An Enemy Within

This movie wedding could get as bad as Game of Throne’s “Red Wedding,” but viewers don’t have much time to invest in the characters, who generally consist of stereotypical rich jerks. The Foresights might sound like Galsworthy’s literary clan, but they are considerably harder and meaner. Nevertheless, reasonably well-heeled Caleb Wingate expected to continue rising in the Foresight family business, after marrying his boss’s daughter, until a terrorist gives him an ultimatum: kill his new father-in-law by midnight or his newlywed wife dies. It is not exactly a “Sophie’s Choice,” but it is still a super-awkward buzz-kill in director-screenwriter John Michael Kennedy’s An Enemy Within, which releases today on VOD.

Wingate’ father made no secret of his disappointment when his son went to work for the rival Foresights. However, Robert Foresight was more of a shark, especially when it comes to doing natural resources deals in Africa. Unfortunately, he did not live up to his name when he crossed “The Wolf,” a notorious assassin the Foresight company used to employ.

The Wolf delivered the ultimatum, but a mystery client is calling the sniper’s shots. Regardless, Wingate must kill the Foresight patriarch by the mandated deadline and he cannot allow any guests to leave in the meantime. That causes some seemingly erratic behavior, greatly straining his hours-old marriage. However, an old pro like the senior Foresight recognizes trouble. However, as more family members become privy to the standoff, the recriminations really start to fly.

This film definitely exhibits a pronounced degree of class resentment, but there is also a kind of grudging admiration for the elitist characters’ ruthless survival drives. Despite his increasingly dire situation (including a non-fatal gun-shot wound), steely middle-aged Robert Foresight is definitely the sort of fellow you want on your side during a time of crisis.

Wizard of the Kremlin, in Cinema Daily US

Jude Law is chillingly, image-shattringly good as Putin in WIZARD OF THE KREMLIN, Assayas's big, sprawling, more-truth-than-fiction chronicle of Russia's slide back into totalitarianism, as witnessed first hand, by a key Kremlin power-broker. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe

The Earth can’t seem to catch a break. The Earth Federation defeated the authoritarian-inclined Principality of Zeon in the Gundam franchise’s Universal Century continuity, but then the victorious Federation became increasingly corrupt and oppressive. Hathaway Noa emerged as an important leader of the MAFTY rebellion. He hopes to launch a major attack on the Federation, but the greatest variable complicating his plan happens to be a self-described “courtesan.” She might also be a spy, but it is unclear which side she favors in Shuko Murase’s anime feature Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe, which opens tomorrow in theaters.

In the new GQuuuuuux alternate storyline, Zeon won the war, but Nymph Circe returns fans to the more familiar timeline. The Hathaway narrative branch takes place many years after the mothership anime series, but Noa represents an important apostolic link, because he is the son of Amuro Ray’s commanding officer, Bright Noa. With that in mind, you should be able to follow the broad strokes of the new Hathaway feature, but many of the particulars will be baffling.

Regardless, the junior Noa is almost entirely focused on the rebellion. Only Gigi Andalusia has the power to distract him. Inconveniently, her sugar daddy-patron happens to be Col. Kenneth Sleg, the chief of Federation counter-insurgency. It is his job to catch Noa.

So far, Andalusia has mostly aided Sleg. Convinced that her “spider-sense” provided lifesaving forewarning, many of Sleg’s men consider her a good luck charm. Yet, restless Andalusia appears preoccupied with Noa. Regardless, before they can reunite, Noa must survive some spectacular mecha battles.

Indeed, Nymph Circe arguably boasts some of the most striking visuals of all the recent Gundam features. The combination aerial and naval battles really are something. For the teenaged boy market, the film also delivers considerably more “fan service” than its recent predecessors, through its strategically framed shots of Andalusia and Julia Suga, Noa’s torch-carrying Gundam mechanic, who usually works in a pair of overalls and not much else.

Again, this is some of the slickest Gundam animation yet. However, Yasuyuki Muto’s screenplay, based on franchise creator Yoshiyuki Tomino’s original novel, makes no concessions to newcomers. Even viewers casually familiar with the original series and several subsequent features will have some trouble finding their sea legs.

Furthermore, critics who rightly called out the appalling lack of military discipline in Star Trek: Starflight Academy should also be put off by Brinks Wedge, the captain of a MAFTY recon ship, who regularly takes the con shirtless. Frankly, both he and Trek’s Nahla Ake are appallingly unprofessional and uncommanding.

Is God Is: Revenge of the Twins

Movie twins tend to be creepy, like in The Shining and Dead Ringers. That wasn’t previously true for Racine, “the Rough One,” and Anaia, “the Quiet One.” However, their new unyielding sense purpose is a little unnerving. The twins’ long-absent mother wants them to kill their father, who also happens to be the same “Man” responsible for the disfiguring burns all three women suffered—and they aim to oblige in Aleshea Harris’s Is God Is, adapted from her own play, which opens Friday in theaters.

Racine’s burns are largely confined to her arms, but the fire cruelly left its scars across Anaia’s face. Whether in schools or foster homes, Racine has always been quick to pick a fight, to defend her sister from mockery or bullying. Even in adulthood, her behavior pattern remains the same. They always assumed their mother had abandoned them, but when Ruby, (whom they jokingly refer to as “God,” since she “created” them), summons them to her death bed, they reluctantly comply.

Since she also clearly suffered greatly, the twins essentially forgive Ruby, especially after she explains how they were all torched by their father. She demands vengeance in blood, so she can die in peace. Racine immediately agrees, but Alaia is not so sure. Nevertheless, they start following the trail back to Ruby’s former “Man,” inevitably leaving bodies in their wake.

Based on Harris’s Obie Award winning play, Is God Is has been generally pitched as a prestige film, but it plays more like a payback grindhouse release, which is frankly good news for viewers. Indeed, Alaia explores themes of inherited trauma and family dysfunction with a sweaty, feverish Old Testament sensibility, while staging bloody mayhem with a deft touch.

Big Apple 26: Treasure of the Lost Reel

It is hard to tell whether Boffo is a mouse or a cat, but that probably reflects the fact he was inspired by Mickey and Felix, in equal measure. However, in the world of this film, he was directly “inspired by,” or ripped off from Biffo, the creation of a pioneering black animator. However, his heir probably can’t prove it without the long-lost short Heck (short for Hector) Burrows tacks down. Keeping it will be even trickier, because the company Boffo built, which bears absolutely no resemblance to Disney, will do anything to make it disappear in Nate Neal’s Treasure of the Lost Reel, premiering tonight at the 2026 Big Apple Film Festival.

Pinnacle so litigiously protects its Boffo trademark, it recently sued a daycare center over an unauthorized screening (fortunately, Disney would never do anything like that, right?). It also has gun-wielding enforcers like Mr. Fix-It on the payroll. He makes the company’s embarrassing past disappear. In two months, early Boffo cartoons will enter the public domain. That is not good for Pinnacle, but the last surviving Biffo print could undermine their fundamental trademark of Biffo.

Burrows’s ex, now a late-night TCM-esque host, hopes to find the Biffo print, to parlay it into a Pinnacle+ streaming show. Of course, she didn’t reveal her true ambitions to Bellamy Barker, the rightful Biffo heir, but Burrows immediately suspects something of the kind. As a result, it will be a mad scramble to find the lost reel and it will be even trickier holding onto it.

The vintage-style animation created by Neal and Erim “Xolo” Cetinel perfectly fuses early Disney with classic Fleischer. Biffo and Boffo look era-appropriate and they both have the appropriate pinched, high-pitched voices. The antique Boffo merch also represents a triumph of great art direction on a budget. Furthermore, filming on old school 16mm stock nicely reinforces Neal’s nostalgic aesthetic.

Hammer: Heroes, Legends and Monsters

Its first IP deals were relatively modest, licensing British radio shows like Dick Barton and The Man in Black for extremely B-level movie treatments. However, it most famously relaunched popular franchises with the very same monsters that made Universal the home for horror in the 1930s and 1940s. Despite periods of decline and dormancy, the Hammer name still means something to fans. Director Benjamin Field and an all-star cast of genre filmmakers chronicle the studio’s history and celebrate its eccentricities in Hammer: Heroes, Legends and Monsters (oddly, no Oxford comma), which releases today on BluRay from UK specialty retailers.

Will Hinds (who performed vaudeville under his stage name, Hammer) and Enriques Carreras founded Hammer Film Productions, but they never really got filmmaking the way their sons, Tony Hinds and Michael Carreras, did. For the record, most of the oddball genre detours were Michael’s doing (fault). However, the elder Carreras definitely understood business, negotiating better American deals than were available for more prestigious British productions.

Hammer’s big opportunity came in licensing a film version of The Quatermass Experiment, which had been a surprise hit for the BBC. They were subsequently pitched a Frankenstein screenplay that probably would have prompted a lawsuit from Universal, but they liked the idea enough to commission The Curse of Frankenstein, which was a huge hit, making stars of Peter Cushing and Chriostopher Lee. They followed it up with Horror of Dracula, featuring the same co-stars, garnering the same box office success.

Unlike many cinema history docs, Heroes, Legends and Monsters focuses more on the behind-the-scenes business trends and the contributions of below-the-line contributors, like makeup artist Phil Leakey and art director Bernard Robinson, who had a thrifty knack for reusing and repurposing old props and sets. Thanks to Robinson, Hammer could really stretch their budget, while maintaining their signature lush, gothic look.

Of course, most of the great stars of Hammer, such as Cushing, Lee, Andre Morrell, Shane Briant, and Oliver Reed are no longer with us. However, Martine Beswick (One Million Years B.C.), Caroline Munro (Dracula AD 1972), and Madeline Smith (The Vampire Lovers) discuss their work at Hammer (and the degree of nudity that was expected of them, during the late period of decline).

Indeed, the collected experts convincingly argue the turn towards cultural permissiveness was Hammer’s undoing, because they had developed such a knack for arguing, negotiating, and generally sneaking in suggestive material, which suddenly appeared tame compared to the genuinely explicit releases from their competitors.

The understanding of the economics of Hammer’s decisions helps differentiate Heroes, Legends and Monsters from its many predecessors. It also features many experts with serious genre cred, including John Carpenter, Tim Burton, John Landis, and Joe Dante (the latter two seem to mostly work as documentary talking heads these days, which is sort of a shame, but their enthusiasm for Hammer sounds genuine).

In Remembrance of Newspaper Strips: Wade Cabot

Newspaper comic strips were like the MCU and The Fast and the Furious of the 1930s and the 1940s. They were hands down the most popular form of mass entertainment. Unlike average contemporary Hollywood tentpoles, they were also refreshingly patriotic. That was particularly true of some of the most successful continuity strips, like Steve Canyon and Buz Sawyer. It was also true of this strip, even though it was obscure in its day. Nevertheless, Bob Robertson & Pat Sammon’s Wade Cabot in the Middle East deserves a reappraisal and a new audience, especially on the date of its 5/11/1953 premiere.

Cabot was a legendary OSS agent, but he returned to the Middle East after the War to pursue his chosen career as an archaeologist. Given his elite background and education, perhaps Robertson and Sammon should have named him Wade Cabot Lodge. Regardless, he has square-jaw and will travel.

Indeed, Cabot is very Indiana Jones like. In the first of his three full story arcs, Cabot must prevent his nemesis, KGB Col. Baranov, from hijacking an excavation site that happens to hold rich uranium deposits. In addition, Baranov also hopes to plunder a rumored artifact that supposedly bestows great power. In all honestly, Wade Cabot has been so long-forgotten, it is unlikely it served as an inspiration for Raiders of the Lost Ark, but if you dig vintage Dr. Jones you will be utterly delighted with Cabot.

Unlike the last Indiana Jones movie, which made CIA officers the bad guys, Wade Cabot and the U.S. military and intelligent services are always fighting the good fight together. The villains are the Soviets and the various terrorist factions doing their bidding. Cabot prefers to act independently and with plausible deniability, but when his country calls, he always answers. That is especially true when his former commanding officer retired Gen. Max “Gunner” Crackin makes a request.

Similarly acting as a pseudo-free agent, Crackin hatches a plan to rescue Dr. Fieldstone, a leading expert in missile jamming technology, being held captive in an island prison-laboratory in the Caspian. Unbeknownst to Cabot and Crackin, the good doctor is a beautiful woman, with a gift for sarcasm, doing her best to annoy her KGB prison matron, Kruda.

The strip makes recurring jokes mocking the super-eligible Cabot for his romantic incompetence. However, he risks a lot to save Zia, a terrorist double-agent, who turns triple-agent under Cabot’s influence. The third story arc also notably features two oilmen, one from Texas and one from England, not as villains, but as Cabot’s primary allies. Honestly, this strip is like a breath of fresh air.

Next to nothing is known about the co-creators, who are assumed to be both co-writers and co-artists. That would track, because some strips feature lighter thinner lines, while others look heavier and darker. However, they clearly shared a compatible visual sensibility.

Marshals: On Thin Ice

It makes good economic sense for CBS and Paramount that Kayce Dutton and his fellow SEALs served in Afghanistan rather than Iraq. That way the Rockies (or their stand-ins) can also double for the Hindu Kush. This will be one of those episodes. Dutton and fellow former SEAL Deputy Marshal Pete Calvin face a fight for survival in the Montana mountains, but the frequent flashbacks take back to their in-country active duty in “On Thin Ice,” tonight’s episode of Marshals on CBS.

Skinner and Cruz limited the damage of the Fugitive-style accident and jailbreak in “Playing with Fire,” but a few still got away. One of them was Neil Lamb, a desperado who once worked on the Dutton ranch for old man John Dutton (a.k.a. Kevin Costner). That means he might know where some of their bodies are buried—literally. The prospect sufficiently concerns Deputy Marshal Dutton that he leaves Garrett Garvey’s hospital bedside, to catch the fugitive, off the clock.

It all seems rather suspicious to his boss, Calvin when he finds the two together. Unfortunately, Calvin is not at his best, for reasons regular viewers will guess. A bit confused and insufficiently outfitted, Calvin is unable to find his transportation, forcing them to arrange makeshift shelter. Of course, that also allows Lamb an opportunity to play on Calvin’s suspicions.

Sleeping Dog, in The Epoch Times

SLEEPING DOG plays like it was made for UAP true believers, by true believers. Journalist-activist Jeremy Corbell's blue collar presence well serves the film, but it lacks the restraintt and perspective of more credible UAP docs. EPOCH TIMES review up here.

JxJ ’26: Raoul Wallenberg Missing Inaction

The United States made him an honorary citizen, after the Soviet Union made him disappear. The Swedish diplomat in question had saved thousands of Hungarian Jews by issuing them Swedish papers and providing shelter in diplomatically protected buildings. He became one of the most prominent men in Hungary (thereby making him a threat to the Soviets’ plans to dominate the nation). Decades later, his fate remains shrouded in secrecy. Filmmakers Brian Mait & Brad Rothschild largely settle that question, but as viewers might expect, it is not an especially uplifting answer that they reveal in their documentary, Raoul Wallenberg: Missing Inaction, which screens during this year’s JxJ Washington Jewish Film and Music Festival.

As viewers ought to know from watching the Richard Chamberlain mini-series and prior documentaries, like Alexander Rodnyaskiy’s The Mission of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish humanitarian tried to save as many Hungarian Jews as possible. He even pulled dozens of Jews off a transport bound for Auschwitz, openly defying the Arrow Cross.

The part of the story that isn’t as well publicized involves the rest of the Wallenberg family. Although Wallenberg was adored by his distinguished grandfather Gustav, Wallenberg and his mother (who married into the family) were the poor relations, after his father’s untimely death. His uncles, Jacob and Marcus, who controlled the family banking empire, declined to hire their nephew. Instead, they referred him to Klarman Lauer’s trading company.

Wallenberg became Lauer’s right-hand man, because he could travel more easily than the Jewish Hungarian. Similarly, he became the on-the-ground point-person for the humanitarian mission to Hungary organized by Lauer and Iver C. Olsen of the OSS, who emerges as another admirable figure in Mait & Rothschild’s doc.

However, the activities of Wallenberg’s uncles were not so edifying. In fact, their extensive dealings with the National Socialists earned them Treasury Department sanctions, which continued after the War. Unable to do business with America, they started brokering deals with the Soviets, the other great totalitarian regime of the 20^th Century. However, they cut ties with the USSR, in exchange for their removal from the blacklist.

The filmmakers and their on-camera experts suggest, with good reason, the noble Wallenberg became a pawn in his uncles’ game with the Soviets. Once they cancelled their financial arrangements, Raoul Wallenberg was probably as good as dead. Regardless of their reasons, Wallenberg was most likely executed around this time. That theory is supported, rather candidly, by Sergey Stepashin, the former Russian Prime Minister and director of the FSB (then known as the FSK), under Yeltsin—a sit-down interview even the filmmakers were shocked to score.

Unlike previous Wallenberg films, Missing Inaction (not a great title) also documents how much it emotionally exhausted his branch of the family to fight for the truth. Tragically, some of those closest to him eventually committed suicide.

Silent Friend, in Cinema Daily US

SILENT FRIEND invites viewers to meditate on what it means to be human, through a solitary reesearcher's relationship with plants (perhaps accidentally expressing the post-Covid, post-Hong Kong crackdown zeitgeist). Not all three of its intertwined stories are equally successful, but it still represents assured and refined filmmaking. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Unconditional, on Apple TV+

At this point, everyone should be extremely cautious when visiting Russia or China, because they are hostile powers that employ hostage-taking as a tactic to negotiate political and economic concessons. That caution should also apply to layovers. Orna Levy and her daughter Gali learn that the hard way. They were traveling from India to Israel, but Gali was arrested on dubious drug trafficking charges during their Moscow connection. Orna Levy is neither a lawyer or a diplomat, but she is a mother, so she fights tenaciously for her daughter’s freedom in co-creators Adam Bizanski & Dana Idisis’s 8-episode Israeli drama, Unconditional, which premieres today on Apple TV+.

Orna assumes they would simply eat between flights and that would be all they would see of Russia. Instead, the police swarm and arrest Gali, leaving her mother confused and alarmed. The timing is terrible, because the Israeli embassy is closed for a national holiday. Eventually, she learns the charges, but neither Levy or her lawyer can speak to her daughter, because the cops keep transferring her from prison to prison, like a game of three card monte.

Eventually, Gali is “arraigned,” but with one whispered word from the prosecutor, the judge denies bail with no explanation. Viewers had better take note at this point. This could happen to any American traveling to Russia, if Putin and his lackeys feel they need an extra bargaining chip.

Awkwardly, Gali’s case turns out to be a little more complicated. As Levy conducts a media campaign back home to pressure the Israeli government secure her daughter’s release, she starts to pick up hints Gali might have been intertwined with some sort of international intrigue. For starters, she had a bundle of strange passports hidden in some of her possessions that her mother was carrying. Consequently, Levy starts distrusting her own government, even including her sort of former lover, Dori, a not-exactly former member of the Shin Bet.

Regardless, Gali most likely wasn’t precisely the naïve girl her mother presumed. Indeed, her parting advice to her mother—do no eat or drink anything—was quite sage. As her Russian lawyer later explains, Putin’s cops often lace water provided during interrogations with trace amounts of drugs, to produce false positives to present in court.

The early episodes of Unconditional are smart, nerve-wracking, and urgently timely television. Unfortunately, the conclusion is fairly ridiculous and leaves major national security questions unresolved—and not in a cliffhanger kind of way. The writers clearly just didn’t consider it important.

Admittedly, Bizanski & Idisis target fans of Not Without My Daughter rather than Tom Clancy, but given the Russian and Israeli setting, they could have anticipated a crossover techno-thriller market. To be fair, as previously stated, there is a great deal of valid cautionary, ripped-from-true-life sequences.

Nevertheless, the mother-daughter relationship is the engine driving the series and its reason for being. Consequently, it is also a heck of a showcase for Liraz Chamami, whose performance as Mother Levy is both magnificent and harrowing. She is a ferocious mama bear and a poignant everywoman, misunderestimated (as George W. Bush aptly says) at every turn.

Evgenia Dodina is also wonderfully acerbic and flamboyantly sharklike as Rita, the mysterious Israeli spymaster, who might possibly do more good than harm for Levy. Yossi Marshek also deserves credit for his sensitively understated portrayal of Benni, Levy’s husband suffering from acute early Alzheimer’s. Yes, when it rains for Orna Levy, it pours.

Whistle, on Shudder

Honestly, no Gen-X’er would ever put their lips on a macabre pre-Columbian artifact they found in a dead classmate’s locker. As for Millennials and Gen Z? Yeah, maybe they would. That’s why the 1980s generation will outlive them all and save our nation. To prove the point, another batch of high school kids inadvertently summon an ancient evil in Corin Hardy’s Whistle, which premieres this Friday on Shudder.

After rattling in the winning basket, Mason “Horse” Raymore burned to death in the showers. Weird, right? Lucky transfer student Chrys Willet, fresh out of rehab, inherits his locker, which dos not sit well with his jerky friend, Dean Jackson. Awkwardly, Willet’s cousin Rel Taylor has long carried a torch for Jackson’s popular girlfriend, Grace Browning, who is duly embarrassed by her boyfriend’s behavior. Perversely, the incident earns them all a session of Breakfast Club-ish detention, along with Ellie Gains, the would-be mediator, for whom Willet immediately starts carrying her own torch.

She also brings the creepy “death-whistle” thingy she found in her locker. Arrogant Mr. Craven recognizes it is a potentially valuable pre-Columbian artifact, so he confiscates it. He also blows through it. Okay, actor Nick Frost is Gen X, but he only did it to test the condition, for re-sale purposes. Our generation is even more enterprising than cautious. Of course, he dies just the same. By that time, Taylor had already stolen it back and brought it to Browning’s cozy pool soiree, since they are all friends now (except Jackson). And what do you think she does?

The nature of the Aztec death demon is somewhat interesting, but for the most part, Whistle plays out like a bland imitation of Bishal Dutta’s vastly superior It Lives Inside, in which a beleaguered teenager also lugs around a demon-bound knick-knack. Unfortunately, Whistle is not nearly as distinctive or scary.

The Terror: Devil in Silver, on AMC+

Don't call Pepper crazy. He is a New Yorker, he is supposed to be intense. Maybe he can be a little too intense at times, but nothing that warrants institutionalization. Yet, that is where he winds up, because of a few lazy civil servants and an evil presence that wanted him there. It is always trickier to be discharged from a mental institution than to be admitted, or at least you would assume so (even though the crazy guy currently screaming on my street might suggest otherwise). However, it is certainly true of the mental institution controlled by a demonic force in showrunners Chris Cantwll & Victor LaValle’ six-episode The Terror: Devil in Silver (the third season of the anthology series that started out as just plain The Terror), which premieres Thursday on AMC+ and Shudder.

Pepper has more swagger than common sense. He also has a temper that kicks in when his live-in girlfriend’s ex gets a little too belligerent. Unfortunately, his adrenaline keeps him fighting when the cops arrive. They should simply book him for the night, but their shift is ending and the paperwork would be exhausting, so they simply dump him in New Hyde Psychiatric Hospital for a 72-hour observation.

Ominously, the 72-hours quickly stretch into weeks, for ostensively specious reasons, but really because “It” wants Pepper there. Clearly, Dr. Anand, the hospital director, grossly abuses his authority. Yet, Pepper’s roommate “Coffee” (they are a better combination than they sound like) assures him the Devil (perhaps even The Devil) truly calls the shots.

Initially, Pepper hatches several escape plans and incites modest rebellions in the tradition of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which one of the doctors condescendingly picks as his book club pick. Yet, the involuntary patient soon recognizes the validity of Coffee’s insight. It is also pretty clear where it lurks: in the forbidden room with the silver door, inhabiting the body of an old man with a baffling reputation for brutal violence.

Mental hospitals make highly effective setting for horror movies (like Bedlam starring Boris Karloff and Shock starring Vincent Price), because the unjustly committed and terrorized truly have no recourse. That is true for Pepper too, even though the film slowly starts to admit he maybe could use some counseling—especially after everything he is about to go through. Regardless, as soon as Pepper enters New Hyde, viewers feel sympathetic claustrophobia.

Indeed, the hospital is massively creepy and depressing. It puts the “institutional” in “institutionalized.” Yet, it is exactly the sort of dysfunctional antiquated institution that continue to limp along in New York, because various regulations and collective bargaining agreements make them impossible to close.

Welfare Warriors, on Viaplay

There is no Scandinavian “efficiency” in this Finnish welfare office. However, there is toxic mold and possibly even a ghost. It would be a grim place to spend eternity, but perhaps a fitting one, considering benefits-seekers feel like it takes forever to talk to a live person. Yet, when their numbers are finally called, the case-workers must spend no more than seven-minutes on their consultation, according to government mandate. Eelis Jarvinen tried to explain his frustration to the office manager, Anneli Tiainen, but when she didn’t listen, he took a header off the building. Until things get better, Jarvinen will keep haunting Tiainen and the rest of his former colleagues, thereby making the current situation even worse in director-co-writer Tiina Lymi’s three-episode Welfare Warriors, which premieres Thursday on Viaplay.

Tiainen feels somewhat guilty for blowing off Jarvinen in his darkest hour, but everyone else in the office has more pressing concerns, like “maintaining the dignity of the civil service” and “preserving the welfare state.” The former certainly won’t be happening in Welfare Warriors.

Soon, Tiainen notices weird and inexplicable phenomenon around the office, but she is too tired to even respond. Out of desperation, she creates six fake dummy corporations to sponsor fake worker training for 2,000 of their toughest fake-job-searching cases. Of course, such massive success gets noticed by the bureaucracy, who devise a more ambitious “hyper-enabling” pilot program, for which Tiainen’s office will be the guinea pigs.

Panicked to cover her tracks, Tiainen enlists the help of Seppo Isomaki, who is keenly aware of each and every one of his entitlements as a unionized civil service employee. Jarvinen also does his Grudge-like business, but Lymi and co-writer Juha Lehtola are almost too preoccupied with bureaucratic politics to notice, at least during the first episode.

Admittedly, the supernatural activity picks up somewhat in the next two installments, but it always takes a backseat to social commentary. While there is an oft-repeated plea to protect the welfare state largesse, some of the acerbic dialogue cuts both ways. Indeed, not one single second of Welfare Warriors inspires confidence in the ultra-privileged Finnish civil service.

That Time I Got Reincarrnated as a Slime the Movie: Tears of the Azure Sea, in Cinema Daily US

The new THAT TIME I GOT REINCARNATED AS A SLIME movie, TEARS OF THE AZURE SEA, features the franchise's most cartoony character, but in an appealignly bittersweet underdog story. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Marshals: Playing with Fire

Lucky Kayce Dutton finally gets a break from the family angst and guilt this episode. Instead, it is Belle Skinner’s turn and as far as Dutton is concerned, she is welcome to it. Of course, everyone caries their past like an albatross in creator Spencer Hudnut’s Marshals so tonight’s installment,  “Playing with Fire” certainly won’t be an exception.

Things were momentarily great. Dutton’s house guest, former SEAL teammate Garrett Garvey was really taking to ranch life and Deputy Marshal Andrea Cruz, who was just cleared to return to duty after her hostage ordeal in “In Low Places.” Then, in a flash, Garvey suffers serious burns and smoke inhalation while saving the horses from an electrical fire in the barn.

Cruz’s first gig back was supposed to be easy. She and Skinner must ride shotgun on a routine prison transfer. You know what that means. One rock slide later, we have fugitives. There was even a convicted doctor on board, but he was truly guilty and he isn’t one of the ones that got away. Instead, he helps treat an injured inmate, who also happens to be a mystery woman from Skinner’s past.

Okay, so one of the escapees also has a connection to Dutton, but who in Montana doesn’t? That will most likely drive the next episode. This time around, Skinner gets all bad family karma, which probably makes this episode the best feature opportunity yet for Arielle Kebbel. Ash Santos also nicely balances her as Cruz, unaccustomedly providing the voice of reason.

Didn’t Die: “Podcasting” the Zombie Apocalypse

If nobody podcasts it, does it really happen? Vinita would say “no,” so she started the zombie apocalypse survival “podcast.” Many of the people still living tell her she’s actually doing a radio show, since she broadcasts it over the airwaves, but she really never knew radio as a medium of mass communication. Having survived the zombie outbreak, she assumes she’s seen it all, but things are about to get even worse, just in time for her 100^th episode in Meera Menon’s Didn’t Die., which is now available on VOD.

Vinita and her little brother Rish have returned to their hometown hoping to stage a townhall-style 100^th episode. However, that means staying with their older brother Hari and his sequin-bedazzling, show tune-singing wife, Barbara. Vinita likes to think she is an expert when it comes to zombie survival, whose tips genuinely help her listeners. In terms of numbers, she doesn’t have many, but if measured as a percent of population, her market penetration is quite healthy.

Unfortunately, the rules are about to change. Zombies used to only attack at night, reverting to a catatonic state during the day. However, Rish insists he was chased by an alert zombie while putting up posters for Vinita’s show. Nobody believes him though, because of his reputation for being a panicky scaredy-cat.

Vinita is also distracted by an awkward reunion with her ex, Vincent. He’s not exactly the last man on Earth, but he’s pretty close. Vincent also hopes to find a home for the infant he found beneath the bodies of her dead parents, who were surprised by day-walking zombies.

Didn’t Die has intermittently amusing moments, but it feels incredibly small for a zombie movie. The principle cast gamely does its best to sell the material, but Menon (who previously helmed an episode of The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead) and her co-screenwriter husband Paul Gleason constantly recycle the same jokes and the same family arguments. Still, Gleason’s black-and-white cinematography serves as a nice homage to Romero’s original Night of the Living Dead.

In Remembrance of Newspaper Strips: Star Hawks

The Force was with this strip, at least for a little while. Soon after fan favorite comic artist Gil Kane and writer Ron Goulart completed their requested proposal for this science fiction continuity strip, the editorial staff came to their senses and backburnered it—until Star Wars released. Suddenly, the syndicate bosses were demanding science fiction, so they dusted it off and put it into production. The resulting strip should have helped return the genre to its former newspaper prominence. Unfortunately, it didn’t, but Kane and Goulart’s Star Hawks was a terrific strip, which we remember today, on the date of its demise (5/2/1981).

There is no denying the bold style of Kane’s art really jumps off the page, thanks to Star Hawks’ unique two-panel format. Unfortunately, that was one of the strip’s greatest drawbacks, because subscribing papers had to give it the space previously allotted to two of its rivals. At the time, when newspapers were relatively healthy, strips were seen as cutthroat competitors. Yet, in retrospect, strips depended on each other to build critical mass. They needed an entire section to be a reader destination. You might flip over to read Peanuts, but while you were there, you’d also check out Garfield and Dick Tracy. That is an advantage that is hard to replicate for webcomics.

Regardless, Kane made the most of the opportunity artistically. Similarly, Goulart never attempted to clone Star Wars (which the syndicate might have preferred). Their strip follows the rollicking adventures of two space cops (somewhat affectionately referred to as “Star Hawks”). Rex Jaxxon is a brooder, because he carries a torch for his boss, tough but sexy Chief Agent Alice K. Benyon. His partner, Sanchez (no first name) thinks he is Heaven’s gift to ladies, which often leads to bar brawls and hasty retreats.

The early story arcs consist of largely self-contained cases. However, once Jaxxon and Benyon become an item, each successive storyline retains connective throughlines. Eventually, the narrative builds to galactic treason and a full-scale alien invasion that produces shockingly tragic results (especially for the medium). Honestly, if you finish the entire run, you will feel like you read a satisfying space opera epic.

It is also features a rambunctious sense of humor. After reading a few weeks, you might inadvertently pick up Sanchez’s exclamations: “Hoy!” and “Zam!” Frankly, only the dreariest of killjoys would deem his roguishness “problematic,” but it definitely gets him into comedic trouble.

Plus, Sniffer, the sarcastic robot dog, earns consistently big laughs by ripping Jaxxon and Sanchez up one side and down another. Weirdly, Sniffer bears a vague resemblance to K9 on Doctor Who, but it should be noted the Doctor’s companion made his first appearance on the show only two days before the strip’s premiere, so he could not have served as a model. Kane’s character design is also more detailed and more doglike.

A Poem for Little People, on OVID.tv

Not every Ukrainian who serves their country wears a uniform. However, the volunteer evacuation teams still very definitely risk their lives. They travel into neighborhoods under bombardment to rescue the elderly and infirm—and their pets too. Filmmaker Ivan Sautkin was one of them. He made this documentary while desperately shuttling his most vulnerable countrymen to relative safety. American paramedic Pete Reed was also part of the team, but he didn’t live to see Sautkin’s film, A Poem for Little People, which is now streaming on OVID.tv.

This is a terrible title, but it comes from a terrific scene, focusing on the elderly Taisia as she reads the blistering poem she wrote (in Russian) for the Russian soldiers committing Putin’s war crimes. She allows them no illusions regarding their illegal dirty business in Ukraine.

Taisia probably isn’t going anywhere because her downstairs crony Zinaida is definitely staying put. She watches the motorway outside her window, calling in every Russian vehicle that passes to the Ukrainian defense force. They are the exceptions to the rule. In most cases, Anton, the team leader, uses grimly accurate language to convince the elderly to leave their homes.

Regardless of the title, Sautkin’s film puts a human face on Putin’s war crimes, over and over and over again. Frankly, the suffering and destruction it documents ought to be more shocking, yet such images have been disseminated quite widely—but people of bad faith keep ignoring them.

First Look ’26: I Fell in Love with a Z-Grade Director in Brooklyn

“Crummy Films” makes Troma look like Merchant-Ivory. It is about the only “studio” that would ever let a weirdo like Jack direct. Naturally, it is in Brooklyn. Legit Japanese movie star Shina Mizuhara is in for a serious case of culture shock when she finds herself stranded in one of the borough’s grungier neighborhoods. “Fortunately” for her, Jack needs an actress and he is in no position to nitpick minor details like English fluency. He doesn’t even know she can act, but, somehow, they click together creatively and perhaps in other ways too in director-screenwriter Kenichi Ugana’s I Fell in Love with a Z-Grade Director in Brooklyn, which screens today as part of MoMI’s First Look 2026.

Mizuhara worked hard to build her stardom, but burnout and entitlement made her toxic on the PR circuit and generally unpleasant to be around. She decided to take a break in New York with her boyfriend Ren, but her churlish behavior finally pushed him to break up with her. She took it badly. Awkwardly, he was still carrying her phone and wallet when she stormed off in a huff.

Fatefully, Mizuhara wandered into Jack’s dive bar. She needs a place to crash and he needs a replacement actress fast or his first film will get canceled before it even starts, so he extorts her to play the lead. Admittedly, it is a jerkweed thing to do, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Of course, Mizuhara has never worked on such a cheap, disreputable run-and-gun movie shoot before, but finds she enjoys the freedom. There also seems to be something percolating between her and Jack, but being an annoying Brooklyn wannabe hipster, he is fully capable of sabotaging it.

Clearly, Ugana conceived the film for the kind of cult movie fans who will be delighted to see Larry Fessenden playing Crummy Movies boss Rusty Festerson. It is not a tribute spoof in the tradition of One Cut of the Dead or Matinee, but it definitely wears its love for schlocky genre movies on its sleeve.

It is also a rather endearing rom-com for people who don’t ordinarily watch rom-coms, even though there is a great charm imbalance between the winning Ui Muhara and the relentlessly annoying Estevan Munoz, as Shina and Jack, respectively. Muhara portrays Mizuhara’s maturation and growth with sensitivity and credibility, whereas Jack’s motormouth mania induces more cringe than laughter.

Initials S.G., on OVID.tv

Sergio Garces always believed his fate was intertwined with that of Argentina’s national football team. If you have seen The Two Popes, you know how the 2014 World Cup turns out. True to form, his life takes a dark turn around the time of the final game. Garces blames fate, but frankly he has it coming in director-screenwriters Rania Attieh & Daniel A. Garcia’s Initials S.G., which premieres today on OVID.tv.

Gacres once aspired to be the Argentine Serge Gainsbourg, but he just became a nasty creep. Initials clearly do not make the man. His only real success came in dirty movies, but he keeps plugging away as an extra in legit films. This year, he fleetingly appears in over two dozen titles screening at a local film festival.

Through the fest, Garces meets Jane, an American scouting films for a distributor. He is the wrong man in every conceivable way, which is why she is so interested. Yet, he still does his best to push her away with his boorish behavior. Nevertheless, Garces will need her help when the third act takes a sudden violent detour.

Clearly, Attieh & Garcia just never knew when to quit when writing and directing this film. They deserve perverse credit for never watering down their characters, but it leads to credibility issues. Garces is so abrasively sleazy, it is hard to believe anyone could endure thirty seconds in his company.

Casa Grande, in The Epoch Times

CASA GRANDE is not YELLOWSTONE. It is much more ideologically charged than the popular franchise, in ways some fans might not appreciate. However, it has a healthy appreciation of traditional ranching life and a great villain in Lou Diamond Phillips. EPOCH TIMES review up here. 

Widow’s Bay, on Apple TV+

Islanders are supposed to be tight-knit and stick together, but the locals on this island off the New England coast must take it to ridiculous extremes. Those who were born on the island must never leave the island—ever. Yet, Widow’s Bay also has a macabre history of serial killers and mysteriously deadly accidents. It seems like their doomed either way in creator Katie Dippold’s ten-episode horror-comedy Widow’s Bay, which premieres today on Apple TV+.

Tom Loftis was elected mayor, even though he is considered an outsider. He was born on the mainland, but visited his father on Widow’s Bay for the summers. (His mother once spent a very fateful vacation there herself.) Loftis has heard all about the curse business, but he refuses to believe it, except maybe deep down he does. After all, he has never let his obnoxious son Evan visit the outside world. Nevertheless, he is determined to save the local economy by turning Widow’s Bay into the next Martha’s Vineyard.

Wyck is a local fisherman who has lived in Widow’s Bay long enough to know Lofttis’s plan is a terrible idea and he is onery enough to challenge the mayor, loudly and often. Wyck oobviously understands Loftis’s weaknesses, but he shows more respect than Sheriff Bechir, a contemptuous mainlander nearing the end of his contract. City Hall staff, like the mousy, poorly-socialized Patricia, generally humor Loftis, but deep down they mostly agree with Wyck.

Like it or not, Loftis will have to admit the truth after a series of supernatural incidents, including encounters with the ghost of a Gacy-like serial killer and a spectral “Sea Hag.” Despite its comedy-hybrid classification, Dippold manages to incorporate all kinds of horror staples, even including a masked Michael Meyers-inspired slasher, who seems to impossible to kill. The series initially borrows heavily from The Fog and Stephen King’s Storm of the Century, but it adds plenty distinctive nightmares of its own.

In fact, the horror elements work better than a lot of the comedy, which is highly reliant on public humiliation and the cringe factor. Frankly, the best comedic bits are those that embrace the surreal. Regardless, series directors Hiro Murai, Ti West, Andrw DeYoung, and Samuel Donovan achieve a consistently eerie atmosphere, while Dippold creates some seriously creepy lore.

In Remembrance of Newspaper Strips: Beyond Mars

Jack Williamson was a man who truly spanned eras. While an infant, his parents brought him to New Mexico on a covered wagon. Yet, as a science fiction writer, he is widely acknowledged for coining the terms “genetic engineering” and “terraforming.” He also did something that was once considered cutting-edge, but is now seen as sadly old-fashioned. He wrote a science fiction continuity newspaper comic strip. Regrettably, this art form is dying, but not from artistic failures, but because of the implosion of their distribution method—newspapers. It is a shame, so let’s take stock of some of the best that once were, starting with Williamson’s Beyond Mars on the day his 118th birthday.

Thanks to antimatter, humanity now mines the asteroids beyond Mars, but it is hard work, for hard men, like prospector and pilot-for-hire Mike Flynt. However, if you happen to be a pretty Earthling woman who finds herself in trouble out in the asteroid belt, Flynt is the man you need to see. It happens more frequently than you’d think—or maybe not.

Flynt is part of the hardscrabble generation that grew up on Brooklyn Rock, never really knowing Earth. He still lives with his doting mother and works with Sam Smith, a snake-like Venusian, who eats metal. Obviously, Smith can be quite a handy prospecting partner. He also has a lisp, because he learned English from an Earther with a speech impediment. Consequently, he is often referred to as Tham Thmith. That is probably the one aspect of Beyond Mars that has not aged well.

Regardless, Lee Elias’s art is quite distinctive. His women look like 1950s fashion models and his rakishly mustached villains could pass for Errol Flynn in his prime. Plus, his space ships and astronomical art capture the wonder of the Golden Age of science fiction. However, Smith and Jimikin, the wild space boy, look very cartoony. Yet, instead of clashing, this mixture of styles makes Beyond Mars wonderfully distinctive.

Williamson also had a talent for advancing his storylines at a pleasantly brisk speed. Initially, he had the advantage off writing for a full Sunday page, so he could include a quick recap box in the top lefthand corner. Yet, he maintained the pace even when the strip was cut back to a half page.

In fact, it is impressive how well his storylines still hold up. It was set in the universe of Williamson’s Seetee Ship novels, so he already had social and scientific frameworks in place. Admittedly, it is unlikely Smith could hail from Venus, but readers can easily substitute a fictional planet in their heads. Regardless, over seventy years later, there are very few fictional aliens who directly compare to him. There is also a working-class, family-values vibe to Brooklyn Rock that is quite appealing.

Hot Docs ’26: A War on Women

Here is an incovenient but telling truth for your consideration. When the Islamist Ruhollah Khomeini first launched his revolution against the Shah in 1963, he wasn’t motivated by corruption or the SAVAK secret police. He was outraged by the Shah’s decision to grant women the right to vote. Yet, Jimmy Carter believed Iran would better served with Khomeini as its ruler. Most Iranian women knew better. By now, most of the Iranian men agree. However, for decades, women were in the vanguard of the Iranian resistance movement. Iranian filmmaker Raha Shirazi and several leading Iranian women dissidents take stock of the rights they lost after the Islamic Revolution and their long continuing campaign to win them back in her documentary A War on Women, which screens again after its premiere at this year’s Hot Docs festival.

During the Shah’s reign, women’s rights were steadily improving. They could dress however they pleased and could pursue their education as far as their talents allowed. They could also sing and dance in public and show their hair, without fear of acid attacks. Mahnaz Afkhami knows this better than anyone, because she was Minister for Women’s Affairs in the 1978 government. As she explains, she was in New York forming a United Nation’s subsidiary devoted to women’s rights when the Shah fell. For her own safety, she never returned home.

Indeed, Shirazi assembled a small but powerful cast of expert witnesses, who testify first-hand regarding the systematic oppression of women by the current Iranian regime. Several have paid dearly for their free-thinking, such as Elahe Tavakolian, who was blinded in one eye when the Iranian “Morality Police” shot her during a “Woman, Life, Freedom” protest.

Likewise, Shaparak Shajarizadeh became an international online cause celeb after she was arrested for removing her headscarf. Journalist Masih Alinejad and actress Golshifteh Farhani (formerly considered the rough equivalent of Iran’s “sweetheart”) movingly discuss the pain of exile and the deep, gnawing fear for loved ones left behind.

After watching the women’s harrowing and heartbreaking testimony elicited by Shirazi, any morally tone-deaf ideologue who protested on behalf of the Iranian regime should feel profound shame and stomach-churning embarrassment. Regardless, of your opinions of Trump’s management of the military conflict, it is clear the Iranian people would be much better off without their current oppressors.

The Lost Boys, on Broadway

We all know what you’re wondering: yes, there is a shirtless sax player. However, he serves more as a comedic reference to Joel Schumacher’s classic 1987 film than as a worthy successor to Tim Cappello’s saxophone chops and body oil. Yet, his presence shows the creative team (including co-lead producer Patrick Wilson of the Insidious franchise) understood the film’s enduring appeal. Indeed, Santa Carla remains as vampire-infested as ever in The Lost Boys, directed by Michael Arden, which officially opened last night on Broadway.

The stage signage announces the year is 1987, at which point the audience will explode in applause, because the 80’s were awesome. Schumacher’s The Lost Boys film was another perfect example. Finally leaving her abusive husband, Lucy Emerson packed up her stuff and her sons, the older Michael and younger Sam, moving to Santa Clara, where she inherited her father’s house. Yes, that’s right, Grandpa (Barnard Hughes in the movie) is already dead. That doesn’t bode well for the family’s general survival—and obviously someone else must presumably deliver the film’s unforgettable final line.

Both brothers are happy to be rid of their father, but are skeptical of Santa Clara—with good reason, judging from all the missing children’s posters. However, Michael immediately warms to the town when he meets Star, a pretty vocalist, whose relationships with her biker bandmates and running mates are clearly strained.

As the self-proclaimed vampire hunters, the Frog Brothers soon explain to Sam, their fellow geek, Santa Clara is a hotbed of vampire activity. Star happens to be recently turned, but she still refuses to kill and feed on humans. Clearly, she also likes Michael, so David turns him too, in hopes that they both will accept the predatory realities of vampire existence together. David is indeed the leader of the biker gang, but not necessarily the vampire-prime, who created the Santa Clara clan.

As predictable as the rising sun, book writers David Hornsby and Chris Hoch had to make changes with a screenplay so successful that it spawned two straight-to-DVD sequels, multiple comic book sequels, and this Broadway musical, so they could “put their stamp” on the beloved property. Yet, their original deviations represent the show’s weakest elements. Perhaps their oddest innovation was reconceiving the Frog Brothers (Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander in the original) as an apparent boy and girl, who still insist on calling themselves the “Frog Brothers.” Yet, with no explanation provided and no clearcut gender-identity messaging, it just leads to needless moments of confusion, for both characters on-stage and the audience alike.

Likewise, the Reagan jokes fall flat. Again, this is rather ill-advised on the part of Hornsby and Hoch, since the bedrock audience for The Lost Boys grew up in the 1980s and subsequently judged every successive President against the standard he set.

However, the musical and technical craftmanship devoted to the production is extraordinarily impressive. The sets and special effects truly deliver the bang for your Broadway buck. In fact, Arden and his tech team brilliantly recreate the bridge scene from the movie. Arguably, this production ranks with the spectacle of the King Kong and Spider-Man shows. (Unfortunately, one of the preview performances, on which this review is based, experienced technical difficulties, somewhat like those that plagued the latter production, which resulted in an extra ten-minute break—but the eye-popping visuals were worth the wait.)