- Cannes 2026: I Saw Buildings Fall Like Lightning, Diary of a Chambermaid, La Perra (May 22, 2026)
You couldn’t find three more different films than those in this dispatch, which examines a trio of works in the Director’s Fortnight. Each hails from a different country (England, France, and Chile) and is about several different classes. Only one could be classified as a crowd-pleaser; the others defy definition. And yet, when taken together, these films about a friend group maturing into their 30s, a Romanian immigrant working in France, and a rural woman diving for algae—do show the many ways life can be arrested by outside forces, even when characters are trying their best to change from within.
I’m not sure why Clio Barnard’s “I Saw Buildings Fall Like Lightning” snuck up on me. Barnard’s social realist works, from “The Arbor” to “Ali & Ava,” are all so thematically grounded yet stylistically enrapturing that I should’ve expected more from her latest, which moves with the easy propulsiveness of her best work.
Adapted from Keiran Goddard’s novel of the same name, Barnard’s keen, modernist take on kitchen-sink realism concerns a close-knit group of friends from Birmingham, England. In the film’s opening, these pals are celebrating the 30th birthday of the rambunctious Oli (Jay Lycurgo). At a club, they party by kicking back lagers, snorting coke, and nearly getting into bust-ups. As the house music thrums, Barnard slows the action down to the speed of a heavy dream. A dancing Oli’s blissed-out face looks up at the camera, peering through beams of club lighting. Barnard and her editor, Maya Maffioli, cut between Oli’s blank, delightful visage and footage of the demolition of council flats, creating a striking visual distillation of how these working-class characters feel as though they’re living through a moment that’ll require all involved to remake themselves.
See, they’re all experiencing that moment when the person you hoped you’d become meets the reality of the person you are. Oli’s friends Shiv (Lola Petticrew) and Patrick (Anthony Boyle) have two daughters. Rian (Joe Cole), a well-off businessman building an apartment complex under the watchful eye of his construction manager buddy Conor (Daryl McCormack), who’s expecting a child, is best friends with Patrick. Each is in places they didn’t expect to be: Rian self-consciously lives in a high-rise in London; Patrick went to university for economics but is a courier; Conor is a violent alcoholic; Oli sells drugs. As Conor works on building the new flats, each friend learns a revelation about one another or themselves that reworks their party-hard attitude.
Barnard tracks the passage of their time through the aforementioned cross-cutting to demolitions and the time-lapse CCTV footage of Conor’s building construction. Through these visual motifs, she also interrogates the widening income gap, the broken socioeconomic contract between the government and its citizens, and the lack of public housing. Most importantly, Barnard pulls affecting performances from her talented ensemble, giving them the space to express jubilant feelings, like Oli adopting a dog named Lola, who helps him turn his life around, and bleak tragedies. The freedom she endows her actors is why their performances never cross into maudlin territory, as you might expect in a film built on formative lessons.
Instead, “I Saw Buildings Fall Like Lightning,” a work of tremendous vitality and hope, is a beguiling and earnest reflection of the pleasure of discovering that life doesn’t end at thirty. It’s just beginning.
Radu Jude’s “Diary of a Chambermaid” sees the director in its sweetest, most optimistic register. An adaptation of Octave Mirbeau’s same-titled novel, which itself was cinematically rendered by Jean Renoir in 1967, Luis Buñuel in 1964, and Benoît Jacquot in 2015, the film retools several components of its source material. For one, the chambermaid, or nanny in this case, is re-imagined as Gianina (Ana Dumitrascu), a young Romanian woman working for the rich French couple Pierre (a pitch-perfect Vincent Macaigne) and Marguerite Donnadieu (Mélanie Thierry). Gianina toils night and day, not only cleaning the Donnadieus’ home but also caring for their bratty child, earning just enough to send to her daughter and mother in Romania.
“Diary of a Chambermaid,” fascinatingly, is also two different adaptations of Mirbeau’s novel in one film. Though Jude does display his usual love of profanity, the director plays the filmic version surprisingly straightforward. That subtly belies the keen observations he makes about our connection with technology as a mode for digital communication and entertainment. Gianina, for instance, routinely video chats with her daughter in Romania, allowing her to stay in touch despite the vast distance between them. Conversely, she’ll use the same technology for stupid videos, like filming the Donnadieus’ child taking a soccer ball to the face.
Jude juxtaposes these clever critiques with a ribald version of the novel, which happens when Marguerite pushes Gianina to take part in a lewd theatrical adaptation (which is probably the style many expected Jude would espouse when he announced he’d be adapting the novel).
Interestingly, Jude polishes both of these versions to a high sheen. His past films, like “Bad Luck Banging or Looney Porn,” “Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World,” and “Dracula,” have often employed guerrilla filmmaking, AI, archival footage, and documentary techniques to fashion biting commentaries on capitalism, cancel culture, and the pandemic. “Diary of a Chambermaid,” in terms of style and tone, is probably closer to his more modest works, such as “Kontinental ‘25.”
Which isn’t to say that Jude is losing his edge. This is instead an example of the filmmaker’s wide tonal and aesthetic range, showing that he’s far more than a trickster. Here, he’s still poking fun at the kind of bourgeois sensibility that causes Pierre and Marguerite to believe, whether consciously or unconsciously, that Gianina’s emotional needs come second to their vacationing pleasure, or for Pierre to call upon Gianina at a dinner party to explain to his conservative friends what’s happening to Ukraine against Russia. And yet, Gianina is not defined solely by her financial relationship with the wealthy; she rebels and talks smack about them, using her language to define herself.
In Jude’s hands, the phrase “well-meaning” is, consequently, a poison pill that says that basic empathy by the wealthy for those under their employment is beyond their comprehension. “Diary of a Chambermaid,” therefore, ends on a bittersweet note whose nimbleness fully encapsulates why Radu Jude is among our great filmmakers.
Dominga Sotomayor’s “La Perra,” a film about buried memories and past regrets, had me until it didn’t. Brandishing an assured opaqueness and, for a time, a grounded vulnerability, the narrative is the spell that sits on a foamy wave.
The magic begins when fishermen in a motorboat discover a dog paddling in the sea. They’re not sure where it came from or where it’s going. Flashback to several months prior, and the stern Silvia (Manuela Oyarzún), a local fishmonger’s wife who also plunges in the sea in search of algae to sell, happens upon three puppies who’ve been abandoned. She takes one of them and names her Lola. With Lola, Silvia’s cold exterior melts as she snuggles in her chair with the dog, watching singing competitions.
Lola, however, is a free spirit who wants to explore the Chilean coast they call home. Following a New Year’s firework display that Silvia and her husband, Mario (David Gaete), watch with their friends on the roof of an abandoned, brutalist cliffside home that Silvia maintains for unknown owners, Lola goes missing, prompting Silvia to look back on a life-altering event from her childhood. Sotomayor unhurriedly moves through place and time, using the rural setting to critique class disparity and the downfall of Silvia’s fortunes.
Consequently, despite the dreamlike lacquer that envelopes this evocatively shot film, there’s also a social realist element whose unsteady output comes into tension with the fancifulness on display. Indeed, Sotomayor is just as willing to show us the world through Lola eyes via POV shots as she is at instilling a cave with a mystical element. The rhythms of this shoreline, from its rolling, hilly paths to its verdant meadows, therefore, breathe with life through the director’s artful lens.
So much of “La Perra” is so patient and trusting of the audience that its later reach for low-hanging melodramatic fruit is frustrating. I’m not totally against seeing fictionalized violence against animals on screen. In the right hands, those moments can be quite revealing of the morality, culture, and emotions of the people inhabiting a space, and I believe here that Sotomayor is grasping at the latter to make a significant judgment of her character. Which, once again, isn’t a non-starter for me. But using animal violence as a method for a human to process their own trauma, even if such harshness is inspired by unspeakable triggers, is already walking on shaky ground. Using wish fulfillment to paper over the character’s said decision, however, feels less than honest.
Maybe that hopefulness is actually masquerading as bleakness, an actualization of a love lost through carelessness that can never be regained. And maybe that ambiguous finale is brave in itself, a further sign of the director’s real trust in an observant audience. I just can’t personally make that logical and emotional leap, which, if I’m being uncharitable, could very well be a failure on a film that does have unbreakable sympathy for a hopelessly troubled woman but rarely gives her the chance to express herself through her voice. Instead, she is mute to the world around her and forever defined by her bourgeois counterpart, as though their presence or lack thereof is the only way her life can have meaning. Then again, much like Silvia’s own unprocessed trauma, it could be me who’s incapable of granting grace. Either way, Sotomayor is committed to the anguish she explores.
- Cannes 2026 Video #8: Dua, I’ll Be Gone in June, La Gravida (May 22, 2026)
The 2026 Cannes Film Festival starts Tuesday, May 12th, running through May 24th. The Ebert team returns this year with coverage of all of the major films in review and video form. In this video dispatch, Scott Dummler interviews correspondent Marya E. Gates about her three favorite films from the festival, and we get a Cannes flashback to 2019, when Chaz encountered a street magician on the festival grounds.
Watch the video below.
- “Mating Season” Almost Finds Its Rhythm by the End of Rocky First Season (May 22, 2026)
The latest adult animated comedy on Netflix will work significantly better for fans of “Big Mouth” than those who never took to the streaming giant’s hit animated series about horny teenagers and the literal monsters that shape their lives. It’s not inaccurate to describe “Mating Season” as “’Big Mouth’ with animals instead of high school kids.” There’s a tiny bit less of the abject shame that comes in those days of embarrassing adolescence, but the sense of humor in this follow-up from creators Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, and Jennifer Flackett is nearly identical: Raunchy, goofy, a glimmer of heart, and then hitting a punchline with a bodily fluid.
These are creators who endeavor to get away with things in animation that they never could in live action, actually using the medium in inventive ways. Well, eventually. “Mating Season” gets off to a truly rocky start, but, and I can’t say for sure if it finds its footing or if I just joined its silly wavelength, I was almost sad to run out of screeners. It won’t be the same size hit as “Big Mouth,’ but it’s a reminder of the talent of its remarkable cast.
Mating Season: Season 1. (L-R) Sabrina Jalees as Penelope, Zach Woods as Josh, Nick Kroll as Ray, and June Diane Raphael as Fawn in Mating Season: Season 1. Cr. NETFLIX © 2026
“Mating Season” is about the extreme sexual activity of forest animals. You’ve never seen Bambi quite like this. Zach Woods (a perfect swap, in tone with John Mulaney from “Big Mouth” if you think about it) plays Josh, an awkward bear whose partner leaves him when he hibernates longer than he should. Kroll voices Ray, a horny raccoon who, well, gets around. Sabrina Jalees brings to life a fox named Penelope who explores her sexuality, sometimes with another species. Raphael takes on Fawn, and she wonderfully leans into playing this deer as really just a variation on a strong rom-com lead. For example, she gets a season-best arc with a wolf voiced by Timothy Olyphant that’s really just a riff on the trope of a woman who believes she can change a difficult man. It’s just that the man in this case is pissing to mark his territory and howling at the moon.
It’s this simple: If you enjoy the de facto comedy troupe that’s been built up around Nick Kroll and his regular collaborators like Jason Mantzoukas and June Diane Raphael, you’re more likely to want to hang with “Mating Season.” As a regular listener of “How Did This Get Made?” and a believer that Kroll is one of our more underrated comedians, especially in the voice work department, “Mating Season” seems tailor-made for this viewer. And that’s what makes the inaugural episodes of the first season kind of jarring. It’s just not quite as funny as what we’ve come to expect from Kroll’s Company. The writers were probably trying to figure out the right tone, and they mostly do by the end of the year. Enough to make me curious about what happens in a second outing. Be patient.
Mating Season: Season 1. Sabrina Jalees as Penelope in Mating Season: Season 1. Cr. NETFLIX © 2026
When “Mating Season” is riffing on structures within standard sex comedies, it can be pretty clever. Again, the voice work is strong from top to bottom; it’s just a matter of the writing strengthening as the season progresses. At first, my heart sank at the thought that the “Big Mouth” team was going to miss this wildly, doing a show that feels like a raunchier shadow of its biggest hit instead of something creatively inspired.
What’s most interesting is that “Mating Season” gets better when it stops trying to be “Big Mouth 2,” allowing the writers and voice cast to play adult idiots with the same horny glee as they did their teenage ones for years, but turn them into characters that stand on their own four feet. They never lose sight of the comedic possibilities of filtering all of these sexual escapades through wild animals, but the show gets better when it pushes raunch away in favor of clever comedy. Well, clever comedy with a lot of wolf urine.
Whole season screened for review. Now on Netflix.
- Cannes 2026: A Man of His Time, Moulin, Coward (May 21, 2026)
War is what we’re talking about in this latest Cannes dispatch, which features three competition titles set either during World War I or II, and also in French (though one hails from Belgium). These films, however, do approach conflict from varying lenses, ranging from an absurdist character study to a conventional period drama to a queer romance.
Inspired by letters written by his great-grandparents, Emmanuel Marre’s “A Man of His Time” is a biting and sly historical comedy whose discomforting horrors are all too relevant. The punchline begins with the film’s very title, a double-edged sword that puns on its reverential meaning with a kind of cop-out (whenever someone is problematic, it’s often handwaved away by calling them “a man of their time”). It takes place during World War II, beginning in 1940, in Vichy, France, where Henri Marre (Swann Arlaud) attempts to sell his manuscript.
Henri is mostly unsuccessful. He isn’t a brilliant writer, a deep thinker, or a visionary. He moves with whatever faction or idea will get him noticed. In the film’s opening scene, for instance, Henri drunkenly floats around a party populated by people he doesn’t appear to know. Though he tries to strike up conversations, he offers such broad and obvious arguments—that Germany is dangerous and a threat to France—that few take note of his presence.
It doesn’t take long to realize that Henri’s words very rarely reflect the content of his soul, particularly when we’re introduced to the letters he sends to his wife and early champion Paulette (Sandrine Blancke). Those missives, which are narrated by Henri and Paulette, grant the film an epistolary quality that acutely tracks when Henri turns from being loving and principled to vain and submissive, a change that occurs when Henri is hired as a regional scout for the Office of Unemployment. In this role, Henri quickly becomes a bureaucratic pencil pusher adept at capitulating to power if it means career advancement, personal acknowledgment, or temporary safety. He also begins to espouse nationalistic posturing that aligns him with the German cause.
In every scene, Marre makes Henri look quite small. An arresting Arlaud body is perpetually crumpled up, agonizing over what decision, like what to do with the Jews the Germans are demanding, will offer him the path of least resistance. In that sense, “A Man of His Time” often recalls Armando Iannucci’s “The Death of Stalin,” though with more visual subtlety. Like Iannucci, Marre relies on winking crash zooms and cheeky blocking, which often show Henri hovering on the periphery of important people, like a fly that doesn’t have the good sense to know where to land. Arlaud is especially hilarious, mostly because he plays the hapless Henri with sincerity. Henri is a putz. And you don’t need to be outwardly funny for a smart audience to know they’re seeing a sideshow dumpster fire floating down the river. So, Arlaud confidently moves through scenes with unabashed confidence, while a lesser actor would play to the crowd.
The only component of “A Man of His Time” that doesn’t quite land is the anachronistic house music, which often recalls Paolo Sorrentino’s similarly politically minded “La grazia.” That temporally disorienting decision makes the “time” joke in the title too on the nose. Nevertheless, “A Man of His Time” is an alert work whose skewering of placating middlemen is especially urgent right now.
The other French-set World War II film is László Nemes’ far more classical narrative, “Moulin.” A brutal espionage picture that recalls Jean-Pierre Melville’s “Army of Shadows,” it concerns the harrowing imprisonment of the real-life head of the French Resistance, Jean Moulin (Gilles Lellouche), and the cruelty he faced at the hands of the Nazis. To be clear: comparing “Moulin” to Melville is more related to their shared narrative characteristics rather than their disparate quality. Jean mirrors the common Melville protagonist; he’s a stone-faced, quick-on-his-feet operator who works in the noirish shades of this wartime picture. Jean navigates his treacherous world undercover as a designer, which brings him into contact with the Countess of Forez (Louise Bourgoin), who’s quite smitten with this man of mystery.
Jean, however, is a cautious man. He possesses so many identities and knows so many safe harbors that even the Nazis aren’t sure what he looks like. That means that though any prospect of a romantic relationship with the Countess is remote, she isn’t repelled from his orbit. Despite his safeguards, Jean and many others from the Resistance are betrayed and arrested at a doctor’s office and imprisoned under the ruthless eye of Klaus Barbie (Lars Eidinger), a man whose barbaristic methods would be an insult to the word “torture.”
Running at a very long 130-minutes, “Moulin” doesn’t progress much beyond that set-up. It juxtaposes Jean’s valorous constitution with his captor’s violent impulsivity. Nemes’ camera doesn’t shy away from the viciousness inflicted on Jean, making viewers feel every blow hurled at him. He also attempts to add secondary characters, like Jean’s young cellmate, whose arc offers little beyond more on-screen torture.
“Moulin” is a patriotic film, a fact that eventually holds it back from wider aims. Melville’s stoics often reveal significant truths about the morals, habits, and failings of the people around them. “Moulin” is operating with significantly less interest, revealing very little that can’t be found in a history book, in the pursuit of offering up an unbreakable national hero whose martyrdom is rendered by Nemes using exacting yet cold and distant tools.
Set in 1916, Lukas Dhont’s “Coward,” a swooning queer wartime romance, might be his most conventional film to date. That isn’t to say that Dhont’s always been formally adventurous—he actually follows most genre conventions—but his prior work, like “Girl” and “Close,” has proven controversial for how it casts its adolescent transgender protagonist and handles its young gay subjects (I thought his idiotic “Close” was “Moonlight” nonsensically done from Kevin’s perspective). “Coward,” on the other hand, is about two adult Belgian soldiers in the throes of World War I. A strapping, chiseled Pierre (Emmanuel Macchia) arrives at the front with other new recruits boisterously singing patriotic songs, like “Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag.” These fresh-faced men who have been sold promises of gallantry and glory will soon discover that all that awaits them is mud and blood.
Pierre is a farmer by trade, and a sensitive Macchia plays him with wide-eyed curiosity and a certain kind of eagerness to fit in. Traveling with Pierre are several comrades, like Jacobs, a new father who’s been in the army so long he’s yet to see his 10-day-old child. Rather than charging into battle, Pierre and Jacobs’ duties involve carrying heavy shells through the front’s mire, throwing cartloads of deceased comrades into mass graves, and transporting the wounded from no man’s land back to their trenches during the brief armistices that occur. It’s a soul-draining existence that’s given reprieve when Pierre meets Francis (Valentin Campagne), an effeminate tailor, who, along with other artist-soldiers, is derided as a “reject” because they’re allowed to entertain rather than fight. To those ends, Francis has been tasked by his superiors with performing a cross-dressed burlesque show that eventually becomes a traveling company. Pierre becomes one of the stagehands.
Dhont’s script isn’t steeped in trauma, and Pierre and Francis’ aching relationship isn’t guided by the cliche of the conflicted “heterosexual” man cruising through queerness. Instead, it’s fascinated by the blurring boundaries between gays and the homosocial camaraderie of army life, and how the presence of both can allow many to freely negotiate their identity. We also discover that Pierre, whose masculinity is stereotypically rendered in his brooding presence, is actually quite comfortable with his sexuality, whereas Francis is fearful of the impossibility of their potential union. That tension, paired with Dhont’s vulnerable yet overly polished lens, gives each moment of passion gorgeous tenderness.
“Coward,” consequently, breaks the mold not in plotting but in its empathetic interest in its characters’ romantic souls, lending these men many small and seismic victories in the deep trenches of the heart.
- Cannes 2026: Table of Contents (May 21, 2026)
The 2026 Cannes Film Festival starts Tuesday, May 12th, running through May 24th. The Ebert team returns this year with coverage of all of the major films in review and video form.
Below is a running index of our reviews, dispatches, and video reports from the festival.
Full Reviews
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma review: Slasher fans get the homage they deserve by Brian Tallerico
Propeller One-Way Night Coach review: Travolta’s directorial debut never takes flight by Brian Tallerico
Hope review: Bonkers Korean monster movie destroys the hero narrative by Robert Daniels
Her Private Hell review: Refn is back with shallow trip to the underworld by Brian Tallerico
Fjord review: Thorny moral quandary in this icy drama by Brian Tallerico
The Samurai and the Prisoner review: Riveting 16th century epic plays like Samurai Columbo by Brian Tallerico
Video Reports
Cannes 2026 Video #1: The 79th Cannes Film Festival Begins!
Cannes 2026 Video #2: A Look Back at Day One of the Fest
Cannes 2026 Video #3: Nagi Notes, Camp Miasma, Werner Herzog
Cannes 2026 Video #4: Festival Dispatch with Zachary Lee
Cannes 2026 Video #5: Festival Dispatch with Ben Kenigsberg
Cannes 2026 Video #6: Club Kid, Paper Tiger, Clarissa
Cannes 2026 Video #7: Festival Dispatch with Jason Gorber
Cannes 2026 Video #8: Dua, I’ll Be Gone in June, La Gravida
Festival Dispatches
Cannes 2026: The Electric Kiss by Ben Kenigsberg
Cannes 2026: Fatherland, Parallel Tales by Brian Tallerico
Cannes 2026: Nagi Notes, Ashes by Ben Kenigsberg
Cannes 2026: Ken Russell’s The Devils, Pan’s Labyrinth, Moonlighting by Brian Tallerico
Cannes 2026: All of a Sudden, Think Good by Ben Kenigsberg
Cannes 2026: Clarissa, Atonement, Butterfly Jam by Brian Tallerico
Cannes 2026: The Beloved, A Woman’s Life, Gentle Monster by Robert Daniels
Cannes 2026: Paper Tiger, Sheep in the Box by Brian Tallerico
Cannes 2026: John Lennon: The Last Interview, La Libertad Doble by Ben Kenigsberg
Cannes 2026: The Meltdown, La Frappe, I’ll Be Gone in June by Brian Tallerico
Cannes 2026: Avedon, Visitation by Ben Kenigsberg
Cannes 2026: Club Kid, Marie Madeleine by Robert Daniels
Cannes 2026: The Unknown, Another Day by Ben Kenigsberg
Cannes 2026: Iron Boy, Tangles, Lucy Lost by Brian Tallerico
Cannes 2026: Minotaur, Red Rocks by Ben Kenigsberg
Cannes 2026: The Man I Love, Orange-Flavoured Wedding by Ben Kenigsberg
Cannes 2026: Dua, Made of Flesh and Fuel, Six Months in a Pink and Blue Building by Robert Daniels
Cannes 2026: The Black Ball, Bitter Christmas by Brian Tallerico
Cannes 2026: A Man of His Time, Moulin, Coward by Robert Daniels
Cannes 2026: I Saw Buildings Fall Like Lightning, Diary of a Chambermaid, La Perra by Robert Daniels
- First Look Teaser for 'La Bola Negra' - The Spanish Sensation of Cannes (May 22, 2026)
Get a look at one of the most talked about films of the festival this year. Movistar has revealed the first look teaser trailer for La Bola Negra, one of the biggest surprise hits from the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. The title La Bola Negra means The Black Ball in English, a reference to an actual event and story that the film is inspired by (and tells within the story in the film as well). The plot is set in 1932, 1937, and 2017, exploring the inter-connected lives of three gay men throughout Spanish history. It also explores what it means to be gay throughout different eras, focusing on "three existences" that are connected with themes of sexuality, desire, pain, and inheritance. Starring Guitarricadelafuente as Sebastián, Carlos González as Alberto, Miguel Bernardeau as Rafael, Milo Quifes, Lola Dueñas, plus appearances by Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close (who are both fabulous in the film). This just premiered yesterday at Cannes at the very end of the festival this year and became an instant favorite among many critics. Many are proclaiming it's an instant classic masterpiece. I also saw it and I was also swept away and dazzled by how epic and sensational and emotionally vibrant it is. A sweeping story spanning generations, going back into Spain's troubled past. // Continue Reading ›
- Cannes 2026: Maika Monroe's 'Victorian Psycho' is Wicked Horror Fun (May 22, 2026)
"I'm the most sane person I know." Well, time to find out if that's true! Because even though she may indeed be insane, pretty much everyone else is even more insane than she is. There's a new horror film premiering at the Cannes Film Festival this year and it's an underrated little genre creation from the UK (produced by Anton based in the UK). Victorian Psycho is a dark comedy ensemble feature written by Spanish writer Virginia Feito, based on her own novel of the same name, inspired by 19th-century mysteries and gothic literature. This Victorian Era dark horror comedy is kind of a historic twist on the classic serial killer thriller American Psycho, hence the title being the similar Victorian Psycho. Maika Monroe plays a governess who shows up at a manor to start working a new job but suddenly people start turning up dead – and she might have something to do with it. The twisted film is a very creative, clever horror feature that wraps up within a brisk 90 minutes as it takes us on a whimsical, bloody romp through the depraved corridors of Ensor House. // Continue Reading ›
- Epic Full Trailer for Live-Action 'Avatar: The Last Airbender' - Season 2 (May 22, 2026)
"We've already won... the question is – how much are you willing to lose." Netflix unveiled the full official trailer for the next epic season in their live-action version of this animation classic - Avatar: The Last Airbender. The first season kicked off in 2024, re-introducing Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Zuko, but it wasn't the best take on this story and didn't end up with great reviews. Season 2 is done & ready to launch in June this summer anyway! Because there's more to come - especially with fan-favorite character Toph joining them on their adventures. In this next season of the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix, the Gaang has noticeably grown up since Season 1. After a bittersweet victory helping save the Northern Water Tribe from the invading Fire Nation, Aang (Gordon Cormier), Katara (Kiawentiio), Sokka (Ian Ousley) regroup and set off on a mission to convince the elusive Earth King to aid in their battle against fearsome Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim). The full cast also features Miya Cech as Toph, Dallas Liu, Elizabeth Yu, Ty Lee, Maria Zhang, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee. There's much better footage in this trailer and it looks like a big improvement over the first season. With some solid earth-bending action as the stories continues into Ba Sing Se and Fire Benders getting more aggressive. Is anyone still watching this? Ready for more? 🔥 // Continue Reading ›
- Cannes 2026: Lukas Dhont's 'Coward' is a Riveting WWI Love Story (May 22, 2026)
"Love not war." Who are the real cowards of war? Is it the soldiers? Is it the men who get too scared to fight and run away because they want to live? Or is it the generals and the captains and all the warlords dictating orders from a safe distance? Or is it the politicians sending their citizens to death? It doesn't matter who is labeled a "coward" and why – these soldiers don't deserve to go off to war and die. They deserve to live. And we should always be fighting for love not war – no matter the situation, no matter the battle being fought. I am pleased to report that the new film made by Belgian director Lukas Dhont is sensational. Coward is his third feature film so far and it's magnificent, showing us how love matters more than anything else on this planet. The film is Dhont's most ambitious creation yet, taking us into the trenches of World War I to tell a tender, heartfelt love story between two Belgian soldiers. Another enchanting film by Dhont featuring all of his earmarks – stunning cinematography, a wonderful score, and such majestic performances from the entire cast. Gay cinema reigns! I fell for this film and got swept away by its 2 hour journey into hell & back. // Continue Reading ›
- One Final US Trailer for D-Day Thriller 'Pressure' Feat. Andrew Scott (May 22, 2026)
"Why should I trust you?" "We must face the facts – the facts – however frightening they may be!" Focus Features has debuted their second & final trailer for the World War II movie titled Pressure, arriving in US theaters to watch starting in May next week. It will open in the UK later in the year in September (some 4 months later after the US launch). The film tells the tense story of deciding to go forward with D-Day on June 6th, 1944 sending troops into Europe in Northwest France. In the final days before the planned Allied invasion of Europe in 1944, Royal Air Force meteorologist Cpt. James Stagg must deliver a weather report to the Allied high command on the feasibility of the planned D-Day. The weather needs to be just right. This war film thriller stars Brendan Fraser as Dwight D. Eisenhower, Andrew Scott as Captain James Stagg, Kerry Condon as Captain Kay Summersby, Damian Lewis as Marshall Bernard Montgomery, Chris Messina as Irving P. Krick, Henry Ashton as John Eisenhower, with Con O'Neill, Daniel Quinn-Toye, Toby Williams, and Max Croes. The last UK trailer from a few months ago is the best trailer but this one also sets the stakes and turns up the intensity. I'm still looking forward to watching – this looks damn good. // Continue Reading ›
