Music biopics have grown increasingly popular with studios. Just in the last few years we’ve seen onscreen biographies of such acts as Elvis Presley, Queen, Elton John, Whitney Houston, Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, and most recently Bruce Springsteen. Casting is already completed for The Beatles. But before their movie hits theaters, we’re getting “Michael”, a biopic based on the life of the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson.
“Michael” is set to star Jaafar Jackson, son of Jermaine Jackson and nephew to Michael Jackson himself. The film is said to follow Michael’s journey from his introduction to stardom as a member of The Jackson 5 to his meteoric rise to global fame in the 1980s as a solo artist. The film also stars Miles Teller, Colman Domingo, and Nia Long, and is directed by Antoine Fuqua. Music biopics have varied wildly in quality and success. What should we expect from “Michael”? The new teaser gives us a taste.
“Michael” dances its way into theaters on April 24, 2026. Check out the trailer below and let me know if you’ll be seeing it or taking a pass.
For us film critics, November and December are the busiest months on the calendar. It’s when studios and distributors send us their biggest movies of the year for awards consideration. So we go on a two-month cram session, watching every big or small awards contender before our voting deadlines. These are often more serious-minded movies. And after 15 or 20 in a row, you’re often looking for an escape. Enter “Predator: Badlands”.
Dan Trachtenberg continues to re-energize the Predator series with his third entry into the franchise. After two direct-to-Hulu hits (2022’s “Prey” and the animated “Predator: Killer of Killers” from earlier this year), Trachtenberg brings Predator back to the big screen with “Badlands”, and he doesn’t disappoint. His latest takes us to a new setting yet features the same feral action the movies are known for despite its surprising PG-13 rating.
Image Courtesy of 20th Century Studios
The setting isn’t the only thing fresh about “Badlands”. Thematically, Trachtenberg takes his film in a slightly new direction, tapping into such themes as family strife, forging your own path, and finding the will to trust others. But fear not, “Badlands” serves up a steady diet of gritty action that fans will expect. And Trachtenberg leaves the door wide open for more of the traditionally ruthless Predator stories. Simply put, the franchise is in great hands.
On the distant planet Yautja Prime, a young Predator named Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) is considered the runt of his Yautja Clan. His older brother Kwei (Mike Homik) tirelessly trains him, but Dek is never able to earn his chieftain father’s approval. Kwei tells Dek he can earn his place in the clan by traveling to the deadly planet Genna and hunting an unkillable beast known as the Kalisk. Dek eagerly accepts. But before he can depart, his father arrives and orders Kwei to kill his weaker brother. Kwei defies his father and is executed on the spot. But before he is, Kwei manages to seal Dek in their ship and launch him to Genna.
Genna is a planet of beauty and peril. It has lush forests and vast mountain ranges which Trachtenberg exquisitely captures. It’s also a planet where both flora and fauna can be a threat. The rage-fueled Dek immediately finds himself fighting for his life. But he gets help from the most unexpected source – Thia (Elle Fanning), a Weyland-Yutani synthetic who had her bottom half torn off during an encounter with the Kalisk. The comically cheerful Thia convinces the comically gruff Dek that she can be a useful “tool”. So he (literally) carries her with him on his hunt.
But creatures and plant life aren’t the only dangers on Genna. Thia’s synthetic sister, Tessa (also played by Fanning) leads an army of androids from Weyland-Yutani’s bioweapons division to capture the Kalisk for the company’s own nefarious purposes. This puts them at direct odds with Dek and Thia, setting up the film’s second-half conflict which is loaded with sci-fi action of all sorts. We get a little bit of everything from primal combat to giant creatures versus mechs. And of course there are the Predator favorites – shoulder-mounted cannons, triangulated laser sights, retractable blades, etc.
Image Courtesy of 20th Century Studios
“Badlands” takes the series in a unique direction by having a Yautja become a protagonist rather than the antagonist. It also injects a healthy dose of humor, much of which is implemented well. Most of it comes through Dek and Thia’s oddball partnership (you can’t help but laugh as he carries her around on his back as Luke Skywalker did Yoda on Dagobah). Less effective is an indigenous CGI creature dubbed Bud who is a bit too cutesy and who visually stands out against the otherwise extraordinary digital effects.
But again, the franchise faithful shouldn’t worry and no one should give air to the knee-jerk negativity on social media. “Badlands” offers a new kind of story within the Predator universe that adds more depth and dimension to its eponymous hunter than we’ve ever seen. Yet it doesn’t forsake the sheer ferocity and (in some cases) brutality that has been a signature of the series. “Badlands” doesn’t come close to reaching the heights of the 1987 original. But to Trachtenberg’s credit, he doesn’t try to. He simply shows there are a variety of stories to tell within this growing franchise. And I’m thrilled that he has the keys to it.
Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson are a couple trapped in a doomed relationship in director Lynne Ramsay’s grueling new feature, “Die My Love”. This is her first film since 2017’s much different but equally grim “You Were Never Really Here”. Though based on a 2012 Ariana Harwicz novel, Ramsay’s adaptation says nearly everything it has to say within the first half-hour. The remaining 90 minutes plays like misery porn as we watch a woefully unhappy woman barreling towards destruction.
“Die My Love” is written by the trio of Ramsay, Enda Walsh, and Alice Birch. Their story pitilessly blends motherhood and madness in a way that is surprisingly cold and unforgiving towards the lead characters, the lead cast, and the audience. It toys with such themes as postnatal depression and isolation. But Ramsay’s smothering approach spends more time breaking down and laying bare Lawrence’s character (as much physically as psychologically) than doing much meaningful with the themes that are introduced.
Image Courtesy of Mubi
The film opens by introducing us to an unstable young couple, Grace (Lawrence) and Jackson (Pattinson). The two have moved away from the hustle and bustle of the big city to an old house in rural Montana that Jackson inherited from his late uncle. The couple settles into their new home, and following a rather ludicrous sex montage, they have a baby boy. From there to the final frame, the movie follows the slow disintegration of their ill-fated relationship.
Both Grace and Jackson are dissolute and self-destructive, to such a degree that we know things aren’t going to end well. But while Jackson has his own set of issues, it’s Grace who finds herself in the center of Ramsay’s sights. She’s a stalled writer who loses all inspiration and motivation after becoming a stay-at-home mother. She gets little support from Jackson who is off working for days at a time. And when he is home, his insensitivity (which seems to spring from nowhere) only pushes her closer to the edge.
But none of this is especially surprising considering Grace and Jackson never really feel like a true-to-life couple. They never have real-world conversations and so many of their interactions appear staged for the camera. Brief supporting work from Sissy Spacek and Nick Nolte does more to ground Grace and Jackson than anything they do together. It’s a critical issue that leaves us with two shallow and intemperate hipsters rather than an organic couple with actual depth and complexities.
It ends up being all about Grace and her downward spiral. Her behavior gets increasingly bizarre, soon resembling full-on psychosis more than postpartum depression. Lawrence fully commits, crawling around on all fours, rabidly barking at Jackson’s annoying dog, furiously clawing away at wallpaper until her fingers bleed, throwing herself through a glass door, and randomly taking off her clothes whenever Ramsay asks. It’s the kind of performance awards voters often fall for, yet here it feels so hollow.
Image Courtesy of Mubi
Unlike Ramsay’s previous films, “Die My Love” is full of empty provocations that are more interested in shocking the audience than challenging us with substance. When not assaulting us with weird needle-drops and stylistic flourishes, Ramsay is sprinkling gasoline on the fire that is Grace’s sanity. And for what purpose? The movie has already played its hand by the 20-minute mark. Even later, when we’re led to believe Grace is “better”, we can easily see through her sudden turn towards domesticity.
“Die My Love” ends up being a maddening experience. It’s essentially the equivalent of lighting a fuse and waiting two hours for your main character to finally blow. It’s just pointless misery with rarely a reprieve. Ramsay is a talented filmmaker who is no stranger to working with dark and unsettling material. But with “Die My Love”, she seems too focused on her own abrasive formalism and with pushing her acclaimed lead actress to ridiculous lengths.
In the opening moments of “The Beldham”, we read that the title refers to an old crone. More explicitly, a bird-like witch who feeds on the souls of infants. That description alone is enough to paint the film as a dark and unsettling chiller. But that turns out to be somewhat of a misdirection. It’s true that “The Beldham” has some classic horror ingredients. But in reality, writer and director Angela Gulner has a lot more on her mind which she conveys through this solid directorial debut.
The movie opens with an introduction to Harper (Katie Parker), a single mother to her infant daughter Christine (Lincoln Taylor). The story kicks off with the two arriving at the home of Harper’s mother, Sadie (Patricia Heaton). Sadie has recently retired and bought a suburban farmhouse to renovate. Harper has come to help, or so she thinks. We learn Harper has recently had an accident of some kind and her mother is intent on taking care of her and Christine.
Image Courtesy of Quiver Distribution
It doesn’t take long for us to notice a simmering tension between mother and daughter. It’s obvious in Sadie’s poorly veiled disapproval of her daughter’s parenting and in Harper’s resistance to any advice her mother tries to give. Gulner doesn’t immediately reveal the root of their friction. But as her haunting story unfolds we get snippets of information meant to be cataloged in our minds. Meanwhile other characters play into the mystery. Namely Frank (Corbin Bernsen), Sadie’s partner and general peacemaker, and Bette (Emma Fitzpatrick), a young nurse and housemaid who connects with Harper.
The vast majority of the story is told through Harper’s eyes – a choice of perspective that Gulner uses to introduce the horror aspect of her movie. Harper begins having creepy encounters that blur the lines between what’s real and what’s in her mind. The eerie caws of black crows, an old tattered journal filled with the unsettling testimonies of the home’s former owner, dark visions of a witch living within the walls. It all gets under your skin while slyly informing the big reveal to come.
Image Courtesy of Quiver Distribution
As for the film’s big reveal – it dramatically reshapes everything leading up to it. And it immediately transforms the movie from a psychological horror film to an unexpectedly poignant domestic drama. Getting to the big reveal can be challenging as a lot of the information doesn’t always make sense in the moment. But again, it’s best to take the information given and log it for later. And once we finally get clarity, the payoff is pretty satisfying.
“The Beldham” is the latest film to tackle the theme of motherhood from a uniquely specific perspective. The various phases of maternal drama add several interesting layers to the story while the turns towards genre creates a psychological tension that keeps us off-balance. Over time the movie can wear you down as you try to collect and connect its loose pieces. But it’s worth the effort thanks to an ending that packs an emotional jolt as it’s bringing everything into focus.
“Affection” opens with a startling shot of a car in the center of a rural road, its headlights illuminating the dark. The camera then cuts to a severely injured woman lying motionless on the pavement, bloodied and bruised, her eyes blankly staring as a small tear leaks across the bridge of her nose. Suddenly she gasps, has a violent convulsion, manages to stand, and then frantically walks away, only to be plowed over by a speeding car.
Writer-director BT Meza’s well-conceived and well-shot opening sequence does a good job piquing our interest. The woman is played by Jessica Rothe, a seriously underrated actress whose impressive range has shown from “La La Land” to “Happy Death Day”. The mysterious table-setting and a talented lead gets things started on the right foot. But over time, “Affection” loses its intrigue, not because of premise or performance. But due to its convoluted storytelling which leaves us with too many questions.
Rothe plays Ellie Carter…or does she? That’s a question at the center of “Affection”. Ellie wakes up after a terrible dream. She’s in bed next to a man she doesn’t know, in a house she doesn’t recognize, and with a young daughter she doesn’t remember. In what she believes is self-defense, Ellie attacks the man but stops when she sees the terrified expression from the little girl who calls her “Mommy”. A confused and distraught Ellie crumbles to the ground where she’s embraced by her family(?).
After things calm down, the unctuous man tells Ellie he is her husband, Bruce (Joseph Cross) and the little girl is their daughter, Alice (Julianna Layne). Bruce goes on to describe a horrible accident that left her severely injured. As a side-effect of her trauma, Ellie is suffering from petrifying memory resets – a condition where her mind takes pieces of information from her life and twists them into false memories. Their neuro specialists have prescribed isolation as a part of her recovery leading Bruce to buy a remote farmhouse with no phone, no internet, and no neighbors. There they hope to rebuild the connections to her real memories.
Rothe superbly navigates Ellie’s inner turmoil which alternates between perplexity, frustration, and despondency. Adding to her emotional conflict are vividly detailed memories of a much different past. A past where her name was Sarah Thompson and she had a different husband and a son. She had other parents, other friends, and another childhood. These invasive memories clash with the old pictures, home videos, and passionate testimonies of Bruce and Alice.
But around the 40 minute mark the story takes a sharp turn, revealing what we already know – that things are not as they seem. Unexplainable tremors, nightmarish visions, a strange wound near the base of her neck, and so on. It all points to a mid-movie twist that I don’t dare spoil even though it’s fairly simple to figure out. The problems are with the details. The general idea is easy enough to grasp. But the convolution comes in understanding how it all fits together. Again, I’m keeping it vague, but I found myself left with too many significant questions.
That’s not to say “Affection” doesn’t have its strengths. The three-person cast is more than proficient with Rothe carrying the bulk of the load on her capable shoulders. The movie takes some admirable big swings which opens the door for some delightfully grisly makeup and effects. And to the film’s credit, it makes a poignant and personal statement on grief and isolation – both themes pulled directly from Meza’s own life experience. Sadly, the movie’s second-half incoherence ends up seriously impacting the payoff. It’s unfortunate considering the many things the movie gets right.
From film critic to filmmaker, Chris Stuckmann moves from his YouTube screen to the directing chair with his debut feature “Shelby Oaks”. This unique supernatural horror mystery makes for an impressive feature film debut for Stuckmann who serves as director, writer, and producer. Even with a small budget, Stuckmann’s film almost didn’t get made due to a lack of funds. But that changed after a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign and NEON acquiring the distribution rights.
To his credit, Stuckmann doesn’t let budget constraints hinder his vision. As a result, “Shelby Oaks” is able to create the precise effect he’s going for. It’s a movie where atmosphere is the prime focus. And while he throws in a well-timed jump scare or two, Stuckmann concentrates most on creating and developing a steady sense of unease. It results in a richly atmospheric chiller that’s brimming with the kind of sustained tension that keeps you fidgeting in your seat for all the right reasons.
With “Shelby Oaks”, Stuckman employs several methods to tell his story. Much of the first half features a combination of documentary style and found footage. For many of us, the latter has ran its cinematic course. But Stuckmann uses found footage in a compelling way. And he wisely pulls away from it before it becomes a liability. The film’s second half goes the traditional narrative feature route which works well with the story he’s telling, despite some final act bumps in the road.
The story is an interesting mix of true crime and the supernatural. Without question it’s a creepy tone-centered horror film but with a distinct mystery element to it. The mystery revolves around the disappearance of Riley Brennen (Sarah Durn), the host of the YouTube ghost-hunting show “Paranormal Paranoids”. In 2008, Riley and her three crew members disappeared without a trace while investigating the old ghost town of Shelby Oaks.
Image Courtesy of NEON
Many believed the disappearances to be a hoax – a gimmick to build anticipation for their next episode. But when the three gruesomely murdered bodies of her crew members were discovered, the fate of Riley Brennen became a national discussion. The last time she was seen alive is in some grainy video footage that shows her leaving a room and being confronted by something outside of our sight.
Twelve years later, Riley’s sister Mia (Camille Sullivan) hasn’t given up her search. While being interviewed for an upcoming true crime documentary, Mia is visited by a mysterious man who rambles incorrectly before pulling out a gun and shooting himself in the head. A shocked Mia notices the man is clutching an old camcorder cassette labeled “Shelby Oaks” which she grabs before the police arrive. On it, Mia finds new information that refuels her already obsessive investigation.
In the first of several head-scratching character choices, Mia sets out for Shelby Oaks alone(?) and in the middle of the night(?) to follow her new leads. The series of dark discoveries she makes sends the story into some unsettling territory. And as the mystery patiently unfolds, the film is able to generate some authentic suspense, aided by the eerie and dread-drenched presentation from Stuckmann and his DP Andrew Scott Baird.
But as we’ve seen time and time again, landing the perfect ending isn’t as easy as it looks on paper. “Shelby Oaks” doesn’t botch its finish, but it leaves it feeling underdeveloped. The supernatural components are especially underwritten which shortchanges key pieces of the final 30 minutes. But the movie easily makes up for it in other areas, namely in creating a dark, immersive experience that embraces its classic horror inspirations while adding some of its own touches.
Keith & the Movies 