Tangles

• Director: Leah Nelson
• Writer: Sarah Leavitt, Leah Nelson, Trev Renney
• Starring: Bryan Cranston, Seth Rogen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Abbi Jacobson, Beanie Feldstein, Pamela Adlon, Samira Wiley, Bowen Yang

Grade: A

If I had a nickel for every 2026 movie with voiceover work from Bryan Cranston and Julia-Louis Dreyfuss that made me cry, I would have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice. The first movie was The Sheep Detectives, the surprisingly successful talking animals detective comedy in the vein of Knives Out. The other, and arguably superior film, is Tangles, a breathtaking animated family drama that delves into a tragedy that very few films attempt to cover.

Wild Horse Nine

• Director: Peter Farrelly
• Writer: Peter Gamble
• Starring: John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, Parker Posey, Mariana di Girolamo, Ailin Salas, Tom Waits

Grade: A-

When walking into a new Martin McDonagh film, one can fairly expect to see some of the same hallmarks that have stuck with him throughout his celebrated filmography. Wild Horse Nine sees McDonagh staying within his lane, but it quickly becomes his most melancholic film to date, a poignant treatise on mortality and legacy, featuring the best performance of John Malkovich’s long career. How McDonagh can weave so many complex themes and disparate tones into a dark comedy about Americans meddling in foreign affairs goes to show why he’s one of the most celebrated auteurs working today.

Once Upon a Time in Harlem

• Director: William Greaves, David Greaves

Grade: A-

On an August afternoon in 1972, several interconnected figures were invited to the home of Duke Ellington. This party wasn’t created to generate headlines – outside of the attendees, it’s likely that nobody actually knew it was happening – but it still stands as a historic event. Among the partygoers was experimental documentary filmmaker William Greaves, and the result of his filming of the gathering is Once Upon a Time in Harlem, a revelatory, joyous celebration of a critical period in Black history.

In Waves

• Director: Phuong Mai Nguyen
• Writer: Samuel Doux, Fanny Burdino
• Starring: Will Sharpe, Stephanie Hsu, Rio Vega, Lyna Khoudri, Paul Kircher, Birane Ba, Gauthier Battoue

Grade: B-

Animated film adaptations of graphic novels and manga present a unique challenge. Yes, the heavy work of the animation style and story structure has already been tackled, but it can be too easy for a filmmaker to lean on the source material. In Waves provides a textbook example of this phenomenon, as Phuong Mai Nguyen’s adaptation of AJ Dungo’s graphic novel features some of the year’s best animation, and the story hits all the right notes for a weepy teenage romance, but there are crucially missing elements that hold the film back. It’s crucial to understand, though, that Dungo based the graphic novel on his own experiences, which could explain some of the shortcomings.