Screener Season Round-Up Part 1

 by Rob DiCristino

It’s that time of year again!

November is upon us, which means it’s time for studios to make their cases to the cinematic intelligentsia for What Was Good in 2026. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be filing dispatches from under the metric fuck-ton of films being presented For My — and by extension, Your — Consideration. Some are on VOD now, some are currently in theaters, and some have release dates forthcoming. Check your local listings. Let’s get started:

Fjord (Dir. Cristian Mungiu)

Romanian New Wave auteur Cristian Mungiu’s Palm d’Or winner is the Platonic ideal of awards season fare, a layered and thought-provoking legal drama about the Gheorghius family (headed by an unrecognizable Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve, who’s apparently bound by law to star in anything Scandinavian), immigrant Evangelical Christians who find themselves facing child abuse charges that may be motivated by religious intolerance. With little sympathy coming from their secular community — excepting Mia (Lisa Carlehed), a neighboring attorney who takes on their case — the Gheorghius clan forms an uneasy alliance with an extremist group that rallies international support for their plight. There’s a real elegance to the way Mungiu keeps his loyalties oblique in Fjord, rarely tipping his hand toward what’s actually motivating the state’s infringement on religious liberty. A culture-clash story sure to infuriate liberals and conservatives alike, Fjord comes to conclusions as cold and gray as the snowbound landscapes of its setting.

Fatherland (Dir. Paweł Pawlikowski)

Speaking of which, Ida and Cold War director Paweł Pawlikowski presents another ponderous, grayscale examination of Europe’s self-inflicted misery with Fatherland, a post-World War II biopic about renowned author and German expat Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) and his children, Erika (Sandra Hüller) and Klaus (August Diehl). The film follows Thomas on a publicity tour through capitalist West Germany and its socialist neighbor to the east, with both sides vying to claim the Goethe Prize-winner as the spiritual voice of their new nation. Shot in Pawlikowski’s usual Academy Ratio and framed with a disaffected verticality that feels either hauntingly still or insufferably pretentious — depending on your sensibilities — Fatherland parallels the Manns’ uncomfortable return to the country they had once forsaken with their desperate search for artistic, political, and existential renewal. Pawlikowski veterans may be frustrated by his familiar, “if it ain’t broke” approach, but that shouldn’t distract from the power and resonance of his work.

Never After Dark (Dir. Dave Boyle)

Here’s a fun one for those of us who aren’t yet ready to let go of #ScaryMovieMonth: What if The Shining was J-Horror? What if Ti West made Ghostbusters? What if the third act of Last Action Hero was actually good? Those are just a few — possibly insane — ways to describe Never After Dark, director Dave Boyle’s haunted house thriller about a young medium (Moeka Hoshi as Airi) who shares more kinship with the dead than with the living. Perpetually haunted by the ghost of her sister (Kurumi Inagaki, whose Miku remains an eternal tween despite being born first), Airi is hired by Gunji and Teiko (Tae Kimura and Kento Kaku) to exercise a spirit from the halls of their hotel (which, incidentally, is a dead ringer for The Overlook). When Airi discovers that it’s actually the specter of a serial killer, she’ll have to cross space, time, and dimensions to save innocent souls — including her own. Boyle’s staging is clever and confident, keeping his wild cocktail of horror tropes and traditions on rails through an exceptionally fun and bloody conclusion.

The Only Living Pickpocket in New York (Dir. Noah Segan)

Let’s switch gears to a cozy, ‘70s-style crime caper from veteran character actor Noah Segan, The Only Living Pickpocket in New York. John Turturro stars as Harry Lehman — just an outstanding movie name, by the way — an OG pickpocket struggling to support his disabled wife (Karina Arroyave) and practice his analog craft in our Information Age. Harry hasn’t lost a step in forty years, but it’s a lot harder for his fence (Steve Buscemi as Ben) to move new watches, credit cards, and cell phones now that they’re all AirTagged and password-protected. Even his longtime frenemy, Detective Warren (Turturro’s Do the Right Thing nemesis, Giancarlo Esposito), has to admit that the times, they are a-changin’. When Harry inadvertently swipes a crypto card from a cocky mob princeling (Will Price), he finds himself in an unavoidable collision between tradition and modernity. A trench coat-clad Turturro gives a stunning, elegiac performance, while Segan’s vibrant New York photography is a soothing balm for the usual overcompressed, oversaturated mainstream slop.

Carolina Caroline (Dir. Adam Carter Rehmeier)

Finally, my Spotlight Showcase pick this week is Carolina Caroline, Adam Carter Rehmeier’s Southern Gothic spin on Bonnie and Clyde. The writer/director of FTM favorite Snack Shack — as well as the underseen Dinner in America — brings his deep-fried Americana flavor to a crime thriller that finds Samara Weaving’s Caroline falling in love with a young confidence man named Oliver (Rehmeier stalwart Kyle Gallner). Caroline’s looking for a way out of dead-end Texas, and Oliver — a gentleman thief whose devil-may-care exterior masks an egalitarian sensitivity — wants to teach her all the tricks of his trade. Carolina Caroline isn’t as interested in reinventing the “lovers on the run” wheel as it is in demonstrating the magic a master chef can conjure with even the most basic ingredients. Rehmeier’s latest uses a classic premise to its advantage, luring us into a false sense of security before spinning us ‘round like one of its heroes’ unlucky marks. Rehmeier may still be on the indie fringes, but make no mistake: He’s one of our best up-and-comers.