movies – Rating Frames

Mortal Kombat II is Rollicking Popcorn Cinema 101

May 7, 2026May 6, 2026Arnel Duracak

Mortal Kombat II preview screening provided by Universal Pictures

Delivering the batters and the blows, Mortal Kombat II is an unhinged follow-up to the 2021 hit, Mortal Kombat. There’s combat, sometimes it’s mortal, but more often than not it’s downright bloody and brutal, and it makes you wonder where the last two hours at the cinema went. That’s usually a good sign as Simon McQuoid’s film wastes no time throwing you into the action and giving you exactly what the poster spells out.

Earth’s mightiest heroes are tasked with once again defending Earth from an external threat —I know, that sounds a lot like another franchise about superpowered butt kickers— but this time around they face a new threat: Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford). It’s in Johnny Cage (a brilliantly cast Karl Urban riding his success from hit TV show The Boys), the unlikeliest of heroes, that salvation for Earth might be found. Teased at the end of Mortal Kombat, this out-of-work former action star has been chosen by the gods as one of Earth’s saviours, much to his own surprise. Encouraged by the existing heroes like Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano), Liu Kang (Ludi Lin), Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) and others, he will form a crucial part in stopping Shao Khan from taking over Earth as its ruler.

That’s really the crux of the premise. There’s a secret amulet thrown in for good measure that grants immortality to its wearer, and Josh Lawson’s Kano is resurrected to help locate it (it turns out it wasn’t that far away, in his pocket), but beyond that the film is a pure action showcase with cheesy one liners, decently choreographed action sequences, and just everything a fan of Mortal Kombat might want in a film about Mortal Kombat.

(L-R) Max Huang as “Kung Lao”, and Ludi Lin as “Liu Kang” in New Line Cinema’s “Mortal Kombat 2,”

When it comes to the standouts, Lawson brings his signature larrikin humour with quirky observations and pop culture references aplenty (from Dumbledore to Voldemort, there’s no shortage). It brings added respite to the action which, while the CGI isn’t groundbreaking (look out for Karl Urban falling down some rocks in Hell and you’ll know what I mean), delivers all the pows and whacks that you’d expect. Speaking of Urban, he is charismatic and slick as Johnny Cage and really nails the brief of a has-been-actor turned real-life-buttkicker.

The same can’t be said for the remainder of the cast. The supporting performances feel quite stale and jaded in comparison to these two, which is owed to their one-dimensional writing (it’s like if the actors from The Bold and the Beautiful suddenly stumbled onto a real movie set). At the end of the day, great storytelling isn’t what one signs up for when going into a Mortal Kombat film; the stakes are as simple as: fight to survive. But it’s ultimately a shortcoming in the script that you can’t ignore and that leaves you really just hoping the supporting characters talk less and fight more.

With superhero movies having had their heyday and running a bit out of steam for the moment, it’s telling that video game adaptations are as popular as ever. Between the Mortal Kombat and Sonic franchise of films, A24 is producing a live action Elden Ring movie helmed by Alex Garland, The Legend of Zelda is being shot in New Zealand, and Street Fighter (2026) is around the corner. While Paul W. S. Anderson’s Mortal Kombat (1995) will always hold a special place in my heart, Mortal Kombat II finds its strengths in not reinventing the wheel too much, but in letting its mayhem wash over you for a few hours while you chow down on your popcorn and coke (maybe with some Jack), and sometimes that’s all you really need.

Mortal Kombat II opens nationally from today.

The Sheep Detectives is a Breezy, Light-Hearted Murder Mystery

May 6, 2026May 6, 2026Arnel Duracak

The Sheep Detectives preview screening provided by Sony Pictures

While the film to beat for ‘most wholesome of 2026’ is still firmly Project Hail Mary, Kyle Balda’s The Sheep Detectives is a strong contender for second place. This Agatha Christie esque small-town-whodunnit is as full of charm and wit as one can expect from the man behind the equally charming and witty Minions films, delivering a clever little murder mystery that may well have Kenneth Branagh quaking in his boots.

Adapted from Leonie Swann’s bestseller Three Bags Full, screenwriter Craig Mazin (known for wordsmithing the less colourful worlds of shows like Chernobyl and The Last of Us) blends goofy humour with a solid head scratcher. He trades bleak wastelands for the lush green backdrop of a small country town in the UK, the fictional Denbrook, and captures the uniquely English aura that is commonplace for this genre of filmmaking.

Adding to the English aura are Emma Thompson and the voices of Sir Patrick Stewart and Brett Goldstein in an ensemble that is otherwise anything but English. The prime time name brought to put bums in seats is Australian icon Hugh Jackman as the swoony shepherd George Hardy draped in rugged farming attire, reminiscent of his look in Australia (2008). He tends to his flock, reads them bedtime mystery stories and gives them a self-made blue medicine to treat Orf. In other words, he’s the antithesis of some of his neighbouring Denbrook residents, like fellow rival shepherd Caleb (Tosin Cole) and local butcher Ham Gilyard (Conleth Hill). His presence is short-lived, however, as he is murdered late at night outside his trailer home leading a murder mystery to rock an otherwise quiet town.

Nicholas Braun stars as Officer Tim Derry and Molly Gordon as Rebecca Hampstead in The Sheep Detectives

Local police officer Tim Derry (a hilarious Nicholas Braun with a terrible English accent), the town’s only police officer, realises he’s got some work to do. But unbeknownst to him (and George Hardy before him), someone is already on the case: the sheep themselves. While photorealistic talking animals might not be the most embraced development in CGI in recent times due to their often expressionless designs —see Jon Favreau’s The Lion King (2019) or Barry Jenkins’ Mufasa: The Lion King (2024)— Balda has found a nice balance in how he incorporates them alongside the wider humans involved in the mystery. In other words, there is a genuine care with how much and how little to use the sheep.

Much of that care is owed to the voices behind the CGI flock. Julia Louis-Dreyfus voices the lead sheep, Lily, with an assortment of stars like the aformentioned Patrick Stewart and Brett Goldstein joined by Bryan Cranston, Chris O’Dowd, Regina Hall, Bella Ramsey and Rhys Darby. Each voice actor imbues their respective sheep with enough charisma to not leave any line or gag feeling flat. On the flipside are the humans, with Molly Gordon playing Rebecca Hampstead, upcoming He-Man Nicholas Galitzine playing Elliot Matthews, and Hong Chau playing Beth Pennock. It’s a well rounded ensemble that delivers Mazin’s script with flair and wit.

While the actual murder mystery part isn’t all that difficult to figure out before the end, Balda has done well at giving adults and children alike a modern Babe (1995). That might be as glowing a comparison as one can hope to receive for this sort of hearty comedy. The only real grievance one might find is that the deeper portions of the movie might be a tad too deep for children to grasp and a tad too obvious for adults to not eye roll at unless you’re vegan (like the reality check of ‘Meet Your Meat’). But this is a minor hiccup in an otherwise heartfelt, mellow and wholesome murder mystery that doesn’t overcomplicate its murder and mystery (meaning you may well end up feeling smarter than the sheep before the end) and does offer a breezy time at the cinema.

The Sheep Detectives opens nationally from 7 May.

The Drama Gives you Another Reason to Rethink Marriage

April 5, 2026April 7, 2026Arnel Duracak

Just how impressionable are first impressions and can they be the reason one might overlook the worst thing a person has done a few days before they’re due to marry? While one might respond with a resolute ‘yes’ if the person in question is Zendaya, Kristoffer Borgli’s The Drama (2026) dares to push that idea to its limit, milking it out until all parties involved are beat up and broken or ready to call it quits.

That first impression comes when Charlie (Robert Pattinson) lays eyes on Emma (Zendaya) in a cosy coffee shop reading a book where, after snapping a photo of the book she is reading to give himself an opening, musters up the courage to do his best cute rom-com cold approach. Funnily, she misses half of what he’s said and awkwardly catches him mid “I’m not hitting on you” after taking one earbud out and confiding she is deaf in her other ear. They just as awkwardly laugh, she encourages him to have a do-over, and just like that, Borgli has you hooked to what you think has the makings of an endearing love story.

For what it’s worth, endearing is how The Drama unfolds, as Charlie and Emma get closer and eventually begin dating, and just as quickly find themselves a week out from getting married. Of course, like with any rom-com, the central couple is expected to endure its hurdles, but during a late night of menu tasting and drinking with their two friends, Rachel (Alana Haim) and Mike (Mamoudou Athie), where they play a game of “what is the worst thing you have ever done”, Emma casts a shadow over her love struck fiance and burns some bridges with her friends. Her confession/answer is that disarming that her feelings toward revealing it are plastered all over her face as the camera lingers over her, giving you the impression that it was going to be Charlie’s confession that would speak to the film’s title, not hers.

Robert Pattinson and Zendaya in *The Drama* (2026)

The haymaker with which Emma hits her fiance sends the film into a spiral that asks whether love can truly overcome anything, and while the answer is generally “well, like, if you’ve done X or X or X, then hell no”, Borgli’s film is ready to sell you on the opposite. That’s namely because Zendaya is so damn likeable here that, along with a some flashbacks that are peppered throughout for empathy and context, it’s quite easy to believe that Charlie would overlook just about anything for her. What no doubt stumps him is the impression that others (his close friends) now have of Emma, and whether he can reconcile his feelings towards her with the weight that this revelation carries for his own life. There’s a wider commentary on how this revelation is a tendency that no doubt exists in many people, but it’s not that convincing nor does it feel like it’s supposed to be.

As amusing as it is to watch this idea be used to throw a spanner in the works for a couple that is enamored with one another, much is left to be desired when it comes to Emma’s confession, with the flashbacks doing a really janky job that simply show a troubled young teenager and not much of substance beyond. That said, where the film mines its humour (and gets you the ‘com’ in the edgy ‘rom’) is in Charlie’s increasing anxiety as he threatens to derail the wedding and his own sanity to the point where there’s a hilarious moment of him getting spooked by Emma who is holding a kitchen knife asking if he’s ok. Much of the second half of the film is really about whether Charlie will overcome Emma’s confession as he struggles to take practice wedding photos with her and even finds himself breaking down at work, with the events that ensue coming to bite him back in the film’s final act.

The Drama is a tumultuous ride, one that might have you feeling like you’re laughing at the wrong time (I love dark humour so I couldn’t care less). That said, those who were expecting the first of the year’s 3 Patt-daya (just go with it) films to be a cute film about the turmoils of first love like Materialists (2025) or recoverable problems in the lead up to a wedding like Wedding Crashers (2005), will be utterly flabbergasted, but at least you’ll be left with the only right question to ask before you put a ring on that finger.

The Drama is in theatres now.

The President’s Cake is a Vital Watch

April 3, 2026Darcy Read

In 1990, Iraq faced strict UN-backed sanctions, which led to extreme poverty and shortages of food and medicine. Despite this, Saddam Hussein required all Iraqis to celebrate his birthday. Set two days before the president’s birthday, either during or on the verge of the Gulf War, The President’s Cake (2025) follows nine-year-old schoolgirl Lamia (Baneen Ahmad Nayyef), who is anxious about being selected for the terrible honour of baking a cake for the day.

Filmmaker Hasan Hadi contracts a world from Lamia’s perspective outward through childlike framing and camera movements, grounding us in the surreal circumstance she finds herself in on the morning of the draw to decide who will have to bake the cake. The scene is an entire film in a bottle. We see Saeed (Sajad Mohamad Qasem), Lamia’s close friend, has to write his name five times to be placed in the draw as punishment for his lateness to class. A boy reminds the teacher that his father fixed his bicycle, and his name is not written down for the draw. When Lamia is called to draw the cake, an ultimate punishment, we collapse on her face, slammed with despair, but not broken. She learnt this from her grandmother Bibi (Waheed Thabet Khreibat).

Without parents and raised on the outskirts of the city by her frail but spirited grandmother Bibi, Lamia must scrape and scrounge to acquire the funds to obtain the basic ingredients needed for the cake, which, if she doesn’t present it on the day, will be punished by being dragged through the street and possibly killed.

Baneen Ahmad Nayyef as Lamia in *The President’s Cake.*

The film is littered with pensively powerful moments, like Bibi giving Lamia a shopping list for the cake while sorting through personal family items they will have to sell to acquire the ingredients. The crippling weight of political forces bears down on each individual we see. The dictatorship and UN-backed sanctions are visibly fraying the knot of community in this Iraqi village and city.

Once the film separates Bibi and Lamia on their trip to the city to collect ingredients in several heartbreaking sequences, the story blooms. Lamia is driven to acquire the ingredients and persevere, while Bibi is trying to give her granddaughter a better life as she grapples with the limitations of herself as her guardian. As the film is primarily focused on a child’s perspective of the world in a state of turmoil, this bifurcated narrative is purposely unbalanced, which can lose some audience members while engrossing others.

We see the crippling rule of dictatorship through a child’s eye and how that perspective ripples through others. As Lamia and her friend Saeed encounter various strangers on their journey for eggs, flour, and sugar, we see the callousness the regime has instilled in people, where even the sharing of small kindnesses seems impossible.

(From left) Sajad Mohamad Qasem and Baneen Ahmad Nayyef as Saeed and Lamia in *The President’s Cake.*

Baneen Ahmad Nayyef as Lamia is one of the best child performances in years. She carries with her a pathos that never derails her fierce determination to succeed despite her situation, making her a vital screen presence in a film that too easily could’ve sunk under the weight of its circumstances.

What also allows the film to float above the muck is the gorgeous work of cinematography by Tudor Vladimir Panduru. The President’s Cake maintains a propulsive energy, never luxuriating in the search for that one perfect shot that derails all too many films.

A film about the futility of a stable life under a cripplingly arrogant dictatorship, Hadi savvily avoids the potholes of despair with a gliding approach from scene to scene, focusing on the childlike goals at hand that ground the story in the familiar despite the circumstances. Too often, films of this nature root themselves too heavily in the past and its specifics, which feel bound by their circumstances, allowing the audience to separate their lives from the ones we see on screen. That is not the case here, and it is all the more powerful for it.

A vital and poignant film that collides with the madness of oppression with a child’s resilience, Hadi’s film is indebted to classic Iranian filmmakers like Jafar Panahi and Abbas Kiarostami while still matching contemporary urgency with a reflective look at the past. As the children move through the city ravaged by poverty through recent sanctions, all in a desperate search for money and supplies to get through the president’s birthday, we reflect on each passing individual and how they are forced to look out for themselves instead of these desperate children.

The President’s Cake is in select theatres now.

Dance For Your Life Brings the Docuseries to the Big Screen

March 29, 2026Darcy Read

The audition of a lifetime. 100 dancers, 1 contract. An expansion of the television docuseries Dance Life (2024), the documentary feature Dance For Your Life (2026) is an intimate look into the world of modern professional dance through two dance companies: Sydney’s Brent Street and London’s Shapehaus led by revered choreographer Dean Lee. 100 dancers will have the opportunity to prove they have what it takes to obtain the single contract up for grabs in the notorious London company.

The question Dance For Your Life asks across its 100-minute runtime boils down to whether this is an extended TV episode or a work of cinema. While starting on rocky footing with an extended first act in Sydney, the film blooms into a wonderful work of resilience and passion once the group of ten finalists arrive in London, which benefits from the space given by the feature-length runtime. All great works of documentary in this vein ultimately require compelling characters, something Dance For Your Life takes its time cultivating beyond simple introductions during the trial stage in Brent Street. Once we begin to see the Australian dancers interact and learn from Lee, the world begins to open up, and we see what these young artists are capable of achieving.

Spending the first 45 minutes locked in Sydney was crucial to establishing the world and stakes of the film before the lucky ten arrived in London. We are introduced to many impressive dancers, with the knowledge that only a few will make it to the final performance at the end of the film, so it is only once the final ten are selected that the audience can settle into which individuals to give emotional weight to.

Dance For Your Life sends ten Sydney dance students to London for the shot at a single professional contract. — Dean Lee (centre) and Brent Street dancers in *Dance For Your Life* (2026). Screener courtesy of Mushroom Group

What director Luke Cornish and cinematographer Geoff Blee understand about filming dance is the potency of a locked-off wide shot, allowing the dancers to power the scene. Like most creative subject documentaries, the film thrives when we are given space to watch these incredible performers do what barely anyone else on the planet can do. Dance For Your Life is given more space to breathe and explore the works in London, working through Dean Lee’s choreography that will be the basis for the film’s final performance.

The tension between personal gain and camaraderie is at the heart of the film and allows the competitive engine to keep the audience invested in the story and these dancers. In a climate of economic uncertainty in live performing spaces at scale, the stakes feel impossibly high for these young people trying to survive in a creative industry seemingly set up for them to leave.

Dance as a ruthlessly athletic medium of artistic expression is unlike any other art form, but is potently absent from the competition element of the film. When we watch the ten in these wonderful rehearsal scenes, we are not viewing it as an artistic pursuit but as a fellow judge, picking up on minimal mistakes and alterations from the group. When this shift in viewership excels, it is in the lead sequence as Lee is deciding between Max and Connor, watching the piece back to back, noticing what each individual brings to the part. Expressing themselves within the framework in place is electric to watch, with the knowledge that ultimately only one will be selected.

Dance For Your Life has Dean Lee at its heart. It works more effectively as an exploration of modern professional dance and those who are excluded and marginalised from that space, rather than a competition that ultimately feels secondary to the journey the dancers go on at Shapehaus.

The final dance performance, which the entire film has been building towards, is a feat. The access for filming allowed the sequence to excel beyond a simple documentary or competition television film. The medium of dance allows for a litany of great cinematic moments when performed at the highest level, something Dance For Your Life achieves in this finale.

There is a wisdom to not linger in the final contract decision at the film’s conclusion for long, knowing the audience has seen the growth of these performers across the film as more important than this one opportunity. While only one lucky person received the contract, no one walked away empty-handed.

Dance For Your Life is in select theatres from April 2nd.

Project Hail Mary is a Charming, Wholesome Buddy-Up Space Adventure

March 16, 2026March 15, 2026Arnel Duracak

Project Hail Mary preview screening provided by Sony Pictures

If you’re like me and you’ve recently added Andy Weir’s hit novel, Project Hail Mary, to your Audible library, thinking that listening to it beforehand or reading the physical version might be the best way to first experience this story, well the 2026 screen adaptation might just quell those thoughts. That’s because directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have taken a screenplay by The Martian (2015) screenwriter, Drew Goddard, and imbued it with their signature warmth and whimsicality to the point where this might be the only version of this intellectual property that you’ll need (and want) to experience.

After all, a premise about a school-teacher-turned-world-saving-astronaut who befriends a rock alien in the depths of space (who also happens to be on a mission to save his planet), isn’t really a hard sell, especially when Ryan Gosling is involved (think of it as an appetiser for the upcoming Mandalorian and Grogu film). But beyond that, Lord and Miller have managed to make a 2.5 hour runtime feel breezy and unique, especially at a time where films that take place out beyond our world have tended to play to familiar story beats — I’m looking at you, Predator: Badlands (2025) and Alien: Romulus (2024).

Of course, without Gosling’s signature charm and dry wit, the bright tone of this film would not shine through nearly as much. He plays science teacher Ryland Grace (referred to as Grace throughout) who we meet while he’s waking from a coma in the depths of an outer-space mission. From here, Goddard’s screenplay oscillates between the past and the present, giving us insights into how our protagonist found himself light years away from Earth. It turns out mankind is on course to being wiped out as the sun is being cooled by what is known as the Petrova Line (a line of radiation between Venus and the Sun) that is comprised of sun-eating “astrophage” or an organism that is, for reasons I won’t spoil, cooling the sun. So, yeah, things aren’t looking too great for Earth dwellers.

Ryan Gosling stars as Ryland Grace and Sandra Hüller as Eva Stratt in *Project Hail Mary*

Cue Project Hail Mary, a secret mission that only the world’s top minds who have any familiarity with what’s at stake, are privy to. While much of his life is quite unexplored for the majority of the film (namely, why he’s without anyone significant in his life from family to friends), Grace ends up becoming central to the mission after being recruited by a secret government operative, Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller), with Lord and Miller finding a decent balance between showing you the events leading up to Grace’s being in space, and the being in space.

Grace’s mission is far from straightforward though as he is tasked with finding out why one particular planet some 11 years away is the only star in the solar system that isn’t being cooled by these infectious astrophage. Grace’s one saving grace (pun intended) is that he’s not the only one who has ventured out to this star, with a crab/spider shaped rock alien scientist (whom Grace fittingly names Rocky) also looking to see what’s coolin. It’s in their unusual connection that Lord and Miller’s film stops itself from becoming another by-the-books-Earth-saving-mission. For starters, Rocky is lovable and really grows on you to the point where you can’t help but buy into the idea of these two learning how to communicate with one another through some tinkering on a sophisticated translation software before becoming best buds.

Project Hail Mary brings to mind the great unlikely friendship films from history like E.T. (1982) and The Iron Giant (1999) and offers a wholesome, heart-tugging buddy-up adventure that leaves you feeling all warm and fuzzy by the end. If there’s any criticism that comes to mind it’s that sometimes less is more, especially in the film’s closing sequence which feels like it could have ended at about 3 different points, but beyond that, Goddard’s screenplay and Lord and Miller’s knack for creating thought provoking moments amidst the craze of a situation is second to none. Sure, the significance of what’s at stake (the extinction of mankind) takes a backseat at times to just let you enjoy being in the company of Grace and Rocky, but it’s really through their friendship and “every little thing is gonna be alright” energy that Project Hail Mary finds its groove.

Project Hail Mary opens nationally from Thursday 19 March.

98th Academy Awards: Predictions

March 15, 2026March 15, 2026ratingframesau

We may have waited a little longer than usual, but at last our favourite event of the year is finally upon us: Oscars Night at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre! And our three resident scribes are here once again to offer their tips as to who will be victorious in each of 24 categories — including the all-new prize for Best Casting.

Head below to see the titles that Arnel, Darcy and Tom are predicting will head home with a statuette at the 98th Academy Awards which, by the way, are happening from 10am on Monday, March 16th (Naarm time).

Best Picture

What will win // What deserves to win

Arnel: One Battle After Another // One Battle After Another

Darcy: One Battle After Another // One Battle After Another

Tom: Sinners // Sinners

Best Director

Arnel: Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle…) // Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle…)

Darcy: Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle…) // Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle…)

Tom: Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle…) // Ryan Coogler (Sinners)

Best Actor

Arnel: Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme) // Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle…)

Darcy: Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme) // Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent)

Tom: Michael B. Jordan (Sinners) // Michael B. Jordan

Best Actress

Arnel: Jessie Buckley (Hamnet) // Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You)

Darcy: Jessie Buckley (Hamnet) // Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value)

Tom: Jessie Buckley (Hamnet) // Emma Stone (Bugonia)

Jessie Buckley is a firm favourite to win Best Actress for her role as Agnes in *Hamnet*

Best Supporting Actor

Arnel: Sean Penn (One Battle…) // Sean Penn (One Battle…)

Darcy: Sean Penn (One Battle…) // Benicio Del Toro (One Battle…)

Tom: Sean Penn (One Battle…) // Delroy Lindo (Sinners)

Best Supporting Actress

Arnel: Amy Madigan (Weapons) // Teyana Taylor (One Battle…)

Darcy: Amy Madigan (Weapons) // Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas (Sentimental Value)

Tom: Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners) // Teyana Taylor (One Battle…)

Best Original Screenplay

Arnel: Sinners // Sinners

Darcy: Sinners // Sentimental Value

Tom: Sinners // Sinners

Best Adapted Screenplay

Arnel: One Battle After Another // One Battle…

Darcy: One Battle After Another // One Battle…

Tom: One Battle After Another // One Battle…

Best Animated Feature

Arnel: KPop Demon Hunters // Zootopia 2

Darcy: KPop Demon Hunters // KPop Demon Hunters

Tom: KPop Demon Hunters // KPop Demon Hunters

*KPop Demon Hunters* should get it Done, Done, Done in the Animated Feature category

Best International Feature

Arnel: Sentimental Value // It Was Just an Accident

Darcy: Sentimental Value // Sentimental Value

Tom: Sentimental Value // Sentimental Value

Best Documentary Feature

Arnel: The Perfect Neighbor

Darcy: The Perfect Neighbor // The Perfect Neighbor

Tom: The Perfect Neighbor

Best Documentary Short Subject

Arnel: All the Empty Rooms

Darcy: All the Empty Rooms // All the Empty Rooms

Tom: All the Empty Rooms

Best Live-Action Short

Arnel: Two People Exchanging Saliva

Darcy: Two People Exchanging Saliva // Two People Exchanging Saliva

Tom: The Singers

Best Animated Short

Arnel: Retirement Plan

Darcy: Butterfly // Butterfly

Tom: The Girl Who Cried Pearls

*Sinners* has the most nominations at this year’s Oscars

Best Original Score

Arnel: Ludwig Göransson (Sinners) // Sinners

Darcy: Sinners // Sinners

Tom: Ludwig Göransson (Sinners) // Sinners

Best Original Song

Arnel: “I Lied To You” (Sinners)

Darcy: “Golden” (KPop Demon Hunters) // “I Lied To You” (Sinners)

Tom: “Golden” (KPop Demon Hunters) // “Golden”

Best Sound

Arnel: F1 // One Battle…

Darcy: F1 // Sinners

Tom: F1 // F1

Best Production Design

Arnel: Frankenstein // Frankenstein

Darcy: Frankenstein // Marty Supreme

Tom: Frankenstein // Sinners

Best Cinematography

Arnel: One Battle After Another // One Battle…

Darcy: One Battle After Another // One Battle…

Tom: One Battle After Another // Sinners

*One Battle After Another* has multiple nominations this year, and is tipped to win more than once

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Arnel: Frankenstein // Frankenstein

Darcy: Frankenstein // Frankenstein

Tom: Frankenstein // Frankenstein

Best Costume Design

Arnel: Frankenstein // Frankenstein

Darcy: Frankenstein // Frankenstein

Tom: Frankenstein // Sinners

Best Film Editing

Arnel: One Battle After Another // One Battle…

Darcy: One Battle After Another // One Battle…

Tom: One Battle After Another // F1

Best Visual Effects

Arnel: Avatar: Fire and Ash // Avatar: Fire and Ash

Darcy: Avatar: Fire and Ash // Avatar: Fire and Ash

Tom: Avatar: Fire and Ash // Sinners

Best Casting

Arnel: Sinners // Sinners

Darcy: Sinners // The Secret Agent

Tom: Sinners // Marty Supreme

The Testament of Ann Lee is Revelatory

February 27, 2026Darcy Read

Melding powerful and emotive choreography with rhythmically propulsive music built out from recontextualised hymns, The Testament of Ann Lee (2025) is an intoxicating musical biopic like no other, creating a singular theatrical experience that will have you asking more from the genre. Centred on the fascinating movement of the Shakers, the 18th-century religious group known for their ecstatic dancing, Mona Fastvold’s exploration into humanity, ambition, and religion in a moment of turmoil and potential is an unexpected revelation in cinema this year.

The film operates as a probing look into personal religion and how it can be expanded into a community, with Fastvold exploding the potential of the story into a wild and emotive musical that feels grounded in the power of the Shaker movement through its choreography and music. At the heart of it all is the titular Ann Lee, the rare female religious leader whose story is easily worth an emotive and expressionistic biopic starring one of the industry’s best actors in Amanda Seyfried. Spurred by unimaginable grief and some notable, potentially queer subtext, Ann is devoted to becoming a prophet of the Shakers she has found herself the leader of, seeing the act of celibacy as a key tenet of driving away sin, even as the movement is built on the overwhelming sense of religious community born out of dance and bodily movement.

Ann’s decision to shift the movement towards celibacy can only be accepted for so long by the large community in Manchester, as well as her husband, Abraham (Christopher Abbott), a simple man who will walk with her to the edge of his faith, but not beyond his human desires. Staying by Ann’s side through it all is her brother William (Lewis Pullman) and close friend Mary (Thomasin McKenzie), who also serves as the film’s narrator in one of the best uses of lengthy expositional narration in years.

Stacy Martin and Amanda Seyfried in *The Testament of Ann Lee* (2025).

Remixed from Shaker hymns, composer Daniel Blumberg follows up award-winning work on Fastvold’s previous film, The Brutalist (2024), with a starkly different collection of music, combining beautifully with the ensemble’s choreography that always stays within the realm of absurd realism that the Shakers are known for. Seyfried allows the melodies to transcend the screen, using the repetitions of the hymns as a hypnotic bedrock to build out some exalted musical numbers.

Working previously as a co-writer on her partner Brady Corbet’s standout film The Brutalist, Fastvold’s film works as a fascinating companion piece of equal quality. Both Ann Lee and The Brutalist are fixated on ambitious figures that see potential in the pursuit of America, believing themselves to be called to a higher purpose in some form, with the faith that this purpose will shield them from the dangers that lie ahead. While Corbet’s film echoes its protagonist’s mode of deliberate architecture (as its namesake) to tell its wider story of faith, religion, and pursuit, Fastvold’s film moves with the grace of fresh silk and dance.

The Testament of Ann Lee transcends the bounds of its screen when the small group manage to obtain passage by boat to New York, with an extraordinary piece of montage, choreography and music as good as any you’ll find this decade. Fastvold’s exploration of the newly American striver through the unique lens of an upstart religious sect in England, stymied by the lack of progressive thinking at home, is swept up in the power of the musical genre at its best, with Seyfried commanding the helm with a mixture of mania and overwhelming grace.

Amanda Seyfried and Lewis Pullman in *The Testament of Ann Lee* (2025).

She contends with this part of the film in a complex understanding of many sides to the Shaker history of driven American conquest. The group see America as untoiled land, perhaps more accepting of a female preacher and of their unconventional worship practices. As they arrive in New York, however, they are almost immediately confronted by a slave auction, which Ann sees as barbaric sin; she is here to cleanse in her mission to expand the movement.

A story of finding divine ambition in community and connection, Ann Lee feels powerfully tied to many period-set ‘Great Men’ films like There Will Be Blood (2007), but shown through a woman’s lens. With a pivotal montage of the Shakers building their housing and village, we see Ann less as a wise prophet and that of project manager and architect, reflecting many scenes in The Brutalist, bathed in hopeful sunlight and warm wooden surroundings. Rarely have we seen such a powerful set of companion stories, especially ones filmed so similarly and with equal ambition.

But this is not just a film of personal ambition built on grief and personal turmoil; it is crucially a film driven by ideas of faith and religion. This may steer off many an agnostic cinemagoer in ways Fastvold and Corbet’s previous film didn’t (although that film is as Jewish in nature as this film is Christian); to open your heart to the story is no different than the task given to an audience in many films.

As difficult a proposition as this film is for audiences, the lack of Academy recognition Fastvold and her collaborators received this awards season is surprising. It is especially difficult to reckon with as The Testament of Ann Lee is a more intelligently woven story of ambition and grief than the walloping Hamnet (2025), which received eight nominations. For those crying out for individual voices still striving to work with Hollywood studios, you simply have to witness this fascinating and engrossing film from a truly singular voice.

The Testament of Ann Lee is in select theatres now.

Blue Moon: A Character Study that takes a While to Find its Grove

January 27, 2026January 28, 2026Arnel Duracak

Blue Moon preview screening provided by Sony Pictures

There’s a lot of talking in Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon, a film focused around a single evening in a single location that has been described as something akin to a theatre experience on screen. It’s fitting that in such a film there is a lot of talking since, if the film’s title hasn’t given it away, it revolves around Blue Moon creator Lorenz Hart (played enigmatically here by Ethan Hawke), a serial conversationalist (often to his own detriment) as he works to convince himself and those around him that he’s holding it together while his past collaborator, Richard Rogers (Andrew Scott) and his new lyricist Oscar Hammerstein (Simon Delaney), are heaped with praise following the successful opening of their Oklahoma! musical.

Setting a film entirely around the bar and lobby of a hotel while subjecting the audience to one man’s incessant talking is no easy feat, but audiences familiar with Linklater’s work (especially those that are diehard fans), will lap this approach up. For starters, Ethan Hawke does a fantastic job of carrying the weight of the film, no matter how small he is framed by Linklater (Hart was 5 feet tall; Hawke, by comparison, is 5″10). For such a small individual, Hart’s voice echoes the farthest here, with Hawke capturing his larger-than-life persona tremendously, and he’s deservedly received an Oscar nomination for it.

The film starts off rather shaky though, showing Hart on the evening of his death in a back alley, a major fall from grace for someone who was so revered, before jumping back some months to that opening night of Oklahoma! and the mingling that ensued post-show. Sure, this shows the stark difference between a man who had countless people adore him and the man who would die alone, but just as soon as this opening pops up, it’s just as quickly gone from the mind. The shakiness continues though as side characters are established like Eddie the bartender (Bobby Cannavale) and E.B. White (Patrick Kennedy), but like in any function you may have ever been to where small talk happens, they serve merely to keep you entertained until the real guests you want to speak to arrive.

(L-R) David Rawle as George Roy Hill, Margaret Qualley as Elizabeth Weiland and Ethan Hawke as Lorenz Hart in *Blue Moon*.

One such guest is Elizabeth Weiland (Margaret Qualley), a young 20 year old college student who Hart has been selling those side characters the narrative that he has something deeper and more meaningful going on with her. In truth, she views him as just a really good friend, someone who she loves but “just not in that way,” a line that comes at a crucial moment in the film, contextualising Hart’s erratic, borderline needy behaviour. The other guest is the star of the show, Richard Rogers, someone we (or those, like myself, who are not familiar with theatre at all) learn Hart created some legendary plays with. Their relationship holds strong, and while we learn it’s had testing moments (alcoholism from Hart’s side playing into that), their dynamic is by far the most interesting given their history and the insights that it gives into why Linklater chose this night of all nights to focus on.

On the surface, Linklater frames Hart as a man who craves attention, both intentionally and unintentionally because his disposition permits he does so. As the film unfolds, his flaws creep up, including his insecurities and desire to not fade in the background given he has become so used to being the centre of attention. It takes a good 70 minutes to get to that part though as Hart becomes almost smaller by the frame, especially after paying to have some alone time with Elizabeth in a cloak room where he shows interest in her sexual escapades, like some voyeur who gets off on the idea of another person’s pleasure. You begin to pity him more than anything, with Hawke really showing the fragility of the man when he’s not in an open space around others — a place where he uses his talking as a shield to maintain this facade of composure that he’s built.

Blue Moon knows what audience it’s for, so if you’re unfamiliar with theatre like I am, the humour and references will more than likely fly over your head and make it difficult to engage with or care for these people and their line of work. That said, as a character study it offers a wonky but gradually clearer insight into Lorenz Hart, even if it takes a while to get to any deeper unraveling of this broken side of him.

Blue Moon opens nationally from Thursday 29 January.

The Secret Agent is a Biting and Playful Political Thriller

January 23, 2026January 23, 2026Darcy Read

Set in the Northeast of Brazil in the city of Recife in 1977, just as the country’s military dictatorship rounds third base, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s relaxed but probing political film The Secret Agent (2025) is like nothing else you’ll encounter in a cinema this year. Able to open a double feature with either Dazed and Confused (1993) or Army of Shadows (1969), the film wears many hats that in less assured hands would appear frayed and confused. Thankfully, Filho has levelled up as a filmmaker and storyteller, letting his playful tendencies heighten the moments of potent tension and violence that in less capable hands would beguile an audience.

Centring a former professor and widower with a political target on his back, Armando (an exceptional Wagner Moura) returns to Recife to collect his son from his in-laws, seeking refuge in the warm embrace of a small community of political refugees helmed by Dona Sebastiana, in one of the year’s best supporting performances by Tânia Maria that feels achingly real.

Wagner Moura’s work shifts elusively from room to room as Armando quickly surveys his surroundings to uncover how he needs to respond to each interaction. The highly regarded actor is given the role of a lifetime and is set to acquire several awards, as a man with a committed goal, but never stops living his elusive life, even as the violence around the corner draws nearer.

Wagner Moura as Armando in *The Secret Agent* (2025).

By placing this political and community-based struggle in the veins of a hangout film, Filho supports Moira’s performance with an outstanding cast that gives life to the past by giving a beating heart to this community of political refugees of his own country.

Echoes ripple through buildings, but the truth in history is something that must be searched for. Filho explores his country’s past and the people who inhabit those histories not as vessels for political tropes and ideologies, but as human beings who pass away long before their heroism is uncovered. The secondary narrative device of university students seeking to uncover the truth through tape recordings of our central story is surprising when it first appears, but it allows a dense exploration of ideas to occur. Filho’s way of shooting these scenes gives what could’ve been a contrived narrative crutch a potent level of emotional intimacy, allowing the film’s final sequence to sing.

In voicing The Secret Agent in the language of De Palma and Pakula, masters of the genre and time period the film is based, Filho is placing his film in conversation with the genre of political thrillers that most audiences are familiar with, allowing a discourse to occur across the screen between time and continents, ideas that are very much at the heart of the narrative. Alongside this, the film is a Cinema Paradiso (1988) level love affair with cinema itself, playing out in large swathes at a theatre, set against the backdrop of the sweltering summer backdrop of Jaws (1975) and the way it took the world by storm. Opening the film is the beguiling discovery of a leg inside a shark being studied at a local university, sweeping us up in the strange and playful mode Filho builds the world around, all while leading us down deeper and deeper with an unnerving sense of impending violence.

Like his previous film, Bacurau (2019), a rhythmic playfulness quickly sweeps an audience into a story, but a moment of visceral violence and aggression can pierce through that world like a stray bullet. With The Secret Agent, Filho’s eye is sharper and more directed, but playfulness is still the engine that drives his work. People do not stop living as the plots of his films take place; everything and everyone is transient, a poignant concept to maintain in a political thriller of this kind.

(From left) Robério Diógenes, Wagner Moura, and Igor de Araújo in *The Secret Agent.*

While the political thriller genre is defined by American filmmakers like De Palma and Pakula, peaking in the conspiratorial aftermath of Watergate and the Nixon administration, in recent years, the genre has been defined by international cinema. The Secret Agent asks much of its audience in terms of prior knowledge of Brazil’s military dictatorship, but in a modern climate of authoritarian spot fires around the globe, many audiences will see themselves in the images Filho shows us. Scenes of political refugees commenting on the limited groceries that are handed by a local farmer trying to assist them are as keenly observed as the moments of shocking violence.

Returning to the present day with the students weaving themselves into the stories of the past, we are in a constant meditation with ideas of bearing witness through aural recollection and the intimate but limited way of history being investigated. A pivotal scene in the film’s movement towards the thriller genre plays out when Armando and Elza (Maria Fernanda Cândido) discuss getting his family out of the country and the hit being put on his head, all while recording the conversation. This gripping scene is shown alongside Flavia (Laura Lufési), a heavily invested student, probing the moments we are shown, trying to glean insight into this moment and what may have occurred in that room outside of the captured audio.

What does it mean to tell a story of such darkness with this level of lightness? The film’s Godardian level of bounce and freedom activates a unique form of scene-to-scene tension not often seen in the political skin that Filho’s film wears. But, while the tension of these genre moments is usually played for excitement, The Secret Agent conditions us to find these moments profoundly reflective, peering into these lives with an open heart and a wry smirk of the absurdity of buffoonish political violence. A high-wire act that appears shockingly relaxed.

The Secret Agent is in select theatres now.