Category Archives: 2026

Wuthering Heights

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Wuthering Heights          2 stars

Director Emerald Fennell gives us a very different take on the gothic novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte by casting two of the hottest stars working in Hollywood today in the leading roles. I have never seen any of the many previous adaptations of the novel nor have I read the book. I only know that it has a reputation as a tragic love story. But I doubt that Bronte envisioned her story to be nearly as steamy as portrayed on the screen here. Previously, Fennell, the actor turned director brought us Promising Young Woman and Saltburn, two movies that combine revenge themes with sex and she continues that theme in Wuthering Heights. This movie has a lot of sex. And I mean a lot of sex! And it’s not just the two main characters either. Even the opening scene is very suggestive of what is to come. In the beginning we meet Catherine (Charlotte Mellington) as a twelve-year-old living with her father (Martin Clunes of Shakespeare in Love and Nativity 3: Dude, Where’s My Donkey?) in a large, isolated, but decaying house in the countryside called Wuthering Heights. Living with them is another girl, Nelly, who serves as a companion for Catherine, but also as a servant. They have other servants too, so they’re not exactly poor. One day, father brings a young boy home with him as he couldn’t stand seeing him wandering the streets with no one to care for him. Catherine takes to him immediately, calling him Heathcliff (Owen Cooper of Adolescence), the name of her dead brother. But Father thinks nothing of beating and whipping Heathcliff when he doesn’t live up to expectations. We flash forward several years and find Catherine (Margot Robbie of Barbie and The Wolf of Wall Street) and Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi of Frankenstein and Saltburn), now in their thirties and still living with her father along with a grown Nelly (Hong Chau). Things have changed and now they are quite poor, the father having gambled away his money. Catherine and Heathcliff (represented as two of the most perfect specimens of humans) now look at each other quite differently and you can see that things will soon take a turn. When a new neighbor moves to the area (five miles away), Catherine investigates and meets Mr. Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif), who is fabulously wealthy, has an enormous estate, and very stylish clothes, carriages and servants. There is also a young woman, Isabella, living with him who we never find out exactly how they are related. Naturally, since Catherine is poor, she must marry Edgar for the benefit of the family even though she is madly in love with Heathcliff. And this is where things go awry and jealousy takes over all sense of right and wrong. Both Catherine and Heathcliff make it their purpose to get revenge on each other for their circumstances but still end up meeting secretly repeatedly for sessions of mad sex. And they do it a lot, with most of it in the rain it seems. There is plenty of ill will and jealousy spread around between them and every other character as well. In fact, I would say that there is not a single character in the movie with redeeming qualities. Everyone wants to cause harm to someone or even themselves. The contrast between the two families is greatly exaggerated, showing Edgar’s extravagant wealth and Catherine’s beautiful clothes and jewels versus the dirty unkept look of the Wuthering Heights house. Not only is the selfish nature of the characters disturbing, all the rain and the fog make everything about the film depressing. I suppose that that’s what Fennell was going for, but I couldn’t enjoy it. I can’t say if that’s what Bronte’s original novel is like. (Perhaps it was, but without all the sex.) I will point out that most of the music was written and performed by Charlie XCX so it has that going for it.

The Moment

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The Moment     4 stars

For the first Sundance movie to be seen by me after the festival, I found The Moment now showing in theaters and starring Charlie XCX. This mockumentary about the British pop singer has her playing a fictionalized version of herself during the summer of 2024. It seems to be modeled after the Rob Reiner Spinal Tap movies that mocked the behind-the-scenes events around rock music. The Moment does this for pop music and for a much younger audience. It starts with the release of the star’s hit album and her desire to extend the “brat” summer indefinitely as she prepares to go on tour. The “mockumentary” camera follows her and her crew, her friends, her manager and the record label executives as they plan for the opening concert and the rehearsals. Key figures in the process are Charlie XCX’s artistic director Celeste (Hailey Gates) and a documentary director, Johannes (Alexander Skarsgard), filming the fictional meetings and the preparations for the tour. Much like This is Spinal Tap, the film captures some of the ludicrous aspects of the entertainment industry and shows how the egos of the various parties interfere with the project, including rather passive aggressive behavior on the part of the big shots. Included is a ridiculous plan to market “brat” credit cards to a subculture of LGTBQ+ fans that includes free tickets to her concert. Charlie XCX reserves some of the ridicule for herself as she tries to control the project while at the same time sabotaging it. Skarsgard is excellent as the two-faced film director who is shown as both cooperating in the creative process but is also power hungry as he questions the choices made by others. The behavior of the creative talent is the most amusing aspect as they try to stay on the good side of Charlie XCX, while trying to get their own way at the same time. And like in This is Spinal Tap, when things fall apart, they do whatever it takes to put the blame on someone else. While The Moment was not nearly as funny as the Spinal Tap movies, I frequently found myself laughing out loud.

Mum, I’m Alien Pregnant

Mum, I’m Alien Pregnant.        3 suns

For my final film of the festival, I saw something really bizarre: Mum, I’m Alien Pregnant in the Midnight section. In this British comedy a young woman gets pregnant via engaging in a sex act with the neighbor boy who is half alien as a result of his mother being abducted by aliens before he was born.  The comedy all centers around the very exaggerated trauma that a woman goes through while pregnant.  There is plenty of screaming and vomiting and slimy fluids involved while the young woman keeps blaming the half alien for her trouble.  There is even a vacuum cleaner involved in a bizarre abortion attempt. We get a peek at what an alien penis looks like and after many antics the baby alien finally arrives.  The movie was a riot in the theater, and the actors even brought baby alien with them and allowed fans to have their picture taken with him.

Night Nurse

Night Nurse.        4 suns

Another entry in the NEXT section was Night Nurse, by Georgia Bernstein who is from Northbrook, Illinois.  The film can be described as an erotic thriller with a comedic tone. The setting is the night shift at a retirement home where the elderly residents are cared for by a team of nurses. A new nurse, Eleni joins the staff and is assigned to take care of Douglas, a man in his seventies.  Eleni is soon persuaded by Douglas to participate in a scheme where elderly men in the area are called on the phone and made to believe that she is their granddaughter and she has been in an accident and is being held by the police.  The men must send money to help her out.  Not only does she go along with the scam, but the two engage in erotic sexual behavior during the calls.  (It’s very steamy.) Eleni is not the only nurse to participate as most of the nurses are included in this erotic club. Douglas gets away with this by feigning dementia, so the administrators have no suspicion about the scheme (even though Douglas has bought a new convertible and drives his harem of nurses around in it.  Don’t think about it too much.) Mimi Rogers of erotic movie fame with films such as Someone to Watch Over Me, Desperate Hours and Full Body Massage plays the role of the doctor in charge of the home. The movie is a nice little diversion to enjoy. The movie was made with a very small budget. The director said that she hired personal friends as the nurses and had a family connection to Rogers.  She used her grandmother’s house as the movie set.  She got the idea for the movie after someone made an attempt to scam her grandmother out of money by using such a scheme.

Ghost in the Machine

Ghost in the Machine     3 1/2 suns

From the Sundance category NEXT, I saw the documentary Ghost in the Machine from director/ screenwriter Valerie Veatch. The subject of the doc was AI but not from a technical standpoint or its development. Rather it was about the power that the titans of the tech industry hold over us. It presents the arguments at a very rapid pace that feels overwhelming and covers a wide range of aspects of AI, most of which I had heard before.  It covered the exploitation of foreign tech workers in very poor countries, the environmental impact of the huge data centers being built around the world, the heavy involvement of the military in AI and the close ties of Sam Altman, Elon Musk and other tech giants to the Trump administration.  I didn’t know much about the origins of AI going back to the start of Silicon Valley.  According to the documentary the beginning of the computer industry was heavily rooted in the development of the field of statistics which really started in the late 1800’s. The pioneers of this field both in the US and in the UK had very racist beliefs, believing that the white race was superior to all other races.  Statistics was developed as a tool to measure intelligence in the races in order to prove their point. What followed then was the belief that eugenics should be used to reduce less desirable traits in the human race. So, then the logic goes that these early racist views still persist in AI and the industry leaders today. (If you read some of the statements said by Elon Musk you could make that correlation.) I can’t say that anything stated in the film is untrue, but have no doubt there are facts being left out.  The director was asked about presenting the other side of the issue, but said there was little point in doing so as you would only hear the same rhetoric that we see in the media. I know that there is great hope and promise for the advancements that can be achieved with AI in the future, but this very biased film is a warning about the costs of embracing this new technology.

Rock Springs

Rock Springs.      4 1/2 suns

One movie getting a lot of buzz here is Rock Springs by director/ screenwriter Vera Miao. This movie is in the Midnight section that is reserved for the very weird, sometimes gory films. Rock Springs certainly fits that description as it concerns an Asian mother, her daughter and her mother-in-law who move into an isolated home in the woods only to discover that there is something monstrous hidden in the woods. I can’t say a lot about it without giving away the plot but can say it concerns a small forgotten chapter of the racist history of the US. I really liked the way the story was told in chapters from different characters’ points of view and in a non-linear fashion. It is a monster movie that ends with a hopeful message. And the special effects were very impressive.

Seized

Seized.        5 suns

Seized documents the events we were following back in 2023 after the police raid of a small-town newspaper in Marion, Kansas.  The story about the abuse of power that shut down the Marion County Record was covered internationally and highlighted the importance of journalistic ethics and the US Constitution. The director, Sharon Liese tells the story through interviews with the editor of the newspaper, employees including one bright, young man hired just out of college one year after the raid, local politicians, police officers and business owners.  We find that one corrupt person in power with the cooperation of other officials was able to seize the property of the paper, resulting in the death of the 98-year-old owner.  The editor fought back through litigation using arguments framing the issue as a matter of freedom of the press.  The director has created an engaging movie that shows the cost to those affected by this fierce debate.

Hot Water

Hot Water.     4 1/2 suns

Hot Water is a light drama about family relationships with humor added to deal with the tension being faced by two family members.  It is by Lebanese director Ramzi Bashour and concerns an American boy being kicked out of high school in Indiana for a violent act and his Lebanese mom who is forced to deal with the situation, leading to a road trip across the country. The mother, played by Lubna Azabal is a professor at a university and a single mom to 19-year-old Daniel (Daniel Zolghadri who is biracial) . After being kicked out of school, the only option for Daniel is to move in with his dad who lives in California.  But to do that mother and son have to travel across the country by car and meet up with dad halfway.  Thus starts the mother and son road trip bringing together the pair who rarely see eye to eye but love each other, nonetheless. Of course, dad has a history of alcohol and drug abuse, so this decision seems questionable. There is plenty of beautiful scenery on the journey and some funny adventures too, like when they meet Sasha (Dale Dickey), a friend of dad, who brings them to a geothermal hot spring in Colorado where she proceeds to go for a dip completely naked. Along the way they confront their differences and find how they really care for one another.  (We finally do meet dad and find out just how weird he is.) Another interesting touch is the way that Mom displays that she is trilingual, speaking English, Arabic and French, easily switching from one language to another. I highly recommend Hot Water, which I expect to make it into theaters.  The director, Ramzi Bashour, Zolghadri and Dale Dickey were present for Q&A. I got to talk with Zolghadri who told how he loved to see the country this way.  

Filipiñana

Filipiñana.     2 1/2 suns

Filipiñana from the Philippines was one of my least favorite films so far.  The movie is set in an exclusive country club in the Philippines and is all about the rich taking advantage of the poor and separation of the classes. We follow young Isabel who is a tee girl at the country club, (That’s a person who places the golf ball on the tee for the rich members. ) She admires the president of the club and spends much time trying to return a lost golf club to him.  The caddies at the club are exclusively women. The film puts on full display the patriarchal nature of this society and how the wealthy minority are taking advantage of the poor farmers by taking their land.  There is a hint of the violence in this country, but we never actually see it.  The movie is filled with scenes of little dialogue and static camera shots that seem to stretch on forever.  It is all about injustice but is so subtle in its approach I found it hard to detect.  Sometimes a movie can leave too much up to the imagination of the viewer.

Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!

Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!       4 1/2 suns

I was especially pleased with Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! by Japanese director Josef Kubota Wladyka and starring Rinko Kikuchi which follows married couple Haru (Kikuchi) and Luis who regularly compete in competitive Latin ballroom dancing in Tokyo.  But then Luis suddenly dies leaving Haru all alone.  Fortunately, Haru’s sisters encourage her to get back out on the dance floor where she soon is taken up by her new dance instructor who is world famous and who also happens to be married.  One can see that this situation will lead to trouble and the movie does not disappoint.  It is an honest depiction of how hard (and messy) it is to deal with grief while delivering on many humorous situations.  It also includes some fantasy like aspects drawing from Japanese culture.  I enjoyed seeing the blending of the Japanese and Latin cultures which is a real thing in Japan. So far this is my favorite drama of the festival.