A young artist gets stranded in an extensive, immaculate forest in western Ireland, where, after finding shelter, she becomes trapped alongside three strangers, stalked by mysterious creatures each night.

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The Watchers is the directorial debut of M. Night Shyamalan's daughter, Ishana Shyamalan. The question regarding whether she got this job because of her talents or because of her nepotism is front and center throughout this entire feature. Would she succeed where her father faltered or succumb to her father's failures? The answer is both, Ishana makes a very strong directorial debut with her first feature film but succumbs to all the writing flaws that afflict the Shyamalan family.

We follow Mina as she becomes trapped in the deep forest of Ireland where a small home is her only refuge as she is hunted by creatures that only come out at night. This story is naturally creepy, which Ishana masterfully immerses the audience in. The atmosphere in The Watchers is as gripping as it is unsettling. Throughout the runtime, you constantly have the feeling that you are being watched and observed by something you can’t see. Then when it comes time to seek shelter, you feel the intensity and tension of running out of time as creatures of nightmare begin to hunt you in the woods that feel like they go on for eternity. This atmosphere that Ishana creates masterfully and fully immerses you in the horror that our characters are in. I just wished her writing was as strong as her direction.

What seems to be a dominant trait among the Shyamalans is the inability to write without 70% of the dialogue being exposition. Sadly, this trait is abundant in The Watchers. The majority of lines are forced and serve no purpose other than telling the audience what is happening. We are never given a moment where we just watch the characters naturally interact in the woods. They are constantly explaining stuff to each other as we are forced fed every ounce of information. Because of this inherent flaw, I never really cared for any of the characters nor the relationships that they build as the months go by. But that is not the end of the questionable writing decisions.

The story is littered with plot holes and lacks internal logic. Our characters have been missing for several months and no one has looked for them, and when they return it is like nothing happened. Or how we are told the importance of following the rules, but when they break the rules there are no consequences for their actions. Or did at any point the characters think about rearranging the furniture in their glass prison? These issues and many more plague this script. I don’t know if this is because of the source material, which I haven't read, or because of Ishana's writing abilities, but it made it frustrating at points to watch. Furthermore, when you think the movie is over, there are another 15 minutes left for a plot twist that adds nothing to the story other than an uneven ending. This left me partially frustrated with the movie as it is both well-made and not well-made.

As for the performances, they are fine. The entire ensemble is clearly being held back by the expository material, but are giving the best performances they can. It is lovely seeing Dakota Fanning back on the big screen as she makes her debut as a scream queen. Her performance is quite restrictive and wooden but feels perfect for a character who is suppressing her trauma.

Georgina Campbell continues in her work of being an underrated scream queen. Oliver Finnegan gives a performance that shows more promise in his future career. While Olwen Fouere feels like the most wasted of the cast as she is reduced to nothing more than an expository mouthpiece. Overall, the cast does the best that they can as they are mostly wasted by the material.

In conclusion, The Watchers contains the best and worst characteristics of the Shyamalans. Ishana managed to create a gripping and tense atmosphere in a single location but nearly wasted it with her expository writing. It is still an entertaining movie, but you can’t help but feel frustrated by it. On the bright side, it was refreshing to see a movie finally remember that faeries are actually creatures of nightmares and not cute little children with wings.

My Rating: C+

The Dead Don’t Hurt

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When her partner leaves to fight for the Union, Vivienne is left to fend for herself in a small town controlled by a corrupted mayor.

The Dead Don’t Hurt is the sophomore writing/directorial outing for actor Viggo Mortenson. Having not seen his first directorial outing, The Dead Don’t Hurt mostly works as a feature film. Albeit, it is about twenty minutes too long, and the non-linear storytelling doesn’t really work, but I found myself intrigued by this film. It has a classical approach of a Western but with some modern subversions, such as themes centered on immigrant perseverance and feminism. However, it doesn’t dive into these themes as much as it thinks it does, but I respect it for trying. Where the film is at its strongest is with the performances. Vicky Krieps and Viggo Mortensen are excellent here and their chemistry is fire. While Garret Dillahunt, Danny Huston, and Solly McLeod are excellent villains. Overall, it doesn't really come together perfectly, but still an intriguing film.

My Rating: B-

In Theaters

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Ren Faire

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When the ailing king of America’s largest renaissance festival declares his retirement, an epic power struggle ensues among his servants.

The Texas Renaissance Festival has been a yearly pilgrimage for my family for as long as we have lived in Texas. So it was fascinating to see a documentary dig into the largest Renaissance Festival in the Americas. However, instead of presenting the history of the festival through a standard history documentary, we presented an experimental docufiction series that is framed as a Shakespearean tragedy. We follow George Coulam, otherwise known as King George, as he looks for a successor to take his kingdom as plans on going into retirement to focus on his art, his health, and his sex life through sugar daddy websites. He is easily one of the most striking documentary subjects I have seen in a long time. He is a cruel, power-hungry maniac who will abuse anyone who gets in his way. Then when the frame shifts to his loyal peasant employees, who are trying to win his favor, we witness the manipulative power of the mad King George. But it doesn’t stop there. The documentary's unique styling and editing feel like it is in line with series such as Succession and Game of Thrones. We are witnessing a real tale of King Lear and it treats its subjects like their Shakespearean counterparts. Overall, this is one of the most unique documentaries I have seen in a very long time.

My Rating: A

On MAX

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Madame Web

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Forced to confront revelations about her past, paramedic Cassandra Webb forges a relationship with three young women destined for powerful futures... if they can survive.

After every film festival, I subject myself to the pain of watching several terrible movies. I do this to myself because sometimes we have to watch bad movies to understand what makes a good movie. So the first movie on my list was Madame Web, which is as bad as what everyone says it is. It is filled with the worst characteristics of corporate filmmaking. From the atrocious and forced dialogue to the horrid VFX and dispassionate performances, Madame Web is easily one of the worst movies of the year. The only positive I can think of is that you could see the movie's potential as it tried to be a superhero version of The Terminator. However, terrible writing and corporate bureaucracy prevented that from happening.

My Rating: D-

On Netflix

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Poolman

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A local Poolman spends his days looking after the pool of the Tahitian Tiki apartment block and fighting to make his hometown a better place to live.

After being torn apart by critics at The Toronto International Film Festival, Chris Pine’s directorial debut, Poolman has finally arrived. Out of pure curiosity, I decided to watch the movie to see if it was as bad as what critics said it was, and to my disappointment, it was. I can see what Poolman was trying to be a saterial stoner comedy of Roman Polanskies' acclaimed neo-noir, Chinatown. However, instead of being high on weed, it was on cocaine and meth. It is an incoherent mess of a movie as it bounces all over the place. The dialogue is nonsensical as it forces terrible comedy into every single scene. Furthermore, the entire ensemble is wasted here as their performances are either high on cocaine or high on disappointment. There is no in-between. Chris Pine, you made a disaster of a movie. However, Chris, you have my respect for owning up to your failure, which is something that the majority of filmmaking can’t do. So you get some extra brownie points.

My Rating: C- On VOD

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Sasquatch Sunset

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A family of sasquatches embarks on a journey through the remote California wilderness over the course of one year.

If you are looking for a simple movie about some furry woodland creatures vibing in the remote forest of America, then I have found the movie for you. Sasquatch Sunset is a movie about a family of Sasquatches surviving and living in the remote forest of northern California. That is the entire premise of the movie. It has zero dialogue and is filled with classic slapstick and physical comedy. Yet, it is also surprisingly moving at many points as we watch this family travel through the trenches of the wilderness. Overall, if you like weird movies this is for you. But if weird movies are not your cup of tea then this is not for you.

My Rating: B

On VOD

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Janet Planet

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Lucy spends her summer at home, enthralled by her own imagination and the attention of her mother, Janet, and her companions.

As previously stated, I am not the biggest fan of minimalist filmmaking. When the genre hits with me, it really hits, but when it misses, I find myself bored. Sadly, this was the case with Janet Planet. Despite the film being beautifully shot, with some amazing performances and a great story about the struggles of coming of age, I struggled to connect with this film. I believe that is entirely due to its minimalistic style that I sadly found myself indifferent to. I can see why many people enjoy this film, but it is not for me. I recommend you check it out for yourself to see what you think of it.

My Rating: Not For Me.
In Theaters

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The Idea of You

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40-year-old single mom Solène begins an unexpected romance with 24-year-old Hayes Campbell, the lead singer of August Moon, the hottest boy band on the planet.

As previously stated, I despise rom-coms. Very few movies in this genre have made a positive impression on me as I find the majority of the movies in this genre toxic as they normalize toxic relationships. Sadly, The Idea of You falls into the toxic category as it screams terribly desperate Harry Styles fan fiction. The story that is presented is filled with the worst characteristics of fan fiction. From the contrived story to the unexplained attraction between the couple, the story doesn’t make any sense outside of the author's self-fulfilling fantasy. The only part that I will give the movie credit for is that it attempts to tackle ageism against women, especially when they are the eldest in an age-gap relationship. Outside of this praise, The Idea of You is desperate fan fiction.

My Rating: C-

On Prime Video

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Atlas

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A brilliant counterterrorism analyst with a deep distrust of AI discovers it might be her only hope when a mission to capture a renegade robot goes awry.

Atlas is another in a long line of money-laundering action movies from Netflix. With that statement alone, it is clear that Atlas is a stinker. From the story written by ChatGPT to the action pieces that look worse than the Spy Kid movies from 20 years ago, this is the worst of Netflix’s filmmaking. It is a waste of talent for nearly everyone working on this movie. Mark Strong and Sterling K. Brown are wasted in this movie and should have never been a part of it. Simu Liu gives the worst performances of his career. While J-Lo is proving to everyone that she has always been a terrible actress and Selena was a once-in-a-lifetime performance. Please skip over this movie so Netflix will get the message to stop making this garbage.

My Rating: D-