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The Film Stage

Tomatometer-approved publication.

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Rating Title | Year Author Quote
Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild] (2026) Juan Barquin What’s most fascinating about Aanikoobijigan is the way it bounces through history with ease, emphasizing all the connections that exist throughout literal centuries.
Posted Feb 03, 2026  Edit critic review
Hanging by a Wire (2026) John Fink They are all unique, rich characters, and I wish the film had lingered a bit longer, if only to provide a greater sense of place and emotional impact.
Posted Feb 02, 2026  Edit critic review
Hot Water (2026) John Fink Bashour’s script gives Azabal and Zolghadri the heavy lifting, and the film succeeds in large part thanks to their nuanced, often humorous performances.
Posted Feb 02, 2026  Edit critic review
If I Go Will They Miss Me (2026) Jordan Raup If I Go Will They Miss Me doesn’t necessarily suggest a novel filmmaking voice, but one that can synthesize a medley of strong visions into a style that captivates.
Posted Feb 02, 2026  Edit critic review
Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass (2026) Kent M. Wilhelm A hilarious Hollywood farce in their signature absurdist voice.
Posted Feb 02, 2026  Edit critic review
The Invite (2026) Kent M. Wilhelm The sensation of watching Wilde’s third feature in a packed theater felt like something from another time.
Posted Feb 01, 2026  Edit critic review
In the Blink of an Eye (2026) Caleb Hammond An immensely dated, hyper-polished film that purports to be a celebration of the human spirit but in actuality leans heavily on the idea that technology will save us all. We should embrace AI—worship it, even.
Posted Feb 01, 2026  Edit critic review
zi (2026) Jordan Raup While not fully engaging on a narrative level, the project at least demonstrates Kogonada hasn’t lost his filmmaking mojo, crafting a movie that may seem more personal to him than most viewers.
Posted Feb 01, 2026  Edit critic review
Carousel (2026) Dan Mecca Carousel is a movie out of time. Working with Chris Pine and Jenny Slate, writer-director Rachel Lambert has constructed a delicate, patient, slice-of-life picture recalling Murphy’s Romance or Starting Over. That this even got made feels special.
Posted Jan 30, 2026  Edit critic review
Josephine (2026) Jordan Raup Perspective is everything in Beth de Araújo’s Josephine, a stomach-churning drama focused on the loss of innocence and the ill-equipped guidance—both parental and bureaucratic—that can compound enduring trauma.
Posted Jan 30, 2026  Edit critic review
The Incomer (2026) Dan Mecca Unfortunately, it all gets a bit repetitive. Local Hero this is not.
Posted Jan 29, 2026  Edit critic review
undertone (2025) Caleb Hammond Whether a shot of an empty hallway at night or a door frame where a wooden cross hangs, undertone maximizes visual dread with its innate understanding for what constitutes a liminal space.
Posted Jan 29, 2026  Edit critic review
Barbara Forever (2026) Dan Mecca It often feels like a Barbara Hammer film itself while evolving into a sharp, clever montage that moves fast and entertains throughout.
Posted Jan 29, 2026  Edit critic review
The Only Living Pickpocket in New York (2026) Kent M. Wilhelm It’s The Wild Bunch meets Gloria in an engrossing tale of coming to terms with the imbalance of the good and bad of a life, and if that even matters in the end.
Posted Jan 28, 2026  Edit critic review
See You When I See You (2026) Kent M. Wilhelm See You When I See You is a miss for the generally consistent and solid Duplass, but it’s good to have him back in the director’s chair.
Posted Jan 28, 2026  Edit critic review
Time and Water (2026) Dan Mecca Time and Water is framed as a time capsule to be discovered by whoever survives the great, tragic changes to come. Dosa is a master of tone in the documentary space.
Posted Jan 27, 2026  Edit critic review
Night Nurse (2026) John Fink A fascinating character study that can suggest an early Atom Egoyan film with notes of Michael Haneke.
Posted Jan 27, 2026  Edit critic review
Nuisance Bear  (2026) Oliver Weir Although there are many dramatic moments—the scenes of trucks and helicopters shooing bears out of town often look like high-speed chases—the main tone is one of socioecological reflection.
Posted Jan 27, 2026  Edit critic review
Buddy (2026) Caleb Hammond By and large, Buddy proves that high-concept short-form premises can be expanded to a feature format effectively, so long as the final film isn’t too winky and the stakes feel grounded.
Posted Jan 27, 2026  Edit critic review
Send Help (2026) Alistair Ryder Clearly salvaged by a talented filmmaker and two exceptional performers doing their best to elevate one-note, thinly sketched material.
Posted Jan 26, 2026  Edit critic review
Frank & Louis (2026) John Fink Frank & Louis falters by putting its characters in predictable, nuanceless boxes
Posted Jan 26, 2026  Edit critic review
The Shitheads (2026) Kent M. Wilhelm The steady two-hander never quite soars, but is elevated by an eclectic batch of supporting roles that supply bursts of energy in the right places.
Posted Jan 26, 2026  Edit critic review
Once Upon a Time in Harlem (2026) Kent M. Wilhelm An immersive and masterfully rendered documentary that presents a living, breathing oral history of the Harlem Renaissance. Watching it feels like unearthing treasure.
Posted Jan 26, 2026  Edit critic review
Soul Patrol (2026) Dan Mecca J.M. Harper’s Soul Patrol is a compelling account of the Vietnam War’s first Black special operations team, told 50 years later.
Posted Jan 26, 2026  Edit critic review
Union County (2026) Jake Kring-Schreifels Instead of leaning into the histrionic hallmarks of the genre, Poulter opts for something more inward.
Posted Jan 26, 2026  Edit critic review
The Moment (2026) Caleb Hammond With a cavalcade of hilarious bits, inspired cinematography, and a willingness to earnestly be about something, The Moment serves as a bold reinvention of the mockumentary genre that until now was content to stay put in pithy joke territory.
Posted Jan 25, 2026  Edit critic review
I Want Your Sex (2026) Caleb Hammond A ridiculous sex-filled romp with entertaining stretches, [Araki's] first feature in 12 years often plays like a lecture from one sexually-liberated queer male to the reportedly sexless younger generation.
Posted Jan 24, 2026  Edit critic review
The Oldest Person in the World (2026) Kent M. Wilhelm The concept of life and death is so ubiquitous, it feels impersonal––more objective than subjective. The Oldest Person in the World takes that theme and succeeds in presenting it from an individual perspective; a personal statement.
Posted Jan 24, 2026  Edit critic review
American Doctor (2026) Dan Mecca It can make one feel crazy to watch American Doctor and be reminded that there are many, many people who could watch this same footage and convince themselves that these deaths are casualties of war.
Posted Jan 24, 2026  Edit critic review
One in a Million (2026) Jordan Raup While the film’s episodic structure and, considering its sprawling canvas, relatively succinct runtime leave some details less explored, the filmmakers capture, with moving sensitivity, how perceived liberty doesn’t always mean true independence.
Posted Jan 24, 2026  Edit critic review
The History of Concrete (2026) Caleb Hammond The History of Concrete is a joyous ride full of his now-trademark detours and persistent, underlying sadness at both the state of New York (his first and true love) and, on a secondary scale, the world at large.
Posted Jan 23, 2026  Edit critic review
The Lake (2026) Jordan Raup While The Lake is effective in illuminating a vital issue with astounding, haunting cinematography from Ellis and DP Alex Takats, the film also functions as a sobering example of failed political leadership on a larger scale.
Posted Jan 23, 2026  Edit critic review
All You Need Is Kill (2025) Eli Friedberg Visually, this is all a treat of a sort that won’t be hugely surprising to fans of classic Studio 4°C productions like Mind Game and Tekkonkinkreet.
Posted Jan 16, 2026  Edit critic review
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026) Ethan Vestby Fiennes has headlined so much Oscar bait and Europudding over the decades that you forget his true joie de vivre as a performer, particularly for exquisite comic timing.
Posted Jan 13, 2026  Edit critic review
Train Dreams (2025) Mitchell Beaupre Train Dreams, through the experience of one simple, ordinary man, captures the significance of the very notion of human life.
Posted Jan 01, 2026  Edit critic review
Cloud (2024) Mitchell Beaupre Whether it’s the eerie atmosphere and introspective interrogation of 21st-century commerce and capitalism in Cloud’s first half, or the marked shift into a balls-to-the-wall action-thriller in the second, Kurosawa keeps you on the edge of your seat.
Posted Jan 01, 2026  Edit critic review
The Secret Agent (2025) Mitchell Beaupre Mixing a sort of arthouse character study with searing socio-political drama and paranoia thriller, The Secret Agent reverberates in the mind for days after watching.
Posted Jan 01, 2026  Edit critic review
Sinners (2025) Mitchell Beaupre Calling Sinners a genre mashup doesn’t even really capture the degree to which it feels like Ryan Coogler has invented his own new genre; a fusion of period drama, social politics, character study, scintillating romance, and full-on nightmare fuel horror.
Posted Jan 01, 2026  Edit critic review
Misericordia (2024) Mitchell Beaupre Disarmingly funny, uniquely suspenseful, and captivatingly amorphous, Misericordia keeps you guessing from first frame to last.
Posted Jan 01, 2026  Edit critic review
The Mastermind (2025) Mitchell Beaupre Kelly Reichardt’s ’70s Robert Altman picture: A hangdog tale of a man who simply cannot get out of his own way.
Posted Jan 01, 2026  Edit critic review
28 Years Later (2025) Mitchell Beaupre As a visceral action thriller, the first half of the picture is remarkably tense, but it’s the second half where this becomes something really special.
Posted Jan 01, 2026  Edit critic review
The Naked Gun (2025) Mitchell Beaupre One could recite any number of incredible zingers, or detail a bounty of "you need to see this to believe it" sequences, but I’ll simply leave you with this: "She had a bottom that would make a toilet beg for the brown."
Posted Jan 01, 2026  Edit critic review
It Was Just an Accident (2025) Mitchell Beaupre Takes a simple and powerful morality conflict—"What would you do if you believed you found the person responsible for your greatest trauma?"—and turns it into an absolute powder keg with so many combustible ideas and dilemmas.
Posted Jan 01, 2026  Edit critic review
Black Bag (2025) Mitchell Beaupre Agatha Christie meets John le Carré meets James Bond meets Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, a spy thriller as concerned with how a marriage survives as it is with catastrophic meltdowns that would eviscerate tens of thousands of lives.
Posted Jan 01, 2026  Edit critic review
The Plague (2025) Alistair Ryder When the characters are kept entirely separate from the adult world, the creeping paranoia is at its most affecting.
Posted Dec 23, 2025  Edit critic review
Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) Conor O'Donnell With bittersweetness, Avatar: Fire and Ash closes a chapter on big filmmaking at a time when the maximalist spirit and cinematic frontiersmanship of James Cameron is in increasingly short supply.
Posted Dec 16, 2025  Edit critic review
Ella McCay (2025) Dan Mecca That this film––most likely [James L. Brooks'] final film––is optimistic about the little things that can still be done to help people might seem trite. It makes me sad that trite and hopeful occupy the same space these days.
Posted Dec 12, 2025  Edit critic review
Goodbye June (2025) Mitchell Beaupre Goodbye June’s biggest crime is simply that you won’t remember it within an hour of the credits finishing.
Posted Dec 11, 2025  Edit critic review
100 Nights of Hero (2025) Alistair Ryder Feels less like a radical reimagining of a foundational work of literature than a post-Bridgerton romance that lazily riffs on the many tropes it initiated, with an overarching feminist message obvious to the point of being condescending to its audience.
Posted Dec 04, 2025  Edit critic review
WTO/99 (2025) Dan Mecca One of the more fascinating elements of the documentary WTO/99, directed by Ian Bell, is that while it visually feels like a relic, the political observations feel as predictive as they are reflexive.
Posted Dec 04, 2025  Edit critic review
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