In this roundup, I’ll be reviewing three 2026 movies in polar opposite genres. Overall, I think they are all good films, but it is unlikely the same person ends up loving all three as they are very much products of their specific genres.

Nightborn

Nightborn is Finnish filmmaker Hanna Bergholm’s second outing following her Finnish film debut with Hatching. While the first film followed a young girl’s repressed emotions manifesting through a creature that she nurtures, this one follows a Finnish woman moving back to her childhood home with her British husband as she gives birth to a newborn child that she has trouble loving. It is very clearly a metaphor for the post-partum troubles many mothers suffer as they change personalities and are unable to connect to the child they have suffered for months to give birth to. 

Let’s start with the positives: the acting is top notch by both the main actors Seidi Haarla and Rupert Grint. With so much of the film focusing on their relationship fracturing due to the stress of raising their child, less than great performances would make the movie crumble. The cinematography and symbolism throughout the film is also well done to keep you grounded in the world of the film even as it starts to become more and more paranormal. 

That said, I don’t think it quite hits the mark on everything. Despite being only 90 minutes in runtime, I felt like there was not enough meat around the bones of a good concept to sustain even that runtime. It would have made for a fantastic 30 minute feature, but many sequences feel like they drag as the writing struggles to crawl to hit that 90 minute feature length. It doesn’t help that you’re hearing a guttural baby crying for 60 of those 90 minutes. 

Overall, I think there’s enough good things to come out of watching this, satisfied with the experience, but it is just as likely the negatives end up outweighing the positives for you.

The Dink

Apple TV has found it harder to hit the home runs in their film outings as consistently as they have with their television shows. For every F1 and Wolfs, there’s The Gorge and Fountain of Youth. The Dink is their latest entry into their catalogue of mostly fake-sounding films that follows Jake Johnson as a has-been tennis player who is now a tennis coach for kids at his father’s tennis club who, after a wrist injury, as to begrudgingly turn to pickleball for his recovery. Along the way, he figures out who he is as a person and improves himself. If that sounds vaguely like the plot of dozens of sports comedies with the likes of Adam Sandler or Will Ferrell attached to them, it’s because it is precisely that, including a celebrity cameo.

This film is for the people who know that they like these movies. It is unlikely to win anyone over to this type of film, and it’s not doing anything particularly ambitious with the blueprint of these movies either. That said, it successfully gets regular laughs, makes you smile at some of the wholesome low-stakes plot points, and does not overstay its welcome. 

Jake Johnson and Mary Steenburgen do a great job with the not-so-challenging roles they’re given with Aaron Chen (a personal favourite) hopefully using his role here as a stepping stone to bigger and better roles down the line. If there’s anything I want people to get out of this movie, it’s being introduced to Aaron Chen.

There’s really not a whole lot to dissect with this one. If you’re looking for an easy breezy laugh to pass the time, this will do the job well. There are no surprises regarding what you’re in for with this one. 

The Furious

And there are no surprises with what this film is about either. This is unrelenting martial arts action from start to finish with the minimum amount of plot to chain the events together. The general plot here is that after a child is kidnapped, her father with the help of a journalist, both martial arts experts, attempt to take down a child trafficking ring in “a city in Southeast Asia”. 

And cue the fights. 

I would estimate 90 minutes of its 113 minute runtime is hand-to-hand martial arts fights. If that’s not your jam, do not watch this. But if you like meticulously choreographed fights with creative uses of the environment, this has got it all on display. Hell, they even have a Raid alumnus in the cast to really bring that flavour into this. I don’t think this film quite hits the level of the two Raid films in terms of the brutality and precision of its action, but it’s not far off while taking a more rough around the edges approach. 

The characters are a little goofy as is the very odd mix of languages used throughout the film, but at the end of the day, that’s not what you’re there for. They try to zhuzh up the plot here and there, but I think even the writers realize there is no point in dwelling on that, and it’s not long before you’re back in the thick of things. 

In other words, if you like action and specifically martial arts action, this movie will be a 5 out of 5 for you easily.