Category Archives: 2026

I’ll Be Gone in June

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I’ll Be Gone in June          3 ½ stars

One more film showing at The Chicago International Film Festival was I’ll Be Gone in June from first time feature film director Katharina Rivilis. The film premiered at Cannes and is produced by Wim Wenders, the highly regarded German filmmaker known for The Buena Vista Social Club. The subject is that all too common character of American comedies, the visiting foreign exchange student. In this case we are not dealing with a comedy and the student is 17-year-old Franny (Naomi Cosma), from a small town in Germany. Franny was assigned to Las Cruces, New Mexico by lottery for a year and is paired with a highly religious, conservative foster family. She experiences culture shock with her host family who don’t approve of her more secular background. She disapproves of Franny speaking German to a fellow German student and of her revealing clothing. Inexplicably, the parents leave Franny and two other girls in the parking lot of a casino while they are inside gambling for hours. The story is complicated by the fact that it is set in 2001, with the terrorist attacks of 9/11 occurring near the outset of Franny’s stay. Thus, while the country is going through the shock of the attack, Franny feels even more like an outsider, experiencing the talk of revenge and seeing the increased security of check points. But she is here for a year and soon finds a good social group to hang out with. The movie wouldn’t be complete without a love interest, and this is provided by Elliot, a depressed musician who is suspected by some of being a drug user. The pair hang out occasionally and become close, but we can see the coming clash between someone with a bright future and another who will be sentenced to a life devoid of opportunity. There are many beautiful scenes featuring the mountainous and desert landscape of New Mexico. The camera work is quite good. The director draws on her own experiences as a German exchange student, being in New Mexico at the time of the 9/11 attacks. While engaging and thoughtful, there was a lot packed into the more than two hours of running time. The film could have easily been shorter without losing much value.

I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming

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I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming         4 stars

At this year’s Chicago International Film Festival, I took in a most unusual war time drama. German director Isabelle Stever’s I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming tells us the LGTBQ story of Olya and Oleh who are in a long-term transgender relationship. This story happens to be set during the opening months of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the suburbs of Kyiv. Not only does the young couple have to live in the shadow of war, but they also have to deal with the transphobia of their fellow countrymen. Ukrainian screenwriter Anna Melikova set out to write about what happens when one partner in a lesbian relationship decides to transition into a man. (In the movie it is Oleh who becomes a trans-man.) But then the invasion happened, so she decided to write these events into the screenplay. The couple and Olya’s parents find they must evacuate their home due to the threat of the invading Russian army at the same time that Olya is feeling resentment toward Oleh because she now must be in a heterosexual relationship. When the couple reaches the border and tries to flee the country to go to Germany, they are prevented from crossing since able bodied men may not leave and must serve in the military. As they ponder their situation things get worse when it is reported what the Russians did in their town of Bucha. The movie is one of only a handful of dramatic productions set in the tragedy of the Ukraine war. Plus, it makes viewers aware of the challenges of being LGBTQ in a culture unsympathetic to their issues. The movie is filmed in a very static fashion with still cameras and shots at indirect angles from the subjects, making it appear like we are peering into their world. Amazingly, the director who does not speak Ukrainian was able to pull off this feat. I recommend I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming especially if you haven’t seen a dramatic portrayal of transgender people before.

Mariinka

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Mariinka              4 ½ stars

For my first film of the 62nd Chicago International Film Festival, I saw the documentary Mariinka by Belgian director Pieter-Jan De Pue. You may think that we have seen enough on film about the Ukraine-Russia war which is now in its fifth year. This film takes a different approach that I found to be original and refreshing. De Pue went to Mariinka, a small city in Donetsk Oblast which is in the same region as Mariupol around 2013 with the idea of filming several young people living there over a period of several years. Of course, he had no idea that it would become a war zone that would impact millions of lives and that he would spend over ten years making his movie. His subjects include a family of four brothers living in an orphanage, a female paramedic/medical student and a woman smuggler. The filming started when they were still kids and all of them were orphans or from broken families, something quite common in Ukraine. He follows each of them into adulthood showing their involvement in the seemingly never-ending war of Russian aggression. Mariinka has been completely destroyed, and no one lives there anymore. Of the four brothers, one is in the Ukrainian army, one fights on the Russian side, one has been disabled from combat and the youngest was adopted by an American family living in Mississippi as a toddler. The film gets up close with them in actual combat situations with casualties. The paramedic is filmed as a high school student, training to be a boxer and at a program in the high school auditorium. Later during the war, she is visiting the same auditorium in its bombed-out state as well as visiting the grave site of her mother. The smuggler is filmed as she delivers goods to soldiers and others by riding through the war zone by bicycle. The film is both terrifying and peaceful. One senses the hopelessness that each of these young people must have. It is hard to imagine what the filmmakers had to endure to film these scenes. Each of the last three Documentary Academy Awards have gone to movies about the Ukraine war. These include 20 Days in Mariupol, No Other Land and Mr. Nobody Against Putin. Next year there may well be a fourth.

Verity

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Verity    1 ½ stars

Verity is Latin for the word truth. It is also the title of the new psychological thriller by Michael Showalter (The Idea of You, The Eyes of Tammy Faye) based on the novel by Colleen Hoover. Truth can come in many forms, it may not be shared by different people, and it may be very hard to find. This is especially true in Verity. The movie stars Dakota Johnson as Lowen Ashleigh, a published yet not very successful fiction writer, Anne Hathaway (who is in about half of the new movies this year) as Verity Crawford, a highly successful writer of fiction and Josh Hartnett as Verity’s husband, Jeremy. Now, do you remember my advice of what to do if a billionaire invites you to their private mansion/island/compound? Apparently, the same applies if a famous writer invites you to their secluded house in the woods. At the outset of the movie, Lowen is walking to a meeting with a publisher when she happens to meet Jeremy at a street corner where she witnesses a bicyclist get killed by a passing car and she ends up covered in the cyclist’s blood. (What a way to introduce a character.) Sympathetic Jeremy helps her get cleaned up and lends her his shirt so she can still make it to her meeting. (Never mind how traumatized she must be.) When she asks him about his reaction to the tragedy, his response is “I’ve seen worse”. Who says that? But then, Jeremy shows up at her meeting as the one making the offer to Lowen for her to be a ghost writer for his wife, Verity to continue writing her wildly successful book series. After some convincing from her agent (Ismael Cruz Cordova), Lowen accepts, but first she must move into the couple’s isolated luxury home so she can research Verity’s materials on her books. Upon arrival she meets their son, Crew, who is about five and finds out that Verity is paralyzed and in a comatose state, requiring round-the-clock care. Lowen is told that this is the result of a recent car accident. (The creepiness expands.) Lowen continues with her mission, delving into Levity’s notes and books that show that Levity writes about some very dark stuff, always from the point of view of the villain. Things take a long time to get going, but eventually we find out that these are some really fucked up people that have an extremely twisted view of things. (One thing though, with this group of actors there is no shortage of steamy sex.) Without giving too much away, Lowen is drawn into a world of deceit that will consume her. The audience too, will become uncertain of what to believe as each layer of complexity is revealed. The more I thought about what I saw, the less I liked it. The actions of the characters are so convoluted and absurd you will leave thinking that no one could think like that. By the final reveal, I was thinking why did I come see this movie. The critics mostly panned it, but it was a box office success. The author, Colleen Hoover has had three other books made into movies: “It Ends with Us”, “Regretting You” and “Reminders of Him”. I have not seen any of them. The movies are described as dull by critics but have made billions of dollars. Now I know that I don’t need to see any of them.

Digger

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Digger   3 ½ stars

Have you been wondering what Tom Cruise has been up to since his last two installments of Mission: Impossible? It’s not another stunt-filled action movie like we have been used to. We found out this past weekend with the release of Digger, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman and Biutiful), a political satire about a southern billionaire oilman who may be responsible for the end of human civilization. Cruise has left his usual action star routine and transformed himself into a bombastic bigger than life tycoon who lives in a mansion and wears silk pajamas and snakeskin boots. It’s hard to recognize him under the makeup and the fat suit, but he makes himself known through the most over the top performance we have seen from him. The movie starts with bubbles emerging from the ocean floor. Then we find Digger Rockwell (Cruise) in bed attending to his sick cat, which appears to be an animatronic creation and not the real thing. (This is a hint as what will come later.) When he gets an emergency telephone call from an employee and is visited by some of his technical experts, it becomes apparent that there has been an explosion at the company’s oil rig in Greenland that resulted from a giant crack in the earth’s surface and a massive methane release. A large chunk of the ice shelf has broken free and may be headed to the coast of northern Europe where it would cause the greatest environmental disaster in history. A meeting of the President of the United States (John Goodman in a performance that matches his Big Lebowski role in intensity) and his cabinet is called at Digger’s mansion where the problem is presented and possible responses are considered. In discussions resembling our current state of affairs, possible options range from military strikes to calling for a spiritual revival to absolving those responsible of guilt and blaming the Russians. Later, in the master set piece of the movie, the leaders of the world are gathered in a large amphitheater like room where Digger makes an over-the-top speech with plenty of stomping and yelling taking blame for the catastrophe but also making himself out to be the hero as he was just satisfying the world’s unquenchable appetite for cheap energy. There is nothing subtle about Iñárritu’s intent here. Through all the satire and insane scenes, he is saying that we are our own enemy. Though we want to blame a few powerful men, we really must blame ourselves. Besides the loud performances, the story probably won’t land with many audiences used to Tom Cruise’s more conventional action movies. And it hasn’t been well received with critics either. It doesn’t quite match the humor of Don’t Look Up, that other comedy about an environmental disaster. This was a swing for the fences attempt for the moviemakers and for Cruise. The production though is top notch. It is apparent there was a lot of money behind this effort. Other notable cast members are Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal) as the scientist warning Digger about the disaster, Sandra Huller (Anatomy of a Fall), Digger’s sister, a scientist working on renewable energy, Michael Stuhlbarg (Call Me By Your Name) as the US Vice-President and Jesse Plemons as a big tech billionaire. I can’t say what to expect when awards season comes, but it looks like a big swing and a miss. If you see it, watch for the big plot twist!

Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom

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Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom     5 stars

With the release of Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom, from the very British Aardman Animations, directed by Steve Cox and Matthew Walker, we can officially say that it is not too early for Halloween themed movies. Believe it or not, this is only the third in the series of full-length animated movies that stars the mischievous sheep, Shaun and the flock of adventurous sheep who cause no end of havoc on the Soggy Bottom farm and surroundings. The previous outing was way back in 2019 with A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon. These movies are done using puppets and elaborate sets that are photographed in a painstaking process of stop motion animation that takes years to produce. This time around it is harvest season and the sheep are preparing for Halloween having planted their own patch of pumpkins. (Yes, Sheep like Halloween too.) Unfortunately, through a series of pratfalls by Farmer John and interference by a clothesline eating goat, the pumpkins are destroyed, thus denying the sheep their chance to create jack-o-lanterns. (Notice that the Halloween tradition has crossed the Atlantic and entered British culture.) But there is an answer to their misfortune. Creative genius Shaun has a book titled Home-Made Science and endeavors to use the formulas there to create a growing chemical in a very elaborate lab in the farm’s windmill that will allow new pumpkins to grow overnight! The problem is that farmer John has found the chemical and applies it to his balding head, thinking it will give him renewed vitality and allow him to attract the attention of a female veterinarian who lives in town. Only, Shaun’s chemical works too well causing the pumpkins to grow to immense size and the farmer’s hair to quickly grow and completely cover his head and body with orange hair! Thus, the Beast of Mossy Bottom terrorizes the town while Farmer John appears to go missing. So, all sorts of troubles befall the inhabitants leading to hilarious stunts with the sheep and Bitzer, the farm dog, as they attempt to deal with the new threat. It’s all fun that almost any audience will love. And at only one hour and twenty minutes in length it should not wear out on the youngest viewers. There are a few references that only adults will get, including similarities to the Frankenstein movies and Psycho. Shaun’s mad scientist costume, the elaborate Rube-Goldberg style lab that Shaun creates and the vengeful townsfolk are especially amusing. In the film genre of purely visual sight gags, nothing tops what Aardman Animations can dish out. I hope that Shaun the Sheep will brighten more of our days with slap-stick antics.

Buddy

Buddy   4 stars

Do you have fond memories of those children’s TV shows from the eighties and nineties of adult size colorful characters and children singing happy tunes about learning, getting along with others and doing chores? Or maybe your memories are not so pleasant? Such shows are the basis of Casper Kelly’s Buddy, a horror movie that features a children’s TV show from the nineties that stars a full-size bright orange unicorn set in a colorful house and yard together with several children and a few other adult characters. This movie was featured at The Sundance Film Festival this year, but I had not seen it until it opened in theaters. As the film opens the kids and Buddy (voiced by Keegan-Michael Key of Wonka and Only Murders in the Building) are having a good time singing “You Love Buddy, yes you do.” But later when one of the kids refuses to obey Buddy’s orders, a violent encounter occurs off camera and the child is mysteriously absent later. (The other kids are told that he was called to go to Diamond City.) Things escalate with each new episode as Buddy violently kills off another character or child in stark fashion when things don’t go his way, until the remaining children run away into the woods toward Diamond City in scenes reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz. I cannot express how impressed I was with the acting of the children as they displayed artificial happiness switching to suspicion and fear. Later, the setting changes to a family at home in the present. The parents are Grace (Cristin Milioti of How I Met Your Mother) and Ben (Topher Grace of That 70’s Show and Spider-Man 3) who have two boys in a seemingly normal home life. Only Grace has a very uneasy feeling about the situation, expressing to Ben that she believes that they had a third child that they had forgotten. Later, the strange Buddy TV show appears on their TV screen, and Grace is pulled into the TV and added to the cast of the show. Thus, we become aware that Buddy is snatching kids from their homes to be on the show with their memories and those of their families of their past lives being erased. Without giving too much away, the confrontation between humans and orange, plushy control freak escalates to an all-out bloody battle where only one side will survive. Other voice actors include Michael Shannon (The Shape of Water), Patton Oswalt (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty), Eric Bauza (Coyote vs. Acme) and Devon Hawkes Ludlow, noted puppeteer. I knew this was going to be a weird one when I went in. Despite the dark premise, I was impressed by the well-constructed story it told and its lesson about trusting your instincts. Although it has bloody scenes, the violence is obviously fake and meant to amuse. It would be appropriate for tweens and older kids and silly horror loving adults to see the movie, but I advise against taking smaller children. While watching it I couldn’t help but think of how fun it must have been for the child actors to be in such an odd horror movie. Other comedy horror movies I have seen of this genre are Krazy House where a sitcom about a suburban family is invaded by violent Russian gangsters and Little Monsters where a young man and a kindergarten teacher must defend a kindergarten class on a field trip from marauding zombies. All of these were available at Sundance.

The End of Oak Street

The End of Oak Street    4 stars

Have you ever wondered what you would do if you happened to see a dinosaur outside your house one day? That is the question addressed by the filmmaker of It Follows and Under the Silver Lake, David Robert Mitchell. He takes his penchant for freakish happenings and applies it to the creatures run amok genre in The End of Oak Street. He starts us out by following the Pratt family at an outdoor block party in a 1984 suburb complete with sack races and hot dog roasting. This all-American family consists of husband Greg (Ewan McGregor of Star Wars and Moulin Rouge) and wife Denise (Anne Hathaway (who seems to be working non-stop this year. See Mother Mary and The Odyssey.)) and their children Audrey (Maisy Stella of My Old Ass) and Brian (Christian Convery). Although they appear to be normal from the outside there are hints that something is not right in this family. Greg is troubled and has been taking odd jobs to earn more money. Daughter Audrey is very interested in science and wants to attend Cornell. (She even mentions Carl Sagan.) Brian has taken an interest in a new girl who has moved into the neighborhood but is also avoiding contact with the local bully. Denise is the strong member of the family who is holding it together while working on her novel hoping to be published. She has a very direct way of dealing with a particularly irritating neighbor. But then after some strange happenings involving flashing lights at night and loud noises, things are profoundly different for the family and everyone else in the neighborhood when large dinosaurs, straight out of Jurassic Park appear and chase down the residents, occasionally turning them into a light snack. Some investigations of the surroundings reveal that the entire neighborhood has been transported back in time for hundreds of millions of years and now exists surrounded by jungle in a prehistoric era which is inhabited by dinosaurs of all varieties. Between episodes of being chased by these creatures and keeping the family alive, we see the fear on Denise’s face, but also the frustration of dealing with Greg’s inability to come to grips with the reality of their dire situation. The movie is really sold by the acting talents of Anne Hathaway who surely will get at least one Academy Award nomination this year. A great deal of the movie is devoted to the characters facing each new threat from a different creature and successfully handling it. (The same cannot be said about some of the neighbors who become dino food.) Things become more terrifying when the family members become separated from one another. In one notable scene, an enormous boa is seen wandering silently through the house until the moment it is about to strike. The End of Oak Street is obviously influenced by Steven Spielberg’s films, but it definitely has a sharper tone to it. There are some scenes you would not see in a Spielberg movie, such as the enormous piles of dinosaur excrement dotting the lawns and some of the graphic deaths. There are a few “Holy Shit” moments. It shares some aspects of certain Twilight Zone episodes as it shifts into another dimension. Without revealing anything about the ending I will say that the resolution of the whole situation feels rather convenient. Overall, I highly recommend seeing this one. David Robert Mitchell is reportedly working on a sequel to his hit horror movie, It Follows, which I will be watching for.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Spider-Man: Brand New Day                       3 ½ stars

One of the most highly anticipated movies of the year appeared this month in the form of Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Tom Holland takes on this iconic MCU role for the fourth time of this iteration of the webslinger (there being two earlier iterations this century and that doesn’t include the popular Spider-Verse movies). Previously, you might recall from Spider-Man: No Way Home, that Spider-Man had to erase the knowledge of his identity as Peter Parker from the memories of his closest friends, MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon), and anyone else with close contact with him. Thus, Peter is left completely alone with no one to confide in. His closest acquaintance seems to be the police detective named DeWolff (Liza Colón-Zayas of The Bear) who he talks to over the phone between catching bad guys. Besides this, Spider-Man is experiencing hormonal imbalances from the arachnid hormones in his bloodstream, causing mutations to occur, so he is really displeased with his situation. He spends much time tinkering with gadgets to control hormone inhibitors. (By the way, that is the voice of Naomi Watts as Peter Parker’s digital companion.) There is a lot else going on besides Spider-Man’s personal problems here. Filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton, directing his first Spider-Man movie has packed a long and complicated plot into this story including crossovers, relationships with other MCU Superheroes, and what seems to be another superhero origin story. So much so, that at times I wondered if this was just Spider-Man’s story or a marketing ploy for future MCU movies. (The theater showed a trailer for The Avengers: Doomsday, so you can bet that the Spider-Man movies serve as a set up for that one.) We get an introduction to the government agency, Damage Control, a sort of super police force set up to counter threats from supervillains. It is led by William Metzger (Tramell Tilman of Severance), a corporate bureaucrat type who may have something to hide. Early on Spider-Man is confronted by a mysterious criminal mastermind who has made repeated attempts to break into Damage Control headquarters to find something that is very valuable hidden there. This evil genius has the ability to instantly transfer their consciousness from one person to another, read the subject’s thoughts and control their actions. Thus, they are nearly impossible to stop. But since this mind control does not work on Spider-Man, he is the only hope to stop this sinister threat. Fortunately, he is able to enlist the help of Frank Castle, a.k.a. The Punisher (Jon Bernthal), Bruce Banner a.k.a. Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Yelena Belova a.k.a. Black Widow (Florence Pugh). But they are not always as helpful as needed. The usual extended action scenes with extreme damage to New York City and plenty of web swinging across the urban landscape are there. I think that Cretton has way overdone the drama, the pining over MJ and the interconnecting storylines with other superheroes. Don’t be surprised if future crossovers extend to the X-Men. I hope I’m not giving anything away!

Toy Story 5

Toy Story 5                          3 stars

No, I still haven’t seen either of the two major blockbusters of the summer, but I did finally see Toy Story 5, the fifth installment of Pixar’s flagship franchise that started back in the nineties. After four of these popular animated movies that chronicle the adventures of Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie and Bo Peep, one might ask do we need another one. How can the story be expanded beyond what has already been told? The answer is, of course we do, so that more money can be made for the studio and all the others involved. Back in Toy Story 4 the familiar toys have been separated into two groups, one is led by cowgirl Jessie (Joan Cusack) and are the toys belonging to an introverted child, Bonnie. The second are the abandoned toys that Woody the cowboy (Tom Hanks) keeps together. Little Bonnie is a lonely girl without any friends. She would like to play with the twins next door but is too shy to talk to them. Besides they don’t play with toys. Instead, they spend their time playing on their tech devices, called LiliPad, where kids can talk online and watch videos. This is the new villain that has entered the Toy Story universe and threatens to destroy everything special about childhood and kid’s toys. In order to get Bonnie connected with other kids, her parents get her a new Lilipad (Greta Lee). This leads to a sleepover that goes horribly wrong for Bonnie and creates havoc in the toy collection. Some of the toys even get placed in storage in the garage! Now taking center stage, Jessie and her steed Bullseye are the ones that must correct things. While on her mission Jessie discovers another girl, Blaze, who lives in the same house that Jessie shared with her first child owner. Blaze does play with toys, so Jessie’s new mission is to bring the two children together somehow. (We see that Jessie must work through her own abandonment issues as she has now been left by two children.) She is aided by Smarty Pants, a toy used for potty training. (It is so appropriate that Conan O’Brien is the voice of Smarty Pants. Be ready for an abundance of bathroom humor.) There is also a pair of old tech toys, a toy camera and a GPS toy that join in. Eventually, Jessie calls in the help of Woody and an army of Buzz Lightyears (Tim Allen) that all work together through more misadventures and action scenes. Naturally, everything will eventually work out all right for all involved. After five movies telling this story, it feels there is little originality left to present. It was technology that made the Toy Story style of animation possible. Now technology has become the villain. Can we just realize that this story has been beaten to death over these thirty plus years and that it is time to put these characters to bed?