To kick off the new year, 2026’s first batch of Tiny Tapes Reviews is a nice mix of smaller indie productions with a couple of big studio releases thrown in for good measure. Overall it’s been a decent month for movie-watching, with nothing being under three stars this month (yippee!), and, as always, there’s something for everyone, from comedy to drama, action to horror, and just about everything in between!

This month’s TTRs includes: 100 Nights of Hero; Armand; The Baltimorons; Belén; A Big Bold Beautiful Journey; Descendent; Eddington; Fréwaka; Influencers; Queens of the Dead; Violent Ends.

Director: Julia Jackman
Writer: Julia Jackman, based on the graphic novel by Isabel Greenberg
Cast: Maika Monroe, Emma Corrin, Nicholas Galitzine, Amir El-Masry, Charli XCX, Richard E. Grant

Personally, I love a whimsical period drama that indulges fantastical elements (probably from growing up watching the likes of Gormenghast), and 100 Nights of Hero does exactly that. When Manfred (Galitzine) the dashing friend of Cherry’s (Monroe) neglectful husband Jerome (EL-Masry), comes to stay, she ignores his flirtations, unaware of a wager between the men that Manfred will not be able to seduce her while Jerome is away. All the while, Cherry’s maid Hero (Corrin) regales her with a story that she takes her time in finishing. The story has Shakespearean elements that make it feel familiar, along with the graphic novel’s inspiration from the One Thousand and One Nights Arabic tales, yet it absolutely has its own unique style and flare. The production design is like something out of a fever dream, the costumes and sets seemingly not too different from the graphic novel, and the performances are immersive and fun in spite of the story itself lacking depth.

Director: Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel
Writer: Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel
Cast: Renate Reinsve, Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Endre Hellestveit, Thea Lambrechts Vaulen

When widowed Elisabeth (Reinsve) is called in to her six-year-old son Armand’s school to attend a meeting regarding a serious allegation made against him, it opens up a whole can of worms between her and the parents of the accusing child Jon, revealing darker secrets that the school is unaware of. The first act of the film has a lot of intrigue, mainly surrounding how a six-year-old could be accused of ‘sexual deviation’, and does an excellent job of reeling the audience in. The second act delves deeper into the lives of the parents, further inflaming curiosity and revealing that there is more than meets the eye. The third act however starts to unravel things as the tone shifts from the psychological to the surreal, as though the final third of the script was handed to another writer who was unaware of the film’s themes. But, through it all, Renate Reinsve, who was recently nominated for her role in Sentimental Value, gives an incredible performance, holding much of the film together in its weaker moments. There are some scenes that are purposefully uncomfortably long, and Reinsve’s performance keeps them from being stagnant. If there’s just one reason to watch this film, it’s Reinsve.

Director: Jay Duplass
Writers: Jay Duplass, Michael Strassner
Cast: Michael Strassner, Liz Larsen, Olivia Luccardi

On Christmas Eve, Cliff (Strassner) has a dental emergency, and when he meets dentist Didi (Larsen), they end up on a spontaneous crazy adventure together, with romantic feelings growing between them. It’s a bizarre premise, and the execution is just as bizarre, especially considering Cliff is already in a pretty serious, if unhappy, relationship. The characters of Cliff and Didi are entertaining to watch as a pair, but individually they come across as the kind of people that don’t really know how to take responsibility for themselves. There are some humorous moments and some scenes of real emotional turmoil and pathos, with the depth of Cliff, a man struggling with sobriety, and Liz, a lonely older woman, giving the film its legs. I think certain audiences will appreciate it more than others, namely those who can relate to one (or both) of the characters.

Director: Dolores Fonzi
Writers: Laura Paredes, Dolores Fonzi, Agustina San Martín, Nicolás Britos, based on the non-fiction book by Ana Correa
Cast: Dolores Fonzi, Camila Plaate, Laura Paredes, Julieta Cardinali, Luis Machín

Shortlisted for Best International Feature at the 98th Academy Awards, Belén tells the story of a female lawyer’s fight to clear the name of her client accused of aborting a baby before abortion was legalised (in 2020) in Argentina, leading to a mass movement across the country in support of legalising abortion and exonerating the woman known publicly as Belén. It has all the grit of a legal drama while doing justice to its themes of feminism and patriarchal oppression, and the tenacity of the women fighting for justice is nothing short of inspiring. Plaate’s performance as Julieta (Belén) is incredible, but Fonzi’s performance as her lawyer Soledad Deza is tremendous. She leads with focus and empathy, and the women’s chemistry as a whole, including Julieta’s family and Soledad’s team, is an eye-opening lesson in the power we as women hold when we come together.

Director: Kogonada
Writer: Seth Reiss
Cast: Margot Robbie, Colin Farrell, Jennifer Grant, Hamish Linklater, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Kevin Kline, Lily Rabe

After meeting at a mutual friend’s wedding, singletons Sarah (Robbie), a cynical serial cheater, and David (Farrell), a believer in love and happy endings, end up on a fantastical road trip together that explores their respective pasts, presents and futures. I think peoples’ opinions on this film are so divided because it really depends on how much you can relate to it and how much you’re willing to give in to its optimism. The more sceptical of us might not get as much from it, and that would normally include me but for how personally reflective it felt, like someone had ripped out my innermost thoughts and fears and laid them on display, with the two leads representing my own split feelings and aspects of their lives mirroring mine to an uncomfortable degree. The style of the film came across like director Kogonada wanted to go more abstract than he did, making it seem a little confused with itself at times, and writer Seth Reiss chose a romantic, Hollywood ending over something more grounded which perhaps did it a disservice, but on the whole I found the film, as well as Robbie and Farrell, to be quite charming, and it left me with many things to think about.

Director: Peter Cilella
Writer: Peter Cilella
Cast: Ross Marquand, Sarah Bolger, Susan Wilder, Charlene Amoia

I went into this expecting some kind of alien film, but boy was I wrong. After witnessing a strange light in the sky, school security guard Sean (Marquand), already struggling with childhood trauma and the impending birth of his first child with his wife, finds himself troubled by visions that manifest as drawings, often done while he is not consciously aware. Less sci-fi and more psychological, this drama plays with Seans mind, pushing him to the limit and testing those around him. While there are scenes that make it appear that Sean had an encounter with aliens, his point of view is unreliable due to his already traumatised mind, making for an interesting was-he-or-wasn’t-he debate. The ambiguity is a little frustrating, but it does also keep things interesting. Marquand puts in a good performance and also pushes himself to the limits, making Sean a strong character in an otherwise average film.

Director: Ari Aster
Writer: Ari Aster
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, Austin Butler

It feels like we’re barely on the other side of the pandemic and filmmakers have already been digging into it and using it to frame their stories. In Eddington, a town’s mayor and sheriff are at loggerheads early on in the pandemic, one on the side of the state and mandated mask-wearing, the other representing the rebellion against masks and the racism and discourse that occured at the time. I really loved Ari Aster’s direction and the way he opted to frame his characters. In tandem with his cinematographer, Darius Khondji, they created some excellent visuals that emphasised characters’ relationships and used panning to effectively keep the scenes interesting. However, there was a lot going on storywise, too much, in fact. Beyond the contention between the mayor and the sheriff, there are issues with Joe’s family, BLM protests, and, of course, Covid, as well as all the conspiracies floating around pertaining to it. It was perhaps overly ambitious in trying to merge so many different themes and aspects of that time in recent history, so much so that we’ve not had enough breathing space (pun unintended) between then and now to fully comprehend events and the long term impact. Aster should probably have picked a lane or two to follow, though he did bring things to a rather intense climax.

Director: Aislinn Clarke
Writer: Aislinn Clarke
Cast: Bríd Ní Neachtain, Clare Monnelly, Aleksandra Bystrzhitskaya

Everyone loves a folk horror, don’t they? And the Irish are some of the best in the business. Siubhán, or ‘Shoo’ (Monnelly), a student home care worker, is assigned to a reclusive, superstitious older woman named Peig (Neachtain). The more Shoo comes to know Peig, the more she is drawn into her supernatural world until it starts to take over her life, too. The isolation of Peig and the village near her can make the viewer feel trapped within the village (or Peig’s house) with Shoo, making the psychological aspects more palpable than is comfortable. The fear of the unseen entity that seems to plague Peig runs through the majority of the film like a haemorrhaging wound; we cannot stop it, and it only gets worse as the plot progresses. There is a twist toward the end that, although could have been predicted if paying close attention, is quite satisfying, if a little cliché. A good one to watch if you want something creepy that errs on the psychological side of horror.

Director: Kurtis David Harder
Writer: Kurtis David Harder
Cast: Cassandra Naud, Emily Tennant, Jonathan Whitesell, Lisa Delamar, Veronica Long, Dylan Playfair

This is one of those rare occurrences where the sequel outdoes its predecessor, if only slightly (if you haven’t seen the first film, Influencer, be warned that there are spoilers in this review). After being left to die on the island by Madison (Tennant), her previous victim, CW (Naud) escaped and made her way to France, where she met girlfriend Diane (Delamar). But with Madison being accused of CW’s previous murders after authorities were unable to locate CW, she sets out to find her herself. While the first film certainly had an interesting premise and was generally written, shot and performed well, it lacked originality. This is something the sequel works hard to rectify. The plot is more cohesive, the characters more clearly defined, and the tone more balanced, with some (possibly unintentional) comedic aspects breaking the seriousness at times. Naud’s performance is stronger than before while Tennant’s Madison is far more likeable, though the film as a whole seems to be moving away from the title of Influencer. If there is to be a third installment, a more apt title might be better (or something like Influenced could be good… CW meets her match in a copycat…?)

Director: Tina Romero
Writers: Tina Romero, Erin Judge
Cast: Katy O’Brian, Jaquel Spivey, Quincy Dunn-Baker, Tomas Matos, Nina West, Jack Haven, Dominique Jackson, Margaret Cho, Riki Lindhome, Cheyenne Jackson

I’m not entirely sure what we may have expected from the offspring of the late great zombie filmmaker George A. Romero, but I don’t think this film, in which a group of drag queens and their club’s owner come under attack from zombies, would have been on my bingo card for Tina Romero. It is every bit as fun as it sounds, with the (probably expected) comedy, infighting and solidarity amongst the queens providing endless laughs and entertainment. Katy O’Brian is a strong lead as the club’s proprietor Dre, holding the queens together in the face of a zombie apocalypse, and all of the cast have great chemistry that makes for a lot of fun for the viewer. Honestly, I’d love to see more films with drag queens being entirely themselves in different scenarios and genres (Queens of the West? Queens of the Courtroom Drama? I’d be sat for every single one).

Director: John-Michael Powell
Writer: John-Michael Powell
Cast: Billy Magnussen, Kate Burton, Sean Harrison Jones, Alexandra Shipp, Nick Stahl

The drug-trafficking criminal Frost family come to blows when one of their members, Lucas (Magnussen), tries to lead a normal, crime-free life with his fiancée. As much as this film works hard to be visually and characteristically different, it struggles to be anything more than your average revenge-based family drama. It does however have some fairly surprising scenes, with even the more predictable ones being visually shocking, and Billy Magnussen is finally given a role in which he can prove his range, his performance being the most emotionally grounding and his character Lucas Frost having the most interesting, if a little predictable, arc. Overall, though the film has its moments and is shot well with some gorgeous scenes of nature, it doesn’t offer anything story-wise that we haven’t seen a hundred times before.