‘Folktales’ Trailer: Acclaimed Sundance Doc Follows Teen Dogsledders On An Existential Journey

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June 24, 2025

What did you do during your gap year from school? I’m betting it wasn’t nearly as extraordinary as the three teens in Folktales, the heartwarming documentary from Oscar-nominated Jesus Camp filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. The doc premiered earlier this year at Sundance and I’ve been kicking myself for missing it. Thankfully, I can rectify that error next month thanks to Magnolia Pictures which acquired the rights during the festival. I just love that promo image they’ve been using since January. They just look so happy, both the woman and her dog.

Folktales centers on three folk high schoolers in Norway who embark on an existential journey with a pack of loyal sled dogs. A folk high school is a learning institution that offers adult education through experiences rather than traditional coursework. Certainly in this case, these students had the experience of a lifetime.

SYNOPSIS: In Oscar®-nominated filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s life-affirming documentary, teenagers converge at a traditional folk high school in Arctic Norway where they must rely on only themselves, one another, and a loyal pack of sled dogs as they all grow in unexpected directions.

In Norse mythology, the three “Norns” are powerful deities who weave the threads of fate and shape humans’ futures. Today, Pasvik Folk High School in northern Norway aims to produce a similar life-changing effect on its students. FOLKTALES tells the timely and heartwarming story of teenagers who choose to spend an unconventional “gap year” learning to dog sled and survive the Arctic wilderness, in hopes of finding connection and meaning in the modern world. Guided by patient teachers and a yard full of heroic Alaskan huskies, they discover their own potential and develop deep relationships with the land, animals and humans around them. Through intimate verité storytelling and exhilarating cinematography, Ewing and Grady examine humans on the cusp of adulthood, finding themselves at the edge of the world.

Folktales opens at IFC Center in New York on July 25th, before rolling out to Los Angeles and other cities on August 1st.

‘Finally Dawn’ Trailer: Lily James And Rachel Sennott Live The Hollywod Life In 1950s Rome

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Travis Hopson

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June 24, 2025

Lily James is a glamorous actress in 1950s Rome in Saverio Costanzo’s Finally Dawn. The film is finally arriving in theaters after having its world premiere two years ago at the Venice International Film Festival. It released in Italy in February 2024, and will arrive here in the U.S. next month from Samuel Goldwyn Films.

Costanzo has put together an A-list cast for his Italian period drama, set during the Hollywood on the Tiber era of 1950s Rome. James is joined in the cast by Rachel Sennott, Willem Dafoe, and Joe Keery in the film about a young Roman woman and aspiring actress who has the night of her life in Cinecittà.

Alba Rohrwacher, Michele Bravi, and Rebecca Antonaci co-star. Costanzo directed Finally Dawn and wrote the screenplay. It’s his first feature since 2014’s Hungry Hearts (which I reviewed in 2015, God I’m old), which also featured his wife, Rohrwacher.

SYNOPSIS: A young Roman woman during the 1950s is on the verge of becoming engaged to a man. She goes to Cinecittà to do an audition as an extra and is thrust into this almost infinite night during which she discovers herself.

Finally Dawn opens in theaters and digitally on July 18th.

‘The Strangers: Chapter 2’ Trailer: Madelaine Petsch Is Back And Being Stalked Again In Renny Harlin’s Sequel

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Travis Hopson

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June 24, 2025

THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 2 opens on September 26th

Maya Lucas is experiencing some deja vu in the new trailer for Renny Harlin’s The Strangers: Chapter 2. For good reason. She barely survived the events of the first movie, and now that she’s out of the hospital and back in the real world, she’s being stalked again by mysterious strangers who look awfully familiar.

The first movie in Harlin’s trilogy finds Madelaine Petsch returning as Maya Lucas, along with Gabriel Basso and Ema Horvath. Harlin shot all three movies back-to-back, and has said in the past that it’s best to see these films as “one 4.5 hour movie” than separate chapters.

Synopsis: The Strangers are back – more brutal and relentless than ever. When they learn that one of their victims, Maya (Madelaine Petsch), is still alive, they return to finish what they’ve started. With nowhere to run and no one to trust, Maya must survive another horrific chapter of terror as The Strangers – driven by a senseless, unceasing purpose – pursue her, more than willing to kill anyone who stands in their way.

Lionsgate has to be pleased with what they saw from the first movie, which earned $48 worldwide on a budget of $8M. Reviews weren’t great, but The Strangers has a pretty loyal following that has stuck with it since the original movie in 2008 and the sequel in 2018.

The Strangers: Chapter 2 hits theaters on September 26th.

‘Splitsville’ Trailer: Dakota Johnson Explores Open Marriages In Anticipated Comedy From ‘The Climb’ Filmmakers

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Travis Hopson

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June 23, 2025

The wait is almost over! For fans of Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin’s hilariously-scathing cycling comedy The Climb (review), the six-year wait for a new film has been excruciating. But the duo returned at Cannes with Splitsville, which looks absolutely tremendous and boasts a much more starry cast. Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona star, with Covino and Marvin also right alongside them, of course, in a comedy that explores the feasibility of open marriages.

Directed by Covino and co-written with Marvin, Splitsville follows a man who runs to his married friends for support when his adulterous partner asks for a divorce. He learns that his friends stay happy by being in an open marriage, until he throws a monkeywrench in their relationship by taking things too far with the wife.

Also in the cast are Nicholas Braun, David Castañeda, and O-T Fagbenle.

Covino has a Larry David-like quality when it comes to creating uncomfortable but damned funny situations. Let’s just say this one is very high on my list of movies for the rest of 2025.

SYNOPSIS: When Ashley asks for a divorce, the good-natured Carey runs to his friends, Juli and Paul, for support. Their secret to happiness is an open marriage; that is, until Carey crosses the line and throws all of their relationships into chaos.

NEON releases Splitsville into theaters on August 22nd.

‘Weapons’ Trailer: The Kids Are Vanishing In Zach Cregger’s Anticipated ‘Barbarian’ Follow-Up

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Travis Hopson

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June 23, 2025

Warner Bros. has high expectations for Zach Cregger’s new horror, Weapons, giving it a prime slot during blockbuster season. There’s good reason for optimism. Cregger’s breakout horror film Barbarian was both a critical darling and a box office hit on a small budget. This is a much larger movie with bigger stars, but based on the footage we’ve seen it’s going to be just as creepy.

Weapons is an ever-evolving story that kicks off with a terrifying event. At exactly 2:17am on a seemingly normal Wednesday, 17 schoolkids in the fictional town of Maybrook, Pennsylvania, get up from their beds and flee into the night, never to be seen again. The story then follows the various plots springing from the traumatic disappearances. Julia Garner plays the schoolteacher whose students have all vanished, save one. Josh Brolin plays a parent to a missing child, and has suspicions about Garner.

Others in the cast include Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Benedict Wong, Amy Madigan, June Diane Raphael, and Cary Christopher as the only student from Gandy’s class who didn’t disappear.

SYNOPSIS: When all but one child from the same class mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance.

Weapons opens in theaters on August 8th via Warner Bros.

‘Street Fighter’: Callina Liang Will Drop Some Killer Kicks As Chun-Li

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Travis Hopson

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June 23, 2025

Callina Liang will play Chun-Li in STREET FIGHTER

Capcom’s Street Fighter is the greatest fighting game franchise of all-time, full stop, and it’s hotter than ever right now. That makes this a good time to launch a brand new live-action movie, which is what Legendary is doing with Bad Trip director Kitao Sakurai. And that means finding a cast to play the “world warriors”, with Deadline reporting that Callina Liang has nabbed the role of Chun-Li. She better start doing leg lifts right now.

Liang joins a recently announced cast of Andrew Koji, Noah Centineo, Jason Momoa, Roman Reigns, and Orville Peck. While none of their roles have been confirmed, WWE superstar Reigns has been rumored to be playing Akuma. Koji seems like a perfect fit for Ryu, with Centineo looking pretty good to play Ken. Momoa would be a damn good Blanka, if you ask me.

This will be the biggest film yet for Liang. She recently starred in Steven Soderbergh’s ghost story, Presence, and the heist thriller Bad Genius.

Chun-Li is a Chinese martial arts expert with the killer kicks (hence the massive thighs), and a thirst for vengeance against M. Bison for the death of her father. She was played previously by Ming-Na Wen in the dreadful 1994 movie, and by Kristin Kreuk in the equally awful Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li in 2009. The best movie version of “the Chun” is in Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie in 1994.

On a side note, there’s almost no character I hate fighting more than Chun-Li. She’s always overpowered.

Street Fighter is currently set to hit theaters on March 20th 2026.

Review: ‘Please Don’t Feed The Children’
Michelle Dockery's Hiding A Deadly Secret In Destry Allyn Spielberg's Directorial Debut Horror

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Travis Hopson
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It’s gotta be tough to break into filmmaking when your dad is one of the greats, but that’s what Destry Allyn Spielberg has done with Please Don’t Feed the Children. Obviously, she’s the daughter of Steven Spielberg, and let’s be honest, there will be those who write her off immediately as a nepo-baby cashing in on her last name. But her debut is a solid effort that initially has you thinking it will follow in her famous father’s style, Spielberg instead goes her own direction by refusing to stick with any one genre. The post-apocalyptic pandemic thriller is as much a horror movie as it is a road trip film and a coming-of-age story, anchored by a creepy lead performance by Michelle Dockery.

Set in a dystopian society in the not-too-distant future, Please Don’t Feed the Children begins in the wake of a viral outbreak that has decimated the adult population. With the disease blamed on kids, they are captured and herded into brutal camps. But there are also roving packs of orphans avoiding capture, most of them committing petty crimes just to survive, when they aren’t looking for a fabled haven where all children are safe.

Zoe Colletti, Regan Aliyah, Andrew Liner, Josh Melnick, Dean Scott Vazquez, and Emma Meisel play a group of fugitive orphans who, after a botched shoplifting turns deadly, break into the worst possible home. Because of her long stint on Downton Abbey we’re sort of trained to expect refined and mannered characters from Dockery, and initially it seems this will be another one. But she proves to be quite the crafty, nasty villain, tricking the gang until she has them subdued, locked away, and terrorized. When they start disappearing from their captivity one-by-one, they begin to realize that she’s keeping something far worse hidden away in her home.

There have been loads of behind-the-scenes issues that have plagued Please Don’t Feed the Children, which happens when you’ve got a shoestring production such as this. But Spielberg has shrugged all of that off and put together a film that, while grappling with an uneven and familiar screenplay by Paul Bertino, manages to keep up a good pace and deliver some intriguing conflict among the group, who don’t completely trust one another.

The always-reliable Giancarlo Esposito has a small role as a sheriff and a friend to Dockery’s character. Together, Esposito and Dockery bring invaluable gravitas, and it’s to Please Don’t Feed the Children‘s benefit to have them both in the final act. This is about as close as we get to Esposito playing a morally decent character lately. And that speaks to the dark, cynical outlook the film leaves you with because morality and decency seem to be rarities in this world. For Destry Allyn Spielberg, her debut shows enough promise that we can be confident this is the start of her filmmaking career and not the end.

Please Don’t Feed the Children opens on June 27th via Tubi.

‘Angel Of Death’: Shia LaBeouf To Star In And Co-Write Jerzy Skolimowski’s Holocaust Drama

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Travis Hopson

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June 23, 2025

Fresh from racing through David Mamet’s little-seen drama Henry Johnson, which was completed in five days (!!!), Shia LaBeouf is working with another veteran filmmaker in the twilight of their career. Filmolia reports LaBeouf will star in the cheerily-titled Angel of Death, a WWII drama from Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski. Not only that, but LaBeouf will also co-write the screenplay.

LaBeouf will star in and co-write Angel of Death, starring as Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, the Hungarian Jew forced to work with Dr. Josef Mengele, one of the cruelest architects of the Holocaust.

Skolimowski is coming off his kinetic donkey thriller EO, which wowed critics at Cannes (and us!!) in 2022, winning the Jury Prize. At 87 years old, he doesn’t seem to be slowing down at all. In fact, he seems to have the wind at his sails and working with LaBeouf could produce another festival darling. Angel of Death sounds like a real bummer of a movie and a tough sell. Let’s see how easily it finds distribution.

This won’t be LaBeouf’s first feature screenplay, either. He wrote the semi-autobiographical Honey Boy, which earned its share of praise back in 2019. While he’s no longer the huge, blockbuster that he once was, LaBeouf is quietly in a creative renaissance by working with some of the best and most experienced filmmakers in the world.

Ezra Miller Is Co-Writing And Starring In Lynne Ramsay’s New Vampire Movie

By

Travis Hopson

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June 23, 2025

Ezra Miller is making his way back to Hollywood alongside director Lynne Ramsay

Ezra Miller has been back in the news lately. And this time, they’re not in trouble or anything. Recently, we learned Miller would be reuniting with their We Need to Talk About Kevin director, Lynne Ramsay, on a mysterious vampire movie project. And now we’re learning that Miller’s role in it is even bigger than we knew.

Speaking with Italian outlet Lo Speciale Giornale (via Variety), Miller revealed they are starring in and co-writing the vampire film with Ramsay…

“I’m working with her again, that will likely be the first thing I do. It’s a film that her and I are writing together. And I came to Cannes because she asked me to come, and if there’s anything I really still believe in in my life, it’s devotion to one’s people, one’s loved ones…above all else.”

Miller was at Cannes with Ramsay for the world premiere of her new film, Die, My Love starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson.

This is Miller making their re-entry into Hollywood, and if that’s going to happen the easiest way is with filmmakers they’ve already worked with, who they feel a real connection to. If this works out, other filmmakers will be more open to the idea of casting Miller, who hasn’t had any major projects since The Flash and Fantastic Beasts tanked.

Box Office: ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ Stays Aloft, ’28 Years Later’ Bites Into $30M As ‘Elio’ Flops

By

Travis Hopson

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June 23, 2025

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON bested ELIO and 28 YEARS LATER at the box office

How to Train Your Dragon– $37M/$160.4M

Dreamworks Animation and Universal’s live-action How to Train Your Dragon held on to the top spot with $37M, giving it $160M domestically and $358M worldwide. The film is a big hit, even if it’s not going to do Lilo & Stitch or A Minecraft Movie numbers in the family-friendly space.

2. 28 Years Later (review)- $30M

Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s long-awaited sequel 28 Years Later opened strong with $30M. That’s enough to give Boyle the biggest opening weekend of his career. The first chapter in a trilogy led by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, Ralph Fiennes, and Alfie Williams, the film has $60M worldwide and puts it on a path to surpass the two prior films. 28 Days Later ended its run with $82M, while 28 Weeks Later ended at just $65M. Critically, the film has won over critics with 89% at RT, while audiences were a bit less favorable at 65%, perhaps because it’s less of a horror movie than expected.

3. Elio (review)- $21M

It was all bad news for Pixar as its latest, the space-faring adventure Elio, opened at just $21M, the lowest ever in its history. Ouch. That puts it in the ballpark of Pixar’s 2023 film, Elemental, which struggled out of the gate with $29.6M, but solid word of mouth boosted it to $496M worldwide by the end of its run. It’s doubtful that Elio will get the same treatment, even though its doing well on RT with 84% from critics and 91% from audiences.

4. Lilo & Stitch– $9.7M/$386.7M

5. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning– $6.5M/$178.3M

6. Materialists– $5.8M/$23.9M

7. Ballerina– $4.5M/$51.1M

8. Karate Kid: Legends– $2.4M/$49.4M

9. Final Destination Bloodlines– $1.8M/$134.8M

10. Kuberaa– $1.7M

Also…the Rebel Wilson/Anna Camp action-comedy Bride Hard had awful reviews on its way to just $932K. So much for that Pitch Perfect reunion!