2026 is proving to be one of the best years for film in a long time, and we are only halfway through! Although these three movies are vastly different from one another, they demonstrate the variety of film at the top echelon of quality that this year has provided us thus far. One of these is currently my favourite film of the year, and the choice might surprise you!

The Odyssey

I feel like the discourse around this movie has brought it everywhere and back, so at this point anything I say about it may be rote. As with any Christopher Nolan movie, the technical aspects of the film are spectacular. He really has found that perfect balance of maximizing the cinematic tools at his disposal to create a spectacle on screen. 

The Odyssey breaks away from Nolan’s penchant for low concept premises to instead present us with what may be his most straightforwardly written film yet. Even with Dunkirk, Nolan could not help himself but to present it in non-chronological fashion for dramatic flair. With the nigh-gimmicky elements stripped away from the narrative, we are made to witness what Nolan can do with what is a well-known tale with questionable morality. 

And I think he succeeds… mostly. 

The visuals of course are fantastic. Although I was not one of the lucky people to be able to watch it in IMAX 70mm, I was able to still catch it in 70mm and did not regret my choice. There were two particularly standout scenes for me. The first is one that surprised me given Nolan’s lack of experience with horror – the cyclops scene. The scale in combination of a great use of lighting really amplified what could have been an otherwise campy sequence. It made me curious for a potential horror outing for Nolan down the line, which he has alluded to in the past. The second is more predictable, and perhaps benefits from Nolan breaking it up into multiple sequences spread across the film – the infiltration of Troy. With each subsequent revisit to that event, the scene evolves and recontextualizes the events that follow. Once again, lighting and scale prevail in achieving a scene that feels visceral.  

Anne Hathaway does her best to provide the emotional heartbeat of the film, and puts in a strong performance. However, the narrative is such that the emotional resonance is fleeting at best, with certain scenes succeeding, but ultimately being washed away in what is otherwise a journey following a man that becomes harder and harder to root for the longer the movie goes. By the end of the film, the only reason you still side with Odysseus is because you’ve been told that he is a good man more than you’ve seen it, and because those who oppose him just seem to be worse than him.

I guess I should mention Matt Damon’s performance as Odysseus too as he is meant to carry the whole film. He does a very adequate job as Odysseus. Although I have no real flaw to point out, it is hard for me to pick out a truly transcendent moment either. Perhaps the closest I came to really admiring his performance is during the sirens scene, and you can’t even hear him. The best narrative moments of the film are much more carried by those around Damon than by him. Standouts among those supporting characters include Elliot Page’s Sinon, John Leguizamo’s Eumaeus, Samantha Morton’s Circe, and Robert Pattinson’s Antinous. Tom Holland is in the film a lot, and does a good job, but he feels more like a vessel to tell us the narrative is moving rather than a character you can truly get behind.

Although Zendaya’s role and performance itself are not much to write home about, there is one specific moment late in the film that really made it feel so crucial to me that I couldn’t not mention it in this review. Another bit of emotion that resonated with me, which was hard to find.

Overall, I would say although it’s a very good film, it failed to reach the echelon of great films that many of Nolan’s previous works have for me. Films like Inception, Interstellar, The Prestige as well as his last outing with Oppenheimer achieve greater success in my eyes than this one does as a complete package. Nolan certainly has not figured out doing great hand to hand action since his clunky attempts in the Dark Knight trilogies, so here’s hoping he either sharpens those skills or finds a project that doesn’t rely on that as much in the future. 

The Invite

It’s this one. This is my favourite film of the year so far. 

It’s such a whiplash to put this beside The Odyssey – one covers this massive journey filled with the gods and storms and monsters while The Invite is about two couples having dinner in a San Francisco apartment. 

Olivia Wilde’s third directorial outing after Booksmart and Don’t Worry Darling is a masterpiece in cinema. No one aspect does the heavy lifting over another as Rashida Jones and Will McCormack’s impeccable script is matched by Olivia Wilde’s inch-perfect directing which captures the gargantuan performances by the foursome of Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz, and Edward Norton. And that’s not to minimize the equally great work done by the costume and set design departments who play as important of a role in this as anyone else to really set the stage along with Devonte Hynes’ meticulously crafted score. 

If it sounds like all I’m doing is gushing, it’s because it’s that great. I don’t really want to discuss the film that much because it is so much better to just experience it unfold and not know where it’s going. The dialogue just has the perfect blend of scripted and improvised to make the whole film feel so tangible and immersive. 

The only fear I had while watching, despite loving every bit of it, was whether they’d be able to land this. It is not uncommon to have great films that just don’t know how to best land the plane. And thank god, they picked just the right way to end this where it is not tied up in a bow, but it will hit you emotionally while staying open enough for you to interpret where things will go. 

I absolutely loved this. Grab some jamon and go watch this ASAP!

The Sheep Detectives

So we’ve talked about a greek myth, a dinner, and now a movie about sheep solving the mystery of the death of their shepherd. And they say we don’t get great original movies anymore! 

The way I’d describe this is the way I always talk about great sports movies – just because there’s a formula doesn’t mean it can’t be good. A great execution of an established formula can result in just as great of a film as going off book completely. 

The Sheep Detectives is nothing if not formulaic. In fact, it is literally the main driving force of the film – the formula for solving a murder mystery is repeated by the sheep as they get to the bottom of the mystery. But don’t let that fool you into thinking this is a paint by numbers adventure because the sheer heart in the writing and the characters is enough to make you smile and cry throughout the film. And would you expect anything less from the checks notes uh writer of Chernobyl and the director of Minions: The Rise of Gru? I guess that’s a lesson in not pigeonholing people! 

The voice cast is led by Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Bryan Cranston on the sheep side, with Chris O’Dowd putting in a legitimately great tearjerking performance as well. On the human side, Nicholas Braun and Nicholas Galitzine lead the way, but honestly everyone does a great job. Shoutout to Nicholas Braun for bucking the trend of British people doing American accents and being one of the few Americans to do a British accent. Hugh Jackman is reliable as ever.

It truly is a great blend of humour and heart and emotion with a well-written mystery to boot that’s logical enough to decipher but not so obvious that you get bored. A tour de force in family filmmaking that trusts its audience and works hard on its craft too. The sheep CGI is extremely good and never took me out, which says a lot about the care taken to make it work given the efforts we’ve had from far higher budgeted films trying to do the same thing.

Definitely worth a watch!