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Movie Review: CHRISTMAS AT THE KRINGLES

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Sat, 31 Oct 2026 01:24:32 +0000

Rating: R
Stars: Ron Livingston, Rachel Bilson, Rob Riggle, Arden Myrin, Beverly D’Angelo, David Wain, Jack Jewkes, Ryan “Rhino” Michaels, Donald Faison, Thomas Lennon, Zeke Jones, Alexis Kemp, Elliott Egler
Writer: Zack Imbrogno
Director: Kevin Lewis
Distributor: Briarcliff Entertainment
Release Date: October 30, 2026

CHRISTMAS AT THE KRINGLES is a quasi-horror/dark comedy about a family discovering that their seemingly nice but weird neighbors are indeed weird, but not so nice.

We open with a pretty Christmas tree display that gives way to a woman running for her life from an axe-wielding man, who decapitates her. This has us bracing for a scare factor that never quite coagulates, although there is what might be termed merry menace throughout.

After the opening, we’re in a car with the depressed-looking Severson family – dad Mark (Ron Livingston), mom Julie (Rachel Bilson) and little boy Bobby (Jack Jewkes) –on their journey to suburbia. Julie has insisted on moving here, hoping that getting away from the big cynical city will bring out the best in her husband and son, both of whom heartily resent the relocation.

Across-the-street new neighbor Daryl (Donald Faison) is welcoming, if extremely nerdy. And next door, there are the Kringles, who keep their extensive Christmas decorations up throughout the year.

Patriarch Nick Kringle (Thomas Lennon) and his wife Carol (Arden Myrin) are parents to silent teen Rudolph (Zeke Jones), solemn teen Merry (Alexis Kemp) and Elf (Elliott Egler), who is Bobby’s age. Loopy elder Mama K (Beverly D’Angelo) is also part of the household.

Nick and Carol are so relentlessly cheerful (and hard on poor Rudolph) that Mark finds them alarming, though Julie is charmed. Between Bobby’s happiness at finding a new friend in Elf and Nick almost literally saving Christmas at the Seversons, Mark is willing to make allowances for the Kringles’ eccentricities.

But then Mark gets dire warnings about the Kringles from both Daryl and a drunken mall Santa (Rob Riggle) and things take an unsettling turn.

Written by Zack Imbrogno and directed by Kevin Lewis, one of CHRISTMAS AT THE KRINGLES’ best assets is its momentum. Apart from that early bit of being stuck in the car, the movie romps forward, holding our attention throughout, as we wonder what odd twist or revelation will come next.

Also worthy of special commendation are the performances of Lennon and Riggle, both presenting different but equally impactful turns of men who can go from unflappable to rage and back again in an eyeblink.

But CHRISTMAS AT THE KRINGLES has its rote aspects. No new twists are wrung on the emotionally blocked workaholic father, the mother who wants to hold family together by doing things that are counterintuitive, and the sad child. Likewise, we’re with Mark in finding Carol phony and scary rather than endearing; Julie seems borderline mentally challenged rather than appealingly trusting in taking Carol at face value.

And then there’s the way the movie ties itself into knots, repeatedly verbally explaining that it’s pro-Christmas, just anti-Christmas overkill. There’s a fine line in there somewhere, but CHRISTMAS AT THE KRINGLES is too broad to define it satisfactorily.

As its subgenre goes, CHRISTMAS AT THE KRINGLES is sort of a stocking stuffer, something agreeable that’s neither a lump of coal nor a full gift.

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Movie Review: THE MOSQUITO BOWL

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Sat, 31 Oct 2026 01:24:23 +0000

Rating: R
Stars: Nicholas Galitzine, Bill Skarsgård, Ray Nicholson, Tom Francis
Writers: Peter Berg and Mark L. Smith, based on the novel THE MOSQUITO BOWL: A GAME OF LIFE AND DEATH IN WORLD WAR II by Buzz Bissinger
Director: Peter Berg
Distributor: Netflix
Release Date: October 30, 2026 (theatrical), November 25, 2026 (Netflix)

Released in 2004, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS was a drama directed and co-scripted by Peter Berg, based on Buzz Bissinger’s non-fiction tome about life and especially football in Odessa, Texas. The film (and its 2006-2011 TV series follow-up) is considered a modern classic of football-centered storytelling.

Now director/co-writer (with Mark L. Smith) Berg has adapted another football-oriented book by Bissinger, this one a novel with historical aspects, THE MOSQUITO BOWL: A GAME OF LIFE AND DEATH IN WORLD WAR II.

The film opens by telling us it is “based on a true story.” This much is indeed factual: John McLaughry (Nicholas Galitzine), Robert “Bob” Baumann (Bill Skarsgård), Anthony “Tony” Butkovich (Ray Nicholson) and David “Dave” Schreiner (Tom Francis) were all college football stars in December, 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. All four signed up and wound up together in the U.S. Marine Corps’ Fourth Division, serving in the Pacific.

In both reality and the movie, it occurs to the commanding officers while the Marines are stationed on Okinawa that, especially with the talent on hand, a football game would be good for the morale of both players and observers. Thus was born “the Mosquito Bowl,” named for the insects tormenting everyone present.

As director, Berg does a splendid job of providing the terror and pure chaos of war. Casual conversation can be interrupted by gunfire and fatal explosions, and people are suddenly ripped open by bombs. Some people go crazy, and there’s little warning beforehand.

The actors are all adept at saying a great deal wordlessly with their faces and physicality, though writers Berg and Smith have provided some choice bits of dialogue.

Excellent players of team sports, especially football with its requirements of speed and strength, make excellent soldiers. This is because they generally have great physical stamina, and they are accustomed to following orders and operating as a unit. This is so obvious that it doesn’t need stating, and to the credit of THE MOSQUITO BOWL, nobody ever says it.

However, this aside, for viewers who don’t necessarily derive profound meaning from football overall, THE MOSQUITO BOWL, the movie never otherwise makes a discernible connection between the game and the war. In FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, the Berg/Bissinger creative combination made it clear how the town and the game were inextricably intertwined.

Here, the game and the war don’t feel like they intrinsically overlap. Granted, our heroes are not an especially talkative group, except for the self-described “over-thinker” Schreiner, but we’re not shown how football gives them a unique bond. Their brotherhood seems to be born out of sharing the experience of surviving the moment-to-moment trauma of battle.

The performances are full of feeling and conviction, and the main quartet exudes an easy camaraderie with one another. It’s just that football remains an interesting footnote rather than any kind of driving force. The Mosquito Bowl game provides them an afternoon of joy, nothing less, nothing more.

It may be that THE MOSQUITO BOWL wants to make the point that, in the circumstances, some actual happiness is hard to come by and the best thing the men could have. In this, it makes its case.

Zooming out, THE MOSQUITO BOWL shows sober respect for not only the U.S. troops, but for the war dead on all sides the world over. It has photos and grainy footage of the real individuals involved, and it convincingly depicts war as a hellish business. On that score alone, it is worth seeing.

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Movie Review: THE MONGOOSE

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Sat, 31 Oct 2026 01:24:14 +0000

Rating: R
Stars: Liam Neeson. Marisa Tomei. Ving Rhames, Marcus Thomas, Maurice Marvel Meredith. Michael Chiklis, Brett Tucker, Ryan Morgan, Stella Stocker (voice)
Writer: Thompson Evans
Director: Mark Vanselow
Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn Films
Release Date: October 30, 2026

If an action film is going to be made, especially one with a familiar premise, it helps if the director has a background as a stunt choreographer/stunt performer. That’s the case with THE MONGOOSE, which marks the feature directorial debut of Mark Vanselow, who has frequently stunt-doubled and choreographed previous action films starring Liam Neeson, his leading man here.

The script by Thompson Evans could largely have been made any time in the last fifty years, except for the relationship between Neeson’s Ryan “Fang” Flanagan and Helene (charmingly voiced by Stella Stocker), the virtual assistant in the Mustang Shelby Super Snake GT350 he’s driving.

Fang doesn’t own the car; its legal owner is very recently deceased. We meet Fang via voiceover as he’s reciting a love poem over shots of a calm seashore. But as we first see him, he’s speeding ahead of five state police cars and a police helicopter.

MONGOOSE toggles back and forth between Fang’s current efforts to evade capture, what immediately preceded all this, and flashbacks to when Fang was a U.S. Special Forces commander twenty years ago.

In 2006 Afghanistan, Fang’s team consists of himself, Tanker (Ving Rhames), Munch (Marcus Thomas) and Wiz (Ryan Morgan). When their helicopter is shot down, all four are taken prisoner and tortured. Since we see Fang back in the States, it’s not much of a spoiler to say that he escapes. In the near-present, we see he remains close with his fellow survivors, as well as with his still-loved-and-loving ex-wife Tara (Marisa Tomei).

In fact, it is the comradeship of military veterans that underlies MONGOOSE, with Fang discovering that he is supported not only by his known friends but by strangers who feel that their shared experience under fire makes them brothers.

On the other side, there’s Arkansas State Police Major James Tilton (Maurice Marvel Meredith), himself an ex-Marine, who would like Fang to surrender before he gets himself killed. Then there’s Texas law officer Major Walter Pope, who wants his people to kill Fang whether he surrenders or not.

There is a certain SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT (a 1977 interstate car chase film, directed by stunt veteran Hal Needham) vibe here, with the fast vehicles, apoplectic police, and unpredictable help from sympathetic souls.

However, the underpinnings in THE MONGOOSE are more serious, both in terms of Fang’s understandable PTSD and the reason he is being chased now. The latter makes us question Fang’s instant folk hero status, as the crime would certainly take precedence over his military background in news reports.

Then again, THE MONGOOSE exists primarily to showcase Neeson’s ease in playing an unassuming but ultra-capable protagonist and all those multi-vehicle high-octane ballets, orchestrated with maximum glee by Vanselow.

There’s nothing greatly original about THE MONGOOSE, but it succeeds at what it sets out to do. The filmmakers are also using the feature to raise money for veterans’ groups, which is laudable.

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Movie Review: CLAYFACE

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 08:26:54 +0000

Rating: R
Stars: Tom Rhys Harries, Naomi Ackie, David Dencik, Max Minghella, Ruby Sear, Eddie Marsan
Writers: Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, story by Mike Flanagan
Director: James Watkins
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Release Date: October 23, 2026

Clayface is a canonical antagonist (though sometimes ally) of Batman who first appeared in DC Comics all the way back in 1940. The Matt Hagen incarnation of the character (the one we get here) was created by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff in 1961. The notion that Matt starts out as an actor was presented later within BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (1992-1995).

The live-action movie CLAYFACE is set in present-day Gotham City, though there’s no appearance by or even mention of the Caped Crusader. Some of the good news here is that this movie doesn’t need Batman. CLAYFACE stands perfectly well on its own as a science-fiction character study/tragedy with major body horror elements.

Directed by James Watkins from a screenplay by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, with the story by Flanagan, CLAYFACE introduces us to handsome, personable, up-from-the-streets movie star Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) just as he’s learning that he’s been nominated for an Oscar.

Everything is coming up roses until Matt and his best friend Corey (Joshua James) go to a club. Matt attracts the ire of mob boss Markos Szabo (David Dencik) and winds up with a badly mutilated face. When Matt tries to press charges, thanks to Szabo’s connections, his reputation is savaged as well. Unsuccessful plastic surgeries and an unscrupulous lawyer (Eddie Marsan) drain Matt’s finances, until he’s in a fleabag apartment on Skid Row, with a distressing appearance, no resources and not much of a life.

Then Matt chances upon an interview with Dr. Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie), who claims her groundbreaking work in tissue regeneration using nanobots has been stolen by her investors. Believing he’s got nothing to lose, Matt offers himself unconditionally as a test subject. The good doctor has ethical and legal reservations, but Matt’s plight touches her – and the opportunity to continue her research is tempting.

At first, the treatments are a rousing success, but soon weird side effects occur. One of these is Matt’s new ability to change his appearance to perfectly double any other person; another is his uncontrollable tendency to turn into organic sludge when he’s emotionally overwhelmed. It’s unclear if homicidal rage is yet another side effect, or just an aspect of Matt’s existing personality triggered by events.

The filmmakers set a beguiling rhythm in CLAYFACE, zipping between visceral shocks and moments of gratification. We’re on Matt’s side for most of this, with Harries charming and affecting vulnerable. When he tricks his enemies, and us as well, it starts out as fun.

Seeing Matt slowly descend into moral monstrosity is arguably even more disturbing than the graphic surgeries, THE SUBSTANCE-like bodily distortions and the ferocious violence. As we recoil, we realize just how much we’ve come to like Matt and how much we don’t want him to succumb to what feels as inevitable as the destiny of the protagonist in a Greek drama.

Besides handling the sliding flesh and gore effectively, director Watkins gets a lot of mileage from his mixture of showbiz glitz and gangster grit, keeping CLAYFACE stylish throughout.

Ackie is persuasive as the erudite, caring doctor and much of the supporting cast does topnotch double duty as their original characters and as Matt copying them.

Where most movies end before fadeout, CLAYFACE sticks the landing emphatically, concluding as its final few shots cement why Clayface turns wholly to villainy. It’s a bravura cap to a strong movie that probably needed the franchise pedigree to get made at all but doesn’t require any previous acquaintance with DC lore to resonate as it does.

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Movie Review: WILDWOOD

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 08:26:48 +0000

Rating: PG-13
Stars (voices): Carey Mulligan, Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Jacob Tremblay, Mahershala Ali, Awkwafina, Angela Bassett, Jake Johnson, Maya Erskine, Charlie Day, Tantoo Cardinal, Jemaine Clement, Marc Evan Jackson, Richard E. Grant, Blythe Danner
Writer: Chris Butler, based on the novel written by Colin Meloy and illustrated by Carson Ellis
Director: Travis Knight
Distributor: Laika/Fathom Entertainment
Release Date: October 23, 2026

Laika’s new stop-motion animated WILDWOOD can be seen as a new take on the “seemingly ordinary preteen goes on a magical quest and affects the destiny of a kingdom” YA genre. Alternatively, it can be seen as a fleshing-out of OUTSIDE OVER THERE, Maurice Sendak’s 1981 picture book for preteens about a young girl who goes to rescue her little sister after the baby is kidnapped by goblins.

Directed by Travis Knight and scripted by Chris Butler from the novel written by Colin Meloy and illustrated by Carson Ellis, WILDWOOD opens in what is clearly an enchanted castle. A boy removes a clockwork mechanism from his chest where his heart should be, then leaps from a balcony, to the anguish of his regal mother Alexandra (voiced by Carey Mulligan).

We’ll eventually find out exactly what this has to do with young Pru McKeel (voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee), who lives in Portland, Oregon with her baby brother Mac (voiced by Arthur Knight) and their mom (voiced by Maya Erskine) and dad (voiced by Jake Johnson).

Dad and Mom are gentle, good-natured people, but Dad has an odd obsession with warning Pru and Mac – who can’t even speak yet – about why they must avoid the Impassable Wilderness beyond Portland’s borders. Even odder, both parents absolutely forbid Pru from taking Mac outside.

Pru thinks this is nonsensical. So, when the folks go out for the day, Pru puts Mac in a little wagon hitched to her bicycle and wheels around picturesque Portland. She encounters nerdy but kind classmate Curtis (voiced by Jacob Tremblay), who accompanies Pru uninvited. All seems fine – until a murder of crows flies off with Mac.

Horrified, Pru and Curtis speed off after the crows and Mac, all of whom have disappeared into – you guessed it – the Impassable Wilderness. Somehow, the ivy surrounding the vast mountainous forest parts enough for Pru and Curtis to get inside.

Within the wood, there are many factions of humans and speaking, clothed animals and birds. The kids are soon separated, with Curtis conscripted into an army composed of uniformed coyotes. Pru, meanwhile, meets a vast array of potential friends and foes as she seeks Mac. She eventually learns that her brother’s fate is tied to that of the wildwood and its inhabitants and, more than she realizes, their survival is in Pru’s hands.

WILDWOOD is narratively dynamic and visually beautiful. Every frame brims with emotion and optical wonder, containing frequent humor as well. With its folkloric mythos and great battles and profound motivations, it is simultaneously macro and micro, epic and deeply personal.

The voice cast is excellent, with Johnson perhaps first among equals as the devoted, anxious, hippie-esque dad. Mulligan conveys righteous grief while retaining a beguiling tinge of mischief, Lee is a terrific stalwart and curious protagonist, and Tremblay nails Curtis’s doubts and determination.

Production company Laika is headquartered in Portland, Oregon. While we don’t spend as much time in the city as we do in the Impassable Wilderness, Portland and its famous bookstores, coffee spots and much more are lovingly depicted in stop-motion.

Parents should be advised that WILDWOOD is not for very young viewers, as it runs over two hours, and contains a lot of non-bloody but impactful battlefield killings, the child suicide that opens the film and the threat of infanticide. However, children old enough for, say, any of the Peter Jackson LORD OF THE RINGS films, in addition to adults accompanying them or on their own, should be engrossed.

As a bonus, there is a great though too-brief making-of section as part of the end credits, showing artists making the three-dimensional stop-motion characters.

WILDWOOD is for fans of modern mythology, good storytelling and great animation.

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Movie Review: THE CYCLE

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 08:26:42 +0000

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Deborah Ann Woll. Jeffrey Donovan, Will Hochman, Jack Doolan, Carl W. Crudup, Jeb Berrier, Gretchen Corbett, Phillip Andre Botello, Danika Golombek, Don Keith Opper, David Myers Gregory
Writers: Jordan Downey & Kevin Stewart
Director: Jordan Downey
Distributor: IFC Films/Shudder
Release Date: October 23, 2026

THE CYCLE is what could be termed a supernatural forensic murder mystery. It tackles a mostly familiar horror genre from the point of view of pathologists, while adding a new wrinkle to the mythology.

We meet forensic anthropologist Dr. Megan Garland (Deborah Ann Woll) in a diner, where she’s going over photos of an open-mouthed skeleton. Dr. Garland – call her Meg – runs the Body Farm at the Crichton Institute of Science. She occasionally investigates cases and trains police in what to do when they find corpses in various stages of decomposition.

Across the bridge, in the coastal Oregon town of Lester Bay, Police Lt. Marks (Jeffrey Donovan) and his team are examining a bloody and mystifying crime scene. Inside a house, a woman and her six-year-old daughter have been killed and severely mutilated, with what look like bite and claw wounds all over their remains.

Outside by the train tracks, there’s the body of a naked man. The autopsy by local coroner Dr. Ratterman (Jeb Berrier) reveals that the man was 64 and died months before the other two victims, but his body isn’t decaying normally. What the heck is going on here?

When the dead man is identified as Peter Stump, Marks’s research leads him to Meg – who is astonished by both the case and the fact that Stump is her father, who left his wife and then-four-year-old daughter in 1991 without a word or further contact.

Meg is understandably still furious with her father’s desertion, but between her curiosity and her concern that there could be more killings if these aren’t solved, she accepts Marks’s urging to lend her expertise to the investigation.

It’s almost an hour into THE CYCLE before Marks and Ratterman start to consider that something supernatural may be the culprit. It takes Meg a while longer. Normally, this kind of character blindness is exasperating, but Meg has had so much piled on her that we grant her some leeway, especially as her skepticism doesn’t get in the way of forward movement.

There are a couple of big clues early in Ratterman’s examination that point to what’s happening, although the script, by director Jordan Downey & cowriter Kevin Stewart, adds some intriguing new rules.

It would be telling to say exactly which movie, but Downey and his practical special effects makeup team clearly revere and have lovingly replicated a groundbreaking-in-its-day transformation sequence, putting their own spin on the details. No matter how familiar one may be with their inspiration, the work here is impressive.

THE CYCLE maintains a good pace, with suitably drab, creepy surroundings. It does fool around with when certain things are happening in a way that seems like a cheat to justify jump scares, but this is thankfully not frequent.

Woll, Donovan and Berrier all give unfussy, strong performances, and David Meyers Gregory is highly sympathetic as someone who keeps trying to do the right thing.

THE CYCLE is just different enough to feel relatively fresh, and it delivers on both the procedural and horror fronts. For those who want a bit more mythology, we get an in-character, in-depth explanation of how this cycle began over the end credits.

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Movie Review: ONE EYE OPEN

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 08:51:58 +0000

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Kushi Beauchamp, Chris Bylsma, Maximiliano Hernandez, Tori Kilkenny, Laura Kirk, Addison Landes, Guy Messenger, Hadley Norris, RJ Mitte, Kevin Willmott, Paul Fellers, Jamie Addison, Maren Wilson
Writer: Michael D. Coffey
Director: Michael D. Coffey
Distributor: BayView Entertainment
Release Date: October 16, 2026

There’s a sort of YA sensibility to ONE EYE OPEN, with supernatural entities normally to be feared being made lovable. For example, TWILIGHT has romantic rather than menacing vampires. In ONE EYE OPEN, we get familial love from ghosts.

ONE EYE OPEN was shot and is set in Lawrence, Kansas, which gives it some distinction. So does its main setting – an enormous mansion (kudos to the location manager), haunted by multiple spirits.

Samantha Rollins (Kushi Beauchamp), who just obtained her Master’s degree in Psych, lives here by herself. She’s the caretaker for her grandfather Hank (Guy Messenger), who is in a care facility and suffering from dementia, although he still recognizes Sam.

We see Sam in flashbacks as a little girl (Maren Wilson), playing hide and seek with Hank. He finds her in a closet, where she’s terrified because something seems to be in there with her.

In the present, when Sam gets tipsy at a graduation party, her best friend Jaime (Addison Landes) arranges for a ride service. Unfortunately, the driver, Chris (Chris Bylsma), seems entirely too interested in Sam’s home and Sam herself.

Sam manages to untangle herself from the situation, but shortly after she gets inside, there’s an unordered pizza delivery at the door. This is brought by Amanda (Tori Kilkenny). Sam unwisely goes to bed without first making sure Amanda has left the building.

Two things happen almost simultaneously, without Sam’s knowledge. One is that Hank finds his way back to the house and sees the ghost of his wife Jane (Laura Kirk) playing the piano. The other is that Amanda lets her masked brother Brad (the late RJ Mitte) in to help her rob the place.

Writer/director Michael D. Coffey stages some good jump scares, but his storytelling is uneven. Starting with a flashforward of Sam calling the police after she’s been attacked in the house seems intended to prompt suspense, but instead, we wonder why, since she’s in the car, she doesn’t drive away from the danger. Throughout the film’s earlier sections, knowing this is coming winds up just papering over a lull in the action that could have been dealt with in a more dynamic way.

More, Sam does or doesn’t do other things that feel more like matters of plot convenience than logic. When Sam finds Brad tied up in the basement with his mouth duct-taped shut, she understandably wonders who he is and why he’s there – but not, crucially, who bound him to a chair. Since the unknown individual responsible is still roaming the dwelling, this seems like it would be the biggest immediate issue. At another juncture, Sam fails to call the police for a reason that doesn’t pass common sense muster.

Finally, there are the ghosts. Since it doesn’t take long to establish that they are the good guys where Sam is concerned, they only alarm us when they appear suddenly. On the other hand, we don’t understand the extent of their powers, and why they act in certain circumstances and not in others.

Beauchamp and Landes have good, friendly chemistry, Messenger is properly warm, Bylsma is suitably odious, and Mitte is very good at conveying Brad’s increasing terror.

Viewers who generally like the pro-ghost/anti-burglar premise of ONE EYE OPEN will likely enjoy it. Others without this specific preference may want something a little scarier, more sensible, or both.

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Movie Review: CRAWLERS

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 08:43:06 +0000

Rating: R
Stars: Matilda Lutz, Gregg Sulkin, Sam Lucas Smith, Andrea Scott, Melina Mathews, William Miller, Gary Stennette, Elena Stanz
Writer: Jayson Rothwell
Director: Angel Gomez Hernandez
Distributor: Roadside Attractions/Saban Films
Release Date: October 16, 2026

If you suffer from arachnophobia – that is, fear of spiders – not in an “oh, they scare me, so they make good horror movie fodder,” but in an “I’m terrified of them and can’t stand to hear about them,” not only don’t watch CRAWLERS, but don’t read the rest of this review.

Okay, you’ve been warned. CRAWLERS opens with onscreen information: “For every single person, there are more than 3 million spiders. They exist in 100% of our homes. We are never more than 3 feet from one.” It goes on from there to be more hypothetical.

For those who aren’t arachnophobes, you may be thinking, “And despite all this, my life has continued up to the point where I’m reading this review.” (For those who have died from arachnid encounters and are somehow still reading this review, we at ASSIGNMENT X extend our sincere condolences.)

Anyway, we find ourselves at the Paradiso Palms Apartments in Santa Monica, California. It’s a three-story building with a basement and an on-site repair person, Serena (Matilda Lutz), who is well-meaning but not very good at her job. Therefore, the Paradiso’s pipes are leaking in various places.

One of the residents, a UCLA science professor, returns home from a trip abroad, unknowingly bringing an extremely venomous spider with him. He dies from its bite, and the spider proceeds to reproduce.

Meanwhile, the building’s lecherous, insulting landlord (Gregg Sulkin) tells Serena he’ll be away for the weekend. This means she can’t contact him when she finds the professor’s corpse. Reasonably, Serena calls the police.

The police contact the Health Department, which at first thinks the cause of death may be a virus. The building is quarantined on the grounds of possible contagion, leaving everyone unknowingly locked in with the spiders.

There are some ingenious set-ups and encounters, and Lutz is a personable protagonist. It also works that Sulkin as the landlord provides a personality for the main human antagonist, even if he’s playing second fiddle to the spiders.

Part of the challenge for CRAWLERS director Angel Gomez Hernandez and writer Jayson Rothwell is that, without some kind of greater hook, even knowing the spider bites are deadly doesn’t make them especially frightening. It doesn’t aid credibility that the spiders, apparently all from one species, come in a surprising variety of shapes and sizes.

The greater challenge is that the filmmakers can’t settle on a tone. It never quite goes for comedy, and the balance between being simply non-serious and serious shifts in ways that aren’t always effective.

There are some cool shots, effects and confrontations. However, most of CRAWLERS feels like it’s about people having near-misses with really big spiders. If this is what sticks to your entertainment web, go for it. Otherwise, it may be time to seek out Shelob for a bigger jolt

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Movie Review: THE SOCIAL RECKONING

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 08:40:32 +0000

Rating: R
Stars: Jeremy Allen White, Mikey Madison, Jeremy Strong, Betty Gilpin, Gbenga Akkinagbe, Wunmi Mosaku, Bill Burr, Portia Doubleday
Writer: Aaron Sorkin
Director: Aaron Sorkin
Distributor: Columbia/Sony
Release Date: October 9, 2026

THE SOCIAL NETWORK was released in 2010. A drama about the founding of Facebook, with Mark Zuckerberg (as played by Jesse Eisenberg) turning it from a misogynistic university online rating of women students’ looks to a worldwide commodity encompassing everything, the movie was written by Aaron Sorkin, who won an Oscar for his screenplay, and directed by David Fincher.

Now Sorkin has written THE SOCIAL RECKONING another fact-based look at Facebook a decade or so on from THE SOCIAL NETWORK. Sorkin has also taken on the directing reins. He’s arguably not as concerned with eye-catching imagery as Fincher was, but his gift for sharp dialogue and story momentum shows up just as reliably.

While midway through the closing crawl, several nonfiction books, including BROKEN CODE by Jeff Horwitz and THE POWER OF ONE by Frances Haugen, are oddly referenced as “research material,” that these tomes don’t get a “based on” writing credit suggests that Sorkin took a number of liberties.

Even so, the protagonists in THE SOCIAL RECKONING are named Jeff Horwitz played by Jeremy Allen White, Frances Haugen, played by Mikey Madison, and Mark Zuckerberg, played this time around by Jeremy Strong.

A prologue shows us a young white woman (Portia Doubleday) being appallingly racist to two police officers. We gradually learn the relevance of this to what follows.

THE SOCIAL RECKONING’s primary timeline slides around from 2019 and 2021. In 2019, Jeff arrives at the San Francisco office of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. He’s late for his interview because he couldn’t figure out how to operate his rental car’s GPS. His prospective new boss Christina (Betty Gilpin) is nonplused that a tech reporter wouldn’t know such a thing, but Jeff makes the distinction that he’s not a tech reporter – fresh from the D.C. beat, he’s an investigative reporter who will be examining what’s newsworthy in the tech world. Jeff’s editor Andy (Gbenga Akinnagbe) is a bit more enthused than Christina about the possibilities here.

At about the same time, Frances – dedicated, grouchy, idealistic – is an engineer on Facebook’s social integrity team, the group tasked with policing the site for hateful or violence-prompting posts. (Ah, the good old days.) When the unit is dissolved, Frances starts to have questions, does some research, and finds the algorithms are actively herding a not-insubstantial percentage of users toward extremist Facebook groups.

When her bosses don’t want Frances exploring this further, to say nothing of not wanting to do anything themselves, she reluctantly contacts Jeff as a reporter. At first, she just wants to alert him to the matter without any further involvement herself. Jeff is frustrated that she won’t go on the record; she’s horrified that, when it comes to the technology involved, she has to explain almost every word to him.

Even people unfamiliar with the historical record know where this has to be headed. This is partly because we see Zuckerberg being prepared for a Congressional hearing (with Wunmi Mosaku and Bill Burr both excellent among those playing his advisors). More importantly, if THE SOCIAL RECKONING doesn’t go where its set-up is pointing, there won’t be a movie – or at least the movie would clash so vehemently with expectations that it would need to be handled a whole different way.

No worries. Filmmaker Sorkin is indeed doing a combination agitprop journalistic thriller and character study. While it will be news to almost no one that a lot of social engagement online has devolved into something that’s at minimum irritating and at maximum homicidal, and there’s a lot of blame to be shared, THE SOCIAL RECKONING serves as a handy, punchy shorthand guide about part of how it got that way. It’s stimulating and educational, if maybe not as shocking in October 2026 as it might have been a while ago.

Meanwhile, true to life or no, we also have Frances increasingly consider her own motivations and what sort of person she wants to be. Madison keeps us engaged throughout. White has less to do emotionally but does it with precision and verve. Strong does a brilliant job of modulating Zuckerberg, going almost whisper-quiet on what is arguably his biggest moment.

THE SOCIAL RECKONING gives us the regular cinematic pleasure of showing us intriguing people on a compelling journey and provides some solid practical information besides.

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Article: Movie Review: THE SOCIAL RECKONING

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Movie Review: OTHER MOMMY

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 08:40:24 +0000

Rating: R
Stars: Jessica Chastain, Jay Duplass, Arabella Olivia Clark, Arian Moayed, Karen Allen, Dichen Lachman
Writer: Nathan Elston, based on the novel INCIDENTS AROUND THE HOUSE by Josh Malerman
Director: Rob Savage
Distributor: Universal
Release Date: October 9, 2026

Directed by Rob Savage and scripted by Nathan Elston, based on Josh Malerman’s novel INCIDENTS AROUND THE HOUSE, OTHER MOMMY has many virtues. It lets us know at the start that both “gods and demons” want to experience the ordinary miracle of being human. The entity known here as “Other Mommy” seems somewhat informationally challenge to be a god, so we can infer its nature from that.

This means that we can determine immediately what we’re looking at when we are introduced to the ongoing “friendship” between little Bela (Arabella Olivia Clark and “Other Mommy,” so-called because it often appears in the form of Bela’s mother Ursula (Jessica Chastain in both roles).

Happily, OTHER MOMMY also doesn’t go through the sometimes tedious process of dealing with adult disbelief. When Bela’s Daddo Russ (Jay Duplass) and then Ursula see the entity, the situations are so fraught and physical that both are quick to grasp that something supernatural is threatening them.

Even at seven years old, Bela (short for Isabela) detects strains in her parents’ marriage. Ursula works long hours, and Russ likes to get stoned. Ursula is also uncommonly close with Daddo’s pal Frank (Arian Moayed). Other Mommy is there to reassure Bela that everything can go back to being like it was – but Bela has to let Other Mommy into her heart.

Bela can tell this probably wouldn’t be a good idea, although because Other Mommy has been fun so far, it takes her awhile to realize her “friend” is dangerous.

All of this is fine, and the movie sets up lots of unsettling tableaus to jolt us and the characters. These usually work.

However, OTHER MOMMY’s problems mount as it proceeds. Once we know what Other Mommy wants from Bela, we question the entity’s strategy and tactics. Granted, a point is made that it’s not wholly familiar with the human world, but getting the feeling that our antagonist isn’t much of a planner doesn’t increase the dread quotient.

Then there’s Ursula and Russ’s attempts to figure out exactly what’s happening and what they ought to do about it. This is wholly understandable, but it takes up a fair amount of the running time without paying off in a big way. Ursula’s reluctance to try something easily at hand winds up being more time-consuming than psychologically insightful.

Chastain nails Ursula’s high-strung nature and Other Mommy’s emotionalism, and Duplass does a strong job as a man who’s unsure that he’s up to any part of his life. Clark is excellent, and Karen Allen and Dichen Lachman are both welcome in their roles.

OTHER MOMMY has some standout sequences, but it ultimately suffers from lack of narrative drive.

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Article: Movie Review: OTHER MOMMY