Mr. Nobody Against Putin (2025) hits theaters tomorrow before going to VOD

This is a frightening film about the road to the fall of a society. The film charts the change in Russian schools after the war with Ukraine started and all of the lessons became scripted speeches set to tow the Putin line and make sure everyone was okay with the way Putin was doing things. To make sure it was being done authorities insisted that the lessons be recorded.

This is a chilling film about how the mad Russian leader and friend to the current US president is doing things in Russia. It’s a film about the death of free thought and all freedom as the party line id fed to the masses word for word.  This film will frighten you because we are damn close to it happening here in the US with the far right leadership insisting on getting rid of anyone one who doesn’t think or act as they do. Yes some of this is funny for a bit but there is a point where it all catches in your throat.

Highly recommended.

Kratom: Side Effects May Include (2025) Dances With Films 2026

This is a long-pained scream of a film on the largely unregulated supplement Kratom, which is found mostly in smoke shops and gas stations. The supplement is made from a leaf from Thailand and Maylasia and stimulates some of the same brain sensors as opiates and caffeine. The trouble is that it could have serious side effects including death if it overused or taken in its refined form.

This is an important film that highlights a growing problem. The number of people using the drug has gone from a million people in the US to over 24 million in the last five years. Since it is not regulated people think it’s safe, but it isn’t. It has addictive qualities (stimulating the opiate receptors), but most states and the federal government are not doing anything about it owing the large amount of money behind it.

While the film is vitally important, the telling is often messy. The film is telling several stories at the same time and it jumps between each kind of randomly. In addition to being a discussion of the drug the film also wants to be a memorial to the people who were lost to it. I can appreciate that, but we never get a solid handle on who these people were. We get their stories in pieces, and often incomplete with the over riding thing said about them was that they were good people- but who were they really? I could have let it go except that the film intertwines their story with that of the drug and we keep revisiting them so we should know more. 

Several points concerning the dangers of the drug are not immediately made clear. What exactly are the side effects? I’m still not sure because the discussion is given a piece meal. I applaud the filmmakers for giving us this important film, I just wish it were slightly better organized so that people will take it more to heart.

My reservations aside, this is an important film and should be seen.

Al-ayyam al-tawila (aka Long Days) (1980)

This is a reminder that Unseen Films is not just about unseen films from today, but all days.

This is about the Iraqi  coup attempt in 1959 that included Saddam Hussein. It went sideways, so he and his fellow plotters go into hiddening and are hunted by the police. Its an emotionally over done film told in a somber, over serious way that, along with its static staging makes the film feel about 10 hours long.

This movie has an official run time of 150 minutes according to IMDB but therinternet says there is a 6 hour version hidden away. It doesn't have an official release streaming and exists through sketchy versions on You Tube where 131 minute version labeled LONG DAYS has English Caption over French subtitles. Its a film I should not mention because its pure propaganda but at the same time Unseen was set up to highlight, or in this case to low light, films off the beaten path... and this is off the path.

Terrance Young, probably best known for his work for the Bond franchise, is listed as one of the directors. I have not done any research but someone on Letterboxd said they can find no actual evidence that Young worked on the film, though they mention this was around the time on INCHON,  and his name may have been used to give the film some credibility.  Certainly it's much less static than any of his other films. It does have some of the melodramic turns that he was capable of, but at the same time his films always felt more alive.

The film is a lot of seriously acted scenes with people sitting around while serious and suspenseful music plays. They change locations as the secret police come. There is always a discussion of what to do next. Saddam is figured prominently of course. It's okay, but it's not particularly compelling. There is no sense of a reason as to why this story is being told beyond because Saddam is involved. It's really just a bland attempt at a real life political thriller.

And isn't "bad" as such just incredibly dull. It's a bunch of people sitting around being serious. It feel like a stage play at times To be fair this could have been good film if it was about an hour shorter . I don't want to think what a six hour version would be like because so little "happens" that is interesting. This is a film that is all about making Saddam look good and stroke his ego because it looks like a serious movie. I've read some things that this was instrumental for helping create the cult of personality. Looking at the film now I can only imagine that happened because the regime pushed the film as something people needed to ingest.

Not recommended for general audiences- but for those who want an unseen film off the beaten path- recommended.

SMILE... The Worst is Yet to Come (2026) Dances With Films 2026

A couple who are experiencing a period where everything is going wrong, decide to try and save their relationship by heading off on a vacation.

This is a very good and very heartfelt film. The cast is solid. The direction is quite good. I like that the film does not look or feel like other similar inde films.

If I have any quibbles with the film is that I’m not certain that the film always nails the tone of proceedings right.  I am not saying this because I dislike the film, rather it comes from a genuine appreciation for what the film is doing. What I mean by this is that this is one of the few inde films that deal with some tough adult subjects, say the trouble conceiving, and it does so in an adult and non- overly dramatic way. There is a level of emotion and discussion that we don’t normally see in films.  At the same time the film can of have a lighthearted edge in places that kind of goes against the serious discussions. And it’s not the humor its more the type of humor.

Of course, that’s just me trying to make a film I like better.

This is a small gem and worth a look

BANANA SPLIT (2026) Dances With Films NYC

This is the story of two people who are thrown together and through conversation begin to connect.

I’m not going to lie and tell you there is anything new about the set up, there isn’t. We’ve been here before. However the before wasn’t with these two characters so what we see is something new. I'm not just talking about the fact that the two characters are Asian American. Rather I'm just saying the the two people are not your typical couple. Their experiences and the ways they express them and interact is not the way most couples in films like the BEFORE series, or the films of Noah Baumbach or anything other Hollywood product would interact. 

Director Walter Kim's characters are much more organic. More importantly they feel apart of their world. They are moving through the settings of the film because they belong there, not in the case of say the BEFORE series because the director wanted great backgrounds, or in the case of a Baumbach film the director wanted to use the setting to say something. Instead Kim sets he tale of real people in a real world. The is apparent in the opening in Times Square, this is how some people interact in the crossroads of the world.

I love that Kim is not just either giving us a purely Asain American story (some directors forget to give us real characters beyond the main ones), nor a Hollywood story with Asain Characters, but is instead giving us a real story about real people in the real world. There are no cardboard cut outs that would be used as a short hand as you would see in other films. As I said the Times Square opening made me watch how the entire cast was being handled. Kim is giving us a film with real people everywhere which is something that makes the central story stronger because we can relate more to what is happening on screen. The fact that Kim can balance everyone in a film speaks volumes about his skill since most directors, no matter how good they are forget the world they have placed their characters in, and that isn't the case here. Giving us a real world for the two main characters to exist in makes them stronger.

The best thing I can say is that this film is good enough that I want to see what director Walter Kim does next because his deft  creation of a world and characters may seem simple but it speaks volumes about his understanding of the world and how best show it on screen.

This is a super little film and a great way to start off the new film year.

Recommended.

Nightcap 1/18/26 - Sundance starts this week, Animation First is going to rock your world, PR favor influencers, Alamo Drafthouse

Sundance starts this week, and it looks to be a good year for films. I say that because I’ve already seen two films that are going to be on my year end lists (BIRDS OF WAR and EVERYTONE TO KUMARE STREET) as the best of the year. Sure, it’s early in the year but what the films do is so extraordinary that I think you will agree how good they are.

This is going to be an interesting year coverage wise. I say that because while I am covering remotely via any links that I can scrounge, Ariela Rubin looks to be heading into the fray as credentialed press on the ground. I have no idea what she is planning but expect reports when she can find time to scribble and send them.

As it stands now coverage drops toward the end of the week when the embargoes fall.

---

I have started to put coverage together for Animation First at L'Alliance New York.

Based on what I’ve seen the festival is going to truly rock. Films like ALLAH IS NOT OBLIGED and HEART OF DARKNESS truly rock the pillars of heaven.

Tickets and information here

---

I am growing weary of studio PR people thinking influencers are the way to go.

Increasingly it seems that unless you are social media juggernaut the studios are only screening films super close to the release date.  28 YEARS LATER BONE TEMPLE screened well before Christmas but it was for influencers and writers with a large social media reach. A few days before it released I was offered a screening via an obtuse email that didn’t tell me where or when the screenings were. The new Sam Raimi has been screening for influencers but the one for regular writers is closer to the release.

I know that the PR people know that they can  get good early word of mouth by doing this since many influencers will do anything to curry favor. Since the PR people are targeting specific people for a specific reaction they can cook the books. That seems to have happened with RUNNING MAN which had great word of mouth and then had the feelings fall off once regular people and regular writers saw it.  It seems to have happened to some degree with BONE TEMPLE since the people I work with said they were disappointed since they had heard how great it was, and the hype didn’t meet what they heard about how good it was.

When I’ve spoken to people about their feeling about recent films not meeting expectations, I’m told it has been happening too much lately and that, at least within my circle, they are going to g to see movies  less because they don’t know what’s truly good.

I know in this age of shortened theatrical windows they only need to get people in the first weekend, but at the same time if they cook the books too many times people are not going to listen. Worse they will not even wait for VOD and instead wait until it hits a service they pay for, or don't have to pay for. The cry of I’ll wait for Hulu or Apple or whatever is being said more and more frequently.

This is not a plea to get invited to see more things, more that I don’t want the studios to cut off their nose to spite their face. Going for cooked reviews over the truth will only hurt everyone in the end- because even a piece like mine is not going to be trusted

---

So, Alamo Drafthouse is going to all kiosks and cellphones.

That’s a big step back and to the left for a company that until this turn of events would throw you out if you used your cell phone.

I should mention that they have also fired most of the staff at many locations (according to social media) because they aren’t needed. They new overlords figure you can do it all from your phone.

Personally, I’m thrilled it means I won’t be spending any money beyond admission because I can’t use the app on my phone, so no food. Then again, I only went to the Drafthouse on occasion because I live an hour train ride away from the closet location.

I know a number of people who are not going to go any more. As one person said on Twitter – why make a special trip to the Alamo to yell at people when I can go to the neighborhood AMC. That’s going to be a serious hit because people go to the Drafthouse because they want as few interruptions as possible. I know the settling up the tabs annoyed some, but for others it was a trade off they were willing to make.

I wish the Drafthouse well as they slide toward insolvency.

--

Please do not get me started about the New York Mets.

I think we are in for a mediocre year.

--

This week look for Dances spill over, Sundance when the embargoes drop, some new releases and a couple of old films I recently saw.

Kaishaku (2025) Dances With FIlms New York 2026

I had KAISHAKU put on my radar by a friend of mine who loves horror films. He said I had to see the film and that it was one of the rare films that disturbed him. That was high praise which KAISHAKU more than lived up to.

The plot concerns Iris a woman who is struggling with a son who is constantly getting into trouble, her own demons and her fa,mily’s financial issues. Things become complicated when a friend asks her to witness her committing suicide. Her friend said that she has been diagnosed with a terminal illness and wants to end her life sooner than later. Iris walks away but realizes she needs the money she would be paid so she agrees. The trouble is everything goes sideways and Iris is left feeling disturbed. Worse she begins to be haunted by visions.

I’m trying to sort out why this film isn’t being talked about as being one of the best horror films of the last few years. I know the film has just played Dances with Films New York, but I know it had other screenings and I cannot figure out why people aren’t talking it up. Either not enough people have seen it, or the film was too disturbing that people just don’t want to talk about it.

I’m guessing it’s just too disturbing.

KAISHAKU is a low-key film that slowly builds mood and feeling rather than having huge jump scares. Everything is played close to real with many scenes playing out like a regular drama as opposed to something you’d see in a genre film. The images are dark and oppressive, daytime scenes all seem to be taking place on a rainy day.  Discussions are downbeat. Nothing is hopeful, or if it is it is wrapped in something dark- the financial windfall came at terrible cost. Times of light are short lived. Watching the film is like being trapped in the most troubling times of your life. Never mind the weird things that happen, the film is life at its most troubling. Then once you add in the weirdness the film becomes almost unbearable.

Truthfully, I never want to see the film again- and I never want to talk about it again. I never want to go into the headspace ever again. it’s not the “horror” that bothers you but the soul crushing shift in that we are in Iris‘ headspace and can’t leave it. It invades your brain and won’t leave. I couldn’t sleep after seeing it and I had to watch a hour of mindless fluff to be able to purge my head.

As horror films that truly horrify you this is at the top of the pile and as such should be seen, but at the same time you need to know there is no escape at the end. There is not cathartic release just painful realistic dread that envelopes you and puts you in a black cloud that may never leave you

Good Not Great (2026) Dances With Films 2026

A stand up comedian with bipolar disorder sits with his therapist and tries to work out how he ended up sliding down the spiral.

Belt in boys and girls because this is a wild ride... and its one you'll want to take even if you get whiplash.

Designed to give the audience a sense of what it's like dealing with a bipolar condition, GOOD NOT GREAT is all over the place. Its manic one minute sedate the next and some here in the middle after that. We quickly get a sense of what it's like to go from zero to a thousand and back again.

Director Nick Von Gemp and co-writer and star Matt Pavich have made a masterpiece of a film.  They have made a film that isn't full of Hollywood's idea of the illness except when they can use it to their advantage. Having had friends with the illness I now feel I understand what their swings were like. Its a beautifully constructed film with no false notes.

That said, I'm not certain this film is going to work  for everyone. The films ever shifting pacing and manic style is going to turn some people off, especially anyone who comes in unaware of what the film is about. If you can click with it and if you can understand what its doing I think you will come away moved.

This is a one of a kind gem and is recommended 

Before the Filmmakers to Search Out list returns with Part Seven here is the original 2015 Kool Aid List Reposted

listening for films that are off the beaten path

Back in 2015 I made up the following list of filmmakers whose work made me drink the Kool Aid in regard to their work. They were people I would follow anywhere.  This list was made off the top of my head to fill a Sunday slot

This list eventually spawned the  growing list of FILMMAKERS YOU NEED TO SEARCH OUT in 2021. That list is very long and lists a large number of filmmakers whose work you need to be searching out over the same five or six people everyone on the Internet talks about. That list has six parts posted and should have the seventh up in a week or so since I'm finishing up the part I started but never finished. (The parts can be found here)

Because I want to remind the world that there are all these great people making films that no one talks about I'm posting my original original piece before  trudging on with the long list

(Do keep in mind this list is 10 years old and not updated with new titles)

 ---
THE UNSEEN FILMS KOOL AID LIST
Earlier this month (actually this was done in 2015)I reviewed Christian Svanes Kolding's END OF THE INTERNET and I mentioned that there were a couple of filmmakers whose work I love but whose names you’d never know and a couple of people asked me who these people were.

While I have a long list of filmmakers where I've only seen a single example of their work but who have impressed me none the less  (Jason Kartalian or the duo of Jordan Harris and Andrew Schrader for example) The group I’m talking about have taken the next step and made a couple of films that I think are as good if not better than their firsts. These are the guys I'm waiting to make the jump to super stardom. These are the guys whose work made my jaw drop and murmur under my breath that I was seeing the emergence of someone great-not just once but twice or three times or more. These guys make up the so called KOOL AID LIST because as far as their ability to turn out great films is concerned I'm all in and I've drunk the Kool Aid.

The list is unscientific and purely personal. While I have seen other directors who may have as much talent as these guys the guys on the Kool Aid List score in one key place- I can't shake their films. These are they guys who's work I keep thinking about. And these are they guys I want to name drop when I get involved in talking about the up and coming talent and the next big film directors. I love these guys and I love that there work has become part of my psyche.

The listing below is not in any order- they are all just great directors.

Christian Svanes Kolding as you know is a great filmmaker. I loved his THE EMERGENCY KIT and now his END OF THE INTERNET is even better. You can read my thoughts on EMERGENCY KIT in the review for END and you can put him on the list of people to watch

Jon Kasbe has made a whole bunch of films including MIPSO IN JAPAN and BEAUTIFUL WASTE (see them at his website) and I love every one of them.  Jon has an eye and a sense of place and beauty that is the sort of thing that in a few years is going to be the style everyone is copying. While the look of his films might be enough for some filmmakers its not for Jon who turns in compelling tales every time. (Here is the trailer for his next film and I can't wait)

Jerimiah Kipp is one of the greatest directors of horror films I’ve ever run across.He deserves to be in the pantheon of guys who will scare the crap out of you over and over again. He’s directed a bunch of films but simply on the basis of this two films THE DAYS GOD SLEPT and MINIONS (not the cartoon) he deserves to be making full length fright films because he knows how to disturb his audience deeply. This isn't to sell his other films short- they are damn scary films, but DAYS and MINIONS still haunt me and make me not even want to think about them.

Chun-Yi Hsieh is one of the greatest directors working anywhere in the world. He contacted me way back in 2011 and told me I needed to see his film THE BRAID and he was right it was one of the best films I saw that year, and it’s a film that has haunted me ever since. When he gave me the link to that film he accidently gave me links to a whole bunch of other films that he had made. It was clear back then that he had the right stuff. He’s now back in Taiwan making feature films and his APOLITICAL ROMANCE just kicked it to the curb as one of the great films of NYAFF 2014.

I debated including Alec Kubas Meyer in this group for two reasons. First he’s a friend which makes my recommendation suspect and secondly the films he’s made that put him on the list haven’t officially premiered yet. REEL, a Hollywood action film is finishing post-production and NOT TOO YOUNG has been submitted to several film festivals for next year. However based upon those films, plus his earlier film MIRANDA and his student films Alec is a filmmaker to watch. While I’ve talked at length about his ability to handle action in my piece on MIRANDA, it’s the handling of troubling difficult subject matters in NOT TOO YOUNG and two additional films he’s working on that forced him on to the list.

And so concludes my Kool Aid List. Take notes and watch for these guys to break out and do something wonderful real soon....

Dances With FIlms NYC 2026 : Episodes ROOTS AND RELICS and HENRY BY THE HOUR

 

ROOTS AND RELICS
JD Hart on various relics and how they fit into a family history

Not bad but it is very much like a number of other series about searching for artifacts. I enjoyed this brief episode, and if I had a bunch of them I would watch them in  sequence, but at the same time I don't think I'd tune in next week for another one becausethere isn't anything here to make it stand out.

HENRY BY THE HOUR
This is a series about Henry who rents himself hout for an hour at a time. It is a kind of episodic version of the recent film RENTAL FAMILY.  This seems to be an interesting little series. Having only been granted to a single episode I don't know how this will play out over the course of series or how it will keep things interesting.

As it stands now, it's worth a look

I Know Exactly How You Die (2026) Dances With Films New York 2026

A writer who was just dumped and under a deadline for a new horror story goes to motel to write. He quickly finds that his story of a woman being stalked by a killer at a motel is happening around him.

This comedy horror romance is tonally all over the place. Graphic violence, serious discussions, comedy and a hint of romance are all thrown into a pot and never really mixed. The tone of each scene frequently different from the last or the the one that follows. The tones don't flow into each other but are rather placed next to each other with the result the film feels like its grinding its gears.  As a result I never really connected.

It might have worked better had the film had a better handle on the narrative. The various real unreal notions whir about in awkward ways. I know that things are not always supposed to be clear and events are supposed to echo each other, but at the same time the progression of the plot feels like it was made up on the fly so that the audience couldn't guess what was happening. Then again maybe if the script had another pass to actually weave the really good bits together this might have worked as a whole.

Don't get me wrong, all of the pieces of the film work wonderfully in their own way- but they never get tied together. 

If you are forgiving and want to see some solid pieces in a film that kind of works, give it a shot.

Stop Time (2026) Dances With Films New York 2026

This is the story of two lonely people going through the lives. One is a talented photographer getting ready for a show in the wake of a death of a loved one. The other is a theatrical lighting designer. This is a deliberately shot film. Director Paul Schwartz and his cinematographer lean into the artistic and lighting elements of the lead characters with compositions that mirror works of art. I mention this up front because it took me a few moments to realize why some of the shots were framed as they were. Several scenes are played as tableaux. I mention it because until the obvious clicked with me I was wondering why the shots were set up as they were.

I rather liked STOP TIME.  Yes, the setup of two people meeting and changing each other in some way has been done before, but how it’s done here is nicely atypical.  I like that we get some set up of the characters before they are brought together. I also like the course that everything takes is not what we expect, either from all the films we’ve seen before or from what we know of the characters. There is a lovely shading that we don’t normally get.

The performances by Nelson Avidon and Tara Westwood are also quite good. It’s always nice to have leads who haven’t been in a lot of other things, simply because it makes the people on screen seem more real.

This is a nice little gem of a film and worth a look.

Knifeman (2025) Dances With Films New York 2026

KNIFEMAN is  trip. A film that begins as a goofy story of an IRS agent with a kaiju superhero secret identity... or not.

This film kind of blew me away. Why hasn't anyone gone here before? This is a small scale gem that proves what you need to really wow an audience is to simply tell a great story. KNIFEMAN tells a great story and it perfectly modulates the shifting tones of the film. I audibly reacted at the flip. I have to applaud director MP Hayes and his crew at Missle Range Productions for understanding their assignment and turning out a wonderful film that grabs us, holds us and makes us want to see more.

Bravo.

I honestly have to say that being flooded with too many shorts  for too many start of the year festivals, it's great to see a gem like this hidden in a pile of stones

I want to see what Hayes and his crew do when they move on to a feature.

KNIFEMAN is one the great finds at this year's Dances with FIlms New York and is recommended.

Infirmary (2026) Dances With Films New York 2026

INFIRMARY is a found footage film about what was seen on the closed-circuit cameras and the body cameras found in a semi abandoned hospital. The film follows two security guards and a woman in the office who are in the hospital when things go down.

Okay, full disclosure. I am not, as a rule, a fan of found footage films. My dislike comes from two places, the first is that things which would never be filmed are filmed or else we’d have ten-minute films (I’m looking at you Cloverfield). The other problem is that almost always the filmmakers break with their conceit in some way because they can’t get to the end without doing so.

And there is also one thing that is occasionally a problem, which is that some time sequences run on a bit longer than they would in a conventional film…I’ll come back to that.

With Infirmary I’m all over the place. There are some truly scary and creepy moments… and there are some moments that just sort of go on or don’t work as well as they should.

The problem with INFIRMARY is that the film takes over half its running time to really start to come together. The problems start early on where the film works to set everyone and everything up. What would be okay in a conventional narrative is hobbled by the film having to unnaturally explain things. We get a couple of conversations that would never happen, or not in the way they are portrayed here. There are a lot of shots of liminal spaces as we see the dark and empty corridors. These sequences are either filler or deeply affecting.  Whether the liminal sequences work or not will determine how much of the first half plays for you. For me, some worked, but some didn’t. I didn’t always know why we were seeing as much of the empty halls as we did. Yes, the sequences set a mood, but the narrative doesn’t move much. I was kind of bored. While there are some chills the film doesn’t begin to move until the guards find that there is a person wandering the halls. This spawns some stories and creepy sequences.

As we move into the final half hour the film does pick up. Things get weird and we stop noticing the narrative and technical issues that crop up (what is lit in the CC footage is not in the bodycam, there are a couple of shots that don't fit into the found footage conciet). There are some moments in this final third that do make the hair stand up on our arms. I really liked this final section of the film, even if I don’t think it full makes sense. The trouble is that it's a long trip to get there.

Best for fans of liminal horror and found footage films.

Holy Ghetto (2026) Dances With Films New York 2026

Life in the fringes of society in Tel Aviv, in particular the ghetto and red-light district of the city.

This is a film that is going to open your eyes to a part of Israel you probably haven’t considered, those of the poor and the fringe. Centered around the Door of Hope Shelter, run by a man named Dave wo is trying to do the right thing. In and around the shelter come Ohad, a man trying to make good on his misdeeds, Olga who was forced into prostitution, Yanna who is just trying to survive the storm of her life as well as others. It is a bumpy ride that doesn’t go as planned and doesn’t feel as though director Ilan  Azoulai stage managed anything. This is life as lived which makes things rocky… which is fine because the lives of the people on screen are not smooth.

I was moved. I was delighted because this is a film that isn’t your typical cinematic portrait polished and clean and perfectly told. If cinema should reflect life as lived then this film does that better than almost any film you’ll see.

Highly recommended.

Glendora (2026) Dances With Films New York 2026

This is a super film.  It is a quietly powerful film about a community that speaks volumes about the basic good nature of humanity.

Shot over several years by a filmmaker who embedded themselves with in the community, GLENDORA is a portrait of  Glendora Mississippia and could have only been told by someone who did the work and lived in the town.

The film is a series of sequences where we watch the people of Glendora tell us about their lives and their town. They lay out their existence and essentially reach out and bring us in and make us one of them. We get to know these wonderful people and their hard scrabble life.

I was moved.

I really liked this slice of life. There is a simplicity to it all that is allows the life of the people on screen to bleed out and go into the seats. That filmmaker Isabelle Armand manages to do this speaks volumes about their skill in showing life as lived. This is (low key) cinematic magic that will put this film, and the people we meet in it, deep into your heart

Highly recommended.

Dances With Films New York 2026 Shorts CRACKED and IN EXCHANGE FOR FLESH

 

CRACKED
This is a deeply disturbing animated film about a woman making breakfast and...well...

This film is a great explanation of why some films should be animated. Telling a viscerally disturbing tale in a way that would ever have worked in live action, CRACKED is a dystopian masterpiece. I have no words because the film tells a tale that only makes sense when you see it. More importantly it only works when you can feel it.

A spectacular early film for 2026.

IN EXCHAGE FOR FLESH
A look at sexual abuse in prison, particulary via the strip searchs in prison.
This is deeply disturbing look at how prison guards treat prisoners- and how the treatment of prisoners outside of prisoners would result in arrest of a regular person.

This is an excellent film that is graphic- so beware.

Chet Bond: License to Chill (2025) Dances With Films New York 2026

Chet Bond is James Bond son. Set up with a job y his dad, he is followed around by documentary crew. He doesn't know that the crew is actually minders who are supposed to keep an eye on him.

This is  an amusing mockumentary that manages to hit most of the right notes. Set up your typical mocumentary show it spins the spy genre on it's head.

While the film is playing as part of the Pilots section of Dances With Films New York, I don't know if this would last as series.  I don't know how long they could run with the conceit. That said I think they could probably run this to feature length. 

Definitely worth a look.

(And before you ask- this is not a sanctioned Bond product)

Sound of Falling (2025) opens today

This is a time jumping tale of the women of one family over the course of a century during which they come of age and are abused by the people, especially the men, around them.

I honestly don't know what to say about this film. The telling is so jumbled I'm not certain what the point was. A woman's life is pain? Men are bad? Something else? I'm not sure. 

The problem is that the film never makes anything clear. Set in and around the same house in Germany the periods blur together. There is no  effort to let us know who anyone is, when we are or anything else. We know that the characters are the the same people late in the game with a reference by one character to events in another section.  We don't know that the location is East Germany until a stray reference to a character going to West Germany.  We never know that one section is set during the second world war until there is a reference to some of the women drowning themselves in the river before the Allies arrive.  Honestly we don't even know who most of the characters are because the movie doesn't make clear who they are.  We hear names but the film doesn't make clear who they are. We are adrift and the film never makes any effort to tie it all together. (I'm sure the press notes explain it all but films have to stand on their own, we should not have to read what a filmmaker wants us to get out of a film, it should be clear in the film itself.)

It doesn't help that sections of the film are cartoony and over done. For example the pervy uncle is so overt in his chasing his niece that I laughed.  I couldn't believe that the behavior between two didn't have his family talking to them? At the same time almost all of the men in the film are portrayed in a bad light, from pervy, to ineffectual, to mean. Outside of one bit of narration that one of the women left, we never hear a good word from a man.

Things become complicated as the film begins to add in a sense of magical realism. There are references to the characters flying off- something we see literally at the end in a WTF moment that comes from no where.

I have about 15 pages of notes on the film which are more or less questions about what was happening. I repeatedly wrote "I hope they pull this together"

They never did.

While I liked bits of this film, the film did nothing for me. It's so jumbled I can't even guess as to what the point of it all is. My inclination is to say that the filmmakers did what several filmmakers I knew in school would do which was take a film that wasn't working the way they intended and re ordered it randomly selling it to the teachers as an art project, which they accepted because they couldn't see that they are being snowed.

Don't get snowed, skip this mess.

With Private Life (2025) opening tomorrow in its regular run, here is Peter Gutierrez's NYFF review

“I’m not crying, it’s my eyes.”

***

While it may be a slight stretch to claim that A PRIVATE LIFE is the kind of film that Truffaut would’ve loved to have made, it’s not unreasonable in the least to speculate that he would’ve loved watching it. After all, Rebecca Zlotowski’s engaging quasi-noir has all the hallmarks of a classic French thriller—it’s super smart, full of mystery and humor, and everything is executed with a light yet highly skilled touch. The fact that A PRIVATE LIFE is somewhat “Hitchockian” would, of course, have been an extra bonus for Truffaut. The obvious touchstone in this respect is REAR WINDOW: while Jimmy Stewart’s photojournalist character suspects murder as a result of casual voyeurism, Jodie Foster’s psychoanalyst character suspects murder because her profession relies on, as she puts it, “knowing the secrets and lies” of her clients. As in REAR WINDOW, the protagonist must enlist the efforts of a love interest—in this case, a somewhat unlikely one—to investigate a crime that no one else is sure has even taken place. Come to think of it, given its psychoanalytic bent and dialogue that interprets some creative mindscreen sequences, this is a film that the director of SPELLBOUND himself would have enjoyed.

That is, with the possible exception of the characters’ unrepressed sexuality and the film’s ultimate critique of reason alone—remember, Hitchcock never made supernatural or paranormal genre fare. In these aspects, Zlotowski’s script, co-written with Anne Berest and Gaëlle Macé, is at its Frenchiest. On the other hand, the presence/aura of Foster, who’s playing a longtime expat, and the way that the story wraps up in an upbeat fashion (which is one reason A PRIVATE LIFE isn’t a true noir) point to an American side of the film’s lineage. Indeed, for some the way that Foster’s arc cleanly dovetails with the solution to the central mystery, the transformation of her own fiercely held epistemologies, and the resolution to her sidebar family conflicts will be a bit too much—it’s too pat and too Hollywood, achieved with little ambiguity and earned at little cost. 

There’s some validity to such an argument, but I’m choosing mostly to ignore it. Granted, A PRIVATE LIFE may be too ambitious for its own good, attempting to say too much about too many things, but in a way that’s part of its charm. It’s like one of the wine-filled evenings it depicts—too much may be said, and some of it not even clearly recalled later, but no one can say that the time spent in its company isn’t full of life and truth. Once upon a time critics called such a film a “confection,” but A PRIVATE LIFE is a little too dark and too serious under its veils of wit and style to be dismissed as something sweet.