Grow Omaha Flicks

★ ★ ★ Rental Family is a heartwarming story about a struggling actor named Phillip Vanderploeg (Brendan Fraser), who’s been living abroad in Tokyo for two years, waiting for a big break. He’s been working in gimmicky commercials—his most recent as a tube-of-toothpaste, super hero who fights off cavities. It might pay the bills, but Phillip is feeling the pangs of desire for…

★ ★ Eternity takes a comedic, alternate look at the afterlife, in which the newly dead are transported to a large city where they’re given seven days to decide what “eternity” they want to live in forever. They’re given “afterlife coordinators,” AC’s for short, whose jobs are to help people pick where they’re going to go. This is a place where brochures are handed out and salespeople pitch…

★ ★ ★ ★ Sisu: Road to Revenge is the sequel to the 2022 word-of-mouth hit Sisu. In the first film, Aatami (Jorma Tommila) has just left World War II and is mining near a riverbed with a pickaxe. He finds a massive vein of gold, breaks it into chunks and puts it in his satchels. He gets on his horse and begins the ride…

★ ★ ½ The Running Man isn’t exactly a remake of the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger film; it’s aiming to be a closer rendition of the Stephen King novel. When it was first published, King used the pseudonym Richard Bachman to see if his new works would resonate apart from his famous name. The Running Man is set in a dystopian future under ironclad…

★ ★ ½ Keeper is another haunted-cabin-in-the-woods horror film. It’s a slow burn that leans hard on a series of creepy, hair-raising scenarios. Once you realize where the story is headed, it becomes astoundingly less creepy. Those haunting scenes are about all the film has in its bag of tricks, never quite living up to its initially promising potential…

★ ★ ★ ½ Christy is a biographical film about Christy Martin (Sydney Sweeney), a female boxer who helped pioneer women’s professional boxing. This film explores a woman who is nearly unbeatable in the ring but struggles with her sexuality as well as both familial and marital abuse away from the ropes…

★ ★ ★ ★ Predator: Badlands is the latest in the now blended Alien and Predator franchises. Sequels to each film have been hit-or-miss, often sacrificing story for cheap visual-effects laden creature action. Badlands reminds me a bit of First Blood, where Vietnam veteran John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) returns home…

★ ★ ½ Anniversary examines what happens when an outsider enters a tight-knit family and topples its balance completely. It rarely ceases to be compelling and is often disturbing. The film explores how our political beliefs, when taken to extremes, can rip a family apart, causing tension and intrinsic division. The drama is well written, the acting is captivating, and the result…

★ ★ ★ ★ Bugonia is an ancient Greek word that means “ox-birth.” It’s based on a ritual where cows were sacrificed so that bees would spontaneously generate from the carcass. The title gives us a clue to the film’s backdrop—how one man’s deep-seated belief in conspiracy theories will lead him to kidnap the executive of a corporate conglomerate in hopes of saving humanity…

★ Shelby Oaks is a film written and directed by YouTube star Chris Stuckmann. Production began in May 2022 after a successful Kickstarter campaign secured the necessary funding. It’s a mix of found footage, dramatic mockumentary and straight narrative filmmaking. As the film gets going, the storytelling styles blend surprisingly well together. It’s a promising start…