Best Pizza in LA (2026)

 This is going to be short and sweet because there isn’t much to say.

THE BEST PIZZA IN LA is like a trial episode for a Food Network show where the filmmakers goes to pizza places in LA with famous people and talks to the owners.

The film is enjoyable, but its kind of disposable since there isn’t much here beyond some off the cuff conversations told in a TV style. I don’t need to see this again because it doesn’t have anything worthy of repeat viewing.

On the other hand if you want to make someone want pizza show them this film,

Backstage Madness (2026) Fantasia 2026

70 year old screenwriter wanting to just write an artistic masterpiece finds that his work is being twisted not only by the producer, but the characters who want the project to go in their own way.

Wickedly funny meta comedy is a must see for anyone who has heard the siren's call to write fiction and then found themselves made powerless by a creation that took over control. It's also a must see for anyone who has tried to create only to have the lesser minds with the purse strings with good ideas. Then again anyone who has ever worked with anyone will find something to laugh at.

I was not certain I wanted to see this my a mad text from Liz Whittemore gushing about the film made me want to see it. Liz was and is right to gush. This is a wonderfully funny film that we all can relate to. More important the film actually has a lot to say about the movies and the act of creation. One of the final lines about how a writer is constantly dragging portions of himself up really hit home. The notion is kind of disturbing owing to some of the creations we meet, but I know there is a lot of truth to it. 

I love this film and I can't wait to dive back in.

One of the great hidden gems of this year's Fantasia, it is a must see.

I Love Paris (2026) Fantasia 2026

Mockumentary look at a young woman living in Paris who makes music and is a vampire.

Good horror music comedy faux documentary  that hits all the right note. Not at all scary the film survives on the characters, the wonderful sense of Paris as a real place beyond the movies, and the music. That last bit is important because way too often the music in movies about musicians gives us some really bad music. That isn't the case here.

I liked the film and how it took a lot of over done things, vampires, mockumentaries and life of the hip and happening and turned it into something we haven't seen before.

Recommended.

A pointer toward Godhead(2026) Fantasia 2026

 

I'm not going to review GODHEAD... at least for now.

I need to see it again, away from a festival crush and with a different mind set. I say that knowing that I was watching it with no way of rewatching it in the time I had to get a timely review. I also know that I couldn't shake it.

The plot has a priest, who is raising  boy left on the church steps, being asked to find out which of two white clad people is the holy spirit. What follows is an off kilter and very heady discussion of some heavy subjects. Shot in a goregeous black and white, you'll want to hang every shot on your walls. There is much to love here.

At the same time the presentation didn't always work. Some of the off kilterness kept me distant, as did  Sarah Coffey's performance which seemed out of place. I need to see the film again so I can take it on its own terms.

While not for all audiences, GOIDHEAD is a must for those who want off Hollywood cinema.

Parallel Glances (2026) Fantasia 2026

 

Two brother who want to inherit their grandmothers crimninal organization must steal a certain car. It all goes wrong.

Dry absurdist comedy ctime film is a love it or hate it proposition. Every image is carefully staged and every line as some sort of importance placed on it. This is less like watching a narrative and more like watching and art performance where the creators have their own unique sense of humor that falls flat for anyone not clued in. 

I never laughed and I checked my watch

One of the few real misses at Fantasia 2026

Jimmy(2024) opens Friday at the IFC center

A meditation on James Baldwin's 1948 trip to Paris, where he found a home and began to write.

This is a black and white film told with a driving jazz score that is more about feelings than facts. Yes Baldwin wanders through the film, and there is some attempt at narrative sequences, however the truth is those are the weakest parts of the film. This is a film that work bests on mood. 

Running just over an hour the film is an interesting footnote.

Brief rambling thoughts on MOTOR CITY (2025)

 

Shotgun to the face or see this movie again? Shotgun please

I was looking forward to seeing MOTOR CITY. I was intrigued by the idea of a film driven by needle drops. When I finally saw it I was extremely disappointed.

The plot of the film has an ex-con being set up by a crime boss who wants his girl. The ex-con breaks out of prison to get revenge.

Told with almost almost no dialog, not because no one speaks, but because the director has music cover over everything, this is a film you just have to go with. You just have to watch the action and watch and pick up clues until something is spelled out. Unfortunately by the time we're told anything we've sorted it out already. What isn't songs you know, like The Chain by Fleetwood Mac or Lovely Day by Bill Withers or I Feel Love by Donna Summer, is a an electronic heavy one that was all the rage in the ealry 80's. I would have thought that the film would have been designed, like John Woo's SILENT NIGHT, to tell its story without dialog, while keeping all the background sounds that give a sense of life to a film, but no, music is everything so the dounds that help make a modern movie sound real and a live have been stripped out of a lot of the film. 

The film uses lots of stylized shots and way way too much slow motion. This is not a film that wants to tell a (very very cliched) story but instead wants to look cool and be hip and happening in a prentious sort of way. Sadly, it never looks hip and happening because everything looks like bad 1970's TV cop show dress up cliche.

Yea, the action sequences are fine for what they are, but at the same time we really don't give a shit about anyone on screen because we never got to know them as characters. I saw Alan Ritchson not as his character Miller but as Reacher because it gave me something to hang on to.

The biggest problem is that the script, despite coming from the Black List, is terrible (then again most Black List films end up disappointing because of changes by the time they arrive as films). The plot requires plot turns that make zero sense, starting with our hero leaving his car unlocked with the windows open, in what appears to be the ghetto of Detroit - if he didn't do it they could steal the car and set him up. No information is given on anyone or anything until way after we should have been told. Not having a clue, our hero watches his car get stolen and then essentially returned and he doesn't think its weird.  Or more to the point the film never lets us in on what he thinks because there is no dialog or rational action. Were they firguring that giving us a stupidly cliche script that they wouldn't have to give us characters because it was all cliche?

Why did anyone sign to do this? What was in the script that got lost?

I know the filmmakers can make good films- the director make the truly great OLD HENRY, I just want to know what happened? I'm hoping that this is purely a moment where all these great pieces got together and it just didn't work. I mean, it happens, right?

As it stands now MOTOR CITY was a physically painful viewing experience I wouldn't wish on my enemies.

The Mouths (2026) Fantasia 2026

This is, nominally, the story of four friends who go to a cursed tree and one of them disappears... 

One of the best horror films at this year's Fantasia fest (and NYAFF and Japan Cuts) , this is a very deliberate spin on the old as dirt tale of a cursed location turning everyone's lives upside down. Director Takashi Shimizu knows the audience has been here before  and he does what any good director would do, uses the familiarity against the audience. Yes, we get all the cliches, but but also get some wicked spins. By the end the sound of cicadas will make your skin crawl.

Much of what we see is implied. Yes, there are graphic images, but this film is a story of words and they paint the terror. Its a world of its own devising

I am not going to lie, the film has a pacing problem. It is very deliberate with a slow pace and lots of silences that highlight the sounds. I wished I was seeing this in a theater instead of at home where there were distractions. You can not watch this and not be fully focused on it or else it will not work because the spell will be broken. (This NEEDS a theatrical release)

At the same time the mood this film generates is first rate and I have to say that this is the first horror film this year that gave me goosebumps from start to finish... Trust me how the film begins and ends will kick the legs out from under you because it isn't normal for a film like this.

If you want something that isn't quite right (as in demented) and not perfect but articly chilly at times, give THE MOUTHS a shot.

A funny thing happened with NYAFF

I don't live and die by hits. I am amused by what gets read and what doesn't. To that end I am amused that for the last bunch of years my readership during NYAFF drops. When I do festivals and series readership goes up, but during NYAFF it drops - which is funny since my coverage of the festival was what helped put me on the map.  Seriously once the NYAFF coverage hits my readership goes down as if the regular readers seem not to think there is anything there for them. If I was covering the festival for hits I would have to stop doing so because I know I would not have a readership. 

This is not a knock, but more a statement that NYAFF maybe a big  festival with great PR  that gets them stars and coverage around the world, but in NYC and  in the local film community its  now insular and it's own world. I kind of saw it happening over the last few year but this year it really hit me. Most of the film fans that I know no longer talk about it, with many of my fellow writers not covering it any more. It seems  none of the regulars who went to every screening go any more.

Yes, the screenings sell out and there are butts in seats, but at the same time it feels like it is playing to a very defined audience and not so much outside of that. It's playing to its membership and I do mean its own membership and not so much the Film at Lincoln Center Membership since I did not see a lot of Lincoln Center faces at my screenings, and none at SVA. (though to be fair I could have missed them)

My personal problem that has bothered me the last few years, and one kind of made worse this year is the casual vibe the festival has towards screenings and pretty much everything. Things will happen eventually, and you just have to go with it because its summer and all you should care about is the festival and nothing else. Who cares when things start end end. (The end part is why I don't go to night screenings unlessits very important to me because I have been told numerous times  by the head of the festival the festival is made for city people who don't have to commute and for people only going to the fest). The regular people in the seats seem to be okay with that as was revealed in the fact  that people were just sort of going with the fact that screenings were starting late. The two of the comments I heard at screenings  were " I don't know why I expected them to start close to time, they never do" and the other was  from people blowing into HOPE 25 minutes after the advertised start time, before anything had started "See, I told you we didn't have to rush, they never start on time".  

Basically I no longer like the in person vibe. I no longer like that it feels like you have to be one of their people.  I dislike the casualness and the sense its being made up on the fly.

To be honest while I have enjoyed the hell out of all the films I saw for NYAFF this year, it’s honestly the best programmed since Subway Cinema left, but outside of their getting me the films to cover remotely, dealing with the festival in person was too much of an adventure.  

Every time I tried to do something in person, I felt like I’d walked into someone else’s dinner party. Ultimately the experience of covering  the fest is no longer fun. 

At this point I really am done with NYAFF as something I'm going to cover. I'm not even sure that after this year that I'll even bother with the odd film.

Fated Hours (2026) Fantasia 2026

In 1810, a woman with an impending marriage is suddenly haunted by the ghosts of the past, and her deceased sister.

Described on the Fantasia website as kind of BBC/Masterpiece Theater ghost story, I would like to add but much less interesting. This feels like someone's idea of what a BBC ghost story might be... except that for years they had a series of ghost stories at Christmas and they were much more interesting then this. 

To me this is a lot of deep meaningful discussions in an ultra serious manner before a denouncement that made me wonder  how I can get my 35 minutes back.

A miss.

A pointer toward When You Open The Door (2026) Fantasia 2026

I'm not even going to begin to try and review this.  This was a film that was very much not in my wheelhouse that I was considering not saying anything.  On the other hand I suspect that this is going to connect with some people.

This is a trip into a lonely woman in Japan who is very isolated.  She may or may not be a werewolf. There is some magical realism sequences that make you wonder what is real and what isn't. 

The film is good enough that I am mentioning it for anyone who feel they may connect to it, however at the same time I did not connect.

Someone Special (2026) NYAFF 2026

I honestly don't know how to really write this film up.  I mean that in the best sort of a way.

Nominally its the story of a therapist, a painter and a woman who are all very broken. There is murder and self harm and turns that aren not neat and not expected. I can't really explain more than that because how you feel or what you think can't be determined by reading about this film, it is something you have to see.

That is an asolute rave.

I have no idea if you will like this. Hell, I don't know if I liked it, but I do know that this was a one of a kind cinematic ride that lovers of off the beaten trail cinema must see. I say that because I started the film and thought, "what is this..." and then stuff happened and then more stuff happened, and very little of what I thought would did.

I am so unsure of what I think that I have been trying to write this up for two weeks and failing

This is an Unseen Films film and for the adventurous.

UNHOLY NIGHT (2026) Fantasia 2026

This is funny but also deeply disturbing

Merry Christmas. Time to bring the family together to celebrate, including grandma who's dead and is now homicidal.

This is a bat shit crazy horror film with twist of humor.  Its a film that walks the fine line between funny and scary and never slips. Its a film that never lets us fall over the line. More to the point the film adds to the suspense of the situation by having us not only fear the fear of dead relatives but the uncomfortablness of just having to deal with relatives in general

This is just a great film. Even though I saw this film with work in progress effects, I can't imagine them looking better than they do now. I mean everything looks real and not remotely fake. 

Have I said I love this film?

I love this film. 

This is one that is going to end up a holiday classic for people who don't want the typical holiday films.

Highly recommended.

Brief thoughts The Odyssey (2026)

I was not going to see THE ODYSSEY. I was not invited to the press screening and because I think Christophe Nolan is not even close to being on my list of favorite directors I didn't feel the need to see it until it streamed or when I had to do the year end voting.

Then Nate Hood and Hubert Vigilla raved and because I know what a film is based on their phrasing I decided to give it ago. What I found in their words was the feeling that I wasn't going to be standing up half way in to the movie and screaming at the screen.

An aside- the reason that I took Nate and Hubert's feelings to heart, was that  the spoke of the film is such a way that they saw the film as whole. The didn't speak of pieces or moments or performances or as the greatest thing since yogurt but they spoke of thematic whole of the film. They were not trying to get a pull quote or  maybe impress the director. They were  simply seeing a film that hung together so I knew there was going to be something that would keep me in my seat.

I saw it either in 70mm, the theater I went to is one of the few to still have a 70mm projector (there was a poster saying 70mm), or digital. It was not IMAX. I say that because I could not see any image that would have been improved. I can not honestly say that I think it's worth seeing the film in IMAX  for twice the price. Its the story that matters. 

First thing I have to say is that anyone who is bitching about the film hasn't seen the film. Everyone bitching about woke or anything else doesn't realize that the amount of screen time for their complaints is so minimal (mere minutes in a 3 hour film) that its kind of like going to a show or a fair and hating the whole evening because one person bumped into you.  If you have an issue with the casting  or anything else, look at old Hollywood. Grow the F up and get out of your echo chanmbers and listen to what this film has to say about empathy.

The film is the story of the return of Odysseus from the Trojan war. It is told from his point of view and that of his family.  Much of the film is a long flashback. 

How is it?

I stayed to the end and I didn't walk out. That may not sound like much, but I will leave or turn off a film if I think its a waste of time. Time is important, and with a film like this that is three hours I can watch two other, better films. Life is way too short for shitty movies.

Actually I liked the film. I have issues, which is the point of this piece, but I liked the film. I think the film is best in the third act when Odysseus finally gets home. Almost all of this final part is so good that I suspect that most of the people who love the film have the deal sealed in this final section.

My feelings on the film depends, for most of it, upon at what moment we are at. I say that because I think that the film doesn't really work as a whole until he reaches Ithaca. Until then its a a film that bounces around why too much and never quite manages to really say anything that moves us because it is too busy bouncing around.  It's only at that point do we really focus on characters who aren't fleetingly there.

The problem with the film is that Nolan, in his typical style, fragments the stry for most of the film. He is juggling a great many characters across several years of time. He's placed famous faces into many of them so there is an assumption that they are important, even if they aren't. Even at three hours there is a hell of a lot going on and Nolan simply pushes us forward.

Another problem is the editing is not what it should be. In a hour plus discussion with Hubert about the film he mentioned that the IMAX cameras only hold three minutes of film.  That is probably the reason why some of the sequences seem to be overly edited or that some of the performances seem awkward.  Several times during the first act I was fighting the film and wondering why some of the character driven sequences were shot like that. I finally just went with the spectacle and went with it.

An other issue with the "editing" probably comes from the script. Because Nolan has to keep the film moving he can't stop and let certain discussions be fully explored. Some of the discussions from the source material are chopped down or eliminated because what works as poetical discussion on the page or when listening to the words, has not place in a film that is action driven.  We get bullet points about Zues' Law  which is explained in a line or two, but which never fully flowers as it should because there are no words to back it up. Yes the notion of entertaining everyone equal because you don't know who may be a god is here, but ultimately it's stripped of its full weight because it's simply used as a plot point.

I am greatly bothered by how short changed so many of thematic elements are. Ideas old and new are  marched through at speed. (Forgive me for not listing them all, I went to the film for me and not as a writer so I don't have the pages of notes I would have had otherwise.) The one point that hangs with me is in the crushing scene in Hell when Odysseus meets Elliot Page's character again (Page is excellent and may give the best performance in the film).  At the start of thefilm Page's character is killed by the Trojans on the beach when they discover the horse. Page was left there to tell them that it was a gift. Odysseus knew he would probably be killed but left him there anyway. When they meet again in the afterlife there is much sadness, grief and anger. What should have been a slightly longer discussion is cut short witha couple of "meaningful" lines that are there to hand us the emotion instead of letting us feel it.

And that is a HUGE problem with the film, Nolan's characters don't, for most of the running time, show us we need to feel and instead has them recite a line or two. Anne Hathaway gives an absolutely nothing performance for the vast majority of the film because everything she says is pure exposition. It is not until she listens to Odysseus speak of the war and the cost,  and all she does is cry, that she finally begins to give a performance. Nolan gives most of the cast crap lines so only people like John Leguizamo, Elliot Page, Robert Pattinson (until he turns ridiculosly into Snidely Whiplash at the end), Charlize Theron and one or two others, are able to transcend them and make them more than functional. (Theron should not have been that good in a role that is ultimately exposition- however she creates a character and bleed emotion from absolutely a badly written role that exists onlt to get Odysseus to remember.)

I even have to take exception to Nolan's depiction of the hell of war, in thast it kind of sucks. Nolan has Matt Damon (who is an excellent hero) look meaningful while people are killed. There is no hell of war, there is Nolan phoning it in from Hollywood's films of long ago. What we see is no match for Damon's third act speech about losing his way and not believing home existed any more. What we hear in Damon's voice says more than then all the hundreds of extras running around like they are in an old sword and sandal film.

And for the most part the film does come together when Odysseus hits the shores of Ithaca.  Finally the film feels focused because there is no need to cut away and we can go with it. Here at last the emotions and the speachifying are deeply moving and this is, I am pretty sure, why people fall for the film.  In this final third we get action  where the good are rewarded and the bag guys are punished. Though to be perfectly honest Pattinson's mustache twirling turn weakened the film for me, more so when the ending echoes too much the ending of Peter Jackson's Return of the King.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the film, but I can't for the life of me see the people who are calling this the greatest dodad of the moment are talking about.  I say that because if anyone other than Nolan had made it they'd cut its belly open and let them spill out in their columns. Is that great film in this one? Moments of it are but I don't think the whole thing is.

Is it worth seeing? Yes, but I wouldn't do IMAX.  Frankly if you need a film to be only seen in IMAX there is a problem with your film because IMAX is spectacle noy story nor characters. (Beside Nolan knows this will be seen at home since he's spoken of a home video release- which last I checked isn't IMAX)

And if you do go see it, just don't expect historical accuracy (its a mess- its Hollywood) or faithfulness to the source (trust me stuff is missing).  Just take it for its own thing and go with that just be patient for the third act.

Foxing: Kitsuné-tsuki (2026) Fantasia 2026

Disappointing animated short film about an animator who is haunted by a fox spirit.

This is an interesting story that  gets lost in a visual style that is cluttered (lots of cubicals) and reptative.  Everything looks the same and the images never soar.

This maybe the first animated short film I've ever seen from Fantasia where I did not know why it was programmed.

Where We Played: Voices From the Fire (2026) Heartland FIlm Festival 2026

 

Children who survived the Los Angeles wildfires talk about their experiences.

This is a very good, very emotional look at how the fires affected the kids who were in the path of the fires. It a film that starts out similar to several other similar short films about the effects of the fires and then the film charts its own course.

Personally, while I think the film is very good, I kind of wish this film ran longer than 9 minutes. Don’t get me wrong, but there is so much that was left unsaid and uncovered. I say this because I had seen some other films on the wildfires and they covered other aspects that relate to this (truthfully, they should all be cut together). This film would be incredible if it could be expanded.

However, as it is it is moving and as such it is recommended.

Born in the Jungle (2026) Fantasia 2026

In 1950s Venezuela a young girl bemoans that her family lives in the jungle and on summer vacation there will be nothing for her to do since all her friends will be going places in the city and watching movies. What she doesn't count on is that her young brother will go missing and that she will have to save a mythical creature.

This is a great little film. Don't let the fact that this film is aimed at the whole family it is just a great adventure.  If this was a a live action film it would be a huge hit. (heck it still can be a huge hit.)  It is so much fun.

What I love about the film is that the film takes the parts that might be considered cliche for a film like this and spices them up. Perhaps we've seen a similar stories about a kid finding out that their life isn't that boring before, but we haven't told it this way, with these characters. That may sound like a cop out, but its not, it simply means that the filmmakers realized that what makes films like this a success is the characters. If we care about the chqaracters and really like them, we'll go where ever they take us.

I loved where they were taking us.

I loved this film so much that about a third of the way in I became certain that this film is going to end up play the New York International Children's Film Festival. This is a film that is going to bounce between the best festivals in the world (it started at Annecy).

I can't recommend this film enough. It is such an absolute blast. 

Turgaud (2026) NYAFF 2026

A man is hired to gaurd a boss who is being hunted by an assassin with a boy in tow 

 This ius a great looking film with excellent action sequence that very well may put you to sleep. This is a film full of silences and meaning  where the form is way more imporant than the content. It's not  really bad but it is instead very much too slow and meandering the fact that stripped of the artifice and the excellent moments, we've been here before and this neo noir western set in central Asia can't escape that.

Worth a look for what works, just have a cup of coffee ready to keep you awake.

A pointer toward Unidentified Murder (2025) NYAFF 2026 Fantasia 2026

This is a puzzle box film about a possible alien abduction, an influencer playing a prank, extortion and numerous other plot threads. Its a film that you have to watch from start to finish in order to really know what is going on.

When puzzle box films work they are wonderful. For example FISH STORY, which played at Japan Cuts years ago, was my introduction to Yoshihiro Nakamura, who is one of my favorite directors of all time. The film tells its story in a piece meal manner which comes together in a most magical way at the end. When the films don't work they leave you wondering why you are watching it. Some times when you get to the end you realize it was worth it and some times you're not sure. With UNIDENTIFIED MURDER, I'm not sure. I kind of want to watch it again knowing how it all goes together, and part of me doesn't. I'll have to do after NYAFF is done.

The problem for me was that  the story telling felt intentionally obtuse. Its not what happens, more I didn't know if the film needed to be told the way it was. I have to think about it.

If you are curious give the film a try.

Hayop Ka! (2020) Fantasia 2026

this is a repost of my 2021 Fantasia review:

 Nimfa is a perfume sales person who is supporting her sister and mother. She also has a big hunky boyfriend. Things become complicated when she begins an affair with a super rich executive.

Despite looking like a Disney animated film this soap opera is not for the kids. While it is very much a comedy I don't think most parents are going to want to explain all the frank sex talk to their kids. I say that up front because I went in expecting something less raunchy and violent.

Sex and adult matters aside I had a good time with HAYOP. I laughed in all the right spots and could relate to the frank discussions of inter-personal relationships. Its not so much that we don't get this sort of discussion in an animated film but there are few films (though there are plenty of TV series) that are this free with their discussions.

While I enjoyed my time watching the film, I'm left pondering if this would have worked as a live action film. I'm not so sure. I think the flat 2D animation, which is gorgeous, helps the film and lets us forgive the film its many flaws. There is something about watching an animated film that allows us to forgive imperfections.

I had a good time and I recommend it for an adult audience.