Vick's Picks movie reviews for June 2026

Vick’s Picks
by Vick Silkenpen

Half Man: When I experienced the series Baby Reindeer for the first time, my jaw dropped at Richard Gadd, who so successfully pulled this off. It is a wrenching emotional portrayal of obsessive stalking and sexual intimidation, which plunged me headfirst into viewing the consequences of mental illness syndromes.

I knew the series would win scads of awards, which it did. But the Scottish Gadd, by far, was not through demonstrating his unique talents for creation, production, writing, and acting. Gadd returns full force with his devastating storytelling in a six-episode HBO series that will no doubt win many awards again.

Half Man is about two stepbrothers growing up in Glasgow who could not be more different, yet are bound together in countless, often violent ways over the decades. We follow Niall (Richard Robertson) and Ruben (Stuart Campbell) in their teenage years, grappling with a fate that throws them together due to their mothers having “moved in together” while Ruben was serving time for biting off the nose of another kid.

The nerdy Niall is terrified of the more worldly and bullying Ruben, but the relationship rapidly becomes far more entangled than this, forming emotional, psychosexual, and personality complexes in both. To hear “My brother from another lover,” seems an oddly fitting stretch regardless of the grasping fingers of male repression through time.

We follow both characters through the university period and into eventual marriage, while also seeing the gut-wrenching outcomes of the abuses that were inflicted on and by them in their home. The paths of toxic male rage mixed with homophobia, including where those paths lead, paradoxically, whether turned inward or outward.

As we watch the evolution (or lack thereof) of the grown Niall (Jamie Bell) as he tries to deal with his own wounds. In contrast, the grown Ruben (played perfectly by Gadd himself) appears to leave his behind. We, as viewers, may marvel at their twisty, interwoven relationships that snare a rare alchemy in our hearts, even as we notice that this is also a shocking horror story with loaded social commentary. The result is similar reactions of morbid curiosity, grief, and helplessness as we can feel when passing a bad car wreck on the highway.

Gadd has once again created a remarkable limited series that makes us think, along with par excellence performances from the entire cast.

Detective Hole: This Nordic noir series on Netflix has a brooding, gritty feel, as the protagonist, detective Harry Hole (Tobias Santelmann), seems to have a mix of affectations from James Dean to Steve McQueen. That’s not a bad thing when it works and blends with the atmospheric settings in Oslo.

Harry is a tormented soul trying to navigate the darkness of his past and present while on the tail of not only a corrupt detective (Tom Waaler) but also a bizarre serial killer. Harry makes only half-hearted attempts at his personal love and family life, which he desires as long as it doesn’t get in the way of his addictive alcoholism. He seems stuck in a loop of gloom, doom and guilt with some justifications since association with him can be quite fatal.

Creator Jo Nesbo has done a nifty job of keeping the viewer engaged with such an anti-hero as Harry as he juggles all the complicated elements of his life. He may repeatedly stumble and fall, but his resilience and skill at keeping the tension going with so many balls in the air never stop.

The two storylines of a devious cop within the department and a mentally deranged serial killer on the loose interlock for thrilling, creepy scenes and satisfying arcs. The music scoring by Nick Cave makes your skin prickle at times. The production translates even better because many of the main actors did their own dubbing.  

I love the twists in this series, and when all is said and done, I want to see more of Santelmann interpreting this moody, flawed character in another season.

The Gayly online. 6/24/26 @ 2:25 p.m. CST.