Photographer David Zimmerman rarely leaves home until friends bring him to a wild party. He becomes fixated on a mysterious woman and follows her. By dawn, his life transforms-he awakens in her body.
The Unknown is directed by Arthur Harari director of Dark Inclusion (2015) and Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle (2021).
When I walked out of The Unknown I did not like it all that much, I said in my initial reaction that “the film only ever lands in the fine enough territory” which isn’t quite accurate. While I still have my issues with it (particularly the incredibly long runtime) I do think the positives outweigh the negatives, especially when you factor in the strong performances particularly from Léa Seydoux. It’s a weird body swap film that is quite the experience.
The performances are quite excellent and are what easily bring the viewer into the film, Léa Seydoux goes all in on her performance, watching her wandering around Paris in a new body (which she is trying to get used to) and also trying to find who or what took her old one is quite fascinating, Seydoux’s performance truly has this air of mystery to it that you don’t often see in a lot of performances, she matches the atmosphere and tone of the film as well. The sex scenes in particular range from awkward, funny and even quite devastating given the context of the story, Seydoux also does a fascinating job with the film’s more darkly comedic elements that are genuinely hilarious.
The writing is quite interesting, at times it does feel like the film is holding back and could go even further. But in many other moments the film embraces its weird premise and goes all in, adding so much layer of mystery and these quiet scenes that either lighten or darken the mood depending on the character’s actions. There is one particular moment in the film that is quite sad, it has this theme of witnessing the people you love move on with their life without you, it’s heartbreaking and genuinely effective.
The cinematography from Tom Harari also gives this film a large in scale feel that is striking and effective, Paris feels even bigger and a tough task to navigate. The dark void like atmosphere where anything can happen is fully present here and starts to affect David (played by Léa Seydoux). The final 10 minutes of the film is quite devastating and easily some of the film’s strongest moments.
Overall, The Unknown is quite great. The 140 minute runtime can feel like a slog and not everything in the script fully works, but between the performance from Léa Seydoux, the weirdness, atmosphere and humor the film ultimately works!
Years after her Hollywood breakthrough, a talented actress whose career has stalled fights for her second act.
Misty Green is directed by Chris Rock director of Head Of State (2003), I Think I Love My Wife (2007) and Top Five (2014).
Misty Green immediately caught my attention mainly because of two things, Rosalind Eleazer being in the leading role (I love Slow Horses) and Chris Rock in the director’s chair. I appreciate how different Misty Green is from the rest of Rock’s previous directing efforts and to some degree this is a success but in others it leaves a lot more to be desired.
The performances all around are quite great even some like Adam Driver and Anna Kendrick just do not get a whole lot to do. Driver has I guess what you could call a big-ish (that’s being generous) scene towards the end of the film but ultimately still feels like we are missing a lot of pieces to the puzzle for his character. Rosalind Eleazar and Daniel Kaluuya are the ones whose performances have the real meat on the bones and are the ones who save this film (especially Eleazar).
Rosalind Eleazar gives this confident and striking performance as Misty Green, this is very much her story and the film makes that abundantly clear as soon as the film starts. Her performance leans into the sensational territory as the film moves along and we see Eleazar’s Misty Green interact with the world around her and the other characters. The way Eleazar can speak with her piercing eyes is truly remarkable, there are times where Chris Rock struggles with his own script and Eleazar is easily able to elevate the material so that the viewer can follow along so much better. Even with some terrible lines, Eleazar is able to salvage it and lean into some quite surprising moments that are genuinely well done. This is most certainly a star-making performance that I guarantee you that if you walk out of this film, the one part you will love is Eleazar’s performance.
Daniel Kaluuya as Jay/Jordan Green, Misty Green’s brother who is bipolar gives such an excellent performance. He provides a lot of necessary empathy for a character who is quite challenging, some of the film’s best moments are with both Eleazar and Kaluuya sharing the screen and bringing this striking energy to the film, I do wish we got to see a lot more of Kaluuya and learn more about him. But from what is presented it works well and is enough to satisfy the viewer.
The script is definitely a mixed bag although I lean towards more on the positive side, I do appreciate having some strong moments of telling the struggle of modern Hollywood for Black Women (although I do agree that the film does not go far enough with this) and I do like the look at homelessness. The film does this juxtaposition of Misty’s situation with that of the unhoused on the streets of LA, it’s not subtle at all and it never gets any deeper than the film just acknowledging that homelessness exists but I do think it overall works in the end.
Overall, Misty Green is fine enough for a movie about Hollywood. This is not anything particularly new but Rosalind Eleazar’s performance makes the film worth the watch, had it not been for Eleazar’s powerful performance this film would be forgettable almost immediately. If you are thinking about seeing Misty Green see it for Eleazar’s performance.
During his construction shift, crane operator Thomas, 40, gets a call to pick up his wife from the hospital. He finds her alone and weeping on a bench outside.
My Wife Cries is directed by Angela Schanelec director of Orly (2010), I Was at Home, But (2019), Music (2023) and many others.
Out of the 10 films I saw at the New York Film Festival My Wife Cries is hands down the weakest, I truly hate that I’m having to give this movie the “quick review” treatment but there is just not a whole lot to be said here.
On a technical level the movie is decently impressive, I do like the shots that almost feel like static images. It really makes you take everything in that you are looking at and really encourages your eyes to interact with the environment and frame of the image. On the top of my head I can’t really think of many films that attempt to do this, so I give the movie points for taking this swing.
The performances and monologues are solid as well, while the monologues are not quite enough to help the minimal narrative. I do appreciate the acting that went into delivering them, Vladimir Vulevic and Agathe Bonitzer in particular are quite great.
The minimal narrative is what hurts the movie the most, we don’t get really any strong insight of the character’s relationships. We do get scenes of them either sharing their grief over a friend who has died or announcing pregnancies but that is not nearly enough to really bring out strong character moments. I do think you can make a strong film with minimal dialogue but the way the movie tries going at this simply does not work.
Overall, My Wife Cries is by no means bad. There are some very strong moments here that are unfortunately held back by the movie’s weak story.
My Wife Cries is currently seeking US distribution!
Bela, an 8-year-old girl living in a home with marital problems, confronts a sinister entity which comes out of her closet. The presence, whom she calls “Other Mommy,” becomes increasingly threatening to her and her family.
Other Mommy is directed by Rob Savage director of Strings (2012), Host (2020), Dashcam (2021) and The Boogeyman (2023). Other Mommy seemingly came out of nowhere, the trailer showed up one day and went semi-viral which I can definitely see why. It looked like a quite fun horror movie with Jessica Chastain involved. Unfortunately this is very much a case of the trailers being far better than the actual movie, my initial reaction was a lot more harsh and while I have softened on the movie just a bit. Other Mommy is still a complete and total mess that while competently made, is very weak when it comes to acting and especially writing.
The performances range from bad to fine enough, I do think calling Jessica Chastain’s performance “bad” in my initial was incredibly harsh. I do still believe her performance here is not great, but I would not call it bad either. There are moments of greatness where she does attempt to salvage the movie with some decent sequences, unfortunately there is only so much you can do with such a horrendous script. As for everyone else the performances are not great, Jay Duplass and Arabella Olivia Clarke tried their best but the script is not letting their performances grow. The character writing is just not there at all and opts to go for a lot of horror genre character cliches, making the whole journey feel incredibly pointless.
As bad as some of the acting can be, the writing is what ultimately kills this movie. From the constant use of “Daddo” to dialogue that is about as investing as paying taxes, it truly feels like nobody had any sort of idea what direction to take this movie. It also takes itself way too seriously which just makes the experience all the more confused. The best way I can describe Other Mommy is this, do you remember those horror movies like Ouija (2014), Wish Upon (2017), Deliver Us From Evil (2014) and many others that studios kept pumping out? Well Other Mommy is basically one of those movies only not as bad and seemingly missed that train.
The large amount of jump scares do not do this movie any favors at all, every 2 minutes the movie feels obligated to throw a jump scare at you which becomes incredibly obnoxious. This has been said so many times at this point, but shoving in as many jump scares as possible into your movie does not make it more scary. There are so many other elements you need to consider such as atmosphere, story significance, sound and so much more.
Lastly, while I do think the themes of motherhood and childhood vulnerability are interesting. The movie does not have the firepower to really dive into these themes, there are moments of promise but then the movie quickly goes back to being a jump scare fest. It’s a shame because had these themes been better explored this could have made for a somewhat decent movie.
Overall, Other Mommy just does not have a whole lot going on here. It’s not quite as bad as my initial reaction made it out to be, but much like I said in my Ice Cream Man review, in a year where there is so many great horror films this one sticks out like a sore thumb.
Lowen Ashleigh, hired to ghostwrite for best-selling author Verity Crawford, uncovers Verity’s autobiographical notes, and becomes involved in what may prove to be a lethal conspiracy.
Verity is directed by Michael Showalter director of The Big Sick (2017), The Lovebirds (2020), The Eyes Of Tammy Faye (2021), The Idea Of You (2024) and a few others.
Verity was one of the movies I watched during the time a friend and I were doing the New York Film Festival. I decided on making a ranking list of films of everything I saw from September 28th to October 12th and for the longest time Verity was there (it ultimately got beaten out by V/H/S/Mixtape.) Look I did not go into Verity expecting some sort of masterpiece or thought provoking film, it is a Colleen Hoover adaption after all, I will say this….It is the best Colleen Hoover adaption! That’s not saying much but that is something I guess.
The best part of this movie is Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson, out of all of Hathaway’s performances from this year I would definitely say that this one is the weakest simply due to the movie surrounding it. However she still gives it her all here and the last 20-30 minutes are decently effective because of it. As for Dakota Johnson’s performance, I for some reason liked it fine enough. I absolutely do agree that there are some huge rough spots but I do think her delivery in some areas works and she is trying to make the most out of such a hollow script. Their characters unfortunately do not get the development they need to in order to be investing, which I guess with Colleen Hoover adaptions that is to be expected.
What truly kills this movie is the story and script, for almost the entire movie outside of the last 20-30 minutes nothing remotely interesting happens. Sure we get some glimpses of events coming up, but there is truly nothing investing or worth thinking about for more than 2 minutes. At times the most interesting part to look at is the house the movie mainly takes place in, it’s a neat house that does have some pretty solid atmosphere.
When the final 20-30 minutes arrive it’s like we stepped into an entirely different movie, the twists are genuinely decent (even if they are a bit predictable) some of the campy nature is present and there are some genuinely funny moments of baffling decisions that I can’t help find endearing. It’s such a shame the movie takes way too long to get here, by then the viewer has probably long since checked out.
Overall Verity just does not have a whole lot to discuss, it’s quite forgettable and does not work as an erotic thriller. If you took away Hathaway and Johnson you are left with a movie that would have been better off premiering on the Lifetime channel.
It presents a new anthology in which music and sound become a source of terror.
V/H/S/Mixtape is the ninth installment in the V/H/S franchise.
As someone who usually gets a kick out of these movies, I must say that V/H/S/Mixtape is a disappointment and is easily the worst entry since V/H/S: Viral (2014). I’m not exactly sure what happened here but this one in particular feels cobbled together like science fair project that was worked on the night before it’s due. There has been a new installment to the franchise every single year since 2021 with a new installment already announced for 2027 which is V/H/S: SCP that will apparently get a wide theater release. Which funnily enough everyone (including myself) thought because of this announcement, the series was going to skip this year…and maybe they should have. Mixtape truly feels like they felt obligated to just release a new installment every year.
As per usual with these movies, I’m going to talk a little bit about each segment, give them a score from 0-5 and then give my final thoughts of the overall movie. Do not expect this to be as long as other entries though, there is not a whole lot here with most of these segments. Let’s start with
Premature Burial (wrap around segment) directed by Tobias Forge director of Ghost: Rite Here Rite Now (2024) – An absolute low point for the franchise, look I understand what they are trying to do with the whole MTV parody thing but the humor is incredibly juvenile and way too try hard to be funny. The wrap around segment also includes the band GWAR which I personally did not care for, I’m not even quite sure if fans of the band would be interested either. It’s mainly just poor acting and making jokes about jerking off (which is within the first couple minutes of the movie). The segment does not really add anything to the other segments it’s basically this whole “let’s see how you react to this one!” which I guess is fine enough but overall feels pointless. Overall quite terrible and as I said a true low point for the series….0/5.
Another Cabin (music videos) directed by Flying Lotus director of Kuso (2017) and Ash (2025) and Tobias Forge (already listed what he has directed) – In between the main segments there are a few music videos which are a decent enough palette cleanser from some of the main segments. There really is not a whole lot to discuss here as they are just that music videos. I am a sucker for stop-motion (who isn’t?) so I do like that one fine enough. Overall the music videos only last for a few minutes, visually pretty solid but not much else. It’s a shame to because Flying Lotus directed “Ozzy’s Dungeon” a segment for one of the franchise’s previous installments V/H/S/99 (2022) and that segment was quite great. Shame he was restricted to music videos rather than an actual segment….3/5
Dance Dance Dance Dance directed by Rachel Zhan (who has her upcoming directorial debut Baobao in pre-production.) – The first actual segment of the movie and this is a promising start, it’s yet another take on the whole “show from your childhood is actually evil” sort of thing but I do think what mainly supports this segment is the puppets, I am also a sucker for puppetry it’s a talent that does not get the recognition it deserves of how much talent, focus and passion is put into it. That really shows here and it also is genuinely funny at times, the kills are quite gnarly and help the atmosphere be playful yet creepy, the acting is unfortunately what holds the segment back from being great (although Barbara Crampton is solid.) Overall the segment is quite straightforward, had it not been for the puppetry this one would be very forgettable…3/5
Heartbeat directed by David Moreau director of Them (2006), MadS (2024) and a few others – Unfortunately I did not like this one, it’s a great concept on paper which is about YouTuber urbex influencers that get trapped in a sonic military facility. The problem here is the segment does not do a whole lot with it, seeing the characters slowly but surely go insane due to the sound is interesting enough. But there is basically no story or anything to really make you care for these characters. I think this would have made for a decent longer horror short that you would see on YouTube, but as it stands this one is very forgettable and does not have enough meat on the bones…2/5
The Music Of Mr. Sze directed by Ernest Dickerson (who has done mainly done TV work.) – A man is filming for his documentary and meets another man called Mr. Sze who is a musician, from there events get weird and chaos ensues. Easily the most forgettable of the main segments, it takes way too long to get into the interesting bits and the acting is once again incredibly lacking. It does not help that this one is very much on the predictable side of things, we have seen plenty of those “something weird is going on in a certain room” sort of plots before and done far better as well. I’ll give it points for the last 2-4 minutes but that is not nearly enough to save it…..2/5
Death Tone directed by RZA director of Love Beats Rhymes (2017), One Spoon Of Chocolate (2025) and a few others – Quite easily the best segment of the pack, the acting might be rough around the edges. But between the segment’s style, gore and Neela Jolene’s performance this is quite a lot of fun. An obsessed young sound engineer/musician samples sounds of real-world violence to make this track left behind by her late father is such an interesting premise and it works wonderfully here. It’s quite brutal and truly makes you wish that most of the other segments were as interesting. The story side might be a bit weak but the segment does not overstay it’s welcome and accomplishes what it’s sent out to do…4/5
Overall, V/H/S/Mixtape is disappointing. There are lot of great ideas here but unfortunately a lot of the segments fail to utilize them in interesting ways. The lack of atmosphere is very noticeable in mostly all of the segments with the exception of Dance Dance Dance Dance and Death Tone, easily one of the weakest installments of the franchise.
An idyllic summer town descends into madness when an ice cream man serves kids sweet delights with horrifying results.
Ice Cream Man is directed by Eli Roth director of Cabin Fever (2002), Hostel (2005), The Green Inferno (2013), Knock Knock (2016), Thanksgiving (2023), Borderlands (2024) and a few others.
I really do not think you needed me to tell you that Eli Roth’s Ice Cream Man is hands down the worst movie of the year, Eli Roth had a slight comeback with Thanksgiving (2023) but that was mainly due to how solid the cast was. Borderlands (2024) had a ton of production issues so if you wanted to give Roth the benefit of the doubt you could. But with Ice Cream Man it is quite clear that Roth is stuck in this edgy phase that has long since died out.
First and foremost the acting is terrible there’s no other way to describe it. Dylan Hawco and Ari Millen are the closest you get to tolerable performances, but even they struggle to make the script worthwhile. The development the characters do get is a complete and total mess with moments that take themselves way too seriously (especially towards the end), it’s almost baffling to see the “twist” this movie went for because it adds almost nothing to the plot.
The movie also feels like it’s straight out of a bubble gum commercial and not in a good way, maybe that was the intention of taking this sort of style and putting killer kids over it. But from the way it’s presented it feels incredibly cheap, lifeless and the use of AI during the villains entire back story is nothing short of pathetic and worthless.
Lastly, Ice Cream Man is basically if you took Cooties (2014) and made it one of the worst movies of the year. I’m not going to sit here and say Cooties (2014) was some sort of masterpiece, but at the very least it was fun, had personality and it was actually quite decent. Ice Cream Man does not offer that at all, the most you can say is that the gore might be fun but even it does not add anything to this movie’s world.
Overall, Ice Cream Man is horrendous, especially in a year where the horror genre has been quite fantastic this one sticks out like a sore thumb.
A group of sorority sisters who end up trapped with a murderer. Nora’s tipsy memories hold the clues to figuring out who is killing their friends, but she can only remember them when she’s drunk.
Buzzkill is directed by Jem Gerrard director of Slay (2024), Invasive (2024), Invasive 2: The Getaway (2025), Takeout (2025) and a few others.
I don’t typically talk about Tubi movies but I made the exception for Buzzkill since it did seem somewhat fun and well that’s exactly how it turned out.
Buzzkill is a modern slasher movie that sure does exist, there is not anything inherently terrible or good about it. To be quite honest the most surprising thing about this is the acting actually not being that bad, the cast really tries to salvage what they can. The movie’s lead Siena Agudong is likable, has some solid comedic timing and plays a pretty convincing drunk who is wandering from room to room trying to solve a mystery. It helps that her character Nora is pretty fun as well and has this likability factor to her character.
The kills are not too bad here, they are much better than you would expect and have this attention to detail to them (somewhat at least.) There really is not anything flashy going on here but the kills work all around.
When the movie gets into the final act that’s when the plot gets a little too stupid for its own good, it does not help that it’s quite predictable and anyone who was following along before hand can have a pretty good shot at predicting what is exactly going to happen.
There really is not a whole lot more to say here, from what is presented it’s fine enough. But there just is not enough meat on the bones for the viewer to really sink their teeth into. You could probably get a good laugh out of this one from your viewing before almost immediately forgetting about it.
Buzzkill is available Tubi
5/10 C
Sophie, who is admitted to an elite tennis academy hidden in the South of Europe, where she must contend with fierce competition and the school’s increasingly sinister undercurrents.
Bloody Tennis is directed by Nikias Chryssos director of The Bunker (2015), A Pure Place (2021) and Rave On (2025).
Bloody Tennis is if you took Suspiria (1977) and Challengers (2024) then somehow made them dull and not interesting at the slightest. It’s a shame because there are some good ideas here with Bloody Tennis they just take a while to get going and even when they do finally start it’s way too late.
Sandra Guldberg Kampp gives a fine enough performance here but it is nowhere near enough to carry the movie to the finish line, very little is known about her character Sophie and the movie does not do itself any favors by not giving her any sort of character development. The rest of the cast are not great, to be absolutely fair to them the script lacks any sort of depth so it was an uphill battle from the start.
The movie has its moments of promise such as the last 10 minutes or so when the plot finally gets into the somewhat interesting territory. For a majority of the movie the plot goes for this whole “how far would you go to succeed” type of story which we have seen plenty of times before. It’s the bare bone version of that with not really adding anything new to the conversation. It is a shame because the last 10 minutes lead into something actually pretty sinister before the credits roll.
Overall Bloody Tennis is a very forgettable ride that has some intriguing ideas, but never utilizes them and only ever gets somewhat interesting until the movie is nearly over. A very bare bones experience that you will immediately forget about.
Before we get into the list I think a few things are in order to talk about. The first one being that I am currently doing the New York Film Festival, so expect a ton of reviews for films that I see very soon.
The second thing being a lot more lengthy to talk about. So last week I was pretty much on track to be caught up reviews with only having 6 or 7 films left and then I got sick. I felt like garbage throughout the whole week and since then I have watched a lot more films, luckily I’m a lot better now and was well enough to attend NYFF (thank god or else I would have probably lost my mind.) so looking at the rest of this week, next week and the week after (my last day for the NYFF at the time of writing this is October 12th) this is going to add a lot more films, that is also factoring in any theatrical releases that I see, some films going to digital I need to catch up on ect.
So as you can imagine that’s going to be quite a lot of films and reviews, which do not get me wrong I absolutely love but at the pace I was going I just cannot see myself being able to review all of these films in a reasonable time. This is obviously not me saying that we need to rush out reviews (that’s the exact opposite of what I want) but I also do not want to end up in a situation where I’m reviewing Evil Dead Burn in December.
So what’s the plan here? I think what’s going to happen is that some films are still going to get the usual long reviews, while others are either going to get very short reviews or have the sort of approach I did with my 2025 Wrap Up reviews that are still decently long but they don’t fit in the same mold as the usual reviews I do. Right now it’s to be determined on which films I’m putting in which categories.
Anyways reviews are likely going to return next week I just wanted to update on where I’ve been. Now let’s get on to the list.
A mysterious discovery is made on the outskirts of the remote harbor town. The residents find themselves in a desperate fight for survival against something they have never encountered before.
Hope is directed by Na Hong-jin director of The Chaser (2008), The Yellow Sea (2010) and The Wailing (2016).
Hope is one of the strangest films I’ve seen so far this year, at first the film starts out slow that over the course of the film gets more and more insane and bizarre. The film reels you in with its small village mystery and then keeps you attached when it decides to go all out with the monster elements and the ultimately bizarre moments. Hope is going to be a bit more tricky to review, since I do not want to spoil anything, so I will just give a basic overview that won’t hurt your experience of the film.
The performances are quite shockingly great, particularly Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung and Jung Ho-yeon, even if there is little to no character writing here. We get a general idea of their characters and the film makes it work, it helps that the performances are a whole lot of fun that balance the film’s serious and more silly moments. The film captures the look of fear and flat out confusion in the characters faces, the slow movement in their walking is so well done especially during the film’s first act a scene that takes place in the village.
The cinematography is outstanding and really does a lot of the talking rather than the script, cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo does a fantastic job of making every single corner suspenseful. The earlier mentioned village scene is a prime example of this, Hwang Jung-min’s character Ko Bum-seok is armed with his gun not exactly knowing what is terrorizing the village, every single time he reaches a corner there is potential for this beast to strike. You feel that with the cinematography focusing so Ko Bum-seok as well as the area around him, the atmosphere truly grabs onto the viewer and never lets go, it’s truly one of the film’s many best moments that truly makes an excellent example of how cinematography and atmosphere can do most of the talking.
The film’s build up to the monsters is truly fantastic, while yes the film does have a slow start I do think that overall benefits the film. The film is able to bring in its suspenseful atmosphere, get the viewer caught up about this small village mystery before it evolves into something far greater. You also feel this sense of exploration as well, like you are exploring the film’s world along with the characters.
The CGI is admittedly incredibly silly however I do think that was the intention, the film is definitely self aware that it looks ridiculous and goes all in with ragdoll physics that feel straight out of the video game series Grand Theft Auto, plus the CGI is strangely charming and has this incredibly fun feel that really matches the tone the film is going for.
Finally there’s the action scenes, particularly the horseback and car scenes. Once again the attention to detail that comes from the cinematography is truly fantastic and really builds the suspense of the scenes, the focus and sharpness of these moments that truly bring everything together.
Overall Hope is an insane ride from beginning to end, it’s the sort of film that you must go in knowing as little as possible to really get the full experience.
