- Retreating From The Elephant: The Perpetually Impending Demise of Indie Cinema (June 29, 2026)
At any given moment, the movie I’m most looking forward to seeing simply doesn’t exist because no one financed it. Right now, it’s the new movie by Amanda Wilder. We are more than 10 years away from “Approaching The Elephant,” the magnificent and sensitive documentary about an alternative school in New Jersey, made by someone who seemed primed to become the heir apparent to Allan King. The trouble? No one with money ever paid to find out just what Amanda Wilder’s career could have been.
For those of you who don’t know, I’ve spent the better part of the last three years trying to get a movie financed, and when that didn’t happen, I quite literally begged people for money and came up with just enough cash to shoot it. We still owe many thousands of dollars to different funds, and there’s no post-production budget. If this sounds like a blue ribbon winner at the 8th-grade sob story competition, it most certainly is, but imagine how the rest of the independent film world feels.
I’ve been making micro-budget features since I was 20. Some people tried to do things the hard way, and all they got was this lousy economy and a sudden industry interest in movies by YouTubers. During my years-long odyssey to get my film “Stubborn Beast,” co-directed with my best friend in the world, Tucker Johnson, I called in every favor I had accrued, and when I tell you it wasn’t even close to enough…
Jennifer Prediger and Jess Weixlar’s “Apartment Troubles.”
The film I’m looking to second of all is the non-existent follow-up to Jennifer Prediger and Jess Weixler’s sharp and surreal “Apartment Troubles,” a comedy that came out of nowhere, the product of two underutilized actresses with a lot to offer beyond the bare facts of their places in the film economy. This hysterical movie struck me as the arrival of a duo capable of anything. Evidently, I was wrong, as no one else but me seemed to rise to this special movie’s defense.
The independent film world is more harsh and worryingly dispirited than it’s been since the 1960s. I was asking people for leads, only to be told time and again that if such things existed, there’d be a much healthier American cinema. Or as Bruce LaBruce memorably let me down easy: “Honey, if I knew someone, I’d be making a movie right now.” And LaBruce is comparatively prolific if not better treated by distributors, certainly in America. It’s a miracle when one of his movies makes it to my television, let alone theaters near me.
The one art theatre in Baltimore needs new projectors and runs mainstream movies to keep the lights dim, and programmers like Eric Allen Hatch and Alex Lei try to keep the cinema flourishing elsewhere. Alex and I took Tony Buba, the legendary (to the initiated) documentarian behind “Lightning Over Braddock,” and it took us both by surprise how much the experience of an 82-year-old experimental Marxist non-fiction director and the 36-year-old version of the same thing were alike.
As Amanda Wilder’s second film doesn’t exist, as “Apartment Troubles 2” seems less than certain, the movie I’m most looking forward to this year, Patrick Wang’s “A. Rimbaud,” I likely won’t see. It’s only playing a handful of theatrical dates, put up almost like concerts. A great artist can no longer rely on regular bookings. With this in mind, I wanted to run down a list of artists whose work struggles to enter the public consciousness, or indeed artists who never made their second film.
Patrick Wang’s “A. Rimbaud.”
Patrick Wang is one of the lucky ones, though we should have dozens more of his movies by now. Wang’s “In The Family” and “A Bread Factory: Parts 1 and 2” were understandably beloved, but the movie of his I swirl in my head like a memory from a perfect date is the magnificent “The Grief of Others,” a movie that drifts through experimental methods to tell a simple story. Its final scene is two lengthy static shots slowly enveloping and spitting each other out, and it’s quite unlike any other version of the same idea. Patrick all but runs his hands across his textures like he’s disturbing the surface of a river. Bonus it, like Dan Sallitt’s “The Unspeakable Act,” features a pre-stardom Mike Faist.
If Dan is known, it is because he is beloved. He has no casual fans, no less than devoted acolytes. When Dan’s producer called me to ask if I’d drive the gear truck for his new movie, a sequel to “Unspeakable,” the only thing that stopped me was timing—I had to go to a wedding in Chicago. Dan’s films have been steadily building momentum from what those of you with cinema studies degrees might call a Bazinian sense of stability, with the sureness and stillness of frames and performances giving way to a core of blistering emotion.
I fell in love with Dan when, during the climax of “Unspeakable,” lead Tallie Medel shouts at her brother not to leave their secret shared space in the attic. She doesn’t say what’s on her mind, but she doesn’t let him know that if he leaves the room, nothing will ever be the same. This movie had so stealthily prowled around the edges of our hero’s desires and needs that to see her finally break character, so to speak, was like a car chase in three sentences. My heart seized. My throat closed. That’s why I see movies.
Dan Sallitt’s “The Unspeakable Acts.”
And for those of us who do care about action sequences, my friend Alejandro Montoya Marin is still trying to get his new film, “The Unexpecteds,” shown and taken seriously. Alejandro got his start on Robert Rodriguez’s “Rebel Without a Crew” show, in which a group of filmmakers was given meager means to make their own movies. Alejandro’s stuck out to me instantly. They were playful, they were funny, but more importantly, he had filmmaking intelligence. The means are what they are, but the man connects the images the right way. The movies snap and shake.
“The Unexpecteds” is a story of the little guy just trying not to make getting screwed the end of his story, and it’s the story to which any of us working the independent circuit, such as it is, can relate. Ditto his sweet comedy “Millennium Bugs,” about trying to take responsibility for yourself on your own terms. Its release was scuttled by COVID, but in the years since, it has not gotten much more popular, which is a great shame.
But this, of course, gets at the real problem: Indie and independent became genres, but in so doing, “they” lost their identity. As with Indie Rock or Soundcloud Rap, the system will always adapt to consume more of what’s being made for less. The system depends on free labor. How many movies did you watch during lockdown that weren’t studio-funded?
Even at our lowest and most desperate for culture, our media intake was handled by big business. Alejandro pounded the pavement to get his money and his cast, and came to the attention of Kevin Smith, who boarded as executive producer, but a movie that misses buzz during its theatrical window has a hard road to canonization, and the director remains just one more little fish in an increasingly small, brackish pond. And when they do break through, like Anna Rose Holmer, whose incredible debut “The Fits” was justly celebrated as a bold new direction for “indie,” we in her corner just have to hope that the dismal performance of her follow-up “God’s Creatures” hasn’t stymied her longer than the four years it’s been without news of a third feature.
Anna Rose Holmer’s “The Fits.”
Take the case of my friend Charles Poekel, who hasn’t yet made another movie after his searching and sad “Christmas, Again.” He’s a professor who helps run the Bainbridge Island Film Festival, and none of that amounts to someone watching his excellent debut and wondering what this gentleman’s next act might look like. Or Zachary Treitz, whose debut feature “Men Go To Battle” was one of the best films of 2015, made on a shoestring, yet enormous in its minutia. Two men survive the Civil War in different circumstances, and Treitz locates a Malickian poetry of neuroses and exhaustion on the battlefields.
The film is riotously funny at times, achingly sad at others. But the point is that anyone could have attempted this sort of movie, and I’ve seen nothing like it since its relatively positive reception back in the day. And since then? It took Treitz almost a decade to make the Netflix series “American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders,” which shows how much the economy depends on true crime, at the expense of all else.
TV is still only available to some people. Jon Hyams has been working on undeserving network cop shows while an inferior adaptation of his documentary “The Smashing Machine” hit the awards circuit. The great Stephen Cone’s last gig was directing episodes of a long-since-canceled Sundance TV show called “This Close,” having scared up no support to follow up his acclaimed and deeply moving “Princess Cyd.” Lucky McKee’s last gig was an episode of “Poker Face.” Though her by-all-accounts terrific “Moonglow” is at hand, Isabel Sandoval was working on “The Summer I Turned Pretty” when even a casual fan would tell you she deserved the whole budget of the show to make her own art. Amy Seimetz had creative control taken away from her on the historically boring and dreadful “The Idol,” which means it’s been six years since she made a follow-up to her panic-attack sophomore feature “She Dies Tomorrow.”
A Friend of the Family (Peacock)
Neo-realist Eliza Hittman’s last gig was on the Peacock show “A Friend of the Family.” Gillian Robespierre, Courtney Hunt, Caryn Waechter, the list goes on. Not to say TV’s a bad use of one’s energy, but it does highlight that it’s easier to become a piece of a machine than to convince people you’re worth their time and money as an artist. It behooves executives to operate under the delusion that anyone can hold a camera—this is how these artists are kept away from the sets which they so richly deserve to run. But it’s that or wait for the pieces to fall into place, which explains why we only get new movies by Whitney Horn and Lev Kalman, deadpan satirists whose fever dream genre exercises just hit.
Independent cinema gets thrown around at directors who maybe once had to scrounge to get their budgets, like Sean Baker and the now-divided, rightly polarizing Safdie brothers, but they’ve been supported by a pretty serious financial apparatus in the last 15 years. Those directors ought to be subsidizing independent cinema, and to their credit sometimes they do (Baker produced Joanna Arnow’s first feature to his eternal credit), but there is no reason for there to be an ecosystem of people connected by and best defined by wasted potential, and that’s before we tally up “valedictory” figures like Alan Rudolph, John Waters, Billy Woodberry, Julie Dash, Tamara Jenkins, and Larry Fessenden. As with any other industry with insufficient union protections, the infrastructure was made by people who won’t get to enjoy it.
So yes, by all means, feel sorry for me, GOD KNOWS I NEED IT, but I’m at the very bottom of a very long list. The less curious we get about where the money is going, the more we have to settle for not caring what the studio system produces, because there’s only so much funding, only so much oxygen, and only so much room at the top, and that’s without factoring in the people who kick the ladder down when they’ve made it there. Enjoy the next movies you see with no studio financing, no name producer, no major stars, the next truly independent movie you see. It could be your last.
- A French-Language “Zorro” Offers a Charmingly Offbeat Interpretation of the Famous Vigilante (June 29, 2026)
The character of Zorro has been around for over a hundred years. Created by American pulp writer Johnston McCulley in 1919, the popular masked vigilante has appeared in over 40 feature films and multiple television series, portrayed by actors ranging from Tyrone Power and Douglas Fairbanks to Guy Williams and Antonio Banderas. And although Zorro may seem a somewhat archaic figure to modern audiences, the character has indelibly shaped much of the superhero fiction that remains so popular today.
Even those who know relatively little about the original stories in which the character appeared will find his masked crusader persona, complete with a domino mask, flowing cape, and secret lair, deeply familiar. This makes sense, given that Zorro was one of the foundational influences behind the creation of Batman, another wealthy aristocrat who plays dumb as a cover for the secret identity that allows him to battle corrupt elites and help the poor. But while these familiar narrative beats are still present in “Zorro,” MHz Choice’s eight-part French-language reimagining of the famous character, the series is eager to put its own spin on his story.
While this latest adaptation boasts familiar swashbuckling action, a masked hero, and a well-meaning crusade for justice, this isn’t a particularly traditional tale. A genre-bending mix of adventure, occasionally slapstick comedy, relationship mishaps, and colonial politics, this “Zorro” feels largely unlike any take on this particular hero we’ve ever seen before. It’s an ambitious reimagining that doesn’t always work—its insistence on mistaken identity gags will test your patience at more than one point—but the show’s refreshingly different approach to its premise still manages to make this century-old hero feel brand new again.
Artwork: Meije Randetti©Marcel Hartmann – Paramount – FTV – collectif 64 – Bien Sûr Productions
The story begins in 1821 when Zorro is essentially retired. His real-life alter ego, the dorky but charmingly earnest Don Diego de la Vega (Jean Dujardin), hasn’t put on his famous cape and mask in 20 years. Now a fifty-something proto-technocrat, he fights for justice by way of civic improvement. He has grand plans for improving his beloved Los Angeles, including installing a central pipeline to bring much-needed water to the town. But when he inherits the role of mayor after his father’s (André Dussollier) death, he learns that the elder De la Vega has left it in substantial debt to the predatory businessman Don Emmanuel (Éric Elmosnino).
A corrupt grifter who runs the local casino, uses shell corporations to avoid taxes, and pays his workers with mezcal that he then has the police arrest them for drinking in public, Don Emmanuel regularly—and gleefully—exploits the most marginalized and downtrodden in the community. (There’s even a point at which his casino chips become the town’s primary currency.) He fears no punishment or consequences, and his brazen behavior is nothing so much as proof that, despite Don Diego’s best efforts, the people still need Zorro after all.
Getting back into the saddle takes a while, both literally and figuratively speaking, but by the time loyal sidekick, Bernardo (the endlessly delightful Salvatore Ficarra) has upgraded his gear and introduced him to the son of his famous horse, Tornado (who is also named Tornado, because of course he is), things are suddenly looking a lot more like something we’ve seen before.
Yet “Zorro” smartly refuses to take the easy path. As Don Diego resumes his secret identity, freeing the wrongfully imprisoned, thwarting theft, and just generally riding to the rescue whenever it’s necessary, Zorro slowly emerges as the town’s de facto leader and beloved savior, frequently stealing the spotlight from his own mayoral efforts. To make things even more complicated, De La Vega’s wife Gabriella (Audrey Dana) has a flirtatious run-in with Zorro, a connection blossoms, and Don Diego ultimately finds himself trapped in a love triangle…with another side of himself.
Plenty of vaudevillian-style hijinks ensue as De La Vega pushes himself to the limit to keep his secret, complete with several close calls, misunderstandings, and false accusations. But “Zorro” is at its most interesting in the moments when Don Diego’s identities—both real and secret—come into conflict. We see our hero genuinely struggling with the intersection of his very different lives, torn between his understanding of the man he is and the man he wants to be seen as. He resents his alter ego’s popularity and ability to inspire the townspeople, even as he basks in their praise and admiration. He relishes the opportunity to reconnect with the wife he loves, physically and otherwise, though he is tormented by the fact that she’s drawn so strongly to someone else. (Even if that man is, also technically, him.)
Audrey Dana
American audiences are likely most familiar with Dujardin from his Oscar-winning turn in the largely dialogue-free 2011 film “The Artist,” and he makes for a charismatic leading man here, awkwardly earnest and dryly funny by turns. Though the series features its share of sword-fighting action, this “Zorro” is equally as interested in Don Diego’s internal battles with himself, often depicted via arguments with an imaginary version of his dead father, and Dujardin deftly balances humor and sincerity in ways we don’t tend to associate with this particular character.
Unfortunately, some of the series’ jokes go on a bit too long, and the show drags badly in its midsection. Part of the reason for this is that Zorro and Gabriella’s repeated flirtations and steadily deepening relationship require an almost laughable suspension of disbelief to work, something the admittedly strong chemistry between the actors can’t always cover for. This results in a regrettable (and, quite frankly, unnecessary) dumbing-down of her character. Her incomprehensible disinterest in Zorro’s true identity—not to mention her willingness to let him keep the mask on at all times—does a disservice to Dana’s otherwise sparky and intelligent performance as a woman who generally seems fairly modern for her time.
Told in French, shot in Spain, and full of the colorful imagery of Old California, “Zorro” makes for an enjoyable enough summer distraction, a pleasant throwback to when adventure-themed television was still something major networks still made. Despite poking at themes ranging from the rise of populism to the struggles of aging, the show never takes itself too seriously, and its broad, warmly comedic vibes will almost certainly charm a wide range of viewers. Perhaps this particular masked avenger isn’t the hero we particularly expected to reappear in the year of our Lord 2026, but his return is a welcome one all the same.
All eight episodes screened for review. Premieres June 30 on MHz Choice.
- The Honor of an Absolute Lifetime: Rod Lurie on “Lucky Strike” (June 26, 2026)
“Lucky Strike” is based on the true story of an American soldier wounded behind enemy lines in WWII, during the massive, weeks-long Battle of the Bulge, in December of 1944. Scott Eastwood plays Colonel John Castle, who relies on the then-new technology of a backpack-sized radio that allows him to communicate with his division.
In an interview with RogerEbert.com, director and co-screenwriter Rod Lurie discusses keeping the audience within Castle’s point of view, the film’s three distinct color palettes, and how his wife helped cast a key role.
Talk to me about the cinematography [by Lorenzo Senatore], which is absolutely gorgeous and is so effective at bringing us into that time and place.
Lorenzo Senatore and I talked about it a lot. There are three looks in the film, three distinct color palettes. There’s black and white in the beginning. And then we’re in America, where Scott is meeting with a woman, at the end. Then there is the bulk of the movie, which is in the Battle of the Bulge. Obviously, black and white is its own thing in that first scene. Then I wanted the scene in America to be very bright and vibrant.
But I wanted to get a sense of the cold and the battlefield’s upsetting nature throughout that entire Bulge section. And I was very influenced by the cinematography of a man named Pierre Lhomme, who photographed a movie called “Army of Shadows,” Jean-Pierre Melville’s film. And it’s sort of the same palette that Janusz Kaminski used on “Saving Private Ryan.” Ours is a little bit more lush, I would say.
And I’ve always challenged my DPs to do something that camera movement-wise or composition-wise, that they have never done before. And Lorenzo said, “Ridiculous, I have done everything.” And I said, “No, that’s bullshit. You haven’t done everything.” I said it to him on “The Outpost” as well. And we came up with some stuff there that, to this day, people ask us how we pulled it off.
I challenged him a couple of times here as well. We came up with ideas for some oners that seemed almost impossible. Like, Scott takes out a bunch of Nazis in a farmhouse and runs outside. And we follow him, and then somehow, we follow him into a tank, all in one shot. Lorenzo would say, “This cannot be done.” And then I would say to him, “Except you.” And he goes, “I am going to try.“ And so he pulls out this magician stuff that’s really just amazing. It’s really just amazing. I love his work in this film, and I love cinematography.
The oners are so immediate and visceral.
When you can put that into a combat situation, then you really do create a first-person point of view. It was very important that this movie be Scott’s or Castle’s point of view. We tried, except in the opening section, which was very much meant to be objective, to really stay in his point of view. When we see him in conversation, we never see over his shoulder because we see what he sees, for example. And when he hears a language that he does not understand, like French or German, we didn’t give subtitles, because why should the audience understand something that he does not?
Your background at West Point and in the military lends this film a lot of authenticity, as it did in “The Outpost.” Are you from a military family?
My dad was in the Israeli military and quite a hero there, but not in the American military. I went to West Point for many reasons. My first choice was Columbia. I wanted to go to the School of Journalism, but I didn’t get in there. My number-two choice, and very, very, very high, was West Point. First of all, it’s the best school in the world. If you look at the academics at an undergraduate school, they have tons of PhDs and tons of Rhodes Scholars. Edwin Teller was one of my professors, and he’s a physicist.
It was pretty amazing being there. You didn’t have to pay to go there. You got paid. I did want to serve the country. But really, I wanted to become a filmmaker. I didn’t want to go to film school to learn things that you’re going to learn on sets. What I wanted to do was go and study the things that I wanted to make movies about. I studied leadership, principles, American history, and the military. And whenever I walked around that beautiful campus, I would always ask myself the same question: “Where would I put the camera?”
They haven’t allowed a full feature film to be made on the campus there in 75 years. It’s very difficult to get approved. It’s really the jewel of the Army. But I got it approved for a boxing film a few years ago. Right. And I got approved by Lionsgate and West Point, and then my father got sick, and I had to take care of him. And I just couldn’t take the time to make a movie at that point.
I was surprised to find you credited as a composer for the film.
I came up with the opening melody, the melody that runs throughout the film. However, all the rest of the music, all the tonal stuff in the film, comes from Larry Groupe, who has been my lifelong, career-long composer. I don’t want to credit grab too much. I did write the song at the end. I have done that for several films.
The score is very powerful. In the scene where Castle ends up in the tank, it’s very intense.
That was Larry, and there are these pizzicatos and sliders throughout the film that are also him. He’s a marvelous composer. The Outpost, he did some great electronic work. He did some wonderful tonal stuff there as well. It’s interesting that there has been a shift away from melody in movies and movie scores. And I think that really started to become very in vogue with the movie “Sicario,” where it’s basically all tonal or even in “The Revenant,” and movies like that. Nobody can hum them anymore.
I was very pleased to see one of my favorite actresses, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, in the film.
In the story that my partner Mark Friedman was told, which became the basis for this movie, our hero does go back to find the woman who made the radio that saved his life. We needed to get a very powerful African-American actress. My wife, Kyra Davis Lurie, is Black. She turned on “Lovecraft Country” and said, “Watch this.” And I did. She said, “That’s it.” And I said, “You bet.” I only had one day with her, but we’ve already talked about doing more stuff together. She’s a bit of a miracle of an actress.
It was wonderful to see the premiere at the National Archives. Why was that so meaningful for you?
It should be self-evident that for a director who is a veteran, who’s making a movie about World War II, which really put America on its best display, how much it means to be offered to screen your movie at the National Archives, where, when you walk out of the theater, the Declaration of Independence is right there. It is the honor of an absolute lifetime. Nothing I will ever do, screening-wise, will match that. The fact that these people saw our film as worthy, that we had their 107-year-old commander from the Battle of the Bulge, Herb Stern. Afterward, he held my hand and said, “You got it right.” I’m taking that to the bank now.
It’s hard for us today to realize how revolutionary the communications technology was in 1944.
It gave them the ability to communicate instantaneously from one unit to another. Asking for cover fire or just knowing where their friends were was completely and utterly essential. And the 300 series was extremely sturdy. It could transmit up to 13 kilometers. And in a place like the Battle of the Bulge, which is very condensed, something like that was very important. And of course, it was a miracle for people like Scott’s character who are trapped behind enemy lines. Just to be given the ability to at least know where your unit is changed the course of the war and warfare period.
I was very touched near the end of the film, when we see a child who shares your late son’s name.
My son died of a blood clot right in front of my eyes while I was making “The Outpost.” And I look back today, and I don’t know how I got through it. And well, I do know how I got through it. I got through it through the art that we make and the sense that we can have purpose. Before he died, I promised him that I would only do things that carried some meaning. And this is the stuff that means the most to me right now.
- “The Bear” Closes Its Doors With a Trimphant Final Service in Season 5 (June 25, 2026)
When Season 4 of FX’s “The Bear” premiered last year, nobody really knew whether that season would be the show’s last. Creator Christopher Storer’s tale of the fractious Berzatto clan, and their extended work family of chefs, Faks, and brainy accountants with names like “Computer,” has, over the course of its run, grown into a bona fide phenomenon—one which, like the flagging Chicago eatery at its center, felt like it was growing a bit too big to sustain itself. The cast grew bigger (and more famous) with each installment; the playlist of needle drops became ever more expansive; the show and its writers grew more enamored of its characters to the point of mawkishness. All great ingredients in moderation, but put too much in the broth, and it affects the taste.
But just as Syd is asked to reduce, reduce, reduce with each overstretched protein, Season 5 feels like a stripped-down, back-to-basics iteration of the show, and that’s to its immense credit. It’s two episodes shorter than previous seasons; gone are the needle drops (in favor of a propulsive electronic score courtesy of composer Christian Lundberg and producer Hans Zimmer) and the subplots that stretch far beyond the restaurant, to say nothing of the lumbering pace those more aimless seasons engendered. The entire final season takes place over one stressful, nail-biting day, the most important moment in the restaurant’s life. (Think “Uncut Gems” with more likable characters and a bit of “Chef’s Table” food porn.) It’s game time, do-or-die, the moment of truth. It’s time for The Bear, and “The Bear,” to stick the landing. And, though this review comes without the benefit of seeing the season’s final episode, all signs point to success.
Season 4’s ticking clock, set by Uncle Jimmy (Oliver Platt) and his number-crunching cohort Computer (“Ocean’s Thirteen” scribe Brian Koppelman), has run out; he’s eyeing an exit and is scrambling to cut bait and rid himself of the restaurant once and for all. But, in the spirit of “The Bear”‘s optimistic cast and sports-movie vigor, there’s always one more service, and this might just be the one that pulls them out of the fire. (Especially if Jimmy, along with computer and newly-recruited savant Cheese, played by Elsie Fisher, can find an alternate route to save the business. Two words: Air rights.)
FX’s The Bear — “Ribs” — Season 5, Episode 4 — Pictured: (l-r) Ayo Edebiri as Sydney Adamu, Jeremy Allen White as Carmen ‘Carmy’ Berzatto, Will Poulter as Luca, Sarah Ramos as Jessica. CR: FX
The first two eps, of course, establish the apocalyptic stakes at hand, right down to a massive thunderstorm that coats Chicago in a thick, flood-worthy torrent, making the few wide shots of the Windy City look like the Los Angeles in “Blade Runner.” The restaurant, like its staff, is coming apart at the seams: Pipes burst, basements flood, inventory gets destroyed. We’re literally getting Faks falling through the ceiling.
The metaphorical storm lies in the friction among the staff, too: Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) struggles to find the right time to tell the crew he’s quitting and to leave Syd (Ayo Edebiri) in charge; he lingers like a phantom in his own kitchen, eager to step away but unwilling to let go. Syd, for her part, feels panicked at the prospect of stepping into the leadership role. Sugar (Abby Elliott) juggles keeping the restaurant afloat for one more minute with trusting her chaotic mom, Donna (Jamie Lee Curtis), with her newborn baby, and professional pressures are beginning to form fractures between award-winning pastry chef Marcus (Lionel Boyce) and his departing stage, Luca (Will Poulter). Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson) agonizes over pitching Carmy his prospectus to franchise the beef window (“Do not be intimidated by his bright blue eyes”). The brothers Fak (Matty Matheson, Ricky Staffieri), well…. they’re the Faks.
Storer knows we know and love these characters at this point, and so “The Bear” keeps its nose down and gets down to the business at hand, and it’s so refreshing for that. The show’s hypnotic rhythms, honed over years of montage-like filmmaking and fluid editing, keep us bouncing from scene to scene with remarkable ease; the dialogue floats between spicy (Jimmy’s creative cursing includes “fuck my life to death”) and cheesy (every one of Cousin Richie’s heartwarmingly Chicagoan pep talks, delivered with Ebon Moss-Bachrach‘s signature po-faced sincerity). Every performer is quietly at the top of their game, easing through the quirks and foibles of their characters so quietly that it never feels like effort. (Of particular praise is Edebiri, who sells the pressure of getting the responsibility she had waited for the whole show to receive.) It’s so propulsive and economical, you’ll be shocked when the credits start rolling on one episode and the next begins.
FX’s The Bear — “Lamb — Season 5, Episode 2 — Pictured: Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Richard “Richie” Jerimovich. CR: FX
Apart from Jimmy and crew’s foul-mouthed excursions to the County Clerk’s office and a crazy family member who owns the air rights (played with delicious scorn by “The Penguin“‘s Dierdre O’Connell), “The Bear” smartly keeps its characters contained inside the four walls of the restaurant. It’s practically that one-take season one episode “Review” writ large, with all the tension that entails. But what longtime “Bear” fans will notice is that the characters have genuinely grown since then: They face obstacles, but they know to rely on each other and their faith in their own skills. As their final service starts, and hope begins to spring (especially in the fifty-minute penultimate episode), the crew begins a delicate balancing act of improvisation and teamwork that makes you want to pump your fist in the air.
It’s competence porn of the highest degree—not just because they’ve gotten better at making and serving haute cuisine, or know how to stretch a finite number of ingredients into Michelin-quality paintings on a plate, but because they know how to build and motivate a team. Same as Richie and crew can massage a turn into a delicate dance of impatient patrons and dropped dishes, Storer and his expert team usher us through the highs and lows of The Bear’s make-or-break shift in ways that feel earned, rather than just the sentimentality of an unrealistic underdog story.
In many ways, “The Bear” is, and always has been, an aspirational fantasy. As Cheese notes frequently, restaurants are a horrible business; they close, they shutter for any reason, they wring the emotional, financial, and physical well-being of the people who run and work for them. Lord knows, the show, with its many creative ups and downs (not to mention the awkward scheduling of an increasingly famous cast), has had its low moments. But what Storer’s story presupposes is that there is worth in the doing, and family to be had in the tight-knit community of chefs that work for a place. That, in the final estimation, will be “The Bear”‘s ultimate lesson, and one that will cement it as one of the most dynamic and satisfying shows of the 21st century.
First seven episodes screened for review. All episodes now available on Hulu and Disney+.
- Two Incredible 4K Box Sets Target Loyal Fan Bases (June 25, 2026)
The physical media box set market has slowed in recent years as studios have kinda run out of collections to release. So we wanted to highlight two of the coolest such releases in a very long time, box sets aimed at fans of two icons of film history: Steven Spielberg and Jackie Chan. The former gets a lavish limited-edition steelbook set that collects some of his most beloved films for the first time to celebrate the release of “Disclosure Day”; the latter gets a special-features-loaded 10-disc set that spotlights a formative period in his legacy. They’re both going to be on any shortlist of the best Blu-ray box sets of the year. Pick ’em up at an online outlet or store near you while you can.
“Steven Spielberg: The Spotlight Collection”
There are very few filmmakers who could assemble an 8-film box set as impressive as this one. Collected for the first time, this impressive set not only includes Spielberg’s three other alien movies—“Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial,” and “War of the Worlds”—but accompanies them with five other straight-up masterpieces: “Jaws,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Jurassic Park,” “Schindler’s List,” and “Saving Private Ryan.” It’s a box set that features more disc-by-disc quality than arguably any other 8-movie collection you could buy.
Each film slides into a 4K steelbook edition, and the entire collection features over 25 hours of bonus features, all of which are listed below:
Jaws
JAWS @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story
The Making of JAWS
The Shark Is Still Working: The Impact & Legacy of JAWS
JAWS: The Restoration
Deleted Scenes and Outtakes
From The Set
Theatrical Trailer
Galleries
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Includes all 3 versions of the film (Theatrical Version, Special Edition, Director’s Cut)
Three Kinds of Close Encounters
Steven’s Home Videos & Outtakes
Steven Spielberg: 30 Years of Close Encounters
Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Making of Documentary
Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Watch the Skies
Deleted Scenes
Storyboard Comparisons
Extensive Photo Gallery
Close Encounters of the Third Kind – Original Theatrical Trailer
Close Encounters of the Third Kind – Special Edition Trailer
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Teaser Trailer
Theatrical Trailer
Re-Issue Trailer
T. The Extra-Terrestrial
40 Years of T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL
TCM Classic Film Festival: An Evening with Steven Spielberg
The E.T. Journals
Deleted Scenes
Steven Spielberg & E.T.
A Look Back
The Evolution and Creation of E.T.
The E.T. Reunion
The Music of E.T.: A Discussion with John Williams
The 20th Anniversary Premiere
Designs, Photographs, and Marketing
Theatrical Trailer
Special Olympics TV Spot
Jurassic Park
Return to Jurassic Park: Dawn of a New Era
Return to Jurassic Park: Making Prehistory
Return to Jurassic Park: The Next Step in Evolution
Archival Featurettes
The Making of Jurassic Park
Original Featurette on the Making of the Film
Steven Spielberg Directs Jurassic Park
Hurricane in Kauai Featurette
Behind the Scenes
Early Pre-Production Meetings
Location Scouting
Phil Tippett Animatics: Raptors in the Kitchen
Animatics: T-Rex Attack
ILM and Jurassic Park: Before and After the Visual Effects
Foley Artists
Storyboards
Production Archives
Theatrical Trailer
Schindler’s List
Schindler’s List: 25 Years Later
Voices from the List
USC Shoah Foundation Story with Steven Spielberg (2018)
Let Their Testimonies Speak – Stronger Than Hate
About iWitness (2018)
Saving Private Ryan
An Introduction
Looking Into the Past
Miller and His Platoon
Boot Camp
Making Saving Private Ryan
Re-Creating Omaha Beach
Music and Sound
Parting Thoughts
Into the Breach: Saving Private Ryan
Theatrical Trailer
Re-Release Trailer
Shooting War
War of the Worlds
Revisiting the Invasion
The H.G. Wells Legacy
Steven Spielberg and the Original War of the Worlds
Characters: The Family Unit
Previsualization
Production Diaries
Designing the Enemy: Tripods and Aliens
Scoring War of the Worlds
We Are Not Alone
Galleries
Theatrical Teaser Trailer
“Jackie Chan’s Breakout Hits”
There was a run of international releases in the mid-‘90s when Jackie Chan went from a beloved action star for those who knew the genre’s world market to a household name in the United States. By the end of it, Chan would star in 1997’s “Rush Hour,” beginning a wave of blockbuster releases in which his name was above the title, with some of them standing the test of time better than others. (I’ll still defend the goofy fun of “Shanghai Noon”; less so “The Tuxedo.”)
Of course, Jackie Chan’s career didn’t start in the ‘90s. By then, he had already amassed dozens of credits, dating all the way back to 1962. And as someone old enough to remember this period, I knew about films like “Police Story” and “Supercop.” But it was Stanley Tong’s “Rumble in the Bronx” that was really the star’s breakthrough North American hit, despite how legendarily it falters in its attempts to make Vancouver look like New York. “Rumble” made over $75 million, the highest-grossing film in Hong Kong to that date. Chan truly was the biggest action star in the world.
To commemorate that period, Arrow Home Video has released a collection of six Chan films, all presented in 4K for the first time: The box set features “Drunken Master II” (1994), “Rumble in the Bronx” (1995), “Thunderbolt” (1995), “Police Story IV” (1996), “Mr. Nice Guy” (1997), and “Who Am I?” (1997). The box includes a 160-page book with new writing on the films, 24 lobby cards, and even a reversible poster, but it’s the films themselves that are LOADED with material that Chan fans will want to see. It’s overwhelming, and listed below:
DISC 1 – DRUNKEN MASTER II
4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentations in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) of three versions: the uncut 102-minute Hong Kong Cut , the 100-minute International Cut and the American Cut re-titled The Legend of Drunken Master (102 mins)
Original lossless Cantonese, Mandarin and English mono audio for the Hong Kong Cut
Original lossless English mono audio for the International Cut
Original English DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround audio for The Legend of Drunken Master
Optional English subtitles and subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
Brand new commentary by martial arts cinema experts Frank Djeng and F.J. DeSanto
Before the Breakout, a new featurette in which stuntman Wang Yao, academic Dr. Wayne Wong and critics David West and James Mudge look back at Jackie Chan’s earlier career
Breakout! Part 1, a new featurette in which Wong, West, Mudge and stuntman Mars look back at the film
Deadly When Drunken, a new interview with co-writer Yuen Kai-chi
Tipsy Tribulations, an expanded interview with stuntman Mars
Period Postures, a new interview with academic Dr. Lars Laamann on the historical context behind the film
Drunken Defiance, a new appreciation of the film by martial arts cinema expert Ricky Baker
Archive interview with Jackie Chan filmed for the American release in 2000
Alternate Mandarin drinking scene (contains standard-definition inserts)
Textless outtakes
Chinese New Year messages recorded by Jackie for the Taiwanese and Malaysian openings
Trailer gallery
Image gallery
DISC 2 – RUMBLE IN THE BRONX (HONG KONG CUT)
4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
Original lossless Cantonese/English (sync-sound) stereo audio and English (export dub) mono audio
Optional English subtitles and subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
Brand new commentary by martial arts cinema experts Frank Djeng and F.J. DeSanto
Breakout! Part 2, a new featurette in which stuntman Mars, stuntwoman Kathy Hubble, martial arts cinema expert Ricky Baker and critics David West and James Mudge look back at the film
Rumble Recollections, an expanded interview with Hubble
Alternate footage
Textless outtakes
Image gallery
DISC 3 – RUMBLE IN THE BRONX (INTERNATIONAL CUT)
4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
Original English-dubbed lossless stereo audio and DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
Electronic press kit interview with Jackie Chan
Two scenes added for the network TV version with dubbing unique to this version
US trailer and TV spots
DISC 4 – THUNDERBOLT
4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) of the uncut 110-minute International Cut
Original lossless Cantonese/English (sync-sound) stereo audio, English (export dub) stereo audio and English (US dub) DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround audio
Optional English subtitles and subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
97-minute Japanese Cut with lossless Cantonese/English sync-sound stereo audio (high-definition only)
Brand new commentary by martial arts cinema experts Frank Djeng and F.J. DeSanto
Breakout! Part 3, a new featurette in which stuntman Mars, critics David West and James Mudge, and dubbing supervisor Paul Clay look back at the film
A Thunderous Presence, an expanded interview with Clay on his collaborations with Jackie Chan
Alternate English export credits
Textless outtakes
International trailer
Japanese trailers
Image gallery
DISC 5 – POLICE STORY 4: FIRST STRIKE (HONG KONG CUT)
4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
Original lossless Cantonese/English (sync-sound) stereo and Mandarin (dubbed) stereo audio
Optional English subtitles and subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
Brand new commentary by martial arts cinema experts Frank Djeng and F.J. DeSanto
Breakout! Part 4, a new featurette in which critics David West and James Mudge look back at the film
Textless outtakes
Image gallery
DISC 6 – POLICE STORY 4: FIRST STRIKE (INTERNATIONAL CUT)
4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
Original English-dubbed lossless stereo and DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
Striking Back, a new interview with martial arts cinema expert Frank Djeng
Scenes added for the US network TV version with dubbing unique to this version
US trailer
DISC 7 – MR. NICE GUY (JAPANESE & HONG KONG CUTS)
4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
Original lossless English DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround and lossless stereo audio for both cuts
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
Brand new commentary by critic James Mudge
Breakout! Part 5, a new featurette in which stuntman Mars and critics David West and James Mudge look back at the film
Nice Thoughts, a new appreciation by martial arts cinema expert Frank Djeng
Alternate English credits
Textless outtakes
Original trailer
Image gallery
DISC 8 – MR. NICE GUY (INTERNATIONAL CUT)
4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
Original lossless English DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround and lossless stereo audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
US trailer
DISC 9 – WHO AM I? (HONG KONG CUT)
4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
Original lossless English DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround and lossless stereo audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
Brand new commentary by critic James Mudge
Breakout! Part 6, a new featurette in which critic James Mudge, actor Glory Simon and second unit cinematographer Ray Wong look back at the film
From Drunk to Slam Dunk: Jackie Chan in the New Millennium, a new featurette in which Mudge, Simon, Wong, stuntwoman Kathy Hubble, stuntmen Wang Yao and Mars, critic David West and others look at Jackie’s career in the years since
The Making of Who Am I?, a three-part archive behind-the-scenes featurette
Alternate English credits
Textless outtakes
Original trailer
Image gallery
DISC 10 – WHO AM I? (INTERNATIONAL CUT)
4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
Original lossless English DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround and lossless stereo audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
Who, When & Where, an expanded interview with Wong
Jostling with Jackie, an expanded interview with Simon
US trailer
