Larushka Ivan-Zadeh

Is it safe to say movies are back? Sure, there’s still plenty of anxiety around the film industry and its future. But cinematically speaking, 2026 has gotten off to, arguably, the most blazing hot start since the pre-pandemic glory days, both critically and at the box office.  Of course, for our purposes, we like to focus on the creative successes, and it’s rare for the first quarter of any year to produce so many achievements of various scopes and budgets. Any time you get both a Project Hail Mary and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple – not to mention leftfield triumphs like The Testament of Ann Lee, Sirât and Little Amélie or the Character of Rain – all before the calendar’s halfway point, you know it’s a good time to be a film fan, especially when there are new spectacles from Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg, Marvel and the Dune franchise on the horizon.  But that’s later. Here’s the best of what we’ve seen so far.  📺 The best TV and streaming shows of 2026 (so far)📕 15 book-to-movie adaptations to get excited about in 2026🔥 The 40 best movies of 2025

‘By the power of Grayskull!’ If those words shoot a lightning bolt of nostalgia straight through your soul, then this is the Masters of the Universe movie you’ve been waiting for.   Faithfully capturing the simple joys and craziness of the beloved 1980s TV cartoon, the story starts in Eternia, a beautiful, blossom-laden land that’s a boggling mix of fairytale fantasy (castles, medieval weaponry) and sci-fi (jet rockets and cyborgs with laser blasters). Here, sensitive little Prince Adam is told to ‘be a man’ by his father (James Purefoy) who forces him into combat training because ‘the world is no place for the weak’. When the family are attacked by the evil Skeletor (Jared Leto hidden under blue latex), Adam is sent to Earth via an inter-galactic rainbow highway (very Thor).  A mild-mannered Adam (now an adorable Nicholas Galitzine) grows up and gets a Clark Kent-type job in HR where his ‘he/him’ nameplate (as revealed in a trailer) triggered instant anti-woke controversy online (it is a joke, guys). But unlike the franchise-destroying 1987 movie (nice cameo by its star Dolph Lundgren), this doesn’t waste too much time on Earth before Adam retrieves his magical sword, rips his shirt off and goes back to fight for Eternia.  After decades in development hell, Masters of the Universe finally fell into the right hands with Bumblebee director Travis Knight. Where other reboots lean into dour origin stories, his is as brightly coloured as a bowl of e-numbered breakfast cereal. It

The devil doesn’t wear Prada, she’s out for a haute couture makeover in David Lowery’s (A Ghost Story, The Green Knight) peculiar mood board of fame, fashion, Einstein and ectoplasm.  Anne Hathaway takes top billing as global pop icon ‘Mother Mary’. Onstage, her look is very Madonna-at-Coachella: spangly corset, fishnets, shiny fetish boots, topped off with her signature halo head-dress (props to costumer Bina Daigeler). Off-stage she’s more Lady Gaga, famously strutting the red carpet ‘wearing nothing but freshly poured honey’. But to Sam (Michaela Coel), her bitter, brutally rejected best friend and costume designer, Mary is ‘a malignancy’ and ‘a tumour’.  So, when Mary comes crawling back, desperate for a new comeback dress to express her new era, only days before her biggest ever concert, Sam is determined to make her beg.  Anne Hathaway is suddenly being chased around a luxury hotel by flying ectoplasm A good half of the movie consists of a long, talky two-hander. Set in Sam’s cavernous atelier, it’s like a theatrical chamber piece with the two leads power-playing off each other. Both Hathaway and Coel are equally extraordinary to watch on screen and Hathaway is electrifying in a scene where she dances, as if possessed, to a silent track. What their characters actually get to say is less mesmerising. And once they finally reach the dark, painful heart of their split, you kind of feel like shrugging: ‘What? That’s it?!’ It’s like the movie thinks that too, because the se

It’s the one everyone’s talking about. But is it just clickbait? This deliberately squirm-inducing exercise pairs Zendaya and Robert Pattinson as Emma and Charlie, beautiful millennials whose relationship springs straight from a romcom meet-cute. He’s a speccy uptight Englishman with a boyish Hugh Grant ruffle to his fringe; she’s a gorgeous, partially deaf 30-year-old, who’s never fallen for anyone before. On the brink of getting married, the couple are necking orange wine at a wedding caterer’s tasting, when their best friends Rachel (Alana Haim) and Mike (Mamoudou Athie) drunkenly suggest a game: each person must confess the worst thing they’ve ever done. Emma goes last and her bombshell has rocked the internet. If you’ve managed to somehow avoid what the big ‘thing’ is that so confounds poor Charlie, we won’t spoiler. But it pushes a very American pain button in a manner that feels at best shallow and misjudged.   Because this movie isn’t really about the ‘thing’ at all. It’s about cold feet and how well we know the people close to us or want to – the irony being the movie itself doesn’t seem all that invested in its own characters, who rarely behave like plausible human beings you’d root for, despite the efforts of its sensationally charismatic cast. Charlie never looks inwards at himself and Emma remains a cipher. Alana Haim’s eyeroll is frankly the most honest thing on display. This is not a film, it’s a talking point Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli delights in di

Tämä on se elokuva, josta kaikki puhuvat. Mutta miksi? Puhutaanko tästä hyvästä syystä vai onko The Drama kuin klikkiotsikko, joka on tehty herättämään huomiota vailla todellista sanomaa? Tämä tarkoituksella vaivaannuttava teos parittaa Zendayan ja Robert Pattinsonin Emmana ja Charliena, kauniina milleniaaleina, joiden suhde saa alkunsa suoraan romcom-oppikirjan mukaisesta kohtaamisesta. Charlie on silmälaseja käyttävä, jäykkä brittimies, jonka hiuskuontalo on pörrössä kuin 1990-luvun Hugh Grantilla. Emma taas on upea, osittain kuuro kolmekymppinen, joka ei ole koskaan aiemmin rakastunut. Häidensä kynnyksellä pari litkii oranssiviiniä pitopalvelun maistelutilaisuudessa, kun heidän parhaat ystävänsä Rachel (Alana Haim) ja Mike (Mamoudou Athie) keksivät ehdottaa humalapäissään peliä: jokaisen on tunnustettava pahin asia, jonka on koskaan tehnyt. Viimeisenä vuorossa oleva Emma pudottaa pommin, joka on saanut koko internetin sekaisin. Jos olet jotenkin onnistunut välttymään tiedolta siitä, mikä tämä Charlien-raukan tyrmistyttävä “juttu” oikein on, en sitä tässä paljasta. Mutta se painaa erästä hyvin amerikkalaista kipupistettä tavalla, joka tuntuu parhaimmillaankin pintapuoliselta ja harkitsemattomalta. Sillä tämä elokuva ei oikeastaan kerro tuosta “jutusta” laisinkaan, vaan häiden alla iskevästä paniikista ja siitä, kuinka hyvin tunnemme läheisemme tai edes haluamme tuntea. Ironista onkin, ettei elokuva itsessään tunnu olevan kovinkaan kiinnostunut omista henkilöhahmoistaan, jo