Kevin Jones

The Secret Agent ★★★½ The Secret Agent is a time machine transporting viewers to 1977 Brazil. The sights, sounds, and feeling, all come to life in director Kleber Mendonça Filho’s sprawling neo-noir political thriller. …

#TheSecretAgent really impressed me. Wagner Moura is terrific. Thematically ambitious and impressive in both scope and scale, Kleber Mendonça Filho's film never out-reaches his grasp. Read my full review for @cineccentric.bsky.social: #FilmSky

Hamnet ★★★½ Part of the artistic achievement of Chloé Zhao’s absorbing account of genius and the personal grammar of grief is not only to build a strongly fictionalized protagonist who can hold up agains…

#ChloéZhao 's #Hamnet is released today on home media. Read why we recommend the film below:

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The Plague ★★★½ Teenage boys are horrifying. That much is clear from The Plague and its opening scene. A swimming pool is filmed from below the water with the dark blue water and eerie lighting contributing to a sense of unease. This is heightened by droning synth music as the boys dive into the pool, disturbing the calm water. As the camera slowly approaches one of the boy’s bodies from underwater as if he were prey, we’ve just about experienced every trick in the horror playbook in…

Charlie Polinger uses horror filmmaking techniques to tell a memorable coming-of-age story set at a boys-only water polo summer camp. Read Alex Sitaras' review of The Plague below:

Trial of Hein ★★½ There is a strange stage-like quality to Kai Stänicke's first feature Trial of Hein, premiering in the 76th Berlinale’s Perspectives section reserved for cinematic debuts, one that is so uniform it suggests the historical drama might be based on a theater play. While the allegorical tale of young Hein (Paul Boche) returning after years on the mainland to his remote home village on a tiny island, where nobody seems to recognize him, has no direct source material, strangeness lies at its core.

Kai Stänicke's Trial of Hein is a homecoming story of a man returning to his remote village where nobody seems to recognize him. Read Lida Bach's Berlinale 2026 review of Trial of Hein below:

Berlinale 2026: At the Sea, Queen at Sea, Nina Roza, The Loneliest Man in Town There were two movies in the 2026 Berlinale Competition lineup with oddly similar titles. As fate would have it, one of them was among the best in the section, and one of them was the absolute wors…

#ICYMI: Sean Erickson shares his thoughts on several Competition titles from #Berlinale2026. Read below:

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Not a Hero ★★½ After Village Rockstars in 2017 and the following year's Bulbul Can Sing, Rima Das returns to Berlinale’s Generation section—dedicated to films for children and teenagers—with another tender observation of the bonds and ruptures of growing up. The Indian director-writer's newest story seems especially close to her heart, as many of its lively vignettes, reaching from the playful to the softly painful, sprung from watching her nephew.

Rima Das' Not a Hero tells a youth- and family-driven story that leans on whimsy. Read Lida Bach's 2026 Berlin International Film Festival review of Not a Hero below:

Lali ★★½ Making its own little bit of cinematic history as the first fully Pakistani production to be selected for Berlinale’s Panorama section, Sarmad Sultan Khoosat's supernatural satire combines black comedy, melodrama, and psychological horror into a visually arresting, if occasionally opaque, cultural critique. Set in the administrative capital Sahiwal, the scenario opens at a Punjabi wedding where sinister rumors undermine the exuberance.

Sarmad Sultan Khoosat's Lali is a genre hybrid of black comedy, melodrama, and psychological horror that acts as Punjabi cultural critique. Read Lida Bach's 2026 Berlin International Film Festival review of Lali below:

Berlinale 2026: Yellow Letters, In a Whisper, Rose Let’s catch up with the Competition, shall we? When I wrote about Rosebush Pruning I mentioned that a lot of the festival’s early films seemed to be playing it a little safe. But that’s not to say …

#ICYMI: Sean Erickson shares his thoughts on a selection of the Main Competition titles from #Berlinale2026. Read below:

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The River Train ★★★ Dream, drama, and documentary intertwine in Lorenzo Ferro and Lucas A. Vignale's ambitious, though often arcane coming-of-age tale, premiering at the 76th Berlinale’s Perspectives section. The festival’s platform for debut features with an unusual or innovative style becomes a perfect showcase for the deceptively straightforward premise, connecting a set of suggestive scenarios that waver between symbolism and surrealism. Magritte and de Chirico seem among the many stylistic inspirations for the somnambulist story of 9-year-old Milo (

Lorenzo Ferro & Lucas A. Vignale's The River Train is an imaginative coming-of-age story set in Buenos Aires. Read Lida Bach's Berlinale 2026 review of the film below:

Chronicles from the Siege ★★★½ Life continues in spite of death in Abdallah Al-Khatib's visceral feature debut that turns to moments of absurdist humor and surreal horror to convey the daily terror of existence under permanent occupation. After years of acclaimed documentary work, the Palestinian-Syrian director crafts an intense war ensemble that makes the fragmented realities and constant fight of the oppressed palpable with minimal means and impressive invention.

Abdallah Al-Khatib's Chronicles from the Siege tells a story of survival in an unnamed city that has been ravaged by war. Read Lida Bach's Berlinale 2026 review of the film below:

How to Make a Killing ★★★ In his directorial debut Emily the Criminal, director John Patton Ford offered a cynical and dark noir updated for the modern day. In his sophomore feature, How to Make a Killing, he again tackles …

#ICYMI: @kevinjones1.bsky.social shares his thoughts on #JohnPattonFord 's sophomore film #HowtoMakeaKilling. Read below:

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Wuthering Heights ★½ For her third feature film, oft-discussed director Emerald Fennell tackles Emily Brontë’s classic novel Wuthering Heights. As has been done in past adaptations of the novel, it focuses entirely on …

#ICYMI: @kevinjones1.bsky.social reviews #EmeraldFennell 's #WutheringHeights. Read his review of the film below:

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The Secret Agent movie poster

#NowWatching in theaters #TheSecretAgent #FilmSky

Crime 101 ★★★ Crime 101 is one for lovers of classic crime movies. An adaptation of Don Winslow’s novel of the same name, director Bart Layton’s film plays like an homage to these films. The era of cool, classic…

#ICYMI: @kevinjones1.bsky.social reviews #BartLayton 's #Crime101. Read his thoughts on the film below:

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Berlinale 2026: A Prayer for the Dying, The Blood Countess, Sleep No More Within the sprawling festival program, the Berlinale Special section isn’t an easy one to pin down. Over the years it’s maintained its status as a high-profile part of the lineup, often showcasing …

#ICYMI: Sean Erickson shares his thoughts on a few films from the #Berlinale2026 Special section. Read below:

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La grazia ★★★ La grazia is a political drama of a bygone era (a less jaded one). It is set in the last months of President Mariano De Santis’ (Toni Servillo) term. This weighs on De Santis as his decisions now w…

#ICYMI: Alex Sitaras reviews #PaoloSorrentino 's latest film #Lagrazia. Read his review of the film below:

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A Private Life ★★½ Director Rebecca Zlotowski’s A Private Life is a fun and mostly light murder mystery comedy centered on psychiatrist Dr. Lilian Steiner (Jodie Foster). Her patient Paula (Virginie Efira) recently d…

#ICYMI: @kevinjones1.bsky.social reviews #RebeccaZlotowski 's #APrivateLife starring #JodieFoster. Read his thoughts on the film below:

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Exploring Jacob’s Ladder and The Life of Chuck as Cinematic Maps of Dying Exploring horror, film, and pop culture, all while celebrating the creators, history, and artistry that keep the genre alive.

ICYMI: Recently, I happened to watch both JACOB’S LADDER & THE LIFE OF CHUCK around the same time & how they both depicted the process of dying cinematically hit me so hard that I decided to write about them. Available to ALL subscribers: from-the-desk-of-the-horror-chick.ghost.io/exploring-ja...

Berlinale 2026: Previewing the Competition Once again, Berlin’s cinematic high holidays are upon us, with the 76th edition of the Berlinale film festival set to begin on February 12th, with the opening night selection of Shahrbanoo Sadat’s …

#ICYMI: Sean Erickson is providing coverage of #Berlinale2026. Read his preview of the festival below:

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Midwinter Break movie poster

#NowWatching in theaters #MidwinterBreak #FilmSky

Berlinale 2026: Everybody Digs Bill Evans, Nightborn, Rosebush Pruning If you read my pre-festival preview of the Competition titles for this year's Berlinale, you know I had some high hopes for Everybody Digs Bill Evans, a biopic of the legendary jazz pianist, directed by Grant Gee, who’s making his narrative feature debut after stellar docs on Radiohead and Joy Division. While some have been lukewarm on the film, I pretty much adored it.

Our coverage of the 2026 Berlin International Film Festival continues with Sean Erickson's thoughts on three of the Main Competition titles. Read below:

The Incomer ★★ Last Sundance, it was Tom Basden and Carey Mulligan who met a quirky recluse on a fictional speck of land somewhere on the British coast in James Griffiths’ bittersweet The Ballad of Wallis Island.…

#ICYMI: Lida Bach reviews #LouisPaxton 's #TheIncomer. Read her thoughts on the #Sundance2026 title below:

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Give Me the Ball! (documentary) ★★★ Last year it was pioneering astronaut Sally Ride, the first US woman and third woman in the world to fly to space, who received a worthy tribute at Sundance’s prestigious Premieres section with Cri…

#ICYMI: Lida Bach reviews #LizGarbus & #ElizabethWolff 's #GiveMetheBall!. Read Lida's thoughts on the #BillieJeanKing documentary below:

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The Musical ★ Among the usually above-par selection of Sundance titles, films like Giselle Bonilla’s crude debut feel as if the program coordinators were bound by some paradoxical impulse to also include b…

#ICYMI: Lida Bach reviews #GiselleBonilla 's #TheMusical. Read her thoughts on the #Sundance2026 film below:

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La grazia ★★★ La grazia is a political drama of a bygone era (a less jaded one). It is set in the last months of President Mariano De Santis’ (Toni Servillo) term. This weighs on De Santis as his decisions now will be his final acts as president. In his purview is a bill on euthanasia and decisions on whether to pardon two individuals.

La grazia ★★★

La grazia is a political drama of a bygone era (a less jaded one). It is set in the last months of President Mariano De Santis’ (Toni Servillo) term. This weighs on De Santis as his decisions now will be his final acts as president. In his purview is a bill on euthanasia and…

Cloud ★★★½ No one comes out clean in our post-capitalist world. You’re either exploited, or you’re an exploiter. At least that’s what it looks like in Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cloud, which functions as an ice-cold …

#KiyoshiKurosawa 's #CloudMovie is now available on Blu-ray. Read why we recommend the film below:

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Berlinale 2026: Yellow Letters, In a Whisper, Rose Let’s catch up with the Competition, shall we? When I wrote about Rosebush Pruning I mentioned that a lot of the festival’s early films seemed to be playing it a little safe. But that’s not to say they weren’t good movies. Three of the earliest Competition screenings were Yellow Letters, In a Whisper, and Rose – all of which are well-made and emotionally affecting films that comment on relevant issues in contemporary society.

Sean Erickson writes about the Main Competition films Yellow Letters, In a Whisper, and Rose in his latest 2026 Berlinale dispatch. Read below:

How to Make a Killing ★★★ In his directorial debut Emily the Criminal, director John Patton Ford offered a cynical and dark noir updated for the modern day. In his sophomore feature, How to Make a Killing, he again tackles …

And my latest is for #HowtoMakeAKilling, which comes out today. As with John Patton Ford's debut #EmilytheCriminal, I loved the noir spin. Qualley was born to play a femme fatale & nails the role. Powell gets to flash his movie star charisma. Slow start, but really enjoyed the 2nd half. #FilmSky

Wuthering Heights ★½ For her third feature film, oft-discussed director Emerald Fennell tackles Emily Brontë’s classic novel Wuthering Heights. As has been done in past adaptations of the novel, it focuses entirely on …

As for #WutheringHeights, I was less impressed. I loved the novel, but was intrigued to see how Emerald Fennell would put her spin on it. Unfortunately, I found it rather empty emotionally despite its considerable visual splendor. Robbie and Elordi just never clicked for me. #FilmSky

Crime 101 ★★★ Crime 101 is one for lovers of classic crime movies. An adaptation of Don Winslow’s novel of the same name, director Bart Layton’s film plays like an homage to these films. The era of cool, classic…

Next, I reviewed Bart Layton's new film #Crime101. This was right up my alley. A Michael Mann-inspired LA crime flick centered on a classic cops-and-robbers dynamic? Yes please. And Layton does it wonderfully, despite being a bit too long in the end. #FilmSky