2025: The Best and the Rest

For a movie lover like myself, some years we eat good and some years we eat...less good. Last year, the trifecta of Challengers, The Substance, and I Saw the TV Glow blew my friggin' socks off. Challengers and The Substance in particular had my jaw practically hitting the floor by the end of each film. And in addition to those films, Strange Darling, Oddity, Dune: Part Two, Red Rooms, Love Lies Bleeding, and Late Night With the Devil were on my best of list and I still think about those movies a year later and probably will continue to think of them (and revisit them) for years to come. 2024 was simply an excellent year for movies that I personally jibed with.

2025? Not so much.

While I certainly did watch some good films this year, none of the films on my best of list made me feel anywhere close to how Challengers made me feel. And the list as a whole pales in comparison to last year's list. But that's ok! This is a pattern I've come to expect and I did see some really amazing movies (and TV) this year. In fact, I think this "Best and the Rest" blog post will be my longest one yet, with my top 12 from 2025, my favorite first-time watches not released in 2025, a couple notable rewatches, favorite TV, favorite books, and worst media of the year. 

So with all that said, let's dive in!

Top films released in 2025:

12. Eddington (3rd review down) -- This one almost didn't make the list, but despite being a chaotic mess, Ari Aster's social nightmare film is hard to forget. It's an interesting and, at times, very funny mess. I have to praise the audacity of Aster, a director who has never not entertained me. 

11. The Long Walk -- Remarkably, director Francis Lawrence was able to make a very compelling and heartbreaking film about a bunch of young men just...walking. Walking until they die. This Stephen King adaptation is brutal, but the performances by Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, Charlie Plummer, Tut Nyuot, and Ben Wang keep it from feeling completely nihilistic. This gang of young men find friendship and meaning in a senseless, suicidal ritual. 

10. Frankenstein -- Guillermo del Toro's sumptuous, gothic adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel certainly isn't perfect, but between a moving performance by Jacob Elordi as the Creature, eye-popping visuals, and--of course--Oscar Isaac's slutty little gloves (which I couldn't stop mentioning in my review), the film has a lot going for it. I was lucky enough to catch the film in IMAX, which was the best possible way to watch it. 

9. Together -- I saw Together during the hottest part of summer, which feels appropriate because the movie just feels...sweaty. You know, the Bible says that God intended for man and wife to become "one flesh", but this is just ridiculous! With great performances by real-life couple Alison Brie and Dave Franco, Together is simultaneously gross, funny, and kind of sweet. But mostly gross. 

8. Companion -- Even with the perfect girlfriend, some men are never satisfied. Companion is about Josh (Jack Quaid) and his lovely, if a bit shy, girlfriend Iris (Sophie Thatcher). Josh brings Iris to a weekend getaway with his friends, but they all kind of subtly keep Iris at arm's length...and we find out why soon enough. As we continue to fuck ourselves as a species with less human interaction and more late-stage capitalism, films like Companion feel more relevant by the day.

7. 28 Years Later -- Directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland, 28 Years Later is the long-awaited sequel to 28 Days Later (we're just going to pretend 28 Weeks Later doesn't exist). And it was worth the wait. The film follows a group of survivors 28 years after the initial outbreak of the "rage virus" that turned so many people in the United Kingdom into mindless, violent monsters. A young kid, Spike (Alfie Williams), is just old enough to learn how to hunt the remaining monsters living just outside his isolated island. With one of the most tear-jerking scenes of the year, 28 Years Later was a wonderful surprise.

6. Weapons -- I'll be controversial right off the bat and say that I did not like Weapons as much as Zach Creggers' previous film, Barbarian. People went absolutely nuts about Weapons, but I still think Barbarian is the stronger film. However, Weapons is pretty damn entertaining. It's funny, it's surprising, and it's genuinely unsettling. Amy Madigan's performance as Aunt Gladys is one of the best performances of the year. Please, Zach Cregger--keep making batshit insane horror movies! 

5. Bugonia -- Speaking of batshit insane...Yorgos Lathimos does not miss. He is one of the most interesting directors working today and he makes movies that feel like field trips to Hell. Bugonia is a difficult watch, but damn is it good. It has the best cast of the year. The three central actors--Emma Stone, Jesse Plemmons, and newcomer Aidan Delbis--are all excellent individually. But together? Whew. The way they play off of each other was unreal. 

4. Sinners -- You didn't think I'd leave Ryan Coogler's magnum opus off the list, did you? Sinners has the curse of being an extremely well-liked, popular film which means that it's officially cool to hate on it. I kind of empathize with the haters because I didn't particularly like Barbie, which was the extremely popular and well-liked film of 2023. But Sinners is a different story because it really is that good. In particular, the music. Even my dad, who hates vampire movies, watched Sinners and agreed that the music kicked ass. Sinners is just a fucking fun movie. Is it my personal favorite of the year? No. But I've already watched it 3 times this year, which is more than I can say for any other movie on this list. This is the other movie besides Frankenstein that I saw in IMAX and it was absolutely worth it. The scene where Sammie sings "I Lied to You" is my pick for scene of the year and I felt absolutely goosebumpy watching it in a IMAX theatre. 

3. Hamnet -- These top three films could almost go in any order and I do feel a bit guilty putting the one directed by a women and about the female experience in third place. Marty Supreme and One Battle After Another are definitely more "fun" movies, and I tend to be very biased in favor of movies that leave me energetic and laughing. But Hamnet is something special. It's a beautifully shot, painfully earnest and raw film about motherhood, loss, and art. Jessie Buckley, in an astounding lead performance as Agnes, conveys love, grief, anger, and strength so precisely and without over-acting. I've seen criticism saying that Hamnet is "emotionally manipulative", but I didn't find anything about Hamnet to be manipulative--quite the opposite. I found it to be a sincere and simple film about grief and how we can process trauma through art.

2. Marty Supreme -- This one came in under the wire, but I figured it would make the list. Directed by Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme is as laugh-out-loud funny as it is nail-bitingly stressful. Starring Timothee Chalamet as Marty Mauser, an arrogant little twerp who believes that he is the greatest table tennis player in the world and is going to prove it, the movie is about 20% actual table tennis scenes and 80% Marty trying to lie, cheat, steal, and beg his way into enough money to travel to table tennis championships. It's a movie about a hustler--a very compelling one, who fucks married women and makes Holocaust jokes (he can do that--he's Jewish!). Obviously, many viewers will hate the film because they hate Marty, but if you simply accept this man's audacity, you're in for an outrageous and wildly entertaining ride. 

1. One Battle After Another -- This was the year of Paul Thomas Anderson for me. I rewatched Magnolia and Phantom Thread and PTA's immense talent really hit me in a new way. His latest, One Battle After Another, is one of his more "accessible" films in the sense that it's more conventionally funny (compared to the extremely dry humor of Phantom Thread) and the characters are easier to root for (compared to the psychopaths that inhabit There Will Be Blood and The Master). The film is about Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio, in a "funny" role--his star shines the brightest when he's playing funny characters), a former leftist revolutionary who went into hiding with his infant daughter after his partner and daughter's mother, Perfida Beverly Hill (Teyana Taylor), informs on the leftist group The French 75 in order to avoid prison. 16 years after these events, Bob and his teenage daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti in a powerful breakout role), must go on the run when an enemy from the past comes back to hunt both of them down. Watching One Battle After Another was the most electrifying experience I had in theatres this year. I was vibrating with energy while watching it and the film stayed with me long after seeing it. At its heart, it's a film about fatherhood and the lengths even a pot-smoking, lazy ex-revolutionary will go to protect his daughter. 

Honorable mention: Bring Her Back, The Rule of Jenny Pen

***

All following lists are ranked in no particular order!

Best films I watched in 2025 that were released before 2025:

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (3rd review down) -- I finally saw the ultimate "Dad movie" and I loved it! This is just a rollicking good adventure set on the high seas. "Oceans are now battlefields". 

Janet Planet -- A quiet film about an 11 year old girl and her weird, hippie mom, with whom she has a loving, but codependent relationship. 

The Best Years of Our Lives (5th review down) -- This film, which won Best Picture for the 1946, feels extremely progressive and empathetic for its time. It follows three veterans of WWII as they readjust to civilian life.

A Real Pain -- This film came out in 2024 and Kieran Culkin won Best Supporting Actor for it--and boy did he deserve it! The movie is about a pair of cousins who go on a Jewish heritage tour of Poland after their grandmother dies. A very funny and very emotionally honest film.

The Brutalist -- This film came out in 2024 and Adrien Brody won Best Actor for it--and I'm ok with that choice! Love him or hate him, Brody is a really powerful actor (although the real MVP of The Brutalist is Guy Pearce, in my humble opinion) and does a wonderful job in this sweeping epic and indictment of America's attitude towards immigrants. 

Past Lives -- A deeply empathetic exploration of what it means to take one path and leave another behind. Past Lives is bittersweet and handles the idea that we have many possible loves throughout our lives with a deft and gentle hand. 

Ghostlight -- Another bittersweet and empathetic film about the power of art (specifically, theatre) to heal. A man dealing with a crushing loss joins a community theatre group and learns how to forgive and let go. This movie would be an excellent pairing with Hamnet.

Gosford Park (2nd review down) -- Sparkling dialogue, intriguing drama, gorgeous costumes, and Britain's finest actors. Written by Julian Fellowes and directed by Robert Altman, Gosford Park is just delightful. Take the best episode of Downton Abbey and make it even better under Altman's excellent direction and you have this witty and wonderful film.

Honorable mentions: Babylon, The Girl with the Needle, First Cow, Queer, Strangers on a Train 

***

Most satisfying rewatches:

Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair -- While *technically* this was a first time watch for me since it is treated as its own separate thing from Kill Bill vol. 1 and Kill Bill vol. 2 (and it also has at least one additional scene that wasn't in the original films), I still count it as a rewatch because I've seen the Kill Bills. The Whole Bloody Affair combines the films into one 4.5 hour epic and boy was it worth the time and neck cramp from sitting in the front row of the theatre. I've never particularly liked Kill Bill vol. 2, but seeing the entire film at once gave me a greater appreciation of the emotional depth of the scenes where The Bride is reunited with her daughter. This film absolutely fucking slaps on every level.

LOTR trilogy -- Similarly to what I said above, this was a new experience for me since this was my first time watching the extended cuts of the trilogy, but whatever, I'm counting it as a rewatch. A much, much more deeply satisfying rewatch compared to my original viewing of the films in the theatre when they first came out. That's because I had to grow into LOTR. My immature young mind wasn't ready for them in the early aughts, but now that I've seen some shit...I get it. LOTR is the piece of media to watch during troubling times. The story is on another spiritual plane and it manages to convey the importance of fellowship, courage, integrity, and embracing your unique gifts without being cheesy or overly sentimental. The fact that Peter Jackson (and all involved) could take literature that means so much to so many people and make films worthy of that love is nothing short of a miracle. 

Best TV I watched this year

The Pitt, season 1 (5th review down) -- The new show that kicked off 2025 and that people who work in hospitals couldn't watch either because it wasn't accurate enough or because it was too accurate and, thus, panic attack inducing. A bounty of riveting TV for the rest of us!

Severance, season 2 -- Though not quite reaching the highs of season 1, the second season of Severance had its moments, particularly from actor Tramell Tillman as Seth Milchick and from actress Dichen Lachman as Ms. Casey. Season 2 gave us new insights into just what is going on in the basement of Lumon Industries.

The Gilded Age, seasons 1-3 -- I hate reality TV, especially of the "housewife" variety...but that doesn't mean I'm immune to the power of gossipy, rich women serving cunt from noon to midnight. Julian Fellowes didn't get me to stick with Downton Abbey, but The Gilded Age is a different story. I devoured all three seasons as fast as I could.

The White Lotus, season 3 (4th review down) -- This was honestly my favorite season of The White Lotus yet. Something about the mix of spirituality (and the limits of spiritual commitment by rich people in particular) and wild-ass shit (the, uh, journey the Ratliff brothers experience as well as Sam Rockwell's incredibly compelling monologue) really hit the spot for me. Season 1 didn't have enough depth for me and season 2 felt boring. Season 3 had both genuine depth and was never boring. 

***

Best books I read this year:

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

Diavola by Jennifer Thorne

Mother Horse Eyes by some guy on Reddit

***

Worst media of the year

Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw -- There is nothing to say except that this is the worst book I have ever read. Now, I know some people like it and that's fine, but I hated this slim novel with the fire of a thousand suns. I found its prose laughable and its plot stupid. The one thing going for it is that it's only 125 pages long. Hey, I guess we all have to have the worst book we've ever read, so in a weird way, you are triumphant Cassandra Khaw.

The Handmaid's Tale, season 6 (10th review down) -- A terrible end to a show that long overstayed its welcome. It was sad to see a show where the first season was so strong and true to the novel become an absurd parody of itself. How many close-ups of Elisabeth Moss's face do we need? Over its run of 6 seasons, the show couldn't commit to its own internal logic. It also asks us to forgive characters who deserve to spend life in prison for war crimes. 

The Human Centipede (5th review down) -- Roger Ebert reviewed The Human Centipede when the film came out in 2010 and the final sentence of his review is this: "I am required to award stars to the movies I review. This time, I refuse to do it. The star rating system is unsuited to this film. Is the movie good? Is it bad? Does it matter? It is what it is and occupies a world where the stars don't shine." And to be honest, after seeing the movie myself, that review gives it too much credit. It implies that there is something different or special about The Human Centipede even if it's different or special in a bad way. Having seen the movie myself I can report that it's not special at all. It's boring. Very, very boring. The film is 92 minutes long and at least an hour of that runtime involves nothing or very little happening. There is very little violence. There is very little gore. There is very little action. The Human Centipede is a nothingburger and exists as little more than a meme.

Marty Supreme

I think Timothee Chalamet might be my favorite living actor. Is that dorky to say? (My favorite dead actor, for what it's worth, is Philip Seymour Hoffman). There's something dorky about Chalamet--he's a skinny white dude dating a Kardashian. But goddamn, can he act. When I saw him in Call Me By Your Name, I left the theatre thinking that his performance as Elio Perlman was not only great, but was one of the greatest performances in any film I've seen. His ability to portray youthful arrogance and playfulness, mixed with shyness and lust and vulnerability was astounding to me. I think my jaw was actually hanging open after that last final shot of the movie. 

Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme is a fantastic movie. It's outrageous and funny and anxiety-provoking (but in a fun way, at least in my opinion). And at its center is Chalamet's performance as the singular character of Marty Mauser. Marty (based loosely on Marty Reisman) is a hustler. He is always thinking of a way to make a buck (or make a fuck, considering we watch him fuck a married woman into pregnancy against a shelf of shoe boxes in the opening minutes of the film). But his true passion is table tennis and everything he does revolves around the belief that he is and will be known as the world's greatest table tennis player.

Going into this film, I thought it would mostly be about Marty playing ping pong. But the bulk of the film is actually about Marty trying to make (or steal) money he doesn't have so that he can travel to play ping pong. Don't worry--there are multiple scenes of tense, high stakes table tennis games. But most of the movie is focused on Marty's epic quest to first raise money to attend the British Open for table tennis and then raise money to attend the World Championship of table tennis in Tokyo. But his own arrogance, poor impulse control, and general shenanigans keep getting in the way of his plans. Does he blame everyone else for his own mistakes? You betcha.

Chalamet absolutely sells this character. He's the kind of guy who, when speaking about his older, Jewish opponent in the British Open, tells a reporter, "I'm going to do to Kletzki what Auschwitz couldn't", waiting a beat before saying, "I can say that. I'm Jewish. In fact, I'm Hitler's worst nightmare." The cojones on this little twerp! You really do want to hate him and you have every reason to do so. He's foul-mouthed, rude, a liar, a swindler...but you can't help but root for the sonofabitch. And I think the secret sauce here is that Marty has genuine passion for table tennis. Marty's focus on money throughout the film isn't because he's obsessed with nice things (although he does believe that he deserves nice things), but because he sees money as a means to an end--his goal of getting to Tokyo to win the World Championship. 

Spoilers....

In the climatic scene of the film, Marty purposefully throws a match against Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi, the stoic and dignified foil to Marty) as part of a paid publicity stunt. He has just gotten the news that he was banned from the World Championship due to previous shenanigans at the British Open. Even though he made it all the way to Tokyo, enduring danger and humiliation to get there, he won't be achieving his dream of becoming the World Champion at table tennis.

He begs Endo to play a "real" game of ping pong against him. He rallies the crowd to chant their desire to not watch a sham match, but a real one. Endo agrees and Marty beats him by the thinnest margin. When he wins, Marty sobs and hugs Endo, thanking him for the game. This wasn't about money or even about showing off to a stadium full of people (people who are upset because their country's finest player just lost to this American weirdo)...it was about Marty proving something to himself. 

Any other movie would be about Endo, the deaf Japanese man who lost his hearing in WWII, beating the arrogant American pig. But this movie is about Marty--Marty Supreme--coming out on top. It's borderline tasteless, especially right now, given our own resident arrogant American pig at 1600 Pennsylvania. But I'll be damned if I wasn't smiling like a loon when Marty wins the game. Maybe I have a little of that arrogant, piggish American blood in me. Or maybe that's just the power of the film and of Chalamet's performance. 

/spoilers

Marty Supreme is a film that may not work for some people. Some won't see past Marty's annoying traits, especially when he drags his pregnant lover, Rachel, into his bullshit (Odessa A'zion is great, although you want to shake her and tell her to get away from this guy). Some will find the movie too anxiety-inducing to enjoy. But I really like morally grey characters, as long as they're interesting. And Marty is very, very interesting.

Taking a cue from his character, Timothee Chalamet has been hustling his ass off (an ass we get to see during a particularly funny scene in the movie) to promote Marty Supreme and it seems that the hard work has paid off, as the film has been very successful at the box office. I'm so pleased that an indie film about table tennis is drawing such big crowds. It's just such a cool, energetic, funny film and I'm glad I saw it before making my "Best of 2025" list because it will definitely have a place near the top. 

Grade: A

Stuff I watched in... (the second half of) December, 2025

Babylon

Rarely have I a seen a movie that has so many fun and funny things going for it...and also so many stupid and annoying things going against it. Directed by Damien Chazelle (director of Whiplash and La La Land), Babylon is both a love letter to cinema (silent cinema, specifically) and also a wild party movie where Margot Robbie screams the f-word, flashes her tits, and pukes all over fancy rugs. Let's just say that it's a lot.

The majority of the film takes place between 1926 and 1932--the height of silent film and the dawn of talkies. The film explicitly references Singin' in the Rain a lot. But imagine if Singin' in the Rain had wild orgies, copious drug use, violent gangsters threatening to mutilate your genitals if you don't pay your debts, and a close up of an elephant's shitting asshole. Not so wholesome, huh? And I respect the movie for not overly romanticizing and sanitizing Hollywood of the 1920s...but it also feels very anachronistic at times. To the point where it was distracting. 

The best thing about Babylon is that it's raucously funny, especially in the latter half. There were scenes where I was laughing my ass off (the scene where two characters are taken to "the asshole of L.A." is worth the price of admission). It's really just a crazy, kinetic movie where your senses are assaulted for over three hours.

The worst thing about Babylon is...well, a couple things. The film calls to mind that "it insists upon itself" meme, and there's a montage near the end that really felt like it was just Chazelle jacking himself off (intellectually) to the idea of how profound this film is. Additionally, the acting and character development is...not great. Margot Robbie is very fun to watch, but she's a thinly written manic pixie dream girl with a heaping spoonful of seriously mentally ill and gambling/drug/sex addict. Her character, Nellie LaRoy, may be amusing to watch on screen, but if you met this person in real life, you would be running for the hills (or you would fall in love with her until she empties your bank accounts and accidentally runs over your dog). 

Diego Calva plays Manny Torres, who is supposed to be the "normal guy" witnessing all this depravity and madness, and the character SUCKS. He's literally a blank slate. And he's supposed to be the emotional center of the movie! He's supposed to be the character the audience relates to, but he's just...nothing. Someone also needs to tell this guy to close his fucking mouth because his mouth is literally open for like 90% of his screen time. Resting awe face, I guess.

Brad Pitt is also in the movie.

There are some really good supporting characters and fun cameos, but the most interesting characters are either not fleshed out properly or are only in the movie for a few scenes. However, they do add a lot of depth to an otherwise shallow film.

The power of Babylon is in how polarizing it is. You may love it or hate it, but you are sure as hell going to have an opinion about it. For better or worse, I'm still thinking about it days after I watched it. 

I've been mulling over what grade to give Babylon. I think it's one of the few movies I've watched that doesn't deserve one grade, but two. It is both an A- and a C film. Typically, I would say, well, that makes it a B or B- film, but it's not a B or B- film...it's both better than that and worse than that. So, to Babylon, a singular film that despite being intensely annoying I can't wait to rewatch, I give:

Grade: A- and C 

***

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

I'm not a huge Rian Johnson fan. His Knives Out movies are fun, funny, and have great casts...but they're also a little on the nose. Like, they're the kind of movie where it will show a character reading Ayn Rand so that the audience will know, "Oh, that's one of the bad guys." You know what I mean? The characters feel more like a collection of traits that serve to make the audience feel some kind of way about them.

That said, I liked Wake Up Dead Man more than Knives Out. The film is surprisingly very Christian. It concerns a young priest, Jud Duplencity (Josh O'Connor), who is sent to serve as assistant pastor to the fearsome Father Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). Oh, excuse me. Monsignor Jefferson Wicks. 

So, here's the thing. Rian Johnson clearly isn't Catholic because the way he portrays the Catholic Church and priests is just...all wrong. There's a bunch of confusing shit in here. Jefferson considers his church to be his church, which isn't that way Catholicism works (or Protestantism, for that matter. They rotate pastors for this very reason...so people don't get too attached to one church). Also, he apparently "inherited" the church and congregation from his father, also a priest. But...like...priests aren't supposed to have children. I mean, they do. But usually it's not all out in the open like "Yes, I fathered a son despite my vow of chastity and now he is inheriting my church." What? 

Finally, Wicks acts like a fire and brimstone evangelical pastor. The Catholic Church has many, many sins to account for...but they generally don't preach fire and brimstone from the pulpit. Leave that shit to the Southern Baptists. 

So, already, you're asking me to suspend my disbelief. Then, on top of that, it's super obvious that Wicks is supposed to be a Trump-like figure (only not a demented moron, like Trump is). He is the center of a cult of personality and his little flock are beholden to him and only grow worse and worse in their habits and impulses due to his negative influence. Wicks is an angry, hateful, prejudiced man. And on Black Friday...he winds up murdered!!!! Of course, everyone has a motive because Wicks has blackmail-level shit on everybody. So, enter Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) to solve the mystery.

Wake Up Dead Man is fun. Josh O'Connor is lovely as the foil to Wicks. He is a man who wants to bring genuine care and compassion to this fucked up little church. There are some beautiful scenes of actual pastoral care, such as when Jud has an impromptu conversation with a woman (played by the lovely Bridget Everett) whose mom is sick. This film has more of a Christian heart than any of the pap put out by Angel Studios. And for that, I appreciate the film. I mean, some people hate the film for that very reason because it's a little rich to show good Christians while Christofascists destroy the country in real time. But I have a soft spot for movies that tap into how spirituality could be if only people weren't such cunts.

Grade: B

***

Liar Liar

For some reason, I had a desire to revisit this classic Jim Carrey comedy to see if it still holds up. Well, there's a scene where Jim rips off a man's toupee and makes an "Indian war whoop" sound. So...

Also, Jim sleeps with a senior partner at his firm and it's most definitely not considered sexual harassment because the higher up is a woman! Oh, there are also jokes at the expense of fat people, ugly people, women with big boobs, and "slutty" women. Someone uses the r-word at one point too. Just a typical comedy from 1997!

So, yeah, it does not hold up. But those scenes in the courtroom where Jim is representing Jennifer Tilly and he can't lie are still pretty dang funny. There's not much else to say. If you're feeling nostalgic for good old Jim Carrey, watch Dumb and Dumber instead.

Grade: C+

***

Vertigo

Vertigo is considered by many to be Alfred Hitchcock's greatest movie (I personally think his best is Rear Window). This was my third time watching Vertigo and its greatness finally hit. In the past when I watched it, I was very put off by the misogyny, both in how the "spinster" character of Midge is treated, but also the entire plot where Scottie (James Stewart) forcibly makes over Judy Barton (Kim Novak) to look more like a dead woman he was in love with. However, I think that now I know what I'm getting into, I can accept that the film is not only a product of its time, but also that the characters' motivations are less about misogyny and more about obsession. Both on the part of Judy, who gives in to Scottie's insane demands, and on the part of Scottie himself. James Stewart is so fun when he's playing a bad guy. 

Vertigo is beautifully shot and deeply haunting. A lot of movies from the 1950s feel a bit too cheery or melodramatic, but Vertigo is actually unsettling. The score by Bernard Herrmann really amps up the feelings of anxiety and danger than infuse the film. 

It's a classic and I'm glad I gave the film multiple chances to suck me in. Something about the movie itself feels irresistible and enticing. 

Grade: A

***

The Philadelphia Story

Here's another classic I've watched before, but it's been many, many years. The Philadelphia Story was specifically made to boost Katherine Hepburn's success at the box office after she starred in a few flops. She bought the rights to the film and in it she plays socialite Tracy Lord, a woman presented as an unloving, judgmental ice queen who learns to relax a bit and has a huge fuck up the night before her wedding. The idea was to let audiences know that Hepburn understood her image and was ok laughing at herself. It worked and the film was a box office success.

Movies from this time period are so interesting because they often have a mix of old-fashioned and modern sensibilities. I mean, this is a movie in which a divorced woman gets extremely drunk on the eve of her wedding to her would-be second husband and kisses another man (James Stewart is the lucky guy) and then it's implied they sleep together...she's too drunk to remember what happened...so she breaks up with her fiance only to end up getting married to her ex-husband (Cary Grant) now that she's fallen off her ice queen pedestal a bit. That's pretty chill for 1940, isn't it? 

Although there's this weird scene where Tracy's dad implies that she is responsible for his infidelity to her mother because she wasn't a loving enough daughter and that's really fucking weird. But other than that, The Philadelphia Story is a rollicking fun time filled to the brim with witticisms and quips and bon mots. Also, James Stewart playing drunk is really, really funny.

Grade: A-

***

The Equalizer 

The Equalizer is a ridiculous, yet fun revenge fantasy film. It was not my choice to watch it--my partner picked it after I made him watch 8MM. After seeing one revenge movie, he was in the mood for another.

Denzel Washington stars as Robert McCall, an unassuming man who works at a Home Depot type store, is a widower, and reads classic novels at open-all-night diners. Just a lonely dude. But Robert has a secret past and all it takes to unleash the past are some fucking assholes hurting someone Robert cares about. In this case, it's Alina (Chloe Grace-Moretz), a regular at the diner Robert frequents who is the victim of human trafficking. Even though she's not physically locked up, Alina is not free. The men she works for are dangerous and after she hits a client who hits her first, they beat her up and leave her hospitalized.

Robert finds out who these men are and, after making them a fair offer to buy Alina's freedom (and getting laughed at), he kills all five men in 25 seconds. 

Who is Robert McCall and how is this 50-something man who reads Hemingway so good at killing? Will a fixer for the Russian mafia with dozens of highly trained killers and the backing of a powerful oligarch be able to stop Robert? I think you know the answer to that question before you've even seen the movie (especially given that there is an Equalizer 2 and an Equalizer 3). 

Although The Equalizer is...a bit unrealistic...it's pure, dumb fun watching Denzel kick ass after ass after ass after ass. 

Grade: C+

Stuff I watched in... (the first half of) December, 2025

Because I watch so many movies throughout the month of December, I'm splitting my movie review round up into two parts! 

***

Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair

As much as it embarrasses me to say, Quentin Tarantino is one of my favorite--if not my favorite, full stop--directors. The man is problematic on so many levels and basically plagiarizes other films. But GODDAMN are his films fun (and well-written and well-shot). I'd be a liar if I pretended not to like his work. Inglourious Basterds is one of my favorite movies, and Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, and Kill Bill are all up there as well. 

I watched both Kill Bill vol. 1 and Kill Bill vol. 2 in the theatres in high school. They were among the first R-rated films I could go and see by myself or with a group of friends. I loved Kill Bill vol. 1 and I...liked Kill Bill vol. 2. My issue with part 2 was that I don't like Bill. The character of Bill is the worst thing about Kill Bill. He just sucks all the energy out of the room. The man put a bullet in a pregnant woman's head and he's treated like a sympathetic guy in the second movie. Not a good guy, but a man worth hearing out. And I do not want to hear what this man has to say. 

In any case, Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair is parts 1 and 2 together, making it a 4.5 hour long film. And I watched that film in the front row at my local theatre because the rest of the theatre was sold out. But it was worth it. Kill Bill is a masterpiece. This film is as balanced and sharp as a Hattori Hanzo blade. There are so many different stylistic and storytelling elements that could have made the film a mess, but in fact make it a true work of art: the out of order storytelling, the animated sequences, the violence and humor, the music, the emotional weight. Nearly everything is perfect.

The only thing keeping it from an "A+" is that in this version the fight with the Crazy 88s is in color (it's much better in black and white) and also...I'm sorry, but Bill still fucking sucks. His death is very poetic and it's satisfying to watch him die because his lover and protege, The Bride, learned a technique from a kung-fu master who was famous for NEVER teaching anyone that technique. Which means that Bill died knowing his own kung-fu master, Pai Mei, had more respect for The Bride than for Bill. I can only imagine that Bill died with pride and jealousy warring within his mind. 

Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair may not by my favorite of Tarantino's films, but it's probably his magnum opus and absolutely worth investing the time in.

Grade: A

***

First Cow

Directed by Kelly Reichardt, First Cow is a simple and beautiful film. Taking place in the 1820s in Oregon County, the film follows Otis "Cookie" Figowitz (John Magaro), a chef hired to cook for fur trappers who are pissed at him for not finding enough food out in the wild. Cookie runs into a Chinese man, King-Lu (Orion Lee), who is hiding from men trying to kill him. Cookie helps King-Lu escape.

Later, the two men run into each other at a fort and begin living together in King-Lu's modest shack. They hear that the richest man in the area, Chief Factor (Toby Jones) has paid for a cow to be brought to his property--the "first cow" in this part of the territories--because, being an Englishman, Factor takes milk in his tea.

Cookie is a baker by trade and is frustrated that without milk, his biscuits are dry and hard. King-Lu suggests they start milking Chief Factor's cow at night and using the milk to make better biscuits, which they then sell at the fort. Eventually, Chief Factor gets wind of these supposedly amazing biscuits and asks Cookie to make a clafoutis for him to serve to an English friend. Little does he know that his own supply of milk is going into these baked goods.

Cookie and King-Lu are playing a dangerous game and if they are caught, they will absolutely be hunted down. Can they make enough money to move to San Francisco and open a hotel together? You'll have to watch to find out!

First Cow is a very lovely, simple film about male friendship. There's nothing to suggest that Cookie and King-Lu are lovers, but it is also made very clear that they do love each other. And in Oregon County in 1820, love is hard to come by. The film is also a critique of capitalism and hoarding resources. That message doesn't need to be spelled out or spoon-fed...it's just obvious. Why hoard the only cow in the area when you could share the milk with many...and be all the more beloved for it? 

Grade: A-

***

Star Trek: The Voyage Home

My partner and I have been watching the Star Trek movies every time he visits and I'll admit I've been skeptical. But The Voyage Home is an absolute delight! Directed by Leonard Nimoy, it revolves around a "save the whales" message (Nimoy was really into whales). The crew of the USS Enterprise must time-travel back to 1986 San Francisco to bring two whales back to 2286 so they can respond to a distress call being made by other whales (it somehow all makes sense in the movie).

Of course, this leads to classic hijinks, such as Kirk trying to fuck the attractive whale scientist, Dr. Gillian Taylor (Catherine Hicks), Pavel Chekov being interrogated because the government thinks he's a Soviet spy, and Spock showing amusement at the "colorful metaphors" (such as "dumbass") that the primitive humans of 1986 are so fond of using.

Very much a fish-out-of-water (or whale-out-of-water...HAHA) type movie and a whole lot of fun. I enjoyed this one even more than The Wrath of Khan and The Search for Spock. 

Grade: B

***

Death Becomes Her

Death Becomes Her is another classic comedy of the 1990s that I had never seen until my dear friend made me watch it. And it was a hoot! I went in basically knowing nothing and was pleasantly surprised at how dark and fucked up it was, especially for a Robert Zemeckis film!

I probably don't need to explain the plot since everyone on the planet saw this movie before I did, but it involves two frenemies, actress Madeline Ashton (Meryl Streep) and writer Helen Sharp (Goldie Hawn), who compete for decades over who is the most talented and most beautiful. Madeline has a habit of stealing Helen's boyfriends and eventually she steals Helen's fiance, Dr. Ernest Menville (Bruce Willis), a celebrated plastic surgeon.

Despite having a...er...low point (there's a fat suit involved), Helen comes roaring back with massive success for her novels. When Madeline sees how slender and preternaturally youthful Helen looks, she begs for more plastic surgery and is referred to a woman named Lisle von Rhuman (Isabella Rossellini, absolutely serving cunt). tldr: Lisle has a potion that if you drink it, you'll be beautiful and youthful forever, but you can't die...which we all know by this point is a curse, yeah?  

So, like...when Madeline is pushed down the stairs by Ernest after she makes fun of his erectile dysfunction, her neck twists all the way around. And the special effects are genuinely disturbing. This movie is fucked up, y'all--there's domestic violence, fat-shaming, Meryl Streep looking like a damn cryptid. I love it! Really glad I finally got around to watching this classic.

Grade: B

***

The Night Before

The Night Before is peak millennial humor and vibes, but not in a way that makes me feel nostalgic. More in a way that makes me cringe. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Ethan, who, as a young adult, loses his parents right before Christmas. His friends, Isaac (Seth Rogen) and Chris (Anthony Mackie), make a pact to spend every Christmas Eve with Ethan, getting drunk, going to karaoke, eating Chinese food, etc. 

Well, 15 years later it's not cute anymore. Isaac is married and has a baby on the way and Chris is a famous football star. Only Ethan can't seems to move on and grow up. But the friends decide to do one last epic Christmas Eve together and it culminates in Ethan getting tickets (by way of stealing them) for a super secretive and exclusive underground Christmas party. 

The Night Before has some very strong charms, such as Nathan Fielder playing the Red Bull branded limo driver and Michael Shannon playing the mysterious Mr. Green, a pot dealer the boys have gotten their supply from since high school. The movie is filled to the brim with beloved comedians and actors. 

Where the movie fails is the romantic subplot involving Ethan desperately trying to get back with his ex, Diana (Lizzy Kaplan). It's egregious how gross this entire plot line is, with Ethan proposing to her in front of hundreds of people (she says "yes" out of pressure), getting rejected in private, and then showing up at her parents' house on Christmas, where they reconcile. Ugh, no. You in danger, girl! 

If you're looking for a light Christmas comedy, you could do worse. But it's not gonna be a classic for a reason.

Grade: B-

***

The Blackening

The Blackening is a horror comedy by Tim Story about a group of Black college friends who gather for a Juneteenth reunion in an AirBnb in the woods...only to be lured into a racist game of life or death. It's a solid film, but it wasn't as clever or sharp as I hoped. 

The cast is filled with Black comedians, such as Melvin Gregg, Jermaine Fowler, Dewayne Perkins, X Mayo, and many more. This means that the jokes are fast and furious and the editing is chaotic and choppy since the camera is constantly cutting to a different actor saying a funny line. That said, there are some really solid gags here, such as when the group is forced to vote on the "blackest" person in the room to sacrifice (one character says, "I can't be the blackest...I'm gay!")

Horror comedies are hard to do, with really excellent ones few and far between (in my humble opinion). I think The Blackening does a decent job even though it feels uneven at times. It builds to a genuinely surprising ending I did not see coming. And the cast is incredibly charming. It's worth checking out. 

Grade: B-

***

Relay

Relay is a thriller with a very interesting hook: an intermediary between whistleblowers and corporations uses a relay service for the deaf and hard of hearing to anonymously communicate and negotiate deals with both parties. Because all communications that go through the relay service are confidential (and the records are destroyed), this protects the anonymity of all parties. 

Despite this unique central concept, Relay is just filled with plot holes and contrivances. Ash (Riz Ahmed) is the intermediary who works with, shall we say, regretful whistleblowers. These are people who come across information that could get a company in trouble. Perhaps they bring it to their senior leaders and are fired, or maybe they threaten to go public and then face a campaign of harassment. By the time they are put in touch with Ash (usually through a lawyer), they just want to return the information to end the harassment. Ash keeps a safety copy of the damning information in a secure location and negotiates a deal where the company pays off the employee and promises to leave them alone in return for the information being given back. 

Is any of this...actually possible? Probably not. And I just had so many questions that it was hard to suspend disbelief and enjoy the film. It gets even more confusing at the story nears the climax. I feel like Relay would have been an interesting Black Mirror episode...like, keep it to an hour and keep it about the unique use of technology. 

Directed by David Mackenzie, Relay is an ok film that I enjoyed well enough, but I'm glad I didn't pay to see it in theatres. 

Grade: B-

Hamnet

A few years ago I read comedian Rob Delaney's memoir A Heart that Works, which is about him losing his two year old son to brain cancer. It is a remarkable memoir--slim, darkly funny, filled with rage at the unfairness of life as well as the love only a parent could know. I recommend it to everyone. Most people say they will never read it because it sounds unbearably sad. That makes me sad because Rob Delaney wrote it for people to read. He wrote it to achieve personal catharsis and to make meaning of the senseless death of a beloved child and he wrote it for you: to let you know about Henry, his child, but also to prepare you in case it happens to you. And it will happen, if you live long enough. Maybe not to your child, I hope to God not. But definitely to your parents, should you live long enough. To your spouse, maybe. To your friends. To be alive and have relationships is to ultimately grieve. And to grieve is a privilege because it means that you have loved ones worth grieving.

Director Chloe Zhao's adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's book (which I have not read yet) is a miraculous film that is pure and raw and uncomplicated and unpretentious. It tells the story of Agnes (Jessie Buckley), the daughter of a "wise woman"--a woman with medicinal herb knowledge and also what I would call "extra-natural" knowledge (she can see people's futures by holding their hands). Agnes' mother dies when Agnes is young and she inherits these abilities.

One day, she meets a Latin tutor, Will (Paul Mescal), and the two fall in love. They know their families will not approve a marriage, so Agnes gets pregnant by Will on purpose to force their families' hands. They are wed and have a daughter, Susanna. Some years later, Agnes has two more children: twins, a boy and a girl. The son, Hamnet, is born strong. The girl, Judith, almost dies upon birth but Agnes manages to revive her and vows to protect her throughout her life.

Will is unsatisfied with life in the country. He is a writer and desperately needs to get the world in his head out on paper. Agnes encourages him to move to London and join the theatre community there. For many years, they live separate lives with Agnes raising the kids outside Stratford and Will living and writing in London.

But tragedy comes. The plague whispers its way through the city and into the country and Judith contracts it. Agnes fights with all her medicine knowledge to heal her. But it is Hamnet who ultimately saves Judith: he crawls in bed with her and tells her they will switch places so that Death will be fooled and take him instead. His gambit works: Judith recovers and Hamnet dies in his mother's arms.

After the loss of Hamnet, Agnes is depressed as any mother would be. She is resentful of Will living in London even after he buys the family the largest house in Stratford. Agnes isn't the kind of woman who cares about big houses and fancy things. In fact, she would rather stay in the house where Hamnet died to be close to the spirit of her child.

But little does Agnes know that her husband is grieving in his own way. He has written a play as a tribute to his lost son. A play in which the hero, Hamlet, is a powerful man of honor who is haunted by the ghost of his dead father. Agnes and her brother Bartholomew (Joe Alwyn) travel to watch the play. At first, Agnes is infuriated, not understanding what the play is about or why these actors are profaning her dead child's name by speaking it onstage. But when the actor playing Hamlet (Noah Jupe, the brother of Jacobi Jupe, who plays Hamnet in the film, a lovely casting decision), comes onstage, Agnes is filled with amazement. This handsome young man is her son, given life by her husband. 

The final scene of the film is one for the ages. If you're familiar with the play, you know that Hamlet dies. He comes to the front of the stage after having purposefully downed poison wine that killed his mother. He gives his final soliloquy to the audience and holds out his hand, which Agnes takes. "The rest is silence" he says. As the character Hamlet dies, Agnes sees a vision of her son, looking confused and scared and then seeing his mother...and no longer being afraid. The boy walks into the darkness behind the stage and Agnes smiles and laughs for the first time since her son's death. In watching her husband's play, she has achieved catharsis. She can let her son go, knowing that he knows she is smiling at him, remembering him, and loving him always.

Hamnet is a film that will make you cry, but it's not devastating. It's life-giving. Because it knows that our loved ones live on in our memories and in the art we create in their honor. Films about grief and death don't have to be crushing because death is just another part of the life cycle and it's one we will all experience. I think the character of Agnes, a woman deeply in touch with nature, is the perfect character to guide viewers through the experience of losing a child. 

Hamnet is a deeply female film. The director is a woman. It's based on a book written by a woman. It's about a witchy woman and motherhood. Motherhood is shown to be a force of nature, not a charming domestic attribute. Motherhood expands Agnes, it doesn't reduce her. Feminine power is shown to be much larger than home and hearth: it expands into nature, as well as into the past and future. Femaleness is not small and pretty in Hamnet: it is enormous and gorgeous and terrifying as it ought to be. As it is. Men try to reduce us because they fear us, as they fear all of nature.

Agnes is the main character in a film that also has Will Shakespeare in it. This is not a movie about Shakespeare and his experience writing the play Hamlet, this is a movie about Agnes Shakespeare and her experience in watching the play Hamlet. And Jessie Buckley deserves an Oscar. 

It's refreshing to watch a film that is not trying to be clever or break the mold and show us something "new" about grief. Grief is timeless and there is nothing new to be shown. Instead, we have a film that is not cynical. It's honest, it's clean, it's like a spring of pure, cold water. And it's one of the best movies of 2025. 

Go see it.

Grade: A

Also, a fun little thing about this movie is that if the score in the final scene sounds familiar, it's because it was also used in episode 3 of The Last of Us. It's such a powerful piece of music by Max Richter, it's been used multiple times in scenes of grief.

Stuff I watched in...November, 2025

Past Lives

Celine Song's Past Lives is a movie that reminds me why I love movies. Film is art and what purpose does art serve other than to help you experience humanity through it? Past Lives is a film about time, choices, and love. 

In 1999, Na Young and Hae Sung are 12 year olds growing up in South Korea. They have a crush on each other and they go on a date in a park. But Na Young soon moves to Toronto and changes her name to Nora.

12 years later, Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) and Nora (Greta Lee) get in touch over Facebook. They Skype constantly, but are unable to visit one another. Nora is about the go on a writer's retreat in Montauk and Hae Sung is spending the summer in China studying Mandarin. Nora suggests they take a break from talking so they can focus on living the lives right in front of them.

12 years after that, Nora is married to Arthur (John Magaro), a writer she met at the retreat. They live in New York City. Hae Sung comes to visit. His visit to NYC stirs up complicated feelings in all three individuals: Arthur wonders if he was a roadblock in a romance that should have taken place between Nora and Hae Sung; Hae Sung muses about what would have happened if Nora never left South Korea; Nora is faced with a road not taken.

The Korean concept of inyeon comes up multiple times in the film. It's the idea that people are part of one another's lives because they played a role in each other's past lives. So if two people get married, they were part of each other's past lives 8,000 times before. Nora and Hae Sung discuss how they were perhaps in each other's lives before but don't have enough inyeon to be each other's partner in this life. Hae Sung says that he loved Nora as a girl for who she was...but who she was made her "someone who leaves." But to Arthur, Nora is "someone who stays".

Inyeon is a beautiful idea and one that expands our humanity, and what is also beautiful is that Past Lives is not a movie about jealousy or adultery or competition. Hae Sung, Nora, and Arthur spend an evening in a bar with Nora translating for the two men and eventually just having a conversation with Hae Sung in Korean. When she goes to the bathroom, Hae Sung apologizes to Arthur for speaking privately with Nora, but Arthur says that it's ok and that Hae Sung made the right decision by visiting Nora. Later, after Nora sees Hae Sung off in his Uber, she weeps in her husband's arms and he just holds her. I was struck by a thought: this is what it means to love the whole person. And that includes understanding when they weep for a past love or what could have been. This kind of love is not jealous or fearful or hateful, nor is it confident or boastful. What a beautiful and courageous kind of love it is to be able to accept all of someone else, even when their love extends beyond you. 

Grade: A

***

The History of Sound

Two men who love music come to love each other in WWI era New England. Paul Mescal plays Lionel Worthing, a Kentucky boy who leaves the family farm to study voice at the New England Conservatory in 1917. There, he meets David White (Josh O'Connor), who studies composition. The men bond over their interest in folk songs and become intimate.

David invites Lionel to participate in a project where they will travel across Maine, collecting folk songs from the people who live there. They carefully record these songs on wax cylinders. Lionel moves to Europe and though he writes David monthly, he never gets a response. He moves on, but never forgets the best months of his life on that trip with David.

The History of Sound is a beautiful film despite its conventional trajectory. It's really Lionel's story--and Paul Mescal is as soulful as ever, with his sad, deep eyes. Not surprisingly, the movie has a lovely soundtrack filled with folk music and ballads, as well as choral music and even some Joy Division near the end. The final scenes, starring Chris Cooper as the elderly Lionel, who went on to become an esteemed ethnomusicologist, pushes the movie from "good" to "very good" in my opinion. I'm talking Brokeback Mountain levels of emotional catharsis. Or maybe I just have a soft spot for old, lonely men. 

Grade: B+

***

Eddington

Ari Aster's latest film is...a lot. The director's trajectory has been an interesting one to say the least. From an excellent horror film (Hereditary), to a film I consider one of my favorites of all time (Midsommar), to a very weird, yet quite funny anxiety fever dream (Beau is Afraid), to this one...a neo-Western that has a lot of say about our society during and post-covid, but doesn't really say it clearly. 

Eddington takes place in Eddington, New Mexico. A small town torn apart by covid-era politics (the film opens in May 2020). Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) is the sheriff and Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) is the mayor. Ted enforces mask mandates and Joe prickles at being forced to wear a mask. But also, Ted is working on a deal to build a data center in Eddington, believing it will bring jobs to the community.

Pascal skillfully plays a quintessential neo-liberal politician. And Phoenix skillfully plays a borderline nutjob who *might* read as libertarian if you squint. Eddington teases at playing "both sides" politics for the first half of the movie, skewering the self-indulgence of liberal white people in particular, before veering off in a wildly different direction. 

Eddington really is a mess, but it's a very interesting (and, at times, darkly funny) mess. I saw a comment that said the film is "less about any left or right ideologies as much as it's about examining the type of people who have no actual ideology but are using a cause or message to further their own agenda". This really hits the nail on the head. It's not really about politics, it's about trying to wrest some control in an absolutely batshit out of control world. 

Is the movie good? Eh. It's not bad. It's not particularly enjoyable to watch, not because it's unpleasant, but because it's throwing a lot at the wall and not much is sticking. That said, it's quite ambitious and even audacious at times. I'll probably let it sit for a couple years and then return to it and see how I feel about it. But it's no Midsommar.

Grade: B

***

You Can Count On Me

This 2000 Kenneth Lonergan film is slice-of-life Americana, which is Lonergan's specialty (he also directed Manchester By the Sea). The quiet film follows a brother and sister, Sammy and Terry Prescott. As children, the siblings lose their parents in a car crash. As adults, Sammy (Laura Linney) is a responsible single mom who comes across as a bit uptight, but is mostly just trying to do right by her young son Rudy (Rory Culkin). Terry (Mark Ruffalo) is the ne'er-do-well sibling who lives a nomadic lifestyle, gets into random bar fights, and asks his sister for money. 

Despite Terry being a bit of a bum, Sammy loves her brother deeply and is relieved when he visits town after 3 months of no contact. Turns out, Terry was in jail. During Terry's stay, the two siblings seem to wear off on each other a bit: the uptight Sammy starts an affair with her very annoying and petty boss, Brian (Matthew Broderick), while the irresponsible Terry takes a shine to Rudy and brings a little fun into the kid's life.

However, Terry is still deeply emotionally immature and makes some seriously dumb choices, which causes Sammy to re-evaluate her own decisions. 

Lonergan, who has a cameo as a pastor in You Can Count on Me, excels in crafting films about imperfect people making foolish choices, but still being worthy of love. He's a humanist and his movies are reflective and quietly profound, if not all that exciting. You Can Count on Me is notable because when I first watched it back in 2000, it was the first time I saw Mark Ruffalo in a movie and I remember being pretty impressed. 25 years later and I think Ruffalo is one of the finest actors working today. More so than Linney and Broderick, Ruffalo's acting feels lived in. He really slips right into the skin of his character. That alone makes the movie worth watching. 

Grade: A-

***

Good Boy

Good Boy, directed by Ben Leonberg, is a horror film from the perspective of a dog. A young man, Todd (Shane Jensen), is very sick with some kind of lung disease. Against the wishes of his sister, he decides to move to his late grandfather's house out in the woods. He takes along his loyal dog, Indy (played by the director's very own "good boy", also named Indy in real life). 

Indy can sense that something is wrong with the house: he hears noises that sound like another dog coming from the basement and he can perceive someone (or something) hiding in the shadows. Meanwhile, Todd begins isolating himself as death draws near. He yells at his sister on the phone when she says she wants to visit him. He rages at a medical profession who explains that it is "too late" for experimental treatment. And finally, he even pushes Indy away. The good boy who only wants to love Todd is dismissed from the bed and told to sleep on the floor. And then outside, chained to a doghouse.

Although Indy survives the film, Good Boy is a tough one. Dog lovers' hearts will be squeezed as Indy whimpers in fear at a creature stalking the house and tries to protect his oblivious owner. But even though Todd is a real jerk to Indy at times, it's hard not to understand and sympathize with him on some level. Todd doesn't know how to deal with the fact that he is dying. He rages and then breaks down in sobs. He yells at Indy and then pulls him close for a hug. Good Boy is a pretty simple movie, but it packs an emotional punch.

Good Boy is short and spare. It's not particularly scary and it's even a bit boring. Not much happens. But it's also very unique, emotionally intense, and, of course, it stars a very, very cute dog. It's worth a watch if you're a horror fan or a dog lover (although be cautious if you don't like to see animals in distress. Although there really isn't any violence against animals, it's hard to watch Indy "act scared"...even though he is indeed acting!)

Grade: B

***

Cannibal Mukbang

With a title like Cannibal Mukbang you would think that this movie would be mindless, bloody fun. I went into it expecting a movie about a woman who does mukbangs where she, you know, eats people (for the people reading this who aren't terminally online, a mukbang is when someone makes a video of themselves eating a lot of food. It's a thing and people can make good money doing it. Is it sexual? Not typically, but it can be).

Well, the movie does contain a lot of cannibalism, but there's barely any mukbanging. Instead, the film is primarily focused on the relationship between Ash (April Consalo) and Mark (Nate Wise). Ash is a cute, perky girl who does mukbangs for a living and Mark is an autistic-coded nerdy guy who works in customer service. When Ash accidently hits Mark with her car, a romance begins to bloom.

Mark eventually discovers Ash's secret: the meat she cooks for her mukbangs are made of...people!!!! Not just any people--rapists, child molesters, and killers. Ash has an ethical code and only kills and eats men who commit heinous crimes. At first Mark is horrified, but after he witnesses her kill a man and helps her move the body, he gets sucked in to Ash's life of cannibalism.

Cannibal Mukbang was a bummer and a disappointment. The movie is so focused on Ash and Mark's relationship--there is drama and anxiety and "do you love me?" and "I want to take things slow". It feels very high school. It doesn't help that Ash is a manic pixie dream girl and the guy who plays Mark is simply a bad actor. However, he is not as bad an actor as the guy who plays Mark's brother, Maverick.

The brother character, Maverick, is such a pig, so evil, and so poorly acted with such cheesy lines I have to believe that this was a purposeful choice by the director. The character was such a cartoon, that it felt like a parody. Now, a film like Cannibal Mukbang, you might think that the whole movie is a parody--or more like, a homage--to cheesy B-horror films. B-horror films are even mentioned in the movie when Ash and Mark bond over their love of horror. But it felt like the director didn't fully commit to the film being just a ridiculous, cheesy, blood-and-guts fest. April Consalo, for example, is a good actress and does a great job portraying Ash. But then Nate Wise and Clay von Carlowitz (the guy who plays Maverick), are so, so bad at acting. I'm not sure how to explain it, but something didn't add up...it's as if director Aimee Kuge wanted to make a cheesy horror film and a sweet relationship drama and then failed at both.

Also, the ending is a massive bummer. You can see the "twist" coming from a mile away.

Spoilers ahead..

Ash asks Mark to hide in her closet while she brings a "date" home. We know that this date will be with a disgusting rapist pig of a man that Ash will kill and then harvest his body for meat. Turns out, the date is...Maverick! Mark's brother!! Instead of helping Ash kill him, Mark helps Maverick escape... and we know Maverick isn't a good guy because he nearly strangles Ash while calling her a "useless whore". Mark allows Maverick to escape, and then a weeping Ash kills Mark with an axe saying "you're all the same". 

Man, I hated this fucking ending. The pig rapist gets away, Mark proves that he's a pussy not worthy of Ash, and Ash is alone. Not that I really care about these characters, but damn. It was just like...I wanted a movie about a sexy chick who eats men on camera...not this frustrating ending after an hour and a half of relationship drama. Also, the director is a woman and it's not like female directors can't be disappointing, but I felt like she should have done a better job with the material. I was expecting subversion and I didn't get it. 

Anyway, this movie is definitely someone's jam, so if it still sounds intriguing (hopefully you didn't read the spoilers), it's worth watching it. It just wasn't the movie for me.

Grade: C+

Bugonia

Yorgos Lanthimos has cemented his place as one of my favorite working directors. I used to describe his style as, "if Wes Anderson made horror films"...but I take that back now. I've found that although Lanthimos uses the same kind of deadpan humor and elevated (some may say stilted) dialogue favored by Anderson, his films are much more emotional than Anderson's films. Although Anderson's films can certainly make you feel something, they always seem to keep emotions at an arm's length. Anderson's films feel overly controlled whereas Lanthimos' films feel out of control, with characters being plunged into absurd situations they often don't understand. 

And although Bugonia sits in the middle of my ranking of Lanthimos' films (I still love The Lobster and Poor Things the most), it is the most deeply emotional of his films, in my opinion. It really tugged at those heartstrings, but without a hint of schmaltzy sentimentalism. 

If you've seen the preview, you know the basic plot: a man kidnaps a high-powered CEO thinking that she is an alien out to destroy earth. Teddy (Jesse Plemmons) opens the film by describing to his cousin, Donny (newcomer Aidan Delbis, more on him later), how essential bees are to the earth's vegetation. And they are dying. Teddy is a man who has done his research. He believes that aliens walk among us--specifically, Andromedans--and that they are behind all of the earth's woes. And he believes that Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), CEO of a pharmaceutical megacorporation, is one of them. 

Teddy convinces Donny to help him kidnap Michelle and force her to grant the men an audience with the Emperor of the Andromedans. Teddy believes that if he can meet with this alien Emperor, he can negotiate with the Andromedans to leave earth, thus saving it. There's only one problem: Michelle isn't an alien. 

Bugonia is a brutal watch. Although Teddy claims to not want to use force on Michelle, he does. There are scenes of male-on-female violence (thank goodness, no sexual violence) that some viewers will find difficult to watch. However, if you've seen Lanthimos' other films, you're probably at least somewhat prepared for the intensity. 

The thing that makes Bugonia different than other films that depict kidnapping, coercion, and violence is that Teddy isn't an inherently bad guy. At least, I didn't think so. Teddy truly believes his alien conspiracy--he isn't just torturing a woman for sick jollies. He really believes he is saving earth. On top of that, we see flashbacks and learn that Teddy's mother took part in a clinical trial for a drug produced by Michelle's company and is now in a coma. Although Teddy denies it, Michelle rightly points out that the kidnapping plan is influenced by Teddy's pain and anger over this turn of events. Teddy also claims that the Andromedans "killed our family". It's hard to discern where Teddy's anger at Michelle's corporation ends and his alien conspiracy begins. As with most conspiracy theorists, there is enough evidence of "them"--powerful people, rich people--being out to get you that it adds fuel to their more bizarre beliefs.

And then there's Donny. Sweet Donny. Newcomer to the screen Aidan Delbis submitted a tape during an open casting call for the role. Apparently, Lanthimos wanted Donny to be neurodivergent and Delbis is neurodivergent in real life. The first third of the movie has Teddy explaining his wild beliefs to Donny and Donny expressing skepticism before ultimately agreeing to go along with the plan. It's really heartrending when Teddy explains that the two men need to chemically castrate themselves in order to be fully focused on the task at hand and Donny says "I just thought I'd maybe want to be with someone someday" before finally accepting an injection of hormones. Now, it's true that Donny knows the difference between right and wrong, but as he explains to Michelle, he needs Teddy because Teddy is his only family left and he loves his cousin. We can see how someone who doesn't have a lot of people in his life might latch on to the one person he does have and even go along with some vile shit.

Although the movie does tease us with the "is she or isn't she an alien" throughout, it's less about that and more about how otherwise kind and intelligent people can be contorted by abuse, pain, and helplessness. The film is definitely a commentary on how megacorporations don't give a shit about how many lives they destroy in the quest to make money, but it's also about how in the face of profound helplessness, people turn to anything for answers: religion, political movements...even absurd conspiracy theories. Because if you can figure out the secret, no matter how horrible it is, you have some control. 

Perhaps I'm giving Teddy and Donny too much credit...but I think it's a testament to Plemmons and Delbis' acting chops that I didn't hate these men even though they (Teddy in particular) were acting in cruel and horrible ways. Likewise, Emma Stone is excellent as a very strong and intelligent woman who faces her captors head on with a surprising lack of fear. Is her ability to argue back against Teddy a sign that she's a corporate sociopath? Or is she...something else? 

I really dug this movie, even though it was very difficult to watch at times. It's also very funny in the uniquely dark way that all of Lanthimos' films are. There were scenes where something so shocking and horrific would happen, that I would involuntarily guffaw. If that sounds like your type of movie, you're in for a treat.

 Grade: A