There’s no way to sum up this film in a simple paragraph or two, but I’ll do my best to hit the high points. There are three stories, all set in Spain, centuries apart, unfolding simultaneously.
A “black ball” take on La Bola Negra
A traipse through a century of Spanish history as seen through a few gay icons, La Bola Negra is a very fashionable film, at once a conscious entry in contemporary cinema’s ongoing fixation with the archive and a throwback to Miramax Oscar Bait, characterized not inaccurately as The Hours for Federico Garcia Lorca.
Once Upon a Time in Harlem is a father-son time machine fifty years in the making.
Once Upon a Time in Harlem (2026 | USA | 100 minutes | Conceived and shot by William Greaves, Directed by David …
Pawlikowski’s Fatherland, a Quiet, Affecting Glance at Post-Nazi Germany
World War II has just ended, and sweeping landscapes of a crumbling German town fill the opening sequence. What follows is an intimate re-imagining of the Mann family’s experience post-war with the patriarch Thomas (Hanns Zischler) and his daughter Erica (Sandra Hüller) embarking on a sort of literary tour of the country to boost national morale perhaps? But also maybe to boost his ego and boast patriotism after having escaped to the US for many years to avoid the destruction that had consumed his homeland.
Assassination Vacation
After a long career destabilizing governments at home and abroad, CIA operative Chris Carlisle (John Malkovich) has received a terminal cancer diagnosis and knows he has fewer days ahead than behind. The 1973 coup that ousted democratically elected Marxist Salvador Allende and installed the ruthless, CIA-backed Augusto Pinochet is going to be Carlisle’s swan song. He’s been the Leonard Zelig of political assassinations for over a generation, but not even Kissinger lived forever.
Turturro offers an intimate look at a man past his time with The Only Living Pickpocket in New York
The Only Living Pickpocket in New York proves we’re passed the age of cash in hand, which is great for most of us but not the protagonist. There once was a time when cash was king, money clips were mandatory and pickpockets made a legitimate living on the subways of New York City.
In Wicker, everyone wants a spouse made of straw
Once upon a time, in a village far, far away, there was a lonely Fisherwoman, a spinster isolated from her community for being viewed as unattractive, smelly, and altogether undesirable. That is until she approaches the Basket Weaver and asks him to craft her a husband made of wicker. Soon she is the happiest woman in the entire village (and certainly the most sexually satisfied).
A Talent for Magical Thinking
A Talent for Murder, a sly (if slight) psychological thriller about a young man in publishing who travels to Switzerland to try to convince Highsmith (played by Helen Mirren) to write a sixth book in her “Ripliad” series near the end of her life. For the uninitiated, the Ripliad consists of five novels featuring Tom Ripley, Highsmith’s charming, amoral, occasionally murderous antihero.
Epic adventure Wildwood is not for the faint of heart
Set in the odd, sassy, and lush wilds of Portland, OR, Wildwood takes us on an adventure not unlike Jim Henson’s Labyrinth (sans David Bowie in skin-tight stretchy pants). Young Prue just wanted to take her effervescent and curious baby brother Mac out on the town (ok, to farmers market and a couple of stores) when their very loving yet super tight leash parents left for a knitting event (oh so Portland). Out of the blue, poor little Mac was carried off by a large and strangely coordinate murder of crows into the unpassable forest.
OIFF: Recap + Orcas Island Film Festival announces 2026 Awards
In their twelfth year of running a festival on the gem of the San Juan islands, it’s basically a given that the small but mighty Orcas Island Film Festival will quietly drops one of the season’s most complete and compelling film festival lineups of the year. The quality of the program is an embarrassment of riches and it’s basically in our backyard (provided that your backyard has a seaplane or a ferry boat).