Sense and Sensibility

Posted on October 14, 2026 at 5:41 pm

B +

Lowest Recommended Age:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG for some thematic elements, partial nudity and brief violence
Profanity:	None
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Social drinking
Violence/ Scariness:	Duel (no one hurt)
Diversity Issues:	Class issues
Date Released to Theaters:	October 16, 2026

The new version of “Sense and Sensibility” is based on the classic Jane Austen book about two sisters, which has already inspired a beloved 1995 film starring Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet with Thompson’s Oscar-winning screenplay, as well as a 1971 four-part BBC miniseries, a 1981 seven-part BBC miniseries, a three-part BBC miniseries, two Hallmark movies, as well as many lightly inspired variations including one starring the Duff sisters and one called “From Prada to Nada.” So, any new version should find some way to justify itself by showing us some new insight or some improvement in acting or script. This latest version does not meet that test, but it does remind us why the story endures over the generations. The Emma Thompson version directed by Ang Lee is still the best, but this one, written and directed by women, is a pleasure to watch, despite some odd departures from the source material.

As in all of the previous versions and as indicated by the title, the two devoted sisters represent two different ways of looking at the world. Elinor Dashwood (Daisy Edgar-Jones) represents sense with an outlook that is practical and analytical. Marianne (Esmé Creed-Miles) is passionate, impulsive, and dreamy. Director Georgia Oakley and screenwriter Diana Reid introduce us to Marianne as she is peacefully lying in a field and she is most often seen outdoors, while Elinor is usually inside.As the story begins, the girls’ father has died. As we know all too well from the literature of and about the period, that means their home will be inherited by their brother John (Tom Brooke of “Slow Horses”), because property almost always was entailed – automatically inherited by — the male heirs. John arrives with his selfish wife Fanny (Stacy Martin), who makes no effort to hide her wish that Marianne and Elinor, along with their mother, (Caitríona Balfe of “Outlander) and sister Margaret (Bodhi Rae Breathnach) would leave as soon as possible. While they try to find a place they can afford, Fanny’s shy brother Edward (George MacKay) comes for a visit. He and Elinor quickly become friends. While her behavior is perfectly proper, she and her mother begin to think he might propose. But he does not. And soon the Dashwoods have to accept the only offer of a new home they have, on the property of a distant relative, the warm-hearted but raucous and gossipy Mrs. Jennings (Fiona Shaw). Marianne, outdoors as usual, twists her ankle and is rescued by the handsome and very dashing Mr. Willoughby (Frank Dillane, who played the teenaged Tom Riddle in “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”). Despite Elinor’s pleas to be careful, Marianne loses her heart to him immediately and is certain he will propose to her. When he leaves abruptly, she is devastated.

One wise choice in this film was casting actors closer to the ages of the characters in the book. Winslet was 19 when she played Marianne, but Thompson and Grant were in their mid-30s. Edgar-Jones and Creed-Miles are young enough to understand their characters’ more naive choices. The use of the settings, glowingly filmed by Arnaud Potier, enhances the story. MacKay and Balfe are very good, and so is Bodhi Rae Breathnach as the younger sister, Margaret. The stand-out is the always-great Shaw, who makes Mrs. Jennings less of a caricature than in some of the other versions.

It is difficult to imagine any reason for some of the departures from the book than a lack of confidence in the audience attention span. Changing the character of Lucy Steele (Ceara Coveney) from the crass daughter of a middle-class landlord to recently impoverished upper class makes her role in the story less compelling. And there is simply no possible reason to insert a ridiculous duel.

Austen’s story and characters, appealing young performers, beautiful cinematography and score (Roger Goula) make this a worthy watch and a reason to be optimistic about the inevitable future version.

Parents should know that this film has brief partial nudity and brief violence (a duel, but no one gets hurt).

Family discussion: Are you more like Elinor or Marianne? Why has this story been so beloved for centuries?

If you like this, try: the book by Jane Austen and the Thompson/Grant/Winslet/Rickman version

Verity

Posted on October 1, 2026 at 5:14 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for for sexual content, some nudity, language, violence and bloody images
Profanity:	Very strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Alcohol, vaping, pills
Violence/ Scariness:	Murder, peril, disturbing and violent content
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	October 2, 2026

I can understand why BookTok-to-besteller author Colleen Hoover wrote a book about a bestselling author. And I can understand why two of Hollywood’s most accomplished and talented actresses would want to produce and star in a book by a best-selling author with two juicy parts for women. But ooof, despite Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson doing their best, this movie is a dumb, dull, dud.

Let’s start with one of the most misbegotten meet-cutes in movie history. Movies love to have a fun situation bring two characters together for the first time. In “Verity,” Lowen (Johnson) is an author whose book-signing attracted only three people, one who left when she got a phone call. Her agent has set up an important meeting with a publisher and she wants to get there in time. She is almost there when suddenly, she is drenched in blood when a woman is hit by a car. A handsome bystander (Josh Hartnett) takes her into a bathroom to help her clean up and even gives her the literal shirt off his back. Somehow in this brief conversation, he tells her that his eight-year-old daughter was drowned in a lake and she responds, “My mother just died.”

Lowen rushes to the meeting, and can you guess who’s in the room? Yes, in a new shirt, the very same guy. He is Jeremy Crawford, the husband of wildly popular author Verity Crawford (Hathaway), whose books are, in the world of this film, unique because they are from the villain’s point of view. Verity was in a car accident and is unable to get her new book done in time for the deadline. The publisher is looking for an NDA-bound writer “of the same genre” to finish the book.

At first, Lowen says no. But Jeremy tells her that Verity loves Lowen’s book, and soon she is moving into the Crawford’s lavish country house in snowy Vermont, with architectural details along the roof making it look like a buzzsaw, as though it is an omen or something. Lowen meets the Crawford’s young son, Crew (these names!) and Verity’s nurse, Anna (Irina Dvorovenko). Verity is paralyzed and mute, unable to communicate. Lowen has to sort through all of the notes for the book on her own. She finds a hidden thumb drive that contains Verity’s memoir, with a disturbing description of her selfishness and neediness.

It gets more disturbing and Jeremy gets more intriguing and Lowen either thinks she sees Verity standing and looking at her or….

There are too many shots of people holding beverages. Parallels of hands being pricked and mouths being cut/bitten are not as meaningful as they intend. There are some very funny flashbacks as we see Verity at the height of her fame, interviews about her books with the media big three — Gayle King, Alex Cooper, and Sean Evans on “Hot Ones.” It’s turgid and it’s slow. Which is bad because it gives you more time to think about how unimaginative it is and wonder why a child who is supposed to be at least eight years old i is clearly younger, why Lowen always wears black nail polish and when it will be over so you can go home.

Parents should know that this movie has nudity and explicit sexual situations, graphic and disturbing images, very strong language, reference to suicide, murder, drinking, pills, and smoking.

Family discussion: What would this movie be like if it was presented as the villain’s point of view? What made Verity’s books so popular? What will happen next?

If you like this, try: Colleen Hoover’s book and the other movies based on her books, “It Ends With Us” and “Regretting You.”

Heart of the Beast

Posted on September 24, 2026 at 5:36 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	High School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG-13 for violence, bloody/injury images, some language, and peril
Profanity:	Some strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Beer
Violence/ Scariness:	Extreme and intense peril, graphic wounds
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	September 25, 2026

Two former military, both with some PTSD, camp out in the Alaska wilderness. One is James (Brad Pitt), a retired special forces soldier, and the other is a scout dog named Odin, who was injured in action and now has titanium teeth and a prosthetic leg. “The Heart of the Beast” is the term for the area, for its distance from the trappings of civilzation in mileage and difficulty, but it is also a reference to the two souls who would prefer to maintain that distance.

While trying to navigate through a storm, James has a heart attack and crashes his plane. They have to traverse 58 treacherous miles on foot, and this is the story of that journey.

Director of Photography Mauro Fioe (“Avatar,” “Training Day”) shows us both the pristine beauty of the stunning landscape and the ominous danger for even the hardiest of visitors. (For this film, the part of Alaska is being taken by understudy New Zealand, authenticity overtaken by economics.) We can see why James feels happiest there, away from the humanity that created his trauma and the humanity who can never understand what he experienced. He gets to use the skills that kept him alive in a combat zone for a peaceful purpose, just quietly experiencing the wonders of nature. Brief flashbacks to the chaos of combat show us how devastating that experience was for both James and Odin.

The film is bookended with brief scenes featuring the wonderful Anna Lambe of “North of North.” But James has just one encounter with a human, J.K. Simmons as Watkins, a gruff but gracious man very familiar with the area who tells James he has never seen anyone else in “the heart of the beast.” Pitt shows us the sharp contrast between James’ loving interactions with Odin and his awkward reserve with another human, at first not even giving Watkins his name, and than, reluctantly, just his first name. They sit by the fire together, drinking James’ Belgian ale, and Watkins talks about his own life and asks questions not about James but about Odin, to help James open up a bit. As he promises, he is gone before James and Odin wake up the next morning, but he leaves behind a book, highlighting a quote he thinks James will appreciate: “He had survived the worst the world could do to him. He had known the cruelty of man, yet he lives… and the love of man had taken root in his heart.” (The quote is not from a book; it was written for the movie by screenwriter Cameron Alexander. This screenplay, his first filmed feature, was selected from “The Black List,” a high-profile collection of curated quality scripts.)

Each part of the journey brings different dangers, and each tells us something about James and Odin. We see that Odin is important to James because of his courage and sacrifice, because of the loyalty of those who have shared time in battle, and also because James may not be ready to interact with people, but caring for another creature gives him a sense of purpose and accomplisment. Pitt is superb in performance where he is the only human on screen for most of the film. We see James’ skill in the way he evaulates and responds to an increasingly daunting series of challenges. This film may not be an advertisment for Special Forces training, but it may send some audience members to REI, as even after many of his supplies are lost, James somehow seems to have an endless Mary Poppins carpetbag of items he needs when things go badly. We see James’ joy in Odin, his resolve, his grace under pressure, and sometimes the anguish he tries to hide from his canine family. Pitt is terrific with Odin (played by a dog named Uber), making us feel their deep connection. And Odin is up there with Rin Tin Tin and Lassie in his daring and devotion.

Parents should know that this is a story of extreme peril involving falls, a heart attack, a bear, wolves, a plane crash, and near-drowning. There is a very sad death. James uses strong language.

Family discussion: Why was Odin so important to James? What were the most important items James had with him in case of emergency?

If you like this, try: “Megan Levey,” based on the true story of a young Marine corporal and her military combat dog

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