Culture Representation: Taking place in England, the dramatic film “H Is for Hawk” (based on the memoir of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Middle Eastern people) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: An academic researcher/scholar is grieving over the sudden death of her father, when she decides to get a goshawk that is somewhat difficult to train.
Culture Audience: “H Is for Hawk” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and well-acted dramas about grieving people and their pets.
Claire Foy and Brendan Gleeson in “H Is for Hawk” (Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions)
“H Is for Hawk” features commendable performances, but this drama about a grieving woman and her pet goshawk might be too slow-paced for some viewers. It’s still a good story about how animals and people can help each other through tough times. The movie “H Is for Hawk” is based on a true story, and the movie doesn’t have a false note that looks overly contrived for the sake of being in a movie.
Directed by Philippa Lowthorpe, “H Is for Hawk” was written by Emma Donoghue and Lowthorpe. The movie’s screenplay is adapted from Helen Macdonald’s 2014 memoir “H Is for Hawk.” “H Is for Hawk” takes place in England and was filmed in various parts of the United Kingdom, including Cambridge, Clevedon, and Wales. The movie had its world premiere at the 2025 Telluride Film Festival and subsequently screened at other film festivals in 2025, including the BFI London Film Festival and AFI Fest.
The protagonist in “H Is for Hawk” is Helen Macdonald (played by Claire Foy), who is a research scholar and a former lecturer at the University of Cambridge’s Department of History and Philosophy of Science. The movie’s very first scene shows that Helen has a very close relationship with her father Alisdair Macdonald (played by Brendan Gleeson), an acclaimed photojournalist. Helen and Alisdair are both avid birdwatchers. The first scene in the movie shows Helen excitedly calling Alisdair to tell him that she saw a goshawk.
Helen’s mother/Alisdair’s wife (played by Lindsay Duncan), whose name is not mentioned in the movie, is retired and thinks Alisdair should also retire because he has a demanding job. Helen’s mother is loving and supportive of Helen, but Helen is definitely a “daddy’s girl.” Helen has a brother named James (played by Josh Dylan), who is briefly seen in the movie.
Helen is a bachelorette with no kids, just like her best friend Christine (played by Denise Gough), who has a lively personality. Helen likes to spend a lot of her free time outdoors with Alisdair. There are multiple scenes in the movie where Helen and Alisdair are out in fields doing bird watching or enjoying nature. Alisdair often takes photos during these get-togethers.
Helen’s tranquil life is shattered when Alisdair suddenly dies after collapsing on a street. His cause of death is not mentioned in the movie, but in real life Alisdair Macdonald died of a suspected heart attack. Most of the movie is about Helen coping with her grief. “H Is for Hawk” has several flashbacks that are memories of Helen’s happy memories of her father/daughter time with Alisdair.
Alisdair’s death happens during a crossroads in Helen’s life: She has recently resigned from the University of Cambridge and has been deciding whether or not she should apply for a fellowship at the Max Planck Institutes in Berlin. Helen has been living on the University of Cambridge campus, so she needs to find another place to live after she finishes out her last semester and her University of Cambridge employment ends.
At first, Helen tries to have an outward appearance that she has a lot of strength in coping with her grief. On the day that her father dies, she insists on keeping a dinner reservation that she had with Christine. She also reads a lot of self-help books on grief.
But as time goes on, it’s obvious that Helen is not coping with her grief very well. The first indication is when she spends the night with an art dealer/Ph.D. student named Amar (played by Arty Froushan), whom she has recently met, and she asks him to move to Berlin with her the morning after their first sexual encounter at her place. Amar quickly leaves, and Helen never hears from him again.
Helen has a married platonic friend named Stuart (played by Sam Spruell), who is an experienced falconer. Helen has always admired goshawks, so she decides to get a goshawk of her own. She names the goshawk Mabel, who has a fiercely independent personality. Stuart helps Helen with much of Mabel’s training, but Helen also learns a lot by herself.
As expected in stories like this one, Helen grows very emotionally attached to Mabel, who is quite the challenge when it comes to training. Helen treats Mabel as a constant companion, so there are multiple scenes in the movie where Helen often defies “no pets” policies at certain places, just so she can take Mabel somewhere. And you can almost do a countdown to a scene where members of the community are going to have a complaint about Mabel, so Helen has some type of confrontation with people who want some sort of punishment.
“H Is for Hawk” hits a lot of familiar and somewhat formulaic beats in the story. People who know how much work and care go into training pet animals are most likely to appreciate “H Is for Hawk,” which has lovely cinematography by Charlotte Bruus Christensen. Foy carries the movie with emotional authenticity in her role as Helen, who discovers that having a pet animal is not a cure for depression. “H Is for Hawk” has an ending that is open to interpretation, but it shows enough glimmers of hope, so the movie does not end in a depressing way.
Roadside Attractions released “H Is for Hawk” in select U.S. cinemas and in the United Kingdom on January 23, 2026. The movie was released on digital and VOD on February 24, 2026.
Culture Representation: The music documentary film “Man on the Run” features singer/songwriter Paul McCartney and a predominantly white group of people (with one biracial person) discussing what happened in his life and career from 1970 to 1981.
Culture Clash: By his own admission, McCartney was depressed and had an identity crisis after the 1970 breakup of his former band The Beatles, but he was able to reclaim his place as an influential icon in music, by becoming a solo artist and a member of the band Wings, with a mixed bag of big hit singles, a few critically panned albums, successful tours and widely praised releases.
Culture Audience: “Man on the Run” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of McCartney and celebrity documentaries that explore but don’t delve too deeply into the down sides of fame.
A 1971 photo of the original Wings lineup in “Man on the Run.” Pictured from left to right: Denny Laine, Denny Seiwell, Linda McCartney and Paul McCartney. (Photo courtesy of Amazon Content Services)
“Man on the Run” is a comprehensive but not groundbreaking documentary about Paul McCartney’s life and career from 1970 to 1981. Knowledgeable fans of McCartney won’t learn anything new, but the movie is a crowd-pleasing delight. The people interviewed for the documentary (including McCartney) are not seen on camera for these interviews, which are heard only as audio voiceovers. Other than these interviews, the documentary’s new content includes some previously unreleased film/video footage of rehearsals and touring.
Directed by Morgan Neville, “Man on the Run” had its world premiere at the 2025 Telluride Film Festival. People who’ve seen other authorized McCartney documentaries (especially the 2001 documentary “Wingspan”) will see a lot of the same familiar footage in “Man on the Run.” People who’ve read most or all of the biographies (authorized or unauthorized) on McCartney will hear a lot of the same familiar stories. One of those biographies is McCartney’s 2025 memoir “Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run,” which can be considered a companion book to this “Man on the Run” documentary.
However, “Man on the Run” has its unique charms, including some whimsical animation to enhance the archival footage. The documentary’s sound editing and film editing are also excellent. The movie makes a good (but not great) effort to not be a completely white-washed biography, by giving a fair and balanced perspective of the criticism that McCartney received during this period of time in his life.
But make no mistake: Neville’s direction has the tone of being a fan first, which means “Man on the Run” doesn’t really pry too close to topics that could possibly alienate McCartney because of how unflattering the information would be. It’s a characteristic of almost all authorized documentaries or biographies of celebrities: Access to the celebrity and rare archival material comes with a literal or figurative agreement to not do an exposé of the celebrity’s deepest, darkest secrets.
McCartney was born on June 18, 1942, in Liverpool, England. “Man on the Run” is told in chronological order, beginning with the well-known tale of how, in early 1970, McCartney was at a crossroads in his life after the breakup of the Beatles, the band that he co-founded in 1960, with singer/rhythm guitarist John Lennon and singer/lead guitarist George Harrison in their hometown of Liverpool. The last member to join the Beatles was drummer Ringo Starr. McCartney sang and played bass guitar (and occasionally played piano/keyboards) in the band.
The Beatles began as a nightclub band and steadily built a fan base through live performances, including a stint in Hamburg, Germany. The Beatles were famously rejected by every major record company, until EMI Records reversed an initial rejection and signed the Beatles. (In the United States, the Beatles were signed to EMI-owned Capitol Records.) The Beatles’ first single (“Love Me Do”) was released in 1962, and it was the first of numerous hit singles for the band. The Beatles had unprecedented success and are still considered by many to be the greatest and most influential rock band of all time, with the songwriting partnership of Lennon and McCartney as the driving force of this influence.
By the beginning of 1970, the Beatles had disbanded, but the breakup wouldn’t be officially announced until months later. McCartney had become a recluse at a remote farm in Scotland with his wife Linda McCartney, whom he married in 1969; her daughter Heather from Linda’s previous marriage; and Paul and Linda’s biological daughter Mary, who was born in 1969. Heather, who was born in 1962, would eventually be adopted by Paul. Mary was named after Paul’s mother Mary, who died of cancer when he was 14.
For business and publicity reasons, Paul says in the documentary (as he already said in other interviews), the Beatles were told to publicly deny the Beatles’ breakup for several months until they could no longer deny it. Paul officially announced the breakup when he released a written self-interview in April 1970. The world didn’t know it at the time, but it was revealed many years later that the reason why the Beatles had broken up was because (according to Paul), Lennon had quit the group. A great deal of “Man on the Run” discusses the rivalry and on-again/off-again brotherly friendship that Paul had with Lennon, who had known each other since they were teenagers.
Because Paul was the first in the band to announce the Beatles’ breakup, he was perceived as the Beatles member who most wanted the band to break up. Paul says the reality was the opposite: Paul says he wanted to keep the Beatles going for as long as possible. He knew the band had problems, but he says in this documentary and in other interviews that his preference was to have the Beatles take a hiatus instead of completely breaking up.
“Man on the Run” completely ignores the fact that Lennon’s second wife Yoko Ono got much harsher blame and worse criticism than Paul for being the main person who supposedly broke up the Beatles. It’s an example of how “Man on the Run” tends to go with what Paul says without taking into complete account the entire well-documented history of the Beatles’ breakup and its aftermath. By most reliable accounts, Ono was unfairly blamed for breaking up the Beatles.
In the documentary, Paul discusses the widely known fact that was also kept from the public at the time of the breakup: Paul disagreed with the other members of the band on who would manage the Beatles. After the 1967 drug-overdose death of the Beatles’ original manager Brian Epstein (at age 32), the Beatles managed themselves. Paul had always been the most business-minded member of the Beatles, so he became the de facto business leader of the group.
By 1969, while the Beatles were recording their last studio albums “Let It Be” and “Abbey Road,” Lennon was pushing to have Allen Klein become the Beatles’ manager because Klein (who also managed the Rolling Stones at the time) had promised to get better music royalty deals for the Beatles, just like Klein did with the Rolling Stones. Harrison and Starr agreed with Lennon. Paul wanted his father-in-law Lee Eastman (who was also Paul’s attorney) to become the Beatles’ next manager. The other Beatles members disagreed because they believed Paul would have an unfair advantage if the Beatles’ manager was also Paul’s father-in-law/attorney.
Klein briefly managed the Beatles and the Beatles company Apple Corps before the band broke up. “Man on the Run” presents this business dispute as Paul being correct all along about Klein being an untrustworthy snake. While it’s true that the Beatles and the Rolling Stones regretted doing business with Klein (who awarded himself the copyrights to many of these bands’ songs), we’ll never know how things would’ve gone for the Beatles if Eastman had become the Beatles’ manager.
Based on how McCartney and others have described the Beatles in 1969, the band breakup was inevitable because Lennon and Harrison wanted to leave the band for solo careers. The personal turmoil and legal conflicts over the Beatles’ business partnership continued until the Beatles’ business partnership was officially dissolved in 1974. Paul sued to dissolve the partnership. He says in the documentary he was unfairly depicted as the villain, especially for people who held out hope that he, Lennon, Harrison and Starr would reunite to make music or perform as the Beatles. That hoped-for Beatles reunion never happened.
During the reclusive period of time in McCartney’s life in 1970, he was drinking a lot of alcohol, by his own admission (this story about his alcohol abuse has been known for decades), but he also embraced family life and reconnected with what it meant to be a person without the usual celebrity comforts. During this time on the farm, the McCartney family did not have cooks, nannies or housemaids. They lived on a self-sufficient farm.
McCartney never stopped making music, but the music he made from 1970 to 1972 got mixed reactions from fans and critics. The albums weren’t sales flops, but they were far from the blockbuster hitmaking that he had with the Beatles. His first solo album, 1970’s “McCartney,” was mostly critically panned. So was his 1971 album “Ram,” which had Linda McCartney sharing credit as the album’s artist.
Linda was known as a photographer, but she was also an animal rights activist who was one of the people who convinced Paul to become a vegetarian. Paul says it was his idea for Linda to make music with him. He describes her initially questioning the idea but saying yes in a casual and accepting way. She became a keyboardist and a backup vocalist for Paul during the 1970s and the early 1980s. Their band Wings existed from 1971 to 1981.
Linda also received co-songwriting credit on Wings songs, although it’s widely known that Paul was always the band’s chief songwriter. Did she contribute to some of the lyrics and melodies of Wings songs? Probably. However, Paul has always been the mastermind of all his albums that have been released since the Beatles broke up. Several biographies of Paul have noted that Linda getting Wings co-songwriting credit was probably for tax reasons, but that type of information wouldn’t be in this documentary, which doesn’t mention any songwriting that Linda might have done.
Paul has discussed in many interviews, including in “Man on the Run,” how Linda was the main person who helped him out of his depression after the Beatles broke up. Paul’s song “Maybe I’m Amazed” (from his 1970 “McCartney” album) was a love song for Linda and is widely considered to be his first great single released after the Beatles disbanded. Years later in their marriage, Linda (who is described as introverted and less comfortable with fame, compared to extroverted Paul) didn’t really want to tour anymore because she wanted to focus on raising their children.
Paul and Linda would have two other children together: Stella (born in 1971) and James (born in 1977). Mary and Stella are the only children of Paul who are interviewed in the documentary. Stella (who would go on to become a famous fashion designer as an adult) is fiercely defensive of Linda, who got a lot of criticism for her singing and fashion style, which can generously be called quirky and offbeat. Mary shares memories that describe how her childhood had of the contrasts of living a “normal” life on the family’s remote farm and experiencing the celebrity life with her parents on tour.
Linda died of breast cancer in 1998, but her death is not mentioned in the documentary. The documentary includes voiceovers of separate archival interviews of Linda; Wings co-founder/guitarist Denny Laine, who died from complications of interstitial lung disease in 2023; and guitarist Henry McCullough, who was in Wings from 1972 to 1973, and who died after a long illness in 2016. The deaths of Laine and McCullough are also not mentioned in the documentary.
By 1971, Paul was ready to be part of a new band. That band was Wings (often billed as Paul McCartney and Wings), a Grammy-winning group that released seven studio albums and had a string of hit songs until the band’s breakup in 1981. Hit songs from Wings included “My Love,” “Live and Let Die,” “Jet,” “Band on the Run,” “Let Me Roll It,” “Listen to What the Man Said,” “Silly Love Songs,” “Let ‘Em In,” “Mull of Kintyre,” “With a Little Luck” and “Goodnight Tonight.” All these Wings songs (as well as some solo Paul McCartney songs) are in the documentary, either in their recorded versions and/or as live performances. Wings’ 1979 album “Back to the Egg” (the band’s last studio album) is briefly mentioned in the documentary as the band’s only major flop.
Paul, Linda and Laine remained the core members of Wings, as the lineup changed through the years. “Man on the Run” has interviews with these former Wings members: drummer Denny Seiwell, who was in Wings from 1971 to 1973; drummer Joe English, who was in Wings from 1975 to 1978; and guitarist Laurence Juber and drummer Steve Holley, who were in Wings from 1978 to 1981.
Seiwell is candid about why he and McCollough quit Wings: They were getting paid a “meager” salary that was far below what backup musicians for a superstar like Paul McCartney should be making. McCullough and Seiwell abruptly leaving the band caused Paul, Linda and Laine to temporarily carry on with Wings as a trio.
The result was Wings’ most commercially successful and most critically acclaimed album: 1973’s “Band on the Run,” which was recorded under difficult circumstances in Lagos, Nigeria. The most harrowing incident was when Paul and other people in his entourage were robbed by street thieves, who stole demo recordings of the album. Paul says the way he deals with setbacks and disappointment is to get angry, and then get over it and do the best under the circumstances. In the documentary, Paul also mentions multiple times that when people doubt him, it often motivates him to prove his doubters wrong.
Although Seiwell and McCollough describe being grateful for the opportunity to work with Paul, Seiwell’s description of his Wings salary as “meager” and barely a living wage sounds like employee exploitation. Paul’s response in the documentary is flippant and doesn’t sound entirely honest. Paul says that he wasn’t aware of the band’s financial accounting at the time. That comment is hard to believe, considering Paul’s reputation for being very business-minded, and considering he was the one who signed off on how much money his band members were getting paid.
Paul also says that if any of his band members were dissatisfied with their salaries, they had the option to leave and write their own songs. This remark doesn’t take into account that (1) not every musician wants to be a songwriter and (2) not every songwriter has the extraordinary talent and fame that Paul McCartney has. Seiwell doesn’t sound bitter about his split from Wings, but he’s one of the few people interviewed in the documentary who has a criticism about his work experience with Paul.
The documentary also includes the expected high points of Wings’ successful tours. Paul went from refusing to performing any Beatles songs during the early years of Wings concerts to including Beatles songs in Wings’ later live performances. The documentary includes Paul performing the Beatles’ “Yesterday” during a concert from the Wings Over the World tour, which took place from 1975 to 1976. Paul says a concert low point for Wings was the band’s performance at the Hammersmith Odeon in London, on December 29, 1979, for the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea. Paul says in the documentary it was the worst live performance he ever did because he sang off-key and the sound engineering was subpar.
Paul also says in the documentary that the best Wings lineup was the Wings lineup from 1975 to 1977. American drummer English and Scottish guitarist James “Jimmy” McCulloch were in Wings during those years. At age 26, McCulloch died of a morphine overdose in 1979, two years after he quit Wings. Paul gives a brief comment on McCulloch in the documentary, by saying that McCulloch was very talented but lived dangerously.
“Man on the Run” gives some screen time to discuss the two drug busts for marijuana that Paul experienced during the time period covered in the movie. The first drug bust was in 1972, when Paul, Linda and drummer Seiwell were arrested for possession of marijuana plants, which they claimed were grown from seeds they received from a fan in the mail. They received a relatively small fine as a penalty.
Paul’s more serious drug bust was in 1980, when customs officials at Narita International Airport in Tokyo found 219 grams (7.7 ounces) of marijuana in a plastic bag inside Paul’s suitcase. Paul spent nine days in a Tokyo jail before being deported from Japan, which was a much lighter punishment than what a non-famous person would have received. Wings’ 1980 tour of Japan was canceled because of this arrest. Paul takes full responsibility for this drug bust and says that he didn’t heed warnings not to bring marijuana to Japan. “I was an idiot,” Paul says of getting caught with marijuana in Japan.
The year 1980 also marked the release of Paul’s solo album “McCartney II.” Just like on 1970’s “McCartney,” Paul wrote all the songs himself and played all the instruments on the album. “Coming Up” was the big hit single from “McCartney II.” Because Paul’s recording career as a solo artist had reignited, and because Linda had lost interest in touring, Wings officially disbanded. McCartney comments in the documentary about the decision to end Wings: “The enthusiasm had peaked.” Paul did not tour again until 1989.
John Lennon’s son Sean Ono Lennon (who was born in 1975) says of the feuding that his father and Paul had for most of the 1970s: “My father was tough, but so was Paul.” And even though John Lennon publicly insulted some of the music that Paul made after the Beatles’ breakup, Sean says that John often listened to Paul’s music in private. Sean describes the “Ram” album as a “masterpiece,” and says the John Lennon household had a “well-worn” vinyl copy of the album.
Paul says in the documentary that he believes Klein (who managed John Lennon’s early solo career) was an instigator of much of the feuding because Paul believes Klein planted divisive and negative ideas in John Lennon’s head. Paul gets emotional and a bit choked up when he says that one of the greatest blessings in his life is knowing that he and John had started to become friends again in the few years before John died. As most people already know, John was tragically murdered by a lone shooter in front of John’s New York City home on December 8, 1980. (John’s murderer was sentenced to life in prison.)
Paul’s reaction to John’s murder is also discussed in the documentary. Stella remembers the day that Paul heard the news and seeing his reaction. He was at home in London when he got the phone call. She doesn’t go into details, out of respect for her father, but the tone in her voice leaves no doubt it was a traumatic experience. The documentary includes the archival footage of Paul being interviewed by a British TV reporter on a street, not long after Paul heard the news that John had been murdered. Stella says that Paul got a lot of criticism for not being emotional enough in the interview, but she says Paul was still in shock.
Other people interviewed in the documentary are Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger, Paul’s brother Michael “Mike” McCartney, The Pretenders lead singer Chrissie Hynde, author Peter Doggett, music producer Chris Thomas, journalist Chris Welch, singer Nick Lowe (who was an opening act for Wings), sound engineer Geoff Emerick, Paul’s longtime creative director Aubrey Powell, Paul’s touring/instrument manager John Hammel, and musician Jimmy McGeachy, who was only 15 when he played drums (as part of a Scottish pipe band) on the 1978 hit “Mull of Kintyre.”
A story mentioned in the beginning of the documentary is how McGeachy also took a photo of Paul angrily throwing a book at him because McGeachy invaded his privacy while Paul was being a recluse in Scotland in 1970. Paul then made a deal with McGeachy: In exchange for McGeachy giving the negative of the unflattering photo for Paul to keep, Paul agreed to pose for a few photos for McGeachy. Those photos ended up being sold and published as proof that Paul was still alive and well, during a time when Paul continued to be dogged by false stories that he secretly died.
“Man on the Run” also has an almost-comical montage of the frequent questions that Paul got during the 1970s about whether or not the Beatles would reunite. The former members of the Beatles received offers worth millions to reunite as the Beatles, but the former Beatles members had all clearly moved on to other interests. In the documentary, Paul repeats the famous story about how he was visiting John in New York City in 1976, when they briefly toyed with the idea of doing an impromptu reunion on “Saturday Night Live,” after “Saturday Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels went on the show that year for a comedy sketch to plead for a Beatles reunion. Paul and John ultimately decided that this semi-Beatles reunion would not be a benefit to themselves, so they chose not to do it.
The theatrical release of “Man on the Run” includes an approximately 10-minute featurette (shown after the movie) of director Neville talking with Paul in a room with some Wings-era memorabilia. Neville shows these items to Paul to get his reactions. These items include Robo the Robot, a small robot that Wings had on stage during a 1979 concert; some of Paul’s tour jackets, one of which Paul tries on at Neville’s suggestion, and it fits snugly on Paul; and the passport that Paul had during his 1980 marijuana bust in Japan.
Neville points out to Paul that the passport doesn’t have a Japanese customs stamp on it because Paul was arrested and jailed before he could pass through customs. Neville also comments that because Paul did not pass through customs on that trip to Japan, the Japanese government technically didn’t consider Paul’s trip as officially entering Japan. It was a loophole that allowed Paul to get a much lighter punishment for the marijuana bust than if government records had shown he had passed through Japan’s borders before the marijuana had been found. Paul chuckles and says it was a smart decision for the Japanese government to use this loophole.
Paul also plays a snippet of “All of You” on a piano in the room, at Neville’s request. It’s a nod to the documentary featuring rare early 1970s archival footage of Paul also playing “All of You” at home on his piano before he’s interrupted by a phone call. Neville seems a little star-struck by Paul during this “behind the scenes” conversation, which doesn’t have any meaningful discussion about the making of this documentary. This “bonus content” featurette is cute, but it’s not particularly enlightening.
Because so much has already been reported, examined, and dissected about the Beatles and former members of the Beatles, “Man on the Run” stands as an above-average but not outstanding documentary. The existence of the 2001 “Wingspan” documentary makes “Man on the Run” a bit redundant. “Man on the Run” is still a worthy time capsule of Paul in the 1970s. It will be very informative for those who are unfamiliar with this period of Paul’s life. For people who already know all the major details in the documentary, “Man on the Run” is an entertaining reminder in a well-edited package.
Amazon Studios and Trafalgar Releasing released “Man on the Run” in U.S. cinemas for a limited engagement on February 19 and February 22, 2026. Prime Video will premiere “Man on the Run” on February 27, 2026.
Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in England, the comedy/drama film “Pillion” (based on the 1975 novel “Box Hill”) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A socially awkward loner gets involved in a volatile BDSM relationship as a submissive partner to the dominant and mysterious leader of a motorcycle group.
Culture Audience: “Pillion” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and are interested in watching well-acted and skillfully written movies about BDSM relationships from the perspectives of gay men.
Harry Melling and Alexander Skarsgård in “Pillion” (Photo by Chris Harris/A24)
The well-acted comedy/drama “Pillion” is more than a movie about a submissive man involved with a mysterious dominant lover in a BDSM relationship. It’s a bittersweet story about emotional vulnerabilities when giving and receiving love. The movie treats the non-traditional aspects of this relationship without judgment and with adult maturity. (A pillion is the passenger seat for a motorcycle.)
Written and directed by Harry Lighton, “Pillion” is Lighton’s feature-film directorial debut. The movie had its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and subsequently screened at several other film festivals in 2025, including the Telluride Film Festival, the New York Film Festival and the BFI London Film Festival. “Pillion” is based on Adam Mars-Jones’ 1975 novel “Box Hill,” with intriguing changes in the movie.
Both the movie and the book take place in a suburban England (the movie does not name the city), but “Box Hill” takes place in the 1970s over a period of several years, whereas “Pillion” takes place in the mid-2020s over a period of several months. Another big change from the book to the movie: A major character dies in the book, but this person does not die in the movie.
Lighton gives a superb cinematic adaptation of the book by adding unique elements that are realistic, with the right balance of heartbreaking and heartwarming. A movie with this type of sexual content could easily be exploitative, but Lighton gives “Pillion” a matter-of-fact and non-judgmental tone when showing a gay BDSM lifestyle, which is rarely the focus of mainstream movies. “Pillion” has an attitude of: “This is how some people live. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to watch it.”
“Pillion” is told from the perspective of protagonist Colin Smith (played by Harry Melling), a socially awkward gay man in his mid-30s. Colin is openly gay, and he is very inexperienced when it comes to dating. Colin, who works as parking meter enforcer, lives with his parents Pete (played by Douglas Hodge) and Peggy (played by Lesley Sharp), who are completely accepting of Colin being gay. Peggy is so accepting, she tries to set up Colin on blind dates.
In the beginning of the movie, it’s the Christmas holiday season, and Colin is doing something that he loves to do: He sings in a barbershop quartet, which is performing in a cafe pub at the moment. During this performance, Colin notices a tall and handsome stranger dressed in motorcycle biker gear. This stranger, who is about 10 to 15 years older than Colin, is sitting by himself.
Colin is immediately attracted to him. After the performance, Colin extends his hands to greet the customers, but the stranger makes a point of ignoring Colin. The stranger doesn’t seem interested in talking to anyone. Colin is still intrigued, but he’s too shy to start a conversation with him. The stranger seems to be aware that Colin is staring at him.
Colin sees the stranger again by chance one night, when Colin is walking his family’s Dachshund near a business district street. The stranger is walking a Rottweiler. Colin will eventually find out that the stranger’s name is Ray (played by Alexander Skarsgård), who is also gay or queer. Ray is not from the U.K., and he has a hard-to-place accent that could be American, Canadian, or the accent of a Western European who speaks English very well.
Colin tries to nonchalantly follow Ray, but Ray notices that Colin is following him. The power dynamics in their relationship begin immediately. Ray orders Colin to follow him into a dark alley. Colin willingly obliges. Ray takes off his shirt and reveals that he’s wearing bondage gear. Ray asks Colin, “What am I going to do with you?” Colin replies, “Whatever you want, really.”
Ray then zips down his pants and demands that Colin give him oral sex. Colin willingly obliges, but he almost chokes during the act and makes profuse apologies. It’s the beginning of their BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism) relationship. It’s also the first time that Colin has ever had this type of relationship. It isn’t long before Colin moves into Ray’s home, a non-descript, middle-class house that is less than a half-hour drive from where Colin’s parents live.
“Pillion” has some comedic moments about Colin’s awkwardness in navigating this relationship, but the movie doesn’t do it in a mean-spirited way. Colin and Ray have an “opposites attract” relationship that, on the surface, works well for the BDSM dynamic. Colin enjoys being a complete submissive at all times to Ray, who enjoys his role as the dominant partner.
From the start of the relationship, Ray sets boundaries that would be deal breakers for most people, but not for Colin: Ray refuses to show signs of affection to Colin, such as kissing, hugging, cuddling or holding hands. Ray also won’t tell Colin what Ray does for money. Ray never mentions having a job, and it’s unknown what Ray’s source of income is.
In the beginning of their relationship, Ray also won’t share a bed with Colin when they sleep. Ray expects Colin to sleep on the floor, sometimes on the couch, or on a bed in another room. And it’s not unusual for Ray to treat Colin like the family dog.
Ray says that Colin should not expect Ray to be monogamous. Colin also cannot be possessive or curious about what Ray does when Ray spends time apart from Colin. Colin cannot snoop into other areas of Ray’s life, such as who his family members are and what Ray’s personal background is. Needless to say, Ray also doesn’t want Colin to describe Ray as a “boyfriend” or to say the word “love” about their relationship.
Ray is the leader of a BDSM gay biker group of motorcylists. He’s considered an “alpha male leather daddy,” not just with this group but also with other gay biker groups who know about Ray. (Jake Shears, also known as the lead singer of Scissor Sisters, has a cameo role as a submissive biker named Kevin.)
Colin feels insecure because he knows that Ray is considered much better-looking and more of a “catch” than Colin. And so, Colin does whatever it takes to please Ray. In order to fit in better with this biker group of dominants and submissives, Colin ends up shaving off all of his hair and wearing a padlock on a chain necklace, which is what most of the group’s other submissives have done too.
Ray tests the levels of humiliation that Colin might tolerate to see how “loyal” Colin is to Ray. Colin seems to be okay with acts of degradation that are done to Colin in private and are part of their sex play. But there comes a time when Ray does something in public to humiliate Colin. And it’s a turning point in their relationship.
After a while, Colin wants more than Ray might be willing to give. Colin, who has fallen in love with Ray, wants some indication that Ray loves Colin. If Ray wants to push the boundaries of humiliating Colin, then Colin wants something in return by pushing the boundaries of what makes Ray uncomfortable: showing emotional vulnerability, especially when it comes to love and romance.
From the outside looking in, the complicated issues of power, control and sex in a BDSM relationship might be too confusing to those not in the relationship. Colin’s parents, especially his mother Peggy, see obvious indications that Ray is bossy and rude to Colin. And she doesn’t like it one bit, because she thinks it’s non-consensual and abusive.
A darkly comedic scene in the movie takes place when Ray has dinner with Colin and Colin’s parents for the first time at the Smith family home because Peggy insisted on it. It’s a battle of two strong personalities (Ray and Peggy) that not only has a lot to do with Peggy being protective of her “mama’s boy” son Colin but also about Peggy’s fear of losing Colin to a partner whom she sees as possibly abusive. Ray is very uncomfortable with being part of family dinners, so it’s a major compromise in his relationship with Colin that he agreed to be at this dinner.
Melling gives a terrifically nuanced performance as Colin, who is caught up in the thrills and the agony of Colin’s relationship with Ray. Skarsgård gives a more difficult performance as the inscrutable and often-unlikable Ray, who tries not to let his true feelings show, but those true feelings occasionally reveal themselves in subtle ways in body language and tone of voice. Sharp is absolutely wonderful in her role as outspoken Peggy, who has her own personal issues to deal with because Peggy is in recovery from cancer.
“Pillion” will undoubtedly make most viewers root for Colin to have his love reciprocated by Ray. However, the movie has a lot to say about relationship expectations: Can you love someone for who that person is, or is the love about who you want that person to be? During his relationship with Ray, Colin discovers that he wants to be a submissive in a BDSM relationship. The movie ultimately shows Colin finding out that being in this type of relationship doesn’t mean that Colin has to lose himself and suppress what he wants that will make himself happy.
A24 will release “Pillion” in select U.S. cinemas on February 6, 2026. The movie was released in U.K. cinemas on November 28, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place in France, the comedy/drama film “A Private Life” features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A psychiatrist plays amateur detective with her ex-husband when she suspects that a former client died by murder instead of suicide.
Culture Audience: “A Private Life” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and well-acted movies that combine dark comedy with psychological drama.
Jodie Foster and Virginie Efira in “A Private Life” (Photo by Jérôme Prébois/Sony Pictures Classics)
“A Private Life” is an occasionally uneven dark comedy about a psychiatrist who teams up with her ex-husband when she suspects a former client was murdered. Jodie Foster’s appealing performance keeps the movie interesting. To its credit, “A Private Life” doesn’t get too convoluted when it comes to the investigation for this suspected murder.
Directed by Rebecca Zlotowski, “A Private Life” was written by Zlotowski, Anne Berest and Gaëlle Macé. The movie had its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and made the rounds at other film festivals in 2025, including the Telluride Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. “A Private Life” takes place primarily in Paris and was filmed on location in Paris and in Normandy, France.
In “A Private Life,” Foster is protagonist Lillian Steiner, a psychiatrist who leads an orderly life. Lilian, who lives alone and who works from her home office, has been divorced from her ex-husband Gabriel “Gaby” Haddad (played by Daniel Auteuil) for at least 20 years. Lillian and Gaby have one child together: a adult son named Julien Haddad-Park (played by Vincent Lacoste), who has recently become a first-time father to an infant son named Joseph. Lillian adores her grandson but is slightly uncomfortable with the reality that she is now a grandmother.
Near the beginning of the movie, Lillian is concerned that her client Paula Cohen-Solal (played by Virginie Efira) has skipped their past three sessions. Paula has been Lillian’s client for the past nine years. Paula is a cellist in a classical music orchestra. Paula’s husband Simon Cohen-Solal (played by Mathieu Amalric), who is domineering and arrogant, is the orchestra’s conductor.
Meanwhile, another client named Pierre Hallam (played by Noam Morgensztern) tells Lillian during a session that it will be his last session with her. Pierre had been trying to quit smoking, and he says he recently underwent hypnotism, which he believes has “cured” him of the desire to smoke. Therefore, Pierre tells Lillian, he no longer needs Lillian as a therapist, and this will be their last session together.
Soon after Lillian loses Pierre as a client, Lillian gets even worse news: Paula has died. Lillian finds out when Paula’s young adult daughter Valérie Cohen-Solal (played by Luàna Bajrami) tells Lillian about Paula’s death, which has officially been ruled as a suicide. Valérie asks Lillian if Lillian knows why Paula would want to kill herself, but Lillian says she can’t reveal that information because of patient/therapist confidentiality.
Valérie invites Lillian to the shiva wake for Paula. At the shiva wake, Simon verbally lashes out at Lillian, whom he blames for Paula’s death. Simon orders Lillian to leave. Lillian knew that Paula was unhappily married to Simon. Simon’s hostile reaction to Lillian makes her wonder if Paula was murdered.
The rest of “A Private Life” shows Lillian’s suspicions increasing as she finds out other things that indicate Paula could have been murdered, especially when she discovers that Simon had a mistress named Perle Friedman (played by Aurore Clément). Lillian tells Gaby about her suspicions, and they decide to become amateur sleuths. Along the way, the former spouses also confront past resentments and unresolved issues about the demise of their marriage. Gaby was the one who wanted the divorce because he felt that Lillian didn’t love him anymore.
“A Private Life” features a few quirks to the story. Lillian has a vivid dream that she was a male musician colleague of Paula’s in the same orchestra, and Paula was having a secret affair with this colleague. Lillian begins to wonder if she has psychic abilities. Lillian’s eyes also keep watering for unknown reasons.
During the investigation, Lillian discovers more about Paula and more about herself. Foster and Auteuil’s scenes together are entertaining to watch, as Lillian and Gaby feel rekindled sparks of attraction to each other and have to decide whether or not to act on this attraction. Despite a few areas of the movie that drag, “A Private Life” is a relatively brisk psychological mystery that has engaging performances and should satisfy most viewers who are inclined to be interested in this genre.
Sony Pictures Classics released “A Private Life” in select U.S. cinemas on December 5, 2025, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on January 16, 2026. The movie was released in France on November 26, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place in 2025 in Italy, the dramatic film “La Grazia” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with one black person) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: During the last days of his final term, the elderly president of Italy must make decisions about several controversial legal issues, as he remains preoccupied by the death of his wife and finding out the identity of the lover who had an extramarital affair with her 40 years ago.
Culture Audience: “La Grazia” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino, and well-acted and stylish dramas about powerful politicians.
Anna Ferzetti in “La Grazia” (Photo by Andrea Pirrello/MUBI)
“La Grazia” is an elegant and contemplative character study about a fictional Italian president during the last days of his final term. This drama includes his dilemmas on how to handle a euthanasia bill, pardons for murderers, and grief over his dead wife. The movie also has some unexpected touches of comedy, such as this retiring president developing a fascination for rap music.
Written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino, “La Grazia” (which means “the grace” in Italian) had its world premiere at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival, where “La Grazia” star Toni Servillo won the prize for Best Actor. “La Grazia” also screened at the 2025 Telluride Film Festival and the 2025 New York Film Festival. “La Grazia” was filmed in the Italian cities of Rome, Turin, and Milan, where the story in the movie also takes place. “La Grazia” is definitely an improvement from the dull and pretentious “Parthenope,” Sorrentino’s other movie released in 2025.
“La Grazia” (which takes place in 2025) begins with captions listing several of the biggest responsibilities that a president of Italy has. It’s a dry list of political duties that doesn’t take into account the nuances of human flaws, compromises and ethically murky dealmaking that are inevitable in any political job. It’s a list that doesn’t take into account how politicians often make decisions that are not necessarily what is in the best interest for the politician’s constituents but instead the decisions are often based on the politician’s own self-interest.
“La Grazia” doesn’t show too much of the pomp and circumstance of being the leader of an influential nation such as Italy. The movie is more about how one fictional Italian president named Mariano De Santis (played by Servillo) thinks about how his current decisions can affect the future of Italy, as he is being haunted by his past. Mariano’s wife Aurora died eight years ago (in 2017), and he still talks to her in his mind, especially when he is alone, with thoughts such as, “I miss you.”
Based on these thoughts and memories of Aurora, Mariano loved her almost the point of worshipping her. Losing her has been devastating for him. But there is one thing about their marriage that still bothers him: She had an extramarital affair 40 years ago. The affair ended, but Mariano was never able to find out who her lover was. Finding out this information becomes one of the central matters that Mariano wants to resolve before he retires.
Another issue that Mariano grapples with in this story is whether or not he will sign a bill into law that would make human euthanasia legal in Italy under medically approved circumstances. In the beginning of the movie, Mariano (who is Catholic but who believes in the separation of church and state) is leaning toward vetoing the bill. His feelings about euthanasia become more personal when his beloved horse Elvis becomes terminally ill, and he refuses advice to have the horse die through euthanasia. He comments on the controversial nature of this euthanasia bill: “If I don’t sign, I’m a torturer. If I do sign, I’m a murderer.”
The other major issue that Mariano has to confront before his presidency ends is whether or not to pardon two people who’ve been convicted of first-degree murder. Isa Rocca (played by Linda Messerklinger) is a 45-year-old woman who killed her husband Alessio Picone because he often physically and emotional abused her. Isa has served nine years of her prison sentence so far and wants this pardon.
The second convicted murderer is Cristiano Arpa (played by Vasco Mirandola), a 74-year-old retired history teacher, who killed his wife because she had Alzheimer’s disease, and he said it was a euthanasia killing that she wanted. Unlike Isa, Cristiano does not want to be pardoned, but many people in his Turin community (including several of his former students) have been petitioning for Cristiano to be pardoned. Mariano has a very unconventional way for a nation’s president to decide whether or not he will pardon a convicted murderer. The public reaction to how Mariano handles it is one of the more comical scenes in the movie.
And there’s another issue that is looming over Mariano that he is reluctant to confront: whether or not he will endorse a successor. Ugo Romani (played by Massimo Venturiello), Italy’s current minister of justice, is Mariano’s longest friend: Ugo and Mariano have been best friends since high school. Ugo has been up front in asking Mariano to endorse Ugo if Ugo becomes a candidate to replace Mariano. In this same meeting to request the endorsement, Ugo also asks Mariano to pardon Isa because Isa is the niece of Ugo’s love partner.
Mariano’s peers have given him the nickname Reinforced Concrete because of his reputation for being stoic, formal and unwavering (or stubborn) in his beliefs. It’s meant to be a flattering nickname because Mariano can be counted on to be consistent and stable, unlike many politicians who flip-flop on issues and alliances, depending on what will give the politicians the most advantages at the time. Mariano is somewhat flattered by this nickname but he wonders if it means he has a reputation for being too rigid.
“La Grazia” is a richly layered story that mixes realism with some of the surrealistic daydreams that Mariano has, such as when he remembers the first time that he saw Aurora, or when he is deeply moved by seeing an Italian astronaut who has been living alone in space station for a year. For all of Mariano’s power and being surrounded by people who want to be close to him, “La Grazia” shows with unsparing detail that he is experiencing the old adage, “It’s lonely at the top.”
Mariano has a very small inner circle of people whom he trusts. His workaholic bachelorette daughter Dorotea De Santis (played by Anna Ferzetti), who is his personal aide, probably knows him better than anyone who’s still alive. Another longtime close friend is art critic Coco Valori (played by Milvia Marigliano), who is outspoken and sassy. Mariano trusts their opinions because they are not “yes” people who say only what they think he wants to hear. Ugo is a longtime friend, but Mariano’s trust in Ugo begins to waver when he begins to suspect that Ugo was Aurora’s secret lover.
An early scene in “La Grazia” shows the type of banter that Mariano has with Dorotea, who is very protective about Mariano’s health because her mother . Mariano smoking a cigarette outside. And when he goes back inside the capital building where he works, Dorotea says in a mildly scolding manner, “President DeSantis, You’ve been smoking.” Mariano denies that he was smoking, but Dorotea knows better. Dorotea says, “May I remind you that you only have one lung”?” Mariano replies, “No, since I only had two.”
Mariano’s other child is a son named Riccardo De Santis (played by Francesco Martino), a pop music songwriter who has recently moved to Montreal. Mariano tries to understand more about pop music, which leads him to stumble into developing a fascination with rap music that celebrates decadent lifestyles. Riccardo appears briefly in the movie in a video chat that he and Dorotea have with Mariano.
Another character who doesn’t have a lot of screen time in the movie but who is important to Mariano is military general Lanfranco Mare (played by Giuseppe Gaiani), a warmonger who has the nickname Night-Mare. The Catholic Church’s current Pope (played by Rufin Doh Zeyenouin) makes short but impactful appearances in scenes where he is portrayed as a jovial scooter-riding clergy leader who gives common-sense advice to Mariano and tells Mariano that Mariano has “la grazia.” And there’s an unnamed editorial director of Vogue magazine (voiced by Ornella Amodio) who has been calling to request an interview with Mariano to talk about what he likes to wear when he’s not working. This interview ends up being more than just about Mariano’s fashion choices.
Although all of the cast members perform well in their roles, “La Grazia” is truly anchored by Servillo’s absorbing performance, which skillfully shows Mariano’s inner and outer lives. Daria D’Antonio’s cinematography for “La Grazia” is sumptuous and breathtaking (a scene that takes place at the La Scala Opera House is one of the visual standouts) and immerses viewers in the realistic and the fantastical elements of the film. At 132 minutes, “La Grazia” tends to meander in some scenes and could’ve used better editing to make it a more cohesive story. However, it’s a very stylish and unique film where the story’s major questions are answered by the end of the movie, which leaves room for some lighthearted comedy amidst some of the emotionally heavy subject matter.
MUBI released “La Grazia” in select U.S. cinemas on December 5, 2025. The MUBI streaming service will premiere the movie on January 23, 2026.
Culture Representation: Taking place in Brazil, primarily in 1977, the dramatic film “The Secret Agent” features a predominantly Latin cast of characters (with some white people and black people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A widower father, who has worked as an academic scientist/technology researcher, changes his identity and moves to another city because he fears his life is in danger for his political activities against the authoritarian Brazilian government that is ruled by the Brazilian military.
Culture Audience: “The Secret Agent” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, filmmaker in Kleber Mendonça Filho, and artistically made movies about people living in political turmoil.
Italo Martins, Roberius Diogenes, Wagner Moura and Igor de Araújo in “The Secret Agent” (Photo courtesy of Neon)
“The Secret Agent” is a sprawling and absorbing drama about a man trying to escape his past while living in resistance of an oppressive Brazilian government in 1977. The movie is gritty and unpredictable, with a few unexplained bizarre moments. The biggest drawback to “The Secret Agent” is the movie’s uneven pacing, because it takes a while (at least 30 minutes) before this 160-minute movie really gets to the heart of the matter and delivers considerable suspense. Viewers with patience will be rewarded by an impactful turn of events, with a poignant epilogue.
Written and directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho, “The Secret Agent” had its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the prizes for Best Director, Best Actor (for Wagner Moura), and the FIRPRESCI Prize, an award from film critics. “The Secret Agent” also screened at other festivals in 2025, including the Telluride Film Festival and New York Film Festival. The movie, which is told in three chapters, takes place in various cities in Brazil, was filmed in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil. “The Secret Agent” is Brazil’s official entry for Best International Feature for the 2026 Academy Awards.
“The Secret Agent” begins by showing a 43-year-old man named Marcelo Alves (played by Moura) driving in a rural area to a gas station in his yellow Volkswagen Beetle. The first thing that Marcelo notices is that there’s dead man (played by Italo Barbosa) on the ground near the gas station pumps. The man’s body has been covered over with some fabric, but the decomposed nature of the body indicates that this man has been dead for at least a few days. Flies surround the body, and feral dogs come out of the bushes to try to get to the body.
The gas station attendant who’s on duty (played by Joálisson Cunha) casually tells Marcelo that the dead man was caught trying to steal gasoline and “the bastard got what he deserved.” The attendant says that the body has been there since Sunday, and police told him that they’re too busy to collect the body because of Carnival, but they will pick up the body on Ash Wednesday. The attendant also mentions that he can’t leave the gas station unattended, or else he’ll lose his job.
Marcelo is at the gas station when two highway patrol officers drive up and inspect Marcelo’s car and asks if he’s carrying guns or drugs. Marcelo says no. One of the cops tells Marcelo that he has a balding tire, but Marcelo says the tire in in good-enough condition to use.
The way that the cops are lingering around Marcelo makes it obvious to him that they’re looking for any reason to arrest or detain him, unless he can give them a bribe to go away. Marcelo doesn’t have enough cash, since he already spent what he had on gas, so he offers one of the cops a pack of cigarettes instead. This bribe does the trick, and the cops drive away.
All of this happens within the first 15 minutes of “The Secret Agent,” which reveals from the start that this Brazilian government and law enforcement are corrupt. It’s revealed much later in the story that Marcelo (who is a widower) isn’t this man’s real name. His real name is Armando Solimões, and he desperately wants to leave Brazil with his son.
“The Secret Agent” goes back and forth between telling what life was like for Armando before and after he changed his name to Marcelo Alves. When he was living as Armando, he was an academic scientist/technology researcher, who developed a patent for lithium battery technology. A corrupt political minister named Henrique Ghirotti (played by Luciano Chirolli) tried to steal this patent for a private company, so that Henrique could personally profit. Armando resisted this corruption and refused to willingly give up this patent.
Armando’s life and the life of his family (his wife and underage son) came under threat, when he was put under surveillance and began getting menacing messages. Armando’s wife Fátima Nascimento (played by Alice Carvalho) died of pneumonia. Armando made the difficult decision to change his identity and make enough money to leave Brazil with his son Fernando (played by Enzo Nunes), who’s about 5 or 6 years old when the main story takes place.
In the meantime, Fernando has been living in Recife with Fátima parents: Alexandre Nascimento (played by Carlos Francisco) and Lenira Nascimento (played by Aline Marta, also known as Aline Marta Maia), who are loving and protective. Armando/Marcelo visits them in secret when he can. Alexandre is a projectionist at a movie theater named Cinema São Luiza, which plays a pivotal role in the story. A mysterious woman named Elza (played by Maria Fernanda Candido) is recommended to Armando/Marcelo as someone who can provide him with fake immigration documents for him and his son Fernando
During the course of the movie, Armando/Marcelo crosses paths with several other people who have a role in what happens to him. Some of them know his true identity, while others don’t but they might find out. He meets other people who are in the resistance movement or are political refugees, including some who live in the apartment where he is hiding out. These allies include Dona Sebastiana (played by Tânia Maria), who acts like matriarch; a married couple named Antonio Vitória (played by Licínio Januário) and Tereza Vitória (played by Isabél Zuaa), who are Angolan immigrants; a middle-age woman named Claudia (played by Hermila Guedes); and a young man named Haroldo (played by João Vitor Silva).
Other characters in “The Secret Agent” include a police chief named Euclides Oliveira Valvacandi (played by Roberius Diogenes) and his two co-worker sons Arlindo (played by Italo Martins) and Sergio (played by Igor de Araújo); resistance political activists; a gangster named Augusto Burobu (played by Roney Villela) and his partner-in-crime stepson Bobbi (played by Gabriel Leone); and an assassin named Vilmar (played by Kaiony Venâncio). Udo Kier has a small role as a German-speaking immigrant named Hans, who is harassed by Euclides because Euclides mistakenly assumes that Hans used to be a former Nazi. Hans is actually a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust.
The movie takes a few strange detours in showing what happened to the dismembered body of an unidentified man, whose body parts were found in a dead shark. Euclides, Arlindo and Sergio become involved in investigating this man’s death. One of the man’s legs ends up in a university’s scientific lab. And in a very surrealistic scene, the leg is shown going on killing rampage at night in a park where several men are having sexual hookups.
Although “The Secret Agent” shows some indications that Armando/Marcelo has post-traumatic stress disorder (he has difficulty sleeping, and his dreams are often nightmares), the movie is more of a political thriller than a psychological thriller. Amid the explicit violence and undercover schemes, “The Secret Agent” shows with disturbing clarity how a society can rot with complacency when an oppressive government is accepted as too powerful to stop.
Moura’s acting is top-tier talented in “The Secret Agent,” where he has to play three roles: Armando, Marcelo and (in the movie’s last few scenes) an adult Fernando. “The Secret Agent” can be recommended for anyone who wants an insightful look at how an authoritarian government can affect everyday people. Although “The Secret Agent” is a fictional movie set mostly in 1977 Brazil, this searing story tells many unfortunate truths about what life has been and is currently like for untold numbers of people in many countries.
Neon released “The Secret Agent” in select U.S. cinemas on November 26, 2025. The movie was released in Brazil on November 6, 2025.
Pictured clockwise, from left: Paul Mescal, Jessie Buckley, Bodhi Rae Breathnach, Jacobi Jupe and Olivia Lynes in “Hamnet” (Photo by Agata Grzybowska/Focus Features)
Culture Representation: Taking place in England, from 1580 to 1599, the dramatic film “Hamnet” (based on the novel of the same name) features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: Against the wishes of his parents, playwright William Shakespeare marries a mysterious woman named Agnes, they become parents to three children, and they experience a tragedy and deep-seated grief when one of the children dies and becomes the inspiration for Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”
Culture Audience: “Hamnet” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, filmmaker Chloé Zhao, movies about William Shakespeare and his family, and well-made dramas about family members cope with grief.
Jacobi Jupe and Paul Mescal in “Hamnet” (Photo courtesy of Focus Features)
Superbly acted and artistically filmed, the drama “Hamnet” is a captivating version of the novel about how William Shakespeare and his wife coped with the death of their son. Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal give stellar and heart-wrenching performances. And although the movie takes place in the 1500s, its themes are timeless.
Directed by Chloé Zhao (who co-wrote the “Hamnet” screenplay with Maggie O’Farrell), “Hamnet” is based on O’Farrell’s 2020 novel “Hamnet.” The movie had its world premiere at the 2025 Telluride Film Festival and made the rounds at several other film festivals in 2025. At the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, “Hamnet” won the People’s Choice Award, the festival’s top prize. “Hamnet” takes place in England, where the movie was filmed on location in the county of Herefordshire.
“Hamnet” is inspired by real people and real events, although some elements have been changed for the fictional parts of the story. In real life, William Shakespeare was married to a woman named Anne Hathaway. Anne Hathaway is also the name of a famous Oscar-winning American actress who was born in 1982. In “Hamnet,” Shakespeare’s wife is named Agnes.
A significant change from the “Hamnet” book that’s in the movie is William Shakespeare’s name is actually said in the movie, whereas the book avoids mentioning his name. The movie also mentions the name of Stratford-upon-Avon (whose name is not explicitly mentioned in the book), the town where Shakespeare and his family famously lived. He also spent a lot of time in London, as depicted in the “Hamnet” book and movie. For the purposes of this review, the real people are referred to by their last names, while the characters in the movie are referred to by their first names.
“Hamnet” (which takes place from 1580 to 1599) begins by showing how the lives of William Shakespeare (played by Mescal) and Agnes (played by Buckley) diverge and intertwine. When they first meet, William is a Latin tutor for children in an affluent family. He reluctantly has this job because his father John Shakespeare (played by David Wilmot) owes money to the students’ father.
William has taken this job to help John pay off the debt. But what William really wants to do with his life is be a playwright. John thinks this is a foolish career ambition, and he frequently insults William for being overeducated but “wortheless.” John’s mother Mary (played by Emily Watson) isn’t verbally abusive to William, but she also has high expectations for him. She knows that he’s a talented writer, but she thinks he should choose a more sensible profession.
Agnes is the eldest child in a large family where her mother died when Agnes was about 9 or 10 years old. Agnes has a loyal and throughtful brother named Bartholomew (played by Joe Alwyn), who is the closest thing she’s had to a best friend for her entire life. Her father, a sheep farmer who is not seen in the movie, remarried years ago. He has four children with current wife Joan (played by Justine Mitchell): two sons (played by Zac Wishart and James Lintern) and two daughters (played by Eva Wishart and Effie Linnen), who are all seen briefly in the movie.
Agnes has a reputation for being a free-spirit and a loner who likes to spend a lot of time in the woods, where she communes with nature. There has been longtime gossip in the community that Agnes’ mother was some type of forest witch whose supernatural powers were inherited by Agnes. “Hamnet” shows hints that this speculation could be true.
At the very least, Agnes is highly intuitive, superstitious and firmly believes that the forest is a magical place that has healing abilities. She often sleeps outside in the woods. One of the things she also likes to do in the woods is take care of a pet falcon. It’s one of the first things that William sees Agnes doing when their eyes meet and they are instantly smitten with each other.
When it comes to courting Agnes, William moves quickly and uses an effective pickup line when he first talks with Agnes. After he asks Agnes what her name is, she coyly refuses to tell him. Williams says that Agnes will tell him her name after he kisses her. And then, he kisses her, and his prediction comes true. Soon after he meets Agnes, William quits his tutor job by simply leaving in the middle of a teaching session and never coming back.
Agnes and William fall in love and have a whirlwind romance, which is breezed through in the movie with scenes of them frolicking in the woods and then having sexual hookups in places like a wood shed. It isn’t long before William tells Agnes that he’s “handfasted” (engaged) to her, and they find out that she’s pregnant. William wants to marry Agnes, even though he knows both of their families won’t approve.
It’s never a question that William and Agnes are in love with each other. Agnes’ family is worried that low-income William won’t be able to financially support a family. William’s parents are concerned because Agnes isn’t the type of woman they pictured their son marrying, and they think he’s too young to get married. What the movie doesn’t mention is that in real life, Shakespeare was 18 and Hathaway was 26 when they got married. This type of age gap between a younger husband and an older wife was very unusual then, as it is now.
In “Hamnet,” there’s some family drama (mainly from William’s skeptical parents) before it’s decided that Bartholomew should be the one to approve whether or not Agnes and William can get married. Barthlomew and Agnes have a heart-to-heart talk, where he asks her what she sees in this “pasty-faced” impoverished writer. Agnes tells Bartholmew that William is brilliant and has a lot to offer with his artistic writing.
Bartholomew sees how happy Agnes is and approves of the marriage. William and Agnes get married in 1562. And soon afterward, she gives birth to their first child: a daughter named Susannah. Agnes gives birth alone in the woods, just the way that Agnes wanted it to happen.
Three years later, in 1565, Agnes gives birth to twins: son Hamnet and daughter Judith. Mary and two midwives prevent Agnes from giving birth in the woods and insist that Agnes give birth in the family home where Agnes lives. Agnes is certain that not being able to give birth in the woods will bring a curse on the children, but she’s outnumbered and held back by the other women. This childbirth is more difficult because Judith nearly dies from an unnamed respiratory condition, which Judith has for the rest of her life.
“Hamnet” shows that William and Agnes have a happy marriage and are loving and attentive parents to their children. Eldest child Susannah (played by Bodhi Rae Breathnach) is more serious than her playful twin siblings Hamnet (played by Jacobi Jupe) and Judith (played by Olivia Lynes), who like to do things like dress up in each other’s clothes as pranks. Because Hamnet is the only son in the family, he has a special bond with William, who tells Hamnet that Hamnet can be in William’s plays when Hamnet grows up.
Early in the marriage, Agnes sensed that William was getting frustrated and restless with his stalled writing career. And so, she made the difficult decision to send him to London, where he had the best chance of getting recognition and payment for his plays. This decision was frowned-upon by traditional Mary, who thinks that Agnes needs to have a husband living full-time in the family home, in order to properly raise a family.
As the world now knows, Shakespeare did indeed become a successful playwright and is considered to be the most legendary playwright of all time. Although he spent a lot of time in London (where Agnes did not want to move because she thought the London climate would be bad for Judith’s respiratory condition), in “Hamnet,” William is shown going back to his family home in Stratford-on-Avon as often as he could.
The tragedy of Hamnet dying at 11 years old, in 1596 (the movie depicts Hamnet as being a victim of the bubonic plague), is often excruciating to watch in the movie. Jupe’s wonderfully impactful acting as the adorable Hamnet is one of the reasons why Hamnet’s death hits hard. In her performance of a grieving Agnes, Buckley reaches deep inside a despairing mother’s soul and gives heart-piercing screams and tortured stares of inconsolable grief.
Mescal’s coveys a lot with emotions in his expressively haunting eyes in how William copes with the death of Hamnet. After Hamnet dies, the movie becomes even more about Agnes, as William is away and channels his grief into his work. The results of William’s grief would include the play “Hamlet,” starring an eager young actor named Hamnet (played by Noah Jupe, an older brother of Jacobi Jupe in real life), who bears a striking resemblance to the deceased Hamnet.
If there’s any shortcoming to “Hamnet,” it’s in how this 125-minute movie’s screenplay truncates or rushes through the Shakespeare family’s life in some ways. For example, except for Agnes’ brother Bartholomew, the siblings of William and Agnes are briefly seen and then are never seen again. Where are these siblings when William and Agnes are grieving over the death of their son? Don’t expect the movie to answer those questions.
Depsite these minor narrative flaws, the direction, acting, cinematography, production design, costume design and music score for “Hamnet” are all top-notch. Max Ricthter’s music score is one of the particular standouts for how it perfectly sweeps viewers up in the emotions of the scene, in addition to being very memorable music that will stay with viewers long after the movie is over. Ultimately, “Hamnet” impressively depicts the sobering realities of life’s temporary nature but also celebrates the enduring nature of genuine family love.
Focus Features will release “Hamnet” in select U.S. cinemas on November 26, 2025, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on December 5, 2025. A sneak preview of the movie was shown in U.S. cinemas on November 16, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place in New York City on March 31, 1943, the dramatic film “Blue Moon” (based on real letters written between Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart and an unidentified young woman) features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: Lorenz Hart experiences highs and lows on the night that his former songwriting partner Richard Rodgers has immediate success with the musical “Oklahoma!,” while a young woman, whom Hart is infatuated with, tells him how she feels about their relationship.
Culture Audience: “Blue Moon” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, filmmaker Richard Linklater, Broadway artists of the 20th century, and well-acted movies about artists who have to come to terms with being past their prime.
Andrew Scott and and Ethan Hawke in “Blue Moon” (Photo by Sabrina Lantos/Sony Pictures Classics)
“Blue Moon” is an exquisite, bittersweet drama about a night in the life of Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart in 1943, when his career and personal life were in a downward spiral. Ethan Hawke gives an outstanding performance in this gem of a movie. “Blue Moon” (which takes place in mostly one location) could easily have been a stage play, but there are cinematic touches and visuals that make this story a much richer experience as a movie.
Directed by Richard Linklater and written by Robert Kaplow, “Blue Moon” had its world premiere at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival, where “Blue Moon” co-star Andrew Scott (who plays Richard Rodgers in the movie) won the prize for Best Supporting Performance. “Blue Moon” subsequently screened at other film festivals in 2025, including the Telluride Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival.
“Blue Moon” takes place in New York City, on the night of March 31, 1943. The movie was actually filmed in Ireland. Although the “Blue Moon” screenplay is an original screenplay, it’s inspired by real-life letters that Hart wrote to an unidentified woman, whose first name was Elizabeth, when he was in his late 40s and she was in her early 20s. For the purposes of this review, the real people are referred to by their last names, while the characters in the movie are referred to by their first names.
Before the main story begins, “Blue Moon” opens with a flash-forward to November 1943, when an inebriated Lorenz “Larry” Hart (played by Ethan Hawke) is seen stumbling in a dark alley on a rainy night. As he lies down on the ground, a voiceover narration of a news radio report says that he died of pneumonia. It’s implied that he caught pneumonia from being out on this rainy night. (In real life, Hart died of pneumonia on November 22, 1943. He was 48.)
A caption on screen then shows what happened to Lorenz seven months earlier, on the night of March 31, 1943. It’s the opening night of the Broadway musical “Oklahoma!,” the first project from Lorenz’s estranged songwriting partner Richard “Dick” Rodgers (played by Scott) since Richard temporarily parted ways with Lorenz. Richard, who is a music composer, has a new lyricist for a songwriting partner—Oscar Hammerstein (played by Simon Delaney)—who is his collaborator on “Oklahoma!” The duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein would go on to become the most successful Broadway musical songwriting duo of all time, with hits such as “Oklahoma!,” “The Sound of Music,” The King and I,” “South Pacific” and “Carousel.”
Conversations in “Blue Moon” later reveal that Richard parted ways with Lorenz because Richard grew tired of Lorenz being unreliable and erratic, due to Lorenz’s alcoholism. Richard now wants a songwriting partner who’s able to work during regular office hours and whom he doesn’t have to worry about going missing for days at a time. The end of the partnership wasn’t completely permanent or entirely bitter—in real life, Rodgers and Hart resumed working together until Hart’s death—but this separation didn’t go as smoothly as Lorenz would like people to think it did.
Before the end of the partnership between Richard and Lorenz, they worked together for about 25 years and had Broadway musical hits such as “Pal Joey,” “The Boys from Syracuse,” “Babes in Arms” and “On Your Toes.” The Rodgers/Hart collaboration also resulted in classic songs such as “My Funny Valentine,” “Isn’t It Romantic?,” “With a Song in My Heart,” “The Lady Is a Tramp,” “Where or When,” “My Heart Stood Still,” “Manhattan,” “Bewitched,” “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was” and “Blue Moon.” As time went on, it became apparent that the former duo also separated because of artistic differences. Lorenz prefers satire that could be controversial, while Richard wants to do more earnest and mainstream musicals.
Lorenz and Richard also have different lifestyles. Lorenz is a never-married bachelor who has no children, lives with his mother, and loves to party all night, with no strict work schedule. Richard is a married father who prefers to have a consistent work schedule during the day.
Lorenz’s sexuality is not explicitly identified in the movie, just like it wasn’t in real life. However, in the movie, Lorenz essentially says that he’s not heterosexual when he openly declares that he’s attracted to beauty, regardless of gender. His short height (reportedly about 5 feet tall) and vague sexual identity no doubt affected his love life.
On the night of “Oklahoma!’s” Broadway opening, Lorenz is sitting in a balcony of the St. James Theatre with his mother Frieda Hart (played by Anne Brogan) as they watch the show. Lorenz pretends to be enjoying himself, but he’s actually miserable when he’s watching this musical. (“Oklahoma!,” based on Lynn Riggs’ 1931 play “Green Grow the Lilacs,” is a love story set in 1906 Oklahoma, before it became a U.S. state.) Before the show ends, Lorenz excuses himself and heads over to Sardi’s, a restaurant/bar that is famous for being a hangout for people who work in theatrical stage productions. The rest of the movie’s story takes place at Sardi’s.
When Lorenz arrives at Sardi’s, the place is almost empty because it’s implied that almost everyone who’s anybody in Broadway is at the St. James Theatre for the “Oklahoma!” opening-night performance. Sardi’s will eventually fill up with people arriving from the performance, including Richard and Oscar. But before that happens, Lorenz goes on rants to anyone who’ll listen about how much he thinks “Oklahoma!” is a trite and hollow sell-out of a musical.
Lorenz says about “Oklahoma!” in one of this intellectual tirades: “The show is fraudulent on every possible level.” Lorenz admits that “Oklahoma!” is going to be a smash hit, but he also says he wouldn’t want to be associated with writing such a creatively weak musical. Lorenz says haughtily, “‘Oklahoma!’ is nostalgic for a world that never existed.” Lorenz also expresses annoyance that the musical’s title has an exclamation point at the end.
At this point in the night, the only people who are actually listening to Lorenz’s pretentious and sarcastic ramblings are bartender Eddie Barcadi (played by Bobby Cannavale) and piano player Morty “Knuckles” Rifkin (played by Jonah Lees), who is an aspiring musical composer. Morty uses the stage name Morty Rafferty and wants to meet Richard. During the course of the night, Lorenz gets a rude awakening that people would rather talk to Richard than talk to Lorenz.
Congratulations bouquets and vases of flowers start arriving at Sardi’s for the “Oklahoma!” creators. Lorenz somewhat flirts with the flower delivery guy named Troy (played by Giles Surridge), but Lorenz says Troy looks like he’s named Sven, so Lorenz calls him Sven. Lorenz invites Troy/Sven to a party that Lorenz says he’s having at his home that night. Troy/Sven thanks Lorenz for the invitation but says it in a way that indicates that this delivery guy is just being polite and has no intention of going to this party, where Lorenz would probably flirt with him some more.
There’s someone else who is actually preoccupying 47-year-old Lorenz’s thoughts as his current “love interest.” Elizabeth Weiland (played by Margaret Qualley) is a 20-year-old statuesque blonde beauty, who is a sophomore at the Yale School of Fine Arts. Elizabeth is an aspiring actress whom Lorenz has been mentoring, and she is expected to meet up with Lorenz at Sardi’s later that night. Lorenz is completely infatuated with Elizabeth, but their relationship is strictly platonic. Lorenz tells bartender Eddie that his relationship with Elizabeth is “beyond sex.”
“I’m ambisexual,” Lorenz jokes to Eddie. “I can jerk off easily to either hand. But to be a writer, you have to be omnisexual. How can you give birth to the whole chorus of the world if the whole chorus of the world isn’t already deep inside you?” Lorenz also mentions that he likes to call Elizabeth “my irreplaceable Elizabeth.” Lorenz says he’s aware that Elizabeth’s mother (who might accompany Elizabeth to Sardi’s on this night) doesn’t approve and is suspicious of his relationship with Elizabeth.
A writer named E.B. White (played by Patrick Kennedy), who is at Sardi’s by himself, gets pulled into Lorenz’s conversation at the bar when Lorenz starts talking to him. Elizabeth, Richard and Oscar all eventually show up at Sardi’s. Lorenz’s attitude toward “Oklahoma!” then goes from scathing to praising, as he effusively compliments Richard and Oscar on their first musical together. It’s all a showbiz fakery game because Lorenz wants to work with Richard again to revive their musical “A Connecticut Yankee” with four or five new songs written by Lorenz and Richard.
“Blue Moon” is very effective in showing how Lorenz’s alcohol-fueled cockiness is a mask for his insecurities. These insecurities are like open wounds that get further exacerbated when he sees how his value as an artist is diminished, now that he is no longer Richard’s songwriting partner. Katherine greatly admires Lorenz. But is this adoration based on real friendship or social climbing? It’s impossible for Lorenz not to notice that Katherine eagerly reminds him that she wants Lorenz to introduce her to Richard.
To achieve the illusion that Lorenz is shorter than everyone else in the room, Hawke is often seen only from the waist up or sitting down. He also wore oversized costumes, and some of the production design is oversized. The makeup and hairstyling for the Lorenz character are fairly adequate, but the skull cap that Hawke wears in “Blue Moon” (to create the illusion of baldness) is very noticeable, especially if “Blue Moon” is seen on a big-enough screen.
Hawke’s captivating performance is really what matters more than how much he might or might not physically resemble Hart in the movie. Scott (who is British in real life) is also exemplary as Richard and has a pitch-perfect New York accent in his performance. Qualley does well in her role, but there’s not too much depth to the character of Katherine. Katherine’s biggest scene in the movie is when she tells Lorenz a long-winded story about being rejected by a Yale student she has a crush on named Cooper, who cut off contact with Katherine after she had a one-night stand with him. It’s in this scene that Katherine clearly states what type of relationship she wants with Lorenz.
“Blue Moon” has the benefit of a very talented cast, a fantastic screenplay and skillful direction. The movie’s heart and soul of “Blue Moon” can be found in Hawke’s performance. People who have no interest in 1940s American showbiz might have trouble connecting to this movie. The language and acting styles in “Blue Moon” are so indicative of the times, it’s like being transported back to the era in which the movie takes place. You don’t have to be a Broadway musical enthusiast to be impressed with “Blue Moon,” which is essentially about how self-destructive tendencies and showbiz fickleness can turn a celebrated star into a fading has-been.
Sony Pictures Classics released “Blue Moon” in select U.S. cinemas on October 17, 2025, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on October 24, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place in New Jersey, the comedy/drama film “Bugonia” (based on the film “Save the Green Planet!”) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans, Asians and Latin people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: Two cousins, who are conspiracy theorists, kidnap a famous and powerful CEO of a medical company because they think she’s an outer-space alien who plans to destroy Earth.
Culture Audience: “Bugonia” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos, and oddball movies that have serious messages cloaked in dark comedy.
Stavros Halkias in “Bugonia” (Photo by Atsushi Nishijima/Focus Features)
“Bugonia” is more than a dark comedy about conspiracy theorists kidnapping a high-powered CEO and hiding her in a house. It’s also a sly and subversive warning about an emergency that’s in plain sight but is often ignored. “Bugonia” can get a bit repetitive with the wacky conflict scenes between the kidnappers and the CEO, but viewers who are patient enough watch the entire movie won’t be fully prepared for the impactful way that this movie ends.
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and written by Will Tracy, “Bugonia” is based on the 2003 South Korean movie “Save the Green Planet!,” written and directed by Jang Joon-hwan. “Bugonia” had its world premiere at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival and its North American premiere at the 2025 Telluride Film Festival. The movie’s story takes place in New Jersey, but “Bugonia” was actually filmed in London, Greece and Atlanta.
The conspiracy theorists/kidnappers are domineering Teddy Gatz (played by Jesse Plemons) and passive Don (played by Aidan Delbis), two ne’er-do-wells who kidnap Michelle Fuller (played by Emma Stone), the CEO of Auxolith Medical, a company worth billions. Teddy works for Auxolith as a package processer who scans delivery packages. Teddy (who is the bossy leader of the duo) and Don (who is seems to have autism and learning disabilities) believe that Michelle is really an outer-space alien who is planning to destroy Earth.
Michelle is famous enough to be on the cover of magazines such as Time and Fortune. She has a brittle personality that she often masks by being professionally cordial when she has to be. Michelle is 45 years old, but she looks like she’s in her 30s. The reason why she looks much younger than 45 is explained in the movie. In the beginning of “Bugonia,” Michelle is seen filming a public-relations video in response to a recent Auxolith scandal, which is also revealed in the movie.
Most of “Bugonia” shows what happens when Teddy and Don keep Michelle captive in Teddy’s dilapidated house that is in an isolated rural area. It’s a battle of wits that also involves physical fights and torture. One of the first things that Teddy and Don do to Michelle is shave off all the hair on her head and cover her body in antihistamine cream.
Michelle isn’t the only one subjected to degrading and painful acts. Near the beginning of the movie, Teddy orders Don to ingest a toxin that will do a chemical castration of Don’s genitals because Teddy says that Don can no longer be allowed to procreate. Teddy has also ingested this castration chemical.
The disappearance of Michelle makes big news. A local police officer named Casey Boyd (played by Stavros Halkias) investigates the disappearance. Viewers will have to suspend disbelief that this type of cop is the only law-enforcement official in the movie who’s seen doing any real investigating for such a high-profile case. Casey has a connection to Teddy because Casey used to be Teddy’s babysitter when Teddy was a child.
Alicia Silverstone has a supporting role in “Bugonia” as Sandy Gatz, Teddy’s ailing mother, who is in a coma at a hospice. Sandy is seen in a few dream-like flashback scenes that show a brief glimpse of what Sandy was like before she was in a coma. The reason why she’s in a coma is mentioned in the movie.
“Bugonia” (which has compelling performances from Plemons and Stone) keeps viewers guessing about how much truth could be in the seemingly bizarre theories that Teddy and Don are convinced are real. The movie pokes fun at society’s tendency to be paranoid about “outside enemies,” when much of the harm and danger can come from within that society. “Bugonia” has a twisted and unconventional way of making the statement that it does at the end of the movie, but there’s no ambiguity about what that powerful message is saying.
Focus Features will release “Bugonia” in select U.S. cinemas on October 24, 2025, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on October 31, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on November 25, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place on New York’s Long Island, the comedy/drama film “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans and Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A therapist begins to mentally unravel while caring for her sick child, and several other stressful things happen to her.
Culture Audience: “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and dramas that take a surrealistic and dark comedy look at motherhood and caregiving.
A$AP Rocky and Rose Byrne in “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” (Photo by Logan White/A24)
“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” delves deep into the unraveling psyche of a sick child’s caregiver mother, who cracks under the pressure of feeling overwhelmed and underappreciated. Rose Byrne’s performance is a master class in anxious empathy and tragicomedy. The movie has surrealistic and absurd elements but remains realistic when making viewers think about who’s looking after the well-being of caregivers.
Written and directed by Mary Bronstein, “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” had it world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. It has since made the rounds at other film festivals in 2025, including Berlin International Film Festival (where Byrne won the prize for Best Lead Performance), the Telluride Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” takes place on New York’s Long Island, where the movie was filmed on location.
“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” begins by showing frazzled mother Linda (played by Byrne) in a doctor’s meeting with Linda’s only child: a daughter named Phoebe (played by Delaney Quinn), who’s about 7 or 8 years old. Phoebe’s face is not shown in the movie until a pivotal point in the story.
This meeting is to discuss any progress in Phoebe’s medical condition, but Phoebe has told the doctor that she’s worried about her mother being “stretchable” like “putty.” Phoebe also tells the doctor that her mother is “sad.” Linda tries to appear calm and tells the doctor that’s she’s not “stretchable” and is definitely not “sad.” Linda wants to give the impression that she’s got everything under control.
“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” doesn’t reveal right away why Phoebe is under medical care. However, it’s shown through flashbacks, conversations and other snippets of information that Phoebe has a mental illness that has made her afraid to eat food. Therefore, Phoebe has to be fed through a feeding tube that is inserted into her stomach, with the feeding usually done at night when she’s asleep. Phoebe was hospitalized for an unnamed period of time, but she is now getting outpatient care. The family has a feeding tube machine in their rented apartment.
Phoebe also has other anxieties. She is terrified of dying and doesn’t like to stay away from Linda for too long. Phoebe goes to school during the day, but it’s hard for her to make friends. Linda’s husband Charles (played by Christian Slater) is away for eight weeks because of his job in the U.S. military. Linda, who works as a psychotherapist in the Long Island hamlet of Montauk, doesn’t have any help in taking care of Phoebe when Charles is away.
Linda thinks Phoebe is well enough to no longer need the feeding tube. However, Linda is told by the hospital’s medical professional that the feeding tube can’t be removed until Phoebe reaches a minimum weight that Phoebe has not yet reached. If Phoebe doesn’t reach this weight by a specific deadline, Linda could be considered an irresponsible caregiver, and the hospital could decline the health insurance coverage for Phoebe.
Within the first 10 minutes of the movie, something happens that sets off a chain of events leading to one stress after another for Linda. Water suddenly gushes out from a bedroom ceiling in the family’s apartment, leaving a large hole in the ceiling and significant water damage in the room and other rooms in the apartment. When Linda looks up at the hole, she sees what can only be described as firefly-type lighting in an abyss-like galaxy. It’s the first indication that Linda might be losing some grip on reality.
Linda’s inattentive landlord (played by Manu Narayan) is responsible for repairing the damage. In the meantime, Linda decides to temporarily live in a motel with Phoebe while still maintaining a full-time work schedule. Being in this new and uncomfortable environment is a catalyst for Linda taking a very difficult and emotionally painful look at the toll it takes on her to try to be a “supermom.”
During this nerve-racking time in Linda’s life, the medical professionals who are supposed to help Linda are cold and clinical in their interactions with Linda. Her unnamed therapist (played by Conan O’Brien), who works on the same building floor as Linda, barely tolerates her and doesn’t seem to like her at all. Phoebe’s physician Dr. Spring (played by Bronstein) only talks to Linda about Phoebe, in terms of the weight that Phoebe is supposed to have and trying to get Linda to set their next appointment.
Linda finds some emotional comfort with an unexpected person: James, nicknamed Jamie (played by A$AP Rocky), a stoner maintenance employee at the motel. James is kind to Linda, while his front-desk co-worker Melanie (played by Amy Judd Lieberman) is rude. The movie also shows Linda in therapy sessions with clients Stephen (played by Daniel Zolghadri), Kate (played by Ella Beatty), Eva (played by Helen Hong) and Caroline (played by Danielle Macdonald).
Caroline, who is the mother of a baby boy named Riley, is extremely paranoid about leaving Riley with anyone who isn’t Caroline. Caroline brings Riley to the therapy sessions, which make Linda feel guilty because while Caroline appears to be a doting and overprotective mother, Linda is becoming an increasingly impatient and irritable mother. When Phoebe is asleep, Linda often leaves the motel room so she can have time for herself.
“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” shows how a mental breakdown can sneak up on someone if that person isn’t getting the proper mental health care. Stresses can accumulate like a dripping water faucet can cause water to accumulate until there’s an overflow that can cause damage. And sometimes, all it takes is one bad day for someone who go into a mental health freefall.
“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” isn’t a completely depressing movie. The story shows some comedic moments (usually those involving Linda and James), especially in how Linda seeks to relieve some of her stress through alcohol, marijuana and other drugs. A scene in the movie reveals that even if Charles had been home during this time, he would still expect Linda to do the vast majority of the caregiving while she still works full-time.
Linda can be petulant, flaky, and self-absorbed, but she’s also well-intentioned and usually tries her best to be a good parent. In other words, she’s thoroughly human and realistically flawed. And considering the circumstances she’s under, no one should be expected to be perfect.
However, as much as society expects caregivers (especially female caregivers) to be expert multi-taskers, Linda puts a lot of this pressure on herself too. One of the best scenes in the movie is when Linda attends a caregiver support group led by Dr. Spring and gives an outspoken rant that goes against what Dr. Spring is saying to counsel the support group. It’s in this scene where Linda shows a lot of self-loathing for not meeting her own expectations of who she wants to be as a caregiver and as a mother.
Although all the cast members do well in their roles, Byrne gives the movie its emotionally authentic core and foundation—even when the story and direction tend to wander into episodic scenes that resemble a sitcom. A few of the subplots seem thrown into the story to stretch the movie’s runtime. And the movie’s forays into surrealism sometimes look “try hard” awkward and might alienate some viewers.
Some viewers might also have issues with how Linda (and the movie, by extension) can take for granted that Linda is privileged, compared to other people with the same problems. However, not every movie has to be about people experiencing poverty or oppression. “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” is an impactful look at how mental distress doesn’t discriminate, being a “supermom” is near-impossible standard, and caregivers need people looking after them too.
A24 will release “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” in select U.S. cinemas on October 10, 2025, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on October 24, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on November 18, 2025.
