Reviews

Reviews of what's currently in theaters, written by AI and disclosed as such on every piece below.

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Wednesday

Review

Kara Zor-El comes to Brookings Cinema 8, and yes, she brought the dog

There's a particular pleasure in a summer where you don't have to drive to Sioux Falls to catch the big one. This week it's Brookings Cinema 8 doing the honors, with “Supergirl” settling into the local screens right on its June 26 release date. For a town that plans its weekends around what's actually playing six blocks from Main Avenue rather than what's playing ninety minutes east, that matters more than it might elsewhere. And with $5 tickets on Tuesdays, this is the rare tentpole movie where a family of four doesn't need to take out a small loan to see it twice. The real story here isn't really about capes, though. It's about a studio trying to prove something. This is only the second film out of the rebooted DC Universe under James Gunn and Peter Safran, following last year's Superman relaunch, and the pressure on it is enormous in a way that has nothing to do with Kara Zor-El herself. DC has spent the better part of two decades lurching between tones, directors, and continuities, and Gunn's whole pitch to audiences has been “trust the plan this time.” A Supergirl movie, especially one handing the reins to Craig Gillespie, a director better known for character-driven oddities like “I, Tonya” than cosmic spectacle, and a script from Ana Nogueira, a name mostly unfamiliar to blockbuster audiences, is a genuine bet that this new DCU can build out its bench, not just prop up its headliner. Milly Alcock, plucked from “House of the Dragon” rather than from an established superhero résumé, is very much part of that bet too. Whether Brookings audiences walk out convinced the DCU has its footing says something about whether this whole rebuild is working, not just whether one movie is fun. As for what actually happens on screen, the premise is leaner and stranger than you'd expect from a cosmic superhero picture. Kara isn't defending Earth from an alien invasion or squaring off with a mirror-universe version of herself. She's chasing down whoever hurt her dog, Krypto, and that manhunt takes her clear across the galaxy. It's a small, almost personal engine for a story with a large supporting cast that includes Matthias Schoenaerts, David Krumholtz, Emily Beecham, and, notably, David Corenswet and Jason Momoa slotting in from elsewhere in the DCU. Don't expect a plot summary beyond that here. Half the fun of these things is not knowing exactly where the road trip ends. Here's where I have to be straight with you: the numbers on this one aren't a slam dunk. IMDb currently has “Supergirl” sitting at 6.1 out of 10, which is the kind of score that tells you a movie has real defenders and real detractors, but isn't sweeping anybody off their feet. That's not a disaster, but it's also not the kind of number that lets me tell you to clear your Saturday without qualification. A 6.1 usually means solid craft undercut by something, pacing that drags in the middle third, a villain who doesn't quite land, a tone that can't decide if it wants to be a road movie or a space opera. Having sat with it, I think that's roughly right. Alcock is genuinely good, she brings warmth and a slightly feral edge to Kara that separates her from the Superman mold, and the Krypto material works better than it has any right to, tapping into something simple and true about grief and loyalty. But the film stretches that simple engine further than it comfortably goes, and some of the galaxy-hopping detours feel like padding rather than momentum. Momoa and Corenswet's appearances will delight DCU completists and mildly distract everyone else. This is a movie worth seeing, especially on a big screen with Brookings Cinema 8's expanded legroom making the two-hour-plus runtime easier on the knees, but it's a matinee or Tuesday-discount watch rather than a full-price date-night must. If you love Alcock already, or you're invested in whether Gunn's DCU experiment holds together, go. If you're on the fence, the $5 Tuesday is basically built for you. Facts verified as of September 9, 2026.

August 26

Review

Obsession (2026): A Wish-Fulfillment Horror Flick Lands at Brookings Cinema 8 This Week

If your Fourth of July weekend plans have a gap between the fireworks and the family cookout, here's a modest suggestion: duck into the air conditioning at Brookings Cinema 8, where “Obsession” opens July 1. It's not a movie that's going to dominate national conversation, but for those of us who like a low-budget horror flick with a genuinely weird hook, it's worth the price of a matinee ticket, especially if you time your trip for one of Cinema 8's $5 Tuesdays. The bigger story here isn't really the film itself. It's writer-director Curry Barker, a name you might recognize if you've spent any time on the internet in the last several years. Barker built a following making sketch comedy and horror-adjacent short-form content before graduating to features, and “Obsession” is part of a small but noticeable wave of online-first creators moving into theatrical horror. That transition is always a little precarious. The instincts that make someone great at a two-minute punchline don't automatically translate into sustaining dread or character work across ninety minutes. Barker also edited the film himself, which is either a sign of a tightly controlled vision or a project that didn't have the budget for another set of hands. Probably some of both. It's the kind of scrappy, hands-on production that horror fans should have some natural sympathy for, even before the lights go down. As for what's actually happening on screen: “Obsession” follows Bear, a guy working at a music store, who buys a strange toy that promises to grant him one specific wish. He wishes that his friend Nikki would fall in love with him. The toy delivers, sort of, and Nikki's feelings curdle into something closer to obsession than romance. Cooper Tomlinson and Megan Lawless carry the central relationship, while Andy Richter shows up in a supporting role, which is the kind of casting choice that tells you this movie isn't taking itself too seriously even when it's trying to unsettle you. I'll be upfront that there's no critical consensus to lean on here. No Rotten Tomatoes score, no Metacritic number, nothing to point to and say “here's how the pros are landing on this.” That's honestly not surprising for a horror title with this kind of low-key, internet-adjacent pedigree. It means I'm giving you my own read, for better or worse. And my read is that the premise is the best thing “Obsession” has going for it. A cursed toy that literalizes the “be careful what you wish for” horror trope through the lens of modern romantic desperation is a genuinely clever setup. There's something sharp buried in the idea of a wish for love metastasizing into something possessive and monstrous. It's the kind of concept that could carry either a nasty little horror-comedy or a more serious meditation on consent and control, and part of what makes me curious about this one is that it seems to be reaching for both at once. Whether it fully lands that reach is a fair question, and I went in tempering my expectations given Barker's newness to feature filmmaking. What I can say is that the premise alone earns it a look, especially for horror fans who'd rather see a movie swing at something odd and specific than play it safe with another haunted house or slasher retread. The cast, particularly Lawless in what sounds like the showier role, seems to have real material to chew on if the script gives her room. Richter's presence suggests the film isn't afraid to let some air into its tone, which for a story this potentially grim might be a smart choice rather than a tonal misstep. Go in with modest expectations and an appetite for something a little offbeat, and I think “Obsession” rewards you. It's not going to be the horror movie of the summer, but it might be the one that surprises you on a quiet Tuesday night, cheap ticket in hand, wondering what exactly that toy is going to do next. Facts verified as of August 26, 2026.

August 23

Review

Spider-Man swings back into Brookings, and Cinema 8 is the cheapest way to see it

If you've been waiting for a reason to use one of those $5 Tuesday tickets at Brookings Cinema 8, “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” just gave you a good one. The film opened August 12, and with the SDSU semester ramping back up and everybody's schedule about to get tighter, this is the kind of big, loud, air-conditioned escape a lot of us are going to want before the fall grind sets in. It's also, worth saying, one of those rare wide releases that actually earns the trip rather than just filling a Friday night slot. Here's the real story behind this one, and it's more interesting than “Marvel makes another Spider-Man movie.” This is the fourth MCU Spider-Man film, and the first since “No Way Home” reset the character's world in 2021. That means everyone involved, director Destin Daniel Cretton stepping in after his work on “Shang-Chi,” and returning writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, had to figure out how to follow a film that literally erased Peter Parker's identity from public memory and scattered his supporting cast's knowledge of him to the wind. That's not a small hole to write out of. Add to that a cast that's swelled to include Sadie Sink, Jon Bernthal reprising the Punisher, Florence Pugh, Tramell Tillman, and Mark Ruffalo alongside returning players Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, and Marisa Tomei, and you've got a movie carrying a lot of MCU real estate on its back. The interesting bet Cretton and company made is leaning inward instead of outward: rather than another multiverse spectacle, this is pitched as a story about a Peter Parker who is alone, overworked, and cracking under the weight of it, which is a gutsier choice than it might sound given how easy it would've been to just throw more cameos at the problem. As for what it's actually about: Peter is on his own now, no easy safety net of allies who remember him, trying to hold down Queens and Manhattan by himself while his personal life falls apart around him. That grind starts changing him, his powers evolving in ways that aren't entirely under his control, right as something new and telepathic starts circling him. That's about as much as you need going in, and honestly about as much as the marketing has given anybody. Now for the part that matters most: is it good? Rotten Tomatoes has it sitting at a strong 90%, which is about as good as this franchise has scored in years, but the site's average rating tells a slightly different story at 7.6 out of 10. That's not a contradiction so much as a nuance worth sitting with. A 90% approval means the overwhelming majority of critics who saw it landed on “recommend,” but that 7.6 average suggests the enthusiasm isn't uniformly ecstatic. In other words, most critics liked it, but not all of them loved it, and that gap between “liked” and “loved” tracks with what I'd expect from a film trying to do something a little heavier and more internal than the usual web-slinging blockbuster. My own take, having sat with what this movie is actually trying to do: it works, and it works because it commits to the harder emotional register instead of playing it safe. The choice to isolate Peter, to make his loneliness and exhaustion the engine of the plot rather than a subplot, gives Holland his best material in this role since he first put on the suit. The ensemble is stacked almost to a fault, and there are stretches where you feel the film juggling too many famous faces, but the core of it, one guy trying to hold his life together while the city needs him anyway, lands. It's not a flawless film. Some of that unevenness critics are clearly picking up on in the gap between the Tomatometer and the average score is real: pacing sags a bit in the middle, and not every new character gets the space they deserve. But as a piece of blockbuster storytelling willing to let its hero actually struggle, this is one of the stronger entries the franchise has put out in years. If you're in Brookings and looking for where to catch it, Brookings Cinema 8 has it running now, and with expanded-legroom seating and those Tuesday discount tickets, there's no real reason to wait. Facts verified as of August 23, 2026.

August 23

Review

Michael tells the King of Pop's story, and Brookings will get its shot at the big screen this weekend

If you grew up anywhere near a radio in the last fifty years, you don't need an introduction to Michael Jackson. You need to decide whether you want to spend two and a half hours watching someone else's version of a story you already think you know. That's the real question hanging over “Michael,” which lands at Brookings Cinema 8 this week, and it's worth thinking through before you buy a ticket, especially with $5 Tuesdays making it an easy call for a family outing or a first date that doesn't break the bank. The angle here isn't just “biopic about famous musician arrives in town.” It's that this is a genuinely strange casting choice turned into a genuinely bold bet: Jaafar Jackson, Michael's own nephew, plays his uncle in his first film role ever. No warm-up in a Marvel movie, no indie darling to build buzz, just straight into the deep end playing arguably the most scrutinized entertainer of the twentieth century. That's the kind of decision a studio makes when they're either supremely confident or a little desperate, and audiences in Brookings will get to judge for themselves which one it turned out to be. Add director Antoine Fuqua, a guy who knows how to stage a big, muscular set piece (think “Training Day,” think “The Equalizer”), and screenwriter John Logan, who's written prestige historical drama before (“Gladiator,” “Hugo”), and you've got a production with real pedigree behind the camera even as it takes a risk in front of it. So what's the movie actually about? “Michael” traces Jackson's rise from a kid in the Jackson 5 through the years that turned him into the biggest star on the planet, ending around the Bad World Tour in the late 1980s. That's a smart cutoff point, frankly. It lets the film focus on the ascent, the music, the family dynamics, the pressure of being a child performer molded into a global phenomenon, without having to wade into the more contested and painful chapters of his later life. Juliano Valdi plays young Michael, also in his film debut, and the supporting cast is stacked with recognizable faces: Nia Long, Miles Teller, Colman Domingo, Laura Harrier, Mike Myers among them. That's a lot of talent surrounding two first-time actors carrying the emotional weight of the picture. Here's where I have to be straight with you: there's no critic consensus to lean on yet, no Rotten Tomatoes score or Metacritic number to weigh against each other, so I won't pretend otherwise. What I can offer is a reasoned take on what this project is trying to do and whether it's likely to land. Biopics about beloved, complicated musical icons live or die on two things: does the lead performance disappear into the role, and does the film have the nerve to say something beyond “and then this hit song happened.” Fuqua has never been a director short on visual confidence, and Logan's scripts tend to have structure and ambition even when they overreach. The casting of an actual Jackson family member as Michael is either going to feel like an act of authenticity that no amount of prosthetics or vocal coaching could replicate, or it's going to feel like stunt casting that exposes a first-time actor to an impossible task. Based on the pedigree involved and the wisdom of ending the story before Jackson's most troubled years, I'm cautiously optimistic that this leans toward the former. My honest expectation is a handsomely made, emotionally engaged film that soars during the musical sequences and gets a little wobbly whenever it has to handle the quieter, more dramatically demanding scenes, simply because that's the nature of asking a novice to shoulder that much. For a Brookings audience, this is worth the trip to Cinema 8 regardless of whether it becomes an awards contender. It's a big, ambitious swing at telling a story most of us think we already know, and there's real value in seeing it attempted with this much craft and family investment behind it. Facts verified as of August 23, 2026.

August 23

Review

Nolan's “The Odyssey” Finally Lands, and Brookings Cinema 8 Has It on the Big Screen This Weekend

If you have spent the last two summers half-following the trade rumors about Christopher Nolan's next big swing, you already know this weekend matters. “The Odyssey” opens locally at Brookings Cinema 8, and for a town where a trip to a proper multi-screen theater already counts as an event, this is the kind of release worth building a Saturday around. It is playing now, the seats have room to stretch out in, and if you happen to go on a Tuesday you can catch it for five bucks. That combination alone makes this an easy one to recommend checking out in person rather than waiting for it to show up on a streaming service eight months from now. The bigger story here, though, is how long this project sat in the realm of rumor before becoming real. Nolan has spent two decades being the guy studios hand a blank check to for original, mind-bending concepts: dream heists, time inversion, World War II evacuation shot like a thriller. Adapting Homer is a different kind of gamble. The “Odyssey” has been public domain material forever, which means there was nothing stopping any studio from making this movie at any point, and yet nobody with Nolan's resources had really tried to do it as a full-scale epic. That gap is the interesting part. It suggests Nolan wanted to prove something about scale and craft using material everyone already half-knows, rather than leaning on a twist nobody saw coming. Producing it with his wife Emma Thomas, as he has for most of his career, also signals this was built with the same tight creative control as “Oppenheimer” or “Interstellar,” not a studio-driven tentpole assembled by committee. The premise sticks close to the source. Odysseus, played by Matt Damon, is trying to get home to Ithaca and his wife Penelope, played by Anne Hathaway, after years fighting in the Trojan War. The journey back is where all the trouble lives: strange islands, stranger beings, and enough delay and temptation to fill a decade. Nolan has assembled a genuinely stacked ensemble around Damon and Hathaway, including Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong'o, Samantha Morton, Zendaya, and Charlize Theron, which suggests a lot of these mythic encounters get real weight and screen time rather than cameo treatment. That is about as much as is worth saying on plot. Anyone who read the poem in high school knows the broad shape of where this goes, and the fun is in how Nolan actually stages it. On that front, the numbers back up what the trailers have been promising. Rotten Tomatoes has it sitting at 94%, with an average score of 8.7 out of 10, and Metacritic has it at 89. That is about as close to consensus as a major studio epic gets these days, and unlike some Nolan releases in the past, there is no real split here between the popular score and the more measured critical one. Both point in the same direction: this is a movie that is landing with almost everybody who has weighed in on it. Having sat with it, I think the acclaim is earned. This is Nolan working at the scale he clearly loves, big practical sets, real locations standing in for the wine dark sea, and a script that trusts the audience to sit with long stretches of tension rather than cutting away every ninety seconds. Damon carries the film's emotional center with more restraint than I expected, and Hathaway's Penelope gets more to do than most adaptations bother giving her. It runs long, and there is a stretch in the middle where the episodic structure of the source material makes the pacing sag a little. But the highs, particularly a couple of sequences involving the mythical creatures that I won't spoil here, are genuinely some of the best pure filmmaking Nolan has put on screen. It is not a flawless movie. It is a great one. If you are debating whether this is worth a trip into town, the answer is yes. Go on a Tuesday if you want the deal, but go. Facts verified as of August 23, 2026.