Dust Bunny, 2025.

Written and Directed by Bryan Fuller.
Starring Sophie Sloan, Mads Mikkelsen, Sigourney Weaver, David Dastmalchian, Rebecca Henderson, Sheila Atim, and Nóra Trokán.

SYNOPSIS:

An eight-year-old girl asks her scheming neighbor for help in killing the monster under her bed that she thinks ate her family.

As far as cinematic metaphors go, the idea of monsters as hitmen from the perspective of an eight-year-old girl is rather inspired. It also works since writer/director Bryan Fuller doesn’t stop at just the idea, but also grounds Dust Bunny in a fantasy-lite world that keeps viewers on their toes, wondering what is real and what is magical, even when we begin to suspect where the filmmaker will inevitably go with the answers.

Similarly, the script is also whimsical, sometimes rhymes, and peppered with humor that brings to mind a children’s fairytale. Everything about Bryan Fuller’s narrative vision is so confidently and imaginatively realized that it also doesn’t matter that he doesn’t necessarily have the financial backing to ensure the CGI is top-of-the-line, although it is serviceable for the material.

Terrified of the monster under her bed (a monstrously oversized dust bunny), Aurora’s (Sophie Sloan) parents naturally assume she is fibbing and that her fears are the result of a hyperactive imagination. Her parents are murdered offscreen, though, by something, and given that much of the film is from her perspective, that is accomplished through special-effects-driven moving floorboards and destruction. The monster also seems to come out only when someone touches the floor (which no one believes Aurora about), meaning the now-orphaned girl moves around her house in a makeshift boat. This also means that this is not the first time monsters have gotten her parents.

One night, Aurora notices a stranger (credited as Intriguing Neighbor and played by regular Bryan Fuller collaborator, the endlessly engaging no matter the role, Mads Mikkelsen, here in what is tonally a riff on Leon the Professional by way of Guillermo del Toro) sneaking around and trying to remain undetected, seemingly focused on something with great purpose. It turns out the man is an assassin of monsters, taking down a multi-eyed dragon in Chinatown during what appears to be a highly festive celebration of the Chinese New Year. Naturally, Aurora gets the idea to send over an envelope of money, hiring him to kill the monster under her bed. The neighbor (who is amusingly always being corrected for pronouncing Aurora as “Erora”) insists that he doesn’t kill monsters. Meanwhile, Aurora assures him she knows what she saw.

Working with his handler, Laverne (Sigourney Weaver), the neighboring assassin can deduce that whoever killed Aurora’s parents got the wrong apartment number and had meant to kill him. Much more cold-blooded and straight to the point, she also encourages him to get rid of the girl since she knows his face. However, this violent hitman also has a soft spot and takes it upon himself to inquire into the girl’s life and to offer protection, feeling responsible for the death of her parents.

The film also works so well as a two-hander that it can be occasionally frustrating, and it doesn’t quite work whenever the story incorporates smaller supporting players into the mix (these scenes also come across as padding to fill time). There also isn’t much concern about fleshing out this assassination world or the types of clients the neighbor is generally tasked with taking out.

By the time another group of hitmen, led by underappreciated character actor David Dastmalchian, enters the picture, Bryan Fuller is ready to fully merge reality and fantasy into an exciting piece of cleanly shot, wondrous action. Dust Bunny relies heavily on its central metaphor but is elevated by the charm of its lead performances and their interplay. Sure, there isn’t much here regarding depth, but that’s more than made up for with the imagination on hand.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★

Robert Kojder

A Private Life, 2025.

Directed by Rebecca Zlotowski.
Starring Jodie Foster, Daniel Auteuil, Virginie Efira, Mathieu Amalric, Vincent Lacoste, Luàna Bajrami, Noam Morgensztern, Sophie Guillemin, Frederick Wiseman, Aurore Clément, Irène Jacob, Park Ji-Min, Jean Chevalier, Emma Ravier, Scott Agnesi Delapierre, and Lucas Bleger.

SYNOPSIS:

The renowned psychiatrist Lilian Steiner mounts a private investigation into the death of one of her patients, whom she is convinced has been murdered.

The first order of business here is to note that the so-called renowned psychiatrist Lilian Steiner is French, meaning that Jodie Foster speaks French throughout the majority of co-writer/director Rebecca Zlotowski’s mystery A Private Life. Her accent and handling of the language are also impressive, and that alone is a reason to check out the film. It also must be mentioned that Lilian isn’t precisely a psychiatrist fully attentive to her patients; if anything, she seems bored by them, which is perhaps part of the reason why her mind concocts a riddle to solve within her recordings when a patient, Paula Cohen-Solal (Virginie Efira), turns up dead.

One of Lilian’s patients also shows up hostile, demanding that their sessions be finished as he has found a hypnotist capable of curing his vices (smoking) in a limited time. This also piques her curiosity and brings her to that same hypnotist, where, even though she is condescending and dismissive of the entire concept, she finds herself falling under a spell that could hold clues to uncovering the murderer. With that said, it’s as much a film about Lilian questioning her purpose and the methods deployed regarding her line of work as it is a crafty, twisty puzzle box to solve.

Divorced from her husband, Lillan gets roped into helping Gabriel (Daniel Auteuil), who gets roped into her bumbling around, which inevitably leads to discussions about their failed love life. Similarly, Lillan also has a fractured relationship with her grown son, Julian (Vincent Lacoste), now a parent himself, with the running joke that whenever she stops by, the baby wakes up and starts crying profusely. Her personal life is rife with confusion, and her professional life is a bore, pushing her further and further into a mystery that might solely be in her head.

Not to give too much away, but there probably wouldn’t be a movie if there was absolutely nothing to solve here. Naturally, A Private Life has plenty of suspects that crop up from the tapes Lilian plays back to herself, searching for something that will point her in the right direction. It turns out that Paula also led a dysfunctional family life, but, more concerning, it could also be a suicide potentially aided by Lilian herself, once accidentally prescribing the wrong dosage of medicine. With the way some of those recordings are shot and presented in a hazy, hypnotic flashback form, complete with close-ups of Paula lying down on the couch, one also begins to wonder if there is a psychosexual angle at play here.

It shouldn’t be any surprise that A Private Life (co-written by Anne Berest, in collaboration with Gaëlle Macé) is also aggressively silly while cycling through every potential suspect, and that, even if there are clear answers here, the narrative is less about what happened and more about and more proper, present method of conducting therapy. The message the film ultimately lands on there isn’t entirely convincing. To be fair, everything involving the hypnotism is also quite absurd and strains credulity. However, it doesn’t take away from the fact that this is still an entertaining mystery with some compelling character work and an engrossing, controlled spiral of a performance from Jodie Foster.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★

Robert Kojder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist

Originally published December 6, 2025. Updated December 7, 2025.

Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, 2025.

Directed by Quentin Tarantino.
Starring Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Michael Madson, Daryl Hannah, Julie Dreyfus, Chiaki Kuriyama, Gordon Liu, Shin’ichi Chiba, Michael Parks, James Parks, Kenji Ôba and Perla Haney-Jardine.

SYNOPSIS

Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair unites Volume 1 and Volume 2 into a single, unrated epic—presented exactly as he intended, complete with a new, never-before-seen anime sequence.

Over 20 years after Quentin Tarantino’s two-volume revenge epic Kill Bill was released in theatres, the director’s complete vision of one unified film finally sees its wide release after only a few rare showings of Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair. The result is a reminder of some of Tarantino’s strongest work as well as Uma Thurman’s powerful performance as the blood-spattered Bride which is made more impactful by combining the two volumes into one.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that even after so long Kill Bill remains one of Tarantino’s best works in his long career. The film is a great mix of the western and martial arts genres full of memorable characters, snappy dialogue and incredible action scenes. The Bride’s battle with the Crazy 88 gang feels entirely new as The Whole Bloody Affair‘s unrated cut sees the fight’s black-and-white sequence restored to colour, allowing viewers to soak in (no pun intended) all its blood and gore. The original black-and-white still has its own shine, but one can gain a newer appreciation with the colour’s vibrant setting and stellar choreography.

The combined nature of the film also provides more nuance to the story and performances. With Tarantino having re-edited the ending of Vol. 1 to remove the cliffhangers and Vol. 2‘s opening recap, the narrative structure flows very well to better convey the overall story even with Vol. 2‘s more dialogue-heavy and story-driven focus compared to the more action-packed Vol. 1. The throughline with its story, themes and character development is much more noticeable in The Whole Bloody Affair than having to switch discs or streaming the next part when watching the films back-to-back.

This is where Uma Thurman’s performance really shines through. The Bride was already one of her best roles 20 years ago, but watching her performance in this nature really highlights the strength of her arc and nuances she put into the character. This is especially clear in the different versions of The Bride she portrays, from her assassin training to willing bride to determined avenger. No scene is this clearer in when she discovers her daughter alive and well, a fact that in this cut of Kill Bill the audience finds out the same time as The Bride, giving the revelation a much stronger gut punch due to Thurman’s emotions and her subsequent scenes with BB.

Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair also benefits from additional changes. Aside from the removal of cliffhangers and the full-colour fight, some extra footage is added here and there but mostly in the anime sequence detailing O-Ren Ishi’s origin which includes a completely new scene of O-Ren exacting vengeance on another of her parents’ murderers. The new scene fits right in with the rest of the anime and is rich in its own right with the characters smooth movements and choreography. While it may not have been entirely needed, it is still very entertaining to watch and getting more backstory on O-Ren is never a bad thing as Lucy Liu made her quite a memorable antagonist.

Tarantino’s Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair shows how much stronger many of its elements are as one film as opposed to two volumes. From the fight scenes, the story, the writing and the performances, a whole lot more nuance is gained in this cohesive film particularly with Thurman’s performance. If you’re a fan of Tarantino’s earlier work and of the Kill Bill films, The Whole Bloody Affair is the definitive way to watch this iconic story.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★

Ricky Church – Follow me on Bluesky for more movie news and nerd talk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist