With decent chemistry and plenty of her own zingers, Lili Reinhart sets most of the scenes up, but the endearing transformation belongs to Bateman, in almost an academic Beauty and the Beast-tinged arc. No one is going to call Set It Up director Claire Scanlon’s fourth feature film high art or the next great screwball comedy, but it finds its stride the longer the fake dating carries on and creates our wishes it sticks around for good.
Read MoreMade on an indie budget’s dime with an all-hands-on-deck mentality (including Shelby Gaines helping pen the screenplay with Trench 11’s Matthew Booi), the grit of The Weight is hugely apparent, and it starts with Ethan Hawke. Spitting gravel with every line reading, Hawke weathers the unrelenting march with an understated, yet commanding performance.
Read MoreThe emotional quicksand in On a String is palpable, yet oddly endearing. Leave it to consummate down-player Dylan Baker to drop the zinger that nails the ideal tone by stopping a small venting rant from his on-screen daughter to say, “I hate to break it to you, but you’re not that special.” In different hands, this could all be stretched to an epic length and height to be played as a Poor Man’s Tar as some kind of toxic roller coaster making larger, bolder points.
Read MoreWhile his plots have been quite varied over Swanberg’s 20-year-plus career, some tale of love is almost always percolating in the background, often dwelling for long stretches at the pining level. There’s a very peculiar love triangle at the center of Swanberg’s new film, The Sun Never Sets, which epitomizes this energy; only this time, the flailing from attempted grand romantic gestures is the center of the movie, not the subplot.
Read MoreIt begs the question of what it would actually take to win the attention and approval of the device-centered youths of today. Would it be what’s in the film, as in a set of parents instituting a cold turkey removal of wi-fi, a migration to analog country isolation, and the nudging increase of go-out-and-get-dirty experiences? Sure, that stuff tends to work in fictional movies, but what about stepping out of the movie itself to the theatrical and streaming marketplaces.
Read MoreWhen a creative person gets the fullest chance to tell a piece of their autobiographic story through their chosen medium, that’s a special result worth celebrating. Lauren Caster is wonderfully granted that very freedom as she writes, directs, and stars in the gracious independent film Rhythm Is a Dancer.
Read MoreNo son or daughter wants the “Alvin!” treatment from any incarnation of Alvin and the Chipmunks. Olmo isn’t just the title of the new film from Mexican director Fernando Eimbcke that played at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival and as a Panorama selection at the 75th Berlinale. It’s the word you hear hollered most often, much to the dismay of the character who bears the name, played by Night Swim newcomer Aivan Uttapa.
Read MoreIn many ways, there is no amount of “What the fuck is wrong with you?” questions, bellowed from both sides of this dichotomy, that will ever get to the bottom of the dirty depth being scooped in I Want Your Sex, and that’s a complete plus to the film’s appeal. Splicing comedy to sexual awakening in this day and age is a tall task, and scrambling brains with the jeopardy of fantasy fulfillment is even bolder.
Read MoreThough packaged with plenty of crassness and off-color humor, we’re here for the sideline sweetness and the infectious nature of the approachable sport. If pickleball seems preposterous for those unsure or unaware, like it’s nothing more than ping pong with feet, imagine it packaged as a formulaic sports movie. Like the sport itself, The Dink is a light bounce and an easy good time without anyone over-exerting themselves.
Read MoreThe sleepaway setting has long been a comedy and horror staple, from Meatballs, Friday the 13th, and The Parent Trap to Heavyweights and full-on satires like Wet Hot American Summer, and the delightful and crass new comedy The Floaters follows that in the same vein. It doesn’t matter the specialty or type of camp, assembling a hodgepodge group of characters is a foolproof and fast way of multiplying the classic coming-of-age arc we know and love.
Read MoreMost scientists in the SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) or METI (messaging to extraterrestrial intelligence) fields bank on theories that any real evidence we, as a planet, will get will come from signals more than flying saucers and little green men arriving on Earth. Similar to Contact, Clara, and Ad Astra that came before it, The Outer Threat follows that more plausible and intelligent path and still develops solid suspense.
Read MoreMilly Alcock, thanks to all that posing working in her favor and the patience to hold putting the cape and big red “S” on her until the finale, builds to the kind of awe and presence the character needs. When we see her next, likely alongside Superman in 2027’s Man of Tomorrow, she’ll be in a different place and mindset from this adventure, and that promise counts as positive mojo—attitude and all.
Read More
