August 2026

 

THE ODYSSEY (2026)

     If you dismiss this epic adventure movie because it fails to faithfully reflect the plot points or themes of a 28-century-old manuscript, you need to stop watching Hollywood films. Fidelity to original texts hasn’t been a priority of the business since DeMille and Griffith moved west. 

     First of all, the production may be the most incredible filmmaking achievement since “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, with vast sea- and land-scapes and vivid, larger-than-life battle scenes—mostly created without CGI—that immerses viewers into this Grecian mythological world created under the name “Homer.” Few stories in the long history of Western literature have been more influential than that of Odysseus and his journey home from the Trojan War. Like all filmmakers, Christopher Nolan used the chosen source material to make the movie he envisioned. That it has inspired sales of Homer’s “Odyssey” should be a moment to celebrate in the wake of news that few Americans read a single book each year.

 

    Dominating this nearly three-hour picture is, of course, Odysseus (often called Ulysses in modern times), played with unbendable resolve by Matt Damon, a brave and clever soldier—he came up with that Trojan horse trick—who is led on a circuitous route home from Troy after he insults the gods. One of the film’s deficiencies is that, other than Athena (Zendaya), these powerful gods, whose existence is central to the characters’ lives, are never seen. In fact, the curse they face from Poseidon, god of the seas, is said as an aside by one of Odysseus’ soldiers and never reinforced. 

      The reality of Odysseus’ soldiers’ brutality, which leads to the hero questioning his role as a leader, is smoothed over by the fog of war, the crashing and slashing of swords that is devoid of moral certainty, and never emphasized until the end of the journey. I’m not sure how many viewers will come away from the movie realizing that Odysseus has broken society’s god-mandated rules of hospitality, introducing a world of victory at any cost.

      Damon does a solid job as Odysseus but has little opportunity for a performance; most of his dialogue serves as narration rather than character building. The script gives his devoted wife Penelope, played by Anne Hathaway, more dramatic moments and she delivers. I was less impressed with Tom Holland as Odysseus’ son Telemachus, and Robert Pattinson as the leading suitor for Penelope’s hand. Both say the same things over and over again with little believable emotion. For all of Nolan’s visual sense, the script is less than poetic.

      John Leguizamo gives the best performance in the film as the blind Eumaeus, who remains loyal to Odysseus despite his years of absence.

     I think Nolan missed an opportunity to show a more complex Odysseus by turning Circe (Samantha Morton) into a one-dimensional witch rather than a temptation. In the poem, Odysseus stays with Circe for years, despite the complaints of his crew. Equally underutilized is Charlize Theron as Calypso. Unlike the poem, the sexual exploits of Odysseus and his men are barely hinted at. As for the controversy over casting, it’s too silly to even address.

      I did not see the IMAX version of the film, purposely, as I have always felt the big format magnifies a movie into an event—something more suited for an amusement park attraction. But for those who see movies as sheer entertainment, no doubt IMAX will enhance the experience.

     Nolan’s “The Odyssey” is the return of the big-screen epics of the 1950s and early ‘60s, such as “Ben-Hur,” “Spartacus” and “Lawrence of Arabia.” Considering the state of Hollywood filmmaking that’s probably a good thing.

  

TONY (2026)

     You don’t have to have been a fan of Anthony Bourdain—restauranteur, writer and TV personality—to enjoy this depiction of his coming of age summer spent during his college years in Cape Cod.

      Set in 1974, it’s a perfectly rendered remembrance of the era; the attitudes, the parties, the casual dress, the romantic rituals and, most importantly, the need to be different while discovering one’s self are captured by writer-director Matt Johnson (“Nirvanna the Band the Show” in its various incarnations) and his team of scripters.

     Dominic Sessa (the gangly prep student in “The Holdovers”) plays the teenaged Tony who bolts his parents’ home to chase Nancy (a charming Emilia Jones), a girl he briefly met at Vasser, to Provincetown. Without a plan or a job, though he pretends he’s won a writing fellowship, Tony ends up washing dishes at a rundown restaurant. There he’s taken under the wing of Chef (a scene stealing Antonio Banderas) and, amid the drugs, fighting and bad decisions, finds his place in the world. 

     Long scenes in the restaurant’s claustrophobic kitchen with the nonstop bickering and insults from the Chef and his assistants Stavros (stand-up comic Stavros Halkias) and Sal (a charismatic Leo Woodall, star of “Tuner”) along with the sweet and clumsy flirting between Tony and Nancy (later his wife) turn this slice of life bio-pic into an unpretentious entertaining movie. That it’s about one of the most interesting television celebrities of this century just adds to the film’s fascination.

      Bourdain, after a career as a chef, wrote a tell-all book about the restaurant world, “Kitchen Confidential,” which led to him becoming the refreshingly irreverent host of TV shows “No Reservations” and “Parts Unknown.” He took his own life in 2018.

     But in “Tony,” we see the wide-eyed, idealistic, ambitious, and somewhat arrogant young man who was destined to leave an impressive mark on the world.

THE GREAT GATSBY (1949)

      Much like “The Odyssey,” no movie adaptation of this beloved work of literature will ever satisfy the novel’s devoted coterie. This is the second of four film versions of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 tale of vacuous Jazz Age elite and the elusiveness of the lauded American Dream. The 1926 silent is a lost film; the two recent “Gatsbys” were stars vehicles for Robert Redford (1974) and Leonardo DiCaprio (2013).

      Starring steely-eyed tough guy Alan Ladd as Jay Gatsby, this 1949 version emphasizes the crime aspect of the story even more so than Fitzgerald’s original. Unlike the 1974 and 2013 adaptations, this film was released before the novel was required reading in high schools, less remembered at the time for its themes than its colorful 1920s setting.

       In fact, the picture opens—after a moment at Gatsby’s grave—with a short montage of our “hero” in action as a bootlegger, shooting at rivals on the street. In the novel, Gatsby’s criminality is vaguely implied, but he clearly purchased his Long Island mansion through illegal activity.

       He befriends his next-door neighbor, Nick Carraway (a miscast Macdonald Carey) so that he can arrange a meeting with Nick’s married cousin, Daisy (Betty Field), who lives across the bay.         

      Flashbacks show Gatsby’s coming-of-age adventures with wealthy boatman Dan Cody and, as a young soldier, meeting and romancing Daisy.

      While Ladd isn’t the most glamourous leading man (I can see Gregory Peck in the role), he pulls off the duality of charismatic gangster and soft-spoken suitor. Less successful are Carey (future soap opera star) as Nick, who never captures the character’s naivety and Field (“Kings Row,” “The Southerner”), who is unconvincing as the privileged, self-obsessed Daisy. Gene Tierney, one of the great beauties of the era, was considered for the role.

      No doubt, restrictions of the era pushed director Elliott Nugent (best known for his Bob Hope comedies) and screenwriters Cyril Hume and Richard Maibaum to soften Fitzgerald’s cynicism. Daisy’s husband Tom (Barry Sullivan), an egotistical bigot in the novel, doesn’t seem like a bad guy here.

        But overall, it’s a pretty good picture when one doesn’t put it side-by-side the novel. (Though it’s hard to forgive the writers for cutting Fitzgerald’s poignant, culminating line from Nick.) It’s better than the Redford version but the 1949 movie can’t match Baz Luhrmann’s over-the-top, DiCaprio-dominated picture.

      This version was essentially buried by Paramount when they decided to produce the 1974 movie; it was out of circulation until the Film Noir Foundation refurbished it in 2012.

  

LATE FAME (2026)

       In the second feature by film critic and documentarian Kent Jones, Willem Dafoe plays Ed Saxberger, a postal worker who published a long-forgotten book of poetry in the 1970s seduced into thinking he can recapture his halcyon days through a rag-tag group of twentysomething literary wannabes.

      The erstwhile leader (Jake Lacy) of this high-minded clique tracks Saxberger down and convinces him to hang out. While we never learn exactly what this mopey collection—ironically named the “Enthusiasm Society”—does during the day, it seems most are living life on daddy’s money.

     While Saxberger recognizes the pretentiousness of this group, he falls for the attention, especially from the lone female member of the group, actress-singer Gloria (Greta Lee, superb in “Past Lives”). 

     While the film champions those struggling to make it in the literary world it also questions our memories of the past; Saxberger has to wonder if those he mingled with in the 70s, seen from afar, were just as shallow.

     Dafoe seems to give at least one memorable performance almost every year—“At Eternity’s Gate” (2018), “The Lighthouse” (2019), “Nightmare Alley” (2021), “The Card Counter” (2021), “Poor Things (2023), “Nosferatu” (2024), “The Phoenician Scheme” (2025); an amazing run. Here, he captures the now blue-collar old guy, playing pool with his buddies at the local bar, who also desires to return to his small slice of literary fame.

     But the performance of the movie is given by Lee, who is nearly unrecognizable as drama-queen Gloria, wearing too much makeup and dressing as if she’s living in 1920s Paris. She never stops performing, thriving on the attention offered by Saxberger. Turns out her regular gig is as a cabaret singer (she does a salacious version of the Kurt Weill classic “Surabaya Johnny”) at a small gay club.

      Jones’ first fiction film, “Diane,” was among the best of 2019, propelled by underrated actress Mary Kay Place in the title role. While “Late Fame” is written by Samy Burch, a 2023 Oscar nominee for “May December,” adapting a novel by Arthur Schnitzler (the early 20^th Century Viennese writer who wrote “Eyes Wide Shut”) it isn’t as sharp or insightful as “Diane.” I waited in vain for an interesting discussion of writers or hear Saxberger’s thoughts on contemporary poetry.

     But the interplay between Dafoe and Lee make the film well worth the price of admission.     

   

BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP (2014)

     No current film star reflects the work ethic of studio era performers—who as studio employees didn’t have a choice—as much as Nicole Kidman. The Australian actress has appeared in over 40 films and television series since she made this thriller, based on the acclaimed novel by S.J. Watson.

     A throwback to film noir of the 1940s, the story presents the ridiculous central plot that Kidman’s Christine awakes each morning not remembering anything about her life, starting anew. Amnesia was central to numerous post-war crime pictures, including “Two O’Clock Courage,” “Somewhere in the Night,” “High Wall” and “Dark Passage.” More recently, “Memento” (2000), follows the adventures of a lead character with memory loss.

      But a strong cast, including Colin Firth as Christine’s husband who has to break the news to her each morning, and Mark Strong, as her secretive psychologist, contribute to a compelling drama. Both seem suspicious after Christine starts to put together the pieces of her life and the alleged attack that left her damaged. If you start looking too closely at the plot, it all falls apart (for one, why does this middle-aged woman only have one friend?)

     Director Rowan Joffe (son of “The Killing Fields” director Roland Joffé), who also adapted the novel, uses the repetitive nature of the story to build sympathy for Christine as she peels away the lies. Joffe previously directed an intense remake of the British classic crime picture, “Brighton Rock,” 

     “Before I Go to Sleep” did not do well at the box office and was quickly forgotten amid all the Kidman-starring product out there, but it’s worth seeking out (I discovered it on Pluto TV).

HEAT LIGHTNING (1934)

     Labeling is everything. If you call a low-budget crime picture from the 1940s a film noir, everyone wants to see it. Same with every movie made before 1935 suddenly stamped as a “Pre-Code picture,” a selling point that implies the script was uncensored and presents characters in a more realistic manner than movies made during the Golden Age.  

     But in truth, the institution of Hollywood was self-censoring from its inception, tailoring stories and characters to what it imagined middle-class Americans wanted to see on the big screen. Occasionally, a racy story slipped through the process, mostly allowing the lead actress to be portrayed as having sexual feelings without being condemned.

    “Heat Lightning,” starring two of the era’s most underrated actresses, Aline MacMahon and Ann Dvorak, as sisters Olga and Myra running an auto garage in California’s Joshua Tree desert, actually qualifies as “Pre-Code.” Based on a failed stage play written by George Abbott and Leon Abrams, the film bears resemblance to the more famous one-set melodrama “The Petrified Forest,” (which debuted on Broadway the next year), but Warner Bros. stalwart director Mervyn LeRoy never lets this tale of making tough life choices become claustrophobic.

     The story begins to take shape when a pair of bank robbers on the run, George (Preston Foster) and Jeff (Lyle Talbot) stop at Olga’s diner-garage and are joined by a pair of recent divorceés (Glenda Farrell and Ruth Donnelly) and their chauffeur (Frank McHugh) just in from Reno. While Olga is trying to keep her younger sister from going to a dance with a local pool-hall bum, her own desires are rekindled by George, who, coincidentally, she knew years ago in Oklahoma. But George is a sleazy ball, who only sticks around in hopes of snatching the jewels one of divorceés is carrying. A key element of the plot revolves around a sexual liaison.

     Among all the well-known players, MacMahon is the star here; hiding her sexuality with overalls and a bandana and her expertise in repairing cars (a prized skill in those early days of motor vehicles) while her sorrowful eyes show her regret of leaving her past life. A theatrical actress since 1921, she started her screen career in 1931, mostly cast as a smart-mouthed sidekick or unmarried aunties. She inevitable stood out in most of her films no matter how minor her role, in part because she brought an early version of the Method to her acting, having taken a class in acting from the originator of this novel style of acting, Konstantin Stanislavski.

        She was at her best in her debut “Five Star Final,” as a newspaper reporter with a conscious, and in “Ah Wilderness!” (1935), as Mickey Rooney’s    

aunt in Eugene O’Neill’s examination of small-town America. She scored an Oscar nomination in the now-unwatchable “Dragon Seed” (1944), featuring white performers playing Chinese characters in the adaptation of Pearl S. Buck’s famous novel.

      MacMahon should have also been nominated for playing Burt Lancaster’s aunt in the swashbuckler “The Flame and the Arrow” (1950), for the Anthony Mann-James Stewart Western “The Man from Laramie” (1955) and as another aunt, reprising her stage performance, in the 1963 movie adaption of James Agee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “All the Way Home.”

  

STOCKHOLM (2019)

     The most famous example of the “Stockholm Syndrome,” in which a hostage begins to sympathize with captors, took place when heiress Patty Hearst was kidnapped by a terrorist group in 1974. But the term originated the year before when an egotistical ex-con walked into a bank in Stockholm, Sweden, took two female employees hostage and demanded the release of an old friend from prison.

     At least that’s how it plays out in this entertaining comedy-drama starring Ethan Hawke, a movie that received little support when released seven years ago despite coming off the actor’s career best performance in “First Reformed.” I found it on the free streaming service Tubi.

     As Lars Nystrom (“just call me the Outlaw”), Hawke plays a machine-gun wielding, unpredictable wannabe cowboy immediately clashing with the stern, unbending Stockholm police chief (Christopher Heyerdahl), who grows increasingly frustrated by Lars’ outrageous requests. After officials release bank robber Gunnar Sorensson (another convincing performance by Mark Strong), the film takes on a sitcom setup, focused on the relationship of hostage Bianca (Swedish actress Noomi Rapace) and Lars.

      After a slow start, the film jumps from unexpected crisis to the next, even after they pile into the getaway car—the same Mustang model that Steve McQueen drove in “Bullitt.” The tale was adapted by writer-director Robert Budreau (who directed Hawke in “Born to Be Blue”) from a New Yorker story.

      Hawke, who scored an Oscar nod last year as the talkative songwriter Lorenz Hart in “Blue Moon,” is perfectly cast; a macho version of Al Pacino’s “Sonny” in “Dog Day Afternoon.”

 

PHOTOS:

Matt Damon, as Odysseus, leads his troops in “The Odyssey.”  (Universal Pictures)

Macdonald Carey as Nick and Alan Ladd as Jay in “The Great Gatsby.” (Paramount Pictures)

Greta Lee and Willem Dafoe in “Late Fame.” (Magnolia Pictures)

Preston Foster and Aline MacMahon in “Heat Lightning.” (Warner Bros.)