Wicker

Posted on October 30, 2026 at 9:22 am

B +

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for sexual content, language and brief full nudity
Profanity:	Strong, colorful, and profane language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Alcohol
Violence/ Scariness:	Peril, character seriously injured
Diversity Issues:	Class differences a theme of the film
Date Released to Theaters:	October 30, 2026

“Wicker” is a joyously bawdy fairy tale, a cheeky remix of “Beauty and the Beast,” and a sly satire of social hierarchies, with some poignant themes of mortality. It is wildly unexpected and a ton of fun.

It takes place in one of those timeless, placeless, fairy tale settings where you might spot Snow White or Belle in the town square. It’s not spotless, though. It is authentically muddy, and our heroine, who is the local fisherwoman, is so often insulted about the way she smells we can almost feel we are inhaling the scene of the fish she is delivering. In this community, no one has a name; everyone is known only by job, or the profession of one’s husband. So Olivia Colman plays Fisherwoman, who thanks to her profession, her odor, and her lack of a husband, is at the lowest rung of the town’s highly hierarchical social strata. At a town wedding, where one of the customs is to put the bride’s throat in a dog collar-style choker, Fisherwoman is mocked by being told she is the next to be married.

Fisherwoman visits the town has a Basketmaker (Peter Dinklage) and asks him to weave her a husband. He readily agrees, and shortly one arrives. Inside the intricately woven wicker is Alexander Skarsgard, still extremely dashing and handsome. And sound designer Andy Neil makes the squeaky/creaky sounds of the wicker a key part of the character, subtly shifting as the character gets less stiff and more, well, human. He turns out to be a very satisfactory husband, devoted to Fisherwoman’s happiness in bed and around the house (except stoking the fire because he is quite flammable). She soon glows with the pure happiness of being devotedly loved. And the woman at the top of the social hierarchy, Tailor’s Wife (Elizabeth Debicki) discovers that it makes her very uncomfortable not to be able to feel superior. Fisherwoman is much too happy to care or even notice that other women in the town are envying her, much less that one of them might want to find a way to make her life less enviable.

Thanks to a very game cast, he film transitions seamlessly from wildly outrageous humor to thoughtfully explored themes of social hierarchies, mortality, tender romance, and what it really means to be human.

Parents should know that this movie is very explicit in its portrayal of sex, with some nudity and very strong and crude language. There is some peril and a character is badly injured.

Family discussion: What do the women of this town envy about Fisherwoman’s romance? Why does that make Tailor’s Wife so upset? Why are people identified only by their professions or the professions of the men in their lives? What will happen next?

If you like this, try: “Save Yourselves!” by the same writer/directors

Wildwood

Posted on October 23, 2026 at 7:36 am

A-

Lowest Recommended Age:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG-13 for thematic material, language, brief partial nudity\|Bloody Images, strong fantasy violence, suicide-related material
Profanity:	Some schoolyard language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Extended peril and violence including intense battle scenes, fire, arrows, guns, sad deaths including devastating death of a child, reference to suicide
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	October 23, 2026

The latest from stop-motion animation studio LAIKA is one of the best films of the year. It is an astonishing achievement, spectacularly beautiful, touching, exciting, and meaningful.

“Andi Mack’s” Peyton Elizabeth Lee provides the voice for Prue McNeel, the impatient, impetuous daughter of gentle-hearted hippie-ish parents (Jake Johnson and Maya Erskine), and the older sister of a toddler named Mac. Prue’s parents go out, leaving her to babysit, and warning that her brother cannot leave the house. She immediately ignores that warning, pops him into a cart behind her bicycle, and takes him out into the world.

Anyone who has been to Portland Oregon (where LAIKA is based) will be captivated by the warm-hearted and very accurate portrayal of the city as Prue and Mac stop at a coffee shop and a playground. Everything goes fine except for Prue’s being annoyed by a shy classmate who clearly has a crush on her (Jacob Tremblay as Curtis) until a murder of crows (that is the correct collective term) captures him and flies off to “the impassable wilderness,” a forest no one can enter.

Prue races off on her bicycle, not noticing that Curtis is in the cart. Somehow (we will learn more about how) she is able to enter the forest, where she immediately sees coyotes in military-style uniforms, talking to each other. This is her first hint and ours that she has entered a place where most of her understanding of the world — and of herself — will be challenged.

Prue and Curtis are quickly separated and have a variety of different encounters with magical creatures, most often in dire peril. Every single part of the adventure is gorgeously imagined, with exquisite, astonishingly intricate, details. And then there are the battle scenes, as vast and visceral as any WWII film. You could watch this film a dozen times and every one will be rewarding and illuminating. Now more than ever, we can appreciate the workmanship and human personality that AI can never achieve. Every stich on the tiny sweaters, every feather, leaf, and flower, every door and window, every store sign and uniform button, every location, from a burned-out field to a grand but ominous castle, bears the literal imprint of a human artisan’s hand. It is not a coincidence that Prue’s parents are crafters.

The characters are all rich, vital, and engaging. Carey Mulligan voices the Dowager Governess, an antagonist who is not motivated by greed or power but by love and grief. We can hear the pain and struggle she feels. Angela Bassett’s warm voice gives the The General, a large bird who is ruler of the Avian Principality, compassion and grandeur. We get a glimpse over the end credits of the innumerable faces that are swapped in and out of the characters to make their dialogue and emotions so vivid they dissolve the line between human and puppet. The visuals are enthralling. The story is engrossing, with the power of myth and a heroine whose adventure will test every part of her. “Wildwood” is an instant classic, to be cherished for generations.

Parents should know that this is a PG-13 film with intense battle scenes, a suicide, a sad death, and major characters, including a baby, in dire peril. The film includes some strong language and references to infertility.

Family discussion: Why didn’t Prue listen to her parents?

If you like this, try: LAIKA’s other films, including Coraline, Kubo and the Two Strings, and Paranorman

Forgotten Island

Posted on September 24, 2026 at 10:52 am

Lowest Recommended Age:	4th - 6th Grade
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG for thematic elements, rude humor, language, brief tobacco Imagery, scary action, and some violence
Profanity:	Some strong and crude language for a PG
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Extended animation-style peril, action, and some violence, no one badly hurt, sad death (offscreen) of grandmother, parental abandonment
Diversity Issues:	A theme of the movie
Date Released to Theaters:	September 25, 2026

“Forgotten Island” is a colorful story about friendship and memory, inspired by Filipino folklore. Jo and Raissa meet as children in the waiting area for the principal’s office. They are very different, Jo (H.E.R.), a fierce, impulsive chaos agent and Raissa (Liza Soberano), deliberate, thoughtful, and academically-oriented. Jo lives with her beloved grandmother, Lola (Dolly De Leon) but feels abandoned by her parents, who have moved to the US. Raissa has a more comfortable life with devoted parents. But they have something in common, a passion for Lola’s stories about visiting the magical island of Nakali through a portal from an enchanted sun dollar.

They have both been sent to the principal’s office for getting in trouble in the classroom by insisting that Nakali is real. But they decide not to wait, leaving behind a post-it note that simply says BRB (Be Right Back), and pledge to be best friends forever, exchanging string friendship bracelets. In a charming and joyous montage, we see their adventures as they grow up, including accidentally driving a bus to the beach where it gets stuck in the sand and becomes something of a clubhouse/art project. Many special memories get added to that friendship bracelet, and many more BRB notes are left behind. And then, as the girls are near high school graduation, we see them with Lola in a hospital bed hooked up to monitors, and then she is gone.

Jo is working (and sometimes getting fired) in fast food restaurants and Raissa is getting ready to go to America to attend Caltech. The night before Raissa is to leave, Jo persuades her to go on one last adventure. They discover an enchanged sand dollar and soon they are transported to Nakali. They wake up the next morning with no memory of what happened the night before and find that the sand dollar is missing so there is no way for them to get home in time for Raissa’s flight to California. They try to figure out how Raissa lost one whole side of her hair and how she got wings. Jo is wearing a jeweled crown but has no idea where it is from. And both girls and a strange new companion named Raww (Dave Franco) have some angry-looking, possibly infected tattoos that read: Wild Pack.

They meet a series of magical creatures. Raww is a were-dog who sometimes assumes full dog form, sometimes almost turns back into a boy, and most times is a bit of both. Batiba (Jenny Slate) is an agoraphobic cave-dweller who collects the memories of visitors to the island and keeps them for herself. Merhman (Manny Jacinto) is a preening mer-man, Bungi is a 200-year-old baby whose mother finally cuts his umbilical cord so he can travel with the group, and the Manananggal (Lea Salonga) is a fierce and angry winged creature whose upper and lower halfs can separate at the torso and operate independently.

As Jo and Raissa try to locate the sand dollar, remember the night before, and hold onto the memories of their past that Batiba wants for herself, the exciting and colorful adventures help them to understand their past and learn, sometimes painfully, how to be better friends.

The Filipino folklore contributes new characters that in the Joseph Campbell or Jungian sense each represent parts of an integrated human spirit, all the parts that make up the id, ego, and superego. The visuals are dynamic, with has great, strong, colors, some luminous, and imaginative and telling character design. The pacing is very energetic, sometimes overly so, as though worried about losing the attention of the hyped up of the TikTok generation. As is the current fashion (“Spider-Verse,” “KPop Demon Hunters,” etc.), moments of particular intensity of emotion or action switch to an exaggerated, flat, anime style, which may reduce the tension by adding some self-aware humor to reassure young audience members. There are some nice tributes to the pleasures of karaoke and some good pop songs (“Don’t Stop Believin'”, “Don’t You Forget About Me”) that fit the storyline. The discussion of memories is well handled, but what’s best is the relationship of the two heroines, very different in temperament and outlook but appreciating each other and the way their differences are a strength. A sweet concluding scene is more magical than even the most fanciful character.

Parents should know that this film has some disturbing material for a PG including scary images, peril, and violence (no one badly hurt), very risky behavior shown as fun and adventurous, as well as crude language, potty humor, and jokes about crotch hits and the “Predator” movie.

Family discussion: Who have been your best friends and what memories of your time together mean the most to you? Which is your favorite of the magical characters and why?

If you like this, try: “In Your Dreams”

Coyote vs. Acme

Posted on August 26, 2026 at 11:50 am

B +

Lowest Recommended Age:	Kindergarten - 3rd Grade
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG for cartoon violence and some language
Profanity:	Some schoolyard language and potty humor
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Cartoon "violence" -- explicitly, no one hurt
Diversity Issues:	Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters:	August 27, 2026

“Coyote vs. Acme” like its title character, has proved to be unstoppable. This delightful tribute to the madcap and enduringly popular world of Looney Tunes was originally conceived as a humorous New Yorker essay by Ian Frazier in 1990. Frazier was a fan of the publication “American Lawyer” and decided to compose a legal complaint filed on behalf of Coyote against the company that was a serial offender in the categories of safety and effectiveness of consumer products. “Mr. Coyote states that on eighty-five separate occasions he has purchased of the Acme Company (hereinafter, “Defendant”), through that company’s mail-order department, certain products which did cause him bodily injury due to defects in manufacture or improper cautionary labelling.”

It was optioned for a movie but nothing happened for more than 30 years, when it was filmed by the studio behind the Looney Tunes cartoons, Warner Brothers.

And then Warner CEO David Zaslav did to the movie what Acme’s products did to Coyote: he blew it up, deciding it was better for the balance sheet as a tax write-off than as a theatrical release. Outraged fans protested. The film was picked up for distribution by plucky newcomer Ketchup Entertainment, later joined by Legion M.*

The movie is enormous fun, with deep understanding and affection for Looney Tunes, its characters and its absurd exploration of the eternal struggles of existence. Fudd will never shoot Bugs. Sylvester will never catch Tweety. And perhaps the saga of Coyote and Road Runner is the most existential, stripped down with no dialogue and always set in the spare southwestern desert.

Chuck Jones’ rules for Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner are legendary and deceptively simple. Coyote could stop any time, but he is, in today’s terms, obssessed with the Road Runner he will never catch. His failures are always the result of his own efforts, even hubris. Road Runner does nothing but run on the road and say “Beep Beep.” He never tries to outsmart Coyote or harm him in any way, as, for example, Bugs Bunny does to would-be hunter Elmer Fudd. Coyote is failed every time by the company that provides all of his equipment, Acme. The super-magnet. The parachute. The rocket-powered roller skates. Every time, they fail in spectacular fashion, often leaving Coyote falling off a cliff. Sometimes he is briefly suspended in the air before realizing that once again he is about to plummet. We stay at cliff level while he falls until we witness a puff of dust far, far below.

Coyote hires a personal injury law firm headed by Kevin Avery (“SNL” alum Will Forte). Note that the lawyers’ last names are all inspired by Looney Tunes animators. Avery’s specialty is defective products from Acme, and he settles all cases quickly for a few hundred dollars. When a clerk mistakenly files suit for hundreds of purchases instead of just the rocket roller skates, it escalates to the attention of Acme general counsel Buddy Crane (John Cena) and CEO Foghorn Leghorn (Eric Bauza, who, like his predecessor Mel Blanc, provides almost all of the voices). This threat to the company must be extinguished.

A lot of the classic Looney Tunes characters show up, and I won’t spoil which one is called as a witness to discuss Acme’s secret “Project Sisyphus,” the name a sly reference to Coyote’s perpetual inability to achieve his only objective. The integration of the cartoon and real-life characters and environments is seamless, truly impressive. The human characters are bland and underwritten compared to the cartoon characters (Lana Condor and Tone Bell are sadly wasted) and the film would benefit from being a little shorter. But it is colorful and often hilarious and its satire about the state of capitalism is just the kind of insoucient, make-fun-of-the-hand-that-feeds-you humor that the denizens of Termite Terrace specialized in. Jones, Friz Freleng, Bob Clampett, Tex Avery, Frank Tashlin and others would love this and be very glad that we never have to say, “That’s All, Folks!” to the antics of Looney Tunes.

*I have a small investment in Legion M, along with tens of thousands of other movie fans.

Parents should know that this movie has a lot of cartoon violence, but, as discussed in the film, all the cartoon immediately bounce back from whatever happens to them. There is some schoolyard language and brief potty humor.

Family discussion: Why did law school classmates Kevin and Buddy have such different careers? What do you think about Foghorn Leghorn’s explanation for Project Sisyphus? How should products be tested? Which is your favorite Looney Tunes character and why?

If you like this, try: “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” and of course the Looney Tunes cartoons

Supergirl

Posted on June 25, 2026 at 6:08 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG-13 for for sequences of strong violence, action, language, and smoking
Profanity:	Some strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking and drunkenness, cigar smoking
Violence/ Scariness:	Extended comic book violence, graphic and disturbing images, parents killed, home destroyed
Diversity Issues:	Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters:	June 26, 2026

Last year, “Superman” gave us David Corenswet as an optimistic, trusting, honorable Boy Scout of a superhero, one who said that that was the real punk rock. And in a scene in the credits, we saw that his cousin Kara/Supergirl (Milly Alcock) is a complete mess and also very attached to superdog Krypto.

Now, in “Supergirl,” that is where we start, with Kara celebrating her 23rd birthday with an inter-planetary pub crawl. Every night is a different planet and a different bar and every morning is the same hangover. Throughout this film, Superman will try to get in touch with Kara and encourage her to come “home.” But she does not see Earth as home. We will learn more about her grief and the source of her trauma later. Unlike Superman, who was sent from the exploding Krypton as a baby and found a loving home on Earth, Kara was a teenager when she lost her home and parents and has severe PTSD.

Those who know the backstory of the refugees from Krypton will remember that one of the sources of their superpowers on earth is our yellow sun, instead of the red sun on Krypton. So when we see that she is getting drunk on a planet with a red sun we know that she does not have the super-strength, invulnerability, or laser vision she has on Earth or any other yellow sun planet. But, we will learn, she likes to drink on yellow sun planets because without superpowers she is more susceptible to the effects of alcohol.

I always say that superhero movies, and really most action movies, depend more on the bad guys than the good guys, and in this case our bad guy is the genuinely terrifying Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts) an inter-planetary brigand with a face covered with studs who specializes in senseless violence, not so much because he enjoys it but because it is meaningless. We see him kill a modest man who is a legendary crafter of swords, along with his wife and son, even though they made no effort to keep him from stealing their cache of weapons. The young daughter, Ruthye (Eve Ridley) hides and sees it all. She is determined to kill Krem, so “True Grit”-style she goes to a bar full of rowdy, cut-throat outlaws to find someone to help her. This is not “Planet Hail Mary” so no one cares about details like whether the gravity and oxygen and language/communication and technology on other planets are all as easy to reach as the next stop on the subway and pretty much the same, aside from some “Star Wars” cantina-style creatures in the bar scenes.) Also, like Mattie in “True Grit,” she has an oddly formal, old-fashioned way of speaking, plus, for some reason, a British accent.

One of the bar creatures steals Ruthye’s sword, and Kara, drunk, without her powers, but perhaps identifying a little with the girl goes after the thief. It’s always good to see a fight scene that has a little extra zhuzh to it, and seeing Kara fight a gigantic, scary-looking guy without her powers and with impaired judgment adds interest. There’s nice zhuzh in some of the the other fights, another one with Kara impaired and especially when Kara fights three maurading women who have technology that enables them to disappear briefly and re-appear in another nearby location.

Even though Kara keeps telling Ruthye she will not help her, circumstances keep pushing them together. Krem takes Kara’s ship and shoots Krypto with a poison that takes three days to kill. This gives her a mission and a deadline. They also meet up with cigar-chompin’, motorcycle-ridin’, now it’s a party all-purpose ruffian Lobo (Jason Momoa) who shows up now and then, not to rescue Kara or Ruthye, just to join in.

It’s a little messy. But so is Kara, and her path to being a bit less messy by the end is worth watching.

NOTE: You do NOT need to stay to the end of the credits. No exta scenes.

Parents should know that this is a superhero film with constant comic-book-style action, peril and violence with many characters injured and killed and some graphic and disturbing images. Two young women lose their families. Young women are kidnapped with the intent to rape and impregnate them. Characters use strong language and Supergirl/Kara drinks to get drunk and numb her pain.

Family discussion: How did Ruthie change Kara’s ideas about herself? What is the difference between being nice and being good. What is the meaning of the moment when Kara decides to wear the uniform Superman gave her? Why is it SuperMAN and SuperGIRL?

If you like this try: “Superman” and the “Supergirl” television series.