’28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’ Finds a Little Tenderness Amidst the Rage

January 14, 2026

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Come on, send him your bones! (CREDIT: Miya Mizuno/Columbia Pictures)

Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams, Erin Kellyman, Chi Lewis-Parry, Emma Laird, Louis Ashbourne Serkis, Maura Bird, Ghazi Al Ruffai, Sam Locke

Director: Nia DaCosta

Running Time: 109 Minutes

Rating: R for Big Ol’ Zombie Nudity Again, Plus Some More Graphic Zombie Violence, But Even More Disturbing Uninfected Human-on-Human Violence

Release Date: January 16, 2026 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Last we saw of young lad Spike (Alfie Williams) in post-Rage Virus Britain, his mom had died of cancer, while he opted to fend for himself as his dad headed back home. Now he finds himself in the clutches of the Jimmys, a cultish group of scavengers who sport blond wigs in the style of disgraced English DJ Jimmy Savile. Under the leadership of the charismatically cruel Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell), they psychopathically enforce their will over anyone and everyone. It’s a dangerous conscription, though it offers pretty solid protection against the zombified humans infected by the Rage Virus. Speaking of the infected, the most fearsome in the last chapter was the hulking specimen known as Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry), who finds himself forming an unlikely companionship with Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), who may just have developed some reliable treatments all these years later.

What Made an Impression?: I Think I’m Going to Ralph: 28 Years Later featured Ralph Fiennes being his usually terrific self, but it’s The Bone Temple that really lets him explore entirely new dimensions. He brings tenderness to an unlikely buddy comedy, cavorts with the forces of evil, and delivers a choreographed dance to Iron Maiden. It’s as full and varied a performance as you could possibly ask for.
Consistency is Key: It can be tricky shooting multiple sequels together and releasing them within a year of each other. Making matters even trickier is when you switch up the director, with Nia DaCosta taking over the reins from Danny Boyle this time around. But no need to worry, as the same sensibility manages to sufficiently survive. (I’m sure it helped that Alex Garland stayed on as writer.) Furthermore, DaCosta takes firm ownership over this chapter, and it might be my favorite feature from her yet.
The Man Behind the Wig: At times, the Jimmys are just unbearably ultraviolent, and it doesn’t feel like there’s much of a point to that beyond mere indulgence. Plus, O’Connell is all too willing to be as depraved as possible. Fortunately, we eventually get a peek behind the mask to discover how he became this menace in a way that rounds out the full storytelling picture without being overly pat. If things start out a little too mean for your tastes, just be patient, and everything will eventually be in its right place.
And One More Thing!: If things go well enough at the box office, there will be (at least) one more chapter in the Rage Virus saga, and The Bone Temple‘s final coda tantalizingly teases what that will be. You don’t need to stick around until after the credits to see it, but nevertheless make sure you pay attention all the way to the end.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple  is Recommended If You: Like being in the middle of a storytelling circle and winding around the corner with the end in sight

Grade: 3.75 out of 5 Jimmys

‘Hedda’ Review: DaCosta and Thompson Offer Up Their Own Spin on Ibsen

October 20, 2025

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A still of 3 women in a movie called Hedda (CREDIT: Parisa Taghizadeh/Amazon Content Services LLC)

Starring: Tessa Thompson, Imogen Poots, Nina Hoss, Tom Bateman, Nicholas Pinnock, Finbar Lynch, Mirren Mack, Jamael Westman, Saffron Hocking, Kathryn Hunter

Director: Nia DaCosta

Running Time: 107 Minutes

Rating: R for The Typical Party Vices, Including a Little Bit of Skin

Release Date: October 22, 2025 (Select Theaters)/October 29, 2025 (Amazon Prime Video)

What’s It About?: By all outward appearances, Hedda Gabler (Tessa Thompson) seems to have a pretty charmed life. She’s got a decent husband (Tom Bateman), she lives in a massive house,  and she gets to host some wild shindigs. But there’s a powder keg just waiting to be lit. And it all goes kaboom over the course of one of those bacchanals. That’s because on that night, a couple of ladies with their own agendas (Nina Hoss and Imogen Poots) return to force Hedda to reap what she’s been sowing. And so, forbidden romance, professional jealousies, and general pettiness all converge for a deadly disaster that none of the guests will soon forget.

What Made an Impression?: The Scandinavia of It All: 2025’s Hedda is just the latest in a long line of adaptations of the 1891 Henrik Ibsen play Hedda Gabler. Before watching this version, I only knew it by name and was totally unfamiliar with the plot. But I have encountered Ibsen’s most famous work (A Doll’s House), so I had some idea of what he’s all about. Writer-director Nia DaCosta has fully queered up the story, although I wouldn’t have been surprised if that element were already present in the original. Which is to say, it’s a natural fit.
We’re All Trapped: If I had to select one word to sum up Hedda, it would be … “claustrophobic.” There’s no escaping this party! Or maybe there is, though it would probably require these characters to totally redefine their perspectives of their current life situations. As the viewer, I felt similarly boxed in. If you find yourself in the same boat as me, you could always walk out of the theater or press stop on your remote. That is, unless you relish anxiety-inducing moviegoing experiences.
She’s So Petty: Tessa Thompson is a pretty dang great actor, and Hedda only reinforces that truth. But her version of the titular scamp (and perhaps most versions) is not a very pleasant person to be around. In fact, I would even go so far as to call her a sociopath. Maybe if I had prepared myself a bit more before going to know what I would be getting into, I might have been entertained by all of her manipulative behavior. But only to a point. Ultimately, this is one of those movies that I found kind of middling, even though I got the sense that the people making it probably did exactly what they wanted to do.

Hedda is Recommended If You Like: Hot messes throughout the decade

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Secrets

Am I Thankful for ‘Priscilla,’ ‘May December,’ and ‘The Marvels’?

November 25, 2023

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Priscilla being all Priscilla-like (CREDIT: Philippe Le Sourd/A24)

Priscilla

Starring: Cailee Spaeny, Jacob Elordi, Ari Cohen, Dagmara Domińczyk, Lynne Griffin, Dan Beirne

Director: Sofia Coppola

Running Time: 113 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: October 27, 2023 (Theaters)

May December

Starring: Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, Charles Melton

Director: Todd Haynes

Running Time: 117 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: November 17, 2023 (Theaters)/December 1, 2023 (Netflix)

The Marvels

Starring: Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani, Zawe Ashton, Samuel L. Jackson, Gary Lewis, Park Seo-joon, Zenobia Shroff, Mohan Kapur, Saagar Shaikh

Director: Nia DaCosta

Running Time: 105 Minutes

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: November 10, 2023 (Theaters)

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The New ‘Candyman’ Asks, ‘What if Candyman Now … and Forever?’

August 25, 2021

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Candyman (2021) (CREDIT: Universal Pictures and MGM Pictures)

Starring: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, Colman Domingo, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Vanessa Estelle Williams, Rebecca Spence, Brian King, Tony Todd

Director: Nia DaCosta

Running Time: 91 Minutes

Rating: R for The Bloodiest of Hook-Based Violence

Release Date: August 27, 2021 (Theaters)

What’s the DEAL with decades-later horror sequels having the exact same title as the original?! Halloween did it just a few years ago, and now Candyman is getting on the reboot-but-actually-it’s-a-continuation action. I’m not a fan of this trend, and it strikes me as especially dangerous in the case of Candyman. We need some extra words in there so that we don’t accidentally say his name five times in a row! But there’s actually something apt in this case about just recycling the title. Candyman may be overwhelmingly deadly when he appears, but he exists as a whisper and a shadow the rest of the time. So it makes sense that a new generation would be discovering him completely fresh thirty years after his cinematic debut. I would maybe tack on a “The New Generation” subtitle, but the idea behind the repetition is justifiable.

So this may sound a little weird, but just go with me here: the movie that Candyman 2021 most reminds me of is … The Force Awakens. They share a certain kinship in the way that they go about examining their predecessors. These stories have become legends within their universes, and the new characters are fans of the original adventurers who are psyched to meet them. In Candyman Land, Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is a visual artist who’s been struggling to find inspiration but suddenly becomes full-to-bursting with ideas when he hears tell of a man with a hook who slices and dices his victims after they summon him in a mirror. He’s also soon spending much of his free time listening to the recordings left behind by Helen Lyle, the graduate student who was researching the Candyman in the first film. When you go this deep into the story, you become a part of that story, and oh boy, does Anthony become an integral cog in this tale.

By focusing so squarely on the original, Candyman 2021 is occasionally a little too myopic in its approach. For horror freaks like myself, there’s something bizarrely enjoyable about the unhinged world-building that’s typical of so many spooky sequels but less common in these reboot-style sequels. Writer-director Nia DaCosta’s approach is decidedly laser-focused, which is a good thing insofar as she knows exactly what she’s trying to accomplish and she reminds those of us who loved the original why we loved it so much. But it’s a less-than-good thing insofar as it keeps her movie perhaps too much in check. I haven’t seen either of the first two Candyman sequels that were released in the 90s; as far as I know, neither is highly regarded, but wouldn’t it be cool if DaCosta somehow found a way to incorporate elements of them into her outing? I think so. (Although maybe there are some Easter eggs that I missed… It didn’t feel like that was the case, though.)

All the ducks are in order here: the set pieces are thrilling, the music is chilling, the acting strikes the right range of tones. To sum it all up, I appreciate the lens that New-Candyman focuses on Candyman Original Flavor, but I also believe that it would have benefitted from expanding that lens a bit.

Candyman 2021 is Recommended If You Like: The Force Awakens in terms of the self-awareness, People saying “No! No! No!” right before someone summons something evil, Fun with production logos

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Bees