March 2026 [2-8]
The Secret Agent, True Detective: S3, Hamnet, Sinners, I Swear, Come See Me in the Good Light, The Voice of Hind Rajab, Sentimental Value, Marty Supreme, Arco, Sirât
- The Secret Agent [2025] - 50
Nominated for 4 Oscars — Casting, International, Picture, Leading Actor — I had some pretty high expectations going into Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent. Turns out… I shouldn’t have. I’m not entirely sure what this movie was trying to evoke with its insane 161-minute runtime, but it fell dreadfully short. While I can appreciate certain things that the film did manage to do with that time [the then-to-now storyline being particularly excellent], there was just so much n o t h i n g during the beginning, middle, and end that it makes the more artistic and meaningful moments feel hollow and almost cruel, because they make you sit through everything else to get to them. Overall, The Secret Agent feels like a very watered down I’m Still Here and I simply do not understand any of the attention it’s getting outside of its obvious ties to current US politics. I don’t know, I almost feel like I’m missing something in this one, but I also don’t care enough to sit through its Avatarruntime again.
- True Detective: S3 [2019] - 88
Following our watch of S1, we skipped S2 because nobody seemed to like it, and found ourselves absolutely enamored with S3. Managing to find a new way to twist the same narrative conceit as the first season [multi-timeline story, buddy-cops with a complex relationship, several mysteries happening at once], True Detective: S3 is another stunning example of crime/drama television at its absolute best. While audiences seem to have a general preference for S1, I found Mahershala Ali and Stephen Dorff’s chemistry slightly more interesting than that of McConaughey and Harrelson, while the story allowed its characters to be deeper and more complex, leading to more interesting questions and quandaries as a viewer. I certainly wouldn’t say you should watch one over the other, more that regardless of which season you stumble across first, you’ll definitely appreciate the other as well. I very much look forward to jumping into S4 soon, and I’ll even check out the oft disdained S2.
- Hamnet [2025] - 93
It’s likely difficult to say anything about Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet that I didn’t already in my full review, but I’ll certainly try as this is a film that’s surely going to land in my top 10 on the year. A fictionalized take on how William Shakespeare came to write Hamlet, Hamnet casts us headlong into his time and place, allowing us to live among his family, and see the world through, primarily, his wife, Agnes’, eyes… Which is both an interesting and extremely effective means through which to tell this tale. Similar to the book itself [which I haven’t yet finished at time of writing], Hamnet makes the extremely interesting creative choice of pushing one of the world’s most well-known writers almost entirely to the background of the plot for much of its runtime, allowing the always gripping Paul Mescal only a handful of entrances into the story prior to its closing acts. Then even, as this story comes to a close — tearing our hearts from our bodies — Agnes, played by the effervescent Jessie Buckley, takes center stage of the telling, leaving us both full and devastated as the credits roll.
- Sinners [2025] - 82
Seeing all the attention that Sinners was getting around both the web [an insane 16 Oscar nominations] and my personal life, I decided to give it a revisit as my recalled experience of the film simply wasn’t adding up to the hype. While I agree with a couple of nominations in particular, upon finishing this rewatch I wholeheartedly feel that my memory was correct and that the frenzy for this is wildly overblown; Something I think is even reflected in my original rating of 87. Don’t get me wrong, Sinners has a good number of merits and deserves a slew of accolades for the way it was made, but I just don’t get the fever with which it’s talked about. The story itself has been broadly done before, and I feel very strongly that the action-packed conclusion actually damages what its excellent, drama heavy beginning had built up to that point. I still stand by what I said in my original review [that Coogler deserves the director award], but I really hope this film’s hype-train doesn’t bowl over titles with stronger claims to its many many other nominations.
- I Swear [2025] - 75
Coming into common parlance a bit because of a whole bout of drama surrounding the BBC, Kirk Jones’ I Swear is sweeter and more interesting than this kind of spotlight might be allowing it. Telling the story of John Davidson, a boy who suddenly develops Tourette’s syndrome at a young age, I Swear manages to blend good humor, solid empathy, and a not insignificant amount of needed education into its a-little-too-long 2-hour runtime. A runtime I call “a little too long” because the story is also a little too surface to develop much more than a passing relationship with our protagonist. There’s parts of this that are genuinely engaging, but this is a shining example of my issues with biopics, and there just wasn’t enough narrative meat on I Swear’s bones to keep me from consistently wishing this was either written entirely as fiction, or simply presented as a documentary instead. I certainly wouldn’t dissuade anyone from throwing this on, but it’s also not moving enough to turn anyone towards it if they aren’t already interested.
- Come See Me in the Good Light [2025] - 74
This was a difficult one to rate as it’s pretty uh… Difficult to put a number rating on a documentary chronicling someone’s journey with cancer. That said, it’s exactly this 2026 Best Documentary nominee’s subject matter that ultimately leaves me in a just “satisfactory” place. These kinds of stories are so moving in and of themselves that I felt Come See Me in the Good Light didn’t do enough to separate itself from others within the sphere. Now, this isn’t to diminish either Andrea Gibson nor Megan Falley’s experiences, pains, or heartbreaks — these are extremely real situations and I’m glad their stories were told —, it’s just to say that, as a film, I felt it could have done a lot more. Regardless of my feelings on the production itself, this story is frightfully touching and, if no other parts get you, listening to Andrea recite her final poem is sure to generate waterworks the likes to make even the Niagaras jealous.
- The Voice of Hind Rajab [2025] - NR
And then we have The Voice of Hind Rajab, a hybrid docu-drama nominated for Best International Film in the most painful way possible. What is effectively a 90-minute 911 call with a 6-year old girl stuck in a car being shot at by Israeli forces in occupied Gaza, The Voice of Hind Rajab is shocking, upsetting, and powerful in ways words could never accurately describe; This short segment is as much a content warning as it is a review. I loved this film, was deeply injured by this film, think everyone should be forced to bear witness to this film, and think no one should ever have to be forced to bear witness to this film. It’s an incredibly complicated experience brought impressively to life by writer/ director, Kaouther Ben Hania, in a way that deftly avoids feeling exploitative, despite its incredibly sensitive content. Utilizing the real recording of Hind Rajab’s call to the Red Crescent begging for them to come and save her, The Voice of Hind Rajab is not an experience I will recommend, but it is one you should seek out if you feel up to it. It’s important, incredibly important.
- Sentimental Value [2025] - 60
Another nominee for International Film, Sentimental Value is a movie I simply don’t get. I see a lot of what it’s trying to do, I’ve read a lot about what I didn’t see, and nothing I saw or learned afterwards has convinced me there’s much here beyond a kind of mediocre family drama. I seem to be in the vast minority with that opinion but, after finishing the film and reading a synopsis of the plot to make sure I wasn’t a crazy person, there were things the written plot communicated that I, in absolutely no possible way, felt the visual experience expressed, and I really just think I can’t be bothered to work as hard as this film wants me to. Still better than The Secret Agent, because there is a mostly fine through-plot here and it is shorter [though still long at 2:13], Eskil Vogt and Joachim Trier have absolutely missed me with this entry into what is an otherwise stellar library of work.
- Marty Supreme [2025] - 84
Safdie and Bonstein are back, this time with a chaos infused, comedy of errors romp through the world of Ping-Pong table tennis. Led by the recently drama infused Timothée Chalamet and up for a smattering of well-deserved Oscars [9 in fact], Marty Supreme is not a film for those prone to secondhand anxiety. While I don’t think it’s as strong as either of the pair’s other major projects — Uncut Gems or Good Time — I do think it’s an incredibly strong contender for many of the categories it’s nominated in, and a great addition to their repertoire of highly unique films. Somehow I’m not thinking of a whole lot to say about this one despite thinking that it is very good if you like their style, and that makes me kind of wonder how long this particular entry is going to stick with me come the end of the year and my 2026 “Top 100”. Now if I could only make the time to get my 2025 list together…
- Arco [2025] - 62
Nominated for Animated Feature, Arco is one of those movies that almost leaves a heavy mark on your heart and a moving question in your brain… But just doesn’t quite find a steady enough stride to do either by the end of its possibly-too-succinct 88-minute runtime. Arco is neither confident enough in its strange presentation nor focused enough on its narrative to truly develop any one thing, and tries instead to suffuse its shallow plot with a rainbow of colorful characters in place of deep relationships or metaphors. This is a film that could really abide by the “less is more” mantra and cut a handful of players from its roster for more quality time with those who remain. This said, however, Arco does somehow manage to pull the right heartstrings during key moments in ways that genuinely took me by surprise. It’s kind of an odd duck all around with animation that ranges from incredibly detailed landscapes to semi-haunted human characters, a story that doesn’t seem to have much of a point while somehow hitting exactly when it wants to, and all ultimately wrapping up into an experience that makes you say, “huh, I guess that’s it?” by the end. I don’t know, it was just sorta “fine”.
- Sirât [2025] - 86
Also an odd duck for entirely different reasons, Sirât is Spain’s nominated International Film… And one of the most tense, shocking, and engagingly strange things I’ve watched in a long time. Despite really loving this experience, it’s a little difficult to recommend because, it is just kind of really… Intense. The story of a man looking for his runaway daughter in the desert rave scene of Morocco, Sirât isn’t quite Lynchian, but it is a movie he would have deeply loved, and one I did as well. Brought thumpingly to life by an almost omnipresent electro-dance score, Sirât uses so many of its tools well that it’s difficult to really criticize it for its slightly slack third act. A movie that I’d never fault anyone for not liking, Sirât is one you should watch on the biggest, loudest screen you can, and one of the very few movies that I genuinely think is better in a theater than at home. Aggressively lodging itself inside my brain right beside everyone’s most least favorite scene from 2018’s Hereditary, Sirât is a movie I couldn’t soon forget even if I wanted to… And I absolutely don’t, so that kinda works out.
