The Mongoose

My View:  The Mongoose  (2026)   R  The Mongoose follows Ryan “Fang” Flanagan (Liam Neeson), a decorated combat veteran who has been wrongly accused of murder, who leads the police on a cross-country car chase in a Mustang Shelby Super Snake. As the chase becomes televised, members of his former Special Forces battalion and a fascinated public help him. This is the type of movie that Roger Corman used to make in the 70s. Plenty of car crashes, a wronged man who mocks the police in a souped-up car, outsmarts the establishment with the help of vets across the country, and makes wisecracks while flirting with his ex-wife. He even has a sidekick in his car’s navigation system that talks to him like his best friend. There’s even a scene where truckers help our hero out while country music plays (Smokey and the Bandit, anyone?). And like those early 70s films, there is even a growing protest of people across the country who say he is innocent. There’s even an evil head of the highway patrol, played by Michael Chiklis, who would have been perfect in any Corman film, spouting country-wise cracks. And the ending is right out of the Corman playbook. Too bad there aren’t many drive-ins left, because it would be right at home there.   My Rating: Cable  The Mongoose Website  Now playing in theaters

Indiefest:  La Bola Negra  (2026)  R  La Bola Negra comprises three lives spanning nearly a century, weaving together the stories of queer men Carlos (Milo Quifes), Sebastián (Guitarricadelafuente), and Alberto (Carlos González) across 1932, 1937, and 2017. Walking into the theater, I knew nothing about La bola negra, an unfinished play by revered Spanish writer Federico García Lorca, who wrote only four pages before being shot during the Spanish Civil War. I wish I had known about this because most of the film centers on the play and its subject of a wealthy young man being blackballed (literally, as we see the vote being conducted with white and black balls) into joining a prestigious casino in his town because he is a homosexual. The film jumps constantly between three stories. Carlos, in 1932, is the young man who gets blackballed from joining the privileged ranks at the casino. Sebastian, who only wants to play his trumpet but is forced into joining the Nationalist army and finds himself guarding a wounded Republican prisoner of war. And Alberto, who discovers that he is inheriting something from a grandfather who recently died. A grandfather he knows nothing about, and one who has kept a deep secret for years. La Bola Negra is beautifully shot, with each timeline feeling and looking different. The film's opening sequence is worth the price of admission. This moving film covers a lot of ground and gives us a look at three men bound by love and a play that was never finished. I had trouble keeping up with the two timelines in the 30s and, at times, got confused by the blending of the stories, not quite knowing who was related to whom. I also felt the story should have ended much earlier, because it gives us too much to delve into. La Bola Negra will test your patience, but overall, it’s a beautiful telling of a story that isn't fully known. It’s a film full of secrets, desires, and untold stories, until now.    My Rating: Full Price  La Bola Negra Website   Now playing in select theaters and will be streaming on Netflix on December 2nd

Indiefest: Everest: The Other Side  (2026)  PG-13  Everest: The Other Side is a documentary that follows elite ski mountaineers Jim Morrison and Hilaree Nelson as they attempt to climb and then ski down Mount Everest’s perilous North Face, something no one has ever successfully done. Review of the film will be up Friday night  Everest: The Other Side Info   Now playing in theaters and IMAX

My View:  The Only Living Pickpocket in New York (2026) R   The Only Living Pickpocket in New York is about Harry (John Turturro), an aging, struggling old-school pickpocket who has a hard time surviving in a modern world of trackable smartphones and cameras everywhere. Harry makes the mistake of taking a highly valuable USB stick from a ruthless crime family and is in a world of trouble. The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, set in today’s world of iPhones, plastic watches, instantly cancellable credit cards, and wallets with no paper cash, follows a man stuck in the past. Harry has chosen a life of crime, one he is so good at that he can steal candy from a child or take anyone’s watch and wallet without the victim realizing it before Harry is long gone. But Harry has a secret. His wife is catatonic, unable to speak, and Harry is her only caretaker. The problem is that Harry has stolen from the one type of person he's avoided all his life: a man connected to the mob. I loved this movie, where John Turturro gives a performance of a lifetime as a man who loves his wife but is a thief who knows he will have to pay for his sins someday. The Only Living Pickpocket in New York is a love letter to the city as Harry travels, mostly by subway, all over to conduct his business. I loved how Harry, who doesn’t have an iPhone, constantly asks for directions. The supporting cast is a cornucopia of acting prowess, with Steve Buscemi as a crusty pawn shop owner where Harry takes his merchandise, and Giancarlo Esposito as a soon to be retired detective who knows Harry on a first-name basis, having arrested him a time or two. There are some very cool surprises that I won’t spoil, but they make this film a delight to watch. The Only Living Pickpocket in New York takes me back to those character-heavy seventies films where the City of New York was as important as the actors themselves. So put on an overcoat that has an inside pocket, and get ready to walk the streets of New York City and its boroughs. Just keep an eye on your phone, watch, and wallet, because Harry will be nearby.  My Rating:  I Would Pay to See it Again   The Only Living Pickpocket in New York Website Now playing in theaters

My View:  The Mosquito Bowl  (2026) R  The Mosquito Bowl is about four star college football players who joined the Marines after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Before the invasion of Okinawa, the four participate in a legendary football game that, for many, will be the last time they play the game they love. This is a very different movie than the one I thought I was going to see. The football game section of the film that they play before the invasion of Okinawa is only about ten minutes long. Instead this is about the friendships developed in wartime, the sacrifices that they make and the heavy cost in lives. The Mosquito Bowl is more of an anti-war film than anything else. The film starts with a quote from Herbert Hoover "Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die. And it is youth who must inherit the tribulation, the sorrow, and the triumphs that are the aftermath of war.” And that sums up the feeling of this film. The young men who played a game and played it well, sacrificed their lives to fight a war. The battle sequences are very graphic and hard to watch, especially seeing young men in the prime of their lives, go down and die horrible deaths. Does the film bring  anything new to the war films of the recent past? I think as a storyline, the film is weak, missing some early chances to make the film feel more interested in the characters. The battle sequences are well done and we get a lot of up close and personal shots of how each man is handling the stress of war. But the film feels rushed in some sequences, especially what I thought would be the centerpiece of the film. Instead we barely get any set up for the game itself which doesn’t hit the emotional level that it needs. The Mosquito Bowl is a film that doesn’t quite flesh out its characters and therefore their sacrifices  seem not to hit the right emotional level that it should.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee  The Mosquito Bowl Website    Now playing in theaters and will be on the Netflix platform starting November 25th 

Forgotten Film:  Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum  (2018)  A crew from a horror web series goes to an abandoned psychiatric hospital to do a live YouTube broadcast. They start shooting, staging a few scares, hoping to gain viewers. However, the crew soon discovers that things happen that can’t be explained, terrors that aren’t faked. Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum starts slowly, but once the scares begin, the film is off to the races, making for an incredible, heart-racing look into a haunted asylum where former patients aren’t too happy to be there. You may start with the lights off, but by the end, you'll have turned on every light in your house and react to every noise. My Rating: Full Price   Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum Info    Available on most streaming services

Weird Credits: From the credits of The Only Living Pickpocket in New York: Pickpocket Consultant

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You:  Godzilla Minus Zero  (2026) R  Godzilla Minus Zero is set in 1949 Japan, two years after Godzilla was defeated, and postwar Japan is still recovering. Godzilla may be gone, but a new, possibly even more dangerous kaiju attacks Matsumoto City. Our heroes, including pilot Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki and his now-wife, Noriko (Minami Hamabe), and Kenji Noda (Hidetaka Yoshioka), must band together again to save Japan from a new monster rampaging across Japan. This sequel to the hit 2023 film Godzilla Minus One is the 39th film in the Godzilla franchise. It is the first film in the franchise's history to receive an R rating.   Godzilla Minus Zero Website In theaters and IMAX on Friday, November 6, 2026

Until Next Time!