Release Date: 06/19/26 [Netflix] Genre: Comedy. Drama. Romance. MPAA: Rated TV14. Distributor: Netflix. The Verdict: A Must-See A sign of a good romantic comedy is the immense comfort you feel as the film winds down, a feeling you hope never leaves. Voicemails for Isabelle will make you laugh, cry, and reflect on all forms of love and affection. Written and directed by Leah McKendrick, the story follows Jill (Zoey Deutch) as she attempts to navigate her career, love life, an

Release Date: 06/05/26 [Cinemas / VOD] Genre: Horror. Thriller. MPAA: Not Rated. Distributor: IFC Films. The Verdict: A Mistake With all respect to Moby-Dick and its immortal opening, call me Fishfood. Some nights ago, with little to occupy my thoughts save idle curiosity and the endless tides of streaming entertainment, I embarked upon Chum. I expected perhaps a modest voyage into shark-infested terror. Instead, I found myself adrift in waters shallow of thought and barren o

Release Date: 08/28/26 [Cinemas] Genre: Comedy. Crime. MPAA: Rated R. Distributor: IFC Films. Seen for the 2026 Atlanta Film Festival. The Verdict: A Must-See When we are down on our luck, what exactly defines us as a person? Is it the mistakes you have made that got you where you're at? Or is it the moments where you strive to always do the right thing? In Macon Blair's Idiots, two strangers who are in desperate need of money are tasked with transporting an affluent white ki

Season 2. [Episodes 1 - 4] Aired On: Disney+. Release Date: 07/01/26. Genre: Action. Adventure. Animation. Drama. The Verdict: A Must-See “We gotta get the X-Men back – to the ’90s.” That line, doing a whole lot of meta-heavy lifting, kicks off Season 2 of X-Men ’97, Disney’s revival of the beloved animated series that helped define a generation of comic-book fans. Picking up directly after last season scattered the X-Men across time, the new season wastes little time getting

Release Date: --/--/-- [Festival Run] Genre: Comedy. Horror. SciFi. MPAA: Not Rated. Seen for the 2026 Tribeca Festival. The Verdict: A Must-See Many bands spend their early years looking for their signature sound, the aspect of their music that will not only hook fans but set them apart from other artists. But what if that sound could literally kill? That’s the premise of the genre-bending film Turn It Up! The film begins with a small piece of exposition, telling the audienc

Release Date: 06/05/26 [Cinemas] Genre: Crime. Drama. Romance. Thriller. MPAA: Not Rated. Distributor: Magnolia Pictures. Seen for the 2026 Milwaukee Film Festival. The Verdict: A Must-See As a big fan of Adam Rehmeier’s debut film, Dinner in America, I went into this one with high hopes. Carolina Caroline blends Bonnie and Clyde with Crossroads, telling the story of two young lovers who travel across the country committing crimes and searching for a long-lost relative. Samar

Release Date: 06/12/26 [Cinemas] Genre: Action. Crime. Thriller. MPAA: Rated R. Distributor: Lionsgate. The Verdict: A Must-See In any other film, a man trapped in a cage, and outnumbered with several muscular henchmen would spell certain doom. But in Kenji Tanigaki’s The Furious, it’s the spark to one of many memorable fight setpieces that elevate the action genre - all while putting a whole new meaning to the phrase “hammer time.” Set “somewhere in Southeast Asia,” the film

Mini-Docuseries. Release Date: 05/12/26 [HBO Max] Runtime: 300 minutes. The Verdict: A Must-See It’s difficult to not get swept up by the mounting fervor that comes once every four years when the FIFA World Cup brings the world together for the biggest soccer tournament on the planet. Historically, the U.S. men’s team has been underwhelming. In 2018, they failed to even qualify for the tournament. In 2022, the team made it out of the group stage but was knocked out in the rou

Release Date: 06/12/26 [Cinemas] Genre: Drama. Mystery. SciFi. Thriller. MPAA: Rated PG13. Distributor: Universal Pictures. The Verdict: A Must-See What does truth mean to you? Is my truth the same as yours? Is there one objective truth? What we know today might not even add up to half of what we know tomorrow. Our knowledge of the world and each other is growing constantly, but what about what we know beyond our world? Are we ready for that kind of revelation? These are the

Release Date: 06/12/26 [Shudder] Genre: Thriller. MPAA: Not Rated. Distributor: Shudder. The Verdict: A Maybe Shudder has brought another thrilling tale of rebellion and revenge with writer/director Izabel Pakzad’s Find Your Friends. I bring up Shudder specifically because the horror streaming service being at the forefront of the marketing, may set some viewers up for more traditional horror fare, and this film does not fit into that mold. This movie is thrilling and violent

Limited Series. Aired On: Apple TV. Release Date: 06/05/26. Genre: Crime. Drama. Thriller. The Verdict: A Must-See I find it challenging to review an adaptation of a book from the 1950s, which has already been adapted to film twice, including a cult classic Martin Scorsese movi—…sorry, ‘PICTURE’ starring Robert Deniro and Nick Nolte. The Scorsese adaptation is the only previous material I’m familiar with and have seen, but it’s been quite a while. I will mostly speak to this

Release Date: 06/05/26 [Cinemas] Genre: Action. Adventure. Fantasy. SciFi. MPAA: Rated PG13. Distributor: Amazon MGM Studios. The Verdict: A Maybe A smart, witty, not-too-serious but still fun enough to cross generational barriers, adaptation of a 50-year-old IP is the perfect recipe for a fresh, summer blockbuster film. Travis Knight’s Masters of the Universe, the long-awaited live-action take on He-Man, doesn’t quite reach this level. But it does come close. After nearly

Release Date: 05/22/26 [Cinemas] Genre: Horror. Thriller. MPAA: Not Rated. Distributor: Passage Pictures. The Verdict: A Mistake For anyone who has survived endless Zoom calls, motivational seminars, or a manager who describes themselves as a "thought leader," a horror movie premise set within such an establishment sounds like therapeutic cinema. Just ask Sami Raimi. As such, Corporate Retreat arrives with a killer idea: trap a bunch of c-level execs in a nightmare team-build

Release Date: 05/29/26 [Cinemas] Genre: Drama. History. Thriller. War. MPAA: Rated PG13. Distributor: Focus Features. The Verdict: A Must-See If someone were to watch a different World War II film each day, the quest would take over 16 years to complete. The global impact of the Second World War has reverberated across generations, and numerous stories about the war, its combatants, and their decisions have inspired nearly 6,000 films. Each year, a new detail or event becomes

Release Date: 05/08/26 [Cinemas] Genre: Horror. SciFi. MPAA: Rated R. Distributor: Brainstorm Media. The Verdict: A Mistake What do you do when you know something is wrong, yet you cannot prove it? When you know to question your reality because you feel that something is off, but you cannot put your finger on it? And the only people you see tell you you’re wrong and that it’s all in your head? From this, you can only rationalize your own insanity. In today's popular lexicon,

Season One. [Episodes 1 - 2] Aired On: Apple TV. Release Date: 05/29/26. Genre: Drama. SciFi. The Verdict: A Must-See Bucking the old adage that you can’t go home again, the architects behind Apple TV+’s alt-history space epic For All Mankind return to the launchpad with Star City, a Soviet-side retelling of the lunar race that first ignited the franchise. After all, in the show’s timeline, it was Communist Russia, not the red-white-and-blue of the Apollo mission, that plante

Release Date: 06/19/26 [Cinemas] Genre: Comedy. Drama. MPAA: Not Rated. Distributor: Magnolia Pictures. Seen for the 2026 Milwaukee Film Festival. The Verdict: A Maybe Maddie’s Secret is a movie that left me a bit baffled. It’s an obvious satire, but moments of earnestness still hint at something more meaningful. The film is a comedically-charged criticism of influencer culture and the pressure put on modern women, so it raised my eyebrows a bit to see that it was directed by

Release Date: 05/29/26 [Cinemas] Genre: Horror. SciFi. Thriller. MPAA: Rated R. Distributor: A24. The Verdict: A Must-See Kane Parsons’ Backrooms is a sometimes messy, always mesmerizing feature film debut. The 20-year-old director has essentially had the corner market on the concept since the beginning – with his YouTube Shorts garnering millions of views. The feature-length film features certain elements inspired by the backrooms’ humble beginnings and throws in a whole lot

Physical Media Release Date: 05/19/26. Label: Lionsgate Limited. Form of Release: 4K UHD Collector's Edition. The Verdict: A Must-Buy The magic and madness of making 'Apocalypse Now' Witness the magic and madness behind the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 visionary Vietnam War epic, Apocalypse Now, starring Martin Sheen and Marlon Brando. Now available on 4K with a special-edition art book, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse chronicles the chaos and turbulence

Release Date: 05/22/26 [Netflix] Genre: Comedy. MPAA: Rated R. Distributor: Netflix. The Verdict: A Mistake Based on a French film that was released on Netflix several years back, Sacha Baron Cohen and Rosamund Pike take over in this English language remake that, while not even close to as poorly executed as the trailer indicated, it still leaves a lot of commentary on the table. Coincidentally just a few weeks back I had noted that Cohen, having appeared in Prime Video’s Ba