MOVIE REVIEW: WHALEFALL

 

Following the death of his father, Jay Gardiner dives off California’s Central Coast in search of his remains, only to be swallowed by a massive sperm whale. Trapped inside with one hour of oxygen, Jay must draw on the lessons his father taught him to escape.

Director: Brian Duffield

Cast: Austin Abrams, Josh Brolin, Elisabeth Shue, John Ortiz, Jane Levy, Emily Rudd

Release Date: October 16, 2026

 

Genre: Adventure, Drama, Thriller

Rated PG-13 for peril, violent content, bloody images, some strong language, and thematic content.

Runtime: 1h 46m

Review:

Whalefall’s modern day Jonah story takes a decidedly claustrophobic and gooey approach to the story that works fairly well in the first half of the film before things take a more abstract turn in the back half of the film.  Brian Duffield has delivered some well-made thrillers such as 2023’s No One Will Save You and 2020’s Underwater which makes him perfectly suited for this adaptation of the book of the same name.  Once he sets up the basics of the family dynamics he quickly moves to the action to the ocean which makes for some beautifully shot sequences in the ocean before he moves the actions inside of the whale.  When the action moves inside it turns into something closer to 127 hours except the walls and fluids are actively trying to digest the main character.  Austin Abrams is tasked with carrying the film on his own for large portion of the film, which he does so impressively by putting the audience in his shoes in spite of how outlandish the situation is.  His sole costars, in the whale, are a rather nasty CGI squid that’s ingested with him and a helpful bioluminescent jellyfish he uses as a flashlight at one point which leaves him having to generate every shred of emotions that he can pull out of the character.  It’s an impressive performance, it’s tangibly different than his snarkier but equally hapless courier in this year’s Resident Evil, that lets you feel every moment of guilt and unresolved daddy issues particularly in the flashback and real-world scenes.  He and Josh Brolin work off each other incredibly well together which leaves you wishing Brolin’s character had been given a bit more depth since we never get a clear idea as to why he treats his son so harshly.  Lacking any sort of context, Brolin’s character’s sole motivation for treating his son like crap is to prepare him for the inevitable moment he’s shallowed by a whale.  It saps those moments of authentic emotionality since they amount to little more than 2002’s Signs infamous "tell Merrill, swing away" moment.  It doesn’t help that the flashbacks are so heavy handed and self-serious that you’re left with the impression that they read better on the page vs onscreen.  It’s a similar situation to the final act which moves into a much more hallucinatory and abstract approach which makes for a strange tonal shift that’s sure to turn off a portion of the audience.   Elisabeth Shue and Jane Levy have small supporting roles, but the film and story doesn’t give them anything worthwhile to do, which is a waste of their talents.  Sadly, it leaves Whalefall being a bit of mixed bag since it doesn’t take advantage of Austin Abrams performance and the visceral sense of claustrophobia from the first half of the film.  

C+

MOVIE REVIEW: YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING

 

You Can See Everything is a 2026 American experimental meta-documentary directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim that follows disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and her partner Billy Evans in the weeks leading up to her prison sentence. 

Director: Nathan Fielder, Lance Oppenheim

Cast: Elizabeth Holmes, Nathan Fielder, Billy Evans, Amanda Seyfried, Christopher Abbott

Release Date: October 16, 2026

 

Genre: Documentary, Biography, Comedy, Crime

Rated R for language and some graphic nudity.

Runtime: 2h 54m

Review:

You Can See Everything is a rather mesmerizing documentary that morphs into something else entirely about halfway in to become something uniquely singular and thought-provoking that will likely leave you with more questions than answers.   Lance Oppenheim and Nathan Fielder’s documentary starts off traditionally enough even with Fielder’s distinctive style as we follow disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and her family in the days before her incarceration in federal prison.  If you are familiar with Fielder’s previous work, you’ll find plenty of his usual hallmarks early on as he embeds himself in the family before ultimately moving in with them.  There’s a sense of false intimacy that permeates the first hour or so Fielder attempts to delve into Holmes state of mind.  It’s a rather fascinating chess match with Fielder being rather direct at various points throughout about the criminality of the actions that led Holmes to end up with her being convicted of defrauding investors.  The fact that Holmes and her partner, Billy Evans, reached out in order to tell “their side” of the story throws up red flags immediately as we get the sense they’re both playing the long game as they attempt to make her more sympathetic.  This version of Holmes is a far cry from the person we’re told about in the documentary, The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, that chronicled her rise and fall.  Holmes and Evans portray her as some sort of misunderstood savant who functions on another level who doesn’t understand the basics of communication and interactions, making her an easy target for manipulation highlighted by a sequence involving Abbott and Costello’s “Who's on First” bit.  There’s a sense by the time Holmes heads to prison, that Fielder grows strangely sympathetic to her plight but is clearly conflicted about the couple’s authenticity.  At that point, the documentary morphs into something more aggressively meta and nuanced as he tries to discern the nature of the truth he’s being told and ultimately our ability to determine the truth, we’re being told via any sort of media.  Revealing too much about the back half of the film feels counterproductive since a series of situations and revelations take the film in a variety of different directions.  You Can See Everything gives you more than enough information to draw a fair number of conclusions but it also questions how you reached those conclusions with an exchange between Nathan Fielder and Amanda Seyfried leaves you wondering if you have, in fact, seen everything.

A

MOVIE REVIEW: CLAYFACE

 

Rising Hollywood star Matt Hagen descends into a horrifying revenge-filled monster when scientific ambition strips him of his identity and humanity.

Director: James Watkins

Cast: Tom Rhys Harries, Naomi Ackie, David Dencik, Max Minghella, Eddie Marsan

Release Date: October 16, 2026

 

Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Rated R for strong bloody violence, gore, language, some nudity and brief drug use.

Runtime: 1h 48m

Review:

DC’s Clayface fully embraces the body horror tropes to deliver a superhero adjacent film that plays more like Frankenstein than The Substance by the time it’s all said and done.  James Watkins, who is no stranger to the horror genre, directs the film with a steady hand, borrowing elements from Matt Reeves and Christopher Nolan’s Batman film to deliver a familiar visual aesthetic for Gotham.  He moves the film along at a steady pace, spending little time setting up his central character and general set up.  Anyone familiar with Bruce Timm’s classic animated Batman series will find plenty of familiar elements with the story taking inspiration from the two-part episode "Feat of Clay."  Watkins leans into the gangster elements much like the animated series and Matt Reeves take which will leave those looking for Easter Eggs and nods to the larger comic book world disappointed since the story is laser focused on Matt Hagen/Clayface.  Welsh actor Tom Rhys Harries delivers a strong performance in the lead role, managing to pry out every bit of emotional depth from the character which makes his story arch all the more tragic.  Harries deftly handles the character slow decent into madness by making it a subtle, slow burn transformation.  It would have been easy for the story to make Matt a narcissist whose vanity drives the story, but it smartly avoids that path to deliver something more nuanced by making Matt somebody who pulled himself up by the bootstraps to earn his success.  His disfiguration and “cure” all leaning into the underlying story thread about his consistent sense of imposter syndrome makes the story all the more intriguing especially when larger set pieces hit.  The final act club set piece, seemingly inspired by Scarface, is an impressively staged bit of body swapping action that’s sure to leave an impression.  On the downside, the romantic storyline between Naomi Ackie’s Dr. Caitlyn Corr and Matt Hagen feels shoehorned and unnecessary.  Mobster Markos Szabo, played by David Dencik, serves as the film’s villain but the character is about as generic as they come leaving that aspect of the story rather underwhelming.  Those lackluster elements keep Clayface from being something special even though Tom Rhys Harries takes the opportunity to shine in the central role.  

B-

MOVIE REVIEW: STREET FIGHTER

 

Estranged street fighters Ryu and Ken Masters get thrown back into combat when the mysterious Chun-Li recruits them for the next World Warrior Tournament -- a brutal clash of fists, fate and fury. However, behind the battle royale lies a deadly conspiracy that forces them to face off against each other and the demons from their past.

Director: Kitao Sakurai

Cast: Noah Centineo, Andrew Koji, Callina Liang, Joe Anoa'i, David Dastmalchian, Cody Rhodes, Eric André, Andrew Schulz, Vidyut Jammwal, Curtis Jackson, Jason Momoa

Release Date: October 16, 2026

 

Genre: Action

Rated PG 13 for violence/action, bloody images, strong language, sexual references, partial nudity and brief smoking.

Runtime: 1h 59m

Review:

The newest iteration of Street Fighter hit the screen with the energy of an unsupervised child at a playground with kinetic action paired with splashy visuals which almost makes you overlook the nonsensical plot.  Kitao Sakurai brings a late 90’s/early 2000’s aesthetic to his film and his candy-colored world populated with oversized characters and performances.  He has fun with the property dropping a boatload of easter eggs for fans of the games but never taking any of it overly seriously.  In a strange contrast, the animated flashback sequences are the only portions of the film that plays the story straight which makes those moments almost feel like they belong in a different film.  The animation is incredibly well done, and the voice acting is excellent throughout which clashes with the over-the-top live action scenes.  The live action portion of the film does offer up plenty of wonderfully choregraphed fight sequences that are well staged and fun throughout.  The ensemble cast is clearly having a ball hamming it up across the board with Noah Centineo’s Ken Masters and Callina Liang’s Chun Li doing most of the heavy lifting.  Centineo and Liang both look the part, but they also bring great screen charisma that makes their performances engaging and fun.  They balance the action and comedy with relative ease even when the jokes don’t land.  The large cast all plays off each other so well that there’s an infection energy to their exchanges whether it be David Dastmalchian channeling Raul Julia’s take on M. Bison.  His henchwomen, Cammy and Juli, played by Mel Jarnson and Rayna Vallandingham, both look like they could easily walk in and out of a Lady Gaga video.  Cody Rhodes and Vidyut Jammwal turn as Guile and Dhalsim feel like it needs more time since their bromance is just begging for more screentime which the film’s two-hour time could have easily worked it in with its hefty run.  Especially since the film starts to wear out its welcome as it starts to lose momentum with the finale doing more to set up a sequel as opposed to a wrapping up the story in a satisfying manner.  Street Fighter is far from a perfect film, but it still offers up plenty of fun for both fans of the game and causal movie goers looking for some mindless entertainment.  

B-

MOVIE REVIEW: THE SOCIAL RECKONING

 

Facebook engineer Frances Haugen and The Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz blow the whistle on the social network's most guarded secrets.

Director: Aaron Sorkin

Cast: Mikey Madison, Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, Bill Burr, Wunmi Mosaku, Betty Gilpin, Billy Magnussen

Release Date: October 9, 2026

 

Genre: Biography, Drama, Thriller

Rated R for language.

Runtime: 1h 52m

Review:

Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning was always going to have a large hill to overcome with the inevitable comparisons to The Social Network, also written by Sorkin, which it can never overcome since this film never captures the immediacy and importance of that film by painting with the broadest of strokes on every level.  Sorkin’s film has a solid story to tell and a collection of talented actors to tell it which makes his surprisingly undeveloped script peppered with clichéd characters all the more confounding.  His direction is rather bland for the lion’s share of the film’s runtime with a few uninteresting visual flourishes thrown in for good measure.  The script makes intriguing figures like Frances Haugen, Jeff Horowitz and Mark Zuckerberg come off as one-dimensional types we’ve seen before in other better films like All The President’s Men, The Post or Spotlight.  The general facts are covered with a sort of matter-of-fact approach that never makes the story as engaging as it should be even as it cycles between different time periods for effect.  The cast is, to their credit, all do their best to bring out of every bit of nuance out of their underwritten roles.  Mikey Madison does an admirable job of making her character more interesting than what’s written on the page.  Sorkin decides to make Frances Haugen a quirky, wallflower intellectual who can dissect data with ease but lacks any sort of actual social skills.  It’s a tired trope especially since the actual woman is nothing like that characterization with her being a willing whistleblower who drove the process much more than the film version of her does.  Jeremy Allen White is stuck in a similar situation with the film’s version of Jeff Horowitz who portrayed as a principled investigative reporter but there’s little else to him with the character kept at arm’s length from the audience.  As such, he’s a bit of an enigma since there’s little depth or background provided outside of passing mentions of previous journalistic accolades.  Jeremy Strong gets the showiest role with this fully formed version of Mark Zuckerberg who’s a robotic, possessing a nearly inhumanly cold demeanor that makes him almost cartoonish.  Strong gives it his all as he clearly relishes emulating Zuckerberg’s quirky mannerism and speech pattern that gives him a distinct feel to Jesse Eisenberg younger version from The Social Network.  The script mostly keeps him locked up in a single space prepping for congressional testimony with an underutilized Wunmi Mosaku.  Bill Burr provides some energy to these sequences as a former Facebook investor and legal counsel who is more than willing to challenge Zuckerberg without fear.  The film needed more heated exchanges like that to really drive those moments home since the film noticeably perks up during those moments.  Once the film wraps up its story, culminating in Haugen’s congressional testimony post insurrection, there’s a noticeable sense that the story remains unfinished as we are still living in the wake of the aftereffects of the events portrayed onscreen.  It makes The Social Reckoning feel like an unfinished product as we are still living through this moment in time and in the shadow of tech billionaires, such as Zuckerberg, acquiescing to the far right   

C

MOVIE REVIEW: OTHER MOMMY

 

Bela, an eight-year-old girl living in a home with marital problems, confronts a sinister entity that comes out of her closet. The presence, whom she calls "Other Mommy," becomes increasingly threatening to her and her family.

Director: Rob Savage

Cast: Jessica Chastain, Jay Duplass, Dichen Lachman, Arian Moayed, Karen Allen

Release Date: October 9, 2026

 

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Rated R for some bloody violence, and language.

Runtime: 1h 34m

Review:

Other Mommy is a derivative, messy horror film that still manages to be entertaining thanks to some showy visuals and a deliciously committed turn from Jessica Chastain.  The film waste little time getting right into the meat of the story with the film’s buzzy trailer serving as the opening salvo.  Rob Savage keeps the film efficiently paced which works in its favor since the script offers up haphazard bits of lore that don’t make much sense the more you think about it.  Savage makes it easier to overlook these shortfalls by delivering a series of set ups and jump scares that are visually impactful especially as they get more hallucinatory and abstract.  Savage uses slivers of his 2023’s film, The Boogeyman, along with bits of The Nightmare on Elm Street series and the late 90’s Ju-On (The Grudge) to craft his story with some elements working better than others.  The story tries to weave in a deeper thread about family discord but it’s handled in such a clunky manner that it fails to land in spite of the cast’s best efforts.  Leading the way is Jessica Chastain who is clearly having a blast playing the Other Mommy role.  She clearly relishes the opportunity to play in this sandbox as she creates a rather disturbing presence by using a series of unblinking facial expressions and unsettling vocal intonations.  She’s much more muted in her non demonic role of Ursula with the performance echoing her turn in the television miniseries, Scenes from a Marriage, but with much more running and screaming.  Chastain keeps the whole thing afloat by sheer will as the script gets more and more nonsensical as it moves along.  Her screen family played by Jay Duplass and Arabella Olivia Clark bring an earnest, natural energy to their roles even if they are both woefully underwritten.  Familiar faces such as Karen Allen and Dichen Lachman pop up in a rushed exorcism scene that feels like it would have been more memorable if the characters had been set up and fleshed out a tad more.  Once its all said and done, Other Mommy maybe an imperfect vessel but there’s still enough entertaining thrills paired with a memorable turn from Jessica Chastain to make it a fun bit mindless genre fun.  

B-