Mise en Screen

Mortal Kombat II is the sequel to 2021's Mortal Kombat and directed by Simon McQuoid and written by Jeremy Slater, a reboot of a film series based on the long running fighting videogame series of the same name. New heroes introduced in this film are Kitana, played by Adeline Rudolph, adopted daughter of Shao Khan, played by Martyn Ford, ruler of Outworld, and Johnny Cage, played by Karl Urban, a w...

Deep Water is the latest film from director Renny Harlin and the work of somewhere between four and six credited writers, including Pete Bridges, Shayne Armstrong, S.P. Krause, and Damien Power, for a film about the survivors of a plane crash in the south pacific having to further contend with sharks that want to eat anyone and everyone who puts their leg, arm, or head over and in the open water....

Mother Mary is a 2026 psychological drama from writer-director David Lowery. Anne Hathaway plays Mother Mary, a pop music star who suffered a recent accident and seeks out Sam Anselm, played by Michaela Coel, her former designer and friend (friend), in order to tailor an appropriate new dress. Sam utilizes the opportunity to settle the bad blood that exists between them as a result of their breaku...

The Christophers is an art world comedy from director Steven Soderbergh and writer Ed Solomon. In it Michaela Coel plays Lori Butler, an art restorer who makes her money running a food truck in London. She is called with a job by Sallie and Barnaby Sklar (Jessica Gunning and James Corden), the children of famous artist-turned-talent show judge Julian Sklar (Ian McKellen) who has not painted in dec...

Faces of Death is a horror film in which our killer Arthur, played by Dacre Montgomery, has begun reenacting the killings portrayed in the 1978 shockumentary Faces of Death but for real, and uploading them onto a tiktok knockoff named Kino. Our heroine is Margot, played by Barbie Ferreira, a moderator for Kino determining which flagged content gets removed or remains on the platform. When she begi...

The Drama is a dark rom com drama written and directed by Kristoffer Borgli, starring Zendaya as Emma Harwood and Robert Pattinson as Charlie Thompson, a couple who are soon to be married but whose relationship is tested by the revelation of a dark secret. Drama ensues, no, The drama ensues, as the two attempt to grapple with how they see each other. The supporting cast includes Alana Haim as Rach...

Forbidden Fruits tells the story of Pumpkin, Lola Tung, who ingratiates herself into becoming an employee at Free Eden, a mall clothing store for women and currently staffed by Lili Reinhardt as Apple, Victoria Pedretti as Cherry, and Alexandra Shipp as Fig. She is inducted into Paradise, a witch femme cult led by Apple. Over the course of the various fashion seasons, Pumpkin learns more about App...

Project Hail Mary is the latest film adaptation of a novel by Andy Weir, coming eleven years after The Martian in 2015. Project Hail Mary sees Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) awaken from a medically induced coma far from Earth on a course for the star Tau Ceti. As he slowly regains his memory we learn of his recruitment by Eva Stratt (Sand Hueller) of the titular project to study a microorganism known...

This week is our 98th Academy Awards Special Episode! We both recorded our commentary while watching the show and cut it down to just the best or most pertinent bits and we have also inserted clips from our post-Oscars conversation a couple of days afterwards. Next week we will return to our regularly scheduled programming with an episode on Project Hail Mary . Works Cited: Post by @nymag.com — Bl...

The Bride! is a 2026 gothic romance film written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal adapting the 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein directed by James Whale and written by William Hurlbut. The Bride! stars Jessie Buckley as the titular bride: the reanimated corpse of Ida, a woman in 1936 Chicago who was killed after becoming possessed by the author Mary Shelley, who desires to share the second half of...

EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert is a 2026 concert film from director Baz Luhrmann that is sourced from previous Elvis film That's the Way It Is and Elvis on Tour , as well as film reels discovered during Luhrmann's production of 2022's Elvis with new footage of Elvis' residency in Vegas and rare interview audio of Elvis reflecting on his career. Time Stamps: (03:40)  Bubba Ho-Tep (19:45)  Gimme She...

"Wuthering Heights" is a 2026 period romance written and directed by Emerald Fennell, adapted from the 1847 novel by Emily Bronte. Stars Margot Robbie as Catherine Earnshaw, who develops a tempestuous relationship with her foundling childhood friend and adopted brother Heathcliff, played by Jacob Elordi. When she marries into the higher society family of Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif), Heathcliff lea...

The Secret Agent is a 2025 thriller written and directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho, with Cinematography by Evgenia Alexandrova and music by Tomaz Alves Souza and Mateus Alves. Stars Wagner Moura as Marcelo, who arrives at and hides out in the coastal city of Recife to see his young son Fernando (Enzo Nunes), who is in the care of his maternal grandparents, with grandfather Sr. Alexandre played by C...

Send Help is the latest film directed by Sam Raimi. It's from a script by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, and stars Rachel McAdams as Linda Liddle, and her new boss Bradley Preston, played by Dylan O'Brien. Linda, a faithful and diligent financial strategist, is also a Survivor enthusiast. When she and Bradley find themselves the only survivors of a plane crash on a Pacific island, the two forge a...

This week we have a special episode for you. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released the nominees for the upcoming 98th Academy Awards, and we have some opinions on them. We then wrap up 2025 with both Ben and Steven listing out their top 5 films of 2025 with special (and not so special) Miseys awarded intermittently. They also go over the best and worst punishment films that...

Hamnet - a 2025 biographical drama directed by Chloe Zhao, written by Zhao with Maggie O'Farrell, based as stated on the 2020 novel of the same title by Farrell. It stars Jessie Buckley as Agnes Hathaway and Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare, who after a courtship and shotgun wedding give birth to and raise a daughter Susanna (Bodhi Rae Breathnach) and twins Judith and Hamnet (Olivia Lynes and Ja...

No Other Choice is a 2025 dark comedy directed by Park Chan-wook, written by     Park Chan-wook, Lee Kyoung-mi, Don McKellar, and Lee Ja-hye. It is adapted from 1997 novel The Axe by Donald Westlake. It stars Lee Byung-hun plays Yoo Man-su, who has lost his longstanding position at a paper mill and must search for work in a shrinking job market. To reduce the competition he enacts a plan to kill t...

Is This Thing On? is a 2025 comedy-drama directed by Bradley Cooper, written by Cooper, Will Arnett, and Mark Chappell, starring Will Arnett and Laura Dern as Alex and Tess Novak, a couple whose marriage is on the rocks, leading Alex to discover stand-up as a way of processing it. They are joined by Bradley Cooper himself as Alex's best friend Balls, Andra Day as Balls' wife Christine, Christine E...

Song Sung Blue is a biographical film about the married musical artist duo Lightning and Thunder, Mike and Claire Sardina, a Neil Diamond tribute act, though they refer to it as "interpretation," while navigating the ups and downs of their regular lives. It is based on a 2008 documentary of the same name by Greg Kohs. Also starring Michael Imperioli as Mark Shurilla, a Buddy Holly impersonator; El...

Marty Supreme is a 2025 sports comedy-drama film directed, written, produced, and edited by Josh Safdie, with Ronald Bronstein co-writer, co-producer- and co-editor. In this film we follow Marty Mauser, an aspiring table tennis player who seeks to become the world champion of the sport while simultaneously outrunning the consequences of his various scams, affairs, prideful boasts, and collectors....

In this episode we discuss a litany of films we watched to fill in the gaps of 2025 releases, full spoilers for all films discussed. Time Stamps: (5:49) Broken Church  (19:36) Star Trek Section 31   (26:07) Avatar: Fire and Ash   (33:21) Black Bag (38:28) Sovereign  (43:31) Eephus (49:58) Train Dreams (56:41) The Phoenician Scheme   (1:01:21) The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar   (1:06:15) Ballad o...

Wake Up Dead Man is the latest Knives Out mystery film from writer-director Rian Johnson. In this film we find Father Jud Duplenticy (Joh O'Connor) under suspicion of the murder of Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Joshj Brolin), stabbed in the back in a storage closet during his Good Friday service. The ensemble this time is played by Glenn Close as Martha, a lifelong servant of the church, Jeremy Renne...

Kill Bill The Whole Bloody Affair is a re-release of Kill Bill Volume 1 & 2 as one four hour thirty-five minute film with one 15 minute intermission. In this film we follow The Bride, played by Uma Thurman, who is pregnant and rehearsing for her wedding when her ex-lover Bill (David Carridine) arrives with the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah)...

Rental Family is the latest feature film by Hikari, cowritten by herself and Stephen Blahut, starring Brendan Fraser as a struggling American actor living in Japan who stumbles into a job working for a rental family agency who hire out actors to play unconventional roles for clients such as hosting a funeral for a still living individual, staging a wedding, playing a father for a mother-daughter w...

Angel's Egg is a 1985 Japanese animated OVA film written and directed by Mamoru Oshii, best known for his work directing the animated film Ghost in the Shell in 1995. This film follows two nameless characters, a young girl who carries an egg with her and a young man with a cross-shaped sword who joins her as they travel through a ruined empty city. Because of the abstract nature of the movie's set...