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‘HOPPERS’ Sees Pixar Return to the Top of the Food Chain

Nature is sacred. As the world moves deeper into digital spaces and kids are no longer left to their own devices to simply go outside and play, there is a real risk that sacredness gets lost on the next generation. In Hoppers, one of Pixar’s best this decade, a direct plea is made to audiences young and old about the importance of conservation and the understanding that all living creatures are part of something larger. The film dresses its meaningful themes in inventive plotting and a steady cadence of genuinely funny laugh lines to make Hoppers a movie the whole family can wholeheartedly enjoy and actually talk about afterward.

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‘HOW TO MAKE A KILLING’ Is Slick Nihilism That Never Quite Gels

After being cast out from his billionaire family for the sin of being born from a working class father, average joe Beckett Redfellow (Glen Powell) decides the only logical solution is to murder his entire clan and reclaim the inheritance denied to him. Writer-director John Patton Ford, following up his auspicious Aubrey Plaza starring debut Emily the Criminal, fails to recapture that film’s scrappy, pedestrian angst. While his first film understood the slow moral erosion of someone trying to survive in a culture that worships status and money above all else, How to Make a Killing is a slick, nihilistic crime caper that is easy enough to watch but has almost nothing going on beneath its lacquered surface. It feels less like a director building on his foundation and more like one spinning his wheels in expensive tires. Read More

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‘GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON’T DIE’ Attempts to Save The Future in Bombastic A.I. Apocalypse Comedy

At exactly 10:10 PM at Norm’s Diner in Los Angeles, a bedraggled man in a hot-wired slicker claims he’s from the future. His message is simple: the end is nigh. In the coming days, A.I. slop will enslave humanity. Tonight is the last night to stop it. The diners must put down their pie slices and burgers and join him to save the future, lest they obliviously frog-march toward their demise. Operating off an absolutely bonkers script from Matthew Robinson, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die marks the return of veteran director Gore Verbinski, who hasn’t helmed a feature since 2016’s underrated gothic horror A Cure for Wellness. The result is something completely zany, culturally prescient, and often rather funny. Read More

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Love Is Warfare in Steamy Brontë Adaptation, ‘WUTHERING HEIGHTS’

I’ll admit it right off the bat: I’ve never read Emily Brontë, nor seen any other film adaptation of Wuthering Heights. I came to Emerald Fennell’s take on Brontë’s seminal novel knowing its cultural footprint, but none of the story. Based on her previous work, particularly the alluring psychosexual class-warfare drama Saltburn, I wasn’t expecting a Joe Wright-style adaptation – all handsomely mounted restraint, shapely bodices, and tight corsets. What I got instead was a classical romance stripped of manners and pitched to an eleven; a brash, unrestrained, deeply horny fever dream slathered in excess and sincerity in equal measure. Read More

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The Best of Sundance 2026: Top Films, Breakouts, and Award Winners from the Final Park City Festival

Sundance 2026 delivered one last cinematic dump (in a good way, like powder on a snow-barren mountain) before packing up and leaving Park City for good. From chilling headphone horror to sex comedies with emotional rot, audacious midnight freakouts to quietly devastating documentaries, this year’s lineup proved that the festival still has what it takes to be one of the preeminent film festivals in the world. Although I didn’t get a chance to see everything I had hoped to see (Leviticus top on the list of those I’ll be anxiously awaiting), I still managed to watch more Sundance premieres this year (35 total) than nearly any other year covering the festival. As should then be assumed, I have a pretty good handle on what was what so I full more than qualified to give a complete rundown of the best films from Sundance 2026. Read More

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Sundance ‘26: ‘THE INVITE’ A Zesty Swinger Comedy That’s Equally Hilarious and Therapeutic 

Joe and Angela’s relationship is in the dumps. The second Joe returns home from his mediocre job at a middling music conservatory, their bickering begins. Taking shoes off at the door, neglecting to pick up a bottle of wine, forgetting about plans — all seem like ripe opportunities to launch a new feud. Their married-couple’s rocky connection is further tested when Angela invites over the upstairs neighbors, Hawk (Edward Norton) and Pina (Penélope Cruz), for an impromptu dinner party. Joe doesn’t want them over in the first place, harboring resentment over their loud, late-night sex. What begins as awkward conversation and flimsy attempts at forging new friendships peels into Hawk and Pina’s real reason for coming: to invite Joe and Angela to engage in sexual extracurriculars. Read More

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Sundance ‘26: ‘FRANK & LOUIS’ Is a Somber Reflection on Finding Compassion in a Cage

Frank (Kingsley Ben-Adir) is up for parole soon, serving a long sentence in a maximum security prison. Years ago, he killed a man, but now considers himself changed. We’re not so convinced. Yes, Frank can be patient and carries himself with a calm stillness, but there’s a rage inside him that boils over when no one’s looking. To improve his chances with the parole board, Frank takes an assignment caring for fellow inmates suffering from degenerative mental conditions like dementia or Alzheimer’s. His charge is Louis Nelson (Rob Morgan), a once-notorious thug with a formidable reputation and more than a few enemies. Throughout writer-director Petra Volpe’s Frank & Louis, we watch their paths converge: one man aims for self-discovery, while the other forgets who he is entirely. Read More

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Sundance ‘26: ‘UNION COUNTY’ A Maybe Too-Authentic Portrait of Addiction and Rehabilitation

Grounded in a lived-in addict experience, Union County, written and directed by Adam Meeks, is a stripped-down recovery drama anchored by a soft-spoken, quietly emotive performance from Will Poulter. Set in rural Ohio, where the opioid epidemic has left deep scars, Meeks draws from personal history, using his own hometown of Bellefontaine to portray the far-reaching impact of addiction not just on individuals, but on the systems meant to help them. Supportive judges, rehab-over-jail programs, and small-town efforts form the fragile infrastructure holding it all together. Read More

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Sundance ‘26: ‘NUISANCE BEAR’ Sees Man and Beast Interests at Odds

This is not a story of extinction. If Cocaine Bear (also “based on a true story”) gives us a deranged cautionary tale about mankind’s reckless interference with animal instincts, Nuisance Bear offers the quieter, more unsettling counterpoint: what happens when animals start showing up in human spaces not out of curiosity, but desperation. Read More

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Sundance ‘26: ‘JOSEPHINE’ Is a Feel Bad Movie Through the Eyes of a Child

It’s the job of parents to keep kids safe. But that doesn’t mean safety is ever really within their control. Josephine, written, directed, and produced by Beth de Araújo, and winner of both the Sundance Jury and Audience Awards, is a thoroughly depressing, feel bad film about what happens when that illusion of control is shattered. Read More