Silver Screen Riot

You probably haven't even heard of 'Tuner' - a crime drama about a piano tuner who starts cracking safes - but you should seek this hidden gem out in theaters immediately. It's terrific.

In theaters today!

Exhilarating Crime Drama ‘TUNER’ is the Surprise Gem of the Year - Silver Screen Riot Daniel Roher's 'Tuner' transforms a clever safe-cracking premise into a thrilling, emotionally resonant story about finding purpose in disability.

‘Backrooms’ feels like it already has a viral following before it’s even hit theaters but what should audiences expect? Nothing short of an unapologetically surreal, Lynchian nightmare-scape that doesn’t care to spoon-feed audiences answers. Very unsettling if likely to narratively alienate some viewers.

In theaters Friday.

Lynchian Curio ‘BACKROOMS’ Is Like Being Trapped Inside Somebody Else’s Bad Dream - Silver Screen Riot A24’s 'Backrooms' is a deeply unsettling Lynchian horror film from Kane Parsons that weaponizes liminal spaces and existential dread.

I would say that ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ is one of the worst movies of the decade but it barely even qualifies as a movie. Bloated, cheap-looking, and entirely devoid of movie qualities like plot, character growth, decent dialogue, this sets a horrifying new bar for how bad the once beloved galaxy far far away can be.

Pointless, Bloated, and Cheap-Looking, 'THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU' Is an Epic Star Wars Crash Out - Silver Screen Riot 'The Mandalorian and Grogu' isn't a movie, it's barely even content. Favreau and Filoni deliver a creatively bankrupt non-event that may have killed my love of Star Wars.

Another SIFF shorty: 'Mārama' is a Māori Gothic horror movie about the long, dark shadow of colonialism.

SIFF ‘26 Capsule Review: 'MĀRAMA' Scares Off Horrors of Colonialism - Silver Screen Riot Taratoa Stappard’s 'Mārama' filters familiar gothic horror through a pointed Māori cultural lens, with rage-fueled subtext that cuts deeper than its scares.

You may have heard the hype building around ‘Obsession’…and you should believe every word of it. That rare scary-black comedy cautionary tale that executes both its horror and hilarity with surgical precision. I loved it.

In Haunting, Hilarious ‘OBSESSION’ A “Nice Guy” Wishes His Way Out of the Friend-Zone - Silver Screen Riot A darkly funny and legitimately chilling horror-comedy, 'Obsession' twists romantic fantasy into a nightmare of control, led by a fantastic Inde Navarrette.

'Is God Is' is a horrible movie name. But this stylish vengeance-fueled black comedy is more compelling than its terrible title suggests, though not without its flaws.

In theaters Friday.

‘IS GOD IS’ Channels Familial Fury into a Vengeful Melodrama - Silver Screen Riot Is God Is is a terrible movie title, of this I have no doubt. The name implies a religious element that isn’t there, while also sounding like a grammatical nightmare. The debut feature from playwright-turned-director Aleshea Harris, adapting her own stage work of the same name, is instead a stylis...

Another SIFF shorty:
An atmospheric, character-rich glimpse into Iran’s defiant art underground, ‘The Friend’s House is Here‘ mostly rewards patient viewers. It's playing SIFF @ Friday, May 8 @ 8:30, SIFF Cinema Uptown and Saturday, May 9 @ 2:15 PM, SIFF Cinema Uptown.

SIFF ‘26 Capsule Review: 'THE FRIEND'S HOUSE IS HERE' Exhumes Tehran's Underground Art Scene - Silver Screen Riot 'The Friend's House' is an intimate slice-of-life portrait following two close friends navigating defiance, friendship, and censorship in Tehran's underground art world.

Really enjoyed this documentary about bilateral amputee Mandy Horvath’s attempt to quite literally crawl up Mt. Kilimanjaro.
Playing at SIFF: Saturday, May 9, 2026 @ 2:30 PM, PACCAR IMAX Theater at Pacific Science Center
and
Sunday, May 10, 2026 @ 6:00 PM, SIFF Cinema Uptown

SIFF ‘26 Capsule Review: 'THE ASCENT' Scales the Heights of Human Drama and Kilimanjaro...Sans Legs - Silver Screen Riot The Ascent is a hybrid climbing documentary and true-crime portrait following Mandy Horvath’s harrowing journey up Mount Kilimanjaro and toward reclaiming her identity.

For me, 'Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D)' was a painful experience. If you like concert films where the screaming, crying, off-key-singing fans are as much of a show as the main attraction, it may however be for you. Also, it's in 3D...

'BILLIE EILISH – HIT ME HARD AND SOFT: THE TOUR (LIVE IN 3D)': The Fan Service - Silver Screen Riot A James Cameron–shot 3D Billie Eilish concert film that buries her vocals under fan screams and turns the worst part of a concert into the main attraction.

'Swapped' features the voice talent of Michael B. Jordan and Juno Temple and despite some alluring animation, it's a pretty forgettable Netflix kids movie. Inoffensive but bland.

‘SWAPPED’ Is a Pretty Bird That Settles With Just Flapping Around - Silver Screen Riot There’s a special kind of obnoxious nothingness to the way people talk about “world peace.” Not the wanting of it. Wanting world peace is fine, obviously. It’s the framing that gets under the skin: the tiara-and-sash simple-mindedness of it, the idea that wishing hard enough into a microphon...