Weekly visions - week 12, 2026

Shelby Oaks, directed by Chris Stuckmann, co-written with Sam Liz, US, 2024 - ⭐⭐

I learnt that Stuckmann is a YouTuber from the highly polarised reactions to this debut film. My opinion is that it’s a decent first feature film (much better than anything I could ever put together, and far superior to something like Milk & Serial, although I suppose that to have Mike Flanagan as a producer makes the comparison a bit unfair).
It’s well shot, but it ends up being an exercise in style, uncertain about what it wants to be: it starts as a found footage, then it becomes a mockumentary, then it’s found footage through someone’s TV, finally deciding to be a traditional film. The found footage part is the scary one; the rest feels less effective, very very derivative and not necessarily making sense.
But everyone has to begin somewhere, so let’s take this as a promising starting point.

平成狸合戦ぽんぽこ / Pom Poko, written and directed by Isao Takahata, Japan, 1994 - ⭐⭐⭐½

After reading Chuck Jordan’s review of Hoppers , where he mentions this film as a clear source of inspiration, of course I wanted to check for myself. I have never seen a Takahata film before (I’ve never felt emotionally daring enough to watch Grave of the Fireflies), but I discovered, after watching the film, that he is responsible for half of the cartoon series I watched in my childhood (we didn’t call them anime back then). The drama here is not as strong as in those series, or perhaps it’s just diluted in the long running time, which was my main issue: there is a lot of repetition as the tanuki population tries its best to save its habitat from human urban expansion.
Or maybe the pathos is just balanced by the unexpected importance of testicles in the story. Is that based on traditional Japanese legends?
I loved the creativity and imagination on display, but I can’t say I had as much fun as I had watching the most recent Pixar film.

The Final Destination, directed by David R. Ellis, written by Eric Bress, US, 2009 - ⭐⭐

Netflix has added nearly every Final Destination to its catalogue, so I took the chance to watch the one I was still missing. This fourth episode is universally considered the worst in the series, and I can only agree: an uninspired first sequence (where people hope an accident will happen), bad characters, weak acting (so many reverse shots where the actor being talked to is totally still and expressionless), horrible CGI all over the place, so much focus on red herrings (near-miss causes of death). This marked the return to the series for the creative team behind the second chapter, and I join the club of all those baffled by the drop in quality between the two films.

Final Destination 3, directed by James Wong, co-written with Glen Morgan, US, 2006 - ⭐⭐⭐ (up from ⭐⭐½)

Right after ending FD4, I wanted to cleanse my palate by watching the start of episode 3, which I somehow remembered fondly (my Letterboxd rating disagrees). I’m pretty sure that ‘somehow’ has a name: truth is, I’ve always had a soft spot for Mary Elizabeth Winstead. For most of this film she’s sad and brooding and for some reason feeling guilty, but still, it’s refreshing to see someone actually acting, for a change.
I was glad to see that most of the flaws of number 4 don’t affect this one; the nighttime setting of many scenes helps with the atmosphere.

I loved the Omen-like mechanics of the forebodings, because they give all characters more agency. I think Final Destinations work better when the characters know each other, like they do in the odd entries (here it was the crew of the first film returning to the crime scene), because they have more incentive to care for one another.

I didn’t appreciate the end-credits song (a rather downbeat cover of The O’Jays’ Love Train), but they had already used Love Rollercoaster in the sexist scene, and this is not Thor: Ragnarok, so they avoided using the same song multiple times.

Κινέττα / Kinetta, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, co-written with Yorgos Kakanakis, Greece, 2005 - ⭐⭐

As I wrote above, everybody has to begin somewhere, and this first solo directorial effort by twice-Academy-Awards-nominee Lanthimos, also known as one of my favourite directors working today, is definitely ‘a promising starting point’ but far from a great film. At least, on this first viewing (although, being able to fill this gap means I am much less annoyed at paying €13 for a month of MUBI now).

I’m not even sure what the story is: a director (Costas Xikominos), a cinematographer (Aris Servetalis) and an actress (Evangelia Randou) enact violent scenes (possibly based on true crime, possibly completely fictional).
Let’s call it an exploration of the life of aspiring artists, trying to find their voice, and success, and in the meantime having to work traditional jobs.
The dialogue is so sparse and, honestly, irrelevant, that I spent most of the film trying to learn some Greek just to be somewhat entertained.

Still, the signs of Lanthimos’ tone and style, to be developed in the course of the following two films, are there.
So is the beginning of long-term collaborations, such as the one with cinematographer Thimios Bakatakis (who will work on YL’s next films until Sacred Deer), and editor Yorgos Mavropsaridis (who keeps working with him to this day).

Άλπεις / Alps, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, co-written with Efthimis Filippou, Greece, 2011 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (up from ⭐⭐½)

Speaking of long-terms collaborators, this was Lanthimos’ second film scripted together with screenwriter Filippou, after Dogtooth (most recently, they worked together on Kinds of Kindness). Since it’s much less celebrated than its predecessor, and very hard to find it on physical media, twelve years have passed between my first and second viewing. I was worried I would find it as difficult to watch as Kinetta; instead, I couldn’t take my eyes off it.

The story follows a group of amateur actors (including Kinetta’s Aris Servetalis, Dogtooth’s Angeliki Papoulia and the director’s future wife Ariane Labed) who provide their services to the families of recently deceased people, taking the place of their dearly departed in re-enactments of scenes from their life, to ease the grieving process.
In some ways, it feels like the characters from Kinetta found a purpose for their obsession.
Given how much my appreciation of this film has grown, I must have changed so much in these twelve years. And I’m happy with the direction of this change.

Zootopia 2, directed by Jared Bush and Byron Howard, written by Jared Bush, US, 2025 - ⭐⭐½

I liked the first Zootopia, so I didn’t expect that watching this sequel would have taken me as many sittings as Kinetta. Truth is, I found it incredibly dull, despite the constant focus on action scenes and new (shallow) characters.
Its message of inclusion and openness seems somehow undermined by some narrative choices, that seem to be included only to tick off some necessary plot points.
The only moment where it got my attention, by playing with the familiar notes of a classic horror soundtrack and a location nod to the same film, was rapidly nullified by literally destroying that setting for yet another action scene.