One-line spoiler-free movie reviews for April 2026

This month featuring: a dreamlike internet horror, a ragequit at the BFI, a gleefully trashy Satanic romp, and a 4K anime masterpiece (plus some truly baffling nonsense).

Arco (2025), Ugo Bienvenu & Gilles Cazaux – This was quite slow-burn and I wasn’t really finding the main characters likeable, but it had an incredibly strong gut-punch of a third act.

Underland (2025), Rob Petit – I was enjoying this until in a sudden flight of fancy it started going on about somebody’s dream of the Underland rather than the real thing going on in front of the film crew. NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOUR DREAM. YOUR DREAM IS NOT A REAL THING. NOBODY CARES.

But I’m a Cheerleader (1999), Jamie Babbit – Incredibly sharply observed satire of attitudes to – and within – the LGBTQ+ community with great performances from Natasha Lyonne and Clea DuVall.

This was a screening by La Monocle’s film club. La Monocle’s mission is to nurture inclusive FLINTA-focused queer spaces, inspired by the spirit of the historic Parisian Le Monocle. The film club aims to create a consistent, friendly, and accessible community space where queer people can gather, unwind, and feel fully welcomed. All of the evenings help fund the opening of their own bar.

Submit to Me (1985), Richard Kern – Well this absolutely went from “Oh yes, Lydia Lunch looking gothy and hot AF doing some light BDSM” to “Jesus Christ what the hell am I watching? My eyes! MY EYES!” over the course of its 12 minutes.

Blood Feast (1963), Herschell Gordon Lewis – This, it is said, spawned the whole gore/splatter genre, and was very watchable despite having some absolutely insane juxtapositions between “brutal murder of a woman”, “weird racist trope about Egyptians” and “ZOMG the most generic dialogue US police officers can have”. The last couple of minutes, where two cops literally reiterate and explain the whole previous hour we’d just watched would not have been out of place in Police Squad.

Sins of the Fleshapoids (1965), Mike Kuchar – This was quite surreal with a weird monotone voiceover, and acting so stilted by everybody that it was difficult to tell who were meant to be the fleshapoids and who the humans were.

Napoleon Dynamite (2004), Jared Hess – Truly one of my favourite movies of all time, with so many little quirky asides. Was delighted to be able to introduce my 13-year-old to it on the big screen.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026), Aaron Horvat, Michael Jelenic, Pierre Leduc & Fabien Polack – Well, this was certainly some sounds and images that some people put together and decided to release.

[Live scenes of the author “enjoying” this movie]

El día de la bestia (The Day of the Beast) (1995), Álex de la Iglesia – Bar Trash at Finsbury Park Picturehouse – Brilliantly, for the first half-hour, this was like if a British farce writer had decided to do a Satan movie set in Madrid, and then it gradually got more violent and bizarre.

Bar Trash, run by Token Homo, presents “Queer cult & curious cinema” in relaxed screenings with alcohol, a raffle, a quiz and lots of laughs – find out more at tokenhomo.com/bar-trash.

We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2021), Jane Schoenbrun – This has an incredible dreamlike quality to it, and – from what I have seen of my kids watching ARGs (alternate reality games) and video journals on YouTube – is incredibly well observed. Would recommend.

I Saw the TV Glow (2024), Jane Schoenbrun – An absolute gem of a movie of the last decade, ideal if you love Buffy / X-files / lived in the 90s, and guaranteed to be an endlessly reshown future cult film.

Akira (1988), Katsuhiro Ôtomo – I didn’t know much about this except its reputation, so went to see the 4K remaster at the Imax and was blown away. A two hour movie where I didn’t nip out for a wee? That’s saying something. Also kudos for way back then predicting that in 2019 Tokyo would be preparing for a cursed Olympics.

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L’Étranger (The Stranger) (2025), François Ozon – I don’t know the novel and went to this because I knew it had inspired the Cure’s debut single, so presumed that at some point he was going to, indeed, kill an Arab. I enjoyed it but the lead character is a right insufferable prick, isn’t he?

The Conspiracists (2024), Liz Smith – Well edited, but also I began to feel uneasy about the voyeuristic nature of watching these people who have had to deal with trauma in their life and then somehow – thanks to the internet, mostly – converted it not into helping out at the local evangelical church to give them the faith, certainty, community, participation and the false promise of a better tomorrow they need, but instead have latched on to chemtrails, Pizzagate, the death of Princess Diana, and Mother Teresa being Anthony Fauci’s mother as their truth. It did, though, have some remarkably cute dogs and cats and puppies and kittens in it, all of whom seemed oblivious that they were living with people who, frankly, need help.

Another Day, Another Man (1966), Doris Wishman – You live, you learn. This was a double-bill at the BFI starting at 8.20pm with an “intro”, but that was like a 30 minute lecture, so the first film didn’t start until 8.50pm, and we were already on for a post 11pm ending. But more importantly than that, Wishman’s movie, with its weird jump cuts and the dialogue being done after the fact by voice actors, divorced from what had actually been filmed, was unwatchable. It was like “The Slightly Titillating Stories of Ferdinand de Bargos”. I ragequit.

Ultras (2025), Ragnhild Ekner – Some really brilliant shots of the absolute joy that being part of a football crowd can bring, and some insane synchronised displays, but I felt it glossed over some of the more unsavoury elements of hardcore football fandom.

Lee Cronin’s The Mummy (2026), Lee Cronin – I liked that it took the well-worn Mummy outline and turned it into a claustrophobic paranoid family drama. I liked less that the final act really leaned into gore-for-gore’s sake, and also I felt it had a brilliant implied ending that could have cut to black, and then they decided we needed to see a bit more just in case someone in a test screening didn’t get the implied ending.

Rose of Nevada (2025), Mark Jenkin – At first I thought I was finding this too much like Enys Men, which at the time I said had “all the elements that should have made it exactly my cup of tea – bleak repetition, an ambient but intense soundtrack, a Cornish folk horror mystery – but alas it was not my cup of tea and I was left re-reading the glowing reviews and wondering what they had seen in it that I hadn’t”. Again I was thinking Jenkin had produced something over-stylised and kooky for the sake of it, but then A THING HAPPENED and, unlike with Enys Men, I was absolutely drawn into it for the second half.

Mother Mary (2026), David Lowery – As I walked out they were advertising that it was on again in 15 minutes time, and I nearly bought a ticket to walk back in and watch it again, even though I’m not sure I actually liked it? There is an incredible two-handed play in there between Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel about a Taylor Swift-esque popstar reconnecting with her long-estranged costume designer/muse/lover but then also loads of other things happen that might be supernatural or a metaphor or just… ridiculous?

Exit 8 (2025), Genki Kawamura – A good creepypasta atmosphere with lashings of suspense and tension, but dear lord if you thought the messaging was blunt in recent seasons of Doctor Who this was something else, I ended up wanting to scream “YES, WE GET IT” at the screen about halfway through.

Super 8½ (1994), Bruce LaBruce – Raw sexy fun and a lovely slice of camp 90s life although it tailed off a bit towards the end. [Insert your own sexual performance punchline here]

Read more of my one-line spoiler-free reviews of everything I’ve watched in the cinema in the monthly archive. Last time out I really enjoyed The Bride!, Pociagi (Trains) and Dead Man’s Wire (pictured below).

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