A pair of unlikely films remind us why painful memories matter |
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Reviews Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary? Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC
Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting
Getting Hooked on Quitting
Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary?
Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous
Is College Necessary?
Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset
Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear
Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset
Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC
Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC
SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters
‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC
A pair of unlikely films remind us why painful memories matter
"The Sheep Detectives" and "Blue Heron," two of the year's best films, explore the importance of remembering
Published May 25, 2026 12:00PM (EDT)
Across the first six months of 2026, an unusually high number of theatrically released films have seemed like paired companion pieces, feature-length notes on a theme that can or should be watched back-to-back. This isn’t all that uncommon: Trends crop up in filmmaking all the time, as potential narratives emerge from real-life events and cultural obsessions. Sometimes this happens because the studios are trying to capitalize on a moment, like when “The Minecraft Movie” coasted in on the fumes of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” Other cinematic companions are inadvertent and more thoughtful, woven together like the harmonies of a duet.
This year, “Exit 8” and the upcoming “Backrooms” toyed with a less-is-more approach to claustrophobic, liminal horror. “Ready or Not 2” and “They Will Kill You” took one last swing at the well-worn eat-the-rich occult subgenre. “Mother Mary” and “The Moment” explored the natural endpoint of pop-star fixation in the age of the internet. One could even make an argument for a double feature of “Animal Farm” and “Wuthering Heights” as two wildly different ways to update high school English class favorites.
But only a few of these films are genuinely worth watching on their own merit. More often, they become more interesting because they have a cinematic complement. Examined together, they reveal things about each other. But only rarely do they communicate a grand truth, something that appeals to the core of our humanity, transcends the moment they hit theaters, and stays with us........