‘Lady Macbeth’, ‘Blind’, ‘Endless Poetry’
Lady Macbeth opened doors for its young star and remains a taut Victorian thriller years later. Roadside Attractions released the film to limited theaters in 2017, and anniversary screenings surfaced again in 2026. Acclaimed UK stage director William Oldroyd adapted Nikolai Leskov’s Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. The story is set in Victorian England and follows teenage bride Katherine, forced into marriage with shady mining boss Alexander. Trapped in a loveless union with a bitter man twice her age, she begins a passionate affair with Sebastian, a young worker on the estate. When Alexander discovers the betrayal, Katherine and Sebastian take drastic action. Florence Pugh stars alongside Cosmo Jarvis and Paul Hilton.
Florence Pugh’s Rise After Lady Macbeth
Pugh earned a BIFA for her performance as Katherine. She moved quickly into leading roles in Midsommar, received an Oscar nomination for Little Women, and later appeared in Oppenheimer and Dune: Part Two. The early notice she received here helped establish her as one of the most versatile actors of her generation.
Chasing Coral documented a global environmental crisis with striking clarity. Netflix gave the film a streaming platform while select theaters also carried it. Jeff Orlowski, previously Oscar-nominated for Chasing Ice, assembled an ad man, a coral specialist, camera engineers, and a marine biologist. Their goal was to construct the first time-lapse system capable of recording bleaching events as they occurred. The resulting footage delivered both visual beauty and hard evidence of rapid coral loss.
Chasing Coral’s Enduring Climate Message
The project captured the severe 2014-2017 bleaching event that affected roughly seventy-five percent of corals in targeted regions. Orlowski’s team later developed educational materials used by schools and advocacy groups. Scientists cited in the film warned that annual bleaching could become routine by 2034 if current temperature trends continue. Those projections keep the documentary relevant in ongoing climate discussions.
Blind arrived in limited release through Vertical Entertainment in 2017. Alec Baldwin plays novelist Bill Oakland, who loses his wife and his sight in a car crash. His passion for writing and living fades until he meets socialite Suzanne Dutchman, played by Demi Moore. She is required to read to him as part of a plea deal tied to her husband’s insider-trading case. Their growing attachment is tested when her husband is released. Dylan McDermott co-stars, and Michael Mailer directed.
Legacy of Blind and Disability Representation Debates
The Ruderman Family Foundation publicly criticized Baldwin’s casting as a blind character upon the film’s release. The picture ultimately grossed around ninety-eight thousand dollars and drew mixed reviews. No significant later casting controversies have attached themselves to the title, leaving the original discussion as the primary reference point in conversations about authentic disability representation.
Endless Poetry reached theaters via Satori Films. Alejandro Jodorowsky portrays his younger self at age twenty, leaving home against his family’s wishes to pursue poetry in 1940s Chile. He falls in with an avant-garde circle that includes Enrique Lihn, Stella Diaz Varín, and Nicanor Parra. Together they embrace a life of sensual and artistic freedom. The film frames this period as a formative chapter in Jodorowsky’s development as an artist and filmmaker.
Jodorowsky’s Autobiographical Film Cycle
Endless Poetry is the direct sequel to Dance of Reality from 2013. It screened in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight and earned a 94 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Jodorowsky has described the project as the second installment in a planned multi-film autobiography that traces his path from childhood through his emergence as a cinematic provocateur.
The Wrong Light examined the troubling practices behind one child-advocacy organization. The Cinema Guild released the documentary in limited theaters. Directors Dave Adams and Josie Swantek follow Mickey Choothesa, founder of the Children’s Organization of Southeast Asia, who claimed to shelter and educate girls rescued from brothels in northern Thailand. As the filmmakers interview the girls and their families, inconsistencies surface and the portrait of the nonprofit grows darker. The film continues to be referenced in broader examinations of accountability within anti-trafficking NGOs.
