Mercy (2026) Movie Review

After the impossible high of director, Ari Aster's debut, Hereditary, for me the follow-up Midsommar was a complete miss. Since then he's posted two take no prisoners art-house triumphs, Beau is Afraid and this equally wild but very different meta-western. The most analogous film to One Battle After Another and just about as good. Ari is one of the greatest out there right now as is his lead actor Joaquin Phoenix, in one of his finest and most unknowable roles.

This much maligned entry into the Chris Pratt is everywhere genre, just about limps over the line to watchable - thanks mostly to its star. Despite an intriguing - if obvious - AI premise it's a better film the more it hews towards standard whodunit fare but consequently less and less interesting as a result.

My internittent series on albums that have over (usually) a long period of time continued to be outstanding. Canada's fabulous Broken Social Scene's second album is a fair contender for greatest indie guitar album in history, certainly in North America.

Finally a review of the Table Tennis movie. The two things that stand out, this is one Safdie brother going solo on this film after the mighty one-two of Good Times and Uncut Gems, and I've not been kind to the "Marlon Brando" of our age, Timothy "Baby-Cham" Chamalet. He does actually give a very good performance here, and it's a fine film - but it's not in the same league as Uncut Gems and could easily have been an hour shorter. The Ron Howard of Safdie movies.

My now fairly frequent series on (usually) albums that were either denied classic status on release or have been forgotten about since. Witch House pioneers Salem near qualify for both, back in 2010 their debut album caused a lot of fuss but only mild praise, unlike me giving it album of the year. That rare album that has wielded strong influence since yet nothing else really sounds like it. A shoegaze album amongst its many invented genres.

The Danny Boyle/Alex Garland Zombie train keeps running and in pretty fine style. Wildly over-violent at times but with great work from a demonic Jack O'Connell and a soulful Ralph Fiennes. At its best when expanding both the human and zombie world's and with a truly gonzo final third.

My intermittent feature on (usually) albums that were either denied classic status on release or have been forgotten about since. I'm not sure the long delayed, much maligned second and final album by The Stone Roses quite qualifies but it's far, far better than the car crash disaster it's remembered as.

Where the industry led push for Timothy "Baby-cham" Chamalet to win continues and a good but not great film breaks the record for most nominations ever in a pretty average year for movies.

There's no doubt Pitchfork is the most important music criticism magazine this century, once the epicenter of the music world. The last decade or more has seen them slide further away from both their implied mission statement and success. Now a pay wall has gone up and that will likely be the end of many ends. But Vale Pitchfork.

In the worst year of movies I've actually watched since I started doing these reviews. The year in which mediocrity reigned supreme. Featuring Superman, One Battle After Another, Warcraft, Sinners, Weapons and many more.