Movie and TV Reviews

Reviews for New Releases: March  7 – April 25, 2025

The 4 Rascals (Photo courtesy of 3388 Films)
The Actor (Photo courtesy of Neon)
The Alto Knights (Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)
Always Have Always Will (Photo courtesy of Niu Vision Media)
The Amateur (Photo by John Wilson/20th Century Studios)
Artiste (Photo courtesy of SJK Entertainment)
Ash (Photo courtesy of RLJE Films)
Asian Persuasion (Photo courtesy of Scatena & Rosner Films)
The Assessment (Photo by Magnus Jønck/Magnolia Pictures)
Audrey’s Children (Photo courtesy of Blue Harbor Entertainment)
AUM: The Cult at the End of the World (Photo courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment)
Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing (Photo courtesy of Netflix)
The Ballad of Wallis Island (Photo courtesy of Focus Features)
Black Bag (Photo by Claudette Barius/Focus Features)
Bloat (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)
Bob Trevino Likes It (Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions)
Chaos: The Manson Murders (Photo courtesy of Netflix)
Coastal (Photo courtesy of Shakey Pictures/Trafalgar Releasing)
Con Mum (Photo courtesy of Netflix)
Court – State vs. a Nobody (Photo courtesy of Wall Poster Cinema)
Death of a Unicorn (Photo by Murray Close/A24)
Dilruba (Photo courtesy of Sivam Celluloids and Yoodlee Films)
The Diplomat (Photo courtesy of Panorama Pictures)
Disney’s Snow White (Photo by Giles Keyte/Disney Enterprises Inc.)
Drop (Photo by Bernard Walsh/Universal Pictures)
Eephus (Photo courtesy of Music Box Films)
The Friend (Photo courtesy of Bleecker Street)
Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Klller (Photo courtesy of Netflix)
Hans Zimmer & Friends: Diamond in the Desert (Photo courtesy of RCI Global/Trafalgar Releasing)
Hell of a Summer (Photo courtesy of Neon)
Hollywood Demons (Photo courtesy of Investigation Discovery)
Last Breath (Photo by Mark Cassa/Focus Features)
The Last Supper (Photo courtesy of Pinnacle Peak Pictures)
Locked (Photo courtesy of The Avenue)
Magazine Dreams (Photo courtesy of Briarcliff Entertainment)
Mickey 17 (Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)
A Minecraft Movie (Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)
Misericordia (Photo courtesy of Sideshow/Janus Films)
Night of the Zoopocalypse (Image courtesy of Viva Pictures)
Novocaine (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)
October 8 (Photo courtesy of Briarcliff Entertainment)
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (Photo by Chibesa Mulumba/A24)
One to One: John & Yoko (Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures)
Opus (Photo by Anna Kooris/A24)
Papa (Photo courtesy of Illume Films)
The Penguin Lessons (Photo by Lucia Faraig Ferrando/Sony Pictures Classics)
Rounding (Photo by Nate Hurtsellers/Doppelgänger Releasing)
Sacramento (Photo courtesy of Vertical)
Screamboat (Photo courtesy of Iconic Events Releasing)
The Shrouds (Photo courtesy of Sideshow/Janus Films)
Sikandar (Photo courtesy of FunAsia Films)
Sinners (Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)
Superboys of Malegaon (Photo courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios)
There’s Still Tomorrow (Photo courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment)
Warfare (Photo by Murray Close/A24)
The Wedding Banquet (Photo by Luka Cyprian/Bleecker Street)
The Woman in the Yard (Photo by Daniel Delgado Jr./Universal Pictures)
A Working Man (Photo by Dan Smith/Amazon Content Services)
The World Will Tremble (Photo courtesy of Vertical)

 

Complete List of Reviews

1BR — horror

2/1 — drama

2 Graves in the Desert — drama

2 Hearts — drama

2 Minutes of Fame — comedy

The 4 Rascals — comedy

5Lbs of Pressure — drama

5 Years Apart — comedy

7 Days (2022) — comedy

8 Billion Angels — documentary

8-Bit Christmas — comedy

The 8th Night — horror

9 Bullets (formerly titled Gypsy Moon) — drama

9to5: The Story of a Movement — documentary

12 Hour Shift — horror

12 Mighty Orphans — drama

17 Blocks — documentary

20 Days in Mariupol — documentary

21mu Tiffin — drama

32 Sounds — documentary

37 Seconds — drama

65 — sci-fi/action

76 Days — documentary

80 for Brady — comedy

88 (2023) — drama

The 355 — action

The 420 Movie (2020) — comedy

499 — docudrama

1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed — documentary

1920: Horrors of the Heart — horror

2040 — documentary

2073 — docudrama

7500 — drama

Aadujeevitham (The Goat Life) — drama

Abandoned (2022) — horror

Abe — drama

Abigail (2024) — horror

About Dry Grasses — drama

About Endlessness — comedy/drama

About My Father (2023) — comedy

Above Suspicion (2021) — drama

The Absence of Eden — drama

The Accidental Getaway Driver — drama

Accidental Texan (formerly titled Chocolate Lizards) — comedy/drama

The Accursed (2022) — horror

A Chiara — drama

Acidman — drama

An Action Hero — action/comedy

The Actor (2025) — sci-fi/drama

The Addams Family 2 — animation

Adipurush — fantasy/action

The Adults — comedy/drama

Adverse — drama

Advocate — documentary

The Affair (2021) (formerly titled The Glass Room) — drama

Afire — drama

Afraid (2024) (formerly titled They Listen) — horror

The A-Frame — horror

After Class (formerly titled Safe Spaces) — comedy/drama

After Death (2023) — documentary

After Parkland — documentary

Aftershock (2022) — documentary

Aftersun (2022) — drama

After Truth: Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News — documentary

After Yang — sci-fi/drama

Afwaah — action

Ailey — documentary

Air (2023) — drama

Aisha (2022) — drama

AKA Jane Roe — documentary

Akelli — action

Alarum (2025) — action

Albany Road — drama

Algorithm: Bliss — sci-fi/horror

Alice (2022) — drama

Alice, Darling — drama

Alienoid — sci-fi/action

Alien: Romulus — sci-fi/action/horror

Aline (2021) — drama

All Day and a Night — drama

All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt — drama

All I Can Say — documentary

All In: The Fight for Democracy — documentary

All Light, Everywhere — documentary

All My Friends Hate Me — comedy/drama

All My Life (2020) — drama

All My Puny Sorrows — drama

All of Us Strangers — fantasy/drama

All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) — action

All Roads to Pearla (formerly titled Sleeping in Plastic) — drama

All That Breathes — documentary

All That We Love — comedy/drama

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed — documentary

All the Bright Places — drama

All We Imagine as Light — drama

Almost Love (2020) (also titled Sell By) — comedy/drama

Almost Love (2022) — drama

Alone (2020) (starring Jules Willcox) — horror

Alone (2020) (starring Tyler Posey) — horror

Alone Together (2022) — comedy/drama

Alpha Rift — action

The Alpinist — documentary

Altered Reality (2024) — sci-fi/drama

The Alto Knights — drama

Always Have Always Will (2025) — drama

Amalgama — comedy/drama

Amanda (2023) — comedy/drama

The Amateur (2025) — action

Amazing Grace (2018) — documentary

Ambulance (2022) — action

Ameena (2024) — drama

Amelia’s Children — horror

American Fiction — comedy/drama

American Fighter — drama

American Gadfly — documentary

American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson — documentary

American Murderer — drama

American Murder: Gabby Petito — documentary

An American Pickle — comedy

The American Society of Magical Negroes — comedy/drama

American Star — drama

American Street Kid — documentary

American Symphony (2023) — documentary

American Underdog — drama

American Woman (2020) — drama

Amigos (2023) — action

Ammonite — drama

Amsterdam (2022) — drama

Amulet — horror

Anaïs in Love — comedy/drama

Anatomy of a Fall (2023) — drama

The Ancestral — horror

And Mrs. — comedy

And Then We Danced — drama

Animal (2023) — action

Annette — musical

Anora (2024) — comedy/drama

Another Round — drama

Anselm — documentary

Antebellum — horror

Anthem (2023) — documentary

Anthony — drama

Anth the End — drama

Antlers (2021) — horror

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania — sci-fi/fantasy/action

Anyone But You (2023) — comedy

Apocalypse ’45 — documentary

Apocalypse in the Tropics — documentary

The Apollo — documentary

Apolonia, Apolonia — documentary

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom — sci-fi/fantasy/action

The Arbors — sci-fi/horror

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. — comedy/drama

The Argument — comedy

Argylle — action

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe — drama

Armageddon Time — drama

Army of the Dead (2021) — horror

Artemis Fowl — fantasy

Artiste (2025) (also titled Killer Artiste) — drama

Arthur the King (2024) — drama

The Artist’s Wife — drama

Ascension (2021) — documentary

Ash (2025) — sci-fi/horror

Asian Persuasion — comedy

Ask for Jane — drama

Ask No Questions — documentary

As of Yet — comedy/drama

Asphalt City (formerly titled Black Flies) — drama

The Assessment (2025) — sci-fi/drama

The Assistant (2020) — drama

Asteroid City — comedy

Athena (2022) — action

At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal — documentary

Athlete A — documentary

Attack of the Murder Hornets — documentary

Audrey’s Children — drama

AUM: The Cult at the End of the World — documentary

Aurora’s Sunrise — documentary/animation

Autumn and the Black Jaguar (formerly titled Jaguar My Love) — drama

Avatar: The Way of Water — sci-fi/action

Average Joe (2024) — drama

Avicii — I’m Tim — documentary

Ayalaan — sci-fi/action

Aye Zindagi (2022) — drama

Azaad (2025) — drama

Azor — drama

Azrael (2024) — horror

Babes (2024) — comedy

Baby (2023) — drama

Babygirl (2024) — drama

Baby God — documentary

Babylicious — comedy

Babylon (2022) — drama

Baby Ruby — drama

Babysplitters — comedy

Babyteeth — drama

Back on the Strip — comedy

Back to Black (2024) — drama

Bacurau — drama

Bad Actor: A Hollywood Ponzi Scheme — documentary

Bad Axe — documentary

Bad Behaviour (2023) — comedy/drama

Bad Boys for Life — action

Bad Boys: Ride or Die — action

Bad Detectives (formerly titled Year of the Detectives) — drama

Bad Education (2020) — drama

Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (2024) — action

The Bad Guys (2022) — animation

Badhaai Do — comedy/drama

Bad Hombres (2024) — action

Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing — documentary

Bad Newz — comedy

Bad River — documentary

Bad Therapy (formerly titled Judy Small) — comedy/drama

The Baker (2023) — action

Ballad of a White Cow — drama

The Ballad of Wallis Island — comedy/drama

Banana Split — comedy

Banksy and the Rise of Outlaw Art — documentary

A Banquet — horror

The Banshees of Inisherin — comedy/drama

Barbarian (2022) — horror

Barbarians (2022) — horror

Barbie (2023) — comedy

Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar — comedy

The Batman — sci-fi/action

The Battle at Lake Changjin — action

The Battle at Lake Changjin II — action

The Beach Boys — documentary

Beanpole — drama

Beast (2022) — horror

Beast Beast — drama

Beastie Boys Story — documentary

Beatles ’64 — documentary

The Beatles: Get Back — documentary

The Beatles: Get Back—The Rooftop Concert — documentary

Beau Is Afraid — drama

Beba — documentary

Becoming — documentary

Becoming Led Zeppelin — documentary

The Beekeeper (2024) — action

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice — fantasy

Behind You — horror

Being the Ricardos — drama

Belfast (2021) — drama

Belle (2021) — animation

The Bell Keeper — horror

Beneath Us — horror

Benedetta (also titled Blessed Virgin) — drama

Benediction (2021) — drama

Bergman Island (2021) — drama

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (2024) — comedy/drama

Best Sellers (2021) — comedy/drama

The Beta Test — comedy/drama

Betting With Ghost — horror/comedy/drama

Better Man (2024) — musical

Between the Rains — documentary

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F — action/comedy

Bhaje Vaayu Vegam — action

Bhediya — horror/comedy

Bheed — drama

Bholaa — action

Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 — horror/comedy

Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 — horror/comedy

Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World — drama

Big Time Adolescence — comedy/drama

The Big Ugly — drama

The Bikeriders — drama

Billie (2020) — documentary

Bill & Ted Face the Music — sci-fi/comedy

The Binge — comedy

Bingo Hell — horror

Biosphere (2023) — sci-fi/comedy/drama

Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) — fantasy/action

Bitconned — documentary

Bitterbrush — documentary

Black Adam — sci-fi/fantasy/action

Black as Night — horror

Black Bag (2025) — drama

Black Barbie (formerly titled Black Barbie: A Documentary) — documentary

Black Bear — drama

BlackBerry (2023) — comedy/drama

Blackbird (2020) — drama

Black Box (2020) — horror

Black Box (2021) — drama

Black Box Diaries — documentary

The Blackening — horror/comedy

Black Is King — musical

Blacklight — action

Black Magic for White Boys — comedy

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever — sci-fi/fantasy/action

The Black Phone — horror

Blackwater Lane — drama

Black Widow (2021) — sci-fi/fantasy/action

Blast Beat — drama

The Blazing World (2021) — horror

Bleeding Love (2024) — drama

Blessed Child — documentary

Blithe Spirit (2020) — comedy

Bloat — horror

Blonde (2022) — drama

Blood and Money — drama

Blood Conscious — horror

Blood on Her Name — drama

Bloodshot (2020) — sci-fi/action

Bloodthirsty (2021) — horror

Bloody Hell — horror

Blow the Man Down — drama

Blow Up My Life (formerly titled Dead End) — drama

The Blue Angels (2024) — documentary

Blue Bayou (2021) — drama

Blue’s Big City Adventure — live-action/animation/musical

Blue Jean — drama

Blue Story — drama

Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island — horror

Bob Marley: One Love — drama

The Bob’s Burgers Movie — animation

Bob Trevino Likes It — drama

Bodies Bodies Bodies — horror

Body Cam — horror

The Body Fights Back — documentary

Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes — documentary

Bố Già (Dad, I’m Sorry) — comedy/drama

Bones and All — drama

Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin. (formerly titled God’s Spy) — drama

The Boogeyman (2023) — horror

Boogie — drama

Book Club: The Next Chapter — comedy

The Book of Clarence (2024) — comedy

The Booksellers — documentary

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm — comedy

Borderlands (2024) — sci-fi/action

Born to Fly (2023) — action

The Boss Baby: Family Business — animation

Both Sides of the Blade (formerly titled Fire) — drama

Bottoms (2023) — comedy

The Box (2022) — drama

Box of Rain — documentary

The Boy and the Heron — animation

Boyfriend for Hire — drama

Boy Kills World — action

The Boys (first episode) — fantasy/action

The Boys in the Boat — drama

Brahmāstra Part One: Shiva — sci-fi/fantasy/action

Brahms: The Boy II — horror

Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power — documentary

Brats (2024) — documentary

Brave the Dark (2025) — drama

Breaking (2022) (formerly titled 892) — drama

Breaking Fast — comedy

Breaking News in Yuba County — comedy

Breaking the News (2024) — documentary

Breakwater (2023) — drama

Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists — documentary

Brian and Charles — comedy/drama

Bring Them Down — drama

The Broken Hearts Gallery — comedy

Broker (2022) — drama

Bros (2022) — comedy

Brothers by Blood (formerly titled The Sound of Philadelphia) — drama

Browse — drama

Bruiser (2022) — drama

The Brutalist (2024) — drama

Brut Force — drama

BS High — documentary

Bubblegum (2023) — drama

Buckley’s Chance — drama

Buffaloed — comedy

Bullet Train (2022) — action

Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn — documentary

Bunker (2023) — horror

Burden (2020) — drama

Burden of Guilt (2025) — documentary

The Burial (2023) — drama

Burning Cane — drama

The Burning Sea — action

Burn It All — drama

The Burnt Orange Heresy — drama

Cabrini — drama

Cactus Jack — horror

Cagefighter — drama

Calendar Girl (2022) — documentary

Call Jane — drama

The Call of the Wild (2020) — live-action/animation

A Call to Spy — drama

Call Your Mother — documentary

Camp Hideout — comedy

Candy Cane Lane (2023) — fantasy/comedy

Candyman (2021) — horror

Cane River — drama

Capone — drama

Captain America: Brave New World — sci-fi/action

The Card Counter — drama

Carmen (2023) — drama

Carmilla — drama

Carol Doda Topless at the Condor — documentary

Carol & Johnny — documentary

Carry-On — action

¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor! — documentary

Casa Susanna — documentary

Cassandro — drama

Castle in the Ground — drama

Catch the Bullet — action

Catch the Fair One — drama

Cat Daddies — documentary

Catherine Called Birdy — comedy/drama

The Cellar (2022) — horror

Censor (2021) — horror

Centigrade — drama

Cha Cha Real Smooth — comedy/drama

Challengers (2024) — drama

Champions (2023) — comedy

Chance the Rapper’s Magnificent Coloring World — documentary

Chandu Champion — drama

Changing the Game (2021) — documentary

Chaos: The Manson Murders — documentary

Chasing Chasing Amy — documentary

Chasing the Present — documentary

Chasing Wonders — drama

Chehre — drama

Cherry (2023) — comedy/drama

Chevalier (2023) — drama

Chhaava — action

Chick Fight — comedy

The Childe — action

Children of the Mist — documentary

Children of the Sea— animation

Chinese Doctors — drama

Chop Chop — horror

Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point — comedy/drama

A Christmas Story Christmas — comedy

Circus of Books — documentary

Cirkus (2022) — comedy

Cirque du Soleil: Without a Net — documentary

City of Lies — drama

Civil War (2024) — action

Clara Sola — drama

Clean (2022) — drama

Cleaner (2025) — action

The Cleaner (2021) — drama

The Clearing (2020) — horror

Clementine — drama

Clerks III — comedy

Clifford the Big Red Dog (2021) — live-action/animation

Cliff Walkers (formerly titled Impasse) — drama

The Climb (2020) — comedy/drama

Close (2022) — drama

Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind: Contact Has Begun — documentary

Cloudy Mountain (2021) — action

Clover — drama

C’mon C’mon — drama

Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert — documentary

Coastal (2025) — documentary

Cobweb (2023) — horror

Cocaine Bear — action/comedy

CODA — comedy/drama

Coded Bias (formerly titled Code for Bias) — documentary

Code Name: Tiranga — action

Coffee & Kareem — comedy

Colao 2 — comedy

Cold Wallet — comedy/drama

Collective — documentary

Color Out of Space — sci-fi/horror

The Color Purple (2023) — musical

The Colors Within — animation

The Columnist — horror

Come as You Are (2020) — comedy

Come Out Fighting (2023) — action

Come Play — horror

Come to Daddy — horror

Come True — sci-fi/drama

Coming 2 America — comedy

The Commandant’s Shadow — documentary

Compartment No. 6 — drama

A Complete Unknown — drama

Conclave (2024) — drama

Confess, Fletch — comedy

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It — horror

Con Mum — documentary

Connect (2022) — horror

Consecration (2023) — horror

Console Wars — documentary

Consumed (2024) — horror

The Contractor (2022) (formerly titled Violence of Action) — action

Copshop (2021) — action

The Cordillera of Dreams — documentary

Corsage — drama

Count Basie: Through His Own Eyes — documentary

Coup! (2024) — comedy/drama

A Couple (2022) — drama

The Courier (2021) (formerly titled Ironbark) — drama

Court — State vs. a Nobody — drama

Cow (2022) — documentary

The Craft: Legacy — horror

Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words — documentary

The Creator (2023) — sci-fi/action

Creed III — drama

Creem: America’s Only Rock’n’Roll Magazine — documentary

Crescent City (2024) — drama

Crew (2024) — comedy

Crimes of the Future — horror

Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution — documentary

Crisis (2021) — drama

Critical Thinking — drama

Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds With Shane MacGowan — documentary

The Croods: A New Age — animation

Crown Vic — drama

CRSHD — comedy

Cruella — comedy/drama

Crumb Catcher — horror

Cry Macho — drama

Cryptozoo — animation

Cuckoo (2024) — horror

Cult Killer (formerly titled The Last Girl) — drama

The Curious Case of … — documentary

The Curious Case of Natalia Grace — documentary

The Cursed (2022) (formerly titled Eight for Silver) — horror

The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw — horror

The Curse of La Patasola — horror

Customs Frontline (formerly titled War Customised) — action

Cut Throat City — drama

Cypher (2023) — comedy

Cyrano (2021) — musical

Da 5 Bloods — drama

Dada (2023) — drama

Daddio (2024) — drama

Daddy Issues (2020) — comedy

Dads — documentary

Dahomey (2024) — documentary

Dalíland — drama

The Damned (2025) — horror

Dance First — drama

Dancing Village: The Curse Begins — horror

Dangerous Lies — drama

Dangerous Waters (2023) — action

The Daphne Project — comedy

Dara of Jasenovac — drama

Darby and the Dead (formerly titled Darby Harper Wants You to Know) — fantasy/comedy

The Dark Divide — drama

Dark Nuns — horror

Dark Web: Cicada 3301 — action/comedy

Dasara (2023) — action

Dating & New York — comedy

Daughters (2024) — documentary

Dave Not Coming Back — documentary

Dawn Raid — documentary

A Day in the Life of America — documentary

Day of the Fight (2024) — drama

Days of Rage: The Rolling Stones’ Road to Altamont — documentary

Days of the Whale — drama

DC League of Super-Pets — animation

Dead Girls Dancing — drama

A Deadly Legend — horror

Deadpool & Wolverine — sci-fi/fantasy/action

Deadstream — horror

Dealing With Dad — comedy/drama

Dear David (2023) — horror

Dear Evan Hansen — musical

Dear Santa (2020) — documentary

Death & Taxes (2024) — documentary

Death in Texas — drama

Death of a Telemarketer — comedy

Death of a Unicorn (2025) — fantasy/horror/comedy

Death on the Nile (2022) — drama

Death Whisperer — horror

Death Whisperer 2 — horror

Decade of Fire — documentary

Decibel (2022) — action

Decision to Leave — drama

The Deeper You Dig — horror

Deep Water (2022) — drama

The Deer King — animation

Deerskin — comedy

The Delicacy — documentary

Demi Lovato: Dancing With the Devil — documentary

Demonic (2021) — horror

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba The Movie: Mugen Train — animation

Denise Ho—Becoming the Song — documentary

Den of Thieves 2: Pantera — action

Descendant (2022) — documentary

Desolation Center — documentary

Desperados — comedy

The Desperate Hour (formerly titled Lakewood) — drama

Despicable Me 4 — animation

The Devil’s Bath — horror

The Devil Below (formerly titled Shookum Hills) — horror

The Devil Conspiracy — horror

Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke — documentary

Devil’s Night: Dawn of the Nain Rouge — horror

Devil’s Peak — drama

Devil’s Pie—D’Angelo — documentary

The Devil You Know (2022) — drama

Devotion (2022) — drama

Diana Kennedy: Nothing Fancy — documentary

Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge — documentary

Dìdi (2024) — comedy/drama

Dicks: The Musical (formerly titled Fucking Identical Twins) — musical

Diddy: Monster’s Fall — documentary

Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy — documentary

Die in a Gunfight — action

A Different Man (2024) — sci-fi/comedy/drama

Dilruba (2025) — comedy/action

Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over — documentary

The Diplomat (2025) — drama

Disappearance at Clifton Hill — drama

The Disappearance of Mrs. Wu — comedy/drama

The Disappearance of Toby Blackwood — comedy

Disclosure (2020) — documentary

Disney’s Snow White — fantasy/musical

The Divine Protector: Master Salt Begins — fantasy

Diving With Dolphins — documentary

The Djinn — horror

Do Aur Do Pyaar — comedy/drama

Dobaaraa — sci-fi/drama

Doctor G — comedy/drama

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness — sci-fi/fantasy/action

Dog (2022) — comedy/drama

The Dog Doc — documentary

Dog Man (2025) — animation

Dolittle — live-action/animation

Dolphin Island — drama

Dolphin Reef — documentary

Do Not Reply — horror

Don’t Breathe 2 — horror

Don’t Look Back (2020) (formerly titled Good Samaritan) — horror

Don’t Look Up (2021) — comedy

Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead (2024) — comedy

Don’t Worry Darling — sci-fi/drama

Donyale Luna: Supermodel — documentary

The Doorman (2020) — action

Dosed — documentary

Double XL — comedy/drama

Downhill — comedy

Downton Abbey: A New Era — drama

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero — animation

Dragonkeeper (2024) — animation

Dream Horse — drama

Dreaming Walls: Inside the Chelsea Hotel — documentary

Dreamland (2020) (starring Margot Robbie) — drama

Dream Scenario — comedy/drama

Drishyam 2 (2022) — drama

Drive-Away Dolls — comedy

Drive My Car (2021) — drama

Driven to Abstraction — documentary

Driveways — drama

Driving While Black: Race, Space and Mobility in America — documentary

Drop (2025) — horror

The Dry — drama

The Duke (2021) — comedy/drama

Dumb Money (2023) — comedy/drama

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves — fantasy/action

Dune (2021) — sci-fi/fantasy/action

Dune: Part Two — sci-fi/fantasy/action

Dunki — comedy/drama

Duran Duran: A Hollywood High — documentary

Duty Free — documentary

Earth Mama — drama

Earwig — horror

The East (2021) — drama

Easter Sunday (2022) — comedy

Easy Does It — comedy

Eephus — comedy/drama

Eggs Over Easy — documentary

Eiffel — drama

The Eight Mountains — drama

Eileen (2023) — drama

El Cuartito — comedy/drama

Elemental (2023) — animation

Elephant (2020) — documentary

Elevation (2024) — sci-fi/action

El Heredero (2024) — comedy

Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things — documentary

Ellis — documentary

Elvis (2022) — drama

Emancipation (2022) — drama

Embattled — drama

Emergency (2022) — comedy

Emergency Declaration — action

First Cow — drama

Emilia Pérez — musical

Emily (2022) — drama

Emma (2020) — comedy/drama

The Emoji Story (formerly titled Picture Character) — documentary

Empire of Light — drama

Encanto — animation

The End (2024) — musical

Endangered Species (2021) — drama

End of Sentence — drama

The End of Sex — comedy

The End We Start From — drama

Enemies of the State (2021) — documentary

Enforcement (formerly titled Shorta) — drama

Enhanced (2021) (also titled Mutant Outcasts) — sci-fi/fantasy/action

Eno (2024) — documentary

Enola Holmes — drama

Enter the Clones of Bruce — documentary

Entwined (2020) — horror

Enys Men — horror

EO — drama

Epicentro — documentary

Epic Tails — animation

The Equalizer 3 — action

Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia — animation

Ernest Cole: Lost and Found — documentary

Escape From Mogadishu — drama

Escape Room: Tournament of Champions — horror

Escape the Field — horror

The Eternal Daughter — drama

The Eternal Memory — documentary

Eternals (2021) — sci-fi/fantasy/action

The Etruscan Smile (also titled Rory’s Way) — drama

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga — comedy

Every Body (2023) — documentary

Everything Everywhere All at Once — sci-fi/action

Everything Under Control — action/comedy

Evil Dead Rise — horror

Evil Eye (2020) — horror

The Evil Next Door — horror

Ex Ex Lovers — comedy

The Ex-Files 4: Marriage Plan — comedy

Exhibiting Forgiveness — drama

The Exiles (2022) — documentary

Exit Plan — drama

The Exorcist: Believer — horror

Extraction (2020) — action

Ezra (2024) — drama

The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021) — drama

F3: Fun and Frustration — comedy

F9: The Fast Saga — action

The Fabelmans — drama

Facing Monsters — documentary

Facing the Wnd (2024) — documentary

Falcon Lake — drama

Fall (2022) — drama

A Fall From Grace — drama

The Fall Guy (2024) — action/comedy

Falling (2021) — drama

Falling for Figaro — comedy/drama

The Fall of Diddy — documentary

The Fallout — drama

Family Camp — comedy

Family Matters (2022) — drama

Family Squares — comedy/drama

The Family Star — comedy/drama

Fancy Dance (2024) — drama

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore — fantasy

Faraaz — drama

Farewell Amor — drama

Fast Charlie — action

Fast X — action

Fatal Affair (2020) — drama

Fatale — drama

The Father (2020) — drama

Father Stu — drama

Fatima (2020) — drama

Fatman — comedy

Fear (2023) — horror

Fear of Rain — horror

The Feast (2021) — horror

The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed — comedy/drama

Ferrari (2023) — drama

The Fight (2020) — documentary

Fighter (2024) — action

Finch — sci-fi/drama

Finding Kendrick Johnson — documentary

Finding You (2021) — drama

Firebird (2021) — drama

Firebrand (2023) — drama

The Fire Inside (2024) — drama

Fire Island (2022) — comedy

Fire of Love (2022) — documentary

Firestarter (2022) — horror

The Firing Squad (2024) — drama

First Cow — drama

First Date (2021) — comedy

The First Omen — horror

The First Slam Dunk — animation

Fist of the Condor — action

Fitting In (2024) — comedy/drama

The Five Devils — sci-fi/drama

Five Nights at Freddy’s — horror

Flag Day — drama

The Flash (2023) — sci-fi/action

Flashback (2021) (formerly titled The Education of Frederick Fitzell) — drama

Flee — documentary/animation

Flipped (2020) — comedy

Flow (2024) — animation

Flux Gourmet — comedy/drama

Fly (2024) — documentary

Fly Me to the Moon (2024) — comedy/drama

Foe (2023) — sci-fi/drama

Following Harry — documentary

Fool’s Paradise (2023) — comedy

Force of Nature (2020) — action

The Forever Purge — horror

The Forge (2024) — drama

The Forgiven (2022) — drama

For the Animals — documentary

For They Know Not What They Do — documentary

Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko — animation

The Forty-Year-Old Version — comedy

Four Daughters (2023) — docudrama

Four Good Days — drama

Four Kids and It — fantasy

Four Samosas — comedy

Fourth of July — comedy/drama

Framing John DeLorean — documentary

Frank and Penelope — drama

Freaky — horror

Freedom’s Path — drama

Free Guy — sci-fi/action

Freelance (2023) — action/comedy

Free Skate — drama

The French Dispatch — comedy

French Exit — comedy/drama

Fresh (2022) — horror

Freud’s Last Session — drama

The Friend (2025) — drama

Friendsgiving — comedy

From the Hood to the Holler — documentary

From the Vine — comedy/drama

The Front Room — drama

Fugitive Hunters Mexico — documentary

Full River Red — action

Funhouse (2021) — horror

Funny Pages — comedy/drama

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga — sci-fi/action

Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down — documentary

Gadar 2 — action

Gaia (2021) — horror

Gallagher — documentary

Game of Death (2020) — horror

Game Changer (2025) — action

Ganden: A Joyful Land — documentary

Gandhada Gudi: Journey of a True Hero — documentary

Gandhi Godse – Ek Yudh — drama

Gap Year (2020) — documentary

The Garden Left Behind — drama

The Garfield Movie — animation

Gary (2024) — documentary

The Gasoline Thieves — drama

The Gateway (2021) — drama

Gay Chorus Deep South — documentary

The Gentlemen — action

Get Duked! (formerly titled Boyz in the Wood) — comedy

Get Gone — horror

Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande — documentary

Ghoomer — drama

Ghostbusters: Afterlife — comedy/horror

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire — comedy/horror

The Ghost of Peter Sellers — documentary

Ghosts of the Ozarks — horror

Gigi & Nate — drama

A Girl From Mogadishu — drama

A Girl Missing — drama

Girl You Know It’s True — drama

Give Me Five (2022) — sci-fi/comedy/drama

Gladiator II — action

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery — comedy/drama

A Glitch in the Matrix — documentary

Gloria Gaynor: I Will Survive — documentary

The God Committee — drama

God Is a Bullet — drama

God Save the Queens (2022) — comedy/drama

God’s Country (2022) — drama

God’s Creatures — drama

God’s Time — comedy

Godzilla Minus One — sci-fi/fantasy/horror/action

Godzilla vs. Kong — sci-fi/fantasy/action

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire — sci-fi/fantasy/action

Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project — documentary

The Go-Go’s — documentary

Gold (2022) — drama

Golda (2023) — drama

Golden Arm — comedy

Goldie — drama

Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer — documentary

Gone in the Night (2022) (formerly titled The Cow) — drama

Good Girl Jane — drama

The Good Half — comedy/drama

The Good House — comedy/drama

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande — comedy/drama

The Good Mother (2023) (formerly titled Mother’s Milk) — drama

The Good Neighbor (2022) — drama

Good Night Oppy — documentary

The Good Nurse — drama

Good One (2024) — drama

A Good Person — drama

Good Posture — comedy

Goodrich — comedy/drama

Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind — documentary

The Grab (2024) — documentary

The Graduates (2024) — drama

The Grandmaster of Kung Fu — action

Gran Turismo (2023) — action

Grasshoppers — drama

Greed — comedy/drama

Green and Gold — drama

The Green Knight — horror/fantasy

Greenland — sci-fi/action

Gretel & Hansel — horror

Greyhound — drama

Griffin in Summer — comedy/drama

The Grudge (2020) — horror

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 — sci-fi/fantasy/action

Guest of Honour — drama

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio — animation

The Guilty (2021) — drama

A Guilty Conscience (2023) — drama

Gumraah — drama

Gunda — documentary

The Gutter (2024) — comedy

Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant — action

Hachiko (2023) — drama

Hacking Hate — documentary

Half Brothers — comedy

The Half of It — comedy

Halloween Ends — horror

Halloween Kills — horror

Halloween Party (2020) — horror

Hannah Ha Ha — drama

Hans Zimmer & Friends: Diamond in the Desert — documentary

Hanu-Man — sci-fi/fantasy/action

Happening (2021) — drama

Happiest Season — comedy

Harbin — drama

The Harder They Fall (2021) — action

Hard Luck Love Song — drama

Hard Miles — drama

Hard Truths (2024) — drama

Harold and the Purple Crayon (2024) — fantasy

Hatching — horror

The Hater (2022) — comedy/drama

Haunted Mansion (2023) — comedy/horror

A Haunting in Venice — horror

Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics — documentary

Have You Got It Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd — documentary

Hawa (2022) — horror

Haymaker (2021) — drama

Healing From Hate: Battle for the Soul of a Nation — documentary

Heart Eyes (2025) — horror

He Dreams of Giants — documentary

Held — horror

Hell Camp: Teen Nightmare — documentary

Hell Hath No Fury (2021) — action

Hell of a Summer — horror

Hello, Love, Again — drama

Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful — documentary

Here (2024) — drama

Here After (2021) (formerly titled Faraway Eyes) — drama

Here Are the Young Men — drama

Heretic (2024) — horror

Here Today — comedy/drama

A Hero — drama

Hero Dog: The Journey Home — drama

Hero Mode — comedy

Herself — drama

Her Story — comedy/drama

High & Low — John Galliano — documentary

High Forces (formerly titled Crisis Route) — action

The High Note — comedy/drama

Hijack 1971 — action

The Hill (2023) — drama

Hi Nanna — drama

Hippo (2024) — comedy

His House — horror

His Only Son — drama

The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard — action

Hitpig! — animation

HIT: The First Case — action

HIT: The 2nd Case — action

Hive — drama

Hocus Pocus 2 — fantasy/comedy

The Holdovers — comedy/drama

Hold Your Fire — documentary

A Holiday Chance — comedy/drama

Holiday in the Vineyards (formerly titled A Wine Country Christmas) — comedy

Holler — drama

Holly Slept Over — comedy

Hollywood Demons — documentary

Hollywoodgate — documentary

Home Coming (2022) — action

Homestead (2024) — drama

Homicide Squad New Orleans — documentary

Honest Thief — action

Honey Money Phony — comedy

Hong Kong Family — drama

Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. — comedy

The Honorable Shyne — documentary

Hooking Up (2020) — comedy

Hope Gap — drama

Horse Girl — sci-fi/drama

The Host (2020) — horror

Hosts — horror

Hotel Transylvania: Transformania — animation

Hot Seat (2022) — drama

Housekeeping for Beginners — drama

The House Next Door: Meet the Blacks 2 — comedy/horror

House of Gucci — drama

House of Hummingbird — drama

The House of No Man (also titled Ms. Nu’s House) — drama

House Party (2023) — comedy

How I Faked My Life With AI — documentary

How It Ends (2021) — comedy

How to Blow Up a Pipeline — drama

How to Build a Girl — comedy

How to Fix a Primary — documentary

How to Have Sex — drama

How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies — drama

How to Please a Woman — comedy/drama

Huda’s Salon — drama

Huesera: The Bone Woman — horror

Human Capital (2020) — drama

Human Nature (2020) — documentary

The Humans (2021) — drama

A Hundred Billion Key — action

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes— fantasy/action

Hunt (2022) — action

The Hunt — horror

Hunter Hunter — horror

Hypnotic (2023) — sci-fi/action

Hypochondriac (2022) — horror

Hysterical (2021) — documentary

I Am: Celine Dion — documentary

I Am Human — documentary

I Am Somebody’s Child: The Regina Louise Story — drama

I Am Vengeance: Retaliation — action

IB 71 — action

I Carry You With Me — drama

The Idea of You — comedy/drama

IF (2024) — live-action/animation

If I Can’t Have You: The Jodi Arias Story — documentary

I Hate New York — documentary

I Hate the Man in My Basement — drama

I Heart Willie — horror

I’ll Be Right There — comedy/drama

I Love My Dad — comedy

I Love You, to the Moon, and Back (2024) — drama

Imaginary (2024) — horror

I’m Gonna Make You Love Me — documentary

Immaculate (2024) — horror

iMordecai — comedy/drama

Impractical Jokers: The Movie — comedy

I’m Still Here (2024) — drama

I’m Thinking of Ending Things — drama

I’m Totally Fine — sci-fi/comedy

I’m Your Man (2021) — sci-fi/comedy/drama

I’m Your Venus — documentary

I’m Your Woman — drama

In a Violent Nature — horror

Incitement — drama

Indian 2 (also titled Indian 2: Zero Tolerance) — action

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny — action

India Sweets and Spices — comedy/drama

Infamous (2020) — drama

The Infiltrators — docudrama

Infinite Storm — drama

Infinity Pool (2023) — horror

The Informer (2020) — drama

InHospitable — documentary

Initials SG — drama

Inna De Yard: The Soul of Jamaica — documentary

The Innocents (2021) — horror

In Our Mothers’ Gardens — documentary

Inside (2023) — drama

Inside Out 2 — animation

Insidious: The Red Door — horror

The Inspection — drama

Inspector Sun (also titled Inspector Sun and the Curse of the Black Widow) — animation

Instaband — documentary

The Integrity of Joseph Chambers — drama

In the Earth — horror

In the Footsteps of Elephant — documentary

In the Heights — musical

In the Land of Saints and Sinners — drama

In the Rearview — documentary

In the Summers — drama

Intrusion (2021) — drama

Inu-Oh — animation

The Invaders (2022) — documentary

The Inventor (2023) — animation

In Viaggio: The Travels of Pope Francis — documentary

The Invisible Man (2020) — horror

The Invitation (2022) — horror

The Iron Claw (2023) — drama

Iron Mask (formerly titled The Mystery of the Dragon Seal) — fantasy/action

Irresistible (2020) — comedy

I Saw the TV Glow — drama

I.S.S. — sci-fi/drama

Is That Black Enough for You?!? — documentary

I Still Believe — drama

Italian Studies — drama

It Ends With Us — drama

It Lives Inside (2023) — horror

It Takes a Lunatic — documentary

It Takes Three (2021) — comedy

I Used to Go Here — comedy/drama

I’ve Got Issues — comedy

I Want My MTV — documentary

I Will Make You Mine — drama

Jackass Forever — comedy

Jailer (2023) — action

Jakob’s Wife — horror

Jane (2022) — drama

The Janes — documentary

Janet Planet — drama

Janhit Mein Jaari — comedy/drama

January (2022) — drama

Jawan (2023) — action

Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey — comedy/drama

Jayeshbhai Jordaar — comedy

Jay Myself — documentary

Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story — documentary

Jazzy — drama

Jesus Revolution — drama

Jethica — comedy/drama

Jim Henson Idea Man — documentary

Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey — musical

Jiu Jitsu — sci-fi/action

Jockey (2021) — drama

Joe Bell (formerly titled Good Joe Bell) — drama

John and the Hole — drama

John Henry — action

John Lewis: Good Trouble — documentary

Johnny Keep Walking! — comedy

John Wick: Chapter 4 — action

Join or Die (2024) — documentary

Joker: Folie à Deux — musical

JonBenét Ramsey: What Really Happened? — documentary

A Journal for Jordan — drama

Journey to Bethlehem — musical

Joyride (2022) — comedy/drama

Joy Ride (2023) — comedy

Judas and the Black Messiah (formerly titled Jesus Was My Homeboy) — drama

Judy & Punch — drama

Judy Blume Forever — documentary

Jugjugg Jeeyo — comedy/drama

Jujutsu Kaisen 0 — animation

Jules (2023) — sci-fi/comedy/drama

Jungle Cruise — fantasy/action

Jungleland (2020) — drama

Jurassic World Dominion — sci-fi/action

Juror #2 — drama

Kabzaa (2023) — action

Kajillionaire — comedy/drama

Kalaga Thalaivan — action

Kalki 2898 AD — fantasy/action

Kandahar (2023) — action

Karen (2021) — drama

Kat and the Band — comedy

Kaye Ballard: The Show Goes On! — documentary

Keedaa Cola — comedy

Kehvatlal Parivar — comedy/drama

The Kerala Story — drama

Kicking Blood — horror

Kid Candidate — documentary

Kill Chain: The Cyber War on America’s Elections — documentary

The Killer (2023) — drama

Killer Among Us — horror

The Killer’s Game — action

Killers of the Flower Moon — drama

Killer Therapy — horror

Killian & the Comeback Kids — drama

The Killing of Two Lovers — drama

The Kill Team (2019) — drama

Kill the Monsters — drama

Kim’s Video — documentary

The Kindness of Strangers — drama

Kindred (2020) — drama

Kinds of Kindness — comedy/drama

King Coal (2023) — documentary

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes — sci-fi/action

King of Killers — action

King of Kotha — action

The King of Staten Island — comedy/drama

King Otto — documentary

King Richard — drama

The King’s Daughter (formerly titled The Moon and the Sun) — fantasy/drama

The King’s Man — action

Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan — action

Kneecap — comedy/drama

Knights of the Zodiac (2023) — fantasy/action

A Knight’s War — fantasy/action

Knock at the Cabin — horror

Knox Goes Away — drama

Kokomo City — documentary

Kompromat — drama

Kraven the Hunter — sci-fi/fantasy/action

Kung Fu Panda 4 — animation

Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time — documentary

Kuttey — action

Laal Singh Chaddha — drama

Lady Chatterley’s Lover (2022) — drama

La Guerra Civil — documentary

Lair — horror

The Djinn — horror

Lake George (2024) — drama

Lake George (2025) — drama

Lamb (2021) — horror

Land (2021) — drama

Land of Bad — action

Landscape With Invisible Hand — sci-fi/drama

Lansky (2021) — drama

Last Breath (2025) — drama

The Last Dance (2024) — drama

The Last Duel (2021) — drama

The Last Frenzy — comedy/drama

The Last Front (2024) — action

The Last Full Measure — drama

The Last Glaciers — documentary

Last Night in Soho — horror

Las Tres Sisters — comedy/drama

Last Sentinel — sci-fi/drama

The Last Showgirl — drama

The Last Supper (2025) — drama

The Last Vermeer — drama

The Last Voyage of the Demeter — horror

Latency (2024) — drama

Late Night With the Devil — horror

Laththi (also titled Laththi Charge) — action

The Lawyer — drama

The League (2023) — documentary

Leave the World Behind (2023) — drama

Left for Dead (2025) — documentary

Leftover Women — documentary

The Legend of Maula Jatt — action

Legions (2022) — horror

Les Misérables (2019) — drama

The Lesson (2023) — drama

Let Him Go — drama

Levels (2024) — sci-fi/drama

Licorice Pizza — comedy/drama

The Lie (2020) — drama

Life in a Day 2020 — documentary

Lighting Up the Stars — comedy/drama

Lightyear — animation

Like a Boss — comedy

Like Father Like Son (2025) — drama

Limbo (2021) — comedy/drama

Limbo (2023) — drama

Limerence — comedy

Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice — documentary

Lingua Franca — drama

Lisa Frankenstein — comedy

Little Fish (2021) — sci-fi/drama

The Little Mermaid (2023) — fantasy

Little Richard: I Am Everything — documentary

The Little Things (2021) — drama

Living (2022) — drama

Locked (2025) — horror

The Locksmith (2023) — drama

The Lodge — horror

The Long Game (2024) — drama

The Longest Wave — documentary

Longlegs — horror

Long Live Rock…Celebrate the Chaos — documentary

Long Weekend (2021) — sci-fi/drama

Look Into My Eyes (2024) — documentary

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim — animation

Lorelei (2021) — drama

Lost Bayou — drama

The Lost City (2022) — comedy

The Lost Daughter (2021) — drama

Lost Girls — drama

Lost in the Stars (2023) — drama

Lost Love (2023) — drama

Lost on a Mountain in Maine — drama

Lost Transmissions — drama

The Lost Weekend: A Love Story — documentary

Los Últimos Frikis — documentary

A Lot of Nothing — comedy/drama

Love Again (2023) — comedy/drama

Love and Monsters — sci-fi/horror/action

The Lovebirds — comedy

Love Hurts (2025) — action/comedy

Love Is Love Is Love — drama

Love Lies Bleeding (2024) — drama

Lovely Jackson — documentary

Love Me (2025) — sci-fi/drama

Love Me If You Dare (2024) (also titled Love Me) — drama

Love Never Ends — drama

Lover (2024) — drama

Lover, Stalker, Killer — documentary

Love Sarah — comedy/drama

A Love Song — drama

Love Suddenly (2022) — comedy/drama

Love Type D — comedy

Love Wedding Repeat — comedy

Low Tide — drama

Luca (2021) — animation

Lucky Grandma — action

Lucy and Desi — documentary

Lumina (2024) — sci-fi/horror

Luther: Never Too Much — documentary

Lux Æterna — comedy/drama

Luz: The Flower of Evil — horror

LX 2048 — sci-fi/drama

Lydia Lunch: The War Is Never Over — documentary

Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile — comedy

M3GAN — horror/comedy

Maamannan — action

Maaveeran (2023) — fantasy/action

Ma Belle, My Beauty — drama

The Machine (2023) — action/comedy

Mack & Rita — comedy

Madame Web — sci-fi/fantasy/action

Ma Da: The Drowning Spirit — horror

Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger — documentary

Mad Fate — drama

Madres (2021) — horror

Maestra (2024) — documentary

Maestro (2023) — drama

Mafia Mamma — comedy/drama

Magazine Dreams (2025) — drama

Magic Mike’s Last Dance — comedy/drama

Maidaan — drama

Mai Khoi & the Dissidents — documentary

The Main Event (2020) — action

Majority Rules (2024) — documentary

Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound— documentary

Malignant (2021) — horror

Mallory (2021) — documentary

Malum (2023) — horror

Mama Weed — comedy/drama

Mami Wata (2023) — drama

A Man Called Otto — comedy/drama

Mandibles — comedy

Mank — drama

The Manor (2021) — horror

The Man Who Sold His Skin — drama

The Many Saints of Newark — drama

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom — drama

Marathon (2021) — comedy

Marcel the Shell With Shoes On — live-action/animation

Marked Men: Rule + Shaw — drama

Mark, Mary & Some Other People — comedy

The Marksman (2021) — action

Marlowe (2023) — drama

Marry Me (2022) — comedy

The Marsh King’s Daughter — drama

Mars One — drama

Martha: A Picture Story — documentary

Martin Margiela: In His Own Words — documentary

The Marvels — sci-fi/fantasy/action

Masquerade (2021) — horror

Mass (2021) — drama

Master (2022) — horror

Master Gardener — drama

The Matrix Resurrections — sci-fi/action

Maurice Hines: Bring Them Back — documentary

The Mauritanian — drama

MaXXXine — horror

Maybe I Do — comedy/drama

Mayday (2021) — action

May December — drama

Mean Girls (2024) — musical

Measure of Revenge — drama

Meat Me Halfway — documentary

Medieval (2022) — action

Medusa (2022) — drama

Medusa Deluxe — comedy/drama

Meg 2: The Trench — drama

Megalopolis (2024) — sci-fi/drama

Memoir of a Snail — animation

Memoria (2021) — sci-fi/drama

Memory (2022) — action

Memory (2023) — drama

Men (2022) — horror

The Menu (2022) — horror

Merry Christmas (2024) — drama

Michael (2023) — action

Mickey 17 — sc-fi/comedy/drama

Mid-Century (2022) — horror

Midnight in the Switchgrass — drama

Mighty Ira — documentary

Mighty Oak — drama

Migration (2023) — animation

Mili (2022) — drama

Military Wives — comedy/drama

Miller’s Girl — drama

Milli Vanilli — documentary

The Mimic (2021) — comedy

Minari — drama

The Mindfulness Movement — documentary

A Minecraft Movie — fantasy/action

Minions: The Rise of Gru — animation

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare — action

The Miracle Club — drama

Misbehaviour — drama

Misericordia (2024) — drama

Miss Americana — documentary

Missing (2023) — drama

Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One  — action

Miss Juneteenth — drama

The Mitchells vs. the Machines — animation

Mixtape Trilogy: Stories of the Power of Music — documentary

MLK/FBI — documentary

Moana 2 — animation/musical

Moffie — drama

The Mole Agent — documentary

Monday (2021) — drama

Money Back Guarantee (2023) — action/comedy

Monica (2023) — drama

The Monkey (2025) — horror/comedy

Monkey Man (2024) — action

Monolith (2023) — horror

Monster Family 2 — animation

Monster Hunter — sci-fi/fantasy/action

Monsters of California — sci-fi/comedy

Monster Summer — horror

Monstrous (2022) — horror

Montana Story — drama

Moonage Daydream — documentary

Moonfall (2022) — sci-fi/action

Moon Man (2022) — sci-fi/comedy/drama

Morbius — sci-fi/horror/action

Mortal — sci-fi/action

Mortal Kombat (2021) — sci-fi/fantasy/action

Most Dangerous Game — sci-fi/action

Most Wanted (formerly titled Target Number One) — drama

Mother, I Am Suffocating. This Is My Last Film About You. — docudrama

Mothering Sunday — drama

A Mouthful of Air — drama

Move Me (2022) — documentary

MoviePass, MovieCrash — documentary

Moving On (2023) — comedy/drama

Mr. Malcolm’s List — comedy/drama

Mrs. Chatterjee vs. Norway — drama

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris — comedy/drama

Mr. Soul! — documentary

Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado  — documentary

Mufasa: The Lion King — animation/musical

Mulan (2020) — fantasy/action

Mummies (2023) — animation

Murder in the Front Row: The San Francisco Bay Area Thrash Metal Story — documentary

Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story — documentary

Music by John Williams — documentary

Music Pictures: New Orleans — documentary

My Animal (2023) — horror

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 — comedy

My Boyfriend’s Meds — comedy

My Country, My Parents (also titled My Country, My Family) — drama

My Dad’s Christmas Date — comedy/drama

My Darling Vivian — documentary

My Dead Friend Zoe — drama

My Father Muhammad Ali — documentary

My Happy Ending — comedy/drama

My Love (2021) — comedy/drama

My Octopus Teacher — documentary

My Old Ass — sci-fi/fantasy/action

My Old School — documentary

My Penguin Friend (formerly titled The Penguin and the Fisherman) — comedy/drama

My Salinger Year (also titled My New York Year) — drama

My Spy — comedy

Mystify: Michael Hutchence — documentary

Naa Saami Ranga — action

Naked Singularity — drama

The Nan Movie — comedy

Nanny — horror

Napoleon (2023) — drama

Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind — documentary

National Champions — drama

Navalny — documentary

Needle in a Timestack — sci-fi/drama

Neeyat (2023) — drama

Nefarious (2023) — drama

The Nest (2020) — drama

Never Forget Tibet — documentary

Never Gonna Snow Again — drama

Never Let Go (2024) — horror

Never Rarely Sometimes Always — drama

Never Say Never (2023) (also known as Octagonal) — drama

Never Stop (2021) — drama

Never Too Late (2020) — comedy

New Gods: Yang Jian — animation

New Order (2021) — drama

News of the World — drama

Next Goal Wins (2023) — comedy/drama

Next Exit — comedy/drama

A Nice Girl Like You — comedy

Nickel Boys — drama

Nightbitch — drama

The Night House — horror

Nightmare Alley (2021) — drama

Night of the Kings — drama

Night of the Zoocopalypse — animation

The Night Owl (2022) — drama

Nightride (2022) — drama

Night Swim (2024) — horror

The Night They Came Home — action

Nina Wu — drama

Nine Days — drama

Nitram — drama

Noah Land — drama

Nobody (2021) — sci-fi/action

Nocturne (2020) — horror

No Exit (2022) — drama

No Hard Feelings (2023) — comedy

Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin — documentary

Nomadland — drama

No Man’s Land (2021) — drama

No More Bets (2023) — drama

No One Asked You — documentary

No Other Land — documentary

Nope —sci-fi/horror

The Northman — fantasy/action

Nosferatu (2024) — horror

No Small Matter — documentary

Not Another Church Movie — comedy

Nothing Can’t Be Undone by a Hotpot — comedy

No Time to Die (2021) — action

Notturno — documentary

The Novice (2021) — drama

Novocaine (2025) — action

The Nowhere Inn — comedy/drama

The Nun II — horror

The Oath (2023) — drama

Objects — documentary

October 8 (formerly titled October H8te) — documentary

Occupied City — documentary

Octopus With Broken Arms (formerly titled Sheep without a Shepherd 3) — action

Oddity (2024) — horror

Of an Age — drama

The Offering (2022) — horror

Official Competition — comedy/drama

Oh, Canada (2024) — drama

Old — horror

The Old Guard — sci-fi/fantasy/action

Old Henry (2021) — drama

Olympia — documentary

Olympic Dreams — comedy/drama

OMG 2 — comedy/drama

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl — drama

On Broadway (2021) — documentary

Once Upon a River — drama

Once Upon a Time in Uganda — documentary

Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band — documentary

One and Only (2023) — comedy/drama

One Day as a Lion — action

One Hour Outcall — drama

One Life (2023) — drama

One Man and His Shoes — documentary

One Night in Bangkok — drama

One Night in Miami…  — drama

One of Them Days — comedy

One Piece Film Red — animation

One Ranger — action

One to One: John & Yoko — documentary

One True Loves (2023) — comedy/drama

One Week Friends (2022) — drama

On Fire (2023) — drama

Only — sci-fi/drama

The Only One (2021) — drama

On the Come Up — drama

On the Record — documentary

On the Rocks (2020) — drama

On the Trail: Inside the 2020 Primaries — documentary

Onward — animation

Open — drama

Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre — action

Oppenheimer (2023) — drama

Opus (2025) — horror

The Order (2024) — drama

Ordinary Angels (2024) — drama

Ordinary Love — drama

Origin (2023) — drama

Origin of the Species (2021) — documentary

Orphan: First Kill — horror

Otherhood — comedy

The Other Lamb — drama

Other Music — documentary

The Other Zoey — comedy

Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles — documentary

Our Father, the Devil — drama

Our Friend (formerly titled The Friend) — drama

Our Ladies — comedy/drama

Our Son — drama

Our Time Machine — documentary

Out Come the Wolves (2024) — horror

The Outfit (2022) — drama

Out of Blue — drama

Out of Darkness — horror

The Outpost — drama

The Outrun — drama

Out Stealing Horses — drama

Over My Dead Body (2023) — comedy

Ozark Law — documentary

Paap Punyo — drama

Paddington in Peru — live-action/animation

Paint (2023) —comedy

The Painter (2024) — action

The Painter and the Thief — documentary

The Pale Blue Eye — drama

Palm Springs —sci-fi/comedy

Papa (2024) — drama

Paper Spiders — drama

The Paper Tigers — action

Paradise (2024) — action

Paradise Highway — drama

Parallel (2020) — sci-fi/drama

Parallel Mothers — drama

Paranormal Prison — horror

Pareshan — comedy/drama

Paris, 13th District — drama

Parkland Rising — documentary

Parthenope — drama

Passing (2021) — drama

Past Lives (2023) — drama

Pastor’s Kid (2024) — drama

Pathological: The Lies of Joran van der Sloot — documentary

A Patient Man — drama

PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie — animation

PAW Patrol: The Movie — animation

Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank — animation

Pearl (2022) — horror

The Peasants (2023) — animation

Pegasus 2 — action/comedy

The Penguin Lessons — drama

Perfect Days (2023) — drama

A Perfect Enemy — drama

The Persian Version — drama

The Personal History of David Copperfield — comedy/drama

Personality Crisis: One Night Only — documentary

Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare — horror

Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway — live-action/animation

Petite Maman — drama

Petit Mal (2023) — drama

The Phantom of the Open — comedy/drama

Phobias (2021) — horror

Phone Bhoot — comedy

The Photograph — drama

The Piano Lesson (2024) — drama

Pichaikkaran 2 — sci-fi/action

Piece by Piece (2024) — animation/documentary

Pig (2021) — drama

Piggy (2022) — horror

Pilot (2024) — comedy

Ping Pong: The Triumph — drama

Pinocchio (2022) — live-action/animation

A Place Called Silence (2024) — drama

The Place of No Words — drama

Plane — action

The Planters — comedy

Playing God (2021) — comedy

Pleasure (2021) — drama

Plucked — documentary

Plus One (2019) — comedy

The Pod Generation — comedy/drama

The Point Men (2023) (also titled Bargaining) — action

Polite Society — action/comedy

The Pollinators — documentary

Poolman — comedy/drama

Poor Things — fantasy/comedy/drama

The Pope’s Exorcist — horror

Porcelain War — documentary

Pornstar Pandemic: The Guys — documentary

Port Authority (2019) — drama

Possessor Uncut — sci-fi/horror

The Power of the Dog — drama

The Prank (2024) — comedy

Premature (2020) — drama

Prem Geet 3 — action

Presence (2025) — horror

Pretty Problems — comedy/drama

Prey (2022) — sci-fi/horror

The Prey (2020) — action

Prey for the Devil (also titled The Devil’s Light) — horror

The Price of Desire — drama

The Price We Pay (2023) — horror

The Princess (2022) — documentary

Prisoner’s Daughter — drama

Prisoners of the Ghostland — sci-fi/action

Problemista — comedy/drama

The Procurator — drama

Profile (2021) — drama

Project Power — sci-fi/action

Project Wolf Hunting — sci-fi/horror/action

Promising Young Woman — comedy/drama

The Protégé (2021) — action

Proxima — sci-fi/drama

P.S. Burn This Letter Please — documentary

Public Enemy Number One — documentary

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish — animation

PVT CHAT — drama

Quaid-e-Azam Zindabad — action

Queenpins — comedy

Queer (2024) — drama

The Quiet Girl — drama

The Quiet One (2019) — documentary

The Quiet Ones (2024) — drama

A Quiet Place: Day One — sci-fi/horror

A Quiet Place Part II — sci-fi/horror

The Quintessential Quintuplets Movie — animation

Quo Vadis, Aida? — drama

The Racer — drama

Radical (2023) — drama

Radioactive — drama

Raging Fire — action

Raging Grace — horror

Raid on the Lethal Zone — action

Railway Children (formerly titled The Railway Children Return) — drama

A Rainy Day in New York — comedy

Raising Buchanan — comedy

Ram Setu — action

Ransomed (2023) — action

Rare Beasts — comedy

Rare Objects (2023) — drama

Rathnam (2024) — action

Ravanasura — action

Ravening (formerly titled Aamis) — drama

Raya and the Last Dragon — animation

A Real Pain — comedy/drama

The Real Sister — drama

Rebel (2022) — drama

The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks — documentary

Rebuilding Paradise — documentary

Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project — documentary

Redeeming Love — drama

Red One (2024) — sci-fi/fantasy/action/comedy

Red Penguins — documentary

Red Rocket — comedy/drama

Red Rooms (2023) — drama

Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs — animation

Refuge (2023) — documentary

A Regular Woman — drama

Relic — horror

The Remarkable Life of Ibelin — documentary

Remember (2022) — action

Reminiscence (2021) — sci-fi/drama

Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé — documentary

Renfield (2023) — horror/comedy

The Rental (2020) — horror

Rent-A-Pal — horror

The Rescue (2021) — documentary

The Rescue List — documentary

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City — horror

Resistance (2020) — drama

Resistance: They Fought Back — documentary

Respect (2021) — drama

Resurrection (2022) — horror

Retaliation (formerly titled Romans) — drama

The Retirement Plan (2023) — comedy/action

The Retreat (2021) — horror

The Return (2024) — drama

Return to Seoul — drama

Reverse the Curse (formerly titled Bucky F*cking Dent) — comedy/drama

Rewind — documentary

The Rhythm Section — action

The Ride (2020) — drama

Ride Like a Girl — drama

Ride On — comedy/drama

Riders of Justice — drama

Ride the Eagle — comedy/drama

Riff Raff (2025) — comedy/drama

The Right One — comedy

Riotsville, USA — documentary

Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It — documentary

River City Drumbeat — documentary

RK/RKAY — comedy

Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain — documentary

Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical — musical

Roald Dahl’s The Witches — horror/fantasy

Robert the Bruce — drama

Robot Dreams (2023) — animation

Robots (2023) — sci-fi/comedy

Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani — comedy/drama

Ron’s Gone Wrong — animation

The Rookies (2019) — action

Room 203 — horror

The Room Next Door (2024) — drama

Rounding — drama

The Roundup (2022) — action

The Royal Hotel — drama

Rubikon (2022) — sci-fi/drama

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken — animation

Rule of Two Walls — documentary

Run (2020) — drama

Runner — documentary

Running the Bases — drama

Run Rabbit Run (2023) — horror

Run With the Hunted — drama

Rushed — drama

Rustin (2023) — drama

Ruth: Justice Ginsburg in Her Own Words — documentary

Ryan’s World the Movie: Titan Universe Adventure — live-action/animation

Rye Lane — comedy

Sacramento (2025) — comedy/drama

Safer at Home — drama

Saint Frances — comedy/drama

Saint Maud — horror

Saint Omer — drama

Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefire — action

Sallywood — comedy

Saloum — horror

Saltburn — comedy/drama

Sam Bahadur — drama

Sam & Kate — comedy/drama

Samrat Prithviraj (formerly titled Prithviraj) — action

Sanctuary (2023) — drama

Santa Camp — documentary

Sasquatch Sunset — fantasy/comedy/drama

Satisfied (2024) — documentary

Saturday Night (2024) — comedy

Satyaprem Ki Katha — drama

Save Yourselves! — sci-fi/horror/comedy

Saving Paradise — drama

Saw X — horror

Say Hey, Willie Mays! — documentary

Say I Do to Me — comedy

Scamanda (2025) — documentary

Scam Goddess — documentary

The Scheme (2020) — documentary

Scheme Birds — documentary

School’s Out Forever — horror

Scoob! — animation

Scrambled (2024) — comedy/drama

Scrapper (2023) — comedy/drama

Scream (2022) — horror

Scream VI — horror

Screamboat — horror

Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street — documentary

Screened Out — documentary

Seahorse: The Dad Who Gave Birth (formerly titled Seahorse) — documentary

Searching for Amani — documentary

Seberg — drama

The Secret: Dare to Dream — drama

A Secret Love — documentary

The Secrets We Keep — drama

The Seed of the Sacred Fig — drama

See for Me — horror

See How They Run (2022) — comedy/drama

See Know Evil — documentary

See You Yesterday — sci-fi/drama

Selah and the Spades — drama

Selfiee — comedy

Sell/Buy/Date — documentary

Separation (2021) — horror

September 5 — drama

Sergio (2020) — drama

Sesame Street: 50 Years of Sunny Days — documentary

Settlers (2021) — sci-fi/drama

The Seventh Day (2021) — horror

Shabaash Mithu — drama

The Shade (2024) — drama

Shadows (2023) — horror

Shadows of Freedom — documentary

Shaitaan (2024) — horror

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings — sci-fi/fantasy/action

Shattered (2022) — drama

Shayda — drama

Shazam! Fury of the Gods — sci-fi/fantasy/action

She Came to Me — comedy/drama

She Dies Tomorrow — drama

Shehzada (2023) — action

She Is Love — drama

Shelter in Solitude — drama

She Said — drama

She’s in Portland — drama

She Will — horror

The Shift (2023) — sci-fi/drama

Shine Your Eyes — drama

Shining for One Thing (2023) — drama

Shirley (2020) — drama

Shithouse — comedy/drama

Shiva Baby (2021) — comedy/drama

Shonibar Bikel (Saturday Afternoon) — drama

Shortcomings (2023) — comedy

Shortcut — horror

The Short History of the Long Road — drama

A Shot Through the Wall — drama

Showbiz Kids — documentary

Showing Up (2023) — comedy/drama

The Show’s the Thing: The Legendary Promoters of Rock — documentary

The Shrouds — horror

Siberia (2021) — drama

Sidney — documentary

Sight (2024) — drama

Significant Other (2022) — sci-fi/horror

Sikand (2025)Sikandar (2025) — action

Review: ‘Lost Girls,’ starring Amy Ryan, Thomasin McKenzie, Lola Kirke and Gabriel Byrne

Silent Night (2021) (starring Keira Knightley) — comedy/drama

Silent Night (2023) — action

The Silent Party — drama

The Silent Twins — drama

Silk Road (2021) — drama

A Simple Wedding — comedy

Simulant (2023) — sci-fi/action

Sing 2 — animation

Singham Again — action

Sing Sing (2024) — drama

Sinners (2025) — horror

The Sinners (2021) (also titled The Virgin Sinners; formerly titled The Color Rose) — horror

Sissy — horror

Sisu (2023) — action

Six Minutes to Midnight — drama

Skate Dreams — documentary

Ski Bum: The Warren Miller Story — documentary

Skincare — comedy/drama

Skin Deep: The Battle Over Morgellons — documentary

Skin Walker — horror

Sky Force (2025) — action

Skyman — sci-fi/drama

Skywalkers: A Love Story — documentary

Slay the Dragon — documentary

Sleep (2023) — horror

Slingshot (2024) — sci-fi/drama

Slotherhouse — horror

Small Engine Repair (2021) — comedy/drama

Small Things Like These — drama

Smile (2022) — horror

Smile 2 — horror

Smiley Face Killers — horror

Smoking Causes Coughing — sci-fi/comedy

Speak No Evil (2022) — horror

Speak No Evil (2024) — horror

Snack Shack — comedy/drama

Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins — sci-fi/fantasy/action

Sniper: The White Raven — action

Sno Babies — drama

A Snowy Day in Oakland — comedy/drama

Soft & Quiet — drama

Somebody Up There Likes Me (2020) — documentary

Some Kind of Heaven — documentary

Some Like It Rare — horror/comedy

Someone Like You (2024) — drama

Sometimes Always Never — comedy/drama

Sometimes I Think About Dying (2024) — drama

Somewhere in Queens — comedy/drama

The Son (2022) — drama

The Sonata — horror

Songbird — sci-fi/drama

Sonic the Hedgehog — live-action/animation

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 — live-action/animation

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 — live-action/animation

Son of Monarchs — drama

Sons of Ecstasy — documentary

Sorry/Not Sorry (2024) — documentary

Sorry We Missed You — drama

Soul — animation

Soulmates (2021) — comedy

Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot — drama

The Sound of Identity — documentary

Sound of Metal — drama

Sound of Silence (2023) — horror

The Sound of Violet (formerly titled Hooked) — drama

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat — documentary

Southern Gospel — drama

The Souvenir Part II — drama

Space Jam: A New Legacy — live-action/amination

Spaceship Earth — documentary

The Sparks Brothers — documentary

The Sparring Partner — drama

The Speedway Murders — documentary

Spell (2020) — horror

Spelling the Dream (formerly titled Breaking the Bee) — documentary

Spencer — drama

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse — animation

Spider-Man: No Way Home — sci-fi/fantasy/action

Spinning Gold — drama

Spiral (2021) — horror

Spirited (2022) — musical/comedy

Spirit Untamed — animation

Spoiler Alert (2022) — drama

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run — live-action/animation

Spontaneous — sci-fi/horror/comedy

Sputnik — sci-fi/horror

Spy (2023) — action

Spy x Family Code: White — animation

Standing on the Shoulders of Kitties: The Bubbles and the Shitrockers Story — comedy

Standing Up, Falling Down — comedy/drama

Stardust (2020) — drama

The Starling Girl — drama

Stars at Noon — drama

Starting at Zero — documentary

Starve Acre — horror

The State of Texas vs. Melissa — documentary

Stay Awake (2023) — drama

Stealing School — comedy/drama

Stevenson Lost & Found — documentary

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie — documentary

Still Here (2020) — drama

Stillwater (2021) — drama

Sting (2024) — horror

The Stolen Valley (formerly titled Alta Valley) — action

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry — drama

The Storm (2024) — animation

The Story of Soaps — documentary

Strange Darling — drama

The Stranger (Quibi original) — drama

The Strangers: Chapter 1  — horror

Strange World (2022) — animation

Stray (2021) — documentary

Strays (2023) — drama

Stray Dolls — drama

Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street — documentary

Street Survivors: The True Story of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash — drama

Stress Positions — comedy/drama

Strictly Confidential (2024) — drama

Studio 666 (2022) — horror/comedy

Stuntman (2024) — action

The Stylist — horror

Subho Bijoya — drama

Subjects of Desire — documentary

Sublime — documentary

The Substance — horror

Suburban Fury — documentary

Sugarcane (2024)— documentary

Sugar Daddy (2021) — drama

The Suicide Squad — sci-fi/fantasy/action

Summering — drama

Summerland — drama

Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) — documentary

Summoning Sylvia — horror/comedy

Sundown (2022) — drama

The Sunlit Night — comedy/drama

Superboys of Maelgaon — comedy/drama

Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story — documentary

The Super Mario Bros. Movie — animation

Supernova (2021) — drama

Super Punjabi — comedy

The Surrogate — drama

Survive — drama

Swallow — drama

Swallowed (2023) — horror

Swan Song (2021) (starring Mahershala Ali) — sci-fi/drama

Swan Song (2021) (starring Udo Kier) — comedy/drama

Sweetheart Deal — documentary

Sweet Thing (2020) — drama

Sweetwater (2023) — drama

The Swerve — drama

The Swing of Things — comedy

Sylvie’s Love — drama

Sympathy for the Devil (2023) — comedy/drama

Synchronic — sci-fi/horror

Table for Six (2022) — comedy/drama

Take Back — action

Take Me to the River: New Orleans — documentary

Talk to Me (2023) — horror

Tango Shalom — comedy/drama

Tankhouse — comedy

Tape (2020) — drama

Tar — horror

TÁR — drama

Tarot (2024) — horror

A Taste of Hunger — drama

A Taste of Sky — documentary

The Taste of Things — drama

Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music — documentary

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour — documentary

Taylor Swift vs. Scooter Braun: Bad Blood — documentary

The Teachers’ Lounge (2023) — drama

Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman — horror

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem — animation

The Tender Bar — drama

Ten Minutes to Midnight — horror

Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya — sci-fi/comedy

Terrorizers — drama

Tesla — drama

Tetris (2023) — drama

Thank God (2022) — comedy/drama/fantasy

Thanksgiving (2023) — horror

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Scarlet Bond — animation

Theater Camp (2023) — comedy

Thelma (2024) — comedy

Then Came You (2020) — comedy

There’s Still Tomorrow — drama

There There — comedy/drama

They Call Me Dr. Miami — documentary

They Shot the Piano Player — docudrama/animation

They Wait in the Dark — horror

The Thing About Harry — comedy

Things Will Be Different (2024) — drama

Think Like a Dog — comedy/drama

Third World Romance — drama

Thirteen Lives — drama

This Is a Film About the Black Keys — documentary

This Is Personal — documentary

This Is Stand-Up — documentary

This Is the Year — comedy

Thor: Love and Thunder — sci-fi/fantasy/action

Those Who Wish Me Dead — drama

A Thousand and One — drama

A Thousand Cuts (2020) — documentary

A Thread of Deceit: The Hart Family Tragedy — documentary

Three Headed Beast — drama

Three Minutes—A Lengthening — documentary

Three Thousand Years of Longing — fantasy

Through the Night (2020) — documentary

Ticket to Paradise (2022) — comedy

Tick, Tick…Boom! — musical

Tiger 3 — action

Tiger Nageswara Rao — action

Tijuana Jackson: Purpose Over Prison — comedy

TikTok Star Murders — documentary

Till — drama

Time (2020) — documentary

Time Bomb Y2K — documentary

Time Is Up (2021) — drama

The Times of Bill Cunningham — documentary

Time Still Turns the Pages — drama

Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made — comedy

The Tinder Swindler — documentary

Titane — horror

The Tobacconist — drama

To Catch a Killer (2023) (formerly titled Misanthrope) — drama

Together (2021) — comedy/drama

Together Together — comedy/drama

To Kid or Not to Kid — documentary

To Kill a Tiger — documentary

To Kill the Beast — drama

Tom and Jerry — live-action/animation

Tommaso — drama

Tom of Your Life — sci-fi/comedy

Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free: The Making of Wildflowers — documentary

Too Late (2021) — horror/comedy

Top Gun: Maverick — action

The Torch (2022) — documentary

Totally Under Control — documentary

To the Moon (2022) — drama

Touch (2024) — drama

Trafficked: A Parent’s Worst Nightmare — drama

The Tragedy of Macbeth — drama

Transformers One — animation

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts — sci-fi/action

Trap (2024) — drama

A Traveler’s Needs — comedy/drama

Traveling Light (2022) — drama

The Trial of the Chicago 7 — drama

Triangle of Sadness — comedy/drama

The Trip to Greece — comedy

Trixie Mattel: Moving Parts — documentary

Trolls Band Together — animation

Trolls World Tour — animation

Troop Zero — comedy

The True Adventures of Wolfboy — drama

The Truffle Hunters — documentary

Trust (2021) — drama

The Truth — drama

The Tuba Thieves — documentary

Tuesday (2024) — drama

Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar — comedy

The Turning (2020) — horror

Turning Red — animation

The Tutor (2023) — drama

‘Twas the Fight Before Christmas — documentary

Twas the Night (2021) — comedy

The Twentieth Century — comedy

Twisters (2024) — action

Two of Us (2020) — drama

Tyson (2019) — documentary

Tyson’s Run — drama

Ullozhukka — drama

Ultrasound — sci-fi/drama

Umma (2022) — horror

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent — action/comedy

Unbelievable (premiere episode) — drama

The Unreakable Boy — drama

Uncaged (also titled Prey) – horror

Uncharted (2022) — action

Unconditional (2023) — documentary

Uncorked — drama

Under the Volcano (2021) — documentary

Underwater — sci-fi/horror

Undine (2020) — drama

Unfavorable Odds — comedy

Unhinged (2020) — action

The Unholy (2021) — horror

Uninvited (2024) — drama

Union (2024) — documentary

The United States vs. Billie Holiday — drama

Un Rescate de Huevitos — animation

The Unseen Sister — drama

Unstoppable (2024) — drama

Unsung Hero (2024) — drama

The Unthinkable — drama

Until We Meet Again (2022) — drama

Up From the Streets: New Orleans: The City of Music — documentary

Uprooting Addiction — documentary

Ursula von Rydingsvard: Into Her Own — documentary

Usher: Rendezvous in Paris — documentary

Utama — drama

Uunchai — drama

Vaalvi — comedy/drama

Vaathi (also titled Sir) — drama

Vadh — drama

Val — documentary

Valiant One — action

Valley Girl (2020) — musical

The Vanished (2020) (formerly titled Hour of Lead)— drama

Vanquish (2021) — action

The Vast of Night — sci-fi/drama

Veetla Vishesham — comedy/drama

Vengeance (2022) — comedy/drama

Vengeance Is Mine (2021) — action

Venom: Let There Be Carnage — sci-fi/action

Venom: The Last Dance — sci-fi/action

A Very Good Girl — comedy/drama

The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee — comedy

Very Scary Lovers — documentary

Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video — comedy

Vidaamuyarchi — action

The Vigil (2021) — horror

Vijayanand — drama

Vikram (2022) — action

The Village in the Woods — horror

Villains Inc. (2024) (formerly titled Villains Incorporated) — sci-fi/fantasy/comedy

Violent Night — action/comedy

Violet (2021) — drama

Viral: Antisemitism in Four Mutations — documentary

The Virtuoso (2021) — drama

Vivarium — sci-fi/drama

Voyagers — sci-fi/drama

Vulcanizadora — drama

Waikiki (2023) — drama

Waiting for Bojangles — comedy/drama

Waiting for the Barbarians — drama

Waiting for the Light to Change (2023) — drama

Wander Darkly — drama

The Wandering Earth II — sci-fi/action

Warfare (2025) — drama

Warrior King — animation

The War With Grandpa — comedy

The Wasp (2024) — drama

Watcher (2022) — horror

The Watchers (2024) — horror

Watson — documentary

The Way Back (2020) — drama

Wayward (2024) — drama

We 12 — action

We Are Freestyle Love Supreme — documentary

We Are Little Zombies — comedy/drama

We Are Many — documentary

We Are the Radical Monarchs — documentary

Weathering With You — animation

We Broke Up — comedy

The Wedding Banquet (2025) — comedy/drama

Weekend in Taipei — action

We Grown Now — drama

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story — comedy

Welcome to Chechnya — documentary

We Live in Time — drama

We Need to Do Something — horror

We’re All Going to the World’s Fair — drama

Werewolves (2024) — horror

Werewolves Within — horror/comedy

Wes Is Dying (formerly titled Wes Schlagenhauf Is Dying) — comedy

West Side Story (2021) — musical

The Whale (2022) — drama

What Happens Later — comedy/drama

What Jennifer Did — documentary

What’s Love Got to Do With It? (2023) — comedy/drama

What’s My Name: Muhammad Ali — documentary

What the Hell Happened to Blood, Sweat & Tears? — documentary

What We Do Next — drama

What We Found — drama

What Will Become of Us (2019) — documentary

The Wheel (2022) — drama

When I Consume You — horror

When the Streetlights Go On — drama

When We Free the World — documentary

When You Finish Saving the World — comedy/drama

Where the Crawdads Sing — drama

Whisper of the Heart (2022) — drama

The Whistlers — drama

White Bird (2024) — drama

White Noise (2022) — comedy/drama

The White Storm 3: Heaven or Hell — action

A White, White Day — drama

Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody — drama

Whitney Houston – The Concert for a New South Africa (Durban) — documentary

Who Is Luigi Mangione? — documentary

Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America — documentary

Wicked (2024) — musical

Wicked Game: Devil in the Desert — documentary

Wicked Little Letters — comedy/drama

Widow of Silence — drama

Wig — documentary

Wildcat (2022) — documentary

Wildcat (2024) — drama

Wildflower (2023) — comedy/drama

Wild Indian — drama

Wild Men (2021) — comedy/drama

Wild Mountain Thyme — drama

The Wild Robot — animation

Willy’s Wonderland — horror

The Windermere Children — drama

Wine Crush (Vas-y Coupe!) (formerly titled Vas-y Coupe!) — documentary

Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey — horror

Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 — horror

Wish (2023) — animation

Wish You Were Here (2025) — drama

The Witch 2: The Other One — sci-fi/horror/action

Witch Hunt (2021) — horror

Wojnarowicz — documentary

Wolf (2021) — drama

The Wolf and the Lion — drama

The Wolf House — animation

Wolf Man (2025) — horror

The Wolf of Snow Hollow — horror

Wolfs — comedy/drama

The Woman in the Yard — horror

The Woman King — action

Woman on the Roof — drama

A Woman’s Work: The NFL’s Cheerleader Problem — documentary

Women (2021) — horror

Women Talking — drama

The Wonder (2022) — drama

Wonder Woman 1984 — sci-fi/fantasy/action

Wonka — musical

Woodstock: Three Days That Defined a Generation — documentary

Words on Bathroom Walls — drama

A Working Man (2025) — action

Work It — comedy/drama

The World According to Allee Willis — documentary

The World to Come — drama

The World Will Tremble — drama

The Worst Person in the World — comedy/drama

Worst to First: The True Story of Z100 New York — documentary

Wrath of Man — action

The Wretched — horror

A Writer’s Odyssey — fantasy/action

The Wrong Missy — comedy

A Wu-Tang Experience: Live at Red Rocks Amphitheatre — documentary

Wyrm — comedy

Wyrmwood: Apocalypse — horror

X (2022) — horror

XY Chelsea — documentary

Y2K (2024) — sci-fi/horror/comedy

Yaara Vey — drama

Yakuza Princess — action

¿Y Cómo Es Él? — comedy

The Year Between — comedy/drama

Yellow Rose — drama

Yesterday Once More (2023) — drama

YOLO (2024) — comedy/drama

You Are Not My Mother — horror

You Cannot Kill David Arquette — documentary

You Can’t Run Forever — drama

You Don’t Nomi — documentary

You Go to My Head — drama

You Gotta Believe — drama

You Hurt My Feelings (2023) — comedy

Young Woman and the Sea — drama

Your Monster (2024) — horror/comedy

You Should Have Left — horror

You Were My First Boyfriend — documentary

You Won’t Be Alone — horror

Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn — documentary

Zack Snyder’s Justice League — sci-fi/fantasy/action

Zappa — documentary

Zara Hatke Zara Bachke — comedy/drama

Zeros and Ones — drama

Zola — comedy/drama

Zombi Child — horror

The Zone of Interest — drama

Zurawski v Texas — documentary

Zwigato — drama

Review: ‘The Shrouds,’ starring Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, Guy Pearce and Sandrine Holt

April 17, 2025

by Carla Hay

Vincent Cassel and Diane Kruger in “The Shrouds” (Photo courtesy of Sideshow and Janus Films)

“The Shrouds”

Directed by David Cronenberg

Culture Representation: Taking place in Canada, the sc-fi horror film “The Shrouds” features a predominantly white group of people (with a few Asian people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A widower, who owns an unusual business where people can visually monitor corpses that are insides of graves, tries to solve the mystery of who’s trying to sabatoge his business.

Culture Audience: “The Shrouds” will appeal primarily to people who fans filmmaker David Cronenberg, the movie’s headliners and body horror movies.

Vincent Cassel and Guy Pearce in “The Shrouds” (Photo courtesy of Sideshow and Janus Films)

“The Shrouds” can get muddled and has some pacing that’s too slow. However, it’s a generally intriguing mix of a sci-fi horror story, a mystery thriller and a conspiracy tale that explores the intersections of corporate greed and death exploitation. The movie is supposed to be set in an unspecified period of time but it touches on timeless issues of grief and what happens beyond death.

Written and directed by David Cronenberg, “The Shrouds” had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and subseuqently made the rounds at other film festivals in 2024, including the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. “The Shrouds” takes place in an unnamed city in Canada. The movie was actually filmed in Toronto.

“The Shrouds” begins by showing a widower named Karsh (played by Vincent Cassel) looking through a hole in a rock wall as he sees the floating corpse of his wife Rebecca, nicknamed Becca (played by Diane Kruger), who died of cancer six years ago. The movie has several dream-like sequences where the lines are blurred between reality and hallucinations.

Viewers soon find out that Karsh is so obsessed with what’s happening to the corpse of his wife, he’s made an entire business of out it. Karsh also has an artificial intelligence assistant named Hunny (also played by Kruger), who looks eerily like a young version of Becca. Hunny is perky and helpful assistant

Karsh is next seen getting a dental exam. His dentist Dr. Hofstra (played by Eric Weinthal), tells Karsh, “Grief is rotting your teeth.” Dr. Hofstra then offers to give Karsh the JPG photos of Becca’s teeth from past dental exams. Karsh politely declines this offer.

The next scene takes place at The Shrouds, the name of the business that Karsh owns. It’s a combination of a high-tech, non-denominational cemetery and a restaurant, with the cemetery located right outside the back of the restaurant. As morbid as this might sound, apparently the business is doing well enough that Karsh hopes to expand his business to other cities and is looking for investors.

Karsh is having lunch at The Shrouds restaurant while he’s on a first date with a woman named Myrna Shovlin (played by Jennifer Dale), who describes herself as someone who’s been divorced for 20 years. This date was arranged by Dr. Hofstra, who thought that Karsh and Myrna would hit it off and because he thinks lonely Karsh needs to start dating again. The Shrouds restaurant is decorated with artifacts of ancient shrouds (displayed in glass cases) that Karsh tells Myrna are real shrouds.

Karsh and Myrna makes some small talk. He admits he’s still having a hard time getting over the death of his wife Becca. He tells Myrna that when Becca was buried, “I had an intense, visceral urge to get in the box with her.” Karsh also says that he can’t stand the thought of Becca being alone in her grave. He also describes himself as a “non-observant atheist.”

He further explains that Becca was Jewish, which is why she didn’t want to be cremated. Karsh adds, “She said she wanted to lie beside me in death.” Karsh then shows Myrna what The Shrouds cemetery business looks like by demonstrating how he uses it.

That’s how Myrna finds out that the business has high-tech graves with built-in video screens that allow people to watch and monitor the corpses inside the graves by computer-related devices with access to the screens. Karsh brags to Myrna that his company has invented the technology (called GraveTech) to make this type of grave monitoring possible. He tells Myrna that people who sign up for this service are not repulsed by looking at rotting corpses but are comforted by this activity.

Karsh also tells Myrna that by monitoring Becca’s corpse, he feels connected to her with her body in death, just as he was in life—perhaps even more in death because he has complete control over when he can see Becca. “And it makes me happy,” Karsh comments. This creepy revelation is enough to make Myrna feel uncomfortable. She quickly ends the date, and Karsh never sees her again.

Karsh will soon become consumed with two other women who become his lovers, as already revealed in “The Shrouds” trailer. Terry (also played by Kruger) is Becca’s twin sister. Terry used to be a veterinarian, but she now works as a dog groomer. Terry is a conspiracy theorist who believes that Becca was secretly being used for experiments during Becca’s cancer treatments.

Soo-Min (played by Sandrine Holt) becomes Karsh’s other lover. She meets Karsh because she was sent by her husband Karoly Szabo (played by Vieslav Krystyan), a wealthy Hungarian who might be interested in bringing The Shrouds to Europe. Soo-Min happens to be blind, but she doesn’t let her blindness stop her from being a shrewd and calculating businessperson.

Before these romantic entanglements happen, The Shrouds cemetery is mysteriously vandalized. The perpetrator also sent a video recording to Karsh of the nighttime vandalism when it happened. The video does not show the vandal’s face, and the vandal doesn’t speak in the video.

Karsh doesn’t report this crime to law enforcement because he thinks it will be bad publicity for his business. Instead, he enlists the help of computer technology expert named Maury Entrekin (played by Guy Pearce) to try to find out who’s behind this sabotage. Maury also happens to be the ex-husband of Terry, but he has remained on friendly terms with Karsh since the divorce.

The movie’s most valuable player in the cast is undoubtedly Kruger, who gives standout performances as three very different characters. She makes each character very distinct from each other in very convincing ways. Cassel is adequate in his role but comes across as somewhat stiff in some scenes. Holt and Pearce are serviceable in their performances.

Cronenberg is known for making movies with striking and inventive visuals. In this regard, “The Shrouds” continues that tradition. However, this movie won’t be considered a masterpiece. Some of the characters could have been better-developed. For example, Terry is ultimately defined by her feelings for Karsh (she had a longtime crush on him) and some sibling rivalry cattiness (Terry was jealous of the more-glamorous Becca), rather than being a well-rounded person with a full life of her own

“The Shrouds” blends the multiple storylines—the mystery of the vandal, Karsh’s love triangle, and the business expansion of The Shrouds—to sometimes clumsy results. And at one point in the movie, it becomes very easy to figure out (before it’s actually revealed in the movie) who’s responsible for trying to ruin Karsh’s business. And as a horror movie, it’s not that scary and is really more of a psychological drama. Despite these flaws, “The Shrouds” can keep viewers interested if they are curious about finding out the answer to the mystery and want to think about what would happen if GraveTech cemetery technology existed in real life.

Sideshow/Janus Films will release “The Shrouds” in select U.S. cinemas on April 18, 2025, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on April 25, 2025.

Review: ‘The Wedding Banquet’ (2025), starring Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone, Kelly Marie Tran, Han Gi-chan and Youn Yuh-jung

April 16, 2025

by Carla Hay

Kelly Marie Tran, Lily Gladstone, Han Gi-chan and Bowen Yang in “The Wedding Banquet” (Photo by Luka Cyprian/Bleecker Street)

“The Wedding Banquet” (2025)

Directed by Andrew Ahn

Some language in Korean with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Seattle, the comedy/drama film “The Wedding Banquet” (a reimagining of the 1993 film of the same name) features a predominantly Asian group of people (with a few African Americans, white people and one Native American) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A lesbian couple and a gay male couple, who are all best friends living together, come up with a tricky solution to an immigration problem and a family planning problem.

Culture Audience: “The Wedding Banquet” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in well-acted movies about LGBTQ people.

Han Gi-chan, Youn Yuh-jung and Kelly Marie Tran in “The Wedding Banquet” (Photo by Luka Cyprian/Bleecker Street)

“The Wedding Banquet” is a charming and breezy comedy/drama that overcomes some clichés and a predictable ending by having witty banter and a talented cast. It adeptly covers family planning and immigration issues from a LGBTQ perspective. This is not a particular groundbreaking movie, but it does have some uniqueness on various levels.

Directed by Andrew Ahn (who co-wrote “The Wedding Banquet” screenplay with James Schamus), “The Wedding Banquet” had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Ahn and Schamus are two of the movie’s producers. “The Wedding Banquet” takes place in Seattle but was actually filmed in Vancouver. “The Wedding Banquet” is a reimagining of the 1993 film of the same name, which directed by Ang Lee, who co-wrote the movie with Schamus and Neil Peng. Lee and Schamus were two of the producers of 1993’s “The Wedding Banquet.”

The 2025 version of “The Wedding Banquet” centers on four best friends who live in the same house: Lee (played by Lily Gladstone) and Angela (played by Kelly Marie Tran) are an “out and proud” lesbian couple. Chris (played by Bowen Yang) and Min (played by Han Gi-chan) are a semi-closeted gay couple. Chris is openly gay, but Min still has not come out a gay to his family members, who all live in Min’s native South Korea.

Lee (whose birth name is Angelina) is originally from Wichita, Kansas, and she inherited the house from her deceased father. Chris and Min live in the house’s garage, which has been converted to a bedroom. Angela and Chris have no siblings and have been best friends since they were teenagers.

Chris is also close to his younger cousin Kendall (played by Bobo Le), who is the type of person who can cheer him up when he gets stressed-out or mopey. Min is an artist in grad school, and his student visa is about to expire. Min wants to marry Chris, who has turned down Min’s marriage proposal because Chris is commitment-phobic and because cynical Chris wonders if romantic Min wants to get married for the wrong reasons.

Lee (who works as a social worker at an LGBTQ center) and Angela (who works as a research scientist) have been trying to have a child together. Lee (who is laid-back and nurturing) wants to be the one to get pregnant and give birth because she is admittedly more maternal than high-strung and neurotic Angela, who never wants to be pregnant and give birth. In the beginning of the movie, Lee has been going through in vitro fertilization with sperm donations. But so far, she hasn’t gotten pregnant, and the couple has run out of money to continue the IVF treatments.

In addition to being a student artist, Min works for his wealthy family’s multinational corporation and is under pressure to do a major deal for the company. And if the deal falls through, his demanding and conservative father expects Min to move back to South Korea. Min is disappointed that Chris rejected Min’s marriage proposal, but he hopes Chris will change his mind if Min can stay longer in the United States for reasons other than a student visa. It’s never stated if Chris has a job, but Chris seems to be insecure about the fact that Min has a lot more money than Chris does.

Min comes up with a solution for both couples: He offers to pay for Lee’s continued IVF treatments if Angela agrees to marry Min, so Min can be a legal U.S. resident and stay in the United States without needing a student visa. Min wants to keep his sexuality a secret from his family because he is certain that his father will disown him if his father discovered the truth.

Angela’s meddling single mother May Chen (played by Joan Chen), who’s a proud member of Parents, Families & Friends of LGBTQ+ People (PFLAG), knows about this fake marriage plan. Min’s traditional grandmother Ja-Young (played by Youn Yuh-jung) does not know this secret when she travels from South Korea to Seattle to attend the elaborate wedding that Ja-Young wants to plan for Min and Angela. May and Ja-Young clash over how much of the wedding should have Chinese traditions or Korean traditions. Hijinks, some slapstick comedy and a few plot twists ensue.

Whereas Min tries to hide the truth about his love life from Ja-Young, Angela has the opposite problem with May, who wants to know everything about Angela’s love life. Angela and May have to confront unresolved issues because when Angela first told May that Angela is a lesbian, May cut off contact with Angela for several years. May eventually accepted Angela’s sexual identity. And now, May has become an activist ally to the LGBTQ community, but Angela thinks May has become too intrusive in Angela’s personal life.

“The Wedding Banquet” has some emotionally touching moments about living an authentic life when there is pressure not be true to oneself, out of fear of rejection or fear of losing something important. Angela and Chris, who have trouble communicating their feelings to their loved ones, learn some lessons along the way. “The Wedding Banquet” ends in a way that some people might consider too contrived, but the movie has its heart in the right place and can keep viewers interested based on the engaging performances.

Bleecker Street will release “The Wedding Banquet” in U.S. cinemas on April 18, 2025.


Review: ‘Sinners’ (2025), starring Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Omar Miller and Delroy Lindo

April 15, 2025

by Carla Hay

Justin William Davis, Jayme Lawson, Wunmi Mosaku, Michael B. Jordan, Miles Caton and Lil Jun Li in “Sinners” (Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)

“Sinners” (2025)

Directed by Ryan Coogler

Culture Representation: Taking place primarily in 1932, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, the horror film “Sinners” features an African American and white group of people (with a few Asians and Native Americans) representing the working-class and the middle-class.

Culture Clash: Identical twin brothers open up a juke joint, and enlist their blues-musician cousin to perform on opening night, but the night descends into chaos when vampires attack.

Culture Audience: “Sinners” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and adult-oriented horror movies.

Peter Dreimanis, Jack O’Connell, Hailee Steinfeld and Lola Kirke in “Sinners” (Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)

“Sinners” is more than a vampire movie. It’s a sexy, stylish, gritty and gory journey that expertly layers horror with the supernatural power of music and haunting legacies about violent racism. It’s a memorable film that uses familiar legends about vampires and puts them into an original story about emotionally damaged people haunted by their pasts.

Written and directed by Ryan Coogler (who is also one of the movie’s producers), “Sinners” has some twists and turns that offer welcome surprises. The movie takes its time in revealing several things about the main characters in the film. There’s a lot of dire tragedy in the movie but there’s also joyful celebration and some comic relief. “Sinners” capably balances all of these tones.

“Sinners” (which takes place mostly in 1932, in Clarksdale, Mississippi) begins with voiceover narration from a woman who is later introduced as Annie (played by Wunmi Mosaku), “a Hoodoo conjurer, spiritual leader and healer in the community,” as she is described in the movie’s production notes. Anne talks about musicians with special powers (who are called griots in African culture) and who play music that “brings healing to their communities, but it can also bring evil.”

The first scene in the movie is startling: A 19-year-old man named Samuel “Sammie” Moore (played by Miles Caton) bursts into a small makeshift church during a church service that has about 30 people in attendance. Sammie (whose nickname is Preacher Boy) is holding the neck of a damaged guitar. He has noticeable injuries, including bloody marks on his face that looks like he’s been clawed.

Sammie’s stern father Jedidiah (played by Saul Williams) is the preacher of the church. When he sees Sammie, he knows that Sammie has come from performing blues music at a nightclub, which is something that Jedidiah disapproves of and has strictly forbidden. Sammie plays music, which Jedidiah believes is the devil’s music.

Sammie is in obvious distress but Jedidiah only seems willing to help Sammie if Sammie follows this order from Jedidiah: “I want you to live those sinning ways. Drop the guitar!” Sammy holds a firm grip on the guitar. Jedidiah repeats the order again and again. What will Sammie do?

The movie then abruptly cuts to one day earlier. Sammie works as a sharecropper for his day job. He is well-liked and respected among his sharecropper peers. But in his heart, what he really wants to be is a professional blues music artist. It’s why he eagerly takes an opportunity to perform at a Clarksdale juke joint’s opening night. It will turn out to be a very fateful decision.

Sammie is a talented singer, songwriter and musician who takes performing gigs wherever he can, much to his father’s disapproval. As far as Jedidiah s concerned, the places where Sammie performs are cesspools of sin. Jedidiah warns Sammie: “If you keep dancing with the devil, one day he’s going to follow you home.”

Meanwhile, two identical twin brothers named Smoke (played by Michael B. Jordan) and Stack (also played by Jordan), who are both are World War I veterans, have returned to their hometown of Clarksdale after seven years away. During those seven years, Smoke and Stack (who are nicknamed the Smoke Stack twins) were involved in shady business deals (including bootlegging of liquor during this Prohibition era) and gang activities in Chicago.

Smoke and Stack have come back to Clarksdale with enough cash and liquor to fulfill their dream to open up a juke joint: a nightclub in a barn or warehouse that caters mostly to African Americans and where blues music is performed. Smoke (who likes to wear a blue newsboy cap) is the more ruthless and hardened twin. Stack (who likes to wear a maroon fedora) is the more diplomatic and smooth-talking twin.

Smoke and Stack meet with a local property owner named Hogwood (played by David Maldonado) to buy a house that comes with a mill and equipment. Hogwood is skeptical about selling the property because he doesn’t think Smoke and Stack have the money for it. But when they show Maldonado the wads of cash they have to pay it, he quickly changes his mind. Hogwood is also an obvious liar when he makes a point of telling Smoke and Stack that the Ku Klux Klan doesn’t exist in the area.

Smoke and Stack are the older cousins of Sammie, whom they easily convince to be the performer for the opening night of the juke joint. The juke joint will debut that night. Smoke and Stack also enlist two longtime friends on short notice to work at the juke joint that night: Delta Slim (played by Delroy Lindo) will be Sammie’s piano player. Cornbread (played by Omar Miller) is a sharecropper who will be the juke joint’s doorman.

Smoke and Stack stop by a local grocery store to place big order of food, drinks and some other supplies for the juke joint’s opening night. And just like that, the grocery store owners—a Chinese American married couple named Grace Chow (played by Li Jun Li) and Bo Chow (played by Yao)—are also hired to be the caterers for the juke joint’s opening night. Smoke and Stack have enough cash to quickly hire everyone to work that night.

Sammie has a crush on a local woman named Pearline (played by Jayme Lawson), who is in an unhappy marriage with an older man. Pearline has an image of being too classy and refined to ever be in a juke joint. Sammie invites her to the juke joint’s opening night anyway so she can watch him perform.

Smoke and Stack have issues in their own lives that affect much of what happens in the movie. Smoke was married to Annie, but he abandoned her when he went to Chicago. He hasn’t seen or spoken to her in communicated with her in that seven-year period.

Naturally, she’s upset when she sees him, but Smoke seduces her into forgiving him. He convinces Annie to be a cashier for the juke joint. Smoke and Annie also share a tragedy: They had a baby son who died before he went away to Chicago. Annie and Smoke don’t like to talk about their child’s death.

Stack’s love interest is a feisty Mary (played by Hailee Steinfeld), who is furious with Stack because he ignored her and moved to Chicago shortly after they had a one-night stand. Mary is married to a wealthy white man but she prefers to hang out with black people. For some people, Mary might be considered a person of color because she mentions at one point that her mother’s father was half-black, half-white. But for most people, Mary is white because she looks that way.

All of these characters will encounter a trio of people who will cause mayhem at the juke joint. It starts when an Irish immigrant named Remmick (played by Jack O’Connell) frantically knocks on the door of a married farm couple named Bert (played by Peter Dreimanis) and Joan (played by Lola Kirke) to ask them to hide him at their home. Remmick explains that law enforcement is after him because he was wrongfully accused of theft.

As shown in the movie, Bert is a member of the Ku Klux Klan, which is why Remmick makes a point of telling Bert that Remmick is being hunted by law enforcement officials who are Native American. When these officials show up at the farm, Joan answers the door and denies seeing Remmick. As already revealed in a “Sinners” trailer, Remmick is really a vampire. And you can easily guess what he does to Bert and Joan.

Remmick is on the hunt for musicians with special talent that he’s heard about, which is why Remmick goes looking for Sammie. Remmick takes Joan and Bert with him when they go to the juke joint and try to gain access by posing as a musical trio. On a deeper level, Remmick, Joan and Bert represent vampires in the music industry who deceive artists by promising them fame and fortune only to exploit and cheat the artists. This has been especially true for black artists because “Sinners” always has race and racism as part of the story’s fabric.

“Sinners” has a stunning musical sequence at the juke joint that weaves together music performed by black artists in the 1930s with subsequent decades. It’s a very artistic homage to blues, funk and hip-hop (including having characters made to look similar to Bootsy Collins and LL Cool J) that is one of the highlights of the film.

Traditional vampire lore is a big part of “Sinners.” Several parts of the movie hinge on these well-known vampire “rules”: Vampires cannot enter a building without being invited by the owner or caretaker of the building. A vampire can be injured by holy water. A vampire can be killed by a stake to the heart or by being exposed to daylight sun.

Jordan does a noteworthy job in his dual performance as Stack and Smoke, although “Sinners” is the type of ensemble film where there are no bad performances. Mosaku also stands out as the strong but emotionally wounded Annie, who is in many ways the soul of the story. Lindo and Miller show excellent comedic timing for their “Sinners” characters, who have the funniest moments in the film. O’Connell makes Remmick a memorable villain. Li is a scene stealer as Grace, who proves to be a powerhouse fighter when the going gets tough.

Oscar-winning composer Ludwig Göransson (who has worked on all of Coogler’s movies so far) crafted a gripping and suspenseful score for “Sinners,” a movie that sometimes wanders but is consistently compelling. Also worth noting is Oscar-winning production designer Hannah Beachler’s excellent production design for “Sinners.” As for surprises, the movie has a mid-credits scene and an end-credits scene that are treats for people who love and appreciate blues music. (The mid-credits scene is essential to watch.) “Sinners” is destined to be a horror classic and is sue to inspire repeat viewings.

Warner Bros. Pictures will release “Sinners” in U.S. cinemas on April 18, 2025.

Review: ‘Bloat,’ starring Ben McKenzie, Bojana Novakovic, Malcolm Fuller, Sawyer Jones and Kane Kosugi

April 14, 2025

by Carla Hay

Ben McKenzie (pictured at top) and Sawyer Jones (pictured at bottom) in “Bloat” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)

“Bloat”

Directed by Pablo Absento

Culture Representation: Taking place in Japan and in the United States, the horror film “Bloat” features a white and Asian group of people representing the working-class and the middle-class.

Culture Clash: A U.S. Army official, whose wife and two sons are temporarily living in Japan while he is on duty in the U.S., finds out that his younger son has been infected during a drowning accident and appears to be possessed by a demon.

Culture Audience: “Bloat” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and who don’t mind watching boring and idiotic horror movies.

Kane Kosugi in “Bloat” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)

Much of the insipid horror movie “Bloat” consists of people looking at computer screens and being confused. That’s because this atrocious movie (about a father trying to do online help for his demon-possessed 10-year-old son) is a terrible and boring mess. The editing is sloppy, the plot is often nonsensical, and “Bloat” isn’t even that scary. And the ending of the film is absolutely horrible because it leaves a big question unanswered.

Written and directed by Pablo Absento, “Bloat” is his feature-film debut. Horror movies that rely heavily on scenes were people are just looking at screens that are on computers and phones have to maintain a certain level of suspense and tension. “Bloat” completely fails in this regard. The movie is often unfocused and has a contradictory timeline with too many plot holes.

“Bloat” begins by showing home video footage of U.S. Army official Jack Reynolds (played by Ben McKenzie, one of the producers of “Bloat”) and his wife Hannah Reynolds (played by Bojana Novakovic) in a hospital delivery room as she gives birth to their third child: a daughter named Ava. (Jack’s military title is never revealed in the movie, but conversations imply he’s a mid-level official.) Ava (who looks red and bloated when she is born) is suddenly taken away by alarmed medical professionals in the room. Hannah shouts with fear when she asks why they are taking Ava away.

The movie then abruptly cuts to text messages that are being sent between Jack and Hannah. The messages reveal that Ava died at the hospital. The cause of death is never revealed in the movie. It’s also never made clear how long ago Ava died, but Jack and Hannah are understandably grieving.

Hannah texts this message: “Jack, we lost a child, she’s gone. Let’s make sure we don’t lose what we still have.” It’s soon revealed that Jack and Hannah have two other children: Their son Steve (played by Malcolm Fuller) is about 12 or 13 years old. Their son Kyle (played by Sawyer Jones) is 10 years old.

To help with their grief, Jack and Hannah decide to take a family vacation trip with their sons to Japan. They book an Airbnb house in Tokyo to stay at during the family’s visit to Japan. However, right before they are supposed to go on the trip, U.S. military bases and facilities are attacked in Iraq and Syria. Jack is ordered to stay in the United States. He tells Hannah that she, Steve and Kyle should still go ahead with the trip to Japan.

“Bloat” is so poorly written, it has contradicting information on what year that Kyle became possessed. In one part of the movie, it says he became possessed in 2018. In another part of the movie, which is supposed to take place abut four to eight weeks later, the year is shown as 2020.

After Hannah, Steve and Kyle arrive in Japan, Hannah sends videos and does live video calls with Jack so he can see their activities. On a family outing at a lake, a tragedy occurs: Four boys who were on a school trip drowned in the lake. Kyle had also been swimming in the lake at the time and almost drowned, but he survived because a Japanese friend of the Reynolds family—a nurse name Iriko—happened to be there too and saved Kyle from drowning.

Iriko is never seen or heard from in the movie. It’s a weird loose end that is never explained, considering all the medical problems that Kyle experiences in Japan when he is far away from home. Why mention a “family friend” nurse character who saved Kyle from drowning, and then never bring the character into the movie? What kind of “nurse friend” never checks in with the family of the child she saved from drowning? It’s an example of the sloppy screenwriting in “Bloat.”

An alarmed Jack sees news video footage of Kyle being pulled from the lake. Kyle has strange green bile coming out of his mouth. Visitors’ cell phones aren’t allowed in the hospital where Kyle is getting medical treatment, so it takes a while before Jack can find out what’s going on from Steve and Hannah. Eventually, Kyle is discharged from the hospital and stays with his Hannah and Steve at the rented Airbnb house in Tokyo.

Through video calls and text messages from Steve, Jack finds out that Kyle just hasn’t been the same since Kyle’s near-death experience. Kyle has become moody, withdrawn and occasionally violent. Kyle barely talks and has become almost mute. He also has a vacant look in his eyes and doesn’t seem to connect with people who try to talk to him.

There’s a disturbing incident that Jack sees in a video call. Steve and Kyle are fighting over a small frog that Kyle wants to keep with him. Kyle has a temper-tantrum meltdown where he repeatedly shouts, “Get away from my frog!”

Kyle then bites Steve hard enough on Steve’s right arm to break the skin and leave a noticeable injury. When Jack plays back the video and does a freeze-frame right after Kyle has bitten Steve, Jack sees that Kyle’s eyes appear to be demonic and glowing. Jack wants to think it’s a technical glitch, but over time, he begins to wonder if Kyle is possessed.

Kyle is put into therapy with Dr. Shinji Ishikawa (played by Motoki Kobayashi), an English-speaking therapist based in Tokyo. Dr. Ishikawa, who treats children and adults, has diagnosed Kyle with having post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The doctor advises Jack that it will takes some time before progress can be made in Kyle’s recovery.

However, Jack becomes impatient. And he starts to believe Steve’s theory that Kyle could be possessed by an unknown entity. Steve has been using a “baby cam” to secretly record Kyle in his bedroom and finds out that Kyle has been hoarding and eating dead insects and rotten cucumbers that Kyle hides underneath his bed.

Steve shows Jack this disturbing footage, which is enough for Jack to be even more convinced that something else is going on with Kyle that is not PTSD. Jack goes on the Dark Web and finds a support group called Parents of Possessed Kids. The only way to join the group is if access is approved, so there’s period of time where Jack has to wait for access.

Hannah is in complete denial about how serious Kyle’s problems are. Steve also tells Jack that Hannah is starting to drink more alcohol and might be taking pills again. Conversations between Steve and Jack imply that Hannah was in recovery for an addiction problem but she has now relapsed. As time goes on, Jack grows concerned that Hannah seems to be drunk every time he calls.

Hannah, Steve and Kyle are supposed to be on vacation, but the movie acts like they’re expected to stay in Japan during Kyle’s recovery, which is for an extended and undetermined period of time. “Bloat” doesn’t have any realistic discussions about visa issues for an extended stay or why Kyle isn’t getting treatment in the United States. After all, if Hannah, Steve and Kyle went back to the United States to live with Jack, there would be no need for the movie’s botched gimmick of Jack only able to see his family through video chats.

“Bloat” goes off on several tangents that are clumsily handled. Jack has an Army buddy named Ryan Aoki (played by Kane Kosugi), who accepts Jack’s request to go to Tokyo to check on Hannah, Steve and Kyle. A screenshot in the movie shows that Ryan goes to visit the Reynolds family in Tokyo in September 2020. And yet, earlier in the movie, it shows that Kyle’s near-drowning accident happened on February 18, 2018. But based on the way the timeline is explained in the movie, the Reynolds family has been in Japan for only four to eight weeks (at the most) by the time Ryan goes to visit.

Jack’s family problems cause distractions for him at work, where he shows up late for meetings, so his commanding officer gets increasingly frustrated and angry with Jack. The movie’s explanation for Jack not going to Japan, even though he has a family emergency, is he has been strictly ordered to stay at his military base in the United States and could be charged with going AWOL (absent without leave) if he leaves without permission. Because of the contradictory timeline, the movie does a horrible job of explaining how long Jack has been away from his family.

Jack and Ryan do some research that involves an unnamed Japanese monk (played by Hiroshi Watanabe) and a past news report about an American father named Derrick (played by Royce Johnson) whose son Gary went through a situation that was similar to what Kyle is going through. There’s some nonsense in the movie about an ancient water-dwelling demon named Kappa. Steve wants to play detective too, so he does things like secretly follow and film Kyle into a wooded area where Kyle sneaks off to at night.

The acting performances in “Bloat” are nothing special and are often very tedious. Most of the movie’s characters have flat and underdeveloped personalities. The not-surprising-at-all reveal of a demon monster is underwhelming. It leads to an inevitable part of the movie where an exorcism of Kyle is planned.

The last 10 minutes of the film bring an abrupt and slipshod turn to the story. “Bloat” could have been a much better movie if it had a clever screenplay, skilled direction, and engaging performances. Ironically, this movie about a fateful drowning accident purposely drowns itself in mishandled and dull filmmaking.

Lionsgate released “Bloat” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and on VOD on March 7, 2025.

Review: ‘The Assessment’ (2025), starring Elizabeth Olsen, Himesh Patel, Alicia Vikander, Indira Varma, Nicholas Pinnock, Charlotte Ritchie, Leah Harvey and Minnie Driver

April 13, 2025

by Carla Hay

Himesh Patel and Elizabeth Olsen in “The Assessment” (Photo by Magnus Jønck/Magnolia Pictures)

“The Assessment” (2025)

Directed by Fleur Fortuné

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed society in an unspecified period of time, the sci-fi drama film “The Assessment” features a predominantly white group of people (with a few South Asian and black people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A married couple must past a rigorous seven-day assessment test, conducted by a government assessor, in order to determine if the couple will be approved to have a child.

Culture Audience: “The Assessment” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and sci-fi dramas about futuristic worlds where the governments are oppressive and the protagonists have to make difficult decisions about compliance versus rebellion.

Alicia Vikander and Elizabeth Olsen in “The Assessment” (Photo by Magnus Jønck/Magnolia Pictures)

“The Assessment” is an emotionally somber but visually stylish drama that shows a post-apocalyptic society where people have to pass a government evaluation test for approval to become parents. The principal cast members give memorable performances. This movie seems intentionally set in an unspecified time and place because the underlying message is that what happens in the movie could happen in some variation at any time, in any place.

Fleur Fortuné, who has a background in directing music videos and short films, makes her feature-film directorial debut with “The Assessment.” The movie was written by Dave Thomas (under the alias Mr. Thomas), Nell Garfath Cox (under the alias Mrs. Thomas) and John Donnelly. “The Assessment’ (which was filmed in Spain) had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.

“The Assessment” begins by showing a scene of a girl name Mia (played by Suhayla Balli Al Soufi Del Diego), who’s about 12 or 13 years old, swimming in an ocean. Her mother is on the rocky shore and calls out to her: “Mia, come back!” It’s a flashback memory to a period of time when Mia last saw her mother. What happened to Mia’s mother is revealed in bits and pieces of conversations. Mia also had a sister, who is mentioned in the movie.

What is revealed is that this is a relatively new society that has left its “old world” behind because the “old world” became too polluted. Certain people who were considered “undesirable” or too rebellious were left behind in the “old world.” Those who made it to this new world are considered to be worthy of procreating so future generations can live in this new world.

But even among these “elite” survivors, there’s a hierarchy. Only a small percentage of people are chosen by the government to become parents. Those who are chosen have t go through a rigorous seven-day assessment test. During these seven days, the assessor lives with the prospective parents. The assessor’s decision is final on whether or not to approve the application.

When viewers first see adult Mia (played by Elizabeth Olsen) and her husband Aaryan (played by Himesh Patel), all of this background information is not revealed right away. What is shown early on in the movie is that Mia and Aaryan are happily married, but this upcoming visit from the assessor has caused tension in their marriage. In bed, Mia says to Aaryan: “What if we’re not good enough? I’m just nervous. It’s just all so secretive.”

Mia and Aaryan live in a modern-yet-retro-looking home on a rocky beach area. Mia is a sculptor who makes her art in a converted greenhouse. Aaryan works for the government as an artificial intelligence (A.I.) designer. The government has exterminated all real pets, so Aaryan is developing a secretive project that creates lifelike pets powered by artificial intelligence. The idea for these robot pets is so people can have a safe alternative to real pets. Aaryan has already built an A.I. cat as a beta test.

Artificial intelligence is an everyday and accepted part of life in this society. Mia and Himesh have an A.I. assistant that’s very similar to Amazon’s Alexa. The device’s owner can program the A.I. assistant to have different voices. Aaryan lets Mia know that he has changed their A.I. assistant’s voice to sound like his mother. Mia is okay with this change.

The couple’s assessor shows up fairly early on in the movie. Her name is Virginia (played by Alicia Vikander), who is a calm professional but very aloof and clinical. Virginia informs Mia and Aaryan that the couple made it into the top 1% of couples who are chosen for this assessment. Virginia tells Mia and Aaryan that they have the right to end the assessment at any time but warns that if they choose to end the assessment before it concludes, they won’t be given another chance to apply for another assessment.

Mia and Aaryan are also expected to give samples of their bodily fluids to Virginia, such as blood, mucus, semen and vaginal secretions. Virginia also says that Mia and Aaryan will be evaluated on their mental and emotional stability. And they are required to keep confidential everything that happens during this assessment visit. Needless to say, it’s a high-pressure situation for Mia and Aaryan to have one person (Virginia) decide whether or not Aaryan and Mia are fit to be parents.

At first, Mia and Aaryan are overly accommodating and polite because they want to do everything they can to impress Mia. But over time, Mia becomes very uncomfortable with the process and openly questions Virginia’s tactics. Mia’s discomfort starts on the first day, when Virginia asks for explicit details on the couple’s sex life. Virginia writes everything down in a notebook.

Later that evening, when Mia and Aaryan are in their bedroom and getting sexually intimate, they are shocked to see that Virginia has opened the door to watch them in the hallway. Mia and Aaryan are embarrassed and stop what they’re doing. But Virginia orders them to keep doing what they’re doing and to pretend that she’s not there. Mia is much more reluctant than Aaryan to go along with this order.

Another major test comes when Virginia does some Method acting and pretends that she is a misbehaving and cranky toddler, 24 hours a day. The idea is to test the parental patience of Aaryan and Mia. You can easily predict which of the spouses will get frustrated and lose patience first.

What isn’t so easy to predict are some of the mind games that Virginia plays with this couple. These mind games have nothing to do with their skills as a parent but have to do with testing how strong the couple’s marriage is and their trust in each other. Viewers will start to wonder about Virginia’s manipulations: “Is this really part of the assessment, or is this something that Virginia that is doing that’s separate from the assessment?”

Although there’s friction between Mia and Virginia, there are a few moments where Mia opens up to Virginia. When Mia is asked why she wants to become a parent, Mia says: “I want to give a child what I never had: a sense of belonging.” Mia is the character who is the most likely to be an independent thinker, which is why Olsen gives the movie’s standout performance. Vikander’s performance becomes more layered as more things are revealed about Virginia.

Most of “The Assessment” features scenes only with Mia, Aaryan and Virginia. However, there’s a pivotal scene during Day 4 of the assessment’s when Virginia has invited six guests over to the couple’s house for a dinner party on short notice, without the consent of Mia and Aaryan. It’s another one of Virginia’s tests.

The six people invited to the party are Aayran’s accomplished mother Ambika (played by Indira Varma); a prominent scientist named Walter (played by Nicholas Pinnock); Walter’s snobbish wife Evie (played by Minnie Driver); and a friendly lesbian couple named Serena (played by Charlotte Ritchie) and Holly (played by Leah Harvey) with their daughter Amelia (played by Anaya Thorley), who’s about 5 or 6 years old. Serena and Holly, who are strangers to Mia and Aaryan, reassure Mia and Aaryan because they say that Amelia was the result of Serena and Holly getting an approved assessment. There’s tension between Mia and Evie because Mia used to be Walter’s lab assistant before Mia was marred and might or might not have had an affair with Walter.

“The Assessment” is meant to make viewers ponder just how far they would be willing to go to take this type of test. The test isn’t just about getting “approval” to become parents. It’s also about how much control people will allow a government to have in their lives and how much people will choose to go along with outrageous orders without questions or criticism.

Some viewers might not like how the movie ends. However, the conclusion of the movie can be effectively intepreted as a sign of despair or sign of hope. Viewers are free to decide, based on their personal opinions and perspectives.

Magnolia Pictures released “The Assessment” in select U.S. cinemas on March 21, 2025. The movie was released on digital and VOD on April 8, 2025.

Review: ‘Like Father Like Son’ (2025), starring Dylan Flashner, Ariel Winter, Vivica A. Fox, Jim Klock, Prima Apollinaare, Eric Michael Cole, Mayim Bialik and Dermot Mulroney

April 13, 2025

by Carla Hay

Dylan Flashner and Ariel Winter in “Like Father Like Son” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)

“Like Father Like Son” (2025)

Directed by Barry Jay

Culture Representation: Taking place in California, mostly in the mid-2010s, the dramatic film “Like Father Like Son” features a predominantly white group of people (with a African Americans) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: An adult son of a convicted serial killer, who is awaiting death-row execution, tries to fight off the feeling that he has inherited his father’s murderous tendencies.

Culture Audience: “Like Father Like Son” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and terribly made crime dramas with gratuitous violence.

Dermot Mulroney in “Like Father Like Son” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)

“Like Father Like Son” is an utterly trashy drama about a convicted serial killer’s son who uses his father’s criminal history as an excuse to also become a serial killer. The screenplay, direction, film editing, and most of the acting are horrendous. This is the type of movie that has no redeeming qualities and is actually quite soulless and empty.

Written and directed by Barry Jay, “Like Father Like Son” takes place in California, mostly in the mid-2010s. However, the movie begins in the summer of 1990, in Richmond, California. It’s a flashback scene that shows Gabriel “Gabe” McKinnon (played by Dermot Mulroney) at his job as a park sanitation worker. One day, Gabe is outside in the park when he sees a teenage bully named Lonnie (played by Pappy Faulkner) beating up a smaller teen named Gary (played by Jonathan Tysor), who is no match for muscular Lonnie. Gary had a comic book that Lonnie tore up before this physical assault.

Gabe is offended by what he sees. Gary manages to run away. And what does Gabe do? He murders Lonnie by stabbing Lonnie in the neck and then viciously bludgeoning Lonnie. There’s a witness to this murder: Gabe’s son Eli, who is 7 or 8 years old. Gabe orders Eli to go home. Gabe gets arrested and convicted of first-degree murder and is given the death penalty as his sentence.

The movie then fast-forwards about 25 years later, when Eli (played by Dylan Flashner) is in his early 30s. Eli is a bachelor who works as a low-level telephone sales operator for a company called Holder Last Insurance. Eli is terrible at making sales for job, where he is openly disrespected by his boss Jake (played by Jim Klock, who is one of the producers of this awful movie). It’s only a matter of time before Eli will get fired.

Making matters worse for Eli, he’s having financial problems that have led to having his truck repossessed. He’s also gotten behind on the rent at the house where he lives. His landlord Tzipora (played by Prima Apollinaare), who lives with her elderly rabbi father (played by Daniel Lench) is so generous and understanding, not only does she give Eli more time to pay the rent that he owes, but she also gives him some free groceries. Eli promises he’ll pay back what he owes when he has the money.

Meanwhile, Eli is in therapy that is paid for by the government because Eli is the child of a death-row inmate. Eli’s mother abandoned him “a long time ago,” so Eli grew up in foster care after his father Gabe was sent to prison. Eli’s therapist Anabelle Weiss (played by Mayim Bialik) is professional and compassionate.

Eli confides in Anabelle that he’s had uncontrollable rage and thoughts of harming people. Eli believes he might have inherited a gene from his father that would make Eli a serial killer, even though there’s no scientifc proof that being a serial killer is a biologically inherited trait. Annabelle tells Eli, “This isn’t about your father. You have to control your rage, how it will affect your life.”

Annabelle suggests to Eli visits Gabe in prison before Gabe is executed, so that Eli can better understand Gabe. It seems like terrible advice because Eli doesn’t seem interested or ready to establish a relationship with Gabe. Eli has his own problems to deal with, but he takes Annabelle’s advice and eventually visits Gabe in prison.

Before this prison visit happens, Eli is so desperate for money, he sells one of the last valuables that he has: an inherited watch. He goes to a sleazy lowlife named Sam (played by Eric Michael Cole), who offers to buy the watch for well below the market value. Gabe does some haggling but eventually agrees to sell the watch for only $50. Later, Gabe buys a gun from Sam.

Feeling lonely and depressed, Eli goes to a bar and picks up a sassy woman named Hayley Moretti (played by Ariel Winter), a sex worker and a thief. Hayley has a one-night stand with Eli, who wakes up the next morning to find his wallet is missing. He accuses Hayley of stealing his wallet.

Hayley denies it, but he strangles her unconscious so he can look through her purse. And sure enough, Eli finds his wallet in Hayley’s purse. When Hayley regains consciousness, she calls Eli a “psycho” and leaves in a huff. It won’t be the last time that Hayley and Eli see each other.

Eli gets fired from his job. He decides to take his therapist’s advice about visiting Gabe. At the prison, Gabe is unapologetic for his crimes. Gabe can see that Eli is very troubled when Eli admits that he has uncontrollable rages.

Gabe tells Eli, “Maybe we’re a little more alike than you think.” Eli denies it and says he could never murder anyone. And in this atrocious movie that has the subtlety of a bulldozer, that’s exactly when you know it won’t be long before Eli murders someone.

That moment happens when he sees Hayley being attacked by a man in the dark shadows outside of a building at night. Without hesitation, Eli takes a rock and bashes it repeatedly over the man’s head. Hayley doesn’t seem to have any qualms about this gruesome and unnecessary murder. She thanks Eli and asks him if she could temporarily move in with Eli because she needs a place to stay.

A reminder: The last time Hayley saw Eli, he strangled her until she was unconscious. She has now witnessed Eli as a cold-blooded murderer. And now, she wants to live with him. The movie tries to make it look romantic, but it all looks so repulsive.

You know how this movie is going to go as soon as Eli and Hayley start living together. They fall “in love,” while he continues his serial killing. He keeps it a secret from Hayley, even though she already knows he’s a murdered. Apparently, Hayley think that murder she saw Eli commit was okay with her because they person who was killed was attacking her.

“Like Father, Like Son” tries to make Eli’s killings look justified because he goes after people who hurt others. In one scene, he murders a thief who robs a homeless man. Eli gets a new job as a newspaper delivery driver, who is hired by a no-nonsense boss named Louise (played by Vivica A. Fox), who is one of many characters in “Like Father Like Son” who just show up to say some lines of dialogue but didn’t need to be in the story at all.

At one point in the movie, Eli and Hayley move to San Diego to start a new life when Hayley finds out that she’s pregnant. Eli’s murder spree doesn’t stop. And you know exactly what’s going to happen when Hayley confides in Eli that her stepfather sexually molested her when she was a child, and her mother knew but did nothing about it. Eli’s murders become less and less justifiable until he starts killing anyone who makes him angry.

“Like Father Like Son” has some very tacky editing, where Eli’s murders are often shown in a montage of freeze frames. The movie rambles along with no purpose and is just a series of scenes of Eli becoming more mentally unstable and murdering people in the process. The music score is bombastic, while the movie’s pacing is erratic.

Perhaps the only person in the cast who doesn’t give a bland or terrible performance is Bialik, but that’s not saying much because she’s only in the movie for about five minutes. “Like Father Like Son” seems to be an endorsement of the idea that serial killers can at least partially blame their crimes on having an inherited gene that makes them murderers, instead of full responsibility for their actions. Even if the movie’s filmmaking had been better, it’s still a heinous concept for a movie that isn’t worth anyone’s time.

Lionsgate released “Like Father Like Son” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on January 31, 2025.

Review: ‘Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing,’ starring Sophie Fergi, Heather Nichole, Sawyer Sharbino, Johna Ramirez, Patience Rock Smith and Ashley Rock Smith

April 12, 2025

by Carla Hay

A late 2010s photo of The Squad in “Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing.” Pictured from left to right: Walker Bryant, Sophie Fergi, Hayden Haas, Piper Rockelle, Sawyer Sharbino, Indi Star and Jentzen Ramirez. (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

“Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing”

Directed by Kief Davidson and Jenna Rosher

Culture Representation: The three-episode documentary series “Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing” (based on The Avatist magazine article “Crushed”) features a predominantly white group of people (with one Latino) discussing the contoversy over social media influencer Piper Rockelle, her mother/manager Tiffany Smith and Smith’s boyfriend Hunter Hill and issues about children being exploited and abused when making social media videos.

Culture Clash: Several people have accused Smith and Hill of overworking the kids in their videos, while Smith has also been accused of sexual abuse and other inappropriate actions with children.

Culture Audience: “Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in documentaries about scandals involving social media stars.

An undated photo of Tiffany Smith and her pug Frank in “Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing” (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

“Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing” is a catchy title because “kidfluencing” is a word defined as social media influencing that involves kids. However, this documentary is not an overview of the entire kidfluencing industry because it really just focuses on the controversy over social media influencer Piper Rockelle and her mother/manager Tiffany Smith. Also part of the controversy is Hunter Hill, who is Smith’s boyfriend and the director/cinematographer/editor of the reality TV-styled “hangout” videos that have generated millions of dollars in revenue for this trio. It’s mentioned that at the peak of Rockelle’s financial success, while she was an underage teen, she was making $500,000 a month from her social media videos, sponsorships and other business deals.

Smith has been accused of being a toxic force in the lives of Rockelle (who was born in 2007) and others who have worked with Smith, who created a business empire revolving around videos of her daughter and her online friends, who are collectively called The Squad. Most of the videos are filmed at the Los Angeles home where Rockelle, Smith and Hill live. The problem is that in the murky and often-unregulated area of content creation for social media, there were blurred boundaries between what was considered making videos for fun and making videos as work that required paid compensation and labor law protection.

The controversy has included a high-profile lawsuit that has since been settled out of court. This documentary series serves as an effective warning about child exploitation and abuse in unregulated areas of social media. However, there needed to be more accountability from the parents and companies that make money from this mistreatment of kids. “Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing” is based on The Avatist magazine’s 2024 article “Crushed,” written by Nile Cappello. The documentary filmmakers could have done more investigating on their own to give a more well-rounded report of these complicated situations where there are many sides to the story.

The documentary mentions that the parents of children who worked with Rockelle, Smith, and Hill on these social media videos allowed these kids to work more than 12 hours a day, often past midnight, without any supervision from the parents, whom Smith prohibited from being at the locations where these videos were filmed. Most of the children were between the ages of 11 and 15 when they worked with Rockelle at various times from 2018 to 2022. The documentary gives no insight whatsoever into the responsibility that sponsors had in funding and profiting from work conditions that allegedly violated labor laws and were allegedly abusive and sexually inappropriate.

The explosive allegations against Smith went public in 2022. That’s when Smith, her boyfriend Hill and the business entity known as Piper Rockelle Inc. were sued for $22 million by 11 people who claimed that they were subjected to illegal labor as underage children and inappropriate sexual acts/harassment during their work as a group of social media influencers called The Squad, which is associated with Rockelle. In October 2024, the lawsuit was settled out of court for $1.85 million, to be shared among the 11 plaintiffs.

Directed by Kief Davidson and Jenna Rosher, “Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing” certainly has an agenda to expose what people say are often-hidden horrors that children experience when they are controlled by harmful adults who are usually the ones who profit the most from children’s social-media work. The majority of people interviewed in the documentary are former work colleagues or former associates of Smith who have negative things to say about her. However, a better investigative documentary would have included insight or interviews with people who continue to work with Smith to explain why (at the time this documentary was made and released) Smith continues to thrive as the manager of a social media star.

The documentary has interviews with some of the plaintiffs, who allege many of the things also described in the lawsuit. According to the accusations, the videos with Rockelle started off as harmless and fun. But as time went on, according to the accusers, Smith pressured the kids to have fake romances and sexualized them as a show for the camera. Off camera, the plaintiffs alleged that the abuse was much worse.

In each episode of the documentary, there’s an epilogue caption stating that Rockelle, Smith and Hill declined to comment or give an interview for the documentary. Smith has publicly denied the abuse and exploitation allegations against her. In addition to interviewing people who have complaints about Smith and Hill, the documentary interviews journalists, attorneys and Internet experts.

What’s missing from the documentary are interviews with people representing companies that made Rockelle, Smith and Hall millionaires. After all, this lawsuit would not have received as much attention if not for the millions of dollars at stake not just from the lawsuit but also from the money generated by being in business with Piper Rockelle and her representatives. The majority of these millions come from corporate sponsors, whose perspectives are noticeably absent in this documentary. It’s not mentioned if the documentary filmmakers attempted to contact these sponsors for interviews or comments.

Episode 1, titled “#momager,” details the personal backgrounds of Smith and her daughter Rockelle; their rise to Internet success; and how Smith gathered a group of other young people to be part of The Squad. Episode 2, titled “#crush,” is about Smith being the driving force to have Rockelle’s videos focus on The Squad’s adolescent crushes that were almost always fabricated for the cameras but presented to audiences as real. Episode 3, titled “#unfollow,” describes how Squad members began to quit over sexually inappropriate actions they say they were subjected to while working with Smith, as well as the alleged blacklisting tactics that Smith and Hall used against those who spoke out against them.

Rockelle and Smith are both originally from the state of Georgia. Rockelle is the only child of Smith, who raised her as a single mother when Rockelle’s father abandoned them when Smith was pregnant. Smith, who was 26 when she gave birth to her daughter, used to work as a dog groomer. The documentary could have done more to investigate Smith’s personal history. The only people interviewed in the documentary who’ve known her for a long time are members of her family who admittedly have grudges against her.

The name of Rockelle’s father is not mentioned in the documentary. For the purposes of this review, Piper Rockelle will be referred to from now on as Piper. What’s not mentioned in the documentary is the fact that Piper’s YouTube channel has videos from 2021 where she is shown meeting up with and having awkward conversations with someone she says is her father and whom she hasn’t seen him 13 to 14 years. His face is not shown on camera, but his voice appears to be unaltered. In these YouTube videos, he’s very much aware of Piper’s social media fame because he’s constantly reminded of it in their conversations.

However, skeptics might wonder if it was really was Piper’s father in those videos or possibly someone impersonating her father. It’s a valid question that the documentary doesn’t investigate, even though the documentary brings up allegations that most of what was on Piper’s social media videos were faked for the cameras and orchestrated by Smith and Hill. According to what Piper and Hill have said in subsequent YouTube videos, Piper’s reunions with her biological father did not result in her being able to establish a relationship with him.

How did Piper end up as a social media star? The documentary gives a fairly good summary of her rise to fame. Piper (who showed talent in mostly in dancing and singing) began competing in child beauty pageants at the age of 3 and quickly amassed several winning trophies from these pageants. The documentary includes archival videos and photos of Piper in some of these beauty pageants, where girls under the age of 10 often wear outfits and makeup that you would normally see on teens and adults.

Patience Rock Smith (Tiffany Smith’s younger sister) is one of the people interviewed in the documentary. She comments, “I think Tiffany’s drive for Piper’s success was to show Piper’s dad that she was worth something and that he’s missing out on her life.” Patience adds that Tiffany was extremely competitive and put a lot of pressure on Piper to win in these beauty pageants. “Tiffany was not happy with second place,” Patience adds.

Later in the documentary, Patience gives more insight into their family relationship. She says that their parents divorced when she and Tiffany were children. According to Patience, Tiffany took the divorce very hard and became an angry person. This led to Patience and Tiffany becoming estranged from each other for a number of years, but they reconnected after Tiffany became a mother.

Patience Rock Smith is also a mother. She and her wife Ashley Rock Smith are raising Ashley’s biological daughters Claire Rock Smith and Reese Rock Smith, who are all interviewed in the documentary. Claire and Reese were also part of The Squad and are two of the three girls in the documentary who claim that Tiffany touched them inappropriately.

When Piper outgrew the kiddie pageant circuit, she and her mother Tiffany tried TV and the Internet to find more fame. They appeared on the short-lived Lifetime reality TV series “Dance Twins,” featuring twin sisters who compete against each other in training dancers for child beauty pageants. The documentary includes a video clip from “Dance Twins,” where Tiffany can be seen telling Rockelle: “This is a really good time for you to get first place. I would like that.”

Although “Dance Twins” was televised in 2021, the show seems to have been filmed years earlier, because Piper does not look like a teenager in the footage, and she had already left the pageant world behind by the early 2020s. It was through “Dance Twins” that Piper met Corinne Joy, who auditioned to be a backup dancer for Piper. That audition was shown in “Dance Twins.”

Joy and her mother Steevy Areeco are interviewed in the documentary. They both say that for a while, Joy and Piper were very close friends and were members of The Squad. But that friendship ended when Joy and her mother found out a very disturbing secret about something Tiffany did: Tiffany allegedly mailed Piper’s underwear to adult male fans who wanted to smell the underwear.

Joy was featured in Piper’s earliest YouTube videos, before The Squad existed. A YouTube video from the mid-2010s titled “Corinne/Piper Pumpkin Patch” is described as Piper’s first video that went viral with more than 1 million views. (That video has since been removed from YouTube, but a snippet of the video is in the documentary.) Piper also did videos using Music.ly that showcased her talents in singing and dancing.

In 2017, Tiffany and Piper moved to Los Angeles, where they found more opportunities for on-screen exposure for Piper. Hill, who is originally from Wyoming, met Tiffany and Piper not long after Tiffany and Piper had moved to Los Angeles. He quickly became involved in Piper’s videos, in front of and behind the camera. He also moved into the home where Tiffany and Piper lived and where most of the videos were filmed.

At first, Hill was described in the videos as Piper’s older brother. But that was a lie. In reality, Hill and Tiffany became lovers and eventually went public about this relationship. At the time that Hill and Tiffany became romantically involved, he was 20, and she was 36. On social media, Hill now describes himself as Piper’s father.

In 2017, Piper became a cast member of “Mani,” an Internet series about a male nanny. The show was produced by a children-oriented Internet company called Brat. It was through “Mani” that Piper met Sophie Fergi, who would become Piper’s best friend and an on-again/off-again member of The Squad for almost four years.

In “Mani,” Piper played the perky good girl, while Fergi was cast as the moody Goth girl. Piper’s time on “Mani” did not end well. According to Fergi, Tiffany had a stage mother meltdown in 2018 because another cast member got more lines of dialogue than Piper for a particular episode. Tiffany made Piper quit the show that day, and they never went back. According to the Internet Movie Database, Piper appeared in 29 episodes of “Mani” from 2017 to 2018.

Tiffany expected Fergi and her mother to also quit the show in solidarity, but they refused, which led to a temporary estrangement between the two pairs of mothers and daughters. Fergi comments in the documentary about the dispute over the “Mani” TV show: “I realized that Tiffany was unstable and you have to be careful around her.”

All four of them eventually reconciled around the time that Piper started doing videos on her own YouTube channel. Tiffany was the one who recruited kids to be part of The Squad. In other words, these were not friendships that were started naturally. These were casting decisions, although genuine friendships seemed to have developed among many of The Squad members after they started working together.

Fergi and her single mother Heather Nichole (also known as Heather Trimmer), who is also interviewed in the documentary, eventually lived with Piper, Tiffany and Hill. Fergi’s mother Nichole became the stylist for The Squad and was a very close confidante of Smith and Hill. Fergi says that Child Protective Services officials interviewed them in response to complaints that Tiffany was abusing Squad members, but Fergi and Piper lied and said that there was no child abuse.

Nichole admits that she blindly followed Smith’s orders but did not tolerate the sexual abuse when she found out that the abuse was allegedly going on with her own daughter. Fergi is one of the girls in the documentary who claims that Tiffany sexually abused her through inappropriate touching. However, there’s a part of the documentary where Fergi breaks down in tears and says that Tiffany did other things to her that Fergi doesn’t want to talk about on camera. This statement is an indication that the alleged abuse went beyond touching.

During and after this quest for fame and fortune, Piper was not getting a school education inside or outside the home, according to several people interviewed in the documentary. Her aunt Patience says that at the time, “I didn’t understand it, but I supported them [Tiffany and Piper] in whatever they wanted to do.” Patience also says, “From a very young age, Piper wanted to please her mother.”

By 2018, The Squad and their videos began to go viral and generated enough of an audience and revenue for Squad members to pursue their social media activities as real careers. The concept of The Squad was that the group always revolved around Piper, and everyone else was a sidekick who could be replaced. Several people in the documentary describe Tiffany as eventually treating The Squad like a cult, where Tiffany is the very manipulative and vindictive leader.

The Squad members were not paid to be in Piper’s videos because they were told that the exposure of being in the videos was enough of a reward. According to Fergi and other former Squad members interviewed in the documentary, Squad members worked on videos for Piper’s social media channels for more than 12 hours a day, often without breaks for meals. Their work often stretched past midnight. And they also had to clean the house where the videos were filmed. All of this was done without financial compensation.

The Squad members were free to create their own YouTube channels where they could make their own money, but even then, they weren’t in total control. Hill and Tiffany demanded password access and creative control over many of The Squad’s members’ individual YouTube channels. Squad members were told that this access was required for them to remain members of The Squad. Those who left The Squad believe that Hill and Smith engaged in online sabotage to make the former Squad members lose viewers and subscribers on the former Squad members’ social media platforms.

Where were these kids’ parents during all of these long work hours? And when did these kids have time to get a school education? The documentary mentions that most of the Squad kids were homeschooled. And there was some effort for the kids to have “school hours” during their work hours.

The parents interviewed in the documentary are all parents of former Squad members. The parents admit that Tiffany prohibited them from being on the premises where the filming was. The parents went along with this demand. Some of them claim that Tiffany manipulated them into thinking these work hours were normal for showbiz kids.

What’s unsaid in the documentary is that these parents were probably motivated by greed from the money that their kids were making from being associated with The Squad. How else would you explain why parents would allow their underage kids to work more than 12 hours a day and why the parents agreed to stay away from the work locations while their children did this work? The documentary lets these parents off the hook too easily but not asking some of these tough and uncomfortable questions about their own motivations to get money and perks from their children’s work.

Sawyer Sharbino, a former Squad member, says that at the peak of his social media fame, he was making about $50,000 a month. Some of parents in the documentary express shame and remorse that they were complicit in their kids being exploited. However, they try to minimize their responsibility by saying they eventually did the right thing by rescuing their children and making them quit The Squad. Apparently, these parents were okay with the illegal child labor but were not okay with the alleged sexual abuse.

Fergi’s mother Nichole admits that not only was Nichole complicit, she was also an active participant in the exploitation, including following Tiffany’s orders to make Fergi dress in “sluttier” clothes than Piper. Nichole gets tearful when she talks about the guilt she feels about the suffering that her daughter experienced. She makes a weak excuse that she was a single parent who got caught up in trying to have a secure financial future for herself and her daughter. Just call it what it is: Letting your child be exploited because of greed.

Nichole also says she was one of the few people who knew in advance about a cruel prank that Tiffany and Hill planned for a February 2020 video in which Lev Cameron (Piper’s on-screen “crush” and Squad member at the time) got “arrested” by two “cops” who were later revealed to be paid actors. Clips video is also shown in the documentary. It shows Nichole’s daughter Fergi crying and almost having a hyperventilating panic attack because she thought at the time that the arrest was real.

In 2018, The Squad consisted of Piper (age 11), Joy (age 11), Sharbino (age 12), Symmone Harrison (age 12), Gavin Magnus (age 11) and Emily Dobson (age 11). Over the next four years, Squad members would include Fergi, Joy, Claire Rock Smith, Reese Rock Smith, Ayden Mekus, Connor Cain, Donlad Dougher, Hayden Haas, Walker Bryant and Jentzen Ramirez, just to name some of the members. The 11 plaintiffs in the lawsuit were Fergi, Joy, Claire Rock Smith, Reese Rock Smith, Sharbino, Harrison, Mekus, Cain, Dougher, Haas and Bryant. Most of the plaintiffs left The Squad in 2021, except for Joy, who left in 2019.

Joy left The Squad shortly after an unsettling incident that she describes in the documentary: Joy says that she saw Tiffany put a pair of Piper’s panties in a package to mail. When Joy asked Tiffany why, Tiffany replied that it was because old men liked to smell Piper’s underwear. Joy innocently told her mother, who confronted Tiffany about it. Tiffany’s response was that Joy’s mother was overreacting.

It’s interesting that Joy and her mother have different ways of describing Joy’s exit from The Squad. Joy describes it as an ouster under Tiffany’s orders. Joy’s mother Areeco says she made Joy quit the group after she found out that Tiffany was allegedly sending Piper’s underwear to men for sexual reasons. (Tiffany has publicly denied those accusations.) Joy and her mother claim that Tiffany “blacklisted” them and ordered the other members of The Squad and their parents to never talk to Joy and her mother again.

Other stories in the documentary seem to indicate that Tiffany was aware of and encouraged adult male fans who seemed to have a sexual interest in Piper. The documentary mentions a Wall Street Journal study that showed that men are the majority of viewers for social media videos starring underage girls. Fergi talks about a man who used the alias Megan and who was obsessed with Piper, who knew that Megan was really a man. This obsessed fan bombarded Piper with many gifts that Tiffany asked for, such as computers and high-end video cameras. Tiffany also allegedly made Piper talk to Megan on the phone.

Tiffany had her own obsessive quirks. She is described as someone who collected stray cats and was taking care of 30 to 60 cats at the same time. She had a pug dog named Frank, who would appear in Squad videos as a talking character, with Tiffany as the voice of Frank. Tiffany would use this character to insult Squad members on cameras a “joke.” Fergi says she got the worst of the insults.

A more disturbing way that Tiffany used an animal as an alter ego was by pretending to be her dead kitten Lenny, and she would talk in a different voice as Lenny. According to Fergi and sisters Claire Rock Smith and Reese Rock Smith, Tiffany would be alone with them in a room on separate occasions and would pin them down while pretending to be Lenny and forcing the girls to let her touch them all over their body. These alleged incidents sometimes happened when the girls were sleeping in bed and woken up by Tiffany.

Later in the documentary, Ashley Rock Smith says that she and her wife Patience were interviewed by the FBI about Tiffany allegedly abusing Claire and Reese. Ashley and Patience haven’t heard from the FBI since then. Ashley comments that they were told the FBI was unlikely to pursue the case unless they had enough proof to win the case. Because the alleged abuse incidents of the girls happened when Tiffany was alone in a room with an alleged victim, there were no other witnesses to prove if the abuse happened or not.

Tiffany’s sexual harassment of an underage teenager was actually caught on video in an Instagram livestream with Raegan Fingles, a transgender male who uses the social media name Raegan Beast. The video that has since been deleted, but the footage from the video is in the documentary. In the video, Tiffany forcibly and sexually kisses a visibly shocked Fingles (who was 17 years old at the time) twice on his mouth.

This incident happened in California, where 18 is the minimum age of consent for a person to engage in sexual activity. Even if Fingles had been 18, forcible kissing can still be considered sexual assault. Because he was under 18 when it happened, the forcible kissing could be defined a sexual assault of a child under California law.

Fingles is interviewed in the documentary and says that Tiffany was drunk, and she gave alcohol to him and other underage kids before the livestream happened. He also said that in the days leading up to the forcible kissing incident, Tiffany would flirt with him and say that he was sexy. In the documentary, Fingles says that he believes the video was removed from the Internet because it was proof of child sexual abuse.

Tiffany also had a very inappropriate fixation on underage Magnus when he was a member of The Squad, according to Fergi’s mother. She says that Tiffany often flirted with Magnus and once asked Magnus, who was 12 or 13 at the time: “Do you have a boner from looking at me?” (Magnus declined to be interviewed or give a comment for the documentary.) Fergi says that off camera, Tiffany and Hill often talked about sex in inappropriate ways in front of the Squad kids.

According to former Squad members interviewed in the documentary, Tiffany engineered the “crush” relationships because she felt that anything that was about the Squad members’ sexuality would get more attention. Piper was paired with Magnus and later with Cameron. Fergi was paired with Ramirez, and she says their romance became real off-camera. Other members of The Squad also were paired up as couples in contrived and phony relationships for “crush” videos, where there was sexual innuendo from kids who were far from the legal age to have sex.

Time and time again in the documentary, Tiffany is described as the chief villain who destroys people’s relationships and self-esteem. Johna Ramirez, the mother of Jentzen Ramirez, says that her marriage with her now-ex-husband and her relationship with Jentzen were ruined because Jentzen and her now-ex-husband took Tiffany’s side when Johna wanted Jentzen to leave The Squad. Jentzen eventually left The Squad in 2023, but his mother says that her relationship with him is still fractured. Fergi says that after she left The Squad in 2021, Jentzen never spoke to her again.

Parents of former Squad members say that Tiffany often pits people against each other by telling lies or exaggerations. People who left The Squad also say that they believe that Tiffany was behind much of the online bullying and hate campaigns that they experienced after leaving The Squad. Connor Cain’s mother Amber Cain says that he’s experienced so much trauma from his experiences with The Squad, he’s given up his dream to become a professional actor. All of the former Squad members interviewed in this documentary say that they are emotionally scarred for life.

Claire Rock Smith says in the documentary, “I have kind of a resentment toward YouTube and social media today. And I think that my passion for it has definitely died down.” She said she had to take a mental-health break from YouTube because of all the online bullying that she got for leaving The Squad and for going public with the abuse allegations. Claire’s mother Ashley says in another part of the documentary that Claire wanted the lawsuit to go to trial so that Claire could give courtroom testimony about what happened to her. Ultimately, the parents of the underage plaintiffs decided to settle the lawsuit to spare their children from the ordeal of a trial and because the lawsuit achieved their goal of getting the abuse information out to the public.

Other people interviewed in the documentary are Internet culture expert Taylor Lorenz; Sarah Adams, founder of Mom.Uncharted, a watchdog forum for child exploitation on the Internet; Brandon Stewart, content strategist/Brandon Studios CEO; Dr. Karen North, clinical professor of communication at the University of Southern California; attorney Jeremiah D. Graham; social media influencer Axel Chico; Chris McCarty, founder/executive director of Quit Clicking Kids; Angela Sharbino and Rob Sharbino, parents of Sawyer Sharbino; former YouTube manager Parker Jones; actor/influencer Ava Michelle; Wall Street Journal reporter Katherine Blunt; and attorney Matt Sarelson.

Chico says that he met Piper and her Los Angeles family in 2021, when he went over to their house because he was interested in their stray cats. He appeared in some TikTok videos with Piper, but he was never a member of The Squad. Chico says he noticed that Piper became more withdrawn and depressed off camera, including not eating a lot, especially after the lawsuit was filed.

Chico also observed Piper as being very preoccupied with money. He thinks that she feels a lot of stress and pressure about the money she is expected to earn as a social media star. He also says that Tiffany convinced Piper that the plaintiffs in the lawsuit are “mean, evil people wanting her money and wanting to ruin her reputation.” Chico comments that Piper believes everything that Tiffany says. “She’s just programmed that way now,” he adds.

It’s mentioned toward the end of the documentary that Piper is probably the biggest victim of all the controversy because, unlike the other members The Squad, she can’t really get away from her mother as long as Tiffany exerts oppressive control over Piper’s life. Former Squad members say in the documentary that Tiffany has completely brainwashed Piper. It’s also mentioned that the scandals have negatively affected but not ruined Piper’s career.

YouTube de-monetized Piper’s YouTube channel so YouTube no longer pays her anything for the channel. Piper has also been dropped by some (but not all) sponsors. But she still has millions of fans and followers on social media. She now makes money from her videos on Snapchat, TikTok and BrandArmy, which is described as being like OnlyFans but without nudity. Piper turns 18 in 2025, and many people are predicting that she will eventually do nudity in her videos after she becomes of legal age.

Regardless of what happens to Piper, “Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing” covers similar territory that was in the 2024 docuseries “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV,” which discussed exploitation and child abuse experienced by former stars of the Nickelodeon TV network. Both documentaries have input from the perspectives of the alleged abuse survivors and their parents and colleagues. However, both documentaries miss the mark when it comes to exposing corporate leaders and their responsibility in enriching the people accused of abuse and exploitation. The cycle of abuse will continue for many people as long as there’s a lot of money to be made from it.

Netflix premiered “Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing” on April 9, 2025.

Review: ‘Cold Wallet,’ starring Raúl Castillo, Melonie Diaz, Tony Cavalero, Zoe Winters and Josh Brener

April 12, 2025

by Carla Hay

Tony Cavalero, Raúl Castillo and Melonie Diaz in “Cold Wallet” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

“Cold Wallet”

Directed by Cutter Hodierne

Culture Representation: Taking place in Massachusetts, the comedy/drama film “Cold Wallet” features a predominantly white group of people (with a few Latin people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Three disgruntled investors, who lost thousands of dollars in a cryptocurrency fraud, kidnap the company’s CEO, who faked his own death, and try to force him to tell them where he hid the fortune that he got from scamming people.

Culture Audience: “Cold Wallet” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in stories about cryptocurrency scams, even if some of the plot developments in “Cold Wallet” look too contrived for the movie.

Tony Cavalero and Raúl Castillo in “Cold Wallet” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

“Cold Wallet” is not a great movie about the consequences of cryptocurrency scamming. It’s better taken as a dark comedy instead of a serious thriller. The performances are watchable, and there’s enough suspense to keep most viewers engaged in the story. There are some plot holes, but the movie’s often-absurd tone gives this entire film an aura of hyper-realism that’s not meant to be taken too seriously.

Directed by Cutter Hodierne and written by John Hibey, “Cold Wallet” had its world premiere at the 2024 SXSW Film & TV Festival. The movie takes place in the Berkshires region of Massachusetts. The movie’s title refers to virtual cryptocurrency wallets that are in “cold storage”—meaning kept off of the Internet. A “cold wallet” is device or method to store cryptocurrency keys that are hidden and untraceable, similar to offshore accounts in traditional banking.

“Cold Wallet” is loosely based on the real-life scandal of the cryptocurrency company Quadriga, but the vigilante plot was fabricated for the movie. In 2018, Quadriga founder/CEO Gerald William Cotton reportedly died when he was traveling in India, but there has been speculation that he faked his death in order to take a fortune that only he could access through cryptocurrency. According to news reports, $190 million went missing or could not be accessed, with much of the money in “cold wallet” accounts, where only Cotton knew the password. About 115,000 Quadriga investors were affected.

“Cold Wallet” takes a fictional look at what would happen in a similar situation if the company CEO faked his own death, and then three vengeful investors tracked him down, kidnapped him at his hideout place, and forced him to give them the passwords to these “cold wallet” accounts. The movie’s main protagonist is a sad sack named Billy (played by Raúl Castillo), who wants to prove to his ex-wife Eileen (played by Zoe Winters) that he’s not a deadbeat dad. Billy and Eileen have a daughter named Steph (played by Joanna Sylvie Weinig), who’s about 8 or 9 years old.

Eileen and her current husband or partner Justin live with Steph in a house owned by Billy. However, Billy hasn’t paid the house’s mortgage for the past 10 months. Eileen is very resentful that she and Justin have had to cover the mortgage payments during this time period. Not much else is mentioned about Billy’s background except he is currently unemployed and almost financially broke. He’s taken a big gamble by investing in a cryptocurrency company named Tulip.

Billy brags to a skeptical Eileen and Justin that this investment will pay off very well and will result in Billy having enough money to pay his debts and have enough left over to buy a new house for himself. Billy promises Danielle that he’s going to buy a bigger and better house that she can go to when he visits her. The relationship between Billy and Eileen is still fraught with a lot of anger and bitterness. Their interactions in the movie show her mostly yelling at and insulting him.

Billy soon gets very bad news when he finds out that he’s lost a little more than $42,000 from online trading of Tulip stocks. And the news gets worse: The CEO of Tulip, Charles Hegel (played by Josh Brener), died in Kenya over the weekend, according to media reports. Charles is the only one with access to unlock the Tulip Exchange. Investors in Tulip can no longer buy or sell their Tulip stock, which gets delisted. This delisting leaves thousands of customers with worthless Tulip stock and financial losses totaling millions of dollars for all of these scammed customers.

Billy’s closest friend Dom (played by Tony Cavalero) is one of these Tulip investors too. Dom is a semi-professional wrestler who does wrestling training at a local gym that is financially struggling. Dom, who lost about $25,000 in the Tulip scam, took out a personal loan to help save the gym. Dom had been counting on the Tulip investment to pay back the loan. And now, Dom (just like Billy) is financially broke, losing a total of $67,000 for both of them.

Unlike volatile Billy, Dom likes to think he has a calm spirit who wants to be at peace and harmony in the world. Dom is the type of person who mediates. Billy most definitely is not. Although Dom is not very smart, he has a moral compass which makes it harder for him to go along with the criminal plan that is hatched in the story.

For about a year, Billy has been communicating on Reddit with another Tulip investor, who uses the name Eva Zero (played by Melonie Diaz) and who has also lost her money in the Tulip scam. Eva messages Billy after this financial fiasco to tell him that she has proof that Charles is still alive. She believes that he bought a fake death certificate. Through some amateur detective work, Eva says that she’s tracked down Charles’ hiding place at a mansion in Lenox, Massachusetts.

Eva tells Billy that they should do a home invasion of this hideout, hold Charles captive, and force Charles to give them the password for Charles’ “cold wallet.” Billy is desperate to get his money back, so he tells Dom about this plan and says they should do this home invasion. Dom immediately says no. Billy persuades Dom to at least go with him to meet Eva in person.

Billy and Dom meet Eva at a diner. She is forceful, intense and very bossy. Eva is a skilled computer hacker and is the mastermind of the plan, but she needs Billy and Dom to be the physical enforcers. Dom agrees to the home invasion and kidnapping on the condition that if they steal a fortune from Charles, they should keep for themselves only the amounts that they lost in their Tulip investments and give the rest of the money to all the other cheated Tulip investors that they know about.

Billy, Dom and Eva do a lot of things that show they’re really bungling criminals. They buy a gun and other items used in the home invasion that could easily be traced back to them. They also use Billy’s car to drive to the mansion (which is in a remote wooded area) and don’t even try to hide the license plate. The kidnapping takes place during a winter month when there is icy snow covering the ground, which means their footprints and tire tracks could be left in the snow as evidence.

Here’s where the movie starts to get a bit unrealistic: The only person who seems to be guarding the mansion is an unnamed elderly groundskeeper (played by Nigel Gore), who is immediately suspicious when Billy, Dom and Eva drive up to the mansion. Billy pretends that he is there to deliver food that was ordered by Charles. The groundskeeper doesn’t quite believe this story and orders them off of the property.

However, the groundskeeper tells Billy to “tell corporate what’s going on,” in case Billy is telling the truth. The groundskeeper isn’t shown checking with anyone inside the mansion to see if Billy’s story is true. This mansion is also too accessible, since there is no security gate.

The three vigilantes drive away but eventually go back to the mansion at night. The groundskeeper is nowhere in sight, so they just sneak into the mansion. It looks too easy. For a fugitive who in hiding, Charles hasn’t made it very hard for people to find him in a house that doesn’t have a security gate or other security precautions.

Charles has camera surveillance inside the house, but that’s not enough to prevent anyone from breaking into the house. The movie also shows that Charles is in the mansion by himself and has no bodyguards or other security personnel. This lack of protection looks very foolish for a multimillionaire fugitive. However, some disbelief can be suspended if you consider that many real-life financial criminals have made more foolish mistakes.

As already revealed in the “Cold Wallet” trailer, the three home invaders succeed in taking Charles hostage. (He’s a cliché of an arrogant and nerdy computer tech millionaire.) What happens after that is a battle of wits, fueled by greed, as Charles and the vigilantes try to outsmart each other. Charles uses manipulation to try to turn the vigilantes against each other. The vigilantes use threats and guesses to try to get access to Charles’ cold wallet information.

“Cold Wallet” is sometimes unevenly paced. It’s also a movie where viewers should not expect to like many of the characters. One of the saving graces of the story is that it doesn’t completely glorify vigilantism because there are many dangerous things that happen to the three home invaders. Ultimately, the movie is less about the kidnapping and more about the “get rich quick” mentality that causes people to get into these messes in the first place.

Well Go USA released “Cold Wallet” in select U.S. cinemas and on digital and VOD on February 28, 2025.

Review: ‘The Quiet Ones’ (2024), starring Gustav Giese, Reda Kateb, Amanda Collin, Christopher Wagelin, Jens Hultén, Granit Rushiti and Amin Ahmed

April 11, 2025

by Carla Hay

Reda Kateb, Christopher Wagelin, Gustav Giese and Jens Hultén in “The Quiet Ones” (Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing)

“The Quiet Ones” (2024)

Directed by Frederik Louis Hviid

Danish and Swedish with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Denmark, Sweden and briefly in Spain, in 2007 and 2008, the dramatic film “The Quiet Ones” (based on a true story) features a predominantly white group of people (with some Middle Easterns and Africans) representing the working-class, middle-class and criminal underground.

Culture Clash: A group of thieves commit the largest robbery in the history of Denmark, when they steal about 60 million Danish kroner in cash from a warehouse for a cash transportation company.

Culture Audience: “The Quiet Ones” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in drama based on true crimes, but this is a drab and hollow recreation of a notorious and fascinating case.

Amanda Collin in “The Quiet Ones” (Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing)

“The Quiet Ones” is a disappointing drama (based on a true story) about robbers who committed the biggest cash heist in Denmark history. The movie begins with a gripping, action-packed sequence, but then fizzles out with mediocre acting and a listless plot. The movie’s direction and screenplay are clunky, making most of the main characters shallow and uninteresting.

Directed by Frederik Louis Hviid and written by Anders Frithiof August, “The Quiet Ones” had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. The movie takes place mostly in 2007 and 2008 in Denmark and in Sweden. Many people watching “The Quiet Ones” will already know it’s based on a true story, so there’s no real suspense that this major heist is going to happen.

Unfortunately, the movie gets bogged down in a lot of dull scenes about the robbers having personal conflicts with each other and with other people in their lives. The planning of this crime is shown in very superfical ways. And when it finally does happen, the movie is almost over.

“The Quiet Ones” begins by showing a botched and deadly robbery that happened in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2007. Three armed and masked men hold up a security van occupied by two co-workers (a man and a woman) who have some valuables in the van. The van’s windows are bulletproof, but the armed robbers force the co-workers out of the car.

The van has a suitcase and a safe. The robbers want what’s in the safe. The female co-worker explains why she can’t open the safe: “The new system requires new keys.” She says that she and her co-worker do not have the keys. The male co-worker is able to escape by running away, but the female co-worker isn’t so lucky. She’s shot in the face and dies.

The movie then does a time jump to 2008, in Ballerup, Denmark, where aspiring mixed-martial artist fighter Kasper (played by Gustav Giese) lives with his wife Aaliyah (played by Camilla Lau) and their 7-year-old daughter. The movie is told from Kasper’s perspective. Aaliyah tells Kasper that her brother wants Kasper to stop by the brother’s shop because a Moroccan wants to talk to Kasper.

Kasper doesn’t actually meet the mysterious Moroccan in the shop but in a dark alley. The stranger’s name is Slimani (played by Reda Kateb), who says these ominous words to Kasper: “I heard about you guys. You fucked up in Sweden last year.” This is how the movie reveals that Kasper was in that trio of robbers who killed the security van employee.

The rest of “The Quiet Ones” shows how Kasper forms an uneasy alliance with Slimani, who’s the ruthless mastermind behind the 60 million-Danish kroner (kr) heist that’s depicted in the movie On August 10, 2008, when the robbery occurred, 60 million kr would have been equal to about $12 million in U.S. dollars. The thieves plan to steal the cash from a warehouse used by Dansk Value Handling, a cash transportation company. The warehouse is in Glostrup, Demark, a suburb of the Denmak capital Copenhagen.

The only thing that’s revealed about Slimani and his personal life is that he’s abusive to his loyal girlfriend Pumpkin (played by Ida Cæcilie Rasmussen), who lives in Sengeløse, Denmark. As an example of how cruel Slimani is, there’s a scene where Pumpkin asks him not to bring any guns into the house. His response is to strangle her and dunk her head in a water-filled kitchen sink. He doesn’t kill her, but his attack is brutal enough for Pumpkin to live in fear of Slimani.

In addition to Kasper and Slimani, the other men in this group of conniving thieves are Hasse (played by Christopher Wagelin), Warsame (played by Amin Ahmed), Joppe (played by Jens Hultén) and Mo (played by Granit Rushiti), who don’t have personalities that stand out. There are six thieves who are shown doing the heist, but in real life, there were actually a lot more thieves (15 of them were caught and convicted) who were responsible for this crime. The movie has an epilogue about what happened to the stolen loot and the thieves.

Why does family man Kasper want to get involved in such a high-risk robbery? The only explanation that the movie gives is he doesn’t want to work in a regular job and he wants more money to fuel his mixed-martial training and enough money so that he doesn’t have to work for the rest of his life. Amanda Collin has a supporting role as a security guard named Maria, who is on duty at the Dansk Value Handling warehouse when the thieves arrive.

The buildup to this heist is very underwhelming. The dialogue in the movie is very generic and doesn’t give much insight into who these men really are. “The Quiet Ones” also has too much drab cinematography that makes almost everything looked washed-out and bland. By the end of the movie, you won’t care about what happens to this deplorable bunch of criminals because the film ends in such a wishy-washy manner, with no real closure before the rushed epilogue.

Magnet Releasing released “The Quiet Ones” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on February 21, 2025. The movie was released in Denmark and Sweden in 2024.

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