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April '26 Digital Week II

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Thursday, 16 April 2026 12:56; Written by Kevin Filipski

In-Theater Releases of the Week

Hamlet

(Vertical Releasing)

Updating Shakespeare has become such a mania that it’s rare to find an adaptation that takes the text at face value—unfortunately, director Aneil Karia and writer Michael Lesslie’s modern take, set among London’s South Asian upper-crust, is not that adaptation.

If English colonial history of subjugation over South Asia is a subtext, it has little to say about it, while eye-rollingly literal tropes like our hero (a game Riz Ahmed) speeding on a highway in his sports car while contemplating the suicidal “To be or not to be” are misguided. Morfydd Clark makes a perfectly pitiable Ophelia, but her sincere performance might have had greater resonance in a better film.

Fiume o morte!

(Icarus Films)

In this endlessly fascinating history lesson, Igor Bezinović’s documentary about Italian fascist writer Gabriele D’Annunzio’s year-long occupation (1919 to 1920) of what is now the Croatian city of Rijeka. Actually, the irony is that most of those who live there today barely know anything about D’Annunzio and what ideas and actions wrought.

So Bezinović tells the whole cautionary tale through their eyes—locals reenact the takeover and its aftermath with a combination of bemusement and good humor, which is what Bezinović has said he was looking to do, present history in an entertaining but not dumbed-down way.

Steal This Story, Please!

(Elsewhere Films)

Journalist Amy Goodman has been fighting the good fight for decades as founder and main face of Democracy Now, one of the few self-sustaining news organizations grappling with tough issues here and abroad. Carl Deal and Tia Lessin’s rage-inducing documentary portrait shows that Goodman’s doggedness and fairness are being increasingly marginalized by a hostile media environment.

Several well-chosen clips include one that shows Goodman’s legendary ability to remain independent and hold leaders’ feet to the fire: then-President Clinton is so upset by her tough questions that he stays on the phone talking to her but his team blames her for ambushing him. Of course, the Trump administration’s assault on all norms sweeps away all who came before, but Goodman will continue to fight.

Blu-ray Release of the Week

Macbeth

(Dynamic)

Giuseppe Verdi’s first adaptation of a Shakespeare play came in the middle of his career, and although it’s a tautly told operatic transposition, it’s nowhere near the later masterpieces Otello and Falstaff. Pierre Audi’s absorbing production, from Parma, Italy’s Verdi Festival in 2024, uses the 1865 French version that’s more spectacular and includes ballet music that are among the opera’s highlights.

Ernesto Petti is a fine Macbeth but Lidia Fridman steals the show as Lady Macbeth—hers is the juicier role, of course, but Fridman is gripping every time she appears onstage. Roberto Abbado persuasively conducts the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini and Parma Teatro Regio Chorus; hi-def video and audio are well-done.

DVD Release of the Week

The Divine Sarah Bernhardt

(Icarus Films)

The famous French dramatic actress Sarah Bernhardt was a larger-than-life character, and Guillaume Nicloux’s frisky biopic has an actress equal to the task: Sandrine Kiberlain, who hams it up mightily but—crucially—always in character, so her Sarah is not simply a blustering diva but a woman who loved the spotlight even when it came to her own offstage relationships (which were legion).

There are many entertaining gossipy moments like her love affair with actor Lucien Guitry and the appearance of his son Sacha, who would later become a great theater and film director in own right. Nicloux also gets credit for well-chosen music of the era by the likes of Chopin, Franck, Ravel and Debussy, which appropriately underscore Kiberlain’s boisterous scenery-chewing.

In The Horror Film, “They Will Kill You,” Zazie Beatz Battles a Cult of Rich Satanists To Save Her Sister

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Thursday, 09 April 2026 19:34; Written by Brad Balfour

Film: “They Will Kill You”
Director: Kirill Sokolov,
Cast: Zazie Beetz, Myha’la, Patricia Arquette, Tom Felton, Heather Graham

In “They Will Kill You,” Asia Reaves (Zazie Beetz) takes a maid job at The Virgil, a 100-year-old apartment building in the heart of New York City. Long a place where the elite, the one percenters, have called it “home,” she’s not there for simple employment but for a deadly purpose. Her true motives for taking the gig are soon revealed.

Not unlike the Continental in The John Wick series, the building may seem like just another impressive piece of Gilded Age architecture built for the wealthy. But it’s really housing something much more: a devil-worshipping cult that has been granted immortality in exchange for finding human sacrifices for Satan.

In the opening sequence, Asia abandons her younger sister Maria (Myha’la) after the two run away from their abusive father. He tracks them down and Asia shoots him, but he survives and takes her sister away to endure further years of abuse.

Meanwhile, Asia goes to prison for the next decade. While in prison she’s hardened up and has trained to defend herself through whatever means is necessary.

Once she’s freed, Asia tracks down her long-lost sibling to the building, which has a dark history of the help going missing. It soon becomes clear that the building’s tenants have nefarious plans for her, intending to make her an offering to Satan in exchange for continued immortality. But, Asia comes prepared with a bag full of weapons and the determination to save her sister. Little does she know that her sister isn’t quite on board for being rescued as she had planned.

Underpinning the movie’s high-octane action sequences, the film features an iconic ensemble cast, from Patricia Arquette‘s Irish building superintendent Lilith to wealthy tenants Kevin (Tom Felton) and Sharon (Heather Graham.) Each brings unhinged performances to their characters as cult members in this high-octane, adrenaline-pumping flick. Given her Irish background, Lilith provides a bridge between the wealthy owners and the ethnic staffers — having married a Black man a century ago before coming to the building and gaining immortality.

For example, Asia blows Graham’s head away, splattering blood, bones and brains everywhere. What remains is a stump where the head was, with the body still flailing about. But because she’s immortal, the next scene shows a tiny head regrowing where the shoulders were. It’s bizarre, sort of funny and repulsive as ever.

Director Kirill Sokolov is quite a student of filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino and even earlier ones like Sam Peckinpah. He spares no blood throughout the film, with red spraying from wounds and viscera everywhere. He uses some creative visual tricks that test the limits of his villains’ invincibility.

With nods to samurai films and shoot-'em-ups, Beetz gives the physical performance of a lifetime, wielding swords, machetes and shotguns while firing at a gang of evil residents. Asia and Maria also pack an emotional punch with their tragic story of complicated sisterhood, pushing the pair to reconnect and make things right. Although Satan prefers blood, it turns out the most impactful sacrifices come from love.

Sokolov offers his genre-driven take on satanic cults, with touches of humor and heart and lots of red. Thanks to a stellar cast, led by this pair of newly minted ‘Scream Queens’, audiences will root for them to eliminate the one percent. Obviously, the movie appeals to audiences beyond just the horror film fans due to its underlying political message -- that the wealthy willingly sacrificing anyone beneath them for fealty to Satan. Though I'm not sure it was a conscious notion to express this socially conscious element -- beat down the rich because they have no moral rudder -- that certainly makes the film more relevant than ever in this day and age.

April '26 Digital Week I

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Thursday, 09 April 2026 12:56; Written by Kevin Filipski

In-Theater Releases of the Week

Forbidden Fruits

(IFC)

In this bumpy but often stylish ride, a secret witch coven among employees at a flashy clothing store in a Dallas mall is filled with bitchy adrenaline that helps it overcome the more risible moments of ruthlessness.

Director Meredith Alloway (who also cowrote the script with Lily Houghton based on the latter’s play) has gleeful fun showing the switching allegiances among these young women, and if the showdown on the mall escalator is too excessively bloody, there’s much fun to be had in the performances by Lola Tung, Victoria Pedretti, Alexandra Shipp, Emma Chamberlain and—in the film’s standout portrayal—Lili Reinhart.

Kontinental ’25

(1-2 Special)

Romanian auteur Radu Jude is definitely an acquired taste: his deadpan absurdism has taken on many obvious but necessary targets from hypocrisy to consumerism to the weight of history, and his new film, which centers on Orsolya, a bailiff who’s wracked with guilt after the homeless man she evicts from an empty building in Transylvania commits suicide, continues that trend.

Jude’s dark sense of humor shines best on the insanity of modern life as his heroine (played with mordant humor by Eszter Tompa) interacts with an array of freakish but recognizable characters.

Our Hero, Balthazar

(Picturehouse)

For his directorial debut, Oscar Boyson (who cowrote the script with Ricky Camilleri) has chosen a difficult if timely subject: how young people deal with a world in which school shootings are not only normal but normalized by classroom drills and social media disinformation. When Balthazar thinks an online acquaintance is planning to shoot up a school, he travels from Manhattan to Texas to confront Solomon—they become friends, against the odds, but they also discover some uneasy truths about themselves.

There are some good, perceptive moments but also a certain glibness in how Boyson treats such a serious subject. Still, the acting by Jaeden Martell as Balthazar and Asa Butterfield as Solomon helps smooths over the bumpier roads Boyson travels.

Streaming Release of the Week

The Mortuary Assistant

(Shudder)

Another movie based on a video game, this at least has a properly creepy premise: mortuary assistant Rebecca finds herself involved in a weird supernatural world that finds her navigating traumatic situations that may or may not be dreams, while her boss Raymond seems to know more about it all than he should.

Willa Holland’s committed performance as Rebecca makes the crazier aspects of Jeremiah Kipp’s film more palatable, if not more believable, while Paul Sparks has little to do as Raymond.

Blu-ray Release of the Week

Greenland 2—Migration

(Lionsgate)

As unnecessary sequels to lumbering disaster epics go, this one fills the bill decently by not getting overly bogged down in anything more than getting the lead family—stars Gerard Butler (dad), Morena Baccarin (mom) and Roman Griffin Davis (teenage son)—to somewhere safe in a little over 90 minutes.

There are a few over-the-top set pieces, such as climbing rickety ladders over the dried-up English Channel that precipitates many deaths, but for the most part, director Ric Roman Waugh keeps his focus on the family with the result that there’s more heart here than in the previous spectacle. There’s a good Blu-ray transfer; extras include featurettes and interviews.

New Year’s Concert with the Vienna Philharmonic

(Sony Classical)

For its annual New Year’s concert, the Vienna Philharmonic plays its usual repertoire of classical baubles, polkas and other dance pieces that gets the Vienna audience in a festive mood; led by conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the memorable performance includes a work by Black American composer Florence Price—her Rainbow Waltz—for the first time, and it fits snugly among the Strauss family standards that are the orchestra’s bread and butter.

The hi-def video and audio are first-rate; extras include complete ballets performed with two of the evening’s pieces along with an entertaining featurette that combines art and music, The Magic of Art—250 Years of the Albertina Collection.

Off-Broadway Reviews—Two at the Public: “Antigone (This Play I Read in High School)” and “Public Charge”

Details: Parent Category: Film and the Arts; Category: Reviews; Published on Wednesday, 08 April 2026 14:49; Written by Kevin Filipski

Antigone (This Play I Read in High School)

Written by Anna Ziegler

Directed by Tyne Rafaeli

Performances through April 12, 2026

Public Theater, New York, NY

publictheater.org

Celia Keenan-Bolger and Susannah Perkins in Antigone (This Play I Read in High School)
(photo: Joan Marcus)

It’s apparent from her subtitle that Anna Ziegler is not in the mood for nuance. Her Antigone (This Play I Read in High School) suggests an unconventional retelling of Sophocles’ classic, and Ziegler’s fiery, angry take drags it through the mud (and blood) in impressively tumultuous fashion.

Ziegler begins with Dicey, a woman who doubles as the Chorus and (maybe) the writer’s stand-in, someone who was deeply affected by Sophocles’ play in school. Now 40 and pregnant, Dicey meets a young woman named Antigone on a flight. Dicey ends up narrating Antigone’s story, set in a place both ancient and modern—early on, Antigone hooks up with a dive bar bartender named Achilles (no, not that one).

Pregnant by her first cousin and fiancé, Haemon, Antigone decides on an abortion to end her family’s incestuous lineage: her father, Oedipus, had four children with his own mother Jacosta. But her uncle Creon (Haemon’s father), who reluctantly became king of Thebes following Oedipus’ death, decrees that abortion is illegal; hence, his beloved niece could get the death penalty if she goes through with her decision.

Ziegler cleverly conflates Antigone’s and Dicey’s pregnancies, right up until the excessively—but necessarily—bloody climax. It’s simultaneously unnerving and bracing to watch Zeigler’s poetic polemic, aided by Tyne Rafaeli’s vigorous direction. Standing out in the cast are Celia Keenan-Bolger, truly heartrending as Dicey/Chorus; Haley Wong, a sadly fragile Ismene, Antigone’s sister; and Tony Shaloub, whose Creon mixes appealingness with appallingness. At the center in the treacherous title role, Susannah Perkins lets it all hang out, physically and emotionally, as she provides the human heart of this traumatic but touching tale.

Public Charge

Written by Julissa Reynoso and Michael J. Chepiga

Directed by Doug Hughes

Performances through April 12, 2026

Public Theater, New York, NY

publictheater.org

Zabryna Guevara in Public Charge (photo: Joan Marcus)

Julissa Reynoso’s story is an admirable and inspiring one. Born in the Dominican Republic, she came to America as a young girl, grew up in the Bronx, attended Harvard, Cambridge and Columbia, and became a Wall Street attorney. She was tapped to work in the Obama administration as one of Secretary of State Clinton’s diplomatic aides, taking part in the normalization of relations with Cuba as ambassador to Uruguay. However, on the basis of Public Charge, the play she wrote with Michael J. Chepiga, her fascinating life and unselfish public service does not fully translate to the stage.

The problem is not so much a matter of importance—which Reynoso’s life story has in spades—but rather its lack of urgency, even as it unfolds and covers plot threads of varying heft. Even a resourceful director like Doug Hughes can’t satisfyingly navigate threads that jump back and forth in time and move among a large cast of characters. It’s both too much and not enough, since there are a lot of intriguing ideas and complicated personalities that come and go—especially in the foreign service arena Reynoso moves around in—but it’s been sanitized to make it less messy than Reynoso’s time in government surely was.

That’s too bad, for Reynoso’s is a story that needs telling. Here is the classic American tale of an immigrant making it good, living her American dream of working for the state department and trying to effect positive change. At least Reynoso and Chepiga never make her overly heroic; if anything, she’s made almost too naïve, seemingly always surprised at her own diplomatic career trajectory and the important roles she plays in so many difficult political episodes. That might have to do with Zabryna Guevara’s acting as Reynoso, who accentuates that naiveté too broadly, making our heroine wide-eyed more often than necessary.

There are interesting moments in Public Charge, especially when it shows that idealistic officials’ effecting positive change happens very slowly—if at all. But diplomacy is even more chaotic than we see onstage, as witness the insanity we hear about every day.

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