Austin Abrams – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

WHALEFALL – Review by Susan Granger

October 19, 2026October 18, 2026 Susan Granger Austin Abrams, Brian Duffield, Daniel Kraus, Josh Brolin, Whalefall

Although it’s believed that Jonah may have been swallowed by a whale, Whalefall is the first film I’ve seen that takes that Biblical story seriously. Whalefall is a survival thriller in which deep-sea diver Jay Gardiner (Austin Abrams) is literally swallowed by a sperm whale while he’s searching for the remains of his gruff, emotionally abusive father Mitt (Josh Brolin). When Jay, who goes to college in Iowa, returns home to Monterey on the California coast for the one-year anniversary of his father’s death, he decides to hunt for “just one bone” of his father’s body.

Reviews

RESIDENT EVIL – Review by Nadine Whitney

September 18, 2026 Nadine Whitney Andrea Miltnerová, Austin Abrams, Dariusz Wolski, game franchise, Kali Reis, Paul Walter Hauser, Resident Evil, Shay Hatten, Zach Cregger

I’ve never played ‘Resident Evil’ and I have vague memories of seeing the film series starring Milla Jovovich. To state that ‘Resident Evil’ as a game, comic, animation, film franchise hasn’t really penetrated my consciousness would be accurate. However, Zach Cregger’s skilfully lean and mean Resident Evil has definitely given me something tasty to chew on. Cregger’s ability to mix abjectly gross imagery with genuinely funny moments is a testament to how he’s a master of tone. And, despite my lack of video game play knowledge, I could see precisely how he worked the film as a tribute to the series, and also to the many fans and players of the franchise. Resident Evil is a bloody good time.

Festivals Reviews

THE STARLING GIRL (Sundance FF2023) – Review by Nadine Whitney

January 22, 2023January 25, 2023 Nadine Whitney Austin Abrams, Eliza Scanlen, Laurel Parmet, Lewis Pullman, sundance film festival 2023, The Starling Girl, Wrenn Schmidt

Writer/director Laurel Parmet’s coming-of-age feature The Starling Girl is a clear-eyed vision of repression and control under the patriarchal gaze of an evangelical community in Kentucky. The titular starling girl is Jem Starling, a seventeen-year-old who has only ever known the close-knit religious group and is struggling to reconcile her natural desires with the strictures of the church.