Movie theaters kicked off 2026 with an unusually high number of potential blockbusters, but the critical reception and box office pulls have been mixed: Project Hail Mary—surprise success! Wuthering Heights—far below expectations. The Bride!—total flop. Instead, some of the year's top films have come with much smaller fanfare. In our list of the best movies of 2026 so far, film critic Max Cea breaks down how independent cinema is picking up the slack by releasing festival favorites like Pillion and the Oscar-nominated documentary The Voice of Hind Rajab. Read on to discover some of his other favorites below. —Josh Rosenberg, editor, news and entertainment |
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While some blockbusters were a bit of a letdown, Pillion, The Voice of Hind Rajab, and The Plague started the year off strong for independent cinema.
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The year is off to a great start for movies, as long as you're not a major studio. The highest-profile films of the year so far—Wuthering Heights, The Bride!, Send Help, Scream 7, and, yes, even Project Hail Mary—didn't hit the highs that critics expected. The most common denominator was the one thing no blockbuster should ever suffer from: dullness. Still, I hate to paint with such a broad brush. Some of the films listed above—including Project Hail Mary's recent box-office wins—should be commended for earnestly swinging for the fences. But there's no reason big budgets should preclude fresh ideas or stories that honestly dig a little deeper. |
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First thing's first: Backpacks are not just for students. They aren't only meant for college kids. Grown men with actual jobs—conference calls, commutes, office badges, the whole soul-eating corporate shebang—deserve a good backpack, too. And honestly, they make way more practical sense than messenger bags, brief cases, or flimsy totes. A backpack spreads the weight evenly across your back, not concentrated on one sad side of your body. We're aware that a lot of work backpacks are, for lack of a better term, hideous. Some look like you're about to summit Everest on your lunch break, while others go so hard on practicality that they forget you still have to walk into an office and be seen by all your coworkers. Then there are the stylish ones—sleek, minimalist bags that photograph well but can barely hold a laptop, let alone your chargers, water bottle, lunch, and everything else you need to get you through the workday. Looking good is important, and so is having durable materials, enough pockets, a real laptop compartment, and a decent capacity for everything you need. |
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Among the movies screened at this year's SXSW was a little indie that really could. We Were Here, written and directed by Pranav Bhasin, is a knee-slapping short mockumentary about Indian retirees who push back against AI's dominance by taking over the jobs of machines. I guarantee you won't see anything funnier for the rest of 2026 than an old man, duct-taped to the back of a minivan, making beeping noises and yelling to the driver how close they are to the curb. We Were Here is a triumph all on its own, a ten-minute darling with heart, wit, and DIY grit. But against the backdrop of a festival overrun with AI start-ups, Bhasin's film shines even brighter as an insightful, maybe even radical work of art that ponders artificial intelligence and offers genuine soul instead. It is the sort of movie that inspires award-winning actor Andrew Scott. It's why he's the face of Redbreast Unhidden, the official showcase for short films at SXSW. "It's about supporting filmmakers," Scott tells Esquire. |
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