The Packers and Film

The movie year has been off to a hot start. It is only April, and yet there have already been many films from notable directors, including Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, Sam Raimi, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gore Verbinski, and Joe Carnahan. In addition, there have already been many movies with more up and coming directors and big stars, with How to Make a Killing starring Glen Powell, The Rip starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, Shelter starring Jason Statham, The Moment starring Charli XCX, Crime 101 starring Chris Hemsworth, and many more. 2026 is shaping up to be an absolutely fantastic year for movies, and as a fantastic year for movies, I am doing my best to watch as much as I possibly can. Here is what I caught this past week.

They Will Kill You

They Will Kill You is an action horror film. It centers on Asia Reaves, a woman who gets out of prison and takes a job as a maid at a strange hotel like place, but pretty quickly things take a turn for the worse, and Reaves has to fight her way out. Starting off, this movie had the unfortunate release time of coming out right after Ready or Not 2. I am a little worried that this film will not do nearly as well as that film, because I must say that I found They Will Kill You to be much stronger than Ready or Not 2. Both films have a lot of similarities, with both focused on a central woman character fighting her way out of a place from satanic worshippers, and both have a central sister relationship, but I thought that They Will Kill You did each aspect much better than Ready or Not 2. The action is better. The writing is better. The performances are better. And the movie is also shot surprisingly well. There is a shot where Zazie Beetz is climbing up an elevator shaft, and it looks like something that came out of a Wes Anderson film. Now, that all being said, it is not perfect. The movie takes a minute to get going, and some of the acting in the first 20 minutes can be pretty cringey, but once the first action sequence happens, the movie picks up and becomes a lot of fun.

Rating: 7/10

Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere

Inside the Manosphere has renowned documentarian Louis Theroux investigating the misogynistic world of the Manosphere, an online community of male content creators who put out videos and social media posts about the relationships between men and women. Theroux is one of my favorite documentarians. I loved his documentaries on Jimmy Saville and the Westborough Baptist Church and Scientology, and while this is a pretty good documentary, I believe it is a weaker documentary compared to his other works. Throughout the documentary, we see Theroux interviewing many various content creators, but many of the questions Theroux asks seem surprisingly surface level. He asks about their relationships and the women in the lives of these misogynists, but it seems many times that Theroux misses the biggest problem with these content creators: the fact that there are some boys as young as 10 that watch this content. That is an age where kids are easily succeptible, and seeing content like that could poison the minds of these kids, and give them a very toxic and bad impression of women,which is scary and unhealthy. Theroux brings it up at the very end, but it seems like much of it is left untouched. That being said, the documentary is still deeply entertaining. The interviews Theroux does with these creators are interesting to watch, and he is still very good at killing some of his interviewees with silence, and watching some of these toxic men squirm with just a few seconds of silence was very satisfying. All in all, a pretty mixed bag, but still successful at the end of the day.

Rating: 6/10

The Drama

The Drama is a new dramedy from acclaimed indie director Kristoffer Borgli and starring Robert Pattinson and Zendaya. The film focuses on the buildup to a wedding between Emma and Charlie, when a secret is revealed that threatens to burn it all down. Leading up to the release of this film, I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. I didn’t like the last film I saw from Borgli, Dream Scenario, a movie with a great premise that didn’t know how to stick the landing. I thought Dream Scenario was interesting but mostly grating to watch. The Drama, however, worked for me. Borgli is definitely improving as a filmmaker, as some of the shots in this film are absoloutely fantastic. Lots of interesting and dream-like imagery, with lots of striking colors. There was a particular shot with Zendaya switched with her younger self for the wedding photos that worked especially well for me. Outside of the shots, Borgli’s writing has also improved a lot. In Dream Scenario, Borgli had a great premise: a random person suddenly becomes the most famous person on earth after he appears in everyone’s dreams. It is a great concept, but outside of that initial concept, Borgli did not do much with it, and it seemed like he had no idea where to take the story after the initial idea. Here, however, Borgli had a clear vision. Watching Charlie spiral through the film after the reveal, which I would not dare to spoil, was incredibly well written. Both Charlie and Emma feel so real, and the film balances being deeply uncomfortable and shockingly funny. The Drama is one of the best films of the year so far.

Rating: 8/10

Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice

Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice is a sci-fi action comedy starring Vince Vaughn and James Marsden. The film tells the story of Mike and Nick, two mobsters that must work together to make sure that Mike isn’t killed by the mob.

I wanted to love this movie. It is a fun premise, with Vince Vaughn giving a fun duel performance, but I found the script to be an absolute mess. There are moments, such as the Gilmore Girls sequence, where the movie is funny and entertaining, but there are other moments where the film is just sloppy. For example, there’s a scene where Vince Vaughn wants James Marsden to use chloroform on someone , but he doesn’t know what chloroform is and calls it the “wet rag thing”. That is really stupid, and it makes no sense as anyone who has watched a movie ever knows what chloroform is. There are other moments as well, especiallly the ones with Jimmy Tatro, where the film thinks it is funnier than it actually is. Still, it is an entertaining film. The action sequences are great, especially the house raid at the end, but overall I think the film needed another rewrite.

Rating: 5/10

Eat Pray Bark

Eat Pray Bark is a German comedy film that tells the story of a group of dog owners that travel to the mountains of Germany to work with a professional dog trainer so that they can learn to take better care of their animals.

Honestly, I found this film to be absolutely insufferable. The comedy was the lowest common denominator type of jokes, and in addition to that, every character was a horrible person. It is fine for characters to be written in that way, as I enjoy shows like It’s Always Sunny in Philidelphia, but in this instance, it did not feel like the characters were meant to be seen in that way. In the beginning, sure they were made insufferable on purpose, but by the end, the movie tries really hard to make you feel like these people had changed and were ready to be good dog owners, but I never got that feeling. The characters were insufferable through and through. The only thing I liked about the movie were the dogs. The dogs were very cute, but I think I would have much preferred to just watch a YouTube compilation of cute puppy videos.

Rating: 1/10