Take a Look in ‘Miroirs No. 3’

March 26, 2026

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What do you see? (CREDIT: 1-2 Special/Screenshot)

Starring: Paula Beer, Barbara Auer, Matthias Brandt, Enno Trebs, Philip Froissant

Director: Christian Petzold

Running Time: 86 Minutes

Rating: Not Rated

Release Date: March 202, 2026 (Theaters)

Miroirs No. 3 is the first Christian Petzold movie officially entering my brain, and it feels pretty cozy, despite all the tortuous psychological angst. Part of that surely has to do with the temporal setting. (It looked like mid- or late spring to me, but other reviews seem to think it’s actually late summer. Perhaps German Augusts have a similar vibe as mid-Atlantic American Mays. Either way, there’s plenty of sunshine!) But it also has quite a bit to do with the fact that the vast majority takes place in and around a family’s house, with satisfying amounts of bicycling, dinner, gardening, and plum cake.

On the flip side, the whole thing is basically a Vertigo scenario, as Betty (Barbara Auer), the matriarch of the household, witnesses a car crash that kills a young man just outside her door. That man’s girlfriend, Laura (Paula Beer) decides she would like to stay and recover with Betty, who is all too happy to let her remain for as long as she likes… not least because she reminds Betty of someone from her past. Betty’s husband (Matthias Brandt) and grown son (Enno Trebs) are initially much more skeptical, but soon enough they’re all charmed by this captivating woman. It’s a creepy status quo, to be sure, but I would venture to hope that it could have been salvaged if everyone had just been a little more upfront from the get-go. Maybe I’m being overly pollyannaish, but we’re all dealing with our own grief and our own baggage, and what an act of grace it is to help us carry each other’s.

Grade: 12 Doubles out of 15 Exploding Dishwashers

A Spoiler-Soaked Investigation Into the Finale of ‘Ready or Not 2: Here I Come’

March 25, 2026

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Ready as they’ll ever be (CREDIT: Searchlight Pictures/Screenshot)

Starring: Samara Weaving, Kathryn Newton, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Shawn Hatosy, Elijah Wood, Néstor Carbonell, Kevin Durand, Olivia Cheng, Nadeem Umar-Khitab, Varun Suranga, Juan Pablo Romero, Masa Lizdek, Maia Jae, Dan Beirne, Antony Hall, David Cronenberg

Directors: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett

Running Time: 108 Minutes

Rating: R for Lots of Blood and Just as Many F-Bombs

Release Date: March 20, 2026 (Theaters)

I don’t always give away key plot points when I write movie reviews, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis.* Also, when I do I use spoiler tags and do my best to avoid getting overly specific. But that’s because I typically post my full-length reviews before a movie comes out. But since spring has sprung and all, I’m in the mood to mix things up, so let’s dive into my fully spoiler-riffic review of (the already-released) Ready or Not 2: Here I Come!

(*-I couldn’t resist.)

First off, a quick recap: the first Ready or Not was one of my most raucous cinematic pleasures of 2019, which leads me right into my first spoiler: I didn’t like the sequel quite as much. But now that we’ve made peace with not being able to quite clear that high bar, let’s focus on that explosive ending, which seems designed to prevent any further sequels. (Although in the horror world, you can never say never for sure.) Anway, after her first attempted wedding didn’t exactly work out, Grace (Samara Weaving) tries to save herself with another marriage, this time to the dastardly Titus Danforth (Shawn Hatosy). It appears to be an even more hellish match than the original matrimony, or at least this time the evil is more upfront to begin with.

But Grace’s blood-soaked wedding dress has always been her source of strength and wiliness. Along with that symbolic ensemble, let’s take the name of her sister (Kathryn Newton) very literally and have faith that everything is fated to work out for Grace and Faith. Well, maybe not everything, but enough for them to carry on for at least one more day of self-reliant freedom. Thus, my biggest takeaways from this movie’s ending are:

1.The wedding dress just upped its iconic status to Level Infinity
2. We are truly blessed to witness the Scream Queen Union of Weaving and Newton

Although, of course, it’s worth noting that that second takeaway is hardly a spoiler at all – it could’ve only been a spoiler if it had turned out that the opposite was true. And if I may drift away from the sisters for one last central point: there should surely be more movies that conclude with Elijah Wood dispassionately (but also with barely concealed relish) witnessing a bunch of people spontaneously combusting. (It shouldn’t be overdone, of course, but we could certainly afford a few more.)

Grade: 3 out of 5 Golf Carts

‘Slanted’ Zigs and Zags Into My Craw

March 25, 2026

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This is how it looks when the movie is Slanted (CREDIT: Bleecker Street/Screenshot)

Starring: Shirley Chen, McKenna Grace, Vivian Wu, Fang Du, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Amelie Zilber

Director: Amy Wang

Running Time: 104 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: March 13, 2026 (Theaters)

Slanted slides into theaters with a devilish little premise: what if there were a medical surgery that would allow people of color to become white (in every possible way you can fathom)? For a business model like this to work, there would have to be people willing to erase their ethnicity for the sake of making a racist world easier to live through. Ergo our teenage protagonist Joan Huang (Shirley Chen), who gets the surgery and re-introduces herself to everyone as the white-presenting “Jo Hunt” (McKenna Grace). Slanted isn’t quite as unimpeachable as the similarly premised The Substance, but it is successful enough that I was still grappling with its repercussions days later. And that second life – that feels like home.

Grade: A Full Bowl of Potatoes Covered in 75% Sour Cream

That’s Auntertainment! Mini-Episode: 98th Oscars

March 22, 2026

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TFW when you’ve just watched the Oscars (CREDIT: ABC/Screenshot)

It was one reaction after another as Jeff and Aunt Beth (and a few special guests) wrapped up their thoughts on the 98th Academy Awards.

Entertainment To-Do List: Week of 3/20/26

March 20, 2026

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Will this be my new favourite show? (CREDIT: Sky TV/Screenshot)

Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.

Movies
–Dead Lover (Theaters)
–Miroirs No. 3 (Theaters)
–Project Hail Mary (Theaters)
–Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (Theaters)

TV
–Jury Duty Season 2 Premiere (March 20 on Amazon Prime) – This season is entitled “Company Retreat.”
–Saturday Night Live UK Series Premiere (March 21 on Sky One for Brits, Next Day on Peacock for Americans) – With host Tina Fey and musical guest Wet Leg!
–Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special (March 24 on Disney+)

Music
-BTS, Arirang

‘Project Hail Mary’ Projects a Universe’s Worth of Resourcefulness and Wonder

March 18, 2026

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It’s a touchdown! (CREDIT: Jonathan Olley
© 2026 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved.)

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Sandra Hüller, James Ortiz, Lionel Boyce, Ken Leung, Milana Vayntrub, Priya Kansara

Directors: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller

Running Time: 156 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Quite Mild Suggestive Themes and References

Release Date: March 13, 2026 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Ryland Grace is just a middle school teacher! But he might also be the exact right person to save the world, and possibly even the entire universe. Here’s the potentially apocalyptic problem: a newly discovered form of microorganisms called astrophages are basically eating up our Sun and so many other stars… except for one strikingly immune astral body light-years away from Earth. Despite his current humble position, Dr. Grace has the precisely necessary background to tackle such an intractable problem. So one day he finds himself waking up in a spaceship very far from home, and it just so happens that he’s right next to a cute alien scientist that he dubs Rocky. And so, they of course team up to save the universe together.

What Made an Impression?: A Truly Alien Encounter: With more than a century’s worth of cinema about interplanetary adventures, it can feel like we’ve run out of all possible design ideas for extraterrestrial beings. And yet we’ve never before encountered anything quite like Rocky (though certain individual elements may harken back to some classics). Voiced and puppeteered by James Ortiz, he’s got the blocky geometry of TARS from Interstellar crossed with the boundless energy of a puppy and the playful genius of an Einstein.
A Bond as Vast as the Universe: I wonder how a movie critic from Rocky’s species would describe Dr. Grace in a review of their planet’s version of Project Hail Mary. I imagine this creature would be massively charmed and would even speculate that he would be giggling all the time on their planet’s analogue of Saturday Night Live. Anyway, that’s just a windup towards disclosing that Rocky and Grace’s friendship is absolutely lovely to witness. You could call them The Odd Couple of 2026, except that it’s not odd at all.
Remembering What It’s All For: If your favorite part of Toni Erdmann was Sandra Hüller busting out some Whitney Houston, then you’ll be happy to learn that she sings another noteworthy pop number in PHM. I won’t mention the exact tune here in case you want to go in cold, but I will note that it has been teased during the promotional cycle, and it’s a blast whether you’re ready for it or not.
We Can Do It!: With equal amounts of fun and worry to be had in this epic galaxy-spanning adventure, the biggest takeaway is that there’s still room for hope in an existence where everything seems to be crumbling apart. I was massively inspired by Grace and Rocky’s teamwork, and I suspect that you will be too. What a wonderful feeling to be left with when stepping out of the theater!

Project Hail Mary is Recommended If You Like: NASA, Interplanetary collaboration, Karaoke

Grade: 4 out of 5 Astrophages

Jeff’s Wacky SNL Review: Harry Styles/Harry Styles

March 15, 2026

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The Ides of March (CREDIT: NBC/Screenshot)

Jeff “jmunney” Malone watches every new episode of Saturday Night Live and then reviews all the sketches and segments according to a “wacky” theme.

Good morning*, my dear SNL Review Reading Audience. It’s time for me to discuss the 15th episode of the 51st season of Saturday Night Live, aka the second time in history that Harry Styles has turned in double duty as both host and musical guest. (And you know I’m in the right mood for this, having gone for a 45-minute run on Sunday morning.) Has anyone else ever pulled double duty like this multiple times before? Yes, I’m sure of it. Who exactly, you may ask? Well, Britney Spears comes to mind, for one.

Anyway, now that I’ve provided that windup of context, I shall inform you that my Reviewing Gimmick for this episode will take inspiration from the recent anniversary of my arrival into the world, as I declare “Happy Birthday” to the most birthday-riffic element of each sketch and segment.

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98th Oscars Predictions/Preferences

March 13, 2026

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#OscarBros (CREDIT: Warner Bros./Screenshot)

Here is my annual presentation of my best guesses for who shall emerge victorious at the 98th Oscars and whom I would select on my ballot if I were a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. We shall find out the truth together when Monsieur Conan O’Brien hosts the ceremony on Sunday, March 15, 2025.

Best Picture
Prediction: Sinners
Preference: Sinners

Best Director
Prediction: Paul Thomas Anderson
Preference: Ryan Coogler

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Entertainment To-Do List: Week of 3/13/26

March 13, 2026

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THE OSCARS – Key Art. (Disney)

Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.

Movies
–Slanted (Theaters)
–Undertone (Theaters) – I liked the premise more than the execution, but it’s still worth checking out.

TV
–Celebrity Jeopardy! All Stars Season Premiere (March 13 on ABC)
-98th Academy Awards (March 15 on ABC) – Hosted by Conan O’Brien… for the second year in a row!

Music
-The Black Crowes, A Pound of Feathers
-James Blake, Trying Times
-Kim Gordon, PLAY ME
-Lamb of God, Into Oblivion

Sports
-Men’s March Madness (March 17-April 6 on CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV) – And Selection Sunday shall be held March 15 on CBS.
-Women’s March Madness (March 18-April 5 on ABC and the ESPN Family of Networks) – With Selection Sunday being held March 15 on ESPN.

Getting to Know ‘Idiotka’ and ‘The Napa Boys’

March 12, 2026

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Can an Idiotka be a Napa Boy? (CREDIT: Magnolia Pictures; Utopia/Screenshot)

Idiotka

Starring: Anna Baryshnikov, Camila Mendes, Owen Thiele, Benito Skinner, Mark Ivanir, Saweetie, Julia Fox, Galina Jovovich, Nerses Stamos, Gabbriette, Zack Bia, Shaun Brown, Jake Choi, Marcelo Tubert, Ilia Volok, Gigi Zumbado

Director: Nastasya Popov

Running Time: 82 Minutes

Rating: Unrated

Release Date: February 27, 2026 (Theaters)

The Napa Boys

Starring: Armen Weitzman, Nick Corirossi, Sarah Ramos, Jamar Malachi Neighbors, Mike Mitchell, Nelson Franklin, Chloe Cherry, Vanessa Lee Chester, Paul Rust, David Wain, Beth Dover, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith, DJ Qualls, Ivy Wolk, Chris Aquilino, Natasha Behnam, Ray Wise, Mike Hanford, Ryan Perez, Natasha Leggero, Riki Lindhome, Steve Agee, Jack Allison, Harley Quinn Smith, Nik Dodani

Director: Nick Corirossi

Running Time: 92 Minutes

Rating: Unrated

Release Date: February 27, 2026 (Theaters)

Within the same week, I saw two little movies that simultaneously felt like they were made expressly for me and like they were from a planet I’ve never visited.

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