Tag: Movie Review

Obsession (2026) | REVIEW

‘Bear’ (played by Michael Johnston) on the phone, while his eerily spellbound date, Nikki (played by Inde Navarrette), walks into the frame to look for him in Curry Barker’s OBSESSION — PHOTO: Focus Features / Universal Pictures (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Curry Barker (Milk & Serial) — Screenplay by Curry Barker.

One of the more interesting recent developments in the film industry is that certain online personalities — YouTubers and TikTokers — are being afforded the opportunity to become filmmakers. The primary example of this is arguably Danny and Michael Philippou, the Australian twins who went from YouTubers to significant horror filmmakers, and their films Talk To Me and Bring Her Back. But it doesn’t stop there. Last year, YouTube film critic-turned-filmmaker Chris Stuckmann had his feature debut, Shelby Oaks, released by Neon. Earlier this year, Mark ‘Markiplier’ Fischbach self-released an adaptation of an indie video game (Iron Lung), while it was announced that Seán ‘jacksepticeye’ McLoughlin would be a producer on an animated feature film adaptation of the video game Bloodborne. In fact, just a few weeks from now, the horror film Backrooms will be released, which was directed by YouTuber Kane Parsons, whose own project the film is based on. This modern wave of online personalities breaking through in the industry is fascinating, and another example of this new wave is Curry Barker, previously best known for his online sketch comedy duo, that’s a bad idea, with Cooper Tomlinson. After years of making short films and online skits to feature on YouTube and TikTok, he self-released his hour-long found-footage horror film, Milk & Serial, in 2024, the positive response to which likely landed him on the radar of many people in the industry. Just a year later, his second feature, Obsession, premiered to raves at the Toronto International Film Festival, and major industry companies like Blumhouse and Focus Features attached themselves to and acquired it. Now, Obsession is out in theaters all around the world. I just saw it last weekend, and I can say that it is not only Barker’s best and most ambitious project yet, but it’s a fantastic horror film with a jaw-droppingly good performance at its center.

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The Voice of Hind Rajab (2025) | REVIEW

Motaz Malhees in THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB by Kaouther Ben Hania, courtesy of Mongrel Media.

Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania — Screenplay by Kaouther Ben Hania.

Every once in a while, when you review films, you come across a film that is so emotionally powerful, raw, and important that it hits you like a sledgehammer right to your midsection. A film that is so overwhelming, urgent, timely, and important that you simply must review it, but which, at the same time, features elements that make it difficult to write a conventional review for it. The Voice of Hind Rajab is that kind of film. This is a film about something horrifying that really happened as recently as 2024. It is a film that makes bold choices that perhaps won’t sit well with some viewers, but whose bold and perhaps controversial choices must be included to live up to the spirit of the project. As a film, it dances on the line between documentary and a more conventional narrative feature as a docudrama that packs an emotional wallop. I think it is fair to say that there will be many people who, after they see this film, will never be the same.

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Shelby Oaks (2025) | REVIEW

Camille Sullivan in SHELBY OAKS — PHOTO: Neon (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Chris Stuckmann — Screenplay by Chris Stuckmann.

I don’t think it was possible to frequent YouTube in the 2010s as a film fan without eventually running into a film review uploaded by Chris Stuckmann. Stuckmann earned himself a loyal following over the years and became one of the premier YouTube film critics until the early 2020s, at which point he admitted to wanting to focus on filmmaking. He stated that he felt it wouldn’t be right for him to speak negatively about projects going forward if he wanted to break into the industry. Although his channel still posts videos wherein he talks about new releases, this change in approach has led to a litany of videos scolding him for his decision-making. But, at the same time, Stuckmann did get his wish, as his feature debut as a filmmaker, Shelby Oaks, was released theatrically in North America in 2025. This was notably after Neon picked the film up for distribution and prominent horror filmmaker Mike Flanagan attached himself to the project as an executive producer. I finally got the chance to see Stuckmann’s first film as a writer-director yesterday, and, well, while I thought it was nice to see Stuckmann’s dream come true, the film didn’t do much for me.

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Apex (2026) | REVIEW

Trailer title card — PHOTO: Netflix (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Baltasar Kormákur (Everest; Beast) — Screenplay by Jeremy Robbins.

Baltasar Kormákur’s Apex is a straight-to-streaming Netflix survival thriller that follows Sasha (played by Charlize Theron), a rock climber who lost her partner, Tommy (played by Eric Bana), in a rock-climbing accident. Some time later, Sasha finds herself in the wilderness of Australia, where she encounters Ben (played by Taron Egerton), a stranger who knows the surroundings like the back of his hand. After he intervenes and helps Sasha from a possible confrontation with two strange hunters, Ben gives Sasha two routes to her desired location, and she chooses the harder one. After kayaking, she sleeps in the wilderness and awakes to see that some of her things have been stolen. She makes her way to Ben’s camp, eventually, and he gives her the supplies she needs. But here she learns that his intentions aren’t good. He takes out a crossbow and gives her a chance to run for her escape, as he now intends to hunt her.

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War Machine (2026) | REVIEW

Trailer title card — PHOTO: Netflix (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Patrick Hughes — Screenplay by Patrick Hughes.

It is so strange that one of the biggest Netflix releases in the first half of the year is titled War Machine. Now, you might be thinking that you don’t really see how that is odd or particularly significant. But if you, like me, have paid attention to Netflix’s releases over the years, since they became a major streaming service, then you would know that one of the first major Netflix film acquisitions was that of David Michôd’s War Machine, a satirical war film starring Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton, Ben Kingsley, and others. That 2017 release was a largely forgettable flick that is probably rarely seen these days, as it is likely lost in the vast Netflix library by now, but you would think that Netflix wouldn’t want to create confusion about two of their own releases. Although the 2017 release was a satirical war film and the 2026 flick is more at home alongside other sci-fi action films like it, the title isn’t the only thing these two movies have in common, as they’re both, in one way or another, related to America’s presence in Afghanistan. So, as you might be asking yourself, which is the better film at the end of the day? At the end of the day, I’m not sure one is drastically better than the other.

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Serenity (2019) | REVIEW

Matthew McConaughey in Steven Knight’s Serenity — PHOTO: Aviron Pictures (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Steven Knight — Screenplay by Steven Knight.

Steven Knight’s Serenity follows Baker Dill (played by Matthew McConaughey), a fishing boat captain living on the relatively secluded Plymouth Island. Dill is obsessed with catching a tuna that he nicknames ‘Justice,’ and when he isn’t smoking, fishing, or drinking, he spends time with Diane Lane’s character, ‘Constance.’ One day, Dill’s ex-wife Karen (played by Anne Hathaway) shows up and begs him to take her new husband, Frank (played by Jason Clarke), out on the water and have him killed for abusing her and Dill and Karen’s son. As Dill contemplates whether or not he should do it, he starts to question the nature of his own reality. Since this isn’t a new release, and since I’d like to address the craziness of this film directly, this is going to be more of a spoiler review, best read after you’ve seen the film.

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Godzilla Minus One (2023) | REVIEW

Trailer title card — PHOTO: Toho (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Takashi Yamazaki — Screenplay by Takashi Yamazaki.

Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus One takes place at the end of the Second World War in Japan, and it follows a disgraced, failed kamikaze pilot, Koichi Shikishima (played by Ryunosuke Kamiki), struggling with PTSD. As Shikishima tries to build a life for himself in post-war Japan, the nuclear test-impacted dinosaur-esque kaiju known as Godzilla, which Shikishima first encountered on a Japanese base some years earlier, makes its way to Japan, where it can cause further destruction on the already heavily impacted country. To defend themselves against the gigantic mutated lizard, citizens must come together and find new ways of fighting back.

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Lee Cronin’s The Mummy (2026) | REVIEW

Natalie Grace as “Katie,” the titular mummy in LEE CRONIN’S THE MUMMY — PHOTO: Warner Bros. Pictures (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Lee Cronin — Screenplay by Lee Cronin.

Given that more than a dozen movies about a mummified corpse coming back to life have been released over the years, including but not limited to the Universal Classic Monsters films, you can’t just name your movie The Mummy anymore without confusing audiences. To distinguish their latest film from the multiple other films called The Mummy — including the iconic Boris Karloff-led original, the beloved Brendan Fraser-led action-adventure film from 1999, and the Tom Cruise-led 2017 film, which was designed to kickstart a shared universe of Universal Monsters (called the Dark Universe), which was cancelled as a result of that very 2017 film failing — producer Jason Blum suggested that they should put their writer-director’s name in the title of the film, despite Lee Cronin by no means being a household name, not even with many horror film fans. Cronin, however, did put himself on the map with his sophomore feature Evil Dead Rise, which was both a critical and box office success. Because I really liked his Evil Dead installment (and some pretty strong trailers), I was really excited to see his vision of The Mummy. Having now seen it, I can say that while there are things that I really liked here, this is a pretty significant step down from his aforementioned sophomore effort.

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No Other Choice (2025) | REVIEW

Lee Byung-hun, as Man-su, considering dropping a potted plant of red peppers onto a competitor on the job market in NO OTHER CHOICE — PHOTO: NEON / CJ Entertainment (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Park Chan-wook — Screenplay by Park Chan-wook, Lee Kyoung-mi, Don McKellar, and Lee Ja-hye.

Whenever a new film from South Korean master filmmaker Park Chan-wook comes out, it flies right to the top of my watchlist. Every film of his that I have seen thus far, like his iconic, violent, and shocking Vengeance Trilogy or his phenomenal erotic historical thriller The Handmaiden, has wowed me. Just a few years ago, he released yet another masterpiece with the incredibly rewatchable crime-romance thriller Decision to Leave, whose style showcased Park at his very best and cemented him as one of the world’s best visual storytellers. His latest film, No Other Choice, an adaptation of Donald Westlake’s novel The Ax (which was previously adapted in the mid-2000s by Costa-Gavras, to whom Park’s film is dedicated), is yet another fantastic example of Park’s strengths.

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The Life of Chuck (2025) | REVIEW

Tom Hiddleston in Mike Flanagan’s THE LIFE OF CHUCK — PHOTO: NEON (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Mike Flanagan — Screenplay by Mike Flanagan.

Over the course of the last ten years or so, one of the more interesting developments in horror filmmaking when it comes to adapting a previously released source material has been following Mike Flanagan go from original horror filmmaker on the rise to being particularly skilled at adapting notable works from Shirley Jackson, Edgar Allan Poe, and, chiefly, Stephen King. Although I am still of the opinion that his best work is his original horror series Midnight Mass, which itself was clearly inspired by King’s work, he is likely more known for his actual Stephen King adaptations. Gerald’s Game was a skillfully and confidently made psychological horror film, Doctor Sleep was a significant achievement in that it managed to honor both Kubrick’s The Shining and King’s original vision, and, recently, Flanagan’s adaptation of the Stephen King short story The Life of Chuck — notably not a traditional horror narrative — has served as another notable milestone for the writer-director. When it had its festival release at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2024, it earned its filmmaker the coveted People’s Choice Award, and when it had its theatrical release in 2025, it garnered passionate responses but failed to land any Oscar nominations, despite the aforementioned audience award often leading to such. When I finally saw it last weekend, I saw why the film has earned such a strong word-of-mouth.

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