Interview with GREGG ALLMAN: THE MUSIC OF MY SOUL producer Michael Lehman and producer/director James Keach
To truly know a musician, you have to go beyond the music and understand the artist as a human being, rather than just a talented performer. In doing so, you usually come across at least one past trauma or hardship they had to overcome; something that has shaped them into the person they’ve become known for. Recent music documentaries that are aware of that and have included these elements in an immersive and enlightened manner have been either produced or directed (sometimes both) by James Keach. His latest, “Gregg Allman: The Music of My Soul,” aims to introduce audiences to a sensitive, gentler side of an iconic, award-winning musician. Co-produced with Allman’s former manager, Michael Lehman, the documentary captures the tragedies and triumphs that shaped his life and career, featuring commentary from those who knew him best. Read more…
GREGG ALLMAN: THE MUSIC OF MY SOUL (2026) review
produced by: James Keach, Alexandra Komisaruk, and Michael Lehman
directed by: James Keach
rated: not rated
runtime: 99 min.
U.S. release date: June 17, 2026
In recent years, actor/producer/director James Keach has developed quite a knack for producing and directing some of the best music documentaries focused on American artists. It started with 2014’s “Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me”, an emotional look at the musician’s last tour before Alzheimer’s claimed his life, which he produced and directed. Then in 2019, two great documentaries were released: “David Crosby: Remember My Name”, which he served as one of the executive producers, premiered at Sundance, and then he also served as a producer on “Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice,” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival months later. His latest documentary, “Gregg Allman: The Music of My Soul”, looks at the life of a passionate musician and founding member of the Allman Brothers Band, one of the great American bands responsible for what would be called Southern Rock. Read more…
AN AUTUMN SUMMER (2026) review
written by: Jared Isaac
produced by: Zach Aries, Becky Boggs, Jared Isaac, JohnPaul Morris & Brandon Somerhalder
directed by: Jared Isaac
rating: not rated
runtime: 98 min.
U.S. release date: April 23, 2026 (Music Box Theatre, Chicago, IL) & June 2, 2026 (Digital Platforms)
“An Autumn Summer” is one of those films that leans into experiences and memories rather than offering a narrative or character arc, and that will be a strike against it for some. But it’s actually one of the film’s strengths. The convincing, immersive ways in which writer/director Jared Isaac captures the waning days of summer in his directorial debut are impressive. You don’t have to be familiar with the geography or have had a similar experience to the young characters in this story to relate to that feeling when the days spent with your friends are numbered. “An Autumn Summer” captures those bittersweet, uncertain feelings when we know adulthood is looming. Read more…
BACKROOMS (2026) review
written by: Will Soodik (based on the series by Kane Parsons)
produced by: Peter Chernin, Michael Clear, Dan Cohen, Chris Ferguson, Dan Levine, Shawn Levy, Kane Parsons, Roberto Patino, Osgood Perkins, Jenno Topping, and James Wan
directed by: Kane Parsons
rated: R (for language and some violent content/bloody images)
runtime: 110 min.
U.S. release date: May 29, 2026
“I’m sorry that I broke the glass and woke you up.”
2026 will be remembered as the year that the YouTube generation beat Hollywood at its own game. In January, YouTuber Mark Fischbach’s “Iron Lung” opened less than a million dollars behind the big-budget “Send Help,” and YouTuber Curry Barker’s debut film “Obsession” just outgrossed the new Star Wars movie at the box office. Now, 20-year old Kane Parsons has just delivered A24 their biggest ever opening with his directorial debut “Backrooms,” starring Oscar nominees Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve. Read more…
FORASTERA (2025) review
written by: Lucía Aleñar Iglesias
produced by: Marta Cruañas, Ariadna Dot, Tono Folguera, Olivier Guerpillon, Cesc Mulet, Giovanni Pompili & Marta Reguera
directed by: Lucía Aleñar Iglesias
rated: not rated
runtime: 97 min.
U.S. release date: May 29, 2026 (limited)
In the family drama “Forastera”, the feature-length directorial debut of Spanish writer/director Lucía Aleñar Iglesias, a bucolic summer vacation is interrupted by sudden tragedy. Set on Mallorca, one of Spain’s Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, known for its beach resorts, sheltered coves, and limestone mountains, Iglesias leans into the location’s beauty. It’s a place Iglesias often visited as a child, which is probably why her film seems to know it so intimately. The title is often used to describe visitors or transplants to Mallorca from the Spanish mainland, and here it specifically refers to the teenage protagonist who unexpectedly navigates loss, grief, and identity. Read more…
I LOVE BOOSTERS (2026) review
written by: Boots Riley
produced by: Allison Rose Carter, Jon Read, Boots Riley, Aaron Ryder, Andrew Swett
directed by: Boots Riley
rated: R (for strong sexual content, nudity, language throughout and brief drug use)
runtime: 105 min.
U.S. release date: May 22, 2026
“Get your camera out, let’s go live.”
One of the more unforgettable movies of the last decade, Boots Riley’s 2018 feature directorial debut “Sorry to Bother You” presented one of the strangest visions of the world ever put to film. The Chicago-born rapper proved himself a unique visual stylist with one foot firmly in the surreal, and though the film wasn’t for everyone, it established Riley as a filmmaker to watch. Read more…
TIME AND WATER (2026) review
written by: Sara Dosa, Jocelyne Chaput, Erin Casper, and Andri Snær Magnason
produced by: Jameka Autry, Shane Boris, Sara Dosa & Elijah Stevens
directed by: Sara Dosa
rated: not rated
runtime: 90 min.
U.S. release date: May 29, 2026 (limited)
“Time and Water,” director Sara Dosa’s follow-up to her award-winning, Oscar-nominated 2022 documentary “Fire of Love,” continues her exploration of fascinating connections between humans and nature. She deemed that film, which followed married French volcanologists and their passionate obsession with volcanoes, a love story. In her latest documentary, Dosa focuses on Andri Snær Magnason, Icelandic writer/poet/environmentalist, as he simultaneously tackles two tragedies: the death of one of his country’s glaciers and the passing of his beloved grandparents. These losses are covered by sharing personal video archives of the past and present, inevitably succincly weaving together themes of family and memory with time and water. Read more…
STAR WARS: THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU (2026) review
written by: Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, and Noah Kloor
produced by: Kathleen Kennedy, Ian Bryce, Jon Favreau & Dave Filoni
directed by: Jon Favreau
rated: PG-13 (for sci-fi violence and action)
runtime: 132 min.
U.S. release date: May 22, 2026
Despite being a fan since 1977, I can’t say I’ve looked forward to every theatrically-released Star Wars movie. When “Rogue One” came out, I maintained that we didn’t really need a story about the plans and creation of the first Death Star, nor did we need a movie that synced with the minutes leading up to “A New Hope”. That movie did both. I had hoped that a Star Wars outside of the trilogies we were familiar with could expand on the existing universe, but that didn’t really happen. We may not get that until next year’s “Starfighter”, but I remain skeptical about that. Meanwhile, there’s “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu”, the first theatrical release since the lackluster “The Rise of Skywalker” in 2019, the same year “The Mandalorian”, created by Jon Favreau, debuted on Disney+ and became a major hit. Read more…
OBSESSION (2026) review
written by: Curry Barker
produced by: James Harris, Haley Nicole Johnson, Christian Mercuri, and Roman Viaris
directed by: Curry Barker
rated: R (for strong bloody violence, grisly images, sexual content, pervasive language, and brief graphic nudity)
runtime: 109 min.
U.S. release date: May 15, 2026
After watching writer/director Curry Barker’s feature-length directorial debut, “Obsession”, I thought to myself, “They are missing out if they don’t market this with the tagline, ‘Be Careful What You Wish For”, but the official tagline, “Be Careful Who You Wish For” for the movie is actually more appropriate. That’s because the young man’s wish in this unsettling, twisted horror flick has a wholly unexpected and alarming impact on someone else. Granting wishes has been around as long as fairy tales, often accompanied by a degree of understandable caution for the wisher. Barker updates that longstanding tradition while also riffing on The Monkey’s Paw, a short horror story written by W.W. Jacobs published in 1902 that finds three wishes fulfilled with enormous repercussions. While there are darkly comedic moments incorporated into “Obsession”, what stands out is how grim and gutsy things get as the filmmaker and his actors lose themselves to this unsettling tale of despair. Read more…
ODYSSEY (2025) review
written by: Austin Collings and Gerard Johnson
produced by: Isabel Freer, John Jencks, Patrick Tolan, Matthew James Wilkinson
directed by: Gerard Johnson
rated: not rated (language and violent content equivalent to an R-rating)
runtime: 110 min.
U.S. release date: April 28, 2026 (VOD)
“There’s always a bit of light somewhere, may not be much, but it beats the fucking darkness.”
Have you ever had one of those weeks where you just have to go through it? Everything piles up on you, seemingly out of nowhere, and you have no choice but to plow ahead. Natasha Flynn (Polly Maberly) has one of those weeks in “Odyssey,” a film set at the surprisingly robust intersection of the real estate world and the criminal underworld.
