COYOTE VS. ACME (2026) review
written by: Samy Burch (screenplay) & James Gunn, Jeremy Slater, and Samy Burch (story)
produced by: Chris DeFaria and James Gunn
directed by: Dave Green
rated: PG
runtime: 103 min.
U.S. release date: August 28, 2026
It would be fitting if, by the time the live-action animated feature “Coyote vs. Acme” comes out on 4K Blu-ray, a documentary hosted by Porky Pig accompanied it, detailing all the legal red tape that tangled its theatrical release. After all, that’s what this movie will mostly be known for. Filmed in 2022 for roughly $70-72 million and shelved by Warner Bros. Discovery the following year as a tax write-off, as decided upon by CEO David Zaslav. It’s the same thing he did with the finished and in-post-production “Batgirl” and the nearly completed “Scoob: Holiday Haunt”, both of which were also filmed in 2022. All three are popular enough IPs that they could’ve made money – if not completely off of theatrical runs, but by streaming and physical media. Thankfully, Ketchup Entertainment came in and saved “Coyote vs. Acme” from obscurity. Read more…
THE DOG STARS (2026) review
written by: Mark L. Smith
produced by: Ridley Scott, Michael Pruss, Mark L. Smith & Cliff Roberts
directed by: Ridley Scott
rated: R (for strong violence and language)
runtime: 118 min.
U.S. release date: August 28, 2026
I try not to get up to relieve my bladder while watching a movie in a theater. This is especially true during a screening of a movie I haven’t seen before, and that hasn’t been released yet, because I don’t want to miss a thing. However, nature called about thirty minutes into “The Dog Stars”, the latest movie from Ridley Scott. As I got up and walked to the washroom, I realized that, from what I’d seen of the movie so far, any time was a good time to get up and relieve oneself. Before I got up from my reclined seat, I thought, “okay, now is a good time to go”, and that is because 1. not much had happened up until then and 2. I knew I wasn’t going to miss out on much. None of this is a good sign for the 88-year-old Scott’s late-career addition to an arguably impressive filmography that includes the likes of “Alien”, “Blade Runner”, and “Thelma and Louise”. Given his pedigree, I shouldn’t have wanted to miss a single frame of his movies, but watching “The Dog Stars” left me bored. Read more…
THE END OF OAK STREET (2026) review
written by: David Robert Mitchell
produced by: J. J. Abrams, Hannah Minghella, Jon Cohen, David Robert Mitchell, Matt Jackson & Tommy Harper
directed by: David Robert Mitchell
rated: PG-13 (for some strong violent content, bloody images, some strong language, and suggestive material)
runtime: 99 min.
U.S. release date: August 14, 2026
It’s been 11 years since Michigan-born writer/director David Robert Mitchell released “It Follows”, his sophomore effort that became something of a cult classic horror flick. Before we get the much-discussed, highly anticipated sequel, “They Follow”, which is scheduled to begin filming this year, there’s his latest, “The End of Oak Street”, a sci-fi thriller that turns out to be the best dinosaur flick since 1993. It’s his most ambitious endeavor yet, with an understandably larger budget, telling an intense story that relies on visual effects while revolving around a relatably fractured family of four. It’s no surprise that J.J. Abrams is involved as one of several producers, given that “The End of Oak Street” emulates the 80’s Amblin sci-fi movies that inspired Abrams when he made 2011’s “Super 8”. While Spielberg’s influence is felt throughout, Mitchell’s approach goes hard and feels more like Joe Dante’s genre work, as he doesn’t shy away from depicting real dino danger. Read more…
SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY (2026) review
written by: Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers
produced by: Kevin Feige, Amy Pascal, Avi Arad, and Rachel O’Connor
directed by: Destin Daniel Cretton
rated: PG-13 (for sequences of action/violence and some language)
runtime: 145 min.
U.S. release date: July 31, 2026
Five years ago, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” was an epic way to cap off the “Home” trilogy, starring Tom Holland as the iconic webslinger created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1962. It started out as a punky and vibrant high school-era adventure, in which our hard-luck hero tried to balance teen drama while figuring out how to be Spider-Man over two movies, “Homecoming” (2017) and “Far From Home” (2019), and became a thrilling and surprising multiverse, franchise-hopping experience, worthy of repeat viewings and making it almost impossible to follow. Nevertheless, Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios know what they got, and it was absolutely inevitable that we’d get another Spider-Man movie with Holland back in the red-and-blue tights. The looming question is whether or not we would see Peter Parker doing the superhero thing on his own, without any mentors or anyone knowing his alter ego. Read more…
DUE WEST (2026) review
written by: Hardy Janson and Evan Miller
produced by: Emily Gipson, Beau Harris, Caitlin McFarland, Evan Miller, Adrianne Palicki, Ezra Venetos
directed by: Evan Miller
rated: not rated
runtime: 81 min.
U.S. release date: July 28, 2026 (VOD)
“I’ve never seen a woman so hysterical, and I’ve been married twice.”
As moviegoers, we’re sort of instinctually trained to avoid any movies that seem like they’re going to make us uncomfortable. Cinema has always been a great escapist art form, go to the movies and forget about your troubles for two hours, but it has also always been a vehicle for dealing with pressing social issues—and even some that aren’t so pressing. Therefore, it’s understandable that one might approach a film like “Due West” with a healthy dose of apprehension.
ROSEBUSH PRUNING (2026) review
written by: Efthimis Filippou
produced by: Michael Weber, Viola Fügen, Simone Gattoni, Annamaria Morelli, Andreas Wentz & Vladimir Zemtsov
directed by: Karim Aïnouz
rated: not rated
runtime: 95 min.
U.S. release date: July 24, 2026
One can certainly appreciate what “Rosebush Pruning” is doing, while also being completely flummoxed by how it goes about it. It’s not so much ambitious as it is audacious, and it revels in a provocative tone that resembles an amalgam of Olivier Assayas and Yorgos Lanthimos. Coincidentally, the screenplay is written by Efthimis Filippou, who wrote five of Lanthimos’s films, from “Dogtooth” to “Kinds of Kindness”, so he knows a few things about weird family dynamics, which is what is found here. While it has a similar cadence to those films, “Rosebush Pruning” finds Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz and Filippou loosely remaking an Italian satirical drama from 1965 called “Fists in the Pocket”, the feature debut from filmmaker Marco Bellocchio. Finally, someone decided to do what I’ve been saying for years…if you’re gonna remake a movie, remake one that hardly anyone knows. Read more…
HEKLA (2026) review
written by: Michael Glover Smith and Elizabeth Stam
produced by: Michael Glover Smith, Elizabeth Stam, and Aaron Werthheimer
directed by: Michael Glover Smith
rated: not rated
runtime: 89 min.
U.S. release date: March 6, 2026
Writer/director Michael Glover Smith must have felt the same way I did about Hekla, the character played by Elizabeth Stam in his last feature, 2022’s “Relative“. She was an exuberant jolt in a stellar ensemble cast, and if there was any character I wanted more of, it was her Hekla. His latest film, “Hekla,” offers just that by yanking viewers along with the titular character, played again by Stam (who also co-wrote the screenplay with Smith), as we follow her through one busy day in the Windy City. She’s a dreamer, a doer, and a self-believer in a dramedy that is essentially an ode to pursuing one’s passion, while also taking a few poignant stances on relationships. Read more…
THE ODYSSEY (2026) review
written by: Christopher Nolan
produced by: Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan
directed by: Christopher Nolan
rated:
runtime: 173 min.
U.S. release date: July 17, 2026
Since leaving Gotham City behind 14 years ago, writer/director Christopher Nolan has taken on epic projects, telling robust stories in unconventional ways. Time has played a major role in his films, whether it’s integral to the stories themselves, as in “Interstellar” and “Dunkirk”, or in how he tells the story nonlinearly, as in “Tenet” and “Oppenheimer”. Both of those concepts of time are incorporated in his latest grand endeavor, “The Odyssey”, which is Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s epic poem of the same name, which has been around for nearly 3,000 years. Nolan takes on the challenge of adapting the tale of danger, survival, and political upheaval with significant gusto, incorporating groundbreaking IMAX-fueled visuals to offer a transportive viewing experience. Read more…
EVIL DEAD BURN (2026) review
written by: Sébastien Vaniček and Florent Bernard
produced by: Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi
directed by: Sébastien Vaniček
rated: R (for strong bloody horror violence and gore, and language)
runtime: 109 min.
U.S. release date: July 10, 2026
The Evil Dead franchise has lost its way. Or rather, since the horror franchise was resurrected in 2013 with “Evil Dead”, considered a soft reboot, it has chosen a different way. A decade later, “Evil Dead Rise” dropped, and now “Evil Dead Burn” is in theaters. Gone is the manic, fun tone of the Sam Raimi-helmed first two sequels, “Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn” (1987) and “Army of Darkness” (1993), the two best entries in the lineup, and replacing them with a viciously gory approach, where any attempts at humor are wholly overpowered by gruesome violence. That is, unfortunately, what can be found in French director Sébastien Vaniček’s “Evil Dead Burn”, which he co-wrote with Florent Bernard, and I find it very surprising and disappointing that Raimi is once again involved as a producer, as he has with the last two Evil Dead movies. It’s as if the creator himself has forgotten what made those first two sequels cult classics. Read more…
FOR THE LOVE OF A WOMAN (2025) review
written by: Guido Chiesa and Nicoletta Micheli (screenplay) and Meir Shalev (novel)
produced by: Marta Donzelli and Gregorio Paonessa
directed by: Guido Chiesa
rated: not rated
runtime: 117 min.
U.S. release date: June 26, 2026 (limited) and July 10, 2026 (wider)
“For the Love of a Woman” is a haunting love story coupled with a gripping historical mystery. It is adapted from the late, celebrated Israeli novelist Meir Shalev’s novel, The Loves of Judith, published in 2012, and director Guido Chiesa and Nicoletta Micheli have now co-written a screenplay for a feature-length film. Since I have not read the novel, I can only guess that it is more compelling and engaging than this convoluted, slow-paced, and ultimately boring film. There are glimpses of a compelling, engaging story in what Chiesa and Micheli offer here, but overall it’s an underwhelming viewing experience. Read more…
