Summer - Fall 2026 Movie Preview

I'm back to the traditional early summer entry, even though I haven't had much time to look carefully at what's coming in the next half of the year. But let's see what I've gathered...

At the beginning of June, "Another World", an anime produced last year, will be released internationally. The interesting part is that it's not Japanese, even though it's an adaptation of a Japanese novel. It's the first feature film by a new generation director from Hong Kong - in fact, the full version of a short animation on the same subject, from a few years ago. I haven't seen it, but it seems to have been quite appreciated, as have the reviews so far for this one.

Also in June we have the newest production directed by Steven Spielberg, who returns to SF with "Disclosure Day". Some critics have already commented that it would be his best film in the last 20 years. I wouldn't bet on that. David Koepp, the main screenwriter, one of the most prolific in Hollywood, has quite a few titles to his credit that left me with an impression of an average popcorn movie, if not mediocre, built on an existing commercial basis (the latest adaptations after Dan Brown, the latest "Indiana Jones", the latest version for "The Mummy", "War of the Worlds", and others). It is true that here he is together with the director on the script, and that he also had some pretty good original titles like "Panic Room" or "Stir of Echoes", but that was a long time ago...

In July we have another summer blockbuster, "The Odyssey", Nolan's already much-talked-about mega-production. I don't know what to say here either - "The Odyssey" is very promising cinematically, but I never imagined Odysseus as Matt Damon... And if I look at the rest of the cast, I wouldn't say that this is the most "interesting" casting decision.

Released last year, passing through the autumn festivals, and apparently ending its wider distribution route in July, "Stille Freundin" is probably the most visually interesting production on the current list as a possible big screen experience. I don't know much about the film, apart from the fact that it follows the life of a gingko tree through about three distinct time periods, but what caught my attention when I saw the trailer released only about two months ago was the cinematography. Sometimes the rest matters less.

To include something fitting the cliché "life beats the movie", at the end of July we have an international distribution of a French production, "L'affaire Bojarski". Probably it adds a bit of fantasy to the real story, but still, it's a lesser-known episode of a Polish refugee after WW2, and catchy enough to be worth a movie.

Also coming from France, we have a new version of the first novel by Albert Camus - "L'Étranger". It's already been screened at several festivals since last year, and got some nominations at Cesar and EFA. From what I could find about it, by August it should have reached almost all of Europe. So far, I have not been tempted by anything produced by Francois Ozon among those that I have crossed with, but here I would make an exception.

David Robert Mitchell debuted in 2010 with an obscure indie that I haven't seen. He continued in 2014 with "It Follows" (no pun intended), another indie that emerged from obscurity at NIFFF, Cannes and many other festivals, where it collected quite a few awards. In my opinion, it probably remains somewhere in the top 3 of atmospheric horror films I've ever seen, and a good example to be taught in school of how to achieve something of maximum effect from this genre with almost non-existent blood and gore. "Under the Silver Lake" followed in 2018, a bit out of the indie zone in terms of cast, which veered from intense to bizarre, being difficult to define as a genre, but decent in terms of originality. After a long break, this year we have "The End of Oak Street" announced in August. At the risk of becoming monotonous with the pessimism for the Hollywood releases above... I have doubts here too. Because this no longer seems indie at all, and cash in requires cash out...

To turn to a more optimistic area, even though I have never been a fan of stop motion, Aardman remains in the very narrow list of mainstream animation studios that made me laugh out loud at almost every big screen production (not that they have many). Even if sometimes it becomes a little too British on the humor side. But maybe with the new iteration of "Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom", announced on September, co-produced by StudioCanal, it also turns towards French. But then again... would it be that good?

We're shifting the genre to adult stuff in October with "Verity", adaptation of a popular novel. The reason for inclusion in the list: we are looking for a thriller + the trailer (guilty pleasure).

We are moving the direction again, also in October. Of this whole list, I can say that I am more confident in the announced animations than in the movies - I think it is the first time that I have three in a series of previews, and the last one, "Wildwood", is the first as expected. The team behind it is the one that also worked on "Coraline", but more notably on "Kubo and the Two Strings", probably among the most intense animations as a metaphor in the last ~15 years. It is true that the same team also has the opposite in its CV, "ParaNorman" (depite all the critical appreciation). But with the trailer below, I remain in the optimistic zone here. The number of views in two weeks says a lot.

In November, we have "Wild Horse Nine". I don't have any Martin McDonagh film that has disappointed me out of the four so far - direction + script - "In Bruges", "Seven Psychopaths", "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri", "The Banshees of Inisherin", not even the short one - "Six Shooter". So I would say this is a safe bet.

I end November, and the summer-autumn list, also with an international release from Asia, as I started it: "Godzilla Minus Zero", which I hope will reconfirm its exception from the monster movie genre, and remain in Asia as an influence in the production, as the teaser kind of makes you think... Maybe it's not just an attempt to squeeze a sequel. The previous "Godzilla Minus One" was a more than surprising move in a niche that was limited until then to cheap thrills by definition, especially under the influence of Hollywood. The return to the Japanese heritage brought a dramatic depth at the level of the Mariana Trench compared to the previous puddles in asphalt, even at the level of VFX, coordinated by the director who is also a screenwriter. Takashi Yamazaki has a rather long biography behind him, from which a long time ago I saw "Returner", cheap, but not really thin at the beginning of his career = something that seemed to say then that there was potential.

I think I haven't ticked so many titles in the preview list since the time when I was doing it in two rounds, but back then they were pretty much what I caught on Apple trailers (probably the only use of the multi-colored apple that I ever had). The same now, the reason is that I didn't really have time to search, so I left the selection more relaxed. I hope it's not too relaxed and at least two or three titles will be worth watching on the big screen.

Karakter (1997)

My plan for this entry was to pick a subject out of three variants. The first should have been "Der Himmel über Berlin" (aka "Wings of Desire") from over 40 years ago, which was on my list for a time that's expressed in two digits as well. I have to admit a gap in my cinema experience: Wim Wenders, whom I "successfully" avoided until now, because each movie I've run into (the last being the "Perfect Days" made in Japan) seemed likely to hit some touchy spots. But given the amount of self-inflicted late stress, I was curious how far I could push it, only that I didn't manage to watch it yet, and I had a deadline fixed for this entry. The second option was "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You", quite underrated, but that was too tense. Still, I can't miss the opportunity to recommend it as an example of something quite above average in camerawork for an indie budget, achieved only through the framing, angles, some touches on the colours, and a bit of support from the editing side. Therefore, with some luck (debatable..), I got to the third option, rewatched after almost 30 years, so yet another old movie, "Karakter".

What we have here is a Dutch movie, an adaptation of a novel from the '30s, with the action set in the same period's Rotterdam, following a triangle of three characters, the father, the mother and a son, from the birth of the latter to the demise of the parents. A.B. Dreverhaven, a bailiff, known to be more icier than the cold rains near the North Sea, employs a taciturn housemaid, Joba, and one night gets her pregnant against her will. When this situation is confirmed, the woman decides to leave and manage it on her own. After the birth of the boy, the father starts sending a series of telegraphic letters with the same content: a marriage proposal + a sum to help her, which the mother returns every month, choosing her name for the child: Katadreuffe. From there on, the action is centred more on the son-father conflict, the novel actually having "a novel of son and father" as its subtitle. The mother, with a presence that's more absent, has a role in the story, which I prefer to leave to be unravelled. In the foreground, we have the duel between Katadreuffe and Dreverhaven, which becomes more acute as the child grows, who, despite the precarious social conditions, manages to pursue a career, dealing with obstacles placed in his path by his own father. There's more to tell, but let's stick to the spoiler-free area.

It's interesting how the perception changes after more than two decades between the first and second times watching this. I knew it was a good movie, but it's not as flawless as I remembered. It's quite Hollywoodish as a technique and falls a bit on the theatrical side. The father's role is exceptionally well played by Jan Decleir, a Belgian actor whom I don't remember seeing in other work. However, we also have some overacting here and there, though that's subjective, as always. The camerawork alternates between scenes that could probably be taught in a master class, at least for how the chiaroscuro is integrated, but again, it gets a bit too far I think, with some noir tendencies that don't really fit. You can feel the score's impact from the intro, but afterwards, it's kept in balance. With all the minuses, it's probably one of the best assembled pieces of Western European cinema I've watched.

I had a "debatable.." in the intro for the reason that I don't think the third option was much luckier than the first would have been. "Karakter" is a movie that touches on plenty of aspects of life, from the obvious above, which relates to the parent-child relationship, to a secondary plane of romance that I didn't remember, which somehow fits as a complex replica of the mute one between the parents. But probably the finest nuance, interwoven with the rest of the story's threads, is a different part. "Le travail rend libre" is a phrase originating in a title of a German novel from the XIXth century, reused in French by Auguste Forel, a Swiss entomologist and psychiatrist, in a work about ants from the '20s, where I don't know how many connections are drawn with the functioning of the human brain, but if not there there were in some other works. The German sentence is one that was afterwards denaturated by placing it at the entrance of Auschwitz, Dachau, and other concentration camps, but I think it's basic sense is the one from the Forel version = the feeling of freedom is something provided by what occupies your time, something that in "Karakter" slowly grows, to the point when the young Katadreuffe doesn't observe much around him much besides his own carreer. That's clearly not the main theme of the movie, but it's the illusion that sustains overcoming the obstacles. Unfortunately, an illusion remains an illusion, with imminent danger upon waking. At least if you're not aware of it ;)

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (slightly subjective)

Project Hail Mary (2026)

It's been already slightly more than a week since I've watched "Project Hail Mary", and my memory is not that helpful lately, so I said it might worth an entry while I still can write something. After all, finding something that's good in the SciFi classic niche is less likely these days than a"close encounter of the -bear- kind".

The movie is an adaptation of a novel by Andy Weir, which got on the list of Hugo awards nominations several years ago. The story is centered around a molecular biology professor, who wakes up somewhere in the deep dark space with a retrograde amnesia, as the sole survivor of a starship's crew. In brief, after some flashbacks, we find out that we're on a mission to save the Sun, which is in danger of being.. consumed, or more accurately said, our teacher should find out how can some culprit microorganism be stopped on doing that. Also in brief, the Earth is not the only planet with such issue, and our solitary astronaut makes first contact with some other solitary astronaut, from some other species, brought by the same reason in the deep dark space . Further than this, we're reaching spoilers ground, so let's leave the story for the movie teathre.

Visually the movie looks really good, but I can't say it's a masterpiece. The audio is ok. Ryan Gosling plays a part that seemed much more fitting than the one in "Blade Runner". But, by far, what keeps the bar high in the movie from beginning 'til the end is the script, with a solid support from the editing. I didn't read the book, but Drew Goddard ("The Cabin in the Woods", "World War Z", "Bad Times at the El Royale") managed to pull out a narrative that takes you smoothly from fun to action surrounded by a bit of drama. Taken separately, probably these would still be at an ok level, but the mixture resulted from the way these are put together, and especially the interleaving of the flashbacks with the current timeline, is the part that probably backs up most of the emotional build-up, and some particular resulting impact. That + the chemistry between the tow main characters, which is also an output of the script.

I must admit that I had limited expectations from this, the trailers pointing more towards a classic linear development and several scenes featuring the alien also add a slightly childish tone. Add to that the fact that "The Martian" (same author and same screenwriter) didn't leave me with the best opinion about it, considering that was directed by Ridley Scott. I still remember that the proportion of eye-rolling there was on par with the praise of being a very credible SciFi (on this my opinion is that "The Expanse" keeps the top position). However, here, this part, however it might be, doesn't feel the need to be analysed. Once more, it's the proof that a carefully executed script, with plenty of witty insertions to balance a subject that's dramatic after all, result in some effect for which I can't find the proper words right now. It was fresh :)

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Hamnet (2025)

With the risk of seeming ignorant, I've never had to much interest into Shakespeare, and in particular for the tragedies written in the XVI'th century English. Add to that a very poor opinion about "Nomadland", of an epic boredom IMHO, directed by the same Chloé Zhao as "Hamnet". Therefore, in brief, this seemed like the perfect recipe for a snoring episode at the cinema. Yet again, it seems lower expectations yields high results...

As I was to find out after watching it, the movie is an adaptation of a novel, which I think it explains the consistency it has. It's not something general yet, but for the latest years I noticed a significant drop in the number of original scripts that cross beyond a superficial threshold, even though I'm not near close to watching as many movies as I did like 4-5 years ago, and I'm considerably more selective (maybe that might be the issue...). Moving back, the novel, or in this case the movie, because I didn't read the book, speculates a variant of the Shakespeare's family life, spanning from the marriage of the writer until after the death of one of his children, his only son, Hamnet. The story assumes the well-known play connects to the boy's name and to the impact of the loss, integrating into this assumption the metaphors of "to be or not to be" and others. The idea of the respective association seemed forced to me initially, and as a light spoiler, in a very fine auto-irony, which passes unnoticed over an intense dramatic background, a scene towards the end of the movie suggests the same disbelief. The ghosts from Elsinore and the poisoned intrigues from the Shakespearian Denmark seem to a grieving mother too far from a tragic, but still common family misfortune, given the life expectancy during the time of the plague. At a quick search, the majority of the critics specialised in the literature of W.S. also disagrees with something further than a simple name coincidence, adding to this the unclear circumstances of the child's death, which got lost in time. And still...

Without revealing more, the movie is conducted slowly in a minimalist note, starting with a short lived romance for some initial intensity, brought quickly within a more realistic zone of family problems, and carried through a by-the-book slow burn towards the end. The end which gets you back to the hyperbole of associating Hamnet with Hamlet towards a metaphore that's somehow more credible, maybe also because is supported by exactly who criticised the initial one (paranthesis: the movie deserves watching at least for Jessie Buckley, which delivers an exceptional performance). Maybe it becomes credible again also because you have a construction that's gradually inserting metaphors from a hawk's death that you can relate to some other loss, to a red dress in a greyish environment, which you can relate to whatever you want in the context, from the simple pain to the color brought by a theatre play to folks caught within the daily tedious and worrysome living. But probably credible more than this, because the metaphore is not anymore connected to Hamnet exclusively, but more with what anybody can get from the finale and probably by the desire of the subconscious to give a positive sense to a drama - either by re-connecting two parents when they get that the loss is affecting both of them, either by providing some justification to compromises that sometimes make the life to move forward.

Or another variant :) - the movie may be that dull that makes your brain to create its own story to prevent falling asleep ;) even so, it worked. Or maybe it caught me in the right mood for this, albeit getting over the top in some parts. So, probably a quite subjective...

Rating: 4.5 out of 5