My February Watches

Send Help (Sam Raimi)- The anticipated return of Raimi to what he does best, which is full on unfiltered horror/thriller mode. Don’t sleep on McAdams however, who seems charged up here to give Raimi some competition on that front. Whatever commentary it leaves slightly uncooked and underutilized it more than makes up for in entertainment value

Pike River (Robert Sarkies)- The talented New Zealand filmmaker, who’s last film was in 2006, returns with this story about a real life mining disaster that, in Sarkies’ own words on the Point of View podcast, emerges with a naturally embedded inherent ready-made drama. This allows him to step back and give his focus to drawing out a patient, immersive human drama that works to place us as viewers within the naturally existing tension while bringing the distinct voices whom lived through the trauma, a group of women left to fight against the powers for the lives and memories of their partners, to the forefront.

Dracula (Luc Besson)- A pitch perfect balance between camp and substance, doing a lot with a relatively low budget. Especially in the way it moves between these grand sequences to the more intimate and contained setting of the castle. Melding that grand mythos with its particular take on the character allows this to find something suprisingly human underneath the vampire motif, giving us a take on the famed figure that reaches for something more transcendent and redemptive, both as a love story and as religious reflection

La Grazia (Paolo Sorrentino)- A political film for our times. following a leader reaching the end of his term and grappling with the many different interconnecting elements of his legacy and story. Introspective, but also relentless in its interogation as it wrestles with bigger moral and existential questions. Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino (the Young Pope, The Hand of God, The Great Beauty) tells a story that brings some of the natural crisis of those questions to the surface, wondering about the ways in which, although we like to believe that something like progress exists, that belief tends to exist solely to satisfy our own need for power and control. Which begs another question; why do we seek control. I think the underlying answer in this film is that our need to seek control (read: the Western narrative) within the chaos betrays our real and true need for meaning. Or in other words, truth. Truth that exist outside of and beyond the wars and muddied and incoherent and inconsistent terrain of our constructed political machines. The sort of meaning that finds us when we are freed from our need to give the societal constructions an authority it doesn’t otherwise have, constructions which give us the illusion of this being about something more than our present sense of superiority. That it frames this within the story of a single leader grappling with the honest questions when all the pretenses that the public light demands and evokes is part of what makes this one powerful.

Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie (Matt Johnson)- Canadian filmmaker Matt Johnson returns following the success of Blackberry with this quirky, ridiculously fun comedy that stands as one of the best films of the slate in these early months of 2026. Made all the better going in blind and seeing it with a crowd.

GOAT (Tyree Dillihay)- Whoever came up with the idea to pair the character of a goat with the acronym GOAT was probably sitting there thinking wait, no one else has done this yet? It’s so obvious and on the nose that it works, especially because the film takes the themes that underly that seriously. This is a grassroots level script that isn’t afraid to dig into some of the weightier motifs, using a memorable cast to flesh that out. There’s nothing overtly inventive here, but the lack of gimmicks and cheap tricks make it a refreshing early animated entry

Crime 101 (Bart Layton)- A much different film than the trailer sells it to be, and I loved the old school detective crime drama vibe. What surprised me the most was how invested I was in the characters. Car chases, moral dilemmas, commentary on the system, and solid pacing, all packaged in a decent amount of movie at 2 and a half hours. Reminded me of why theaters matter to these mid-budget, mid-level projects.

Wuthering Heights (Emerald Fennell)- Opinions will (and have, and do) vary on this much publicized adaptation by Fennell. A Director that I am not fond of and still, after seeing this film, am not on board with. Grant that I have never read the book and knew little about the story going in, but I found the story to be frustatingly devoid of commentary or meaning. It’s like a ship set out to sail without an anchor, but perfectly content to just be there, pulling us back and forth with the waves of its full cast of equally deplorable characters doing ugly things for no apparent reason, characters whom shift with the tides on the drop of a dime seemingly just to move the plot forward. It’s not just that I actively disliked this one, it’s that I desperately wanted it to end sitting through the experience, and felt worse for having endured it. There’s a commentary buried underneath, but cloaked in this adaptation it rings hollow and empty. It looks pretty though, I’ll give it that, and it’s definitely more accessible than Saltburn.

How to Make a Killing (John Patton Ford)- Not as good as Emily the Criminal, which had the benefit of being the American Director’s debut, but if you liked that film you should have a good time with this one. It’s got the same sort of flavour, just a bit more polished and obviously constructed, which I would say are the things that keep it from rising to the same level. That and it trades Emily’s emphasis on character for a more honed focus on the story. A nice third act twist on a narrative level helped to ensure that the journey retained some of its urgency.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die (Gore Verbinksi)- Rango meets Pirates meets Mouse Hunt meets The Ring. Which is to say, if you mashed together all the film of Verbinksi’s career this is what would likely pop out. Sometimes bizarre, abundantly quirky, unapologetically unconventional, it’s content to exist in its own mind and world, evoking the madness that its apocalyptic type premise (of a world seemingly descending into and being consumed by its own sense of crazy) needs. That “all in” quality is what sells this, and to be sure the theatrical landscape is a far more interesting place with this occupying the screens.

Alberta Number One (Alexander Carson)- Canadian Director Alexander Carson has drawn up a love letter to the prairies that somehow manages to conjure up some empathy and understanding for our often “side-eyed with nervous uncertainty” province. To it’s credit it’s not afraid to give a well rounded critique in the process. That it asks us to consider other layers to this picture is the journey we as viewers are being asked to go on, and it proves worthwhile.

EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert (Baz Luhrmann)- From the Director who gave us the somewhat divisive biopic Elvis in 2022, a film that I was much higher on than some others (it was among my top films of that year and an experience I deeply resonated with) comes an impressive concert film that functions equally as a probing documentary into what, as the real life footage helps to underscore, remains one of America’s most tragic and revealing life’s and stories Elvis is a microcosm for so much of that American ethos, and as such is one of the most captivating inroads into understanding that cultural (and political) reality. Or more so, the sort of thing that it produces. Luhrmann deftly and expertly brings together a mix of old footage in a way that not only makes for a thrilling and captivating on-screen experience, but sheds new light on a familiar and iconic figure. Easily drawing us under his spell, leaving us to wonder about and wrestle with where we find ourselves once we come back to reality.

In the Blink of an Eye (Andrew Stanton)- Life Itself. That’s the film that kept coming to mind for me as I watched this new anticipated film, a live action debut from Stanton whom is known for his animated fare. Why? Partly because it shares that past, present, future interconnecting timeline. More so because it shares that unabashed sentimentality that drives critics nuts. For what it’s worth, my embrace and love of Life Itself set me at odds with the overall critical consensus, and I don’t know that I would go to battle for this film quite to the same degree. I don’t think the film is technically as strong and its themes a bit more superficially drawn. But I did appreciate what it was doing towards a similar degree, and I found myself williing to give myself over to the emotional journey of it’s delicate dance between matters and themes of life and death and meaning. You can see it fighting to capture some of those famed Wall-E sensibilities and reflections with it’s sci-fi premise, and for the moments where that breaks through it is enough to keep the film afloat.