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DRAMA. “Night Always Comes.” / “Amongst the Wolves.” / “Manodrome.” / “The Lesson.” / “The Integrity of Joseph Chambers.” / “Pure White B*tch.”

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“Night Always Comes” (2025, Netflix) crime thriller . Facing eviction in a city her family can no longer afford, a woman plunges into a desperate and increasingly dangerous all-night search to raise $25,000.         I do understand Lynette's predicament or desperation. It happens to many people. Plus the toxic mom-daughter “relationship.” What I don’t  get? The unbelievable craziness that Lynette had to subject herself while trying to raise the money. All in a night's time.        If this is comedy, the whacked-ness would work for laughs. But this movie, directed by Benjamin Caron from a script by Sarah Conradt (adapted from the 2021 novel by Willy Vlautin ), is supposedly dead serious.         But Vanessa Kirby as Lynette is all-in, game and pumped up. That's this movie's only good part. 🎥💻📽 “Amongst the Wolves” (2024, Amazon Prime) Irish crime drama . An ex-s...
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MOVIES THAT SUCK! “Anywhere.” / “Operation Taco Gary's.” / “Fear, Blood & Gold.” / “Eight.” / “Here Alone.” / “Beyond Here.”

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“Anywhere" (2026, Amazon Prime) neo-noir crime thriller. An isolated Oklahoma oil worker goes on a run with his wife after a spontaneous murder.         Right off the bat, this little yawner qualifies in my “Movies That Suck!” list. Implausible plot “development,” cliche acting, and a penis that was bitten off? LOL! 🎥💻📽 “Operation Taco Gary's” (2024, Amazon Prime) science fiction action comedy. About two disparate brothers, an unhinged conspiracy theorist, and his skeptical sibling, on a cross-country road trip. Then they uncover that an unassuming fast-food chain called "Taco Gary's" is actually the secret headquarters for an alien race preparing to invade Earth.         The premise is a pre-watch comedy lure. That is if the duo is Cheech and Chong or Chris Rock and Andy Samberg.         Simon Rex and Dustin Milligan don't look funny at all. Worse, their acting i...
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PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER. “Bugonia.” / “Hallow Road.” / “Mr. K.” / “Strange Darling.” / “Inside.”

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“Bugonia” (2025, Netflix) black comedy thriller, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos . An English-language remake of the 2003 South Korean film “Save the Green Planet!” by Jang Joon-hwan. Two young men kidnap a powerful CEO, suspecting that she is secretly an alien who wants to destroy Earth.         Sans a few gory murk that is “obligatory” in movies by the madman Yorgos Lanthimos, “Bugonia” is the most entertaining (to me). Next to 2024's “Kinds of Kindness.” I didn't really dig the absurdity, surrealism or whatever high-brow weirdness of “Poor Things” (2023), “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” (2017), “The Lobster” (2015), or “Dogtooth” (2009). My apologies to critics and awards-giving joints.         My appreciation of “Bugonia” is pointed at its whacked script by ex-The Onion editor Will Tracy. And Jesse Plemons’ intellectual nutcase Teddy Gatz and Emma Stone's pharma CEO Michelle Fuller (no spoilers about the en...
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HORROR. “The Dreadful.” / “Cobweb.” / “Monstrous.” / “Things Heard & Seen.” / “Without Name.”

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“The Dreadful” (2026, Amazon Prime) Gothic horror . Set in the 15th century during the Wars of the Roses , Anne and her mother-in-law Morwen exist on the outskirts of society when someone from their past re-enters their life. The film is based on the same Shin Buddhist parable on which the 1964 film “ Onibaba ” was based.        Mired in gothic obligatories and subtle religious ridicule, this movie, written and directed by Natasha Kermani, is rich in production esthetics (by Errol Jarc) yet still restrained–but overall, it is a derivative bore and the thematic message is predictably corny.         High credits though should go to the performance of Sophie Turner, Marcia Gay Harden, and Kit Harington. 🎥💻📽 “Cobweb” (2023, Pluto TV) horror film . A young boy, raised by overprotective parents, suddenly hears noises coming from behind his bedroom wall.         An eerie atmos...
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COMEDY and Stuff. “Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice.” / “Maggie Moore(s).” / “Get Duked!” / “Burn.” / “Lemon.”

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“Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice” (2026, Hulu) science fiction action comedy crime film . A mobster named Nick who, after discovering a time machine, attempts to fix the most fateful night of his life by bringing his future self back to the present.           Rotten Tomatoes offered a positive consensus, saying the “daffy crime comedy uses its sci-fi elements in the service of character.” Well, the two Vince Vaughns are fine with me but the disjointed narrative and gungho sequences are simply scattered to keep a grip on. Some scenes are funny but there's only a few. Plus these two annoying, not funny dudes–Ben Schwartz and Arturo Castro (yes, the TV commercial guy)--are here. But it's good to see Dolph Lundgren again! 🎥💻📽 “Maggie Moore(s)” (2023, Amazon Prime) black comedy mystery. A beleaguered sandwich shop manager hires a hitman to intimidate his wife or stop her from exposing his illegal operations. After the hitman accidentally...
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DRAMA. “The Winter House.” / “Black Bear.” / “Jellyfish.” / “Tyrannosaur.” / “Expired.” / “The Book of Eve.”

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“The Winter House” (2021, Tubi) independent romantic drama. Stars Lili Taylor as a grieving novelist and François Arnaud as a troubled drifter who meet at a remote New Hampshire lake house, focusing on their intense, confined relationship and secrets.         I don't have any problem with the performance of Lili Taylor as Eileen, the novelist, and François as Jesse, the drifter, but the entire proceedings seem incredibly implausible to me.            Sappy isn't the apt adjective but the romantic premise is too contrived and the resolution, expectedly soapy. 🎥💻📽 “Black Bear” (2020, Tubi) psychological drama . A young woman sits on a dock at the edge of a foggy lake. She then retreats to a cabin and sits in a room where she looks at a notepad. And so on and so forth.        Some critics call this hysterical yarn (?) “provocative, mind-bending experience” ...
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