- “Marvel’s Wolverine” is a Bloody Good Time, Bub (September 10, 2026)
Superheroes really are back in 2026. As if they ever left. The record-breaking success of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” segues nicely into next week’s long-awaited release of Insomniac’s “Marvel’s Wolverine,” a game with structural echoes of the company’s beloved “Spider-Man” games, with significantly less kid-friendly violence and more linear, intense storytelling. After a prologue/tutorial that feels a bit rocky in storytelling and gameplay, “Wolverine” settles in spectacularly, strapping players into a rollercoaster narrative and telling them not to panic. With remarkably fluid combat, gorgeous graphics, strong voice work, and compelling storytelling, this is one of the best games of 2026, which has already been a remarkably great year for gaming before roughly a dozen more intriguing titles come out before Thanksgiving. The Sony disc drama aside, it’s a good time to be a gamer.
“Marvel’s Wolverine” also owes a wonderful amount to the movies most readers have probably seen about the man with Adamantium bones. At first, it feels like it’s intentionally echoing the excellent “Logan,” the best film about this beloved character, in its sketch of a slightly older Wolverine forced into a protective role for more vulnerable mutants when the evil Bolivar Trask starts kidnapping them. The plan to eradicate mutantkind sends Logan back to his allies at Team X, including founder Nathaniel Essex and familiar faces like Sabretooth, Mystique, and Jean Grey, sketched very differently here than the Sadie Sink version from “BND.” More on that later.
After Team X rescues a group of mutants from Trask’s captivity, including Callisto, “Marvel’s Wolverine” pivots again to incorporate other comic book and film source material. It’s the kind of story that never directly mimics something you’ve seen before, but one can definitely feel the influence of Bryan Singer’s films on Logan’s search for identity and even Jean Grey’s ultimate arc (don’t worry, comic fans—I didn’t just spoil that it goes full Dark Phoenix à la the horrendous “The Last Stand”). As the story moves to Japan, it also brings in some of that country’s influence on this character, as seen cinematically in James Mangold’s underrated “The Wolverine.” You’ll even get to slice and dice your way through hundreds of members of The Hand, also seen in the best action sequence in “Brand New Day.”
And I do mean slice and dice. Parents should be warned that this game is far more violent than they may expect from the developers of “Miles Morales.” The developers don’t dull Logan’s blades in the slightest, allowing you to use them to stab, mutilate, and decapitate on a regular basis. The combat gameplay is familiar in its mix of strike, parry, dodge, and special powers, but it’s as fluid as any game like this that’s ever been released. As techniques, unlike new skills that recharge over time and one improves at the base mechanics, Wolverine becomes almost a Tasmanian Devil of a killing machine, taking enemies out at a rate befitting one of comicdom’s most beloved heroes. It gets to the point where one sees a dozen enemies and doesn’t question how to get through them but wonders why there aren’t more. By the time I got into my New Game Plus playthrough, I had fully mastered the combat of “Wolverine” as much as any game in years, and the adrenaline rush of a perfectly executed move simply never abates. I’ll honestly miss it.
Of course, a game can’t just be about decapitating fools who underestimated a man with claws. As for the rest of the experience, the set pieces are so spectacular that you can forgive the lackluster exploration. As for the latter, Logan often has to find something in a room to push the story forward, which basically just amounts to looking for the white dot that cues you to hit triangle. It’s not exactly thrilling. On the other hand, there are a couple of motorcycle set pieces that are so spectacular that you’ll wish there were more of them, and the big action sequences are as impressive as any MCU movie. The truth is that “Marvel’s Wolverine” gets the big and basic things right; so the minor connective tissue like running around the Team X facility to find the triangle that will push the story forward isn’t really a drag as much as a little break from the intensity before it becomes numbing.
Something else that elevates “Marvel’s Wolverine” over many games of this generation is its attention to environment. As you can imagine, when Logan turns into a blade whirlwind, nothing is safe, and the designers brilliantly allow you to leave a mark, whether it’s just a blade scratch on metal or something more intense. For example, you get into a fight in an arcade in Japan, and no claw machine is safe. Most combat sequences end in the kind of environmental destruction rarely seen in games where you can still take cover behind a wooden box, and it’s the kind of detail that really elevates the overall experience. It should also be noted that this game makes use of the PS5 controller in expansive ways, whether it’s a radio signal or just the hum and buzz of action. And the load times are insanely fast. You can go from startup to combat in actual seconds.
Finally, while “Marvel’s Wolverine” is incredibly fun, it’s also narratively richer than many superhero games. Without spoiling, Logan and Jean Grey become allies not just in stopping the big bad of this game but in figuring out the details of Logan’s lost past. Like in the Singer movies and some of the comic arcs, Logan is a killing machine who doesn’t really know how he got that way, and the script here lands in a place that’s both satisfying and poignant. It’s as rich as the great Uncanny X-Men arcs that this comic book fan grew up loving, and a reminder of how both superhero fiction and gaming can be so much more satisfying when it’s developed with true love, care, and mutilations.
Sony provided a review copy of this game. It is available on September 15, exclusively on PlayStation.
- Telluride Film Festival 2026: Table of Contents (September 9, 2026)
The 53rd annual Telluride Film Festival runs from September 4th-7th in Telluride, Colorado. Every year, the RogerEbert.com team returns to the fest to cover some of the festival’s most notable releases, as well as some under-the-radar curiosities we feel deserve to be discussed.
Below is our compiled writing from the fest, courtesy of Associate Editor Robert Daniels and contributors Cortlyn Kelly and Tomris Laffly. Keep checking this space as our coverage continues.
Reviews
You Can See Everything (Tomris Laffly)
Gentle Monster (Cortlyn Kelly)
The Only Living Pickpocket in New York (Robert Daniels)
Tenzing (CK)
Fatherland (RD)
Dispatches
Telluride 2026: Illusion of an Everlasting Summer, Burgundy, Rehearsals for a Revolution (CK)
Telluride 2026: Alpha Gang, The Liberation, The Idiots (RD)
- Telluride 2026: Illusion of an Everlasting Summer, Burgundy, Rehearsals for a Revolution (September 9, 2026)
In its 53rd edition, the Telluride Film Festival remains an industry leader in showcasing strong, technically excellent stories. While its documentary slate drew significant attention for the world premiere of the secret A24 documentary, “You Can See Everything,” several other titles are worth watching. Compared to previous years, the 2026 festival’s documentary curation is quite diverse in both subject matter and style.
“Illusion of an Everlasting Summer” sounds like an idyllic, beachy CD one’s parents would play in the car with the windows down. This nod to nostalgia is exactly the lens director Alessandra Sanguinetti wants us to look through to see her new documentary. Better known for her photography, Sanguinetti expands and personalizes her practice in piecing together footage captured across 25 years.
Beginning in the late 1990s, “Illusion of an Everlasting Summer” introduces its two main subjects, Guillermina and Belinda, cousins and soulmates. The camcorder quality also contributes to the film’s desire for the past. The grainy home-video texture adds innocence to the young girls’ curiosity in play. Their life in rural Argentina is filled with each other’s company, and although they’re aware they’re being recorded, it doesn’t seem to inhibit their actions.
The girls do not age significantly until past the movie’s halfway mark; thereafter, the time jumps grow increasingly quick. In a way, this choppy imbalance symbolizes how time moves faster and faster as we grow up, but it lands as unintentional. As the years go by, Guillermina and Belinda drift apart; the movie is the only thing keeping them in regular contact. Watching their warm, tender bond harden and wither stings worse than a romantic breakup. Guillermina rightly and poignantly chops it up as part of life. Sanguinetti’s stationary camera keeps rolling, and we see her smile soften and fade.
In reflecting further on the poetic title, “Illusion of an Everlasting Summer,” it is metaphorically and intricately woven into the documentary’s key themes. While the most compelling anecdotes are concentrated at the end, this is a contemplative, casual coming-of-age documentary.
“Where pleasure is treated like a religion” was the motto that drew directors Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw to beautifully document one of the most illustrious wine regions in France. The duo, known for visually rich representations of niche industries (“The Truffle Hunters”), bring their aesthetic excellence to their new film, “Burgundy.” Introducing each subject as if they were a character in a narrative feature, the film maintains cinematic energy that matches the region’s rich culture and history.
Enzo, monikered “The Boy,” is an aspirational 20-year-old with an old soul. The main plot of “Burgundy” centers on his professional and personal growth, including a budding relationship with Celeste, “The Girl.” There are several other storylines, like a wine critic (Guillaume) and a sommelier (Eric), that weave together to reveal the connectivity of Burgundy’s wine-and-dine ecosystem, but none of them are spotlighted like Enzo. His dedication to the land and vineyard translates into a natural presence in front of the camera. Rather than traditional sit-down interviews with its subjects, the documentary positions itself as a fly on the wall, watching each person work from afar. In keeping the frame stationary for most shots, we’re fixated and able to catch every detail of the subjects’ craft.
Most of the dialogue comes from conversations between people. This choice also shapes the movie’s narrative, as if some moments are scripted or staged. Although we hear each person’s thoughts and feelings as they express them to another, each moment still feels intimate. To truly achieve the dreamlike state that they sought to create, Dweck and Kershaw pepper the film with Super 8 footage. A childlike segment of Enzo and Celeste reenacting “Bonnie and Clyde” adds levity, but feels like an extra effort that detracts from the authenticity of its key characters.
“Burgundy” ties up every thread it pulls with a pretty bow. Most resonant is the way the characters come together to expose how age, for the people and the wine, is a complex concept for the region.
“Rehearsals for a Revolution” is a personal letter to Iran and its people from director, writer, and producer Pegah Ahangarani. She reflects on her purpose for making the film: “Is this how I make up for not being there?” In posing this, the audience ponders alongside her, but is gutted to hear the sadness in her voice as she wishes things could be different.
Chronologically pieced together in 5 episodes, Ahangarani organizes each story around a key person. Beginning with her father, Ahangarani traces the origins of her lineage’s role in Iran’s revolutionary history. By introducing her mother, a lifelong filmmaker, the film also reveals Ahangarani’s cinematic roots. She makes it evident that “Rehearsals for a Revolution” would not be possible without this combined inheritance.
Collaged from archival photos, footage, audio, and media pieces, the film’s multimedia approach highlights common threads across each episode and through Iran’s revolutionary history from the 1980s to the 2020s. Ahangarani narrates every moment, and her steady, almost stoic, voice demonstrates the resilience at the heart of the story. Even when it’s hard, damning, or life-threatening, it’s crucial to keep going. Speaking directly to the audience creates a connection between the filmmaker and the viewer, further personalizing “Rehearsals for a Revolution.” The layered sound design of papers rustling and wind blowing immerses us in the archives.
Once Ahangarani grows up and begins carrying around a camera of her own, the state-sanctioned violence is increasingly insidious. After each episode, the film provides an informational card that recaps the current cultural relevance; this also strengthens the connectivity between each portrait. The weight of “Rehearsals for a Revolution” is not borne alone; it’s an affirmation that collectivism and activism can, and must, prevail.
- TIFF 2026: 20 World Premieres We Can’t Wait to See This Year (September 9, 2026)
It’s that time of year again! We’re back with a big team at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, which starts tomorrow with one of the biggest programs in the festival’s history. Like every other year, TIFF is a mix of North American, International, Canadian, and World Premieres. It will give many people their first chance to see films from Cannes like “Fjord” and “Clarissa,” along with several Venice and Telluride options like “Wild Horse Nine” and “Ink.” While we plan to hit several films in Canada that other outlets have covered from Venice and Telluride (including highly anticipated titles like “Elsinore” and “Possible Love”), we always focus our annual preview on 20 movies playing nowhere but TIFF.
Come back for coverage of all 20 of these, plus about two dozen more, from yours truly, Marya E. Gates, Cortlyn Kelly, and Zachary Lee.
Note: All of the synopses below are from the official TIFF site.
“Babies”
Anchored by a pair of hugely appealing lead performances from Seth Rogen (TIFF ’25’s Good Fortune) and Oscar nominee Anna Kendrick (TIFF ’09’s Up In the Air), the second feature from writer-director Lauren Miller Rogen (Like Father) digs deep into the dilemma that comes for every couple: to parent or not to parent? Bolstered by an all-star ensemble that includes Issa Rae (TIFF ’23’s American Fiction), Dan Stevens (TIFF ’25’s Swiped), and Oscar nominees Sharon Stone (Casino) and David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck), Babies is relatable, hilarious, and wise in equal measure.
“Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo”
A dizzyingly prolific auteur who never fails to imprint his signature on every project he undertakes, Japanese maestro Takashi Miike (TIFF ’01’s Ichi the Killer) returns to the Festival with this thrilling contribution to a one-of-a-kind cinema legacy. Like Abel Ferrara’s cult masterpiece Bad Lieutenant (TIFF ’92) and Werner Herzog’s gonzo Southern neo-noir Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call — New Orleans (TIFF ’09), Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo is very much its own entity, not so much a sequel to its predecessors as a mood, a variation on shared themes, and a rollercoaster ride through the darkest crevasses of the Tokyo underworld.
“Being Heumann”
Every bit as moving as her Best Picture Oscar winner, CODA, Siân Heder’s Being Heumann tells the remarkable true story of the woman who led a world-changing campaign for accessibility. Judy Heumann rallied a handful, then dozens, then hundreds of ordinary Americans with disabilities to push the US government to live up to its commitments.
The year is 1977. Raised in Brooklyn by German Jewish immigrants, and using a wheelchair since a childhood case of polio, Judy Heumann (Ruth Madeley) knows it takes grit and tenacity to get things done. So when Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Joseph Califano (Mark Ruffalo) refuses to sign meaningful regulations for Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the first national civil rights legislation designed to provide protections for people with disabilities, Judy devises a plan to force his hand, beginning with the occupation of a federal building in San Francisco, before going all the way to DC — and Califano’s front door — with a diverse team of self-described “radical crips,” creating solidarity through coalitions of marginalized groups.
“Closing Night”
Actor Cody Fern (American Horror Story, The Great Darkened Days, TIFF ’18) makes a sensational directorial debut with this sharp, emotionally astute story about family bonds and buried truths. When an internationally renowned movie star (Sarah Paulson) invites her estranged family to the opening night of her Broadway play after decades of silence, old wounds resurface almost as quickly as old habits. Her emotionally fragile sister (Naomi Watts, The Friend, TIFF ’24) remains determined to hold onto a lifetime of resentment, while her nephew (Toby Wallace, Finestkind, TIFF ’23) sees an opportunity to forge a relationship with his famous aunt.
“Diary of a Mad Old Man”
This captivating chamber drama from versatile auteur Wayne Wang (last at the Festival with 2019’s Coming Home Again) draws us into the troubled psyche of an aging widower whose sudden onset of disability coincides with the development of an unnervingly intimate relationship. Featuring a brilliantly graded performance by veteran actor Lily Franky (familiar to TIFF audiences from Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Shoplifters and Chie Hayakawa’s Renoir), this adaptation of revered Japanese author Jun’ichirō Tanizaki’s eponymous novel ushers us into a realm of beguiling signals and unruly desire.
“Everybody Wants to F*ck Me”
Taron Egerton gives a gleefully committed performance as Adam in Jonathan Schey’s darkly comedic debut, riffing on the dating scene and the self-proclaimed “nice guys” who litter it. Adam has mastered all the trappings of enlightened masculinity: listening more than speaking in meetings with women coworkers, reading feminist literature, practicing yoga, and offering a soupçon of self-deprecation when chatting up women at bars or on dating apps. Adam’s longtime friend who once provided cover for his behaviour is growing up and growing weary of being an accomplice.
Adam has had a lifetime of f*ck around, but his find out is just around the corner when he meets Jessica Henwick’s Sofia. Intriguing and sharp, she proves to be a challenge calling out his behaviour. The encounter shakes Adam and, stranger still, everybody (but mostly women) start responding to his carefully studied charms, first with mild interest, then flat-out stalking, then vigorous pursuit — even when he’s appropriately dressed.
“Evil Genius”
Chilling, fascinating, and darkly hilarious, Courteney Cox’s second feature as director boldly dramatizes the bizarre web of stories behind the infamous “pizza bomber” incident. Featuring lived-in lead performances from David Harbour (Stranger Things) and Oscar winner Patricia Arquette (Boyhood), Evil Genius is an astonishing true-crime story brimming with bloodshed, betrayals, and a hopeless case of amour fou.
Erie, Pennsylvania, 2003. From a phone booth outside a waffle joint, Bill Rothstein (Harbour) calls the police to report the corpse of a murdered man stashed in a freezer in the garage of Bill’s former paramour, Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong (Arquette). But who is this murdered man? And exactly how did his body wind up in that freezer?
“Faith”
For single mother Gina (Erin Doherty, The Crown), every day is a balancing act. Raising her young son Jamie (Smylie Bradwell) while working shifts at a local factory, she does everything she can to build a comfortable home from modest means. When Gina meets the enigmatic and charming Michael (James McAvoy, California Schemin’, TIFF ’25) — a volunteer at the local food bank — his easy companionship offers the possibility of something she has long denied herself: the chance to envision a brighter future.
Then, in an instant, everything changes.
“God Bless You, Mr. Kopu”
“Unhappy? Need a change?” It’s a question, a sales pitch, and perhaps a warning. When charismatic American salesman Marco (Simon Rex, Red Rocket) arrives in New Zealand touting a revolutionary new cleaning product, he’s looking for ambitious recruits to build an army of door-to-door salespeople. Struggling to make ends meet, Mafu Kopu (TIFF 2021 Rising Star Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, Predator: Badlands) sees an offer too good to refuse. Drawn in by Marco’s effortless charm and uncanny powers of persuasion, he quickly becomes his star protégé. As the money starts to roll in, Mafu feels a growing distance from his Tongan family, his community, and the cultural values that have long defined him.
“I Play Rocky”
There is no greater movie about beating the odds through sheer determination than Rocky. But the story behind that box-office smash — which turned its unknown writer-star Sylvester Stallone into a phenomenon — is just as unlikely and inspiring. Helmed by Oscar winner Peter Farrelly (TIFF ’18 People’s Choice Award winner Green Book) and featuring a career-making performance from Anthony Ippolito, I Play Rocky vividly recreates a paradigm-shifting moment in Hollywood history and chronicles the meteoric rise of one of cinema’s preeminent multihyphenates.
“The Julia Set”
For Julia (Chase Infiniti, One Battle After Another), mathematics has always come naturally. But growing up, she learned to downplay her abilities to draw attention away from her high-needs sibling and perhaps not disrupt the expectations of others. Before long though, her intellectual talents are recognized by a teaching assistant, Pascal (Christopher Briney, The Summer I Turned Pretty), who recruits her into an elite group of student prodigies training for a highly prestigious undergraduate mathematics competition, The Putnam Exam.
Julia is thrown into the deep end, training with an infamously tough professor (Nina Hoss) who has already picked her favourites. Among them is Pascal, whose father (Jason Isaacs) is a giant in the field of mathematics. Unfortunately, his way of passing the baton is through intimidation. As the competition nears, tensions rise, sending Pascal spiralling but bringing out the best in slow and steady Julia.
“Lemonade”
After years in Ireland’s foster care system, Danny is required by law to leave the home that has been his world. On the day he turns 18, he finds himself alone in a tiny Dublin studio apartment, working an entry-level factory job, and navigating the bewildering freedoms and responsibilities of adulthood. As he struggles to find his footing — and a way back to the younger brother he was forced to leave behind — the reappearance of his former social worker Josh (Barry Keoghan, TIFF ’24’s Bring Them Down and Bird) offers both an unexpected lifeline and a painful reminder that trust, once broken, is never easily rebuilt.
“Love of Your Life”
By turns soulful, heartbreaking, and wise, this complex character study from director Rachel Morrison (TIFF ’24’s The Fire Inside) and screenwriter Julia Cox (TIFF ’23’s Nyad) provides the perfect showcase for the talented Margaret Qualley (TIFF ’24’s The Substance). Following a young woman’s romantic adventures and relationships over several years and continents, Love of Your Life is a contemporary portrait of love, loss, and letting go.
“Misty Green”
Superstar comic Chris Rock’s latest as writer-director is a hilarious, scathing satire of the institutional bigotry and soul-draining hustle that dominate the movie industry. Featuring a career-making lead performance from Rosalind Eleazar (TIFF ’19’s The Personal History of David Copperfield) and supporting turns from Oscar winner Daniel Kaluuya plus Oscar nominees Adam Driver and Anna Kendrick (also at this year’s Festival in Babies), Misty Green chronicles the extremes one Black actor goes to to keep both her career and brother alive.
“Onwards and Sideways”
With heartache, laughter, and hard-won connection, the latest from Oscar-nominated director John Madden (Shakespeare in Love, TIFF ’05’s Proof) stars Oscar nominee Laura Linney (TIFF ’08’s The Savages) and Rhys Ifans (TIFF ’23’s Mother Couch) as strangers whose lives become gradually entwined when both are diagnosed with Parkinson disease at the same clinic, on the same day.
“Prima Facie”
Anchored by a powerhouse performance from Cynthia Erivo, the Oscar-nominated star of Wicked and TIFF ’19’s Harriet, this piercing legal drama examines what happens when an ambitious barrister who primarily defends those accused of sex crimes unexpectedly becomes the accuser. Adapted by Australian playwright Suzie Miller from her globally acclaimed one-woman show, and directed by Susanna White (Our Kind of Traitor, TIFF ’17’s Woman Walks Ahead), Prima Facie exposes the pitfalls of a legal system that places the burden of proof on the victim.
“The Stunt Driver”
Even when compared with his fellow mavericks, misfits, and adrenaline junkies who wowed audiences with their high-speed stunts during the 1970s golden age of daredevils, Ken Carter was one of a kind. Known as “The Mad Canadian” and immortalized in Robert Fortier’s 1981 NFB documentary The Devil At Your Heels — a film whose creation is very much woven into this successor’s gonzo tapestry — Carter repeatedly risked his life for a series of car stunts that culminated in the most ambitious project of all: a historic jump in a rocket-powered Lincoln Continental across a mile-wide expanse of the St. Lawrence River. What could go wrong? In short: everything.
Powered by Jay Baruchel’s all-out performance as the man behind the wheel, Michael Dowse’s endearingly scrappy comedy honours its inspiration by portraying all the steps and missteps over the course of Carter’s years-long quest. The fact that The Stunt Driver frequently matches the anarchic energy of Baruchel and Dowse’s previous teaming on Goon (TIFF ’11) is no surprise. What’s more unexpected is the poignancy that the actor brings to his take on a man whose displays of bravado conceal a welter of fears and insecurities. It’s easy to see why he relies on steadfast allies like his wife Gloria (Laurence Leboeuf) and his car designer and technician Dick Keller (Ed Helms) — and why he’s so easily undermined by the machinations of his American nemesis, the legendary Evel Knievel (Ben Foster).
“A Talent for Murder”
This smouldering chamber thriller from director Anton Corbijn (TIFF ’07’s Control) imagines a strange confrontation between a literary agent and legendary author Patricia Highsmith, whose acclaimed, icily intelligent crime novels were the source material for such classic films as Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley. Adapted by Joanna Murray-Smith from her play Switzerland and starring Alden Ehrenreich (TIFF ’23’s Fair Play), Olivia Cooke (TIFF ’19’s Sound of Metal; also at this year’s Festival in Slow Horses) and Oscar winner Helen Mirren, A Talent For Murder pits ruthless careerism against dark genius in a slippery battle of wills.
“Trash Mountain”
A dead hoarder’s houseful of holdings yields hope for a young man’s self-reckoning in this funny, wise film from director Kris Rey (It Was Great, But I Was Ready to Come Home). Featuring winsome performances from Caleb Hearon (The Devil Wears Prada 2), Zooey Deschanel (500 Days of Summer), and Oscar nominee Jackie Weaver (TIFF ’12’s Silver Linings Playbook), Trash Mountain is a homecoming story for anyone who dreads coming home.
“Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother”
A showcase for the immense range and singular magnetism of Oscar winner Mahershala Ali (TIFF ’18 People’s Choice Award winner Green Book), the latest from writer-director Bassam Tariq (Mogul Mowgli) is an audaciously inventive Texas-set action thriller in which the line that separates religious devotion from righteous bloodshed evaporates in a cloud of mayhem.
Latif (Ali) is a devout Muslim and a loving family man who also happens to be a contract killer. He has a strict code: he never uses guns and he only accepts targets the world would be better off without.
- Telluride 2026: Alpha Gang, The Liberation, The Idiots (September 8, 2026)
I have left the mountainous confines of Telluride and am currently winding down mountainous roads to Grand Junction. But I am also unspooling much of what I saw at a festival that included far more laughs than I anticipated. Some of those zingers are in two of these films, though one is decidedly not (you’ll know when you get there).
Verdant brushland, inviting ponds, and rolling fields of horses color my view, populating a road away from the one fest where, before every screening, the ringmaster warns attendees to be careful of roaming bears. I’d like to think this dispatch carries the same caveat of splendor and worry, though with less actual doom.
It’ll come as a shock to no one that David and Nathan Zellner’s raucous, medieval, sci-fi biker lark, “Alpha Gang,” isn’t exactly subtle. A group of aliens posing as humans, dressed in 1950s black leather studded jackets, arrives at a castle in a war-torn, vaguely European country to conquer humanity with shiny silver machine guns.
Léa Seydoux, Dave Bautista, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Lily-Rose Depp, Doona Bae, and Riley Keough make up the gang whose codenames are numerical versions of Alpha (e.g., Alpha 1, 2, etc.). They spend their days listening to music by The Crystals, Ricky Nelson, and more on their jukebox, and hiding their emotions (the latter they consider a contagious disease) from one another. They’re curious about ants, plants, and hard candy, and possess chrome armor and eat orange grull.
The Zellners don’t do conventional world-building here. We never quite discover what country the film is set in (the inhabitants range from rural to fascist to sometimes Soviet) or what planet the Alpha Gang hails from. We don’t even know their species. So when they unleash bloody violence on humanity, we only know that they’re out to kill those they consider to be evolutionarily lesser. Instability is added to their broad mission when a stoic Chris Pine, whose dress recalls Elvis from “Jailhouse Rock,” arrives, alerting them to a rival Beta Gang led by Cate Blanchett sporting a studded eye patch and a slurred Cockney accent.
In a sense, “Alpha Gang” is a trippy, hyperviolent explosion of cool style and kooky jokes. It’s also a reminder that Bautista is one of our great deadpan comedians and Harrison Jr. can do just about anything, even seemingly falling in love with a hawk named Periwinkle as he does here. But most of all, this potpourri of aesthetic and influence, similar to “Sasquatch Sunset,” uses absurdity to critique the ways humans other, destroy, and shut down empathy. And while you’ll probably find that you have to wade through the wackiness to get to those grander themes, they’re hidden grace notes worth finding in a film that’s incredibly funny.
Guy Nattiv’s “The Liberation” is a slow-simmer mystery looking for a center. That search isn’t totally shocking. Its frail protagonist Rita Cooper (Carrie Coon), similarly scans the horizon of her milquetoast life—which involves being an assistant bank manager, raising her two daughters Ella (Bella Ramsey) and Jo (Odessa Young), and being a devoted wife to her husband Reuben (Tracy Letts) and caretaker to her father—for a kind of fulfillment and healing she can’t quite locate in her suburban New Jersey community. Her unconscious quest ends when the persuasive self-help feminist guru Ricki (Lily James) walks into her bank to deposit a huge chunk of change. Rita doesn’t stop to ask where that money came from or what it’s for. She’s already invested in a woman she believes sees her for who she is.
Maybe it’s because “The Liberation” is partly based on Nattiv’s grandmother’s involvement in a cult; the film at least understands that a cult can be interesting not because of its charismatic leader but because of the psychology of its followers. Why would someone join an organization that’s so obviously controlling and manipulative?
Nattiv, an Israeli filmmaker whose past works include the Oscar-nominated short “Skin,” partly places the reason for his protagonist’s actions in her status as a Holocaust survivor. And for a while, one wonders if he’ll connect how the loss of family and one’s country could lead someone to buy into the cult of contemporary Zionism (to be clear, he never gestures close enough to the subject for one to wholly make that leap).
The overlong film is also somewhat betrayed by its ping-pong structure. It switches between showing how Rita became twisted in Ricki’s sticky web in 1982 and her daughters visiting Ricki’s secluded woodland compound in 1984 to find their mother. The latter has an undercover element that pays homage to contemporary true-crime stories but never commits enough to the intrigue to fully sustain the genre’s tension and ambiguity. The structure also undermines Coon’s unquestionably captivating performance, making it far more melodramatic than Coon probably intended.
The narrative’s ping-pong movement could spring from several wells: It might be mirroring Rita’s spiritual split or psychological destabilization via Ricki, who demands that Rita stop using her psychiatric drugs, and it could arise from Nattiv physically trying to piece together his grandmother’s perspective. While at Telluride, Nattiv alluded to his mother and aunt also being associated with the cult, even bringing him to meetings when he was younger, which all sounds like an equally fascinating story the director could’ve told about himself. Instead, he’s wading through memories that aren’t necessarily his, causing the film to feel as though we’re looking at Rita through a mirror of a mirror.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t commendable components to “The Liberation.” Nattiv smartly portrays every level of Ricki’s grooming with straightforwardness (the scenes with the cult are always brightly lit, while those with Rita’s family look grim). His lens also trusts Coon’s physical countenance, charting the character’s spiral by showing her stilted exterior melt into powerful frivolity before reverting back into painful frigidity. But “The Liberation” is too caught within the fog to maximize what is working. Instead, it feels trapped in its fractured telling of a personal history that never quite feels personal.
Some movies just never come together despite the talent attached and the genius of the premise. Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert’s absurdist biopic “The Idiot(s)” is such a case. It’s based on Andrew D. Kaufman’s The Gambler Wife: A True Story of Love, Risk and the Woman Who Saved Dostoyevsky, and it concerns Fyodor (Johnny Flynn) and Anna Dostoyevsky (Aimee Lou Wood), who have just arrived in Baden from Russia in debt and in search of inspiration. Their story is told with a kind of flippancy, blending the comedic sensibilities of “Amadeus” and Lina Wertmüller to dismantle the great-man mythology surrounding the author and elevate his far more responsible wife.
Fyodor, as Flynn plays him, is a man of many vices. Though he loves his wife, particularly being flogged by her during sex, he possesses an unfocused eye. Upon arriving in Braden, he first pursues the mysterious Natasha F (Vicky Krieps), a reference to the heroine of The Idiot, Nastasya Filippovna, who almost never speaks but whose enchanting gaze spellbinds the author nonetheless. When those efforts threaten to crack open his marriage, he turns to gambling away the pittance of money he and Anna have.
Worse yet, the only prospect of him being paid is if Fyodor sends pages of the novel he’s attempting to write, The Idiot, to his editor. That wouldn’t normally be a problem, except writer’s block has hit him, leaving Anna to make a deal with his rival, the Russian expat Ivan Turgenev (Christian Friedel), to pawn off their possessions and even write some pages by hand under his name.
While all of this sounds pretty bleak, Szumowska and Englert are knowingly crass in their approach—in one scene Fyodor defecates in front of his landlady’s door—and abrasive in their resolve. They push the boundaries of the period costumes, make jokes about Fyodor’s seizures, and do anachronistic covers of a-ha’s “Take On Me.”
Flynn and Wood are equally committed to this extreme rendering, earnestly espousing desperation, love, jealousy, regret, and humiliation with an openness that, for a time, papers over the picture’s repetitiveness. Unfortunately, even they can’t forestall the inevitable. “The Idiot(s)” runs out of steam quickly once it repeats the same punchline a dozen times.
The film wears you down rather than excites you, partly because Anna is never quite as strong of a character as a modern viewer would hope. While it’s true in real life that Anna separated Fyodor’s vices from the actual man she loved, the “stand by your man” theme running underneath their relationship feels less like love and more like a personal torture—causing anyone who decides to stick around to finish the film to also feel as though they’ve been hollowed out as well. Which may be the point, even if it’s inarticulately told.
