PILLION (2025) review
written by: Harry Lighton
produced by: Emma Norton, Lee Groombridge, Ed Guiney, and Andrew Lowe
directed by: Harry Lighton
rated: not rated
runtime: 107 min.
U.S. release date: February 27, 2026
Based on the 2020 book “Box Hill,” in which author Adam Mars-Jones explores the loneliness of a gay man unable to find connection in the world, “Pillion” eventually finds relief from a most unusual person and his particular demands for attention. While the story has apparently changed on the road to a film adaptation, writer/director Harry Lighton has nevertheless kept the story’s core the same: the strong feelings between two men as they attempt to work out a dominant/submissive relationship. What stands out the most is how Lighton displays such filmmaking confidence and storytelling efficiency for his feature-length directorial debut. It’s a tall task considering there are some dark emotional spaces to explore along the way, but the film winds up displaying a delightful amount of warmth as we watch an unusual romantic development occur, one that explores wants, desire, and, of course, a good amount of kink. Read more…
NIRVANNA THE BAND THE SHOW THE MOVIE (2026) review
written by: Matt Johnson & Jay McCarrol, story by Johnson, McCarrol, Jared Raab, Curt Lobb, Matthew Miller, Matt Greyson, Luca Tarantini, & Evan Morgan
produced by: Matt Greyson & Matthew Miller
directed by: Matt Johnson
rated: R (for language and brief violence)
runtime: 99 min.
U.S. release date: February 13, 2026
“As far as I’m concerned, Nirvanna the Band is playing the Rivoli tonight.”
In our current franchise-saturated landscape, it’s almost impossible to walk into a movie completely cold, knowing nothing about its past iterations, and enjoy the movie for what it is. This makes the notion of seeing a film called “Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie” seem daunting on the surface, as the film’s origins date back to a 2007 Canadian web series. However, the miracle of “Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie” is that absolutely none of that matters, and it can be enjoyed fully by anyone at any level of familiarity with the source material. Read more…
VIVA VERDI! (2025) review
written by: Yvonne Russo and Christine La Monte
produced by: Christine La Monte, Yvonne Russo and Ron Simons
directed by: Yvonne Russo
rated: not rated
runtime: 77 min.
U.S. release date: October 3, 2025 (limited)
For those who feel that becoming an octogenarian is the equivalent of a death sentence, I urge you to watch “Viva Verdi”, which confirms the exact opposite. Director Vvonne Russo’s documentary takes viewers to Casa Verdi, located in Milan, Italy. The expansive estate in northern Italy is known as a home for retired opera singers and musicians, founded by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi in 1896. Russo’s film will definitely enlighten a broader audience to Casa Verdi, but her documentary is a reminder that such a place is simply a museum if it’s not populated by artists who can benefit from living and learning in a place that values and appreciates them. Read more…
Oscar-Nominated Documentary Shorts (2026) review
Of the three Short categories that the Academy has each year, the Documentary Shorts is typically the best. This is where we’ll see the most compelling stories, not just because they’re real-life stories, but because of the combination of the subject matter and how they’re told. That’s definitely the situation this year. All five nominees are compelling in their own way. One stands out as the clear frontrunner, but they’re all worth your time. Read more…
Oscar-Nominated Animated Shorts (2026) review
This year’s five nominees in the Best Animated Short category show an impressive range of creative variety and style. It is once again proof that anything can happen with Animation, a medium that allows for unquantifiable possibilities. Here are passion projects that have been labored over for years, and there is something to appreciate in each nominee in this category. All of these shorts have spent the past year touring the festival circuit, and earning Oscar nominations is a treat for us, as it gives them an opportunity to reach a wider audience. Read more…
Oscar-Nominated Live-Action Shorts (2026) review
It’s a strange surprise that none of this year’s Oscar-nominated Live-Action shorts stand out or are as impressive as they should be. They should be because they’re Oscar-nominated. Granted, none of them are bad, but I expect to be wowed or impressed by a Short that receives an Oscar nomination. Only one piqued my curiosity and had me thinking; the other four were fine or good. Many of these nominees have toured the festival circuit in the past year after their world premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival, South by Southwest, and the Toronto International Film Festival, and now they are getting a theatrical release thanks to Roadside Attractions, leading up to the March 15th Oscar telecast, where a winner will be announced. Read more…
HELLFIRE (2026) review
written by: Richard Lowry
produced by: Sasha Yelaun, Robert Paschall Jr., Daniel Lief, Johnny Remo & Christian Filippella
directed by: Isaac Florentine
rated: R (for strong violence, some language, and drug material)
runtime: 95 min.
U.S. release date: February 13, 2026
Sometimes watching a bad movie reminds you how easy it is to take a good movie for granted. I’m not even talking about a great movie. Those at least stand out. But, just a solid good movie, worthy of your time and entertaining or informative in some way. You can expect the opposite viewing experience with “Hellfire”, the latest effort from Israeli director Isaac Florentine, a neo-western that tries to be a thriller, but plays like a B-movie shot with zero flair or discernible style. Nothing new or different is done with the familiar “one-man-army arriving in a small town desperate to get out from under a criminal’s grasp”, and the inert dialogue from screenwriter Richard Lowry and predominantly wooden acting from the cast doesn’t help the endeavor whatsoever. Read more…
WHISTLE (2026) review
written by: Owen Egerton
produced by: David Gross, Whitney Brown, Macdara Kelleher & John Keville
directed by: Corin Hardy
rated: R (for strong violent content, gore, drug content, and language)
runtime: 100 min.
U.S. release date: February 6, 2026
We’ve all heard the line “Death comes for us all” before, as it appears in countless movies and plays. It’s a challenge to track down who first said it, but it’s been around forever. It’s even in the Bible: the first twelve verses of the nineteenth chapter of Ecclesiastes are titled “Death Comes to All.” A variation of this is repeated in director Corin Hardy’s “Whistle”, which finds a mysterious evil power seeking out high school teens who happen to blow an ancient Mayan death whistle. Screenwriter Owen Egerton (“Blood Fest” and “Mercy Black”) sprinkles lines like, “Dying is not a choice. It is inevitable. But living is up to you,” and “Death is unstoppable. Once called, it will not relent,” throughout, which could easily be bumperstickers found on hearses. Read more…
DRACULA (2026) review
written by Luc Besson
produced by: Virginie Besson-Silla
directed by: Luc Besson
rated: R (for violence, some gore, and sexuality)
runtime: 129 min.
U.S. release date: February 6, 2026
In a recent interview, Luc Besson admitted that he isn’t a fan of the horror genre and mainly set out to make a love story that transcends 400 years. In that case, he would’ve been better off writing and directing something along those lines that couldn’t be associated with the countless big-screen adaptations of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. There are estimated to be over 200 of them since 1921. As it stands, the controversial filmmaker seems slightly obsessed with Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 version, whose title “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” suggests it is a faithful literary adaptation, at a time when audiences’ last frame of reference for the material is Robert Eggers’s “Nosferatu” from 2024. All of this may raise the question, “Why do we have yet another Dracula movie?” Read more…
Sundance 2026: The Huntress (La Cazadora)
By the time writer/director Suzanne Andrews Correa’s feature-length debut, “The Huntress (La Cazadora),” ends, it’s easy to consider how a documentary could cover the same subject matter. Not that it would be better than this riveting narrative feature, but it could certainly expand on it in more detail, because watching this will definitely pique your curiosity. Based on actual events that have occurred in Ciudad Juárez, a place known for its violence against women, many of them who wind up missing or dead, their bodies found in shallow graves in the Chihuahuan Desert, near the U.S./Mexico border. Read more…
