THE DANMAN CAN

"You have chosen to live in agony." A candy-colored, crystal-coated, mist-enshrouded, hyper-stylized comic book fairy tale fever dream filtered through  Bava ,  De Palma ,  Friedkin , Lynch , and  Mann , with an absolutely gorgeous score by  Pino Donaggio . Bold cinematography, sumptuous production design, delicious artifice. Bizarre, mysterious, lovely. Nicolas Winding Refn Ranked

Curry Barker 's Obsession (2025) is an assured debut feature with excellent performances—a disturbing, reflective horror flick and a cool variation of W.W. Jacobs ' short story The Monkey's Paw (1902). Barker did miss a great opportunity to use both  Jennifer Paige 's original version of " Crush " and  The Dismemberment Plan 's downbeat  cover  in the film, though.

Damian McCarthy 's Hokum (2026) is a well-made, handsome-looking, and creepy film with good performances, but it's a bit too Mike Flanaganc ore for my tastes. Less boring than  The Innkeepers (2011) [ review ] but more boring than  The Shining (1980) [ review ].

I'm always wary of modern hype machine movies, but I ended up enjoying Kane Parsons ' feature film debut  Backrooms (2026) quite a bit, despite some shortcomings. I've never seen the web series, but my biggest gripe with the feature is the found footage aspect. To begin with, I'm not super into found footage films, but I also feel it wasn't necessary here and Backrooms would have functioned better without it. I was simultaneously glad it wasn't the driving force and bummed that it was there at all. That alone prevented me from awarding the picture another half star as a rating.  Still, I liked the ambiguity and the creepiness of this surreal low budget horror movie, the performances are good, and the fact that Parsons got the elusive Boards Of Canada to agree to use a song from their stellar new album, Inferno , over the end credits (and before said album, their first in 13 years, even dropped) is truly impressive.

Undoubtedly grand spectacle filmmaking, but I have the same problems with The Odyssey (2026) that I do with most of  Christopher Nolan 's movies, which is that the editing is oftentimes atrocious and the action is sloppy. Here, too, his out-of-sync style feels like it's designed to draw audiences back for revisits to make more money than as a fitting narrative device.  That being said, this picture is easier to understand and follow on the first viewing than much of his prior work (by virtue of the fact that the source material is so well known and that no great attempt was made to be faithful to the Greek origins; usually I'm not too bothered by anachronisms, but they were egregious here). Thankfully, most of the dialogue can be made out as well (unlike 2020's  Tenet   [ review ]) . The look and feel of The Odyssey is very much in line with  Denis Villeneuve 's Dune  films, which I'm not in love with either.  Overall, entertaining enough and worth se...

"He bugged me." Chris Walas ' The Fly II   (1989) was never going to be able to match the beauty of its predecessor [ review ], but it's a very solid sequel and a helluva monster movie, with good performances by Eric Stoltz and Daphne Zuniga , a strong score by Christopher Young , and exceptional/disturbing effects/creatures. "I had to give it up; it cost me an arm and a leg."

"Now are you happy?" "Delirious." Neil Jordan 's The Crying Game (1992) is a complex, sensitive, and moving film concerning identity, conflict, and kindness, with wonderful performances, beautiful cinematography, and a moody score. Neil Jordan Feature Films Ranked

"You take the sinners away from the saints, you're lucky to end up with Abraham Lincoln." "Happens to everybody. Horses, dogs, men. Nobody gets out of life alive." Martin Ritt 's Hud (1963) is a beautiful and sad revisionist western about the struggle between generations and ideologies. It features a wonderful central performance by Paul Newman  as the self-centered, cynical titular character, along with strong, award-winning supporting performances by Melvyn Douglas and Patricia Neal , a sparse, elegiac score by the legendary  Elmer Bernstein , and gorgeous, stark cinematography by the versatile  James Wong Howe . Very much the antithesis of Shane   [ review ]—released a decade prior (and also starring Brandon De Wilde )—this unflinching, prophetic, humanist film remains a powerful portrait of unresolved familial conflict and the looming specter of capitalism and modernity. "You're just gonna have to make up your own mind one day about what's...

"Don't look back. You'll turn into a pillar of shit." "The whole state is shit." "Don't talk dirty, Tommy. How many times do I have to tell you?" An affecting, tragically funny, wonderfully acted, beautifully written and shot portrait of a struggling, widowed mother and her young, bored ("B-O-R-E-D... BORED!") son. "Well, now, would you mind turning around for me?" "Turn around for you? Why?" "I want to look at you." "Well, look at my face. I don't sing with my ass." Martin Scorsese Feature Films Ranked Top 20 Directors

"How about making me vice president in charge of cheering you up?" With its incredible cast, brilliant and playful dialogue, impeccable fashion by Givenchy , beautiful cinematography by Charles Lang , a mysterious and hip score by the legendary  Henry Mancini , and a mesmerizing title sequence by Maurice Binder , Stanley Donen 's  Hitchcock ian thrilling masterpiece Charade (1963) stands the test of time. Perfect entertainment. "I don't bite, you know, unless it's called for." Stanley Donen Films Ranked The Danman Top 100 Films (2024 Edition)