The Rivals of Amziah King (2026)

Direction: Andrew Patterson
Country: USA

American filmmaker Andrew Patterson did a much better job with his critically acclaimed alien-centered debut, The Vast of Night (2019), than with The Rivals of Amziah King, a revenge neo-western set in Oklahoma (the director’s home state) and centered on a devoted beekeeper and enthusiastic folk musician with a health condition. 

Matthew McConaughey plays the title character, supported by newcomer Angelina LookingGlass as his former foster daughter, who returns to town, and Kurt Russell as a powerful businessman. 

There’s rural dark poetry here, splashed with an indie touch, but it fails to impress, as the briskly edited first part of the film—its bluegrass swagger contributing little—proves to be a total snooze-fest. The second half is a tiny bit more exciting, but the story returns to bloated form, culminating in a cold, insipid manner.

Patterson uses the pseudonym James Montague to credited himself as writer and producer.

The Weight (2026)

Direction: Padraic McKinley
Country: USA

The Weight marks a promising directorial debut by Padraic McKinley, who brings a confident sense of atmosphere and tension to a screenplay by Matthew Booi and Shelby Gaines. Set in 1933 Oregon, amid the hardships of the Great Depression, this historical drama combines rugged period detail with a compelling survival story, anchored by strong performances from Ethan Hawke, Russell Crowe, and Julia Jones.

Evoking the spirit of ’70s classics such as William Friedkin’s Sorcerer (1977), John Boorman’s Deliverance (1972), and Sydney Pollack’s Jeremiah Johnson (1972), the film follows single father Sam Murphy (Hawke), who is evicted, arrested, and forced to leave his young daughter in a children’s home. Sent to a labor camp, he soon reveals his cleverness, confidence, and resourcefulness, prompting warden Clancy (Crowe) to make him an irresistible proposition: smuggle bars of gold through the wilderness. More people become involved in the operation, but can they be trusted?

Laid out with pulse and atmosphere, The Weight is a gripping, taut, and effective western-style adventure thriller that puts McKinley on the list of filmmakers to watch in the future.

Tony (2026)

Direction: Matt Johnson
Country: USA

Matt Johnson’s biopic about celebrity chef and author Anthony Bourdain is neither superb nor particularly special, but rather a quite honest and comforting work. This real-life ballad delivered in a minor key begins with a lump in the throat and ends with a smile, pairing Dominic Sessa and Antonio Banderas as Bourdain and the quiet “chef” José Vatel, respectively, in 1975 Provincetown, Massachusetts. The film focuses not only on their boss-employee-turned-partnership relationship but also on the complicated romance between Bourdain and Nancy Putkowski (Emilia Jones).

Avoiding pathos and sentimentality, Johnson succeeds with an understated stylistic exercise that manages to blend a certain acerbic tone with a delicacy that is never feigned. Tony rightly entertains at a pleasantly superficial level. More than a technical feat, it’s a strong story with adequate dramatic power.

Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma (2026)

Direction: Jane Schoenbrun
Country: USA

In this sex-charged meta-slasher directed by Jane Schoenbrun (We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, 2021; I Saw the TV Glow, 2024), a young female writer-director (Hannah Einbinder), embracing queerness and monstrosity, diligently focuses on the remake of Camp Miasma, a cult horror franchise. Her fascination for the gore and campiness of the original film leads her to its main actress (Gillian Anderson), now a reclusive woman who has made the abandoned, isolated sleepaway camp where the film was shot her home.

Packed with unexplained mysteries and forced dualities, Teenage Sex and Death At Camp Miasma occasionally feels immersive in its mood—its atmosphere satirically beautified by magical A.I. backdrops—but falls short on laughs. It fails to produce the desired disturbance, instead leaving me annoyed by its abundance of slasher clichés rather than genuinely provoking me with something outside the box. Notwithstanding, the film won the Queer Award at Cannes.

The End of Oak Street (2026)

Direction: David Cameron Mitchell
Country: USA

The fourth feature by David Robert Mitchell, The End of Oak Street, is a silly, scattered Spielbergian endeavor set in the early 80s, blending Jurassic Park with Jumanji, and enigmatic time portals with histrionic family dynamics. 

When the brave author-wannabe Denise Platt (Anne Hathaway) finds herself trapped in her suddenly isolated suburban neighborhood—now transformed into a prehistoric forest—alongside her husband Greg (Ewan McGregor) and their two children, Brian (Christian Convery) and Audrey (Maisy Stella), she must find a way to get them home.

Mitchell, who deserved all the accolade with It Follows in 2014, stumbles here into aggressive reptiles, uninspired details, and uncompelling situations. Facing such a lame script, the actors’ performances are far from memorable, while occasional humor proves to be the most redeeming element of this otherwise conventional survival film. All the rest is a cheap reproduction of things already seen, in a way that feels insipidly recycled.

The Invite (2026)

Direction: Olivia Wilde
Country: USA

The Invite, the third directorial feature by Olivia Wilde, who also stars, is a ballsy, raunchy comedy-drama filled with tension and direct, funny lines. The plot, co-written by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones (collaborating 14 years after Celeste & Jesse Forever), is an adaptation of the Spanish film The People Upstairs (2021) and focuses on Angela (Wilde), a housewife who frequently forgets to breathe when anxious, and her husband, Joe (Seth Rogen), a frustrated music teacher. Their marriage is irreparably strained, and they definitely need something new and exciting in their lives. That opportunity arrives when Angela invites their noisy, nosy upstairs neighbors, Hawk (Edward Norton) and Pina (Penélope Cruz), a former firefighter and a psychotherapist/sexologist, respectively, to a dinner party.

Complaints, apologies, and unexpected revelations are fueled by joints, tequila, and intense libido. Astonishingly acted by all four actors, this provocative, fast-paced film impresses with the power with which it frames contentions, different points of view, embarrassments, and resolutions. This is finely judged filmmaking by Wilde.

The Odyssey (2026)

Direction: Christopher Nolan
Country: USA

The notable Christopher Nolan returns with a widely known mythological epic that uses modern visuals and techniques to become fully engrossing. The Odyssey stars Matt Damon—who had worked with the director in Interstellar (2014) and Oppenheimer (2023)—as Odysseus, the feared Greek king of Ithaca who gets lost on his way back home after the Trojan War. His wife, Penelope (Anne Hathaway), patiently awaits his return, refusing all the avid suitors who pressure her, while her son, Telemachus (Tom Holland), departs in hopes of finding out what happened to his father.

Grandiose and introspective, the film is not concerned with blood-shedding battles, instead using emotional struggle to reinvent itself. Nolan’s The Odyssey is a cinematic pleasure, with no exaggeration or over-stylized panache, preferring natural settings and real locations over studio sets. Its three hours fly by, leaving us with the certainty that our time was not wasted. 

The Drama (2026)

Direction: Kristoffer Borgli
Country: USA

Bold Norwegian writer-director Kristoffer Borgli, who previously generated meaningful emotional friction with films such as Sick of Myself (2022) and Dream Scenario (2023), stumbles heavily in his latest feature, The Drama. The plot follows the happy-turned-turbulent relationship between Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson), which is shaken by a serious revelation. Its block-like, fragmented narrative and forced tension make almost every scene feel fabricated.

The messy script obsesses over judgment, fear, and fixation in increasingly ridiculous ways, while forgiveness and hope—introduced for a bogged-down feel-good finale—feel completely out of place.

The Drama is a humorless, mediocre, and laborious exercise that offers little of genuine interest. Borgli bites off more than he can chew and struggles to digest it. After all, sarcasm alone does not make a film.

Michael (2026)

Direction: Antoine Fuqua
Country: USA

Michael is a bland, tasteless, and stereotypical biopic about American superstar Michael Jackson. Directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, 2001; The Magnificent Seven, 2016) with obvious commercial ambitions, the film focuses on the first half of Jackson’s life—from his difficult childhood in Gary, Indiana, performing alongside his brothers under the supervision of a stern father, to his Motown breakthrough and eventual rise as a solo artist through record-breaking albums such as Off the Wall and Thriller. It also follows his decisive rupture with his opportunistic father.

Michael is not only unexciting and artificial—both musically and emotionally—but also self-congratulatory, choppy, and overly mellow, leaving its subject’s darker chapters and legal controversies safely behind the curtain. The extended musical sequences, recreating several of Jackson’s iconic performances, quickly become excruciatingly overlong. Despite the committed performance of Michael’s nephew, Jaafar Jackson, the film remains a sanitized, dramatically inert portrait that never truly captures the brilliance and contradictions of its subject.

The History of Sound (2025)

Direction: Oliver Hermanus
Country: USA

South African helmer Oliver Hermanus, best known for the dramas Beauty (2011) and Living (2022), returns with The History of Sound, a bittersweet love story between two men bound by their passion for folk music in early 20th-century America. Based on two short stories by screenwriter Ben Shattuck, the film unfolds in sepia hues and dusky textures, yet takes too long to develop, ultimately struggling to find the emotional perspective and dramatic momentum necessary to fully engage.

The story follows Lionel Worthing (Paul Mescal), who leaves his family farm in Kentucky to pursue his dream of becoming a folk singer. At the New England Conservatory in Boston, he meets David White (Josh O'Connor), whose passion lies in collecting folk songs from rural communities. The two are involuntarily separated by World War I, reconnecting in Maine two years later, only to drift apart once more after a year of unanswered letters.

While the narrative remains frustratingly superficial—technically polished yet dramatically inert, most of the film feels trapped in repetition, particularly during the musical interludes, which tend to weaken rather than deepen the emotional current. Hermanus’ direction is elegant and controlled, but also strangely hollow, leaving key emotional threads to dissolve into the surrounding fog. Hermanus and Shattuck clearly approach the material with sincerity, yet the result rarely cuts deeply. Likewise, despite the undeniable talent of Mescal and O’Connor, neither is given the opportunity to deliver truly memorable work here. It’s a disappointing outcome.

After the Hunt (2025)

Direction: Luca Guadagnino
Country: USA

Italian helmer Luca Guadagnino, who caused surprise with Call Me By Your Name (2017) but has recently disappointed with films like Challengers (2024) and Queer (2024), stumbles again with After the Hunt, a psychological thriller weighed down by dramatic excess, intellectually convoluted dialogue, and an overreliance on ambiguity.

Relying on close-ups that fail to bring intimacy, and a depth of field that reinforces emotional detachment, the film wallows in both dark morass and bitter coldness. Julia Roberts stars as a polished philosophy professor at Yale, while Ayo Edebiri plays an ambitious and privileged student who accuses one of the university’s assistant professors—portrayed by Andrew Garfield—of sexual assault.

The picture, struggling to create a true identity of its own, feels hollow as many of the narrative suggestions are tucked away in sub-contexts. Coldness reigns, revelations abound, confidences are shared, and tempers flare in After the Hunt. Sadly, the film continually drifts into inconsequential detours, ultimately failing to deliver the impact it strives for. Despite a solid performance from Roberts, Guadagnino’s thriller remains frustratingly inert, and I struggled with it up until the end.

The Plague (2026)

Direction: Charlie Polinger
Country: USA

The Plague, a psychological horror drama centered on a youth water polo team, marks a convincing debut for writer-director Charlie Polinger, who received accolades in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Delving into a neurotic pre-adolescence steeped in anxiety, the film draws from the director’s personal diaries written during a summer camp in 2003.

As an astute—if at times dreary—examination of youth culture within a sports camp setting, the film confronts uncomfortable realities such as bullying and the challenges of integrating into a new group. It is also notably atmospheric, ambiguous, and faintly bizarre, with a darkness that probes into grim, rarely explored emotional corners.

Polinger avoids sensationalism, maintaining a restrained, low-key approach, while the ensemble cast delivers strong performances. Young actors Everett Blunck and Kayo Martin are particularly remarkable, and a composed Joel Edgerton also contributes both on screen and as a co-producer. 

It’s a strange movie—one that may initially feel elusive in its appeal, yet gradually reveals its intrigue through lingering enigmas. A bolder ending might have elevated it further, but The Plague, carrying an unexpected emotional weight, emerges as a pleasant surprise.

Project Hail Mary (2026)

Direction: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Country: USA

Project Hail Mary, a family-friendly sci-fi comedy-drama directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, stars Ryan Gosling as Ryland Grace, a teacher-turned-astronaut tasked with an impossible mission: saving Earth from starvation and extinction caused by a gradual, unexplained dimming of the sun. During his solitary journey, he establishes communication with an alien creature who shares the same goal of saving its own planet. The screenplay, written by Drew Goddard, adapts Andy Weir’s novel of the same name. Goddard previously adapted another of Weir’s celebrated works, The Martian, brought to the screen by Ridley Scott in 2015. 

True to form, the film takes us on a journey against all odds, with occasional narrative confusion and some overly extended passages offset by a welcome sense of humor and a heartfelt tone. This is a blockbuster that works, if modestly, thanks to its unflashy visuals—a subtle homage to the space operas of the 1980s—and to Ryan Gosling’s strong performance, marking his second portrayal of an astronaut after First Man (2018). 

What stands out most in this survivalist space tale is its refusal to follow entirely predictable paths, leaning less on action and more on themes of friendship, curiosity, compassion, and courage. Still, some sections feel uneven, occasionally slipping into avoidable melodrama. Though technically proficient, Project Hail Mary may not rank among the great sci-fi films, but it remains a fairly entertaining one.

Rosemead (2026)

Direction: Eric Lin
Country: USA

Although based on a true story, Rosemead failed to leave a strong impression. The brooding drama, co-written and directed by debutant Eric Lin, stars Lucy Liu and Lawrence Shou as an immigrant mother grappling with terminal cancer and a teenage son struggling with mental illness, respectively. The film also engages with the fraught subject of guns and mass school shootings.

Emotionally wrenching yet fragmented in its misery, Rosemead falters in articulating its parts, with a tone-deaf approach that prevents it from establishing a satisfying narrative arc. The film feels punishing, and its narrative strategy cannot disguise a certain emotional emptiness. Lin aspires to create something gripping, but the result leans toward suffocating instead. His direction, largely unconcerned with visual nuance, reinforces a sense of stiffness and looming dread—arguably the film’s central flaw—as it grows increasingly exhausting over time.

Father Mother Sister Brother (2025)

Direction: Jim Jarmusch
Country: USA

Father Mother Sister Brother, the latest anthology drama by acclaimed American filmmaker Jim Jarmusch—consistently remarkable since the 1980s, with too many notable films to list—centers on the distant relationships between adult children and their parents. With humor and elegance, Jarmusch explores these complexities through three distinct stories—separated by dreamy visual interludes—set in different countries, where peculiar elements intersect, such as coordinated clothing colors, Rolex watches, books, and toasts with “forbidden” liquids. The details are delightful, and the phenomenal ensemble cast—Tom Waits, Mayim Bialik, Adam Driver, Cate Blanchett, Charlotte Rampling, Vicky Krieps, Indya Moore, and Luka Sabbat—imbues each segment with authentic resonance, helping to shape the film into a gem of incisive emotional poetry.

Shot with warmth and precision, this triptych feels both melancholic and acerbic, capturing a sense of distance that appears irretrievable. Jarmusch resists moralizing, choosing instead to observe with acuity and invite reflection on questions that remain unresolved. His screenplay proves both sharply witty and deeply poignant.

Thoughtfully constructed, the film offers a rare sense of intimacy in contemporary cinema, remaining fully captivating while delivering a powerful and thought-provoking experience. Father Mother Sister Brother stands as a beautiful work from a genuinely gifted filmmaker, one whose perspective continues to feel strikingly relevant.

Dead Man's Wire (2026)

Direction: Gus Van Sant
Country: USA 

The bizarre true story of Tony Kiritsis, a man undone by a loan in 1977 Indianapolis, is brought to the screen by Gus Van Sant in a somewhat colorless fashion, with a script by Austin Kolodney. In Dead Man’s Wire, Kiritsis—played by Bill Skarsgård—comes across as clumsy yet determined, carrying out a naive revenge plan against the mortgage company where he worked for four years. Targeting the arrogant broker M.L. Hall, portrayed by Al Pacino, he instead kidnaps Hall’s son Richard (Dacre Montgomery), taking him to his apartment with a shotgun wired to his neck. Overwhelmed by betrayal and humiliation, Kiritsis demands his debt be cleared, along with five million dollars and a public apology.

Dead Man’s Wire is a lukewarm yet watchable thriller, marked by limited tension, friction, and surprise. It unfolds at a steady pace, becoming increasingly repetitive and emotionally uneven as it progresses. Lacking cunning twists, this strange ordeal centers on a protagonist who, in attempting to reclaim his dignity, oscillates between inexperience and defiance. There is a subdued sense of pathos and desperation in Kiritsis’ gaze, and it feels inevitable that something—or someone—will eventually snap.

The film’s strength lies in its perceptive social and psychological observations, and one can’t help rooting for a man whose life spirals beyond repair.

Olmo (2025)

Direction: Fernando Eimbcke
Country: USA / Mexico

Charismatic and respected Mexican helmer Fernando Eimbcke returns 12 years after his last feature, Club Sandwich. Previously known for Duck Season (2004) and Lake Tahoe (2008), he now presents Olmo, set in 1979 New Mexico. The story follows 14-year-old Olmo (Aivan Uttapa), who prefers hanging out with his best friend Miguel rather than taking care of his bedridden father (Gustavo Sánchez Parra), afflicted with multiple sclerosis. Caught in an emotional spiral, Olmo—who harbors a crush on his neighbor Nina (Melanie Frometa)—also discovers that his hard-working mother (Andrea Suárez Paz) has a lover, all before attending a long-awaited party.

Although sincere in its intentions, Olmo is not a flawless coming-of-age comedy-drama. Its shortcomings gradually fade, however, as style and substance begin to align, offering a slice of demanding real life filtered through humor. It is a small yet deeply felt film, supported by strong performances that boldly contrast mischievous, bubbly moments with an undercurrent of disconcerting sweetness. This adolescent adventure shifts from cheerful lightness to emotional chaos, and there is no denying the stylistic assurance and talent behind Eimbcke’s direction.

I probably couldn't connect with the story and its characters in the way that Eimbcke would have liked but It's that kind of movie where life just happens, with hope and love surfacing in expected corners. It is worth seeking out for its retro atmosphere, passionate family dynamics, and comedic tone that balances silliness with sensitivity.

Blue Sun Palace (2025)

Direction: Constance Tsang
Country: USA

American filmmaker Constance Tsang makes a very positive impression with her feature directorial debut, Blue Sun Palace, a wistful contemporary drama starring seasoned Taiwanese actor Lee Kang-sheng—a frequent collaborator and first choice of acclaimed director Tsai Ming-liang—alongside Wu Ke-xi (The Road to Mandalay, 2016) and the still under-the-radar Haipeng Xu.

The story revolves around the unexpected bond between two Chinese migrants living and working in Queens, New York. Stricken by loss and loneliness, Cheung (Lee) and Amy (Wu) feel strangely connected after the murder of Didi (Xu), Cheung’s lover and Amy’s best friend. As their shared grief draws them closer, their emotional fragilities and lingering doubts complicate the connection.

Blue Sun Palace conveys a peculiar sense of belonging and displacement simultaneously, addressing solitude through intimate close-ups and melancholy imagery that sustains a solid narrative core. Absorbing in its languid rhythm, the film uses cultural nuance and contextual detail to explore imperfect relationships and the ways individuals cope with sudden tragedy.

Tsang’s screenplay unfolds organically, and her quiet, sometimes understated presentation of a tentative love story is wrapped in a transfixing mournful atmosphere. Gradually accumulating moments of compassion and somber revelation until it radiates painful loneliness, this offbeat and serious tale of love and death, infused with a dreamlike quality, reaches deep into genuine romantic longing. The mood lingers—recalling the cinema of Tsai Ming-liang—through a spare yet clear narrative approach that offers a poignant portrait of migrant life, likely to make viewers’ hearts beat in sync with its emotional cadence. On the strength of this observant and affecting work, Tsang’s future projects merit close attention.

The Baltimorons (2025)

Direction: Jay Duplass
Country: USA

The Baltimorons is an unremarkable romantic comedy that aims for naturalistic acting and wry observation but never quite delivers enough of either. It follows a familiar path, relying on a type of humor that feels more lowbrow than genuinely engaging. Set in Baltimore, the film follows newly sober comedian Cliff (co-writer Michael Strassner), who inadvertently spends Christmas Eve with his emergency dentist, Didi (Liz Larsen). 

Jay Duplass (The Puffy Chair, 2005; Jeff Who Lives at Home, 2011) directs and co-writes a film whose biggest flaw is its inability to generate real sympathy for its characters. The whole enterprise feels somewhat stagey, if mostly harmless, hinging on a discouraging plot that is neither sharp nor eccentric enough to spark real interest. With narrative ups and downs drifting along to the sound of jazz waltzes, The Baltimorons is occasionally charming but ultimately a rather shallow, low-key rom-com featuring characters who deserve more exploration and depth than they are given. Highly uneven and oddly weighted, this love letter to Baltimore arrives with diminishing returns.

Rebuilding (2025)

Direction: Max Walker-Silverman
Country: USA

Rebuilding is a melancholy, heartbreaking neo-western drama marked by deliberate pacing and a hopeful, emotionally resonant conclusion. Simple, sincere, and deeply human, it follows Dusty (Josh O’Connor), a divorced cowboy and father who loses his family ranch to a devastating wildfire in southern Colorado. Temporarily living in a trailer community at a government-run campsite with other dispossessed landowners, Dusty finds support in his neighbors and in his ex-wife Ruby (Meghann Fahy). His once busy days suddenly become heavy with anguish and inertia.

Some films take their time laying out the story and settling over the audience. This is one of them. Yet, thanks to Max Walker-Silverman’s focused and sensitive direction, as well as the impressive naturalness of the gifted and much sought-after Josh O’Connor—who recently stood out in Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind—the result is an emotionally charged account that never feels manipulative, transcending the sappier trappings of the genre. There is plenty of aching nuance, but the film remains generous and entirely legible in its sorrow.

This complexity of feeling, paired with formal sumptuousness, translates into deeply ingrained sadness but also genuine uplift as events shift toward cautious hope and new opportunity. Capturing more than just lavish backdrops and romantic sentimentality, Rebuilding is a tolerant, poetic, and realistic work that earns its place in contemporary American cinema.