In Fjord, Lisbet (Renate Reinsve) and her husband, Mihai (Sebastian Stan), a religious Romanian family, move with their five children, including a newborn baby girl, to a Norwegian village. Soon enough, they get accused of physically abusing their children, have them removed from their home by Child Protection Services, and face a trial as well as criminal charges. CPS has evidence of bruises on their eldest daughter, Elia (Vanessa Ceban), and a signed confession by Mihai that he admits to physically abusing his kids, so he and Lisbet have an uphill battle against CPS. Ellen Dorrit Petersen plays the CPS caseworker who investigates them. The first lawyer who Lisbet and Mihair hire eventually resigns, so they're stuck defending themselves on their own for a while.

      Writer/director Cristian Mungiu has made a slow-burning, poetic and provocative legal thriller with some moral ambiguity. Neither Lisbet nor Mihai believe they're physically abusive even though she admits that she pushed her son and he admits that he slapped his daughter on the butt. He even explains in court that his behavior was acceptable back in Romania and during his upbringing, but the court doesn't accept that because laws are different in Norway. Once CPS brings up his religion and starts questioning his religious beliefs, that's when the film somewhat loses its footing and becomes heavy-handed. There's also an underdeveloped subplot involving Elia and Noora (Henrikke Lund-Olsen), the daughter of her neighbor, Mia (Lisa Carlehed). Oh, and Mia just so happens to agree to become Lisbet's new lawyer. So, Fjord's screenplay does become contrived, undercooked and less nuanced by the time the end credits roll.

      Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan both give solid performances and look nearly unrecognizable as they disappear into their roles. Ellen Dorrit Petersen also shines as the cold, cunning and bureaucratic CPS caseworker. Moreover, the stunning cinematography and the use of symbolism add both style and substance to the film, e.g. the avalanches that take place around the village which sits along a fjord. The pace moves slowly, at times a bit too slow, so patient audiences will be rewarded the most. Just be prepared for a complex film with no easy answers and that ultimately leaves you with more questions than answers. At a running time of 2 hours and 26 minutes, Fjord opens in select theaters via NEON.

      The Last Message, directed by Andrii Voloshyn and Oleksii Liebiediev, is an unfocused, dull and meandering documentary about singer Kelsie Kimberlin journey to Ukraine to visit the grave of her 21-year old cousin, Andryusha, who was killed during the Russo-Ukrainian War. Despite its provocative and timely issues of war, human rights and grief, it barely scratches those themes' surface and suffers from too much navel-gazing from Kimberlin who interjects herself into the film too much and distractingly. There's nothing about the cinematography that makes this doc visual stylish enough to make it cinematic or a must-see on the big screen. At a running time of 1 hour and 27 minutes, The Last Message opens in select theaters.

Number of times I checked my watch: 4




 

      Misty Green (Rosalind Eleazar), an actress whose stardom has faded, struggles with drug addiction, but gets the chance for a comeback as the lead in a remake of Dreamgirls in  Misty Green. Adam Driver plays Zach, a friend of Misty and a filmmaker who's also a drug addict, Chris Rock plays Dreamgirls's casting director, and Daniel Kaluuya play's Misty's brother who has schizophrenia. Writer/director Chris Rock has made an overwrought, disjointed and tonally uneven mess that features a great performance by Rosalind Eleazar. It's too bad that the screenplay remains so unfocused, shallow and meandering.  

       Moreover, Misty barely even has a character arc and continuously makes bad choices while also neglecting the emotional needs of her mentally ill brother who clearly needs help.  She's a bad role model, unreliable and doesn't have any signs of introspection--or at least the film doesn't design enough of a window into her heart, mind and soul for the audience to sense that. Ultimately, Misty Green is less than the sum of its parts. At a running time of 1 hour and 43 minutes, Misty Green opens nationwide via A24.  

Number of times I checked my watch: 3  

      12-year-old Mia (voice of Lilian Gartner) gets sent to Rotwood Academy, an all-monsters school, where she pretend to be a monster to blend in and, soon enough, discovers that the school's human-hating principal, Van Vlad (voice of Drew Sarich), has nefarious plans for humans in Monster Mia. Director Verena Fels and co-writers Jasmina Kallay, Katharina Reschke, Tom Martin, Ines Häufler and Dunja Bernatzky have made a fun, amusing and pleasantly diverting animated film that will entertain kids without being too dark or scary. The plot has no surprises nor does it break any new ground in animation. That said, the CGI animation looks bright, colorful and impressive. The film also has an inspirational message about not being afraid to be your true self and the importance of tolerating other people's differences because the plot can be seen as a metaphor for someone different than others who's struggling to fit in and who feels ostracized. The pace moves briskly and the filmmakers wisely keep the running time below 90 minutes, so the film doesn't overstay its welcome. At a running time of 1 hour and 21 minutes, Monster Mia opens in select theaters via Magenta Light Studios.

Number of times I checked my watch: 1

      Chris (Bart Harder) and Lluis (Carles Pulido), two friends who haven't seen each other in ten years, embark together on a 600 km hike across the highlands of Scotland in The North. Writer/director Bart Schrijver has made a picturesque and well-shot, but overlong, tedious and underwhelming drama that fails to pack an emotional punch. Exposition is kept to a bare minimum without flashbacks as both Chris and Luis deal with their own individual struggles while on their one-month journey. It's not nearly as moving as The Way and also lacks much-needed comic relief which means that the film begins to feel monotonous around the hour mark.

      The North's systemic issue is that the screenplay neglects to design much of a window into the heart, mind and soul of Chris and Lluis. Unfortunately, the decent performances don't manage to invigorate the film either. If it were edited more tightly, it wouldn't drag so often during the second half---Schrijver doesn't quite grasp the concept of "less is more." Great scenery isn't enough to keep the audience engaged from start to finish. At a lengthy running time of 2 hours and 10 minutes, The North opens at Angelika Film Center via Picturehouse.

Number of times I checked my watch: 4




 

       Xu Fu (Shen Teng) travels to the Middle Eastern city of Bahata where gets a job as the chef at a restaurant before war breaks out and he turns the restaurant into a safe haven for orphaned children while helping to feed them and to teach them how to cook in Once Upon a Time in the Middle East. Director Muye Wen and his co-writers, Qunli Lang and Wei Zhong, have made an engrossing and heartfelt war drama that's also by-the-numbers, maudlin and undercooked. The screenplay covers a lot of ground as it begins in the present day as Xu Fu looks back at his days as a chef at the restaurant in Bahata and how he eventually bonded with and saved the orphaned children. This is the kind of film where you can feel the wheels of the screenplay turning and can easily figure out what will happen. Subtlety and nuance aren't among its strengths, and the same can be said about the on-the-nose dialogue that spoon-feeds everything to the audience, especially during the flashbacks.

      If only the filmmakers were to trust the audience's emotions, intelligence and imagination more, this could've been more than just a mediocre war drama. The performances are decent, but nothing exceptional. The horrors of the war are shown with some grit albeit without being unflinching or emotionally devastating. That said, the cooking scenes are well-shot and mouth-watering, so don't watch Once Upon a Time in the Middle East on an empty stomach. At a running time of 2 hours and 21 minutes, Once Upon a Time in the Middle East opens in select theaters nationwide via Well Go USA.  

Number of times I checked my watch: 3  

      8-year-old Bela (Arabella Olivia Clark) suddenly sees a mysterious entity that looks like her mother, Ursula (Jessica Chastain), in Other Mommy. Both Ursula and her husband, Russell (Jay Duplass), also end up seeing it before agreeing to see Ursula's mother Ruth (Karen Allen), who might be able to help them figure out what's actually going on. Director Rob Savage and screenwriter Nathan Elston have made an uninspired, dumb and choppily edited horror thriller that delivers more gore than palpable scares. You won't believe that it's actually based on a novel called Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman because the plot gets stretched too thinly with barely any exposition, backstories or interesting characters. Everything feels rushed, including the meeting with Ursala's mother who gets introduced in a way that makes her seem more like a plot device than anything else---although she does have a brief albeit tacked-on heart-to-heart scene with Bela where she talks about how everyone experiences pain and suffering in life.

      The visual effects look subpar and the cinematography is often pretty terrible, especially during the horror scenes where there's too much use of shaky-cam. Jessica Chastain deserves better material than the lazy, forgettable and unintentionally funny Other Mommy. In a double feature with The Babadook, this would be the vastly inferior B-movie. At a running time of 1 hour and 33 minutes, it opens nationwide via Universal Pictures.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3

      Portrait of an Artist: Stephen Curry is an illuminating and well-edited, but repetitive and somewhat hagiographic documentary about NBA star Stephen Curry who plays for the Golden State Warriors. Director Gotham Chopra combines archival footage, clips of a variety of famous artists, footage from the March, 13th 2025 NBA game between Golden State Warriors and the Sacramento Kings where Curry scored his 4,000th 3-pointer, and footage from the locker room after the game. The NBA game footage is quite immersive and includes courtside perspectives, so if you've never been to a game while sitting in courtside seats, you'll feel like you're sitting there for the first time. Beyond that, you'll also get to hear Curry conversing with his teammates---the sound design in this doc truly stands out on the big screen. Curry does his best to explain how he feels when he takes a shot as all of the sights and sounds around him get blurred out while he feels like he's floating as he jumps toward the hoop. Chopra doesn't delve much into his private life; just a glimpse of how he developed his passion for basketball as a young child and how his parents encouraged him, especially his mother who tried her best to motivate him and teach him the valuable lessons that she learned as a basketball player. He's lucky to have such great role models as parents who want to see him succeed.

      The most fascinating and provocative part of the doc that elevates in above mediocrity and conventionality, though, is how Chopra compares NBA players like Curry to artists by using sound bytes from famous artists ranging from Viola Davis to Jon Batiste and references to Taylor Swift and even David Lynch. That connection doesn't make sense initially, but be patient because you'll gradually notice similarities between the talent of an artist and the talent of an athlete, and how a basketball team can be compared to an orchestra working together symbiotically. At a running time of only 1 hour and 14 minutes, Portrait of an Artist: Stephen Curry opens nationwide via ESPN Films and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Number of times I checked my watch: 1

      In A Prayer for the Dying, Jacob (played by Johnny Flynn), works as the sheriff, undertaker and priest of a small Wisconsin town. He must make tough choices when a deadly disease, diphtheria, and wildfires might spread to the town and threaten the lives of the townspeople including his wife, Marta (Kristine Kujath Thorp). John C. Reilly plays the town's doctor. Director Dara Van Dusen and screenwriter Dyveke Bjørkly Graver have made a well-shot, gritty and atmospheric, but lethargic, shallow and undercooked drama set in 1870. The characters remain poorly developed, the exposition is weak, the dialogue often sounds dull without much-needed levity, and the narrative has very little momentum. Therefore, the emotional beats don't land especially during the third act.

      Moreover, none of the actors or actresses manage to breathe life into their roles or to rise above the shallow screenplay which fails to design enough of a window into their heart, mind and soul. A Prayer for the Dying ultimately suffers from style over substance while leaving the audience at a cold distance from its characters. At a running time of 1 hour and 47 minutes, A Prayer for the Dying opens in select theaters via Quiver Distribution.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3

      Boyd (Chris Colfer), a gay musician living at a manor with his toxic mother, Jacqueline (Alice Krige), gets more than he bargained for after his hands get cut off in a freak accident and he ends up with two special prosthetic hands that he can control subconsciously in The Restoration at Grayson Manor. Writer/director Glenn McQuaid and co-writer Clay McLeod Chapman have made an over-the-top horror comedy that's more gory than funny or imaginative. This is yet another B-movie that takes a compelling concept and stretches it too thinly while running out of steam around the hour mark not long after Boyd's new set of hands causes him to go on a killing spree. It's anarchic and amusing at times in a guilty pleasure sort of way, but not quite bonkers enough to rise above mediocrity. Alice Krige, though, is very well cast as Boyd's domineering mother and, as always, has great screen presence. At a running time of 1 hour and 30 minutes, The Restoration at Grayson Manor opens in select theaters via Chroma.

Number of times I checked my watch: 3




 

      Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison), a data engineer at Facebook, becomes a whistleblower with the help of Jeff (Jeremy Allen White), a Wall Street Journal reporter, in The Social Reckoning. Jeremy Strong plays Mark Zuckerberg. Writer/director Aaron Sorkin has made a slick, but vapid, sugar-coated, toothless and clunky thriller. It opens with a prologue showing a drunk woman who gets pulled over and arrested for threatening an officer while going on a tirade that gets recorded, uploaded and shared on social media. That scene will make more sense why it's included later on. Unfortunately, the screenplay fails to breathe life into any of the characters which is a shame because a lot goes on emotionally and psychologically inside the heart, mind and soul of Frances and Jeff. There are only a handful of scenes with Mark Zuckerberg, but they nonetheless depict him as arrogant, cold and unpleasant---so much that almost seems more like a caricature than a fully-fleshed, complex human being. The dialogue often sounds stilted and too "on-the-nose" with even a few corny lines along with failed attempts at generating comic relief. The tension and sense of paranoia for Frances and Jeff is very subdued, so don't expect any palpable thrills or suspense despite the potential. The Social Reckoning could've at least been a provocative and moving character study, but it even fails to accomplish that feat.  

      The performances by Mikey Madison and Jeremy Allen White are decent albeit nothing spectacular or awards-worthy. They're both undermined by the shallow screenplay that plays it too safely and isn't unflinching enough to make an emotional impact. The production design, editing, cinematography and music score are fine, but not extraordinary enough to compensate for the film's lack of substance. In a double feature with The Insider or All the President's Men, The Social Reckoning would be the inferior B-movie. At a running time of 1 hour and 52 minutes, it opens nationwide via Columbia Pictures.  

Number of times I checked my watch: 3




 

      Joan Andrews (Lesley Manville), a professor, travels to Poland in 1981 to give a lecture, but  finds her life in danger when the country declares martial law in Winter of the Crow. Alina (Zofia Wichlacz), a university student who's also a political activist, serves as her guide. Writer/director Kasia Adamik and her co-writers, Sandra Buchta and Lucinda Coxon have made an atmospheric, understated, gently moving and poetic slow-burning psychological thriller with shades of Alan J. Pakula. It's based on the short story Professor Andrews Goes to Warsaw by Olga Tokarczuk and set during the Cold War era. Exposition is kept to a bare minimum sans flashbacks, voice-over narration or lots of on-the-nose dialogue.

       The story remains simple and easy-to-follow, but get bit more complex once one of the characters dies who won't be spoiled here. There's some suspense albeit not the nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat kind. Kudos to the filmmakers for not bombarding the audience with action and graphic violence; instead, they trust the audience's imagination as well as their emotions without including anything heavy-handed. The film's emotional depth doesn't come from the screenplay, but rather from the nuanced and tender performance of Lesley Manville who elevates Winter of the Crow above mediocrity while breathing life into her role. Everything from the cinematography to the production design, use of color and lighting enriches the film's visual style which, in turn, becomes part of its substance. At a running time of 1 hour and 52 minutes, Winter of the Crow opens at Quad Cinema via Cohen Media Group.  

Number of times I checked my watch: 1