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!

Project Hail Mary

My View: Project Hail Mary  (2026)  PG-13 In Project Hail Mary, science teacher Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) wakes up on a spaceship light-years from home with no idea who he is or how he got there. He soon figures out that his mission is to somehow stop a mysterious substance from killing the sun. Ryland is not alone up there and discovers unexpected help from an alien. There are some films that you enjoy from beginning to end, and this is one of them. You are going to fall in love with the alien that Ryland names Rocky. Project Hail Mary is such a wonderful film, from brilliant and jaw-dropping effects to a storyline that keeps you on the edge of your seat while simultaneously laughing, that it is a wonder to behold. Gosling is perfect in the role of an everyman who isn’t trained to be an astronaut, much less a hero, but who is smart and willing to meet an alien life form not only halfway but become that life form's friend. While the running length may seem daunting at over two and a half hours, you never feel its length, as the story keeps you interested, excited, and joyful. There are some amazing space sequences that keep you on the edge of your seat, but the heart of this film is the friendship and trust that develops between Ryland and Rocky, as they try to save their worlds while feeling the weight of not wanting to fail. Project Hail Mary is a film full of wonder, humor, and suspense, and one you just might go see again.  My Rating: I Would Pay to See it Again  Project Hail Mary Website  Now playing in theaters nationwide

My View:  Ready or Not 2: Here I Come  (2026)  R Ready or Not 2: Here I Come begins after surviving the game where the family Grace (Samara Weaving) was marrying into tried to kill her. She has now been kidnapped by four rival families, vying for a throne by killing her. To raise the stakes, Grace’s sister (Kathryn Newton) is now her partner in the new game. I loved the first film, Ready or Not, which I said was a perfect example of the definition of a ‘dark comedy,’ a film that makes light of a subject that is generally considered taboo, and I loved the gutty and fiery performance of Samara Weaving. While I enjoyed this film, as you would expect from a sequel, it doesn’t quite deliver the thrills of the original. Kathryn Newton’s addition to the cast as the estranged sister of Grace, who has a chip on her shoulder for being abandoned by Grace when she was 15, is a boon, as their interplay throughout is a lot of fun. There are still some fun kills, and yes, people do still blow up, getting blood everywhere (kind of a running gag in this one). I did enjoy the new characters, including the twins, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar and Shawn Hatosy, who have a very strange relationship. I will say that I was thrilled with the ending, so if you liked or loved the first film, go on another escape the nutty family with Grace, and this time you have her sister to help deal with all the blood. My Rating: Bargain Matinee   Ready or Not 2 Website Now playing in theaters

Indiefest:  Tow  (2025)  R  Tow is about Amanda Ogle (Rose Byrne), a homeless woman in Seattle who has been living in her car for the past few years. Her world comes crashing down when her car is stolen and is found in a tow company's holding yard. To get her stolen car back, she will have to sue the company after receiving a bill that she can never afford to pay. Rose Byrne and a stellar supporting cast, including Demi Lovato, Dominic Sessa, Octavia Spencer, Ariana DeBose, Simon Rex, and Elsie Fisher, try to overcome both a script that tends to wander and a direction that never can find a place to concentrate on. We get a cast of characters that don’t help the storyline and are asked to say lines like, “No porn on the Lord’s Wi-Fi.” We get a lot of scenes of phone calls and texts between Amanda and her daughter, Avery (Elsie Fisher), that amount to a lot of feeling guilty and Avery feeling abandoned, all of which could be shown in one or two conversations, instead of every five to ten minutes. The final courtroom scene falls flat, making Amanda’s victory feel hollow and powerless. It’s a long way to go on a journey that never really gets started.   My Rating: Cable  Tow Website  Now playing in theaters

Indiefest:  André Is an Idiot  (2025)  André Is an Idiot is a documentary about a self-proclaimed ‘idiot’, André Ricciardi, who learns that, after skipping the colonoscopy that could have saved him, he is dying of colon cancer. He decides to go out with how he has always lived his life: with irreverence, humor, and curiosity. I really enjoyed this documentary, but man, I am glad that I never knew the guy because he would have driven me crazy. To say that André’s view of the world is a little off-kilter would be an understatement. However, if you are going on a journey with a man who is going to die of cancer, you might as well go on that journey with a guy who sees the world as his playground, and we are all just there for him to mock. There is a ton of animated scenes that illustrate Andre's kooky ideas, including a game show where contestants vie to kill him. André fights as long as he can and does it on his terms, and no one else is going to change his mind. My Rating: Full Price  Andre is an Idiot Website  Now playing in select theaters

Forgotten Film: Cold Souls  (2009) PG-13  Paul (Paul Giamatti) is an actor preparing for his Broadway role in “Uncle Vanya”. However, Paul isn’t feeling it, and he learns that there is a doctor who can put his soul in storage, giving him a new outlook. When losing his soul doesn’t work, he asks for someone else’s and is given a new one, one of a Russian poet. It improves his performance but ruins everything else in his life, and he is desperate to get his old soul back. This is a very strange comedy that is worth seeing because of Paul Giamatti, who is brilliant in this strange, deadpan comedy that wonders if you really need a soul. My Rating; Full Price  Cold Souls Info  The film is available on Amazon Prime

Weird Credits:  From the credits of Project Hail Mary:  Royal Navy Logistics

Coming Soon to a Screen Near You: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). I love the tagline of the film, “A time-traveling, double-crossing, ass-kicking comedy.”  Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice Website  Premiering on Hulu on Friday, March 27, 2026.

Until Next Time!