Sinners

The hype you've undoubtedly heard about Ryan Coogler's latest film, Sinners, is true: the movie is an immersive, rollicking good time with hot actors and hotter music.

If you know little to nothing about the movie, I recommend going in blind. Just know that it's absolutely worth the price of the ticket.

For everyone else, beware of spoilers ahead...

***

Sinners takes place over the course of a single day and night in the Mississippi Delta in 1932. Twins Smoke (Michael B. Jordan) and Stack (Michael B. Jordan)--not their real names, by the way, just cool monikers they go by--are back in town after making their fortune in Chicago. How did they make that fortune? Stealing from gangsters, obviously. 

They're going to use that money to open up a juke joint in their hometown of Clarksdale and most of the day involves buying an old barn from a racist white guy, recruiting their musically-inclined cousin, Sammie (newcomer Miles Caton), and pianist Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) to be in charge of the music, hiring local grocers Grace and Bo (Li Jun Li and Yao) and Smoke's estranged wife, Annie (a luminous Wunmi Mosaku), to supply and cook catfish for 100 patrons, and convincing field worker Cornbread (Omar Miller) to work as a bouncer.

Stack also tries to avoid Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), a white woman he had a fling with who is furious that he up and left her for Chicago and is now back in town. 

News travels fast in a small town and by nightfall most of Clarksdale's non-white citizens who are also ok with booze and blues are at Club Juke. The drinks are cold, the music is hot, and they can't help but attract the attention of three white people who show up at the door asking to be let in.

If you've seen the preview, you know that the villains in Sinners aren't just any old white folks. They're...creatures of the night. Remmick (Jack O'Connell) shows up at Joan (Lola Kirke) and Bert's (Peter Dreimanis) door, begging to be let in and claiming that he is being hunted by some Native Americans. Once they invite him in, he turns them. Later, the three show up at Club Juke with their fiddles, asking to be let in and allowed to join the party. Smoke and Stack are suspicious and don't allow them inside...but these sneaky vampires eventually find a way.

Sinners is, first and foremost, a love letter to the power of music and how it connects all of us. There is a scene at the juke joint where Sammie starts to play and sing and the power of his music allows other music-makers, past and present, to pierce the veil of time...so we see singers and dancers from many eras and countries jammin' alongside the dancers of Club Juke. It sounds cheesy to type it out, but it was a breathtaking scene done in a single take.

What is interesting is that even the vampires have their own connection to music. Remmick leads his victims in an Irish folks dance, which was a delightfully bizarre sight (who could have guessed that vampires can riverdance?). These vampires are not just mindless predators...they're seductive beings who offer the patrons of Club Juke the opportunity to live in communion with one another--no racism, no hatred, only a hivemind and shared music for all eternity. 

Viewers are going to have many different interpretations of what the message of Sinners is, especially given the film's themes on race, music, and monstrosity. At face value, these vampires seem to be offering something of value: eternal life, the ability to read one another's thoughts (which--in theory at least--can lead to greater empathy), and a "heaven on earth". But at what cost? Smoke's wife, Annie, forces him to promise her that he will kill her if she gets bitten by one of the vampires because she fears her soul being trapped on earth for all eternity...especially since she and Smoke had a child who died as a baby and she knows their son is waiting for her in the great beyond.

For Annie, the power that lies in being immortal is not worth losing her soul in the process. Similarly, after Sammie survives the night, he leaves his little town to become a blues singer--against the wishes of his preacher father. Sammie is willing to leave everything he knows behind to be true to his soul--the soul of a musician. Both Annie and Sammie are true to themselves, despite the cost.

What are we to make of the fact that the vampires are white? Is the movie saying that all white people want to prey on Black people? Maybe, maybe not. I read it as a message against assimilation. In the vampire lore of Sinners, when a victim is turned, they know the thoughts of everyone else in their little vampire family (Remmick being the patriarch of this vampire nest)--they act as a hivemind with the main goal to turn others. Similarly, even "good" white people throughout American history have tried to coerce Black people into assimilating. Sure, they may like Black music and want to party with Black people, but at the end of the day they expect Black people to not be "too" Black. Many white people are more comfortable when Black people act white...and act deferential to white people. 

By rejecting the vampires and fighting them until their own deaths, the patrons of Club Juke who fight back (many get turned by the end of the night) are rejecting the seductive invitation to assimilate. To them, staying true to their own souls is the most important thing...even if they die.

Well, that's one interpretation at least. I'm sure there are others! Sinners clocks in at 2 hours and 17 minutes and, honestly, I would have watched another 40 minutes of it easily. In fact, I think one of the film's flaws is that it feels quite rushed near the end. The pacing is a bit off.

Despite the film's small flaws, Sinners is a powerful, funny, and just plain fun film with gorgeous cinematography and one of the best soundtracks since O Brother Where Art Thou. It's the first must-see movie of 2025. 

Grade: A-

Stuff I watched in...April 2025

Severance, season 2

The first season of Severance, the science-fiction show about people "severing" their memories in half so that their work selves have no knowledge of their non-work selves and vice versa, blew me away. It immediately became one of my top TV shows ever with its intriguing mix of dystopian world-building and gut-wrenching emotional depth.

Season 2 lost a bit of that season 1 shine, but there are three episodes in particular (episodes 7, 9, and 10) that hit it out of the park. We learn more about the fate of Gemma Scout/Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman) in ep. 7, which treats us to flashbacks of Gemma and Mark's relationship as well as chilling scenes of how Lumon is using her now. Episodes 9 and 10 give a lot of airtime to one of the series' best characters, Seth Milchick (Tramell Tillman), a man who has given his all to Lumon only to receive disrespect in return.

Severance is a show that is not afraid to ask some pretty intense questions about human consciousness. The ability to be severed begs the question of what makes us us. Who would you be if you were "born" tomorrow as a full grown adult, but without any memories or experiences that would repress or influence your "true" personality? 

Grade: A-

***

What Lies Beneath

The last time I saw this supernatural homage to Rear Window I was in high school and it scared the hell out of me. I randomly rewatched it and really enjoyed it! Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford play Claire and Norman Spencer, a well-to-do middle-aged couple getting used to being empty nesters after their daughter heads to college.

Norman is a scientist who works at a university and Claire stays home in their absolutely gorgeous lakeside house in Vermont (in addition to being a spooky movie, What Lies Beneath is total house porn). Claire takes an interest in her new neighbors, Mary and Warren Feur, especially when it appears that there may be domestic violence occurring between the couple. With not much to do around the house, Claire becomes a bit obsessed with spying on the couple, leading to tensions between her and Norman.

However, there are darker secrets at play that are revealed in good time throughout the film. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, What Lies Beneath is a very satisfying homage to Hitchcock with a supernatural twist. It's also a rare movie where Harrison Ford plays a villain. Well worth checking out if you haven't watched it, or revisiting if you have.

Grade: B+

***

The Rule of Jenny Pen

This New Zealand horror film is absolutely bonkers and unlike any horror movie I've seen before. Geoffrey Rush plays Stefan Mortensen, an older judge who has a stroke and is forced to convalesce in an assisted living home since he has no family to help him. Mortensen is very intelligent and also quite arrogant. He sees himself as not like the other old folks in the care home who are in various stages of aging, dementia, and illness and has trouble making friends with them. 

Mortensen becomes suspicious of another resident, Dave Crealy (John Lithgow), who always has a puppet, named Jenny Pen, on his left hand. The employees at the care home think Crealy is a harmless old coot, but Mortensen comes to find out that Crealy used to be an employee at the very same home and uses his old access card to wander the home at night, torturing the other residents. The residents are terrified of Crealy and won't snitch on him. 

There are a fair number of horror films that focus on elderly people (Relic, The Manor, The Taking of Deborah Logan, and The Visit come to mind), but not like this one. The Rule of Jenny Pen taps into the fear of aging and losing independence while also allowing the characters to retain dignity. But it's also a delightfully weird and surprisingly nasty little movie. Lithgow is genuinely scary as Dave Crealy--a sociopath with a captive group of victims to bully and abuse. Rush is sympathetic as a man who is frustrated by his situation and uses his superiority complex as a shield to protect himself from his fears of aging, disability, and death...but who eventually realizes that he wants to protect the other residents from the psycho roaming the halls. 

Many horror movies about elderly people either treat the geriatric population with kid gloves, or do the opposite and lean into eldersploitation, goosing the audience with images of adult diapers and drooling mouths. The Rule of Jenny Pen does neither: it shows that older folks can be just as brave and determined (or just as mean and violent) as anyone else, and it shows the hard realities of aging while never looking down on its subjects. 

Don't sleep on this one!

Grade: B+ 

***

The Game

I really thought I would like The Game since it is directed by one of my favorite directors, David Fincher. However, I was not impressed. The film is about a wealthy investment banker, Nicholas Van Orton (Michael Douglas), who is gifted a "personalized recreational experience" on his 48th birthday by his brother, Conrad (Sean Penn). 

Turns out, the "game" is basically a bunch of people trying to ruin your life to make you appreciate everything you have. It's kind of like Saw but with less razor wire. Van Orton is thrust into a series of situations which threaten his reputation, his money, and his life. 

Spoiler alert: he's totally fine! It's all a game. And it helps him appreciate his life a lot more and heal from his traumatic past. *farrrrttttt* This movie was boring. I found myself playing computer solitaire while watching it, which on the one hand was my choice and I could have paid more attention and possibly appreciated the movie more, but on the other hand, movies that are actually good tend to hold my attention and this one obviously didn't. Michael Douglas is kind of a drag in The Game. He underreacts a lot. If I was in the middle of "the game", I would be absolutely losing my shit. Crying, throwing up, curled up into a corner and rocking. Douglas just kinda...gets mad. He doesn't even yell that much! He just seems annoyed.

Fincher mostly turns out excellent thrillers: Gone Girl, Se7en, Zodiac...but this is one movie of his that I was bored by. I guess they can't all be winners!

Grade: C

Stuff I watched in...March, 2025

Anora

I didn't get a chance to see Sean Baker's Anora before the Academy Awards on March 2nd and when it sweeped with Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Original Screenplay I was champing at the bit to see it. I think going into it with high expectations hurt my viewing of it a tiny bit. Don't get me wrong, it's a very good movie...but I can't say it blew me away.

Anora is about a 23-year old stripper/escort, Anora "Ani" Mikheeva, who meets 21 year old Ivan "Vanya" Zakharov at the strip club she works at. When he asks if she "works outside the club", she agrees to meet him at his insanely huge mansion and the two begin a relationship that starts as purely transactional but seems to deepen into something more. 

After a glamourous sex-and-drug-filled week in Vegas, Vanya reveals that his parents are making him return to Russia to start working for the family (it's unclear what exactly his family does, but it's very clear that they are oligarchs of some sort and have more money than God). On an impulse, Ani and Vanya decide to get married at one of those Vegas chapels so that Vanya doesn't have to leave. And they live happily ever after! The end!

LOL. Of course not. When Vanya's parents find out what happened, they send Vanya's godfather and some toughs to the mansion (which is, of course, owned not by Vanya, but by his parents) to force the couple to annul the marriage. Hijinks, both funny and sad, ensue. Ani slowly comes to grips with the immaturity of the man she married. The boy she married, really, because despite being of legal age, Vanya is still just a boy under his parents' thumb.

Anora is very funny, though at times it's a lot. There is a lot of screaming and yelling, which irritated me after a while. It's also a little hard to believe that Ani, ostensibly street smart due to her line of work, wouldn't realize that marrying Vanya is an incredibly stupid idea. But then we have to also consider that she's only 23, not yet cynical about the world, and is caught up in the fantasy of wealth and star-crossed love. 

If you're up for a funnier and sadder version of Pretty Woman, you'll likely enjoy Anora. Did it deserve Best Picture? In my opinion, no. But I'm not mad that it won.

Grade: A-

***

Tangerine

Immediately after finishing Anora, I watched Tangerine, which is also directed by Sean Baker and is also about sex workers...although Tangerine could not be more different than Anora. Tangerine is a very short, slice-of-life type of film about Sin-Dee Rella, a Black, transgender sex worker who is recently released from a month in prison and finds out that her pimp/boyfriend, Chester, is cheating on her. She goes on a quest to find the "fish" (cisgender woman) Chester cheated with and confront both of them.

Hijinks ensue. This is kind of Baker's whole vibe: hijinks ensuing. 

Tangerine is VERY funny and outrageous. It's interesting to compare it to Anora, which is also about a sex worker, but a higher end, white, cis sex worker. Sin-Dee Rella (played wonderfully by Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) and her friend Alexandra (Mya Taylor) are basically homeless. They are streetwalkers. One bad day could mean ruin for them. Yet, they're also deeply protective of one another. When Sin-Dee is released from prison with 2 dollars to her name on Christmas Eve, she spends the 2 dollars on a donut that she gives to Alexandra as a Christmas gift. 

Sean Baker has come under criticism for his personal politics, but also about the way he portrays sex workers. Some people feel that he looks down on them, or essentially makes his bread off of "poverty porn". I can see that angle for sure, but I also think that he gives a voice to people that many wouldn't even give the time of day to. And he avoids the "hooker with a heart of gold" stereotype, instead portraying sex workers as three-dimensional people with flaws and strengths just like anyone else. I admire his work, even if it's not perfect.

Grade: B+

***

Eve's Bayou

This film, directed by Kasi Lemmons, had been on my "to-watch" list for a long time. It wasn't what I expected at all, but I still enjoyed it. The film poster makes it look like a sultry romance, but there isn't much romance to be found in this film at all.

The movie takes place in 1960s Louisiana. Eve Batiste (played by Jurnee Smollett) is 10 years old. One evening, at a party, she accidentally catches her father, a well-respected doctor, having sex with a woman who is not his wife. This freaks Eve out and her father, Louis (played by Samuel L. Jackson...miscast, in my opinion), convinces her she didn't see what she saw. Eve's older sister, Cisely (Meagan Good), who is very close with her father, also convinces Eve that she misunderstood what she saw.

During the rest of that summer, Eve spends a lot of time with her Aunt Mozelle (Debbi Morgan), who has the gift of sight and tells fortunes for a living. Eve herself has the gift too, although she doesn't fully understand it yet. Eve's Bayou reminded me a bit of Practical Magic--another film that focuses on sisters and aunts and magical powers. But Eve's Bayou is far sadder and melancholic than Practical Magic. 

I wanted something more out of Eve's Bayou. I wanted it to be spookier and more empowering or something. It's a sad, Southern Gothic soap opera with some bewitching moments (such as when Mozelle tells Eve the story of when her husband confronted her lover, leading to tragic consequences), but overall the film felt a bit limp. 

Grade: B

***

The White Lotus, season 3

I was very impressed with the third season of The White Lotus, the anthology TV series that follows rich people at various "White Lotus" hotel locations around the world. Season 3 takes plan in Thailand and has some really fantastic actors: Parker Posey, Jason Isaacs, Carrie Coon, Walton Goggins among them. 

I won't go into much detail since I can't review an entire season of television in a paragraph, but I'll mention a few things I found particularly interesting or well-done this season. There is a focus on spirituality in season 3 that I found very profound. Specifically, it's about the limits of spiritually and what happens when the shit really hits the fan. The two actors I was most impressed with this season were Jason Isaacs as Timothy Ratliff and Walton Goggins as Rick Hatchett. Timothy is a very wealthy financier who finds out that a former business partner just got busted for illegal activity that implicates Timothy. He spends the rest of the season contemplating how his and his family's life will change is he loses everything and ends up in prison. Rick is a middle-aged guy with a younger girlfriend who clearly has some heavy baggage due to the death of his father. He is in Thailand to try to find the man who killed his dad. And he'll go to any length to meet this man face-to-face.

Series creator Mike White (a bit of a controversial figure himself) walks a very fine line between satire and sincerity. There are a lot of moments in the series where you don't know if you're being encouraged to laugh at the privileged, entitled rich characters or the empathize with them. Or both. Say what you will about the series, it definitely gives three-dimensions to the majority of its characters, even when that means they disappoint us in the end.

Grade: A

***

The Pitt, season 1

I never watched ER and have rarely watched any medical shows (with Scrubs being the exception, although I've only seen a few seasons), so I was surprised when I found myself drawn to The Pitt, a show that takes place in real time during a very long shift at the Pittsburgh Medical Trauma Hospital. 

Noah Wyle plays Dr. "Robby" Robinavitch, the senior attending in charge of the day shift. On this particular day, he is supervising two medical students and an intern as well as a number of residents. The Pitt really throws you in the deep end with all the medical jargon and hierarchies. 

The thing about The Pitt that people will either appreciate or hate is that it takes time to give attention to social issues that impact medicine. For example, a Black woman is brought into the hospital tied to a gurney because she was exhibiting "drug-seeking behavior". Turns out, she has sickle cell anemia, which can cause agonizing pain. One resident recognizes this and treats her correctly. All of this is discussed out loud for the benefit of the viewer. Issues such as neurodivergence, fatphobia, drug addiction, and human trafficking come up throughout the day, making each episode have a bit of an "afterschool special" vibe. But despite some awkward exposition, I still think The Pitt fucking slaps. 

If you can handle a bit of medical gore, it's worth checking out. It's very bingeable. 

Grade: A

***

Yellowjackets, season 3

The first two seasons of Yellowjackets, about a girl's soccer team that ends up stranded in the Canadian wilderness, was the perfect blend of spooky and edgy. Cutting between two timelines, we saw the horrible things the girls had to resort to doing to survive in the woods and the aftermath of the survivors, trying to live normal lives 25 years later.

Season 3 has lost some of that magic. It opens during the springtime and shows the girls not just surviving, but thriving in the encampments they built after the cabin they discovered and lived in during the first two seasons burns down. I know this show isn't supposed to be realistic, but to me they were really pushing it with all the extra shit the girls seem to have made or found allowing them to do fancy crafts like paper lanterns. They also have a pen of animals like goats and sheep...do many goats and sheep roam in the mountains of Canada? I guess that's the supernatural part of the show coming to the forefront. 

Despite the show spinning its wheels a bit, it's still a really good time. My main beef is that it seems to be tilting more towards the ridiculous than the genuinely creepy in this season. But I'm going to keep watching! I just hope they get back on track in season 4.

Grade: B+

Mickey 17

I consider Bong Joon Ho's Parasite to be the best movie of the 21st century. When it won Best Picture that year, it was like "Oh, finally. The Academy chose the actual best movie of the year to win". I think I actually placed Promising Young Woman ahead of it in my "best of the year" list in 2020 and I take it back! It was a confusing time! The pandemic! 

In any case, after seeing an expertly crafted film like Parasite, I had high hopes for Bong Joon Ho's most recent film, Mickey 17. Although I wouldn't consider it to be a "bad" film...it simply did not live up to those hopes. 

Mickey 17 is a sci-fi comedy that takes place in 2054. Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) and his friend Timo (Steven Yeun) sign up to leave earth as part of a mission to populate the planet Niflheim. Mickey, having no skills, signs up to be an "expendable". Basically, they collect his DNA and memories and then use him for scientific experimentations (or dangerous chores) and when he dies, they just reprint his body and upload his memories. So, you know, pros and cons: he gets to essentially live forever, but he has to experience death over and over and over.

When they land on Niflheim, Mickey is sent out to explore and, after an accident, is presumed dead. However, the native creatures (who look like a cross between pillbugs, elephants, and dogs) help Mickey (in his 17th life, hence "Mickey 17") survive and get back to the ship. too bad they've already printed out Mickey 18! And Mickey 18 is kind of a jerk, quite frankly.

You might think this is no big deal: two Mickeys for the price of one! Except according to the law established with the human printing tech became a thing, in the case of "multiples" being printed, all multiples have to be...put down. Which seems kind of stupid and wasteful, but what do I know? So, we now have two Mickeys battling to be the surviving Mickey and trying to hide from everyone.

That plot in and of itself would have made for a great film. It's funny, it's interesting, there are a lot of questions it brings up about exploitation of labor and also the concept of a soul. But Bong had to cram about a million more plotlines into this damn movie, making it feel overstuffed.

In addition to the Two Mickeys plot, there is a plot about the creatures on the planet Niflheim, which are seen by the people in charge as menaces and they want to kill them all. Speaking of "the people in charge", Mark Ruffalo plays Kenneth Marshall, a politician in charge of the expedition to Niflheim who is clearly a Trump-like character (at least Ruffalo plays him that way). His wife, Ylfa, is played by Toni Collette. I love both Ruffalo and Collette and I was deeply unimpressed with them in this film. They felt over-the-top, which isn't unusual for a Bong film, but I guess I just wasn't feeling it this time. It felt too pointed, almost groan-worthy, such as when Marshall discusses his vision for "a pure, white planet" (referring to the snow on Niflheim). 

So, the overall feelings I got from this movie were: too much; all over the place; satire done with a sledgehammer instead of a scalpel; poorly written; too long; jokes not landing.

I still have to give Mickey 17 some credit for really interesting ideas (specifically, the concept of an "expendable") and a great lead performance by Robert Pattinson. Pattinson is hilarious as Mickey(s), especially when 17 meets 18, because 17 is kind of wimpy and pathetic while 18 is braver and more aggressive--but they're literally the same person. I LOVED how the movie shows that we all contain multitudes. We all have different personalities in one body. Late in the movie, Mickey 17 says something along the lines of "when I'm feeling unsure, I just think 'what would 18 do?'" I love this idea that you can be inspired by not just other people, but by your own better self. 

If there's one thing that Bong nails consistently, it's the contradictions of humanity. And how beautiful those contradictions can be.

So, yeah, Mickey 17 is just ok. I think if Bong could have stuck to one main plot and really put all his energy into that, it could have been an A-level film. As it stands, I have to give it...

Grade: B 

Stuff I watched in...February, 2025

The Monkey

Based on a short story by Stephen King and directed by Osgood "Oz" Perkins, The Monkey was a very fun surprise. Perkins's previous films have been humorless (The Blackcoat's Daughter) and terrifying (Longlegs)...but The Monkey is not scary and absurdly hilarious.

Twin brothers, Hal and Bill Shelburn (played by Christian Convery as children and Theo James as adults), discover a toy monkey amongst their absent father's belongings. They quickly realize that if they wind the monkey up and it beats on a drum, someone will die. Usually someone in close proximity to the toy, but never the person who wound it up...and the monkey doesn't take requests.

A tragic death caused by Hal winding the monkey up in an attempt to kill Bill tears the brothers apart and they become estranged. 25 years later, Hal is half-heartedly trying to form a relationship with his own son, Petey (Colin O'Brien), when he gets a call from Bill alerting him to the fact that the monkey is back and wrecking havoc again. But Bill has always been an asshole at best and a downtight psychopath at worst, so Hal is wary of trusting him.

As the bodies stack up in very gruesome and hilarious ways, Hal has to figure out how to protect his son--and how to be the dad to Petey that his dad never was to him and Bill.

The Monkey is not a serious movie. It's a horror-comedy with emphasis on the comedy. It's also just a really strange and often absurd film. Theo James cracked me up in the twin role of Bill and Hal...James is a very conventionally handsome man with a voice that commands authority, yet he plays one guy as a sad-sack fuck-up of a father and another guy as a mulletted, reclusive nutcase. It was just very fun to see an actor with gravitas go fully silly. 

While The Monkey is certainly not great art, it is pretty fun entertainment. And it makes me wonder what project Oz Perkins will choose next.

Grade: B

***

The Vourdalak

This strange, goofy gothic horror movie is directed by Adrien Beau and can be found streaming on Shudder. Taking place in the 18th century, it follows Marquis Jacques Antoine Saturnin d'Urfe, an emissary of the King of France who finds himself robbed of his horse and possessions somewhere in Eastern Europe while traveling back to France. A local man suggests he seek out the house of Gorcha, a man who will loan him a horse.

He locates Gorcha's estate and meets the man's strange family, but the man himself is away at war. When Gorcha returns, he has turned into a vourdalak--an Eastern European vampire who specifically craves the blood of the people it loves and desires to turn its family into vourdalaks. Well, this is exactly what happens during the rest of the movie. 

Gorcha the vourdalak is played by a skeletal looking puppet, which is very creepy. The film feels delightfully retro (reminding me a bit of the films of Peter Strickland) and weird. If you're looking for a more obscure horror/vampire film that's not particularly gory (though is quite cruel), check this one out.

Grade: B

***

Memento

I hadn't seen Christopher Nolan's backwards-flowing neo-noir since high school, so I gave it a rewatch. It's not Nolan's best (that would be The Prestige), but it holds up well and the gimmick of the movie playing out in reverse is still a great one. 

Guy Pearce, in a breakout role, plays Leonard Shelby, a man who lost his ability to form short-term memories after a brutal attack in which the attacker raped and killed Leonard's wife. Since the attack, Leonard's only motivation in life is to find the attacker--named John G. or James G.--and kill him. To remember his purpose, Leonard tattoos clues on his body. He also takes polaroid pictures of people and places he needs to remember, such as the motel he lives in and the people he trusts (or doesn't) to give him information. Of course, people can very easily manipulate Leonard once they know about his condition.

Co-starring Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano as people who may or may not have Leonard's best interests at heart, Memento is gritty and depressing. Before the attack, Leonard was an insurance claims investigator and he investigated the claim of one Sammy Jenkins (Stephen Tobolowsky), another man with anterograde amnesia. Leonard rejected Jenkins' insurance claim after investigating the case and concluding that Jenkins' amnesia was psychological and that if he just tried hard enough, Jenkins could recover his memory. 

Boy, the whole denial of insurance angle hits different in 2025, making the viewer kinda hate Leonard. But even if we didn't live in a post-Luigi world, Memento still would be a film with no true heroes--only people out to get money or revenge. 

Guy Pearce is excellent in Memento (not to mention: HOT). After watching his excellent turn in this year's The Brutalist, I want to go on a Guy kick and watch some of his other films. This was a good place to start.

Grade: B+

***

Minority Report

Even though it was a pretty popular movie when it came out in 2002, I never watched Steven Spielberg's Minority Report until now. And I was underwhelmed. Mostly because I thought the acting in this science-fiction film was extremely mid. I think Tom Cruise is a bad actor. The only movies I've ever enjoyed his acting in are Born on the Fourth of July and Eyes Wide Shut (and in the case of the latter, his stiff and awkward acting is perfect for his role in that movie). Minority Report didn't change my opinion. Cruise is a snooze. But, sadly, so are most of the other actors in this film--including Colin Farrell and Samantha Morton. 

The premise of Minority Report is interesting. In the future, a group of psychics can see a crime--specifically, murder--before it happens, allowing law enforcement to arrest people before they kill someone. The idea of arresting someone when they technically haven't done anything is a juicy can of worms, philosophically and legally, but the movie doesn't really explore the ethical implications of "precrime"...it just sends Tom Cruise, the head cop in the Precrime department, on a chase to figure out what's going on when the psychics see *him* commit a murder in their visions. 

There were definitely some great scenes and moments in Minority Report, but in the end the movie was both too twisty and too wrapped up neatly for me to enjoy it. It's very Spielbergian, by which I mean that it's safe and predictable. To be clear, I'm not saying I don't like Spielberg's movies...just that they are the meatloaf and mashed potatoes of movies, if you catch my drift. He's basic. And Minority Report is a fascinating idea made basic. 

Grade: B-

***

Rope

I first watched Rope when I was on a "classic movies" kick in high school and I thought it was extremely boring. Thank goodness my taste has improved since then. This short and not-so-sweet Hitchcock film follows two (TOTALLY NOT GAY) friends who kill a classmate of theirs for the (TOTALLY NOT EROTIC) thrill of it. And then they put his body in a wooden chest and host a dinner party, inviting the dead man's parents and fiance. 

The two men, Brandon Shaw (John Dall) and Phillip Morgan (Farley Granger), also invite their old prep-school housemaster, Rupert Cadell (James Stewart), the man who supposedly inspired the murder by instilling a love of Nietzschean philosophy in the boys. They believe that he's the only man who would understand their desire to kill someone just because they can. Turns out, Cadell is the only man who figures out why Brandon and Phillip are acting so strangely (AND IT'S NOT BECAUSE THEY'RE HIDING THEIR GAY LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER SO STOP ASKING ABOUT THAT!!!).

Rope is a great example of why Hitchcock was known as the Master of Suspense. Nothing particularly violent happens in the movie. But the entire runtime (a slim 80 minutes), your eyes are always on that wooden chest: who is near it, who is looking at it, and who might inadvertently open it. Hitchcock didn't need violence...hell, he didn't even need much of a plot...to get hearts racing. Rope is thrill ride that takes place in one location and only has 10 camera cuts. Truly a remarkable feat, and well worth the watch.

Grade: A

***

Strangers on a Train

Here is another Hitchcock film, and one I hadn't seen before. Farley Granger is back as tennis star Guy Haines, who has a run in with a strange man named Bruno Antony (Robert Walker) on a train. Antony talks Guy's ear off before engaging him in a discussion about how to get away with murder: simply swap murders with a stranger. Since the police always look at motive when someone is murdered, if a stranger kills the person whom you want dead and you've got a solid alibi...well, you'll get away with it.

Guy sort of does that "Oh, yeah, haha, very interesting" thing that you do when a lunatic is talking to you on public transport and then leaves, thinking nothing more of Bruno Antony...until Guy's unfaithful wife whom he wanted to divorce winds up dead. Guy finds himself pulled into Bruno's web of murder and deceit against his will...and he's also the main suspect in his wife's death.

Strangers on a Train is considered one of Hitchcock's best works and it earns that distinction. It's highly suspenseful but also really funny. There are some great scenes, including one of the most wild and entertaining scenes I've ever witnessed (hint: the scene involves a Merry-Go-Round on the fritz). The film really deepened my appreciation for Hitchcock and made me want to seek out more of his films.

Grade: A

Companion

Companion is the type of movie you want to go into as blind as possible. So, I'll do a very short, spoiler-free review up top followed by a full-spoiler review (after a warning) below.

Directed by Drew Hancock and produced by Zach Cregger, much ado has been made of the fact that Companion is "from the people who brought you Barbarian"...a marketing choice to entice people to attend a movie that promises to be full of twists and turns. And although there are many twists (some of them spoiled in the trailers), Companion is more of a dark comedy with horror elements than a wildly tense horror film (as Barbarian was). So for those of you who aren't crazy about horror, but enjoy thrillers, Companion is a safe movie to go see.

In a spoiler-free nutshell, Companion is about Josh (Jack Quaid) and Iris (Sophie Thatcher), a couple who are visiting Josh's friends at a huge lakehouse for a weekend of fun. Iris is insecure because she's met some of Josh's friends before and is convinced they don't like her. Josh brushes off Iris's concerns.

The friends at the lakehouse include aloof Kat (Megan Suri), her (married) boyfriend Sergey (Rupert Friend), who is also the owner of the lakehouse, Eli (Harvey Guillen), and his boyfriend Patrick (Lukas Gage). 

Things go awry. That's it. That's all I can say. I encourage you to go see it without reading anything else. There are some horror/thriller elements, as I mentioned above, but they aren't too gory or intense. Again, it's more of a dark comedy than anything else.

Grade: B+

***

AND NOW FOR THE SPOILERS!

So, people got pissed because the second trailer for Companion (and the poster!) give away the fact that Iris is a robot. A "companion" robot, to be specific. I knew this twist going in and I also knew that she was going to kill someone at some point. 

However, despite knowing the central twist, Companion was still filled with surprises. The fact that Iris is a robot is revealed about 20 minutes into the movie after she stabs Sergey in the neck with a switchblade when he attempts to assault her. Coming back to the lakehouse covered in blood, the rest of the friends freak the hell out while Iris tries to explain that she had to do it. Josh says "go to sleep, Iris" and she...powers down.

From there, we learn that this whole weekend was a setup between Josh and Kat to kill Sergey and steal from his secret safe which is filled with 12 million dollars cash (convenient!). Josh hacked Iris's system and turned her aggression levels way up and then put her in a situation where Sergey would attempt to rape her and she would fight back. All Kat and Josh need to do is turn her in to Empathix (the robot company), make up a BS excuse about how they have no idea what cause Iris to malfunction, take the money and run. Of course, things don't go as planned.

For one thing, Eli wasn't in on the plan and when he finds out what's going on, he demands a cut of the money for himself and a cut for Patrick. Josh and Kat protest, saying that Patrick doesn't deserve a cut...because he's also a robot! This is a twist that I did not see coming despite the fact that Eli and Patrick have a similar "meet cute" story to Iris and Josh (these meet cutes are programmed into the robot's memory to establish a "love link" between the robot and it's owner). Also, Patrick is a bit out of Eli's league. Still, I didn't see it coming.

Iris doesn't know she's a robot until Josh explains to her how they actually met. No, it wasn't a funny story about Josh causing a display of oranges to fall on the floor at a supermarket. In reality, Iris was brought to Josh's apartment and set to his specifications (and then they immediately fucked when Iris came online). Everything Iris knows about herself is just in her programming to make her seem more human. Hell, Josh can even increase and decrease her intelligence levels. An incel's wet dream.

Upon learning the truth, Iris is able to escape and grab Josh's phone, where she immediately goes to her own app and increases her intelligence to 100% (Josh had it set to 40% because he is The Worst). But Josh, Kat, Eli, and Patrick are on her tail, and they have a gun. They also have Patrick, who can be turned into a violent killing machine just as Iris was. Will a self-aware robot be able to outsmart humans? 

I'll stop there, but more twists and turns abound. Companion was a delightfully fun movie and although it doesn't have the weight of Get Out or The Stepford Wives, the toxic masculinity admittedly did hit a little harder given *gestures broadly*. Jack Quaid is excellent as Josh: a sweet, seemingly harmless man on the outside and a loathesome misogynist on the inside. To no one's surprise, he immediately betrays Kat, the only other woman in the movie, the minute she becomes an inconvenience to him.

Sophie Thatcher is also excellent and is entirely believable as a love doll: she is just so, so adorable, but with a deep, husky voice and a hint of shyness. Truly, any man would want her as an obedient little pet. But the minute her aggression and intelligence levels are turned up, she becomes a resourceful, courageous being. At first, she only wants to escape. But by the end, she wants revenge.

The rest of the cast is great. Harvey Guillen is hilarious as a pudgy nerd who, at the end of the day, is not much different from Josh. And Lukas Gage, similar to Thatcher, swivels from sweet puppy dog to mindless killer the minute his system is fucked with. I've been seeing Gage in more and more movies and TV shows and I'm really impressed with him. And of course Guillen, best known as Guillermo in What We Do in the Shadows, is always a delight.

I had such a fun time watching this movie. Sure, it's not going to win any awards or blow anyone's mind, but it's a fun and dark exploration of toxic masculinity in which the woman (well, robot woman) wins in the end. My only complaint is that Josh didn't suffer enough at the end.

Grade: B+

Stuff I watched in...January, 2025

A Real Pain

Directed by Jesse Eisenberg, I was so very pleasantly surprised at the emotional depth and honesty of this dramedy about two cousins, Benji (Kieran Culkin) and David (Eisenberg), who go on a Jewish heritage tour of Poland to honor their recently deceased grandmother's life.

David is the dorky, anxious guy who always gets to the airport early and likes to go to bed early. He is also married with a cute kid. Benji is the charming, laid back one who is also emotionally chaotic. Watching A Real Pain, I was struck with how I related to both David and Benji in terms of my...less than desirable qualities. I'm anxious and routine-oriented like David, but also charming-in-a-sometimes-mean-or-blunt-way like Benji. My self-reflection while watching this movie was especially potent given that I just got back from traveling and I, like many others, see some of my worst qualities emerge when I travel. It was interesting watching two characters do annoying things that I see in myself, while also seeing them forgive each other for those annoying things. I felt both self-aware, and self-forgiving.

And A Real Pain, which is a play on words (Benji and David are both "a real pain" and are feeling very, very real pain), is the perfect movie to feel your feelings during. The nature of the tour, which involves a trip to a concentration camp, but also personal shit happening in Benji and David's lives, bring out the emotions in the two men. Eisenberg, in particular, gives a deeply emotional performance where you hear the catch in his throat as he describes his love for his cousin and also his anger and bone-deep fear about his cousin's choices. 

I won't say more--just watch it. It's a short (90 minutes) film filled with bittersweet, melancholic feelings. It's also really funny! Culkin and Eisenberg are excellent, as are the supporting actors. A Real Pain is one of the most emotionally honest films I've seen in a while.

Grade: A

***

Sleep

This Korean psychological thriller, written and directed by Jason Yu, follows a couple who are about to become parents. Mom-to-be Soo-jin (Jung Yu-mi) is kicking ass in a corporate office and her husband, the lovable Hyeon-soo (Lee Sun-kyun), is an actor aiming to get bigger and better roles. 

Everything seems hunky dory...until Hyeon-soo begins sleep-walking. It starts off innocently enough, with him sitting up in bed and talking in his sleep, but soon he is eating raw meat directly out of the fridge and nearly throwing himself out of a window. And it only gets more sinister from there. 

Soo-jin is, understandably, terrified. With the help of a doctor, the couple work to make their apartment sleepwalk-proof (pads on the sharp table ends) and their lifestyles more conducive to healthy slumber (no more alcohol). But Hyeon-soo continues to sleepwalk--and get more and more aggressive--after the baby arrives. Soo-jin becomes convinced that there is something supernatural at play.

Sleep holds its cards close to its chest, giving us evidence that the sleepwalking is more than just a natural occurrence, but also pointing out how ridiculous a supernatural explanation is. The film also shows how night after night of interrupted sleep can eventually drive anyone, especially a new mom, crazy. 

Sleep is a fun, thrilling horror movie with a decent amount of comedy thrown in for good measure. Fans of horror will likely enjoy it.

Grade: B

***

Band of Brothers

I heard nothing but raves about this 2001 HBO series which follows the true story of Easy Company, a Parachute Infantry Regiment during WWII. Bookended by interviews with still-living members of the Company, Band of Brothers shows how these man had to essentially become "brothers" in order to survive the war. They had to trust and rely on one another and especially rely on their leaders, some of whom were pretty incompetent. 

There is a lot going on in this series, and what kept it from being an "A" rating for me was, as dumb as it sounds, too many combat sequences. Yeah, duh, it's a series about the frontlines of WWII...but action has never been my thing and I really don't need 20 minutes of bullets to get the point. It's also very difficult to tell the men apart, especially during the combat sequences.

The scenes that were meaningful for me were ones were the men are just hanging out and shooting the shit, whether in the trenches or in the safety of their bunks. These are the scenes where to get to know these guys so that when the combat does start, you can see how their personality traits come into play during warfare.

I have a soft spot for WWII media (although I'm more interested in the daily lives of those on the home front than those in battle), so I enjoyed Band of Brothers quite a bit. It's not an "A" series for me, but I can see how it would be for many, many viewers and it's definitely worth the watch.

Grade: B+

***

Smile and Smile 2

I first saw Parker Finn's unrelenting horror film Smile in 2022 and did not care for it (here's my review). In particular, I was pissed about the ending. Also, it's just a really feel-bad movie. And it's weird because I don't mind feel-bad movies, but for some reason Smile didn't do it for me at the time.

However, I rewatched it recently, along with its sequel, Smile 2, and I have to say that going into these movies knowing what they're like makes them way more enjoyable. They are movies that feel very aggressive to me, and very scary. They both have a ton of jump scares and you feel tension throughout the entire movie. Like the main characters, Rose (Sosie Bacon) in Smile and Skye (Naomi Scott) in Smile 2, you feel like you are slowly going crazy while watching these movies.

I particularly remember a scene from Smile where Rose, the victim of a curse that makes her see terrifying smiles everywhere, attends her nephew's birthday party and extremely upsetting things happen at the party that lead to her scream-crying in front of a gaggle of shocked partygoers. I found this scene unbearably cruel and melodramatic when I first saw it...but on a second watch I kind of like it. Both movies are about trauma (and mental illness and addiction) and how people basically get mad at other people for being "overly emotional" and avoid them, isolating them when those people need help the most. When Rose has her breakdown at the party, she is not treated as someone who needs help and care, but as a terrible person who ruined a party. There is a dark, sad truth about this that I now appreciate.

In Smile 2, Skye Riley (Scott) is a pop singer on tour after recovering from a car crash that killed her boyfriend (played by Ray Nicholson, son of Jack...and they look and act so much alike) and a subsequent addiction to painkillers. She is not well, but is pressured to perform by her stage mother, Elizabeth (Rosemarie DeWitt). When Skye begins to unravel (due to the curse, of course), she is not told to rest and cancel all her public engagements, she is pushed harder and harder until she breaks...and then she is blamed for her very public breakdown. 

So, I am changing my opinion about the first Smile and giving it a B+ (instead of the C+ I gave it originally) and I am giving the same grade to its sequel. Yes, these movies are incredibly intense (and genuinely scary), but they have an honesty about the way we treat victims of trauma that I find very compelling. 

Grade: B+

***

Juror #2

Say what you will about Clint Eastwood, but the guy is still cranking out decent movies at age 94, which is a remarkable feat. Juror #2 is a solid courthouse thriller about a man, Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult), who finds himself serving on the a jury for a murder trial...and he has information that would blow the case wide open. 

I feel like there are some plot holes in the movie that keep it from hitting as hard as it could, and the ending feels a little undercooked, but overall it's an entertaining legal thriller for a nice evening at home. Nicholas Hoult is good in everything, and he does well here as a man struggling with his conscience. If he reveals the information he knows, it will impact his life in a negative way. But if he holds his tongue an innocent (maybe?) man will go to prison. It definitely made me reflect on what I would do in a similar situation and there are no easy answers.

Grade: B

***

It's What's Inside

This mind-bending comedy-thriller directed by Greg Jardin practically requires note-taking in order to follow the plot. Whether that's a good or bad thing, I'm still not sure.

A group of college friends reunite for a pre-wedding party for Reuben (Devon Terrell). Surprisingly, Forbes (David Thompson) also shows up. Forbes is a weird dude who got expelled from university after bringing his sister, Beatrice (still in high school at the time), to a party, which lead to her getting in a fight with another girl that was so violent, Beatrice ended up in a mental hospital.

But all of that is water under the bridge when Forbes reveals the "party game" he brought: a suitcase containing a machine that allows everyone to experience their consciousness enter another person's body. Basically, they all attach wires to their temples, Forbes flips some switches, and bam--you are in someone else's body!

I mean...do I even have to say "shit goes sideways"? Of course it does. Mostly because the group uses this absolutely insane miracle of a game to have sex with each other while in new bodies. Sex, lies, manipulation, secrets kept and revealed... until it all goes horribly awry and the group is left figuring out how to clean up the mess.

It's What's Inside is a fun movie, though of course difficult to follow at times for obvious reasons. There's also a gaping plot hole (without giving too much away: one person threatens to tell the cops that another person committed a serious crime...but there is clear physical evidence that they did not commit the crime) that really annoyed me. Like Juror #2 above, this is a fine movie for an evening at home with popcorn. 

Grade: B