- TIFF 2026: The Debut, Elsinore, Closing Night (September 17, 2026)
All the world’s a stage. The art of performance is directly unpacked in two of the more acclaimed films of the 2026 festival season, while a third film centers a dying actress while playing like an ode to the stage divas that have been so beloved for generations. One of them is among the best films of 2026 so far, while the other two reveal how even some of the best acting need the right formal choices around it to have the desired impact.
The best of the three is Jesse Eisenberg’s sharp “The Debut,” a movie that first plays like that episode of “The Simpsons” where Marge gets cast in a musical version of “A Streetcar Named Desire.” However, this is not the predictable “Star is Born” narrative that its previews and set-up might lead people to expect. As he was with his remarkable “A Real Pain,” Eisenberg is interested in something deeper, something that captures the complexity of acting in a way that we haven’t really seen before. While also being one of the funniest films of 2026, “The Debut” asks unexpected questions about what it really means to get lost in a character. There’s a reading of it that might even be anti-method acting. What if you get too lost to come back?
The core question of “The Debut” to this viewer comes down to a classic tenet of acting classes around the world. (FYI, this critic was a theatre major and director years ago, so I know my zips from my zaps and zops.) Every actor has been taught to bring themselves to their characters, finding sense memories or personal traits that can connect their actual lives to the fictional one they’re playing. At the root of “The Debut” is a captivating idea: What happens when someone has nothing to bring?
Julianne Moore does some of the best work of her career as Mona Friedman, a New Jersey housewife who auditions for a local play, Nosy Neighbors, which is an entirely original musical written by Eisenberg, who has somehow crafted original songs that sound completely genuine just to show how multi-talented he is. Mona competes for the part of Miss Danielle with none other than Bernadette Peters as the most famous actress in the New Jersey regional theatre scene, Serena Cherry. Of course, she doesn’t get it, but Serena leaves the show after a month, and, well, Mona was the only other person who tried out. Why not give her a chance?
Eisenberg sketches Mona’s homelife in ways that verge on satirical. Her husband barely talks to her; her twin children literally forget she exists. In one of Moore’s several heartbreaking beats, she tells a story about how she would go out to dinner with her parents and be left outside with the dogs. She’s been ignored her entire life. And so, the affection shown her by fellow actors (including Halle Bailey) feels like warmth to which she’s unaccustomed, and even the direction of the intense Jerry Blankenbuehler (Paul Giamatti) is attention she’s not used to receiving. He pushes her to bring something real to Miss Danielle, leading to a workshopping scene that’s so incredible that it has produced applause at fest screenings.
From here, you would think that “The Debut” is a story of a woman who didn’t know she was a star until she found her voice in the spotlight. It’s not quite that movie. Without spoiling, Mona gets lost in Miss Danielle in a manner that’s truly, hysterically unpredictable.
Everyone is good here—rarely has anyone been more perfectly cast than Giamatti—but Julianne Moore reminds one how undeniable she can be in the right material. This is the Moore of “Safe” and “Boogie Nights,” a performer willing to take incredible risks with a part that teeters between reality and caricature. What’s so impressive about “The Debut” and Moore’s work in it is that this is never a film that takes the easy route. Here’s where a critic would say something about how we can all see a bit of ourselves in Mona, but that’s not really what this movie is. We see Mona. It’s more complex, daring, and, therefore more rewarding.
The power of the stage is also central to the story of “Elsinore,” which captures the last months of the life of Ian Charleson, star of “Chariots of Fire,” played here with devastating honesty by Andrew Scott. After Daniel Day-Lewis walked out of a production of Hamlet at the National Theatre in 1989, director Richard Eyre (Johnny Flynn) tapped Charleson to replace him, not knowing that the London actor was dying of AIDS. Against the advice of his doctor (played by a subtly perfect Olivia Colman), Charleson insisted on taking the part, pouring everything he had left into arguably the best role an actor can ever play.
“Elsinore” works as a testament to Scott’s incredible range as a performer. He makes so many funny, moving, genuine choices as Charleson, refusing to play him as a symbol for how much we lost in the war on AIDS but getting to that point, nonetheless. It’s impossible to watch this film and not think about not only what Charleson might have gone on to do with his career but how many other masterpieces simply never happened because of this horrible disease. At its core, “Elsinore” is about what was “not to be,” a story of loss framed in that of an exceptional triumph.
Sadly, director Simon Stone doesn’t trust his audience, burying Scott’s breathtaking work in both one of the most aggressive scores of all time from Stefan Gregory and hyperactive editing by Valerio Bonelli. The last act of “Elsinore” is infuriating, even more so when one considers how Charleson complains about his career being defined by the unforgettable score of “CoF”. As Scott finally reaches his big moments on the stage, everything he’s doing is undercut by the form around him. Imagine the big emotional stage show of “Hamnet” quick-cut together with flashback beats from the rest of the movie and a score so loud that you can’t even hear all of the words being spoken. It’s so antithetical to the truth that Charleson sought through the immediacy of the stage and that Scott is so capable of finding through the camera.
Ultimately, Scott is so moving here that people will forgive how often the film works against what he’s doing, but they might not forget.
Finally, there’s a film that’s not directly about the theatre but comes from a theatrical love of the diva, nonetheless. Ryan Murphy regular Cody Fern makes his directorial debut with the interesting “Closing Night,” a movie with such old-fashioned degrees of melodrama that some people in Toronto compared it to Douglas Sirk. As a huge fan of Sirk, I pushed back because Fern doesn’t yet have that visual language—Sirk knew how to use color like no one else—but there is something to be said for a director who so clearly loves acting and actresses, using his production budget to elevate Sarah Paulson, Naomi Watts, and Dianne Wiest with showy, meaty, memorable roles.
Co-written by Devon Bostick, “Closing Night” opens with the famed Broadway star Sandra Vale (Paulson) inviting her family to the opening night of her new play, a revival of Mother Courage. (Already this movie is so catnip to NY theatre lovers.) The problem is that Sandra hasn’t spoken to her estranged sister April (Watts) in years, the two torn apart by how one slept with the other’s boyfriend back when they were teenagers. April’s son Theo (Toby Wallace) has been secretly having lunches with Aunt Sandra as he prepares to start his own family with his girlfriend Lucy (Odessa A’zion). When Sandra is diagnosed with early on-set dementia, skeletons come tumbling out of closets, some of them put their by Sandra and April’s hysterically cynical mother Diane (Wiest).
With basically only five speaking roles and most of the film taking place in an apartment, it really feels like “Closing Night” could have started life as a play, where Paulson’s work might have won her a few awards. She is fearlessly driven here, chewing on Fern and Bostick’s caustic, wounded dialogue. As the film gets more maudlin in the final act, I missed that bitter interplay of the film at its best. I also wished the film had a stronger visual language to match its performers, but there’s something to be said for young creators who value the great actresses of film and television that came before. Murphy has long-done this in his TV work, and it’s nice to see Fern take that shared admiration to a cinematic platform. There’s every reason to believe the next film will be more visually and narratively ambitious. Let’s hope it also has a trio of actresses this willing to play to the entire house.
- TIFF 2026: Evil Genius, Prima Facie, The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd (September 17, 2026)
Three high profile, star-studded dramas premiered in Toronto this week and they all produced the same response from this critic: “Great performances, but…” It’s a trio of films with actors giving their all to films that just aren’t willing to give enough to their audiences. They’re also all bleak, disturbing movies about extreme, awful violence. It’s a dark time in 2026, and this trio of disappointments reflects that state of things that everyone can feel in the air.
The best of the three is Courteney Cox’s “Evil Genius,” a tight telling of the stranger-than-fiction story of Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong and Bill Rothstein. If this all sounds familiar, this crazy tale was chronicled in a docuseries of the same name on Netflix in 2018. Whereas that series took four hours to unpack all of the details of one of the oddest bank robberies in history, Cox and writer Courtenay Miles are forced to rush through this complex tale with around a dozen memorable characters. The result is a film that often feels like it’s punching down on a group of oddballs that it never takes the time to really consider as human beings. The people behind the “pizza bomber” case used Brian Wells as part of their plan, never really thinking about his wellbeing, and the film about this incident has an oddly similar disconnect, despite the work by two of its stars to add depth to the rushed screenplay. It’s possible that this is a tale that just can’t be told well in a feature, but this sort of cynical approach certainly wasn’t the best way to try.
“Evil Genius” opens with Rothstein (David Harbour) considering taking his own life before going to the cops with a shocking revelation: There’s a body in a freezer, and it was put there by Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong (Patricia Arquette). At first, Rothstein claims that the body has nothing to do with the currently-under-investigation “pizza bomber” case, but that’s a weak argument. Obviously, it does.
From there, Miles’ script bounces back and forth between one of the most unforgettable bank robberies in history and the bloody aftermath. For a very brief window, “Evil Genius” allows for a little back story as we meet a young Marjorie and Bill, back when life was better. Harbour plays Bill like someone who had a healthy dose of unrequited love for Marjorie from a young age, and Arquette balances that by sketching a character who knows that she can get this burly man to do whatever she wants. Arquette’s work here is unimpeachable, disappearing into an abrasive whirlwind of a character, someone who manipulates everyone around her with alternating promises of glory and compassion-seeking sob stories. She’s so good (and Harbour is excellent as well) that she almost saves the entire movie.
She can’t quite get around the flaws that emerge from this film’s breakneck pacing. It spins through the details of the heist, starting with how Marjorie was convinced that PNC Bank in Erie, PA had essentially stolen her inheritance. She devised a plan with Rothstein and a menagerie of quasi-criminals played by Garret Dillahunt, Michael Chernus, Danielle Macdonald, and Owen Teague that ended up with them kidnapping a pizza delivery driver (played by director Tom McCarthy in a fun casting choice), strapping a bomb to his neck, and sending him into the bank to get the cash. The root of the idea is a little “genius”: robbing a bank that you never enter. Everything after that was pretty dumb.
“Evil Genius” moves so swiftly through the beats that there’s never really enough pause to justify telling this story again, especially if one has seen the Netflix series. Yes, Arquette and Harbour make smart acting choices here and there, but even they get swept up in a film that never really seems interested in understanding these people as much as laughing at them. A movie based on a true story needs more than “Can you believe this shit happened” as its guiding artistic principle.
Of course, the story at the center of Susanna White’s “Prima Facie” is disturbingly believable, but the problem here is in the way it’s told. Adapting her award-winning one-woman show of the same name, screenwriter Suzie Miller has expanded the themes of that to a multi-character piece and lost so much of the impact of the original. A story of a woman who discovers that the “law’s not fit for purpose,” this film is one of those that values message over character. The message is urgent in a society that still doesn’t believe women as often as it should, but it’s conveyed with such blunt didacticism that it drains it of its power. Stuck in this truly disappointing film is Cynthia Erivo, a great actress forced to play a theme instead of a person for way too much of this drama.
The “Wicked” star plays Tessa Ensler, a rising star in the barrister class of legal wunderkinds in England. She has made her mark threading the needle of cross-examinations, more excited about winning a case than pausing to question if her tactics actually served justice. The idea that someone could get this far in the legal profession and not have the moral conversation with themselves about if they’re actually doing what’s right is ludicrous, but it’s required suspension of disbelief for what happens next.
Tessa begins a romance with a colleague named Julian Brooks (Daniel Ings). One night, after a successful date, Tessa feels ill and falls asleep on the bathroom floor. Julian picks her up, takes her to bed, and, despite her strong protestations, he has sex with her. He writes it off as a drunken night when it was very clearly rape, the kind of horrible behavior that Julian has probably done before. He’s the kind of guy who takes what he wants with a smile, and, to his credit, Ings plays him well, avoiding the caricature for the kind of monster that feels all-too-real.
Tessa decides to report Julian, which, eventually, leads to her being on the opposite side of the cross-examination game she played so well. Erivo is very good here, but the whole project hammers its messages in a way that makes it seem like they don’t trust their viewers. It’s a film that opens with the message that cases have been tried on this spot at the Old Bailey since Medieval times, which means that they work on a legal foundation shaped by men for centuries. The very core of the legal process undeniably favors powerful men, but “Prima Facie” is too thin to have anything to say about how to fix that or what to do about it. And draining it of what made it so powerful originally—one character being vulnerable and brave on the immediacy of the stage—leaves “Prima Facie” as little more than factual testimony. Its messages are righteous, but they’re not conveyed cinematically enough to be a star witness.
There’s a similar disconnect between message and storytelling in Tim Blake Nelson’s “The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd,” an exercise in how much an audience is willing to take. This is one of the most brutally violent films in a very long time, a bleak character study that features murdered children, battered women, and capital execution. Nelson’s refusal to soften the horrors of this reportedly true story is admirable, but there’s a saying that a film has to earn its brutality—there needs to be a reason to spend two hours feeling kicked around by a story, whether it’s powerful themes, character work, or even just rich storytelling. “Shedd” has two great performances from a pair of the best actors working today, but they’re lost in everything the movie does wrong.
Scoot McNairy, so good in “Furious” this summer, plays the title character, a criminal introduced through a writing class being taught by a woman named Karen (Amanda Seyfried). Wilson is a “Phase 4” convict in an Oklahoma prison who is drawn to this beautiful teacher who speaks of Dickinson and Hemingway. McNairy finds a really smart balance of menace and intellect. He’s clearly one of the smartest men in the room, but there’s a simmering violence under the surface that he can barely hide. He begins to send Karen letters through his writing assignments, and she sees a way out from a life with her abusive husband. She’s going to help Wilson break out and they’ll run off together.
Nelson structures his film in a manner that shows the folly of this endeavor, jumping around three timelines. There’s the Karen/Wilson burgeoning relationship that serves as the foundation, but the film also cuts regularly to what’s clearly the next two formative chapters in Wilson’s life: His escape and his death. In the former, Wilson and two other convicts kill their way through the South, taking out a cabin owner who stumbles on them before running into a nice family that includes a doomed dad played by the totally wasted William Jackson Harper. In the latter, Wilson prepares for his end by lethal injection, allowing Nelson commentary on how a state killing a man is just about one of the worst things that anyone could ever see in person.
McNairy is powerful and Seyfried is subtle, but “Wilson Shedd” stumbles almost everywhere else. The structure is infuriating, attempting a sort of novelistic style (Seyfried’s character even teaches a class about “story structure,” believe it or not) that doesn’t serve the material. And, again, it’s a film of truly intense violence. From Karen’s bloody face to Wilson’s ultimate end, it feels like Nelson is challenging viewers to truly look at the impact of domestic violence and capital punishment without asking what we’re supposed to take away from the vision. Yes, these awful things happen every day in the world, but a film needs to place human horrors in cinematic context for them to matter beyond sheer provocation.
- TIFF 2026: Bunker, Up Against It, Girl Group (September 16, 2026)
Toronto International Film Festival’s Gala Presentations program features films with rising and seasoned stars. Across these three, an unexpected thematic arc emerges: intergenerational, interpersonal conflict. Although it’s not the focus of each movie, it’s interesting to see how each genre approaches the nuances of untangling the concept.
In a capitalistic world, uninhibited creative expression is inextricably linked to the money needed to execute one’s idea. Once an artist reaches this level, proximity to power often compromises the foundational values of their practice. In Florian Zeller’s “Bunker,” Miguel (Javier Bardem) is an award-winning architect, married to translations editor Sofia (Penélope Cruz). The couple moved to London from Madrid with their two daughters, throwing a wrench in one’s career while catalyzing the other’s.
The film puts personal and professional dynamics on display. A dedicated careerist can’t leave their vocation at the office. Talk of work, ideas, and dreams is typical for most married couples, but it expands greatly for those in the creative industries. Miguel gets the chance to build an underground oasis for a tech billionaire (Paul Dano) while also dealing with a new, difficult neighbor. Meanwhile, Sofia is testing her chances of becoming the fiction novels department lead at her publishing house. Their parallel paths level up, showcasing the difference in process between men and women: the individual versus the collective. Some may argue that Miguel has more at stake, more to consider, trying to provide protection and stability for his family, but it is his partner who remains level as external threats encroach on their status quo.
“Bunker” is a bit too neat in solving the nuances of the social and class themes the story is rooted in. Zeller poignantly weaves in firsthand details of being a creative worker; a “private project” is a greenlight from the Gods that they pay will not be abysmal. Living in a world surrounded by gallerists, writers, thinkers, and makers gives birth to ethical and cultural nuance. Without these anecdotes, “Bunker” couldn’t have built its world so quickly.
The chemistry between Bardem and Cruz is undeniable, fulfilling our parasocial appreciation as a Hollywood power couple. Their real-world love transcends the fictional conflict they face, letting us know they will certainly be OK in the end. Still, a stark thumping in the sound design creates a spooky, thriller feeling that doesn’t subside until the film’s final seconds.
In 2026, the nuclear family is increasingly rare. Separated parents, step- or half-siblings, and split holidays are the new norm. “Up Against It,” directed by Trudie Styler, captures these new-age dynamics. In stories like this, the more people involved, the wider the web is, and the greater the mess.
For a family drama, “Up Against It” fumbles around what it really means to give and receive unconditional love (whether blood-related or not). While it succeeds in reminding us that moms and dads are also human and navigating life for the first time, the characters’ selfishness calls the audience to question their values as parents. The intended audience is unclear, as the story treats the children like collateral. In doing so, it’s quite cruel to give one of the kids, Rose (Eden Hamilton), cancer that her parents later use as an excuse for their unfaithful behavior. The movie frames Saffron (Eva Birthistle) and Alvaro (Antonio Banderas) actions as necessary to save their child; it’s questionable, but “Up Against It” argues that there’s nothing really wrong with parents putting their needs first for instant gratification.
“Up Against It” weaves in its title a few times to describe Rose’s uphill battle, and the film is gentle and idealistic in its depiction of healthcare workers’ personal involvement in their patients’ cases. In its most emotional moments, the camera goes close but cuts away before things get too real. This mirrors the emotional capacity put forth by the characters, but both decisions are unfulfilling. When forgiveness comes to the table, it’s fake, forced, and disingenuous. As a result, the final happy-go-lucky dance sequence feels unearned and unbelievable.
Rebel Wilson rides the timeless success of pop music with her new movie “Girl Group.” Wilson is admittedly inspired by the artists, namely the singular Spice Girls, who created anthems for her coming of age. At the film’s world premiere, Wilson excitedly shared the rush of getting the film ready; the final cut wrapped just a week earlier. Unfortunately, we can tell.
In a season of films focused on heavy stories, “Girl Group” is a lighthearted, sonically silly flick. The music-induced nostalgia that propels the movie is fun for all generations. Beginning in the late 90s, Tassie (Wilson) and her high school girl gang are spotted by a talent scout (Chris Colfer), and the “Girl Friends” skyrocket to fame. The validity of their girl power origin is rooted in their all-girls school education, a unique type of institution where women are always the priority, left unbothered by rambunctious teenage boys. Fast forward 20 years, and Tassie Young’s solo career is tanking, so the Girl Friends are reconvening for a world tour without her. Her inevitable crash-out lands her serving the youth singing group at a local Los Angeles community center, where she saunters in late, caring about no one but herself. Despite the lack of a leader, the mismatched younger group has an earnest, odd chemistry and enough talent to carry their out-of-reach aspirations.
After a record company launches a nationwide competition to find the next best girl band, Tassie sees an opportunity to prove her relevance once again. The story has what feels like hundreds of characters, and even the smallest roles seem designed to set up a joke. Most of them land as “had to be there” moments, so you feel left out of the fun the cast and crew are having. The film presents a plethora of plot conflicts meant to reflect the very different issues girls go through, but it ultimately reduces each idea to a stray thought. However, Tassie, at the center of the story, creates an imbalance, and the intergenerational conflict is immaturely uninteresting and unnecessary. The TikTok Shop-quality costuming lasts as long in our closets as it will in our memory.
- TIFF 2026: Hombre Al Agua, Paradise Lost, Faith (September 16, 2026)
In its 51st edition, the Toronto International Film Festival’s Special Presentation category comprises stories of complex parents, recentering their identity as individuals. Interestingly, the focus on selfhood is overshadowed by a much broader conflict. Of these movies, it’s most peculiar how it explores motherhood versus fatherhood, emotionally and morally.
Set in rural, suspiciously tranquil Mexico, “Hombre Al Agua” gets gritty with its characters and their relationships. Parents and lovers, Juana (Esmeralda Pimentel) and Camilo (Gael García Bernal), don’t make much sense together, which becomes increasingly obvious as their paths of personal growth diverge throughout the film. As Camilo integrates into Juana’s family, working for her power-hungry father (Jorge Salinas), the more he loses his grasp on what’s right and what he should be true to.
To help the audience better understand this surrealist story, Bernal, who also wrote and directed the film, weaves in voiceover narration. Peppered with a nature-forward sound design, with the breeze blowing and birds chirping, we, too, are immersed in the countryside silence that Camilo and guests are acclimating to. The backdrop of their estate is beautiful but intentionally lacks that lived-in feeling. Everyone who stays there is untethered from their surroundings, blowing with the wind, leaving loose ends that are written off as fever dreams. “This is a thriller, not a melodrama,” a man utters to Camilo after he’s caught sneaking around their property, a meta proclamation of Bernal’s vision for his story.
Albeit scattered, “Hombre Al Agua” is weirdly entertaining. Each new idea is presented clearly, and most interestingly, the cultural and class themes give the movie more body than the simple character arcs at its center. Camilo’s Cuban heritage poses some political assumptions; the running joke about his radicalism due to his ethnicity highlights certain microaggressions with nuance. His career at his father-in-law’s factory is also compromised by his true beliefs, but he does his best to tread lightly as the tides shift. Bernal’s development of Camilo, behind and in front of the camera, is strongest, making the supporting characters feel like figments in the reality he’s trying to build.
Dissecting and dissolving grief is an endless experiment, certainly one of the most difficult matters for humans to digest. Yeon Sang-ho’s newest film, “Paradise Lost,” moves through multiple realities where a single mother navigates loss. Quaking with nuance that feels drawn from some variation of firsthand experience, “Paradise Lost” achieves a striking, gutting feeling because Yeon’s mother wrote it.
A lack often forces reflection or regret; what could have been done differently? What would one give to get their heart’s desires? These questions swirl at the film’s center. After So-young (Kim Hyun-joo) loses her son, Seon-wu (Bae Hyeon-seong), in a camping trip kidnapping along with 12 other kids, grief consumes her. After several years, an AI company, TransHuman, invents a virtual reality that recreates the lost children. This concept isn’t exactly original, but it’s eerily close to our current technological state. Shockingly, this anecdote is only a stepping stone to the film’s true conflict: Seon-wu resurfaces almost 10 years later.
Bae’s sinister performance chills every scene. At no point do we trust this older version of Seon-wu, but our faith in So-young’s morality deteriorates most after her son returns. Her inability to connect with her virtual or real son proves that these two beings (or entities) spiral into putting others in danger. Knowing the story is written by a mother-son duo provides some reasoning for the way the story unfolds and resolves, but there is a looming carelessness, an absence of logic.
However, the story’s subtlety and significance lie in how it positions single mothers as the most vulnerable. Other parents who lost their children began to move on from their virtually recreated children, relying on their partners and other children. For So-young, this was never an option, therefore catalyzing the audience’s (eventually limited) empathy for her.
Faith is more often than not associated with some form of religion; regardless, faith is rooted in a foundation at the intersection of trust and belief. Director Paul Andrew Williams titles his new film, “Faith,” after the concept, and puts his audience to the test till the very end.
Gina (Erin Doherty) is a single, spunky mum of an almost 10-year-old boy. She cares about him fearlessly, but that doesn’t dull her youthful nature; she plays trivia at the pub and craves a good hook-up every now and then. Enter Michael (James McAvoy), a mysterious new man at the bar, whose gentlemanly politeness squashes Gina’s hopes of a one-night stand. The two of them only ever simmer, keeping their distance until tragedy strikes.
Like the mother of “Paradise Lost,” Gina loses her only son, leaving her devastated and unable to function. In this state of grief, Doherty’s raw and unwavering performance creates unpolished conditions for how a grieving person treats those around them; misguided cruelty to those closest to you is easy to throw around in the wake of such pain. Michael remains patient with Gina, and McAvoy embodies this creepily kind demeanor with ease, a role he has often been cast in lately.
A memento of a bejeweled bird that Michael carries constantly in his pocket is the first symbol that spirituality is at play. In the most ghostly moments, the score haunts with humming vocals of a Sunday service. Every day is overcast in Gina’s small town, and this gloom, underscored by tolling bells, suggests that something unseen lurks and pulls secret strings. Williams lets Doherty carry the film’s deeper meaning by having her lean into cult-like behavior without question, but “Faith” ultimately misfires in its attempt to fictionalize religion’s real-world capacity to help people heal.
- In Its Second Season, “Outlander: Blood of My Blood” Is Still Peak Romance (September 16, 2026)
No one does romance like the “Outlander” franchise. Part of the reason is that it’s a rare kind of television that isn’t embarrassed to be about romance, unabashedly centering love, affection, and longing as the story’s key narrative and emotional drivers. In this fictional world, the relationships at its center matter just as much—honestly, often more than—than the politics, historical intrigue, or time-travel contrivances unfurling around them. But it’s so satisfying to watch because love isn’t treated as a byproduct of a larger story. It is the story.
While many viewers are likely still mourning the conclusion of the original “Outlander,” which wrapped up earlier this year after eight seasons of angst and yearning that spanned time periods and continents, the second season of the prequel series “Outlander: Blood of My Blood” is here to pick up the slack. A lavishly romantic, time-bending saga about the parents of the original series’ star-crossed lovers, the show honors its franchise roots while spinning its own thoroughly satisfying tale of two equally fated (and swoon-worthy) couples. Season 2 doubles down on much of what made the show’s first outing so appealing, adding even more passion and full-throated feeling to its story of rebellion and complex family dynamics. But despite the seemingly never-ending series of trials facing its leads, the show’s never felt more confident in its vision—or its heart.
“Blood of My Blood” follows two key couples: Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy) and Ellen Mackenzie (Harriet Slater), lovers from two rival eighteenth century Scottish clans, and Henry (Jeremy Irvine) and Julia Beauchamp (Hermione Corfield), a young married couple from post-World War I London who are thrown into the past—and Brian and Ellen’s lives—while vacationing in the Highlands. (Those standing stones really should come with a warning label!)
Outlander: Blood of My Blood (Starz)
Season 2 picks up where the show’s first left off. Brian and Ellen, having successfully run away before she had to marry the nice but mediocre Malcolm Grant, are immediately forced to face the world they left behind. Fiery crosses lit throughout the mountains herald the start of the Jacobite uprising of 1715, which means Brian is bound by oath to return to his laird and fight, while Ellen will have to head home and pick up the broken pieces of her relationships with brothers Colum (Séamus McLean Ross) and Dougal (Sam Retford), who aren’t happy about her refusal to marry the man of their choosing.
Elsewhere, despite making it to Craigh Na Dun, only Henry successfully crossed the time travel gateway back to the twentieth century, leaving a heartbroken Julia to return to Castle Leathers and her unwanted relationship with the almost comically villainous Lord Lovat (Tony Curran), who is not only convinced her child is his own, but also destined to become the future king of Scotland. The result is a situation that’s not quite status quo ante, but it’s not far off, either. Yet, this isn’t as much of a criticism as you might think.
Like its predecessor, “Blood of My Blood” lives to yearn, which means that it must repeatedly find believable ways to keep its lovers apart. And boy, is it good at it. Henry finally rescues Julia, only for them to be separated again almost immediately. Brian and Ellen are on the verge of a life together, but the threat of war pushes them apart. For every step they take toward each other, two new problems seem to appear in their paths. It’s a testament to the show’s quality—and to the chemistry between its leads—that what could easily be seen as a manipulative or repetitive storytelling trick feels both natural and necessary within the world of this series, another opportunity to prove that love, in the end, really is all you need.
Season 2 shifts the positions of both pairs just enough to keep their respective narratives moving forward, even as the couples’ desire to be together is again thwarted by external circumstances. (At least they’re slightly different external circumstances this time!) Brian and Ellen’s relationship is, for better or worse, now semi-public knowledge. Her family is still furious, but Brian’s loyalty to the Jacobite cause and Ellen’s intelligence in protecting Mackenzie clan financial interests means they’re closer to vaguely tolerated than outright attacked. Back at Leathers, Julia struggles to keep Lovat happy and deal with the arrival of a new servant who has an agenda of her own. And in 1924, a confused Henry struggles to explain what’s happened to him—you can probably guess where a man who keeps babbling about missing spouses and time travel ends up—and find a way back to his wife.
Outlander: Blood of My Blood (Starz)
“Blood of My Blood” is surprisingly strategic in its plotting, mixing big narrative twists with quieter emotional moments. The show takes pains to give each romance enough time together to make the lengths they’ll go to for one another believable, underlining how each partner complements the other and highlighting the hope and purpose they find in their respective bonds. Smartly, the show also never questions the love that Brian and Ellen or Henry and Julia have for one another, or whether they’re meant to be endgame, no matter what horrible circumstances befall them. The pairs face many (many) obstacles, but whether they will (or should) be together is never one of them.
The show’s greatest strength is how seriously it takes the romances at its center. But those relationships wouldn’t work without the incredible chemistry between the series’ leads, which powers both the tenderly shot, highly emotional sex scenes and the occasionally over-the-top but somehow completely un-cynical declarations of love and fidelity.
Roy and Irvine get decent material in the four episodes of Season 2 available to critics, but this series belongs to its women. Corfield’s whip-smart Julia has plenty to do as she relentlessly adapts to Lovat’s whims, but Slater steals the show, turning in a performance that’s both fearless and vulnerable as Ellen determinedly battles for agency in a world that gives her few opportunities to shape her own fate.
Still, at the end of the day, “Blood of My Blood” is a love story, and that’s where it shines brightest, deftly using its larger plots to reinforce the bonds between its central relationships and featuring a glossy, addictively watchable adventure through the Scottish Highlands. Long may this romance continue.
Four episodes screened for review. Premieres September 18 on Starz.
- Netflix's Unfiltered Mike Tyson 4-Part Series - 'Tyson' Official Trailer (September 17, 2026)
"This is the dark side of me. That's just who I became. Addicted to chaos..." Netflix has revealed the official trailer for a new biopic documentary series titled simply Tyson, a look at the life and fame (and everything else) of boxing superstar Mike Tyson. Yet another one of these streaming docs that also kind of acts as marketing for the person it's about. Netflix is also about to release a filmed version of his one-man-show at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, FL. If anyone wants to watch it. This four-part docu series traces Mike Tyson's rise from Brooklyn to becoming the youngest heavyweight champion, and the fame, controversy, and the personal reckoning that followed. Tyson is a "raw" 4-part documentary that peels back the curtain on Mike Tyson’s explosive life, from a brutal childhood and a meteoric rise to heavyweight glory to the addiction, jail time, public breakdowns, and the infamous ear bite that almost ended it all. Told unfiltered in Tyson’s own words, with never-before-seen material and rare access to his family, friends, foes, it's an intimate portrait of greatness, collapse, and a man still confronting the cost of his legacy. Have a look. // Continue Reading ›
- Fun Teaser for Animated Movie 'Steps' About Cinderella's Stepsisters (September 17, 2026)
"You deserve to know the real story! And it's a good one..." Netflix has unveiled the first teaser trailer for their next animated movie titled Steps, made by Netflix Animation Studios for streaming. Netflix is always buying indie animated films to play, but this they made in-house on their own. "Think you know Cinderella's 'evil' stepsisters? Think again." Steps is a reinvention of the Cinderella story about her other sisters. Blamed for magical mischief at the Royal Ball, stepsister Lilith turns her other step-sister into a frog and causes the kingdom to be run by a mean girl. She must work with Cinderella and a troll to save the kingdom and prove that even "villains" deserve happily ever afters, too. Huh, okay. The voice cast features Ali Wong as Lilith, Amanda Seyfried as Cinderella, Stephanie Hsu as Margot, Nikki Glaser as the evil Priscilla, Daniel Radcliffe as The Prince, Young Mazino, Luis "Damian Priest" Martínez, Peter Dinklage, and with Bette Midler as The Fairy Godmother. With a score by Kris Bowers (Oscar nominee for The Wild Robot). If you're excited for this, Steps arrives streaming on Netflix starting in November just before Thanksgiving. // Continue Reading ›
- Full Trailer for 'Bad Day at the Office' First Person POV Action Thriller (September 17, 2026)
"You're gonna have the time of your life!" Lock 'n load! Action Xtreme has launched the main official trailer for the action movie Bad Day at the Office, a first person POV action film from director Chee Keong Cheung. Holy moley this looks insane! We haven't seen one of these POV action movies in a bit. Dive into another crazy day of mayhem and violence. A man with amnesia wakes up in a hotel room next to a corpse, triggering a dangerous conspiracy. He and a maid try to recover his memories & evade the cops to uncover the mystery and survive those pursuing them. This movie stars John Hannah, Radha Mitchell, Tamer Hassan, Lana Parrilla, Tim Fellingham, Roxanne McKee, Branko Tomović, Victor Gardener. This premiered at the 2026 Edinburgh Film Festival in their Midnight section - the intro explains: "Shot in the style of first-person shooter video games with cine-literate wit, humor, ferocious pacing and a cracking soundtrack, this is an anarchic, ultra-violent, hilarious thrill ride of pure, cinematic carnage. The ultimate Midnight Madness experience." Filmed entirely from a first-person POV with GoPros. This looks bonkers in the best of ways! Definitely something to catch in the cinema if you can - it opens in the UK this fall. Enjoy. // Continue Reading ›
- Benedict Cumberbatch & Rosamund Pike in 'Wife & Dog' First Teaser (September 17, 2026)
"Instead of climbing up, he dug down... But he kept digging and digging. Eventually, he found himself in Hell." Black Bear Pictures has revealed the first look teaser trailer for a movie titled Wife & Dog, the next new Guy Ritchie movie due out soon. This film was supposed to open later in 2026, but they delayed the release and will instead send it to theaters in February 2027 early next year. Ritchie has also been making "The Gentlemen" series in addition to directing movies non-stop, with In the Grey also out earlier this year. Wife & Dog is an upcoming black comedy film written and directed by Guy Ritchie. The relentless greed of the Fairbank family and their associates fuels betrayal and murder in the battle for succession. So it's Guy Ritchie's cinematic version of the hit series "Succession"? But extra doses of Guy Ritchie violence added in. If it worked so well before, why not again here. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Rosamund Pike, and Anthony Hopkins, along with Cosmo Jarvis, James Norton, Paddy Considine, and Pip Torrens. This is a legit teaser! Doesn't show too much, but enough to make me want to see more & watch this movie. // Continue Reading ›
- Full Trailer for 'War' Divorce Series with Sienna Miller & Dominic West (September 17, 2026)
"We need the moral high ground." "Oh Nick, we're lawyers, we need no such thing!" HBO Max & Sky TV unveiled their sneaky full trailer for the spicy legal drama thriller series titled simply War, arriving to watch starting in October this fall. Who will win this battle?! This UK production set in London is made for Sky TV, but HBO will also release it at the exact same time as the UK this fall. War stars Dominic West as the tech titan Morgan Henderson and Sienna Miller as his estranged wife, international film star Carla Duval. Set in the elite world of London law, it debuts with a scandalous divorce case that sends shockwaves through boardrooms, bedrooms, and courtrooms alike. Their cohorts are Cathcarts & Sons and Taylor & Byrne, two of London's most powerful law firms. The divorce draws young lawyer Jonathan "Johnny" Warren into a ruthless world where ambition is currency, betrayal is strategy, and winning is everything. After – Season 2 is already filming and will continue with defamation case after the divorce is finalized. Also starring Archie Renaux, Marisa Tomei, Kelly Macdonald, David Harewood, Richard Schiff, Pip Torrens, Miles Jupp, Honor Swinton Byrne, and Phoebe Fox. "Divide then conquer." This full trailer hints are where this is all headed and what's going to happen, but it's still an enticing tease that should get people watching. // Continue Reading ›
