Review: Cole Webley’s ‘Omaha’
“My biggest concern with ‘Omaha’ is that the third act turn feels like a calculated rug-pull which transforms a more considered slice-of-life drama into something far more emotionally manipulative.”
Berlin Critics’ Week: Woche der Kritik Part 2 — Subversions
Woche der Kritik 2026 (Berlin Critics’ Week): Soham Gadre on ‘Loynes’ and ‘Turgaud’
Review: Chandler Levack’s ‘Mile End Kicks’
“‘Mile End Kicks’ is a deliberately infuriating character study and a step-by-step guide for anyone embarking on a career as a freelance writer.”
Berlin Critics’ Week: Woche der Kritik 2026 — Try Outs, Simulations and Performance
Woche der Kritik 2026 (Berlin Critics’ Week): Soham Gadre on ‘Beautiful and Neat Room, ‘Worry Time’ and ‘Fiction Contract’
Review: Ian Tuason’s ‘Undertone’
“‘Undertone’ is inspired, unnerving and truly a future classic.”
Review: Alice Maio Mackay’s ‘The Serpent’s Skin’
“Mackay has once again managed to do an awful lot with zero money and a ton of determination, which makes ‘The Serpent’s Skin’ much easier to admire than pick apart.”
Moments of Paradise: Intimacy and Place in Derek Jarman’s Home Movies
“Jarman extended the logic of the home movie beyond production into exhibition, keeping his films mutable and deeply tied to a social and spatial context.”
Review: 2026 Oscar Nominees for Animated Short Film
“‘The Girl Who Cried Pearls’ is a great modern fairytale, but there’s something even more impactful left in the margins which could have elevated it beyond an effective homage into something singular.”
Review: 2026 Oscar Nominees for Live-Action Short Film
“‘The Singers is the only prospective crowd-pleaser in the 2026 Oscars’ Live-Action Short Film crop that doesn’t buckle under the weight of contrived plot mechanics.”
Review: 2026 Oscar Nominees for Best Documentary Short Film
“In a field where ‘Perfectly a Strangeness’ was surrounded by Earthly horrors, it invited the most unadventurous Academy voters to collectively imagine their place amongst the cosmos.”
Building the New Queer Canon #9: Richard Linklater’s ‘Blue Moon’ and the 2026 Oscars
“‘Blue Moon’ effortlessly resists tropes of queer suffering and troubled artists to become another delightful hangout character study from the American master of them.”
Review: Corin Hardy’s ‘Whistle’
“‘Whistle’ bodes well for the future of studio horror.”
Review: Johannes Roberts’ ‘Primate’
“‘Primate’ is a bit like that memorably gruesome sequence in ‘Nope’ (2022) stretched out to feature length, but it’s smarter, meaner and more inventive.”
Review: Nicholas Clifford’s ‘One More Shot’
“‘One More Shot’ is entertaining yet forgettable.”
‘People We Meet on Vacation’ Review: The Weight of Weirdness
“‘People We Meet on Vacation’ might just mark the beginning of a new golden age for romantic comedies, at least if sub-genre filmmakers can finally move past stale screenwriting tropes.”
Review: The Adams Family’s ‘Mother of Flies’
“‘Mother of Flies’ works as both an art piece and a successful horror movie overflowing with ooey gooey and creepy-crawly ickiness.”
‘Zodiac Killer Project’ Review: An Intellectual Slide to Sensationalism
“In ‘Zodiac Killer Project,’ Shackleton finds clarity via cinema by stripping the true crime phenomenon down to its core essentials, ugly as they may be.”
‘The Man in the White Van’ Review: Madison Wolfe Shines in Average PG-13 Thriller
“Like so many average thrillers, ‘The Man in the White Van’ commits more to narrative structure than a singular message that will keep audiences thinking after the fact.”
Hail ‘Krampus’: 10 Years of Michael Dougherty’s Festive Favorite
“‘Krampus’ is an outlier when it comes to festive horror and, in the decade since the movie’s release, nothing has threatened its throne.”
Review: Mike P. Nelson’s ‘Silent Night, Deadly Night’
“Nelson’s ‘Silent Night, Deadly Night’ redux is a masterclass in how to successfully reboot a franchise while paving a bloody path forward that is uniquely its own.”