February 2026 [1-15]
If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, The Life of Chuck, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, Hoard, Urchin
- If I Had Leg’s I’d Kick You [2025] - 94
Writer/director, Mary Bronstein, has come hard out the gate with a feature debut that, like others I’ve talked about before — chiefly, my #1 of 2023, Aftersun and my #2 of 2025, Nickel Boys [which I’m now realizing I haven’t talked about somehow] — demands you speak its unique language, and doesn’t much care if you don’t, can’t, or won’t; Its characters live their lives, breathe their stories, and move in their world with or without you. While I certainly think that, of the three movies already mentioned here, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is the “weirdest” and most indirect, I also think it has some of the most singularly powerful moments of the bunch as well. This is one of those films that I wouldn’t think less of anyone for not liking but, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is also sure to find itself onto my “important” list for its willingness to tell a difficult, ugly, and selfish tale with an intelligence almost never seen in cinema. Rose Byrne truly stuns in what is sure to go down as a hidden gem of the human condition for the rest of film history.
- The Life of Chuck [2024] - 83
At a certain point we’re going to be able to stop saying “a Stephen King adaptation by Mike Flanagan”, because he just adapts all of them. For now, I should probably still mention that he did this one and, like most of Flanagan’s work, it’s mostly very good. As I mentioned in my review of the overly long The Fall of the House of Usher, “There’s an undeniable magic in the things he [Flanagan] creates, and his ability to consistently tease out intimate and award-worthy performances from his stars is nearly unmatched”… That’s true here as well. While, again… Like most of Flanagan’s work, I think that The Life of Chuck suffers some from its pacing and narrative structure, it’s still powerful, beautiful, and whimsical in all the right ways… It just could have been more of all those things. An excellent watch nonetheless, Tom Hiddleston and supporting crew do a great job of caring for and soothing your feelings, just to smash them to bits. Not as strong as 2022’s Linoleum, The Life of Chuck is still well worth your time, energy, and thought.
- All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt [2023] - 84
I’m not gonna yank your chain on this one, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt is an art film. It’s a fairly direct art film, but it’s still very much… An art film. Stunning 4:3 cinematography, an incredible grasp on sensory filmmaking, and subtle performances that at once move and provoke with nary more than a few lines of dialogue throughout its entire runtime, writer/director, Raven Jackson, should be immensely proud of what she’s put together here; This is a star that I hope will become an entire constellation of work very soon. All Dirt Roads tells the story of Mackenzie, a girl growing up in Mississippi, through non-linear beats, what feel like moving portraits of time, and tender moments of trauma and memory and love and loss and grief and hope. One scene in particular so powerfully embodies the concept of “love that could have been” that I was left in a truly stunned silence as I watched alone on my couch. Likely too abstract for most, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt is closer to a museum piece than a typical film, and I appreciate it hugely as such.
- Hoard [2023] - 81
Adding to the other debut films I watched during this time, Hoard comes to us from writer/director, Luna Carmoon, and regales with the strange and uncomfortable traumas of orphans, Maria and Michael. A movie that’s difficult for me to recommend one way or another, because it’s really quite uh… Weird, Hoard showcases a tremendous bravery in both structure and narrative that Carmoon should be commended and watched for; She’s a talent that will be well worth keeping tabs on. While I think that Hoard does get in its own way a little more often than I’d like, the underlying story that it wants to tell [and is often successful in telling] is so interesting and powerful that its mostly forgivable, if only because its peaks are so much higher than its valleys. Hoard handles a very unique aspect of trauma often shied away from in film, and does so through a lens entirely unwilling to tell you what you should think or feel, choosing instead to force you to reconcile your experiences with its characters completely on your own, and I think that’s a strength uncommon to film in general.
- Urchin [2025] - 79
Turns out, Urchin [from writer/director Harris Dickinson] is also a debut film… What a wacky list this is. This time we’re on the streets of London, trying to get by in any way that we can. Led by a performance that simply must have been missed by the academy, Frank Dillane, as our main character, Mike, simply has to be seen to be believed. While the film handles a lot of its subject matter with a directness and tact that reminds me of my 2025 #5, System Crasher, it also has moments of weirdness that make me think of my #16 of 2022, The Vast of Night, but without some of the vision the rest of that film had, instead making parts of Urchin that I think were supposed to be insightful and provoking, just sort of… Strange. I liked them, because I like strange, but I didn’t feel they added anything particularly meaningful to the overall story, and actually detracted in some pretty serious ways from what was otherwise a very compelling and difficult drama. Regardless, Dickinson’s foray into film here definitely has legs to it, and I’ll be looking forward to whatever it is he does next.
