Badie and Hamza Ali’s Watermelon Pictures (with Alana Hadid as creative director) may have just formed last year, but it’s already expanding into streaming with Watermelon+ going live yesterday at watch.watermelonpictures.com.

Currently available to watch via your browser, Roku, or Android devices (with iOS, AppleTV, and Fire coming soon), the platform houses the company’s own films (with new releases The Teacher and The Encampments already included) as well as a wider catalog of Palestinian and Arab titles aligned with the studio’s central mission of sharing “liberatory cinema that celebrates diversity and challenges power.”

There’s some great stuff up now including Annemarie Jacir’s When I Saw You, Naji Abu Nowar’s Oscar-nominated Theeb, Darin J. Sallam’s Farha, The Teacher director Farah Nabulsi’s Oscar-nominated short The Present, David Osit’s Mayor, and, from earlier this year, the anthology piece From Ground Zero.

The current price point is $7.99 a month or $79.99 a year (a 10% off code is being offered on the website to save more). Check it out.

What I Watched:

ABSOLUTE DOMINION

(limited release & Digital HD)

An influencer's flippant joke has ushered in close to twenty years of peace at the start of Lexi Alexander's 2063-set Absolute Dominion, despite an all-out apocalyptic assault ravaging the planet to its breaking point. Rather than that unyielding destruction being a result of nations seeking land, however, this World War was born out of a new era of religious crusades. And why not? Expansion via death like America's own "Manifest Destiny" has always been steeped in the belief that the aggressor's God granted permission through some unspoken mandate.

It's happening today courtesy of Israel's theft by way of genocide of Palestine under the belief that their God meant for it to be theirs. It's an undercurrent of Russia's invasion into Ukraine. And, at the rate republicans are rewiring our own government here in the United States to become a Christofascist state while demanding to buy and annex Greenland and Canada respectively, the science fiction behind Alexander's film proves highly plausible insofar as its expository history. YouTuber Fix Huntley's (Patton Oswalt's) idea of a Mortal Kombat-esque battle royale to declare the winner? Not so much.

Just as Alexander is an expert on the oppressive violence ethnostates (made more dangerous when conflating ethnicity with religion as Israel does and MAGA is attempting to do) can inflict upon their targets being a Palestinian herself, she is also an expert in martial arts. So, why not distill this political and social unrest into a winner-take-all tournament wherein every religion chooses a fighter to be its proxy on the mat? With a decade of planning to ensure the sanctity of the event and another decade to continue training while also beginning the preliminary rounds necessary to field a Top 50 list of contenders, the championship is finally upon this planet reborn in Huntley's unlikely image.

To think about fifty-plus religions is to consider a world where the infinite number of micro-genres currently used by pretentious music lovers to set their favorite band apart from the rest of the pop, rock, and indie world as the blueprint for spirituality's myriad forks. So, don't expect to see Christianity versus Judaism versus Islam here. Yes, one fighter prays to Allah on-screen and others surely commune with Buddha, Vishnu, Christ, Yahweh, etc., but it's often the differences within one's own faith in the same God (see Baptist versus Catholic versus Protestant) that causes some of the worst conflicts. And if only one can win—ostensibly erasing all other religions from existence—those differences matter.

Absolute Dominion isn't simply a B-level popcorn actioner taking us through the ranks to declare a winner, though. No, I don't think it's a spoiler to say Alexander ends things before the championship round can even begin let alone crown a victor. No, her purpose here is to lift the veil on our collective fear and hate for the "other." The notion that freedom of religion has become a concept to dismantle rather than champion in large part due to a rise in Islamophobia stemming from 9/11 and the Gulf Wars. It's ironic to me considering the only religion I've ever encountered as being totalitarian in nature is that of the Born-Again Christians considering one once told my Indian friend that his Hindu parents were going to Hell unless they let Jesus "save" them.

As such, the lead of this film doesn't ascribe to any religion. Sagan Bruno (Désiré Mia) is conversely the chosen fighter of the Institute of Humanism and Science. Simply put, he's an atheist. And since there's nothing that scares a religious zealot more than someone who doesn't believe any God exists, you know they must be shaking at the prospect of an atheist winning a mutually agreed upon competition that would give him the power to outlaw the very idea of God. Well, they will once Bruno's unknown entity begins to prove himself during the final wild card round. Because it's one thing to let the atheists enter a fighter. It's another beast entirely to discover he might stand a chance.

I don't want to give anything away, so I'll just say there's another factor to Bruno's story that risks upending everything people like Commander Zimmer (Julie Ann Emery) hold dear. Something big enough to land him in the crosshairs of a military-backed assassination plot that inevitably only amplifies his position as a disruptor capable of uniting all of humanity. Huntley says it best when considering the fact that our species has all but driven itself to the brink of extinction in a multitude of Gods' names. Why wouldn't they all (or the one true God, if such a being exists) back the guy who's not looking to hide behind dogma? That doesn't mean power wouldn't still get to Bruno's and the IHS's heads. We simply know that it has historically gotten to everyone else's already.

It's a fun bit of drama both externally (Zimmer is bloodthirsty) and internally (Sagan's parents, Alex Winter's Dr. Jehuda Bruno and Olunike Adeliyi's Professor Sitara Bruno, genetically altered him to be the most athletic and intelligent fighter imaginable) where Bruno's motivation and potential lie. Things can skew a bit comical via Hunger Games homage when you consider the tournament's flamboyant host Ceylon (Alok Vaid-Menon), but the dystopian nature of these things generally create thematic overlap since the post-capitalist economic divide is an impossible reality to ignore. Bruno's coach (Mario D'Leon's Anton) and security detail (Andy Allo's Naya Olinga) fulfill their own clichéd narrative roles too. The goal is to allow these archetypes the authenticity to transcend familiarity.

I think they do. Add Fabiano Viett and Junes Zahdi as opponents and the cast has the earnest charm to lean into the genre's inherent cheesiness and not subvert the message Alexander has instilled as the film's backbone. The same goes for the obvious budgetary constraints. You can either dismiss the whole on looks alone or you can appreciate that the real meat here is in the fight choreography and dialogue. It's the hope in Naya's explanation for backing the IHS and the cynicism in Zimmer declaring that a bona fide "Messiah" is a liability rather than the literal goal of this entire contest simply because it wouldn't be her Messiah that earns our attention regardless of any unpolished CGI.

In the end, Alexander has manufactured a New New Testament in an age of technological advancement wherein the entire world is able to simultaneously witness a single God-like figure. Whereas we've spent millennia separating ourselves because of literal carbon-copied deities due to our inability to embrace peace and equality when greed and vanity prove too attractive to ignore, we're living during a time now where indisputable proof of a creator should unite even the most hardened zealots. Unfortunately, the reason Alexander surely stopped short of providing that fantasy as more than a possibility is because too many of us still deny reality to maintain a status quo of control through ungodly malice.

- 6/10

CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD

(in theaters)

I really wish Eli Craig's Clown in a Cornfield adaptation stuck to just being a goofy bloodbath because then I wouldn't be forced to look deeper and watch it fall apart. I don't know whether that's his fault or novelist Adam Cesare's since I never read the books, but I must wonder why a Millennial's story so dead set on chastising Gen X and Boomers that it turns its climax into an overwrought and politicized exposition dump was directed by a Gen Xer and co-written by someone even older (screenwriter Carter Blanchard directed a short film in 1989, presumably while in college). Because this thing devolves quickly from low-stakes slasher to feeling like the "How Do You Do, Fellow Kids?" meme.

It starts off well. The 1991-set prologue dials up the horror clichés for laughs courtesy of hyperbolic stoners, sex-crazed coeds, and the line "What ****ing size shoe do you have?" coming out of a teen boy’s mouth after stepping into a clown-sized footprint in the mud while chasing after his half-naked girlfriend in a cornfield. The murderous clown honking with each step taken only adds to the silliness by setting the stage for a totally unserious ride into farce once we are smash cut into the present. The tone never quite spills over as far as I hoped, but cute gags like Quinn (Katie Douglas) telling her father (Aaron Abrams' Dr. Maybrook) to stop playing 80s rap because that decade is as old to her as the 40s were to him in high school kept me going.

Then comes the selling point: Gen Zers going viral online with their own meta slashers that turn their sleepy, archaic town's mascot Frendo the Clown into the killer we already know him to be three decades prior. Not only does this revelation make us pause when considering what it was we watched during the prologue, but it introduces a major culture clash of fun wherein the usual victims of these films are set-up to become impervious to the horror. Maybe Cole (Carson MacCormac), Janet (Cassandra Potenza), and the others heard tales of what happened in the past and sought to repurpose the stigma—to reclaim Frendo as their own. There's potential for one of them to be the killer. Or for a survivor mad at their appropriation of their trauma to be the killer. Or for a brand-new killer to get inspired by them rather than the original Frendo.

I admittedly got excited. And that excitement only grew when the first kid falls pretty early on so more can follow in quick succession via some gnarly kills. While Craig (and presumably Cesare) realizes those possibilities exist and points us towards many before pulling the rug and heading a different direction, the actual endgame ultimately proves to be the most obvious and generic choice they could have made by comparison. Despite having all the tools to deliver something fresh and unique, Clown in a Cornfield supplies us the same "greater good" fascistic conspiracy shenanigans we've seen countless times before. I probably wouldn't have minded as much if they leaned into the goofy a la Hot Fuzz when Edgar Wright did it, but the desire to remain "serious" sabotages the fun.

To lead into a mostly out-of-nowhere verbal blowout wherein Gen Z characters lay out everything their elders have done to ruin their future by digging in and refusing to overcome shortcomings out of fear of obsolescence once the world passed them by seems worthwhile on paper, but boy is the execution off. Maybe it's the script's "answer" dump rendering it clunky or the tone projecting a sarcastic air onto the message, but the whole's unsettling nature that I couldn't put my finger on finally came into focus and revealed itself to be a disingenuous undercurrent of older allies playacting today's youth's authentic rage. I'm sure Craig and Blanchard mean well, but this property needed filmmakers in their twenties or thirties behind the wheel rather than fifties and above.

And don't tell me to simply ignore it. The film demands that I don't. It wants to be more than just dumb fun, so I can't ignore such a gross mismanagement of the dynamic between intent and execution. I wish I could because the film is enjoyable when you're gliding along the surface. I wanted more from the choice of having the victims create content starring their soon-to-be murderer's visage, but the gag we do get (not believing the real bloodshed is real at first) does hit its mark. Most of the best parts come via similarly brief record-scratch moments of realization or subversion, but they are frankly too few and far between since the film really thinks it has something pithy to say and hamstrings the comedy to maintain an unearned sense of gritty political commentary.

Kevin Durand as the resident descendant of the town's founder and Will Sasso's Sheriff add some nice duplicitous hick flavor while still having room to go over-the-top when necessary. Abrams is a great representation of that "older ally" balancing his duties as a parent and his understanding that the world is vastly different than from his childhood and he must adapt accordingly. Potenza, Verity Marks, Ayo Solankem, and Alexandre Martin Deakin are entertaining as caricatured stereotypes of everything their parents fear is "ruining society" and Douglas, MacCormac, and Vincent Muller provide the cooler heads needed as leads to cut through the chaos and propel the narrative forward. So, the pieces are there and the message is worthwhile. The voice used to put it all together is simply trying way too hard.

- 5/10

FIGHT OR FLIGHT

(in theaters)

When Brunt (Katee Sackhoff) and Hunter (Julian Kostov) receive their first actionable intel on the elusive "Ghost" (courtesy of whipping boy Simmons, played with great comic timing by Willem van der Vegt), they realize none of their people are in the area. Agents were there, but "Ghost" killed them all. So, now Brunt must call the one person she swore she wouldn't out of a mix of guilt for her role in exiling him and shock that he's even still alive after two years being hunted. That man is Lucas Reyes (Josh Hartnett) and she's lucky he even answered his phone—even if only to deliver a stream of profanities before getting accosted by a gang of thugs completely unrelated to the task at-hand.

This is our introduction into the world of visual effects supervisor James Madigan's directorial debut Fight or Flight. Screenwriters Brooks McLaren and D.J. Cotrona will soon explain who that gang was, but not before allowing Brunt to extend her olive branch to Reyes with the promise of giving him his life back. All he must do is get on the plane "Ghost" is taking to San Francisco (if she's able to remove him from the no-fly list in time), find out who "Ghost" is with nothing more to work off than a potential gunshot wound, and bring the criminal back alive. There's just one more tiny wrinkle, though. Beacuse of a brief leak of "Ghost's" itinerary, that plane is now full of assassins looking for them too.

The result is a high-octane, joke-filled actioner that looks to capitalize on the appeal of films like The Raid (with cinematographer Matt Flannery in tow) and Bullet Train (where a poster mention of John Wick probably guarantees some connection there too). And since Reyes is all by himself save for three flight attendants outside their depth in Isha (Charithra Chandran), Royce (Danny Ashok), and Garrett (Hughie O'Donnell), you can guess how battered he'll end up by the end. As long as the body count of baddies increases, though, his pain is an enjoyable means to an end. Because his only chance at survival is to keep downing mini alcohol bottles and taking a chance on a vial of adrenaline that may or may not turn out to be psychedelic toad venom.

It's exactly what you expect with the main dramatic thrust being why Reyes was burned and how that answer might influence his decision to fulfill this mission. This is a man with morals, after all. If he discovers "Ghost" is actually the good guy (which, let's face it, international terrorists these days are often just a head tilt away from being altruistic rebels), Reyes might realize that helping their mission is more important than getting his life back. He's survived this long. What's another couple decades before his liver gives out or an opponent (probably an assassin looking to kill him) finally gets lucky? Sure, it won't necessarily add to the drama on the plane since he must keep "Ghost" alive either way, but it will give Brunt and Hunter fits on the ground.

The comedy helps us look past the often silly bent limbs and blood sprays, but the action is mostly played straight insofar as the choreography and brutality goes. Things get really fun when Reyes's hallucinations play with his interpretation of the current scene and the sheer chaos throughout keeps us awake and invested either way. There's an over-arching sentimentality that actually skews things closer to last year's Kill than the more ultra-serious The Raid, but the lack of the need to fridge a love interest lets that emotion enhance the comedy via its often tongue-in-cheek delivery. We know Reyes is going to live long enough to give Brunt what she wants or to screw her over, so sit back and revel in the carnage.

Chandran and Sackhoff are good as the two actors with enough screen-time to not be relegated into bit parts like everyone else (Ashok, Marko Zaror, and many others make their mark, but they're all mostly here to die or disappear once their utility is up). So, it's up to Hartnett to carry Fight of Flight on his shoulders and the tone is right in his wheelhouse to ensure he does. Whether combatting sedatives, pushing through bad trips, or dealing with excruciating pain, he is game for anything. Sometimes its dislocating a person's brain stem with a punch to the back of the neck. Sometimes it's misjudging an attack and almost knocking himself out on a toilet. Either way, it's always a good time.

- 7/10

HENRY JOHNSON

(limited theaters and available to rent)

“[Mamet] has weaponized our collective cynicism to create a character who is so willing to think the best of people that he’ll continue doing so even as that trust sinks him deeper and deeper into despair.”

– Full thoughts at jaredmobarak.com.

SUMMER OF 69

(streaming on Hulu)

Max (Matt Cornett) is finally single. Yes, he's a seventeen-year-old high school senior, but the "finally" remains apt since he's been dating Mercedes ever since the day Abby (Sam Morelos) met him in elementary school. So, after many long years of pining over her crush, the opportunity to swoop in has arrived. The only problem, though, is that the pining has made it so Abby never dated anyone. Add a complete lack of friends, a budding career as a video game streamer, and the best guess to "What's a rim job?" being far enough off to wonder why she even tried guessing and she inevitably realizes she's going to need a lot of help.

Enter Santa Monica (Chloe Fineman), a twenty-eight-year-old stripper with zero confidence problems on-stage yet almost as many as Abby in her personal life. She also doesn't have any friends—at least none outside of her work at Diamond Dolls. And soon, due to Betty's (Paula Pell) ineptitude with finances, she won't even have that. How could she ever show her face at her ten-year reunion if she finds herself standing opposite class president Robin (Natalie Morales) as an unemployed stripper? Impossible to even fathom. So, when Abby proposes hiring her as a "sex coach" for the exact amount needed to save the club, Monica has no choice but to agree.

The meaning of the title to Jillian Bell's directorial debut Summer of 69 is therefore two-fold (sadly, neither concerns Bryan Adams' song). One: Abby's belief (after hearing through the grapevine that is her high school's mascot, played by Fernando Carsa) that Max's favorite sex act is 69ing. Two: the symbiotic quid pro quo of Abby and Monica's arrangement. If all goes according to plan, the former will have the self-confidence to do more than just awkwardly fantasize about talking to Max and the latter will have the cash to save Diamond Dolls and become its new owner. Abby gets to lose her virginity with the boy she loves and Monica gets to enter that reunion as an entrepreneur.

While its parallel roads towards self-actualization and the honest discovery that both women need a friend lean into its wholesome center, this is still a raunchy R-rated comedy. So, don't expect the journey to be a conventional one even if the trajectory proves familiar. With a millennial at the helm and another as co-lead opposite a zoomer, we're getting the best of both worlds. What does someone Monica's age think a good sex comedy needs (her holy grail is Risky Business, which is admittedly more apt for Fineman and Morales's real ages than the characters they’re playing since I'm pretty sure the phrase "ten-year reunion" is used) and what can someone Abby's age relate to? How do you bridge the gap? The answer is, of course, simpler than you may think.

Most of the film occurs inside Abby's outlandish fantasies and Monica's tragic realities, so the time they spend together is less about the activity than the camaraderie. There's a reason Bell shoots the Risky Business scene from the television's perspective. It's their joyful smiles and authentic pleasure in the other's company that matters. Because our lives' indelible moments aren't usually defined by place or event. They're defined by the people we shared them with, and both these women have been desperate to find that connection. It remains true with the delusions too since Monica isn't actually screaming besides Abby during her sex shop nightmare. But rather than land the laugh and move on, Bell ensures Monica stays present by asking where Abby "went."

Theirs is an odd couple pairing in persona and age, but their emotional insecurities are aligned. It's why we believe how close they grow in so little time despite starting so far apart (Monica couldn't get away faster those first couple days). The more vulnerable they become and the more personal details they allow themselves to share, however, the more they recognize their kinship as ambitious loners searching for someone else to acknowledge their greatness due to an inability to acknowledge it in themselves first. Yes, we still get the house party blow-out, smarmy villain (Charlie Day's Rick Richards looking to steal the club), and overbearing parents (with a fantastic Lily Rose payoff courtesy of Guinevere Govea), but the overall heart wins out.

You can thank Fineman and Morelos for that. In many ways they are the only two grounded characters in this film (besides their respective straight mans in Morales' Robin and Cornett's Max). We get to see into their souls by how they interact with the crazies surrounding them. How Abby really wants a friend more than sex and how Monica really needs pride more than money even if the opposite proves to be an easy avenue for attacking the other when feelings get hurt. We know the truth through them, though, so we also know they'll ultimately come around to remembering why they opened up in the first place. And while that imminent happy ending is again familiar in its construction, the execution maintains an unconventional air of wild fun.

- 7/10

WE WERE DANGEROUS

(limited release)

“We revel in [the leads'] spirit and autonomy; their awareness of just how messed up the situation is. By never shying away from those horrors, watching this trio consistently rebel only amplifies the potency of their inspirational battle cry.”

– Full thoughts at The Film Stage.

Cinematic F-Bombs:

This week saw Brooklyn (2015), Central Intelligence (2016), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), Far North (1988), Harlan County U.S.A. (1977), The Invention of Lying (2009), Larry Crowne (2011), Live Free or Die Hard (2007), The Losers (2010), The Lost City of Z (2017), The Man with Two Brains (1983), The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio (2005), Scarface (1932), Unstoppable (2024), and Vertical Limit (2000) added to the archive (cinematicfbombs.com).

Julia Roberts dropping an f-bomb in Larry Crowne.

New Releases This Week:

(Review links where applicable)

Opening Buffalo-area theaters 5/9/25 -

• #Single at Regal Elmwood

• The Ancestral Home (Nha Gia Tien) at Regal Galleria

• Bhool Chuk Maaf at Regal Elmwood

• Clown in a Cornfield at Dipson Capitol; AMC Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria, Quaker

  Thoughts are above.

• Exhibition on Screen: Dawn of Impressionism: Paris, 1874 at North Park Theatre (select times)

• Fight or Flight at Dipson Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge, Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria, Quaker

  Thoughts are above.

• Juliet & Romeo at Dipson Flix, Capitol; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria, Quaker

• Prince and Family at Regal Elmwood

• Shadow Force at Dipson Flix, Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge, Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria, Quaker

• The Shrouds at North Park Theatre (select times)

• Subham at Regal Elmwood

• Tourist Family at Regal Elmwood

Streaming from 5/9/25 -

• Bad Influence – Netflix on 5/9

• A Deadly American Marriage – Netflix on 5/9

• Love Hurts – Peacock on 5/9

• Nonnas – Netflix on 5/9

• Summer of 69 – Hulu on 5/9

  Thoughts are above.

• The Damned – Hulu on 5/9

• The Ugly Stepsister – Shudder on 5/9

  “Blichfeldt lays [the] patriarchal misogyny [of fairy tales] bare. Because that's the true motivation behind such storybook romance: the desire to satisfy a man for survival in hopes he might satisfy you too.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.

• Hard Truths – Paramount+ on 5/12

  “But it's Jean-Baptiste who shines brightest by showcasing her talent to maintain humanity through despicable behavior. For all the bile [Pansy] spews, the person who ends up hurt most by it is her.” – Full thoughts at jaredmobarak.com.

• Lee Soo Man: King of K-Pop – Prime on 5/13

• Novocaine – Paramount+ on 5/13

• Untold: The Liver King – Netflix on 5/13

• Paddington in Peru – Netflix on 5/15

• Vini Jr. – Netflix on 5/15

Now on VOD/Digital HD -

• 825 Forest Road (5/6)

• The Ballad of Wallis Island (5/6)

• Bob Trevino Likes It (5/6)

• Broke (5/6)

• The Empire (5/6)

• The Luckiest Man in America (5/6)

  “The era-specific production design, expert pacing, and captivating twists once the truth is uncovered provide the scaffolding so the actors can turn it into gold.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.

• A Nice Indian Boy (5/6)

• Sneaks (5/6)

• Union (5/6)

  Quick thoughts at jaredmobarak.com.

• Warfare (5/6)

• Absolute Dominion (5/9)

  Thoughts are above.

• Kryptic (5/9)

• The Moogai (5/9)

• One to One: John & Yoko (5/9)

• Queen of the Ring (5/9)

  “Queen of the Ring plays well to its audience. It’s obviously a little fish in a big pond despite its wide national rollout, but whatever it lacks in production quality is surely gained in heart.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.

• Sharp Corner (5/9)

  “So, as long as you can get onboard with this family drama pivoting into a very narrow study of one man's quest for purpose, you should find the experience worthwhile. Just don't expect it to be anything more.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.

• The Ugly Stepsister (5/9)

  Link is above under streaming releases.

• Unit 234 (5/9)

• Wick is Pain (5/9)

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