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| Short Redhead Reel Reviews date from 1986 to present. This main page lists the five most recent film reviews. To view a complete list of all films reviewed this month, see Previous Reviews on the right. |
Wednesday, January 14, 2026 |
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Choral, The |
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R 2026 |
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[Opens Jan. 16 in theaters.] Wonderful cinematography highlights Nicholas Hytner's engaging, entertaining, poignant, heartfelt, well-acted, touching, 113-minute film that beautifully captures the spirit of a wartime community in which a British choral society in Yorkshire, England, in 1916 hires a strict, gay, atheist, initially questionable choral master (Ralph Fiennes) to audition an eclectic, resilient group of singers (Emily Fairn, Jacob Dudman, Amara Okereke, Roger Allam, et al.) and to conduct The Dream of Gerontius opera by Edward Elgar (Simon Russell Beale) along with under arrest pianist (Robert Emms) amidst the backdrop of WWI.
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Murder Between Friends |
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NR 2026 |
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[Available Jan. 13 on various VOD platforms.] When a guest (Hana Vagnerová) at the sprawling English countryside estate of a well-known television star (Joanne Collins), who specializes in solving crimes, is murdered and found in a jacuzzi hot tub in Jacob Young and Trent Garrett's entertaining, red-herring-dotted, quirky, twist-filled, whodunnit, 84-minute thriller, the remaining five college friends (Nadia Bjorlin, Toby-Alexander Smith, Jacob Young, Trent Garrett, and India Thain), who all have a motive for murder, try to determine who did it along with the wacky chef (Jim Bostelmann) and the gamekeeper (Espen Hatleskog).
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Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire |
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NR 2026 |
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[Played Jan. 12 as part of AARP's Movies for Grownups and available on DVD and on various VOD platforms.] Elie Wiesel gives a commanding voice to Oren Rudavsky's captivating, educational, poignant, raw, unsettling, profoundly moving, gut-wrenching, thought-provoking, 88-minute documentary based on Elie Wiesel's memorable1958 memoir "Night" that focuses on the emotional and physical struggles of outspoken, Romanian-born, Auschwitz and Buchenwald survivor, teacher, writer, and human rights activist Elie Wiesel (1928-2016) who lost his parents in the concentration camps during WWII and consists of archival photographs and film clips, personal archives, striking animated visuals, speech excerpts, insightful interviews with wife Marion and son Elisha, and touching commentary by sister Hilda Wiesel Kudler, grandchildren Elijah and Lynn, nephew Sydney Amir, Jewish Studies professor Naomi Seidman, journalist Ted Koppel, professor Janet McCord, German and Jewish Studies professor Erin McGlothlin, actor and theater director Moni Yakim, Rabbi Leah Berkowitz, Elie Wiesel Center Elie's students Ingrid Anderson and Reinhold Boschki, oncologist Dr. Suzanne Lentz, chief of staff Donald Regan, literary agent George Borchardt, illustrator and author Mark Podwal, President Ronald Reagan, family friends Romana Strochlitz Primus and Ted Comet, middle school teacher Paris Murray, and Oprah Winfrey.
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Spring After Spring |
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NR 2026 |
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[Screens Feb. 1 at 2 p.m. PST at Chinatown Storytelling Centre at 168 East Pender Street, Vancouver, BC, and Feb. 6 at 6:30 p.m. PST at the VIFF Centre at 1181 Seymour Street, Vancouver, BC.]] Jon Chiang's insightful, upbeat, colorful, emotional, fascinating, informative, 89-minute documentary in which three Chinese Canadian sisters (Val 'Ms. Vee' Ho, Anabel Ho, and Lisa Ho) prepare to pay homage to their feisty mother Maria Mimie by continuing to dance to carry on her legacy and preparing the award-winning dance company to honor the tradition of dancing in the Annual Vancouver Chinatown Spring Festival Parade that she started in 1974.
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Alien Love |
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NR 2026 |
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[Available currently on Amazon Prime Video.] Simon Oliver's campy, absurd, wacky, wit-dotted, love-it-or-hate-it, low-budget, 73-minute sci-fi comedy in which a champagne-imbibing, jogging-loving, NASA-employed, Australian astronaut (Nathan Hill) attended an AA meeting with other members (Ben Bramwell, Sam Ready, John Robertson, et al.) when he returned home from space to his skeptical wife (Ira Chakraborty) who becomes pregnant with a fast-growing fetus and then finds himself chased by three slow-running agents (Emily Farrell, Dan Huebel, and Robert Rafik Awad) in black.
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| See the Full List of Reviews from January |
©2026 by Wendy Schadewald
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