Fresh Catch #30
What we think is worth watching in the week of May 7th, 2026. PLUS, an announcement.
Welcome to Fresh Catch, the official FilmFisher newsletter!
Because our style of writing here at FilmFisher is very in-depth and requires a lot of time and attention for each piece, we don’t really write a lot about the newest releases that are coming out right now. With Fresh Catch, we’ll be in your inbox every Thursday morning to let you know what we’ve been watching recently and whether or not we think it might be worth your time to check out, both from the new releases hitting theaters every weekend and from the old favorites we’ve been revisiting.
An Update
Before we get to our regularly scheduled programming, we have news to bring you. Our beloved writer, Travis, will be departing the FilmFisher team to focus on other parts of his life that demand his attention and care. In Travis’ time with FilmFisher, he has written many pieces that have made us think, sparked our imaginations, and even moved us. His effective prose style and careful attention to detail have blessed us time and time again. We here at FilmFisher are sad to see Travis go, but we are excited for his future endeavors, and we pray that Christ will continue to use him for wonderful purposes.
From Travis: I've been honored to be a part of FilmFisher, on and off, for the better part of ten years. Throughout that time here I've made genuine friendships, gotten to share and discover great films, and of course enjoy film criticism that is truly unique in its depth and profundity of analysis. At the beginning of this year, I decided to step back from my position as contributing writer due to a number of changing responsibilities and projects that are beginning to occupy this current season of life. That being the case, I wanted to depart by expressing my gratitude both for the support of our readers over the years, and the ever-satisfying insight and the camaraderie of the FilmFisher team (particularly of the Editors Timothy — House and Lawrence). I wish you all well, and look forward to a long tenure now as a faithful reader!
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Old Favorites: Mother’s Day
For Mother’s Day this upcoming Sunday, FilmFisher’s writers are recommending films about mothers, or films that remind us of our mothers.
Room (2015, writeup by Timothy House)
Room is a portrait of motherhood like very few others. Brie Larson’s performance as Jack’s (Jacob Tremblay) Ma, Joy, is tender, moving, and complicated as her character tries to navigate the world for herself and her child, both the little world they begin with and the big one they find themselves in later. Larson’s mother character finds herself with intensified versions of all the anxieties and griefs that come with the territory for all mothers, and Lenny Abrahamson’s careful, loving, probing direction examines her as she truly is. Adding into the mix Joy’s own mother, played by Joan Allen, brings the perfect last side to the triangle. Every parent must construct the world for their children, but Joy must do it twice. And the movie watches her do it both times with a clear eye to reality and a heaping helping of loving and knowing grace.
Little Women (2019, writeup by Timothy House)
I’m doubling up and also recommending the 2019 Little Women because if I need a film to remind me of my own mother, this is without a doubt the one. My mother loves Louisa May Alcott’s original novel deeply, from the bottom of her heart, so much so that I was never exposed to it as a child because anytime she tried to read it aloud to me or my sibling, she couldn’t make it past the first page without being overwhelmed by emotion. So when I began watching Gerwig’s 2019 Little Women adaptation for the first time by myself in my room, I instantly knew it felt wrong. So I turned it off and proposed a family movie night the next day. My first exposure to this wonderful story was watching it with my mother, seeing the way the story affected her, getting tears in our eyes at the same moments, and knowing how much the way that Marmee parented her little women must have influenced the way my mother raised me. It’s something I’ll never forget.
Speed Racer (2008, writeup by Timothy Lawrence)
The Wachowskis' Speed Racer – an avant-garde adaptation of a Saturday morning cartoon that reaches such thrillingly transcendent heights it makes The Matrix play like a warm-up – is one of the great family-centric action-adventure blockbusters. It is also one of my mom's favorite movies. It imbues age-old clichés with such sincerely vibrant life that they play like the Platonic ideals of themselves, an approach perhaps most evident in the characters of Mom Racer (Susan Sarandon) and Pops Racer (John Goodman), whose very names position them as figures into whom the purest essence of Mom-ness and Dad-ness has been distilled. Through its perfectly fine-tuned screenplay and uniquely virtuosic editing, Speed Racer envisions art as an act of drawing things together, melding vocational achievement and familial love, cartoon visuals and intricate themes, rollicking sports movie tropes and James Bond-style espionage into one dazzling whole. That unifying spirit is reflected in Mom Racer, who is not only the glue holding her family together but also the one who holds her disintegrating son together at one of his lowest points with the tearful words "I'm so impossibly proud to be your mom." Cliché? Sure, but I'll wager there's not a dry-eyed mom in the house.
This Week at FilmFisher
New Piece
That’s all from us this week at FilmFisher. Keep a lookout for new pieces every week, and the Fresh Catch in your inbox every Thursday!
Thank you for the kind words. Lucky to have gotten to be a part of this team!
When Speed Racer came out, I remember so many people trashing on it as a chaotic train-wreck. In the last week, I've seen 3 different people arguing that it is a misunderstood masterpiece. I was always intrigued but wrote it off. I guess it's time to give it a watch.