Sentimental Value: A Review - Of Fathers and Daughters

****THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW!!THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ZERO SPOILERS!!****

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

My Recommendation: SEE IT. A fantastic film that boasts as superb a cast and performances as I’ve seen in years.

Sentimental Value, written and directed by Joachim Trier, tells the story of two adult sisters, Nora and Agnes, as they reunite with their estranged filmmaker father after the death of their mother.

The film, which is mostly in Norwegian with English subtitles, hit screens back on Christmas Day and is now available to stream on Hulu, which is where I watched it. (Speaking of Hulu – they are on a great run with their film catalogue this year with It Was Just an Accident, The Secret Agent and now Sentimental Value.)

Sentimental Value is a distinctly European film in tone, theme and style, which more mainstream viewers might find a bit impenetrable. But if given the chance, the film is most definitely worthy if for no other reason than it features a bevy of top-notch acting talent – Renate Reinsve, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Elle Fanning and Stellan Skarsgard, giving awards-worthy performances. In fact, the film, which won the Best International Feature Film Oscar, also received nominations for Best Actress (Reinsve), Best Supporting Actress (Lilleaas and Fanning), and Best Supporting actor (Skarsgard).

The plot of the film is that Nora (Renata Reinsve) and her younger sister, Agnes, (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) are hosting the funeral for their recently deceased psychotherapist mother when their estranged father, Gustav (Stellan Skarsgard), unexpectedly arrives.

Gustav is an acclaimed filmmaker and his career is, like his life, fading. Nora, a stage and tv actress, and Agnes, a historian and young mother, are resentful of Gustav having left their mother and abandoning them as children.

Gustav, played with exquisite skill and aplomb by Stellan Skarsgard, is a narcissist and manipulator who is like a hurricane blowing through people’s lives.

Nora and Agnes brace for Hurricane Gustav but do so in different ways. His relationship with each of them is very different, with Nora much more resentful and emotionally stunted, and Agnes more forgiving and open.

Gustav, seemingly out of self-interest, has come back to his familial home where the girls were raised but from which he ran, with a new script he has written, and wants Nora to star in it.

I will refrain from any other discussion about plot, except to say that from there, drama ensues…and it is a glorious, complex, insightful, and revelatory drama that is extremely compelling, and despite its European/ arthouse trappings, thoroughly satisfying.

The acting on display in Sentimental Value is as good as any you’ll see in any film this year, or in recent memory.

Renate Reinsve is electrifying as the eldest daughter Nora. I first saw Reinsve in Trier’s fantastic 2021 film, The Worst Person in the World. She is a wonderful actress who brings a vibrant inner life and sharp complexity to each of her roles. She is a beauty, but a deeply complicated and conflicted one…never easily understood or comfortable.

Reinsve has some scenes in this film, the details of which I will not divulge, that are so great it made me want to crawl out of my skin and scream in agony and ecstasy. She is a magnificent and magnetic screen presence and one of the best actresses we have working right now.

Elle Fanning plays Rachel Kemp, an American actress dripping with all the trappings of American stardom in the movie world. Fanning is fantastic as the new it-girl thrown into the disorienting storm that is Stellan Skarsgard’s Gustav. Fanning is a fascinating actress. She is at once goofy and gullible yet also sexy and smart…a lethal combination. One can imagine an actress of her versatility and presence being a force in film for decades to come.

Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas plays the younger daughter Agnes, who is the most composed and least damaged of everyone involved but even she is not without issues. Lilleaas is an extraordinarily captivating screen presence who never pushes or forces things but just lets things be as they are and simply lives in the presence of it.

These three women give utterly phenomenal performances and the credit for that goes to, first of all…them for their talent, skill and commitment…but also to Joachim Trier for writing such layered and complicated characters, and for having such a deft directing touch with his cast.

As great as these women are…and goodness gracious they are great, the straw that stirs this drink is the ever-reliable Stellan Skarsgard. Skarsgard is good in everything he does, but in Sentimental Value as Gustav he brings all his skill and talent to bear and embodies his narcissistic character with a calculating charisma that is undeniable while also being repellent.

Skarsgard’s god-like Gustav is a force of nature and personality that alters the gravity field wherever he wanders and is consistently destabilizing and destructive while being blissfully unaware of the damage he does but not of the power he wields. Gustav has desperately been the center of the universe for the entirety of his adulthood, but now Father Time is rearing his ugly head and Gustav finds himself out of control and running out of time…that that dramatic clash is glorious.

Which brings us to writer/director Joachim Trier. Trier is a phenomenal filmmaker. His previous film, The Worst Person in the World, is a mesmerizing masterwork, and Sentimental Value is similar in its dramatic success.

Trier is one of those rare combinations of filmmakers that is an elite writer and an elite director of actors, and the proof of that is obvious in Sentimental Value.

Trier’s understanding of father-daughter dynamics and the intricacies of the artistic mind and spirit are astonishing, and his bravery to show those things without a safety net is equally impressive.

Ultimately, the distance between father and daughter is an ocean, and it can never be crossed…but there can be fleeting moments of understanding, glimpses across the vast divide, that reveal a deeper, more meaningful connection than most can fully, consciously, comprehend. This is the story of Sentimental Value…and it is a story that is well worth your time and effort.

If you like complex dramas made for grown-ups that feature stellar performances across the board, then Sentimental Value is for you…it most definitely was for me…as I thought it was one of the best films of the year.

©2026

The Secret Agent: A Review - Brazil Under the Boot of Fascism

****THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ZERO SPOILERS!!****

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

My Recommendation: SEE IT. A fascinating and insightful foreign film featuring a superb performance from Wagner Moura, that never fails to compel or captivate as it recounts life under the spell of fascism.

The Secret Agent, written and directed by Kleber Mendonca Filho, is a Brazilian film that tells the story of a man on the run trying to escape the suffocating authoritarianism of the Brazilian military dictatorship of 1977.

The film, which is currently available to stream on Hulu, was nominated for Best International Feature Film (Brazil), and its star, Wagner Moura, was nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards.

The Secret Agent is a film that may initially confound and confuse those who go into it with a certain expectation. Due to its title, one would maybe expect to see a Brazilian Bond or Bourne film. The Secret Agent is a lot of things, but it is nowhere near that type of movie. Rest assured, there are no tuxedos, no Aston Martins, and no martinis…shaken OR stirred.

The Secret Agent has none of the trappings of a spy story – no great action set pieces, no big chase scenes, but rather just shows the toll that fascism takes on regular people of conscience. Its main thesis appears to me to be how fascism infects every aspect of a society and how it requires a Herculean effort to simply be a decent human being under its iron grip.

The film is a bit unconventional in its structure and narrative, but not so much that it leaves the adventurous and willing viewer lost in its winding wake. The protagonist of the film is Armando (Wagner Moura), who is on the run from nefarious forces and is trying to escape Brazil with his young son.

Armando is welcomed into a dissident network that tries to help him stay safe and start a new life. Everyone in the dissident group is essentially in the same boat, they are all targeted by the fascist government for stepping out of line in one way or another.

The Secret Agent is a good companion piece for another Best International Feature Film nominee from this past year, It Was Just an Accident, which dramatizes life under the fascist theocratic regime of Iran. Both films exquisitely highlight how the corruption of the government seeps into every single interaction at every level of society. People marinated in such corruption become blind to its effects on their own morality and ethics since daily degradation becomes normalized.

The Secret Agent, just like its companion piece - It Was Just an Accident, is expertly directed. Kleber Mendonca Filho deftly directs this film and never lets its sometimes-sprawling narratives weigh down its cinematic effectiveness.

Filho sets a solid and steady pace throughout and creates a somewhat hypnotic viewing experience that compels and fascinates with its various twists and turns – both narratively and stylistically. Filho pays homage to various notable films throughout The Secret Agent, but none so cleverly and creatively as Jaws (a story of a relentless killing machine hiding just beneath the surface waiting to devour) which plays a pivotal role throughout.

He also builds into its structure an unorthodox narrative device (which I will refrain from sharing for spoiler purposes) that creates a distance from the events and along with it a perspective, without ever breaking the flow of the story…no small feat.

As well as Filho directs, the absolute truth regarding The Secret Agent is that the film wouldn’t work without the masterful performance at the heart of it from Wagner Moura.

Moura first came to prominence here in the states playing drug kingpin Pablo Escobar in the Netflix series Narcos. He was sensational in that role, eschewing caricature for a deep, grounded portrayal.

I last saw him in the 2024 Alex Garland film, Civil War, in which he played a war reporter/photographer covering a modern-day civil war in the U.S. that was instigated by a Trumpian fascist president. Moura was terrific in that film as well…truth be told he was much better than the material he was given.

As Armando in The Secret Agent, Moura essentially plays three roles, or more accurately he plays the “same” person in three differing stages of their relationship to the fascist government.

Moura is so good in this film it is actually remarkable. It is not a showy performance…he never pushes, he never indicates, he never takes the road of posturing or posing, instead he always feels genuine and grounded. Moura also has the benefit of being one of those actors who is able to simultaneously disappear into a character yet maintain their magnetism and charisma.

One of Wagner’s co-stars in Narcos was Pedro Pascal – who has blown up in recent years and been in everything and anything. The Pascal push to stardom has a distinct whiff of Hollywood manufacturing, which is a foolish endeavor – especially since Wagner Moura is the superior talent in every way imaginable.

One hopes that Wagner Moura gets, like Pascal did, a plethora of opportunities going forward as he is a formidable actor who never fails to elevate any and all material he touches.

The rest of the cast all do excellent work as well, as the film often has the feel of being a voyeuristic endeavor due to the believability of the cast who all seem like real people and not actors trying to portray real people.

Watching The Secret Agent while fascism in various forms flexes its muscles and imposes its will on various societies, cultures and civilizations in real time, is both a chilling and unnerving experience.

The way corruption and brutality are normalized in a fascist society is something that is easy to see in our current moment…when the U.S. is aiding and abetting apartheid Israel with its genocide of Palestinians, and is killing women and children and proudly committing war crimes against Iran at the behest of the same Zio-nazis that through unabashed corruption have captured the ruling elite/Epstein class in the “land of the free”.

But fascism as it is experienced by normal people in their ever day life, often takes on the characteristics of the scenario of a frog in a pot of water that slowly starts to boil. By the time it fascism starts effecting regular, everyday people, it is too late and there is no escape.

The uncomfortable truth that people never want to hear from me is this…it is already too late. The fascist system has been in place for a long time, and it is designed for no other purpose that to sustain itself and feed off of us all. If you pop your head up and declare its invalidity, it will simply take your head clean off and not think twice about it at all…in fact…it wouldn’t think at all as it only acts on out of its self-preservation instincts.

The reality is that as feckless frogs we can’t vote your way out of the boiling water as the political system is part of the problem…both parties exist only to subjugate and exploit you. There is no march you can attend, or sign you can hold up or blog post or tweet you can write that will matter in the least.

The Secret Agent insightfully and masterfully captures the predicament we are all in under the boot of a fascist power that doesn’t just want to control us but to corrupt us…corrupt our bodies, minds and spirits.

The only way we can maintain our humanity and our dignity under such conditions is to be smart, be savvy, keep our corner of the world a bastion for beauty and truth, and to stay alive.

As for The Secret Agent, I highly recommend it…but be forewarned…it is a decidedly arthouse and foreign piece of filmmaking (it is also in Portuguese and English subtitles) that will feel decidedly unorthodox to the uninitiated.

Despite all this, I think it is worth people giving it a try because it is a terrific film and it is so insightful into the current state of affairs here in the U.S.

So go check out The Secret Agent…and keep your eyes open and you’re your mind free, and try to keep yourself and your loved ones safe too, all while the current hurricane of fascism rages all around us.

©2026

The 12th Annual Mickey©®™ Awards (2025)

12th Annual Mickey©®™ Awards (2025)

The ultimate awards show is upon us!!!

The Mickeys©™® are superior to every other award imaginable…be it the Oscar, the Emmy, the Tony, the Grammy or even the Nobel. The Mickey©®™ is the mountaintop of not just artistic but human achievement, which is why they always take place AFTER the Oscars!

This year has been a rather mundane one for cinema but there are still a multitude of films eligible for a Mickey©™® award.

Actors, actresses, writers, cinematographers and directors are all sweating and squirming right now in anticipation of the Mickey©™® nominations and winners. Remember, even a coveted Mickey©™® nomination is a career and life changing event. 

Before we get to what everyone is here for…a quick rundown of the rules and regulations of The Mickeys©™®…The Mickeys©™® are selected by me…I am judge, jury and executioner. The only films eligible are films I have actually seen, be it in the theatre, via screener, cable, streamer or VOD. I do not see every film because as we all know, the overwhelming majority of films are God-awful, and I am a working man so I must be pretty selective. So that means that just getting me to actually watch your movie is a tremendous accomplishment in and of itself…never mind being nominated or winning!

Enough with the formalities…let's start the festivities!!

Is everybody in? Is everybody in? The ceremony is about to begin...

Ladies and gentlemen…welcome to the 12th annual Mickey©™® Awards!!!

Let’s start things off with a bang!!

POPCORN MOVIE OF THE YEAR– There weren’t quite as many big budget popcorn movies this year as we are used to mostly because the Superhero genre is fading and fading fast. There were a few of them though…most notably Superman and The Fantastic Four, neither of which were anywhere close to being good never mind worthy of a prestigious Mickey©®™.

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

F1 – I am a fan of F1 the sport and so I was an easy target for this movie…and while it is aggressively formulaic, it still delivered some racing thrills and while it is a low bar – that was enough for me. Congrats to the F1 cast and crew for the Mickey©®™ award!!

BEST HORROR FILM OF THE YEAR –

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

WEAPONS – Weapons is a horror film but it feels like a whole helluva lot more than that. Wonderfully written and directed by Zach Cregger, the film never fails to captivate and it leaves you constantly unnerved and relentlessly on edge.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY – Not a sterling year for the art of cinematography…but there were some notable exceptions.

Bugonia – Robbie Ryan’s approach on Bugonia was a rather simple one but it was impeccably executed and created a crisp and clear visual to go along with the film’s muddied character arcs. A fine piece of work.

Train Dreams – Adolpho Veloso borrowed heavily from Terence Malick and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki’s distinct style to give Train Dreams an ethereal and…dare I say it…dream-like visual style. Floating cameras and languid looks at nature are not easy to pull off but Veloso did it and deserves credit for paying homage to Malick and Lubezki’s brilliance.

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

TRAIN DREAMS – ADOLPHO VELOSO – I am an enormous fan of Terence Malick and Emmanuel Lubezki…and while Veloso’s work is sort of Malick-lite…Malick-lite is better than no Malick at all. And to Veloso’s credit…he is borrowing from the best and he executes it masterfully.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR –

William H. Macy – Train Dreams: Macy’s turn as an old-timer in a logging camp is a brilliant bit of work that brings both a bit of levity and humanity to Train Dreams. Macy has been M.I.A. for some time now, so it was nice to see him back and at his best.

Pedro Pascal – Eddington: I find Pedro Pascal to be a grating screen presence…and he is that in Eddington…but he uses it to great effect. His cool and holier-than-thou character needed to be instantly, but subtly, off-putting…and Pascal is perfectly built for that.

Aiden Delbis – Bugonia: Delbis, a novice who is on the autism spectrum, plays a good-hearted and loyal cousin who is on the autism spectrum. You might think that he is essentially playing himself – a person with autism, but Delbis brings such a genuine and authentic energy to every scene he inhabits that he nearly steals the whole movie from such luminaries as Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons. I have no idea if Delbis will ever act again, but it was a pleasure to watch him in this film.

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

AIDEN DELBIS – BUGONIA: This is the supporting performance that impressed me the most this year. Delbis was so real, so present, so alive in each scene that it made his screen presence uncomfortable to watch…and that is the highest of compliments as he makes it feel like you’re eavesdropping on real life when he’s on-screen. Congratulations Aiden Delbis on your first movie and your first Mickey©®™!!

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS –

Emily Blunt – The Smashing Machine: Blunt gives it her all in a terribly written part in a terrible movie…and she still shines through despite everything working against her. Blunt is a terrific actress and I hope she finds better material for her talent.

Amy Madigan – Weapons: Madigan is so great in Weapons it actually took me a half hour of watching the movie to figure out it was her…and even then I wasn’t so sure. An iconic performance that will no doubt inspire Halloween costumes for generations to come.

Rebecca Ferguson – A House of Dynamite: I wanted this movie to be good…it wasn’t…but Rebecca Ferguson was the only good thing in it. Given a dreadful script, Ferguson managed to bring a touch of actual humanity and reality to the proceedings…and has a genuinely moving moment that is nearly lost amidst the tsunami of suck.

Regina Hall – One Battle After Another: Hall gives the only genuine and grounded performance in this entire film…and it is deeply unfortunate that she didn’t have more screen time. Hall’s inherent humanity was so evident despite her minimal focus in the story…a really impressive piece of work when we got to see it.

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

AMY MADIGAN – WEAPONS: Madigan has been working in Hollywood for over forty years and she is so great in Weapons that she finally reaches the apex of achievement in the art of acting…a Mickey©®™ award!!

BEST SCREENPLAY –

Eddington – Ari Aster: It is actually stunning how Ari Aster was able to turn the mania and madness of the Covid/Black Lives Matter and Post-Covid/Black Lives Matter era into one of the most compelling, insightful and intelligent films of the year. A stunning achievement that tells more truth than any piece of media in recent years.

 It Was Just an Accident – Jafar Panahi: Panahi took a simple idea and turned into a monumental storytelling achievement that explores the deepest depths of humanity, morality and ethics. Remarkable script.

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

EDDINGTON – ARI ASTER: This screenplay is so brilliant it boggles the mind. That Aster was able to weaves so many tales of mania and hysteria and turn them into a cohesive story about the conspiracy that lies beneath the conspiracies…is nothing short of genius.

BEST SCENE –

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT – I won’t give anything away but the ending of this movie is so well-executed and so brilliantly set up that there is just no other competition. It is the perfect combination of great direction, great writing and great filmmaking…and just like the film itself…it is simple yet perfect.

BEST ACTRESS –

Rose Byrne – If I had Legs, I’d Kick You: Byrne is a fantastic comedic actress, but with this film about an overwhelmed mother she proves her dramatic acting chops in spades. An absolutely stellar piece of work that never relents and never delivers anything but the truth…even when it is lying.

Jessie Buckley – Hamnet: Buckley’s turn as Shakespeare’s witchy wife could have been a mess in lesser hands, but she brings a powerful magnetism and earthy heart to the role that brings it to life in an extraordinary way. A visceral and moving performance that reveals Buckley to be among the best.

Emma Stone – Bugonia: Stone is always so good it is easy to overlook how good she actually is…and in Bugonia she is putting on a masterclass. Stone’s work is as captivating as anything she’s done and is incredibly subtle and nimble. An impressive piece of work.

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

ROSE BYRNE – IF I HAD LEGS, I’D KICK YOU: Byrne is so good in this film it is jaw-dropping. A difficult yet delicious role that lets the beauty Byrne be ugly and unlikable and to fail and flail and fall flat on her face without ever playing for pity. Bravo Ms. Byrne…you may be a terrible mother but you’ve finally gotten yourself a Mickey©®™ award!!

BEST ACTOR –

Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon: Ethan Hawke gives a startlingly great performance in this film as the diminutive giant Lorenz Hart. The film is essentially a stage play but Hawke fills the screen with a verve and aplomb as the drunken and fading lyricist and it is the best work of his career.

Joaquin Phoenix - Eddington: Joaquin Phoenix is the best actor we have, and his deft and visceral work in Eddington is just more proof of this fact. Phoenix dissolves into his role as Sheriff Joe and his descent into the madness of Hurricane Covid/BLM and all the rest is staggering to behold. A brilliant and bold performance.

Jesse Plemons – Bugonia: Plemons’ work in Bugonia is extraordinary as he is simultaneously sympathetic and repulsive…a hero and villain all at once. Plemons’ inherent humanity works to his great advantage in this role as he engenders viewer’s empathy but then he abuses it and you are left confused but always captivated.

Wagner Moura – The Secret Agent: Moura is a phenomenal actor and he does his very best, most complex and most skilled work in The Secret Agent…essentially playing three roles (I won’t give away what I mean by that). Moura is such a master craftsman that it is impossible to take your eyes off of him even when he is doing the most mundane of tasks in this film. A truly impressive performance.

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

JOAQUIN PHOENIX – EDDINGTON: This is a loaded category but Hawke was so deliriously great in Eddington that he gets the coveted Mickey©®™.

ACTOR/ACTRESS OF THE YEAR –

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

EMMA STONE: Stone…one of the very best actresses in the world, was in both Eddington and Bugonia this year…two of the very best films of the year…and she did terrific work in both of them. Kudos to Emma Stone for picking challenging material and for using her clout to get important films made…and congrats on ANOTHER Mickey©®™ award!! (She won in 2024 for Poor Things)

BEST ENSEMBLE –

Eddington – A stacked cast all do extraordinary work…led by the brilliant Joaquin Phoenix.

Bugonia – Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons and Aiden Delbis absolutely crush their roles and as a whole are a formidable acting trio.

It Was Just an Accident – A collection of Iranian actors I have never heard of come together to create as stunning a cast performance imaginable.

The Secret Agent – A sprawling cast all do solid and sometimes spectacular work in this brilliant Brazilian film.

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT – It truly is remarkable how good all of these actors are and how insanely compelling they all are as well. The film is in Farsi but you could watch the whole thing and not read the subtitles and still understand everything they are conveying and still be deeply affected by it.

BEST DIRECTOR –

Ari Aster – Eddington: Aster’s masterful direction on Eddington helped the film avoid the multitude of traps it could have fallen into…and he did it with a deft touch and a brilliant understanding of the deeper story he was telling.

Yorgos Lanthimos – Bugonia: Lanthimos has a distinct taste and style and I am a sucker for it…and he brings all of his weird talent and skill to bear on Bugonia and it is a joy to behold.

Jafar Panahi – It Was Just an Accident: A simple story and a minimalist execution of that story reveal Panahi to be a master moviemaker and a brave one at that.

And the Mickey©®™ goes to…

ARI ASTER – EDDINGTON: Aster has shown over the course of his career that he has a keen eye and a sharp and original mind…but it wasn’t until Eddington that he has made the leap from very good to great. Eddington reveals Aster to be not only a great filmmaker but an astute observer and commentator of our troubled times when the overwhelming majority of his peers are too blind to see the forest for the trees and to recognize the reality of recent history and the current moment. Aster has earned this Mickey©®™ award the hard way…not by telling audiences what they want to hear…but rather by telling them the very uncomfortable truth.

BEST PICTURE –

5. The Secret Agent – A cinematic glimpse into the moral morass that was Brazil in 1977, writer/director Kleber Mendonca Filho masterfully pulls all the pieces together of his sprawling story and leads viewers on a personal and perilous journey into the jaws of fascism.

4. Bugonia – Yorgos Lanthimos dives deep into conspiracy culture and never comes up for air as his film keeps viewers in the dark about the secret at the center of it all. Your expectations and assumptions die a slow and glorious death on Lanthimos’ cinematic guillotine.

3. Train Dreams – A deeply moving and affecting mediation on life and its meaning from Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar. A deliberately paced and wonderfully shot film that very quietly, yet profoundly, asks the question we all would prefer to ignore.

2. It Was Just an Accident – Jafar Panahi brings viewers on a compelling odyssey through the maze of modern Iran’s fascist existence. Morality and humanity are endangered species in this world and Panahi is able to use them to tell the truth about his existence in a corrupted world.

1 Eddington – Ari Aster’s film is so daring and so bold that it boggles the mind. That the film was not well-received is no surprise, as the targets of its truth bombs were the same guardians of popular culture who were at a minimum complicit with the moral, ethical, intellectual and political corruption and madness it portrays. As the years go by this film will continue to grow in estimation and will ultimately be proven to be the greatest film about the truth and consequences of the Covid/BLM era. It will be considered not only well ahead of its time but extraordinarily insightful about its own time.

MOST IMPORTANT FILM OF THE YEAR

Eddington/Bugonia – Eddington and Bugonia are the two most important films of the year because they do something that no other films even attempt to do…tell the uncomfortable truth.

Both films reveal the reality that “conspiracy theories” aren’t crazy…they are just ahead of the learning curve and if given enough time will be proven correct. The truth is that the time between something being called a “conspiracy theory” and it being proven correct is at an all-time low. If you hear some buffoon shrieking about something being a “conspiracy theory”…just wait three months and it will no longer be a “conspiracy theory” but an acknowledged, and resolutely ignored, fact.

Eddington, in particular, was brilliant in its evisceration of the idiocy of the mainstream, anti-conspiracy, mindset. It showed not just the surface level moronity of the Covid/BLM bullshit, but dug deeper and gave brief glimpses of the wider power structure pulling the strings of our world and creating the shadows dancing on our cave wall that we think is reality.

If you can watch Eddington and Bugonia and then go back to watching cable news or reading the New York Times and believing a single word you hear or see…then you need to have your head examined.

Truth is anathema in a world ruled by the demonic Epstein Class. Look no further than the current war raging in the Middle East, or the fact that our global empire is controlled by an evil Zionist entity for proof of that. Both political parties are so beholden to the Epstein Class and their Zionist overlords that who you vote for makes no difference whatsoever.

Moral, ethical, political and corporate corruption is so blatant now it goes unnoticed and unmentioned. The ruling elite want you angry, they want you confused, they want you disoriented, they want you disheartened….and that is why they rub your nose in the shit of their demonic criminality in broad daylight. That is why they steal, rape, kill and pillage right in front of you and laugh at any suggestion they’d be held accountable for their crimes against humanity.

That is why they refuse to close borders – so that European and the U.S. populations can be overrun by third worlders who will turn Europe and the U.S. into third world countries – if you don’t believe me go to Los Angeles – a massive third world city where hordes of helpless and hopeless people live and shit on the streets – and we are incapable of helping them because of corruption.

The third worlders are here to replace the “natives” because they will work for less and are less attached to those pesky right bestowed upon us by God. In other words they will accept the boot in their face better than the natives. This is how the Epstein Class wants it…because third worlders are easier to exploit and are necessary as a revolutionary force against the middle class.

The Epstein Class wants to make everything worse for you because it makes everything better for them. Gas prices skyrocket…sucks for you, is good for them. Inflation? Bad for you, good for them. Rising crime rates? Bad for you, good for them. Housing through the roof…bad for you, good for them. Prices for healthcare, food, shelter, college…out of control…bad for you…good for them.

The ruling elite of the Epstein Class and their Zionist overlords aren’t indifferent to your plight…quite the opposite…they actually hate you with a passion. They want to see you suffer and they want to exterminate you. They want you and your bloodline permanently extinguished.

They want your sons to die in foreign wars for their benefit and your daughters to be raped by foreign hordes in their homeland. They want your culture to disappear and they want your country to be unrecognizable to your ancestors. They want Europe, Ireland and the U.K. to look like the slums of Pakistan or Nigeria and the U.S. and Canada to look like the slums of Mexico or India. This is what these unrepentant, foul demons desperately want. This is what they are working toward…and every day that passes they are closer to their ultimate goal…your extinction.

You are nothing but a resource to exploit and an obstacle to ultimately obliterate for the Epstein Class…and they want to, and will, turn you into roadkill. They already control our economy, our media, our politics, our government and for the vast majority, our minds.

Eddington and Bugonia do not have happy endings…and the truth is…I don’t think our civilization infected by the Epstein Class and their Zionist overlords will have a happy ending either.

Two other films that point to what our near-term future looks like are The Secret Agent and It Was Just an Accident. Those films show the normalization of fascism and how fascists states are marinated in a corruption so deep that it becomes commonplace and simply ordinary.

Politics are so corrupt in those films (in Brazil and Iran) that corruptions seeps into every interaction in everyday life. To get treated in a hospital you must pay off the receptionist…then the nurse…then the doctor. To get protection from crime you must pay off the cops, pay off judges, pay off criminals.

Corruption is everywhere and eventually sinks in so deep as to corrupt the hearts, minds and souls of everyday people. Humanity is removed in favor of a moral and ethical corruption that spreads like a cancer and can never be eradicated.

This is where we are right now…our country and our populace is so morally and ethically demented that it embraces a suicidal path that will guarantee its destruction. You can’t vote your way out of it, no political party is free of the Epstein Class virus…no smooth-talking politician can save the day. The disease of the Epstein Class and their Zionist overlords has metastasized and it is killing the U.S. and Europe in a very deliberate and agonizing way.

There is no off-ramp…there are only momentary reprieves from the anxiety over the reality of our current moment. Know this…this car keeps moving at a rapidly increasing pace to its final destination…hurtling off a cliff.

Well…on that bright note the prestigious Mickey©®™ awards come to a glorious conclusion. Thank you for reading and for all of your comments…I hope we have a much better cinematic year in 2026 than we did in 2025…but either way the Mickeys©®™ will be back to let you know the best of the best in the art of cinema!!

©2026

It Was Just an Accident: A Review - Profound Film for our Dark Times

****THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ZERO SPOILERS!!****

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

My Recommendation: SEE. IT. NOW. - Unquestionably one of the very best films of the year.

It Was Just an Accident, written and directed by Jafar Panahi, tells the story of Vahid, a mechanic who struggles with a monumental decision about whether to confront his past or to move on from it.

The film, which is a French/Iranian production (in Farsi with English sub-titles) that is nominated for the Best International Feature Film award at this year’s Academy Awards, is currently streaming on Hulu, which is where I just watched it.

It Was Just an Accident was surreptitiously shot in Iran by acclaimed filmmaker Jafar Panahi – who, besides being imprisoned for his outspoken criticism of the Iranian government, was also banned from making films. Panahi shot the film essentially guerrilla style without any permits or permission...a bold and daring choice to make in authoritarian Iran.

Considering the current state of the world…which includes a brutal war between Israel and the U.S. against Iran, Panahi’s fantastic film takes on a much greater power and meaning than its simple, poignant and profound story already tells.

The film, which I will not spoil in any way shape or form so as to keep its impact preserved for those that haven’t yet seen it, is a relentlessly compelling and captivating meditation on the struggle between revenge and forgiveness, and about how difficult it is to fight against tyranny without becoming a tyrant and losing one’s soul.

It Was Just an Accident is one of the very best films of the year. It is a mesmerizing mixture of a morality tale, comedy caper, road picture and a thriller wrapped in an indictment of the Iranian regime and a plea to the humanity of all.

The film, which won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, starts slow but then builds and builds and builds to a truly phenomenal ending, gaining dramatic momentum with every scene and every performance.

That this movie could be so simple and yet spotlight such a complex moral and ethical conundrum and its consequences speaks to the brilliance of the script and of Panahi’s direction. The film could have been a Manichean manifesto that gives viewers what they want – but instead it is one of those movies that reveals a confounding complexity through its storytelling simplicity.

It Was Just an Accident was the third film I watched this week, the first two being The Secret Agent – a Brazilian film also nominated for Best International Feature, and Nuremberg, a big studio movie about the Nuremberg trials. I will review The Secret Agent and Nuremberg later this week. The one thing all three of these films have in common is that they address fascism and its toxic and corrosive effect on individuals and on society.

The most notable thing about fascist societies (whether they know they are fascist or not is irrelevant) is that they are riddled with corruption…not just moral and ethical corruption but actual physical/financial corruption.

In all three films corruption is so prevalent as to be the air that people breathe. Cops are corrupt, businesses are corrupt, nurses are corrupt, bureaucrats are corrupt…bad guys are corrupt, good guys are corrupt, everyone is corrupt. Corruption is contagious until it just becomes normalized…just like it is here in the U.S.

I am always amused when I read an article or hear some talking head in the U.S. bemoaning the corruption in some far-off land like Russia or China or Brazil and they use some study that shows the amount of corruption in those countries as opposed to the pristine nature of the U.S. as proof of their thesis. The problem with studies and theories like these is that corruption in the U.S. has simply been codified into law…so it is no longer considered corruption….but it is still corruption. Look no further than the ungodly amounts of money thrown around in the American political system for proof of that. In other countries that would be considered corruption…here it is just considered business as usual.

What makes It Was Just an Accident so remarkable is that is transcends its national and cultural borders and places all of us in the same predicament as its Iranian protagonist Vahid. We know the monumental question he grapples with and the danger it poses. We also understand how not only his life but his soul is on the line. We don’t just see what he is struggling with…we struggle right along with him.

All of this is a credit to Jafar Panahi, his brilliant writing, his exquisite filmmaking, and his uncompromising attitude and artistry.

Panahi obviously made this film as an indictment against the Iranian regime that has persecuted him, but this story simply cannot be contained within those borders. The moral and ethical insights Panahi provides can be applied just as equally to Iran’s attackers – Israel and the U.S., as it can to the despotic Iranian regime itself. Which is why this filmmaker and this film are so brilliant.

It has not been easy writing a review of this movie without giving any of its plot to readers, but I think that is necessary in order to enjoy the film to its fullest.

I cannot recommend this film enough and urge people to go check it out on Hulu. If you don’t have Hulu…get a free week or something and then go watch It Was Just an Accident and also watch The Secret Agent – which is also streaming there.

My recommendation is to turn off the mindless, flag-waving, disinformation, propaganda news channels here in the U.S. (I assume you’re not watching the propaganda news channels in Iran), and instead go spend an hour and forty minutes and watch It Was Just an Accident right now…you will be very glad you did.

©2026