Episode Notes

• Details: On this episode of The Mendez Movie Report Podcast, for the week of 07.20.2026, film critic Luis A. Mendez reviews The Odyssey and its explosion both at the box office and in cementing itself as the clear Oscar frontrunner at this stage of the race; plus the Avengers: Doomsday trailer, the Paramount and Warner Brothers merger bumps into a major legal hurdle; NYFF and Venice announce their opening films as well as some announcements from TIFF, we lose Brenda Fricker, and the latest box office news along with what’s coming next to theaters and streaming.

• Timeline:

  00:00 Intro

  01:06 Quick Thoughts On Avengers: Doomsday Trailer

  12:29 Film Review: The Odyssey

  34:32 This Past Weekend In New Movies

  37:58 The Next Weekend In New Movies

  39:54 Paramount And Warner Brothers Merger Bump Into Major Legal Hurdle

  43:37 NYFF Picks Paper Tiger To Open The Festival

  45:00 Ink Opens Venice And Gets Picked Up By Netflix

  45:58 TIFF Announces A Slate Of Films

  49:55 Likely Telluride Screenings

  51:56 The Passing Of Brenda Fricker

  53:00 What Else Is On My Mind

  54:15 Finale

• Where To Find More From Luis

• Weekly Digest For The Week Of 07.20.2026

• Film Review: The Odyssey

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Introduction

This is your weekly digest for recent film industry news that caught my attention for the week of 07.20.2026.

This Past Weekend In New Movies

• The biggest new release of this past weekend, and arguably the biggest release of the entire year, The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan’s latest masterpiece, ended the last few weeks of box office struggles for major titles as it premiered to more than $250 million worldwide. It has already made back its production budget and is on track to challenge for the billion dollar mark depending on its legs. The film has been met with raves from critics, earning a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 89 on Metacritic. Audiences are giving it some of the strongest scores I’ve seen from them since Project Hail Mary earlier this year, with a 97% on the Popcornmeter, a 4.3 on Letterboxd, an 8.4 on IMDb, and the rare A CinemaScore. You can read my enthusiastic S-Tier review for the film, which has catapulted it into the position of the movie to beat for my favorite of the year.

• I will also give a shout-out to They Fight, a straight-to-Disney+-and-Hulu release that quietly arrived as counterprogramming for those who decided to stay in rather than make the trek to see The Odyssey. The film, based on the real-life story of a former convict who became a kids boxing instructor, has been met with negative reviews from critics, earning a 42% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 46 on Metacritic. Audiences have been similarly underwhelmed, with the film posting a lowly 5.5 on IMDb and failing to gain much traction on other major movie-logging sites. I can understand the cold reception, as the movie often plays like a bland and forgettable cheap made-for-TV “Movie of the Week” entry. Still, Andre Holland gives it everything he has in his lead role, and I found myself invested enough in its redemption story that I barely landed on the positive side of the ledger, even if only barely.

This Next Weekend In New Movies

• All of the major studios wanted to steer clear of what are likely to be The Odyssey‘s strong legs, so I would argue the biggest release of next weekend will actually be Netflix’s 72 Hours, a Kevin Hart comedy about a middle-aged man who accidentally finds himself invited to a bachelor party being thrown by a group of much younger guys.

• Apple TV+ will be doing some counterprogramming of its own with The Dink, a comedy about a washed-up tennis player who turns to pickleball in an effort to save a country club. It boasts a pretty impressive ensemble of recognizable names, and I’ll be interested to see whether this or the aforementioned 72 Hours ends up earning the stronger reactions from critics and audiences.

• The only major theatrical release of note will be Neon’s Her Private Hell, an eerie near-future thriller about a young woman and man who find themselves struggling to survive after a mysterious mist engulfs their city. The film screened at Cannes and was met with some rough reviews, so I’ll be fascinated to see whether it plays better now that it’s making its way into theaters and reaching a wider audience.

Recent Film Industry News That Caught My Attention

• The Paramount and Warner Brothers merger hit a potential detour this past week as it ran into a number of legal hurdles. First, a coalition of states has come together to sue in an effort to block the merger. Second, a group of shareholders is also suing, arguing that the deal could damage the theatrical model that helps finance the massive investments Warner Brothers makes in its projects. Third, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has been accused of accepting gifts from Paramount to help push the merger through. That’s not exactly shocking when you consider the politics surrounding the deal and the Ellisons’ ties to Trump. Personally, I think all of this is probably just delaying the inevitable, but I would be more than happy to see events conspire to block this horrid deal altogether.

• Danny Boyle’s Ink, which will explore the rise of the Murdoch empire and which I could have sworn was going to be pushed to next year, was announced as the opening film for the Venice Film Festival. Venice openers have frequently gone on to become legitimate awards contenders, so it’s a development that makes me want to put the film back on my Best Picture board after taking it off in my previous projections. To add to that, Netflix picked it up, and with The Black Ball already looking like a major awards contender for them, I do wonder what their strategy for Ink will be if it breaks out in a big way at the festival.

• Speaking of festival openers, NYFF announced that Neon’s Paper Tiger, which was met with good but not great reviews out of Cannes, will open this year’s festival. NYFF openers tend to have a pretty strong track record when it comes to awards season, and with Neon already having Fjord and All Of A Sudden looking like major Best Picture plays, it’s a fascinating choice that makes me wonder if we’re underrating this movie’s chances of becoming a significant player in the race.

• We had another major loss in the industry as Brenda Fricker passed away at the age of 81. She’ll probably be best known to most people for playing the Pigeon Lady in the Christmas classic Home Alone 2: Lost In New York, which, incidentally, was the first movie I ever watched while on a cruise! Of course, she also won a supporting Oscar for her performance in My Left Foot during the 1989 awards season. Beyond those roles, she appeared in a number of other films I grew up with, often in smaller but memorable parts. It’s sad news, but I’m glad she got to live a long life, and her work will continue to be treasured for generations to come.

• I didn’t get a chance to write about the passing of Sam Neill in last week’s digest, as the news literally broke just as the article was being published. If you missed my thoughts on his passing, you can check out last week’s podcast episode where I discussed his career and legacy in more detail.

What Else Is On My Mind

• The FIFA World Cup Final was held yesterday, and Spain outlasted the defending champion Argentina to claim the trophy. Meanwhile, England defeated France to secure third place, which honestly would have been the finals matchup that grabbed my attention more given the centuries of geopolitical rivalry between those two nations. Once again, I’m not going to pretend to be a soccer guy, but as an observer looking in from the outside, it’s quite the spectacle, and I can absolutely see why the World Cup is essentially the Super Bowl for much of the rest of the world. Anyhow, now we can turn our attention to the second half of the Major League Baseball season…

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Introduction

This is a quick review of the newly released film The Odyssey. Please note that this is just one of the many movies I will have watched each year, and my initial grade for this film may change over time, for better or worse. To stay up to date on my thoughts about other movies and any potential changes in my opinion on this one, follow me on Letterboxd.

Plot

Via Letterboxd: Odysseus, the legendary King of Ithaca, embarks on a long and perilous journey home following the Trojan War. Throughout his voyage, he is forced to confront the whims of gods, mythological monsters, and trials that stretch both his cunning and his humanity to the breaking point.

Review

I don’t think it’s too controversial a take to assert that The Odyssey, the great poem by the ancient Greek poet Homer, chronicling the epic tale of the victorious Odysseus and his years-long journey home after the events of The Iliad, is arguably the greatest story ever told, save perhaps for certain religious texts and the decades-spanning manga masterpiece that is One Piece.

It’s easy to find yourself rooting for one man as he traverses treacherous seas, dodges sea monsters, outwits cyclopes, survives encounters with witches and gods, and endures every trial imaginable, all so he can return home to the wife he so dearly loves. It’s a classic adventure story that contains a little bit of everything that we crave in our stories with action, romance, mythology, suspense, larger-than-life characters, terrifying monsters, and timeless themes. It is a tale that has survived centuries, weathered the rise and fall of empires, and remained relevant because it truly is just that damn good. Sometimes I wonder if any original film from the last 150 years of cinema’s history will endure as long as Homer’s poem has.

And yet, bringing this story to the silver screen has always been a daunting task, one that many great directors have avoided altogether. There have certainly been attempts to create a definitive screen adaptation. 1911’s silent film L’Odissea remarkably still exists today for anyone to watch in the public domain. Kirk Douglas starred in 1954’s Ulysses, a film that made more than a few changes to the source material. The Coen Brothers delivered a loose, satirical reimagining of the story in Depression-era America with 2000’s O Brother, Where Art Thou?. I’ve seen them all, and while I enjoyed each to varying degrees, none came close to what I would call the definitive adaptation of the tale - if anything, two television miniseries are probably the best and most faithful adaptations.

Even as large-scale epics returned to prominence in the 21st century with films like The Lord Of The Rings trilogy and Gladiator, nobody seemed willing to summon the testicular-fortitude necessary to tackle The Odyssey. The closest we came was 2004’s Troy, an adaptation of The Iliad that received mixed reviews from critics and respectable, if hardly rave, reactions from audiences. Even with modern filmmaking technology, many insisted The Odyssey was simply unfilmable. The story was too vast in scale, covered too many years, contained too many side characters and subplots, and presented too many trials for Odysseus to overcome. It was, quite simply, too epic.

Enter Christopher Nolan. The man who directed a superhero trilogy that many consider among the greatest ever made, including one film, The Dark Knight, that is frequently mentioned in conversations about the greatest film of the 21st century. The man who delivered a space exploration epic with Interstellar that, for some viewers, stands alongside 2001: A Space Odyssey. The man who turned a three-hour drama about the inventor of the atomic bomb into a near-billion-dollar box office phenomenon with Oppenheimer, a film that ultimately went on to win Best Picture at that year’s Academy Awards.

Does Nolan have his skeptics? Absolutely. There are those who feel his films can sometimes lack thematic depth. Does he have recurring criticisms? Certainly. More than a few critics, particularly female critics, have argued that the women in his male-dominated filmography are underwritten. Has he stumbled? Of course. Even though I personally vouch for them, there are plenty of viewers who came away underwhelmed by ambitious swings like Tenet. Nolan is not without flaws, nor is he beyond debate when it comes to his storytelling choices.

But his body of work speaks loudly enough that he has amassed a legion of fans who believe he belongs in the conversation for the greatest director of his generation. As a matter of full disclosure, I count myself among them, as I truly do not believe Nolan has made any movie that is worse than something I’d grade with a B+ review. Personally, the only living filmmaker I would rank above him is Paul Thomas Anderson. Keep that in mind as you read my review of this film.

It’s fitting that after finally adding one of his films to the canon of Best Picture winning titles, that Nolan chose to take on the story of all stories, an epic that has outlived kingdoms, dynasties, and entire civilizations throughout time. This supposedly unfilmable tale was exactly the kind of challenge one would expect him to embrace. Nolan has never been a filmmaker afraid of taking risks or thinking on the largest scale imaginable. Even his harshest detractors would probably concede that point. His decision to adapt Homer’s masterpiece feels completely in character and on-brand for him.

And thus, Christopher Nolan gives us his latest film, The Odyssey.

This is a nearly three-hour film that attempts to condense a story that literally spans two decades. It has to communicate a juggling act of following Odysseus’ dangerous adventures, flashbacks to the great victory at Troy, and the ongoing drama back home where his family awaits him while ill-intentioned suitors desecrate the palace of Ithaca. And keep in mind, once again, that we’re talking about a story featuring giants, cyclopes, sea monsters, witches, and gods. It’s a lot to take in.

During the first act, I can absolutely see why some viewers may find the film a little clunky and uneven as it tries to take root, especially given Nolan’s signature non-linear storytelling. I do think this messy start will be much easier to forgive on rewatches because once the story takes root and the second act arrives, that’s when Nolan’s magic really starts to work wonders.

If you’re coming for the kind of grand spectacle found in the sword-and-sandal classics that I personally fell in love with growing up watching on TCM, this movie absolutely delivers. The world of Homer’s tale comes to life through impeccable filmmaking across so many disciplines. The direction is Nolan operating at his peak. The costumes and production design are lavish and completely immerse you in the film regardless of whether they’re historically accurate. Ludwig Goransson delivers yet another incredible score. The sound design and large-scale set pieces are phenomenal. Jennifer Lame’s editing is propulsive and masterful, much as it was in Oppenheimer. By the time the credits rolled, I genuinely felt like I had just experienced what it must have been like to watch The Ten Commandments or Ben-Hur on the big screen when they first premiered back in the 1950s. If nothing else, I hope we can all agree that this film’s craftsmanship is an extraordinary example of collaborative artistry.

The ensemble is outstanding. I truly found every single performer here, no matter how big or small the role, to have brought their A-game.

Matt Damon delivers such a compelling performance as the King of Ithaca, the genius whose cunning ended the Trojan War. He conveys such a wide range of emotions that I completely bought him as both a brilliant general and ruler who is ultimately humbled by the gods for his hubris and tragically loses a part of himself in the process. It’s hard for me to picture anyone else in the role now.

Anne Hathaway gives Penelope such admirable nuance that I completely believed her husband would go through hell and back to return to her. Tom Holland, as Odysseus’ son Telemachus, seems to be receiving mixed reactions, but for me this is the best performance of his career so far; I was genuinely impressed. Robert Pattinson is exceptional as the villainous Antinous, fully embracing the role in a way that is so effective my audience actually applauded when karma finally came for him. Himesh Patel also makes a strong impression as Eurylochus, commanding every moment he’s given.

But it doesn’t stop there. The supporting ensemble is filled with smaller performances that still leave a lasting impact. John Leguizamo gets an opportunity to show off his dramatic chops. Samantha Morton steals the show with a horrifying sequence that had me wincing in my seat. Charlize Theron completely sells the idea that a man would spend years stranded with her on a deserted shore. Mia Goth serves as a fascinating foil to Hathaway. Lupita Nyong’o pulls double duty and, in limited screen time, reminds everyone exactly why she has an Oscar on her resume. Jon Bernthal is excellent as a man haunted by his past and paranoid about the future. Corey Hawkins deserves praise for an effective villainous turn of his own. Benny Safdie manages to feel imposing without even showing his face. Elliot Page deserves none of the nonsense criticism that followed his casting, delivering a genuinely tragic and affecting performance. Zendaya makes every moment count, and a major turn involving her character elicited an audible gasp from me.

I could go on and on. This is one of the great ensemble achievements I’ve seen onscreen, much in the way Oppenheimer succeeded through the strength of its own massive cast.

The story itself, once again, takes time to settle during the first act as we come to understand the situation in Ithaca and exactly where Odysseus finds himself before the film shifts into high gear and the long journey home begins in earnest. Even knowing full well where these characters are destined to end up, I found myself fearing for Odysseus and his men. I was on the edge of my seat every time they encountered danger, and hoped they all would get home.

The journey home contains some incredible sequences that allow Nolan to flex muscles we don’t often get to see from him. Whether it’s a man-eating cyclops, a disturbing body-horror sequence, terrifying sea monsters, or an eerie conversation with the dead, there are moments here that feel closer to horror than traditional adventure filmmaking.

The third act is where everything finally comes together for me. It’s where the heart of the film truly reveals itself. It’s where the movie dares to go deeper, not only examining the epic adventure our protagonist has endured but also placing under a microscope how his own actions changed the world in ways that will haunt future generations.

War is not pretty. The means by which you achieve victory do not always earn you the rewards you think they will. Redemption for past sins does not come with putting Pandora back in the box. Sometimes fighting your fate causes more damage than accepting it. For those who argue that Nolan’s films lack thematic depth, I simply can’t agree after seeing where this story ultimately goes in its final act.

But the more important question you, the reader, probably wants answered is will you be entertained? Will you enjoy the experience you’re paying a hefty ticket price for while working your way through an extra-large bucket of popcorn your doctor would probably advise against and washing it down with a giant soda?

Yes.

If you simply want to go on a ride, be entertained, and share in a communal theatrical experience as you and the rest of the audience root for Odysseus to finally make it home, you will have a great time. At the end of the day, this is a crowd-pleasing summer blockbuster that succeeds at exactly what it sets out to do, and I suspect many of you will be revisiting it more than once - I certainly will.

So clearly, I adored The Odyssey. Yes, I am admittedly a Nolan stan. Yes, I am admittedly someone who loves epic films like this. But when it comes to evaluating a movie, I ultimately fall back on my own experience with it.

Can I nitpick some adaptation changes I wish Nolan hadn’t made? Absolutely. Can I point to aspects of the first act that are clunkier than the significantly stronger remainder of the film? Of course.

But at the end of the day, how did this movie make me feel? How did it age with me over the two days following my press screening as I continued thinking about it?

The answer is simple. This is now my personal favorite film of the year. This is one of my favorite films of the decade. I would place it alongside masterpieces like The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur. I would even dare to say that this may be my personal favorite Christopher Nolan film, standing shoulder to shoulder with The Dark Knight.

Speaking only for myself, I believe Nolan has achieved something that audiences will continue watching long after both he and I are no longer on this planet. This is, for me, a masterpiece of epic storytelling. It is the kind of film that will define Nolan’s legacy just as his other great works have. And because of that, I have to give it the highest grade I can.

This is an odyssey worth taking again and again, and many audiences will be taking it through Nolan’s film for years to come, in the same way past audiences did for so long reading Homer’s masterpiece.

“TL;DR”

• Pros: Impeccable filmmaking in so many facets of presenting a motion picture from the direction, the crafts, the score, the editing, and the practical visual effects; Entire ensemble brings its A game; An incredible third act that brings things together to a crowd pleasing climax; The definitive film adaptation we’ve gotten to what is arguably the story of all stories; Nolan’s Ben-Hur or The Ten Commandments

• Cons: Nolan’s non-linear storytelling might make the first act a little clunky for some on first watch; Adaptation changes (in story, not in casting) that might be a nitpick for purist lovers of the source material

Grading

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Episode Notes

• Details: On this episode of The Mendez Movie Report Podcast, for the week of 07.13.2026, film critic Luis A. Mendez reviews the latest wide releases of Moana, Evil Dead Burn, and The Invite; he also talks some major awards season machinations as TIFF begins to reveal their slate and Focus and Neon make big moves, reacts to Sam Neil’s sudden passing, and he looks at the latest box office news along with what’s coming next to theaters and streaming.

• Timeline:

  00:00 Intro

  01:58 Film Review: Moana

  13:46 Film Review: Evil Dead Burn

  21:47 Film Review: The Invite

  34:45 This Past Weekend In New Movies

  39:37 The Next Weekend In New Movies

  41:30 TIFF Starts To Announce Their Lineup

  43:29 Warner Brothers Makes Dune & Digger Trailer Reveals An Event

  44:53 Major Focus Acquisition With Elsinore

  48:43 Neon Makes A Bold Move With Artificial
  50:02 Sam Neil’s Sudden Passing

  53:20 What Else Is On My Mind

  55:26 Finale

• Where To Find More From Luis

• Weekly Digest For The Week Of 07.13.2026

• Film Review: Moana

• Film Review: Evil Dead Burn

• Film Review: The Invite

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Introduction

This is your weekly digest for recent film industry news that caught my attention for the week of 07.13.2026.

This Past Weekend In New Movies

• The live-action remake of Moana was supposed to be Disney’s big cash cow of the latest weekend, adding to the financial success of Toy Story 5. Unfortunately for Disney, and somewhat to my surprise, Moana opened to a little under a hundred million worldwide. That puts it on track to severely underperform Disney’s hopes that it could replicate what Moana 2 did two years ago when that film grossed over a billion dollars. Is this a sign of live-action remake fatigue? The signs are mixed, given that the live-action Lilo & Stitch and How To Train Your Dragon remakes made plenty of bank last year. My personal take is that remaking a film that was released just ten years ago, and only two years after the less well-received sequel, made the nostalgia bait for Gen Z audiences ineffective this time around. The film received negative reviews from critics, earning just 34% on Rotten Tomatoes and a lowly 41 on Metacritic. Audiences ended up much more positive but still more divided. Casual moviegoers gave it a 91% on the Popcornmeter and an A- CinemaScore, but among sites with more cinephile-heavy user bases it managed only an okay-ish 3.3 on Letterboxd and a lowly 5.9 on IMDb. I side more with the critics here, and you can read my C+ review of the film.

• Another major release this past weekend was Evil Dead Burn, and it also failed to hit that nostalgia high at the box office. The film opened to underperforming numbers and struggled to reach the respectable opening weekend that its predecessor, Evil Dead Rise, enjoyed. The movie received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, earning a 71% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 55 on Metacritic. The verdict from audiences was more positive, but not by much, as it scored an 82% on the Popcornmeter, a 3.5 on Letterboxd, a 6.8 on IMDb, and a B CinemaScore. Mixed is probably the best way to describe how I felt about this one, and you can read my C+ review of the first film in the franchise that left me wanting more. With Evil Dead Wrath up next, Warner Brothers is going to have some concerns if audiences are starting to tune this franchise out.

• Meanwhile, The Invite finally opened wide after technically releasing two weeks ago, and we can finally take a look at some audience scores. They are pretty damn good so far. The film holds an 89% on the Popcornmeter, a 4.1 on Letterboxd, and a 7.9 on IMDb. The critical scores are holding strong as well, with a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 82 on Metacritic. I had my trepidations going in, but this turned out to be the funniest film of the year for me so far and a contender to land among my favorites of the year. You can read my A- review of the film.

• I also wanted to quickly highlight a newly released movie from this past weekend that wasn’t on my radar last week in the zany comedy Gail Daughtry And The Celebrity Sex Pass. Critics gave it solid-if-unspectacular reviews, with a 79% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 66 on Metacritic. Audiences seem to be in roughly the same camp, as it currently holds a 3.3 on Letterboxd and a 6.8 on IMDb. I’m planning to catch this one sooner rather than later, though I am a bit concerned. The premise, an engaged woman looking to have a one-night stand with Jon Hamm as revenge for her fiancé getting to use his celebrity sex pass, combined with my recent run-ins with Zoey Deutch performances in movies like this, makes me think I may not vibe with it. Still, we’ll see.

This Next Weekend In New Movies

• The biggest, and really the only, movie of note releasing this upcoming weekend is The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan’s follow-up to Oppenheimer that might arguably be the objective film event of the year. The film is tracking to make major bank at the box office and has already received rave first reactions. I’ll be catching it at a press screening on the evening this digest is published. It’s my second most anticipated film of the year, behind only Godzilla Minus Zero. Barring a major surprise, The Odyssey should dominate the box office for at least the next two weeks, as it will have a lock on IMAX screens and there are no major releases arriving the weekend after its debut.

Recent Film Industry News That Caught My Attention

• The Toronto International Film Festival revealed this past week that Sian Heder’s follow-up to the Best Picture winning CODA, Being Huemann, will serve as the festival’s opening night film. I’ve had it as a bubble contender in my recent Oscar projections, but this is a bit of a red flag for me in its awards chances. Opening night films at TIFF don’t tend to receive much awards love, with The Boy And The Heron in 2023 being one of the rare exceptions after going on to win Animated Feature. We also learned that TIFF will host the world premiere of Prima Facie, which could be a major acting Oscar vehicle for Cynthia Erivo. With TIFF now officially beginning its slate rollout, it’s another reminder that the first stage of awards season campaigning is right around the corner.

• Warner Brothers is employing an interesting strategy with its two biggest awards contenders. The studio held major trailer reveal events for both Dune: Part Three and Digger, with the former receiving a large-scale IMAX event followed by a Q&A that was streamed worldwide. Meanwhile, the Digger trailer was unveiled on the big screen for critics and influencers in Los Angeles, with Tom Cruise in attendance. It’s a fascinating approach to building hype around both films and making sure nobody forgets about Warner Brothers’ horses in the race during The Odyssey week.

• Speaking of awards season strategies, Focus Features made a major acquisition by picking up Elsinore, the Andrew Scott-starring film about Scottish actor Ian Charleson’s revered performance as Hamlet during the final weeks of his life as he was dying from AIDS. The film has reportedly been testing through the roof, and Scott has increasingly been discussed as Tom Cruise’s biggest threat in the Best Actor race. Focus acquiring Elsinore on top of already having Sense And Sensibility makes me wonder about the odds of Obsession making it into Best Picture. If these two fall festival titles break big, they could easily become a higher priority for the studio than the horror film it never originally planned to campaign as a major contender.

• Meanwhile, Neon made waves by announcing its acquisition of Artificial, Luca Guadagnino’s film about AI and tech billionaires. Interestingly, the studio is not planning a major festival run for the film. There has been speculation about a secret New York Film Festival premiere, but regardless, this news, combined with whispers that some studios are feeling more mixed and less confident about the movie than Neon, continues to leave me skeptical about whether it’s the awards contender that some believe it is.

What Else Is On My Mind

• We are coming up on the semifinals of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, hosted by the North American countries. As I stated before, I’m not going to be performative and pretend to be a huge Soccer fan or act like I’m deeply invested in who wins this thing. That said, I was at a buddy’s house this past weekend, and he had the Quarterfinal matches on. The people at the small party he was hosting were pretty invested, and I even ended up sticking around to watch the entire Argentina versus Switzerland match.

  I also found myself in the unusual position of rooting against my own country. The United States struck a clearly corrupt deal with FIFA to get a suspended player reinstated right before its Quarterfinal match against Belgium, and I got a huge kick out of watching the Belgians pull off the upset. We absolutely cheated, and we absolutely deserved to lose. As I’ve said before, I’m not much for patriotism these days, which probably made it easier for me to enjoy Belgium knocking us out. Regardless, blatant cheating and corruption like that will always make me instantly turn against a team.

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Introduction

This is a quick review of the newly widely released film The Invite. Please note that this is just one of the many movies I will have watched each year, and my initial grade for this film may change over time, for better or worse. To stay up to date on my thoughts about other movies and any potential changes in my opinion on this one, follow me on Letterboxd.

Plot

Via Letterboxd: Joe and Angela’s marriage is on thin ice. When they invite their enigmatic upstairs neighbors for a dinner party, the night spirals into unexpected places.

Review

Finally, after two movies that showed genuine promise as a filmmaker but left me less enthusiastic about the stories and characters at their center, The Invite is the film where Olivia Wilde fully executes everything together. This is the first movie of hers that I can confidently call an A-tier directorial effort, and it immediately establishes itself as one of the year’s most fun surprises.

On paper, this really shouldn’t be my kind of movie. Relationship-friction dramas are a genre that I tend to respect the themes more than love watching. Too often they can feel repetitive, self-important, or content to wallow in misery without offering much insight beyond “relationships are complicated and they don’t all end good.” Yet much like last year’s Is This Thing On?, The Invite completely won me over because it understands that honesty and hope aren’t mutually exclusive. It digs into the uncomfortable realities of relationships, attraction, resentment, and emotional vulnerability while never losing sight of the fact that people keep trying anyway. Whether or not you share my more hopeful interpretation of the ambiguous ending, I found that balance incredibly refreshing.

What impressed me most is how difficult this movie should have been to pull off. Wilde is juggling a remarkable number of tones and ideas at once. The film swings effortlessly between sharp comedy, romantic sentimentality, emotional drama, and sexually charged humor without ever feeling disjointed. There are plenty of films that can handle one or two of those elements well. There are very few that can combine all of them into a cohesive whole and make it feel natural.

The performances are a huge part of why The Invite works as well as it does. Olivia Wilde proves herself just as capable in front of the camera as she is behind it, delivering some of her strongest work to date with a performance that balances vulnerability, wit, and emotional complexity. Seth Rogen continues his recent streak of impressive dramatic work, bringing a grounded sincerity mixed with his typical brash awkward honesty brand of humor that makes even the film’s messiest relationship moments still have their levity. Edward Norton is phenomenal, with a performance that is simultaneously hilarious, charming, and quietly heartbreaking when he has one particular monologue. Penelope Cruz may ultimately be the standout of the ensemble, effortlessly commanding every scene she enters while expertly navigating the film’s shifts between comedy, romance, and drama. Her character in a way might be the most put-together. Together, the four create a dynamic that feels completely natural, elevating every conversation and ensuring that the film’s emotional and comedic beats land with equal impact.

The ensemble is absolutely on fire. This is one of those casts where every performer feels perfectly dialed into the material, understanding exactly what wavelength the movie is operating on. The chemistry between the actors is what ultimately sells the film’s larger themes and emotional turns. Even when conversations become messy, uncomfortable, or hilariously awkward, the cast makes every interaction feel authentic. The writing gives them plenty to work with, but the performances elevate the material even further.

Speaking of the writing, this is one of the year’s strongest screenplays. The dialogue is razor sharp, consistently funny, and packed with enough emotional insight to keep the story from becoming merely a collection of entertaining conversations. The film constantly reveals new layers to its characters and relationships without feeling forced. By the time it reaches its final act, it feels like you’ve spent an entire evening getting to know these people.

And then there’s Wilde’s direction, which is where the film truly separates itself. This is the best-directed chamber piece I’ve seen since Hitchcock’s Rope, a movie from way back in 1948. That’s obviously high praise, but it’s hard not to think of it while watching how confidently Wilde navigates confined spaces and even uses things like mirrors and windows alongside the interpersonal tension. The camera is constantly engaged with the characters, finding ways to keep conversations visually dynamic while quietly building suspense and emotional momentum underneath. For a movie that spends so much time focused on people talking, it never once feels static.

The score also deserves recognition. It knows exactly when to step forward and when to stay out of the way, consistently arriving at the perfect moments to heighten a scene without overwhelming it. It’s the kind of score that subtly enhances the movie’s emotional impact while never calling attention to itself.

What ultimately elevates The Invite for me, though, is its finale. Without getting into spoilers, it’s the kind of ending that feels destined to spark discussion. I suspect it will function as a litmus test for viewers and reveal a lot about what kind of romantic you are, or aren’t. I found it thoughtful, emotionally satisfying, and entirely consistent with what the film had been building toward, but I can already see how some audiences may have a very different reaction.

That’s also where my biggest caveat comes in. The movie embraces ambiguity in several key areas, particularly during its final stretch. Viewers looking for clear answers or a more straightforward resolution may find themselves frustrated by some of the choices being made. The film trusts its audience to sit with uncertainty and draw their own conclusions, which worked for me but won’t work for everyone.

Still, that’s a relatively minor criticism for a movie that succeeds so spectacularly in almost every other area. The Invite is hilarious, emotionally intelligent, beautifully directed, brilliantly acted, and far more layered than its premise might initially suggest. It deserves serious year-end consideration for its ensemble and screenplay, and Wilde’s direction is absolutely going to remain on my mind when awards season arrives.

“TL;DR”

• Pros: The best directed chamber piece since perhaps 1948’s Rope; The ensemble is on fire; The funniest film I’ve seen this year so far; Expertly juggles comedy with drama and romantic sentimentality with sexually tense humor; Great score that knows when to play at the perfect time

• Cons: Film’s ambiguous portions, including its ending, might frustrate those looking for something more straightforward

Grading

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Introduction

This is a quick review of the newly released film Evil Dead Burn. Please note that this is just one of the many movies I will have watched each year, and my initial grade for this film may change over time, for better or worse. To stay up to date on my thoughts about other movies and any potential changes in my opinion on this one, follow me on Letterboxd.

Plot

Via Letterboxd: After the loss of her husband, a woman seeks solace with her in-laws. As one-by-one they transform into deadites, she comes to discover that the vows she took in life…survive even in death.

Review

Sad to say, but Evil Dead Burn is the first film in this franchise that I didn’t really vibe with.

I’ve been turning this one over in my head since the credits rolled because I genuinely can’t decide whether I land slightly positive or slightly negative on it overall. At the moment, I’m leaning toward the latter, though I can definitely see this being one of those movies that some people connect with much more than I did.

To be clear, there are things here that work. The gore is absolutely relentless and features some genuinely gnarly, stomach-churning moments that will have horror fans wincing in their seats. If you’re coming to an Evil Dead movie looking for inventive carnage, buckets of blood, and practical effects-driven nastiness, Burn delivers on that front. There are also a handful of sequences that are directed exceptionally well, showcasing the kind of visual flair and intensity that has become a hallmark of the franchise.

I also appreciated the film’s central metaphor surrounding abusive relationships and the difficulty of escaping them. There’s an interesting thematic backbone here about the emotional attachments that keep people trapped in unhealthy situations even when they know they need to leave. It’s a compelling idea and gives the movie something more substantial to chew on than simply finding increasingly gruesome ways to torture its cast.

Unfortunately, that’s also where many of my issues begin.

For a movie that spends nearly two hours with these characters, I found them surprisingly difficult to invest in. Most of the cast feels underwritten and forgettable. By the time the horror really kicks into high gear, I wasn’t particularly attached to anyone involved, which made many of the emotional beats fall flat for me. Even with these in-laws being representative of a larger problem that allowed our protagonist’s marital abuse to go unchecked, I would have liked a little more depth to them.

I also found myself growing frustrated with how often the film seemed to prioritize shock value over storytelling. Evil Dead has always been extremely gory, but the best entries in the franchise balance their outrageous gore with memorable characters, dark humor, tension, or inventive filmmaking. Burn occasionally feels more interested in escalating the brutality than building a compelling narrative around it.

My biggest problem, however, is the pacing. The movie frequently feels like the prologue to a really great Evil Dead film stretched out to nearly two hours. There’s a lot of setup, a lot of wheel-spinning, and not enough narrative progression to justify the runtime. As a result, the film starts to drag long before it reaches its conclusion. Several scenes feel like they’re marking time rather than pushing the story forward, and the movie never fully shakes that feeling.

What’s frustrating is that the ingredients for something stronger are all here. The themes are interesting, the gore is effective, and there are flashes of genuinely impressive direction throughout. But for me, they never come together in a satisfying way. Instead, the film feels caught between wanting to be a deeper character-driven horror story and wanting to be a nonstop gore showcase, without fully succeeding at either.

Maybe this is one that will age better for me as the year goes on. Horror has been a strangely inconsistent genre for me this year, and it’s entirely possible I’ll revisit Burn down the road and find more to appreciate. For now, though, it’s easily my least favorite entry in the Evil Dead franchise.

There are certainly things horror fans will enjoy here, particularly if they’re primarily showing up for the carnage. Unfortunately, I needed a stronger story and more memorable characters to fully get on its wavelength, and in the end, Evil Dead Burn left me feeling more disappointed than entertained.

“TL;DR”

• Pros: Gnarly and gory sequences that will leave many horror fans wincing in their seats; An interesting metaphor on leaving abusive relationships and the attachments they bring

• Cons: Very forgettable and plainly written characters; Some horror moments come off as going for shock value over story; Ultimately feels like a prologue of a would-be Evil Dead movie that is stretchd out to nearly two hours; Overlong film

Grading

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Introduction

This is a quick review of the newly released film Moana. Please note that this is just one of the many movies I will have watched each year, and my initial grade for this film may change over time, for better or worse. To stay up to date on my thoughts about other movies and any potential changes in my opinion on this one, follow me on Letterboxd.

Plot

Via Letterboxd: Moana answers the Ocean’s call and, for the first time, voyages beyond the reef of her island of Motunui with the infamous demigod Maui on an unforgettable journey to restore prosperity to her people.

Review

I’m super hit-or-miss with Disney’s live-action remakes. There are some that have worked for me, while others have left me completely cold.

When these remakes fail, they usually fall into one of two categories. Either they fundamentally misunderstand and bastardize the source material (Maleficent, Dumbo, Mulan, Lilo & Stitch, etc.), or they become lifeless shot-for-shot recreations that offer little reason to exist beyond corporate brand recognition (The Lion King being the prime example). Unfortunately, Moana firmly falls into the latter camp.

What makes this especially disappointing is that Moana is one of my favorite films of 2016 and one of the few Disney-proper animated movies from the past decade that I’d consider close to top-tier. Going into this remake, I had concerns based on the marketing. The trailers looked oddly artificial, and lacked much of the charm that made the original special. Sadly, every single one of those red flags ended up becoming reality.

To the film’s credit, I was actually somewhat on its wavelength during the first act. The opening stretches are where the movie feels most alive, largely because Catherine Laga’aia does an admirable job stepping into the title role. She clearly understands what made Moana such an engaging protagonist and brings genuine energy, charisma, and heart to the character. Whenever she’s on screen, you can see someone trying her hardest to elevate the material around her. The problem is that almost everything surrounding her feels manufactured.

Once the seafaring adventure begins and the main plot kicks into gear, the film starts looking and feeling less like a movie and more like an AI-generated generation of one. The visuals often have that strange synthetic quality that has plagued so many recent blockbusters, where everything technically looks expensive but very little feels tangible or alive. Scene after scene recreates moments from the animated classic, but without capturing the sense of wonder, excitement, or emotional sincerity that made those sequences memorable in the first place.

The musical numbers suffer the most from this. The soundtrack remains fantastic because it’s still largely drawing from the same songs that helped make the original film so good. But while the music itself survives intact, the presentation doesn’t. The musical set pieces rarely have the energy, vibrancy, or visual imagination of their animated counterparts. Instead of feeling like joyful showstoppers, many of them simply feel like obligations that the movie is checking off a list.

Then there’s Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Maui. Johnson was one of the highlights of the original film, bringing his great charisma and larger-than-life personality to the character. Here, he’s almost unrecognizable, not because of the bad wig even, but because of how disengaged he seems. This is one of the weakest performances I’ve seen from him in years. He comes across as completely checked out, delivering a performance that feels less like he’s inhabiting a character and more like he’s fulfilling a contractual obligation before moving on to whatever project he’s actually excited about next. Every scene with Maui should be bursting with personality. Instead, many of them feel surprisingly flat.

One advantage Moana does have over some of Disney’s other remake efforts is that it doesn’t actively damage the original story. Because it’s largely a shot-for-shot recreation, fans don’t have to worry about baffling narrative changes or misguided reinterpretations of beloved characters. But that’s also part of the problem. The film is so committed to recreating the original that it never justifies its own existence. It simply reminds you how much better the animated version was.

That’s ultimately the biggest issue with Moana. It’s not offensively bad, and it’s certainly not my pick for the worst live-action remake Disney has produced. But it exists in that frustrating middle ground where it offers almost nothing new while simultaneously failing to match the magic of the film it’s copying. Outside of Catherine Laga’aia’s committed performance, there is very little here that improves upon or even equals what audiences got back in 2016.

By the time the credits rolled, I couldn’t shake the feeling that many parents taking their kids to see this will leave wondering why they didn’t just stay home and watch the original on Disney+ instead. The animated Moana remains a modern Disney classic. This remake mostly serves as a reminder of that fact.

“TL;DR”

• Pros: As the title role Catherine Laga'aia locks in as Moana and gives the film its best energy; The great soundtrack from the first film returns; As a shot-for-shot remake there is no bastardizing of the source material to worry about; First act is the strongest

• Cons: A wigged-up Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson puts in an incredibly forgettable and mailed-in performance that showcases how lifeless and soulless this live action remakes comes off as; The film looks and feels like it was AI generated once the main plot kicks in; The musical set pieces have no real energy to them versus the source material’s renditions; Ultimately will leave many parents who take their kids to see this wondering why they didn’t just stay at home and watch the 2016 film on Disney+

Grading

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Episode Notes

• Details: On this episode of The Mendez Movie Report Podcast, for the week of 07.06.2026, film critic Luis A. Mendez reveals his mid-year outlook on the Best Picture Oscar race, reviews Minions & Monsters, reacts to the Astras’ mid-season awards, talks the ongoing drama with the film adaptation of Children Of Blood And Bone and the finger pointing on Supergirl’s failure, and looks at the latest box office news along with what’s coming next to theaters and streaming.

• Timeline:

  00:00 Intro

  02:45 Mid-Year Oscars Projections

  24:00 Film Review: Minions & Monsters

  32:41 This Past Weekend In New Movies

  37:39 The Next Weekend In New Movies

  40:08 Oscar Prediction Markets Open Up

  41:42 The 2026 Astra Midseason Awards

  43:23 Children Of Blood And Bone Drama

  44:40 Supergirl Finger Pointing Begins

  46:27 Warner Brothers Pushes Back On The Cutoff Reports

  47:25 Danny Glover’s Tragic Medical Diagnosis

  48:15 Follow-up On Daveigh Chase Passing

  49:17 What Else Is On My Mind

  52:33 Finale

• Where To Find More From Luis

• Weekly Digest For The Week Of 07.06.2026

• Film Review: Minions & Monsters

• 99th Oscars Projections: Mid-Year Update

• Hollywood Reporter Article On Supergirl Drama

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Introduction

This is your weekly digest for recent film industry news that caught my attention for the week of 07.06.2026.

This Past Weekend In New Movies

• The biggest release over the big America 250 July Fourth weekend was Illumination’s Minions & Monsters, which garnered the best critical reviews of the franchise but only okay audience scores that seem to have contributed to a solid opening weekend at the box office that nonetheless underperformed previous entries. Among critics, it earned a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 69 on Metacritic. Among audiences, it posted a 76% on the Popcornmeter, a 3.3 on Letterboxd, a 6.6 on IMDb, and an A- CinemaScore. It’s a bit ironic that just as the franchise delivers its best-reviewed film, it ends up with less-than-stellar word of mouth and box office, due in part to what I think is simple franchise fatigue now that it’s approaching two decades of existence. As much as I had fun with the latest installment, and you can read my B+ review, I think it would probably be best for Illumination to take a break from this series for a while.

• Angel Studios’ counter-programmer for the weekend in Young Washington seems to have been met with the typical culture-war debates and ideological positioning that almost all of the studio’s films generate. Critics are giving this one mixed reviews, while audiences seem to have liked it for the most part. Granted, those audience scores are likely boosted by an older, more right-leaning crowd that wanted to vote with their wallets and probably walked into the theater already prepared to call it a masterpiece, but that’s often the case with Angel Studios releases. They certainly have their share of awful stinkers and outright propagandistic films, but their biopics tend to land in the middling-but-inoffensive category that I’m usually okay with. I watched this over the weekend, and that’s pretty much where I landed. It’s an okay, inoffensive movie that probably would’ve been better suited for streaming than a theatrical release, but Angel Studios has certainly given us much worse. I do, however, get annoyed every time one of their movies ends by asking audiences to buy another ticket for someone else just to boost the box office. Among critics, it earned a 60% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 50 on Metacritic. Among audiences, it received a 92% on the Popcornmeter, a 2.6 on Letterboxd (to be frank, given that site’s user base, I wouldn’t be surprised if that score was review-bombed), a 7.2 on IMDb, and an A CinemaScore.

• Netflix made the interesting decision to make the latest entry in a British franchise its big July Fourth release with the straight-to-streaming Enola Holmes 3, which is receiving the weakest critical reviews and audience scores of the trilogy, suggesting it’s probably best to end the series here. Among critics, it earned a 73% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 60 on Metacritic. Among audiences, it posted a lowly 54% on the Popcornmeter, a 3.0 on Letterboxd, and a 5.8 on IMDb. I’d agree that this is easily the weakest of the trilogy. It has a noticeably cheaper look, some really rough editing, and a few performative moments that made me roll my eyes. That said, it still lands on the “good enough” side for me because it makes better use of its ensemble than the previous two films, and it actually feels like a proper mystery adventure rather than simply another Enola Holmes escapade.

This Next Weekend In New Movies

• The next few weekends will see very little counter-programming from smaller studios as we enter the heart of the summer blockbuster season. The biggest release of the upcoming weekend is undoubtedly the live-action remake of Moana. Word on the street is that it’s tracking a bit below Disney’s hopes, especially with Moana 3 reportedly already in the works. It does make me wonder if audiences are starting to tire of these live-action remakes in general, though Lilo & Stitch was a huge box office success last year. Personally, I’d be lying if I said I was excited for this one the way I was for some of Disney’s past live-action remakes. The marketing makes it look far too green-screen heavy, with a glossy aesthetic that feels more AI-generated than actual filmmaking. Meanwhile, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson comes across as completely checked out, almost like he’s already thinking about that Martin Scorsese Hawaii-set crime film he’s reportedly set to begin filming next year. As usual from Disney of late, there isn’t a press screening in my market, so I’ll be watching this one with general audiences.

• But this will be one of those rare weekends with not one but two major studio releases. Alongside Moana, we’ll also get the latest entry in the Evil Dead franchise, Evil Dead Burn. This is reportedly a standalone story set within the Evil Dead universe, with no major ties to 2023’s Evil Dead Rise. I’ve generally enjoyed the Evil Dead films, but I also can’t claim to be a massive fan of the franchise, so I’m expecting to like this one even if I’m not overly excited for it either. Warner Brothers also isn’t bothering to hold a press screening in my market, so this will be another one I’ll be catching with general audiences.

Recent Film Industry News That Caught My Attention

• With us now at the halfway point of the year, the biggest Oscar prediction sites and markets have started converging on their initial forecasts. Gold Derby launched its prediction center with The Odyssey emerging as the Best Picture frontrunner, though Project Hail Mary has seen a notable surge in support on there. Meanwhile, the Next Best Picture team unveiled its first consensus predictions, with The Odyssey also coming out on top. Award Expert has had predictions open for a while now, and its community likewise has The Odyssey as the consensus favorite. Like I said the other week, the first stage of awards season campaigning is getting closer and closer than some are ready to realize.

• The 2026 Astra Mid-Season Awards announced their winners, and at this point in the year, the only category that really grabs my attention is Best Picture. They awarded the prize to Project Hail Mary, which doesn’t come as much of a surprise since it’s the consensus frontrunner at the halfway mark of the year.

  What did catch me off guard, though, was the runner-up. I expected Obsession to take that spot, but instead it went to The Invite. That film seems to be having a real moment, and it’s making me think it’s on the verge of emerging as a major awards contender once the proper Oscar season kicks into gear later this year.

  You can read Next Best Picture’s coverage of the full Astra Mid-Season Awards results if you’re interested in more than just the Best Picture race.

• There is some major behind-the-scenes drama unfolding around the upcoming film adaptation of the hit YA novel Children Of Blood And Bone. The source material’s author, Tomi Adeyemi, publicly announced that she will not be supporting or helping market the film, and even posted a screenshot showing that she had blocked the movie’s lead actress, Amandla Stenberg.

  The bizarre part is that Adeyemi helped co-write the screenplay and, to my knowledge, approved the lead casting.

  I haven’t read the source material, so I can’t speak on the specifics with much confidence, but as I said on X, situations like this don’t happen in a vacuum. Given how involved she was in getting this film made, I have to think something happened behind the scenes that left her feeling unheard or unwelcome.

  That said, I’ve also seen people point out that she has a history of public disputes and may be letting her ego get in the way here. Regardless of who’s right, with this film positioned as one of next year’s first major releases, this controversy is almost certainly going to loom over its press tour.

• The critical and financial failure of Supergirl is already leading to some finger-pointing. A recent Hollywood Reporter article revealed that the film had been testing poorly more than a year before, even before Superman hit theaters. James Gunn and the studio reportedly got involved in an effort to salvage the project, with competing cuts of the film being screened. In the end, the studio’s preferred cut supposedly won out by just two votes. The report also claims Gunn was responsible for the film’s controversial needle drop ending. I’d recommend reading the full article for yourself, as it offers a much more detailed look at what allegedly happened behind the scenes.

• Remember that report about Jonah Hill’s The Cut Off being deemed “un-releasable” by Warner Brothers? Well, the studio has pushed back, claiming that the decision to pull it from the summer release schedule was about release strategy rather than a reflection of the film’s quality. That said, I don’t think those reports about disastrous test screenings are completely baseless. To me, this feels like Warner Brothers trying to save face. As I recommended last week, they should probably just go ahead and dump it on HBO Max.

• Some sad news broke this past week regarding the legendary Danny Glover, who announced that he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. He was quoted as saying, “I can live with it, in a sense. I’m sure as it advances, things are going to be different and changing.”

  It’s devastating news, though sadly not entirely surprising given that Glover has largely stepped away from the screen in recent years. He has starred in some truly great films and left an indelible mark on cinema. I wish him and his family nothing but the best as they navigate what is, unfortunately, an all-too-common disease that has affected too many people in their twilight years.

• A follow-up on Daveigh Chase’s tragic passing as we’ve now learned more about the circumstances surrounding her death. It has been reported that Chase was living with AIDS and had become homeless due to struggles with drug addiction. According to those reports, she also lacked access to the healthcare that could have helped manage the disease. That answers some of the questions about how someone so young could suddenly die after being hospitalized, and it only makes the situation even more heartbreaking. If those reports are accurate, it’s hard not to wonder how different things might have been had she received the care and support she needed. Just an incredibly sad story that has become even more tragic as more information has come to light.

What Else Is On My Mind

• I hope everyone enjoyed their Fourth of July this past weekend. It was a bit of a strange one for me. The history geek in me should have been excited that this marked the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding, but as I’ve talked about before, my patriotism has taken a pretty significant hit over the past decade. Watching President Trump turn the occasion into what felt to me like a failed MAGA festival certainly didn’t make me any less apathetic about it.

  I still tried to enjoy the holiday in my own way. I visited my parents and watched both Independence Day and 1776, which felt like a fitting way to celebrate the Fourth.

• I do have some unfortunate news. Starting next week, both the Weekly Digest and the podcast episodes will be a bit leaner. I’ve reached the point where I’m losing too much sleep and still don’t have enough time to cover industry news beyond the box office, new film releases, awards season, and major events such as significant passings. As a result, I’ll no longer be covering behind-the-scenes studio drama or interview highlights. I simply don’t have the support I need at home right now to keep up with that volume of content, so expect shorter Weekly Digest articles and slightly shorter podcast episodes going forward. My hope is that what I do continue to cover will still provide plenty of value, and that, in time, I’ll be able to return to covering those extra industry stories once life settles down a bit.

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Introduction

July 4th weekend is kicking off, the summer blockbuster season is in full swing, and everyone and their mother is rolling out “Best Films of the Year (So Far)” lists. Yes, dear reader, we’ve officially hit the midpoint of 2026. And with that half-year mark comes the usual wave of early Oscar forecasting from major outlets, so I figured it’s a good time to update my outlook on the Best Picture race for the 99th Academy Awards.

The board has been trimmed from 50 slots down to 45, as the room for error tightens a tad. On one hand, Project Hail Mary has emerged as the consensus pick among critics and general audiences for best film of the year so far. You’ve also got films like Obsession and The Invite generating the kind of passion that can realistically carry them into the lineup. Then there are titles like Disclosure Day and Michael, which come with some real headwinds, audiences are lukewarm on the former, while critics were largely dismissive of the latter. And then there’s the middle tier with I Swear, Pressure, The Drama, and Tuner, all well-reviewed and reasonably liked by audiences, but not yet showing the level of industry-wide traction that typically translates into a Best Picture slot. Finally, you’ve got the Cannes contingentwith All Of A Sudden, Coward, Father Land, Fjord, Minotaur, and The Black Ball, all still very much in play for a lineup spot.

But the real shape of the race is still to come in the back half of the year. The Odyssey, which I still view as the early default frontrunner to win it all, is finally set to begin screenings for critics in the coming weeks. Warner Brothers will be fielding two major contenders in Digger and Dune: Part Three, with the former potentially putting Tom Cruise in the Oscar conversation and the latter attempting a Return Of The King style run. Searchlight Pictures, looking to rebound after their disastrous 2025, could also land two contenders in Wild Horse Nine and Behemoth!, the former a known quantity and the latter still a question mark in terms of release timing.

Neon will look to extend its streak with Cannes winner Fjord and All Of A Sudden, hoping to keep multiple international feature contenders in play. MUBI also has a strong slate of international titles to push into the conversation. A24, meanwhile, could be sitting on an embarrassment of riches with The Debut, The Invite, and Club Kid all potential players. Focus Features faces a real test in whether Sense And Sensibility can break through as a serious contender, or whether they’ll need to lean on their genre slate like Obsession and Werewulf to stay in the mix. Sony has The Social Reckoning, the follow-up to The Social Network, positioning itself for a major awards push. And Netflix is already making The Black Ball its top priority.

And that’s only a slice of the plausible contenders in play. There are also distributor-less films that could break through as major players such as Cry To Heaven, Elsinore, and Jack Of Spades among them, as well as smaller indie hopefuls like The Rivals Of Amziah King and Josephine having some small buzz.

In the last month-plus since my previous update, not much has fundamentally changed, though the questions heading into the second half of the year remain wide open. Below, you’ll find the 45 films I currently see as having a viable Best Picture path, broken down into five separate tiers. Given this will be the final projections update until I finally see the frontrunner for myself, I will be back with an update before month’s end to try and reflect on how the reception to The Odyssey did to its status as an Oscar player.

Tier 1: The Predicted Ten

• 1. The Odyssey

• 2. The Black Ball

• 3. Digger

• 4. Wild Horse Nine

• 5. Project Hail Mary

• 6. Fjord

• 7. Sense And Sensibility

• 8. The Debut

• 9. Dune: Part Three

• 10. The Social Reckoning

Tier 2: The “On The Bubble” Contenders

• 11. The Invite

• 12. All Of A Sudden

• 13. Behemoth!

• 14. Obsession

• 15. Disclosure Day

• 16. Cry To Heaven

• 17. Jack Of Spades

• 18. Club Kid

• 19. Being Heumann

• 20. The Adventures Of Cliff Booth

Tier 3: The Dark Horses On The Cusp Of Being Taken Serious

• 21. Michael

• 22. Elsinore (Newly Added To Board)

• 23. Fatherland

• 24. Coward

• 25. Minotaur

• 26. Werewulf

• 27. The Uprising

• 28. Artificial (Newly Added To Board)

• 29. A Place In Hell (Newly Added To Board)

• 30. Paper Tiger

Tier 4: The Long Shots With A Slim Path

• 31. Saturn Return

• 32. The Rivals Of Amziah King

• 33. Josephine

• 34. Prima Facie

• 35. Tony

• 36. Primetime

• 37. The Drama

• 38. Tuner

• 39. I Play Rocky

• 40. Madden

Tier 5: The Long Shots Looking For A Path

• 41. Pressure

• 42. I Swear

• 43. Godzilla Minus Zero

• 44. Whalefall

• 45. The Dog Stars

Off The Board

• A Long Winter

• A Man Of His Time

• Hope

• I Love Boosters

• Ink

• Possible Love

• Rose

• Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma

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Introduction

This is a quick review of the newly released film Minions & Monsters. Please note that this is just one of the many movies I will have watched each year, and my initial grade for this film may change over time, for better or worse. To stay up to date on my thoughts about other movies and any potential changes in my opinion on this one, follow me on Letterboxd.

Plot

Via Letterboxd: This is the rambunctious, ridiculous, and totally true story of how the Minions conquered Hollywood, became movie stars, lost everything, unleashed monsters onto the world, and then banded together to try and save the planet from the mayhem they had just created.

Review

I’m 37 years old, and even though I honestly feel like I’m ten years younger, and have often been mistaken for someone younger, I’m at an age where the Despicable Me and Minions movies just don’t resonate with me the way they do with younger moviegoers who came of age during the 2010s. I’ve visited Universal Orlando enough times to experience the Minions ride and see the endless sea of Minions merchandise, and while I definitely find the little yellow guys funny, I’ve never had the same attachment to them that I have to the Disney Renaissance films or the Pixar classics I grew up with.

It also doesn’t help that I consider many of those Disney and Pixar movies to be among the greatest animated films ever made, whereas the Minions universe has mostly produced movies that are, at worst, just okay and easily forgettable, and at best, perfectly decent entertainment but hardly masterpieces.

What’s surprised me over the years, though, is how these two franchises have moved in opposite directions. The Despicable Me series has steadily depreciated in value for me. I gave the first two films a B+, but the third and fourth entries barely squeaked by with B- grades, and even then I was probably giving them a little extra grace because they’re aimed primarily at kids. The Minions movies, on the other hand, have somehow managed to improve with each installment. Minions & Monsters continues that trend and is, without question, the strongest film in the spin-off franchise.

The biggest reason why is that this movie feels like it was made by people who genuinely love movies.

The first half is an absolute delight for film nerds. It’s essentially a love letter to the history of cinema, taking audiences from the silent era through the Golden Age of Hollywood while weaving the Minions into some of the most iconic moments in film history. There are nods to the Lumiere brothers, A Trip to the Moon, Buster Keaton, Fritz Lang, the Warner Brothers, Casablanca, Citizen Kane, and even Babylon, among plenty of others. The references come fast enough that cinephiles will constantly be spotting something new in the background, yet they’re never so overbearing that younger audiences will feel left out.

In fact, one of the biggest strengths of Minions & Monsters is how successfully it plays to both audiences. Kids will get exactly what they came for in goofy slapstick, ridiculous physical comedy, and the lovable chaos that has made these little yellow weirdos international icons. Adults, meanwhile, get a surprising amount of movie history, clever industry jokes, and even a handful of Oscar references that made me laugh much harder than I expected. There’s even a Citizen Kane gag that absolutely had me howling in my seat.

I also appreciated that the movie understands exactly how long it needs to be. At under 90 minutes, it never overstays its welcome. Family films don’t always need to chase two-hour runtimes, and Minions & Monsters wisely gets in, tells its story, lands its jokes, and gets out before the energy wears thin.

That said, the second half isn’t quite as strong as the first. Once the movie shifts away from its celebration of cinema history, it leans much harder into the more frantic, zany style of Minions comedy. Your mileage will vary there. Some of the gags landed for me, while others felt like the kind of random chaos that’s always been a bit hit-or-miss with this franchise. The kids in my audience absolutely adored every second of it, so it’s clearly accomplishing what it sets out to do.

I was also less invested in the subplot involving Dort the robot and his romance with a women’s suffrage protestor than I was with the Minions’ quest to make a movie. It occasionally interrupts the momentum of the main story, though I have to admit it pays off with a genuinely funny gag during the film’s big finale.

No, Minions & Monsters isn’t operating on the same level as Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, which remains one of the gold standards for modern animated family films. But it doesn’t really need to. It’s funny, charming, consistently entertaining, and far more lovingly crafted than I expected going in.

More importantly, it continues the unlikely trend of the Minions movies getting better while the main Despicable Me series has been heading in the opposite direction. I certainly wasn’t expecting to walk out saying this, but here we are.

Minions & Monsters is a blast for both little ones and cinephiles alike. Kids will leave laughing at the slapstick, adults will appreciate the affection for film history, and movie lovers will have a great time catching all the classic Hollywood references hidden throughout. It may not reinvent animated filmmaking, but it’s easily the best Minions movie yet and, somewhat surprisingly, the best creature feature we’ve gotten so far this year.

“TL;DR”

• Pros: First half is a love letter to the history of cinema through the silent era to the golden age of Hollywood; An easy choice to take the little ones to which the adults will be able to enjoy well enough; Gets in and gets out in less than an hour-and-a-half

• Cons: Second half is much more disjointed and relies on more zany Minions comedy that can be hit and miss though the kids will love it; I wasn’t as invested in the side plot of Dort the robot finding love with a women’s suffrage protestor as I was with our main Minions trying to make a movie but at least it leads to a fun gag in the big finale

Grading

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Episode Notes

• Details: On this episode of The Mendez Movie Report Podcast, for the week of 06.29.2026, film critic Luis A. Mendez reviews the critically and commercial disappointer that is Supergirl, talks 2026 in film’s outlook half-way through the year, covers the HCA’s mid-season awards for the year, pays tribute to Ann Blyth, reacts to some awards season related news, and looks at the latest box office news along with what’s coming next to theaters and streaming.

• Timeline:

  00:00 Intro

  02:22 Film Review: Supergirl

  14:14 This Past Weekend In New Movies

  23:20 The Next Weekend In New Movies

  26:22 2026 Mid-Point In Film Report Card

  33:03 2026 Mid-Point HCA Astra Awards

  39:05 The Passing Of Ann Blyth

  40:35 Tragedy At The Annecy Animation Festival

  43:14 New Oscars Members

  45:09 2026 Venice Film Festival Jury Announced

  48:21 Jonah Hill’s Next Movie Deemed “Un-releasable”

  50:32 What Else Is On My Mind

  53:16 Finale

• Where To Find More From Luis

• Weekly Digest For The Week Of 06.29.2026

• Film Review: Supergirl

• Variety Article On New Oscar Membership

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Introduction

This is your weekly digest for recent film industry news that caught my attention for the week of 06.29.2026.

This Past Weekend In New Movies

• Obviously, this past weekend’s biggest new movie release was James Gunn’s DCU sophomore effort, Supergirl, of which you can read my C+ review. The film was met with mixed-to-negative reviews from critics and, quite frankly, pathetic audience scores for a comic book movie. Among critics, it earned a 56% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 49 on Metacritic. Among audiences, it landed at a 77% on the Popcornmeter, a 3.1 on Letterboxd, a 6.1 on IMDb, and a B- CinemaScore. It’s easy to blame the incel chuds online who had it out for this movie from day one simply because it was female-led, but it’s hard to claim review bombing when the reception is this consistently mediocre across virtually every major movie-logging site and even CinemaScore. It’s surreal to see general audiences shrug their shoulders just as much as critics, and that speaks volumes about how underwhelming the film ultimately is. Warner Brothers and DC Studios have already come out waving the white flag, admitting this was a step backward while maintaining optimism about the franchise’s future.

• A24’s counter-programming effort, The Invite, began its staggered rollout this weekend, meaning it’ll take a few more weeks before it reaches a wide release and we get a clearer picture of where audiences ultimately land on it. My market is among those still waiting, but at this extremely early stage, the film is enjoying excellent critical reception, with a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 80 on Metacritic. Its only audience metric so far is a 7.5 on IMDb. The film is already generating early awards buzz, though with half-a-year still to go, we’ll have to wait and see how those prospects hold up.

• Netflix’s straight-to-streaming gross-out comedy Little Brother debuted to mixed reviews from critics and downright awful audience scores. It earned a 55% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 51 on Metacritic, while audiences gave it a 51% Popcornmeter, a 2.5 on Letterboxd, and a 5.1 on IMDb. I have to admit I’m a little taken aback by just how poorly it was received, though not completely surprised. As someone who was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it despite its over-the-top gross-out humor, I expected it to be divisive, just not this divisive.

• By far the worst wide release of the weekend was Netflix’s other straight-to-streaming title, In The Hand Of Dante, which was met with disastrous reviews from both critics and audiences. It posted a 28% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 33 on Metacritic, while audiences gave it a 44% Popcornmeter, a 2.5 on Letterboxd, and a 4.8 on IMDb. This is a Megalopolis-level disaster from a director who’s made significantly better films with casts no less impressive than this one. I said before seeing it that I’d heard nothing but terrible things about this movie, and now that I’ve watched it myself, I can confidently add my voice to that growing pile.

This Next Weekend In New Movies

• For the big America 250 Fourth of July weekend, the biggest new release will be Minions & Monsters, the third installment in the Despicable Me spin-off series. I’ve always found these movies to be just okay-to-decent, so I don’t have the same affinity for them that many who grew up with them do. They’ve consistently been major box office hits, though there’s been some chatter that this one is tracking a bit below expectations. Anyhow, I’ll be attending a press screening for it and will have my review up on the first day of July to kick off the second half of the movie year.

• Meanwhile, Angel Studios, the faith-based distributor that’s given us everything from some of the worst movies imaginable to a handful of surprisingly decent ones that older moviegoers and evangelical audiences tend to embrace, is offering its own counterprogramming with Young Washington. The film focuses on George Washington’s early years as a soldier rather than the legendary general and president he would later become. I’m interested in checking this one out, as Angel’s historical biopics tend to be at least halfway decent, and it feels like a fitting watch for the holiday weekend.

• Netflix will also be releasing a new straight-to-streaming title as it wraps up the Millie Bobby Brown-led Enola Holmes trilogy that began back in 2020 with Enola Holmes 3. It’s a bit bizarre to anchor a British franchise on Fourth of July weekend, but these films have become one of Netflix’s rare original franchise success stories. I’ve always found them enjoyable enough, and I suspect this one will be about as okay as its two predecessors.

Recent Film Industry News That Caught My Attention

• We are officially halfway through 2026, and I have to say it’s been an overall middling year for movies so far, with a lot of consensus favorites that simply didn’t click with me. I wasn’t on board with the hype for films like Backrooms, I Love Boosters, Obsession, or even the rom-com Voicemails For Isabelle. I liked, and in some cases really liked, and appreciated films like Leviticus, Nirvana The Band The Show The Movie, The Drama, and The Furious, but I didn’t love them to the same extent that many others did.

  On the flip side, I landed on the more positive end of the spectrum for divisive releases like Mortal Kombat II, The Bride, and Wuthering Heights.

  That said, there have absolutely been some great movies this year. At the halfway mark, I’d highlight Project Hail Mary, Toy Story 5, Disclosure Day, The Sheep Detectives, Pressure, Tuner, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, and I Swear as the early contenders for my year-end “Best Of” list.

  The good news is that there are plenty of years that feel a little underwhelming at the halfway point before the back half delivers in a big way, so I’m not sweating it. I still haven’t caught up with the Cannes titles, the fall festivals are right around the corner, and we still have several major blockbuster heavy-hitters and awards-season hopefuls on the horizon. There’s plenty of time for 2026 to finish strong.

• The Hollywood Creative Alliance has released its mid-season nominations for the 2026 Astra Awards. I’m typically not big on covering these kinds of awards since they’re almost useless when it comes to figuring out what will ultimately matter in the Oscar race.

  That said, for all the flak the HCA has received over the years due to various scandals and controversies, their Best Picture lineup has actually lined up with the Oscars surprisingly well in recent years, usually matching 7 or 8 of the eventual 10 Best Picture nominees. They also release their nominations earlier than any other major critics group which gives them an edge on giving us a cold hard reality on what will likely get into Best Picture.

  The HCA is also easily the most populist and mainstream-friendly of the larger critics organizations, so their picks can offer a decent gauge of which films are connecting beyond Film Twitter and the more niche critical crowd.

  Now, I wouldn’t read too much into this mid-season lineup. Their 2021 mid-season Best Picture slate didn’t have a single film that repeated when they announced their actual year-end awards. Still, it’s something worth keeping an eye on as the season unfolds.

  
  Their 2026 mid-season Best Picture nominees are:

  • 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

  • Backrooms

  • Disclosure Day

  • Nirvana The Band The Show The Movie

  • Obsession

  • Project Hail Mary

  • Send Help

  • The Drama

  • The Invite

  • Toy Story 5

  
  It is interesting to note that crowd-pleasers like Michael, Pressure, The Furious, The Sheep Detectives, or even Tuner didn’t show up here. Even critical darling I Love Boosters struggled to make much of a presence. Really speaks volumes on how those awards campaigns are flopping already. You can read their entire slate of mid-season nominees here, via Next Best Picture.

• I did want to pause for a moment to recognize the passing of Ann Blyth, who was best known for playing Joan Crawford’s spoiled daughter in Mildred Pierce, one of the defining dramas of the 1940s. Blyth lived to the remarkable age of 98 and was still making public appearances as recently as a few years ago, including at the annual TCM Classic Film Festival. She earned an Oscar nomination for her performance in Mildred Pierce, and with her passing, I believe we’ve now unfortunately lost the last surviving Oscar-nominated actor or actress from ceremonies held before 1950.
  
  I do have to kind of call out some of the trades that reported on her passing, though. For those who haven’t seen Mildred Pierce, there’s a pretty major twist involving her character toward the end, and several of these outlets were just outright spoiling it in their headlines and obituaries. I get that the movie is over 80 years old, but there are still plenty of modern audiences discovering these classics for the first time. I just found it kind of funny how casually they gave away one of the film’s biggest surprises.

• A shocking and tragic event also occurred this past week as Luis De La Rosa, a 34-year-old Mexican animator who worked on major titles such as the Spider-Verse films, was struck and killed by a train while attending the Annecy Animation Festival. Witnesses, along with the train conductor, reportedly indicated that De La Rosa was walking on the tracks and did not see the train approaching, while the conductor’s warning horn did not appear to get his attention. The incident remains under investigation.
  

  I can’t fathom the pain his family is going through. Losing someone in such a sudden and shocking way is unimaginable, and it especially catches my attention whenever I see someone younger than me pass away under such tragic circumstances. Just an incredibly sad and far too early loss of life.

• Per Clayton Davis at Variety, the Academy unveiled its annual list of new member invitations this week. This year’s class includes names such as Disney’s new CEO, along with rising actors like Anthony Ramos, Jacob Elordi, Jenna Ortega, and Teyana Taylor, as well as directors including Zach Cregger and both Safdie brothers.

  I’d highly recommend reading Clayton’s thorough coverage of this year’s expansion in membership. It also includes some fascinating statistics on how the Academy’s makeup has evolved over the past decade as younger and more diverse members have continued to join its ranks.

• The 2026 jury for the Venice Film Festival has been announced, and this year’s president will be none other than Maggie Gyllenhaal. Given some of the controversy surrounding last year’s jury process and the festival’s eventual winners, I’ll be very interested to see how this year’s edition plays out. The rest of the jury also includes names such as Daniel Blumberg and Kaouther Ben Hania.
  

  I’ll tell you what, we’re getting release date announcements for major awards priorities from studios like Netflix and Neon, we’re about to finally get our first look at the super-early Best Picture frontrunner (The Odyssey), and now the fall festivals are beginning to unveil their plans. Awards season may still feel a long way off, but the earliest stage of the campaign is much closer than you think.

• This was a stacked week for film news, and I had to cut a lot just to fit most of it into this week’s digest. But I did want to highlight some wild news coming out of Warner Brothers, who have reportedly decided to shelve Jonah Hill’s upcoming film The Cutoff, about spoiled adult kids who get cut off by their wealthy parents.
  

  Hill was set to star alongside Kristen Wiig, Bette Midler, and Nathan Lane. The film was ultimately deemed “un-releasable” following reportedly disastrous test screenings.
  

  Now I’m honestly just too curious, I kind of need to see it for myself. My advice to WB would be to try and sell it to someone, or at the very least just dump it on HBO Max if it really is that bad.

What Else Is On My Mind

• My Miami Heat pulled off a blockbuster trade this past week, acquiring Giannis Antetokounmpo from the Milwaukee Bucks. Giannis led that franchise to an NBA championship just a few years ago, but it had become increasingly clear that his relationship with the organization was deteriorating. As a Heat fan who’s grown tired of the mediocre regular-season finishes and play-in exits following those deep playoff runs in the early 2020s, I’m excited to see this massive shakeup to the roster. That said, we gave up a bevy of quality role players to land him, and that does leave me a little concerned that we’ll be asking Giannis to do too much without enough help around him. I’m hoping “The Godfather,” Pat Riley, has a bigger vision in mind to rebuild this roster into a legitimate championship contender once again.

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Introduction

This is a quick review of the newly released film Supergirl. Please note that this is just one of the many movies I will have watched each year, and my initial grade for this film may change over time, for better or worse. To stay up to date on my thoughts about other movies and any potential changes in my opinion on this one, follow me on Letterboxd.

Plot

Via Letterboxd: When an unexpected and ruthless adversary strikes too close to home, Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, reluctantly joins forces with an unlikely companion on an epic, interstellar journey of vengeance and justice.

Review

I fully admit that I was among the minority and was not a fan of last year’s Superman. So, going into Supergirl, I was hoping that a smaller-scale adventure centered around a sarcastic “lovable jerk” Kara Zor-El (as the marketing promised she’d be) would give this new DC Universe a chance to find its footing with me. Unfortunately, while I do think it’s a slightly more grounded movie than Superman, it’s also one that simply oozes mediocrity from start to finish.

This is one of those movies that’s never offensively bad enough to make you angry, but it’s also never good enough to make you care. By the time the credits rolled, my overwhelming feeling wasn’t disappointment as much as indifference. Though to be fair, I’d be lying if I claimed to have been excited in the first place. It’s the kind of superhero movie that exists for two hours, entertains you in spurts, and then immediately begins evaporating from your memory. I honestly think even my “normie” friends, the ones who don’t spend every week watching new movie news like I do, will struggle to remember much about this one by the end of the year.

Milly Alcock is easily the movie’s greatest asset. She has charisma, vulnerability, and enough screen presence that you can absolutely see why Gunn cast her in the role. Even when the screenplay gives her very little to work with emotionally, she commits to Kara as someone who’s still trying to figure out where she belongs. She deserves a much stronger script because there are glimpses of a genuinely compelling Supergirl performance buried in here, the one the marketing promised. If the franchise continues, I have no doubts she’ll continue growing into the role.

The biggest problem is that almost everything surrounding her feels painfully generic. The supporting ensemble is populated by characters that barely leave an impression, and the villain may end up being one of the most forgettable comic book movie antagonists in the genre’s film history. Nobody has much personality beyond fulfilling whatever function the plot requires, and as a result there are very few meaningful relationships for Kara to bounce off of. The emotional beats that are supposed to land simply don’t because the film never gives these characters enough depth for us to become invested.

Even more frustrating is that the movie hints at ideas that could have elevated it beyond standard superhero fare. There are darker themes involving grief, exploitation, and even sex trafficking that briefly emerge throughout the story, and for a moment it feels like the film might actually have something interesting to say. Instead, those ideas are mostly brushed aside in favor of another routine comic book adventure. The result is that the emotional resolutions don’t feel earned because the movie never commits enough time to exploring the heavier material it introduces.

The action is another major disappointment. This is Supergirl. You have a Kryptonian who can fly across planets, punch through mountains, and unleash spectacular displays of power. Yet Craig Gillespie directs the majority of these sequences with surprisingly little energy or enthusiasm. Outside of a handful of larger set pieces that are admittedly entertaining, the action feels oddly weightless and stale. For a character capable of Dragon Ball Z level spectacle, the choreography and visual storytelling rarely inspire any excitement.

Speaking of Gillespie, this is probably the most disappointing aspect of the entire production. He’s directed far better films than this such as I, Tonya and Cruella, and here it feels like he’s trying to imitate James Gunn’s style rather than bringing his own voice to the material. The soundtrack needle drops in particular feel like a poor man’s version of what Gunn and even Gillespie in his own films have popularized over the last decade, but without the personality or confidence that makes those moments work. Instead of feeling organic, they often come across as a stylistic crutch. It’s unfortunate because Gillespie has previously demonstrated he can inject projects with genuine attitude and energy, but almost none of that comes through here.

I don’t think Supergirl is a complete disaster. I don’t even think it’s an awful movie. There are enough entertaining moments, Alcock gives the material everything she has, and every now and then the movie reminds you of the fun that a cosmic Supergirl adventure can offer. But those moments are simply too infrequent to overcome an aggressively generic screenplay, forgettable characters, uninspired action, and direction that lacks any real identity.

More than anything, Supergirl feels like a movie content with checking boxes instead of carving out its own personality. In an era where comic book movies desperately need to justify their existence beyond simply expanding a cinematic universe, that’s probably the biggest criticism I can make. Nothing about this film feels essential. It isn’t awful enough to become infamous, nor is it memorable enough to become beloved. It simply exists. It is the definition of a movie I have to give a C+ grade to.

“TL;DR”

• Pros: Milly Alcock is shining as best as she can with the material given to her; Has its (rare) moments of fun and big action set pieces

• Cons: The supporting ensemble is hampered by a very forgettable villain and just as forgettable side characters; The action is directed very stale and exudes no excitement even with the incredible powers our protagonist has; Very generic story that gives it no personality that will make it stand out compared to other superhero flicks; Hints at darker themes like sex trafficking and grief that are not given much time and thus the resolutions lack any real triumph; Director Craig Gillespie is putting on a poor man’s showing of what he pulled off with previous films of his by making this is a soundtrack-based film

Grading

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Episode Notes

• Details: On this episode of The Mendez Movie Report Podcast, for the week of 06.22.2026, film critic Luis A. Mendez reviews Toy Story 5, takes a look at the exodus of L.A productions, reacts to the Academy expanding their board of Governors, can’t believe that a The Grinch 2 is in the works, pays tribute to Daveigh Chase and James Burrow, and looks at the latest box office news along with what’s coming next to theaters and streaming.

• Timeline:

  00:00 Intro

  00:54 Film Review: Toy Story 5

  13:27 This Past Weekend In New Movies

  19:23 The Next Weekend In New Movies

  25:52 The Exodus Of L.A Productions

  37:03 Expansion Of Academy’s Board Of Governors

  42:17 Ryan Gosling To Receive 2026 American Cinematheque Award

  44:09 The Grinch 2 In The Works?!

  48:21 Sean Penn’s January 6th Movie

  49:51 Daveigh Chase’s Passing

  52:27 James Burrows’ Passing

  53:42 What Else Is On My Mind

  55:26 Finale

• Where To Find More From Luis

• Weekly Digest For The Week Of 06.22.2026

• Film Review: Toy Story 5

• Variety Article On The Exodus Of L.A Productions

• Variety Article On The Expansion of The Academy’s Board Of Governors

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Introduction

This is your weekly digest for recent film industry news that caught my attention for the week of 06.22.2026.

This Past Weekend In New Movies

• This past weekend’s biggest release was Toy Story 5, and the film was met with great reviews from both critics and audiences. Among critics, the film scored a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 73 on Metacritic. Among audiences, it scored a 95% on the Popcornmeter, a 3.8 on Letterboxd, a 7.7 on IMDb, and the rare A CinemaScore. You can read my own A+ review of the film. The movie ended up making over 300 hundred million worldwide on opening weekend alone, so yeah, Pixar has another massive hit on their hand with this consistently great franchise.

• A24’s counterprogramming for Father’s Day weekend was The Death Of Robin Hood, which ended up receiving mixed-to-positive reactions from both critics and audiences, the weakest scores I’ve seen for a Michael Sarnoski film yet. Among critics, it scored a 70% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 60 on Metacritic. Among audiences, it scored a 64% on the Popcornmeter, a 3.1 on Letterboxd, a 6.4 on IMDb, and a lowly C+ CinemaScore. I haven’t seen this one yet, but given that 2021’s Pig was a near miss for my personal “Best Of” list that year and that 2024’s A Quiet Place: Day One was pretty decent in my eyes, I have to say I’m kind of surprised by the divided reaction.

• A film I didn’t touch on last weekend but that has been getting some raves is the indie counter-programmer Leviticus. The queer horror flick received great reviews from critics and solid enough audience scores. Among critics, it scored a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 83 on Metacritic. Among audiences, it scored an 83% on the Popcornmeter, a 3.8 on Letterboxd, and a 6.6 on IMDb. I’ll have to give this one a look in due time.

• The straight-to-Netflix rom-com Voicemails For Isabella has been getting some really solid critical notices and excellent audience scores for one of these Netflix originals. Among critics, it scored an 84% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 60 on Metacritic. Among audiences, it scored a 92% on the Popcornmeter, a 3.7 on Letterboxd, and a 7.6 on IMDb. I’m always down for a good romance, so I’ll be catching up with this one sooner rather than later.

• And finally, we have the straight-to-Disney+ comedy Never Change!, which was met with less-than-enthusiastic reactions from both critics and audiences. Among critics, it has a lowly 17% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 43 on Metacritic based on a sample of just three reviews. I caught this one last week, and I have to say I agree with the consensus, as I found it to be a very forgettable, lowbrow comedy.

This Next Weekend In New Movies

• How do you follow up back-to-back weekends that saw a new Spielberg blockbuster and a new Pixar sequel? You do it with the next chapter in James Gunn’s DC cinematic universe, Supergirl. The film’s box office tracking has been a bit concerning given the success of Superman last year, and there does seem to be an aura that Warner Brothers isn’t pushing this as the event film it should be. I was personally underwhelmed by last year’s Superman, which ended a great streak I had with Gunn’s filmography, but this one is directed by Craig Gillespie, whose jukebox soundtrack aesthetic is something I’ve always admired. My market doesn’t have a press screening for this one, but rest assured I’ll be watching and reviewing it by week’s end.

• A24 will be counterprogramming with the dark relationship comedy The Invite, which received raves at Sundance, and the buzz is that A24 sees this as a potential dark horse awards contender. The premise has me a bit nervous, as I’m not really into break-up movies and I have no clue how this one will play out, but I’ll be making the time to catch up with it this week if I can.

• Another indie counterprogramming option will be Couture, a French drama starring Angelina Jolie as filmmaker who is given a problematic medical diagnosis. The film received mixed reactions at last year’s fall festivals, but I’m curious to check it out as a big admirer of Jolie’s acting ability.

• We’ll also be getting two straight-to-Netflix releases, the first being Little Brother, a buddy comedy that has been receiving some aggressive marketing. Both Eric Andre and John Cena have been hitting the PR trail hard, so it’ll be interesting to see if Netflix can turn that push into a breakout hit.

• The other Netflix release is In The Hand of Dante, a film that received some truly awful reactions at last year’s fall festivals and again at Tribeca. I mistakenly said two weeks ago that it was coming out then, but rest assured this is the actual release week. I’ve heard nothing but bad things, but I’m far too curious about the premise which involves the great Dante poem not to give it a shot.

Recent Film Industry News That Caught My Attention

• A recent Variety article from Gene Maddaus on the exodus of productions from Los Angeles struck my fancy, and I highly recommend reading it. I’ll be touching on the article in much more detail on this week’s upcoming podcast episode.

• Per Variety’s Clayton Davis, the Academy has chosen a new set of governors for its board, and some notable additions include Guillermo del Toro and Kris Bowers. I’d highly recommend reading Davis’ piece on the expansion of the board, which will now see branches have three governors representing them. I’ll be discussing the article in much more detail on this week’s upcoming podcast episode.

• Ryan Gosling will be honored with the 2026 American Cinematheque Award, which isn’t really a major predictor of awards viability for a performer or director in a given season. However, coming off the honor going to eventual Best Actor winner Michael B. Jordan, it highlights my continued belief that Project Hail Mary remains a strong Best Picture contender. Some have been trying to make the case that the movie is already fading from the conversation, but the audience scores and many of the “Best Of The Half-Year” lists I’ve seen suggest otherwise. This honor for Gosling will likely be used by Amazon to help keep the campaign alive.

• I was dismayed to see that it looks like we’re getting very close to a The Grinch 2, with Ron Howard and Jim Carrey set to return. The original 2000 film remains hotly debated among cinephiles, and I know many millennials who hold it close to their hearts as a Christmas season favorite watch, but I just don’t see what good can come from forcing a sequel. To me, this just continues the depressing descent of Ron Howard’s filmography in the later years of his directing output.

• Speaking of bizarre potential projects, Sean Penn is apparently set to direct a January 6th film starring Bradley Cooper as a police officer caught up in the events of that day. Penn is an outstanding actor, but he’s no Clint Eastwood or Cooper when it comes to directing, so I can’t say I’m holding my breath that this will be anything special.

• Daveigh Chase, who voiced Lilo in the millennial classic Lilo & Stitch, portrayed the creepy videotape girl in The Ring, and provided the English dub for Chihiro in Spirited Away, tragically passed away at just 35 years old after apparently suffering from meningitis, blood infections, and sepsis following hospitalization for malnutrition and extreme weight loss. I can’t claim to be a massive fan of the films she was best known for, but they are classics to many people I know, and hearing that someone only two years younger than me suddenly died is always jarring. May she rest in peace.

• He was more of a TV guy than a movie guy, but we also lost James Burrows at the age of 85. I just wanted to quickly highlight him because the man gave us some of the greatest sitcoms of all time, including my personal favorite television show ever, Frasier, as well as its predecessor, Cheers. May he rest in peace, and I thank him for helping create so many classics.

What Else Is On My Mind

• Father’s Day 2026 has come and gone, and it was my first ever experience actually getting to be celebrated. It’s bizarre because at this same time last year, I had no clue I would ever be a dad. I received some great gifts, including a 4K copy of Ben-Hur, a cute custom children’s book and matching custom T-shirt, and a dad journal. We kept things simple, with our only “eating out” being some PDQ, and I cooked steak for dinner. Hopefully, we can go a little bigger next year. I hope all dads, whatever their circumstances in the role, had a great Father’s Day this year.

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Introduction

This is a quick review of the newly released film Toy Story 5. Please note that this is just one of the many movies I will have watched each year, and my initial grade for this film may change over time, for better or worse. To stay up to date on my thoughts about other movies and any potential changes in my opinion on this one, follow me on Letterboxd.

Plot

Via Letterboxd: When Bonnie receives a Lilypad tablet as a gift and becomes obsessed, Buzz, Woody, Jessie, and the rest of the gang’s jobs become exponentially harder when they have to go head to head with the all-new threat to playtime.

Review

The first time I ever watched Toy Story was on New Year’s Eve 1996, and it was actually he first theatrical experience I ever had after moving from Puerto Rico to the states. I watched Toy Story 2 with my family three years later, and then saw Toy Story 3 on a date with the future mother of my daughter eleven years after that. Nine years later came Toy Story 4, and now, seven years after that, I watched Toy Story 5 as a new father in his thirties.

I’ve literally grown up with these movies. They’ve been there through different chapters of my life, from being a kid adjusting to a new culture, to dating, to becoming a husband and father. In a strange way, they’ve aged right alongside me.

Pixar has spent three decades turning a box of plastic toys into one of cinema’s most profound examinations of growing up, letting go, and the universal desire to matter. After the perfect emotional finality of Toy Story 3 and the more controversial epilogue of Toy Story 4, I went into Toy Story 5 wondering whether there was really anything left to say.

Well, Pixar has done it again. Toy Story 5 leapfrogs into my list of the best films I’ve seen this year and, as of right now, it might even challenge Project Hail Mary for the current top spot. I have a couple of issues that keep me from putting it in the same tier as the franchise’s absolute best, but this series continues to do something few franchises have managed to sustain over such a long period of time. It uses talking toys to tackle existential questions and the very human need for connection in ways that resonate just as deeply with adults as they do with children.

What struck me immediately was how much this film feels like a return to the spirit of the original trilogy. I’m a defender of Toy Story 4, but that movie largely functioned as a side adventure centered on Woody. Toy Story 5 brings the gang back together (at least what it can given we’ve lost voice actors through the decades) and restores the ensemble dynamic that made the first three films work so beautifully. It almost feels like a blend of the original film and Toy Story 2, balancing questions about self-worth and purpose with the inevitability of change and the uncomfortable reality that everyone, toys included, eventually faces a limited amount of time.

That balancing act between fun and existential dread remains one of Pixar’s greatest strengths. Younger audiences are going to find plenty to enjoy here. There are laughs, exciting sequences, and enough colorful personalities to keep kids entertained from beginning to end. But adults will recognize the deeper themes underneath. These films have always been about more than toys. They’re about relationships. They’re about belonging. They’re about what happens when the thing that once defined your identity changes and you have to rediscover who you are.

The film does something no previous entry has attempted and passes the baton from Woody to Jessie as the main focus of the story. It worked far better than I expected. Her arc ties strongly into elements established in Toy Story 2, making the payoff of revisiting her origin story hit incredibly hard. It brings back memories of that painful montage from the second film, when Jessie remembers being abandoned by her first kid, and it lands with just as much emotional weight.

Even when the movie shifts away from Jessie, it still does a nice job with Woody and Buzz’s side of the adventure, with the latter thankfully being rehabilitated after the clunky way he was written in the previous installment. The new toys (or, in some cases, new devices) are also welcome additions. Chief among them is Smarty Pants, a potty-training mini-game voiced by Conan O’Brien, who ends up being my personal MVP of the whole movie. He gets many of the funniest lines and consistently steals every scene he’s in.

And in a world increasingly dominated by screens and digital distractions, Toy Story 5 makes a surprisingly poignant argument for imagination and human connection through its main plot of the toys being replaced by a children’s learning tablet in lilypad. Without ever becoming preachy, the movie takes a stance on the importance of genuine interaction and creative play. There’s a clear message that childhood is about more than simply staring at devices and consuming content. It’s about forming bonds, creating memories, and experiencing the world around you.

Honestly, I almost wish the movie had gone even further. Some of its observations about technology and the effects it can have on younger children are compelling enough that I wanted Pixar to lean harder into that aspect. The film makes its point, but I think there was room to take a more uncompromising stance about the dangers of replacing human connection with constant digital stimulation.

Emotionally, though, the movie absolutely wrecked me.

Watching this four months into becoming a girl dad, with my first Father’s Day around the corner, hit me in ways I wasn’t prepared for. There were three separate moments where I found myself in tears. Parenthood has a funny way of changing how you experience stories, and suddenly all of these themes about cherishing fleeting moments, preparing children to grow, and understanding that love often means accepting change landed with devastating force.

It reminded me why these movies have endured for so long. Every entry speaks differently depending on where you are in life. As a kid, these were funny adventures. As a teenager, they became stories about growing up. As an adult, they became reflections on purpose and mortality. And now, as a father, they resonate on yet another level entirely.

That isn’t to say I don’t have reservations. If I’m ranking endings, I still think Toy Story 3 remains the perfect conclusion. There’s an elegance and emotional completeness to that film that remains almost impossible to top. I understand why Pixar keeps returning to these characters because they continue finding worthwhile things to say, but part of me still believes that Andy handing over his toys was one of the most satisfying farewells in movie history.

Another issue that has persisted as the franchise has grown larger is the problem of character overcrowding. Certain toys continue to get reduced to glorified cameos, and some longtime favorites barely impact the overall story (again, though, we have lost some key voice actors through the decades). That’s been an issue since Toy Story 4, and it continues here. When you’ve accumulated this many beloved characters over five films, it’s inevitable that some are going to get lost in the shuffle, but it does leave me wishing a few members of the gang had more meaningful roles.

Those complaints aside, Toy Story 5 serves as another reminder of why Pixar at its best remains one of the great storytellers in Hollywood. The studio understands that animation doesn’t have to choose between entertaining children and challenging adults. It can do both. It can make you laugh one minute and leave you contemplating life itself the next.

More importantly, it understands something that these films have known since 1995 in that we all want to feel like we belong somewhere. We all want to matter to someone. We all fear being left behind. And somehow, after five movies, these toys still know how to speak to those anxieties in ways that feel timeless. I already want to see it again; an A+ grade from me for Toy Story 5 upon my first viewing.

“TL;DR”

• Pros: Has much more of the ensemble vibes of the first three films rather than the side-plot journey that the fourth film feels like; Like its predecessors its able to comfortably juggle an entertaining film with plenty for younger audiences and adults to enjoy; Takes a much needed stance on imagination and human bonding over just staring at screens; Continues the emotional impact of using these toys to hit on themes of existentialism and belonging; Left me in tears during several moments

• Cons: I still feel like this franchise had the more perfect ending with part three; The issue of regulating certain toys to shorter screentime and having no real impact to the story continues to be an issue as the franchise lasts longer; The movie could have taken an even more harsh stance against the problematic sides of having young kids using tech over connecting with the real world

Grading

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Episode Notes

• Details: On this episode of The Mendez Movie Report Podcast, for the week of 06.15.2026, film critic Luis A. Mendez gives his thoughts on Steven Spileberg’s latest film Disclosure Day which is getting very mixed responses from audiences, pays tribute to legendary film critic Gene Shalit, reacts to the Oscars giving honorary statues to Glenn Close and Ridley Scott, talks the ADG firing back at Martin Scorsese, looks at “The Rock” Dwayne Johnson’s candid interview, responds to two attacks on two favorite films of his, takes Jane Campion to task for yet another embarrassing gaffe, and looks at the latest box office news along with what’s coming next to theaters and streaming.

• Timeline:

  00:00 Intro

  01:27 Film Review: Disclosure Day

  18:30 This Past Weekend In New Movies

  23:45 The Next Weekend In New Movies

  27:27 R.I.P Gene Shalit

  29:42 Oscars Governors Awards To Honor Glenn Close And Ridley Scott

  32:51 The Art Directors Guild Fires Back At Martin Scorsese

  40:08 The Rock Opens Up About Cancer Scare And Oscars Snub

  46:51 Jennifer Lopez Takes A Shot At Nomadland

  51:20 Luca Guadagnino Takes A Shot At Top Gun: Maverick

  55:38 Jane Campion Puts Her Foot In Her Mouth…Again

  1:07:35 What Else Is On My Mind

  1:13:57 Finale

• Where To Find More From Luis

• Weekly Digest For The Week Of 06.15.2026

• Film Review: Disclosure Day

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Introduction

This is your weekly digest for recent film industry news that caught my attention for the week of 06.15.2026.

This Past Weekend In New Movies

• Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day, which I gave an A- review to that you can read, is looking at a worldwide opening of a little under a hundred million, with more than forty million of that coming domestically. However, I fear the legs for this movie could prove weak. While the critical scores have been solid, the audience scores are among the most middling I’ve seen for a Spielberg film. Among critics, it holds an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 74 on Metacritic. Among audiences, however, it has just a 73% on the Popcornmeter, a 3.3 on Letterboxd, a 6.8 on IMDb, and a B CinemaScore. I’ll speak more on the podcast about what might be driving these divisive audience reactions, but you can also listen to the segment I recently did with Howard Monroe on The Watchdog Morning Show regarding the film.

• One film I forgot to touch on last week was the new international action flick The Furious, which has been generating some strong word of mouth and putting up a respectable showing at the specialty box office. Among critics, it boasts a whopping 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 85 on Metacritic. Audiences have responded just as enthusiastically, with a 95% on the Popcornmeter, a 3.8 on Letterboxd, a 7.9 on IMDb, and the rare A CinemaScore. I’ll definitely be trying to check this one out in due time.

• Netflix’s straight-to-streaming animated feature I Am Frankelda has also been earning strong notices from both critics and audiences. Among critics, it sits at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 75 on Metacritic. Among audiences, it currently holds a 7.1 on IMDb. I caught this one over the weekend and thought it was a decent little movie that’s worth checking out if you’re looking for something new to watch on the app.

This Next Weekend In New Movies

• The biggest release of the upcoming weekend is, without a shadow of a doubt, Toy Story 5, which is looking at a massive box office debut if pre-sale tracking is to be believed. Reactions have been better than I anticipated so far, and I’ll be catching this one with general audiences as Disney continues its recent trend of not offering press screenings in my market. I actually binged all four Toy Story films over the weekend, and every single one still ranks among my favorite movies of its respective years, so I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what this latest installment has to offer.

• A24 will be providing some indie counterprogramming with Michael Sarnoski’s The Death Of Robin Hood, a return to original storytelling for the filmmaker after he dipped his toes into franchise material with 2024’s A Quiet Place: Day One prequel. The film centers on the legendary outlaw’s final days and boasts a pretty impressive cast, led by Hugh Jackman in the title role.

• Netflix will be releasing another one of its straight-to-streaming romance films, Voicemails For Isabella. These movies tend to be pretty middling but generally inoffensive, though I’m hoping this one pulls an Office Romance and ends up working better for me than most of the streamer’s offerings in the genre.

• Last week I mistakenly reported that the comedy Never Change! was heading straight to Disney+ and Hulu over the weekend. It turns out I had confused its release with a screening at the Tribeca Film Festival. The movie will actually arrive on those streaming platforms this coming weekend. While we’re correcting mistakes, I made the same error regarding Netflix’s In The Hand Of Dante, which is not debuting this week and will instead arrive on the streamer in two weeks.

Recent Film Industry News That Caught My Attention

• Legendary Today Show film critic Gene Shalit, instantly recognizable for his iconic look featuring the big hair, big mustache, and oversized glasses, passed away this past week at the age of 100. Shalit was a bit before my time compared to Siskel and Ebert, whom I caught near the end of their run when I was a kid. That said, he was still popping up in segments on the Today Show into the late 2000s. Every time I came across clips of him later in life, he always struck me as one of the more fun film critics, someone who never seemed to let pretentiousness color his criticism. Interestingly enough, he began his career as a press agent for Dick Clark before eventually transitioning into entertainment journalism and criticism. Over the decades, he became one of the most recognizable faces in film criticism and a fixture of morning television. I really hope future generations of film critics can capture some of the same sense of fun and personality that Shalit brought whenever he appeared on screen. May he rest in peace in be in eternal light.

• The Academy Awards have announced this year’s Governors Awards honorees, with Glenn Close and Ridley Scott among those set to be recognized. Both Close and Scott have accumulated multiple Oscar nominations over the course of their careers without ever taking home a competitive win, and if it were up to me, both would already have multiple statues on their mantels. The Governors Awards were once presented as part of the main Oscar telecast, but that changed several years ago. They are now held at a private ceremony each November, an event that has effectively become the unofficial kickoff to awards season campaigning. As a result, it has also become one of the key networking events of the year for stars and filmmakers hoping to position themselves in the acting and craft races that follow. I should add longtime Disney animator Floyd Norman will also be receiving a statue, a man who worked on two of my all-time favorite animated films, Sleeping Beauty and Mulan.

• The Art Directors Guild fired back at Martin Scorsese’s recent endorsement of generative AI being used for storyboarding and production design. You can read their entire response here, and I will be going more in-depth on this on this week’s podcast.

• Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson recently opened up in an interview with Esquire about a cancer scare that ultimately turned out to be a false alarm. He also made some candid remarks about his awards campaign for The Smashing Machine, which ultimately resulted in a Golden Globe nomination but failed to translate into Oscar recognition.

  Of the experience, Johnson said, “It would have been incredible to get nominated for an Oscar. I realized very quickly that it’s a rare thing to reach this pinnacle where you’re even having these conversations. And it’s exciting! It would have been amazing. I wish it happened. But it didn’t. But in no uncertain terms did I ever think, ‘Oh, that doesn’t matter.’ I always thought it mattered. And it has lit a fire in my spine, which is, let’s go back to work.”

  I’ll have much more to say about this on this week’s podcast, but my take continues to be that Johnson would have had a better shot had The Smashing Machine not ended up being as divisive as it was. It’s difficult to secure an acting nomination when voters are mixed on the film itself, and that challenge was compounded by the fact that last year’s acting races were absolutely stacked with contenders. Even getting into the conversation just a little was an accomplishment given the level of competition he was up against.

• Jennifer Lopez recently took a swipe at Nomadland, the 2020 Best Picture winner, saying, “It’s not why I go to the movies. I like musicals. I like romantic comedies. I like thrillers, you know? And Nomadland is a slow-moving thing about grief, and there’s no escapism to it. And I do like some movies like that, but that one I just didn’t. It’s just a taste thing. And I know we need movies about grief! I understand.”

  Nomadland was my preferred winner out of that year’s Best Picture lineup and remains one of my favorite films of 2020. That said, I honestly understand where Lopez is coming from. Quite frankly, the film was helped by the fact that 2020 ended up being a relatively weak year for cinema due to the pandemic, and I’m not convinced it would have won Best Picture had it been released in most other years.

  And, if we’re being honest, this headline is probably the first time many people have even thought about Nomadland in quite a while. It increasingly feels like one of those Oscar winners that will age into being generally forgotten, not because it’s bad but because it emerged from what many consider a lost year for movies. The film lacks the kind of lasting pop culture footprint that other Best Picture winners have had.

  I still consider Nomadland one of the best films released that year and a tremendous achievement by Chloe Zhao. Its blend of documentary-style realism and deeply human storytelling worked for me in a way that few films did during that year. But at the same time, I completely understand why someone looking for entertainment, escapism, or a more conventional narrative experience might bounce off it. In that regard, I get where JLo is coming from.

• However, I’m a bit less forgiving of Luca Guadagnino, who recently decided to take a shot at Top Gun: Maverick, saying, “It’s a very bad movie… people liked it because the economy of nostalgia right now seems to be the only commodity that can be dominated by all types of markets.”

  With all due respect to Guadagnino and his biggest fans, this is coming from a filmmaker who directed After The Hunt and, in my view, has yet to make a film anywhere near as strong as Maverick. And yes, I would include Challengers in that assessment as well.

  That said, I can’t say I’m particularly surprised by his dismissal. Guadagnino has always struck me as someone with, shall we say, fairly high-brow tastes, who tends to look at more populist cinema with a skeptical eye. Which makes his near-miss involvement with a DC project all the more surreal in hindsight.

• And speaking of filmmakers putting their foot in their mouth, Jane Campion, who has developed a reputation for occasionally making tone-deaf public comments, may have delivered one of her more controversial remarks yet.

  In discussing her past working relationship with Harvey Weinstein on The Piano and yes, THAT Harvey Weinstein, she said: “Can I say one thing that’s going to be very disturbing? Harvey Weinstein, as we know, did some horrific things, but he also did some great things for the arts and for getting audiences. He was bold in that way. He loved films. I have to admit, the marketing strategy was his vision.”

  Comments like this from Campion are not exactly new. She has made a number of remarks over the years that have, fairly or unfairly, complicated aspects of her public perception, including during The Power Of The Dog’s awards campaign, which, along with its divisive audience reception, contributed to one of the more dramatic shifts I can remember between nomination morning and Oscar night.

  It’s just another reminder that she has a tendency to create avoidable distractions in moments where a bit more precision and restraint would go a long way. I’ll try to dig into this more on this week’s podcast.

What Else Is On My Mind

• Well, the 2026 NBA Finals have wrapped up, and I have to congratulate the New York Knicks on defeating the San Antonio Spurs in five games, including pulling off back-to-back major comebacks to close out the series. I was personally rooting for San Antonio, but it has been surreal to watch the Knicks finally win the big one. It was especially cool to see Spike Lee celebrate after more than forty years as a season-ticket holder. I also spent months watching Ben Stiller basically turn his X account into a Knicks fan page, so I’m happy for him as well. I do have to wonder about some of the more obvious bandwagoners who suddenly appeared out of nowhere, but props to the actual Knicks fans; their long national nightmare is finally over.

  As a Miami Heat fan, I’ve gotten to see my team win three championships while also losing four NBA Finals, so I understand both the adulation New York is experiencing right now and the heartbreak San Antonio fans are feeling. Especially considering the amount of head-scratching basketball that young Spurs team played down the stretch in those games they choked away.

• Meanwhile, the 2026 Stanley Cup Finals also came to an end as the Carolina Hurricanes came back from down 2–1 in the series to win three straight games and defeat the Las Vegas Golden Knights in six games. I warned Knights fans last week that a 2–1 series lead in a Stanley Cup Final is never something to feel safe about and well…here we are. Congrats to the Hurricanes on their second championship. It also looks like we now have teams from California, Carolina, and Florida that have all won multiple Cup titles since the last time a Canadian team won.

• The 2026 World Cup has officially kicked off, with North American countries serving as hosts and plenty of U.S. venues staging matches. As I watched social media erupt with excitement over the opening weekend, the biggest story to me wasn’t anything that happened on the pitch, it was how cheap the concession prices are at Atlanta’s Mercedes Benz Stadium! They’re offering hot dogs for just two bucks and liquor for under ten dollars. It immediately made me think about how I had to pay double or even triple those prices when I went to see Metallica at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa last summer. Anyhow, I’m not going to pretend to be a soccer guy, care all that much about the World Cup, or be performative about my rooting interest in Team USA’s chances. But more power to those who are excited for the event, and I hope you Atlanta folks appreciate just how good you have it when it comes to concession prices at your local football stadium.

• Father’s Day weekend is coming up, and for me it will be a special one because it will be my first time getting to celebrate it as a dad. At this point last year, I had no idea I was going to become a dad, so it’s kind of wild to think that here I am a year later with a four-month-old little woman to take care of. My best wishes to all the dads out there this weekend. Whether you’re a new dad like me, a seasoned veteran, or somewhere in between, I hope you have a great Father’s Day.

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