Week Ending 2/27/26
Dunk & Egg & USA
As someone who couldn't have been more frustrated that the first three or four seasons of "Game of Thrones" all ended with the same exact cliffhanger about the impending White Walker threat, let's just say I was glad to be rid of Westeros.
And then came Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire Egg to bring me back in. Well, not BACK back. I will probably never rewatch GoT and have zero interest in watching "House of the Dragon" for the first time, but I will definitely be tuning into season two of "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" when it debuts next year (it's currently filming now).
For six episodes we received the story of a Hedge Knight (legitimate or not) journeying to make his late master proud by competing in a jousting tournament to earn money and live his life with honor. Add a stowaway in Egg, the need to prove his knighthood, and the selfish monsters that inhabit House Targaryen and you can imagine the drama and roadblocks that get in his way.
At a moment in time where you have people saying to "keep politics out of sports" with straight faces despite a president too scared to be booed by the world to attend the Gold Medal men's hockey game (as planned) yet still able to boldly mock the women's team for winning the same medal three days earlier in a bid to endear himself to Kash "I always shotgun beers on taxpayer-funded work trips" Patel's new BFFs, it's a balm for the soul to see a character like Dunk risk his life for the integrity to do the right thing.
We don't live in 2010 anymore. Hell, it's not 2000 either. This isn't an era where our POTUS can feasibly be considered a role model regardless of political affiliation to explain away a visit to the White House (let alone the partisan rally Trump has turned the State of the Union into) as merely adhering to "tradition."
This is an administration rounding up undocumented immigrants who are doing it "the right way" straight from their citizenship court appointments (Auston Matthews' mother is a Mexican immigrant), murdering citizens and harassing observers in blue states as a means to terrorize political opponents (Brock Faber, Quinn Hughes, and Matt Boldy all play in Minnesota), emboldening states like Kansas to void driver's licenses of trans people overnight (many of these athletes fancy themselves LGBTQ allies), and covering for pedophiles so as not to "destroy the system" that should be destroyed if that's what it's been built upon.
So, in order to keep that "tradition" alive, the twenty players who visited the White House (five didn't with Jake Guentzel, Brock Nelson, Kyle Connor, Jackson LaCombe, and Jake Oettinger—the latter three didn't play in the deciding game—citing scheduling conflicts despite Connor playing for the same team as Connor Hellebuyck) and seventeen who attended the SOTU (Matthews, Clayton Keller, and Dylan Larkin skipped it despite being in DC) allowed themselves to be used as political pawns hooting and hollering at every lie Trump spouted because they're just "dumb hockey players" appreciating "how great it is to be American."
If Dunk selflessly coming to the rescue of a woman in peril at the hands of a man with the power to order his death on a whim is any indication, he would have declined that invite, lambasted the president for not inviting the women the night they won regardless of what the men's result might be, and joined Hilary Knight and company in Vegas once Flavor Flav gets the party he's throwing for them (and all other woman medalists) organized.
Because what's more American than reminding those in power that they're neither above the law nor entitled to your victories by proxy? What more needs to happen for these athletes to realize their own power and not let others steal it from them, naively or not? Because the longer they wait, the more we must assume their allyship is performative and Tage Thompson isn't the only one adding a new MAGA hat to his collection back home.
Come See Me in the Good Light
If you want to understand the vibe of Ryan White's Come See Me in the Good Light, look no further than when another patient waiting outside the hospital asks Andrea Gibson what the film crew is doing. Their response: "I don't know, he just started following me." It's a laugh met by the sweetest reply from that unseen person saying they aren't surprised because Andrea is a knock-out. That mix of joyous fun and heartfelt empathy is felt throughout.
Because the journey (and real reason for the film crew) isn't a happy one even if it does remain hopeful. While eventually showing the run-up to Andrea's first live poetry show since canceling their tour due to an ovarian cancer diagnosis, it's really about the struggle surviving that disease, rebuilding their identity with it, and living with love alongside their wife Megan Falley. We learn everything about Andrea's art, career, queerness, and marriage en route to the inevitable.
The highs and lows of their health scare become chapter markers rather than the substance, though. They provide the intro to a new revelation about Andrea's past and/or present delivered with an acerbic wit and, often, magnificent prose. It's all extremely intimate and vulnerable as the two subjects wait and read test results, joke with friends (many of whom are Andrea's exes), and speak their writing aloud in ways that express the importance of each word.
I really loved when Andrea, while helping edit Megan's memoirs, pushes their wife to remember that the book is about her. It should speak to her experience with their cancer, not their cancer. It's a simple yet necessary distinction that the film proves in its depiction of the reverse. Megan and the others are crucial as mirrors and support, but Andrea is at the center dictating pace and tone. Their emotions are the focal point and they hit much harder as a result.
8/10
Dreams
Writer/director Michel Franco has never shied from controversy and Dreams is no exception with its look at the complicated romance between a wealthy white American socialite (Jessica Chastain's Jennifer McCarthy) and her Mexican dancer lover (Isaac Hernández's Fernando Rodríguez). Because what initially appears like two people madly in love who are willing to risk their lives to be together quickly reveals a much darker truth about power and exploitation.
The film does a wonderful job doing so too by ensuring the audience knows which is predator and which is prey. Fernando crosses the border illegally to be with Jennifer. He wants nothing more than to be with her and make good on her promise that she wants the same. She doesn't, though. Not tangibly. Yes, she will use her money to protect him, but only if he agrees to stay in a gilded cage away from the world in which she operates.
So, Fernando justifiable leaves. If Jennifer won't marry him or even introduce him to her family (Marshall Bell as her entrepreneur father Michael and Rupert Friend as her foundation partner brother Jake), why is he wasting his time? He doesn't want to be a trophy hidden away. He aspires to put his talent to work and make a name for himself on the ballet scene. He never wanted her money. He only wanted her—the one thing she will not truly give.
It's a great dramatic thrust through which Franco shows us how Fernando is right insofar as having the goods to excel on-stage. He finds champions and allies in that sphere as well as in California's Mexican community to prove to himself that he doesn't need Jennifer's charity. And she, in turn, realizes just how much she wants and misses him. She reaches a point where the fear of alienating her family and social circle might be worth her happiness with him after all.
But that's when Franco stirs the pot. That's when Dreams decides to shift things in a way where the power dynamic that's so obviously in Jennifer's favor due to economics and politics can swing towards Fernando instead. Is it an interesting wrinkle that leads to some tense moments wherein she is suddenly the one put in danger? Yes. Does it also wield violence in a way that intentionally fans some pretty damaging flames used to dehumanize Mexicans? Sadly, also yes.
I have a hard time seeing the angle in doing this beyond a lazy means to turn those tables. There are many different ways in which this script could do so without resorting to what occurs and I don't buy the argument that making Jennifer the worst version of her stereotype gives you permission to make Fernando the worst version of his. Unless the idea was to humanize him in such a way that our empathy asks us to excuse his heinous actions.
It doesn't. Two wrongs do not make a right and Fernando has already shown a willingness to leave Jennifer behind. Yes, she's also shown that he can't escape her reach if she doesn't want him to, but that fact should do more to vilify her hypocrisy and emotional violence than give him an excuse to be cruel too. The climax therefore doesn't give me pause to think. It reveals a reality that humans are a depraved species incapable of grace.
Don't get me wrong. I'm all for a nihilist bent like this. I absolutely loved Franco's New Order. The way he draws this one up, though, feels in-your-face in a much more manipulative way. He's lulling us to sleep by presenting a drama with obvious good guys and bad guys before pulling the rug and saying "no, we're all bad actually." In so doing, he alters the lesson. He wipes away the nuanced look at American entitlement by letting his victim succumb to his oppressor's rage.
I get it. Jennifer deserves retribution. But not like this. The imprisonment metaphor is blunt enough. There's a large enough undercurrent of control in it to make the point without muddying the waters and our sympathies by taking it across an objective point of no return (although the current partisan landscape concerning the Epstein files has exposed how that line might not be as solidly drawn as we'd hope). It serves Franco's divisive purpose, though.
And it's executed to perfection towards those means. Chastain and Hernández are both fantastic in their micro-aggressive performances as the frame of their romance shifts due to their diverging desires. She wants to own him. He wants her to champion his humanity to the world. So, he deflates when she refuses and she conspires to re-establish her equilibrium whenever he dares rebel against it. Everything Franco needs is there. He took a lot more.
The finale is effective despite its blunt force trauma, but it rings hollow in hindsight due to how it renders the successful foundation propping it up moot. Is there still enough to watch anyway? I think so. I just also believe that the criticisms about New Order that I disagreed with then are undeniable here. So, good on Franco for pushing boundaries and the cast and crew for their excellent work. I only wish the result sparked an epiphany rather than a concussion.
5/10
This week saw Little Nikita (1988) added to the archive (cinematicfbombs.com).
River Phoenix dropping an f-bomb in LITTLE NIKITA.
Opening Buffalo-area theaters 2/27/26 -
• Dreams at Regal Quaker
Thoughts are above.
• EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert at North Park Theatre; Dipson Amherst, Flix, Capitol; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria, Quaker
• The Kerala Story 2: Goes Beyond at Regal Elmwood
• Pillion at Regal Elmwood, Galleria
• The President's Cake at Regal Elmwood, Transit, Quaker
"We’re talking one hundred minutes of pure desperation, exploitation, sexual abuse, indoctrination, and authority overreach. These kids might not fully understand the scope of what’s happening around them, but we certainly do." – Quick thoughts at HHYS.
• Scream 7 at Dipson Flix, Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria, Quaker
• Thaai Kizhavi at Regal Elmwood
• Undercard at Regal Elmwood
• Vishnu Vinyasamm at Regal Elmwood
• Viyaah Kartaare Da at Regal Elmwood
Streaming from 2/27/26 -
• All That's Left of You (Letterboxd) - 2/27
"And the dialogue is full of memorable lines that get to the core of Dabis’ humanist messaging. Because while it is an unavoidably political film in its content, love and empathy are what resonate most." – Full thoughts at HHYS.
• Crazy Old Lady (Shudder) - 2/27
• Father Mother Sister Brother (MUBI) - 2/27
• In the Blink of an Eye (Hulu) - 2/27
• Kiss of the Spider Woman (Hulu) - 2/27
• Man on the Run (Prime) - 2/27
• Perfect Blue 4K (Letterboxd) - 2/27
• Sunshine [2024] (Letterboxd) - 2/27
• Trap House (Netflix) - 2/27
• U are the Universe (Letterboxd) - 2/27
"[We're] witnessing a real microcosm of life through the eyes of an introvert who escaped Earth to avoid the sadness of living alone only to ultimately discover the dignity of dying together." – Full thoughts at HHYS.
• It Was Just an Accident (Hulu) - 3/1
"The result is a tense and introspective morality play pitting all the different possible rationales and emotions that would arise in such a nightmarish scenario." – Quick thoughts at HHYS.
• The Secret Agent (Hulu) - 3/1
"I love a title with the power to feed into how you interpret the story on-screen. It’s a brilliant bit of implicit manipulation that ensures engagement in such a way that we don’t get angry once the strings are revealed. We become impressed." – Full thoughts at HHYS.
• A Little Prayer (Prime) - 3/3
"MacLachlan [isn't] setting up a list of excuses for his characters to hide behind. [He] proves how we must take personal responsibility for our actions regardless of the suffering, sacrifice, or self-loathing that contributes to them." – Full thoughts at HHYS.
• Street Flow 3 (Netflix) - 3/4
Now on VOD/Digital HD -
• Arco (2/24)
"The animation style is attractive, the environments intricately detailed, and the action energetic. I also really loved Arnaud Toulon’s score—always present yet never overpowering. It’s a crucial piece that augments the emotions carried by Fay and Valdi." – Full thoughts at HHYS.
• Clika (2/24)
• Dead Man's Wire (2/24)
"Tony Kiritsis’ story is a wild one and this period piece does it justice as an historical curio with immense entertainment value from hindsight. Skarsgård is having an absolute blast in the role." – Full thoughts at HHYS.
• H Is for Hawk (2/24)
"The whole ultimately comes down to wishing we had hoods to blind our senses from reality like Mabel, but our brains sadly don't grant the same luxury." – Quick thoughts at HHYS.
• In Cold Light (2/24)
• Return to Silent Hill (2/24)
• She Was Here (2/24)
• Shelter (2/24)
• The Voice of Hind Rajab (2/24)
"The role of films like The Voice of Hind Rajab is therefore to remind everyone that the work does matter. It exposes truths so that the next tragedy might be prevented." – Full thoughts at HHYS.
• Young Mothers (2/24)
• Bring the Law (2/27)
• Father Mother Sister Brother (2/27)
• Noseeums (2/27)
Pieces from the High Fidelity (2000) press kit.
