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Movie Review: SUPERGIRL

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 03:03:21 +0000

Rating: PG-13
Stars: Milly Adcock, David Corenswet, Eve Ridley, Matthias Schoenaerts, Diarmaid Murtagh, Jason Momoa, David Krumholtz, Emily Beecham
Writer: Ana Nogueira, based on characters created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster
Director: Craig Gillespie
Distributor: Warner Bros./DC Studios
Release Date: June 26, 2026

The new SUPERGIRL doesn’t have that “Eureka! This is how you do this now” spark that galvanized its immediate franchise predecessor, last year’s SUPERMAN. Director Craig Gillespie and screenwriter Ana Nogueira, basing the film on characters created by DC Comics’ Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, probably wisely, aren’t going for that.

Instead, the SUPERGIRL makers are intent on providing a lively adventure, getting to the point quickly and letting the action unspool with unquestionably strong motivation, abetted by plenty of punch-ups, kicking and frequent explosions.

Supergirl, aka Kara Zor-El (Milly Adcock), is from the now-dead planet Krypton, just like her cousin Clark/Kal-El/Superman (David Corenswet). However, where Clark has chosen to remain on Earth, where the yellow sun gives him superpowers that allow to help Earth’s residents, Kara likes to party on planets that have a red sun, where she has no unusual abilities.

This is because Kara seems to have taken to heart a dictum from a different comic book universe – with great power comes great responsibility – and decided the inverse is true: with no power comes no responsibility.

We get insight into exactly why Kara is so duty-averse over the course of SUPERGIRL, and it’s probably not a spoiler to say that she re-examines some attitudes as events unfold.

Kara plans to celebrate her twenty-third birthday on a backwater red sun planet. The bar where Kara chooses to drink is entered by preteen Ruthye Knoll (Eve Ridley), whose family has been murdered by brigands, led by the horrendous Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts). Ruthye is out for revenge. Kara thinks Ruthye is a bit young and pure-hearted to be on a murderous quest.

Even on a planet with a red sun, though, Kara is still handy with fists and feet. Ruthye sees what Kara can do and concludes she is the ideal ally. Kara absolutely refuses to help. Then something occurs that credibly rouses Kara to do whatever it takes to achieve her aims, which sort of line up with Ruthye’s.

No explanation is needed for why Kara feels such urgency, which we easily share. Her concern for Ruthye is understandable and her connecting to larger purpose is shown rather than spoken.

Intriguingly, the aesthetics of SUPERGIRL are largely those of STAR WARS, with some MAD MAX and BLADE RUNNER thrown in. The filmmakers have a good time with all sorts of utterly nonhuman alien people and figuring out how to make interplanetary versions of familiar items like vending machines.

The pace is pleasingly brisk and the structure doesn’t require much exposition. When they hit a hard-to-answer question like why Kara is Supergirl while Clark is Superman, they acknowledge it and then get out from under without irritating anybody.

For anyone wondering about the veracity of the recording from Superman’s parents that appeared in SUPERMAN, a quick line of dialogue here confirms it (sorry, Jor-El supporters).

There is the expected amount of CGI involved, including a great motion-capture performance by Kara’s dog Krypto (modeled upon executive producer/SUPERMAN director James Gunn’s dog), but a lot of the stunts and makeup appear gratifyingly practical.

Adcock is fine in all of Kara’s moods, from wasted to resistant to determined, with a delightful reaction to feeling her body’s response to the yellow sun. Ridley is an appealing young hero, and Corenswet offers wholesome support. Schoenaerts lets Krem revel in his own soft-spoken vileness, and Jason Momoa enthusiastically portrays an intergalactic bounty hunter. David Krumholtz is affecting as Kara’s scientist father.

SUPERGIRL isn’t going to redefine superhero movies, but it’s a perfectly enjoyable example of the form.

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Movie Review: THE GET OUT

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 03:02:57 +0000

Rating: R
Stars: Russell Crowe, Luke Evans, Teresa Palmer, Danny Zovatto, Josh McConville, Ever Love Hope, Nina Dobrev, Aaron Paul, Benedict Hardie
Writers: Derrick Borte & Daniel Forte, based on the novel STRIP by Thomas Perry
Director: Derrick Borte
Distributor: Vertical Entertainment
Release Date: June 26, 2026

THE GET OUT (not to be confused with Jordan Peele’s 2017 GET OUT) is based on STRIP, a novel by the late Edgar Award-winning mystery/thriller writer Thomas Perry. Without having read the source material, it’s hard to say how faithful the adaptation by director Derrick Borte & his co-scenarist Daniel Forte is, but the movie plays like something that might have come from Elmore Leonard.

The filmmakers handily capture that lethal-but-light tone we associate with Leonard’s colorful, complicated crime stories.

Club owner/discreet gangster Manco Kapak (Russell Crowe) introduces himself to us in voiceover. Manco is Albanian, but he’s been in U.S. for over 20 years. The Los Angeles nightclub he runs, aided by assistant Spene (Benedict Hardie), used to be a strip joint. Now it’s a popular high-end spot, which is also a front where Manco launders money for a Tijuana cartel, represented by Rodriguez (Danny Zovatto).

The lifestyle has its stressors, but all seems to be going reasonably well. Then, while having enthusiastic sex with his younger girlfriend Sunny (Teresa Palmer), Manco has a cardiac incident that lands him in the hospital.

The doctor has a stern warning for Manco. Sunny is honestly concerned. She thinks Joe should retire and the two of them should move to somewhere like Thailand.

Surprisingly, Manko thinks Sunny may be right. He has a potential buyer for the club, eccentric New Jersey transplant Joe Carver (Luke Evans).

One night, while Manco is still contemplating the sale, he gets robbed as he’s making the nightly cash drop for the cartel at the bank. The robber is clearly nervous, but he’s armed. Manco makes up the financial shortage to the cartel with his own money, but Rodriguez is worried about this sudden vulnerability.

The situation grows complicated, encompassing a depressed college teacher (Aaron Paul), a bank teller (Nina Dobrev) obsessed with the original 1991 POINT BREAK, an LAPD detective (Josh McConville) and more.

Once we come to terms with Crowe’s Albanian accent, Manco is agreeable enough company. Unlike a lot of genre club owners, he acts like a responsible businessman, is affectionate with the loyal Sunny, considerate with his workers, and slow to violence – although of course he’s good at it when it’s required. Crowe keeps him twinkly and warm and thoughtful enough for us to believe Manco knows what he’s doing.

The rest of the cast are game and on point. Paul stands out as the man who knows he’s in way over his head. Evans is fun and appears to be having a blast, especially in a karaoke sequence, and Dobrev is appropriately lively.

The filmmakers keep everything moving at a brisk pace, even though there aren’t too many big action set pieces. THE GET OUT was shot primarily in Queensland, but thanks to some well-chosen suburban Los Angeles exteriors, we’d never know it but for the closing credits.

THE GET OUT doesn’t try to be definitive, but it’s diverting and holds our curiosity as to how all its puzzle pieces will fit together or blow apart.

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Movie Review: CAMP

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 03:02:49 +0000

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Zola Grimmer, Alice Wordsworth, Cherry Moore, Lea Rose Sebastianis, Ella Reece, Austyn Van de Kamp, Michael Tan, Izza Jarvis
Writer: Avalon Fast
Director: Avalon Fast
Distributor: Dark Sky Films
Release Date: June 26, 2026

One might think that a movie called CAMP has a double entendre title. One would, in that case, be mistaken. Although CAMP is set at one of those establishments where, for a summer, young counselors tend to younger campers, it is not arch or particularly funny. Also, while there are possibly ominous, perhaps supernatural goings-on, it is not a slasher.

So, what exactly is CAMP? That’s a good question.

Written and directed by Avalon Fast, CAMP begins with grainy black-and-white footage that shifts to grainy color during the opening credits. The movie is overall beautifully shot by cinematographer Elly Sprungman, so this initial ruminative look (like so much else here) is clearly deliberate.

We then see a naked woman in the woods, followed by what appears to be a glowing angel on a television, except that the image spills over past the bottom of the screen.

Emily (Zola Grimmer) was a troubled teen who has become an even more troubled adult. Her young life, already impacted by one tragedy, is completely upended by the death of her best friend.

With Emily practically comatose and unwilling to leave her room, Emily’s dad (Michael Tan) proposes that she become a counselor at a camp for troubled teens. Many of the other counselors have gone through experiences that are comparable to Emily’s trauma.

The sign for the camp just says “CAMP.” It’s a long walk from the train station to the sign and another hike to the buildings. Once there, Emily checks in with upbeat head counselor Dan (Austyn Van de Kamp) and second-year counselor Jo (Sophia Bawks-Smith).

There is a lot of Christian imagery around, and Ellie worries over the phone to her dad that it’s a church camp. He tells her he’s sure she can find other nonbelievers.

It’s unclear if Ellie encounters any actually nonbelievers, at least among her new young women friends, who have strong beliefs, just not in Jesus. (The Christian artwork belongs to Dan.)

Emily is sent to room with the exceptionally cheerful Rosie (Cherry Moore) in Cabin 18. The cabin may have bad vibes. The rest of their group includes leader Clara (Alice Wordsworth), Nev (Lea Rose Sebastianis), and Hope (Ella Reece).

Emily is immediately accepted into the clique. They love to party. They also do pagan rituals that they believe are magical, putting out into the universe what they wish to manifest.

Emily reaches out to an especially unhappy camper, Eden (Izzie Jarvis), identifying with the younger girl’s alienation. At the same time, Clara makes clear her attraction to Emily.

Meanwhile, Emily has unsettling visions and dreams.

At one hour and fifteen minutes in, Emily voices concerns. “There’s something evil here, isn’t there?”

Possibly. Or maybe everybody is just trying to make life more exciting, away from all practical supervision.

It’s hard to know what to make of CAMP. It is well-acted, and a lot of it is realistic in terms of the kinds of interactions and bonds that young people naturally have in this type of environment. The acting is persuasive and unforced across the board.

But what are we to make of the supposed witchcraft? Is it real, or are Clara and Company just playing mean psychological pranks on their peers?

CAMP walks between naturalism and surrealism in ways that encourage the viewer to read into it what they will. (The ending, if taken literally, is jarringly homophobic.) This reviewer, who would prefer more clarity and more drive from a narrative, is therefore probably not the best judge of this style of storytelling.

CAMP looks great and has insight into what can provide urgency to some twenty-somethings. As to whether it’s fulfilling or not, ask someone more in tune with its ethos or form your own opinion.

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Movie Review: LEVITICUS

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 01:10:13 +0000

Rating: R
Stars: Joe Bird, Stacy Clausen, Jeremy Blewitt, Mia Wasikowska, Ewen Leslie, Davida McKenzie, Nicholas Hope
Writer: Adrian Chiarella
Director: Adrian Chiarella
Distributor: Neon
Release Date: June 19, 2026

“Conversion therapy,” for those thankfully unacquainted with the term and/or process, is designed to make LGBTQ people, largely (but not always) teens, lose their innate sexuality and become heterosexual. It is still legal in twenty-seven U.S. states. This “therapy” has been denounced by the American Psychiatric Association and has resulted in suicides and nervous breakdowns, but no provable “conversions.”

The phrase “conversion therapy” is never heard in LEVITICUS. Writer/director Adrian Chiarella has come up with an ingeniously potent religious/supernatural metaphor for the practice.

Upfront, we get a preview of what is to come, where a young woman at a swimming pool shower appears to be having a date with, and then torn apart by, someone or something only she can see and hear.

LEVITICUS is set in a small town in Australia, where teen Naim (Joe Bird) and his mother Arlene (Mia Wasikowska) have moved after the death of his father/her husband. Mum is very religious and promptly joins a welcoming but strict congregation led by Pastor Rob (Ewen Leslie). When Arlene testifies in church that she has found solace in silence, it’s a warning sign that she may not be open to listening to Naim.

Meanwhile, shy Naim’s life is considerably enlivened when he is befriended by jock schoolmate Ryan (Stacy Clausen). The two use an abandoned structure to make out and perhaps do more.

But then Naim sees Ryan kissing Pastor Rob’s son Hunter (Jeremy Blewitt). In a fit of jealousy, Naim hints about what he saw to Rob.

That’s enough for Pastor Rob to call in the mysterious “Deliverance Healer” (Nicholas Hope). The man performs a ritual on Hunter and Ryan, using just a disposable lighter and an incantation.

Both youths end up vomiting and writhing on the floor, but that’s not the end of it. Naim witnesses first Hunter, then Ryan, interacting with an invisible (to Naim) figure as though they are doing something romantic, only for each to come away bloodied and terrified. Ryan is specifically terrified of Naim.

Then Arlene deduces that Naim may be gay and inflicts the Deliverance Healer on him. Soon Naim is being approached by an entity that looks and sounds exactly like Ryan but tries to tear him to pieces as soon as he puts himself in reach.

Naim and Ryan soon learn they are only safe when they are actually together, or around other people. Isolation here can literally kill.

LEVITICUS is disturbing, moving, and sometimes truly frightening (there are a couple of highly effective jump scares). The young actors are excellent, with Bird and Clausen giving us different iterations of the combination of truculence and vulnerability particular to adolescents, and Clausen is terrifying when he’s embodying the malign spirit. Wasikowska invites both our pity and our anger as Naim’s loving but rigid mother.

Chiarella takes advantage of the empty areas common to suburbs the world over. A place that is mundane can become a soul-bruising void, and we soon feel melancholy as well as fearful.

On a meta level, any story using analogies to talk about LGBTQ people, or any other marginalized group (including women, races, and religions), has to be careful. Once a narrative takes on the burden of messaging, it risks adding to the mass of demonizing propaganda that’s already out there, depending on the tale’s outcome.

There is, therefore, an intensifying of audience curiosity as LEVITICUS proceeds. Is it going to wind up, perhaps inadvertently, making a homophobic statement? If not, and Chiarella knows what he’s saying, how will it avoid this fate?

At the risk of being spoilery, Chiarella is clear on the statement he and LEVITICUS are putting forth. A key line of dialogue that is given twice hints at the resolution before we reach one that is touching and even heartening, at the same time it acknowledges that it’s hard to banish the threat it addresses.

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CRIMINAL MINDS: EVOLUTION: Executive producer and showrunner Erica Messer gives the scoop on the latest season – Exclusive Interview

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 01:10:07 +0000

CRIMINAL MINDS, the procedural drama following the F.B.I.’s Behavioral Analysis Unit (B.A.U.) as they track and capture serial killers, premiered in 2005 on CBS, where it aired for fifteen seasons. Canceled in 2020, the show returned in 2022 on Paramount+ as CRIMINAL MINDS: EVOLUTION.

However, the series’ creatives and cast – current regulars are Paget Brewster as unit chief Emily Prentiss, Joe Mantegna as veteran agent (and bestselling author) David Rossi, Kirsten Vangsness as the unit’s tech guru Penelope Garcia, A.J. Cook as agent Jennifer “J.J.” Jareau, Aisha Tyler as psychiatrist Dr. Tara Lewis, Adam Rodriguez as agent Luke Alvez, RJ Hatanaka as the unit’s newest agent Tyler Green, and Zach Gilford as incarcerated but (maybe) rehabilitated genius serial killer Elias Voit – consider CRIMINAL MINDS: EVOLUTION to be a continuation of rather than any kind of reinvention of the original CRIMINAL MINDS, and therefore count EVOLUTION as Season 19.

However it is calculated, CRIMINAL MINDS: EVOLUTION is in the middle of its fourth season on Paramount Plus, with new episodes dropping Thursday nights. Season 20 has already been announced.

Erica Messer has been with CRIMINAL MINDS since the beginning. She was a writer/producer on the CBS iteration and has been the showrunner and one of the executive producers since it became CRIMINAL MINDS: EVOLUTION. She also created the 2016-2017 spinoff, CRIMINAL MINDS: BEYOND BORDERS. Messer’s other previous writing and/or producing credits include ALIAS, CHARMED, and THE O.C.

Messer gets on a Zoom call with Assignment X to talk about the evolution of CRIMINAL MINDS to talk about some of what we’re seeing in Season 19.

We start with a big-picture question. Given that the real-world F.B.I. has gone through some unexpected developments in the past year, did the CRIMINAL MINDS: EVOLUTION creative team have discussions of how to deal with it on the show?

Messer replies, “I feel like we’re quite often reflecting challenges that are happening in the real world, but also aware that our show is watched at different times, so we can never really tie it to the latest. I feel like in Season 19, we were shooting it at a time when a transition of power had just happened, and we were using phrases [in the scripts] like, ‘We don’t have a lot of fans in this administration’ and things like that, which I think was our way of saying there have been changes once again, and we’re in the middle of some of those conversations.

“But we didn’t want to point to anything too egregiously, and I think that’s just the history of the show. We’ve never really done that. I feel like it was EVOLUTION that really acknowledged for the first time a shared trauma that the world has had, which was COVID, right? And all the changes that happened after that. But yeah, we didn’t want to replace Clark Gregg [who recurs as F.B.I. Director Ray Madison]. We really like him as our Director of the F.B.I., so I’ll leave it at that.”

Speaking of really liking actors in their roles, did Messer and the other creators know when their characters were introduced in Season 16 that they’d be keeping Gilford’s Elias Voit and/or RJ Hatanaka’s Tyler Green?

Voit started as the master of an online network of fellow serial killers, and a prolific murderer himself, who suffered a traumatic brain injury at the end of Season 17 that rewired his instincts and is now trying to help the B.A.U. solve cases from inside prison. Both Voit and the B.A.U. are disgusted that, once he was identified, the media made him famous. Meanwhile, Green has gone from a vigilante (who had an affair with Garcia) to a B.A.U. team member.

“Oh, my gosh. Those guys – the short answer is, we didn’t plan on keeping them past that first season of EVOLUTION. It’s just a testament to who they are as performers and people that are lovely to work with that really kept them employed all this time, and then, as a result of really enjoying where we were going with those characters, then it was like, ‘Okay, this is our world right now, how else are we going to examine a serial killer every which way?’ We talk about knowing them inside and out, and we’re going to really get a chance to do that.

“So, with the first two seasons [of EVOLUTION] being about that Gold Star case [a government experiment that produced a number of young serial killers], it really left a lot of other stories on the table, like the whole network that Voit had. What happened to those people? And because we were so focused on Gold Star – rightfully so, we needed to solve that – it allowed that third season to be like, ‘Oh, yeah, there’s this whole network of serial killers we still need to catch, but now the guy who was the leader of them doesn’t even remember being a bad guy.’ Well, that’s a problem, right?

“And so, for this season, we were dealing with a killer who was always working in the shadows and now he’s a household name. So, it was really that journey that excited us, for Zach especially, for us to see all the sides of an investigation of a killer, who normally, the B.A.U. would have walked away from by now but, as Tara Lewis says in the premiere, ‘You are a living resource, and we, like it or not, we need to communicate together.’ And so, that felt like something fresh and new for our team to do, again, not just for an episode, but for a whole season.

“And RJ is so connected to Zach’s storyline, and he came in to us in an unexpected way, and had his unexpected journey with Garcia, and it felt like, ‘Do we let this guy come on the team when there’s been a relationship before?’ And we thought, ‘Well, once again, it’s a challenge, because we’ve never done that. We’ve never had any team members in a romance [with each other].’ And so, because Garcia was very clear, when that relationship ended, that she had borders and walls up, and now we’ve been able to explore what that is, to work with someone who you know intimately, and how that looks for the rest of the team, who also are aware of that relationship. So, again, just exploring things that we hadn’t been able to do in the broadcast version.”

Voit had previously so traumatized Rossi that Rossi had hallucinations of Voit talking to him. Rossi has recovered from this, but now Voit’s id is speaking to him in the guise of Rossi – and not necessarily the benevolent real Rossi we’ve come to know.

Did Mantegna ask the writers to do something to let him play an evil, if imaginary, version of Rossi?

Messer laughs. “It was definitely the flip side of what we had done when Rossi was seeing Voit. But it really was also born out of, Rossi doesn’t want to go visit Voit. He’s done. He doesn’t want to have anything to do with him. But Joe and Zach are so good together, they were like, ‘Okay, but if Rossi doesn’t want that, that means Joe and Zach aren’t going to be in scenes together. Unless, now it’s Voit’s turn to hear the angel or devil on his shoulder.’

“So, it was born out of, we love Joe and Zach together so much that it probably started there and, ‘How do we make that happen without betraying Rossi, who doesn’t want to visit with Voit?’ And then it was like, ‘What if we just did the flip of what we’d done before?’ So, it was really because those two guys are so good together.”

A lot of the CRIMINAL MINDS: EVOLUTION cast members have also directed series episodes. “I feel like Season 19 is probably the last season of that for a while, because we only have ten episodes [per season], and when we have a number of cast directing, then it has a ripple effect into all of the episodes, whether it’s story or releasing them for prep and shoot and post and all that. So, Season 20, we’re not doing that.

“Basically, all of the cast who had directed in the CBS version, Joe, Aisha, Adam, and A.J. had all raised their hands to direct in the streaming version, and it seemed like that would be fine, and it was, and they delivered incredible episodes. And because of that, Zach raised his hand and said, ‘I’ve shadowed before, but I’ve never had a chance to direct.’ And so, Zach got a shot as well.”

However, it’s difficult to surmount the logistical challenge of having an individual who, as a director, needs to plot out a shot list with a script at the same time that, as an actor, they’re needed on set, knowing their lines and blocking.

“It becomes a lot of moving parts to try to make that happen in a ten-episode order. Season 19 had Adam and Zach [directing]; the season before had Aisha, Joe, and A.J. So, yeah, we were trying to spread it out over a couple of seasons. They’re all talented filmmakers. Everybody’s been in front of the camera for so long that they certainly know best practices behind the camera, too.”

And what would Messer most like people to know about this season of CRIMINAL MINDS: EVOLUTION?

“I think that they’re going to be really interested in this continued journey that the B.A.U. is on, and of the new challenge when you’ve got a killer that everybody knows about, and they have fans. So, it’s not a great thing for investigators.”

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Article: Exclusive Interview: Executive producer and showrunner Erica Messer on Season 4 of CRIMINAL MINDS: EVOLUTION

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Movie Review: DISCLOSURE DAY

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 17:03:20 +0000

Rating: PG-13
Stars: Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, Colman Domingo, Wyatt Russell
Writer: David Koepp, story by Steven Spielberg
Director: Steven Spielberg
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Release Date: June 12, 2026

DISCLOSURE DAY begins in what in other movies would be the middle, or at least the end of the first act. A man, who we will soon learn is scientist and mathematical genius Dr. Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor), is bound to a chair. A group of men in dark suits, led by Dr. Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth), want both an object and information Daniel has. Daniel is just worried about what they’ve done with his girlfriend, Jane Blankenship (Eve Hewson).

Daniel manages to escape with both Jane and the object. He gets intermittent guidance from former coworker Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo), who is involved in constructing what looks like a set on a soundstage with his crew as he tries to guide Daniel to him.

Meanwhile, Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt), a California transplant who is currently the weather reporter on a local station in Missouri, wakes up with her boyfriend Jackson (Wyatt Russell). She is thinking maybe they should move again; he would like to stay put.

Then a little red bird flies into the kitchen for a minute, delighting both Maggie and Jackson. The bird flies away and Maggie begins talking conversationally to Jackson in Russian, although she neither knows the language nor realizes she’s no longer speaking English.

Waving off Jackson’s concern, Maggie heads in to the TV station, which is reporting on the possibility of imminent nuclear war. Maggie is still supposed to talk about the weather but, with the cameras on her, she lapses into an inhuman dialect of clicks and moans, finally collapsing onto the floor.

The broadcast of this goes out live and gets Scanlon’s attention. Soon Maggie is also fleeing his clutches and following her instincts, which push her toward joining up with Daniel, even though they don’t know each other.

Directed by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by David Koepp from Spielberg’s story, DISCLOSURE DAY easily fits as the third piece of Spielberg’s unofficial alien trilogy that began with 1977’s CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND and continued with 1982’S E.T.: THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL. It is full of wonder, joy, and optimism.

It’s also got some of the action Spielberg is justly famed for, including a hair-raising car-vs.-car-vs.-train sequence. Even though we know what the outcome has to be (it’s in the middle of the movie), it’s a nerve-grabber.

The acting is also excellent, with Blunt and O’Connor both conveying fear and confusion along with enormous moral rectitude. Hewson and Firth both handle layered roles with grace and alacrity. Domingo, tasked with delivering most of the exposition, does so with a lot of heart, and Russell provides a nice low-key comedic foil as the voice of disbelief.

DISCLOSURE DAY is entertaining and beguiling. It has been made with optimism, and not just in its subject matter. It hopes that its viewers – at least, enough of them – will hang in with its essence of innocence and goodwill.

However, DISCLOSURE DAY has to contend with two meta questions that CLOSE ENCOUNTERS and E.T. did not. Neither of these queries are about whether aliens exist and/or are visiting Earth, but they are hard to avoid contemplating, given its convictions that the truth, if it can get out there, will be credible and have major impact on daily life around the world.

One: is society as a whole really shockable any more, especially in America? Scanlon and Jane are both terrified of some kind of societal collapse resulting from the revelation, but in reality, we’ve undergone a whole lot of horrifying and sometimes immediately dangerous revelations without a response that unleashes mass hysteria.

Two: what would constitute proof that a majority of people would accept as the truth? Seeing something on the news, depending which news one is watching, doesn’t necessarily convince anyone of anything, especially these days. Presumably the characters in DISCLOSURE DAY have seen films not unlike this one, with special effects that look like the onscreen evidence created for the movie’s special effects. It feels like the initial result would be folks arguing over whether this is real or not, never mind the implications, and then opinions would harden into divergent beliefs, depending on what best suits an individual’s views.

Ultimately, the full movement of DISCLOSURE DAY doesn’t depend on this. It keeps us engrossed by the journey of its people, and that makes it worthwhile.

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Movie Review: KRAKEN

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 17:03:13 +0000

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Sara Khorami, Mikkel Bratt Silset, Ingvild Holthe Bygdnes, Øyvind Brandtzæg, Jenny Evensen, Steiner Klouman Hallert, Filip Bargee Ramberg, Hans Morten Hansen, Jon Erik Myre
Writers: Vilde Eide and Kjersti Helen Rasmussen and Natasha Arthur, story by Pål Øie and Sjur Aarthun
Director: Pål Øie
Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn Films/Nordisk Film
Release Date: June 12, 2026

Given the English-language joking about “unleash the Kraken” and “release the Kraken,” this KRAKEN is surprisingly and pleasingly non-campy.

True, KRAKEN does have a sonic transducer as part of its plot, but no one mentions or even hums a bar from THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW. It’s unironically serious, and it almost always works.

This KRAKEN is set mainly in and around the (real) Norwegian town of Vangsnes on the shores of the (also real) Sognefjord, estimated to be one of the deepest fjords in the world. In the movie, at least, its main industry seems to be a salmon farm. (We will leave discussion of the ethics of fish farming for another time.)

After introductory black-and-white footage of an old documentary about a giant “shadow” that appeared in the fjord, we see a pair of tourists on a jet ski in the water between the fjord’s mighty cliffs. They are oblivious to what’s in the water beneath them.

Marine lice are real. They can sicken and kill fish and other animals. Marine biologist Johanne (Sara Khorami) was instrumental in developing a sonic device for delousing the fish farm salmon, but she left Vangsnes seven years earlier to work for the Institute of Marine Research.

Johanne has multiple reasons for not wanting to return to Vangsnes, but her boss orders her to go. Something is causing the salmon to beach themselves and it may be related to the sonic transducer.

Almost everyone is delighted to see Johanne again, including local police officer Henriette (Ingvild Holthe Bygdnes) and Henriette’s teen daughter Maria (Jenny Evensen).

Henriette’s husband/Maria’s father Avaldnes Jostein (Øyvind Brandtzæg) pretends to be happy about Johanne’s arrival, but he’s actually less than thrilled, especially at her timing. Jostein runs the fish farm, and Japanese investors are here for his presentation.

Johanne’s former colleague and possible former boyfriend Erik (Mikkel Bratt Silset) is just plain shocked. On the one hand, he’s hurt that she abandoned their project (and him) partway through. Still, he acknowledges he needs help in determining whether there is something wrong with the sonic transducer.

Johanne and Erik are both mystified by some enormous parasites and evidence of their even bigger host in the fjord. As they try to figure out what these are and whether they’re related to the delousing equipment, things go very bad, very fast.

KRAKEN turns out to be a lot more like JAWS (people trapped in a scary aquatic-adjacent environment by a terrifying creature) and ALIEN (scientists pushing sternly forward in the face of dangerous bureaucracy while trapped in a scary environment by a terrifying creature) than CLASH OF THE TITANS or DEEP RISING.

There are a couple of unfortunate shots (one of a person in the grip of a flailing tentacle, another of the Kraken’s eyes), but most of the special effects are solid, especially on the big parasites.

Pål Øie, directing from a screenplay by Vilde Eide and Kjersti Helen Rasmussen and Natasha Arthur, from a story by Øie and Sjur Aarthun, keeps the tension rising steadily without going for histrionics.

Khorami and Silset in particular are admirably contained and sober as they examine evidence and react to their discoveries. Brandtzæg demonstrates both a hearty salesman exterior and a spot-on American accent during negotiations with the Japanese; in a nice detail, conversations between the Norwegians and Japanese are conducted in English, as that language is common to both groups. (The rest of KRAKEN is in Norwegian, with English subtitles.)

As movies about people trapped by cephalopods of unusual size go, KRAKEN is largely satisfying. For those who care about such benefits, there’s also some great footage of the Norwegian landscape, as KRAKEN was shot on location.

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Movie Review: FIND YOUR FRIENDS

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 17:02:59 +0000

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Bella Thorne, Chloe Cherry, Helena Howard, Sophia Ali, Zión Moreno, Jake Manley, Israel Broussard, Harrison Gilbertson, Chris Bauer, Patrick Millin, Zak Steiner, Blaine Kern III, Zander Bleck, Austin Woods
Writer: Izabel Pakzad
Director: Izabel Pakzad
Distributor: IFC/Shudder
Release Date: June 12, 2026 (Shudder)

Written and directed by Izabel Pakzad, FIND YOUR FRIENDS has a title that conveys the most dramatic portion of the film, approximately the last third, when the main characters finally take action.

We begin on a party on a yacht in the Long Beach harbor, where five young women – college pals Amber (Helena Howard), Lavinia (Bella Thorne), Zosia (Zión Moreno), Lola (Chloe Cherry), and Maddy (Sophia Ali) – are drinking, ingesting a variety of psychoactive substances, and talking about sex.

Due to a misunderstanding about situational nuances, Amber is left alone by her cohort in a cabin with attractive but aggressive Tye (Blaine Kern III). He believes Amber has implicitly consented to carnal relations. When she makes it very clear she has not, Tye attempts to rape her.

Amber escapes. She does not tell her friends what has happened. Shortly thereafter, she sees Tye sitting at the brunch table with another woman as though he’s done nothing. Amber breaks a punchbowl over Tye’s head.

Because Amber doesn’t explain what prompted this, her friends think she’s having some psychological issues.

A little while later, the five college mates are in a jeep, on their way to an Air BnB outside the high (in more than one sense of that word here) desert town of Joshua Tree, California. They are here to relax and have fun before education beckons again.

We learn more about them as individuals as they “love on each other,” exchanging praises and predictions for each other’s future. They make enough noise to irritate permanent desert resident and nearby neighbor Russell (Chris Bauer), who comes over to complain.

That night, the ladies go into town, meet up with Lavinia’s friend Cameron (Zander Bleck), who introduces them to his friends, including rock band lead singer Coby (Harrison Gilbertson).

Coby takes Amber outdoors for a private chat. He seems nice enough, with philosophical platitudes that are at least humane. Also, he’s clean and sober, which is likely an asset in Amber’s potential dating pool.

Amber, though, has a flashback to what happened with Tye and begins accusing Coby of trying to assault her.

And here we pause for a public service announcement. Do women, and men, who are drugged to the gills sometimes get confused about what’s going on and/or mix up memories with reality? It can certainly happen. Does this mean that a woman’s, or a man’s, account of assault should be outright dismissed just because they are chemically impaired? No. The implication that victims shouldn’t be believed starts an ick factor in FIND YOUR FRIENDS.

This is not, story-wise, the most important incident that transpires at the club. Lola invites Amber over to sample the wares of a trio of local coke dealers (Jake Manley, Patrick Millin, Austin Woods), who appear to expect intercourse in exchange for their blow. Let us stipulate again that nothing justifies non-consensual sex, aka rape.

This said, it is probably unwise to assume that criminals beyond the scrutiny of normal law enforcement are sensitive to this. They are moreover likely to view rejection in this scenario as refusal in to “pay” for goods already supplied.

FIND YOUR FRIENDS doesn’t have a detectable opinion on this. We want to side with our protagonists, if only because the alternative is so odious. But Amber and Co. are so oblivious and insensitive to each other that it’s hard going.

Due to poorly-thought-out decisions on Amber’s part, it becomes impossible for the women to contact the authorities. The last half-hour of FIND YOUR FRIENDS bursts into ultra-violence against both genders.

The movie’s final third will cause viewers to lean forward. Recommendation, therefore, depends on how audiences react to the first two-thirds. There are indeed a lot of great-looking, entitled young people in the real world who spend a lot of time in altered states. The question is whether we want to spend much of that time with fictional versions of them, as they are not very good company for either one another or for us.

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HELLMOUTHCON 2025 – Con report, interviews w/BUFFY/ANGEL actor James Marsters, Fandom Charities founder Marsia Powers and more

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 16:36:42 +0000

Camden Toy as one of the Gentlemen on BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER | design by Optic Nerve / photo courtesy Optic Nerve

HellmouthCon 2026: A BUFFY Celebration at Sunnydale High will be held June 13-14 at Torrance High School in Torrance, California, where Sunnydale High was shot for the first three seasons of the Joss Whedon-created BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. Presented by Fandom Charities Inc. & Hellmouth Events, this is the third consecutive year at the high school venue for Hellmouth Con, which also celebrates all things regarding the BUFFY spinoff ANGEL and a few things FIREFLY.

The guest roster for this year includes actors Amber Benson (Tara on BUFFY), Amy Acker (Fred and Illyria on ANGEL), Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia on BUFFY and ANGEL), Clare Kramer (Glory on BUFFY), Doug Jones (a Gentleman on BUFFY, plus Saru on STAR TREK: DISCOVERY and a host of other high-profile credits), Emma Caulfield (Anya on BUFFY), J. August Richards (Charles Gunn on ANGEL), James C. Leary (Clem on BUFFY), Julie Benz (Darla on BUFFY and ANGEL), Iyari Limon (Kennedy on BUFFY), Larry Bagby (Larry on BUFFY), Mark Lutz (the Groosalugg on ANGEL), and Stephanie Romanov (Lilah on ANGEL), plus behind-the-scenes personnel. For more information on guests and tickets, go to fandomcharities.org/hellmouthcon.

Marsia Powers, founder and president of Fandom Charities and director of Guest and Sponsor relations for HellmouthCon, says that three of this year’s charity beneficiaries are the Al Wooten Youth Center, Rainbow Spaces for LGBTQIA+ Youth, and PanCAN. “We always will be supporting the Al Wooten Youth Center. The money we raise goes to the Ron Glass Memorial Scholarship Fund for kids to be able to go to college. they get a piece of it. We also are raising money [starting in 2025[,for PanCAN, which is the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, in memory of Camden Toy.”

Toy died of pancreatic cancer in 2023. On BUFFY, he played a Gentleman, Gnarl, and the original Ubervamp, and on ANGEL, he played the Nosferatu-like Prince of Lies. Powers describes Toy was “a supporter of Fandom Charities and his fans from Day One.” A memorial panel for him is scheduled at at the 2026 Hellmouth Con.

Powers estimates that, including volunteers and vendors, there were over 1,200 people at HellmouthCon 2025. Fans came from all over the U.S., as well as Canada, Europe, and Australia. So, what was it like?

At Hellmouth Con 2025, there is multi-track programming. Attendees can choose from panels about the show moderated by other fans, such as Release Your Inner Badass, Navigating the Creative Output in Today’s Social Media Landscape, Hellmouth Media Queer Creators Take the Mic, BUFFY Password, and much more.

Alternatively, fans can attend or play mix-and-match with Q&A sessions with BUFFY and ANGEL actors and creative staff, including ANGEL co-creator/writer/producer/director David Greenwalt, comic book artist George Jeanty, James Marsters (Spike on BUFFY and ANGEL), Juliet Landau (Drusilla on BUFFY and ANGEL), Christian Kane (Lindsey on ANGEL), Armin Shimerman (Principal Snyder on BUFFY), D.B. Woodside (Principal Wood on BUFFY), Harry Groener (the Mayor on BUFFY), Keith Szarabajka (Daniel Holtz on ANGEL), Ken Lerner (Principal Flutie on BUFFY), Caulfield, Benson, and Romanov, in addition to numerous others.

Most of the convention guests are also available for photographs, autographs, and “special fan experiences,” where attendees can talk with them in smaller groups at greater length.

There is also an enormous vendor marketplace in the high school gymnasium, where photos, t-shirts, toys and other memorabilia are available for purchase.

A Q&A with Marsters and Landau, moderated by Landau’s husband Deverill Weekes, begins with Marsters asking the audience to stand up so he can record them with his cellphone. The has been reported on extensively elsewhere, but a highlight of this was Landau explaining that in her audition for Drusilla, who Angel had driven mad before turning her, she started talking to the ceiling, which she believes got her the role. Marsters says he was meanwhile preparing for his own audition in the hallway, which he did by going into a Shakespeare soliloquy. Seeing this before actually meeting Marsters, Landau says she was thrown, thinking, “Why is this guy talking to a wall? He’s not auditioning for Drusilla …”

Benson, herself the author of both the DEATH’S DAUGHTER and THE WITCHES OF ECHO PARK franchises, is here to publicly interview writer Raven Belasco about her BLOOD & ANCIENT SCROLLS series of novels; Benson narrates the audiobook editions. Belasco says she wanted to create a global world of vampires and for her protagonist, Noosh, “to be a big old nerd, but also to kick ass.” Benson observes that BUFFY is an iconic show that changed how vampires could be shown and written about.

In the evening, there is a concert, with Marsters and Kane taking turns playing songs. These are mostly their own compositions, although Kane also plays “L.A. Song,” written by Greenwalt for Kane’s character Lindsey to perform on ANGEL. Kane gives a shoutout to Greenwalt, who is in the audience.

On Sunday, there are more Q&As and fan panels. Landau runs a trivia contest for the audience of her podcast REVAMPED WITH JULIET LANDAU, with contestants coming in person and on Zoom from all over. Among the prizes are a Blu-ray edition of Landau and Weekes’s narrative feature A PLACE AMONG THE DEAD.

A villains panel with Groener, Kane, Marsters, Romanov, and Szarabajka has the panelists teasing each other and the audience.

Szarabajka stands up for his character Holtz, who kidnapped Angel’s infant son. He questions his billing on the panel. “Angel killed my wife and my infant baby, and turned my daughter, and I’m the villain?”

Kane quips, “You’ve said that twice now. I think you need therapy.”

Marsters contributes, “I find that if I’m acting out of a sense of ‘I’m the hero,’ or ‘I’m the victim,’ I can do anything.”

Romanov observes, “My character was bad, and she’d sold her soul. Why did she sell her soul? Maybe we don’t think about why we’re trying to do good, but we’re trying not to do bad.”

Groener found some good in the Mayor – whose main goal was to become a giant snake demon – when Eliza Dushku’s Faith character arrived in Season 3. “Something changes in him when Faith enters the picture.” He was happy he got to see the maquette of the snake.

Marsters was surprised he wasn’t killed off at some point on BUFFY. “At the start of every season, the producers would say, ‘We have no idea what to do with you.’ Marsters talks about the choices his character Victor makes on the Hulu MARVEL’S RUNAWAYS series, where he gets Earth-saving help from an alien – who unfortunately eats teenagers. “What is the price of your conscience?”

Romanov appreciates this philosophical question. The arc she says she never saw coming was Lilah’s affair with normally righteous Wesley (Alexis Denisof).

Kane reveals that he auditioned for the role of Buffy’s human boyfriend Riley, ultimately played by Marc Blucas, before being cast as Lindsey on ANGEL. He points out that, other than David Boreanaz, “I was the only guy who was in the first episode and the last episode.”

Because the final episode of ANGEL was top secret, Kane adds, “The day ANGEL was canceled, Joss said, ‘I’m going to kill you.’ They filmed it two months ahead [of the shooting of the rest of the finale] at four AM. Nobody knew.”

At some point on Sunday, Marsters takes time out of his incredibly crowded convention schedule to talk with ASSIGNMENT X.

Even though Spike was introduced in BUFFY Season 2 Episode 3, “School Hard,” which takes place primarily at the high school, all of his scenes there were indoors.

Therefore, Marsters says with a laugh, “I had never been here before. We had done interiors on the soundstages, but I’d never shot at the high school. And it is more impressive than I thought it would be. It looks great on film. I can really see why both 90210 and BUFFY wanted to shoot here. And apparently [Torrance High School] was able to refurbish their auditorium with the money that BUFFY paid to rent it out.”

Regarding the concert, Marsters says that he and Kane didn’t perform any songs as a duo, because “Christian had just got in from Serbia. So, there was no time, no way to rehearse.”

Doing the concert together, Marsters feels, was “absolutely fabulous. I had played with Christian numerous times on set in our trailers, and that’s fun, but I’d never heard him on a microphone before. It’s a whole different technical thing to sing on a mic, and then live without a mic. And Christian is so good. He’s so subtle, his intonation is so perfect and he moves around notes so cleanly and so quickly. He’s just amazing.”

If Marsters had known while doing BUFFY and ANGEL that he’d still be talking about the shows and Spike over two decades later, would he have done anything differently at the time – maybe taken notes?

“No, I wouldn’t do a thing differently. I suspected that the show was going to last while we were filming, because I am a STAR TREK fan, and I know what it’s like to love a show, even when you know what the dialogue is and when you know what the plot is, and still want to go back to that world. For STAR TREK, I wanted to go back to a world where the human race had learned to stop trying to dominate each other and started to try to support each other and tolerate difference. And that was a real draw. And BUFFY is a world that has someone in it that just doesn’t give up and tries to help. And that’s a good world, too, to go back to.”

This jibes with Powers’s vision for Fandom Charities and for HellmouthCon. “We put on a fantastic event, but because we’re a charity organization, we’re not able to hire a marketing company. So, anyone who knows any company that would like to be involved with sponsorship or getting the word out, it would be wonderful. We still get people who say, ‘Oh, my God, I had no idea,’ and we’d love people to be able to say, ‘Not only did I know everything about Fandom Charities and what they do, I knew about the HellmouthCon, and that we were able to be involved with it, and have fun at the same time.’ Because that’s what our goal is – to have fun while doing good works.”

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Movie Review: CHUM

ABBIE BERNSTEIN — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 04:01:22 +0000

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Alice Eve, Eric Michael Cole, Elle Haymond, Sarah Siadat, Johnny Gaffney, Lisa Yaro, Jim Klock, Vince Jolivette, Stephen Oliver
Writers: Jonathan Zuck and Joe Leone, story by Dick Grunert and Ryan R. Johnson and James Kondelik
Director: Jonathan Zuck
Distributor: IFC
Release Date: June 5, 2026

CHUM is the latest entry in the shark-obsessed-psycho-with-a-boat subgenre. It also meshes, perhaps coincidentally, with the 2024 sharks-but-no-psycho-ruin-a-Mediterranean-destination-wedding SOMETHING IN THE WATER.

Our narrator is Roy (Jim Klock) who, in the opening sequence, loses his wife to an enormous Great White in the sea off Malta. He begins by saying in voiceover, “You took her from me.” This is followed by a monologue about how much Roy loves his wife and includes the line, “Her scream lost in the roar of the sea.”

There isn’t anything particularly wrong with the line, except that we see the whole incident and then some – CHUM is very gore-friendly in all its shark attacks – and the woman is already underwater when the attack occurs. There’s no scream.

So, are we supposed to think that Roy’s imagination is playing tricks, or that director Jonathan Zuck and his co-writer Joe Leone, working from a story by Dick Grunert and Ryan R. Johnson and James Kondelik, aren’t paying close attention to what they’re doing?

Roy says he spent his life on the ocean, but “when you took her, I learned something new.”

Then we cut to a wedding banquet, where proud father Reginald (Stephen Oliver) is toasting his daughter the bride Tina (Alice Eve) and her groom Tom (Eric Michael Cole). Also in attendance are Tina’s irritable younger sister Sadie (Elle Haymond), bridesmaids Rachinda (Sarah Siadat) and Britney (Lisa Yaro), and Eric’s bro-ish best man Rick (Johnny Gaffney).

It’s a beautiful setting and a good-looking group, but it doesn’t take long for us to realize this union may not last. Tina and Tom have had a bitter fight about something that they seem unable to resolve. Tom winds up sleeping on the beach near the tide line, while Tina passes out on their hotel room bed in her wedding gown.

The nature of the dispute turns out to be one of the best aspects of CHUM. It’s real, it’s not the clichés that we too often get about onscreen marital disputes, and it’s wholly plausible that the timing is such that the couple haven’t had to confront it earlier.

Unaware of trouble in paradise, Rick has arranged a boat outing for the wedding party (sans Dad). Tina and Tom don’t want to go, but Rick guilts them into it – renting the boat for the day cost him a fortune.

The proprietor of The Tipsy Mermaid, Captain Mackey (Vince Jolivette), welcomes the six passengers aboard. He assures shark-averse Britney that there have never been attacks in these waters.

This again makes us wonder what’s happening on a meta level. We can see that The Tipsy Mermaid is out by the same coastline that we saw in the opening, so we know there’s been at least one shark attack here. Is Captain Mackey uninformed or lying?

A little later, we see that the microphone on the communications panel is severed. Our minds leap toward sabotage, but – spoiler alert – no, it’s just shoddy upkeep on The Tipsy Mermaid.

In reality (and easy to Google for Mackey or anyone in the group to who knew they’d be going out to sea that day), while they are rare, there have been shark attacks off Malta.

Furthermore, Tom, who is meant to be an expert on these matters, asserts that Great Whites are strangers to these waters, but are being driven north by climate change. It’s laudable that CHUM makes climate change part of the plot (and not just because of where the shark is), but again, there is a whole actual (albeit declining) subspecies of Great Whites in the Mediterranean.

We’re trying to figure out how all this will link up with Roy and what he’s learned, and we get to that, although perhaps not the way we expect, which is another CHUM asset.

Except for when the shark needs to interact with humans and/or vessels, the animal looks realistic, like footage of a genuine Great White. We also get a variety of fish in the underwater shots, which is a nice touch.

But there are the common-to-the-subgenre tropes of the shark looking way too big every time she breaches and eating way too much. Also, sharks do not growl.

One key aspect of this subgenre is how intrigued we are by the human villain. Here, the link between motivation and action doesn’t stack up well against that of comparable characters (e.g., Quint in JAWS or Bruce Tucker in DANGEROUS ANIMALS).

As these kinds of movies go, CHUM is moderately diverting, but it’s easy to see where it could have been better.

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