Wyatt Earp (Joel McCrea) is the main character in Jacques Tourneur‘s Wichita (1955). Wichita is not yet a boom town in 1874, and local bigwigs are afraid Earp, the new marshal,* is a threat to the town’s prosperity and existence. Earp tries to disarm the visiting, cattle-driving cowboys—Wichita providers—because their rowdiness routinely turns to violence. Scripted by Daniel Ullman, the pic would be a perfect Fifties TV movie. As it is, it’s a non-great but involving Western in color and with a palatable Western hero in McCrea. The cast is familiar and enjoyable, except that Edgar Buchanan is just Edgar Buchanan and Vera Miles is underwhelming.

*Ahistorical

Written and directed by Curry Barker, Obsession (2026) is a decent entertainment, a comedic horror flick that by and by loses the comedy. Which is fine; it retains its integrity. Michael Johnston plays teenaged Bear with amiable authority and sensitivity, while Inde Navarette plays teenaged Nikki with hair-raising credibility, with stunning stamina. Too, she is unforgettably sensual. This is the one about an occultic wish that comes true and leads Nikki not just to love but also to obsess over, with a deranged mind, the too-shy Bear. It’s very interesting if not quite perfect, and a big moneymaker.

Although it is often potently, admirably shot, The Neon Demon (2016), by Nicolas Winding Refn, is dissatisfying. Elle Fanning stars as a young model who is almost beauty itself. She becomes the object of jealousy, erotic hunger, and ridiculous violence. The film is art—poor art, because it’s sensationalistic and tawdry; and it pretends to offer insight into a few things. Pretends. What it offers instead, you’ll see,* is the physical uglification of actress Jena Malone. Refn has a new film out—Her Private Hell—which I hope is a step up.

*If you’re a spectator of this thing