Briefly (8 July 2026)

Movies Apostle (2018) D: Gareth Evans. S: Dan Stevens, Michael Sheen, Lucy Boynton, Mark Lewis Jones, Kristine Froseth. Early twentieth-century lapsed, traumatized British missionary Stevens goes to save his sister from cultists on their island. The pro-colonialist, low-key Church of England propaganda is icky but more interesting than the plot for the first hour. The second is then pseudo-gore and terrible acting from Lewis Jones. Stevens’s bad. Bad writing, directing. Somehow, Sheen perseveres. Ballistic (2026) D: Chad Faust. S: Lena Headey, Hamza Haq, Amybeth McNulty, Enrico Colantoni, Amanda Brugel. Headey’s great as a red state mom who finds out a bullet she made killed her son in Afghanistan. Will she seek help from grief counselor Haq, support struggling pregnant daughter-in-law McNulty, or go all Charles Bronson until she finds the person most responsible? Decent direction, solid low-budget production, but way too thin, especially the characters. A Countess from Hong Kong…