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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.   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.  
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.  ______________________________________________________ |
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