For many, the state of DC Studios under the command and control of James Gunn has been underwhelming at best. I respect that Gunn has his loyal fans who view most everything he touches as pure gold. But his handling of the flagship DC Universe has been a letdown. His “Superman” movie kicked things off with a thud, and “Supergirl” somehow managed to be even worse. And while the streaming series “Lanterns” is getting its praise, it’s a far cry from the source material that many of us grew up loving.

Thankfully there are some notable exceptions. There is Matt Reeves’ exceptional “Batman” and its two upcoming sequels which fall underneath the untethered DC Elseworlds banner. Then there are the DC animated movies, most of which tell standalone stories operating within their own continuity. The wizards at Warner Bros. Animation have delivered some knock-out original features. And it’s no different with their latest release.

“Batman: Knightfall – Part 1” is the first film in an adult animated trilogy that’s based on the acclaimed DC Comics arc which ran from 1993 to 1994. The “Knightfall” comics run consisted of three storylines titled “Knightfall”, “Knightquest”, and “KnightsEnd”. This new adaption sees director Jeff Wamester and screenwriter Jeremy Adams looking to follow the same basic blueprint. And they start things off with a bang.

After being forced to grow up in a violent Caribbean prison ran by a cruel and oppressive warden, a young boy spends years subduing his rage, educating himself, and training his body. Once an adult, he is forced into an experiment involving a volatile super-steroid called Venom. He survives the injections and gains superhuman strength which he uses to brutally kill the warden and his guards. He takes on the name Bane (now voiced by Michael Mando) and sets off for Gotham City.

Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne (voiced by Anson Mount) is struggling to navigate the death of his second Robin, Jason Todd. To make matters worse, rather than dealing with his trauma, Bruce has isolated himself to the point of pushing away his closest ally, Dick Grayson. Now his biggest fear is that the current Robin, Tim Drake (Jack Griffo) might suffer a similar fate. That fear pushes the harshly overprotective Bruce to relegate Tim to the sidelines.

But Gotham is plunged into chaos after Bane detonates a bomb inside Arkham Asylum, freeing many villains from Batman’s stellar rogues’ gallery. Refusing any help, Bruce aka Batman sets out to capture the escaped inmates who immediately begin terrorizing the city. Mad Hatter, Victor Zsasz, the Ventriloquist and Scarface, Mr. Freeze, Firefly, Scarecrow – each confrontation wears him down more. And despite the pleas of his loyal butler Alfred (Simon Templeman), Bruce refuses to slow down which plays right into Bane’s hands.

The story careens towards an inevitable showdown between Batman and Bane. And if you’re familiar with the original storyline you already know how things turn out. Yet much of the joy is in getting to that epic cliffhanger finish. Adams pens a tightly focused and faithful adaptation that features all the Batman signatures. But he dives deeper into Bruce’s strained psychology, showing his self-inflicted wounds and the emotional toll they’re taking on him and those around him.

Wamester takes the needed time to set up the story, establish his key characters, and flesh out their dynamics. At the same time, he keeps things moving at a kinetic pace, and he doesn’t shortchange the action. This is where the animation stands out most. From its opening scene, “Knightfall” earns its R-rating. It’s aggressive, fittingly brutal, and at times shockingly gory. And it’s enhanced by the fluid choreography, crisp physics, and sharp colors.

Several other familiar Batman regulars add to the story, each accompanied by solid voicework. There’s Commissioner Gordon (Bruce Boxleitner), Riddler (David Dastmalchian), Harvey Bullock (Mick Wingert), Renee Montoya (Jessica Camacho), and Azrael (Pablo Schreiber) among others. It’s a great collection of characters with a top-to-bottom strong ensemble to go along with the enthralling story and jaw-dropping animation. They’re all key ingredients in this exhilarating trilogy kickoff that wonderfully sets the table for what’s to come.

VERDICT – 4.5 STARS

In the period crime thriller “By Any Means”, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II emotionally grounds a powerful civil rights era story while Mark Wahlberg injects it with muscle and ruthless aggression. Together the duo drives what is a historically compelling and thematically potent feature that also comes packed with certain genre mechanics which opens the door for some thrilling action and some unexpected humor.

“By Any Means” is the sophomore feature from director Elegance Bratton. Here he works from a script by Sascha Penn that is inspired by true events, namely the FBI’s investigation into the 1966 murder of Mississippi civil rights leader Vernon Dahmer by the Ku Klux Klan. With the Klan operating under the protection of powerful politicians and local police, the FBI took an off-the-record approach. They secretly hired mafia hitman and FBI informant Gregory Scarpa to travel to Mississippi and use his violent methods to pressure locals and get confessions.

While the FBI has never officially acknowledged using Greg Scarpa, courtroom testimonies, declassified communications, and several biographies have confirmed their “partnership”. It’s a fascinating revelation that provides Bratton and Penn with subject material ripe for a big screen feature adaptation. To ground their story they lean into the historical setting and pluck details from numerous real-life accounts. They also use fictionalized elements that meaningfully enhance certain perspectives. But it’s also a high-stakes action thriller that never loses sight of its genre ambitions.

Set in 1966, Abdul-Mateen II plays Wayne Strider, one of only a handful of black agents in the FBI. Stationed in Chicago, Wayne enthusiastically jumps at the chance to join the bureau’s office near his hometown of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Once there, he naively believes his idealistic trust in the system and his by-the-book methods will help bring the Klan to justice. But reality slowly begins to creep in after the murder of his friend and mentor, Vernon Dahmer (Giancarlo Esposito).

As his investigation is constantly thwarted by local authorities, a frustrated Wayne gets help from an unlikely source. His superior calls in Greg Scarpa (Wahlberg), a mob enforcer for New York’s Colombo crime family. Wayne’s job is to drive Scarpa wherever he needs to go and to stay out of his way while he does his special brand of investigating. Scarpa’s violent methods quickly clash with Wayne’s earnest ideals. But Wayne’s perspective changes after their presence puts him and his supportive wife Allison (Nicole Beharie) in the Klan’s crosshairs.

Abdul-Mateen II and Wahlberg have a sharp chemistry that is effective in every facet of their characters’ complicated relationship. Wahlberg is inevitably a scene-stealer in a role he seems custom-made to play (prosthetic nose aside). But the story doesn’t click without the humanity Abdul-Mateen II brings. They both navigate their complexities in some compelling ways while also energizing the action with gritty, authentic aggression. You’ll find yourself caught in between rooting on their efforts and squirming at the lengths they go.

While the key characters are given plenty of room to develop, the antagonists are somewhat generically portrayed. The setting itself provides a baked-in tension. But the movie’s villains consist of mostly nondescript locals and corrupt deputies. All are either Klansman or sympathetic to them, and in that regard, they certainly serve their nefarious purposes. But don’t expect any of them to stand out or take much of a lead in defining the bad guys beyond what history has already informed us.

There is a lingering feeling that “By Any Means” could have dug deeper into its subject matter. That might be true. But to Bratton’s credit, he gets his point across while still delivering solid genre entertainment. He sticks close enough to history and his statements on it are crystal clear. But he also delivers the kind of buddy-cop camaraderie and action-fueled thrills that genre fans will delight in. That’s a tough balance to find by Bratton pulls it off. “By Any Means” is out now exclusively in theaters.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS

I never watched “Barney & Friends”. You know, the once wildly popular children’s television show about the talking purple Tyrannosaurus Rex who would sing and dance with his dino buddies to the delight of kids all around the world. I had well outgrown it when it first launched in 1992 and thankfully my kids never caught onto it in the mid-2000s. But we all knew who Barney was. How could you miss him? He was everywhere.

While “Barney” was beloved by many children, he became a punchline for many adults. And he’s clearly the template for the wickedly fun horror-comedy “Buddy”. Directed by Casper Kelly, this hilariously unhinged movie takes what has long passed for children’s entertainment and turns it on its head. It’s an extremely hard movie to describe in large part due to its combined absurdity and audacity. Just know that it is a bizarrely entertaining film in the “I can’t believe they’re doing this” kind of way.

“Buddy” can best be described as a satirical black comedy and supernatural slasher sandwich. Kelly fuses those elements together in some weird and wild ways, resulting in a movie that on the surface could easily be dismissed as some ludicrous cash-in. But this is no “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey” or “Popeye the Slayer Man”. In reality, it’s a far more sophisticated subversion of the synthetically happy and overtly wholesome children’s media than its schlocky B-movie facade might have you believe.

It’s hard to believe such a scattershot mash-up would work at all, but somehow “Buddy” does. It kicks off by playing like a Barney spoof, where we watch three back-to-back-to-back episodes of the children’s educational television show “It’s Buddy”. The production design in ridiculously well done, fully and authentically capturing the retro tv aesthetic. It’s all there – the overly bright color tones, the intentionally artificial sets, and the anthropomorphic objects that populate them – a sofa, a mailbox, a backpack, etc.

It all centers around the show’s star, Buddy (voiced by Keegan-Michael Key), an oversized orange unicorn with yellow trim and a big purple heart on his chest. Buddy surrounds himself by four devoted children who exhibit the same zombie-like adoration as in the Barney shows. And there are a handful of other simple-minded characters who pop up from time to time – Mailman Miles (Bennie Taylor), Nurse Nancy (Phuong Kubacki), and so on. It’s a spot-on representation, right down to the smallest detail.

By the second episode, we start to notice that something is off. It begins when one of the kids, Josh (Luke Speakman) doesn’t want to dance, much to Buddy’s chagrin. Josh suddenly disappears and is replaced by a new cast member named Hannah (Madison Skyy Polan). But suspicions rise among Josh’s castmates, Freddy (Delaney Quinn), Wade (Caleb Williams), and Oliver (Tristan Broders). And the more the dig for information about their missing friend, the more they learn Buddy isn’t just a little shady. He’s full-on deranged.

Meanwhile in what resembles our real world, Grace (Cristin Milioti), her husband Ben (Topher Grace) , and their two sons Derek (Bryson JonSteele) and Timothy (Seamus Flynn) live a routine suburban life. But after seeing a vision of the “It’s Buddy” show, Grace begins having overwhelming feelings that she and Ben once had a third child. No matter how hard she tries, she finds no hard evidence that she had a third child. And her research turns up no record of Buddy’s show ever existing.

These two seemingly contradictory worlds inevitably collide in a way that never makes much sense. The story takes us from point to point in a competent enough way. But while the pieces connect on a base level, the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of the world are mostly tossed aside. It inevitably leads to an ending with a ton of unanswered questions that the movie makes no attempt at answering. But that’s hardly a deal-breaker in a movie this hysterically outrageous.

As “Buddy” is steadily subverting expectations, it takes a scalpel to the to the children’s television culture of the 1990s. At the same time it is every bit as bizarre as it sounds. Kelly goes all-in with the goofiness and the gore, leaving us laughing out loud one minute and grimacing the next. There are some genuinely good laughs amid the blood-shedding, and some borderline shocking kills amid the layers of absurdity. Again, it shouldn’t work at all, but Kelly pulls it off. And even the glaring questions left by the clunky open ending don’t completely derail his audacious debut feature.

VERDICT – 3 STARS

[“The Brink of War” screened at Filmland 2026 followed by a Q&A with director Michael Russell Gunn]

October 11, 1986 was an overcast and blustery day in Reykjavík, Iceland. It was marked by heavy rains and high wind gusts which was nothing out of the ordinary for a North Atlantic autumn. But October 11, 1986 was no ordinary day. It was when United States President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev were to meet face-to-face in hopes of easing Cold War tensions. The 48-hour summit was held at the Höfði house, a whitewashed waterfront home overlooking Faxaflói Bay. Though technically considered a failure, the summit was crucial in laying groundwork for future nuclear arms treaties.

With “The Brink of War”, writer-director Michael Russell Gunn chronicles the Reykjavík Summit, offering fascinating historical and political perspectives into the talks, their ultimate collapse, and the shaky trust that grew between the two leaders. Gunn’s lengthy research included transcripts of the 1986 summit as well as an interview with former Secretary of State George Shultz prior to his death in 2021. It results in a compelling and insightful drama that carries the necessary weight of the subject matter.

Set at the tipping point of the Cold War, President Ronald Reagan (Jeff Daniels) arrives in Reykjavík with his trusted Secretary of State George Shultz (J.K. Simmons). Not far behind them is General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev (Jared Harris) and his wife Raisa (Branka Katić). As their staffers feverishly prepare the Höfði house for the summit, the two world leaders ready themselves for a meeting of seismic importance – one that could shape the very existence of the world as they know it.

Filmed on location at Höfði in Reykjavík, Gunn wastes no time kicking off his high-stakes chess match. Within their first session together, we get a good sense of each leader’s strategy. High on Reagan’s priority list is the Soviet Union’s many human rights violations. Gorbachev repeatedly diverts the discussion to the US’s Strategic Defense Initiative. Both subjects prove to be tense sticking points in the negotiations, so they’re regularly tabled to come back to later.

At the same time, a surprising amount of common ground is found, specifically in regard to nuclear disarmament. But with so much on the line, will their sharp differences be too much for the two leaders to get past? History answers that question for us. But Gunn is still able to generate drama through his snappy script which heavily relies on compelling dialogue and performances to convincingly relay the gravity of the moment in history. It’s an essential mix and the movie would fall apart if either fell short.

The film also has fun with the real-life rivalry between Raisa and Nancy Reagan (Hope Davis). As the Soviet First Lady strolls around Reykjavík for the cameras, Mrs. Reagan remains in Washington DC, annoyed that she ended up staying behind. The two never share a scene together but they don’t pass up chances to take shots at each other from afar. Their antics provide some of the film’s more amusing moments while giving us a needed break from the negotiating table.

As Daniels and Harris nail their respected characters, the wiley Simmons is the glue that holds the film together. Interestingly none of the actors bear a particularly strong resemblance to the characters they play. But aside from a few obvious ticks from Daniels, it never becomes a problem, which is a testament to the overall strength of the performances and to the sharpness of Gunn’s screenplay. It’s also energized by a number of very precise camera tricks including overhead angles, split screens, shifts in perspective, and more.

The movie does run off-track with a handful of scenes between two reporters, one American and one British. Their scenes are little more than uninteresting diversions that feel forced upon the story rather than organic to it. But thankfully they only play a small part in what is otherwise a compelling movie that shines a spotlight on a seemingly small but consequential moment in world history. It also marks the impressive feature film directorial debut for Michael Russell Gunn, who succeeds it sharing a story about bridging divides. And in our current climate, that’s a message we all need to hear.

VERDICT – 4 STARS

“The Bride!” is a movie that made industry headlines for all the wrong reasons. Writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal’s ambitious but clunky gothic horror romance had a star-studded cast and was given a near $100 million dollar production budget. But the movie failed to connect with mainstream audiences. And its disastrous theatrical run led to a projected loss of approximately $90 million.

After a quick movie post-mortem, it’s pretty easy to spot the issues that contributed to its poor performance. The film’s inflated budget certainly didn’t help, especially considering its stylishly gonzo concept. Its trek towards profitability was made even tougher by the confusing marketing which tried but failed to sell the movie to either blockbuster audiences or the arthouse crowd. And then there was the poor word-of-mouth, which kept the movie from gaining any box office traction.

But how is the actual movie? Well, it’s complicated. “The Bride!” is a bold yet messy attempt at reimagining both Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel “Frankenstein” and the 1935 film “Bride of Frankenstein”. On one hand, there is an undeniable allure to this unruly, hyper stylized, maximalist mashup. Gyllenhaal delivers a fearlessly rebellious and slickly anachronistic gender-bender that ambitiously smashes together gothic horror, classic noir, pitch-black comedy, and 1930s gangster action. It’s a wildly entertaining blend.

On the other hand, “The Bride!” often plays like an out-of-control feminist fever dream, especially in its second half, where nearly everything takes a back seat to Gyllenhaal’s in-your-face messaging. She force-feeds her audience to the point that subversion turns superficial. And too many of the attempts at making a statement come off as performative rather than genuine to the story being told. It’s a reoccurring and self-inflicted problem that gets more frustrating over time.

Recent Academy Award winner Jessie Buckley stars in a dual role, first as author Mary Shelley who is speaking from somewhere in the afterlife. The framing device features Shelly venting her frustrations at not being allowed to tell the “Frankenstein” story she longed to tell. To finally do so, Shelley possesses Ida (also Buckley) a disenchanted escort in 1936 Chicago. Ida’s loose lips angers a local mob boss named Lupino (Zlatko Burić). And during a confrontation with Lupino’s goons, a ranting Ida ends up falling to her death.

Enter Frankenstein’s monster, aka Frank (Christian Bale), whose often-told story is one Gyllenhaal understandably expects her audience to already know. He travels from Bavaria to Chicago in search of Dr. Cornelia Euphronius, an infamous scientist whose work in reanimation caught Frank’s attention. We learn that in the years since he was created, Frank has been overwhelmed by loneliness. Desperate for a conjugal relationship, Frank hopes to convince Dr. Euphronius to create him a bride.

It takes some convincing, but Euphronius finally agrees. She and Frank dig up the fresh corpse of Ida from a potter’s field and take her back to the doctor’s lab. Euphronius is able to revive Ida who awakens with no memory of who she is or where she came from. Frank makes up a story that she’s his bride and that her memory will return over time. The new couple ignore the doctor’s warning and head out for a night on the town, catching a movie before going dancing at a raucous nightclub.

But for Frank and Ida, things go south quick. While leaving the club, Ida is attacked by two goons who Frank promptly and brutally kills. Having faced angry mobs in his sad and painful past, Frank encourages Ida to leave him and spare herself from the inevitable trouble that’s coming. But with nowhere else to go, Ida insists on staying with Frank. So the two go on the run, hopping a train bound for New York. But they quickly learn that their problems follow them to the Big Apple.

From there “The Bride!” unfolds like a monster version of “Bonnie and Clyde”. Frank and Ida’s growing notoriety not only draws the attention of the police, but also Lupino who sends out a hitman to silence Ida for good. Meanwhile an undercooked side story(ish) follows a haggard private detective named Jake Wiles (Peter Sarsgaard) who wants to find Ida before the cops do. He works alongside his plucky secretary, Myrna Malloy (Penélope Cruz), who (in keeping with the film’s unsubtle feminist core) is the brains behind their partnership.

Buckley and Bale are great together and they maneuver through the various genres with a playful energy and emotional intensity. Buckley follows up her Best Actress turn in “Hamnet” with a raw and boisterous spin on The Bride, sporting a platinum blonde bouffant, pale skin, and a black crystalloid smudge across her face. Meanwhile Bale slyly finds a balance between monstrosity and humanity. In one scene he unleashes violence like a feral beast. A short time later he’s sitting in a movie house with a tear in his eye, quoting lines along with his favorite actor.

With “The Bride!”, Gyllenhaal throws a lot at us. Her film rotates between being a gruesome monster movie, a quasi-musical, a dark romance, and a gritty gangster flick. It doesn’t always gel together as intended, but it’s hard not to appreciate the daring swings and gonzo style. The real problems come with the bludgeoning attempts at social commentary. Whether it’s the inherent preachiness or the awkward sloganizing, the film’s lack of finesse and nuance undermines so much of what the movie does well.

VERDICT – 2.5 STARS

The found-footage craze ran its course with me some time ago. But credit to director Brandon Christensen for finding a fresh and clever use of it in his new horror film “Bodycam”. As its rather obvious title reveals, the film tells its entire story through the bodycams of two police officers, with some occasional shots coming from the dashcam of their patrol car. But rather than feeling like a gimmick (which it kinda is), there’s an authenticity here that gives the found-footage choice purpose.

Even more, Christensen’s use of foot-footage succeeds in doing what the best movies of its kind does. It immerses us in the moment while blurring our perception of what’s real and what isn’t. Unfortunately it also comes with the obligatory shaky cams, especially when things intensify, and the overuse of first-person perspective shots as the characters feel their way through the dark. But for the most part Christensen keeps us involved and often on the edges of our seats.

The story follows two policemen, Officer Bryce Anderson (Sean Rogerson) and Officer Jerome Jackson (Jaime M. Callica), who are dispatched to a seedy part of town to investigate a possible late-night domestic dispute. They arrive at the house which sits in a rundown neighborhood populated with wandering locals they call “tweakers”. Anderson and Jackson approach the home but get no answer at the door. After hearing a scream for help, they enter with flashlights on and guns drawn. They’ll soon wish they hadn’t.

As the officers search the house they make several chilling discoveries. One leads to an encounter where a frightened Bryce reactively guns down a man who lunges at him from out of the shadows. Jerome immediately wants to call it in to headquarters. But fearing they will be crucified by the press and the public, Bryce stops him and begins throwing together a cover story.

An immediate tension forms between Bryce’s fear and Jerome’s conviction. But far more threatening is the sinister force that latches onto them and won’t let go. “You take something from him, he takes something from you,” mutters the gathering tweakers. It’s here that Christensen turns his police procedural into a terrifying mix of the supernatural and the occult.

A handful of other characters pop in including Bryce’s pregnant wife Michelle (Elizabeth Longshaw), an underground tech whiz named Esposita (Angel Prater), and Jerome’s mother Ally (Catherine Lough Haggquist) who seems to know more about what’s going on than anyone else. But the two officers remain the centerpiece and their story takes some dark, twisted turns. And while it’s a horror story through and through, it dabbles in several themes including police accountability and more metaphorically the controlling grip of addiction.

Like nearly every found-footage movie out there, its effect begins to wear off the longer it goes on. But Christensen smartly winds things down at 75 minutes before his film overstays its welcome. It’s a move that not only keeps the style choice respectably fresh, but it keeps the story wound tight and constantly pushing forward. Overall, “Bodycam” is a tense and eerie Shudder Original that breathes some much-needed new life into the found-footage formula.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS