The Drama

My View:  The Drama  (2026) R   In The Drama, a happily engaged couple, Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson), are about to get married. However, their relationship is about to be put to the test when an unexpected, shocking, and explosive crisis sends their plans all to hell just days before their wedding. I will not spill what the crisis is, but it is shocking and would test any relationship. This is a film that starts out as a rom-com with a ‘meet cute’, a funny first date, and even a funnier first kiss. Then writer/director Kristoffer Borgli takes us on a trip to a very dark comedy that will make you squirm in your seat and maybe even gasp out loud a few times. You will be on the edge of your seat for every scene as things go further and further down a very rough and rock-filled rabbit hole. I think I even tried to look away at one point, but couldn’t. I loved Zendaya's and especially Robert Pattinson's performances, though you might not like their characters by the end of the film. Pattinson is brilliant in the role of a man whose world is shaken to the core and who puts too much faith in other people’s opinions. And I want to point out that Alana Haim’s performance is outstanding as the Maid of Honor who turns very quickly on Emma and doesn’t let up in her utter contempt. This is a film that you will talk about for days, and if you are like me, you may never want to see The Drama again. Not because it’s bad; in fact, it is amazing. It’s just darn uncomfortable to watch. And please, please don’t take anyone to see this on a first date. If you do, you may never see them again.  My Rating: Full Price  The Drama Website  Now playing in theaters nationwide

Familyfaire:  The Super Mario Galaxy Movie  (2026)  PG   The Super Mario Galaxy Movie continues the adventures of Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and Toad. The gang is joined by Yoshi as they travel across the galaxy, exploring cosmic worlds as they face off against Bowser and his son, Bowser Jr. I did not like the 2023 film, and I found this one was even worse. My afternoon screening was filled with more adults than kids, which means its audience is full of fans of the games and that this film will make a boatload of money. Like the first film, I think only young kids and those video game fans will enjoy this film. Like the first film, it feels like the writers did one of their usual let’s throw everything up on the screen and hope some of it’s funny, which the Illumination studio is famous for. What I liked about the first film was the interaction between Mario (voiced by Chris Pratt) and Princess Peach (voiced by the Anya Taylor-Joy) but sadly, Peach doesn’t have much to do after the opening sequence as this she is held in Bowser Jr.’s castle, with Mario, Luigi, Toad and new addition Yoshi on a mission to save her. The animation is colorful but unimaginative, and the storyline is one long video game, and once again, we don’t have any controllers to make the film move along. Now, gamers are going to love all the Easter eggs the film has and a few new characters that will delight some of the crowd. I found the film boring, unfunny, and stupid, with little thought given to character development or plot. However, I realize I am not the intended audience, and others may have a good time with the characters. I certainly didn’t. And once again, there are two bonus scenes, one mid-credits and the other at the very end of the film, that may make some gamers happy.  My Rating: Cable The Super Mario Galaxy Movie Website   Now playing in theaters nationwide

Indiefest:  Fantasy Life   (2025)  R   Fantasy Life follows Sam (Matthew Shear), a law school dropout who has just lost another job. His psychiatrist (Judd Hirsch) gives him a job babysitting the psychiatrist’s three granddaughters, and Sam soon falls for Dianne (Amanda Peet), the mother of the girls, who just happens to be in a bad marriage. Amanda Peet hasn’t been in a movie in ten years, and boy, have we missed her. Peet is perfect as Dianne, a woman who is dealing with mental health issues, along with an absent husband and a career as an actor that she thinks has forgotten about her. In walks Sam, a mess himself, who has anxiety attacks and needs a job. The two find they can quietly and lovingly support each other as they navigate life's ups and downs. With a brilliant, quirky supporting cast, the film slowly unfolds as we spend time with Sam, Dianne, and her family. Fantasy Life is a film you let wash over you, enjoying the performances that capture everyday life in a chaotic world that sometimes gets the best of us. My Rating: Full Price  Fantasy Life Website  Now playing in select theaters

My View: Pizza Movie  (2026)  Pizza Movie is about two college roommates, Jack (Gaten Matarazzo) and Montgomery (Sean Giambrone), who take an experimental drug called M.I.N.T.S and must go on a dangerous journey to pick up the only thing that will bring them down: a pizza. That dangerous journey? They have to travel two flights of stairs to their dorm lobby. Pizza Movie is a film where you question what drugs filmmakers Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney were taking when writing the script. The film is out of this world nuts, with some incredibly funny situations and others that are just out and out stupid and don’t work. However, the film never stays too long on one aspect and keeps throwing obstacles the guys have to overcome to get to that pizza. The great thing about this film is that it just keeps trying to outdo the last scene, and it does many times. Matarazzo and Giambrone have incredible chemistry on the screen and make this film work, along with the addition of Lulu Wilson as someone who fits better with the two roommates than the group she is trying too hard to fit into. And hey, any film where Daniel Radcliffe voices a rogue butterfly is a movie you just might have fun with. Just don’t take a mint if it’s offered to you while watching this film. It would be a mistake. Unless you have pizza nearby!   My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Pizza Movie Website    Now playing on the Hulu platform

Forgotten Film:  Monsoon Wedding (2001) R  The Verma family of Delhi is coming from far and wide to see Aditi (Vasundhara Das) marry Hemant (Parvin Dabas), a computer programmer from Houston. Hemant is considered somewhat of an outsider, but in this arranged marriage, that’s not the only problem with this wedding. This is a fun and delightful movie where secrets are to be kept, romances blossom, and a wedding might just fall off its wheels before the couple can say their vows.  My Rating: Full Price  Monsoon Wedding Info

Weird Credits:  From the credits of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie:  Head of Render Wranglers

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You: The Sheep Detectives (2026) PG  Every night, a sheepherder (Hugh Jackman) reads a mystery novel to his herd before they bed down for the night. When one morning they find he is dead, the sheep realize that his death is under mysterious circumstances, and they set out to solve the crime. This is truly one of the weirdest trailers I have seen in a theater. The voice cast is outstanding, so let’s wait and see what happens.   The Sheep Detectives Website The film will be out in theaters on Friday, May 8, 2026.

Until Next Time!

They Will Kill You

My View: They Will Kill You  (2026)  R   They Will Kill You follows a young woman (Zazie Beetz) who takes a job as a housekeeper at a NYC high-rise that has a history of mysterious disappearances. She soon realizes that the high-rise is a deathtrap, and she is its latest victim. They have no idea who they hired, but the high-rise is about to find out. Anyone who has seen the trailer for this film knows it's going to be a wild ride. I just didn’t know how wild a ride it is. The first fight sequence has an incredibly shocking conclusion that I won’t reveal, but just say that this film is absolutely a nutty, off-the-wall, throw-everything-at-us-it-can kind of film. Zazie Beetz does an amazing job of being a tough, kill them with anything type of warrior while also being able to handle some of the film’s comedic moments (which had me laughing quite a bit at the wondrousness of it all). The fight sequence where Zazie’s character takes on the bad guys in a darkened room with a fireman’s axe that she has set ablaze (why not?) is thrilling and well done. This is a bloody mess of a film that takes a while to reveal its full plot, but it's such a fun ride that I just wanted to see how Beetz’s character was going to get out of this maze of hell. It’s one bloody ride into crazy town, and I loved it.  My Rating: Full Price  They Will Kill You Website Now playing in theaters

My View:  Forbidden Fruits  (2026)  R   In Forbidden Fruits, Apple (Lili Reinhart) runs an after-hours “femme witchy cult” within a ritzy mall store called Free Eden. Her followers include Cherry (Victoria Pedretti) and Fig (Alexandra Shipp), and they are soon joined by a fellow mall employee, Pumpkin (Lola Tung). Pumpkin will eventually challenge Apple’s reign, and unlike their outfits, it will not be pretty. Forbidden Fruits is a film that wants to become a cult classic (think of some witch movies of the past 30 years), but never reaches the level of comedy or satire that could elevate it to that stature. The film always seems to be just on the edge, but rarely delivers a scene, trying too hard to make a point. Forbidden Fruits takes a long time to set up the confrontation and then goes into a really convoluted storyline that comes out of nowhere. The cast tries hard to make the film work, but they aren’t given enough material to keep us interested. Do stay through the first portion of the credits, as there is a bonus scene that explains a little bit of the missing plot. Just not enough to make it work.  My Rating: Cable  Forbidden Fruits Website Now   playing in theaters

Indiefest: A Magnificent Life  (2025)   PG-13 A Magnificent Life is about the famous French filmmaker, playwright, and novelist Marcel Pagnol, who, in this animated film, sits down to write his memoirs. He is visited by his younger self, who guides him to tell his story of his years in cinema, along with the ups and downs of his personal life. This is a loving look at a filmmaker who had a great impact on French filmmaking. The animation is lovely to look at, with colors that are inspired by paintings and Pagnol's own movies. However, the film is incredibly slow and spends most of its time trying to cover the vast body of Pagnol's work, which makes it feel a little shallow. Instead, we get an almost newsreel feel to a life that was filled with too much product to be shown in such little time.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  A Magnificent Life Website  Now playing in select theaters

My View:  Pretty Lethal  (2026)  R  Pretty Lethal is about five ballerinas on their way to a dance competition whose bus has broken down, and they have taken refuge in a remote inn. A group of armed men shows up, and the women will have to use their rigorous training and dance skills to transform their art into a weapon. This is another in a long list of films that would play well with crowds at a midnight horror film festival, but doesn’t have the staying power to make it in the feature film world. It’s a film with a great premise, but it runs out of steam soon after the first fight, when the ballerinas realize they can use their dance moves to kill and maim the bad guys. Uma Thurman hams it up with a horrible accent as the ballerina turned mobster who runs the hotel and wants to expand her reach or get revenge (I never quite figured that part out). The action sequences are fun at first and then become increasingly silly, but not in a fun way. I became bored with the plot about halfway through. I had high hopes for this film with the cast of Iris Apatow, Maddie Ziegler, Lana Condor, Avantika, and Millicent Simmonds playing the ballerinas, but they were given a script that could have been a fun short, but not a feature film.  My Rating: Cable  Pretty Lethal Website  Now playing on the Amazon Prime platform

My View: Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice  (2026)   R  In Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, Nick (Vince Vaughn), a mobster, must use a time machine to travel back in time to save his friend, Mike (James Marsden), from being murdered. To complicate matters, Nick has just found out that Mike has been having an affair with Nick’s wife (Eiza González). What’s worse than one Vince Vaughn doing his usual too cool for you persona? How about two Vince Vaughns in this mess of a time travel/mobster film that thinks really bad jokes are always funny if you keep telling them. This film goes on and on, seemingly with no end in sight. And it doesn’t know when to quit (there are even horrible added scenes during the credits that continue the trend of not being funny). It’s sad when the only thing I liked in the movie is a cat with an attitude. My Rating: Cable     Mike & Nick & NIck & Alice Website  Now playing on the Hulu platform   

Indiefest:  The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist  (2026)  PG-13   The documentary The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist is told through the perspective of filmmaker Daniel Roher. Daniel is about to become a father and is worried about the existential threats posed by artificial intelligence. So he goes and talks to the experts in the AI world, including the CEOs of companies trying to capitalize on the technology. This is such an interesting film, part horror, part comedy, and full of information you will still be sorting out long after leaving the theater. Roher is hilarious as the filmmaker trying to figure out AI, using incredible stock clips, animation, and even conversations with his wife to be the everyman wanting to know what AI is and whether it can be the end of civilization as we know it. The film is told in parts, with the first part interviewing a wide range of experts who have come to the conclusion that we are all doomed by AI. Roher follows that with talking with experts who believe AI will save us and make the world better. And then that is followed by experts who say it will be a little of both. This is a fascinating film about an incredibly complex subject, but Roher presents the interviews and ideas with a flair for keeping the story interesting and captivating. I loved the ending, which I won’t ruin, but let’s say both he and his wife have ideas on the subject. Is it going to stop you from asking AI about how to make your garden gopher-proof? Probably not, but it will make you think and just might get you to investigate this subject further or even call someone in Congress.  My Rating: Full Price   The AI Doc Website   Now playing in theaters

Indiefest:  Marc by Sofia (2025) PG-13  Marc by Sofia is a documentary that gives an intimate, unconventional portrait of the iconic American designer Marc Jacobs. It's a documentary that only Marc Jacobs fans will love. While it is fun to watch how much work and detail go into staging a fashion show that lasts only minutes, that's about all I learned about the subject. I found out almost nothing about Jacobs in this documentary, other than that he makes some really weird clothes, has worked with and for some famous people, Sofia Coppola has known Jacobs for a long time, and Jacobs is obsessed with details. The documentary feels more like a Vogue or Vanity Fair pictorial: lots of glamour and fluff, but very little detail about the man himself. Marc by Sofia is Coppola's first attempt at a documentary, and I will say this: she appears in the film almost as much as the subject himself.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  Marc by Sofia Website  Now playing in select theaters 

Indiefest: Alpha  (2025) R  Alpha is about a troubled 13-year-old girl (Melissa Boros), who defies her single mom (Golshifteh Farahani) and gets a tattoo. Their world collapses when she learns that she may have contracted a lethal, blood-borne disease from getting the tattoo.  The movie is from filmmaker Julia Ducournau, known for her award-winning films Titane (2021) and Raw (2016); both were a little too strange for my taste. This is a much easier film to watch, though it moves back and forth in time between when Alpha is currently 13 and when she was 5. Alpha is a headstrong young girl, flirting with sleeping with a boy (who has a girlfriend), and isn’t afraid to smoke and drink. She does suffer from panic attacks, which are incredibly scary. We see the effects of the first panic attack early in the film, when she attempts to leave her room via her window and has an attack that makes her think the balcony is going to blow away due to incredibly strong winds. While the film doesn’t name HIV/AIDS as the virus, it uses a stand-in where, when people are infected, they slowly become solid like rocks. Alpha is thought of by the school and her fellow students as a pariah, as a person who could have the virus, and Alpha is constantly dealing with being shunned or threatened. To make things worse for Alpha, she is forced to share her room with her mother’s brother, a man who has shown up to get clean from heroin. While I enjoyed Melissa Boros’s performance, I had a hard time keeping up with the storyline, which kept jumping back and forth in time, and I did not enjoy the ending, which left more questions than answers. I also did not like the way the mother, a doctor, treated her only daughter, who might have the virus, including having her share a room with an addict. I think the storyline would have worked better if the film had stayed in the real world rather than wandering so much into fantasy.My Rating: Bargain Matinee   Alpha Website Now playing in select theaters

Forgotten Film:  Purple Violets  (2007) R  This is the story of two couples at a crossroads who encounter their college sweethearts. The couples that are destined to be together are writer Brian (Patrick Wilson) and a failed writer turned realtor, Patti (Selma Blair), and lawyer Michael (Ed Burns) and teacher Kate (Debra Messing). All are in relationships, but their attraction to each other is what makes this film work. Written and directed by Ed Burns, this is a fun and funny romance about lost love and having to decide if your life has turned out the way you wanted it. Blair and Wilson are the couple you root for from their ‘meet cute’ and make this little-seen film worth watching. My Rating: Full Price  Purple Violents Info  The film is available on most streaming platforms

Weird Credits: From the credits of Forbidden Fruits:  Movie Animals Protected Representative

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You:  Fantasy Life   (2025) R  Fantasy Life follows Sam (Matthew Shear), a law school dropout who has just lost another job. His psychiatrist (Judd Hirsch) gives him a job babysitting the psychiatrist’s three granddaughters, and Sam soon falls for Dianne (Amanda Peet), the mother of the girls, who just happens to be in a bad marriage. This is Amanda Peet's first feature film since 2015's Sleeping with Other People.  Fantasy Life Website In theaters on Friday, April 3, 2026

Until Next Time!