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Movie of the Week 

MOVIE OF THE WEEK August 21, 2026 – FREEFALL: A RECKONING FOR BOEING

Jennifer Merin , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Watching Rory Kennedy’s pressing, powerful documentary Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing — the follow-up to Kennedy’s equally compelling 2022 film Downfall: The Case Against Boeing — it’s impossible not to dwell on two thoughts: First, these days, the act of choosing to step foot on an American-built plane kind of feels like playing a game of Russian Roulette, and second, it’s appalling how blatantly this country continues to prioritize profits over people’s lives.

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Lists Weekly Releases 

OPENING August 17 to 23, 2026 – Margaret Barton-Fumo reports

Margaret Barton-Fumo , ,

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists highlights movies made by and about women. With a vigilant eye toward current releases, we maintain an interactive record of films that are pertinent to our interests. Be they female-made or female-centric productions, they are films that represent a wide range of women’s stories and present complex female characters. As such, they are movies that will most likely be reviewed on AWFJ.org and will qualify for consideration for our annual EDA Awards, celebrating exceptional women working in film behind and in front of the camera.

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News 

WEEK IN WOMEN: Agnieszka Holland’s FRANZ opens in US Cinemas – Brandy McDonnell reports

Brandy McDonnell , , , , ,

Agnieszka Holland’s Franz, a portrait of legendary writer Franz Kafka, who remains celebrated worldwide for his books, short stories, fables and aphorisms, is bowing in theaters on Aug. 21. Billed as Holland’s most ambitious project to date, her biopic of the iconic 20th-century Czech writer had its world premiere last year at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival. It was nominated for a Golden Seashell at the 2025 San Sebastián International Film Festival in Spain, and it became Poland’s official entry to the 98th Academy Awards. For six decades, Holland has remained one of the most compelling filmmakers in global cinema.

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Reviews 

THE MARCHING BAND – Review by Leslie Combemale

Leslie Combemale , , , ,

A world-class conductor connects with the brother he never knew, in the French dramedy co-written and directed by Emmanuel Courcol variously called The Marching Band, My Brother’s Band, and En Fanfare. It’s a sweet story that never quite dips into sentimentality or maudlin territory, while tackling issues like nature vs nurture, musical legacies, the power of privilege, and how the feeling of familial belonging can help heal the soul. An enjoyable little flick, The Marching Band will likely have you reaching out to call your siblings or closest found family just to let them know what they mean to you.

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Reviews 

TONY – Review by T.J. Callahan

T. J. Callahan , , , , , , , ,

Tony is about chef and author Anthony Bourdain before the restaurants, the books, the television shows and, most importantly, the worldwide fame. The film takes place before Tony became “toney”, if you will. The coming of age docudrama follows the entitled antics of 19 year old Tony while on summer break from college at Vassar in 1975. After being turned down for a writing fellowship, Bourdain heads to Cape Cod to chase a girl, but his misbehavior forces him to work off his debts in a restaurant kitchen where the chef, played charmingly cheeky by Antonio Banderas, and his rag tag cooking crew develop a recipe that changes the main course of Tony’s life.

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Reviews 

DON’T SAY GOOD LUCK – Review by Sarah Ward

Sarah Ward , , , , , , , ,

Don’t Say Good Luck isn’t astute and thoughtful solely because it features Melanie Lynskey. That the Yellowjackets star was the only actor that filmmaker Julia Hart wanted (and even considered) for the movie’s second-biggest role is a perfect piece of shorthand, however. How do you instantly signal to the watching world that a film values emotional honesty, and that it isn’t afraid to confront life’s heartaches and struggles with authenticity? How do you convey that a movie that plays with plenty of familiar elements — such as telling a teen coming-of-age tale, and one about staging a musical at that, while unfurling an illness story — won’t settle for standard? You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah’s Sunny Sandler is Don’t Say Good Luck’s lead, but Lynskey is its lighthouse.

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Reviews 

SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

Valerie Kalfrin , , , , , , , , ,

Spider-Man: Brand New Day truly feels like a new chapter for our favorite web-singer.
Tom Holland has always had an endearing humility and charisma that meshed well with Peter Parker and his web-slinging alter ego, Spider-Man. But Spider-Man: Brand New Day, his fourth solo outing as the superhero, gives him mature depth and a layered story about where true strength lies. Spider-Man: Brand New Day features more exhilarating web-swinging than Holland’s earlier outings, with the special effects and visual effects teams mimicking Spidey’s poses from various comics. Yet the film also feels more grounded, from the tactile appearance of his costume (noticing the outline of Holland’s features beneath the mask, for instance) to director Destin Daniel Cretton (Wonder Man) blocking shots that show off Spidey’s acrobatic fighting style as much as Holland’s emotional beats.

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Reviews 

THE LAST HOUSE – Review by Susan Granger

Susan Granger , , , , , ,

Horror has always been one of the most popular genres, beginning with Dracula and Frankenstein in the 1930s and German Expressionist films like Nosferatu in the silent era. Traditionally, ‘horror’ features a monster, perhaps supernatural, while the subgenre of ‘psychological horror’ gradually builds tension by focusing on the mental, emotional and physical states of its characters. The Last House encompasses both, opening with Arthur C. Clarke’s quote: “How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is clearly Ocean,”

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Reviews 

THE END OF OAK STREET – Review by T.J.. Callahan

T. J. Callahan , , , ,

The End of Oak Street is Land of the Lost meets Jurassic Park with a premise not unlike an episode of the 1960’s television show Outer Limits. Director David Robert Mitchell, along with producer J.J. Abrams, brings the jump scares and the giggles, an extreme attention to detail, a pounding soundtrack, special effects, a committed cast and dinosaurs galore elevating the film’s retro feel from old school fright to a sci-fi summer scream. Not that there aren’t plot holes in the worm holes that send the Pratts and their neighbors into the middle of an extinct world, but the Twilight Zone type story keeps moving and keeps surprising at only an hour and 40 minutes.

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Reviews 

FREEFALL: A RECKONING FOR BOEING – Review by Loren King

Loren King , , , , , , , , ,

Another infuriating expose about corporate malfeasance and greed, Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing is prolific investigative documentarian Rory Kennedy‘s must-see follow-up to her 2022 film, “Downfall: The Case Against Boeing.” While that film exposed Boeing’s complicity in the crashes of two Boeing 737 Max jets in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people, Kennedy’s latest examines the corporation’s systemic and obscene retaliation against whistleblowers who tried to warn about shoddy work and safety negligence.

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