USA 2025
Opening February 19, 2026
Directed by: Bryan Fuller
Writing credits: Bryan Fuller
Principal actors: Sophie Sloan, Mads Mikkelsen, Sigourney Weaver, Sheila Atim, Armond Willis
Dust Bunny so enchantingly captures imaginations it lingers in the mind’s eye long after leaving the cinema. Writer-director Bryan Fuller’s directorial debut features curious and creatively clever visual and musical delights, it is a delightfully wicked, one-of-a-kind monster flick, too. Starting from the premise that children believe in monsters lurking under their beds, it descends into darker, sharper menacing depths without relinquishing hope, deliverance. The dust bunny’s power, for the most part, culminates from the anthropoid particles swirling around it.
Eight-year-old Aurora (Sophie Sloan) begs her parents (Caspar Phillipson, Line Kruse respectively) to exercise caution, since her monster gobbles down guileless victims. They phew-phew her warnings, only intensifying her angst; she decides to become proactive. During Chinatown’s festival, Aurora dons a discarded mask following the mysterious resident in the apartment at the other end of the hallway. Resident 5B’s (Mads Mikkelsen) inexplicable nocturnal adventures are well-worth observing; he is obviously well-attuned to, and acquainted with, the underbelly of the city. After the noisy debacle whereby her parents disappear, Aurora decides to hire him. Sharp kid, because 5B is in some sort of cahoots with the impenetrable Laverne (Sigourney Weaver). He phew-phews Auora’s hypothesis—his reassuring reasoning being grounded in thuggery. He agrees eventually, albeit with conditions. Meanwhile, Aurora appeases Brenda (Sheila Atim), from Child Services, while nagging 5B. Laverne perversely advises 5B to renege on his deal with Aurora. Simultaneously, the nefarious Conspicuously Inconspicuous Man (David Dastmalchian) and the Intimidating Woman (Rebecca Henderson) join in. After one particularly gruesome hand-to-hand confrontation with these outsiders, the mismatched duo realigns supposed suspicions and corporeal realities. Belatedly, 5B comes to terms with not all monsters being obvious.
The chemistry between Mikkelsen and Sloan is celluloid magic, with Weaver and Dastmalchian’s performances adding sparks. Fuller’s script leads audiences into the deeper journey of self-exploration and overcoming disappointments. Accompanied by puns, innuendos and gritty maleficence, Fuller incorporates a strong Chinatown correlation, e.g., Aurora’s Rabbit is the fourth and 5B’s pet Rooster the tenth animals in the twelve-year Chinese zodiac cycle. Jeremy Reed’s production design is compelling, and spectacular; Nicole Hirsch Whitaker’s fluid camerawork overcomes challenges, adding visual intricacies; Lisa Lassek’s shrewdly balanced editing assures thrills, just as Isabella Summers’s score rides the fluctuating complexities of Auroa and 5B’s journey. The film’s take-away? What we wish for could accompany us ad infinitum. 106 minutes (Marinell H.)