I’m happy to offer DC area readers the chance to attend this weekend’s free screening of The Sheep Detectives. Written by The Last of Us co-creator Craig Mazin, this woolly murder mystery stars Hugh Jackman, Nicholas Braun, Nicholas Galitzine, Molly Gordon with Hong Chau and Emma Thompson, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Chris O’Dowd, Regina Hall, Patrick Stewart, Bella Ramsey, Brett Goldstein, and Rhys Darby.
SYNOPSIS: In this witty, new breed of mystery, George (Hugh Jackman) is a shepherd who reads detective novels to his beloved sheep every night, assuming they can’t possibly understand. But when a mysterious incident disrupts life on the farm, the sheep realize they must become the detectives. As they follow the clues and investigate human suspects, they prove that even sheep can be brilliant crime-solvers.
The screening takes place on Saturday, May 2nd at 11:00am at AMC Georgetown. If you’d like to attend, RSVP at the MGM site here. Please remember, all screenings are first come first served and you’ll need to arrive early to ensure seating. Enjoy the show!
The Sheep Detectives opens in theaters on May 8th.
One has to give it up to Renny Harlin; he knows what his audience expects from him and he usually delivers it. A filmmaker who has been making entertaining schlock for decades, Harlin’s movies were integral to my love of movies growing up. How many times did I watch Cliffhanger and Ford Fairlane? Quite a lot. But there was also 1999’s Deep Blue Sea, a ridiculously trashy hunk of chum about super-smart sharks trying to eat LL Cool J or something. It’s a cult classic for a reason; and undoubtedly Harlin gets asked about it all of the time. Perhaps that’s part of the reason he took on another shark movie, Deep Water, as a knowing wink to all of those fans nostalgic for his brand of over-the-top survival movie.
The truth is that Deep Water has been in the works for well over a decade. Originally planned as a sequel to 2012’s Bait 3D, the film was scrapped in 2014 for being too similar to a real-life tragedy, the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight 370. It sat on the shelf for years until Gene Simmons, yeah THAT Gene Simmons, teamed up with another producer to make Deep Water the first film in their new production banner. The only disappointing thing is that we don’t get Simmons on screen punching a Great White in the nose or anything.
Harlin was brought on at that point, and following the lukewarm reception to his The Strangers trilogy, it’s a welcome return to form and a more sizable production. Deep Water is led by Aaron Eckhart as a First Officer for Northeastern Airlines which, judging by the looks of it, might be a spinoff of the bankrupt Spirit Airlines. Ben Kingsley is his Captain, a cynical ladies’ man who loves karaoke and hitting on the young flight attendants who…apparently think he’s charming? Eckhart is a bit of a rebel, which is why he’s never achieved Captain status despite his age. A young girl, Cora, played by impressive Omaha actress Molly Belle Wright (who I interviewed last week), has something smart to say about it, too, but Eckhart tells her life is full of “diversions” and this is one of them. They’ll be facing another major diversion on a flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai.
In true disaster movie fashion, we’re whipped quickly through the passenger list to draw the thinnest of emotional connections to them. I have to say, old people and Americans come off looking terribly in this. There’s an American sports team with a hotheaded teammate who drunkenly gropes a woman from a Chinese team, only for her best friend and crush to get bullied for defending her. Then there’s Dan, played by Insidious actor Angus Sampson, who’s one of those aggressively hostile, entitled passengers who belittle the staff, smoke in the non-smoking areas, and sneak an electronic device in his baggage that, shocker, overheats and causes the plane to explode.
Plane crashes are always thrilling, but a Renny Harlin-directed plane crash is chaotic devastation to the point of becoming its own horror movie. It’s not enough that holes are blown in the plane and passengers sucked right out into the sky, but everything, and I mean everything, comes dislodged and begins flying around the cabin. The beverage cart has never been so dangerous, as bottles and everything that isn’t nailed down hurtle through the air to smash into passengers’ faces. An attempt to land in Guam goes awry, and they are forced to make a crash landing in the middle of the ocean. Of the 257 people aboard, roughly 30 of them survive, the waters thick with corpses.
All of that blood in the water? It’s like somebody ringing the dinner bell to a bunch of hungry sharks. The plane is in pieces, life rafts are in the water, and everyone is scrambling to get aboard SOMETHING in order to survive. The old people, God bless ’em, are quick to sacrifice themselves for the next generation. Okay, maybe they don’t come off so terribly, after all. Kingsley’s character is kind of a douche, and there’s an old lady who calls her seatmate a “5” because he’s got a thing for one of the hot young stewardesses. She’s kind of an a-hole, too, but she does look out for the kiddos when the time comes. Dan is still a prick, though, and clearly a believer in “every man for himself” when it comes to lifeboat etiquette.
Harlin doesn’t mess around and try to make Deep Water something that it’s not. Mako sharks are swarming, and when you see one, it’s only a matter of time until someone gets a bit taken out of them. Harlin serves up passengers like fish food, making this a more gory experience than a high-tension thriller. The performances are nothing to write home about, but Eckhart and Wright share a couple of poignant scenes together, as Cora handles the guilt of shunning her new stepbrother and stepmom, both now missing and presumed dead. Her situation forces Eckhart’s character to reevaluate his own domestic struggles. It’s not much, but it’s something. Deep Water isn’t Jaws; it’s not even Open Water, but if watching sharks on a feeding frenzy is your thing, you could do a lot worse.
Fourteen years ago, Josh Hutcherson and Isabelle Fuhrman co-starred in the biggest film of their careers at the time, The Hunger Games. Now they’re together again in Signal One, a new sci-fi flick from Shout! Studios which co-stars screen vets Dennis Quaid and David Thewlis.
The film is written and directed by Jonathan Sobol, who has worked with other screen legends recently, such as Ron Perlman, Nick Nolte, and Kurt Russell.
Here’s the Signal One synopsis: When tech billionaire Sam Houston hires the brilliant computer scientist Annika, she ventures to an isolated facility run by the brilliant, nihilistic creator of LITTLEMOUTH, a machine which can communicate with alien intelligence. Annika soon learns some humanity-altering facts: that we are not alone in the universe, that alien intelligences are communicating around us at every moment, and that we are likely too primitive to even remotely understand what they are trying to tell us. But when the goal of the endeavor shifts from listening to talking back, the project rapidly devolves into chaos. With contact comes consequences, and soon Annika and the team must work to ensure the very survival of our species.
You don’t hire Zach Cregger, director of one of the most innovative horrors in recent history with Weapons, to do the same ol’ thing. From the very beginning, Cregger has made it clear that his new Resident Evil reboot will be nothing like the franchise-long action movies led by Milla Jojovich. Nor was it meant to be a faithful adaptation of the hit Capcom video games. And now with the new teaser released by Sony Pictures, we can see that he wasn’t lying, and this will be a brand new experience set within that zombie-filled universe.
Cregger’s Resident Evil stars Austin Abrams, who had a small but key role in Weapons, as a medical courier whose night descends into chaos as Raccoon City experiences a viral outbreak that turns people into monsters. The film won’t feature any of the game’s popular characters such as Jill Valentine, Leon Kennedy, or Albert Wesker. It’s meant to be an original standalone story set within that universe.
Joining Abrams in the cast are Zach Cherry, Kali Reis and Paul Walter Hauser. The film was directed by Cregger, who co-wrote the script with John Wick 3 and Army of the Dead writer Shay Hatten.
SYNOPSIS: From the mind of visionary filmmaker Zach Cregger (Weapons, Barbarian) comes a thrilling — and terrifying — reinvention of the Resident Evil franchise. In an all-new story, Resident Evil follows Bryan (Austin Abrams), a medical courier who unwittingly finds himself in an action-packed, non-stop race for survival as one fateful, horrifying night collapses around him in chaos.
Few have more experience with romantic comedies than Jennifer Lopez. She’s had numerous blockbuster films paired up with one handsome male actor or another, engaging in meet-cutes, hidden crushes, chaotic weddings, you name it. She hasn’t stepped away from the genre, either, with recent films such as Shotgun Wedding and Marry Me. Now she’s back at it for Netflix, and sharing the screen with Ted Lasso‘s Brett Goldstein in Office Romance, a film that throws a workplace twist into the romantic hijinx.
As seen in the new trailer, Office Romance stars Lopez as an airline exec and Goldstein as her attorney, both workaholics, who decide to stop putting love on the back burner and enjoy one another’s company romantically. But there are power dynamics at play, and a relationship such as this breaks all of the rules.
The film is directed by Ol Parker, no stranger to rom-coms as the director of Mamma Mia! and Ticket to Paradise. The script was co-written by Goldstein and Joe Kelly, a longtime producer/writer on Ted Lasso, so he knows the actor’s strengths well. In fact, Goldstein had one of the show’s longest-running romantic subplots, which helped turn him into a sought-after heartthrob around Hollywood.
Also in the cast are Betty Gilpin, Amy Sedaris, Tony Hale, Mary Wiseman, Bradley Whitford, Jodie Whittaker, and Edward James Olmos.
SYNOPSIS: Jennifer Lopez and Brett Goldstein lead this charming and raunchy romantic comedy. Lopez plays a powerful CEO and Goldstein is her airline’s newest lawyer. Their secret Office Romance takes off when these two workaholics stop playing by the rules and start following their hearts.
I’m happy to offer DC area readers the chance to attend a free screening of Billie Eilish-Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour Live in 3D. The film brings together the Academy Award-winning pair of Billie Eilish and James Cameron for a unique concert movie experience.
SYNOPSIS: Captured during her sold-out world tour, BILLIE EILISH – HIT ME HARD AND SOFT: THE TOUR (LIVE IN 3D) brings an innovative new concert experience to the big screen from one of the most celebrated and successful artists of her generation. Presented in immersive 3D, the film is directed by Academy Award® winners James Cameron and Billie Eilish, in-theatres May 8, 2026.
The screening takes place on Monday, May 4th at 7:00pm at AMC Tysons Corner. If you’d like to attend, RSVP at the Gofobo site here. Please remember, all screenings are first come first served and you’ll need to arrive early to ensure seating. Enjoy the show!
Magazine Dreams director Elijah Bynum is lining up in an insanely stacked cast for his next film, My Darling California. Deadline reports the star-studded ensemble has added Chris Evans, who takes over for Josh Brolin, who exited the project due to scheduling conflicts.
Evans joins Jessica Chastain, Chris Pine, Mikey Madison, Don Cheadle, and Charles Melton in the film set in 1980 Los Angeles. The crime thriller “will chart how a single crime weaves together the lives of a TV host, his restless wife, a country music idol, two small-time crooks and an ex-con, all of whom are chasing the promise of a better life.”
Filming is expected to begin in in late summer or September.
Bynum wrote the script and will direct, with the film expected to be a major package on the Cannes market next month.
Evans was last seen in Celine Song’s rom-com, Materialists. He’ll reprise his role as Steve Rogers in Avengers: Doomsday later this year.
RZA’s directorial debut The Man with the Iron Fists was the promising launch of a filmmaker with unique Black perspective. Inspired obviously by the works of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, with a style that blended hip-hop, wuxia kung fu, and classic crime flicks equally, RZA’s work is always intriguing and often exciting. His latest, One Spoon of Chocolate, has more of grindhouse/exploitation feel than the others. And while it shows flashes of potential, it’s the least successful film he’s done so far, bogged down by poor performances and a surprising lack of energy despite a racially-charged revenge plot.
Shameik Moore stars as Randy “Unique” Jackson, a military vet released from prison, who returns home to Karensville, OH to find it overrun by violent, bat-wielding white supremacists. The film begins with someone close to Unique being lured by a bunch of honeypots into a beatdown by masked skinheads. He wakes up in a morgue, with pictures of the slave trade plastered all over the walls, while a white doctor surgically removes his organs. It’s up to Unique to figure out what happened, and get vengeance on those who are doing this to Black men all over the city.
Eventually. One Spoon of Chocolate labors to get the plot moving. Unique is positioned as a sort of Rambo-like figure, soldier with a thousand yard stare and a whole lot of pent-up aggression. He just wants to move on with his life, but the world just keeps on poking at him. Moore is a very good actor, but brooding tortured soul isn’t his bag. He’s best with unassuming, gifted, underdog characters as seen in The Get Down, Dope, and as Miles Morales in the Spider-Verse movies. Here, attempting play a Steve James-like role, it’s just not the right fit. Still, Moore is far and away better than his supporting cast led by RJ Cyler, Paris Jackson, Blair Underwood, and Orange is the New Black actor Michael Harney as the racist town sheriff. For some of them, it’s like they never got past the script reading phase.
Things improve slightly once Unique finishes building his manmade weaponry, and goes on a rampage through the bigots’ party house. Baseball bats, guns, blades, a slapjack, and eventually swords are employed in the brutal combat, with RZA settling on the extreme bloodshed of a grindhouse flick. Moore is most impressive in a final showdown with Harry Goodwins as the racists’ leader, Jimmy, who steps down off a literal throne to engage in the film’s most intense conflict.
One Spoon of Chocolate is RZA’s fourth feature as a director, and he still seems to be figuring out the best way to blend all of his cinematic and musical passions. I would argue that he found it with his first movie, when he was least experienced behind the camera. On a technical level, he’s a much better filmmaker now, and with a renewed focus on his strengths, RZA could finally become the groundbreaking director we know he can be.
One Spoon of Chocolate opens in theaters on May 1st.
Kogonada, the acclaimed director behind Columbus and After Yang, took a big swing with the star-studded romance-fantasy, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. It failed spectacularly, and so the filmmaker went back to something smaller and more personal. Zi, which Kogonada quietly shot guerrilla-style in Hong Kong over a couple of weeks, debuted earlier this year at Sundance, where I had to make a “Sophie’s Choice” between seeing this or Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass. I chose the latter. I feel like I would’ve won either way.
Written, directed, produced, and edited by Kogonada, Zi stars Bridgerton‘s Michelle Mao as a Hong Kong woman experiencing visions of her future self. One night, she meets a stranger who could change the course of her life. That stranger is played by Haley Lu Richardson, who Kogonada has worked with twice before. Also in the cast is Devs actor Jin Ha.
Zi will make its New York premiere tomorrow as part of Museum of the Moving Image’s First Look 2026 program. It does not have a confirmed theatrical release date. Watch the new trailer now courtesy of The Film Stage.
Andy Serkis had the right idea in mind with adapting George Orwell’s grim political allegory, Animal Farm, for today’s society. It could be argued that every generation could use a version of this story, updated to reflect the climate of the moment. And certainly, the political climate today is fraught, chaotic, and downright despairing, so the timing is right. Orwell’s book, with its cute anthropomorphic talking animals and heavy themes of Marxism, socialism, and fascism, went a long way in sparking my interest in politics at a young age, as I’m sure it did for millions of others. Serkis is attempting to do the same thing with his movie, but this poorly animated, Hollywood fairy tale adaptation just wasn’t the right approach.
I liked this idea better when it was going to be done in performance capture, where Serkis is beyond reproach. Animal Farm, as it stands now, does not look very good at all. It doesn’t need to resemble the stunning, vibrant work of Pixar, Dreamworks, or Sony. But there’s no consistency to the lackluster visuals, with some scenes (many of them featuring the workhorse, Boxer) looking shoddier than the rest.
The basic gist of the story remains the same. Orwell’s book is an allegory of the Russian Revolution, and centers on a group of farm animals that rebel against their lazy, alcoholic human owner. They take over the farm for themselves and set out to build a utopia, only for it to fall into ruin when the pigs gain power, force out any rivals, and begin exploiting the other animals, to the point that the pigs become indistinguishable from the human oppressors. It’s incredibly dark, complicated stuff, and Orwell never spoke down to the readers, trusting them to draw the connections themselves.
Serkis’ Animal Farm mostly holds true to major plot points, albeit in a kiddie-friendly way that undercuts the serious themes it presents. For instance, there’s the introduction of Lucky (voiced by Stranger Things’ Gaten Matarazzo), a young pig, gifted with the ability to read, who becomes the audience surrogate character. He’s caught between the revolutionary, Trotsky-esque pig Snowball (Laverne Cox), and Napoleon (Seth Rogen), a charismatic, Trump-ian boar who is like one of Rogen’s stoner characters if they were despotic. Woody Harrelson voices the poor, tragic workhorse, Boxer, whose naivete goes far in leading all of the animals on a dystopic path.
The bad guys are a lot easier to spot in Serkis’ movie, too. Glenn Close voices Freida Pilkington, an evil Elon Musk-esque billionaire looking to cheat the animals out of their Animal Farm, and willing to corrupt the easily corruptible Napoleon to do it. Humans are almost universally awful, barely intelligible, and represent all of the worst aspects of capitalism. These aren’t bad ideas in and of themselves. Setting Animal Farm in a modern context makes sense, and it’s undeniable that Napoleon would be just as cruel and conniving as Trump if in the White House. But Nicholas Stoller’s script, perhaps because of the clear desire to tell a story for all ages, is thinly drawn and fails to show the stark reality of such tyrannical rule. The real-world stakes just don’t feel adequate. Serkis changes a few of the story details, but it’s tough to see how they actually make things better.
To hammer home this point, Serkis’ Animal Farm refashions Orwell’s gut-punch finale with a much happier one, where good clearly wins over evil. Well, at least that’s the case if you don’t bother watching through the credits, which suggest that tyranny will always rise again. There will always be those who fight against it; sometimes they’ll win, sometimes they’ll lose. But ultimately, it’s a never-ending cycle. If Serkis’ point was to inform the next generation of political activists to fight the good fight, then what’s the point in telling them it’s all pointless, anyway?
Angel Studios releases Animal Farm in theaters on May 1st.
