Jedi lovers will doubly be jaded again

 THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU (2026)

Endured by Jerry Saravia

Perhaps what made "The Mandalorian" work in most of its three seasons on the Disney+ channel was its intimacy. The Mandalorian himself was a bounty hunter modeled on Boba Fett and something of an enigmatic gunslinger in the fine tradition of the good old westerns. Once he finds a Baby Yoda (Grogu, a tiny green creature with wizened ears who can use the Force and has a propensity for eating anything within reach) and rescues him, we all Jaded Jedi lovers developed a love for this unusual buddy-buddy in the world of the vast Star Wars universe. "The Mandalorian and Grogu," a feature film extension following the first 3 seasons loses all intimacy and a sense of adventure or genuine action scenes with purpose. I hate to report that this is the first Star Wars movie in eons, in 12 parsecs maybe, that left me bored.

The movie opens with a council meeting where there are discussions on bringing back the Empire that had long vanquished. Before long, one inquisitive associate is gunned down. Mando arrives (played once again by Pedro Pascal and two other stand-ins) and laser blasts the entire council room of its Stormtrooper guards and successfully knocks down a few AT-AT's with the help of the cute-as-a-button Grogu. It is a snowy landscape a'la Hoth and Mando kills an Imperial warlord whom he was to bring in for questioning to the New Republic. Yeah, Mando bringing in someone for questioning is like asking Grogu not to use the Force. Since that incident got "messy" according to the New Republic's Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver), Mando is sent on another mission - to rescue Jabba the Hutt's son, Rotta (voiced by Jeremy Allen White), who is imprisoned and forced to fight gladiator-style battles with various opponents. The idea is to return the son to the Hutt crime clan who, in exchange, will spill the beans on some new members of the Empire and their dastardly plans.

Some of this could have lent itself to more dramatic confrontations and deeper character exploration about everyone's favorite masked bounty hunter. I'd also would have liked to learn more about Grogu. Worse yet is that other than some ugly monster guards that look like rejects from the Cantina Bar and a mysterious bounty hunter villain with a flat-rimmed shield over his head, there is no real villainous presence here. There's Janu Coin (Jonny Coyne), a devious warlord and Rotta's master but he is seen too fleetingly. We get endless rescue attempts and sheer repetition and monotony of action chases and shootouts. The one chase scene thru what looks like a "Blade Runner" city is quite lamely composed and thrown together with no sense of geography. Nothing that appears on screen is exciting, humane or thrilling because the characters are mere window dressing. Only Grogu shows his sweetness and dedication to his adopted father particularly towards the end when mortality looms near. 

There is a mild humorous exchange between Mando and Rotta about fitting in at the New Republic's headquarters but other than that (and Scorsese's wild animated cook character), nothing else will entertain. I never thought the day would come when I would call a "Star Wars" movie generic. Time to explore new worlds.

Quintessential Liminal Space Horror Movie

 BACKROOMS (2026)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Liminal spaces in abandoned, closed-off areas are slowly becoming a subgenre of horror. Early in 2026, I saw the unsettling "Exit 8" which has liminal spaces in the form of endless subway corridors. "Backrooms" might become the quintessential liminal space horror movie, a most unsettling and unnerving movie experience. It is nightmarish, subversive and elliptical particularly as a surrealistic experience that may drive you up the wall. It has driven me up the wall and beyond.

There's a dank-looking furniture store, Cap'n Clark's Ottoman Empire, that is reducing prices though it makes little difference. The parking lot is expansive with this store existing in the middle of it, and no customers ever come by. Chiwetel Ejiofor is the store owner, Clark, and you would think that dressing up as a pirate in commercial promos would help build sales but it doesn't (the store's name could use some revision). Clark is an alcoholic, a failed architect, and he has been forced out of his home by his unseen wife - he now lives in the spacious store. Problems circulate like wildfire with Clark not being able to pay the electrical bills, barely pay his two employees, and he sees an attentive therapist, Mary Klein (Renate Reinsve), who can aid Clark though she may not admit what his real problems are. Electricity malfunctions with lights going on and off at odd times in the store. Eventually, Clark notices something odd in the basement wall and finds he can walk through it to endless backrooms. One has furniture and a TV set in the middle of one room, leading to a dead bird, and more backrooms where chairs are embedded on ceilings and floors. There is also a surveillance camera and a couple of cardboard cutouts of people. What in creation is going on here? Is this another world created by aliens? (Perish that thought). Are these rooms part of other unfinished stores? (Perish that thought as well). Or is this all in Clark's mind, a gradual symptom of his alcoholism? (You can strike and perish that from the record as well). 

"Backrooms" is not just content with Clark's vivid perceptions but also with Mary's perceptions as well. She came from an unhappy childhood home where her agoraphobic mother sealed the windows with newspaper clippings and blocked their entrance door with furniture, afraid they will come for them if they are seen. The home is eventually demolished and, in a metaphorical sense, so is Clark's. These two eventually find themselves in these infinitely creepy backrooms because memories linger, for better or worse, and they become visual representations embedded in their own past. Not to mention that the destruction of a home or even other places long remembered by some also become represented in these backrooms. Maybe, maybe not.

20-year-old Kane Parsons has astonishingly directed "Backrooms," his first feature based on a Youtube web series which I must check out. There are no easy answers in what is the film equivalent of Salvador Dali surrealism crossed with Picasso's Cubist ideas poured in rather thickly. It is a mesh of visions that can startle, fascinate and deliberately question what you see on screen. A staircase leading to a door on a ceiling in the middle of dozens of rooms without partitions is one of the more notable examples of a Daliesque moment. Three characters existing in this vacuum with deformed, fragmented faces (they are Still Lifes that definitely echo Picasso) stand by idly. Silence pervades with echoes of music heard somewhere in the distance while everything is lit with fluorescent bulbs. All this would be striking in its own way yet the inclusion of Ejiofor's anxious Clark and Reinsve's subdued Mary is the icing on the creepypasta cake. Forewarning: if you suffer from anxiety, do not watch this movie.