THE ROCK has been in 39 feature films as an actor. Most of his roles are quite poor, but reveal an insecurity and inner pain in the star. buff.ly/UyGDQAC

Denis' The Fence feels like a late work from the auteur, but it's undeniably compelling in its strengths and weaknesses. filmobsessive.com?p=295507

THE NAKED GUN reboot starring Liam Neeson impressed and split the sides of the hosts of the Cinephile Hissy Fit. buff.ly/1NwfNQJ

Cinematographer Bill Kirstein breaks down how he created the "memory of the future" look in Neo Sora's HAPPYEND. buff.ly/Uc3BRxl

V/H/S/HALLOWEEN is another solid entry to the annual anthology series featuring some gnarly kills and even a few laughs. buff.ly/ncOBeLL

Longtime fan of Marc Maron turned producer/story editor, Julie Seabaugh talks power of making art in dark times in ARE WE GOOD? buff.ly/0TatWqb

GOOD BOY turns a potentially dull gimmick into a tense emotional rollercoaster: experiencing paranormal horror from a dog's POV. buff.ly/qwzojhs

THE SMASHING MACHINE casts Dwayne Johnson in a whole new light in a sports film where meditation outweighs mayhem. buff.ly/osby57y

FIRE DEPARTMENT, INC. tells an important story about workers' rights being under assault by unscrupulous politicians and the cost of fighting back. buff.ly/LaVeX6C

DEAD MAN'S MONEY manages to mirror Macbeth while remaining its own noirish tale full of dark comedy that charms all the way to tragedy. buff.ly/XmkhvBq

KING FRANKIE delivers a powerful look at the lasting consequences of bad decisions while offering the hope of moving beyond lingering regret. filmobsessive.com?p=295402

Raul Jude's DRACULA uses an overwhelming number of AI images to explicate why AI is stupid. buff.ly/TFaXhfy

Anticipating Edgar Wright's upcoming adaptation of THE RUNNING MAN, Andy Hageman looks back at the original book and earlier film. buff.ly/iFhU7Iq

In KONTINTENTAL '25, Romanian auteur Radu Jude presents a provocative and transgressive morality tale of homelessness. filmobsessive.com?p=295338

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY is high on the list of required cinema classics, something one of our hosts had to correct. buff.ly/8fOooQ8

ELEANOR THE GREAT follows a 94-year-old Jewish woman who moves back to New York City after her friend passes away. buff.ly/BHJp5Bn

MOVIE LISTS are routine among cinephiles, but much of the debate around said lists becomes a process that canonizes nothing. filmobsessive.com?p=295268

In THE PAINTER AND THE THIEF, a stolen canvas sparks an unlikely bond between an artist & a criminal, offering a timely meditation. buff.ly/ZkaSVm7

SUPERMAN divides its home media bells and whistles between 4K-UHD, Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download options. buff.ly/Z4jBJex

MYSTERIOUS OBJECT AT NOON is a unique documentary from Apichatpong Weerasethaku that combines fact and fiction in its storytelling. filmobsessive.com?p=295158

The 2nd Annual 29 QUEER FILM FESTIVAL is determined to highlight queer stories in every color, shape, and size imaginable. filmobsessive.com?p=295297

THE BALTIMORONS takes the mumblecore template of aimless youth people and ages them up to different hurdles and wisdom. buff.ly/aerVJAt

HANNIBAL, Ridley Scott's sequel to The Silence of the Lambs, turned the heads and stomachs of the Cinephile Hissy Fit. filmobsessive.com?p=295275

The first trailer for ANACONDA, starring Jack Black and Paul Rudd, blends laughs with scares in meta reboot. buff.ly/zUBebJn

The inaugural ASTRA PODCAST AWARDS from the Hollywood Creative Alliance aim to honor the best in podcasting entertainment. buff.ly/zDL0AEG

The 11th IRISH AMERICAN MOVIE HOOLEY returns to the Wilmette Theatre with three stellar features with Irish ties. filmobsessive.com?p=294671

A sprightly depiction of youthful love and longing, the effervescent MY SUNSHINE makes for a sweet wintry tonic. buff.ly/kOQqgdA

Kevin Wozniak reviews Paul Thomas Anderson's ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, and Teyana Taylor. buff.ly/MBPEHfe

With A BIG BOLD BEAUTIFUL JOURNEY, Kogonada veers away from the sentimental into something far more artificial. buff.ly/XPC5CDa

S.F.W. barely made a mark upon its release, but both the movie's merits and its flaws have grown more interesting over 30 years. filmobsessive.com?p=294848

“My first love has always been film music,” says Will Bates, composer for Daniel Roher’s TIFF-Canadian premiering film, TUNER.

Ben Affleck's THE TOWN helped prove his merit as a director and began a new creative path for the actor.

TIFF25 dispatch featuring reviews for James McAvoy's California Schemin’, A Useful Ghost, and The Sun Rises on Us All. filmobsessive.com/film/film-ne...

“I have no choice but to remember.” Little Amélie or the Character of Rain is a stunning piece of memory-driven filmmaking. filmobsessive.com/film/film-ne...

Darlene Naponse's new film about her home town and community, Atikameksheng Anishnawbek, balances minimalism and increasing industrialism. filmobsessive.com/film/film-ne...

Newly award-winning BLUE HERON is a quietly constructed rumination on love, loss, and the lifeboat of memories.  filmobsessive.com/film/film-ne...

Will and Don put a bow on the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE franchise and this chapter of Tom Cruise's illustrious career. buff.ly/a92Gwe8

To experience Chloe Zhao's HAMNET is to fall in love, to be pulverized by the grand emotions that make us alive. buff.ly/PwRuvut

NUESTRA TIERRA from Lucrecia Martel uses the symbolic power of images to resist notions of erasure and racism. buff.ly/ndcFNZ6

These three TIFF films--one animated, one a college romcom, the third an international roadtrip movie---together reflect our chaotic times. buff.ly/mYBVIJM

TIFF25’s honey bunch is an extreme attempt to discover how to love someone and how to manage the mistakes we make. filmobsessive.com/film/film-ne...

GHOST SCHOOL is about recognizing how a young girl can rebel against corruption in her small village in her own way.  buff.ly/H8EqR6n

Ted Evans’ RETREAT is the sort of identity-driven genre filmmaking that people have been begging for. It’s something wholly unique. buff.ly/ornd9x0

Ahead of the world premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, Lucía Aleñar Iglesias discusses grief and ghosts in FORASTERA. filmobsessive.com/film/film-ne...

LOVE, BROOKLYN makes a choice between focusing on a romantic love triangle or a modern treatise on culture. buff.ly/VEUTQ82

TRAIN DREAMS, featured at this year's TIFF, is the kind of movie that forces you to stop and take stock of this planet. filmobsessive.com/film/new-rel...

Where snappy dialogue provides as much of a thrill as every creak of the floorboards, DUST BUNNY is meant to entertain as well as frighten. buff.ly/v6wwqy0

RABBIT TRAP makes some smart choices in morphing a folk horror story into a clever heartbreaker, if not enough to transcend its flaws. buff.ly/ttBKYTB

COVER-UP examines 50 years of American scandal and wrongdoing through the work of investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. filmobsessive.com/film/film-ne...

RENOIR asks the audience to remember their own thorny adolescence as it is unperceptively shifting toward adulthood. filmobsessive.com/film/film-ne...