Reviews for July 3rd, 2026
Ellen (Carla Gugino) gets more than she bargained for when she agrees to take care of her traumatized cousin, Winthrop (Lou Taylor Pucci) after moving to a new town in Lockbox. When her next door neighbor, Vahna (Katharine Isabelle) gets murdered, Winthrop becomes the main suspect. Director Daniel Stamm and screenwriter Justin Yoffe have made a meandering psychological horror film that becomes increasingly convoluted with waning suspense as it veers into supernatural territory. The beginning suffers from not enough exposition, but the third act suffers from over-explaining. So, this is the kind of genre-bending B-movie that doesn't have a good enough handle on exposition and suspense to elevate above mediocrity. It's just as disappointing as Leviticus and Backrooms which also have half-baked ideas with poor exposition.
Moreover, it takes too long to get to the meat of the story and by the time it gets there, it's too little, too late. There are a few creepy scenes, though, with Ellen and Winthrop, but they're ephemeral. Lockbox is lucky to have Carla Gugino in the lead. She's the film's MVP and makes it more watchable because she sinks her teeth into the role of Ellen with conviction from start to finish. At a running time of 1 hour and 45 minutes, Lockbox opens in select theaters nationwide via Aura Entertainment.
Number of times I checked my watch: 2
Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World is an engaging and illuminating warts-and-all documentary about late Pulitzer-Prize winning poet Mary Oliver. Director Sasha Waters deftly combines archival footage, interviews with her friend, and readings of her poems. She sheds light on Oliver's traumatic childhood and on her relationship with her lover, Molly Malone Cook, whose death she wasn't easily able to cope with. Oliver didn't like being in the public eye and kept much of her life private.
Fortunately, Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World avoids hagiography while concurrently managing to humanize her without prying or dwelling too much on her suffering, i.e. her alcoholism and struggling to make ends meet as a poet. In other words, Waters shows some restraint and lets Oliver's words and her film clips mostly speak for themselves without judging her or asking the audience to judge her either. She captures Oliver's intelligence, candidness, introspection, vulnerability and humility. Audiences previously unfamiliar with Oliver will learn a lot about her life and work while those already familiar with her might see her poetry from a new perspective because they'll have a better understanding of what shaped her as a poet. At a running time of just 1 hour and 31 minutes, Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World opens at IFC Center and Jacob Burns Film Center via Kino Lorber.
Number of times I checked my watch: 1
Young Washington focuses on George Washington (William Franklyn-Miller) during his days as a young adult when he became a soldier who accidentally triggered the French and Indian War back in 1754. Mary-Louise Parker plays his mother, Mary, Andy Serkis plays Edward Braddock, Kelsey Grammer plays Thomas Fairfax, and Ben Kinglsey plays Robert Dinwaddle. Writer/director Jon Erwin and his co-writers, Tom Provost and Diederik Hoogstraten, have made a mildly engaging, but somewhat dull biopic with great cinematography and set design. William Franklyn-Miller gives a charismatic performance in the lead role and tries his best to breathe life into it despite the shallow, by-the-numbers screenplay. Young Washington isn't an emotionally engrossing biopic because it neglects to get inside the heart, mind and soul of George Washington beyond his experiences becoming a soldier. The supporting characters feel more like plot devices than lived-in human beings.
The film's systemic issue is that it covers too much ground without slowing down to allow the scenes to breathe or to get to know the characters with more depth. That said, the battle scenes are well-shot and exhilarating with great use of lighting and washed-out colors that provide both style and substance concurrently. So, on a technical, purely aesthetic level, Young Washington excels; as a character study of an iconic figure from U.S. history, it leaves a lot to be desired and leaves at a cold distance from George Washington. At a running time of 2 hours and 5 minutes, Young Washington opens nationwide via Angel Studios.
Number of times I checked my watch: 3
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