ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “The Odyssey” might have defined the summer box office, but there are plenty of hidden movie gems to discover as we head into the fall. Check out our reviews of “Tony,” “Colony,” “Buddy” and “It Ends.”

“Tony”

You need not know anything about Anthony Bourdain to enjoy “Tony,” Matt Johnson’s vastly entertaining coming-of-age biopic of the globetrotting chef. In fact, the point of “Tony” is that young Bourdain doesn’t know who he is, either.

Dominic Sessa stars as Bourdain in a bout of inspired casting. The “The Holdovers” actor shares a passing resemblance to 70s Bourdain, what with the mop of curly brown hair and gangly frame, but more than that, he captures the acidic, intellectual energy of the late food mogul. His performance is less reverential and referential than experiential, giving the audience the chance to meet a real character, not admire an impersonation of a real person. Sessa’s Bourdain is at times obnoxious and often hilarious, but always engaging. It’s a great performance.

The film covers one summer of Bourdain’s life spent working in a kitchen in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and tracks his burgeoning sense of self as he learns from two mentors: the charming, womanizing kitchen worker Sal, played by a sweaty, suave Leo Woodall, and the enigmatic, charismatic “Chef,” played with all the warmth of a wood-fired oven by Antonio Banderas.

The parts of the film where Bourdain is confronted with those two personalities and the potential paths each lay out before him are the thematically chewiest stuff in the movie. Plus, the kitchen environment – also populated by personalities like comedian Stavros Halkias, effectively playing himself, and “Chicago Fire” star Monica Raymund – is a ton of fun, inviting a quick pace and extra spice to the coming-of-age tale.

The bits of “Tony” that work the least are the clichés of the bildungsroman. Director Matt Johnson has a sublime feel for setting, which makes every inch of his film’s Provincetown feel real. Unfortunately, the same care was not extended to Bourdain’s love interest, Nancy, played by Emilia Jones. No matter how witty and pretty Jones is, it can’t change the fact that the script gives her next to nothing in the way of character. It’s a bummer, because Sessa and Jones have dynamite chemistry. You’d wish she had more to do in light of it.

With all its ingredients considered, “Tony” isn’t quite cinematic fast food, but it isn’t fine dining, either. It’s more like the meals Chef, Sal and Bourdain cook up: simple, recognizable and tasty, but bolstered by the craft of its chefs. Johnson, Sessa and Banderas are excellent cooks. Bourdain would be proud.

Rating: 3.5/5

“Tony” is playing in theaters nationwide on Friday, Aug. 21, 2026.

“Colony”

“Colony” is Yeon Sang-ho’s newest zombie movie, released 10 years after “Train to Busan,” a masterpiece of modern zombie thrills and an enduring cultural hit. “Colony” is not nearly as good as “Busan,” but it has a couple of fun tricks up its bloodied sleeve.

It has a great idea for a zombie movie, first and foremost.

The film is set almost entirely inside a Seoul skyscraper, where a zombie infection is unleashed by the delightfully nefarious Seo Young-cheol, played by a cool and collected Koo Kyo-hwan. The zombifying agent is derived from a mutated slime mold, which unites infected subjects into a neural network controlled by the originating zombie. Because of that network, the zombies are able to communicate telepathically, giving them the ability to “update” with new information.

For example, while the zombies start off slow, shambling and unable to tell humans apart from clothing store standees, from trial and error, they learn that running is a more efficient way to spread the parasite and that cardboard tastes a lot worse than human flesh. The “update” sequences are eerie, with the zombies freezing in their tracks and making an open-mouthed noise evocative of Donald Sutherland at the end of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”

It’s a fun way to have your zombie cake and eat it too. Rather than choosing between slow zombies and fast zombies, or smart zombies and dumb zombies, or walking zombies and crawling zombies, the “update” conceit provides Sang-ho with an inventive way to run through zombie tropes at will.

Fun, however, is all “Colony” is. Though the practical effects, fluid action, goopy fungal sets and zomboreography is all sturdy stuff, the script is rickety, filled with exposition dumps, flashbacks and laborious explanations of story developments clearly explained by what transpires onscreen. The performances, particularly Jun Ji-hyun as action heroine and biotech scientist Kwon Se-jeong, are great, but wasted on the clunky dialogue.

Even so, if Sang-ho is the originating zombie infected by a slime mold, consider me one of his zombie legion. I’ll always follow to whatever brain-eating adventure he has in store for us.

Rating: 3/5

“Colony” is playing in theaters nationwide on Friday, Aug. 28, 2026.

“Buddy”

“Too Many Cooks,” a 2014 surreal comedy short by Casper Kelly, has become a legendary piece of online horror media. 11 minutes in length, it takes the form of one long 80s-style sitcom intro, where the cast grows bigger and bigger until a murderer comes and starts picking them off. It’s nostalgic, bizarre and an absolute classic “you haven’t seen this?” video.

“Buddy,” Kelly’s latest feature film, has many of the same qualities as “Too Many Cooks,” but finds diminishing returns in its length.

Instead of riffing on the sitcom, “Buddy” takes on the world of children’s TV. Buddy is a large, orange mascot unicorn, akin to Barney the Dinosaur, who teaches children moral lessons through song and play, in addition to holding them hostage in an amnesiac nightmare world. When one kid disappears after disrespecting Buddy’s wishes, the others begin to realize they might be in danger. Terror ensues.

The first 25 minutes or so, set entirely in the world of Buddy’s show, are a terrific successor to the “Too Many Cooks” formula: the aesthetic of kitschy TV reworked into absurd horror fantasia. However, once the film is required to muster up a feature-length plot, it loses a little bit of luster. The best of Kelly’s filmmaking sensibilities lie in depicting flesh and blood underneath mascot animal fur, not in Cristin Milioti looking for her kidnapped daughter.

There are still good ideas to be found in the last hour, and Keegan-Michael Key is wonderfully deranged as the voice of Buddy, but too much TV, as they say, is bad for you. I think “Buddy” would have been much stronger as a short.

Rating: 3/5

“Buddy” is playing in theaters nationwide on Friday, Aug. 28, 2026.

“It Ends”

Between “Backrooms” and “Obsession,” Gen Z horror has had a moment in 2026. The latest example? “It Ends,” an $80,000 indie flick, crafted by 28-year-old Alexander Ullom in his directorial debut.

The film is about four 20-something pals who pile into a Jeep Cherokee for a late night food run. As the length of the drive stretches on, they discover that they’re trapped on an infinite two-lane highway. Though they discover they can’t grow hungry or run out of gas, if they stop the car, they can only go 90 seconds before being besieged by bands of bellowing brigands, forcing them to keep driving, stuck with their thoughts and limited company.

“It Ends” is a smart movie about how dull it can be to be a young adult. Though there are a few thrills and chills to be had in the dark woods, it’s mostly existential horror, capturing the nightmarish feeling you’re on an endless road to nowhere in a literal but no less effective cinematic metaphor.

The four friends – Phinehas Yoon, Akira Jackson, Noah Toth and Mitchell Cole – were each as unknown as Ullom, but their charisma lights up the screen. I would not be surprised to see all five “It Ends” players on a fast track to somewhere.

Rating: 3.5/5

“It Ends” is playing in theaters nationwide on Friday, Aug. 28, 2026.