Robert Kojder

The Whisper Man follows a grieving father and his young son as they move to Featherbank, where a serial killer's child abductions and audio tapes have apparently resumed 15 years after the original culprit was imprisoned. The review argues that despite a prominent cast led by Adam Scott, Robert De Niro, and Michael Keaton, the film is slow, emotionally heavy-handed, and unable to generate urgency or compelling suspects. Its focus on abused children, fatherly rejection, family trauma, and generational cycles does not develop into convincing psychological depth, while the twists, chase sequences, and climax are deemed anticlimactic. Michael Keaton is singled out for an unsettling performance, but the overall film receives a two-star rating.

Just Play Dead follows a wealthy couple on a tropical island who scheme around a staged murder for insurance money, with each plotting to outmaneuver the other. The review argues that Martin Campbell’s film wastes its Samuel L. Jackson and Eva Green-led premise through sluggish pacing, nonlinear storytelling, bland seduction and an unenergetic screenplay. Although the final act delivers an absurd twist that briefly suggests the trashy thriller the film could have been, the preceding runtime is judged tedious and emotionally unengaging.

Robert Kojder praises Alicia MacDonald’s romantic comedy Finding Emily for interrogating questionable romantic-comedy behavior and shifting social perceptions of consent, safety and attraction. The film follows lovesick musician Owen, who searches a Manchester campus for Emily after receiving her phone number with a digit missing, and psychology student Emily Raine, who uses him as a case study for her skeptical thesis on romance. The review highlights Spike Fearn and Angourie Rice’s chemistry, convincing musical performances, clever humor and commentary on genre conventions, while criticizing the overly large supporting cast. It awards the film three stars and the movie four stars.

Ridley Scott’s adaptation of Peter Heller’s novel follows Hig, a grieving pilot living with his dog and former Marine Bangley in a fortified Colorado airport hangar after a virus devastates humanity. The review finds the film derivative and overloaded with post-apocalyptic clichés, unclear world-building, generic factions, and awkward action scenarios. Although some sequences are competently staged—particularly Josh Brolin’s solo defense of the hangar and an airplane escape—the action-heavy third act undermines the more promising emotional relationship between Hig and Cima. The film is also criticized for endorsing or uncritically presenting uneasy right-wing survivalist messaging.

Coyote vs. Acme follows Wile E. Coyote as he hires lawyer Kevin Avery to sue Acme Corporation over decades of defective products, while confronting the company’s powerful attorney and attempting to secure the Road Runner’s testimony. The review praises the film’s seamless live-action/animation integration, energetic slapstick, clever casting, emotional reworking of the Coyote–Road Runner rivalry, and willingness to critique corporate greed and discrimination. It also highlights strong performances from Will Forte and John Cena, while criticizing Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav’s decision to shelve the film for a tax write-off. Despite some overstuffed storytelling and an increasingly adult-oriented third act, the film is judged ingenious, heartwarming, hilarious, and boldly inventive.

Colony follows a biotech conference that descends into a contained outbreak after a rapidly mutating virus turns people into a collectively controlled, zombie-like force. The review finds the film's plot and crowded ensemble familiar, nonsensical, and emotionally uneven, but praises Yeon Sang-ho's energetic action direction, inventive survival set pieces, impressive stunt work, South Korean stylistic flair, and Koo Kyo-hwan's flamboyant villainous performance. Its strongest visual idea arrives in the climax, even though the film does not substantially reinvent the genre.

Casper Kelly’s Buddy transforms the familiar format of a cheerful 1990s-style children’s television program into a violent horror story. The film’s strongest elements are its immersive production design, unsettling episodic structure, inventive explanation for the mascot villain’s repeated resurrection, and Keegan-Michael Key’s menacing vocal performance. Freddy, played by Delaney Quinn, serves as the central child protagonist while the children face genuine danger without plot armor. The film is less successful when it leaves the colorful television world for a darker wilderness and an underdeveloped family-drama storyline, but its willingness to reject safe or conventional choices makes it an unusual and often suspenseful creature feature.

Director Joe Swanberg and actors Jake Johnson and Cory Michael Smith discuss The Sun Never Sets, a relationship drama set in Alaska about Wendy, her older boyfriend Jack, and her former flame Chuck. They describe Swanberg’s improvisational and collaborative filmmaking process, the importance of emotional truth, and the freedom given to actors to influence their characters and scenes. Smith discusses drawing on personal experiences with unhealthy patterns, while Johnson explains how Swanberg’s method demands presence rather than memorized line delivery. The conversation also covers a baseball-themed trivia scene and the camaraderie among the cast and crew.

Insidious: Out of the Further follows Gemma, a dentist and mother who discovers she can enter the Further and bring entities or objects back into the real world. The review praises Jacob Chase’s reinvention of the franchise through imaginative supernatural rules, dental body horror, inventive scares, and a threatening villain, Cyrus. Elise’s return is warmly received, while her partnership with Claire is criticized as underdeveloped. Despite thin characterization, the film’s momentum, emotional family dynamics, and willingness to become increasingly bizarre make it one of the series’ most entertaining and frightening entries.