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

Digger September 29, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen A few moments into Digger , Tom Cruise, playing the titular Digger Rockwell, recounts a story from his youthful days in Texas. He says he hit a home run as a kid, sending the ball twenty feet over the fence and sealing the win for his little league team. After the game, he expected his stern grandfather to congratulate him on the feat of power. Instead, he was disappointed. He told Digger that any dummy with enough muscle can get lucky every once in a while to hit a home run. In his view, the ultimate showcase of baseball skill is hitting a triple, as that takes speed, finesse, and gumption. There's a reason it's the least common type of hit in baseball. Perhaps director Alejandro G. Iñárritu could have taken that advice for his newest film, his first in English in over a decade. Or maybe one of his four credited co-writers (Sabina Berman, Jez Butterworth, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone) snuck the story in as a way to temper Iñárritu's eyes as they quickly became bigger than his stomach. But Iñárritu is not a filmmaker who has ever done anything lightly, only stepping up to the play when a grand slam is in play. Babel featured multiple globe-trotting storylines, her served as director/writer/producer/editor/composer and the central basis for the story in Bardo ; performed one-take trickery in Birdman ; and braved the frigid elements for The Revenant . He earned back-to-back directing Oscars for the latter two works, proving that his sights are often on target. Digger joins those works in ambition, but not outcome. Shot by Emmanuel Lubezki (also an Academy Award winner for Birdman and The Revenant ) in widescreen VistaVision, Digger looks like a million bucks. The reported budget is $125 million, probably the same amount Mr. Rockwell put into his palatial compound. The film opens in an unknown serene location, a mysterious place where jungles, marshes, fields, and oak trees co-exist. Inside are decorations one would expect from a Texas-born oil tycoon: lots of dead animal furs, guns adorned above the fireplace, and massive paintings illustrating the kill-or-be-killed law of nature. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qORTe1wW3Wg But all this material beauty is just window dressing for a deeply ugly movie, made by those with either a deep contempt or twisted sense of compassion for humanity. Rising out of Digger's lake are air bubbles, the same ones coming out of the ice caps he's drilling up in Greenland. The more he drills, the more air that gets released, and the more the caps melt. One of the caps, about the size of a small US state, reaches a critical melting point, breaks away, and is hurled toward northern Europe by Arctic Ocean currents. Mother Nature has finally fought back, with millions of lives being lost and/or displaced within a matter of days. Hustling and bustling through the dozens of rooms at Digger's compound are a host of wacky characters. There's Ganesh (Riz Ahmed), Digger's head of environmental science who tries to supply facts and reasoning in these dire times; Emma Rockwell (Sandra Hüller), Digger's angered half-sister; President Compson (John Goodman), who should be questioned as to how he got elected in a less fraught time period; and the Vice President (Michael Stuhlbarg), timidly appeasing every whim of the dictator-in-chief. Each brings strong personalities, bristling against the words "if," "possible," and "could" that Ganesh uses in his science-focused presentation on the impending catastrophe. These people only deal in absolutes, with facts being malleable pieces used to build a narrative. Despite all of this being packed within the first twenty minutes, so many questions are raised. Where are we? What year is it? It seems pretty modern, but some of the tech is a little different than we're used to. Why does the president leave the White House and come to Digger? How does he get there so fast? Why is everything else moving so fast? Why is everyone yelling their lines and being the most obnoxious versions of themselves? Why am I not laughing at any of the jokes? Eventually, a sudden story shift answers most of these questions. I know what it is, and you don't. And I can't and won't tell you about it here. Sounds a bit cheeky, right? That's the tone Iñárritu strikes here, replacing his prior pretension with an obscene amount of smugness. Combined with Cosmo Sheldrake's frantic score, the ear-splitting IMAX soundscape, and dialogue scenes packed with aggressive shouting, this becomes an extremely unpleasant viewing experience. Should I praise a movie for giving me a headache and putting me in a generally sour mood afterwards? Simultaneously, the structure and ideas percolating here are deeply fascinating. The only difference between a tragedy and a comedy is time, and we've reached the point where we can only laugh at our own ineptitude. Everything is literally crumbling right before our eyes, and our only worry is not being the one holding the hot potato when it all comes crashing down, as if that matters. There should be more movies like this, armed with pokes and prods as it sends the audience home questioning what they just witnessed. There should also be more roles like this for Tom Cruise. As he did for Michael Keaton in Birdman , Iñárritu brings Cruise out of his self-controlled action movie shell and back to a similar lane as his turn as Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder . To play someone his own age, the sixty-four-year-old actor dons thinning grey hair, wrinkly skin, and a bulging gut. Iñárritu and Lubezki certainly don't flatter him by shooting primarily from a low angle, the light bouncing off his bald, spotted forehead. They give him plenty of monologues, mostly done in a single take as the actor's superhuman energy and athleticism grab our attention. Digger is a film I want to learn everything about. I want to read every review, interview, and essay. I want a Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse documentary made about it, capturing everything from inception to presentation. It'll be in my head for the rest of my life, intermittently reappearing to make me ponder its ideas. But I never want to rewatch it, as that sounds like a miserable use of my time. It's quite the conundrum, one that can only be achieved by a film whose swing perpetually flirts with being fair or foul. Warner Bros. Pictures will release Digger in theaters nationwide on October 02nd. More Reviews The Social Reckoning October 7, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Tenzing October 12, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Animals October 8, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Digger September 29, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Twin Cities Film Fest 2026 Preview October 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen As Minnesotans, it's in our DNA to appreciate a good potluck. Everything tastes just a little better when a community comes together to prepare a meal, one that encourages everyone to both contribute and consume something that speaks to them. That sentiment directly applies to that of a film festival, with eclectic flavors from all over the country (and world) coming together for a lively, unpredictable feast for the senses. Now celebrating its seventeenth year, the Twin Cities Film Fest (TCFF) offers that to Minnesota cinephiles as it showcases over 100 feature films October 15th-24th. Speaking of food, the festival kicks off with You Belong Here , featuring Chef Ouita Michel as she delves into universal human themes while celebrating the food, people, and places that are the fundamental ingredients of her community. Michel, as well as actor /producer Steve Zahn, will be in attendance for a pre-screening food tasting and post-screening conversation. Also screening on Opening Night is Wild Horse Nine , the newest dark comedy from writer/director Martin McDonagh ( Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri , The Banshees of Inisherin ). Sam Rockwell and John Malkovich star as a pair of CIA agents dispatched to Easter Island as they stage the 1973 Chilean coup. Several other big studio dishes will make their Minnesota premieres, such as the Spotlight Film: Elsinore . Andrew Scott is a heavyweight Oscar contender for his performance of Ian Charleson in the tearjerker drama, which begins its theatrical rollout on Thanksgiving. Other awards hopefuls screening at the festival include La Bola Negra , the generation-spanning wartime gay romance from Los Javis; I Play Rocky , the biopic of how Sylvester Stallone poured his heart and soul into the making of Rocky ; Club Kid , Jordan Firstman's Gen-Z comedy about a party promoter who unexpectedly finds out he has a son; and A Talent for Murder , a twisty thriller about a book editor who travels to Switzerland to convince famed author Patricia Highsmith to write another Ripley novel. A good potluck always needs some local delicacies. More than one third of this year's selected films feature Minnesota-connected stories and filmmakers. One such film is A Month in Minnesota , a documentary about the fatal shootings by ICE agents earlier this year. Talent will be in attendance for nearly all of these screenings, offering audiences the chance to interact with their community in person and up on the big screen. The festival also features HER Series, Changemaker Series, Black on Screen, and OUT Series. These sections put spotlights on often underrepresented demographics, with over 40% of the total festival selection featuring BIPOC voices. Overlapping in many of those sections is One In A Million , a PBS Frontline Features documentary chronicling one girl’s epic journey from Syria to Germany and back again. Alight, a nonprofit that provides humanitarian support for refugees, will be sponsoring the screening and conducting conversations afterwards. All in-person screenings will take place at the Marcus West End Cinema and Edina Mann 4 Theatre, with a select number of films available to stream through the online festival platform. Tickets are still available for a number of screenings, which can be found at twincitiesfilmfest.org . More Reviews The Social Reckoning October 7, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Tenzing October 12, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Animals October 8, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Digger September 29, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Explore a captivating collection of must-watch films on our curated list page. Lists Twin Cities Film Fest 2026 Preview October 13, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen TIFF26 Recap September 23, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen TIFF26 Preview September 7, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Top 50 Films of the 2020s February 23, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen 2022 Losers Button 2023 Losers Button 2026 Sundance Film Festival Preview Button 25 Most Anticipated Films of 2024 Button 26 Most Anticipated Films of 2026 Button A Brief History of Presidents' in Film Button Cannes 2022: 50 Films That Could Premiere Button Cannes 2023 Predictions - Part 2: Hollywood Makes a Splash Overseas Button Cannes 2023 Predictions - Part 4: The Irregulars and Up-and-Comers Button Cannes 2023 Recap Button Cannes 2024 Predictions - Part 3: The Loyalists Button Cannes 2025 Lineup Predictions Button Every Spider-Man Movie Ranked Button MSPIFF 2023 Recap Button MSPIFF 2025 Preview Button MSPIFF 2026 Preview Button Omaha Film Festival 2024 Recap Button Ranking the Films of Adam McKay Button Ranking the Films of Michael Haneke Button Ranking the Planet of the Apes Franchise Button Sundance 2023 Recap Button TIFF23 Recap Button TIFF24 Recap Button TIFF25 Preview Button TIFF25: Tyler's Time at the Festival Button TIFF26 Recap Button The Best Hollywood Screenwriters of All-Time Button The Biggest Flops in TIFF History Button The Greatest Irish Filmmakers Button The Worst Cannes Premieres Ever Button Top 10 Films of 2018 Button Top 10 Films of 2020 Button Top 10 Films of 2022 Button Top 10 Films of 2023 (So-Far) Button Top 10 Films of 2024 (So Far) Button Top 10 Films of 2025 (So Far) Button Top 10 Oliver Stone Films Button Top 10 Steven Spielberg Films Button Twin Cities Film Fest 2022 Preview Button Twin Cities Film Fest 2023 Recap Button Twin Cities Film Fest 2025 Preview Button Tyler's Favorite Musicals Button 2022 Winners Button 2023 Winners Button 25 Most Anticipated Films of 2022 Button 25 Most Anticipated Films of 2025 Button 36 Most Anticipated Films of 2023 Button Cannes 2021: All The Films That Could Premiere Button Cannes 2023 Predictions - Part 1: The Festival Masters Button Cannes 2023 Predictions - Part 3: The Festival Mainstays Button Cannes 2023 Preview Button Cannes 2024 Predictions - Part 1: The Question Marks Button Cannes 2024 Predictions- Part 2: The Regulars Button Cannes 2025 Recap Button MSPIFF 2023 Preview Button MSPIFF 2024 Preview Button MSPIFF 2025 Recap Button Movies That Made More Money Than You Think Button Predicting the Cannes Jury President Button Ranking the Films of Christopher Nolan Button Ranking the Mad Max Franchise Button Sundance 2023 Preview Button TIFF23 Preview Button TIFF24 Preview Button TIFF24: Tyler's Time at the Festival Button TIFF25 Recap Button TIFF26 Preview Button The Best Cinematographers Working Today And Where To Find Them Next Button The Best Military Movies for Veterans Day Button The Great Musical War of 2021 Button The Most Successful Directors at Cannes Button Top 10 DreamWorks Animated Movies Button Top 10 Films of 2019 Button Top 10 Films of 2021 Button Top 10 Films of 2023 Button Top 10 Films of 2024 Button Top 10 Films of 2025 Button Top 10 Martin Scorsese Films Button Top 10 Pixar Films Button Top 50 Films of the 2020s Button Twin Cities Film Fest 2023 Preview Button Twin Cities Film Fest 2024 Preview Button Twin Cities Film Fest 2026 Preview Button

TIFF26 Preview September 7, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen After the glitz and glamour that encompassed celebrating its fiftieth anniversary last year, one would think the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) would present itself in a lower key. After all, "Tiffty One" (TIFF + fifty-one) doesn't roll off the tongue as much as "Tiffty" did last year, nor will it likely be as ubiquitous. Luckily, CEO Cameron Bailey and his programming team don't understand the notion of slowing down, a self-imposed expectation they've placed upon themselves after years of presenting hundreds of eye-catching films over eleven days and several swanky venues, with many going on to massive awards and box office success. Notable standouts from last year include the box office sensation Obsession , Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery , Frankenstein , Hamnet , Train Dreams , and No Other Choice . I normally spend all eleven days at the festival, mingling with friends and colleagues as we all rush between screenings, often scarfing down a street hot dog or Tim Hortons donut along the way. Because of a previous engagement, my time this year has been reduced to six days, losing the first weekend. In turn, that will shrink my total viewing from the usual 36-38 films to about 25-27 (yes, I'm aware that's still an abnormal number for anyone). All in all, this condensed timeline will push me to be a bit more strategic about what I see and when I see it. I love the rush and grind of the festival, the threat of being buried under the avalanche if you don't keep your wits about you. The Cannes Film Festival has seen an exponential increase in its importance for the Oscar race over the past few years, debuting major domestic and international contenders like Anora , Anatomy of a Fall , The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value , and Emilia Pérez . Each made a stop in Toronto to kick-start the next phase of their awards campaigns. Many of this year's big players will try to replicate that strategy, ensuring another battle in the war for audience attention between the major arthouse distributors. Neon will be bringing over Cristian Mungiu’s Palme d'Or winner Fjord , Ryusuke Hamaguchi's 196-minute nursing home drama All of a Sudden , and Arthur Harari's existential body-swap thriller The Unknown . Netflix has the sweeping gay wartime drama La Bola Negra and the Léa Seydoux-starring thriller Gentle Monster . And then there's Mubi with the Belgian World War I film Coward and Russian dissident Andrey Zvyagintsev's Minotaur . Also scattered throughout are other titles that received good marks, such as Club Kid, The Man I Love, The Beloved, Bitter Christmas, La Gradiva , and Clarissa . There will also be some Sundance Film Festival films venturing north after their debuts in the Utah mountains back in January. Josephine was by far the best film I saw then, and I'm hoping rookie distributor Sumerian Pictures can reignite audience passion. Sony Pictures Classics is bringing along a trio of their films: Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! , The Only Living Pickpocket in New York , and Bedford Park . Once Upon a Time in Harlem , the standout documentary of the festival, will also make an appearance. Speaking of mountains, coming immediately after its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado is Tenzing , a biopic on Tenzing Norgay who, alongside Edmund Hillary, became the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest. While that film looks to the past, famed documentarians Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin will illustrate the present with Everest: The Other Side , the story of two ski mountaineers attempting to ski down the mountain's North Face. Around the same time as the Telluride Film Festival, several international titles from big-name auteurs will make their world premieres at the Venice Film Festival. Hirokazu Kore-eda suffered a rare misstep earlier in the year with Sheep in the Box , which he'll look to rectify with Look Back , his adaptation of the immensely popular manga and anime film. Two European directors also looking to make a comeback are Florian Zeller and Nanni Moretti. The former will present Bunker , starring acting power couple Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz, while the latter has Louis Garrel in the decades-spanning romance It Will Happen Tonight . Lee Chang-dong is returning to the silver screen after an extended hiatus with Possible Love . Netflix will throw quite a bit of its weight behind that title as it tours throughout the fall festival circuit. Other directors will either be following up hugely acclaimed work and/or making their triumphant returns to Toronto. Peter Farrelly began his unlikely path to a Best Picture Oscar for Green Book at TIFF in 2018. He returns with I Play Rocky , the underdog story of how the unknown Sylvester Stallone put his heart and soul on the line to make a little movie called Rocky . CODA director Siân Heder opens the festival with Being Heumann , an inspiring drama about disability activist Judy Heumann. The legendary Mike Leigh recently revealed that Tender Loving Care will likely be his final feature, which features Widow's Bay breakout and Emmy favorite Kate O'Flynn. And Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle dramatizes the rise of Rupert Murdoch and his role in reshaping the modern news landscape with The Sun and Fox News in Ink . Many famous actors will take a break from the spotlight and step behind the camera, including Chris Rock ( Misty Green ), Jesse Eisenberg ( The Debut ), Tim Blake Nelson ( The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd ), Cody Fern ( Closing Night ), and Courteney Cox ( Evil Genius ). Eisenberg's previous film, A Real Pain , scored an Oscar for Kieran Culkin. I have my eye on beloved industry veteran Paul Giamatti receiving a similar treatment, especially after he came so close a few years ago with The Holdovers . Other stars coming into the festival with serious Oscar buzz are Cynthia Erivo ( Prima Facie ), Andrew Scott ( Elsinore ), John Malkovich ( Wild Horse Nine ), and Mahershala Ali ( Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother ). On top of everything already mentioned, there's a swath of world premieres, each with the possibility to break out into the larger cultural conversation. The Julia Set will be the follow-up feature performance by One Battle After Another breakout star Chase Infiniti; Helen Mirren will play famed author Patricia Highsmith in A Talent for Murder , Seth Rogen and Anna Kendrick are a couple debating if they should have a child in Babies , and Jay Baruchel portrays “The Mad Canadian” stuntman Ken Carter in the aptly titled The Stunt Driver . Over a dozen other films not already mentioned have my eye, further illustrating the biggest conundrum of being a voracious cinephile at TIFF. No matter how big your appetite is, and how well you plan, you will never have enough time to see everything that interests you. Believe me, I've tried my best to craft a perfect schedule over the years, but something always falls through the cracks. And yet, that's a beautiful thing, allowing everyone to have their own experience, sharing stories about what they did and didn't love. I'll pass along my tale through several full reviews during the festival, as well as a full recap article once I've regained my sanity back home. The 2026 Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 10-20th. To browse the full lineup, visit the festival website . More Reviews The Social Reckoning October 7, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Tenzing October 12, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Animals October 8, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Digger September 29, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

MSPIFF 2026 Preview April 6, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen April showers bring May flowers. But what April also brings is the annual Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival (MSPIFF, pronounced "EM-spiff”), which is celebrating its forty-fifth year of showcasing an eclectic range of films to Minnesota moviegoers. In my brief time attending the festival, the programming has only gotten stronger, and so has the festival's attendance and its place within the great cinema landscape. Of course, the majority of the 200 films within the lineup will be screened at The Main Cinema, which was recently renovated with new seating in a few of its theaters. Other venues for select screenings include the Edina Theatre, Pop’s Art Theater, Capri Theater, Landmark Center, and FilmNorth. Opening the festivities on April 8th is a screening of the documentary feature Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story , which focuses on the Duluth-born comedian and her inspiring story about struggling with mental health. The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival back in January and is co-directed by Judd Apatow and Neil Berkeley. The latter will be in attendance with Bamford herself for an introduction and post-screening conversation. Also screening at the same time is another timely documentary, called Everybody to Kenmure Street , about protestors disrupting illegal immigration enforcement. One of MSPIFF’s biggest selling points is its consolidation of many notable independent and foreign language films released in the late spring and early summer. Debuting in Minnesota now, after world premiering at the Cannes Film Festival last May, are Two Prosecutors , Young Mothers , The Little Sister , Exit 8 , Renoir , Eagles of the Republic , Romería, and Mother and Child . Each was met with positive acclaim and came from notable filmmakers who have rarely steered audiences wrong. There’s also plenty to offer for those looking for some late-night, genre features. Premiering in the Midnight Madness section at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival were Obsession and Normal . The former became the talk of the festival with its dark, supernatural twist on unconditional love. The latter stars Bob Odenkirk as the new police chief of a quaint Minnesota town that harbors many secrets underneath its blanket of snow. Adam Scott stars in Hokum as a horror writer who is haunted by a witch at a creepy Irish inn. And writer/director François Ozon adapts the famed novel The Stranger , about a man who exacts a series of unfeeling crimes. Upping the star wattage throughout the eleven days will be screenings of The Christophers , directed by Steven Soderbegerh and starring Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel; Late Fame , starring Willem Dafoe and Greta Lee; Silent Friend , starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Léa Seydoux; Power Ballad , with Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas; and Rose of Nevada , with Callum Turner and George MacKay. After becoming a box office sensation back home in the UK and nabbing several awards at the BAFTAs, the inspirational real-life drama I Swear finally lands in American theaters. After honoring legends such as Roger Deakins and Ang Lee in the past, this year’s Milgrom Tribute is being bestowed upon cinematographer Dean Cundey. With a career spanning nearly 50 years and collaborations with directors such as John Carpenter, Robert Zemeckis, Steven Spielberg, and Ron Howard, Cundey has been the eyes for many of Hollywood’s defining films. He’ll accept the award during a conversation about his career on April 12th. It will then be followed by screenings of two of his films: Escape from New York and Jurassic Park . Cundey will conduct a Q&A session following the screening of the latter film. To access the full list of films and secure tickets, you can visit the MSP Film Society website . In addition, there will be several panels hosted by industry insiders, and parties to network with fellow cinephiles. The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival runs from April 08-19th at The Main Cinema. More Reviews The Social Reckoning October 7, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Tenzing October 12, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Animals October 8, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Digger September 29, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

TIFF26 Recap September 23, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen To participate in the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is to simultaneously run both a sprint and a marathon. Over the eleven-day festival, 293 films were screened an average of four times each at the Princess of Wales Theatre, Roy Thomson Hall, the Royal Alexandra Theatre, the TIFF Lightbox, and Scotiabank Theatre Toronto. That’s over one thousand screenings, starting daily as early as 8:00 a.m. and ending as late as 2:00 a.m. Fervent festivalgoer Eric Tisch set a Guinness World Record last year by watching 78 feature films. As impressive and mind-boggling as that number may be, it still means he missed roughly 90% of all screenings, each one unique in the experience it offers. Therein lies the biggest asset of TIFF, as well as its biggest drawback for completionists such as myself. Spread over a dozen sections, the programmers seek to pack in as much as they can, seemingly paying homage to the festival's founding aim of being a collection of the best films from other festivals around the world, such as the closely held Venice International Film Festival and Telluride Film Festival. That goal has been expanded to include several star-studded world premieres, making every night a birth or rebirth for a film’s presence in the culture. But before a film can stick within the greater culture, it has to land within an audience’s mind, which can be difficult if they’re watching multiple films every day. Even though I attended only seven days this year instead of the full eleven, I was able to cram in thirty films. Simple math tells you I watched at least four movies a day, a few of them with runtimes eclipsing three hours. Aggressive note-taking is required to file each movie in my brain, and physical stamina is required to stay awake. But great movies always make the effort worthwhile, just like crossing the finish line after a grueling race. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a movie this year that made me levitate out of the theater like The Fabelmans , The Beast , or Hamnet did in previous years. That could be a symptom of distributors growing increasingly wary of film festivals, and my personal opinion that this year has been one of the weakest in recent memory. Still, while the ceiling was lowered, many films were closer to that than the floor. Taking the coveted People's Choice Award, as well as the top spot in my personal rankings, was the Spanish-language wartime drama La Bola Negra . The film came into the festival with a head of steam from its rapturous premiere in Cannes a few months back, and that sentiment was repeated here with standing ovations and sold-out screenings. Threading three timelines together into one epic narrative, writer/directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi deliver sumptuous visuals and bold editing. It's a throwback to the prestige Oscar vehicles of the '90s, with a modern twist through its homosexual subject matter. Netflix will begin rolling out the film in theaters in October, with prominent local placements at the MSP Cine Latino Film Festival and Twin Cities Film Fest. Be sure to catch it there, as it will be one of the most talked about and rewarded films of the year. The crowdpleasers I Play Rocky and Being Heumann placed second and third in the People's Choice Awards, respectively. While it could be accused of being overly simplistic and relying too much on the beats of its source material, the former is a winning retelling of Sylvester Stallone's underdog journey to becoming Rocky Balboa. Star Anthony Ippolito perfectly recreates the voice and mannerisms of Stallone, sometimes making it impossible to tell the two apart. Being Heumann goes for that same energy, albeit with more importance, as it dramatizes the 1977 Judith Heumann-led occupation of a federal building to secure accessibility laws and equal rights. The film has clear affection for its characters, many played by real-life disabled actors. It's a predictable heartwarmer, available for the whole family on Apple TV just before Thanksgiving. Undeservedly walking away empty-handed from the festival was the A24 duo of The Debut and Club Kid . Starring in the former, Julianne Moore seems like a lock to win her second Oscar for her performance as a timid housewife who loses herself in a small role as part of a local musical theater production. She earned a round of applause midway through the film for a hilarious vocal sparring session with co-star Paul Giamatti, who will also be vying for an Oscar. The latter film is Jordan Firstman's debut feature as writer/director/star, which played through the roof at my later screening. It is Big Daddy for a new generation, with Firstman taking over Adam Sandler's role as an unadjusted party promoter forced to grow up once it's revealed that he has a child. Speaking of Oscars, star Andrew Scott will surely be a contender in the crowded field of Best Lead Actor for his larger-than-life performance in Elsinore . He cries, laughs, and slowly dies from AIDS as he delivers Shakespeare. He'll be competing with John Malkovich for Wild Horse Nine , the newest film from In Bruges and The Banshees of Inisherin writer/director Martin McDonagh. This newest film doesn't break that darkly comedic mold, but it's still one of the funniest films of the year, with impressive performances from its relatively small cast. It'll be Searchlight Pictures' prized pony, releasing it starting in November. It's not always sunshine and rainbows in terms of Oscar prospects, with plenty of films being dead on arrival. Wicked star Cynthia Erivo bought the film rights and replaced Jodie Comer in the adaptation of the one-woman play Prima Facie . But by expanding the scope to include more characters, the film is stodgy and on-the-nose at every turn. It still lacks US distribution, so it's unclear when general audiences will even get to see it. A24 did suffer a small blow with Misty Green , writer/director Chris Rock's tonally confused take on the Hollywood hustle. And then Florian Zeller's Bunker turned out to be significantly worse than his previous feature The Son , which was already considered a massive disappointment. The talented Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz are wasted in a preachy story about love that is way too easy to hate. I wouldn't be surprised if Sony Pictures Classics saves face and locks this film in a bunker. This is an international film festival after all, with plenty of great work outside of the English-speaking world. Asia arrived with the densely intellectual and lengthy features Possible Love and All of a Sudden . While rigorously rewarding in the moment, both will require lots of time afterwards to deconstruct their full messages. The frontlines of World War I were seen through an unprecedented tender lens in Coward , as was a modern-day high school field trip in La Gradiva . And while having a runtime of nearly 150 minutes kind of defeats the point of being labeled as a thriller, Andrey Zvyagintsev's Minotaur intercuts a personal tragedy with the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. I'd like to give a special shout-out to Gabby's King West bar and the Sunset Grill, two of the only places open late and/or early enough to save me from solely subsisting on a diet of Tim Hortons donuts and movie theater popcorn. Of course, I could have just prioritized my diet a little more and skipped a movie every once in a while. But while my stomach would have been rewarded, my mind would have been starved of great artistic works, the likes of which will be carried with me infinitely longer than any piece of food. TIFF is a buffet, and I always leave a happy customer. More Reviews The Social Reckoning October 7, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Tenzing October 12, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Animals October 8, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Digger September 29, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Verity September 30, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen In film, it never feels like an accident for two beautiful people to meet. They can’t just happen to walk by each other on the street or be at a coffee shop at the same time. Of course, they can, but there’s always a reason for it to happen, either intentionally by one character or by the universe. If it’s the latter, then it’s probably a sign of what’s to come, something that should be heeded before jumping off the deep end. So, when Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson) first meets Jeremy Crawford (Josh Hartnett) on a street corner because she gets sprayed with blood after a cyclist gets hit and instantly killed by a car, she probably should have taken that as a warning to stay far away from him. But how could she, when he’s standing there with his dark brown eyes and hair? That’s how these stories always start, with a jaded and reluctant protagonist at their worst. For Lowen, it’s immediately after her mother died of cancer in her own apartment. The only thing left of her is her pills, which Lowen washes down with freezer vodka and a dash of pity for her stalled career as a novelist. A lifeline appears in the form of an offer to be a ghostwriter for a bestselling thriller series by Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway), Jeremy’s wife, who has secretly become catatonic after a recent car accident. Not more than twenty minutes after they both witnessed manslaughter, Jeremy and Lowen are discussing having her come to the Crawfords’ Vermont house to make sense of Verity’s copious notes and begin writing the new novel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdPMKhjMSFs As nice as the house is, Lowen can’t help but feel a darkness permeating the air. Death had already taken over the place when one of Jeremy and Verity’s twins accidentally drowned in the nearby lake. Now Verity is essentially dead, sitting motionless in her wheelchair as the years go by. Stumbling around, Lowen discovers a secret manuscript by Verity, one that serves as both an autobiography and a confession. It reveals Verity’s deepest and darkest thoughts and actions, revealing that nothing about her has been what others have said. If the basic beats of this story all sound a little too similar to last year’s The Housemaid , then you’re not alone. A lonely protagonist with a dark and troubled past? Check. A palace-like house that features lots of dark hallways and rooms? Check. A husband who is extremely handsome and dutiful to his fraught wife? Check. Parts of the story are revealed through the wife’s account of the past? Check. Sexual chemistry begins to bud between the protagonist and the husband? Check. It’s neither Verity author Colleen Hoover nor The Housemaid author Freida McFadden’s fault for this large overlap. These are the types of stories that sell, ones filled with sex, death, and dark secrets. Hoover has become a cinematic goldmine for it over the years, with churned-out adaptations of It Ends with Us , Regretting You , and Reminders of Him . Each has its own twisted sense of romance, with this one at least being smart enough to put it within the shell of a dark thriller. But it does always feel like a shell of itself, going through the motions without much fanfare. Director Michael Showalter, who has become quite the journeyman over the past few years, makes us wait an awfully long time for something good to happen. And when the secrets finally get spilled, they’re without a biting edge. Johnson’s character says that she has a resting bored face, which is also what I had for the majority of the runtime. As expected, the leads are incredibly attractive. By nature of her having to sit in a wheelchair in the present timeline, Hathaway’s involvement is strictly limited to recreations of past events in her writing, as well as plugs for the Call Her Daddy and Hot Ones podcasts. A little bit of her goes a long way, an oasis in a desert filled with monthly book club filler. Amazon MGM Studios will release Verity in theaters nationwide on October 02nd. More Reviews The Social Reckoning October 7, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Tenzing October 12, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Animals October 8, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Digger September 29, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen Despite being one of the defining shows of its era, largely thanks to my generation's memory of it solely through an ironic lens of memes and YouTube clips, it's surprising to find out that To Catch a Predator only aired twenty episodes, presented as specials from 2004 to 2007. During that time, the show framed itself as being part of the larger corporate television news magazine program Dateline NBC. By placing itself under that umbrella, it made it serious journalism, something that host Chris Hansen vehemently claimed it was. But as seen through the lens of the new film Primetime , the show acted more like a privatized sting operation than a news outlet, favoring ratings over reporting. By taking us behind the scenes of the show's production, Primetime reveals just how much of it was made up. The online conversations with suspected sexual predators were done by Xavier Von Erck (Matthew Maher), founder of the watchdog group Perverted-Justice. An adult actor, known as a "decoy" because of their physical resemblance to that of a prepubescent teenager, played the child on the phone and in person. The house for the meeting was rented out, with hidden cameras in every room. It has all the makings of a Hollywood production, with producer Andie Bender (Merritt Wever) steering the ship from the video village. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fHXyqQOKL8 In theory, cutting through all that artificiality and lending some integrity should be the hosting duties of Chris Hansen (Robert Pattinson), already a winner of multiple News & Documentary Emmy Awards throughout his tenure at Dateline NBC. But when we first meet Hansen, he's performing vocal exercises while reading a prepared script. Possibly sensing how much audiences would be fascinated by Pattonson’s voice work, director Lance Oppenheim lets the actor extensively riff during this preparation phase, and later places him in a recording booth for a commercial spot. Once the predator hits their mark on the metaphorical stage, Chris reveals himself from behind a curtain, a grand entrance fit for a superhero crime fighter. The audience can then cheer as the predator is berated for his misdeeds and physically assaulted by arresting police officers. “What would have happened if I wasn't there?” is the supposed bulletproof defense that Chris flings at any skeptics of his work. To him, these predators are part of an ancient evil that cannot be tamed or fully understood, just exposed for the world to see. After all, the more light shed on darkness, the less dark it is. But can journalistic integrity be maintained when you’re making the news instead of solely reporting it? Is all this chatroom sleuthing and acting a form of entrapment, meant to parade around the prey in a humiliation ritual? When asked by a (seemingly deranged) fan why Chris doesn’t just kill the predators on the spot, he says that what he does is probably a fate worse than death. These ethical dilemmas have surrounded the show since it first aired, so screenwriter Ajon Singh isn’t exactly breaking much new ground here. Fortunately, he finds a fresher vantage point through the eyes of Dan Plumb (Skyler Gisondo), a twenty-something aspiring actor hired to become the new decoy of a thirteen-year-old boy. Without preparation or knowledge of what exactly is going on, he’s thrust into a scene with a predator, given stage instructions on how to get them over to the kitchen for Chris. It’s only after the fact that he grasps that he was performing a “scene” with a real sexual predator. If these people are as dangerous as Chris claims, was Dan unknowingly put in extreme danger? For as much as Dan is conflicted by all of this, he’s paid quite well and can be easily convinced that there is some form of justice being served. That’s exactly the attitude the NBC executives and audiences take as well, all of it presented with the least amount of professionalism needed to assuage guilt. The age of polished, scripted television is over, replaced by the grungy muck of “reality” television. A documentary filmmaker, Oppenheim takes those aesthetics and applies them to his film. The cinematography is presented with a garish videotape quality, the static so exposed you could feel it coming off the screen if you placed your hand there. Dial-up internet sounds and an unnervingly hilarious placement of Jared Fogle capture the era’s Wild West feel. Bathed in all that grotesquerie is Pattinson, adding another nutcase character to his ever-expanding collection. He is simultaneously a predator and prey to himself, relentlessly driven to gain bigger ratings than Lost once he’s promoted to a primetime slot. As much of a fool’s errand as that is, it’s something he commits his damnedest to achieve. That means no more small fish, just white whales, which any knowledgeable viewer of To Catch a Predator knows is what sunk the ship. It’s proof that Batman can only exist in comic books, as our world’s view of justice has more in common with that of The Joker. A24 will release Primetime in theaters nationwide on September 25th. More Reviews The Social Reckoning October 7, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Animals October 8, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Digger September 29, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Verity September 30, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen In 2023, Shailene Woodley starred in the film To Catch a Killer . In it, she played a law enforcement officer working with the FBI to investigate a string of murders. The suspected killer is assumed to be highly intelligent, with a clear strategy for enacting and covering up their deadly deeds. Despite some reluctance from her colleagues, Woodley's out-of-the-box thinking is what cracks open the case. It is eventually revealed that the killer is hiding out in a rural area, where officers descend, preparing for a standoff. In 2026, Shailene Woodley stars in the film Unabomber . In it, she plays a law enforcement officer working with the FBI to investigate a string of murders. The suspected killer is assumed to be highly intelligent, with a clear strategy for enacting and covering up their deadly deeds. Despite some reluctance from her colleagues, Woodley's out-of-the-box thinking is what cracks open the case. It is eventually revealed that the killer is hiding out in a rural area, where officers descend, preparing for a standoff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3tR6qQjbgI Save for the fact that the total number of people who have seen To Catch a Killer probably doesn't eclipse four digits, an ambitious lawyer (probably also in desperate need of work) could look for a copyright case against Unabomber screenwriters Sam Chalsen and Nelson Greaves. Then again, the Unabomber killer and extensive FBI manhunt for him is one of the most documented cases in American history, so the finger could be pointed back at the writers of To Catch a Killer for copying real life. In the end, it doesn't really matter, as neither movie has or will instill any passion within an audience likely watching because it was the first thing that appeared on their streaming service home screen. At the very least, Unabomber passes the Netflix test of staging a major action sequence within the first five minutes. Menacingly, the film opens inside a mailbox, with a random person receiving a mysterious package. The package explodes upon being opened, killing them instantly. They are another victim of the Unabomber, later revealed to be Ted Kaczynski, who killed 3 and injured 23 with this method from 1978-1995. The FBI was clueless about his identity and whereabouts, with their only tip being the killer's 35,000-word manifesto published in several national newspapers. Titled "Industrial Society and Its Future" and free of a single grammatical mistake, Kaczynski illustrated his twisted ideology in this cruel world where machines have become more important than individual autonomy. In an effort to dig up the root of this mode of thinking, a second timeline set in 1958 is introduced, going back to Ted's years as a sixteen-year-old prodigy at Harvard. Played by Jacob Tremblay, Ted is skinny and awkward, never adjusting to his classes or his peers. Happiness is only achieved when he's under the tutelage of philosophy Professor Henry Murray (Russell Crowe, returning to the Ivy League a few decades after A Beautiful Mind ). Ted agrees to participate in a series of mental tests centered around philosophical debates. For as prepared as Ted is, he's instantly ragebaited by a graduate student who treats the debate as a roast session. Already emotionally unstable, Ted decides to fight fire with fire. His anger does most of the talking, exasperating his views on the weakening value of ideas in the modern world. It's an interesting angle for Chlasen and Graves to take, one that could easily be interpreted as a warning in our increasingly fractured times. Chaos can only breed more chaos, a chain reaction that can lead a generation to believe the only way to silence your enemy is to kill them. However, those potent ideas don’t fully come alive in this film, buried under so-so acting and/or Janus Metz's direction. A digital sheen robs the richness of both time periods, and the crosscutting between them never feels purposeful. A few chase scenes are horribly staged and edited, coming off as perfunctory excuses for action in this dialogue-heavy story. Excise the later timeline, and those problems are fully solved. We’ve already got several television shows and documentaries about the manhunt for Kaczynski, so it feels like a waste of an opportunity to make only half a commitment to doing something different. Netflix will release Unabomber on its streaming service on September 25th. More Reviews The Social Reckoning October 7, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Digger September 29, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Verity September 30, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen

Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen For me, there isn’t a smoother way to start a film than by listening to the hum of the studio logo for Focus Features. The gentle strings take me back to when I first dove deeper into movies. My lexicon was the Oscars, and I'd dig into each year’s Wikipedia page to see the nominees and winners. Naturally, my gaze shifted towards the 2000s, the period when I would recognize the names of famous movie stars who appeared in some of my favorite blockbusters. With big award hits like The Pianist , Brokeback Mountain , and Atonement , Focus Features was prominently featured in those Wikipedia pages, placing itself as the preeminent distributor for serious-minded cinephiles. Of course, that’s a bit of a hoity-toity way to see things. But I was a teenager who wanted to take movies seriously, and to seem serious to other people. Who didn’t back then? Many of those films became some of my favorites, relics of a different era that I fondly look back on. Trying its hardest to recapture that unashamed sense of Oscar earnestness (“bait” is the pejorative word used sometimes) this year is Focus Features’ Elsinore , proudly splashing its emotional gamut across the screen for all to see, inviting tears, laughter, and catharsis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzopCeFAWF0 Much of the laughter comes from the predicament actor Ian Charleson (Andrew Scott) has put himself in by starring in the 1981 Best Picture-winning film Chariots of Fire . Myself included, it’s a film people only remember for its opening scene: young men racing barefoot along the beach, accompanied by the famous piano anthem by Vangelis. You’ve definitely heard it before, even if you didn’t know that it originated from that film. Charleson never got the career boost one would expect from leading such a major motion picture, continuing the decade as a working actor in less-than-ideal parts for television and film. In every audition, someone reminds him of that film, a curse he has to politely laugh off. Not a laughing matter was the secret of Charleson’s homosexuality, as well as his HIV/AIDS diagnosis. The marks on his skin from the disease make him a professional liability; the stigma permeates throughout both casting halls and doctors’ offices. Luckily, he has an ally in National Theatre artistic director Richard Eyre (Johnny Flynn), who’s been put in a tough spot after Daniel Day-Lewis abruptly walked out halfway through a performance of Hamlet and refused to ever come back (true story). Eyre gives Charleson the role he’s always dreamed of, establishing a new sense of life for a man on a death sentence. While few remember Charleson’s performance in Chariots of Fire , everyone will remember Andrew Scott’s portrayal of him during this period. It is acting in all capital letters, offering a raw look into someone grappling with their own mortality as they take on an immortal role. He is witty with a joke, especially to the disapproving Dr. Margaret Johnson (Olivia Colman, coming full circle after playing a theater owner who hosted the regional premiere of Chariots of Fire in Empire of Light ). She grants years when other doctors can only muster weeks; her stern methods eventually pioneer practices for medical research. Of course, a steely doctor always warms up to their most rascally patient. It’s not hard for her to do that when Scott/Charleson is lighting up every room he walks into with his sincerity. It’s why he’s such a good actor, somehow never telling a lie as he makes you believe he’s the Prince of Denmark. Director Simon Stone keeps the depth of field shallow and the palette cool, allowing Scott’s face to be our north star throughout this largely weepy story. As a famous performer of Hamlet himself, it’s endlessly fascinating to watch him channel the role within another role, adding new layers of context to material that has spanned almost half of a millennium. This is a film that bluntly wants you to feel exactly what it wants, when it wants. It can be a bit aggravating at times to be steered so hard in each direction, with screenwriter Stephen Beresford underlining and bolding each point with a dark felt pen. Stefan Gregory’s orchestra and piano score share the same strategy, grabbing hold of our ears as editor Valerio Bonelli cuts montages of the rehearsals and performances. This is Shakespeare after all, so a little melodrama is par for the course. Elsinore had its Canadian premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival. Focus Features will release the film in select theaters on November 20th. More Reviews Digger September 29, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Verity September 30, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Double click the dataset icon to add your own content. 1/1/2035 By: Author Name Hunter Friesen

Look Back September 16, 2026 By: Button Hunter Friesen By shepherding a live-action adaptation of the 2021 manga sensation Look Back , which already got an anime adaptation in 2024, writer/director Hirokazu Kore-eda could have easily faltered and made a copy of a copy of a copy. After all, once those boxed frames from the pages have been granted motion through animation, how much more can a live-action version hope to achieve? It’s a valid question, especially in an age when Disney has self-imposed the stigma of sloppification on its greatest animated works by mass-producing exponentially inferior live-action versions. They may each make hundreds of millions to almost a billion dollars (well, except for the latest version of Moana , thank goodness), but I doubt anyone felt the realism added an ounce of new context to the emotional power of these stories. Of course, what separates those Disney films from this version of Look Back is a world-class filmmaker like Kore-eda. Having a nearly flawless thirty-year filmography filled with emotional richness and deeply humanistic values, the revered Japanese auteur is the perfect person for this job of adapting such a touching story of youthful creativity. At the very least, his involvement makes this inherently needless version fully satisfactory for both die-hard fans and newcomers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNQJAIgYRwE Despite being beholden to Tatsuki Fujimoto’s illustrations and Kiyotaka Oshiyama’s animations, Kore-eda and cinematographer Senzo Ueno imbue them with lush warmth. Captured in 35mm with a boxier 1.66:1 aspect ratio across each of the four seasons, the Japanese countryside is presented in its most breathtakingly beautiful form. Swans float on a calm lake as light snow falls, the wind blows across a spring meadow, and the trees begin to obtain their autumnal glow. Witnessing those seasons through her window is Fujino, a grade school girl whose popular in her class because of her whimsical manga drawings. They’re published each week in the class newspaper, usually about some silly situation she’s imagined for her classmates or teacher. The praise is motivation for her to commit to her craft all day and night, destined to be a professional when she’s older. Except that all turns around when she’s made to share her column with Kyomoto, who attends school remotely. In contrast to Fujino’s, Kyomoto's drawings are like an architect's; filled with straight lines, highly realistic settings, and perfect shading. It’s enough for Fujino to quit drawing altogether, as there’s no point in pursuing this dream when people like Kyomoto are so far ahead. More seasons pass, with the children eventually crossing paths. To Fujino’s surprise, Kyomoto is her biggest fan, her awkward enthusiasm likely coming from her being on the spectrum. And so, the two decide to create a manga together, forming a deep friendship through the power of creativity. Tenderly, Kore-eda captures their creative process, which seemingly spans multiple years. Each subsequent scene takes place in a different season than the last, and the actresses change as they grow into the next phase. Each transition into a new pairing is seamless, carrying forward the sweet notes of innocence. There really aren’t any stakes or drama, just heartwarming fulfillment. That charm is eventually lost once the pair reach young adulthood. A tragedy ignites the third act, one that feels totally out of place and a little excessive for this story. As a newcomer to this story, blame should first go on Tatsuki Fujimoto for its origination, and also on Kore-eda for its depiction here. There are still fleeting moments of brilliance, but they are clouded by a disappointing feeling over this sudden pivot. Even with that bitter taste, the whole is still very nutritious for the heart and soul. This is a perfect film for Sunday afternoons in all seasons, best complemented by a blanket and some tea. Shed a tear, have a laugh, and feel a smile on your face during and long after. Look Back had its North American premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival. GKIDS will release it in theaters at a later date. More Reviews Digger September 29, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Primetime September 22, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Unabomber September 24, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Elsinore September 14, 2026 By: Hunter Friesen Hunter Friesen