Dive into our expert Oscar predictions and analysis, staying ahead of the curve on the films and performers destined for Hollywood glory. Awards Button Button Awards Update: Pre-Fall Festival Season Predictions September 1, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Final 2026 Academy Award Predictions March 12, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen Oscar Nomination Predictions Last Updated: 09/25/2026 Next Update: 10/25/2026 1 The Odyssey 2 La Bola Negra 3 Wild Horse Nine 4 Dune: Part Three 5 The Debut 6 Project Hail Mary 7 The Invite 8 All of a Sudden 9 Elsinore 10 Fjord Best Picture 1 Christopher Nolan (The Odyssey) 2 Los Javis (La Bola Negra) 3 Martin McDonagh (Wild Horse Nine) 4 Olivia Wilde (The Invite) 5 Ryūsuke Hamaguchi (All of a Sudden) Best Director 1 Wild Horse Nine 2 The Debut 3 Club Kid 4 Tender Loving Care 5 Fjord Best Original Screenplay 1 La Bola Negra 2 The Odyssey 3 The Invite 4 All of a Sudden 5 Project Hail Mary Best Adapted Screenplay 1 Matt Damon (The Odyssey) 2 John Malkovich (Wild Horse Nine) 3 Andrew Scott (Elsinore) 4 Ryan Gosling (Project Hail Mary) 5 John Turturro (The Only Living Pickpocket in New York) Best Lead Actor 1 Julianne Moore (The Debut) 2 Inde Navarrette (Obsession) 3 Sandra Hüller (Rose) 4 Virginie Efira (All of a Sudden) 5 Renate Reinsve (Fjord) Best Lead Actress 1 Paul Giamatti (The Debut) 2 Sam Rockwell (Wild Horse Nine) 3 John Leguizamo (The Odyssey) 4 Edward Norton (The Invite) 5 Guitarricadelafuente (La Bola Negra) Best Supporting Actor 1 Anne Hathaway (The Odyssey) 2 Penélope Cruz (The Invite) 3 Penélope Cruz (La Bola Negra) 4 Tao Okamoto (All of a Sudden) 5 Olivia Colman (Elsinore) Best Supporting Actress 1 The Odyssey 2 La Bola Negra 3 Wild Horse Nine 4 The Debut 5 Obsession Best Casting 1 The Odyssey 2 La Bola Negra 3 Dune: Part Three 4 Fatherland 5 Werwulf Best Cinematography 1 The Odyssey 2 La Bola Negra 3 Disclosure Day 4 Project Hail Mary 5 The Debut Best Original Score 1 La Nieve (La Bola Negra) 2 By Any Means (By Any Means) 3 This City May Have Chewed Me Up (The Debut) 4 How to Write a Song (Without You) (Power Ballad) 5 Let Me Sell You a Dream (Musk) Best Original Song 1 La Bola Negra 2 The Odyssey 3 Project Hail Mary 4 Dune: Part Three 5 The Debut Best Film Editing 1 The Odyssey 2 Dune: Part Three 3 Project Hail Mary 4 La Bola Negra 5 The Mosquito Bowl Best Sound 1 The Odyssey 2 Dune: Part Three 3 Werwulf 4 La Bola Negra 5 Project Hail Mary Best Production Design 1 The Odyssey 2 La Bola Negra 3 Werwulf 4 Sense and Sensibility 5 Dune: Part Three Best Costume Design 1 Werwulf 2 Digger 3 Clayface 4 The Odyssey 5 Rose Best Makeup & Hairstyling 1 Dune: Part Three 2 The Odyssey 3 Project Hail Mary 4 Whalefall 5 Godzilla Minus Zero Best Visual Effects 1 Wildwood 2 Toy Story 5 3 Ray Gunn 4 Iron Boy 5 Tangles Best Animated Feature 1 La Bola Negra (Spain) 2 All of a Sudden (Japan) 3 Fjord (Romania) 4 Possible Love (South Korea) 5 Minotaur (France) Best International Feature 1 Once Upon a Time in Harlem 2 American Doctor 3 You Can See Everything 4 Rehearsals for a Revolution 5 NAZA Best Documentary Feature

The Cinema Dispatch is your one-stop-shop film review website that also offers lists, awards updates, and essays relating to the world of cinema. Reviews A Talent for Murder October 21, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Wildwood October 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Fjord October 23, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Klara and the Sun October 20, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Awards Button Button Awards Update: Pre-Fall Festival Season Predictions September 1, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Final 2026 Academy Award Predictions March 12, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen 1 The Odyssey 2 La Bola Negra 3 Wild Horse Nine 4 Dune: Part Three 5 The Debut 6 Project Hail Mary 7 The Invite 8 All of a Sudden 9 Elsinore 10 Fjord Oscar Nomination Predictions - Best Picture Hunter Friesen Lists Twin Cities Film Fest 2026 Preview October 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen TIFF26 Recap September 23, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen

Sense and Sensibility October 15, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen For the better part of this year, I've been stuck in a creative rut. When people tell me what a great year it's been for movies, I can only muster a slight shrug of indifference while struggling to pinpoint my favorite films. Sure, I really liked expected hits such as Disclosure Day , The Odyssey , and The Invite . But none of them felt like "the one," the kind of movie that stands alongside my favorites from previous years. It's as if there's a shade over the screen that only I can see, diluting what was once a consistently magical experience. After five years of watching hundreds of movies annually, a little burnout is to be expected (recently gorging on thirty movies in seven days at TIFF probably didn’t help…). Lately, it's entirely possible I've been treating moviegoing more like a sport than a passion, giving it the same weight as checking tasks off a to-do list. After all, the person who sees the most paintings in a museum isn't necessarily the one who gets the most out of them. Thankfully, and not a moment too soon, director Georgia Oakley's adaptation of Sense and Sensibility arrives to pull me out of this funk, reinvigorating my love for cinema with a story that feels both timeless and contemporary. This is a film that is playful, passionate, devastating, and affirming. Those emotions can't be bought, nor are they often delivered with such sophistication and wit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcrwcvad84U Another year, another Focus Features film set in England that opens with a woman lying in a lush green field while being watched by a hawk. Last year it was Hamnet , director Chloé Zhao's exploration of grief and beauty through the lens of William Shakespeare's life. Bodhi Rae Breathnach appeared there as Shakespeare's eldest daughter, Susanna, and now plays here Margaret, the youngest of the Dashwood sisters. Perhaps she never left the set, simply standing still while the crew built a new movie around her. What a wonderful life that would be, one filled with deep feeling and a liberating spirit. While not as persistent in her approach as Zhao, Oakley imbues her film with a profound connection to nature. The English countryside is rendered in rich greens and earthy browns, with trees and fields swaying in a constant breeze. There are paths to wander, hills to climb, and bodies of water to contemplate beside. It's the sort of setting that turns anyone into a romantic, waiting for the perfect person to appear over the horizon. Elder sisters Elinor (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Marianne (Esmé Creed-Miles) approach love very differently. The former is measured and restrained, while the latter demands a love that is bold and all-consuming. Yet pursuing a life guided purely by love in a society built on gender inequality requires an exorbitant amount of money, something the Dashwoods lost upon their father's death. They become a formerly wealthy family's version of poor: still living on their estate but with fewer servants and growing dependence on their dandyish half-brother and his insufferable wife, Fanny. Relief arrives in the form of Fanny's brother Edward (George MacKay), a seemingly progressive young man who feels as though he's wandered in from another century. Like Elinor, he is almost too reserved in the face of passion, preventing the pair from acting on their feelings. A distant relative with a generous heart and an even bigger mouth, Mrs. Jennings (Fiona Shaw), provides the Dashwoods with a cottage deeper in the countryside. There, two very different men compete for Marianne's affection. The first is Colonel Brandon (Herbert Nordrum from The Worst Person in the World ), a tall and seemingly dull military officer who appears to embody everything Marianne rejects. Then there's Willoughby (Frank Dillane), who sweeps in after she injures her ankle and literally carries her to safety. He loves to dance, embraces spontaneity, and seems far less concerned with the social restrictions imposed upon matters of the heart. A necessary disclosure on my part: I have never read Jane Austen's novel, nor have I seen any adaptation of it. That includes Ang Lee's celebrated 1995 version, a film that has occupied an embarrassingly permanent spot on my watchlist. I have no attachment to these characters or their famous predecessors. Daisy Edgar-Jones is not competing with Emma Thompson in my mind, nor Creed-Miles with Kate Winslet, MacKay with Hugh Grant, or Nordrum with Alan Rickman. Even so, if comparison is inevitable, these performers clear that bar with ease. Edgar-Jones conveys Elinor's internal struggles with quiet confidence, embodying the "sense" of the title. Creed-Miles represents its "sensibility," delivering a performance that practically ignites the screen. Though their romantic pursuits drive much of the story, screenwriter Diana Reid wisely centers the sisters' bond as the emotional core. They experience heartbreak and joy together, their contrasting personalities creating a deeply affecting chemistry. The world they inhabit is overflowing with social rituals and expectations. Invitations, letters, dresses, parties, rumors, formal calls, engagements, inheritances, and honorable intentions are just a few of the mechanisms that keep society rigidly in place. With an approach that gently punctures the stiffness while acknowledging its historical context, Oakley and her collaborators render every detail with sumptuous beauty. Shooting on 35mm with flickering candlelight and soft natural illumination, cinematographer Arnaud Potier somehow turns brown into the most beautiful color imaginable. Grace Snell's costumes and Francesca Di Mottola's production design are radiant, elevated further by Roger Goula's delicate score. Because of their similarities, one could argue that Oakley owes a considerable debt to Greta Gerwig's Little Women . It's a funny observation considering Jane Austen wrote her novel roughly half a century before Louisa May Alcott. Regardless of any parallels between the stories or their adaptations, both endure because they speak to universal desires. To find love and purpose remains one of life's greatest adventures. To walk that path alongside people who genuinely care for you is what makes the journey all the more meaningful. Focus Features will release Sense and Sensibility in theaters nationwide on October 16th. More Reviews A Talent for Murder October 21, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Wildwood October 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Klara and the Sun October 20, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Klara and the Sun October 20, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen Taika Waititi’s adaptation of Klara and the Sun is the kind of treatment that makes you wonder what was so special about the source material in the first place. Published in 2021, it is the latest novel by famed Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro that Waititi has chosen to bring to the screen. Kirkus Reviews described the book as a “haunting fable of a lonely, moribund world that is entirely too plausible.” Although I haven’t read the novel myself, I’m inclined to believe that assessment based purely on Ishiguro’s reputation. That’s what makes Waititi’s hiring and treatment of the material so confusing. Why add so many jokes, none of them funny? Why flatten the emotional throughline into something so generic? I don’t know, but I feel as though the two hours I’ve spent with this cinematic rendering have already been two too many. The title refers to Klara (Jenna Ortega) and her special relationship with the sun. While you and I rely on the sun indirectly to sustain life, Klara literally needs sunlight on her skin to survive. That’s because she’s an Artificial Friend (AF), a lifelike robot companion designed as a blank slate to help a human navigate the tumultuous teenage years. Unfortunately, she’s an outdated model, one her manufacturer has apparently decided to market on the strength of her quirkiness and Manic Pixie Dream Girl energy. Anyone who’s seen Elizabethtown can tell you that was never really in style, leaving Klara to sit in the front window of a dingy shop, hoping someone in the smog-covered futuristic city will want her. Natasha Lyonne plays the Store Manager, tasked with caring for these robots while desperately trying to move them off the shelves. Meanwhile, the hotter, newer models are being showcased right across the street. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wixzainceAE With her large, wide eyes and perpetually inquisitive smile, Ortega is a bundle of mannered exuberance. She’s always looking up, both because she needs the sunlight and because she’s searching for answers to life’s mysteries. Believing the sun to be a sentient being, she asks for its blessing each day as though praying to God. Miraculously, Josie (Mia Tharia) becomes Klara’s new owner, much to the reluctance of her mother, Chrissy (Amy Adams). Klara is taken to the family mansion in the countryside to serve as Josie’s companion. Having been “lifted” - a process that chemically enhances a person’s intelligence - Josie has become a genius, yet she’s somehow grown bored with life. Largely filtered through Klara’s innocent, wide-eyed perspective, Waititi and co-writer Dahvi Waller employ the age-old strategy of using an outsider to illuminate the human condition. By asking questions and searching for the meaning of love, isn’t Klara pursuing the essence of the human experience? Possibly. Waititi, at least, tries every trick in his book to warm the audience’s heart. Michael Giacchino’s score does much of the heavy lifting, often to the point of emotional manipulation. Combining that insincere sentimentality with Waititi’s increasingly diluted brand of humor, here, entirely devoid of laughs, makes for an altogether unsatisfying experience. Once again, Amy Adams finds herself underserved in a maternal role, draped in WASPy costuming and struggling to maintain control of her deteriorating life. At least she gets to inhabit some interesting sets designed by Ra Vincent, each filled with subtle clues about how this future came to be. A half-destroyed tank sits in a wheat field; everything has reverted to analog, and the streets are perpetually filthy. The production design is evocative enough to make you wish the film were a silent feature—or perhaps just a coffee-table book filled with illustrations. Earlier this year, Hirokazu Kore-eda made Sheep in the Box , a similar robot-and-AI story that will likely rank among his weakest films. Klara literally emerges from a box here, ready to send Waititi down that same path of treacly humanity and affirmations about the joys of life. At this point, these robots might as well be high-tech car keys, designed for us to jingle in front of our own faces until we convince ourselves we’ve learned something about who we are. I’d rather grab some real keys and drive away. Sony Pictures Releasing will release Klara and the Sun in theaters nationwide on October 23rd. More Reviews A Talent for Murder October 21, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Wildwood October 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Fjord October 23, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Klara and the Sun October 20, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Fjord October 23, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen Featuring as many children as there are production logos introducing the film (Americans aren't accustomed to the immense challenge of funding an international production), the Gheorghiu family are the newest members of a small village somewhere in Norway. It is the kind of town one would expect to find in Scandinavia, complete with regular avalanches, perpetual snowfall, and breathtaking views of the local fjord. Led by Romanian father Mihai (Sebastian Stan) and Norwegian mother Lisbet (Renate Reinsve), the Gheorghius are immigrating from Bucharest, a place with deep-rooted right-wing traditions and evangelical influences. Immediately upon arrival, the family is treated with both respect and a sense of otherness by the secular townspeople, many of whom reject any discussion of religion. The family's two eldest children, Elia and Emmanuel, attend the local school, where Mihai also provides IT support. While caring for two preschool-aged children and an infant, Lisbet takes a job at the local hospice center. At one point or another, members of the family are politely discouraged from bringing up their religious beliefs in the workplace. Lisbet must secretly conduct prayers for the deceased, while Mihai and the children are told not to play religious music on the cafeteria piano. During this adjustment period, everyone remains in a holding pattern, unintentionally testing the boundaries of what the other side will tolerate. Things quickly reach an inflection point when Elia and Emmanuel's school bus driver overhears that Elia was punished for being careless. The gym teacher notices bruising on her neck, prompting a swift response from Child Services. The children are questioned about how their parents discipline them, while Mihai and Lisbet are greeted by the police. A formal investigation into possible abuse follows, with all five children removed from their home and placed in foster care. Confused and angered, Mihai and Lisbet see the intervention as an attack on their beliefs, a rebuke from the community for not fully assimilating. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frg59VOungA Given that writer-director Cristian Mungiu is Romanian himself, one could oversimplistically assume that he would stack the deck in favor of the Gheorghius. In a small way, he does, often portraying the Norwegian bureaucrats as overly clinical and singularly focused on making an example of religious fundamentalism. The family's next-door neighbor has a daughter, Noora, who is the same age as Elia and Emmanuel and quickly becomes their best friend. Compared to the Gheorghiu children, she is unruly and seemingly in need of discipline. Yet her parents choose therapy, which does not appear to have much effect. Despite their ordinary tween tendencies, Elia and Emmanuel are respectful and well-behaved. Should Mihai and Lisbet receive exemplary credit for their seemingly successful approach to child-rearing? Attempting to answer that question requires going down a path that raises infinitely more questions, almost all of them unanswerable. This is nothing new for Mungiu, whose filmography explores a laundry list of societal and political issues within contemporary Romania and Europe at large. Also winning the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, as Fjord has, was 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days , a minimalist exploration of the desperation surrounding abortion. 2012's Beyond the Hills tackled religious zealotry within an Eastern Orthodox convent, 2016's Graduation examined political corruption, and 2022's R.M.N. documented the xenophobic Ditrău incident. Fjord is his first film set outside his homeland, but the DNA of his work remains intact. Within America, there is a widely held belief that religiously themed films belong to a lower artistic tier. Many cinephiles balked at Sound of Freedom unexpectedly sweeping the box office during the summer of 2023. The same could be said of Heaven Is for Real, War Room, God's Not Dead , and The King of Kings . I would argue that the issue has less to do with ideology and more to do with execution. These films are simply not very well made. There is a reason the Jesuit-centered Silence was one of the best films of its year: Martin Scorsese is incapable of making anything less than a great work of art. Mungiu belongs in a similar class, with his patient European style proving both intellectually and emotionally stimulating. Working almost exclusively in long takes and without a traditional score, he strips away the usual cinematic tools used to guide audience reactions, leaving viewers to wrestle with the material on their own. Then again, as much as this is a rigorously engaging moral exercise, it is not wholly successful as a dramatic story. Outside of the two leads, both excellent in an understated register, the supporting performances, particularly those of the children, are distractingly weak. While their perspectives are central to the film's opening movements, they are largely removed from the narrative once separated from their parents. Their eventual reintroduction lacks the expected emotional weight, as does their budding rebellious relationship with Noora. "Their culture" becomes a common phrase among the Norwegians when describing the Gheorghiu family. It is often delivered with a demeaning undertone, as though it serves to place a distancing label of otherness on something that should not extend beyond its place of origin. At a certain point, that fervent ideology begins to share many of the same qualities as the backwardness they attribute to the Gheorghius. Everyone is theoretically tolerant, but it is only when those beliefs are challenged that their true convictions emerge. Neon will release Fjord in select theaters on October 09th, followed by a nationwide expansion on October 23rd. More Reviews A Talent for Murder October 21, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Wildwood October 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Fjord October 23, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Klara and the Sun October 20, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Bunker September 15, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen First came The Father , a terrifying and heartbreaking story of dementia that placed us within the deteriorating mental state of an elderly man. Quietly yet powerfully building steam throughout the pandemic-stricken awards season of 2020, the film would win an Oscar for Anthony Hopkins’ transcendent lead performance, as well as for the screenplay adapted from the play. Next came The Son , another adaptation on mental health, this time the focus shifting to the depressed teenage son of Hugh Jackman. But instead of dealing with this sensitive issue with poise and ingenuity, it rubs our faces in it while screaming “THIS IS IMPORTANT!” for two ungodly hours. By the Christian Trinity , The Holy Spirit should have been next. Or, if you want to go by the collected stage works of writer Florian Zeller, The Mother would have been the next logical choice. It was staged in London in 2015 and New York in 2019, the latter portion featuring Isabelle Huppert in the titular role. Great as it always is to have Huppert on the silver screen, the harsh criticism and preachiness of The Son might have paused Zeller’s ambitions to continue adapting his own works. Here he is now with Bunker , a wholly original work so overwrought and underdeveloped that one might wish he would give up on cinema altogether. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdkwGvMB5zQ A booming thud encompasses the black screen, giving way to a dinner party conversation featuring married couple Miguel and Sofia Moreno, played by real-life married couple Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz. At the tail end of a long-winded story about how they first met, a guest claims that even “the greatest love stories can start with a misunderstanding.” While offscreen, he says this with so much emphasis that Zeller might as well have superimposed the text across the screen throughout the rest of the runtime. Next, we cut to a brick wall being demolished. More than just an obvious metaphor of cracks appearing in a sturdy marriage, it’s the literal destruction of the wall separating the London home of the Morenos and their neighbor Toby (Stephen Graham). Tensions run high as Miguel contests the project, with Toby viewing him as a rich foreigner pushing out the more humble locals. But even with Miguel’s thriving architecture company and Sofia’s tenure as a book editor at a fancy publishing house, they are still nowhere near the top of the social pyramid. They get a taste of the top when a highly secretive and powerful billionaire (Paul Dano, appearing in a Zoom call so clearly filmed separately from everyone else) attempts to hire Miguel to design an underground apocalypse shelter in Hawaii. It is the modern-day equivalent of building a tomb for a pharaoh, with all the moral repercussions of indirectly playing a hand in the destruction of the world. Cruz’s character is the mouthpiece for those ethical questions. What has this billionaire so spooked that he needs this bunker built immediately and to be able to sustain life for years to come? Would Miguel be turning his back on the rest of the population if he used his talents for just one person? Zeller does not mince his words with these arguments, explicitly having Cruz explain them to the audience ad nauseam. Don’t worry if you somehow don’t get it the first time, because she’s going to continue to make them throughout the film. That aspect is the brain of the film, while the heart lies in the crumbling of a marriage. Each partner has their unhappy qualities about the other, such as Miguel’s macho jealousy of a new hotshot author (Patrick Schwarzenegger) and Sofia’s homesickness for Madrid. Again, Zeller offers no subtlety, nor any poetry to his dialogue. It’s all quite rote, with Schwarzenegger being given an embarrassingly on-the-nose monologue about the wastefulness of material wealth. Even when Bardem and Cruz are firing on all cylinders, they are still trying to make gold out of leaden words. Zeller’s moderate skills at craftsmanship includes crisp lighting by Ben Smithard, taking a page out of Pedro Almodóvar with bright colors encompassing walls. I can’t blame Zeller or Smithard for using the association cheat code of blocking Cruz against a red background. What I can blame them, as well as editor Yorgos Lamprinos and composer Volker Bertelmann, for is giving this thriller a rotten core. Even with all the pristine window dressing, this is an unbelievable story with an offensively oversimplified message about the power of loving each other. If that’s the intent, then why did Zeller make a film so easy to hate? Bunker had its North American premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival. Sony Pictures Classics will release the film at a later date. More Reviews A Talent for Murder October 21, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Wildwood October 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Klara and the Sun October 20, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Sense and Sensibility October 15, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Wildwood October 22, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen Wildwood opens on a dark and stormy night. A young boy, presumably the prince of the vast kingdom atop which his castle sits, makes his way onto the balcony outside his room. His mother, the queen, pounds on the door, begging him to let her in. He doesn't listen. Instead, he stands on the guardrail as tears and blood run from his eyes. Just as his mother bursts through the door, he rips out his own heart and plummets to his death. How's that for the notion that animated movies are only for children? As much as that argument has gained traction online, and with Guillermo del Toro championing it, it's not quite as true as one might think. Films catering to more niche, older audiences have performed exponentially better this decade. Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle and The Boy and the Heron topped their respective box office weekends, while Flow took home the Oscar for Best Animated Feature over expected frontrunners Inside Out 2 and The Wild Robot . However, the common link between those examples is that they all came from outside the United States, where animation is treated as a more serious art form. Mario and Minions movies remain our primary export, largely confirming the stereotype that our interpretation of the medium is juvenile. Running independently, largely on funds provided by Nike co-founder Phil Knight and director Travis Knight, Laika has never been a studio that talks down to its audience. As expensive as its hand-crafted creations may be, with this one costing nearly $100 million and becoming the studio's most expensive production, there is no pandering to the lowest common denominator. There's a respect for the emotional and intellectual intelligence of every age group... although I'd probably keep smaller children away from this one. It is rated PG-13, after all, for sequences of violence, strong language, and dark material. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtr5JL1zkiM That material won't be unfamiliar to children who have seen Star Wars or, for that matter, any popular fantasy or sci-fi story. Prue McKeel (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) is our protagonist, entering her rebellious teenage years complete with eye rolls directed at her parents' warnings about the evil magic lurking in the woods just outside their home in Portland. Those stories of magic and otherworldly forces are probably what attracted so many weirdos to the city, which has embraced that identity through the "Keep Portland Weird" slogan. That quirkiness comes to life in an early scene in which Prue takes her baby brother, Mac, on a bike ride through the city streets, passing offbeat record stores, coffee shops, and every type of cyclist imaginable. Weird, though in a far less charming way, is when a murder of crows surrounds Prue, Mac, and Prue's nerdy classmate Curtis (Jacob Tremblay, sporting a much higher-pitched voice since his lines were recorded years ago) at a playground. The birds fix their eyes on Mac before eventually carrying him deep into the forbidden woods. Venturing where no person has gone before, Prue and Curtis stumble upon a land populated by talking animals, an evil queen (an exceptional Carey Mulligan) intent on controlling everything through her vast empire, and a band of rebellious outlaws determined to stop her. From here, Prue and Curtis's paths diverge. The former is shuffled from one location to the next, as a string of famous voices (Angela Bassett, Mahershala Ali, Richard E. Grant, and others) explain the backstory of this enchanted land. Repetitive as it may be, the design of these settings is jaw-droppingly beautiful. Hundreds of extras populate scenes set within bureaucratic offices, each styled with their own distinct face, posture, and costume. It's crazy to imagine how much work went into creations that couldn't possibly be fully appreciated in real time during a first viewing. Like a Wes Anderson film (also the work of an ardent stop-motion supporter), repeat watches will be necessary to absorb every detail. It is that attention to detail that makes Wildwood feel so lived-in. It's also what keeps the audience engaged throughout an otherwise slightly generic story about a reluctant chosen one being thrust into a world beyond their wildest imagination. Fans of lines like "We did it to protect you" and "There's something I need to tell you" will have a ball with Chris Butler's script, adapted from the novel by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis. The humor and tone are often mismatched with the epic scale, relying on run-of-the-mill one-liners and puns to undercut tension. The sequence in which Mac is carried away by the crows is genuinely terrifying, only for a pump-up rock song to kick in the moment Prue begins chasing after them. That sense of seriousness returns in a major way during the climax: a good-versus-evil confrontation staged like a battle from The Lord of the Rings . However much computer effects assist in rendering the explosions and flames, I have never seen hand-crafted carnage depicted so viscerally. Characters are shot, stabbed, and beaten, while Caleb Deschanel's swooping camera captures it all without regard for the perceived limitations of the medium. Everything is pushed beyond its boundaries, establishing a new benchmark that will likely stand the test of time. That's the magic of cinema, baby. Fathom Entertainment will release Wildwood in theaters nationwide on October 23rd. More Reviews A Talent for Murder October 21, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Wildwood October 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Klara and the Sun October 20, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Sense and Sensibility October 15, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

A Talent for Murder October 21, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen The setting is Switzerland, 1995. Two strangers meet on a train. One is Edward Ridgeway (Alden Ehrenreich), a lackey book editor sent by his boss on a fool's errand into the Alps to convince famed author Patricia Highsmith (Dame Helen Mirren) to write a sixth entry in her Ripley series. Dressed in too many mismatched layers, thick glasses, and a perpetually disheveled head of hair, Edward seems entirely out of his element. And yet, like Tom Ripley, he possesses a gift for observation and for revealing facts at precisely the right moment. It's how he immediately earns the good graces of fellow American Clementine Balfour (Olivia Cooke), whom he suspects belongs to an old-money family. Charmed by one another, the pair divert at the Geneva train station. Along the winding mountain roads, Edward is warned by his taxi driver about the rumors surrounding Highsmith's hospitality. She supposedly poisoned a neighbor's dog, and a previous editor accused her of trying to murder him. As much as Edward attempts to maintain a brave face, Highsmith's behavior upon his arrival does little to dispel those stories. She appears at the window like a ghost, her lips already locked in a tight purse. Ashtrays and bottles of liquor clutter every surface, while her upstairs writing den houses a display case filled with guns and daggers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzFgGhFrx0o Highsmith views Edward as just another boy to toy with, someone who will flatter her in hopes of getting her to sign on the dotted line and revisit the character who has occupied her life for nearly half a century. That fictional creation is the only family or friend she has left, likely a consequence of both her self-imposed isolation and deeply acerbic personality. She is consumed by prejudice, particularly toward the New York literary community, armed with a foul mouth and a steadfast belief that happy people are simply too ignorant to ask enough questions about life. But, Edward is more than he first appears. Initially determined to be a gracious guest, he eventually decides to meet Highsmith on her own terms. Anxiety and anger become his motivation, while she cackles with delight as the two cultivate a mutually respectful hatred. Ehrenreich and Mirren make for an electric pairing, going toe-to-toe while sinking their teeth into Joanna Murray-Smith's venomous dialogue, adapted by the playwright from her own stage production, Switzerland . When one goes low, the other goes lower, creating a viciously entertaining cycle of cutting insults and morbid observations. That energy is eventually channeled into something productive: an outline for a potential new Ripley novel. From there, director Anton Corbijn, who has spent much of the decade since his previous feature directing music videos for Depeche Mode and U2, and editor Andrew Hulme begin interweaving dramatizations of that theoretical story with the film's central narrative. Edward assumes the role of Tom Ripley, while Clementine becomes the wealthy young woman he seduces across Italy in pursuit of her family's fortune. Gorgeously shot by Robbie Ryan, these passages are sexy, sharp, and steeped in smoky coolness, drawing more from the chilling edge of Steven Zaillian's 2024 Netflix miniseries Ripley than the lush elegance of Anthony Minghella's 1999 adaptation, The Talented Mr. Ripley . Regardless of the comparison, Ehrenreich inhabits the character effortlessly, concealing Ripley's reptilian coldness beneath considerable attractiveness. In time, the line between reality and fiction begins to blur, both for Edward and for the audience. The real Clementine reenters the picture, and Corbijn keeps us guessing as to how much Ripley has begun influencing Edward's behavior. He becomes increasingly intertwined with the character, their backgrounds and motivations growing ever more alike. Is it better to become a fake somebody than remain a real nobody? Then again, the distinction between fake and real exists entirely in the eye, and tongue, of the beholder. It's precisely this sort of slipperiness that made Highsmith the preeminent writer of predators navigating decadent worlds rife with hidden moral corruption. Such ugliness, however, always had to be rendered with elegance, where poison and suspicious accidents became the tools of the trade. A Talent for Murder possesses all of those qualities, combining them into a scintillating package that appeals to our deepest and darkest desires. This review was originally published from the world premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival. Bleecker Street will release A Talent for Murder in theaters nationwide on October 23rd. More Reviews A Talent for Murder October 21, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Wildwood October 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Klara and the Sun October 20, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Sense and Sensibility October 15, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Whalefall October 14, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen Although they'll likely be a little reluctant to admit it, a formative experience for almost all men, at one time or another, is taking part in a group debate over which animals they could theoretically beat in a fight. These debates commonly take place around a campfire or at a lunch table, fueled by a mixture of alcohol, ego, and stupidity. They start at the bottom of the food chain and work their way up. Fish? Obviously, I eat a bottomless amount of those during Lent. Eagle? Would be a vicious fight with a lot of cuts and scrapes, but a good punch could do it. Kangaroo? Like boxing, they’d have to be in my weight class. Bear? Absolutely not. I’ve seen The Revenant . Of course, the debate usually stops just before you reach the apex predators. At that point, it becomes a question of survival rather than winning. How long could you last going toe-to-toe with nature’s dominant hunters? A whale is one of the largest animals ever to exist, with calls louder than a jet engine and speeds of over 40 mph. Sperm whales are the largest of all whale species, weighing over 45 tons. No wonder Captain Ahab was obsessed with hunting down Moby Dick. And now, through the power of IMAX visuals and soundscapes, Whalefall offers modern audiences an opportunity to literally venture into the belly of the beast. But before we can dive into the ocean, we must first learn how a landdweller could convince themselves to get their feet in the water. Jay Gardiner (Austin Abrams) has a whale of a dad in the form of Mitt (Josh Brolin), an intense diver who never stops pushing his son to become a man and take on the world. It’s all rather vague machismo, brazenly expressed as if there’s a dark force to be conquered in life. There’s also always a connection to the ocean, specifically to how whales are harbingers of life throughout the aquatic world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN9F6-tbySY The opening of Whalefalls makes it clear that Jay no longer has a father; he had one. Stubborn against treatments and pills for his assumed serious illness, the old man decided to bury his body at sea, the place he was truly happy. Returning home from college in Iowa, the most landlocked and whale-free state in the country, Jay can’t help but feel compelled to get in the water and search for his dad’s remains. Putting on that diving tank again, he feels the cumulative weight of all those years of his dad drilling home the essentials to surviving out of your element. However, what his dad never taught him was how to survive being swallowed whole by an 80-foot, 60-ton sperm whale. Apart from Jonah in the Bible, it’s probably not been common enough for even the most amphibious humans to imagine. Director Brian Duffield weaponizes his entire production arsenal to illustrate the terror of this scenario. The theater shakes intensely as the whale passes by, the entire area handcuffed to its movements. There is no escaping its sight and grasp, with echolocation calls piercing the dark depths. Once inside, Jay experiences a lot of wincing moments. His bones crunch as he’s being chewed up within one of the beast’s lower mouths. He makes his way to the stomach, a cavernous area that bellows and continually fills with the carcasses of freshly caught prey. They’re all bathed in oozing acid, burning holes in Jay’s clothes and equipment. Both the figurative pressure of his dwindling oxygen and the literal pressure of the ocean depths fracture his psyche, allowing for several moments where we flashback to his fraught relationship with his father. Those moments of claustrophobic freedom don’t offer the intended relief. They are heavy-handed, accented by Joseph Trapanese’s epic score and Pietro Scalia’s intense editing. Then again, a movie about a being swallowed by a whale has no business being small, so this oversized swing for the heartstrings is par for the course. Abrams is an extremely talented up-and-comer, his skinny frame and natural vulnerability giving way to complimentary comparisons to Timothée Chalamet. It is a little too bad he’s forced to “charm” the audience by talking to himself throughout his escape, a character trait that annoyed me here just as much as it did throughout all of Project Hail Mary . Whalefall likely won’t do for whales as Jaws did for sharks. That’s probably a good thing, as whales are too endangered and important to the natural order of things for us to develop an irrational fear of them. But I’m still fine staying here in the Midwest, where I can’t find myself getting hands-on experience with that survival debate. 20th Century Studios will release Whalefall in theaters nationwide on October 16th. More Reviews A Talent for Murder October 21, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Wildwood October 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Klara and the Sun October 20, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Sense and Sensibility October 15, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Tenzing October 12, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen Throughout much of history, the concept of exploration and adventure has been a white man's game. Going all the way back to the days of Alexander the Great and up to the colonialist movements, European powers have viewed the rest of the world as places to be conquered and tamed. To hell with the natural beauty of the landscapes, or the thousands/millions of indigenous people. Even a relatively young nation like the United States tried to muscle its way into the land grab fray through the belief in Manifest Destiny. To see that Tenzing shows less interest in the white man's burden and more towards those whose stories have often been unfairly overlooked is an achievement on its own. This is the story of the first successful summit of Mount Everest, possibly one of the final natural wonders of the world to be conquered by man. Throughout the 20th century, European nations turned it into a fierce yet friendly game, with sides taking turns year after year. George Mallory (whose reason for climbing the mountain was simply "because it's there") led the charge for the British, while the Swiss fielded their own expeditioners. From the beginnings of the pursuit in 1921 through the '40s, each side inched closer and closer to the top, always turning back because of poor weather, inadequate equipment, or sheer exhaustion. The one constant throughout, from his childhood meeting with Mallory on one of his first summits to his adult years as a sherpa, is the titular Tenzing Norgay (Genden Phuntsok). From his earliest days as a boy in Tibet, Tenzing never saw Everest as an adversary to be overcome. She is a heavenly mother figure known as Chomolungma, perpetually looking down and offering blessings to the Tibetan and Nepalese people. She is present in all aspects of his life, which Australian director Jennifer Peedom and screenwriter Luke Davies track sporadically across the film. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkYCY5YR12U The focal storyline is the 1953 summit where Tenzing is the head sherpa for the British team led by Colonel John Hunt (Willem Dafoe), an army man who is treating this expedition like a siege. His top soldiers are a collection of British climbers, as well as a standoffish New Zealander named Edmund Hillary (Tom Hiddleston). Along with over a dozen local Sherpas under Tenzing's command, the group makes the perilous journey up the mountain, possibly never to return. Having cut her teeth on several mountain-focused documentaries over the past few decades (2008's Miracle on Everest , 2015's Sherpa , and 2017's Mountain , narrated by Dafoe), Peedom has a deep interest and skill in illustrating the terrifying beauty and majesty of Everest. The various smaller white peaks are blindingly bright, while the permanent ice sheets creak and crack as the crew traverses over them. There’s documentary-esque realism to the proceedings as filming took place on portions of Everest. Cinematographer Stefan Duscio incorporates drones and widescreen photography to create grand imagery that is best enjoyed on the big screen. It's too bad that will be an extremely tough format to see the film in once it lands on Apple TV following a week-long cursory theatrical run. As the two outsiders amongst the stiff-lipped British, Hillary and Tenzing form a bond. It also helps that they're the best climbers, their immense skills being the only reason they narrowly avoid certain death when an ice sheet collapses beneath their feet. An audience member behind me let out a deafening shriek equivalent to that of a jump scare in a horror movie. It was an apt reaction, as the camera plunges in right behind them as they dangle for their lives. Then again, we all know how this story turns out. That feeling of inevitability borders on mundanity throughout much of the runtime as we flip back-and-forth between the 1953 timeline and the notable chapters of Tenzing's earlier life. While rendered with authenticity through their use of local actors and dialogue, there's still a feeling of sameness as Tenzing overcomes the trials and tribulations of life. And when sandwiched between the thrills of mountain climbing, these smaller-scaled scenes leave a lot to be desired. Fortunately, composer Rebekka Karijord finds the emotional throughline with a soaring score. Most of that rote is to be expected in a film titled after the main historical figure, along with being produced by their heirs. Make no mistake, this is a story that deserves to be told, especially when Everest has now been successfully summited on over 13,000 occasions, which threatens to trivialize the immense endeavor by those who blazed the trail. Like Chomolungma to its people, Tenzing Norgay is what connects all those climbers, imbuing them with the kind of courage and tenacity that makes humans do incredible things. This review was originally published from the Canadian premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival. Apple TV will release Tenzing in select theaters on October 09th, followed by its streaming premiere on October 16th. More Reviews Klara and the Sun October 20, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Sense and Sensibility October 15, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Whalefall October 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Tenzing October 12, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

The Social Reckoning October 7, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen Whether we know it or not, the government regulates almost every second of our daily lives. We drive cars according to the law, eat food that has passed safety inspections, watch television that is deemed socially responsible, and sleep in beds that have been made with approved materials. Recent polls and studies suggest the average person spends about 1-2 hours on social media per day. That number almost doubles as the age bracket gets younger, with platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok being just as big a part of daily life as food and air. And yet, there's hardly an ounce of regulation tying it down, with users free to project and/or ingest anything they want. As alluded to by the apt title, writer/director Aaron Sorkin feels that we are at the moment of reckoning with the Pandora's box that is social media. As much as mythology is never strictly factual, its lessons on the dangers of total free will have always been pertinent, warnings that when kerosene and matches are nearby, we can't help but feel the need to play with them. Perhaps this is Sorkin's way of atoning for the responsibility he feels in aggrandizing the rise of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook in The Social Network . However much his intentions were with his script, under David Fincher's slick direction and the decade-defining techno score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, a certain swarm of viewers couldn't help but see how cool it was for an idea to immediately turn into an empire with 2.8 billion followers and over $1 trillion in value. Billed more as a companion piece rather than a direct sequel, The Social Reckoning never aims to be cool. It is vehemently old-school, featuring a protagonist who is introduced as not being able to work the navigation system in his rental car. Whether that is a fact or script invention, it's one of many things that make Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White) into the ideal Sorkin character. He's an investigative tech reporter who's almost a Luddite, makes references to Old Hollywood musicals and Frank Capra films, and personally handwrites letters to each employee of the Facebook Civil Integrity team. His goal is to get hard facts on how Facebook has become the global disseminator of political and social information, specifically how the algorithm pushes hyperactive users further down the rabbit hole of radicalization and disinformation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM4LkaXwGuY The Deep Throat to his Woodward/Bernstein is Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison). She's part of the Facebook "family," one that prides itself on never allowing employees to ask ethical questions or put their concerns in writing. Frances is an awkward person: fidgety with her hands and hair, eyes usually looking down during a conversation, and wearing wrist warmers from her neurological condition. Between her technological expertise on the inside and his investigative skills, the often reluctant pair work to define the specifics behind a downward trend that we all generally feel. With his signature mile-a-minute dialogue and ability to make exposition dumps feel incredibly entertaining, journalism is a genre that suits Sorkin incredibly well, so much so that he even created an entire television show for it ( The Newsroom ). Scenes with multiple characters often have overlapping and turn-taking dialogue, each constantly proving to be the smartest in the room. The more barbed the exchanges are, the more they crackle through the teal-toned frames by cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth. Bill Burr plays Charlie, a former friend of the billionaire, who serves as a vessel so Sorkin can debate Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong, replacing Jesse Eisenberg), and becomes an adversary once he sees the darkness take over the light. During a congressional hearing prep session that just so happens to take place on January 06, 2021, the pair engage in a heated argument over Facebook's deprioritization of oversight on its content. Guardrails create friction for engagement, with Zuckerberg seeing the platform as a nonpartisan public square. But how much impartiality can Zuckerberg claim when his platform is literally engineered to supply outrage content perpetually? For as much as these scenes amount to little more than wish fulfillment on the part of Sorkin, they create a good excuse for Strong to portray Zuckerberg as a modern-day Roman emperor. He is a natural, more grown-up version of Eisenberg's version of the character, still with clipped speech patterns and poorly disguised narcissism. Madison proves that her Oscar win for Anora was no fluke, and White is a sturdy beacon of professionalism. Sorkin leaning into sentimentality creates a deadly pit of syrupy nonsense, which has stymied his previous two directorial projects, The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Being the Ricardos . That same self-inflicted wound is enacted here with an unbearably hokey final stretch that attempts to put an inspirational little bow on everything. Even Alexandre Desplat's Hollywood score swells to a crescendo, making this no-nonsense presentation feel more like a gentle reminder. Sony Pictures Releasing will release The Social Reckoning in theaters nationwide on October 09th. More Reviews Sense and Sensibility October 15, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Whalefall October 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Tenzing October 12, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Hunter Friesen

Animals October 8, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen "Humans are just animals who tell stories." That line comes midway through Animals , Ben Affleck's newest directorial effort. It's meant to make us think about how little separates a wild animal from us when our backs are up against the wall. However, by that point, the thematic weight of the film had already been lost on me, and I decided to focus on the literal question of whether animals do tell stories to each other. It turns out many species are sort of capable of doing that, such as bees performing dances to communicate information about flowers. If I were a film critic bee, my review for Animals would just be a half-frowned shoulder shrug. For as much as it seems a bit narcissistic for Affleck to cede acting duties to his brother for his directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone , only to then give himself the lead or showiest supporting role in every subsequent directorial project, these films are often the best uses of his on-screen talent. Here, he plays Mark Kimball, a Los Angeles mayoral candidate who is a seemingly perfect man. He's a former soldier, teacher, and lawyer, using his responsibilities in the latter position to take on environmentally corrupt businesses. Up the hill in his mansion, he's got a beautiful psychologist wife, Abigail (Kerry Washington), and a young son, Denny. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlBfQJ8oxB0 Normally, we wouldn't have to wait long for all the pleasantness to be revealed as a façade. But that doesn't happen, with Affleck, as well as co-writers Billy Ray and Connor O. McIntyre, doubling down on Mark's idealism. His campaign is unaffiliated with the two major political parties, which means he's funding everything himself through exorbitant loans. At the moment, he is extremely cash-poor, hedging his family's entire financial future on the election. He also won't break the law to offer an under-the-table job to Ramon (Luis Gerardo Méndez), the husband of his maid Cecilia (Adriana Paz), as he entered the country illegally. Of course, if you're not going to reveal that a man is already in the muck, you have to plunge him in there yourself. That moment comes when Denny is kidnapped while he's out trick-or-treating with Cecilia. Communicating through phone calls and apparently possessing all-seeing powers, the kidnappers demand $7 million in cash by morning. Not having that money on him, Mark and Abigail resort to desperate measures, which include borrowing from the mysteriously white-suited Dayle Burton (Gillian Anderson). Taking place almost exclusively within Kimball's mansion, Affleck and his editors, William Goldenberg and Christopher Rouse, push everything at a frenzied pace. Storied cinematographer Robert Elswit follows the actors as their panic drives them from room to room, often within a single take. It's very showy work, with plenty of shouting and heightened speeches thrown in for good measure. However, showy work isn't always a mark of quality work, as this all feels a little beneath the extremely talented cast and crew. Anderson controls every scene, instilling a sense of power through her hushed British accent and sleek appearance. It's too bad her character is thinly written, which is still infinitely deeper than the incredibly lame villains. Affleck clearly only needed them as an instigating force to examine the wide cracks that we intentionally avoid in our lives. But a villain still needs to be somewhat compelling, especially when they interrupt the proceedings so consistently. Affleck recently revealed that he used AI "for lots of things" in this film, a not-so-surprising fact given that he sold his AI film-tech startup, InterPositive, to Netflix just a few months ago. He intentionally chose not to reveal exactly when and where AI was used, explaining that it would rob the illusion of a magic trick. Without possessing much of a trained eye for these things, I couldn't pinpoint the exact moments, save for maybe the embarrassingly conceived and staged final act. For all the talk about AI being a savior, this still proves that it can't turn lead into gold. Netflix will release Animals in select theaters and on its streaming service on October 09th. More Reviews Sense and Sensibility October 15, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Whalefall October 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Tenzing October 12, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen The Social Reckoning October 7, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen