MOVIE REVIEW: VICTORIAN PSYCHO

 

In 1858, an eccentric young governess, Winifred Notty (Monroe), arrives at the remote gothic manor Ensor House. As Winifred assimilates, staff begin to inexplicably disappear, and the owners wonder if something is amiss about this new governess.

Director: Zachary Wigon

Cast: Maika Monroe, Thomasin McKenzie, Ruth Wilson, Jason Isaacs

Release Date: November 13, 2026

 

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Rated R for strong bloody violence and brief sexual material.

Runtime: 1h 42m

Review:

Victorian Psycho brings an over-the-top satirical darkness that provides a fascinating mix of dark humor and gore propelled by a deliciously unhinged performance from its star, Maika Monroe.  Zachary Wigon directs the film with a noticeable sense of confidence as he aggressively moves the camera at various points to keep the audience off kilter.  He creates a claustrophobic atmosphere within the mansion with some winks and nods to The Shining thrown in for good measure.  He crafts some wonderfully constructed shots that leave an impression as it creates an environment that’s colorfully bleak.  The collection of characters thrown onscreen are all over the top caricatures with each performer clearly relishing the opportunity to go all out with their turns.  Maika Monroe is the lynch pin that makes the entire thing run as she delivers one of the most interesting turns of her career thus far.  Her Winifred Notty is a barely contained vessel of madness that struggles to keep her darkness under control.  She gives the character a certain emptiness behind the eyes paired with a series of subtle and not so subtle facial tics.  She manages to make her character terrifyingly unhinged but strangely sympathetic especially once the full breath of her motivation for showing up on the family doorstep to be their new governess.  It’s a fascinating turn that carries the film through some of the moments where the story doesn’t quite land the way it should.  It helps that her supporting cast is filled with incredibly talent performers who are all on the same wavelength as the director and Monroe.  Ruth Wilson, who’s no stranger to playing a serial killer, is excellent across the board as the matriarch who’s intrigued but distrustful of Winifred while having a rather vicious streak on her own especially when it comes to her servants.  Monroe and Wilson make for the most interesting relationship onscreen, so much so that you are left wishing the film had focused more on them than Thomasin McKenzie’s Miss Lamb.  McKenzie is fine in the role, serving as Winifred’s rather naïve confidant, but their relationship isn’t nearly as interesting as the one with Wilson’s Mrs. Pounds.  Jason Isaacs’ Mr. Pounds also could have done with a bit more fleshing out to dig into the lecherous but aloof patriarch.  Isaacs is much more understated than his castmates, but his turn brings a measured level of nuance that makes the character appear harmless initially until the layers start to fade away.  Rounding out the cast are the children played by Jacobi Jupe and Evie Templeton who deserve plenty of praise for their ability to match their older costars every time they share the screen giving each child a very distinctive personality, especially Templeton’s Drusilla.  Once Victorian Psycho reaches its bloody end, it's hard to not be impressed with film as a whole but especially by Maika Monroe who continues to morph into different characters with each new film.

B+

MOVIE REVIEW: WILD HORSE NINE

 

CIA agents Chris and Lee face a trust-testing mission from Santiago to Easter Island during 1973 in Chile.

Director: Martin McDonagh 

Cast: John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits, Parker Posey

Release Date: November 6, 2026

 

Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime, Drama, Thriller

Rated R for pervasive language, some strong violence, drug use and sexual references.

Runtime: 1h 58m

Review:

Martin McDonagh’s latest film, Wild Horse Nine, finds the writer/director at the top of his game as he brings his signature black humor and razor-sharp dialogue in the form of a 70’s set period piece that gives John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell plenty of time to shine.   Those familiar with McDonagh’s previous films will find plenty of similar themes running throughout the narrative with the story playing out like a spiritual successor to his 2008 film, In Bruges.  The setting and time period allows him to have bit of fun with history with the central crux of the plot revolving around a famous assassination.  It initially feels like that plot point might be used as fun bit of texture for the characters, but McDonagh is able to use to really drive home his meditation on mortality and lingering regrets about choices made.  It’s a rather fascinating approach that so deftly done that it makes the 70’s set film feel incredibly timely and relevant to the state of the world today.  That’s not to say the script doesn’t contain his signature style of comedy because it does in spades but like his best films there’s a tangible, beating heart underneath it all.  It sets up the central duo of John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell to deliver some strong performances which should garner plenty of awards when the time comes.  Malkovich and Rockwell have a natural chemistry together which gives their relationship a believable sense of authenticity which makes the emotional stakes land far more effectively.  Rockwall is perfectly suited for the role of Lee Chesterfield, John Malkovich’s protégé, by bringing the kind of effortless charm and coolness that has become his bread and butter.  He’s the rare kind of performer that can pull this off while maintaining a sense that his character truly cares about his friend and mentor.  John Malkovich is even better as the assassin who’s losing his memory, battle with cancer and his ability to keep the endless secrets that have dominated his life and career.  Malkovich brings his very specific energy to the character paired with a palpable sense of melancholy as he tries to piece together his memories for his memoir that’ll never see the light of day.  It’s a fascinating performance that really allows him to explore every nook and cranny of his character dense psyche and worldview.  It’s the kind of performance that should finally garner him the Academy award that’s eluded him during his distinguished career.  The supporting cast is populated with recognizable faces such as Steve Buscemi, Parker Posey and Tom Waits with each getting some time to shine but ultimately Wild Horse Nine is Malkovich and Rockwell film.  

A

MOVIE REVIEW: GODZILLA MINUS ZERO

 

Set in 1949, the Shikishima family confronts a fresh catastrophe two years after surviving their previous ordeal with the legendary monster.

Director: Takashi Yamazaki

Cast: Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Yuki Yamada, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Sakura Ando, Miou Tanaka

Release Date: November 6, 2026

 

Genre: Action, Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Rated R for some violent content/bloody images.

Runtime: 2h 15m

Review:

Godzilla Minus Zero, sequel to 2023’s Godzilla Minus One, is bigger on every level and it delivers with massive set pieces that again boast some truly impressive CGI kaiju action paired with a thematically dense human drama playing in the background.  Writer/Director Takashi Yamazaki delivers an impressive epic as he’s clearly honed his skills on the original film and refined his prestige take on the legendary franchise.  The result is an impressive all around with this entry bringing a level of brutality to the kaiju action that makes the American entries look cartoonish by comparison.  The amount of death and destruction truly impressive with the film never shying away from showing the human side of both throughout.  There’s also a flashback to the aftermath of Hiroshima that graphicly shows the human cost of the weapons of war.  It all hammers home the consistent thematic undercurrents at play in the script which add an impressive level of depth to the entire film.  Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe and Hidetaka Yoshioka return from the previous installment with each easing back into their roles with relative ease.  Ryunosuke Kamiki and Minami Hamabe storyline as Kōichi and Noriko is central to the plot, but their thread does feel more understated and undercooked than in the previous films.  Hidetaka Yoshioka’s Noda is given a more interesting angle with the addition of Min Tanaka’s Kanji Murakami emotionally scarred biologist serving as a fascinating foil to Noda.  Tanaka’s Murakami is a damaged soul who is secretly harboring a deep-seated anger and desire for vengeance that’s highlighted by a particularly striking fantasy that sure to leave an impression.  The script would have been wise to have focused on his character more than it does since the character offers up a series of moral quagmires that would have been fascinating to explore in more depth.  Masami Nagasawa, Makoto Aoyama, talented meteorologist, is presented as a substantial character, but the script doesn’t really give her and Hidetaka Yoshioka’s Noda much time to germinate their relationship until the very end.  Minor issues aside, it’s hard not to be impressed by the scope and scale of Godzilla Minus Zero proving again that even a monster movie can be elevated within the right hands.  

A-

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-