part Return to Oz, part Portlandia, and yet wholly and completely original. 

First I will say this is a story that will grab you from the first frame and keep you on the edge of your seat for its full duration. Filled with diverse and uniquely rich characters, the film manages to do wonderful character development while keeping its story telling pace. I want you know that you will adore this tale. It has a powerful darkness to it and is NOT for young children, but in that darkness is a beautiful story of love and hope that rises from its heart. I found myself viscerally reacting moment after moment. I was literally laughing and crying and surprised by one development after the next. 

The sheer artistry of Wildwood is breathtaking. There are scenes where you loose count of the amount of figures on the screen, each one animated so intricately. The film looks like nothing you've seen before. This is the sort of film that big screens were made for as it is one of the most gorgeous movies I've seen in a while. I am in awe of the achievement this film is. We are lucky to get to see Wildwood come to life.

Go to see it on a big screen just for the spectacle of it alone, but I dare you not to be moved by the power of its story and characters. Simply perfection. 

Wildwood

Starring: Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Jacob Tremblay, Awkwafina, Angela Bassett, Jake Johnson, Charlie Day, Amandla Stenberg, Jemaine Clement, Maya Erskine, Tantoo Cardinal, Tom Waits, Richard E. Grant, Blythe Danner

Director: Travis Knight

Writer: Chris Butler

 

Fjord (2026)

For me Fjord never found its emotional core. The film felt clinical and when it did introduce emotions it felt forced. It is one of those films that feels more like it is making a point than telling a story or showing us some real characters. I know it's "based on a true story" but highly fictionalized, but its sense of realism felt off like it didn't really understand how humans act. 

Fjord moves at a fairly decent pace for a long film, always moving from one plot point to the next. It spends a decent amount of time on the characters in "moments" attempting to show us who they are. Yet I never felt that anyone was portrayed in a manner that made sense. It's almost like Fjord was saying "see??" "see this person" instead of actually making me see them. The kids from our two central families have moments to show us they are connecting but these scenes feel contrived and artificial. The main characters, both Stan and Reinsve but also the other central adults, never even get this well treated. They walk through scenes like they are doing the dress rehearsal, with all emotional investment held back until there are a few (extremely small) burst of humanness only to have that pulled away at the last minute. 

For a while I was wondering if director Mungiu was attempting to build some mystery around the film's central question, a "did they or didn't they" if you will. But Fjord never truly indulges in that. I also thought the film might truly wrestle with the philosophical question at the heart of the film, what is the intersection of the state's responsibility and the role of individual parents when it comes to children's safety, but the film deals so comically with the child protection services characters that you can't ever take it seriously. The film never addresses the fact it repeated bring up, the bruises on the children. 

And as the film reaches it climax, it hinges less on the relationship between the children and their parents, and goes all in one the connection between the eldest daughter and a neighbour friend that never felt like an honest relationship at all so all its emotional impact felt hollow. So much of Fjord felt hollow. It's not a film it's an intellectual argument that forgot to make any compelling argument.  

Fjord

Starring: Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve

Writer/Director: Cristian Mungiu

Rose of Nevada (2026)

Some of Rose of Nevada worked for me, some didn't. The story fascinated me, a small town still never having recovered from a long ago tragedy, and the sudden reappearance of the missing boat. But the film's aesthetic approach, from it's camcorder style visuals to its overly articulated acting style kept pulling me from the story and making me think about things other than the themes the narrative could have been exploring. 

The film looks like something someone made with their home video camera. It's like they got two big stars to make a home movie... and they asked everyone to give the most unrealistic line readings of the dialogue as they could muster. There is a tension between the unrealness of the performances and the cinema verite-ness of just following everyone around with the camera which never gelled. 

Still, there was something about this tale, with its exploration of the responsibility of these men to their village and its future, the loss of what could have been, and connections through time and community that was quite interesting to me. Sometimes its mixed bags like that that sit with you even when it wasn't something you enjoyed. 

Rose of Nevada

Starring: George MacKay, Callum Turner

Writer/Director: Mark Jenkin

 

You Can See Everything (2026)

I went into You Can See Everything fairly skeptical. I could never really get myself to give a shit about Elizabeth Holmes' story as it was happening, never cared to watch the Hulu miniseries starring Seyfried, and I was convinced that I would not be enthused about a three-frickin-hour documentary about her. Man could not have been more wrong. In my defence, perhaps if You Can See Everything was actually about Holmes and the case I would have bored. But soon into this film you see it's about other things, a lot of other things. 

Fielder and Oppenheim have crafted a film about the nature of documentary film making itself. It touches on relationships (romantic, professional, friendships) and how we connect. It touches on the based-on-a-real-story television/film industry. It touches on communication and our responsibilities to each other. And Fielder makes it about himself in someways. You Can See Everything evoked for me one of my all time favourite documentaries, The Stories We Tell by Sarah Polley. It asks us to reflect on what we are watching as a thing itself and not just on the story it's telling. Cause even documentaries are stories and they are shaped by their story tellers.

Fielder Michael Moores himself into the story, quite bravely asking us to consider him as subject as well. Like that provocative film maker of what seems like another lifetime, Fielder understands he and his perspective are as much under the microscope as Holmes. I was fascinated with the way he was willing to pose questions about his own role as film maker. I was also quite taken with how much Seyfried participates in this experiment in film making, letting herself get pulled in in ways I wouldn't expect an A-lister to be willing to do. Famously this film has a nude scene (neither Seyfried nor Fielder) which did elicit some gasps when it happens. It happens early in the film and feels like a war cry, we aren't going to hold back with what we expose. At first we think that is referring to Holmes and Evans, kind of like the title of the film itself, but by the end we realize You Can See Everything is a statement on how to view this film as a product itself. 

You Can See Everything

Starring: Elizabeth Holmes, Billy Evans, Nathan Fielder, Amanda Seyfried, Christopher Abbot

Writer/Directors: Nathan Fielder, Lance Oppenheim

Sense and Sensibility (2026)

Jane Austin's most famous stories are mostly about how money is a cage for those who have it and for those who don't, especially the women caught up by economic machinations. Oakley's adaptation of Sense and Sensibility finds the dark undertones of this and highlights them. I was struck by the gloom of this take although I found it highly appropriate for the material and perhaps a fresh way into the trials and tribulations of the Dashwood sisters. 

17th century England feels very lived in and worn in this film. The countryside life of the upper class (or in the Dashwoods' case the lower upper class) is close to nature while London is grimy and smelly to match the social experiences they find there. The film focuses on the disparity between those who choose their honour over their financial state and those who choose the money. There is a desperation palpable in this version, a kind of essentialism. Austin often brings into clarity the precariousness of women's lives even in the upper stratosphere of society, and Oakley captures that. But that precariousness extends to the men as well, whether its Ferrars, Willoughby, or even Colonel Brandon, everyone is on the brink of ruin.. in one way or another. This gives an urgency to the story that isn't just about denying one's feelings or letting them run rampant; it is about one's well being. 

What felt a little lacking were the characters. The film spends much time on Elinor and Edward but much of the rest of the cast of characters feel more like they are filling a role than coming to life as real people. Even Marianne gets less life breathed into her than I would have hoped. I was happy anytime Fiona Shaw was onscreen, chewing it all up as the wonderful Mrs. Jennings (one of my favourite side characters in literature), as she found not only the character's lust for life and her circle of loved ones but also the tiresome nature of her overbearing love, she even found some of that character's rougher edges as well. Going back to Elinor and Edward, who both come off as more rounded characters that most of this cast, the film still doesn't give either quite enough to make me feel the tragic nature of their love so the film's climax ends up a bit underwhelming. 

Perhaps something I appreciated and was frustrated with at the same time was the resolution of Marianne and Branden's story. On the one hand I found it satisfying that they don't just rush from his rejected admiration to her finally seeing his worth and embracing him. Even with her exuberance for passion, sometimes it can feel a bit like whiplash to see her 180 be too rapid. Yet the film's subtle suggestion of their future still felt a bit cold. Maybe it is a bit more real. Yet it felt a bit less rewarding. 

Still, this Sense and Sensibility does find a way, through its exploration of money's evil pull, to offer up something fresh. This story is a compelling one, even with some flaws, and it is gorgeously filmed in that way that makes you want to lose yourself in the heath and in the passion of a denied love. 

Sense and Sensibility

Starring: Daisy Edgar-Jones, George MacKay, Esmé Creed-Miles, Caitríona Balfe, Frank Dillane, Herbert Nordrum, Fiona Shaw, Bodhi Rae Breathnach

Director: Georgia Oakley

Writer: Diana Reid

Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother (2026)

Tariq has quite an eye for crafting a scene and a talent for building those scenes into a compelling story. With Your Mother, Tariq blends a strong sense of family and faith with the tension that comes from the violent world of his central character, a hitman. He explores the inherent violence in religious communities through this story of a muslim hitman who gets entangled with a gun worshipping Texas evangelical church. It is a combination ripe with emotion and meaning with a powerful performance from Ali (what else would you expect) at its centre.

Beautiful and emotional Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is powerful on the big screen. My only complaint is that I did not find the narrative made a lot of sense. It felt like the script was often just trying to get us from one of the important scenes to another and didn't always feel real. The climactic battle is a bit confusing and not quite earned. But the film's strength comes more in its characters connecting, particularly Ai and his daughter. 

It is those moments where Your Mother truly shines. Young actress Adia is incredible and paired with Ali playing her father, the two really bring the story to life everytime they are together. The film's real ending, following the big climactic battle, is a quiet emotional scene that makes you realize the is far less interested in the set pieces than the film's marketing is, and that is for the best.

Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother

Starring: Mahershala Ali, John Cho, Giancarlo Esposito, Abubakr Ali, Tramell Tillman, Adia

Writer/Director: Bassam Tariq