REEL | Jaafar Jackson Transforms into the King of Pop – 'Michael'

"I just have all these songs in my head."

Lionsgate / Cineplex Pictures

From the same producer (Graham King) and filmed in a similar vein as the wildly successful but much deservedly critically maligned Queen/Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody comes the ill-advised Michael, the estate-authorized biographical musical drama based on the life of the controversial "King of Pop," superstar Michael Jackson. He's portrayed impressively by his actual nephew, Jaafar Jackson (son of Jermaine, also an executive producer alongside his other living brothers), with the adorable Juliano Krue Valdi playing the younger MJ, and directed by journeyman filmmaker Antoine Fuqua.

CABLE | 'Margo's Got Money Troubles' Makes Fans x SXSW 2026

"I'm just terrible at everything except being pretty."

SXSW Film & TV Festival

Margo's Got Money Troubles, prolific television writer/producer David E. Kelley's new family dramedy series based on author Rufi Thorpe's bestselling 2024 novel of the same name, stars Elle Fanning (also an executive producer) as the titular college dropout who turns to online sex work after getting pregnant due to an illicit affair with a married literature professor (Michael Angarano) and desperately needing funds to raise her newborn baby on her own.

CABLE | Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan Age Their 'Beef' – Netflix Season 2

"She has appalling taste in interior design."

A24 Television

Back for another melodramatic spin at tormented domestic rivalries, season two of Beef's anthology series, created by Korean-American writer/producer Lee Sung Jin, takes a turn towards the affluent country club crowd in a personal feud between members of its staff, management, and new ownership.

GENRE | Staying 'A Safe Distance' Away x SXSW 2026

"Would you like to take a ride on my time machine?"

SXSW Film & TV Festival

A Safe Distance, SFU Film alumnus Gloria Mercer's debut feature-length film, stars local actor Bethany Brown as a woman stranded in the woods by her petulant boyfriend (Chris McNally) after she rebuffs his marriage proposal while on an anniversary camping trip in rural British Columbia, who then becomes both emotionally and criminally entangled with an attractive but dangerous bank-robbing couple (Tandia Mercedes and Cody Kearsley).

CABLE | Betraying 'Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord' in Animation

"Empires can be shattered."

Lucasfilm Animation

Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord, created by Lucasfilm president Dave Filoni, brings the iconic but tragic former Sith apprentice from The Phantom Menace, who was famously halved yet managed to survive nonetheless, back in the form of an exciting, all-new animated series. Actor Sam Witwer reprises his title voice role from The Clone Wars and Rebels to further flesh out the memorable villain's complex legacy, focused on betrayal, set shortly after the events of Revenge of the Sith during the reign of the Galactic Empire.

REEL | 'Miami Vice' x 20 – Revisiting the Misunderstood Neo-Noir

"Let's take it to the limit one more time."

Universal Pictures

Ahead of the upcoming twentieth anniversary of its theatrical release, another reappraisal of methodical filmmaker Michael Mann's initially critically misunderstood but now reappreciated action neo-noir, Miami Vice, is clearly warranted. Based on the iconic 1984-89 NBC undercover cop drama series that he produced but was created by veteran television writer Anthony Yerkovich, the 2006 blockbuster film adaptation flopped hard at the global box office.

REEL | Zendaya and Robert Pattinson Avoid 'The Drama'

"I love how she turns my drama into comedy."

A24 / VVS Films

The Drama, Norwegian writer/director Kristoffer Borgli's sharp yet twisted relationship "drama"/comedy starring the powerhouse on-screen couple of Zendaya and Robert Pattinson as Emma and Charlie, superbly toys with our expectations of modern romance. After the former drunkenly reveals a deep, dark secret from her past, the latter slowly breaks down while rethinking their entire relationship history, only days before their wedding.

SCREEN | Amanda Peet Babysits A 'Fantasy Life' of Anxieties

"I think you're an anxious Jew with mild OCD."

Greenwich Entertainment / Vortex Media

New York actor Matthew Shear writes and directs his first feature film, the charming age-gap comedy, Fantasy Life, starring himself, Amanda Peet (also a producer), and Alessandro Nivola, as a laid-off paralegal (also a law school dropout) struggling to manage his crippling anxiety who ends up babysitting the daughters of his psychiatrist's (Judd Hirsch) depressed former actress daughter-in-law with her aloof musician husband (the psychiatrist's son).

SCENE | Mitch and Murray and Kelli Ogmundson Do No 'Harm'

"Must be all the scissoring!"

Photo credit | Shimon Karmel

Fairview Slopes—Starring the appealing former Animal Control actress Kelli Ogmundson, Mitch and Murray Productions stages the North American premiere of British playwright Phoebe Eclair-Powell's gripping but deeply unsettling one-woman play. Harm is a powerful solo performance that requires the proper stamina and emotional range to truly express our toxic culture of digital discomfort and warped social realities through a single person's experiences.