Fatherland/Ojczyzna (2026)

What struck me foremost about Fatherland is how intimate a little story it is and yet how much it straddles such significant events in history. Perhaps that is something to reflect on, how much our lives are shaped by the events going on around us and how much those events are shaped by our lives. Fatherland is the story of a father and daughter, a writer who had to flee Germany in the Second World War only to return to visit so he could be honoured both by the new western nation West Germany and the new eastern nation East Germany in their own ways and for their own reasons. This tension is wonderfully explored without doing so in a heavy handed manner at all. 

But the film truly focuses on his relationship to his adult children, especially his daughter, but also his son who has died, apparently by suicide. The film's main focus is the emotions and connections within that family as they exist with that specific turbulent German era. 

Pawlikowski's black and white cinematography is outstanding. Fatherland is a striking film to watch. And these stark visuals mesh well with the narrative tone throughout. In the film's quietly climatic moment, this bears the most fruit. The film's short runtime and abrupt ending all feel very powerful.

Fatherland/Ojczyzna

Starring: Sandra Hüller, Hanns Zischler, August Diehl

Writer/Director: Paweł Pawlikowski

The Only Living Pickpocket in New York (2026)

The Only Living Pickpocket in New York is the kind of film that feels designed to be a vehicle for its star to remind us just what an actor and what a screen presence he is. Fortunately, beyond that it's quite good at the same time. We get a great little story, cleverly told, filled with heart and pathos, while also getting to see Turturro be excellent. 

The story is on the small side and the film makes the right choice not to try to pad it or fill it with superfluous side plots. Instead it stays focused on this one day in this one man's life. He is a man who is both on the pathetic side (he has made many mistakes and has only eked out a passable life through this main skill set - pick pocketing) but he is also at peace with who he is and the life he's made despite the hardships he has faced. Turturro captures all this so beautifully with his understated performance supported by a cast that includes other legends (Curtis shows up for a truly wonderful cameo and Buscemi is the consummate supporting actor here) and a solid supporting cast (Price and Maslany both give delightful turns). 

The story plays out so nicely, always feeling rather organic, never contrived. The film holds back a few things for its little twists and does so in a way that doesn't feel cheap or  tawdry. Instead the story's climax is satisfying. I appreciated that the film didn't try to make this into anything more than it is because what it is is a great little film that is a wonderful watch. 

The Only Living Pickpocket in New York

Starring: John Turturro, Giancarlo Esposito, Will Price, Tatiana Maslany, Steve Buscemi, Jamie Lee Curtis, John Galligher Jr., Tatiana Maslany, Aida Turturro, Lori Tan Chinn, Kelvin Han Lee, Karina Arroyave

Writer/Director: Noah Segan

Clayface (2026)

While ostensively a comic book movie, Clayface is more Faust wrapped in a body-horror package. Matt Hagan, having everything unfairly taken from him, is given a horrific gift, and he is then poised with how to use it. He chooses and that choice leaves him alone but powerful. In many ways Clayface is about that choice and about its consequences. Clayface isn't afraid to go to some dark places, both visually and spiritually so strap in cause they pull no punches. 

The film's story is fairly "comic accurate" for being based on a character whose back story and abilities have changed so many times over the decades. But being an actor, having the ability to shape shirt, and choosing to use his abilities for his own gains all are a part of the story. Clayface packages all this in a modern and logical context which allows the questions the characters raises to be explored. And explore them it does. 

The film leans into the body-horror by not shying away from some gruesome moments. There will be times you want to look away and that's the point. There is a long tradition in literature of using exterior ugliness to reflect the interior ugliness. Clayface uses this trope to show how much Hagen changes through his anger and his growing power. And it does so through an enjoyable story which feels relatable. This is the best part of this script, the way it makes you understand why he does what he does but then makes us wrestle with the consequences of that. 

Harries was wonderfully cast. He has both the kind of striking handsomeness that someone playing a rising star actor would need but his face is also quite uniquely edgy with sharp angles and a malleability that makes his transformation feel real. His performance underlying the make up and effects is spot on. This could be the very career making role that his Hagen character would, well... kill for.

And in the end *spoiler* he is a killer. The film manages to humanize him and make us understand how he gets there but it doesn't redeem him. It allows him to be the bad guy, or at least one of the bad guys in a city (Gotham) full of them. The film's ending fulfills the tragic arc, like in Faust, he ends up in hell. 

Clayface

Starring: Tom Rhys Harries, Naomi Ackie, Max Minghella, Edie Marsan

Director: James Watkins

Writers: Mike Flanagan, Hossein Amini

A Talent for Murder (2026)

A Talent for Murder is a bit of a "what if" movie, it postulates a fictitious scenario mapped on to the life of a real person, in this case, the somewhat problematic Patricia Highsmith, author of the Tom Ripley novels as well as others such as The Price of Salt and Strangers on a Train. Known for her cleverly constructed murder plots and making a devilishly charismatic murdered the protagonist of her most famous novels, Highsmith is seen as one of the 20th century's greatest novelists mixing an intellectuality with an appetite for suspense and drama. 

A Talent for Murder posits her meeting a young man in the last year of her life who attempts to convince her to write one more Ripley novel. She is resistant and despite her proud gruffness, exposes a perhaps unsettled dealing with her inevitable death. This is a completely made up scenario yet it is intriguing as the more the young man begins to merge with her creation, Tom, more and more as they interact. Together they concoct a satisfyingly Riplian murder story which perhaps gives her a bit of life again near the end. 

Mirren and Ehrenreich play off each other in a very satisfying way. She embraces Highsmith as a highly misanthropic and somewhat unpleasant women staring death in the face. There is a reckoning happening here for a writer who made her career exploring death in tantalizing ways, now coming to her own end in a way she cannot control (she died of lung cancer). The film even has her fantasize that Ripley kills her. Ehrenreich has the even more impressive job of playing a man who also beings to see himself through the lens of a fictional character and attempting to live, or imagine living, as that figure. I love what he did here, playing such a well crafted balance of contradictions such as timidity and confidence mixed together. 

I think fans of the Ripley stories will get a lot of satisfaction. The film is itself a fantasia wishing into existence another Ripley book we never get to read. But the film is more than that, a fascinating character study of two disparate people which a pulpy and sultry murder story in the middle. 

A Talent for Murder

Starring: Helen Mirren, Alden Ehrenreich, Olivia Cooke

Director: Anton Corbijn

Writer: Joanna Murray-Smith

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