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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 03 February 2026

British comedian John Bishop recently appeared on The Graham Norton Show and told the hilariously bizarre story of how he got into the industry 25 years ago.  He’d split from his wife and with nothing better to do on a Monday evening, he walked into a local bar hosting an “open mic” comedy night.  He had no interest in participating but, to avoid paying the standard £4 cover charge, he threw his name on the registration sheet.  In front of a tiny crowd, he crafted an unscripted 15-minute stand-up routine by talking humorously about his relationship breakdown.

Bishop’s story became the inspiration for Is This Thing On?  Will Arnett and Mark Chappell wrote a first draft which was then refined by Bradley Cooper (Maestro) when he came on board as director.  In addition to his screenwriting credit, Arnett (Arrested Development) steps into the lead role of Alex Novak – they didn’t use Bishop’s real name given it’s a loose adaptation.  The film opens with Alex and his wife, Tess (Dern), having a nonchalant conversation in the bathroom and mutually agreeing to “call time” on their marriage.  They tell their family, friends and two children and then, roughly one-third into the movie, Alex stumbles into a busy bar, steps up to the mic, and begins his career pivot.

Is This Thing On? does a nice job building subplots off the main crux.  Alex enjoys the adrenaline rush when on stage, but we also see him become friends with other stand-up comics who offer laughs, advice and companionship.  It’s sorely needed in the aftermath of his splintered marriage.  On that topic, Tess is a significant focus within the film as she too looks for rejuvenation by becoming a professional volleyball coach.  Their respective sea changes have brought them happiness which may, unexpectedly, bring them back together.  Arnett and Dern deserve praise for their performances as they astute capture the emotions associated with their problems, many of them self-inflicted.

Not every part of the film works.  Andra Day (The United States vs. Billie Holiday) and a quirky Bradley Cooper play two close friends of the headline couple.  They serve as a point of comparison (their marriage is very different) but I didn’t find them overly interesting or useful.  Christine Ebersole and Ciarán Hinds are two great actors but have little to do as Alex’s parents.  A cameo from former footballer Peyton Manning is a weird distraction.

Is This Thing On? digs a little deeper than your average romantic comedy and that alone makes it worth a look.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 26 January 2026

In 2016, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences made a series of changes after no people of colour received acting nominations at the Oscars for two consecutive years.  One initiative has been to significantly increase the number of voting members with a focus on women and non-white individuals.  An outcome has been heightened recognition for “international” movies.  Ten different directors have been nominated for non-English language films in the last eight years – compared to just one in the decade prior.

The Cannes Film Festival has long been a focus of cinephiles but, given the above, its role in chaperoning the best of Asian and European cinema has taken on more prominence.  Parasite, The Worst Person in the World, Drive My Car, Anatomy of a Fall, The Zone of Interest, and Emilia Pérez all premiered at Cannes.  This year’s Festival included another stellar crop of interesting releases, including Sentimental Value, The Secret Agent and Sirāt, but the jury bestowed the top prize on It Was Just an Accident, a co-production between Iran, France and Luxembourg.

Wikipedia labels it a “thriller” but the plot is so absurd (in a good way), that I’ll describe is as an extremely dark comedy.  Vahid (Mobesseri) is a mechanic who, until recently, was incarcerated and tortured inside an Iranian prison.  He never knew the identity of his captors as he was blindfolded in their presence.  However, he distinctly remembers a heinous man nicknamed “Peg Leg” because of the squeaky sound made by his prosthetic limb.  The memory has come flooding back when a customer enters his car repair shop making the same noise.

Overcome with shock and terror, Vahid kidnaps the man, knocks him unconscious, and locks him in a large toolbox in the back of his minivan.  He intends to kill and bury him in the desert but there’s a slight element of doubt.  What if it’s not his torturer?  What if it’s just a random stranger with the same prosthetic?  Vahid needs certainty and so he drives the van across town and reunites with friends who also spent time inside the jail.  The hope is that one of them can formally identify but the longer the day drags on, the weirder it gets.  If it is their target, will have they have the collective courage to kill him?  If it’s not, how will they return the innocent man to his family without retribution?

I’m iffy on the final scene (a little too Hollywood for me) but loved the nutty storyline, and the way it explores the shadowy line between punishment and forgiveness.  It also shines the spotlight on political oppression within Iran.  65-year-old writer-director Jafar Panahi (This Is Not a Film) has been incarcerated multiple times for “propaganda against the Islamic Republic” and this new film led to an additional one-year prison sentence.  Thankfully, it’s a punishment he won’t serve as Panahi is now living outside Iran and travelling the world to promote the film.

Showered with awards since its release, It Was Just an Accident is a movie you won’t soon forget.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 03 February 2026

The 2026 FIFA World Cup starts in just over four months.  It’s considered one of the biggest sporting events in the world… if not the biggest.  Thousands of journalists around the world will churn out coverage and the football-loving population will have their say when talking to friends about match predictions, team selections, and questionable referring decisions.  It’s theatre at its finest!

The release of Saipan is timely as it transports us back to the 2002 World Cup when Ireland had qualified for just the third time in the country’s history.  It should have been a period of intense national pride but the lead up was marred by a stoush between the team captain, 30-year-old star Roy Keane, and the team coach, Mick McCarthy.  It took place on the small island of Saipan, in the western Pacific Ocean, as the team acclimatised for the hot temperatures they were expecting to face in Japan and South Korea.

Directed by Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Darros D’Sa, Saipan opens with a great, scene-setting montage of actual talkback radio interviews where members of the public weighed in on the “soap opera” that dominated Irish news.  Unfortunately, it’s a high point the rest of the film can’t live up to.  What follows is a simple, repetitive reenactment that doesn’t dig into any of the characters in significant depth.  I’d have much preferred a documentary where the real-life people involved, including fellow players and officials, weigh in with their insights.

The film’s theme is that both coach and captain made mistakes.  McCarthy deserves criticism for a shabbily run training camp where the hotel rooms had dodgy air conditioners, the food was subpar, the field was harder than concrete, and there’s a moment where they didn’t even have footballs to practice.  On the flip side, Keane was no saint either.  He arrogantly distanced himself from the other players, leaked details to the press, and refused to make sacrifices for the betterment of the team.  It’s an old-as-time lesson how a small problem can develop into a much bigger one if not addressed early.

Oscar nominee Steve Coogan (Philomena) portrays Mick McCarthy as a man of principles but also a man who lacks managerial skills.  Was he really that black-and-white though?  He comes across as borderline incompetent at times – a fact I find hard to believe.  Irish actor Éanna Hardwicke (The Sixth Commandment) steps into the shoes of the famed Roy Keane and while he does an admirable job depicting his character’s troublesome nature, we don’t get a clear enough understanding of why he has that nature.  Supporting players, which include everyone from golf-loving teammates through to champagne-drinking officials, come across as caricatures. 

Football fans familiar with events may enjoy the perspective offered by screenwriter Paul Fraser but for others, I don’t think there’s enough interesting material to engage with for 90 minutes.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 19 January 2026

The official release of The Secret Agent here in Australia is well timed.  A week ago, it won the Golden Globe Award for best foreign language film and star Wagner Moura took home the statuette for best actor in a drama.  The Academy Award nominations are unveiled later this week, and both are a strong chance to earn a nod in their respective categories.  It continues a nice run for Brazilian cinema given they won an Oscar last year for the excellent I’m Still Here.

There’s a similarity here given both movies explore the same, chequered period in the country’s history.  I’m Still Here was largely set in the early 1970s while The Secret Agent takes place in 1977.  The opening scene does a stellar job in encapsulating the corrupt era.  Our protagonist, Armando (Moura), pulls over at a small petrol station to refuel while driving to the Brazilian city of Recife.  A dead body lies just a few metres from petrol pump – it’s been there for several days!  Two cops show up but they have zero interest in the corpse.  They’re just after small bribes and so they shake Armando down after a quick car search and let him drive off.

The film’s title may have you thinking this is a slick international spy film, but The Secret Agent is more of a slow-burn drama that’s about people instead of Hollywood-style action and thrills.  We learn Armando is just an ordinary guy who, in rightfully standing is ground in an academic-related pursuit, has run afoul of a powerful, wealthy man.  Two hitmen have been hired to kill Armando and until he can organise fake passports to flee with his young son, he’s to lay low with other persecuted folk in Recife.

The closing credits provide a beautiful reminder of just how many distinctive characters appear in the movie.  It’s hard to pick a favourite but 78-year-old Tânia Maria is wonderfully memorable as Dona Sebastiana, a chain-smoking, motherly figure with a great sense of humour.  It’s stunning to learn this is her first major role, and she was only discovered by director Kleber Mendonça Filho when using her as an extra in his 2019 release, Bacurau.  The blend of professional and non-professional actors within the film creates a credible world full of interesting people – both good and bad.

I need to give this a second look to full grasp its eccentricities.  An interlude involving a “hairy leg” left me scratching my head.  I liked a current day narrative about two young women listening to old cassette tapes but wasn’t fully sold on how that plot point was resolved.  My thumbs are still up though.  The Secret Agent pulls you into its world and, in addition to reminding the world about this period of history, makes you care about the fate of its inhabitants.

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Written by Matthew Toomey

Created: 28 January 2026

Movies fade from memory over time, especially the average ones, but a film stuck in the far recesses of my mind is Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness, released in late 2022. Its third act, which comes out of complete nowhere, is a blistering dark comedy where the established power hierarchy is flipped upside down.  The way the characters respond to the situation is fun to scrutinise and debate.

A similar theme… and location… is at the heart of Send Help, the latest from veteran director Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead, Spider-Man).  Bradley Preston (O’Brien) has just been appointed the CEO of a fast-growing American company.  We can see from the outset that he’s a jerk.  He “inherited” the role upon the death of his father, he lacks management skills, and he’s appointing his even-less-qualified college mates into key positions.  It’s an odd choice by the board since he seems doomed to fail but meh, let’s not think too deeply about that.

Linda Liddle (McAdams) has been a company employee for 7 years and was recently promised a promotion to Vice-President status.  She’s an odd, socially awkward type but she’s one of the hardest workers in the firm and the person behind many of its best decisions.  The scummy Bradley fails to deliver on the promotion (he finds her to be strange) and an emotionally distraught Linda is furious.  Still, she maintains a semblance of professionalism by accompanying Bradley and his cronies on an important business trip to Bangkok.

Lo and behold, the plane crashes with Bradley and Linda waking up on the beach of a small, deserted Asian island.  Linda, a devout fan of the television series Survivor, is a know-it-all when it comes to building shelter, capturing water, and hunting food.  Bradley knows nothing and so he’s gone from the alpha male dishing out demands in the office… to a submissive nobody totally reliant on his new “boss” for survival.

I won’t spoil much more but Send Help goes down wild, unexpected paths with the characters becoming so unreasonable, that I didn’t know which one to root for.  They’re both as bad as each other at times.  It’s this element which I liked most because, like The War of the Roses, it goes against the grain of a traditional comedy.  Stars Rachel McAdams (Spotlight) and Dylan O’Brien (Twinless) dial up the insanity with their performances and, as director, Sam Raimi shocks audiences with several scenes (like one where Linda hunts a wild boar).

While I applaud the concept, the screenplay is bumpy.  It’s hard to reconcile the on-again, off-again friendship between the pair as we jump quickly between certain events.  Further, some of their “misadventures” are too goofy.  As an example, one plot point has them walking on a tiny mountain ledge (the visual effects aren’t great) for contrived reasons.  Those willing to look past these elements and lean into the absurdity are likely to find the most enjoyment.