I've reviewed films for more than 35 years. Current movie reviews of new theatrical releases and streaming films are added weekly to the Silver Screen Capture movie news site. Many capsule critiques originally appeared in expanded form in my syndicated Lights Camera Reaction column.
Two Hollywood talents helm a mystery, a sci-fi adventure and a moving human drama packaged in one extraordinarily ambitious and entertaining opus. Co-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s Project Hail Mary (A+) stars Ryan Gosling as a man who finds himself alone on a spacecraft light years from earth and must summon the bravery and resourcefulness to help avert a disaster with intergalactic stakes. With a superb shape-shifting and time-bending adapted screenplay by Drew Goddard, Lord and Miller commandeer a whimsical journey scored to Daniel Pemberton’s majestic music along with some nifty needle drops. The film is a visual feast thanks to Greig Fraser’s cinematography and Paul Lambert and Mags Sarnowska’s stunning blend of visual effects with practical photography. Gosling brings charisma and humor to a lead role summoning all his mad skills. Sandra Huller is a delight and a solid foil, and audiences will get great joy from the puppeteering and voice talents of James Ortiz. The film’s first hour is leisurely paced and sets the scope and scene; then the plot picks up rather rapidly soonafter. The movie proves again and again an impressive feat of larger-than-life showmanship and the intimacy of well-honed characterization. This is an absolute excuse for those who haven’t been to a movie theatre in a while to witness something revelatory and crowd-pleasing on the big screen.
You’ve thrown your annual Oscars party, cheering Michael B. Jordan and Jessie Buckley in clinching gold statuettes while enjoying “KPop Demon Sliders,” predicting one ballot after another and sipping Sinners Juke Joint Juice. Such fun! So how can you gather your friends again for fun times and a next iconic viewing soiree?
We’ve talked before about the intersection of celebrity and golf. And there’s no bigger event than what’s happening in Augusta, Georgia April 9-12, 2026.
For golf fans, the Masters is a showcase of the game at its finest and a tradition like no other. If Augusta National Golf Club’s fairways and greens could talk, they’d tell stories of some of the most unforgettable stories in golf history. Those moments are inseparable from the iconic sights of the course itself. From the precision required around Amen Corner, the iconic sight of Hogan Bridge and the challenge of Rae’s Creek, Augusta National is more than a course – it’s the stage for golf at its very best. Even the Par 3 Contest, where players’ family members don caddie uniforms, are part of what makes the Masters so memorable.
With Masters tickets famously the hardest in sports to get, most fans will never experience the tournament in person. That’s why Masters viewing parties have become a popular way to bring the excitement into your own home. By embracing the tradition, atmosphere, colors and flavors of the Masters, fans can celebrate the game with friends and family, enjoying every memorable shot along the way.
PGA TOUR Superstore, purveyors of the golf experience every day of the year, have organized an array of popular products in a Here Comes the Green collection so you can gear up for what many call the “First Major” of spring. Here’s how to set the mood, what to wear, what to eat and how to tune in for an elegant and elevated party to remember celebrating one of the world’s most cherished traditions in sports.
Course Setup:
When you turn on the TV to watch the Masters, the stunning flowering landscapes of Augusta National will always catch your eye. Each hole is named after a flower or tree, many of which bloom across the country in spring, including azaleas, magnolias, holly and yellow jasmine. Adding these blooms can help set the scene to complement your party atmosphere. The Masters signature palette of green, yellow and white can guide your décor, creating an unmistakably Masters vibe.
Barstool Sports Masters-themed dog golf sweater: Fans young and old will be charmed by this trendy top featuring an iconic best friend.
Le Lis golf-inspired sweaters: stylish crewneck and button-down golf-themed sweaters and sweatshirts that blend course-ready style with comfort whether viewing or playing.
White and Green Adidas Samba Shoes: Yes, Sambas for golf! A classic look, great for casual rounds and extremely popular lately with women off the greens.
Think fan favorites and easy-to-enjoy dishes that keep guests grazing from the first tee shot to the final putt. For your menu, draw inspiration from Masters Champions dinner menus – each year, the previous champion selects dishes that reflect their personal taste and regional flare. From firecracker dip to meatball and ravioli bites, recipes are all easy to find online.
Pimento cheese sandwiches are a Southern classic and a Masters essential for decades. My Aunt Pat Bell’s pimento cheese is a cherished family recipe for tournament get-togethers. Her special twist on the classic Southern dish includes Spice World jarred garlic in bottles with the iconic blue lid, an ingredient which adds flavor without the pungent bite, and Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce, which gives it a little extra kick. Like any true Southerner, she insists Duke’s mayonnaise is the only acceptable brand to use and the cheese must be hand grated. She serves her pimento cheese on white bread with the crusts cut off or with Ritz crackers.
Salt, freshly cracked black pepper or cayenne pepper to taste
Directions to Make Aunt Pat’s pimento cheese:
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and stir gently, taking care to retain the texture of the shredded cheese. Refrigerate in an air-tight container at least two to three hours but overnight is even better! Stir before serving, add a bit more Duke’s if needed for the spreadability you desire, and adjust the garlic, salt, black pepper or cayenne pepper if needed.
Other suggested watch party favorites include Azalea cocktails or mocktails and “Arnold Palmers” and these other foods:
Cheeseburger sliders served Scottie-style
Barbecue pork sliders
Pigs in a blanket
Peach ice cream sandwiches
Golf moves at an ideal leisurely pace, leaving lots of time for snacking. Chips, roasted peanuts and cookies are always welcome and appropriate for your party.
Par for fun:
Not everyone can stay glued to the TV for every hole, so set up golf-inspired games and activities to keep guests of all ages entertained.
Sidebar programming can add other fun for attendees. Party planners can showcase popular films about the game of golf in home theatre or even golf simulator spaces. Think majestic stories like The Legend of Bagger Vance, The Greatest Game Ever Played or Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius. Or funny ones like Tin Cup, Caddyshack and Happy Gilmore(but maybe not the sequels to the latter two).
Tune in!
The Masters is covered by ESPN (early rounds), CBS (weekend/later rounds), Paramount+, Amazon Prime Video and the official Masters website/app, with Amazon joining for 2026 to stream first/second-round coverage leading into ESPN, while ESPN, CBS, and Paramount+ handle other broadcasts and streams for the U.S. audience.
The magic of Hollywood comes alive at ENZO’s third-annual Oscars Viewing Party on Sunday, March 15, 2026 at GTC Trilith Cinemas for the first time. Benefiting Two Sparrows Village and Variety – the Children’s Charity of Georgia, this highly anticipated event will transform the Town at Trilith’s new multiplex into a scene straight out of silver screen legend. Guests will arrive in style, walking a red carpet lined with professional photographers capturing every glamorous entrance.
The festivities begin at 6:00 p.m. with the chance to grab to drink and mingle with fellow cinema and fashion aficionados and cast prediction ballots. As the clock strikes 7:00 p.m., all eyes turn to the screen for the 98th Academy Awards, hosted for the second year by late-night comedy icon Conan O’Brien.
Throughout the evening, attendees will savor a curated menu of Chef Andrea Montobbio’s signature dishes, alongside expertly crafted cocktails inspired by iconic films. Adding to the excitement, emcee and Silver Screen Capture Chief Film Critic Stephen Michael Brown will host engaging giveaways, with prizes ranging from ENZO gift cards to movie memorabilia.
Tickets are $125 per person and include two drink tickets and a selection of bites from ENZO’s award-winning kitchen. For additional details or to reserve a spot, visit enzo-itl.com or call (770) 756-9188. GTC Trilith Cinemas is located at 165 Trilith Parkway Fayetteville, GA 30214. Stay connected for updates and more on Facebook and Instagram at @enzoitl.
The Avatar movies aren’t the only cautionary tales to swoop into “save the whales” territory, with a new full-length animated feature film showcasing eco-warriors eager to pounce on a beaver protection bandwagon. It’s not as full-on funny or immediately memorable as some of the top-shelf Disney-Pixar films, but Daniel Chong’s Hoppers (B) centers a creative story on a young female activist infiltrating an animal habitat to save it from developers, resulting in quite an animal kingdom rally. Suffice it to say our protagonist inhabits the body of a semiaquatic rodent and learns a good bit about the sound and, well, furry of living with the land, the pecking order keeping creatures in harmony and the bipartisanship required with humans and animal counterparts to increase the peace. Chong tells a solid story with winning animation and most of all an agenda of urgency and education eclipsing some of the sly delights, even though there are many in the midst. Voice actors Meryl Streep and Dave Franco are a hoot as mercurial monarchs of the insect world, while Piper Kurda and Bobby Moynihan keep things fetching in the freshwater. Make sure the young scientists in your family check this film out, as its insights are far deeper in the pond than the kiddie fare previews may promise.
Canadian comedy scales new heights of creativity in Matt Johnson’s rollicking and raucous Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie (A-), chronicling a pair of fictionalized musicians (the manic Johnson plus straight man Jay McCarrol) endeavoring to land a gig at a nightclub in their beloved Toronto hometown, and no highjinks, homages or holler-backs are off-limits along their daft-punking journey. Neither the band’s curiously familiar name nor the Quixotic plight to promote themselves nor the blurry backstory nor the dubious prospects for future success make much sense at all for those diagramming a conventional plot, but the “let’s just go for it” mentality is the stuff of an improv fever dream and the reason a dreamy time-traveling quest format works so well. The filmmakers constantly top themselves and set crafty traps for droll detours, with funny flashbacks making their deviled Easter eggs abundantly clear. This mighty mockumentary blends scripted and candid camera footage into a “yes, and…” whirling dervish of a caper, bringing viewers along for a sweet ride of laughter and recognition. Fans of the viral online series and cult TV show will most certainly appreciate the franchise’s giddy glow-up into full buddy film comedy, as if the pratfalls of a Jackass or Borat were given the canvas of Chaplin’s Modern Times or an extended afterlife exploration into John Belushi or Andy Kaufman’s noggins. There are a variety of set pieces and stunts that prompt a “how’d they get away with that?” feeling as the comic duo enlists the CN Tower and a Back to the Future style time machine aboard a tour bus, powered with the fizz of a bygone beverage, into their lofty, overcomplicated and unquestionably maximalist plans. There’s a thematic undercurrent that a best friend who’s full of both insane and inspired ideas evokes a simultaneous desire for constant together time as well as the longing to eject from the relationship completely. This flight of fancy or “flee and don’t look back” duality is fully explored with masterful comic effect. Johnson and McCarrol make for a superb comic pair, subversive and fiercely acerbic like few funnymen since Monty Python. You don’t have to know this duo or their eclectic characters before experiencing this movie to fully relate to their daffy plight and relish it completely.
Original franchise scribe Kevin Williamson steps up to a writer/director role in the saga’s first wholly mundane entry, Scream 7 (C). For both the filmmaker and his returning leading lady Neve Campbell, the exercise is oddly one of restraint, as if it’s more important to show they can right the ship of a successful formula than actually display joy in doing it. The main story focuses on Campbell’s character as she both protects and prepares her high school daughter (Isabel May) when a killer re-emerges as a new neighborhood nuisance. As final girl in training, May doesn’t make much of a splash, nor do the latest batch of fresh-faced teens, despite the director’s history cheerleading for this demo. Joel McHale is a new character with little to do, and Courtney Cox, the sole actor in all seven films, at least gets a few of her longtime wishes. There are a few creative kills and some fun cameos from Ghostfaces of series’ past, but the film is largely scare-free and dramatically inert. As the resident Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of the proceedings, dispensing glib commentary about the film’s meta rules, Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown are a vibe and seem to be the only characters having a good time. For a horror series so steeped in always being one crafty step ahead of its characters, this tepid entry keeps everyone at about the same basic level. And as likely the biggest theatrical debut for the series in a while, it’s too bad the metaphorical knife here doesn’t slice with much panache.
It’s always delightful to witness a new take on a classic trope, in this case the ensemble dramedy, told with a sharp and distinctive new voice on the filmmaking scene. When three sisters reunite in their childhood home to confront a hoarding mother in writer/director Ebony Blanding’s A Mess of Memories (B+), there’s an ample mix of hilarity and healing. The central trio of actresses are remarkable in their roles: Brittany Inge as the grounded and funny sibling, Cynthia D. Baker as the bitter and more than mildly germ-phobic sister and GeffriMaya as the new age social media influencer of the bunch, most intent on getting to the bottom of their collective familial issues. The chemistry between these idiosyncratic Black women on screen is solid, as estrangement transitions to new energies. Jason Louder is superb as their brotherly counterbalance, especially tender in a moment when he reveals concerns about history repeating. And in a small but potent role, Sherry Richards is magnetic as their maddening maternal grand dame of contradictions. There are a few flourishes of refreshing narrative creativity which frankly could have extended and another sequence or two mildly overstaying their welcome; but all in all, it’s absorbing material. Blanding has sensational control over the storytelling beats and plumbs natural emotion rather than melodrama from a collection of character archetypes rarely seen on screen. The family residence is nearly a character itself with relics sure to evoke knowing reflections from viewers; kudos on the very authentic art direction. This auspicious debut would make a great double bill with either Waiting to Exhale or Sentimental Value.
Emerald Fennell’s stylized retelling of Wuthering Heights (A-) paints with all the colors of her whim: statuesque leads involved in constant craving, outrageous bodice ripping romance, can’t-look-away couture costumes, an ultra-glam soundscape, twisted minor characters, luminous colors melting off the edges of the screen, a bodily fluid or two too many and very little fidelity to convention. The sum of the iconoclastic director’s fever dream of parts is often a hypnotic hoot and even more so a tantalizing tone poem on the nature of longing. Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi are absolute delights as childhood companions whose off-kilter dynamics have evolved into a tainted lovelorn mess. Their chemistry is a palpable cavalcade of mood and madness, played out with a paper doll palette of blissed-out bravura. The duo’s adventures from the peaks of fog-coated mountainside trysts to the valleys of vigorous palace intrigue make for a full-fledged extravaganza of love and vengeance; and while the film is overlong at times and likely a bit appalling to Brontë scholars, it is nonetheless sexy and funny as hell. The maximalist magic shell covering the bones of this literary classic (or rather about half of it), doesn’t sugarcoat or cloak the subtleties or satire of class structure themes. It tells its own tale and blazes its own trail, keeping the story timeless and contemporary. Linus Sandgren’s evocative cinematography lends the story surprises around each bend, and the music by Anthony Willis punctuated by Charli XCX bops underscores the film’s pop sensibilities with reckless rhythm. Jacqueline Durran’s costumes are shimmering and sublime, casting stunning silhouettes across Caroline Barclay’s creative off-kilter production design captured on 35mm VistaVision film. Among the pulpy players are Hong Chau as a cunning killjoy and Alison Oliver as a daffy comic foil. I’m not sure what Shazad Latif was going for exactly in a thankless role. Fennell’s film is magic and tragic, giddy and gothic, electric and eclectic and should fit the bill for those seeking a sumptuous cinematic bonbon with an independent sensibility in time for Valentine’s Day weekend.
Viewed as part of Virtual Sundance Film Festival 2026
In Giselle Bonilla’s The Musical (C-), Will Brill plays a frustrated playwright and middle school teacher who hatches the perfect plan to exact revenge on Rob Lowe’s character, the principal who has wronged him. The game plan seems foolproof: ruin the school’s chances of winning the prestigious Blue Ribbon of Academic Excellence by staging an inappropriate and chaotic school play. At the film’s center, Brill doesn’t register with the comic timing nor the screenplay words to properly propel the dark comedy. There’s some fun with occasional outrageous jokes at the expense of woke culture, and the kid ensemble is roundly enjoyable. Bonilla maintains consistent gallows humor, but the enterprise just doesn’t get much lift. Anyone who has viewed the 2016 TV series Vice Principals or the 1999 movie Election has already seen a much better interpretation on similar themes. By the time the showdown goes on in the final act, there’s not much more to say or sing.
Viewed as part of Virtual Sundance Film Festival 2026
Based on her spirited original screenplay, comedienne Iliza Shlesinger stars as a global humanitarian licking her own wounds after losing both her job and her love interest in Josephine Decker’s joyful dramedy Chasing Summer (B). When her character retreats to her Texas hometown, she experiences a kind of Millennial coming-of-age that starts screwball and evolves to sentimental. There are good ensemble performances by Cassidy Freeman and Megan Mullally as family members, Lola Tung as a new friend and Tom Welling as a high school sweetheart, but it’s Garrett Wareing who rises to the top as a handsome and confident new younger boyfriend, providing our protagonist with a memorable age gap relationship which could either be a summer fling or much more. Shlesinger is largely a hoot as her fish out of water maneuvers a summer job at the skating rink including extracurricular keggers. The actress demonstrates considerable sass and spunk; and as screenwriter she gives herself some pretty fun situations and scenery to chew. It’s not the most original film (it’s telling it’s not even the only Sundance movie this year about the insights one learns on a return to one’s hometown: see – or rather don’t – Carousel). The romantic plot is electric, and our leading lady is funny opposite the more traditional Lone Star State women as she flexes her character arc. It’s well filmed and entertaining thanks to Decker, and a screen star is born in Shlesinger.
Viewed as part of Virtual Sundance Film Festival 2026
The grand tradition of a couple finding love against the backdrop of history continues in the nearly decade and a half chronicled in a new Sundance Film Festival premiere documentary. Birds of War (B+), co-directed by its subjects Abd Alkater and Janay Boulos, follows their love and war story. He’s a Syrian activist and cameraman, and she’s a London-based Lebanese BBC journalist. The story traces a pivotal 13 years of their personal archives spanning revolutions, war and exile. With international journalists banned from front-line coverage during the Syrian civil war, international news stations were reliant on activists on the ground to provide footage of the conflict. Exchanging text and voice messages between their respective cities of London and Aleppo, Boulos tasks Habak to clandestinely capture editorially approved stories and segments for her viewers. Gradually, theirs shifts beyond a working relationship, and the film deftly balances the gravity of the grim stories they cover with the flourish and delight of young people in love. The documentary traces the duo’s parallel lives and burgeoning love affair as Boulos loses her faith in journalism and Habak faces the inevitable fall of Aleppo. As both Syria and Boulos’ homeland of Lebanon undergo dramatic developments, the couple reflects on the sacrifices made because of politics and war, but also on the insights they’ve gained along the way. The film is powerful and emotional and a standout of the 2026 Sundance slate.
Viewed as part of Virtual Sundance Film Festival 2026
Mohammed Ali Naqvi’s documentary Hanging by a Wire (B) showcases valiant rescue efforts to save eight schoolchildren trapped mid-wire nearly 1,000 feet over a ravine in a daily use cable car in a remote part of the Himalayan foothills. With ten hours until the transport’s snapped wire is expected to drop the cabin of kids to the ground, viewers witness an array of techniques being employed to try to avert disaster. The film’s director orchestrates reenactments and captures fascinating interviews with locals and lieutenants juxtaposed with crystal-clear drone footage of the race against time. It’s a lean and exciting, if not particularly surprising, entry into real-life sagas of heroism. Some sophisticated techniques to save the stranded are no match for the ingenuity of some unexpected problem solvers. It’s clear why international attention turned to this North Pakistan tale, and this doc fills in many of the details with skill and finesse that will suspend disbelief.
