Film Review

Careful What You Wish For

Chet Kozlowski — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 15:18:08 +0000

Careful What You Wish For Chet Kozlowski June 24, 2026 - 11:18

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How far will you go for love? That’s the question posed to the characters of the new film Skin of Youth.

Set in Saigon, Skin of Youth centers on Nam and his transgender love, San. They are embroiled in a torrid romance, and both make a living with their bodies: Nam is a scrappy boxer, San is a bejeweled dancer in a drag cabaret show. San dreams of a sex change and scopes out the men who frequent her club. One, Mr. Vuong, offers to finance her operation (and throw in enough for a vacation besides), in exchange for, well, whatever the rich guy wants. Nam is crushed by the fact that he can’t help but love himself. He marries San in a fanciful ceremony. “Grandma,” he exclaims, “I have a wife!”

Nam’s grandma provides traditionalism: all she wants from Nam’s marriage is grandbabies, something San can’t biologically provide her. While San does Mr. Vuong’s bidding, Nam takes up with a prostitute, intending to make her pregnant. Mimi is barely an adult herself, and when San sees her protruding belly she resents her, then takes her in, and establishes a unique family.

Mr. Vuong has many uses for San. He is a sadist and abuses her. Which propels Nam: he’ll finance her surgery himself by abandoning “legitimate” boxing—where he is headstrong and resents rules—and getting into the bone-crushing “dog cage” circuit, where the stakes are higher, and he’s beaten to a pulp nightly.

If the subject is tawdry, the production is anything but. Writer/director Ash Mayfair immerses us in Nam and San’s lurid world, all neon and sweaty shadows. With elegant staging and jackrabbit editing, she crosscuts between Nam’s bloody carnage and San’s glitzy performances. For the most part, Skin of Youth is suspenseful, solid filmmaking. Ms. Mayfair spares us nothing, and the world she depicts is complex. The fights are blistering, while some of the most effective scenes simply show the characters moving around their humdrum life of Saigon poverty. Ms. Mayfair has a good eye for the telling detail and endears us to her characters within minutes. The sex scenes are frank and essential.

The performances are all excellent. Trân Quân as San has a doe-faced radiance, by turns seductive and tragic. She is heartbreaking as she yearns for and plans her surgery. Nam, a wide-eyed, rooster-haired Võ Diên Gia Huy, is earnest as he scoots through crowded alleys and markets on his motorcycle, barely avoiding the police. Phan Thi Kim Ngân plays Mimi with an endearing childlike innocence. And Hajime Onoue is properly sinister as Mr. Vuong.

On the downside: perky pop music takes the sting out of some hard-hitting scenes (was that a decision of its Western distributors? If so, it’s misguided). As the story unfolds and we wonder how Nam, San, and Mimi’s fates will be resolved, we are plunged into a courtroom drama. It’s a narrative copout. The climax is generic when it should be as powerful as all that comes before.

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Skin of Youth. Directed by Ash Mayfair. 2026. Vietnamese with English subtitles. Runtime 122 minutes.

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Straw Dog Patriots

Chet Kozlowski — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 15:18:12 +0000

Straw Dog Patriots Chet Kozlowski June 23, 2026 - 11:18

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docu-drama

Not nearly as expansive as its title suggests (A whole year? Of the Revolutionary War?), the new film 1780 is essentially a chamber piece, or in this case a log cabin piece. Small cast, few settings. One casting surprise.

Abner, a wounded freedom fighter takes refuge in the humble abode of Honore, a reclusive trapper who simply wants peace for himself and his young son Miles. The trapper isn’t so simple, it turns out. We soon learn that he is wilier than he looks. He is not above misdirecting the three British soldiers pursuing Abner. He calls up memories of his own fighting past, causing him to Rambo out, creating a Straw Dogs-style standoff. Surrounded and trapped in the cabin, the rebels hold firm against authoritarian forces, knowing their resistance may be futile.

Appropriately filmed in Pennsylvania, 1780 is mostly guys talking until the muskets come out. The battle action, so much promised in the opening credits, is limited except for some bursts of brutality and blood-spurting violence.

Since it’s dialogue-heavy, you’d expect writer Steffan Ralph Delpiano’s script to provide the thrills. In the name of “authenticity,” he tries too hard, making the dialogue stiff and self-conscious. “I see you’re silent now. Mere seconds ago, you had tongue enough for two sets of teeth.” Add to that an oddly airless sound mix, with hardly any ambient seasoning. The actor’s voices, however, crackle with post-sync precision.

The actors give it their all. They are mostly from TV and include PJ Marshall (the trapper Honore) from Your Friends and Neighbors and Mindhunter, Vince Eisensen (Abner the refugee) from New Amsterdam, and R. Keith Harris (the leader of the British soldiers) from The Walking Dead. DJ Qualls, a ubiquitous character actor in the early 2000s, makes a brief appearance. Conor Kowalski and John Potvin, also portraying Brits, have mostly appeared in shorts. Young Kamilo Alonzo is particularly fine as the trapper’s son Miles. They all do an impressive, professional job.

On the plus side, 1780 looks good. Cinematographer Tiago Mesquita’s colors are bright and highly processed (in what passes for “beautiful” in the style of pharmaceutical commercials). Director Dustin Fairbanks keeps his camera moving, circling characters. He stays in close, not revealing the breadth of the room or the density of the woods. His aspect ratio is wide and narrow, with no visible top or bottom, probably to mask a dearth of set dressing. Ultimately, this adds to the claustrophobic effect that provides the suspense, which is 1780’s strongest point. But the blocking and editing sometimes make it difficult to tell where the musket balls are coming from and how they hit their targets.

The casting surprise here is Kevin Spacey, whose fortunes have limited available movie roles. It’s good to see him, and he doesn’t disappoint. He brings his characteristic bravado to the role of Thomas, the town ne’er-do-well, playing both sides depending on who’ll pay him. With his scraggly hair and scruffy clothes, Thomas is more Foghorn Leghorn than Frank Underwood, and Mr. Spacey looks like he’s enjoying himself. Birds gotta fly, actors gotta act.

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1780. Directed by Dustin Fairbanks. 2025. In theaters. Runtime 83 minutes.

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Who’s Your Daddy?

Chet Kozlowski — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 19:48:56 +0000

Who’s Your Daddy? Chet Kozlowski June 16, 2026 - 15:48

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Palestine, 1928: lonely widower Moshe hires a woman, Yehudit, from a neighboring kibbutz to help raise his two children and work his farm. She arrives, surly and strong-willed, with few possessions and insists on sleeping in the stable, not the house. She is deaf in one ear and screams in the night.

Men are instantly smitten: Moshe (who considers her wife potential), the shrewd shopkeeper Globerman, and Jacob, a quiet intellectual who forsakes his marriage to the most beautiful woman in the town. The men circle her. Moshe teaches her the ways of the farm. Yaakov releases a cageful of wild canaries as a show of passion. Yehudit accepts them on her own terms, beds each, and soon is pregnant. She doesn’t care about paternity and isn’t about to marry anybody. Her child will have three fathers.

This story is the core of the film For the Love of a Woman. It has the contours of a folktale with hints of magical realism.

The film adds another flourish. For the Love of a Woman opens in the year 1978, focusing on Esther, a writer and a woman who exemplifies the era’s feminism and free love. Esther is headstrong and independent, very much her own woman. Upon her mother’s death, she receives a letter from her mother and a mission: that she travels to Israel, armed only with an old photo of her as a child with her father, which is torn to omit a mysterious third person.

For the Love of a Woman toggles back and forth between 1928 and 1978. Esther arrives and enlists the aid of a quiet academic, Zayde, who takes her around and, in the process, tells Yehudit’s story as a parable.

The film, guided by Guido Chiesa’s intelligent direction, is enthralling and well-acted. Mili Avital is elegant and sexy as the modern woman Esther. She has an air of ruined aristocracy about her. She and Zayde (Ori Pfeffer) take on a friendship that grows convincingly as Esther gets closer to her mother’s truth. Ana Ularu exudes arch, formidable beauty as Yehudit; one can see how Alabn Ukaj (Moshe), Marc Rissmann (Yaakov), and Serhii Kysil (Globerman) would drop everything to be with her. Fine cinematography by Emanuele Pasquet uses a limited color palette for 1978 that complements the sunburnt authenticity of the 1928 scenes.

For the Love of a Woman is expertly made, so it’s surprising that some sequences, especially those set in 1978, appear disjointed. Esther doesn’t feature as a character at all in the source novel “The Loves of Judith” by Meir Shalev. The filmmakers have added her, and one wonders why: did they decide the 1928 tale (1930s in the book) was too quaint, or might not hold the interest of a modern audience? Regardless, the framing device is underdeveloped and stitched together in editing. Mr. Chiesa and his co-screenwriter Nicoletta Micheli bring the stories together in the climax and their solution, while clever, comes off as contrived and a little, well, creepy.

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For the Love of a Woman. Directed by Guido Chiesa. 2025. From Panorama Films. An Italian production in English and subtitled Hebrew. In theaters. Runtime 117 minutes.

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Man Overboard

Chet Kozlowski — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 14:16:01 +0000

Man Overboard Chet Kozlowski June 15, 2026 - 10:16

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Rose of Nevada is the sort of movie you’ll be tempted to begin again as soon as you finish. The film is a puzzle, and the clues are all upfront.

A decrepit fishing boat thought lost suddenly appears in the harbor of a small fishing village. It’s the Rose of Nevada, and its gears and machinery are rusted with age. Mike, the town steward, boards it and finds it’s abandoned. The cabin shows no signs of life except for a weathered red cap and a photo of a town woman, Tina.

Tina lives in a dour house with her daughter. She and Mike have a bond — undisclosed to the audience — that leads them to agree that the Rose of Nevada must go back out to sea. A crew is enlisted: Nick Dyer, a townie with a mournful expression and a young family, and Liam, an unruly roustabout. The men are teamed with Murgey, the gruff captain, thinking they’ve signed on for a fishing expedition. Actually, it’s a voyage into destiny.

Nick returns to find himself a man out of time: the newspaper is dated 30 years in the past. Folks who were ancient when he left are now middle-aged. They call him by another name. Liam has taken up with Tina. Everyone acts out of character. Who are these people? Who, for that matter, is Nick himself? An elderly neighbor excuses what we at first read as his wife’s dementia: “She gets the past and present mixed up.” She’s not the only one.

The film is the confident work of director Mark Jenkin, who wrote the screenplay based on an original story with Mary Woodvine. Visually, Mr. Jenkin lays out a mosaic of mysteries. The camera lingers on motor parts rusted as red as blood, mold the green of idyllic fields, a curtain being drawn closed, rain-slicked stones, a towel drying a woman’s wet hair. These montages are not mere verisimilitude. The textures and tones are emotional cues. Mr. Jenkin also composed the haunting sound design and score.

Rose of Nevada looks like an 8mm home movie. The editing is clunky. The screen shape is square, not the horizontal aspect ratio of most current films. A flare shows up on the edge of the frame, as if the film were exposed to light. This may seem amateurish, but its naivete pays off. Flourishes like an earthbound character locking eyes with one in the heavens, and showing another repeatedly in shadow, then illuminated by an open door, suggest a distinct cinematic vision. This DIY style is an extension of the “found footage” genre. It creates an artificial nostalgia and the sense that all the lives have been witnessed and are preordained, adding to the eeriness.

As Nick, George Mackay (seen in 1917) grounds the film. His sharp features and knotted brow reflect our own confusion. Rosalind Eleazar simmers in a range of emotions as Tina and has been so good in Apple TV’s Slow Horses. Callum Turner (in The Boys in the Boat and the Fantastic Beasts series) exudes a working-class coarseness as Liam. Yana Emily Penrose as Tina’s grown-up daughter and Mae Voogd as Nick’s wife round out the cast nicely. They’re a compendium of fine young acting talent that you’ll see much more of in the future.

Once you’ve finished Rose of Nevada, begin again. The clues are all there. They’re cryptic, but patience pays off: revisiting them adds poignancy to an already intriguing trip.

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Rose of Nevada. Directed by Mark Jenkin. 2025. United Kingdom. Runtime 114 minutes.

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The Folly of Youth

Jay Reisberg — Sat, 23 May 2026 00:15:38 +0000

The Folly of Youth Jay Reisberg May 22, 2026 - 20:15

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TV series

Playing Around (TV Mini Series, Season 1, 2026)

Original Spanish Title: “Soy Germán Andrés Yanex (G.A.Y)”

Directed by James Camargo De Alba

Screenwriters: James Camargo De Alba and Deimer Vergara Torres

Cinephobia Releasing, streaming on Amazon Prime and Vimeo

Season one of the Spanish-language Playing Around is the most thoroughly enchanting miniseries to come my way, at once outrageously hilarious and deeply poignant. There is so very much to like about Playing Around, particularly the extraordinary flair and sense of whimsy which James Camargo De Alba brings to the entire production. In Colombia, the twenty-nine-year-old protagonist, Germán (portrayed by the series creator James Camergo De Alba), is desperately seeking a lasting relationship before he hits thirty. He goes about it the modern way: using meet-up sites, with mixed results. He appears to be hitting it off with various successive candidates, each of which must be “the one”, only to find they lack the ability or desire to go the distance.

The series opens with Germán announcing to his mother, Gloria (played to perfection by Obeida Benavides), that he is gay. She is taken aback but really just wants her son to be happy. Gloria is the kind of wise and compassionate Mother everyone should have, and she shares her wisdom and vulnerabilities in a decidedly endearing manner. Prior to his straightforward declaration, he muses in fantasy sequences about how to broach the topic with her: he imagines being whisked down a hospital corridor on a gurney after a bloody accident. Might this be the best time to tell her? This first season series is full of these cinematic asides, always colorfully rendered, and I began looking forward to them. Throughout Playing Around, Germán also looks straight into the camera, punctuating the action with his face expressing his personal feelings about what’s going on. [These devices reminded me of Federico Fellini's use of fantasy in 8 ½, when the character Guido displays his vision of how he will respond to being hounded.] Gloria inquires about Germán's past interactions, and we are presented with a selection of his encounters. Early on, Angel is introduced: a fellow university student who has missed his bus, and Germán tells Mom he’s staying the night. We’ll be seeing a great deal more of Angel as the series proceeds. Germán certainly is making the effort. Later, Germán meets Daniel and Diego, who invite him to join them in a “thruple.” Both Daniel and Diego secretly go off alone with Germán, which ends with Diego attempting to strangle him in a violent, jealous rage. So much for the “thruple”! Germán is the kind of well-mannered young man who expects those with whom he engages to be as sincere and authentic as himself — and therefore experiences a great deal of letdown. But he still proceeds with his quest, filled with twists and turns that sustained my rapt attention through to the episode's conclusion.

A standard recap of the entire season will not sufficiently capture the high-toned atmosphere of this series, so I'm providing highlights to hopefully convey the spirit of Germán’s adventure.

Near the middle of this first season, we experience a set piece. Germán works for a company that renders customer telephone support. He receives a letter inviting him to a photo session to create a calendar aimed at promoting the company’s diversity. An overly exuberant young manager arranged the photo session with various staff members who, in her mind, display diversity. There is Monica, who is Afro-Colombian, but (in the manager’s vision) she isn’t dark-skinned enough and gives her makeup to darken her complexion. Luis is a trans boy. Jorge has a hearing aid (in just one ear). Jenny uses a wheelchair — the bourand the manager tells her that she needs to look more pathetic and she halfheartedly complies. German, as a “gay” man, doesn’t look gay enough for her and costumes him in a preposterous feathery outfit with sparkly spectacles. She then plies the "diverse group" with strong drink, and a party with dancing ensues. Cut to: Germán waking up with a hangover in bed with Luis, wondering how he got there. They commence an affair. Germán frolics sweetly with Luis — but when Germán broaches becoming partners, Luis backs away, suddenly departing to walk his dog. Germán opens his phone to find that Luis has unfriended him. Heartbreak!

Gloria suggests that Germán may receive useful guidance from a psychotherapist. He declines her suggestion in favor of a regimen of self-care: working out, Tai Chi, yoga, running, and affirmations spoken into a mirror — all undertaken with diligent (and often goofy) resolve. It doesn’t work. He falls back to being down-and-out depressed, and finally takes his mother’s suggestion for psychotherapy. He makes an appointment at a clinic, not knowing which therapist he will be assigned. Unbeknownst they assign him to Angel. Angel says he might not be the right person to help Germán, but he has a friend who is a holistic therapist who channels angels and aligns the chakras, who might be more appropriate (appropriate?). Regardless, they slowly settle into conversation, and later have a second session after which they part in a particularly warm and friendly manner. Might this interaction with Angel evolve into what Germán seeks?

Playing Around is beautifully crafted, full of soft, bright light everywhere, and glossy in the best sense of the word. The sets provide a lovely backdrop for the action, and the cinematographer, Mariano José García Sánchez, certainly knows how to position and move his camera in these gracious settings. The music, composed by Emiro Pérez, is delightfully airy, seamlessly melding with the action. James Camargo De Alba, as Germán, shows that he is a superb actor as well as director, and the entire supporting ensemble plays their roles with natural grace.

I greatly favor independent productions like Playing Around, because I sense there were no "suits" (the moneypeople killjoys of Hollywood) compromising James Camargo De Alba’s intentions. I truly look forward to subsequent seasons.

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Don’t Be Cruel

Chet Kozlowski — Wed, 20 May 2026 05:29:41 +0000

Don’t Be Cruel Chet Kozlowski May 20, 2026 - 01:29

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Poor Nore. She just wants to get laid, and none of the men will do it.

They know her. She’s a regular at the bar, and most of them have either bedded her or heard about her. She asks the owner. No go. The bartender. No go. A married man is sitting on the couch. She tells him she has nowhere to sleep, and he offers to pay for a room. But he won’t be joining her.

The new film Easy Girl is writer/director Hille Norden’s feature debut. Upfront, it asks the question: How hapless must a girl be to offer herself and be rejected?

All this is witnessed by Jonna, a shy tomboy who can’t take her eyes off Nore. When a man finally responds to Nore’s proposition, Jonna insinuates herself between them and drives him off. Jonna offers her a spare room in her apartment.

Nore moves in. Jonna doesn’t necessarily want sex with Nore, she just wants to bask in the glow. Jonna is fascinated. She watches her dress. Nore makes her own clothes, blowsy gowns that make her look like a cross between Tinkerbell and Blanche Dubois—fairy princess as predator. But even as Nore remains upbeat, Jonna notices her body is covered in bruises and self-harm scars.

Nore brings home a succession of damaged men: a masochist, one with one eye. Jonna takes up with the ones Nore has brought home and discarded. The men profess their love, but they get a cup of coffee in the morning, then get out. If they balk, Jonna defends her friend: “Do you have a problem with her liking sex?” One guy, Michel, can’t get it up for Nore, yet takes up with Jonna and becomes the women’s guardian angel.

And then the bottom falls out. Literally. In an unexpected cinematic trick, we plunge through the looking glass into Nore’s psyche. There’s her younger self, open and naïve and seen in what we suppose is a flashback, being violated by her first love. We hear her abuse happen off camera as her adult self and Jonna observe from across the room. Jonna asks, “Who would hurt someone they love?” Nore replies, “What’s the point of hurting someone you don’t care about?”

It’s this second half that sets Easy Girl apart. Surreally, the younger Nore joins her adult self and Jonna on the dance floor and on the prowl. The film switches from a depiction of casual sex to an intense meditation on the long-term consequences of sexual violence.

Easy Girl is writer/director Hille Norden’s feature film debut. It’s an incredibly intimate film, rendered with rich imagination. Ms. Norden has tricks up her sleeve and a story to tell. Her directorial style is at once earthy and flamboyant.

Easy Girl’s advertising campaign is misleading, suggesting a softcore thriller. Its title is sexist: who but a male would consider Nore “easy”? (The original title “Lihtne tüdruk” translates to A Simple Girl, closer to the mark. The film has also been seen under the title A Smalltown Girl, which is totally beside the point.

As Nore, Dana Herfurth is mesmerizing, as lean as a lightning bolt. She’s a waif, a lithe body with a strawberry cream complexion. Nore seeks out men (“I can’t be alone”) and accepts defilement, and her shift from party girl to abuse survivor is convincing. Luna Jordan plays Jonna with an impish charm that ripens into wisdom as she helps her friend. Jonna is Nore’s foil and alter ego until young Nore (Vera Fay) comes along. As Michel, Jakob Gessner simmers with razor-sharp conviction, you’re never sure what he’s capable of or how his impotence and suppressed rage will manifest.

Easy Girl most resembles Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), a similar study of sexual license, except that protag presented as a symbol of liberation and free love. Nore’s psychic wounds come from trauma, and they go deep: according to her, “You’re allowed to love people who hurt you,” even while carrying a burden of guilt and pain.

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Easy Girl. Directed by Hille Norden. 2026. In German with English subtitles. Runtime 124 minutes

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O The Humanity

Chet Kozlowski — Thu, 07 May 2026 19:45:35 +0000

O The Humanity Chet Kozlowski May 7, 2026 - 15:45

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We are fascinated by the workings of hospitals. Evidence every TV show from Dr. Kildare to E.R. to Grey’s Anatomy (now in, what, its 79^th year? Kidding, 22) to the current fave, HBO’s The Pitt. We thrill to dedicated professionals charging purposefully down pristine halls, barking instructions and jargon. So much at stake, so many skills on display. They assess, they race against time, they grieve. We admire them and identify with them.

Medical dramas work best as episodic series. They are a continuum: save some, lose some; there’s always more to come. The new drama Late Shift is self-contained. It feels like it's happening in real time, but crisply distills an eight-hour shift to two. It’s a day in the life of Floria Lind, a nurse, not in the E.R., but nonetheless dealing with life and death.

Floria arrives at the hospital on public transit, the picture of empathy and cool efficiency. She’s cheery and professional, a locus of calm in an understaffed world. We trail her from room to room as she checks in with patients. Most are appreciative, like the African immigrant about to undergo surgery who shyly drops that he has no relatives or friends to stay with him. “I’m your friend,” assures Floria. To calm another, she sings to her.

Others complain: their test results have not come back yet; an ornery patient on private insurance times his services with an expensive watch and declares them mishandled. Inattentive doctors display a lack of humanity. Overworked and losing her cool, Floria’s mantra becomes “there are only two of us on duty.”

Of course, the center cannot hold. The shift wears on, and Floria’s patience wears out. She becomes harried and fed up. She deals with that damn watch. And finally, she turns her attention to the quietest of the lot, a squeaky wheel who hasn’t asked for notice, and whose circumstances turn out to be the most dire.

As Floria, Leonie Benesch is a perfect Everyperson. I’ve seen her in another workplace film on Netflix, The Teachers’ Lounge. She’s extremely watchable. As Floria, she presents as stalwart and natural. We believe in her. We root for her. Ms. Benesch has also been in Babylon Berlin and The Crown.

Director Petra Volpe has several films to her credit. She is as efficient as her protagonist. In her hands, Late Shift is Steadicam heaven: Ms. Volpe’s camera glides and dodges and hovers around Floria, a frenetic witness to the mayhem. The viewer is invested in Floria’s plight: with so many successes, it’s the failures that haunt. The climax is quietly devastating and set to Hope There’s Someone by Antony and the Johnsons, itself a haunting coda. Late Shift concludes as a parable and offers an incisive view of a health care system that is humane yet still imperfect.

Floria faces mortality itself, and we realize that tomorrow, or on her next shift, she will do it all over again.

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Late Shift. Directed by Petra Volpe. 2025. A Swiss and German production, in German with English subtitles. 92 minute

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Agatha Christie Gets Woolly

Brandon Judell — Sat, 02 May 2026 21:23:50 +0000

Agatha Christie Gets Woolly Brandon Judell May 2, 2026 - 17:23

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animation

Alexander the Great once mistakenly noted: "I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion." Clearly, the conqueror formed this faulty notion because he hadn’t met the ewes and rams grazing on George (Hugh Jackman) the shepherd’s farm in The Sheep Detectives.

But before we get to the woolies, please note that Mr. Jackman, although he is a grand songster and hoofer, has achieved much of his fortune and fame over the years by portraying Wolverine, a presence that could trigger mass heart attacks among any flock of livestock.

Here, with his claws retracted, he plays an agreeable vegetarian, so in love with his sheep, he individually names them, gambols through his fields with their offspring, and daily reads detective stories to his baaing pals. This is all before he is found dead one morning by Lily, the smartest of sheep (voiced by Julia Louis Dreyfus) and Mopple, the most worldly of sheep (voiced by Chris O’Dowd).

Based on a bestselling German novel Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann, with a screenplay by Craig Martin (The Last of Us), direction by Kyle Balda (Minions), and produced by the folks who have given us Sense and Sensibility, The Substance, and Cocaine Bear, one of the main challenges here was to shape an entertainment that wasn’t too cutesy like Shari Lewis’s Lamb Chop or too outre like Valdimar Jóhannsson’s Icelandic Lamb (2021) where an ewe gives birth to a boy with a sheep’s head. I won’t go into details. What happens in Iceland stays in Iceland.

The creators have mostly succeeded. These ovine creatures chatter amongst each other in standard English with varied accents, comprehend the chatter of us fallible humans, and are bigoted against anything born during the winter months. They could be from Brooklyn. Unequivocally, this herd should entertain most adult filmgoers and a whole lot of the prepubescent.

However, be aware that these sheep have been sheltered from what goes on in the outside world, having never left the field.

Checking out George’s corpse, Lily is confounded. She didn’t know “death” was for real. She was brought up believing humans became clouds in the sky just like her mates did. Mopple enlightens Lily on the spot but avoids telling her that recipes exist for “Moroccan-Style Braised Lamb” and “Lamb Patties with Fried Onions and Tahini Yogurt Sauce.”

So how did George wind up as he has? The buffoonish Tim Derry (Nicholas Braun), the lone local police officer in the abutting small town, believes the shepherd had a heart attack. The sheep know better and set out to find their keeper’s killer. After all, they have already been exposed to dozens of murder mysteries. How could real life differ?

There is a happy ending, of course, with a sentimental closing that will have you comprehend Little Bo-Peep’s anguish the next time you hear her rhyme. Also, I was unable to guess the killer’s identity, always a plus.

With a starry cast that also includes Emma Thompson and Nicholas Galitzine, plus the voices of Bella Ramsey, Regina Hall, and Patrick Stewart, The Sheep Detectives has enough charm, silliness, suspense, wit, and lush cinematography to make this a perfect outing for families and singles. Just be prepared to cover your eyes when the wild dogs show up.

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Get In On the Grassroots

Chet Kozlowski — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 22:46:45 +0000

Get In On the Grassroots Chet Kozlowski April 28, 2026 - 18:46

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indie film

Here’s a unique opportunity to participate in the funding of a film. Written and directed by Edna Luise Biesold, Cutting it Short will be about 14 minutes long and bills itself as a comedy about alcoholism. It takes place in real time during one night in a hair salon in which Sadie, played by Casey Killoran, risks relapse and exposure.

From the press pack: “Beneath the humor, the film is a plea for compassion and a reminder that people battling addiction are fighting private wars we rarely see. The United States is facing a significant public health crisis, with roughly 1 in 10 Americans aged 12 and older (approx. 27.9 million) living with Alcohol Use Disorder as of 2024. Despite declining participation rates, alcohol is the third-leading preventable cause of death, according to the NIAAA.”

Your opportunity: go to the fund sourcing site Seed & Spark and donate. Many of the production goals have been hit, but they’re trying to raise enough for actor housing, etc. Giving is multi-tiered, offering incentives according to the amount of your donation.

Go here to Seed & Spark to check out their sample reel, production decks, and more:

https://seedandspark.com/fund/cutting-it-short?utm_source=Email_referral&utm_medium=socia#story

Shooting is set to happen June 20-23, 2026

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Are We There Yet?

Chet Kozlowski — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 02:46:21 +0000

Are We There Yet? Chet Kozlowski April 22, 2026 - 22:46

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drama

Endurance is the theme of the new film The North. Physical endurance by way of a 350-mile hike through the Scottish Highlands. Endurance that tests the bonds of friendship. And endurance of spirit, how far will you go with a secret inside you? The walk is, of course, a metaphor, but one that is enthralling and well executed.

Boyhood friends, now approaching thirty, embark on the 30-day trek. All starts out well: they are polite and deferential. Chris (Bart Harder), strapping and red-headed, is married, planning a family, and beset by a business that keeps calling him along the way. Lluis (Carles Pulido) is swarthy, unattached, and more upbeat. “Even a bad day in nature is better than a good one at the office,” he tells Chris. The pair are frequently seen as REI candy-colored specks dwarfed by a vast expanse of green, rolling hills. There is rarely anyone else in sight.

They do run into other hikers, at rest stops and in the few towns they pass through. But mostly they are alone with each other and with their thoughts. For all the camaraderie they don’t talk much about important matters. They walk, sleep in a lightweight tent, go through sun, fog, relentless rain and crippling wind.

Lluis’ knees give out and Chris goes on by himself, left alone with his thoughts and the concern—for Lluis, for his life—shows on his face. Lluis meets up eventually, with maps, insisting that they will fare better without their phones and GPS, like the pioneers did. Fellow travelers comment on their sleeping in the same tent: “You must be really close. Or hate each other.” Lluis casually reveals to one stranger a medical diagnosis he had never told Chris. That startles him; how could Chris not have known?

The filmmaking of The North is straightforward and unassuming. Director/writer Bart Schrijver lets the locations speak for themselves, the desolate and unforgiving beauty of the West Highland Way and Cape Wrath Trail, Likewise the acting: Mr. Harder and Mr. Pulido are both understated and naturalistic, an unlikely couple and increasingly sympatico to each other. The trip tests their bond. They show the fatigue of people who are too close for too long.

The smartphone is a player in all this. Technology imposes itself in modern ways. When Lluis ditches GPS, they flail. Poor Chris gets shrill calls from work at the most inconvenient times. Still, the very lightness and stealth of the technology and the equipment used in the filmmaking makes the narrative immersive. We glide alongside the men (interesting shots here of depth of focus), not giving a thought of the camera’s presence. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that some shots were done on the phone as well.

Set pieces are subtle and effective; a dark interlude sequestered in the tent as rain pours down; Chris, annoyed, striding along the beach, tosses off his backpack, walks on then thinks better of it and goes back to retrieve it; Lluis’ eventual submission to his pain is heartbreaking exactly because it sidesteps conventional drama.

Director Bart Schrijver’s adeptness at second unit work contribute to his eye here helming a feature. He is known also for Human Nature (2022).

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The North. Directed by Bart Schrijver. 2025. Distributed by Tull Stories. Runtime 130 minutes.