Note: both of the two best films of 2026 so far, Mirrors No. 3: and Is God Is are now available on VOD. The best movies in theaters right now remain Pressure and Power Ballad.
CURRENT MOVIES
Pressure: engrossing study of high-stakes decision-making
Power Ballad: what (and who) makes a ht song? In theaters.
Mirrors No. 3: two enigmas explained. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
Is God Is: an extraordinary new story-teller. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
Sirat: gripping, hypnotic and devastating. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango and included with Hulu.
The Christophers: twisty, watchable and disposable. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
Omaha: in the best interest of the children. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
The Drama: the darkest romantic comedy that I’ve ever seen. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
ON TV
Robert Mitchum and Ken Takakura in THE YAZUKA
On June 13, Turner Classic Movies will air the 1974 neo-noir The Yakuza, starring Robert Mitchum. The world-weary Mitchum was the greatest male star of classic film noir, and 25 years later was still jaded and just as cool. Here, Mitchum plays a former GI who returns to Japan to help rescue the kidnapped daughter of an army buddy (Brian Keith) who still lives in Japan. Mitchum’s character has a unique relationship with a former Yazuka (Ken Takakura), who can help him navigate the Japanese underworld. Of course, the Japanese had been making Yakuza movies for over a decade, but The Yakuza introduced American audiences to the code of behavior of the Yakuza (severed fingers and all) and other aspects of Japanese culture. There’s a big reveal about two of the characters, and the finale is heavy duty. The Yazuka was directed by Sydney Pollack (Out of Africa, Tootsie, Jeremiah Johnson) from a screenplay adapted by Paul Shrader (Taxi Driver) and Robert Towne (Chinatown). James Shigeta, who I discuss in my post about The Crimson Kimono, also appears.
Photo caption: Peter Mullan (center front) in THE FALL OF SIR DOUGLAS WEATHERFORD. Courtesy of MUBI.
In the droll British satire The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford, Kenneth (Peter Mullan) works for the museum of the local country manor house, giving tours of the grounds. Kenneth is an enthusiastic interpreter of the history he has learned, and uncritically worships the manor’s 18th Century owner, Sir Douglas Weatherford. When an episodic television fantasy series, closely resembling Game of Thrones, arranges to film on the estate’s grounds, the village is deluged with its fans. Kenneth cannot understand why the mobs of fans, many of whom dress in the faux-medieval garb of the series, are obsessed with every detail of the fictional story and are devoted to its celebrity actors. He is further offender that they show no interest in the local history that is his life’s work.
Even Sir Douglas Weatherford’s present-day descendants drop Kenneth’s beloved history programming to capitalize on the fantasy craze. Kenneth’s bewilderment spins into rage, and, when he loses his job, he decompensates. Kenneth, his world turned upside down, plots an epic revenge.
There are essentially two jokes in The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford. The first is that Kenneth sees Sir Douglas Weatherford as a giant of the Age of Enlightenment like Isaac Newton or Edmond Burke. In fact, the achievements of Sir Douglas that Kenneth so reveres are objectively inconsequential. Furthermore, Sir Douglas’ values were exactly on the wrong-side-of-history. He was an historical figure who would get cancelled today, if anyone except Kenneth remembered him.
The second joke is in mocking today’s embrace of celebrity culture and shallow entertainment, and the prevalent lack of embarrassment at historical illiteracy. Kenneth is right about all of this, but it doesn’t surprise anyone else, and Kenneth takes it way too seriously.
Although Kenneth focues on the 1700s (and, as a re-enactor, even sometimes dresses in that way), he is really stuck in the 1980s, before the Internet Age, when there was a common national culture and people still had attention spans.
Here’s what I found funniest – the actual Weatherford descendant, who smugly fancies herself as a progressive and a radical environmentalist, is exactly the entitled awful person that Sir Douglas and his forebears must have been.
Peter Mullan is superb. A great screen actor, he imbues Kenneth with both stunned confusion and simmering fury; Kenneth is almost always outwardly stoic, even as he is raging inside.
I tend to like droll dark comedies, but The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford was such a slow boil that I kept losing interest. The premise is very funny, but even deadpan needs to move more quickly. The pace drained the comic impact of the absurdities.
I screened The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford for SFFILM, where I did not choose to recommend it. It is releasing into theaters this weekend.
Photo caption: Simone Ashley in THIS TEMPTING MADNESS, Courtesy of Vertical Entertainment.
In the briskly-paced thriller This Tempting Madness, Mia (Simone Ashley) emerges from a coma, and can’t remember the fall that caused her critical injuries. She learns that her husband has been jailed for trying to kill her, but she can’t accept that explanation. She embarks on an investigation to find out what really happened, and begins to unspool the mystery, uncovering ever darker discoveries.
Is she being gaslighted? Does her family have a grudge? And what is she herself capable of? There are plenty of surprises in the story.
Simone Ashley (Bridgerton) is believable as Mia yo-yos between theories of what has occurred, and she has a magnetic presence onscreen.
This is the first feature for director Jennifer E. Montgomery, who co-wrote the screenplay with her husband Andrew M. Davis. Both the hoppin’ pace of the movie and the twisty screenplay are strong work,
This Tempting Madness is a neo-noir, and there is so much amnesia in classic film noir that it constitutes the sub-genre of Amnesia Noir – High Wall, Somewhere in the Night, Crack-Up, Spellbound, Deadline at Dawn, The Snake Pit, The Clay Pigeon, The Long Wait and many more. But the screenplay for This Tempting Madness was inspired (surprisingly) by a true story.
I screened This Tempting Madness for the 2026 SLO Film Fest, where I highlighted it in my best of fest post, . This Tempting Madness opens June 12, including at some Laemmle theaters in LA.
Photo caption: Paula Beer and Barbara Auer in MIRRORS NO. 3. Courtesy of 1-2 Special.
As Christian Petzold’s intimate psychodrama Mirrors No. 3, opens, we see Laura (Paula Beer) on a river overpass, and she looks so despondent that we wonder if she will jump to her death. But Laura, who is studying piano at university in Berlin, wanders off lethargically to meet her boyfriend for a couples day trip she would rather skip. Scattered and periodically catatonic, she is clearly suffering from clinical depression, but the boyfriend is too self absorbed to notice. When she cuts the trip short, he drives off the road; he is killed, but Laura suffers very minor injuries.
The accident happens near a house isolated in the countryside, and the middle-aged resident Batty (Barbara Auer) helps Laura to her house for medical treatment. Laura asks if she can stay instead of going to the hospital, and Betty kindly agrees, and makes her comfortable in an upstairs bedroom.
Betty goes out of her way to dote on Laura as she recuperates. The two quickly bond, and neither is in a hurry for Laura to move on. Betty seems to adopt Laura a little too eagerly than decency and generosity would require, which is an indication that something odd may be going on. When Betty has Laura cook dinner for Betty’s brusque husband Richard (Matthias Brandt) and her lumbering, uncommunicative son Max (Enno Trebs), increasing weirdness is evident.
Betty’s husband and son don’t live with her. Passersby occasionally stop and gawk at the house. Betty sometimes calls Laura by another name. Laura doesn’t show any interest in returning to her Berlin apartment and resuming her studies.
Barbara Auer and Paula Beer in MIRRORS NO. 3. Courtesy of 1-2 Special.
The audience is wondering what is going on with Betty’s family, but Laura isn’t – she’s found an emotional refuge. As the clues accumulate, we can guess the family’s back-story, but Laura doesn’t seek out the truth until it is blurted out, in a scene that becomes explosive.
Among cinema’s current auteurs, Petzold is unsurpassed in ending a movie and this one is perfect.
Along with his genius in observing human behavior and constructing psychodramas, Petzold is a master of movie sound. This is as far from a movie epic as you can get, but all his gifts are on display here.
Barbara Auer in MIRRORS NO. 3. Courtesy of 1-2 Special.
This is a screenplay that works because of the exquisitely authentic and nuanced performances odf Paula Beer and Barbara Auer. All four actors have worked with Petzold before, and Beer is his current muse. In his previous film, Afire, three of them play starkly different roles: Trebs as a self-loathing intellectual brat, Brandt as his gregarious but very frank publisher and Beer is the playful sexpot who has been double-booked at his vacation rental.
The movie shares its European title, Miroires No. 3, with a Ravel piece for piano that is played in the film.
Mirrors No. 3 may not reach the heights of Petzold’s Phoenix or Afire, but it’s one of the best films of 2026 so far. Mirrors No. 3 is streaming on Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube and Fandango.
Photo caption: Andrew Scott (center foreground) in PRESSURE. Courtesy of Focus Features.
This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of the engrossing study of high-stakes decision-making Pressure and the delightful dramedy Power Ballad. I also previewed the 50th Frameline film festival, which open in a week or so.
This week I watched Marty, Life Is Short on Netflix and found it engaging. Although it’s feature length and directed by noted documentarian Morgan Neville, I’m not publishing a separate review because it’s more of a celebrity profile than a biodoc. Martin Short is a genius of sketch comedy, and his upbringing, personal attitude and career path are interesting, with the strongest element being his longtime marriage. We get to see his iconic Jiminy Glick and Ed Grimley characters and Short hosting family get-togethers with his best friends Eugene Levy and Steve Martin. Again, it’s a good watch.
CURRENT MOVIES
Pressure: engrossing study of high-stakes decision-making
Power Ballad: what (and who) makes a ht song? In theaters.
The superb historical drama Pressure is a study in high-stakes decision-making. Few human endeavors had higher stakes than the Allied invasion of Europe, upon which hinged millions of lives, the liberation of formerly free nations, and the defeat of the fascist and racist Nazi regime (whose worst crimes were yet to be publicized). And, after all the planning and investment in resources, the success of that invasion came down to secrecy and a weather report, made by human beings.
History’s most massive amphibious invasion would be logistically difficult and cost many lives, no matter how well things went. But it would certainly generate horrendous casualties and possibly even fail, if the Allies lost the element of surprise. The allies had gone to extraordinary lengths to mislead the Germans about the location of the D-Day landings. This spiderweb of secrecy, deception and misdirection couldn’t be maintained forever, and the clock was ticking.
While the Allies needed to launch D-Day as soon as possible, they also needed to wait for the right conditions. The landing required high tides and low-enough waves for landing craft, a moon-lit night for the airborne forces, along with good visibility and a high ceiling for air support. Missing the window for the moon and tides, would mean a two-week delay – with the threat of the secrecy unraveling.
Brandon Fraser in PRESSURE. Courtesy of Focus Features.
One man held the responsibility for the critical decision of when to deploy – General Dwight D, Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser). Eisenhower’s decision would pivot on the weather forecast by the British meteorologist British Captain James Stagg (Andrew Scott). Pressure is the harrowing moment-by-moment story of the crushing weight of this decision.
This is a true story, and Pressure is remarkably historically accurate. Some details are streamlined, but the truth of what happened is maintained. I fact-checked the two elements in the story that I wasn’t familiar with, and they turned out to be factual. As is the case with the best history, the historical events are humanized.
Director Anthony Maras co-wrote the screenplay with David Haig, based on Haig’s play. In his second feature, director Maras distills a complex story and maintains a blistering pace – only one-hour-and-forty minutes.
Brendan Fraser accurately captures the cauldron that Ike operates in, always burdened by the most immense responsibility, while being sniped at and undermined by rivals. Fraser’s Ike maintains control – and the appearance of control – while constantly second- and third-guessing himself.
Andrew Scott in PRESSURE. Courtesy of Focus Features.
Likewise, Andrew Scott is excellent as the apparently humorless Stagg, who kept his eye on the science despite overwhelming pressure to come ip with a more desirable answer. There were no weather satellites in 1944, and Stagg had to get a handle on the future volatile weather by manually tracking real-time reports from various weather stations in the North Atlantic. Scientists like Stagg don;t give final reports with 100% certainty, and Eisenhower had to act decisively despite that. (I had the experience of helping to make important public health decisions during the COVID pandemic; political and military leaders are comfortable making decisions based on, say, 75% certainty, while doctors and scientists often refuse to be definitive unless they have 100% proof.)
Despite overwhelming pressure to do otherwise, Stagg had the balls to stand firm with his scientifically-informed forecast, no matter how unpopular. (I related to Stagg, having, many times in my own real-life career, told very powerful people what they did not want to hear, even in the presence of pandering sycophants.)
Kerry Condon is excellent as Kay Summersby, Ike’s driver and personal assistant, and essentially his work wife. Condon just keeps showing up in movies with yet another distinctive performance (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Ray Donovan, Better Call Saul, The Banshees of Inisherin, Train Dreams). This time she brings a historical character to life, and, once again, she’s one of the best elements of a movie.
Similarly, Damian Lewis nails the supreme confidence and insufferable narcissism of Field Marshal Bernard “Monty” Montgomery. Montgomery was incapable of being a team player, and his arrogance and disloyalty is depicted here.
I saw Pressure with The Wife, who is generally not a fan of war movies, and she was absorbed in impressed by the film. Pressure is now in theaters.
Photo caption: Nick Jonas and Paul Rudd in POWER BALLAD. Courtesy of Lionsgate
In the delightful Irish dramedy Power Ballad, the small-time wedding singer Rick (Paul Rudd) finds himself in an all-night jam with a no-longer-popular boy band star Danny (Nick Jonas). Weeks later, Danny revives his career with a monster hit. Did he steal the song from the Rick? And, if so, what can Rick do about it?
Power Ballad is the latest from John Carney, writer-director of Once, Sing Street and Flora and Son. Those three Feel Good movies all feature penniless Dubliners who discover themselves by harnessing their songwriting talents. Power Ballad includes those elements, but, here, Carney’s exploration of the creative process is more nuanced.
Sure, the core of the song is inspired by Rick’s most heartfelt reflections. But, Carney lets us see that it takes more than melody and lyrics to make a hit; Danny has the charisma and sense of performance that Rick doesn’t, along with the drive, discipline and appetite for grueling hard work that Rick can’t quite harness. And, having tasted the big-time success that Rick can only vaguely imagine, Danny is more desperate.
Carney avoids the potential cornball endings, and lands Power Ballad with an ingeniously satisfying resolution.
The original song in question, How to Write a Song (Without You), composed by Carney and his longtime collaborator Gary Clark, is very good and is plausible as a future jukebox classic. The performances of the real Billboard hits covered by Rick’s wedding band are very, very fun.
Paul Rudd, always so relatable, is very good as an American rocker who stepped off the fast track when he fell for an Irish girl on tour, and scrapes by modestly as a transplant in Dublin. He’s deeply in love with his wife and teenage daughter, who tolerate his very non-rock star Dad behaviors.
I was very impressed with Nick Jonas’ performance as Danny. Although he has 99 screen credits, they’ve almost all been Jonas Brothers videos, TV sitcoms and content in the Night at the Museum and Camp Rock franchises. Although he appeared in the shallow and clumsy (not Nick’s fault) 2019 version of Midway, he hasn’t played many complex adult characters. Although you might not think it a stretch for him to play a former boy bander, Jonas shows Danny to be surprisingly complicated, in the throes of his own identity crisis, an often weak man propelling himself forward with an ill-fitting, needy ambition.
I saw Power Ballad at the closing night of the SLO Film Fest, where it was very well-received. It also played at the SFFILM Festival. It opens in theaters this weekend, and it’s an audience-pleaser.
Photo caption: Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson in TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA. Courtesy of Frameline and Mubi.
Frameline, the oldest and longest-running LGBTQ+ film festival in the world, celebrates its FIFTIETH annual festival, beginning June 17 and running through June 27. Frameline50 brings us festival award-winners from Cannes to the Berlinale, with over 140 films from 35 countries.
This year, the festival returns after several years to San Francisco’s Castro Theatre for its biggest night. Other venues in San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland include the Roxie Theater, the Vogue Theatre, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), and The New Parkway Theater.
I’m guessing that the hottest ticket will be for the fest’s closing night film: Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, the latest from writer-director Jane Schoenbrun, following up their breakthrough hitI Saw the TV Glow. Highly acclaimed at its Cannes premiere last month, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is an affectionate homage to slasher filmmaking driven by queer sexual obsession, starring Emmy-winners Gillian Anderson (The X-Files) and Hannah Einbinder (Hacks). Schoenbrun and Einbinder will appear in person at the screening.
Other festival highlights will include:
Opening Night with D’Arcy Drollinger’sLady Champagne, the Festival Centerpiece –Byrdie O’Connor’sBarbara Forever, and the Pride Kickoff Film, Jennifer M. Kroot’s Hunky Jesus, .
The newest sex comedy from pioneering queer filmmaker Gregg Araki (Mysterious Skin), I Want Your Sex, starring Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman (Licorice Pizza).
Actor Colman Domingo will attend in person to receive an award.
As befitting a silver anniversary, Frameline50 will look back on films from its past half-century of programming: Bound, All Over the Guy, Desert Hearts, Cruising,Still Black: A Portrait of Black Transmen,Paris Is Burning (now celebrating its 35th anniversary),Caravaggio, and thenewly restored Macho Dancer.
Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon in BOUND. Courtesy of Frameline.
As in my Frameline coverage last year, I’ll be focusing on international cinema, especially directorial debuts. The Frameline programmers have a gift for finding the promising first films of new directors, such as last year’s Diciannove. In this year’s program, I’ve already focused on some promising films from South Africa, Tunisia, Brazil, Norway and French-speaking Canada. Just before the fest opens, I’ll be coming back with specific recommendations.
You can peruse the program and get passes and tickets at Frameline. Here’s the festival trailer.
Omaha: in the best interest of the children. In theaters.
Two Pianos: he doesn’t know what he should want, but the women do. In theaters.
The Drama: the darkest romantic comedy that I’ve ever seen. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
Is This Thing On? uncoiling the bewilderment of a break-up. Hulu (included,) Amazon, AppleTV.
Heads or Tails?: a spaghetti western goes off the rails. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
A Private Life: a shrink and her own issues. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
A Great Awakening: good religion and bad history. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube, Fandango.
Magellan: slower than the slowest slow boat. Criterion.
ON TV
Jack “Dragnet” Webb and Peggy Lee in PETE KELLY’S BLUES
On June 4, TCM brings us something COMPLETELY different, the 1955 Pete Kelly’s Blues, directed by and starring Jack Webb, who we all know from TV’s Dragnet. Made at the downturn of the Big Band Era, Pete Kelly’s Blues is set at during Prohibition in the infancy of Big Bands.
It’s a fairly routine drama about a small time bandleader on the outs with a dangerous crime boss, but Jack Webb loved jazz and worked hard to get the music in the movie right, resulting in quite the period document. Peggy Lee received a Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for portraying an alcoholic vocalist. There’s an unforgettable cameo performance by Ella Fitzgerald at the top of her game. The house band includes many real-life musicians who played with Benny Goodman, Bing Crosby and the like, including Matty Matlock, Eddie Miller and Jud De Naut.
Webb, who played characters with some goofiness in Sunset Boulevard and He Walked By Night is only okay here, but the rest of the cast is excellent: Janet Leigh, Edmond O’Brien, Lee Marvin, Andy Devine, Jayne Mansfield and Harry Morgan. Not a great flick, but worth a look for the music.
Photo caption: Micaela Coel and Ian McKellan in THE CHRISTOPHERS. Courtesy of NEON.
Steven Soderbergh’s dramedyThe Christophers deploys two fine British actors and the twistiest of plots to produce 100 minutes of watchable entertainment that is, ultimately, disposable.
Ian McKellan plays Julian, a famous British painter, the kind whose paintings sell for millions. Julian hasn’t produced great art for decades, and he holes up in his London apartment/studio with mementos of his fame amid the junk. He has a fatal illness that has limited his future to a few months at most. He also has two adult children who hate him for being a terrible father, and he despises them, too.
His kids, played hilariously by Jessica Gunning and James Corden, may be justifiably estranged, but they are incredibly despicable people determined to profit in Julian’s death. They know that Julian has locked away a series of unfinished paintings; if they can get a skilled art forger to finish them without Julian’s knowledge, they can “discover” them upon his demise and reap untold fortunes.
Now, the other great British actor arrives, Micaela Coel, who plays Lori, a talented painter who has abandoned her art career, but who is capable of the forgery. And she has a longtime personal grudge against Julian. The conspirators scheme to get Lori hired as Julian’s assistant giving her access to the unfinished art works.
Lori and Julian, so mismatched in age, gender, race and disposition, begin what soon evolves into a match of wits. Lori’s perceptions of Julian and his kids vacillate, and the plot morphs into one double-cross, then another, all the way to the neatly resolved ending. It’s all very clever.
The Christophers is the work of director Steven Soderbergh, who broke through in 1989 with the stunningly original Sex, Lies & Videotape and won the directing Oscar for Traffic, then was nominated for Erin Brockavich. He’s no longer choosing to make big movies like Traffic or Brockavich anymore, but his newer work is almost entertaining, like the goofy hillbilly heist Logan Lucky and the underrated thriller Kimi. I appreciate that Soderbergh has no pretensions – he is now just seeking to entertain, and that’s OK, because he does it so well.
You won’t be thinking about The Chrstophers afterward, but you’ll probably have fun watching it. The Christophers is streaming on Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube and Fandango.
