© 2026 The Couch Critic
In the summer of 1977, a group of working girls are being coerced by a mysterious and sinister pimp Bossy Jim and his young partner Chaka, to become involved in a profit-share scheme.
Paid Mourners follows a family of professional mourners, where the unique trade is passed down through the women of the household. 16-year-old Margo, however, has other plans. A rising TikTok star, she has no interest in continuing this decidedly unglamorous tradition. Her resolve is put to the test when her grandmother, Bavo, announces she has only one week to live. With Margo’s mother absent, the responsibility of inheriting the family legacy falls squarely on her shoulders. Determined to pass on the mantle, Bavo has only seven days to help Margo prepare her for the role she was born to take.
Benny is haunted by guilt after his fiance dies in a car accident. In his spiral, he reconnects with Kam, a troubled childhood friend who pulls him into robbery and fraud, a desperate plan to flee to Mexico and leave their lives behind.
A documentary record of the live event hosted by Video Store(age) on February 27 at Life World in New York City. The roasters included the following luminaries, trouble makers, and last-minute substitutions: Yung Chomsky, Lily Lady, Christian Lorentzen, Sharon Mashihi, Peter Rinaldi, Joe Swanberg, Onur Tukel, Pacho Velez, and Joshua Z. Weinstein.
In a process of dual reconstruction, the restoration of an old Norwegian sheriff's house intersects with the imagined tasks of historical figures who were once part of that family. Like a slow rollercoaster ride through time and space, the film follows the transition between the past and the future of a house worthy of preservation.
While spending the afternoon with his grandmother, Solange, Noah receives a call from his boyfriend, Théo. Théo brings up their breakup, accusing Noah of not fully embracing his sexuality. Noah decides to go see him in an attempt to save their relationship. Solange decides to tag along, hoping to finally meet the "girlfriend" Noah rarely talks about.
Leo (12) tries to fish with a homemade rod on the riverbank, dealing with the distant gaze of his father, Luis (50), who remains lost in his own grief. The distance between them seems irreconcilable until the river offers Leo a gift: a unique fishing hook.
A fascinating glimpse of Godard at work during the filming of the celebrated interview sequence in Notre musique featuring the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.
When Grace wakes up on an unknown world with no memory of how she got there, she finds herself racing against the clock to find her way back to base-camp before her oxygen runs out. With only her dad's voice in her ear to guide her, she begins to wonder whether she's really heading to the right place at all.
Kyowakai acting chairman Baba (Akihiko Kuwata) is attacked, and despite Himuro (Yasukaze Motomiya) and Tamura (Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi) rushing to the scene, the assailant escapes. The Keihin Alliance and Marugami-kai suspect Hirakawa (Hitomi Matsuda), who had poor relations with Baba, but based on witness Reiko’s (Reira Arai) description of the attacker, Himuro identifies a likely suspect. Ordering Reiko to stay silent and refusing police involvement, Kyowakai launches its own manhunt. As Baba remains in critical condition and suspicion toward Hirakawa grows among investigators and Kyowakai executives, Himuro quietly burns with thoughts of revenge.
A neurotic, alcoholic trans man struggles through navigating his social and love life.
Sandra Hüller portrays Ingeborg Bachmann on an imaginary day in Rome. Regina Schilling’s hybrid film weaves together reenactments, archival footage, and Bachmann’s own writings into a portrait that offers a refreshing new perspective on the author and positions her writings as a reference point in current debates on gender relations and power.
When his estranged son returns to confront him with the remnants of the past, an elderly deaf fisherman retreats into silence. However, a final memory forgotten at the bottom of a box calls into question what he believed to have been a sacrifice for his family.
When Parker finds out that her best friend, Moonie, has been accidentally dating a stand-up comedian, she attempts to save her friend from embarrassment by convincing her that a breakup is in order, but Moonie doesn’t see the problem.
Proof of concept
