Carolina Caroline (2026)

Kyle Gallner is developing an impressive indie crime film catalog with this following his impressive turns in the Passenger and Strange Darling. Many have compared this film to Bonnie and Clyde because it's about two young lovers on a crime spree but I find this film has a strikingly different tone. This downplays the crime, a devise used to create the tension in the relationship and plays up the romance, even if it is a dysfunctional one. For me Carolina Caroline was about a doomed romance between good people who make terribly bad choices unable to help themselves on their road to ruin. 

Weaving is strong here playing her character's attempts to reconcile her abandonment issues with her sense of self-empowerment. She falls for a man she knows is dangerous not because of that danger but because of how he represents the freedom she is looking for. He falls for her because of how much he is impressed with her. I loved how the film emphasized their attractions being based on something more than just how beautiful they both are, that what draws them together is how much they respect each other. 

And it's this detail in their romance which keeps it from being too cliche despite it going where you can expect it to go. Their strong performances and a script which respects its characters and complete, if deeply flawed people, make the film remarkable to watch and easy to get hooked on. Films about con artists are always a good hook in, but the film gets your wrapped up in your feelings for these characters despite knowing how badly things will end up. 

The other thing about this film is it's incredible soundtrack. Jason Isbel's 2013 song Cover Me Up is used to perfection to capture the tragedy of this love story. 

Carolina Caroline

Starring: Samara Weaving, Kyle Gallner, Jon Gries, Kyra Sedgwick

Director: Adam Carter Rehmeier

Writer: William Thomas Dean IV

Hope (2026)

Hope is big ambitious film making. It is about the fear of invasion, about having your style of life taken from you. As a South Korean film set along the world's most infamous and militarized border, Hope obviously speaks to those things that divide us. Using the alien metaphor quite literally, it is somewhat unique in how it gives us so much of the alien point of view. But at its heart (pun intended for those who've seen it) Hope is a well crafted and deliberate monster movie whose goal is to get that heart pumping which it does very effectively. 

For me Na Hong-jin walked a very thin line between his desire to build suspense and his characters by slowing the film's pacing with risking occasionally making the film feel self-consciously like it was holding back. Sometimes this worked very well, especially in the first hour (it takes 50 minutes for the film to show us the monsters). The film edges its audience to the point we can barely breathe so once the first monster "attack" scene finally blows up it is extra powerful. His twist hits harder too because of his patience.

But I'm not sure this worked as well in the second half of the film where some sequences felt needlessly drawn out. There is a specific character "death" which happens near the end which is telegraphed in a way that attempts humour but felt sort of overdone and stretched beyond what it needs. There are a few times it felt like the film dawdles in the latter parts. But by then we have become quite invested in these characters so perhaps it is easier to forgive some of this. 

*Spoiler* the plans for Hope are longer than this long film can contain. The film ends on a cliff hanger with little being resolved. The story Na Hong-jin is weaving is epic. I would say Hope is a good first chapter with the way it forces us to see differing perspectives and consider the aliens and their point of view. I would hope the inevitable sequel will get into that further but I'd hope isn't afraid to let his action sequences truly roll. The things that is most memorable about the film is just how pulse pounding all of that is. 

Hope

Starring: Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, Hoyeon, Taylor Russell, Cameron Britton, Alicia Vikander, Michael Fassbender

Writer/Director: Na Hong-jin

Mayday (2026)

At this point it would be reasonable to think that Ryan Reynolds doesn't know how to play any other character than... well, Ryan Reynolds. He is once again cast in the role he was born to play. This variation is his as an 80s "Top Gun" style pilot, who, naturally, is a wise cracker with a heart of gold. Once he is shot down in Soviet Russia, he is found by a US loving former KGB agent (played with all the silliness he loves to bring to these roles, by Branagh) who is a perfect fighting machine and delightfully odd. We follow their hi-jinx as they attempt to make it out of the Soviet Union before they are caught and while this happens they learn a little about each other and that perhaps neither "side" of the cold war was the evil each attempted to paint the other as. 

Mayday goes pretty much how you would expect and generally it's funny and fun despite being rather obvious. Reynolds tones down his bluster somewhat so it is less grating that it has come to feel. All of this makes for a fun little watch even if the film always feels like each turn is constructed without feeling organic or real. There is a sweetness to its earnestness. Its heart is in the right place. It may not be much but its under two hours that will generally be enjoyable. 

Mayday

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Kenneth Branagh, Maria Bakalova, Marcin Dorociński, David Morse

Writers/Directors: Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley

Finding Emily (2026)

A lot has been written about the death of the Rom-Com, a genre which once dominated the box office which now struggles to find much of a foothold. Some think while the Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullocks of Hollywood have moved on, the hope for the future of the Romantic Comedy is in indie films. Generally I think there might be something to that. I just didn't find Finding Emily to be a great blueprint for making that happen. While it had many of the trappings, it often felt like it was falling into the very traps it was playing with.

One of the things about Rom-Coms is how often they romanticize extremely inappropriate behavior. Usually someone is lying and manipulating someone else and after some perfunctory mea culpa they are rewarded with their "one true love". Finding Emily is fairly self-conscious about how inappropriately both of its leads are acting, often with the characters in the film pointing it out, but the film's philosophy is, isn't that romantic... anyway? 

Finding Emily does all it can to be charming and romantic, casting wildly charismatic everyman leads and making them so likeable you can't help but overlook their behaviour, which they generally do not have to ever suffer any consequences for. Yet for all the film's self-awareness it never manages to be that funny nor that romantic. And that is really where the genre suffers the most. 

Finding Emily isn't any worse than any other of its genre mates but it also really isn't that much better either and falls right in the middle of the pack.  

Finding Emily

Starring: Angourie Rice, Spike Fearn, Minnie Driver

Director:  Alicia MacDonald

Writer: Rachel Hirons

Coyote vs. Acme (2026)

Smart, funny, and delightfully charming, Coyote vs. Acme may not be quite the masterpiece Who Framed Roger Rabbit is but it is very much in that spirit and captures something both lovingly nostalgic and cleverly discerning from a modern lens. Capturing the irony and wit of the classic Looney Tunes while infusing a great deal of love for these characters, Coyote vs. Acme gets why we love the old cartoons and brings us something new to love with it. And at the heart of it Coyote vs. Acme is just a damn good time at the movies for almost all ages. 

One doesn't have to be an aficionado of the WB cartoons to truly love this, but it certainly helps. Filled with little easter eggs and featuring some pretty deep cuts, Coyote vs. Acme is a treasure trove for long time fans. But it is also completely accessible for someone fresh to the material. From a small child (who may have many of the jokes go over their heads - just like the original cartoons) to adults of all ages who may not be overly familiar, this film is just really entertaining and watchable with a pretty direct plot. The characters are likeable and fun and mostly its story is presented without getting too complicated. But perhaps there is a bit of complications which make this richer than your average Hollywood nostalgia sequel. 

Like the reference I made earlier to the most famous live action/animation classic, Coyote vs. Acme might have something a little more sophisticated to say than simple humour. There is a court case at the centre of this film which is mostly handled on a fairly curface level but what underlies that is some interesting social commentary on class, capitalism, exploitation. The film doesn't get too bogged down in the weeds, keeps things rather straight forward, and its metaphors aren't as sublime as Roger Rabbit's but they are there and they are smart and like the old Looney Tunes cartoons they might just teach us something.

Coyote vs. Acme is a little gem that overcame the odds (read into the history of this film being made, cancelled, and then resurrected... it's fascainting) and we are lucky that it's here so don't sleep on this. 

Coyote vs. Acme

Starring: Will Forte, John Cena, Lana Condor, Tone Bell, Luis Guzmán, Eric Bauza, Candy Milo, Jim Cummings

Director:  Dave Green

Writer: Samy Burch

Tony (2026)

Director Johnson has mastered the right balance of humour and heart in his dramadies. While BlackBerry ran right down the middle, his last film Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie leaned into the comedy while wearing a big damn heart on its sleeve.  With Tony he explores a more dramatic side while keeping the story rooted in the sort of organic humour that keeps you smiling even when what you’re seeing is rough. 

I often don’t enjoy biopics cause of their tendency to lionize their subjects and sugarcoat history. Tony feels a little different. Yes it’s treating its beloved subject in a very sympathetic way but it also deprecates him enough to get a pass. Young Tony is a bit of an ass and yet we care about him anyway. For a man we know is going to end his own life eventually we get to see him full of human joy and errors and passions and anger. The film doesn’t address his death instead focusing on his formative years and referencing his later successes. As it should be. 

And the story works because it doesn’t have to be a true story. The characters and plot lines are engaging and interesting enough to be fiction. The cast is great. Sessa continues to shine and those supporting him all bring their A game. 

Tony overcame my apprehension about biopics by being genuine and finding, at its heart, the right story to capture a bit of who Bourdain may have been. 

Tony

Starting: Dominic Sessa, Emilia Jones, Dagmara Domińczyk, Rich Sommer, Stavros Halkias, Leo Woodall, Antonio Banderas

Director: Matt Johnson 

Writers: Matthew Miller, Todd Bartels, Lou Howe, Matt Johnson

 

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026)

Horror has a very complicated and closely aligned connection to queerness. From the idea of othering the “monster” to how films stitch us into identifying with certain points of view, certain characters, horror as a genre has playing a significant role in identify formation for those who fall outside of the dominant cultural groups. The documentary The Celluloid Closet covers how Hollywood has queer coded villains, and specifically aligned transness with villainy. Current online discourse has been a backlash against any film which centres characters that aren’t straight white cis-men. Camp Miasma arrives amid this history and this current climate with something profound and haunting to say, something complicated and self-reflective, and it does this while making a gorgeously unsettling, wittingly funny film that somehow sees the beauty in the monster.

Miasma refers to a foreboding, a danger. We are all more familiar with the meaning of camp. Writer/director Schoenbrun plays with language here, including in the name of her movie serial killer, Little Death, a translation of a French phrase for orgasm. Some of what is going on here is a search for the ability to cum. But it’s not that simple. It is about reaching a level of connection to experience something as fulfilling and satisfying as orgasm, connection with others, connection with one’s self. This isn’t as straight forward as you might assume. For many exiled from their own identities, their own selves, through cultural oppression, reaching this state represents a liberation. 

The slasher genre, so full of history of condemning sexual liberation, is the perfect vessel for finding that very freedom. Schoenbrun inverts so many of the assumptions of the genre in the way that queer/trans audiences have been inverting the characterizations of themselves in these movies. While the film doesn’t try to be scary (most of the horror movies elements are played for… well, camp) the film is unsettling in otherways; in how it gives permission to explore, to see things differently. This is the very opposite of how a morality play works.

Einbinder and Anderson are excellent here, with Anderson doing both a tribute and pastiche on Gloria Swanson’s Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard, even down to the turban. She is ethereal and spilling over with subtext and presence and gives the film a larger than life feeling. Also incredible is Jack Haven as Little Death himself. This character blew away any expectations I may have had and even without hardly any lines, Haven delivers a haunting portrait that balances all the pathos and humour captured in he character. 

And Camp Miasma is a simply gorgeous film. Schoenbrun utilizes classic horror film styles and combines the artificial sets with practical in a manner that creates something visually incredible and beautiful to look at. It creates the world in which this specific story can exist and gives it room to breathe, allowing the audience to reflect and absorb the layers of the story.

So much of what Camp Miasma was saying feels familiar yet unsaid, perhaps having been fleeting thoughts we’ve had while consuming horror media from outside the mainstream perspective. Miasma offers it to us explicitly, even if not literally or without some room for personal interpretation. It further entrenches Schoenbrun as one of the most compelling film makers working today.  

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma

Starring: Hannah Einbinder, Gillian Anderson, Jack Haven, Patrick Fischler, Kevin McDonald, Eva Victor, Dylan Baker

Writer/Director: Jane Schoenbrun