Aarcflick

Arriving just in time for Pride Month, this film is, in many respects, a conventional coming-of-age story, yet it feels refreshing in the way it treats its teenage protagonist’s queer identity as completely natural. The journey of *Girls Like Girls* from song to screen is unusual. In 2015, pop singer Hayley Kiyoko released her—extremely catchy—eponymous track, bringing an explicit declaration of lesbian desire ("girls like girls, like boys like girls") to a viral mainstream audience. It was accompanied by a music video that condensed the story of two suburban teens discovering their friendship was something more into just five minutes.  Director: Hayley Kiyoko Writers: Hayley Kiyoko, Stefanie Scott, Chloe Okuno Stars: Maya da Costa, Myra Molloy, Zach Braff Co-directed by the singer herself, the video was artfully shot and empathetically told, captivating fans to the point where Kiyoko published a young adult novel expanding on the adventures of its young protagonists, Coley a...

 It’s time for another little podcast on the prairie. Steve Barnes and I got together to chat about the new version of *Little House on the Prairie* coming to Netflix on July 9, 2026. Update: We’ve already watched all eight episodes of the first season, and I have recaps and a full review ready for the podcast. Find all my content regarding *Little House on the Prairie* here. In this preview podcast, we discuss how the series came about and who the creators are, the actors cast in the roles, what we see in the trailer, and some social media buzz we’ve heard. This preview is for anyone wanting to get ready for the new series. Creator: Rebecca Sonnenshine Stars: Luke Bracey, Crosby Fitzgerald, Alice Halsey Steve Barnes is a guitarist for the stoner metal band Introvoid and also plays guitar in the cover band Rebecca Crow. Lindsey Dunn is a film critic and a member of the NC Film Critics and Southeastern Film Critics associations. Her interests include independent horror films, comple...

 Art can speak to anyone, regardless of the distance between the work's content, its creator's experiences, and its purpose—whether intentional or seemingly obvious—vis-à-vis the audience. *Reading Lolita in Tehran* deals precisely with this, as well as the personal experiences of its protagonist: an English literature professor who returned to Iran in the midst of the 1979 revolution, harboring high hopes and the promise of a fulfilling career and life. Over the course of some two decades, the professor comes to realize that—at least regarding the former—achieving this might not be possible in that place. Director Eran Riklis’s film is an adaptation of Azar Nafisi’s memoir; the screenplay, written by Marjorie David, retains the book’s central premise: examining the author’s experiences and discoveries through the lens of various literary works. One of these is, of course, Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial *Lolita*, which leads the film’s Azar—played by Golshifteh Farahani, an I...

 *Nothing to Lose* opens with a striking hook that immediately grabs the viewer's attention. Built around every parent's worst nightmare, the plot centers on a mother who stops at nothing to save her son after he is diagnosed with leukemia. Life has never been easy for Jada; after years of battling infertility, she finally becomes a mother thanks to embryo donation, leading her to believe the hardest part of life is behind her.  However, her world falls apart once more when she discovers that her son, Noa, is suffering from an aggressive form of leukemia that requires an urgent bone marrow transplant. Faced with a slow and inefficient system, Jada reaches a point where she must make difficult choices—even if it means defying her own moral compass and the law. Directors: Ludovic Colbeau-Justin, Nawell Madani Writers: Walid Afkir, Mohamed Benyekhlef, Nawell Madani Stars: Manmathan Basky, Fodil Benderbal, Nicolas Briançon *Nothing to Lose* has many strengths. Most notable is the ...

 The nods and references in *Ikka* are superficial: they are included casually rather than being fully developed; they are more decorative than significant. At a TED-style event, Arjun Mehra (Sunny Deol), a renowned lawyer, uses a hypothetical case to discuss the judicial system. It involves a hit-and-run incident in Pune where the culprit turns out to be the spoiled son of a wealthy man. The outcome of such a case would be predictable, and Arjun does not argue otherwise.  Director: Siddharth P Malhotra Writers: Althea Kaushal, Mayank Tewari Stars: Sunny Deol, Akshaye Khanna, Dia Mirza Instead, he poses a question: what would happen if the car were replaced by a truck, and the spoiled rich youth by someone poor? Are the car driver and the truck driver equal before the law? And before the court? Arjun argues that the law treats the poor unfairly and that "a sense of justice is something felt in the gut." "In court, we do not litigate to win, but to defend our rights,...

 The construction of the glass structure where Hillary Clinton would eventually concede the 2016 election might not seem like the stuff of gripping television. And indeed, it isn’t—at least not in *The Westies*, the MGM+ drama about how the Irish gang of the same name tried to cash in on the building of the Javits Center at the far end of Manhattan. Despite featuring veteran actors like J.K. Simmons and Titus Welliver—playing a local crime boss and the corrupt cop in his pocket, respectively—*The Westies* fails to offer a fresh perspective within a well-worn genre. Oscar winner J.K. Simmons plays Eamon Sweeney, a Hell’s Kitchen kingpin looking to turn the Javits project into a lucrative revenue stream for his associates: an interchangeable crew of young thugs with names like Sean and Connor. Sweeney’s plans require coming to terms with the Italian Mafia, which vastly outnumbers his dwindling gang; among them is an up-and-coming, skeptical John Gotti (Hamish Allan-Headley), the most...