By Dan Skip Allen

The Florida Film Festival is entering its 35th year of existence. With that anniversary come a lot of big expectations. Not only has the festival met these, but they have exceeded them. Between the great guests like Paul Giamatti and Judge Reinhold to all the amazing films, the festival had a feeling that it was better than ever. The main part of that is the movies from all across the globe and the country as a whole. Here are a handful of Capsule Reviews from some films I saw at the festival. They range from good to bad. You’re always going to get a mix of different levels of movies at the festival regarding quality.

Junkie

Stevie (Rocky Shay) is an ex-convict who escapes her rehab and goes back to her old stomping grounds. She convinces her dealer, Kyle (Killian Morr), that she should go back to work for him selling drugs again. He reluctantly agrees and sends her and Sherry Lea Risco) to go around making money selling drugs. She wants to redeem herself in the eyes of her son Liam (Ratt Keeter), who she loves even though they haven’t seen each other in a while. Returning home brings back bad memories for some in the town, including Rick (Drew Faulkner), an old boyfriend, her mother, Glenda (Salle Hooks), and others. After a drug deal goes bad, it causes her to get way over her head. She feels she can do better, though, and she wants one last chance at redemption in the eyes of her son and her friends who have come to know her better. 

The writer/director of “Junkie”  William Means brought his country charm to this film. He infused a southern small town sensibilities that everybody who lives in one of these towns knows all too well. The drugs, the parties, and the mud bog festival are all staples of small town southern living. He assembled a terrific cast of nobody’s who all do a good job in this movie. Specifically, Rocky, who makes this film worth watching. She channels all the crazy drug addicted women I’ve seen on television and movies in the past. And in real life. There is also a heart-felt story of redemption at the heart of this movie. Anybody with a heart can relate to this story. We’ve all had a hard time in our lives. And I’m sure we wish we could have a second chance. Sometimes, a happy ending isn’t exactly what happens, though. This was a terrific film with realistic aspects. Many people watching will take one side or the other with it, but there is no doubt it will be worth their time.

4 stars

Hokum

Damian McCarthy came on the Hollywood scene with a bang in 2020 with his breakout hit “Caveat” and subsequently in 2024 with “Oddity”. His most recent film “Hokum” has now played at the SXSW and Florida Film Festivals with high praise. It’s a blend of folk, body, and supernatural horror. It stars Adam Scott as a jaded author who goes to a secluded Irish vacation Inn to Barry his parents’ ashes. Instead, he gets embroiled in a mystery involving murder, a local witch tale, and meets some crazy characters straight out of a Scooby-Doo episode. If you think you might have seen this before, you’re probably right. The film “1409” comes to mind when thinking about this film. They have a lot of similarities.

McCarthy brings his own unique sensibilities to the ghost or haunted house genre, though. He gives his characters, including a couple of innkeepers, a handyman, and a local vagabond, some backstories that keep them all very interesting. The supporting cast’s stories are almost as interesting and engaging as the main characters’ story. There is a lot of depth and imagination that goes along with this film. As a horror film, there are also a few jump scares. The inn itself is like a character in the movie, and a honeymoon suite that has been haunted and locked for years comes into effect in the overall context of the story. This film was fantastic. It kept me on the edge of my seat the entire runtime. Adam Scott was a terrific protagonist. Hopefully, people will flock to see this horror Mashup of genres.

4 stars

A Spoonful of Chocolate 

RZA is a musician with the rap band Wu-Tang Cland and a filmmaker in his own right with movies such as “The Man With The Iron Fists” under his belt as a director and actor. His latest movie is “A Spoonful of Chocolate “ and stars Shamiek Moore as Unique, an ex-soldier who was in prison. He is released from prison on good behavior and is assigned a parole officer played by Blair Underwood. After a stint at a halfway house, he is allowed to go to Ohio, where his one relative lives. Ramsey (RJ Cyler ) is his cousin. They catch up after a long time apart by hanging out and then playing a one on one game of basketball. After the game, they are confronted by a group of men. They try to Acosta them for playing in their gym as they say, but the tide is turned on them as the Moore and Cyler characters get the better of them. They then go get their bigger leader to finish the job they started, but it doesn’t go well for the Cyler character. The Moore character figures out there is more going on in this small town than he realized. These men are racists and they have the support from the sheriff, who is the father of the leader of the group. They frame him for things he didn’t do, but this is just the beginning of this crazy action film.

RZA infuses this film with the kind of action and blood and guts he’s been known for in his short directorial career. There are elements of white supremacy and harvesting organs in the story. Supposedly, this story was based on real events, but I don’t know how real or not that is. The story was hard to buy, but I could see that it might be real. The acting in the movie was okay, and the action was fine as well. I don’t know if this was what I expected from the mystery movie at the FFF 2026, but it was fine.  I can see how this story was an important one for RZA to write and direct. It was one that I wasn’t exactly thrilled by. I wasn’t the only one as a man ran out of the Enzian theater, saying this movie was triggering to him because of the violence and racist story and very violent subplot in it. 

3 stars

The Last Viking

“The Last Viking” is a Danish dark comedy directed by Anders Thomas Jansen, involving two brothers who haven’t gotten along for a while. One is learning disabled. Anker (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) and Manfred (Mads Mikkelsen) go on a treasure hunt together, looking for something from the past, and they encounter some issues along the way. Whether it’s some other people looking for the loot or people from their past who complicate things for the brothers. There is a lot of unexpected violence in this film. Akin to some video games I’ve seen in the past that do this. There is a heartfelt message at the center of this movie about how these brothers who haven’t gotten along for years come together for a common good and rekindle something. They realize that they are the only family they have in a world that doesn’t necessarily care about one of them. The Mikkelsen character is the learning disabled brother, and he has a sense of nervousness and wonder about him. Music is a language that he speaks fluently, though. This movie was a mixed bag for me because of the Danish sensibilities. Foreign films can have a lost in translation aspect to them. All in all, there was a good message at the core of this movie, and that’s what matters in the end.

3 stars 

Damned If You Do

A group of friends reunite after twenty-five years away from one another at their 25th high school reunion. When they were teenagers, they made a pact with the devil for riches and success. While at the reunion, they rekindle old relationships. They also try to find a loophole in the contract that they signed without reading it all those years ago. One of the groups, Charlie Hex (Kate Siegel), is a pop star/musician. Sigrid Jansen (Ginger Gonzaga) is an environmentalist. A third Adam Zimmerman (Paulo Costanzo) is a social media mogul. While Phel (Harvey Guillen) is the embodiment of the devil, the trio made the deal with it. The trio meet up with their old high-school friend Abigail Byrne (Beth Dover), who avoided the deal but may be able to help them figure a way out of the deal.

“Damned If You Do” has an interesting premise, but it didn’t work for me. There was a lot of blood and guts thrown in with humor, but the mix of these two things didn’t work at all. I’m not opposed to a comedic horror movie, but this one wasn’t the one for me. The acting was too cartoonist from everyone involved. I couldn’t take anyone seriously in this film. Especially the Guillen character. He didn’t come across as a serious threat in the film. He was just some odd comic relief. The drama between the trio and their old high school friends was interesting, but the movie didn’t explore this stuff enough. Most of the characters came across as annoying and ridiculous to me. I was sick of this film about 5 or 10 minutes into it, and it got worse from there.

2 stars