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 In Club Kid, Peter (Jordan Firstman) works as a gay party promoter in NYC. One day, his 10-year-old son, Arlo (Reggie Absolom), whom he didn't know that he had, arrives on his doorstep, and decides to take care of him. Cara Delevingne plays Sophie, Peter's former business partner who's also a party animal. Colleen Camp plays Evelyn, his neighbor who agrees to let his deadbeat friend, Nicky (Eldar Isgandarov), stay at her apartment. Diego Calva plays Oscar, Arlo's social worker who's also Peter's love interest. Writer/director Jordan Firstman has made a captivating, funny and genuinely heartfelt father-son story. Peter comes across as a hot mess who's trying his best to be a good father and to quit his partying lifestyle, a task that's easier said than done while living in the fast lane and even going to the extent of selling drugs. He's likable, though, despite his flaws. The scenes with him and Arlo bonding together are often sweet and tender without being cloying, and also quite hilarious, e.g. when Peter tries to find a shirt for Arlo to wear that doesn't have dirty humor on it. To be fair, his romance with Arlo's social worker, Oscar, feels somewhat contrived and makes the plot feel somewhat overstuffed, but that's a minor issue in an otherwise heartwarming, honest and engaging dramedy that sees and treats its characters as human beings, warts-and-all, without asking the audience to judge them.
Jordan Firstman gives a natural and moving performance while handling the complexity of his role effectively. The stand-out, though, is the child actor Reggie Absolom who gives a breakthrough performance as Arlo. He's a very talented young actor, so hopefully Club Kid will put him on the map like About a Boy did for Nicholas Hoult. The cinematography, editing and use of music are all solid without becoming distracting or excessive. Please keep in mind that there's a lengthy club scene with stroboscopic lights that might make some audience members feel nauseous. At a running time of 2 hours and 2 minutes, Club Kid opens November 6th, 2026 in select theaters via A24. It's one of the best directorial debuts of the year.  
The Day She Returns, written and directed by Hong Sangsoo, and with a running time of 1 hour and 24 minutes, opens TBA via Cinema Guild.  
Everything Else is Noise, written and directed by Nicolás Pereda, co-written by Juan Francisco Maldonado, and with a running time of 1 hour and 11 minutes, opens November 20th, 2026 via MUBI.   Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) goes on a road trip across Germany with his daughter, Erika (Sandra Hüller), after WWII in Fatherland. Writer/director Paweł Pawlikowski and co-writer Hendrik Handloegten have made a slow-burning and understated, but emotionally cold drama with stunning cinematography. Set in 1949, the screenplay keeps exposition to a bare minimum without over-explaining anything or relying on flashbacks. Pawlikowski and Handloegten trust the audience's intelligence and that they're already familiar with Thomas Mann as an author. Within the first few minutes, Thomas has already returned to Germany from exile in California where his son, Klaus (August Diehl), lives. He and Klaus, as it turns out, have had a dysfunctional relationship. That subplot could've easily been a part of a separate film. Fatherland remains focused on Thomas' tour of Germany, though. There's no schmaltz, melodrama or anything heavy-handed. Even the dramatic tension remains low, for the most part.
What helps to keep Fatherland afloat are the terrific performances by Sandra Hüller and Hanns Zischler both of whom make the most out of the minimalist screenplay. The black-and-white cinematography looks mesmerizing at times while adding visual poetry. That said, there's not much warmth or unflinching, palpable poignancy until the very last minute, but that's probably part of the point perhaps because Thomas and Erika aren't warm people to begin with, and they bottle their emotions more often than not. The pace moves slowly, so the filmmakers trust the audience's patience. If you have a short attention span, this probably won't be the film for you. At a brief running time of 1 hour and 22 minutes, Fatherland opens October 23rd, 2026 at Film Forum via MUBI.   In Fjord, Lisbet (Renate Reinsve) and her husband, Mihai (Sebastian Stan), a religious Romanian family, move with their five children, including a newborn baby girl, to a Norwegian village. Soon enough, they get accused of physically abusing their children, have them removed from their home by Child Protection Services, and face a trial as well as criminal charges. CPS has evidence of bruises on their eldest daughter, Elia (Vanessa Ceban), and a signed confession by Mihai that he admits to physically abusing his kids, so he and Lisbet have an uphill battle against CPS. Ellen Dorrit Petersen plays the CPS caseworker who investigates them. The first lawyer who Lisbet and Mihair hire eventually resigns, so they're stuck defending themselves on their own for a while. Writer/director Cristian Mungiu has made a slow-burning, poetic and provocative legal thriller with some moral ambiguity. Neither Lisbet nor Mihai believe they're physically abusive even though she admits that she pushed her son and he admits that he slapped his daughter on the butt. He even explains in court that his behavior was acceptable back in Romania and during his upbringing, but the court doesn't accept that because laws are different in Norway. Once CPS brings up his religion and starts questioning his religious beliefs, that's when the film somewhat loses its footing and becomes heavy-handed. There's also an underdeveloped subplot involving Elia and Noora (Henrikke Lund-Olsen), the daughter of her neighbor, Mia (Lisa Carlehed). Oh, and Mia just so happens to agree to become Lisbet's new lawyer. So, Fjord's screenplay does become contrived, undercooked and less nuanced by the time the end credits roll.
Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan both give solid performances and look nearly unrecognizable as they disappear into their roles. Ellen Dorrit Petersen also shines as the cold, cunning and bureaucratic CPS caseworker. Moreover, the stunning cinematography and the use of symbolism add both style and substance to the film, e.g. the avalanches that take place around the village which sits along a fjord. The pace moves slowly, at times a bit too slow, so patient audiences will be rewarded the most. Just be prepared for a complex film with no easy answers and that ultimately leaves you with more questions than answers. At a running time of 2 hours and 26 minutes, Fjord opens October 9th, 2026 in select theaters via NEON.   Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunosuke Kamiki), a pilot, must protect the lives of his wife, Noriko (Minami Hamabe), and daughter, Akiko (Sae Nagatani), when Godzilla regenerates and a new monster, King Ghidorah, arrives to terrorize Japan. Dr. Kenji Noda (Hidetaka Yoshioka), the director of the Special Disaster Response Bureau, Makoto Aoyama (Masami Nagasawa), a meteorologist, and Kanji Murakami (Min Tanaka), a professor, join his mission in Godzilla Minus Zero. Writer/director Takashi Yamazaki has made a creature feature that's by-the-numbers, shallow, overproduced, clunky and tedious. It's less moving, less exhilarating, less captivating and less intelligent than its predecessor, Godzilla Minus One. The dialogue sounds too on-the-nose without any wit or comic relief, and the characters are poorly introduced. The screenplay seems like it's merely going through the motions on autopilot without stopping to flesh out the characters and their relationships.
Moreover, the performances range from poor to mediocre at best, and there are also issues with uneven pacing and too many scenes that overstay their welcome. The action scenes have great CGI effects and provide an adrenaline rush initially, but they come with diminishing returns. So, while Godzilla Minus OneSo, while Godzilla Minus One is an powerful and engrossing A-movie, Godzilla Minus Zero is a forgettable, inferior B-movie that fails to pack an emotional punch. At a running time of 2 hours and 15 minutes, it opens November 6th, 2026 nationwide via GKIDS.  
Mrs. Mercier (Antonia Buresi), a Latin teacher, guides her French high school students during a trip to Naples and Pompeii in La Gradiva. The students include Toni (Colas Quignard), James (Mitia Capellier-Audat), Suzanne (Suzanne Gerin), and Amaury (Rouge Isaac), among others. Writer/director Marine Atlan and co-writer Anne Brouillet have made a well-shot, but sluggishly-paced, meandering slice-of-life and coming-of-age movie that also serves as a travelogue. Unfortunately, Atlan and Brouillet don't quite manage to find the Spectacle within the film's many Truths. La Gradiva does feel true-to-life, but also tedious with very little narrative momentum. It's cerebral like an Eric Rohmer film, but not nearly as emotionally resonating while taking too long to become compelling and darker. Does the audience really need a long scene where Mr. Mercier asks her students questions about a volcano like what object the billowing smoke of the volcano resembles? Then there' a brief cringe-inducing scene that, yet again, goes nowhere interesting, when Mrs. Mercier almost caves into a male student hitting on her at a museum of all places.
The screenplay's systemic issue is that it doesn't design enough of a window into the heart, mind and soul of the teacher nor any of her students. It has a few moments of comic relief involving dry humor, but they're far and few between. The performances are fine, but not exceptional, and the film overstays its welcome by at least 30 minutes. At a running time of 2 hours and 25 minutes, La Gradiva opens December 18th, 2026 in select theaters via 1-2 Special.   Making Marie Antoinette, directed by Eleanor Coppola, is a mildly engaging and occasionally amusing, but somewhat shallow and undercooked glimpse behind the scenes of the film production of Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. It's shot by her mother, Eleanor, and narrated by Diane Lane who reads parts of Eleanor's journals. She managed to finish the production on time and on-budget, but it came with a lot of struggle, frustrations and even had bronchitis during which she questioned whether or not she was doing a good job of being a leader. Her cast and crew rave about how she's calm, polite and not domineering like other directors tend to be.
If you're expecting something insightful, revealing or surprising here, you'll be disappointed. There are glimpses of what this doc could've been, e.g. when Sofia complains that she'll never make a big budget movie again---it would've been more illuminating if Sofia were to delve deeper and expand that statement. Ultimately, Making Marie Antoinette won't change the way you look at the film, but it will help you to realize how much hard work and sleep deprivation went into making it. At a running time of 1 hour and 26 minutes, Making Marie Antoinette opens on October 23rd, 2026 at Quad Cinema via MUBI.  
A Man of His Time, written and directed by Emmanuel Marre, and with a running time of 2 hours and 35 minutes, opens TBA via 1-2 Special.  
Minotaur, written and directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev, co-written by Simon Lyashenko, and with a running time of 2 hours and 15 minutes, opens November 20th, 2026 via MUBI.   Misty Green (Rosalind Eleazar), an actress whose stardom has faded, struggles with drug addiction, but gets the chance for a comeback as the lead in a remake of Dreamgirls in Misty Green. Adam Driver plays Zach, a friend of Misty and a filmmaker who's also a drug addict, Chris Rock plays Dreamgirls's casting director, and Daniel Kaluuya play's Misty's brother who has schizophrenia. Writer/director Chris Rock has made an overwrought, disjointed and tonally uneven mess that features a great performance by Rosalind Eleazar. It's too bad that the screenplay remains so unfocused, shallow and meandering.
Moreover, Misty barely even has a character arc and continuously makes bad choices while also neglecting the emotional needs of her mentally ill brother who clearly needs help. She's a bad role model, unreliable and doesn't have any signs of introspection--or at least the film doesn't design enough of a window into her heart, mind and soul for the audience to sense that. Ultimately, Misty Green is less than the sum of its parts. At a running time of 1 hour and 43 minutes, Misty Green opens nationwide on October 9th, 2026 via A24.   Naza is an eye-opening, enraging and chilling documentary about how the Israeli military, IDF, kills innocent Palestians civilians and considers them to be "collateral damage" a.k.a. NAZA. So, if a soldier bombs an apartment building in Gaza and 5 innocent Palestians die as a result, they would refer to that as "NAZA + 5." Co-directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor interview 24 members of the Israeli intelligence and military on rooftops in Tel Aviv while digitally altering their faces and voices to protect their identity. That digital altering speaks volumes because it implies that their lives and livelihood would be at stake if they get caught speaking out. Yuval asks them tough questions and they give answers that are very revealing and even disturbing at times, particularly when one of the soldiers admits that he heard the sounds of Palestinian children before bombing their apartment and killing them and their family. To be fair, though, NAZA is a less visceral experience with concrete evidence than No Other Land; it's mostly just testimonies.
That said, the footage of a father desperately searching for his child through the rubble after the IDF bombed his building and then seeing the images of dead children's legs sticking out from under the rubble will break your heart. There's one issue with the film's English translation: when Yuval asks one of the subjects in Hebrew if he understands the consequences of his actions, the Hebrew word for "consequences" isn't translated. It's an important word and an even more important concept, so to omit it from the English translation makes the documentary slightly less powerful for audiences who don't know Hebrew. At a running time of 1 hour and 17 minutes, NAZA opens September 30th, 2026 at IFC Center.  
Nowhere to Lay My Eyes, written and directed by Hong Sangsoo, and with a running time of 1 hour and 12 minutes, opens TBA via Cinema Guild.   Once Upon a Time in Harlem is a warm, well-edited and illuminating documentary about a variety of artists, musicians and writers from the Harlem Renaissance who gathered at Duke Ellington's Harlem townhouse one afternoon in August of 1972. Director William Greaves was there to shoot the footage, and his son, David, completed the film years later. The guests at the party included Richard Bruce Nugent, Regina Andrews, Aaron Douglas, Arna Bontemps, James Van Der Zee, among others who reminisced about their memories of the Harlem Renaissance and of others from that iconic time of enlightenment who deserve to be better known like writer Zora Neale Hurston. They shared their stories and debated with each other throughout the party.
Once Upon a Time in Harlem is pretty straightforward and focused: it begins with them arriving at the party and ends with them leaving the party. It doesn't delve deeply into each of the artists, musicians and writers' work and life, but rather provides the audience with a glimpse of their work and a sense of their idiosyncratic personalities. The footage that William Greaves captured looks quite impressive without being too grainy, and there's also some stylish use of split-screen which makes the film feel more cinematic, so on an aesthetic level, Once Upon a Time in Harlem both looks and sounds great. At a running time of 1 hour and 40 minutes, Once Upon a Time in Harlem< opens October 16th, 2026 at Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center and Film Forum via NEON.   Harry (John Turturro), a pickpocket struggling to make ends meet while taking care of his disabled wife, gets into trouble when he steals the wallet of Dylan (Will Price) who has connections to the mob in The Only Living Pickpocket in New York. Dylan wants Harry to return to him his USB drive that he needs to unlock a lot of digital currency, but Harry has already pawned it. Steve Buscemi plays Ben, a pawnbroker, and Giancarlo Esposito plays a police detective. Writer/director Noah Segan has made a gritty, suspenseful, heartfelt and atmospheric crime thriller with a career-best performance by John Turturro. It also serves as a tender character study of an emotionally immature and broken man who's not a great role model and a pretty awful father. How introspective is he? Is he truly sorry for emotionally hurting his estranged daughter, Kelly (Tatiana Maslany)? He probably doesn't know how to love her and is trying his best, but his best isn't good enough because he barely loves himself and hasn't really changed innately. He doesn't have much of a character arc and he's not very likable, especially because he pickpockets candy from a little kid, but he's nonetheless an interesting character because of his many flaws. He's also very skilled at pickpocketing and even gives some pickpocketing advice to someone who tries to pickpocket him on a subway train.
John Turturro anchors the film with his palpable charisma and his genuinely heartfelt performance. The supporting cast, namely, Will Price, Steve Buscemi, Giancarlo Esposito and Tatiana Maslany, are also superb and bring authenticity to their roles. Jamie Lee Curtis has a cameo that won't be spoiled here, although, to be fair, her character is poorly introduced and underwritten. It's also worth mentioning the very well-chosen, lively music score and how the city of New York City becomes a character in itself. At a running time of 1 hour and 28 minutes, The Only Living Pickpocket in New York opens October 23rd, 2026 at Angelika Film Center and AMC Lincoln Square via Sony Pictures Classics. It would be a great double feature with Kenny Riches' film Mouse, another well-written, gripping and engrossing character study about a thief.   Lee Ye-ji (Cho Yeo-jeong), a documentary filmmaker, and her husband, Sang-woo (Zo In-sung), meet Choi Ho-seok (Sul Kyung-gu), a laid-off factory worker, and his wife, Ahn Mi-ok (Jeon Do-yeon), when they agree to be filmed in her documentary in Possible Love. Writer/director Lee Chang-dong and co-writer Oh Jung-mi have made a meandering, dull and overlong drama that's just fleetingly provocative and compelling. It's essentially about class divides because Lee and Sang-woo are affluent while Choi and Ahn are lower class, but instead of being a satire like Parasite, it goes the more serious route. The screenplay does offer some comic relief and wit, but nothing that's laugh-out-loud funny or razor-sharp. Too many scenes overstay their welcome and overtrust the audience's patience. Sometimes patience can be rewarding, but that's not the case with Possible Love which begins on a lethargic note and doesn't escape from it.
The decent albeit unremarkable performances don't manage to invigorate the film, unfortunately, or to prevent it from becoming an anemic slog that's nothing more than an endurance test. Do Lee Chang-dong and Oh Jung-mi not understand the concept that "less is more"? Apparently not. At a running time of 2 hours and 44 minutes, Possible Love opens October 23rd, 2026 at Angelika Film Center via Netflix.  ______________________________________________________ |
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