THE SUPER MARIO GALAXY MOVIE (2026)

 

Directed By: Aaron Hovarth, Michael Jelenic, Pierre Leduc, Fabien Pollack 

Written By: Matthew Fogel 

Editor: Eric Osmond 

Cast: (Voices of) Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Glen Powell, Donald Glover, Keegan-Michael Key, Brie Larson, Benny Safdie, Luis Guzman, Issa Rae, Kevin Michael Richardson 

Mario ventures into space, exploring cosmic worlds and tackling galactic challenges far from the familiar Mushroom Kingdom.

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Did we need a sequel to the original movie? No, but considering it’s box office,  we knew there would be one eventually. Plus it’s a franchise just as there are so many SUPER MARIO BROTHERS. You knew this would probably come along which at least expand on the super Mario world in the first place and ads familiar faces with some new from the super Mario Brothers lore.

Though again this film feels so unnecessary. Almost like filler, that I am hoping it might be recruitment for kids who it’s obviously more aimed that and giving something to die hard Mario brothers fans the world over. 

As the first film felt like the film we all wanted back when the game was popular and when they came up with that disappointing live action movie this sequel just feels while quirky on autopilot as it’s not as much fun. The story is kind of hazy and just a reason to put these characters all back together. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I can’t say it’s as fun or entertaining unfortunately, kind of takes away from the first one or reminds you how much you liked the first one and why can’t this one be just as fun. 

The film stays cute though never quite necessary. Sometimes it’s actually even fun, but it does remind me of that BABE sequel; BABE: PIG IN THE CITY where babe doesn’t even really talk or if he does, he says very few words it seemed like with the first film the voice actors managed to make their characters be felt here. It just feels like they have less to say or at least less humor and more definitely dependent on actions and silly physical scenes more. not to mention the addition of just more characters and celebrity voices.

It’s better than when there would be an unenthusiastic straight to streaming your home video animated sequel as this is definitely big and grand. It just doesn’t feel as much fun or inventive as the first film maybe as it came along too fast and didn’t have time to really consider a storyline or wanted to keep it then just so we could stay with the characters and hope that would satiate the audience and the fans.

At least the score helps lift the overall tone. Even if it is mostly memorable music from the video games.

For the fans, I believe this song will be possibly enough, but if you’re not really in the super Mario Brothers, I feel like this will kind of be even more disappointing.

Grade: C

DUST BUNNY (2025)

 

Written & Directed By: Bryan Fuller

Cinematography: Nicole Hirsch Whitaker 

Editor: Lisa Lassek

Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Sophie Sloan, Sigourney Weaver, Sheila Atim, David Dastmalchan, Rebecca Henderson, Lina Kruse, Caspar Phillipson

A dark fairy tale that is quite enchanting, but feels like it has a missing Ingredient to truly sparkle. Though it certainly shines. 

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Shot in the aspect ratio Of 3.00:1 which makes the film visually claustrophobic 

This is writer-director  Bryan fuller’s theatrical directorial debut film. One will admit to being a fan of his previous television work HANNIBAL, WONDERFALLS and PUSHING DAISIES 

Especially as one respects his work. Was really wanted to love this film, but can’t say that I did. There was plenty to like. Though can’t say the film is a slam dunk. Can see why some really like it. Though it’s Magic didn’t completely work for me. There might have been too much whimsy. 

This film is certainly imaginative seems more for adults but seems like it would greatly appeal to children just with it’s colors, beauty and creativity.

Told mostly from a child’s point of view. So while there is some adult material. It stays clean and never is vulgar. 

Every detail meticulous especially by design to fit an be awe inspiring truly building it’s own universe and deeply immersive 

Casting his MVP Mads Mikkelsen as his lead here. After having him previously play Dr. Hannibal Lector in HANNIBAL the television series 

Mr. Mikkelsen on this role is memorable and quite flexible, though never imposing Though it does remind one of his previous performance as an assassin in the 2019 action film POLAR. Only here to much better effect and material.

Even like the private joke of the chicken lamp that references one of Mikkelsen’s previous film MEN & CHICKEN 

It keeps Layering the story with reveals but it also seem to stop and start where it gets exciting and then drags and feels like it’s stretching out it’s

Time. So that the film stays fascinating but feels like it is working against itself as it wants to be episodic yet must be cohesive and take care of itself. 

Stylistically inventive with a hint of the past and classic with modern age edge. It has a throwback quality, though more flash then Cartoonish though in the best way. This film will certainly have items fans and is worth looking into.

Grade: C+

FRANKENSTEIN (2025)

 

Written & Directed by Guillermo del Toro

Based on the novel “FRANKENSTEIN OR THE MODERN PROMETHEUS” ByMary Shelly 

Cinematography: Dan Laustsen 

Editor: Evan Schiff 

Cast: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz, Charles Dance, David Bradley, Ralph Ineson, Lars Mikkelsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Lauren Collins, Sofia Galasso 

Dr. Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist, brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.

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Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of Frankenstein arrives with the kind of anticipation usually reserved for cinematic pilgrimages. It’s a long-gestating passion project by a filmmaker whose devotion to monsters borders on religious. And yes, it’s gorgeous. Ravishing. Sculpted with the kind of gothic precision that makes you want to pause the frame and hang it in a museum (which, ironically, is part of the problem).

Because for all its visual majesty, the film feels less like a living, beating story and more like a beautifully lit museum chamber piece sacred, admired, but curiously still. Almost like a Wes Anderson film

Watching Frankenstein at home, even on the biggest TV you can justify without shame, is like trying to view a cathedral through your peephole. You get the idea, but not the impact. As The film Is A Gorgeous Experience That Never Quite Comes Alive

Del Toro stages the movie like a theatrical spectacle; wide, grand, operatic. It demands an audience seated in the dark, collectively hopefully

holding their breath. On a smaller screen the whole thing compresses, and so does its emotional force. It becomes one more thing you’re “watching while also texting,” its larger-than-life gestures suddenly feeling muted. Which might be why this film doesn’t reach me. As much as it would in a theater more secluded and direct. 

It’s a reminder of an uncomfortable truth: not every film needs the big screen, but this one absolutely does. Shrink it, and the soul shrinks with it.

A friend once described last year’s NOSFERSTU remake as “a museum piece”—impeccable, reverent, exquisitely lit, styled, designed and emotionally distant. It comes off more as a presentation than a movie. Del Toro’s Frankenstein often slips into that same territory.

The sets are Immaculate. The creature design is inventive. The mood? Pretentiously Overwhelming in the best way.

And yet… it rarely moves you. The emotions are presented but not felt. They are laid before the viewer with academic seriousness, like annotations on a text everyone already knows by heart. Maybe that’s the curse of remaking a story we’ve collectively known since childhood: the beats land, but they don’t surprise.

It becomes less a story and more an opportunity to witness someone else’s interpretation of a myth you’ve heard too many times.

Del Toro is too talented to ever make something bad, but here he feels like a director in his Tim-Burton-phase: Instead of breaking new ground, he’s lovingly recreating  the things that inspired him growing up. Unlike Burton, del Toro doesn’t defang his monsters or turn them into punchlines. He actually adores them too much for that, but the result is still a filmmaker circling familiar territory rather than charting new routes. 

And yes, the del Toro signature remains: a gothic romance at the center, a creature yearning for connection, a broken heart inside a larger-than-life body. It’s easy to see what drew him to the material. It’s also easy to wish he’d returned to an original idea instead.

Christoph Waltz—shockingly—goes big. He’s operatic, but also the kind of actor who benefits from stern directorial supervision. Left unchecked, he can become his own genre. Here, he hovers just on the edge of self-parody, charismatic but distracting. 

The rest of the cast plays it with earnestness and restraint, letting del Toro’s production design do most of the heavy emotional lifting. Sometimes too much.

So… Is It Good? Absolutely. Is it essential?

Not quite. As Frankenstein is an achievement, a vision, a painterly triumph. But it’s also one more retelling of a story that has been told so many times it now arrives pre-interpreted. Beautiful, yes undeniably. But also strangely hollow, like an echo of itself.

It’s a noteworthy film, worth admiring, worth seeing on the biggest screen you can find.

But it’s not a new favorite. More a reminder of what del Toro can do… and what we wish he’d dare to do next.

Grade: B 

SISTER MIDNIGHT (2024)

 

Written & Directed By: Karan Kandhari

Cinematography: Sverre Sordal

Editor: Napoleon Stratogiannakis

Cast: Radhika Apte, Ashok Pathak, Chhaya Kadam, Smita Tambe, Subhash Chandra, Navya Sawant, Uma Katju, Vijay Kaushik 

A genre-bending comedy about a frustrated and misanthropic newlywed who discovers certain feral impulses that land her in unlikely situations.

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This is a film that is best to go in blind as the title and the poster make it seem like a vigilante movie from the 1970s even though it is far from that it does feel like a more original project and product that could be from that time That is obviously more modern. A ready made cult movie of sorts.

The film plays and styled like a Wes Anderson film. Only set in Mumbai, India. As it has the same visual style, and the same comedic beats. Though offers it’s own takes and vision. 

There is no traditional indian music on the soundtrack. It has more Indie and oldies rockabilly. As it seems the director wanted to have things that don’t necessarily go together. For the multiple genre movie. 

As this film is meant to be, one won’t say horror, though it leans that way it’s more of a fantasy or a fairytale, as it is filled with the supernatural, which only adds to the hijinks. though at heart it’s more comedic than anything. 

Even though it starts off as a kind of romantic comedy involving an arranged marriage and it’s slowly going downhill before something fantastic happens and sets the film on a new path or course, but still has that original element anchor in.

We I habit and learn about this world as well as the revelations through the main character played by Radhika Apte. As the lead and truly the audiences guide.

The film has a lot of inspired visuals and touches of silent comedy that also feeds off of culture and environment.

The one of the weaknesses of the film is there nothing is ever explained things just seem to happen randomly, but it works so well within the genre that you just go with it.

Their scenes of animation in the film, which you stop animation that work well within and only adds to the films, eclectic and oddball nature which truly sets the film apart as an original offering. As it might not necessarily life ok smooth or expensive, but sets to show it’s different or not normal.

The film offer several different genres, and it never goes where you expected to and ends up being quite subversive, though it might be too whimsical for some.

This feels like a film that at certain points is moody yet more fantasy or science fiction. Yet wears the disguise of being a horror film mroe 

For most audiences, it might be a breath of fresh air, pulling in elements of films. They might not normally watch and tinkering with them enough to be more acceptable in this harsh podge of a film.

Grade: B+

TIMESTALKER (2024)

 

Written & Directed By: Alice Lowe

Cinematography: Ryan Eddleston

Editor: Chris Dickens and Matyas Fekete

Cast: Alice Lowe, Jacob Anderson, Nick Frost, Tanya Reynolds, Anuerin Barnard, Eleanor Barrett, Boyd Clark, Katie Dickie 

Agnes, a hapless heroine, falls for a mysterious man, promptly meets her bloody demise, and then is reincarnated a century later. When she meets her love again, the cycle begins anew. As Agnes traverses through time, she repeats all the messy thrills and spills that come with daring to follow one's heart. How can she ever hope to break the cycle when she's destined to be a fool for love?

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this film feels like a bunch of sketches that are all connected through different time periods and the same cast playing different roles in them. So that it feels almost like a sketch group throughout, but with one obvious star. Who also wrote and directed the film. 

The film does offer a sharp satire of what it might have been like for women in the past 1800s and beyond. Only instead of being eye candy or supporting characters you glimpse. You get more of an accou t if their day to day existence. Activities and dilemmas.

This films Is definitely not for everyone. So can see some really enjoying it, some not getting it and some hating it. Either way an intriguing idea.

The film is dedicated to itself and its ideas and presentation of comedy, but not quite as funny as it should be. It’s outrageous but also seems to hold itself back to a certain degree. To seem a bit more refined. For every joke you don’t laugh at, but can see how clever it might be. 

This is the type of comedy where what is funny has to be explained a bit. As at times it feels like something might be lost in translation. That is just not connecting. Which then allows the absurd to come in. Which gives the film a feel of a 1980’s British type sitcom comedy. With plenty of costumes at their disposal. Though sometimes it feels like an over-the-top melodramatic soap opera spoof. Filled with the most ridiculous plot twists. 

The film is strange enough and true to itself. No matter how odd the results. Though it works leaving it to be funny in an off center way and determined.

Jacob Anderson walks away with every scene he is in. 

It feels less risky then Alice Lowe’s previous film PREVENGE which was a horror comedy. Though this film feels less commercial.  

Grade: C

TIGER STRIPES (2023)

 

Written & Directed By: Amanda Nell Eu

Cinematography: Jimmy Gimferrer

Editor: Carlo Francisco Manatad 

Cast: Zagreen Zairzal, Piga, Deena Ezral, Jun Lojong, Khairunazwan Rodzy, Shahiezy Sam, KhairFatimah Abu Bakar, Bella Rahim 

An 11-year-old girl who is carefree until she starts to experience horrifying physical changes to her body.

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This film is like the Pixar animated film TURNING RED. Teaching us about the nature of puberty in females and gaining their periods. How it turns them into something you barely recognize. Their own vicious beasts. That they can’t help. 

Here It’d a little more literal and violent then the animated film. As this film deals more of this happening in a repressive community and literally the character becoming possessed.

While she seems to affect others. It is never quite explained why or how. As she seems to be the most not one who goes through a complete head to toe change. Though at heart is still a little girl. No matter how dangerous or vicious she becomes.

Which is usually a result of her defending herself from her so-called friends. Who generally turn on her once she goes through changes. They at times come across as the true villains.

The film even throws in a charlatan doctor. Who believes he can cure her and save the town. 

What we get is a body horror film that treats puberty as a horror to all those involved in an individuals transformation. 

For all the metaphors and striking visuals at times. The film feels pretty basic and shows its hands constantly. There is nothing wrong with that. It just doesn’t make things all that exciting or interesting. 

The things there are to admire other than the performances. How the film stretches out her transformation bit by bit. As the film goes along we know something is going on with her but it seems like each scene with her reveals a new part of her ultimate transformation.

This is ultimately a supernatural coming of age story that offers parallels that are universal. It’s a bit grizzly but still more cute with a bit of cruelty than anything.

Grace: B-