Brief thoughts Armageddon Road (2026) Fantaspoa 2026

Steve is forced to drive a mafia boss's girlfriend around in order to pay off a debt. When she is killed, she is taken over by one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.  Chaos creeps in when Steve's relationship begins to alter how his charge sees the world and their task.

Oh my, what a wonderfully off kilter delight. I have no idea where this film came from but it is one of the absolute delights of 2026.  Its a film that went its own way and dared me to care and go for the ride, and as soon as I just let the film do what it wanted, I found magic.

Funny and tense in just the right ways, the film is an unexected journey to the possible end of the world. It's a film that constantly surprised me because at no point did it do what I expected.

And while I will never say that the film is perfect, because it isn't, I think it's raw rough charm makes this film something absolutely special because it comes from a cast and crew that made it with love.

If  you love off kilter, off Hollywood film with their own view of the world then you must see ARMAGEDDON ROAD because it's all that and more in all the right ways.

(The film was just picked up by Red Water Entertainment)

STEAL THIS STORY, PLEASE (2025) opens Friday

Portrait of independent journalist Amy Goodman and her battle to get the real story out in an age of corporate crafted news, where every story comes with an agenda.

This is an excellent tale of what it's like to be in the media circus today. Its a take that is heartbreaking in many ways since it's clear that many of the people around Goodman are more interested in a buck and fame and not the truth. It's a tale that will open your mind as to just how skewed things are, and I say this as someone who tries to follow the news and who has seen more docs like this then is healthy.

While the film covers similar ground to some other journalists fighting the good fight across the globe, this one hit home simply because it is here at home. Watching the film, we realize we are not that far off then places like Russia and China in media control.

Highly recommended, STEAL THIS STORY, PLEASE! is an important one to hear if we want to remain in a genuine democracy.

Adorable Humans(2025) Fantaspoa

 

A horror anthology based on the work of Hans Christen Andersen tells four stories.

The stories in the film are updated versions of Anderson's tales. Since the copy I saw retained the original titles I had to look up what the stories were. They are The Dead Man, The Story of a Mother, The Snow Queen, and Auntie Toothache,  Since the stories are updated and because I have't read his stories since I was teenager I couldn't fathom a guess as to how close they are to the original tales.  

I should also mention that, even if this weren't a "horror" film, this isn't one looking for family friendly tales. This is the unfiltered Andersen that had the the Little Mermaid ending up as foam on the ocean instead of living happily ever after.

While this film may look like its four short films by four writer directors, the truth is the films were all written and put together with interaction from everyone and the same crew. I mention this because from the outside looking in you eould think that the directors would want to put their own stamp on things but it's not the case. The reality is the film looks and plays as if it was put together by a single director. 

While the stories are told with a horrific edge, the tales are really trying to say more about love and loss and other  human emotions. I'm not certain it's always successful. Yea, the chills are here but the quest for larger things doesn't always land.  I think it's that in updating things some of the humanity of Andersen that spoke to larger things was lost. 

The stories as they stand in the film are all good to various degrees. I don't think that there is a bad one in the bunch, though some are going to play better than others. I'm intentionally not describing the plots because I found that I was not happy with my descriptions with some of my thoughts coming out as overly snarky.

I liked the film and its stories a great deal, though I wish the film was a tiny bit less polished so the stories felt realer and less like a movie.

Worth a look.

Assassin (2025) aka Assassination 1932

In 1932 Shanghai an assassin is given a deadly mission....

Set not long after the Japanese invasion of China, ASSASSIN (original title ASAASINATION 1932) is a killer action thriller. Looking like a grand action epic, with more than its fair share of action set pieces and characters you can both cheer and hiss, the film is another John Wick influenced film that is destined to be rewatched over and over again.

Occuring in a very movie world where colors pop and things always fall the right way to move our emotions ASSASSIN uses every trick in the book to tell one hell of a tale. By the time we get to the end of the film we are exhausted as well as delighted. Yes it's clear early on this is going to be by the numbers, but the film also signals to us that it is going to use that familiarity to blow our minds.

This is truly one of the great action films you are likely to see this year, this is one to get a bucket of popcorn and sit and watch. I'm not certain you'll need a second movie  to follow it since if you're like me you're going to want to go again right away.

That's a rave.

See this film.

Hunting Matthew Nichols (2024) is in theaters

This independently produced and released horror film made back it's cost on the first weekend of release and delighted many people I know. Wanting to see what the fuss was about I dove in.

One part found footage and one part fake documentary, HUNTING MATTHEW NICHOLS follows a documentary filmmaker who tries to sort out what happened 22 years earlier when her brother and his friend disappeared, never to be heard from again.

Sticking close to the psuedo documentary branch of the the found footage genre the film is the assembled footage of the quest to find the missing boys. Holding tight to it's conceit the film doesn't really commit the found footage sin of changing POV until late in the game and even then it's not done so as to collapse the tale. I mention this because I abhor most found footage films because too often they alter their rules becuase they paint themselves into a corner and they can't get out. HUNTINGS shift doesn't feel like cheating which is why the film holds together.

Yes, the film has chills and yes, the film has suspense (which is why the film is worth seeing), but what I liked about the film is how it nails the true crime doc motif perfectly. I love that the filmmakers have made a film where this could fool true crime fans for a good chunk of its running time. I can imagine some lazy programmer at Discovery Channel seeing the film and thinking adter watch half of the film to program it. I truly love this film gets the genre right.

My geeky love of the film aside, HUNTING MATTHEW NICHOLS is a scary delight and recommended.

Brief thoughts on IF ON A WINTER'S NIGHT (2025) NDNF 2026

A couple moves to the big city and has to deal with culture shock, far away relatives, nosey landlord and other issues people deal with.

I am kind of torn about this film. Hands down one of the best films playing New Directors New Films, I'm at a loss as to why the film was picked up by the festival to screen. It's so much more alive than most of the other films playing at the festival. Its one of the few films that feels as though its about real people and not an artists idea of them. Why did they choose it?

At the same time the film itself is very much like other films about people coming to live in the big city. It is exactlyly like any number of inde American films I run across every year.. To be certain it is much better than most of those entirely by the number films, but at the same time other than the setting there is little to truly set this apart from the crowd.

Quibbles aside there is enough here to say director Sanju Surendran has a great deal of talent, and I would like to see what comes next.

Slowburn Shoot: An Indie Wrestling Story (2026) Cleveland International FIlm Festival 2026

Portrait of the Absolute Intense Wrestling organization in Cleveland Ohio and how it's slowly become a feeder for the big leagues over the last two decades.

This film will move you to tears. This is one of the best portraits of the wrestling life I've run across. I've been a fan of wrestling since I was kid back in the 70's and I've never seen a portrait of the sport that was as clear eyed as this film as well as loving. There is nothing sensational or amped up. This is just the story of a group of people who love what they do and come together to do it as well as they can.

I have no notes, except the one's that I sent off to friends and fellow film writers in order to put this film ontheir radar. I was hoping that one of them would ask to see it because I could then get them to use the words that I lack to say how great and wonderful this film is.

This film will make you feel great and fall in love with the sport because you've fallen in love with the people who do it.

Highly recommended, this is one you must hunt down.

Bagworm (2026) Fantaspoa 2026

A nebish hammer salesman who is socially broken and can't rationally  go through his day with out sending people fleeing or causing problems for himself, ends up stepping on nail in his garden and allowing the infection to over take him and his life.

This episodic black comedy about a very unlikable person gets all it's laughs by watching the "hero" dig himself deeper and deeper. It's a grand uncomfortable comedy about one man wrecking his own life because he can't or won't see there are problems. The most telling example of that is the way he refuses to deal with the infection.  Even as the film slips briefly into body horror he really just doesn't understand.

How you react to the film will be determined by how much you like to watch bad things happen to stupid people.  Sure, things like Curb Your Enthusiasm worked but that was because there was something kind of loveable about Larry. Besides Larry wasn't a complete moron. In BAGWORM there isn't much to like about the man at the center, so I didn't care. Forgive me, I have always maintained that you need to like the person the story is about at some point for it to work. I never liked the guy

While not for me, if you like comedies about the cruelty of life this film is going to be for you.

Animals of the Land (2026) Fantaspoa 2026

In the early days of humanity a family ends up on the wrong side of their goddess and end up releasing an evil onto the land.

Taken on its own terns this is a good little folk horror film where a group of people who don't know what is lurking outside in the datkness or the way that evil gets in the hearts of men, react when something goes terribly wrong. It's a film that grabs you and drags you along to its ending.

As solid as the narrative is, any issue you may have with the film is going to be determined by how you react to the look of the film. I'm not going to even guess about any sort of historical accuracy because I don't know how that is. At the same time I will question how perfectly barbered and tailored everyone is. I had no trouble accepting its another time and place or what was happening on screen, however I never got past their being actors on screen since everyone and everything looked too perfect and not so lived in.

Dress up factor aside, ANIMALS OF THE LAND is still worth a look, especially if you a fan of folk horror films.

(And do try and see this with good projection in a daken theater because some of the sequences are very dark and dim bulbs will work against the film)

BLUEBIRD (2026) Fantaspoa 2026

 

Charles works as a handyman at a medical facility. His efforts to find love are going nowhere. One day he meets a girl names Chloe who said that they had met before in a dream. When Chloe goes missing Charles tries to find her. Meanwhile there is virtual reality, a pirate radio broad/podcast, people trying to sort out a program called Bluebird and some other things.

I don't know what I think of BLUEBIRD.  It isn't a question of the film being bad, rather, its question of the film having a lot to say and not always being able to tie it all together. The pieces, while obviously connected because they are in the film don't always seem to actually be part of the same story. There is some original stuff here and there is also a sense that the film is leaning into certain films (Matrix) a bit too much. The deadpan humor doesn't always blend with the suspense. 

Several days on from when I first saw the film I am still wrestling with it. It's not a film that allows for a person seeing a boatload of films at a festival to fully engage when you have to move on to the next thing. There is something there that has made me wrestle with the film for several days after seeing it. Something about the film hung with me and forced me to engage with it even as I was trying watching other films playing Fantaspoa. To be honest I think this is going to be a film I'm going to have to revisit away from the festival crush. This is a film I am going to need to sit with down the road when I don't have to give an instant reaction because I have 14 films lining up behind it.

My uncertainty aside, director Jay Arden Black has made an intriguing head trip of a film. Worth a look if the write up sounds like something you'd want to see. (And the fact that I am still wrestling with it and want to see it again is probably the best sort of rave I can give a film)

Brief thoughts on Next Life (2025) NDNF 2026

A documentary like exploration of how a Tibetan family deals the the death of its patriarch.

Deliberately told in long takes this is going to be a film you either love or hate. Sequences run on. Not a lot happens and even though it only runs 73 minutes the film feels long.  This is very much an art house film of the slow cinema variety.

The publicity write ups of the film speak about references to the Tibetan Book Of The Dead but I don't really see it. This is more a family dealing with the passing of a loved one. 

For fans of slow cinema only.

RIVER TRAINS (2026) NDNF 2026

This is the story of a 9-year-old Milo whose life revolves around malambo dance. He is driven by his father, to excell but it isn't his choice. What he really wants to do is take the train and explore Buenos Aires.

This is an okay drama that didn’t really work for me. Sequences of staged action (people are deliberately arranged) mix with long silent sequences where not much happens. I’m sure this means something to someone but there isn’t enough explanation, in any form, for this to add up to much.

Running a brief 75 minutes, it feels longer and by the halfway mark my interest had waned. I stayed to the end, but I never connected.

A miss.

Virtuous Women (VIRTUOSAS)(2025) Fantaspoa 2026

A group of Christian women are brought together by a self help guru to help them find their better selves. However all is not as it seems and things begin to spiral when the story of a witch is recalled.

Don't  think ahead. Don't try to sort out where this is going, odds are it's probably not going to do that. Do yourself a favor and let VIRTUOUS WOMEN just happen. I say that because there is a point where the film suddenly turns and you sit up and go "HELLO", as you realize this isn't what you thought it was. I'm not going to say what happens because that woulkd be telling.

That the film doesn't ultimately take the expected turn is what made the film for me.  I say this because for a chunk of the film this seemed to be going in  certain direction and I was getting ready to kind of dismiss it. That the film tries to do more lifts it up. (And I wish I could say more but I don't want to spoil it). The reason the shift works is that it keeps the film grounded and closer to real.

Is the film perfect no. The problem is that some of the women are not as well written as others. There is a use of short hand where something a bit deeper would have been better. It's far from fatal, but there was a point where I realized that I had a better handle on who some of the characters were.

This is a solid little thriller that is not what you expect.

SACRIFICIOS (2025) FANTASPOA 2026

A father grieveing the loss of his son, heads off to sea and ends up pulling his son from the water, however if he wants to keep the boy alive the gods require a sacrifice.

This is heady and emotional film. The film is a look at grief, guilt and mouring in an unexpected way. While framed as a kind of fairy tale or something full of magical realism, the film is also a kind of horror film as we watch a man deal with the worst thing that most people can imagine. It's a film that seeks to ponder its ideas in unexpected ways, melding Christian ideas with those of the Aztecs. It is a film that is going to leave many in the audience broken.

When you see this film, don't think about notions of genre or classifications. SACRIFICIOS is not really anything other than one man's walk through the dark place of child loss. The shifts through various "genres" is simply a way of examining the dark night of the soul at the center of the tale. I say this because I know that since the film is playing at Fantaspoa some people are going to go into the film looking for it to be a horror film. It kind of is, but it really isn't. This is the best sort of film, an examination of the human condition in another form.

This is something special. See it.

The Turkish Coffee Table (2025) Fantaspoa 2026

I ended my review of the original version of this story saying "If you want to go to a really dark place THE COFFEE TABLE is highly recommended. Me I don't know if I want to go there again."  I had hoped never to see the film again... and then I found out the great director Can Evrenol had a new film  and I watched it blind never figuring that it would be a remake of a film that deeply disturbed me to my soul. It's not only a remake but it often ups the ante.

The plot has some new parents buying a coffee table for their home. Not long after, while the baby is alone with the father, something terrible happens. What follows is the blackest of comedies, in a way, that is funny in the most uncomfortable ways until it isn't.

Largely following the script for the the original Spanish film, Evenrol sticks with what worked in the original film, adding some shading of his own (it's graphic in ways the first film wasn't) and he plays with the fourth wall. Its moves that may or may not upset fans of the first film. I'm not certain that things had to be tweaked myself, however I do have to admit enough is changed that even knowing what was going to happen I had to keep watching to see if that's what happened.

On a personal level I've been a fan of Evenrol since his film BASKIN a few years back, and I've loved all his other films. He is a one of a kind filmmaker whose film I hunt down. While I admire what he did with this remake, I kind of wish he had either done a bit more change things up, or had just told his own story. That's not a knock on the film, only a statement that I am finding remakes less thrilling, especially when the original is so stellar.

That said, This is absolutely  not for everyone, at the same time if you liked the first film or like deeply disturbing films that drags the blackness into the light this film is worth a try. Its a good film if you like this sort of thing.

Brief thoughts on AGON (2025) which plays NDNF today and MUBI April 24th

 

Three female athletes prepare for the Olympics

This is a great looking film shot in the style of an art house Olympic documentary. It's a film that reminded me of some of the films from the 1960's particularly TOKYO OLYMPIAD. I mean that in both a good way and a bad way. Its good because the film looks and sounds awesome. It's bad because we are kept at an emotional distance.

I kind of like the film because it looks so good but I dislike that I was so emotionally distant from anyone on the screen.

Worth a look if you want to see a great looking film

BACKSIDE (2025) on Independent Lens tomorrow

This is a look at the men and women who work behind the scenes at Churhill Downs in the days before the running of the Kentucky Derby.

This is an observational film where we watch the various people we are following going through their days. We watch as the horses arrive, are worked out, and are taken care of. We then watch as the horses go home after the race. It is a film of stunning beauty.

I'm going to be honest and say that your reaction is not going to be my reaction. I say that because I grew up with a grandfather who drove horses across the country for horses races. My dad  often traveled with my grandfather and often helped take care of the horses. I listened to the backside stories that floated through my family for decades. Seeing the things that I had been told about for decades play out before my eyes connected me to my father and grandfather and I could feel their presence with me while I was watching the film.

That said, you want to know what I think of the film objectively. 

Objectively this is a beautiful film. Its a film that dwells in the beauty of the horses and the racetrack. It's a film with images that you will want to hang on the wall. The storytelling is similar to the work of Frederick Wiseman however director Raúl O. Paz Pastrana uses more beautiful images which makes us fall in love with the people on screen.

This is a super film.

If the subject interests you, please go see it on a big screen.

Princess and the Dragon(2025)

A young woman wakes up in a princess dress with a mask lashed to her face. She is in the ruins of some sort of asylum/hospital with no clue to anything except a story book with some of the pages torn out. She is pursued by a silent knight with an axe in one hand. She is also flashing back to her time in some sort of similar hospital.

I honestly don't know what I think of this film. Its a film that at times reminded me of other films of various genres and quality, but at the same time it was a film that was, and is always it's own thing. Its a film that frequently works, occasionally soars and some times crashes. Its a film that scores a hell of a lot of points, and keeps our interest, because it's a film that is trying to think and exist out side of the box.

I completely understand why this film has won some awards. At the same time I completely understand why I haven't found a great deal written about the film because, as you can see by my attempt at trying to explain the plot above, its very hard to describe. My smart ass answer about the film  would be if some one asked me what the film was or what it was like would be to simply say yes it is.

The reason for the difficulty in writing on the film is that the film is fast and loose as to what reality is. What exactly is real and what exactly is going on is only somewhat clear. The result is a film that demands to be seen as part of an audience because when the film is done you will want to discuss what you've seen. Its a film that you'll both want to pick apart and film that you'll want to praise because this is a film that forces you to engage with it on some level...on every level.

This is a film that is all things at once briliant and twadlle,  deep and shallow. This is a film to watch with friends and then argue about or riff or something.

A couple of days and a couple of false starts on writing on the film I'm no closer to knowing what the film is, or what I think.

At the same time the one thing I know is that if you want a movie that is something that you will have to confront and enage with you must see this film. If you want a straight narrtive, easy answers or something conventional stay the hell away.

Recommended  for those of you who want atypical cinema. 

a report on the September 2001 making of/ preview of the Lord of the Rings at Lincoln Center

 This is the Live Journal Entry I made on September 13 2001 about the preview/making of  of Lord of The RIngs that was hosted by Lincoln Center on September 9.  Itr was posted 4 days later because of being too tired on the 9th or 10th and then getting side tracked because of that thing that happened on the 11th.

13th September, 2001. 9:51 am. LORD OF THE RINGS

Went Sunday night with Lucy Anne to see a preview and making of the Lord of the Rings. It was late, 930pm at Lincoln Center.(The earlier show sold out before I could get tickets and seeing how small the theatre they held it it in, it isn't surprising.)

Sean Bean, Elijah Wood and Orlando Bloom were in the audience, and afterward I got their autographs. All were charming and wonderful. Bloom, who's first real taste of fame this is was shocked anyone would want his autograph. Bean was trying not to be noticed but was wonderfully charming when he was. Wood was equally charming.

They showed the second trailer and tons and tons of video showing how the movie was being made. Lots of stuff on the computer work which was awesome in the true sense of the word - the computer generated Sean Bean looked real, especially since the real one was there for comparison.

The presentation that was done to sell the film to New Line was shown.(The movie was with Miramax who passed after tons and tons of work had been done- work that was shown in the presentation.) New Line picked it up after suggesting that Peter Jackson's idea for two films filmed back to back which people would have to go to theatres to see was insane....(bad feeling in the pit of the stomach)... especially when you could make three films.(Great Joy and Happiness)

There was way too much stuff discussed to go into here, but it all looked wonderful, except for two things, the first was a party sequence which looked bad at least in the behind the scenes stuff we saw.It looked like people doing dress up, but I'm not worried since it was simply behind the scenes stuff.

The second bit I'll get to in a minute.

The night was a slow build up to a completed scene that takes place in the tomb in the Mines of Moria. We saw how everything was done, the sets, the costumes (Some guy spent over a year just making chain mail out of PVC pipe, ten hours a day, everyday, doing nothing but linking the links together.He did it out of love of the stories. And when it was done he went on to his new and truly boring job somewhere else.)

We saw how the whole thing was made and then we saw the scene.

The scene was the attack of the Orcs and th Cave Troll into the tomb.

It was incredible except for one small bit of animation that seemed out of place or unreal. As the Troll ( a completely CGI monster) attacks he is swinging this huge chain around. Legolas ties the chain to a pillar and then runs across the chain on to the trolls back and fire arrows point blank into the trolls head and back.

Exciting stuff- except it looks unreal. All the motion is wrong. And the reason it looked wrong is that we had just had two hours on how great the rest of the animation was and this little bit wasn't. The Troll, which exists only as a computer generated image looked real, but the elf on his back looked fake. Very weird.

Still I'm dying to see the rest. The first film runs 2 hours 45 minutes., the others will be equally long.

Has Peter Jackson gotten it right?

Yes, but there will be quibbles and there will be people who wanted everything in the movie, there were two people who sat in front of us and who were behind us on line and they were very very protective of the books. They seemed ready to jump at anything they didn't like.

Ultimately anyone who is really upset is going to be upset because it wasn't how they would have done it, or because their favorite part was removed. Too bad. Whats there looks like a masterpiece and will in the long run I think will stand the test of time.(Though I'm lowering my expectations one notch simply because I see the gap between what is and what I read into the trailers and pictures- this isn't bad, its just getting my expectations into the realm of realistic)

But thats just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Saturnalia (2025) is on VOD

In 1979 a young woman is sent off to a prestigous, if mysterious academy, after the death of her parents. She quickly learns that things are not as they seem.

How you react to the film is going to be determined by how you feel about form over content. The film leans heavily into the stylized notions of giallo, in particular the look and feel of Dario Argento's SUSPIRIA which it seems to ave used as a template in story and style. This is a film where intentionally not a lot is explained.

Personally I admire this film more than I like it. The problem for me is that it seems more shiney outside and little on the inside. Yes, it has some great moments but the film never generates suspense since it's too focused on making everything look good, it never generates anything narratively. I never felt danger or even a need to continue watching past a certain point because I wasn't fully invested.  Though to be fair the fact that it's using SUSPIRIA, I film I've never particularly liked, as a template probably doomed it in my eyes.

To be fair, I have read a number of glowing reviews for the film, so if you're a giallo or SUSPIRIA fan, give it a shot.