Podcast

New Year, New Releases

Serve and return: critics Mark Asch and Beatrice Loayza join to discuss Marty Supreme, Avatar: Fire and Ash, and Ella McCay

Every January, as we ring in the new year, we take a moment to take a look at some of the major new releases of the holiday season. This year, Film Comment Editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute invited critics Beatrice Loayza and Mark Asch to focus on a select handful of titles that have recently graced the marquees of multiplexes, and which continue to stir up discourse. The group kicks things off with a deep dive into James Cameron’s latest 3D space opera, Avatar: Fire and Ash (4:00), before turning their attention to another epic, Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme (33:34)—which both Beatrice and Mark have written great essays on in recent weeks. They also touch on James L. Brooks’s Ella McCay (51:15), which Mark reviewed for Film Comment just last week.

This story is part of the Winter-Spring 2026 issue of Film Comment.

Read this article for free—sign up now for The Film Comment Letter.

By clicking Sign up, you agree to our site’s Terms of Service and consent to our Privacy Policy.

Get full access to Film Comment with a paid subscription. Already signed up? Log in.