THE ODYSSEY

Christopher Nolan knows a great Greek epic when he sees it. 

Take it from me. I know what movies deserve to be shown in theaters. What differentiates between a big screen and a small screen is the quality that each movie holds. Think of how great “Project Hail Mary” looked in 70mm, or how pitiful “The Electric State” was to the point of it deserving a Netflix release. Think of how watching a special screening of “Jaws” helps bring back the movie-going experience and think of how the live-action remake of “Moana” made the fatal mistake of being shown in theaters. 

Now, we move on to Christopher Nolan’s version of Homer’s ancient Greek epic, “The Odyssey,” and I empathize the word “epic.” With a long list of big budgeted movies including the “Dark Knight” trilogy, “Inception,” “Dunkirk,” “Tenet,” and “Oppenheimer,” he is a filmmaker who knows the meaning of the word “blockbuster.” He does not make these movies to make money; he makes them because he has a vision. In “The Odyssey”, he honors the original story while taking different angles and allowing the A-list actors to resonate with the characters. 

You know the story of how Odysseus (Matt Damon), the Greek king of Ithaca, is part of the Trojan War and takes a long journey home to reunite with his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and son Telemachus (Tom Holland). I mean “long,” because the voyage lasts for twenty years. We see him and his soldiers dealing with the cyclops Polyphemus (Bill Irwin), the witch Circe (Samantha Morton), and the nymph Calypso (Charlize Theron), and we see him being protected by the goddess Athena (Zendaya). Meanwhile, his son is determined to find him, while his wife may have to marry Antinous (Robert Pattinson), who plans to take the throne. 

There has been some controversy about the armor and ships in the trailers, as well as casting non-Greek actors with American and British accents and Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy. Some people would say that iron armor didn’t exist back in the day, and some would say that Nolan casting the “12 Years a Slave” star would be considered to be forced diversity. In my defense, Hitler never got his face blown off in a movie theater, but Quentin Tarantino liked to think so with “Inglorious Basterds,” I believe in diversity, and you’ve seen movies like “Ben-Hur,” “The Ten Commandments,” and “Gladiator,” among others. If Nolan wants to represent “The Odyssey” in his own light, that’s his right. Leave him alone. 

I don’t go to the movies for history lessons, and I’ve already learned about Homer’s story in high school long before this version came to be. I go to the movies to see originality, art, and commitment. This version of “The Odyssey” is a reminder of all those qualities. You need to see the special effects of the cyclops and how scary the encounter is; you need to hear Ludwig Goransson’s score that makes the surround sound move the theater, and you need to see how Hoyte van Hoytema’s cinematography captures the gritty ambiance on what the Trojan War has brought upon the soldiers. See it in IMAX if you can. 

Damon has proven himself to be an actor in his 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, and now 50’s, indicating he is an ageless actor. He plays Odysseus with whatever humanity he places inside him. That is if the Greek king has any humanity left in him. Credit must also go to Holland for having the youth and spirit as Telemachus, and for taking his acting abilities further. You can see the emotions in Hathaway’s eyes as she expresses her remorse for her husband. 

Other than being a producer on “Batman v Superman” and “Transcendence,” there isn’t a single bad movie Nolan has made. I think we can agree that “The Odyssey” is one of the best films of the year. It runs for less than three hours, but it moves by very fast, and it wants to see the journey through. The Trojan horse trick isn’t as easy as “Mr. Peabody and Sherman” or “Troy” made it out to be and wait until you see how Circe turns her victims into animals. 

SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2026

Sundance’s last year in Utah takes us on the road to California, school musicals, and memory lane.

Five years in a row now, I have been to the Sundance Film Festival online, and I was able to grab a few tickets to warm myself up for the upcoming year. I will go there in person soon enough, especially when it will be relocating from Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah to Boulder, Colorado (the same place that celebrates BIFF), but for now I’ve got some movies to talk about that I was able to see from the festival.

“Union County”

The first film I watched from the festival is “Union County,” which deals with drug addicts, and especially in a time of opioids. It is a somber movie that is more into talking than the obligatory fighting and drug hallucinations. So, don’t expect any Darren Aronofsky or Gaspar Noe trips. Expect some human characteristics regarding those who can get clean, those who can’t, and those who need more help.

Will Poulter stars as Cody Parsons, a young opioid addict in Ohio who is assigned to a county-mandated drug court program. At this point, he is currently homeless and sleeping in his car, brushing his teeth with a jug of water, and doing his laundry outside in the woods - as the program’s men’s and homeless shelters are full. His foster brother Jack (Noah Centineo) is in the same program but is in worse shape when he fails his alcohol screening with only a couple of beers and can not pay his fines. At least they both have jobs at a construction factory. But after a bad night of drugs which resorts in a car accident, Jack is placed in an intensive treatment center, while Cody now has a place at the sober house.

Besides Cody and Jack, we also hear from other people in the Adult Recovery Cort, which include even real members like Annette Deao who are cast in this film. How drugs have ruined their lives and how some members were given a wakeup call about how life can be better without them. For those who can’t be in court in person because they are at an intensive treatment center, they are given video chats. On a final note, it was filmed in a real drug court, so you can sense some authenticity within the film.

There is also Anna (Elise Kibler, whose background includes TV episodes for “Daredevil” and “The Night Agent”), who is in the same program and does peer support at the women’s house. After the program, they are respectively thinking of relocating to Columbus for better opportunities. Although, she does ask: “If everybody leaves, then who is going to be here for the people who can’t?,” and even he agrees on that. There are no guarantees of these two starting a romantic chemistry, because Anna also has a custody situation to deal with.

We also see the estranged relationship between Cody and his sister Katrina (Emily Meade), who doesn’t know if she can forgive him for breaking into her house to either steal stuff or to do drugs. Further, she was haunted seeing Jack in a hospital bed.

“Union County” should delve deeper inside this kind of sad world, because the subject matter should hit hard. However, it does have a voice and acknowledges what is underneath the surface. At this point, we are more concerned about Cody and how he is dealing with his own treatments and life choices. There are times when we are supposed to worry about what he is doing in certain moments, and there are occasions when he does make his speeches with sincerity and truth. Poulter gives one of his best performances in the way he eases with these emotions and how he delivers the human characteristics in his character.

This is a sad movie, and not every addict will be able to recover or survive. Yet it is also well-acted and drawn with convictions by up-and-coming writer/director Adam Meeks, who sets the recovery story in his hometown. If Cody can keep moving forward, then you know “Union County” isn’t going to be cynical and unhappy. It wants to speak to those who need a second chance at life. I am no addict, but I can sense when a movie like this has a voice. It is about triumphs overcoming these kinds of messes.

“Carousel”

In the independent circuit, Chris Pine and Jenny Slate have respectively proven to us that they can be as entertaining in them as they can be in commercial films. Let’s not forget that Pine was in “Hell or High Water,” “All the Old Knives,” and “Z for Zachariah,” while Slate was also in “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” “Obvious Child,” “Gifted,” and “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On,” among others. “Carousel” is their first collaboration, and it’ is a sweetheart movie that allows these two to carry it. I wasn’t sure what to think of this movie in the early stages, but I was able to see some emotional elements worth checking out. It’s an independent romance with a similar low key vibe as “Materialists,” which was on a different level. This one is more an honest look at what divorce and heartbreak does to people.

Pine stars and produces himself as a divorced Ohio father named Noah who is struggling to keep his family medical practice afloat (“I’m no George Bailey,” he says) and reunites with his high school girlfriend Rebecca (Slate). She was a politician in Washington D.C. and now serves as his anxious teenage daughter Maya’s (Abby Ryder Fortson) debate coach and now is in the middle of trying to sell her home (with Jeffrey DeMunn and Jessica Harper as her parents). This moment is a little inferior to how Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson were arguing in “Marriage Story,” but is handled in a gentler fashion. Noah and Rebecca admit that before they reunited, they were thinking of writing and saying bad things about each other, like him thinking she is the “C” word or her calling him “an emotional terrorist” in what would have been hate mail.

Ever since the divorce, Maya is struggling with her anxiety, getting upset about cutting her finger on a door or forgetting her class project at home. This is like the end of the world to her. These scenes are a bit much to deal with and we should get a better examination of her pathos, but at least the film doesn’t make her out to be the brat that McKenna Grace was acting like in “Regretting You.” It shows her trying to deal with her family drama, as well as using the school debate to help take her mind off things. Fortson has already proven herself to be a fine young actress with movies like the first two “Ant-Man” movies and “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”

We also get Sam Waterston as Noah’s dead father’s friend and co-worker Sam, who is dating his mother (Katey Sagal, Leela and Peg Bundy herself) and is on the brink of retirement. That does not happen before he gives him some words of wisdom about life (“Grief is a nasty business,” he says).

“Carousel” was written and directed by Rachel Lambert, who also made “Sometimes I Think About Dying.” Her next entry has Pine and Slate both giving human and sincere performances. The fact that her character is a politician in D.C. makes me believe that this film is, in an allegorical sense, a better version of “Ella McCay,” which talked so much that I lost interest in the story and characters. This movie is able to breathe after each conversation, and therefore, we are able to acknowledge what life has brought to these former high school lovers.

This is a low key film that draws us in because we love the leads and due to the development Lambert provides for them. We also must appreciate the optimism given in Waterston’s character, because of how he tries to be the sensible one in Pine’s story. He is not placed there because a drama requires a character like him, but to allow him to listen and sympathize with the lead. “Carousel” isn’t always going to be easy, but it is going to keep going, and it likes to think things through carefully before pushing Pine and Slate into the romance. Think back with Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan in “When Harry Met Sally” or Chris Evans and Dakota Johnson in “Materialists” They all took the time to spark or reignite their chemistry and they all work.

“Hot Water”

I admire watching road trip movies about life. Not all movies of the genre have to regard “National Lampoon’s Vacation” slapstick or violence and car chases. They can be about people, the states they travel through, and what unfolds for everyone and everything. That is certainly the case with “Hot Water,” which is a mother-son road trip movie, but a better one than the Seth Rogen-Barbar Streisand comedy “The Guilt Trip.”

Early in the film, I was feeling some vibes from “The Visitor,” as the main teacher can’t give a student another chance before he finds himself on an unexpected journey through life. Only this time, the teacher is female and also Lebanese. Her name is Layla (Lubna Azabal), who eats clementines as a substitution for smoking cigarettes and she does it while scolding a student who did a sloppy job on her assignment. Her son Daniel (Daniel Zolghadri from “Eighth Grade” and “Lurker”) ends up being injured after getting into a fight a school. But being the assailant, he is immediately expelled and needs to finish his high school year somehow. Their only recourse to drive half way across the country to California so he can live with his dad Anton (Gabe Fazio). He may be grounded with no cellphone because of his expulsion, but the movie never annoys about that. In fact, these two are still able to see America for what it is. Let’s forget the racism and pollution for a second and see it for the nature it celebrates and the whimsical people who pop up - such as the mother and son who visit an earthly woman named Sasha (Dale Dickey) who shows Daniel the joys of being naked in the hot springs.

“Hot Water” was written and directed by Ramzi Bashour, whose background includes short films (“The Trees,” “No One Gets Out of Here Alive”) and grew up in Saudi Arabia where movie theaters were banned until he moved to Beirut. His feature debut is an impressive step-up, because of how he draws the characters who refuses to succumb to cliches and wishes to use their words to express their emotions.

There’s a scene when they reluctantly take in a hitchhiker (producer Max Walker-Silverman, who also made “Rebuilding” and “A Love Song.”), and they ask him to leave because he smells bad (“Well of course I smell bad, he shouts). When he refuses to leave the car, Daniel threatens to hit him with his hockey stick, which sets off a range of emotions for both the mother and son.

Maybe we could have gotten more time for them to see the states they are visiting, but I think the road trip itself can be identified as a character. One trying to learn about the mother and son, and how close they can get the longer their journey gets. There is even the suggestion to spend time with your mother while you can. I have already taken that message long before this movie. I am glad I still have my mother, and I’m glad I got to spend time with both my grandmothers before they passed away this decade. Take the time you can with your mother or grandmother. Either way, life has a lot to unfold for you.

Throughout this journey, Azabal and Zolghadri are both excellent when they develop and don’t give us the silent treatment. We want to hear from them, and we want to support them in any way we can. We should also make sure he doesn’t turn the car lights off when driving in the dark.

SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY

No headaches for this sequel, even if the hero is suffering from them. 

If you recall the last entry “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” Peter Parker tampered with Doctor Strange’s spell to the point of the multiverse being on a collision course with his world. In order to prevent that from happening, he asks him to erase everyone’s memories of him. People still know who Spider-Man is, but now, nobody knows who Peter Parker is. Not even his friends. 

Now we have “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” which picks up with Peter (Tom Holland) facing some medical issues with his Spidey powers, while contemplating about whether or not to tell his friends MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon) about who he is, and trying to capture the villain hopping into people’s minds. That is the set-up of this sequel, which continues to broaden this Peter Parker, and show the next stage of his young life. It is entertaining, emotionally complex, sometimes funny, and gripping throughout. 

The medical issues regarding Peter having painful headaches, as his arachnid powers threatens to consume him and control his senses. When somebody pushes his buttons, his eyes turn black like a real spider, and he acts like Spider-Man on steroids. Instead of the cliche of the police branding the superhero as a vigilante, it has a mom detective (Liza Colón-Zayas from “The Bear”) worry about his health and mental stability. 

When MJ asks Peter Parker if he found a Mrs. Spider-Man, he responds: “I’m withholding.” Then again, I found out a few years ago that there are more Spider-People in “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” So, anything is possible. 

The telepathic villain is Jean Grey (Sadie Sink from “The Whale” and “Stranger Things”). Why is she targeting Spider-Man? I can’t say. But we all know she has an X-Men name.  

Among the MCU regulars to tag along in this franchise, Mark Ruffalo returns as Bruce Banner, who now wears an inhibitor to prevent him from turning into the Hulk. Although his students keep asking him about his superhero life, about as much as people keep asking the actor if there will be a new Hulk movie. They need to stop acting like he’s never been in “13 Going on 13” or “Spotlight” because Peter didn’t ask Dr. Strange to erase anyone’s memories about those films.

Jon Bernthal is also back as the Punisher. Seeing him and Spider-Man banter makes me think of how he would connect with Deadpool. It is the attitude within that makes you think. In fact, at one point, when Spider-Man is ordered to go in a spa pool, he’s down to his boxers, but his mask must remain on his head. Therefore, I’m easily reminded of how Deadpool spoofed Ferris Bueller’s post credit scene. 

Some of the slow-motion shots look like one of those A.I. videos on Instagram, but most of the special effects are versatile enough for Spider-Man to sling his webs. Plus, I criticized the live-action remake of “Moana” as an A.I. looking pool of fish pee, so I will take whatever the movie throws at Peter Parker any day of the week. There is a lot, and most of which I did my best not to give away. 

It would take a miracle to top “Spider-Man 2” or the “Spider-Verse” movies as the very best of the bunch. “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” now directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, is still not that one, but it is another worthy addition to the Marvel library. You have to give credit to Holland, Zendaya, and Sink for developing some emotional weight within their characters, and to Bernthal and Batalon for adding some much needed humor. There are many fans out there, and they know when a “Spider-Man” movie is entertaining. I trust in this franchise’s judgement certainly much more than I doubted “Madame Web,” because it understands the appeal of this universe and what it unfolds for the hero. 

Minor note: we all know that this is the second film this summer to feature Holland, Zendaya, and Bernthal after Christopher Nolan’s masterful version of “The Odyssey.” That’s the best movie of the summer, while this one knows a good time when it sees it.