Thoroughbreds (2017): Almost ten years after its release, Thoroughbreds still plays like an exciting story, rapt in the privilege of its characters, before dicing up privilege was that much of a thing. I wrote about it way back when, and my feelings towards it have remained warm. Anya Taylor Joy and Olivia Cooke star alongside Antony Yelchin (who tragically passed away before its release). The girls are two entitled and emotionally dysfunctional characters who try to manipulate Yelchin’s character, a young drug dealer aspiring “to make it”, into a little bit of murder. With its particular rhythm and style and uncompromising approach, Thoroughbreds stands out as one of the better movies of the 2010s, as it surprises in its lowkey twists and distinctive characters. It’s the kind of movie Emerald Fennell has been trying to recreate ever since Promising Young Woman (2020). 8
Caught Stealing (2025): This is one of those movies which embrace the banal, but still shape up in a way that makes them enjoyable. It’s a disappointment because it comes from Darren Aronofsky, but I sure liked it a lot more than the divisive Mother! (2017). It is a movie fuelled by 90s nostalgia, set at the dawn of New York’s gentrification push, sweetly cast and visually textured. Austin Butler makes for a good lead and he is joined by Zoe Kravitz, or so the trailers would like you to think. If anything, a cat named Bud (played by the inimitable Tonic) feels more like the star and any movie so heavily relying on cat energy to stay alive has me on its side. So the story and most of the plot turns are very run of the mill, been there, done that kind of stuff, which is the downer. What works in CS’s favour is that it finds a good rhythm in its second half and the appearance of Vincent D’Onofrio and Liev Schreiber bestow new life upon it. It’s not riveting stuff, but it is a good escapism fare. 7
Heldin (2025): Coming hot on the heels of consuming The Pitt in a weeklong sitting, it’s hard to change gears into something that Heldin has to offer. Written as a tribute to nurses, it features a Swiss hospital and its night shift, understaffed and overworked. Just two nurses have to cover a variety of patients and we follow Floria (Leonie Benesch), who skillfully manages the complexities of her job. It’s a high responsibility, low reward kind of situation, which makes it easy to feel for Floria. As opposed to the ER situation in The Pitt, this stands out in how onerous the solitary nature of her decisions are. My problem with it is that throughout I expected the drama to flare up, the tension to climax, which fails to materialize. Once the movie finds its rhythm, it hardly strays from it, content to paint a portrait that may be closer to the mundane realities of the job, at the cost of narrative strength. It remains a deeply considerate, humane, and ultimately safe endeavor, reserving its sole flash of true inspiration for the closing sequence. 7
Mile End Kicks (2026): I struggled to get behind this movie, with an unlikable lead who gets an undeserved happy ending. Not in the sense that people don’t deserve vindication from those taking advantage of them, but that within this particular movie, events don’t particularly lead up to said conclusion. Grace Pine (Barbie Ferreira) is a music writer who moves to Montreal, where she struggles to be creative and only seems to fall for the wrong guy(s). The whole thing, based on writer-director Chandler Levack’s own coming of age phase, has some quirks and personality, but it is held back by its need to be so self-affirming. 6
Michael (2026): When I saw the vibe around Michael, I had to think of the failure that was Bohemian Rhapsody. Upon watching it, the vibe was confirmed, even though this one fails in a different way. If anything, this is closer to Elvis, but it fails by not letting the music breathe. There are just a few full musical numbers in it, the rest of the movie taking its time in portraying the difficult (and cliched) relationship between MJ and his commanding father. Because we need an antagonist, it’s easy to focus on that, and never did I imagine Antoine Fuqua would go anywhere more controversial with this. That leaves the movie without a core, a story of how a boy becomes something else than his father, while leaving the tapestry of emotional trauma untouched. The monkey and the snake and all the quirks and oddities are mere backdrops here. As for Jaafar Jackson’s performance, it took me a while to get used to how different he looks from his uncle, but I think it ultimately helps this otherwise lacklustre biography stay afloat. 5
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