Backrooms, FYC and on BluRay

2026 could be remembered as the year of liminal spaces thanks to films like Exit 8 and The Last House. This one was the most successful. Perhaps the beleaguered commuter in Exit 8 would have been willing to trade places with the confused people who walk through the cut-rate furniture store’s portal, because at least the scenery changes. However, something dangerous apparently lurks in Kane Parsons’ Backrooms, which has a legit consumer BluRay release this Tuesday (and a FYC campaign underway for awards consideration).

Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire is a depressing place to work, but Clark also lives there after his bitter divorce. His electric bill is ridiculously high, for reasons his electrician cannot fathom. Presumably, it has something to do with the portal he stumbles through one day.

On the other side of a non-descript wall, he finds a labyrinth of corridors and utility spaces, filled with random piles of furniture and junk. The experience initially leaves him so agitated, his shrink, Dr. Mary Kline, grows concerned for his well-being. Determined to show her proof of his outlandish claims, Clark recruits two of his employees, Kat Taylor and Bobby Franklin, to follow him into the liminal space.

Their expedition goes badly. Consequently, Dr. Kline ventures out to the Ottoman Empire, where she too falls into the backroom space. In the process, Kline encounters some truly surreal Escher-like antechambers in the secret “backroom” dimension, unlike the endless drab corridor of Exit 8¸ but that does not make it any safer.

Although Backrooms was a bigger hit, Exit 8 is the scarier, more intense film. Frankly, the “Walking Man” is creepier than anyone or anything in Backrooms. In fact, the big third act “monster” is downright silly looking. Also, the shadowy role played the Async corporation simply regurgitates tired shopworn cliches.

Still, Chiwetel Ejiofor is terrific as Clark, harrowingly depicting his loss of bearings and his loss of sanity. This is definitely one of the better genre performances of the year. The art and set design of the “backroom” space is also terrific. Reportedly crew would actually get lost in the labyrinthine sets, which is easy to believe, from what we see in the film. It is visually impressive, but it deflates down the stretch.

DOC NYC ’26: And Damn, He Could Play

He was one of those cats who played on a ton of records you know: Motown, Ray Charles, B.B. King, Joe Cocker, etc. Yet, for jazz fans, the ranks of students he taught and inspired is even more impressive. In this documentary profile, musician after musician call him a “musician’s musician” and they would know. The late Marcus Belgrave finally gets an overdue ovation in Timashion Jones’ And Damn, He Could Play: The Marcus Belgrave Story, which screens again today during DOC NYC.

Belgrave first learned the trumpet because of his father, but in many other respects, their relationship was quite difficult. Unfortunately, Jones clearly but diplomatically suggests this became a recurring theme in Belgrave’s life, with his own children. Touring was partly to blame. When Belgrave first hit the road with Ray Charles’ band, those southern swings were brutal. That is one of the reasons Belgrave eventually settled down in Detroit.

Detroit was not New York, but it had a reputation as a musical city. Notably, Motown regularly hired Belgrave for work during its hit-making peak. It was there that Belgrave also co-founded the AACM-like musical collective The Tribe. You better believe it, because one of Jones’s experts on the Detroit scene is none other than Ray Parker Jr.

In Detroit, Belgrave also embraced his new teaching role, as a way to give back to his adopted community. His alumni truly represent an honor roll of musicians who greatly shaped jazz in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, including Kenny Garrett, James Carter, Regina Carter, Robert Hurst, Theo Croker, and the late (still so tragically hard to believe) Geri Allen. Belgrave further helped mold late 20^th Century jazz as one of the veterans Wynton Marsalis recruited to launch the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.

Paging Hezbollah: Documenting Tactical Brilliance

The 1983 Hezbollah bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut was the largest loss of American servicemen lives in one day, since Iwo Jima. Tht means it was worse than any single day during the Korean or Vietnam Wars. Consequently, nobody can say Americans do not have a stake in Israel’s war against Hezbollah. Fortunately for the civilized world, Israel has waged that war with inspired creativity and deception. Honestly, those exploding pagers ought to rank up near the original Trojan Horse in the history of covert operations. Several veterans of the Israeli military and intelligence services explain how they pulled it off in Justin Folk’s documentary, Paging Hezbollah, which is currently screening nightly in Brooklyn.

It didn’t start with October 7^th. For years, Hezbollah systematically devastated Lebanon, using it as a base of operations against Israel. Folk and his on-camera experts rewind to provide viewers all the historical context the media usually ignores. The PLO initially destabilized Lebanon, moving into the once prosperous nation, after Jordan evicted them. The PLO subsequently precipitated a civil war, plunging Lebanon into chaos, making it a natural home for terrorist factions, lie Hezbollah.

Israel had occupied a security zone in Lebanon, to protect Galilee from bombardment, but they unilaterally withdrew. That worked out about as well for Israeli security as granting Gaza independent autonomy. Not surprisingly, Hezbollah promptly occupied Israel’s former battlements, turning them into rocket launching sites. Consequently, Israel’s greatest fear during 10/7 was a simultaneous invasion from the north. Fortunately, Hezbollah was not prepared at the time, but they immediately stepped-up rocket attacks after 10/7—launching over 12,400 projectiles in a mere one-year span. Hence, Israel had to deal with Hezbollah, sooner, rather than later.

The pager plan was brilliant from technical, logistical, and even marketing standpoints. The Mossad actually created shell companies to sell electronics into the Middle East, for whom they produced online commercials for their “tough” pagers. According to the campaign, they were dust-proof and water-proof making them for the modern active terrorist. (Fearing Israel’s electronic surveillance, Hezbollah terror boss Hassan Nasrallah prohibited cellphone use, in favor of devices like pagers, which do not emit signals.)

As fate would have it, the pagers were plan B. The Mossad first tried to deploy exploding walkies, but they largely sat unused until a major terror attack. However, those walkies were already in place after the successful pager counter-attack, to serve as Hezbollah’s fallback.

The true brilliance of the pager plan is its extremely targeted nature. The explosives were calibrated to wound rather than kill. The idea was to minimize collateral damage and prevent martyrdom. However, they successfully exposed the upper ranks of Hezbollah, removing them from the field and crippling their lines of communication.

Confession, on The Daily Wire

During the Purges of 1930s, the Soviet legal system pursued propaganda and spectacle rather than justice. Admissions of guilt were extremely valuable, because they meant the accused participated in their own destruction. When that happened, it constituted the ultimate denial of their individuality. Ironically, some innocent victims confessed for ideological reasons, because they remained true believers in Communism, as in Koestler’s Darkness at Noon, a clear influence on this film. However, if [former] Professor Alexei Abramov confesses, it will be for very different motives in Vaclav Marhoul’s Confession, written by Ben Shapiro, which is now streaming on The Daily Wire.

Abramov was already a wreck before his arrest. Transferred from his university to a lowly transportation ministry post, Abramov lost his prestige, apartment, and his wife and son. He drinks heavily, even sipping spilled vodka off the floor. He should be easy to break, especially when he recognizes his interrogator.

Lt. Vladimir was once one of Abramov’s brightest students. Obviously, their lives have diverged drastically. It soon becomes clear Abramov also harbors guilt regarding his behavior during their years together at the university. Nevertheless, when Vladimir demands a condemnation of Father Nikolai Mikulski, the former university chaplain, Abramov resists—tenaciously.

Thus commences a cat-and-mouse game, fought with quotations from great Russian literature, especially Dostoevsky, whose “Grand Inquisitor” (from The Brothers Karamazov) becomes a thematically fitting reference point. Of course, Vladimir seems to have all the advantages. He can summon Abramov’s estranged wife and son, for the sake of guilt and humiliation. The Lieutenant can also physically escalate with impunity. Yet, Abramov will not break.

The professor also gets quite an education in his cell, especially from Aleksandr, a former apparatchik, who was purged because his surname sounded too Jewish, and too much like “Trotsky.” In a way, Aleksandr stoically accepts his fate, as the karmic retribution for the horrors he perpetrated during the Ukrainian Holodomor genocide, as he explains in harrowing detail.

There is no question Koestler was a source of inspiration for Shapiro, but Abramov’s story zigs and zags in very different ways. Nevertheless, Abramov remains confined to the cramped spaces of the Lubyanka prison, but Marhoul makes a virtue of necessity, emphasizing the claustrophobia and deliberately disorienting conditions of the Cheka/NKVD prison.

It is a shame most “critics” will ignore or dismiss Confession because they disagree with Shapiro’s politics. Such pettiness will be especially disingenuous, considering the acclaim for Marhoul’s previous film, The Painted Bird, which was Czechia’s official International Oscar submission and the toast of the Venice Film Festival.

Dead of Night, Staring Dermot Mulroney

How many murders can a psycho killer commit a town like Elmwood Heights, before the Sherrif calls in the FBI, or at least the state bureau of investigation? Apparently, at least a half dozen and counting. Nevertheless, the Sheriff isn’t the town’s biggest problem. He’s not even top five. Of course, the slasher is their most pressing problem, but the corrupt mayor isn’t helping much in Derek Sulek’s Dead of Night, which opens today in theaters.

Mayor Mitchell’s daughter is the first victim, and boy oh boy, her father, the former mayor, is not having it. Apparently, he wants Sheriff Weaver to form posses and go house-to-house, or something even more draconian. Weaver would rather use investigative tools to find the murderer, but neither the mayors or the media will give him much time.

Not surprisingly, the pressure on Weaver escalates as the bodies start to pile up. Awkwardly, the demon-mask killer enjoys targeting high-profile victims, like a Sheriff’s deputy and members of the Mayor’s family. Clearly, the killer is also stalking Weaver’s daughter Kelly, but she is more resourceful than the other teens getting sliced and diced.

Although clearly intended as a Scream rip-off, right down to the casting of Dermot Mulroney as Sheriff Weaver, Sulek & Eric Durham’s screenplay entirely lacks the wit of the Neve Campbell franchise. Frankly, Dead of Night comes up short in many departments, but, weirdly, it is #1 when it comes to its love for Boone: The Bounty Hunter, which is so prominently depicted in signage and displays during a video store mass murder scene, the star, John Hennigan, even gets a credit.

Snoopy Presents: 12 Days of Snoopy, on Apple TV+

The network initially predicted A Charlie Brown Christmas would be a disaster, because it was too jazzy and too religious. Instead, it became a timeless classic. It also reflected the faith of Peanuts Charles M. Shulz, who had simultaneously penned the Christian-themed Young Pillars comic strip, about teens coming of age, during the early 1960s. The latest Peanuts Christmas special evokes the vibe of Vince Guaraldi’s classic jazz score, but it chickens out when it comes to recreating Linus’s arresting re-telling of the first Christmas. Nevertheless, for fans and families alike, Peanuts and Christmas still go together like milk and Christmas cookies in Snoopy Presents: 12 Days of Snoopy, which premieres tomorrow on Apple TV+.

Is Snoopy a good dog or a bad dog? If he were a D&D character, he would be “chaotic good.” Evidently, that isn’t good enough for Santa anymore, because the North Pole communications department officially notifies Snoopy that he is on the naughty list.

Snoopy has twelve days to act virtuous to remove his naughty designation. Charlie Brown and his sister Sally do their best to coach Snoopy, but the beagle just cannot help causing chaos. It’s simply in his nature. Consequently, Charlie Brown tries to work odd jobs to earn money to buy Snoopy a present, but he just can’t get a break. That’s just who he is.

12 12 12, on Apple TV+

The amount of work Paul Galvin puts into a heist ought to scare a lot of kids straight, but that is what his business requires. According to his nemesis at the FBI, Jack Strickland: “a high asset robbery, professionally conceived, is twelve months in planning, twelve hours in execution. A bank robber who is not caught within twelve days, is not caught at all.” Hence this series’ title and the three separate time-frames it constantly intercuts. Hoowever, Galvin’s brother Bobby is more of a smash-and-grabber. That leads to friction in co-creators Dudi Appleton & Jim Keeble’s eight-episode 12 12 12, which starts streaming tomorrow on Apple TV+.

Frankly, this job is all Bobby Galvin’s fault. He fell so deeply into debt with the underworld, Bazan, the French crime boss, forced him to recruit his brother for one final score. As jobs go, it couldn’t be riskier. Thanks to looming reforms, Swiss bank accounts will no longer be completely anonymous. However, the same old Swiss discretion still applies to Swiss safety deposit boxes, so the Russian mafia plans to cash out their accounts and park the cash in rented vault space. The Galvins must steal that cash.

Meanwhile, Strickland has tracked the Galvin Brothers to Europe, at great expense to his formerly fast-tracked career. Strickland nearly had the Galvins in Newark, but his partner was gunned down during their incredibly messy getaway. Awkwardly, she also happened to be his romantic partner, and his boss’s wife. Ever since, he has blamed Billy Galvin for the execution-style death. Of course, viewers will probably guess he is half right.

According to their concept, Appleton and Keeble constantly skip forward and backwards, as they unfold their planning, implementation, and getaway narratives. The gimmick is always very conspicuous, but it still works surprisingly well. Arguably, it adds considerable intrigue to the caper, which maybe would not seem so notable otherwise.

Anthony Mackie also elevates the drama as the self-destructively edgy Special Agent Strickland. He undeniably adds a major element of unpredictability. Conversely, the angsty sibling love-hate relationship quickly grows tiresome. Still, Jack Kesy (the latest Hellboy) is memorably ferocious as thuggish Bobby. Jamie Dornan tries to take Paul in the opposite, slow-burning direction, but he cannot compete with Mackie, in that respect.

Unfortunately, the Galvins’ eclectic team of co-conspirators are not as colorful as they ought to be. Only Jose Garcia and Kali Reis standout as Brother Paul’s grizzled step-father (who conveniently happens to be a mine-tunnelling expert) and the punky train expert he recruits. The only other character who registers to any extent is the ruthless Bazan, portrayed by Jeanne Balibar.

Kid Koala’s Space Cadet

Good authors are often imitated. Ray Bradbury was a great author, who is still getting ripped-off over ten years after his death. It has already happened twice this year. Ostensibly, Klara and the Sun was adapted from a Kazuo Ishiguro novel and this film is based on the director’s graphic novel, but both are heavily “indebted” to Bradbury’s story “I Sing the Body Electric,” which was already adapted as a Twilight Zone episode in 1962. To his credit Kid Koala (a.k.a. Eric San) also adds an interesting space-faring adventure in Space Cadet, which opens this Friday in theaters.

Tragically, astronaut Stella Astridia died during a mission, but her daughter Celeste was not left alone. She has largely been raised by her unnamed guardian robot, who bears a slight resemblance to Rosie on the Jetsons. Celeste’s guardian does not talk much. Technically, nobody does, because Space Cadet is entirely dialogue-free. However, we can tell from her memory banks just how much she cares about young Astridia.

Eventually, Astridia graduates from the academy and leaves on her first 6-month mission to explore strange new worlds, but it takes an unexpectedly dangerous turn. Meanwhile, Celeste’s guardian misses her dearly. Unfortunately, he aging tech also starts catching up with her.

It is more than safe to say Space Cadet greatly parallels the Bradbury story. Nevertheless, it is still incredibly touching. The lack of dialogue gives it a Tati-esque poignancy that is quite arresting. Yet, Astridia’s misadventures in space are also surprisingly surreal. Consequently, Space Cadet represents a much larger canvas than other films that “build” on “Body Electric,” including the acutely sensitive Robot and Frank.

Frog Fathers: Lessons from the Normandy Surf

If it weren't for them, D-Day might have been known as V-A Day, as in “Victory over the Allies.” The “Frogmen” of the Navy Combat Demolition Unit (NCDU), the forerunners to the SEALs, were responsible for opening paths on the Normandy beaches for tanks to land. Without those tanks, none of the soldiers that successfully landed would have stood a snowball’s chance. Four Navy SEALs pay tribute to their NCDU predecessors in director-editor-cinematographer Bob Whitney’s Frog Fathers: Lessons from the Normandy Surf, which releases today on VOD.

Truly, the events at Normandy are like a historical onion. It seems like you can always peel back another layer to learn something new about that extraordinary day. Such is the case for four retired SEALs, Steve “Gonzo” Gonzalez, Cory Zillig, James Papineau, and Ricky Brown.

In some ways, the quartet engages in a pilgrimage, visiting the hallowed sites of D-Day and diving amid the offshore wreckage that never made it to the beaches. Each SEAL chose a NCDU warrior, who was confirmed KIA at Normandy, to tell their stories, and keep their memories alive. Of course, this comes with the heavy realization that they were previously standing in the very locations where their chosen NCDU’s fell in battle.

Even for the experienced combat veterans, the stark realities of D-Day are downright harrowing to contemplate. Due to the near complete failure of the aerial and naval bombardments, it was entirely up to the NCDU to clear the obstacles and battlements, so the landing could proceed. As the SEALs recognize, their entire operation had to be conducted within a so-called “kill zone.” To further put that day in perspective, one of the SEALs’ historical guides explains that most of the German bunkers were not destroyed. They were abandoned, because the gunners ran out of ammunition.

Frog Fathers 2: Last Battle of the Pacific

Navy SEALs took out bin Laden, but during many of the early missions conducted by their predecessors, the “Frogmen” of the Navy Combat Demolition Unit (NCDU), they were unable to return fire. Instead, the demolitionaires were busy hacking away at their primary targets: the coral reefs blocking the amphibious landings of the Island-Hopping campaigns. Decades later, four retired special operators from multiple service branches return to rebuild the same reefs in director-editor-cinematographer Bob Whitney’s Frog Fathers: Last Battle of the Pacific, which releases today on VOD.

As in Lessons from the Normandy Surf, the film features a core group of veterans active with Force Blue, a non-profit that repurposes veteran special operators’ aquatic skills for marine conservation projects. Although the central quartet of Lessons from the Normandy Surf dived around the Normandy shore, as an act of remembrance, the vets in Last Battle have a specific mission off the coast of Okinawa. Nobody blames the NDCU for destroying the coral reefs. In fact, they all agree it had to be done. However, they can now rebuild the reefs, as part of a general healing process.

Indeed, the film’s four central veterans all give their NCDU predecessors ample credit for operating under far worse everyday conditions then they experienced during their service. For this film, retired SEALs Adam Wright and Bear Handlon are joined by retired Green Beret Dan Henderson and retired Marine Recon Rudy Reyes, whom many viewers might recognize as one of the staff on Fox’s Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test. Once again, they dive under the guidance of the film’s director of diving operations, Navy veteran Angelo Fiore (who also appears in Normandy Surf). Plus, retired SEAL Steve “Gonzo” Gonzalez returns in the off-camera role of assistant director.

There are considerably more underwater sequences in Last Battle, which will appeal to some viewers. However, while though the second film is about fifteen minutes longer, it is slightly less focused. Nevertheless, there are plenty of lessons to learn from Frog Fathers 2, particularly with respects to the Pacific Theater. Several surviving WWII veterans explain how daunting it was to face an enemy that stigmatized surrender.

Chimney Town: Frozen in Time, on ANA

Lubicci remains an orphan, but he is now a respected member of society, thanks to his efforts bringing down Chimney Town’s dystopian regime. Nevertheless, he is still a sad orphan, because he continues to mourn the loss of his friend, Poupelle, the magical junk man. Lubicci’s grief indirectly leads to his next adventure in Yusuke Hirota’s Chimney Town: Frozen in Time, the sequel to Poupelle of Chimney Town, which currently screens on ANA’s in-flight entertainment system.

For a year, Lubicci tried to rebuild Poupelle, but to no avail. Admittedly, the waifish but popular chimney sweep has plenty of friends now, but he cannot help missing Poupelle. Naturally, when a mouse snatches the bracelet that served as Poupelle’s heart, Lubicci gives chase, right through a portal to the realm of the Millennium Fortress.

Much to their mutual shock, Lubicci finds himself in a boat with a messenger cat he eventually dubs “Fluff,” who is delivering the soul-like clock of a newborn to the Fortress, for safekeeping. (To give you an idea of Fluff’s grumpy personality, it is easy to anticipate either Awkwafina or Natasha Lyonne voicing her for a potential English dub.) As long as the clocks keep ticking, the people they represent keep on kicking. Yet, ironically, the Fortress has its own timekeeping problem. The master-clock above the fortress has frozen, leaving everyone below confused as to the accurate time.

Consequently, the fortress’s ruler offers Lubicci a deal. If he can fix the clock, she will return him to Chimney Town. Of course, most clockmakers are intimidated by such a public repair job. Lubicci will have to recruit two brilliant but wildly eccentric outcasts. Yet, the problem runs even deeper, harkening back to the star-crossed romance Hirota and screenwriter Akihiro Nishino slowly reveal through flashbacks.

Initially, Frozen in Time seems so different from Poupelle of Chimney Town, it will throw fans of the original sleeper hit. However, they need to stick with it. Hirota and Nishino bring all their deceptively disparate elements together rather brilliantly. When they do, iIt all packs a staggering emotional wallop, especially for viewers who adored the first film.

Doraemon: Nobita’s Art World Tales, on ANA

As a feline robot from the future, with a documented 1,963 retro-high-tech gadgets, Doraemon can teach Nobita a lot about science. Yet, he also encourages the young Japanese boy’s interest in art. Inadvertently, that leads to trouble in Doraemon: Nobita’s Art World Tales, the 44^th Doraemon movie, released during Doraemon’s 45^th anniversary celebration, which currently screens on ANA’s in-flight entertainment system.

Essentially, Doraemon is sort of a cat-lover’s Mr. Peabody, who decided to travel back from the future to look after Nobita, a rather average Japanese boy. They have gone through a lot over the last 45 years, but Nobita hasn’t aged a day.

Seeking inspiration for their art class assignments, Nobita and his pals have been using the “Entering Light” to transport themselves inside paintings. Then one day, a hole in the space-time continuum opens up right above Nobita, dropping a mysterious painting on him. Presumably, it is related to the rift that swept away Princess Claire in the prologue.

Regardless, Nobita’s painting appears related to the mysterious Arturian painting reported on the evening news. Believed to be a relic of a lost ancient civilization, the painting creates quite a stir, because of its unearthly shade of “Arturian blue.” When Doraemon and Nobita use their light to explore the painting, Princess Claire stumbles out of the exit portal.

When Nobita and his friends find Claire wandering the streets of Tokyo, they offer to help her return home, via the Entering Light. Of course, it isn’t that simple. Once they reunite Claire with her childhood friend Milo (or Mairo), she learns she has been missing for four years.

Although the king and queen are thrilled and relieved by Claire safe return, a conspiracy is clearly afoot. Paintings have been stolen from the castle and the newly reinstated Princess soon discovers an impostor has usurped her place. She needs Nobita and Doraemon to expose the culprit.

Although Doraemon is well-known among American anime fans, his popularity here has yet to reach the levels of other anime franchises, which is a little weird. He is enormously cute, in a Garfield kind of way, while his adventures are more complex than you might expect. Frankly, Nobita’s Art World Tales will have your head-spinning with all its time-travel, worm-holes, and other mind-bending elements. Plus, there is a dragon. Arguably, the film’s tone is similar to the average Scooby-Doo movie, but somewhat more sophisticated.

Forged by War: The Navy SEALs, on History

The Navy SEALs are most renowned for their successful operation taking out bin Laden. Yet, they have completed thousands of missions that military experts consider far more dangerous and complex. But still, bid Laden was a big one. To commemorate Veterans’ Day, History [Channel] chronicles the SEALs’ history, from their roots in the Navy’s WWII-era Underwater Demolition Teams (UDTs) through their triumph at Abbottabad in Forged by War: The Navy SEALs, written and produced by Zachary G. Behr, which premieres this Wednesday.

Naturally, Forged by War starts with the raid on Abbottabad, but it rewinds to WWII after the opening credits roll. The UDT was a new innovation, created just in time to get an incredible amount of work. It was the UDT who cleared the mines from eight out of the twelve possible Normandy beach landing sites, armed only with knives (because water-proof ammunition had not yet been developed).

After the Korean War, the American military shrank to dangerous levels. However, JFK saw value in small, agile, elite units, so he supported the development of special operations units, as we now know them. Frankly, the Navy SEALs were enormously effective (and feared) during the Vietnam War. However, funding and resources for special ops were again drastically slashed after the American pull-out (because politicians never learn from history), which many of the on-camera commentators partially blame for the disastrous Operation Eagle Claw Iranian hostage rescue operation.

Eventually SEAL Team Six was created to conduct exactly that kind of mission. Giving credit where it is due, Forged in War explains the formative role played by late Commander Richard Marcinko (who went on to become a controversial author and media personality) shaping the unit’s ethos. In fact, Marcinko is a prominent presence, through archival footage.

Indeed, Forged in War features an impressive cast of experts, including retired SEALs Howard Wasdin and Rick Kaiser, who were both awarded Silver Stars for their valor during the Battle of Mogadishu. Other notable participants include Rep. Ryan Zinke (a retired SEAL), former CIA director Leon Panetta, Mark Bowden (author of Black Hawk Down), and commercial shipping Captain Richard Phillips, who was the subject of the Tom Hanks movie.

The Awakening, from Colombia

There is a new horror sub-sub-genre: “imperialist”-eating monsters. Yet, like most forms of extremist activism, they tend to do more harm to the locals they supposedly protect than the outsiders that are supposedly encroaching. So far, Beware Boiuna is probably the best of the lot. This one of rather middling—pretty much in all ways (but better than Shaman). An elite unit launches a special op deep in the Colombian jungle. You can guess what comes next in director-screenwriter Jaime Osorio Marquez’s The Awakening, which releases this Tuesday on VOD.

Sadly, Marquez died in 2021, before the production wrapped, so co-screenwriter Federico Duran and producer Jose Luis Rugeles eventually finished the film, as best they could, while striving to reflect Marquez’s intentions. Their efforts yielded a coherent, marketable film, so hats off to them, but Marquez’s previous films are probably better representative of his talents.

Regardless, the set-up feels very familiar. Corporal Rojas’s unit has orders to penetrate into “the Heart of Darkness” to terminate a notorious Kurtz-like terrorist. Of course, they assume they are the hunters, but they are really being stalked by a race of ancient monsters.

Indeed, they have done this sort of thing before. In a parallel 16^th Century narrative, a group of Spanish Conquistador adventurers and their Portuguese guide walk into a similar ambush—except they know they are doing it, having discovered the fresh corpses of another expedition. Such is the lure of gold.

Ironically, the minor Spanish flashback characters and much more distinctive than the major Colombian soldiers. All we get for the latter are rather standard issue character devices, like the medic, who left a pregnant wife behind. Rojas has his own separate set of flashbacks that establish his own childhood traumas, but Duran and Rugeles never successfully close this loop in Marquez’s absence.

De Gaulle: Resistance, in The Epoch Times

DE GAULLE: RESISTANCE nicely illuminates the French general's wartime strategy and tactics, but the film's best, most visceral sequences depict the Free French heroism during the Battle of Bir Hakeim. EPOCH TIMES review up here.

Kogonada’s Zi

Zi Wong does not have a doppelganger. Of course, if she did, that is exactly what the doppelganger would want her to believe. An expert seems to think her problem might be a brain tumor or a rare disorder that alters her perception of time, but is either alternative really that much better? No matter what the cause, Wong is in an agitated state of mind in Kogonada’s Zi, which is now playing in New York.

Wong has been seeing visions of herself, from either the past or the future. The latest sighting also includes an apparent companion, a free-spirited looking Westerner in a wig that isn’t fooling anyone. Fearing for her sanity, Wong is on the verge of taking a leave of absence from the Hong Kong Symphony, where she is a featured violinist. Just when her anxiety boils over, the strange wig-wearing woman stops to help her.

That would be Elle, who accepts Wong’s claims that she had visions of the two together, without judgment. She wants to help and believes an acquaintance working at the HK neurological center might be the best bet (their exact relationship will be revealed over time). Meanwhile, neither notices the mysterious man following and observing them.

Would it be strange if a film set in 1930’s Rome never addressed Mussolini and Fascism? Likewise, would it strike audiences as odd if a movie that took place in Chile, during the month of October 1973 never mentioned Pinochet or his coup? If so, you should have similar reservations regarding the way Kogonada never acknowledges the largest rollback of individual rights in our lifetimes, which happened in Hong Kong over the last six years. The curtailment of HK democracy is a hard thing to ignore, but somehow, Kogonada manages to do so.

If you think the man following Wong and Elle constitutes a heavily veiled commentary on HK surveillance, you will be disappointed when his true significance is revealed. This film reflects no interest in the slow ongoing death of civil society in Hong Kong, which, in effect, sanitizes the repression.

Frankly, Zi will disappointment viewers on multiple levels. Initially, there seems to be something rather intriguing brewing, but it just turns out to be another riff on Before Sunrise, with a veneer of Oliver Sacks-like speculation layered on top.

Larry Fessenden’s Trauma, or Monsters All

Contrary to popular belief, monsters are very social, especially those in the classic Universal tradition. Remember, Frankenstein met the Wolf Man and then they all got together at Dracula’s House. This will be a similar get together, featuring the vampire from Habit, the Frankenstein Monster-like Adam from Depraved, and the werewolf from Blackout, all directed by Larry Fessenden. It is a modern monster mash, but that is bad news for the beleaguered upstate New York town of Talbot Falls in Fessenden’s Trauma, or Monsters All, which is now playing in New York.

Fittingly, Talbot Falls was the site of a werewolf rampage in Blackout. Things got really messy, but it ended when Charley Barrett’s girlfriend Sharon Hammond shot him with a silver bullet. However, he managed to stagger away and his body was never recovered, so we know what that means.

Somehow, Adam, the stitched-together man created by Dr. Henry, with the financial backing of the rich arrogant hipster Polidori, found his way to Talbot Falls, where he secretly shelters Barrett, securing him during full moons. Unfortunately, they happen to live next to Cassandra, a librarian struggling to write a biography of George Washington Carver. For a palette cleanser, she writes a piece about Talbot Falls’ “trauma,” piecing together the spotty reporting and online rumors regarding Barrett and Adam.

This basically causes the small town to lose its mind. Her piece also attracts Sam, the vampire from Habit, who is curious to meet other monsters. Maybe Cassandra is right. Talbot Falls needs to face its trauma, but ironically, her story inevitably produces much more trauma.

Frankly, Cassandra and her co-worker-potential love interest Agnes are the film’s weakest links. Plus, the former’s incessant ideologically charged voice-overs regarding Carver come across as pretentious and ponderous.

Conversely, the relationship between Barrett and Adam is weirdly powerful. It seems like it is not a coincidence Adam is the namesake of the Frankenstein Monster-like figure in Dark Shadows played by Robert Rodan. In fact, Alex Breaux brings a similar pathos to the role.

Godzilla Minus Zero

Everyone knows Godzilla is the “King of the Monsters,” but he is sufficiently comfortable in his kaiju skin that he feels no need to belabor his royalty. However, when Ghidorah is dubbed “King Ghidorah” after his sudden mutation, you know there will be trouble. In fact, that will be the whole idea. When all their previous attempts to stop Ghidorah fail, Japan’s Large-Scale Disaster Response Bureau hatches a scheme to deliberately pit King Ghidorah against the true King in director-screenwriter-visual effects supervisor Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus Zero, which opens Friday in American theaters.

At the conclusion of Godzilla Minus One, Koichi Shikishima and his fellow veterans found redemption by seemingly destroying Godzilla in the Sagami. Yeah, sure they did. Of course, we know better. Nevertheless, Japan finally started to rebuild and Shikishima started to live again. He married his girlfriend Noriko Oishi and they formally adopted Akiko, the war orphan they had been caring for. Then the dragon-like Ghidorah literally lands on Earth from outer space.

It hardly seems fair that Japan must endure another kaiju, but at least the Bureau director Kenji Noda is the most experienced man for the job. Formerly a weapons designer, Noda devised the successful strategy implemented against Godzilla in Minus One. However, the Bureau’s initial efforts prove counter-productive, causing the single-headed Ghidorah to morph into the three-headed King Ghidorah, who displays even greater destructive powers.

Biologist Kanji Murakami develops a plan to lure the newly resurrected Godzilla to King Ghidorah with his invention that simulates the affinity that causes birds to flock. However, Murakami hides a grim ulterior motive. Eventually, he hopes to unleash Godzilla on New York, to avenge his family, who perished at Hiroshima.

Minus One was the first Japanese film to be nominated for a visual effects Academy Award, which it eventually won. Consequently, expectations were high for Yamazaki to top the spectacle of the first film. On purely visual and auditory levels, he succeeds smashingly. Godzilla and King Ghidorah have never looked so titanic. Watching Minus Zero is about as close as you can get to an apocalyptic experience without risking PTSD.

However, Minus Zero lacks the thematic heft of its predecessor. The previous film was about redemption and rebirth, categorically rejecting the ideology of death that had driven Japan to ruin. In contrast, the new film takes a darker turn, exploring themes of revenge. Frustratingly, Yamazaki largely wipes out all the progress the returning characters made in Minus One, miring them in survivor’s guilt.

Still, Minus Zero continues to raise the bar for kaiju movie performances, building on the genre-redefining work in Minus One and Shin Godzilla. Ryunosuke Kamiki and Minami Hamabe continue to deliver keenly sensitive portrayals of the Shikishimas, but it is frustrating to see Yamazaki’s treatment of their characters. Hidetaka Yoshioka is terrific as Noda, while Masami Nagasawa perfectly compliments him as Makoto Aoyama, the Bureau’s earnest new meteorologist. Admittedly, Min Tanaka also eloquently expresses Murakami’s pain and fury, but his character arguably undermines much of what made Minus One so surprisingly uplifting.

NY Baltic ’26: A Goodnight Kiss

It might sound like faint praise, but Arvo Part’s Fur Alina is widely considered one of the most frequently performed contemporary classical compositions. There are pop songs on the charts that might have sold exponentially more copies, but Fur Alina has endured and will continue to endure. Irena Veisaite inspired the composition’s sorrowful tone. She lived to see better days, surviving both the National Socialist and Communist occupations, to become one of Lithuania’s most prominent public intellectuals. Giedre Zickyte profiles the scholar, human rights activist, and theater critic in A Goodnight Kiss, which screens during the 2026 New York Baltic Film Festival.

Nobody better understood oppressive statist regimes than Veisaite. Her mother (by birth) was murdered during the Holocaust. Then, the second mother who adopted and protected Veisaite during the War was arrested and deported to a Siberian labor camp. Eventually, the courageous Stefanija Paliulyte-Ladigiene returned to Veisaite, thanks to Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization, but the long separation taught her the true nature of the Communist regime, loud and clear.

In many ways, Veisaite’s story is a story of motherhood. The love and loss of her mothers, directly shaped Veisaite’s philosophy and world view. Similarly, Veisaite spent years apart from her own daughter Alina, because the regime refused to grant her permission to travel. Her resulting motherly misery deeply touched, and inspired Part.

Veisaite is a remarkable figure, who personalizes the parallels between the Nazis and the Communists. Yet, she steadfastly argued against any form of vengeance-taking or score-settling. Unfortunately, Zickyte started production just before Veisaite’s 2020 death from Covid. Obviously, that forced a re-thinking of her approach. Nevertheless, she had a wealth of archival video and footage of perhaps the final meeting between Veisaite and Part. It is like a gathering of giants, but it takes a dark turn, when she discusses the invasion of Ukraine, prompting Part’s ominous response: “a storm is coming.”

NY Baltic ’26: Kyiv Cake (short)

Intentionally bombing apartment buildings is an undeniable war crime. Putin does it all the time. Consequently, no matter how surreal this animated short gets, it is still firmly based in reality. Life was always hard, but it takes a tragic turn in Ukrainian filmmaker Mykyta Lyskov’s Kyiv Cake, produced by Estonia’s Joonisfilm studio, which screens during the 2026 New York Baltic Film Festival.

The father is often on the road working, or whatever. As for the mother’s cooking, heaven have mercy. Plus, the power meter has a literally monstrous hunger. Not surprisingly, as the little toddler grows up, he develops delinquent tendencies. However, he doesn’t realize how much he has, until Putin strikes.

Evidently, Lyskov thoroughly packed Kyiv Cake with symbolism average Ukrainians will immediately recognize, but might soar over the heads of outsiders. Nevertheless, international audiences will fully understand the anger and grief Lyskov expresses. Stylistically, Lyskov engages in bizarre flights of fantasy that share a kinship with some of Bill Plympton’s work. However, his final images land like a punch to the gut.

Yeon Sang-ho’s Paradise Lost

Ryu So-young raised an adorable little hologram. The son he was based on did not turn out so well, but it really isn’t her fault. Ryu Sun-woo was presumed dead along with the rest of his class when a serial killer abducted them during a class trip. However, Sun-woo returns as an adult, like Martin Guerre, but in this case the prodigal son’s identity is confirmed. The DNA test is positive, but the changes to Sun-woo’s personality are entirely negative in Yeon Sang-ho’s Paradise Lost, which opens in theaters this Friday.

The case of Sun-woo’s class abduction was particularly cruel, because not all the bodies were recovered (obviously), due to the killer’s disposal method, dumping them into a collapsing mineshaft. To ease the parents’ grief, a kind-hearted tech company (there must be some out there, right?), created digital AI programs based on their children. The AI programs reside in an online world called “Paradise,” which is a terrible name, but it lends itself to the ironically dramatic title. Through special glasses, parents could summon holograms of their digitized children to interact with.

As the years passed, many parents stopped visiting and even had their child’s program deleted, but not Ryu. She cannot give up the idealized version of her son. Then the real one shows up. It is immediately clear the flesh and blood Ryu has engaged in some serious criminal behavior. Nevertheless, the confused mother tries to make the best of it, until the real Sun-woo’s makes it impossible to ignore his cruelty.

Paradise Lost might be the darkest, most pessimistic thriller ever produced that still remains compulsively watchable. Adapting Oh Seong-eun’s novel, Yeon and co-screenwriter Ryu Yong-jae find a new way to caution against over-dependence on AI. Yet, that is not the source of peril in this film. Arguably, Yeon presents a new and fresh take on the subject, which is really something, considering how many films are trying to cash-in on AIphobia.

Drummer Boy, a Musical from Angel Studios

This film is directly inspired by a Christmas carol, but it is not really a Christmas movie (less so than Die Hard). Admittedly, it would not be inappropriate for the holiday season, but it best fits Independence Day. However, in 1776, most New Yorkers were opposed to independence from England, especially in Kingston. Young Benjamin Clem was an exception, but his older brother Jeremiah was not. At least, the elder sibling was unwilling to stand against prevailing sentiment. That means the two brothers could very well find each other on opposing sides of a battle in Ben & Joel David Smallbone’s movie-musical Drummer Boy, released by Angel Studios, which opens this Friday in theaters.

The Clems came to the Colonies with their father, the honorable Nathaniel Clem, who genuinely believed the New World offered the only opportunity for people to live free. Unfortunately, he died during the transatlantic passage, in a naval incident. His appointment was subsequently taken by the much less honorable Lord Balfour (not the future Prime Minister responsible for the Balfour Declaration). This Balfour is the father of Lady Elizabeth and the owner of household slave Emmaline, both of whom were childhood friends of Jeremiah.

Having reached adulthood, Jeremiiah reluctantly agrees to serve in the British Army, in order to preserve the economic viability of the Clem family’s mill. He also hopes to woo Lady Elizabeth, with his letters. Unfortunately, she has no interest in responding. Instead, Emmaline replies in her place, like an unrequested Cyrano, simply signing her letters “E.” Of course, as a slave, Emmaline is not supposed to be literate, but Jeremiah taught secretly taught her, during their pre-Colonial days.

Sadly, the brothers parted on bad terms. Jeremiah almost dared Benjamin to enlist with the Patriots, cruelly dismissing his brother’s potential as a soldier. The same incident that killed their father irreparably damaged Benjamin’s leg. Yet, he always worked hard. More importantly, young Clem can drum, a talent that holds more value for Maj. John Ambrose than mere musketry. He needs a drummer like Clem to signal charges and retreats and to keep their marching snappy.

Even though it is a traditional carol, “The Little Drummer Boy” became one of Christian pop group For King + Country’s signature hits, after adding it to their set-list for gigs during the holiday season. The Smallbones and screenwriter save the Christmas standard for a dramatic Christmas battlefield confrontation that is hugely manipulative, but also massively cinematic. Consequently, it quite stirringly expresses the film’s themes of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Aside from the semi-titular carol, the score is entirely contemporary, reflecting For King + Country’s style. Of course, there is ample such precedent when it comes to musicals. Frankly, viewers who dig Les Mis will most likely enjoy Drummer Boy, because they share a similarly passionate sweeping sensibility. Arguably, the biggest criticism of the Smallbones’ score applies equally to the majority of recent book musicals produced in recent years. That would be the songs’ uniformity of tone, making them sound more like movements of a single composition rather than discrete tunes in their own right.

However, Clem’s drumming interludes arguably provides some refreshing stylistic variety. Essentially, his martial percussion quickly segues into funky and flashy drumline-style breaks. Frankly, the drumming often sounds more “modern” than the songs.

Tazza: The Song of Beelzebub

In the “Penny for Your Thoughts” episode of The Twilight Zone, a coin that lands on its edge allows Dick York to hear people’s thoughts. When it happens to gambler Jang Tae-young, it saves his life. Having cheated death, his next goal is naturally revenge in Choi Kook-hee’s Tazza: The Song of Beelzebub, which is still playing in theaters.

Childhood friends Jang Tae-young and Park Tae-young were not just namesakes. They were like brothers from another mother. That was fortunate for Jang, because Park’s mother went crazy and burned down their home. For the rest of his school days, Park lived with Jang and his guardian sister. Eventually, they went into business together, building an online gambling empire. Having recently expanded into traditional luxury casinos, Park sends Jang to do a deal in Vietnam.

Unbeknownst to Jang, Park always envied Jang’s remarkable luck and more personable charm, so he sets-up his partner, leaving him in the hands of organ harvesting gangsters. Jo Joong-hwan’s schtick has always been asking his victims to choose: heads he takes their liver, or tails for their eyes. That is when Jang’ coin lands on its edge. A deal is a deal, so Jo secretly dumps Jang with his gambler friend, Kwak Dong-wook, who reluctantly nurses him back to health.

Quickly recognizing Kwak’s skills, Jang starts apprenticing with Kwak. As fate would have it, Kwak often plays on behalf of Chairman Sasaki, a high-ranking Yakuza considering an investment in the company Park stole from Jang. Sasaki’s resentful assistant Kaneko could also be helpful, if Jang can trust her.

Song of Beelzebub (a reference to the fatefully tempting hand of cards that Jang keeps drawing) is the fourth Tazza film, but it stands completely alone from its three predecessors. (However, it still makes sense to call it Tazza, because it was adapted from the final story-arc of the original Tazza manhwa comics.) It also probably ranks as the most violent film of the series, to a degree that might surprise viewers looking for something in the spirit of The Sting—but that also makes the stakes feel even higher, in a life-and-death kind of way.

Of course, there are still plenty of double-crosses and triple-crosses in the new and final Tazza film. Choi and co-screenwriter Kim Hyun maintain all the clever capery twists that made the franchise so popular. The Cain and Abel-level betrayal also gives the film extra bite. In fact, Roh Jae-won plays Park as such a slimy cold fish, the audience hates him even before he turns on Jang.

The Mongoose, in The Epoch Times

The high-octane car chases and car crashes in THE MONGOOSE are slickly executed (far better than in many other recent car-centric movies), but it also addresses the expeiences of Global War on Teror veteans wih the sympathy and sensitivity they deserve. EPOCH TIMES review up here.

Fright Rags Presents Tales from the Morgue

Horror comics need an endless supply of victims, whose deaths will leave readers amused, rather than mournful. Thankfully, the world has an endless supply of “influencers.” Problem solved. Fright Rags, the purveyor of horror themed merch, probably cultivates influencers, but they happily kill them off in their first published anthology comic, Tales from the Morgue (published inn cooperation with American Mythology), which releases today.

As fate would have it, Fright Rags really is head-quartered in a building that once housed the local morgue, or so they say. Talk about inspiration. Predictably, in the wrap-around narrative (written by James Kuhoric and illustrated by E.V. Cntada), a group of influencers break in, hoping to find and film creepy traces of the building’s macabre history. They encounter Andy, the night watchman, who claims he also served as the morgue’s final coroner. Andy has some stories to tell about his former clients.

Consciously appealing to fans of 1980s horror, S.A. Check’s “Pyromaniac” (also illustrated by Cantada) follows a group of supernatural obsessed Gen Zer’s (who are definitely influencer “adjacent”) as they try to raise the homicidal Jacob Stocker, a fireman with a criminal history similar to Kruger’s. Notoriously, Stocker caused an entire orphanage to burn down.

The Pyromaniac’s sinister fire-fighting suit definitely evokes My Bloody Valentine vibes. He really pops off the page. Previously, Fright Rags released an original soundtrack to a fictional Pyromaniac movie, so they clearly believe he has franchise potential. Cantada’s images will definitely further the cause.

G.O. Parsons’ “Maul Santa,” illustrated by Emanuele Tommarelli, also introduces a character who could have a lot of kills in his future. Fittingly, it is set in a mall, which are always nostalgic for horror fans (thanks too classics like Dawn of the Dead and Chopping Mall). In this case, Parsons evokes the sad decline of malls during the mid-2010’s. Doug Chanski was still employed as the mall Santa, but when a pack of Millennial meatheads started bullying him, Chanski snapped, impaling one on the rotunda Christmas tree.

Chronovisor: Viewing the Past, in 16mm

If you appreciate your privacy, thank the Catholic Church for preserving it. That is the ironic and perhaps unintended takeaway from this avant-garde science fiction film, inspired by a real-life semi-apocryphal pseudo-scientific invention. Supposedly, Benedictine monk Pellegrino Ernetti invented a device that allowed him to silently view anything that transpired in the past. A French academic based in New York dives down the rabbit hole in search of Ernetti’s suppressed invention in Jack Auen & Kevin Walker’s Chronovisor, which opens in additional markets this Friday.

It seems there are media accounts that Ernetti announced his invention in 1972. Subsequent accounts are skeptical and erratic. At one point, an image of Christ at the crucifixion was released, but Ernetti later disavowed it. Regardless, the Vatican allegedly confiscated the Chronovisor, disassembling and boxing up the components for safe-keeping, to persevere every nation’s military and state secrets, as well as personal privacy as we have always known it. Or did they?

Beatrice Courte will follow the bread crumbs, trying to sleuth out Ernetti’s ultimate fate as well as that of the Chronovisor. Consequently, much of the film consists of still photography of various news reports pertaining to Ernetti and his invention, which are especially bizarre, considering many (if not all) were actually published. You could consider them “true” fake news.

If you are intrigued by this weird intersection of religion and science, then Auen & Walker’s rigorously academic approach should appeal to you. Evidently, it was inspired by David Bentley Hart’s short story “The Memory Palace,” but the credits also acknowledge Umberto Eco and Jorge Luis Borges as additional influences, which definitely makes sense.