Reviews for September 4th, 2026
During one of the summers of his childhood, Mikey (Logan Gray) meets the girl of his dreams, Kelly (Mia Talerico), joins the local baseball team and gets his first job in American Summer. Writer/director Michael W. Gray and co-writer Jennifer B. White have made a breezy, sweet and harmless, but slight, cheesy and bland coming-of-age movie. Steve Guttenberg plays the adult version of Mikey as he looks back on that memorable summer back in his youth, and Christie Brinkley plays the adult version of Kelly. The screenplay suffers from on-the-nose dialogue that spoon-feeds everything to the audience without trusting their intelligence nor their emotions. Moreover, it treats them as though they were little kids who can't figure things out on their own. Every flash forward to Mikey in his older years while commenting on his memories feels distracting. Very little exciting things happen, and even a subplot involving Mikey's dad who went missing while serving in the U.S. army remains underdeveloped.
There have been far more moving, profound and engaging coming-of-age films that don't infantilize the audience, such as the recent If I Tell You and Young Hearts, the underrated Ping Pong Summer, and classics like The Sandlot, Stand By Me, Flipped and Lucas. American Summer would be the inferior B-movie in a double feature with any of those films. At a running time of 1 hour and 23 minutes, American Summer opens in select theaters nationwide via Blue Harbor Entertainment.
Number of times I checked my watch: 3
Barbara Forever is an illuminating, captivating and warts-and-all documentary about Barbara Hammer, an experimental filmmaker who made queer films from 1968 until her death in 2019. Director Brydie O’Connor blends archival footage, clips from Hammer's films, and interviews with her and her partner, Florrie Burke. If you're unfamiliar with Hammer's work and/or life, you'll learn a lot about both as well as her thought process. So, prepare to get a glimpse of her as an artist and a peak behind the curtain of her as a human being who struggled as an outsider while unafraid to be her true self, especially given the fact that she came out as a lesbian back in 1970. She comes across as brave, candid, intelligent, emotionally mature and articulate during her interviews. That can't be said about every artist. Burke also displays those same characteristics and shares a revealing, perceptive insight about why she has agreed to be filmed after Hammer's death.
Director Brydie O'Connor should be commended for asking good questions, for introducing the audience to a filmmaker and feminist who deserves to be better known, and for finding just the right balance between entertaining the audience and provoking them emotionally as well as intellectually. Therefore, she prevents Barbara Forever from becoming a dry, conventional or academic biopic. It would be a great double feature with the equally well-made and transcendent doc, Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World. At a running time of 1 hour and 43 minutes, Barbara Forever opens at Film Forum via Strand Releasing.
Number of times I checked my watch: 1
Brailled It is a fascinating, immersive and unconventional documentary about blind and low-vision children who compete in the annual Braille Challenge that takes place in Los Angeles. Director David Grabias eschews a conventional format like talking-heads; instead he opts for a laissez-faire approach by following three of the children, namely, Salome Cummins, Isaiah Gathier, and Christopher Morgan. Each of them wears a camera and shows their experiences from their own perspectives. Brailled It's main flaw is that it lacks scope, thoroughness and emotional depth because none of the kids are interviewed to provide backstories for them. The competition itself has some suspenseful moments, but they're ephemeral and nothing along the lines of the classic documentary Spellbound (2002). It's more similar to the recent Cookie Queens in terms of how it just focuses on the children's experiences without tugging on the audience's heartstrings or including any messages. There are some heartwarming moments, though.
The film asks the audience to process what they're watching and to decide for themselves what to make of it with empathy and compassion. Essentially, it's a unique experience that puts you in the children's shoes for less than 90 minutes. At a brief running time of 1 hour and 13 minutes, Brailled It opens at Quad Cinema.
Number of times I checked my watch: 2
In By Any Means, FBI Agent Wayne Strider (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) teams up with Gregory Scarpa (Mark Wahlberg), a mafia hitman, to investigate who's behind a series of murders of civil rights leaders including Vernon Dahmer (Giancarlo Esposito). Director Elegance Bratton and screenwriter Sascha Penn have made a gritty and well-cast, but tonally uneven, shallow and by-the-numbers crime thriller based on a true story and set in 1966 Mississippi. Penn's screenplay suffers from many systemic issues, but the predominant one is that it doesn't flesh out any of the characters or their relationships while biting off more than it could chew. There's some violence and physical grit, but what about emotional grit? What about designing a window into the heart, mind and soul of Wayne or any of the other characters? Why leave the audience at such a cold distance from them? In turn, none of the emotional beats land during the very rushed third act.
The production design along with the cinematography are great and provide some visual style. That said, there are pacing issues with the beginning moving at a leisurely pace before the pace picks up again, slows down, and then picks up again. There's also some choppy editing at times. In terms of the performances, the film's MVP is Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, although he's undermined by the pedestrian, vapid screenplay. Mark Wahlberg wears an abnormally large prosthetic nose that looks obviously fake and, therefore, distracting. David Strathairn and Josh Lucas are both wasted in underdeveloped supporting roles. They all deserve better material. At a running time of 1 hour and 47 minutes, By Any Means opens nationwide via Paramount Pictures.
Number of times I checked my watch: 3
Béatrice (Anne Laure Sellier), a Columbia University professor, investigates the existence of a mysterious device called a Chronovisor which can photograph moments the past in Chronovisor. Her research leads her to discovering that Pellegrino Ernetti invented it, so she tries to track him down. Co-writers/directors Jack Auen and Kevin Walker have made a cerebral and visually stylish mystery that's often lethargic and dry. Despite a premise that makes it sounds like it could be suspenseful, intense and intriguing, those moments are fleeting. The screenplay's systemic issue, though, is that it spends too much time treading water with exposition as Béatrice goes to the library to do research and tries to find Ernetti or at least someone who knows him. The filmmakers fail to make the scenes of her reading articles cinematic, although they try to by highlighting the important parts as she reads.
Béatrice has little to no backstory, though, so she stays at a cold distance from the audience. Moreover, it's uncertain what she would actually do with the Chronovisor if she were to find it and how much her life would be in danger for that matter. Too much of the film feels understated with very little narrative momentum. Its major strength comes from the stylish cinematography which includes grainy images shot with a Super 16mm film camera. Its style becomes part of its substance on occasion, but that's not enough to captivate the audience or to compensate for the lack of emotional depth. At a running time of 1 hour and 39 minutes, Chronovisor opens at Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center via Grasshopper Film.
Number of times I checked my watch: 4
San (Marika Ito) and Mayu (Hikari Mitsushima), teenage students at an all-girls school, get drafted as nurse aids tasked with tending the wounds of soldiers inside hidden cave in Cocoon: One Summer of Girlhood. Writer/director Yukimitsu Ina and co-writer Taku Kishimoto have made a war film and coming-of-age drama that's sugar-coated and bites off more than it could chew while failing to pack an emotional wallop. Set during WWII, the story begins on a lighter note before becoming darker as soon as the two girls get drafted into the war.
The hand-drawn animation adds some warmth that wouldn't be as palpable if it were CGI animation instead. There's some blood which adds some much-needed grit, but there's not enough emotional grit. Beyond that, Cocoon: One Summer of Girlhood is a disappointing and oversimplified adaptation of the manga by Machiko Kyō. Expect to be underwhelmed if you're hoping for something as powerful, haunting and heartfelt as Grave of the Fireflies. At very brief running time of 1 hour, Cocoon: One Summer of Girlhood opens in select theaters nationwide via GKIDS.
Number of times I checked my watch: 3
Xiaowei (Runqi Zheng) travels to Thailand to search for his grandfather, Zheng (Yantong Wang), but learns that Zheng had fled the country years ago and had Xie (Sitong Li) write love letters for him and send them with remittance money to Sogriu (Shaoqing Wu), his wife, in Dear You. Writer/director Lan Hongchun and co-writers Zheng Xuanxuan, Yang Leng, and Zhu Liyun, have made a heartfelt and tender emotional that's occasionally heavy-handed and cloying. The screenplay incorporates just the right amount of exposition at just the right time without revealing too much information right away or confusing the audience. In turn, the audience knows as much as Xiaowei does and they're surprised when he's surprised, e.g. when he discovers the truth behind the letters and money, known as qiaopi, that his grandfather sent to his grandmother. Dear You doesn't shy away from the tragic elements of the story without being unflinching or emotionally devastating.
The filmmakers should be commended for effective weaving modern story of Xiaowei's search for his grandfather and the flashbacks of grandfather and grandmother (now played by Xiaohui Wang) when they were younger. Much of the film's poignancy comes from the moving performances by Runqi Zheng, Sitong Li and the rest of the terrific ensemble cast. That said, the music score feels somewhat intrusive and unnecessary which makes it seem like the filmmakers don't trust the audience's emotions enough, but those are forgivable flaws that don't make Dear You any less engrossing. At a running time of 1 hour and 58 minutes, Dear You opens in select theaters nationwide via Well Go USA.
Number of times I checked my watch: 2
Ever After, by writer/director László Illés and co-writer László Krisztián Gera, is an overlong, tedious, exhausting and unscary sci-fi horror thriller about a girlfriends who attend a bachelorette party in the woods where fairy tale characters-turned-killers terrorize them. If it were campy, it would've been mindless fun instead of a mindlessly dull, ultra-violent and unflinchingly gory experience that leaves a bad taste in the mouth much like Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. An unrecognizable Malcolm McDowell, who's also in the awful horror film Psycho Killer, shows up in a supporting role as one of the murderous fairytale characters, The Frog King. At a bloated running time of 2 hours and 5 minutes, Ever After opens in select theaters via Level 33 Entertainment. It would be the vastly inferior B-movie in a double feature with Pinocchio Unstrung.
Number of times I checked my watch: 5
Luce (Arsema Thomas), the friend of Shiloh (Virginia Gardner) who died in Fall, convinces Jax (Harriet Slater), to pay tribute to her by traveling to Thailand to illegally climb Mount Kwan with the help of a guide (Tom Brittney) in Fall 2: Deadpoint. Of course, they soon get stuck on the side of the mountain and separated from their tour guide after a rockslide. Co-directors Peter & Michael Spierig and their, co-writers Scott Mann and Jonathan Frank, have made a survival thriller that's intermittently suspenseful and exciting with breathtaking scenery, but it's overwrought, dumb and unintentionally funny without being as as palpably thrilling or focused as the original.
The first act rushes through the basic exposition as Jax meets lose and, before you know it, they're headed off to Thailand together in honor of Jax's sister, Shiloh. Did she not learn the dangers of climbing from her sister's experiences in Fall? Why do they plan their trip without knowing the price of their guide which turns out to be, $5,000---$2,000 more than Luce can afford? The plot becomes increasingly inane once the rockslide strands Luce and Jax on the mountainside where Jax's cellphone, happens to have 1 bar of service. Oh, and Luce happens to have the laser pointer that their guide brought with him. Don't bother to ask what the twists are because they make no sense in hindsight and just make the plot unnecessarily more convoluted and overstuffed. There are too many conflicts and conveniences that make it hard to suspend disbelief while almost turning the film into a parody. The modicum of comic relief comes from bad laughs later in the second act and during the third act.
The music feels heavy-handed and intrusive which reflects how little the filmmakers trust the audience's emotions during the intense moments. In terms of cinematography, there's nothing exceptional about it, but there's one particular scene involving slow-motion that's cringe-inducing and unintentionally funny. The scenery provides some pleasant eye-candy, the pace moves briskly enough, and there are a handful of scenes that will give some audiences vertigo, but not nearly as much as in the first film in the series which will hopefully end with Fall 2: Deadpoint. At a running time of 1 hour and 37 minutes, Fall 2: Deadpoint opens nationwide via Lionsgate.
Number of times I checked my watch: 3
Give It a Shot is an illuminating, captivating and enraging documentary about Dr. Sujoy Guha, a scientist who developed a reversible male contraceptive he named RISUG back in the early 1970s in India. Director Vaishali Sinha interviews Dr. Guha himself along with Elaine Lissner, Founder and Trustee of the Parsemus Foundation, L.R. Fox, founder of NEXT Life Sciences, as well as patients in India who were among those that RISUG was tested on. You'll learn about exactly how RISUG works through an injection onto the as deferens and how it could be reversed. You'll also learn the obstacles that Dr. Guha has experienced while trying to distribute the male contraceptive worldwide. Phase 3 trials have already been completed in India, so what's causing the delay to get it approved in the US and other countries? Expect to be indignant albeit not surprised when you hear about the causes.
Fortunately, Give It a Shot doesn't merely anger the audience, but it also informs them in a way that's engaging thanks to the use of humor and wit that can be found in some of the talking-head interviews with Dr. Guha among others. Who knew that scientists can also be funny? This documentary's ultimate triumph is that director Vaishali Sinha manages to find just the right balance between entertaining the audience and provoking them intellectually and as well as emotionally without boring them or exhausting them. That's also a testament to the skillful editing that makes the doc more cinematic and less dry or academic. You don't have to be into science to enjoy it. At a running time of 1 hour and 32 minutes, Give It a Shot opens at DCTV's Firehouse Cinema via Coast to Coast Films.
Number of times I checked my watch: 1
Celeste (Adria Arjona), an ex-Army sniper, defends her trailer park when genetically engineered super soldiers escape a secret military facility and go on a killing spree in Onslaught. The people whom she defends include her daughter, Daisy (Blake Kennedy), and neighbors, Kovacks (Eric Wareheim) and Josiah (Reginald VelJohnson). Director Adam Wingard and screenwriter Simon Barrett have made a lean, atmospheric and gritty sci-fi action thriller that's often tedious, uninspired and low on world-building. One of the screenplay's systemic issues is that the audience doesn't know as much as Celeste knows because the existence of the super soldiers and their escape get revealed early on well before Celeste becomes aware of their threat to her trailer park. It's clear that the super soldiers are like Terminators who are programmed to kill their target, but beyond that, what does mad scientist Dr. Hans Kammler (Dan Stevens) and the mysterious Hanna Kemmler (Rebecca Hall) plan to do with them in the long run? Who are their enemies? What could've been a provocative and bold sci-fi action thriller with initial suspense and paranoia like They Live instead turns into a mindless, action-packed B-movie with waning thrills and excitement.
Do the filmmakers really need to repeatedly show distant shots of the super soldiers with glowing eyes like the "children of the corn" in the distance? By the 2nd lengthy shot of them, it loses its impact and just feels unintentionally silly. There's plenty of blood, but nothing shocking when it comes to guts or any memorable kills for that matter. Would it also hurt the filmmakers if they were to include more comic relief? There's not nearly enough levity. That said, the film's major strengths include a strong performance by Adria Arjona who breathes much-needed life into her role and elevates the shallow dialogue, the lively soundtrack, and the production design that provides plenty of visual style albeit not enough to compensate for the lack of substance. It's also fortunate that Wingard and Barrett grasp the concept of restraint and that "less is more" by keeping the running time under 2 hours because it would've been exhausting otherwise. At just 1 hour and 32 minutes, Onslaught opens nationwide via A24.
Number of times I checked my watch: 2
Katharine Hilbery (Haley Bennett) wants to pursue her passion for astronomy instead of being pressured by her mother, Bess (Jennifer Saunders), and father, Terence (Timothy Spall), to marry William (Jack Whitehall), in Virginia Woolf's Night & Day . Meanwhile, she befriends Mary (Lily Allen), a suffragette, and a young man, Ralph (Elyas M’Barek). Director Tina Gharavi and screenwriter Justine Waddell have made a charming, witty and empowering adaptation of the novel by Virginia Woolf set in the early 20th Century. Although the screenplay feels somewhat sugar-coated and only intermittently profound without being unflinching, it's nonetheless a fascinating character study and surprisingly funny at times. Katharine gradually learns how to stand up for herself and how to avoid caving into the demands of both her parents as well as society. She yearns to follow her feet to the beat of her heart and, most importantly, to be her true self without conforming, but that's easier said than done especially because astronomy is male-dominated field. It's equally inspirational and heartwarming to observe her persistence, courage and intelligence despite her many obstacles. with a radiant performance by Haley Bennett.
Fortunately, Virginia Woolf's Night & Day, doesn't become lethargic, clunky, tonally uneven, schmaltzy or preachy. It's also worth mentioning the poetic cinematography, the exquisite set and costume designs, and the creative title drop. Moreover, Haley Bennett anchors the film with a raw and radiant performance. She manages to effectively open the window of Katharine's heart, mind and soul for the audience to peer through from start to finish. At a running time of 1 hour and 35 minutes, Virginia Woolf's Night & Day opens in select theaters nationwide via Quiver Distribution.
Number of times I checked my watch: 2
The Work in Progress, directed by Ian Cheney, is an enlightening and compelling documentary about groups of strangers across the U.S. who meet to discuss and debate their candid thoughts and feels on America and its future. Robert Reich, the former Secretary of Labor, a college professor and political commentator, came up with the questions that are written on the index which each group chooses at random. Some of the questions are deceptively simple, like, "How would you describe America in one word?", yet each of them spark a conversation and, in a few cases, a provocative debate with epiphanies, e.g. when a young black woman and an older white woman disagree on the existence of institutional racism in American. It's eye-opening, inspirational and even somewhat heartwarming to watch them share their own experiences and thoughts while learning new things in the process. Robert Reich isn't in the film a lot, but he offers a few kernels of wisdom through his astute observations such as the fact that true, uninterrupted listening is essential, but ultimately exhausting.
Finding a safe space to have a discussion and debate while listening to different point of views isn't an easy task these days, so that makes The Work in Progress all the more essential, refreshing and nourishing for the heart, mind and soul. There's nothing better or more humanizing than conversing with people face-to-face in person instead of through Zoom, texting, Facebook, X or Instragam. The cacophony of social media is often dehumanizing, impersonal and far from a safe space. Moreover, The Work in Progress encourages critical thinking, a very important skill that's conducive to a healthy, functional democracy. At a running time of 1 hour and 43 minutes, The Work in Progress opens at Quad Cinema via Abramorama. It would be an interesting double feature with What is Democracy? and No Safe Spaces.
Number of times I checked my watch: 1
