Trial of Hein (2026) (aka The Homeless) NDNF 2026

After years away a man returns to the remote island where he was born. No one recognizes him so he's put on trial.

Told in the style of Von Trier's DOGVILLE but with an occasional wall 

Well made and well acted this is, in a lot of ways, one of the better films at this year's NDNF.  It's good enough that I wish the artifice wasn't there. I say that because  eveytime I was falling into a scene the revelation of it just a movie pulled me out of the village.  The problem is that the almost reality feels less real and more like a theater piece that wasn'r fully opened up.

 Echoing othe films as such THE RETURN OF MARTIN GUERRE, THE ASTRONAUTS WIFE or THE IMPOSTER the film frequentl;y manages to create it's own place- done in the the deliberate telling. At the same time the never quite manages to over come the familiarity, especially since the film's plot never reall surprises us. We have been here before and writer directoe Kai Stanicke doesn't  give us enouigh to remain fully engaged in the films two plus hours.

That said, there is enough here to give the film a shot if the write up interests you 

A Hand To Hold (2025) Cleveland International FIlm Festival 2026

When the patriarch of a family dies, he refuses to let go of his wife's hand, or lose a chess game.

Dark horror comedy is more gruesome than scary, but is actually more a comedy than anything else. Mixing groans and laughs as the bloody turns make us want to look away A HAND TO HOLD is a delightful little confection filled with poison and love. I can see this film playing most of the horror festivals and becoming an audience fav.

And please forgive if I don't go into details as to what happens- this is a film that is more delightful the less you know.

Definitely one to search out

PANDA (2026)NDNF 2026

 

I am torn about PANDA. This moody black and white slice of life concerning people on the fringes of society in China is stunning on almost every level. It has a visual style that kicks ass, it has a wonderful sense of reality and is filled with compelling characters. It’s a film that pulled me in from its opening moments and held me tight for the better part of the first hour…

…and then the film slowly began to slip away because the film really wasn’t keeping all the little bits connected. Yes, director Xinyang Zhang was giving us intriguing pieces but as the film went on he wasn’t connecting the pieces up.  I kept thinking that what I was seeing was very good, but I wasn’t sure why I was seeing what was on screen.  Yes, it pulls together towards the end, but it’s kind of too little too late. Intellectually I know it’s fine but at the same time, emotionally I was completely disconnected.

This film is a very long 148 minutes.

My issues aside, I want to see what director Zhang does next.  On almost every level he has made a masterpiece, and I can’t wait for his next film.

Fantasy (2025) NDNF 2026

The write up of the film talks about a young woman losing her notebook on a train, a young man finding it and their ending up in a forest. The truth is the film is something else entirely with a large chunk of it is watching a young lady go through her life smoking, bathing, brushing her teeth, complaining, pining for a lost love  and sitting. We hear a voice over some one reading from a notebook. A guy appears  about half way in and they are in the forest... Why? I'm not sure. I do know the cat who occasionally appears is the most interesting thing on screen.

A film desperately in need of a cheat sheet, FANTASY is a bore. 

Arranged to look meaningful and with the occassional smutty confession dropping every now and then to keep the art house snob who won't look at porn hooked, the film wanders around for 79 minutes trying to say something. Yes, the film looks great and the performance by Louise, which one write up says is the basis of the film, is wonderful, but the truth is the editing is a mess and instead of giving us handholds to move through the tale we get banal sequences that just exist and make us wonder why we are being asked to endure it.

Give it points for looking great and sequences that in different hands might have played better, but take them away for not giving us an arrangement that makes this anything we want to endure

Fantaspoa 2026 has started - coverage is coming.

This is just a quick note to say that the always wonderful Fantaspoa has started. I just been given access to some of the titles playing so reviews are coming.

Until the reviews drop here are reviews of some films that I previously covered.

 BEARDED GIRL

FORBIDDEN CITY

HEART OF DARKNESS

TONY ODYSSEY

THE VILE

For more details go here. Though be aware that the site in Portuguese .

Do You Love Me (2025) NDNF 2026

Portrait of Lebanon the place and the people as seen in narrative and documentary footage

Unconvenrtional and not possessing a narrative story  the film is more interested in putting us in a mental and emotional space so that we understand this place called Lebanon. Seeming random images  and sounds slowly form  an cinematic sense of place. Its a place of war and humor and life and destruction and ultimately humanity. No matter what we see we are never not aware of the people on the screen of just off of it.

I got to this film late in regard to New Directors New Films. The write up made it sound like another film I saw within the last year so I thought I had seen it but had not reviewed it. When I was sent the film I took a look so that I could write it up for the festival. I was shocked because I realized I had not seen it.

More experiemental in approach than what most people are used to, DO YOU LOVE ME is not going to work for everyone. Some people need hand holding and so direction to enjoy a film. This is a film that throws a lot of things at us and asks us to assemble them. Some connections are obvious, some are not. The result is a film that you will want to see with friends before dinner so that you can get a bite to eat and discuss it.

There is much to discuss here.

One of the best films at this year's New Directors New Films, it's one of the few films I think will have a long life after the festival (beyond it having an American release). This will be a film people discuss for years.

ARO BERRIA (2025) NDNF 2026

In 1978 workers at a factory are hoping for a new and better contract. When the contract isn't what they hoped a bunch head into the country and a commune where they hope to restart their lives with a tantric cult. 

Feeling like a film that no one has made since the late 1970's when films like this caused certain types of art house films to fall out of favor, ARO BERRIA hopes to chart the course of people looking for something new and rewarding and instead finding something else.

I'm not going to lie, this film didn't really work for me. The early sequences in the factory were too political in a way that I've only ever seen in European art house films of the 1970's. The shift to the commune pushed me further away as there was too much of watching people do exercises with blindfolds on and not enough personal interaction.

This is exactly the sort of film that New Directors New Films has been highlighting over the last few years, intensely art house choices that will never get a run outside of the festival circuit. 

For art house film lovers only. 

THE PROPHET (2026) NDNF 2026

A minister with a failing flock turns toward darker means in order to help him have his congrgation return. It works for a while but the cost and escalating demands make him question if it is worth it.

This is not a horror film. There may be a supernatural and surreal element to the film, but the film is actually an examination of things closer to home such as spirituality and the things we will do in order to get ahead. I say that up front because horror fans maybe tempted to see the film because of its supernatural element.

Then again the film might be considered an attempt  to make a horror film in the style of Bresson or Ozu, though I suspect that both of those directors would never attempt  something like this. They are not  from a society where spirits walk like this. In that sense writer director Ique Langa  is operating entirely with in his own territory. 

This is a masterful and beautiful film. Its a film that has a great deal to say or at least ponder.  It's a film that is one of the better films I have seen for this year's New Directors New Films because it's one oe og the few films that feels more than just an intellectual or artistic exercise. There is a sense of a it coming from a life lived.

At the same time the film is not for all audiences. Paced at  the speed of life or perhaps a bit slower, this is a film that is operating in the realm of slow cinema . While I know that the are are people who like this sort of thing, the film echos the previously Ozu and Bresson, it isn't, like those directors, not for everyone. I liked the film but the pacing kept me from loving it. 

Recommended for fans of thoughtful slow cinema

Ariela Rubin on Travel Companion (2025) which opens Friday

The Travel Companion is about roommates and friends Simon and Bruce. Bruce works for an airline, and Simon gets free flights as his designated travel companion. Simon uses this perk to travel the world, at least, that’s the idea, as he works on filming a documentary.

One night after a movie screening, Bruce meets Beatrice, who is also a filmmaker. They start dating, and Simon quickly becomes anxious that he’s going to lose his free-flight privileges. He brings it up with Bruce at every opportunity, and even with Beatrice. His fixation on it starts to put their friendship at risk.

Ironically, for a movie centered around free flights, we never actually see Simon leave New York, where the film takes place. 

While I could empathize with Simon to some degree—he’s stuck in a dead-end job and struggling to figure out his path, I found his character pretty unlikable. Actually, I found all the characters to be quite unlikable. Bruce clearly begins to drift away from the friendship, but instead of addressing it, he just pulls back without explanation.

It’s a movie about self-discovery, and I think up-and-coming filmmakers might relate to it more. But for me, I found it pretty dull, and slow despite it only being 91 minutes. 

The Black Swan (1942)

Tyrone power plays a pirate who is kind of forced to become law abiding when his former boss becomes governor of Jamaica. While he falls head over heels for Maureen O'Hara, who hates his guts, he is forced to try and stop his former piratical allies who won't give up the plundering.

Big scale Technicolor film is part drama, part romance and part action.  Its rousing mix of story threads and sword fights delights at almost every turn. This is exactly the sort of film they don't make any more because it could only have been done in a studio system.

The cast of supporting players is a blast with Laird Cregar chewing scenery, Anthony Quinn proving why he was destined for stardom, Thomas Mitchell oddly not out of place and George Saunders unrecognizable in a body suit and heavy beard as the villain of the piece. Few films today would ever dare have so many people seeming playing against expectations and pulling it off gloriously.

This film is a blast. It is the perfect film to curl up with on the couch and enjoy on a rainy night.

CHAO (2025) opens this week

Set in a future Shanghi a reporter tries to find out how the merpeople and humans came together and ends up learning the story of human Stephan and the mer-princes Chao, who met him and declared that she was going to marry him.

Studio 4 C is back with a visually amazing film. It's a film that will make you want to stop the film just so you can look at everything happening in the frame.  I was blown away. It's so amazing that I can't wait to see it again when I can watch it and stop the film periodically to see what is happening in the frame.

As good as the visuals are the problem is the narrative and the story telling are allover the place. As loud as the visuals are some of the sequences are. Bits of the story seem to be missing or overwhelmed by a side bit. This is a problem for Studio 4 C. while they make some of the best visual films, their narratives  and feel scattered if they don't have a director who can hold the reins tightly.

I like this but I didn't love this the way I should have.

Reservations aside the visuals will blow you away and any chance you can get to see this big must be taken.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)

Greek tragedy of operatic proportions as two brothers looking for quick money decided to rob a mom and pop Jewelry store-their mom and pop's.

This is an almost unbearable decent into darkness as we see the event and then bounce between the days prior and after from various points of view. This is a world of flawed people in which its hard to root for anyone. Its a road accident of a tale and you can't look away as the sins of the sons leave destruction visited on their father and everyone else in the of a really bad idea wake.

Philip Seymour Hoffman is quite good as the slimeball brother who sets it all in motion in the hope of making some quick cash. Ethan Hawk is just okay as the brother who knows its wrong but goes with it anyway (Hawks problem is that its too mannered. or affected. I should have been more on his side but instead found myself distanced).

An excellent movie filled with darkness that maybe a bit too intense and too dark for some viewers (and even reviewers who rated it highly but left it off the best of the year lists). I'm finding it rattling around in my head, its bleak look making me admire it more than I like it. Liking it to me somehow meaning that I'd actually want to see this again, which I'm not sure I'd want to do (and not wanting to dwell on the details is keeping me from discussing the film the way it should be discussed).

Grand film-making from Sidney Lumet. Probably one of 2007's best, I'm not sure I ever need to see it again.

Nightcap 4/6/26: The next few weeks, questions and the status of the Marq Evans interview

After a week of not watching films I am playing catch up and watching stuff on Netflix. Reviews will drop when slots open up. 

The next few weeks are going to be New Directors New Films, some  Cleveland Film festival titles, some new releases and then Tony Leung Retrospective titles. 

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I am credentialed for Tribeca - so expect reviews at an unhealthy level during the first half of June.

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Questions - 

would you want a weekly list of links to reviews of things hitting streaming or more likely as I discover good stuff on streaming channels.

anyone interested in talking to me about grail films- especifically what they had to do to see a film they had to track down? Its for a piece I'm in the early stage of working on a piece.

I used to have links every week from Randi on all sorts of stuff. Should I investigate her returning to the fold and supplying so intriguing links.

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Last week I spoke with Marq Evans about his latest film CAPTURING BIGFOOT. The piece will go up when I finish revising the transcription, probably in a few days. I mention this because I was asked about the interview after I mentioned on line that I had done it. It follows all of the questions I got after the review posted. There has been a lot of interest in the film since it sent shockwaves through the bigfoot community and very few people have seen it. My review has resulted in my getting questions via emails and comments. Hopefully the interview will answer some of the questions people have.

Random thoughts on this year's New Directors New Films which starts April 8

New Directors New Films has always been a fest I've attended. Even before I started Unseen, I would stagger into the city to see its films. Every year I always found several special films that haunted me to the years end. This tends to be a fest that usually has a surprise or two upmits sleeve

The last few years the number of haunting films has diminished for me  as the gulf between the programmers tastes and my own have gotten wider. The programmers want more art house titles, and I think they lean too far in that direction.  This is fest that has narrowed its search  to a certain type of film for a certain type of audience (They haven't shaken things up with a film like THE RAID in years).  I cannot lie to you, of the 11 films I saw for the fest (so far) most lean into the slow art house film esthetic.  That's fine if you like that sort of thing, but as festival that used to catch things from across the spectrum it seems more limited now.

As much as they are programming of a type now, there are some films that got away from that and of the films I've seen so far, the best of the bunch are as follows:

IF ON A WINTER'S NIGHT is one of the few alive at the fest. The story of a couple living together in the big city, it's one of the few films that feels more that it's about the people on the screen and less about being a piece of art. 

THE PROPHET is the one slowish film that uses it's pacing to put us in a place and into a life for a reason. The film is a killer story about a minister who turns to darker things to save his ministry. It is NOT a horror film even though there are supernatural elements

TWO MOUNTAINS WEIGHING DOWN MY CHEST is the calling card of director Viv Li. One of the few mold breaking films at NDNF, it's going to worm into the hearts of anyone who connects with it. Its a documentary exploration of the directors life that doesn't do what you think it should and becomes something greater as a result.

If you are in the mood for some art house films look into New Directors New Films.

Tallest Dwarf (2025) plays PBS tomorrow

TALLEST DWARF
Julie Wyman looks at her life and her condition as a woman with dwarfism. Connecting with other artists she looks to bring awareness to the condition as well as how various drugs and environmental toxins maybe responsible.

This is a solid little documentary that doesn't do exactly what you think. One part auto biography, one-part social tract and one-part artistic exploration the film opens your mind and forces you to consider not only how we see the world but also how we alter it.

731 (2025) hits VOD Tuesday

Once you are cured you will be free- repeated refrain 

Remember This and We Have Lived

This is a stylized look into what happened in the infamous Unit 731 where the Japanese tourtured thousands of people to death in the name of science. The film follows the story of one man who escaped and then found his way back to the camp. It ponders his role when he is forced to work for Japanese.

Looking and feeling of a kind of Nazi-sploitation film from the 1970's, it feels at times as if the designers of CALIGULA and THE DEVILS had an unholy love child. The film is very theatrical (it could almost be kin to OUR HITLER) with each section of the film meticulously planned in as theatrical a way as possible. Reds and golds and blues abound. Its real and not, with nothing out of place - there is no dirt and even the blood and gore is artistic. Its a kind of art house riff on THE MEN BEHIND THE SUN, but with a desire to make a point and not just shock us with gore.

Yes, the film catalogs the atrocities to some degree, but it does so almost tastefully. While it's not so stomach churning as the infamous MEN BEHIND THE SUN, it still packs a punch. The film's horrors come from fear of characters we know.

The film has a bone to pick with everyone, especially the Japanese. This is at least the third film in the last six weeks to recount the Japanese war crimes. Between the three films I'm shocked that the Japanese government hasn't said anything since between the three films anti Japanese feelings are going to be whipped into a frenzy. This isn't to lessen what the Japanese did in anyway, but the concentrated release from a state run film industry makes you wonder what the ulterior motive is. The film also, rightly, takes aim at the americans who let the murderers slide because they turned over their papers.

To be honest I don't know what I think of the film. On one hand I'm kind of shocked that the film wasn't picked up by some of the major film festivals since the films artistic merits are off the charts. This is the sort of art house cage rattler  that might have become legendary when if played the New York Film Festival, since it would have provoked a reaction and had people talking to the screen.

At the same time there is an (art house)soap opera nature to the story. The filmmakers want to push buttons and stoke emotions. this is propaganda on top of a heightened human story (I mean the use  kids, the pregant lady as victims....and just about everyone else's stories of pain and misery). It hits many cliches so hard that they are driven into next week. You have to accept the film's emotional manipulation of go mad.

The film is also so insistant that you knwo exactly precisely going on and where that a lot of the film comes with titles explaining who is who and when and where things are happening. It's so frequently done that it becomes silly. I don't think I've ever seen a film that used titles to explain things as much as this film.

It doesn't help that he film has such a heightened tone that I don't know if this is supposed be serious or a satire or if the filmitself doesn't know. Some scenes are tragic but the theatricality of the presentation makes you wonder why it seems silly. I giggled. (Think the end of GODFATHER 3 but without the music)

And yet I love the ballsy nature of the telling. I love that it is trying to be it's own thing, but at the same time I don't know if it wholly works. Yes I was moved, but not to tears. I was not crushed and it's clear as  the film goes through the final credits to blackness, that it wants to break its audience. That doesn't happen. Honestly I admire what it is doing, even if it occasional misses.

Ultimately this is a one of a kind film on an important subject. If you want a film that isn't main stream, give this film a shot.

I Know Exactly How You Die (2025) hits VOD Tuesday

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.

Three From Hell (2019) or Robbie Zombie makes a cash grab

I liked Robbie Zombie as a film director up until his film 31 which was a total miss. While some of his films were uneven they all had life and interesting things in them but I don''t know what to make of his latest a continuation of the saga started in HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES.

Taking place largely a decade after THE DEVIL'S REJECTS the film has the trio surviving the police and being thrown in jail. Captain Spaulding is executed. Otis escapes and then breaks Baby out of jail with the help of his brother Winslow. The trio then have to battle killers who want them dead.

More interested in being mean and nasty the film feels like it was put together by the numbers. Lots of people are given token send offs (god bless Sig Haig) but then the rest feels like its a filmmaker trying to be fancy to hide the lack of passion. To me there is no heart here, only mechanics as the gears of the machine move everyone around to where a pithy line can be said, a nasty act can be performed or something can be done to provoke a knee jerk reaction from the audience.

I could appreciate the craft but I missed the twisted soul. No offense this felt more like a cash grab then a creative endeavour. 

While not bad it isn't really good and s such isn't recommended.

Sleuth (2007) or how all the right filmmakers can make a bad film

Harold Pinter rewrites Anthony Schaeffer's classic play about a man going to visit the husband of his lover and having it all go sideways. The original film starred Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. Caine has the Olivier role in this version and he's paired with Jude Law. Here the film is directed by Kenneth Branaugh.

The acting is spectacular. Both Caine and Law are gangbusters in their respective roles. I really like the chemistry and the clashing of personalities. It's wonderful and enough of a reason to watch when the script's direction goes haywire.

Harold Pinter's dialog is crisp and sharp and often very witty and I understand why he was chosen to rewrite the play (which is updated to make use of surveillance cameras and the like).The problem is that how the script moves the characters around is awful. Michale Caine walks Law through his odd modern house with sliding doors and panels for no really good reason. Conversations happen repeatedly in different locations. I know Pinter has done that in his plays, but in this case it becomes tedious. Why do we need to have the pair go over and over and over the fact that Law is sleeping with Caine's wife? It would be okay if at some point Law said enough we've done this, but he doesn't he acts as if each time is the first time. The script also doesn't move Caine through his manipulation of Law all that well. To begin with he's blindly angry to start so he has no chance to turn around and scare us.(Never mind a late in the game revelation that makes you wonder why he bothered) In the original we never suspected what was up. here we do and while it gives an edge it also somehow feels false since its so clear we are forced to wonder why Law's Milo doesn't see he's being set up. There are a few other instances but to say more would give away too much.

Thinking about the film in retrospect I think its a film of missed opportunities and missteps. The opportunities squandered are the chance to have better fireworks between Caine and Law. Missteps in that the choice of a garish setting and odd shifts in plot take away from the creation of a tension and a believable thriller. Instead we get some smart dialog and great performances in a film that doesn't let them be real.

 I understand why Pinter was chosen to rewrite the play (which is updated to make use of surveillance cameras and the like), but ultimately he was a very bad choice to do the revision.

Jimmy & The Demons (2025) Opens Friday

This film is so much fun, which I think its, subject James Grashow would be happy about.

The film is about artist Grashow as he works to finish what he fears might be his final work. He's 79 and knows the clock is ticking. The work is a giant sculpture in volving a cathedral, demons and assorted other things. Along the way we get the know, the man, his work, his life and most importantly his view of life and fun.

Ths film made me smile. Grashow is just a wonderful guy. His sense of fun and of life really connected to me. I completely could relate to his art, which if you've ever seen my monster bag or the work of my brother makes perfect sense.

There is something about Grashow's view of life and his insistence on never stop having fun that we need intodays world. Its an infectious world view we all need to experience.

I loved this film a great deal. Seeing it after several very heavy films for Tribeca it was a wonderful palette cleanse and it ended up being one of my favorites to this point.

I can't recommend it enough.

See it.