I haven’t fully decided where I stand on Weapons yet. May need a second viewing before I can even rate it
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The Imagineering Movie Discussion Thread
- Thread starter PerGron
- Start date
TheOriginalTiki
Well-Known Member
Just did a rewatch, and it elevated the movie from a 7.5/10 to a 9/10 for me. Definitely worth a second viewing. There's so much that clicks into place from the get go when you know what's going on.
I’m definitely there with you after a rewatch
TheOriginalTiki
Well-Known Member
Just gonna drop this here 
TheOriginalTiki
Well-Known Member
Really looking forward to doing my ranking this month. August has been truly special. One of those rare moments in film where every week there's stuff coming out that's genuinely fresh and exciting. It's crazy to think on top of all the awesome stuff we've gotten this month there's still a new Darren Arronofski movie releasing next week. Freaking wild!
Not only have the new releases been awesome, I feel like we're in a golden age for re-releases. Seeing Shin Godzilla for the first time in 4K on the big screen was one of the most memorable movie theater experiences I've had all year.
Not only have the new releases been awesome, I feel like we're in a golden age for re-releases. Seeing Shin Godzilla for the first time in 4K on the big screen was one of the most memorable movie theater experiences I've had all year.
Hell we even got an Aronofsky rerelease this month in Black Swan. Of course I missed it but it was there
TheOriginalTiki
Well-Known Member
I legitimately think August 2025 might be my single favorite movie month since this thread started. There's not a lot here that's going to be considered a classic years down the line, but pretty much everything that came out was at least interesting. I was genuinely excited for each week's batch of new releases and I hope this sets a standard for August being a showcase for more experimental genre fare. Let's get into it.
11. Freakier Friday
The one movie this month I can say was legitimately bad, but really what was anyone expecting from this? God bless Jamie Lee Curtis, she's really trying. Between putting out a killer dramatic performance in The Bear and reminding us all how awesome she was in the original Freaky Friday in this movie it really feels like she's on an apology tour for winning an Oscar for the wrong movie. Seriously though, Jamie Lee Curtis recreating her famous "screaming at the mirror about how old she looks" bit is about ALL this movie has going for it.
I think we might have had something here had the two daughters not also gotten mixed up in the body swap antics. Their presence made the plot feel really jumbled and the two teen actresses were so obviously a few classes below Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan. Good to see Lohan turning in some solid work here and Curtis is always reliably hilarious, but there's too much other plot surrounding the two of them to make this movie even remotely satisfying between brief flashes of Member Berries induced serotonin hits. Definitely the least memorable thing of the month and it was SOOO satisfying to see Weapons curb stomp it at the box office.
10. Relay
Relay is one of those "they don't make movies like this anymore" mid budget thrillers that...Frankly...kind of serves as a reminder of why they don't make them anymore. There's nothing about the movie that's actively bad, but there's just a sense of dullness and malaise in the pacing that kind of ruins the otherwise intriguing premise. Honestly there were a lot of moving plot threads and by the end I thought we'd committed to one too many twists to make the end result actually satisfying (a reoccurring problem I had with a couple movies this month, including Freakier Friday to an extent). I like seeing mid budget stuff hit theaters, but this is such a "serious movie for serious adults" coded affair that it just barely has any actual personality. It has a couple memorable performances but is overall pretty damn mid.
9. Nobody 2
Oh yes, the classic "sequel to a cult classic comedy that just kind of...does the first movie again...". Nobody 2 is definitely a step up from the bottom two of the month but still not really anything that substantial. Bob Odenkirk is predictably entertaining as hell here, and Colin Hanks turns in such a good performance as the corrupt small town sheriff that I really wish he was the main villain instead of Sharon Stone who was WAAAY too over the top and cartoony for the movie's good. Seriously though, props to Colin Hanks because he's slowly morphing into a true second coming of his father when it comes to screen presence.
I did really enjoy some elements of this movie. I think the original had the slightly better story but I liked the setting and action in this one more, so it kind of evens itself out. I'm a total sucker for the run down theme park vibe so I loved all the parts that took advantage of that. There's also a couple surprisingly effective genuine arcs for minor characters that don't often get that kind of depth in movies of this caliber. All in all I had a really good time in the theater with this one but it's ultimately a totally disposable little comedy action movie that doesn't have nearly the same cultural impact as the first film which I already wasn't that big of a fan of.
8. Caught Stealing
I totally agree with Jeremy Jahns, this movie was a total "shadow drop". It's appropriate that I saw Snatch for the first time this month during a movie night as this movie radiates early Guy Richie energy which is really unique for Arronofsky. I really like the first and last act of this, but the "too over convoluted for its own good" criticism rears its head once again. Unlike Relay I could follow all the twists just fine, I just think the cast of characters here was too packed resulting in a lot of good performances pretty much competing for screen time.
Austin Butler does a solid job at a more "straight man" role than were used to seeing him in, and his character arc from beginning to end was surprisingly poignant for a movie this frenetic. Matt Smith is fantastic and really memorable in the limited screen time he has, while Regina King steals the show in a role that has a genuinely effective twist to it. I think my biggest problem with this movie is that the situation snowballs on itself so much that it ceases to be any kind of believable and just sort of devolves into cartoon chaos by the end, fortunately not sacrificing Butler's arc and character development in the process. This is a solid 7/10 movie and I certainly enjoyed it a hell of a lot more than the misery fest that was The Whale, but it's far from being an Arronofski classic.
7. The Knife
Out of everything that came out this month, The Knife is the movie I was the most mixed on. It's a lean mean "bottle episode" thriller that does a fantastic job holding the tension all the way through the very limited run time. Melissa Leo delivers a career defining performance here and it was utterly surreal seeing the boyfriend from Freakier Friday as a racist cop haha. Ultimately I SHOULD love this movie, but a couple things drag it down. For one I think the police escalate the situation to an absolutely comical degree in record time.
I get that the movie is trying to make a commentary on racial profiling, but how INSTANTLY the situation turned into an all hands on deck crime scene over one dead homeless lady really stretched the line of realism for me. There's also a straight up INSANE decision a character makes that kind of defines the whole movie's plot but was a pretty ridiculous "why the hell would you do that??!?!" moment. This movie is definitely worth watching for the pressure cooker tension, I just wish the mechanics of the plot were a bit less sloppy.
6. The Bad Guys 2
The most "Yea, that was pretty good!" movie of the summer haha. I don't have anything great to say about this movie but I don't really have anything negative either. It's just overall a really solid little heist movie that sadly made very little impact in a year that's already been brutal for theatrical animation. I think the action and heist stuff in this movie is fantastic and a step up from the first film. These movies really do just radiate chaotic Looney Tunes energy and the amount of craziness happening on screen at any given point in the action sequences are a joy to behold.
While the villains are definitely well done, I think I'm kind of in the minority in thinking Marmalade was overall the stronger antagonist and even in his limited screen time here I still found him more memorable than the new "Bad Girl" characters. The biggest step down from the first movie is definitely the lack of interpersonal drama between the titular Bad Guys which I thought gave the first film an almost Pixar level of sincerity. Snake in particular is really dumbed down and Flanderized in this one which is a shame. Sam Rockwell is still smooth as hell, Mr. Shark's costume antics are still hilarious, and Awkwafina is actually tolerable, there's just not nearly as much depth here. I feel like they traded off the individual dynamics between the team members for more focus on Wolf and Diane's will they/won't they dynamic which just did not land for me at all. It's a decent time and a visual spectacle, but I think there's a reason this barely made a blip on the pop culture radar.
5. Honey Don't!
I liked this movie A LOT more than most people. It still suffers from that "too convoluted for its own good" issue that keeps coming up, but I still had a blast with this. Margaret Qualley is an absolute superstar at this point in her career and I'm really looking forward to seeing where she goes from here. As someone who's been binging all of It's Always Sunny over the past year seeing Charlie Day in a supporting role was delightful. A t this point I think I associate Chris Evans more for playing smarmy villains than playing Captain America which is a really cool evolution in his career. I also think the title sequence here was an all timer along with having an awesome bookend with the opening and closing.
I was NOT a fan of the twist in this at all, and thought it convoluted an otherwise really enjoyable character study. Still, this movie in a lot of ways feels like a lighter and more fun version of the "small town pressure cooker" atmosphere Eddington was trying to go for. I think it's a step up from last year's Drive Away Dolls and I'm really looking forward to seeing the last piece of Ethan Coen's "Lesbian B Movie" trilogy especially because these films REALLY know how to use Margaret Qualley and I'm stoked to see her next character.
4. The Toxic Avenger
I'm not that well versed in Troma and have never seen the original, but I still had a blast with this. I think it's great that the cast consists of genuine A listers while the movie itself still sticks very closely to its cheesy B horror movie vibes. There's some awesome laughs to be had here, a lot of it coming from throwaway background dialogue ("Oh my god, that dude just saved a cat!!") Kevin Bacon and Elijah Woods are serious standouts here, and I think the film should be a shoe in for a Best Makeup nomination at the Golden Tikis. There's not really a lot to this thing. Either you're not going to be on its wavelength or you're going to have a ton of fun with it. There's really no in between. It's about as deep as a kiddie pool which is why I can't really put it any higher, but it still resulted in one of the most fun movie theater experiences of the month. There was a single group of like five or six people in the theater with me but they were clearly Troma super fans and were eating it the hell up. I loved feeding off that energy!
3. The Roses
Easily the biggest surprise of the month for me, I really loved this thing. It's a slow burn pressure cooker of a divorce comedy, but that slow burn really pays off in one of the most genuinely insane final acts we've seen all year that comes complete with a total mic drop of an ending. Olivia Coleman and Bennedict Cumberbach are both on their absolute A game here, and unlike most other movies this month I thought the script was razor tight and everything fell into place within the story in a really satisfying way. I think the biggest issue I have is with the supporting characters. Andy Samberg is weirdly toned down from the kind of performance he usually gives, while Kate McKennon feels like she just stumbled off the set of one of her more high concept goofball comedies. Neither of them fit the movie that great at all, but the lead performances are so fantastic that it really doesn't matter that much. Definitely curious to check out the original War of the Roses after seeing this, as I hear it's even darker.
2. The Naked Gun
I don't even know what to say here. It's THE return of the screwball comedy. I don't even think this is the most rewatchable movie by any stretch, but that in theater experience the first time simply can't be beat. Unlike The Toxic Avenger, the theater was PACKED and everyone in the audience was locked the hell in. Liam Neason and Pamela Anderson make an awesome romantic pairing and I think it's adorable that they actually fell in love on set. Neason lives up to every inch of promise he had in his Seth McFarlane roles and delivers a comedic performance for the ages, and Anderson does a fantastic job matching his energy. There's not a ton of depth here and honestly even on a second viewing some of the gags didn't hit as hard, but this was still just such a triumphant return to form for the spoof movie and kind of EXACTLY what we needed as a culture in this particular point in time.
1. Weapons
As I said in my initial impressions, I think Weapons is a movie that practically requires a second viewing. Holy cow, once I started the movie again knowing all the pieces of the puzzle it just got elevated to one of the absolute best of the year. Were truly living in a golden age of horror, and while I think Sinners is probably the better overall movie Weapons might be the best straight up horror movie of the year while still having the bonkers genre bending especially in the comedy department. There's a ton of memorable comedic beats but also a ton of genuinely freaky moments and the whole thing comes together into an absurdly satisfying package.
Everything I said about the last act of The Roses can be amplified tenfold here. I can't get over the very last line of narration before we cut to credits. I think a lot of people are razor focused on the insanity that comes right before that...and make no mistake, THE chase scene is just absolute CINEMA in the same way something like the worm ride in Dune Part Two was from last year. Still, that last line of the movie just genuinely haunts me and really puts such a brilliant punctuation on the themes of the story and I don't think enough people are talking about just how hard it hits. The cast is all brilliant, the non linear storytelling...while I worry might beome a one trick pony if Zack Cregger continues to implement it going forward, worked really well here, and pound for pound this is just a much more satisfying movie over the already very good Barbarian. It might go down as an all time great sophomore outing for a promising new voice in the genre.
The one movie this month I can say was legitimately bad, but really what was anyone expecting from this? God bless Jamie Lee Curtis, she's really trying. Between putting out a killer dramatic performance in The Bear and reminding us all how awesome she was in the original Freaky Friday in this movie it really feels like she's on an apology tour for winning an Oscar for the wrong movie. Seriously though, Jamie Lee Curtis recreating her famous "screaming at the mirror about how old she looks" bit is about ALL this movie has going for it.
I think we might have had something here had the two daughters not also gotten mixed up in the body swap antics. Their presence made the plot feel really jumbled and the two teen actresses were so obviously a few classes below Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan. Good to see Lohan turning in some solid work here and Curtis is always reliably hilarious, but there's too much other plot surrounding the two of them to make this movie even remotely satisfying between brief flashes of Member Berries induced serotonin hits. Definitely the least memorable thing of the month and it was SOOO satisfying to see Weapons curb stomp it at the box office.
10. Relay
Relay is one of those "they don't make movies like this anymore" mid budget thrillers that...Frankly...kind of serves as a reminder of why they don't make them anymore. There's nothing about the movie that's actively bad, but there's just a sense of dullness and malaise in the pacing that kind of ruins the otherwise intriguing premise. Honestly there were a lot of moving plot threads and by the end I thought we'd committed to one too many twists to make the end result actually satisfying (a reoccurring problem I had with a couple movies this month, including Freakier Friday to an extent). I like seeing mid budget stuff hit theaters, but this is such a "serious movie for serious adults" coded affair that it just barely has any actual personality. It has a couple memorable performances but is overall pretty damn mid.
9. Nobody 2
Oh yes, the classic "sequel to a cult classic comedy that just kind of...does the first movie again...". Nobody 2 is definitely a step up from the bottom two of the month but still not really anything that substantial. Bob Odenkirk is predictably entertaining as hell here, and Colin Hanks turns in such a good performance as the corrupt small town sheriff that I really wish he was the main villain instead of Sharon Stone who was WAAAY too over the top and cartoony for the movie's good. Seriously though, props to Colin Hanks because he's slowly morphing into a true second coming of his father when it comes to screen presence.
I did really enjoy some elements of this movie. I think the original had the slightly better story but I liked the setting and action in this one more, so it kind of evens itself out. I'm a total sucker for the run down theme park vibe so I loved all the parts that took advantage of that. There's also a couple surprisingly effective genuine arcs for minor characters that don't often get that kind of depth in movies of this caliber. All in all I had a really good time in the theater with this one but it's ultimately a totally disposable little comedy action movie that doesn't have nearly the same cultural impact as the first film which I already wasn't that big of a fan of.
8. Caught Stealing
I totally agree with Jeremy Jahns, this movie was a total "shadow drop". It's appropriate that I saw Snatch for the first time this month during a movie night as this movie radiates early Guy Richie energy which is really unique for Arronofsky. I really like the first and last act of this, but the "too over convoluted for its own good" criticism rears its head once again. Unlike Relay I could follow all the twists just fine, I just think the cast of characters here was too packed resulting in a lot of good performances pretty much competing for screen time.
Austin Butler does a solid job at a more "straight man" role than were used to seeing him in, and his character arc from beginning to end was surprisingly poignant for a movie this frenetic. Matt Smith is fantastic and really memorable in the limited screen time he has, while Regina King steals the show in a role that has a genuinely effective twist to it. I think my biggest problem with this movie is that the situation snowballs on itself so much that it ceases to be any kind of believable and just sort of devolves into cartoon chaos by the end, fortunately not sacrificing Butler's arc and character development in the process. This is a solid 7/10 movie and I certainly enjoyed it a hell of a lot more than the misery fest that was The Whale, but it's far from being an Arronofski classic.
7. The Knife
Out of everything that came out this month, The Knife is the movie I was the most mixed on. It's a lean mean "bottle episode" thriller that does a fantastic job holding the tension all the way through the very limited run time. Melissa Leo delivers a career defining performance here and it was utterly surreal seeing the boyfriend from Freakier Friday as a racist cop haha. Ultimately I SHOULD love this movie, but a couple things drag it down. For one I think the police escalate the situation to an absolutely comical degree in record time.
I get that the movie is trying to make a commentary on racial profiling, but how INSTANTLY the situation turned into an all hands on deck crime scene over one dead homeless lady really stretched the line of realism for me. There's also a straight up INSANE decision a character makes that kind of defines the whole movie's plot but was a pretty ridiculous "why the hell would you do that??!?!" moment. This movie is definitely worth watching for the pressure cooker tension, I just wish the mechanics of the plot were a bit less sloppy.
6. The Bad Guys 2
The most "Yea, that was pretty good!" movie of the summer haha. I don't have anything great to say about this movie but I don't really have anything negative either. It's just overall a really solid little heist movie that sadly made very little impact in a year that's already been brutal for theatrical animation. I think the action and heist stuff in this movie is fantastic and a step up from the first film. These movies really do just radiate chaotic Looney Tunes energy and the amount of craziness happening on screen at any given point in the action sequences are a joy to behold.
While the villains are definitely well done, I think I'm kind of in the minority in thinking Marmalade was overall the stronger antagonist and even in his limited screen time here I still found him more memorable than the new "Bad Girl" characters. The biggest step down from the first movie is definitely the lack of interpersonal drama between the titular Bad Guys which I thought gave the first film an almost Pixar level of sincerity. Snake in particular is really dumbed down and Flanderized in this one which is a shame. Sam Rockwell is still smooth as hell, Mr. Shark's costume antics are still hilarious, and Awkwafina is actually tolerable, there's just not nearly as much depth here. I feel like they traded off the individual dynamics between the team members for more focus on Wolf and Diane's will they/won't they dynamic which just did not land for me at all. It's a decent time and a visual spectacle, but I think there's a reason this barely made a blip on the pop culture radar.
5. Honey Don't!
I liked this movie A LOT more than most people. It still suffers from that "too convoluted for its own good" issue that keeps coming up, but I still had a blast with this. Margaret Qualley is an absolute superstar at this point in her career and I'm really looking forward to seeing where she goes from here. As someone who's been binging all of It's Always Sunny over the past year seeing Charlie Day in a supporting role was delightful. A t this point I think I associate Chris Evans more for playing smarmy villains than playing Captain America which is a really cool evolution in his career. I also think the title sequence here was an all timer along with having an awesome bookend with the opening and closing.
I was NOT a fan of the twist in this at all, and thought it convoluted an otherwise really enjoyable character study. Still, this movie in a lot of ways feels like a lighter and more fun version of the "small town pressure cooker" atmosphere Eddington was trying to go for. I think it's a step up from last year's Drive Away Dolls and I'm really looking forward to seeing the last piece of Ethan Coen's "Lesbian B Movie" trilogy especially because these films REALLY know how to use Margaret Qualley and I'm stoked to see her next character.
4. The Toxic Avenger
I'm not that well versed in Troma and have never seen the original, but I still had a blast with this. I think it's great that the cast consists of genuine A listers while the movie itself still sticks very closely to its cheesy B horror movie vibes. There's some awesome laughs to be had here, a lot of it coming from throwaway background dialogue ("Oh my god, that dude just saved a cat!!") Kevin Bacon and Elijah Woods are serious standouts here, and I think the film should be a shoe in for a Best Makeup nomination at the Golden Tikis. There's not really a lot to this thing. Either you're not going to be on its wavelength or you're going to have a ton of fun with it. There's really no in between. It's about as deep as a kiddie pool which is why I can't really put it any higher, but it still resulted in one of the most fun movie theater experiences of the month. There was a single group of like five or six people in the theater with me but they were clearly Troma super fans and were eating it the hell up. I loved feeding off that energy!
3. The Roses
Easily the biggest surprise of the month for me, I really loved this thing. It's a slow burn pressure cooker of a divorce comedy, but that slow burn really pays off in one of the most genuinely insane final acts we've seen all year that comes complete with a total mic drop of an ending. Olivia Coleman and Bennedict Cumberbach are both on their absolute A game here, and unlike most other movies this month I thought the script was razor tight and everything fell into place within the story in a really satisfying way. I think the biggest issue I have is with the supporting characters. Andy Samberg is weirdly toned down from the kind of performance he usually gives, while Kate McKennon feels like she just stumbled off the set of one of her more high concept goofball comedies. Neither of them fit the movie that great at all, but the lead performances are so fantastic that it really doesn't matter that much. Definitely curious to check out the original War of the Roses after seeing this, as I hear it's even darker.
2. The Naked Gun
I don't even know what to say here. It's THE return of the screwball comedy. I don't even think this is the most rewatchable movie by any stretch, but that in theater experience the first time simply can't be beat. Unlike The Toxic Avenger, the theater was PACKED and everyone in the audience was locked the hell in. Liam Neason and Pamela Anderson make an awesome romantic pairing and I think it's adorable that they actually fell in love on set. Neason lives up to every inch of promise he had in his Seth McFarlane roles and delivers a comedic performance for the ages, and Anderson does a fantastic job matching his energy. There's not a ton of depth here and honestly even on a second viewing some of the gags didn't hit as hard, but this was still just such a triumphant return to form for the spoof movie and kind of EXACTLY what we needed as a culture in this particular point in time.
1. Weapons
As I said in my initial impressions, I think Weapons is a movie that practically requires a second viewing. Holy cow, once I started the movie again knowing all the pieces of the puzzle it just got elevated to one of the absolute best of the year. Were truly living in a golden age of horror, and while I think Sinners is probably the better overall movie Weapons might be the best straight up horror movie of the year while still having the bonkers genre bending especially in the comedy department. There's a ton of memorable comedic beats but also a ton of genuinely freaky moments and the whole thing comes together into an absurdly satisfying package.
Everything I said about the last act of The Roses can be amplified tenfold here. I can't get over the very last line of narration before we cut to credits. I think a lot of people are razor focused on the insanity that comes right before that...and make no mistake, THE chase scene is just absolute CINEMA in the same way something like the worm ride in Dune Part Two was from last year. Still, that last line of the movie just genuinely haunts me and really puts such a brilliant punctuation on the themes of the story and I don't think enough people are talking about just how hard it hits. The cast is all brilliant, the non linear storytelling...while I worry might beome a one trick pony if Zack Cregger continues to implement it going forward, worked really well here, and pound for pound this is just a much more satisfying movie over the already very good Barbarian. It might go down as an all time great sophomore outing for a promising new voice in the genre.
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I’ve got a big movie day Monday to finish up the month, but I agree August was incredibly strong, especially compared to July’s very mixed batchI legitimately think August 2025 might be my single favorite movie month since this thread started. There's not a lot here that's going to be considered a classic years down the line, but pretty much everything that came out was at least interesting. I was genuinely excited for each week's batch of new releases and I hope this sets a standard for August being a showcase for more experimental genre fare. Let's get into it.
11. Freakier Friday
The one movie this month I can say was legitimately bad, but really what was anyone expecting from this? God bless Jamie Lee Curtis, she's really trying. Between putting out a killer dramatic performance in The Bear and reminding us all how awesome she was in the original Freaky Friday in this movie it really feels like she's on an apology tour for winning an Oscar for the wrong movie. Seriously though, Jamie Lee Curtis recreating her famous "screaming at the mirror about how old she looks" bit is about ALL this movie has going for it.
I think we might have had something here had the two daughters also got mixed up in the body swap antics. Their presence made the plot feel really jumbled and the two teen actresses were so obviously a few classes below Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan. Good to see Lohan turning in some solid work here is Curtis is always reliably hilarious, but there's too much other plot surrounding the two of them to make this movie even remotely satisfying between brief flashes of Member Berries induced serotonin hits. Definitely the least memorable thing of the month and it was SOOO satisfying to see Weapons curb stomp it at the box office.
10. Relay
Relay is one of those "they don't make movies like this anymore" mid budget thrillers that...Frankly...kind of serves as a reminder of why they don't make them anymore. There's nothing about the movie that's actively bad, but there's just a sense of dullness and malaise in the pacing that kind of ruins the otherwise intriguing premise. Honestly there were a lot of moving plot threads and by the end I thought we'd committed to one too many twists to make the end result actually satisfying (a reoccurring problem I had with a couple movies this month, including Freakier Friday to an extent). I like seeing mid budget stuff hit theaters, but this is such a "serious movie for serious adults" coded affair that it just barely has any actual personality. It has a couple memorable performances but is overall pretty damn mid.
9. Nobody 2
Oh yes, the classic "sequel to a cult classic comedy that just kind of...does the first movie again...". Nobody 2 is definitely a step up from the bottom two of the month but still not really anything that substantial. Bob Odenkirk is predictably entertaining as hell here, and Colin Hanks turns in such a good performance as the corrupt small town sheriff that I really wish he was the main villain instead of Sharon Stone who was WAAAY too over the top and cartoony for the movie's good. Seriously though, props to Colin Hanks because he's slowly morphing into a true second coming of his father when it comes to screen presence.
I did really enjoy some elements of this movie. I think the original had the slightly better story but I liked the setting and action in this one more, so it kind of evens itself out. I'm a total sucker for the run down theme park vibe so I loved all the parts that took advantage of that. There's also a couple surprisingly effective genuine arcs for minor characters that don't often get that kind of depth in movies of this caliber. All in all I had a really good time in the theater with this one but it's ultimately a totally disposable little comedy action movie that doesn't have nearly the same cultural impact as the first film which I already wasn't that big of a fan of.
8. Caught Stealing
I totally agree with Jeremy Jahns, this movie was a total "shadow drop". It's appropriate that I saw Snatch for the first time this month during a movie night as this movie radiates early Guy Richie energy which is really unique for Arronofsky. I really like the first and last act of this, but the "too over convoluted for its own good" criticism rears its head once again. Unlike Relay I could follow all the twists just fine, I just think the cast of characters here was too packed resulting in a lot of good performances pretty much competing for screen time.
Austin Butler does a solid job at a more "straight man" role than were used to seeing him in, and his character arc from beginning to end was surprisingly poignant for a movie this frenetic. Matt Smith is fantastic and really memorable in the limited screen time he has, while Regina King steals the show in a role that has a genuinely effective twist to it. I think my biggest problem with this movie is that the situation snowballs on itself so much that it ceases to be any kind of believable and just sort of devolves into cartoon chaos by the end, fortunately not sacrificing Butler's arc and character development in the process. This is a solid 7/10 movie and I certainly enjoyed it a hell of a lot more than the misery fest that was The Whale, but it's far from being an Arronofski classic.
7. The Knife
Out of everything that came out this month, The Knife is the movie I was the most mixed on. It's a lean mean "bottle episode" thriller that does a fantastic job holding the tension all the way through the very limited run time. Melissa Leo delivers a career defining performance here and it was utterly surreal seeing the boyfriend from Freakier Friday as a racist cop haha. Ultimately I SHOULD love this movie, but a couple things drag it down. For one I think the police escalate the situation to an absolutely comical degree in record time.
I get that the movie is trying to make a commentary on racial profiling, but how INSTANTLY the situation turned into an all hands on deck crime scene over one dead homeless lady really stretched the line of realism for me. There's also a straight up INSANE decision a character makes that kind of defines the whole movie's plot but was a pretty ridiculous "why the hell would you do that??!?!" moment. This movie is definitely worth watching for the pressure cooker tension, I just wish the mechanics of the plot were a bit less sloppy.
6. The Bad Guys 2
The most "Yea, that was pretty good!" movie of the summer haha. I don't have anything great to say about this movie but I don't really have anything negative either. It's just overall a really solid little heist movie that sadly made very little impact in a year that's already been brutal for theatrical animation. I think the action and heist stuff in this movie is fantastic and a step up from the first film. These movies really do just radiate chaotic Looney Tunes energy and the amount of craziness happening on screen at any given point in the action sequences are a joy to behold.
While the villains are definitely well done, I think I'm kind of in the minority in thinking Marmalade was overall the stronger antagonist and even in his limited screen time here I still found him more memorable than the new "Bad Girl" characters. The biggest step down from the first movie is definitely the lack of interpersonal drama between the titular Bad Guys which I thought gave the first film an almost Pixar level of sincerity. Snake in particular is really dumbed down and Flanderized in this one which is a shame. Sam Rockwell is still smooth as hell, Mr. Shark's costume antics are still hilarious, and Awkwafina is actually tolerable, there's just not nearly as much depth here. I feel like they traded off the individual dynamics between the team members for more focus on Wolf and Diane's will they/won't they dynamic which just did not land for me at all. It's a decent time and a visual spectacle, but I think there's a reason this barely made a blip on the pop culture radar.
5. Honey Don't!
I liked this movie A LOT more than most people. It still suffers from that "too convoluted for its own good" issue that keeps coming up, but I still had a blast with this. Margaret Qualley is an absolute superstar at this point in her career and I'm really looking forward to seeing where she goes from here. As someone who's been binging all of It's Always Sunny over the past yea seeing Charlie Day in a supporting role was delightful. A t this point I think I associate Chris Evans more for playing smarmy villains than playing Captain America which is a really cool evolution in his career. I also think the title sequence here was an all timer along with having an awesome bookend with the opening and closing.
I was NOT a fan of the twist in this at all, and thought it convoluted an otherwise really enjoyable character study. Still, this movie in a lot of ways feels like a lighter and more fun version of the "small town pressure cooker" atmosphere Eddington was trying to go for. I think it's a step up from last year's Drive Away Dolls and I'm really looking forward to seeing the last piece of Ethan Coen's "Lesbian B Movie" trilogy especially because these films REALLY know how to use Margaret Qualley and I'm stoked to see her next character.
4. The Toxic Avenger
I'm not that well versed in Troma and have never seen the original, but I still had a blast with this. I think it's great that the cast consists of genuine A listers while the movie itself still sticks very closely to its cheesy B horror movie vibes. There's some awesome laughs to be had here, a lot of it coming from throwaway background dialogue ("Oh my god, that dude just saved a cat!!") Kevin Bacon and Elijah Woods are serious standouts here, and I think the film should be a shoe in for a Best Makeup nomination at the Golden Tikis. There's not really a lot to this thing. Either you're not going to be on its wavelength or you're going to have a ton of fun with it. There's really no in between. It's about as deep as a kiddie pool which is why I can't really put it any higher, but it still resulted in one of the most fun movie theater experiences of the month. There was a single group of like five or six people in the theater with me but they were clearly Troma super fans and were eating in the hell up. I loved feeding off that energy!
3. The Roses
Easily the biggest surprise of the month for me, I really loved this thing. It's a slow burn pressure cooker of a divorce comedy, but that slow burn really pays off in one of the most genuinely insane final acts we've seen all year that comes complete with a complete and total mic drop of an ending. Olivia Coleman and Bennedict Cumberbach are both on their absolute A game here, and unlike most other movies this month I thought the script was razor tight and everything fell into place within the story in a really satisfying way. I think the biggest issue I have is with the supporting characters. Andy Samberg is weirdly toned down from the kind of performance he usually gives, while Kate McKennon feels like she just stumbled off the set of one of her more high concept goofball comedies. Neither of them fit the movie that great at all, but the lead performances are so fantastic that it really doesn't matter that much. Definitely curious to check out the original War of the Roses after seeing this, as I hear it's even darker.
2. The Naked Gun
I don't even know what to say here. It's THE return of the screwball comedy. I don't even think this is the most rewatchable movie by any stretch, but that in theater experience the first time simply can't be beat. Unlike The Toxic Avenger, the theater was PACKED and everyone in the audience was locked the hell in. Liam Neason and Pamela Anderson make an awesome romantic pairing and I think it's adorable that they actually fell in love on set. Neason lives up to every inch of promise he had in his Seth McFarlane roles and delivers a comedic performance for the ages, and Anderson does a fantastic job matching his energy. There's not a ton of depth here and honestly even on a second viewing some of the gags didn't hit as hard, but this was still just such a triumphant return to form for the spoof movie and kind of EXACTLY what we needed as a culture in this particular point in time.
1. Weapons
As I said in my initial impressions, I think Weapons is a movie that practically requires a second viewing. Holy cow, once I started the movie again knowing all the pieces of the puzzle it just got elevated to one of the absolute best of the year. Were truly living in a golden age of horror, and while I think Sinners is probably the better overall movie Weapons might be the best straight up horror movie of the year while still having the bonkers genre bending especially in the comedy department. There's a ton of memorable comedic beats but also a ton of genuinely freaky moments and the whole thing comes together into an absurdly satisfying package.
Everything I said about the last act of The Roses can be amplified tenfold here. I can't get over the very last line of narration before we cut to credits. I think a lot of people are razor focused on the insanity that comes right before that...and make no mistake, THE chase scene is just absolute CINEMA in the same way something like the worm ride in Dune Part Two was from last year. Still, that last line of the movie just genuinely haunts me and really puts such a brilliant punctuation on the themes of the story and I don't think enough people are talking about just how hard it hits. The cast is all brilliant, the non linear storytelling...while I worry might beome a one trick pony if Zack Cregger continues to implement it going forward, worked really well here, and pound for pound this is such a more satisfying movie over the already very good Barbarian. It might go down as an all time great sophomore outing for a promising new voice in the genre.
Lizzy May Bee
Well-Known Member
Lex Luthor created a super reactor that allowed him to access a pocket dimension, bioengineered Twitter ragebait monkeys, and spent 80 billion dollars funding an invasion of the fake DC version of Palestine just to p!ss Superman off. 8/10
August was overall a pretty strong month for movies. I managed 16 new releases but it was also the month a lot of the movies I missed in theaters came to streaming so while my list here may not be all that robust, my end of year list has grown to 180 so far. I'm behind still but I've done more catching up than I expected. Hoping to get those numbers up even more by the end of September. Anywho, let's go through the 16 movies I caught.
#16- Fixed
[Watched on Netflix]
From the guy who brought you such animated masterpieces as Star Wars: Clone Wars, Primeval, Samurai Jack, Dexter's Laboratory, etc. comes Genndy Tartakovsky's newest production: a raunchy R-rated animated movie about dogs doing the dirty deed.
This was slop, absolute f***ing slop. The animation style is crude and disgusting and genuinely for no actual reason. It's not like this is some shocking grindhouse movie meant to challenge the way something is looked at, no, this is a Netflix original animated movie where dogs f*** and that's it. It's packed full of celebrity voices like Idris Elba, Kathryn Hahn, Bobby Moynihan, Adam DeVine, and Fred Armisen and yet not a single one of these people deliver anything even remotely meaningful or entertaining. This was just a raunchier and somehow dumber version of that one R-rated dog movie starring Will Ferrell and Jamie Foxx from a few years ago.
I'm no prude when it comes to comedies, I don't mind raunchy and gross out, but I do absolutely mind stupid for the sake of stupid and gross for the sake of gross. This movie wasn't trying to say something it was just juvenile humor in the same vein as f***ing Big Mouth, so I guess if you liked that creepy gross show then maybe you'll like this too, but I won't lie, I'm gonna judge you hard. I hated this thing and it's easily going to finish in my bottom five of the year unless we get some absolute stinkers in the last four months.
#15- The Pickup
[Watched on Prime Video]
We go from raunchy and disgusting to just pointless and boring. I almost have to give credit to Fixed because it at least gave me an emotional reaction, The Pickup gave me nothing and honestly while compiling this list I almost missed it because I forgot I even watched it. This is Eddie Murphy just sleepwalking to a paycheck the way he has been for the last decade at least, accompanied by Pete Davidson who is, admittedly, trying his best here but he's so unlikable and the chemistry between him and any of the other characters is nonexistent that I just didn't care about him. Keke Palmer is also a lead here and after her role in One of Them Days this year, it's almost a gut punch to watch this because she's awful and underutilized here. This is the most Amazon Prime movie they could've put out and there's literally nothing else to even say about it. Skip this movie.
#14- Honey Don't!
[Watched in theaters]
Going into Honey Don't! I was really excited and highly anticipating it. I adore Margaret Qualley, Chris Evans, Charlie Day, and Aubrey Plaza and I'm also a pretty big fan of the Coen Brothers, so man I wanted this to be really good. The intro credits were honestly some of the best I've ever seen and so I was really really hopeful but unfortunately it fell apart really quickly for me. The whole Chris Evans plotline being a red herring sucked, the twist at the end was terrible, and the story as a whole just really didn't work. There was no real cohesion or anything here worth watching and it's disappointing that we now know which of the Coen Brothers has the sauce and which one doesn't. None of the actors here deserved this.
#13- Eenie Meanie
[Watched on Hulu]
This was an entirely forgettable action thriller that got dumped on streaming because that's where it belongs. Samara Weaving does her best here and I do like her as an actor, but this is just significantly worse Baby Driver. I straight up just don't have anything to say about this movie, it's nothing and I'll never think about it again. It's not bad, it's not good, it just is and that's the worst thing a movie can be.
#12- Freakier Friday
[Watched in theaters]
This certainly isn't a great movie, but growing up my cousins watched the original religiously to the point every sleep over for YEARS was just us watching Freaky Friday and so I have a lot of nostalgia for that original movie. This one is very much the "more of the same but worse" issue a lot of legacy sequels have and there's a point at the movie where you kind of forget who has swapped with who. I almost feel like the movie would've been stronger if it was the two girls switching and Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan either helping them through it or just being side characters because as is there's just too much going on here that doesn't work. Still, Jamie Lee is a star and Lindsay Lohan is also doing a really great job and just the pure nostalgia of it all let me enjoy my viewing even if it's unlikely I'll ever watch it again.
#11- Nobody 2
[Watched in theaters]
Nobody 2 is another pretty by the books action movie that has some great star power with Bob Odenkirk who plays the everyman very well, but the movie just doesn't ever really come together for me. The first half with Colin Hanks' corrupt sheriff as the villain was pretty entertaining, but as soon as Sharon Stone was brought in as the big bad the movie mostly lost me. There's some fun action moments and I like the performances (minus Stone) mostly, but ultimately it's just a one and done action movie for me.
#16- Fixed
[Watched on Netflix]
From the guy who brought you such animated masterpieces as Star Wars: Clone Wars, Primeval, Samurai Jack, Dexter's Laboratory, etc. comes Genndy Tartakovsky's newest production: a raunchy R-rated animated movie about dogs doing the dirty deed.
This was slop, absolute f***ing slop. The animation style is crude and disgusting and genuinely for no actual reason. It's not like this is some shocking grindhouse movie meant to challenge the way something is looked at, no, this is a Netflix original animated movie where dogs f*** and that's it. It's packed full of celebrity voices like Idris Elba, Kathryn Hahn, Bobby Moynihan, Adam DeVine, and Fred Armisen and yet not a single one of these people deliver anything even remotely meaningful or entertaining. This was just a raunchier and somehow dumber version of that one R-rated dog movie starring Will Ferrell and Jamie Foxx from a few years ago.
I'm no prude when it comes to comedies, I don't mind raunchy and gross out, but I do absolutely mind stupid for the sake of stupid and gross for the sake of gross. This movie wasn't trying to say something it was just juvenile humor in the same vein as f***ing Big Mouth, so I guess if you liked that creepy gross show then maybe you'll like this too, but I won't lie, I'm gonna judge you hard. I hated this thing and it's easily going to finish in my bottom five of the year unless we get some absolute stinkers in the last four months.
#15- The Pickup
[Watched on Prime Video]
We go from raunchy and disgusting to just pointless and boring. I almost have to give credit to Fixed because it at least gave me an emotional reaction, The Pickup gave me nothing and honestly while compiling this list I almost missed it because I forgot I even watched it. This is Eddie Murphy just sleepwalking to a paycheck the way he has been for the last decade at least, accompanied by Pete Davidson who is, admittedly, trying his best here but he's so unlikable and the chemistry between him and any of the other characters is nonexistent that I just didn't care about him. Keke Palmer is also a lead here and after her role in One of Them Days this year, it's almost a gut punch to watch this because she's awful and underutilized here. This is the most Amazon Prime movie they could've put out and there's literally nothing else to even say about it. Skip this movie.
#14- Honey Don't!
[Watched in theaters]
Going into Honey Don't! I was really excited and highly anticipating it. I adore Margaret Qualley, Chris Evans, Charlie Day, and Aubrey Plaza and I'm also a pretty big fan of the Coen Brothers, so man I wanted this to be really good. The intro credits were honestly some of the best I've ever seen and so I was really really hopeful but unfortunately it fell apart really quickly for me. The whole Chris Evans plotline being a red herring sucked, the twist at the end was terrible, and the story as a whole just really didn't work. There was no real cohesion or anything here worth watching and it's disappointing that we now know which of the Coen Brothers has the sauce and which one doesn't. None of the actors here deserved this.
#13- Eenie Meanie
[Watched on Hulu]
This was an entirely forgettable action thriller that got dumped on streaming because that's where it belongs. Samara Weaving does her best here and I do like her as an actor, but this is just significantly worse Baby Driver. I straight up just don't have anything to say about this movie, it's nothing and I'll never think about it again. It's not bad, it's not good, it just is and that's the worst thing a movie can be.
#12- Freakier Friday
[Watched in theaters]
This certainly isn't a great movie, but growing up my cousins watched the original religiously to the point every sleep over for YEARS was just us watching Freaky Friday and so I have a lot of nostalgia for that original movie. This one is very much the "more of the same but worse" issue a lot of legacy sequels have and there's a point at the movie where you kind of forget who has swapped with who. I almost feel like the movie would've been stronger if it was the two girls switching and Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan either helping them through it or just being side characters because as is there's just too much going on here that doesn't work. Still, Jamie Lee is a star and Lindsay Lohan is also doing a really great job and just the pure nostalgia of it all let me enjoy my viewing even if it's unlikely I'll ever watch it again.
#11- Nobody 2
[Watched in theaters]
Nobody 2 is another pretty by the books action movie that has some great star power with Bob Odenkirk who plays the everyman very well, but the movie just doesn't ever really come together for me. The first half with Colin Hanks' corrupt sheriff as the villain was pretty entertaining, but as soon as Sharon Stone was brought in as the big bad the movie mostly lost me. There's some fun action moments and I like the performances (minus Stone) mostly, but ultimately it's just a one and done action movie for me.
The gap between 11 and 10 is pretty big. Hell, even the gap between 13 and 12 was huge. I'd say 13-1 are all movies I liked enough to recommend in some capacity.
#10- The Bad Guys 2
[Watched in theaters]
I really liked the first The Bad Guys, it was one of those surprise sleeper hits that came out of nowhere, but when the sequel came out I was shocked next to nobody saw it. I thought for sure this franchise would be one people would be into but it did pretty poorly at the box office and while I'm sure once it hits streaming it'll do well, it's kind of sad because I did like this movie a lot. The heist is fun, all the characters are charming, and the villains are interesting. I especially think Danielle Brooks as Kitty Kat has a pretty strong chance at a Golden Tikis best voice performance nomination. There's still a bit too much toilet humor and I felt most of the main Bad Guys got sidelined other than Wolf where I wish we got more from all of them, especially Snake, but ultimately it was a fun sequel that I think deserves more than it got.
#09- East of Wall
[Watched in theaters]
We're starting to have the Sundance 2025 movies rolling out and this was one of them that I was pretty excited for. I love slice of life movies and this being a slice of life where the characters are played by themselves in real life had me intrigued. This story is an emotional one that covers things like parental abuse and neglect, expectations, finding your place, and all kinds of other themes that make for a great story to sit through. There's one scene in a barn where real people share their stories that hits like a truck and plenty of moments involving these real kids with troubled home lives who find refuge on this ranch that tug at the heart strings. This was a beautiful movie that feels very much like something that would come out at Sundance, but I do recommend checking it out, I liked it a lot.
#08- The Roses
[Watched in theaters]
This movie is held together by two killer performance by Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch who absolutely kill in their roles. Their chemistry is off the charts both in moments where they are a loving couple and in moments where they're mortal enemies. This movie is less dark than the original War of the Roses and leans way more into the comedy than the drama and I do feel like the actual "war" was rushed through after a ton of buildup, but even still those two central performances were so good and fun that I think everyone should check this one out.
#07- Caught Stealing
[Watched in theaters]
This definitely didn't feel like an Aronofsky film, but it was still a really good time. The ensemble here is amazing with Matt Smith, Reginia King, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Liev Schreiber all being massive standouts. Of course, Austin Butler was also really solid here as an everyman caught in this wacky situation. The movie is high octane thrill with plenty of comedy and fun thrown in, especially a moment involving a dinner. The cat is also adorable and basically this movie is what Argylle thought it was.
#06- The Toxic Avenger
[Watched in theaters]
I've not seen any of the original Toxic Avenger films or anything by Troma at all, but I'm a huge fan of The Dinkle and the low budgetness of this movie had me curious. This movie was an absolute blast where every character from Peter Dinklage to Kevin Bacon to Elijah Wood in his audition for the DCU's Penguin, they're all just fun. The movie is gory and messed up in all the right ways but doesn't go too over the top that it's not fun to watch. The makeup effects will indeed be in competition for the Golden Tiki, though the blood and gore will not because the CGI blood was really obvious, especially where all the other major effects were practical. Still a really fun movie and now I'll have to go check out Troma's backlog.
#05- Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II- The Ashes of Rage
[Watched on Netflix]
When I saw the first chapter of this last year it was just to pad my count because I'm famously not an anime fan, but since watching and really loving that initial movie, I've managed to catch the whole series (not very long) and I've become a pretty big fan of Mononoke. This story follows up the first chapter as another ghost demon thing is terrorizing a feudal Japanese harem and the Medicine Man has to take it down. I adore the mystery and horror aspects, and the animation is just absolutely stunning. I never would've thought I'd fall in love with an anime as much as I have with this series, but I cannot recommend it enough. It's like H.P. Lovecraft turned anime, it's great.
#04- Americana
[Watched in theaters]
Yeah I'm one of the six people on Earth who caught this movie as it made like $19 in theaters, but I actually think that sucks because I really loved this movie. It's a multi-perspective neo-western that ties in all kinds of themes from Indigenous cultures and profiting off of Indigenous artifacts, colonization and whitewashing of history, disabilities, abusive families and conservative traditionalism, it's kind of a wonder that a movie like this got made. It sucks it came out right at the height of the overblown Sydney Sweeney drama because I actually loved this movie and it's gonna end up being one of those weird hills I have to die on I guess.
#03- The Naked Gun
[Watched in theaters]
I think all of Akiva Shafer's movies have been, at minimum, really solid and with movies like Hot Rod and Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, they can be genuinely some of the best comedies of all time, so of course his requel of The Naked Gun was something I was super hyped for. Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson star in this and are absolutely perfect in their roles, Neeson especially carrying comedy way better than I ever thought he would. This is such an amazing return to the spoof comedy we haven't seen since Friedberg and Seltzer murdered the genre and abused its corpse years ago. I'm happy to see this movie get made and I really hope these mid-budget theatrical comedies and spoof comedies continue in the coming years.
#02- Ne Zha 2
[Watched in theaters]
This movie came out in February, sure, but I caught the redub done by A24 which is an August movie, so I'm counting it. This movie is an absolute wonder and I have no idea how something like this got made. The first third was really generic kiddie stuff and I was sitting through it wondering why the hell this was the highest grossing movie of the year and animated movie ever, but there's a moment in the second act where something just switches and I felt like Danny DeVito in that one episode of It's Always Sunny where he "gets it." This movie is a triumph of animation and absolutely deserves all the celebration it's gotten. I don't want to give anything else away, just go watch it.
#01- Weapons
[Watched in theaters]
We really are living in a golden age of Horror between this, Sinners, Together, Bring Her Back, Final Destination: Bloodlines, Presence, etc. 2025 has just been killing it and I'm so glad for it. Weapons is an absolute blast of a movie with a genuinely thrilling mystery, some truly frightening moments, and a bombastic ending that is guaranteed a Golden Tikis nomination for best ending. It's another movie I don't want to spoil but absolutely go check it out, it's well worth it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As September is already in full force and we've already had our first big drop (I will be seeing it tomorrow) I'm pretty excited now that festival season is in full swing so I can start getting excited for the big fall Oscar movies. For September though, some of the movies I'm most excited for include: The Long Walk, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, Him, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, One Battle After Another, and Eleanor the Great as the big standouts.
#10- The Bad Guys 2
[Watched in theaters]
I really liked the first The Bad Guys, it was one of those surprise sleeper hits that came out of nowhere, but when the sequel came out I was shocked next to nobody saw it. I thought for sure this franchise would be one people would be into but it did pretty poorly at the box office and while I'm sure once it hits streaming it'll do well, it's kind of sad because I did like this movie a lot. The heist is fun, all the characters are charming, and the villains are interesting. I especially think Danielle Brooks as Kitty Kat has a pretty strong chance at a Golden Tikis best voice performance nomination. There's still a bit too much toilet humor and I felt most of the main Bad Guys got sidelined other than Wolf where I wish we got more from all of them, especially Snake, but ultimately it was a fun sequel that I think deserves more than it got.
#09- East of Wall
[Watched in theaters]
We're starting to have the Sundance 2025 movies rolling out and this was one of them that I was pretty excited for. I love slice of life movies and this being a slice of life where the characters are played by themselves in real life had me intrigued. This story is an emotional one that covers things like parental abuse and neglect, expectations, finding your place, and all kinds of other themes that make for a great story to sit through. There's one scene in a barn where real people share their stories that hits like a truck and plenty of moments involving these real kids with troubled home lives who find refuge on this ranch that tug at the heart strings. This was a beautiful movie that feels very much like something that would come out at Sundance, but I do recommend checking it out, I liked it a lot.
#08- The Roses
[Watched in theaters]
This movie is held together by two killer performance by Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch who absolutely kill in their roles. Their chemistry is off the charts both in moments where they are a loving couple and in moments where they're mortal enemies. This movie is less dark than the original War of the Roses and leans way more into the comedy than the drama and I do feel like the actual "war" was rushed through after a ton of buildup, but even still those two central performances were so good and fun that I think everyone should check this one out.
#07- Caught Stealing
[Watched in theaters]
This definitely didn't feel like an Aronofsky film, but it was still a really good time. The ensemble here is amazing with Matt Smith, Reginia King, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Liev Schreiber all being massive standouts. Of course, Austin Butler was also really solid here as an everyman caught in this wacky situation. The movie is high octane thrill with plenty of comedy and fun thrown in, especially a moment involving a dinner. The cat is also adorable and basically this movie is what Argylle thought it was.
#06- The Toxic Avenger
[Watched in theaters]
I've not seen any of the original Toxic Avenger films or anything by Troma at all, but I'm a huge fan of The Dinkle and the low budgetness of this movie had me curious. This movie was an absolute blast where every character from Peter Dinklage to Kevin Bacon to Elijah Wood in his audition for the DCU's Penguin, they're all just fun. The movie is gory and messed up in all the right ways but doesn't go too over the top that it's not fun to watch. The makeup effects will indeed be in competition for the Golden Tiki, though the blood and gore will not because the CGI blood was really obvious, especially where all the other major effects were practical. Still a really fun movie and now I'll have to go check out Troma's backlog.
#05- Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II- The Ashes of Rage
[Watched on Netflix]
When I saw the first chapter of this last year it was just to pad my count because I'm famously not an anime fan, but since watching and really loving that initial movie, I've managed to catch the whole series (not very long) and I've become a pretty big fan of Mononoke. This story follows up the first chapter as another ghost demon thing is terrorizing a feudal Japanese harem and the Medicine Man has to take it down. I adore the mystery and horror aspects, and the animation is just absolutely stunning. I never would've thought I'd fall in love with an anime as much as I have with this series, but I cannot recommend it enough. It's like H.P. Lovecraft turned anime, it's great.
#04- Americana
[Watched in theaters]
Yeah I'm one of the six people on Earth who caught this movie as it made like $19 in theaters, but I actually think that sucks because I really loved this movie. It's a multi-perspective neo-western that ties in all kinds of themes from Indigenous cultures and profiting off of Indigenous artifacts, colonization and whitewashing of history, disabilities, abusive families and conservative traditionalism, it's kind of a wonder that a movie like this got made. It sucks it came out right at the height of the overblown Sydney Sweeney drama because I actually loved this movie and it's gonna end up being one of those weird hills I have to die on I guess.
#03- The Naked Gun
[Watched in theaters]
I think all of Akiva Shafer's movies have been, at minimum, really solid and with movies like Hot Rod and Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, they can be genuinely some of the best comedies of all time, so of course his requel of The Naked Gun was something I was super hyped for. Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson star in this and are absolutely perfect in their roles, Neeson especially carrying comedy way better than I ever thought he would. This is such an amazing return to the spoof comedy we haven't seen since Friedberg and Seltzer murdered the genre and abused its corpse years ago. I'm happy to see this movie get made and I really hope these mid-budget theatrical comedies and spoof comedies continue in the coming years.
#02- Ne Zha 2
[Watched in theaters]
This movie came out in February, sure, but I caught the redub done by A24 which is an August movie, so I'm counting it. This movie is an absolute wonder and I have no idea how something like this got made. The first third was really generic kiddie stuff and I was sitting through it wondering why the hell this was the highest grossing movie of the year and animated movie ever, but there's a moment in the second act where something just switches and I felt like Danny DeVito in that one episode of It's Always Sunny where he "gets it." This movie is a triumph of animation and absolutely deserves all the celebration it's gotten. I don't want to give anything else away, just go watch it.
#01- Weapons
[Watched in theaters]
We really are living in a golden age of Horror between this, Sinners, Together, Bring Her Back, Final Destination: Bloodlines, Presence, etc. 2025 has just been killing it and I'm so glad for it. Weapons is an absolute blast of a movie with a genuinely thrilling mystery, some truly frightening moments, and a bombastic ending that is guaranteed a Golden Tikis nomination for best ending. It's another movie I don't want to spoil but absolutely go check it out, it's well worth it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As September is already in full force and we've already had our first big drop (I will be seeing it tomorrow) I'm pretty excited now that festival season is in full swing so I can start getting excited for the big fall Oscar movies. For September though, some of the movies I'm most excited for include: The Long Walk, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, Him, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, One Battle After Another, and Eleanor the Great as the big standouts.
TheOriginalTiki
Well-Known Member
The Long Walk...just, DAMN man. It totally transcends "horror" and goes into Requiem for a Dream territory as one of the absolute most disturbing movies I've ever watched. I have some issues with the ending, but the actual journey of the film was beyond harrowing. One of THE all time great title drops in all of Cinema. I'm just absolutely shaken. I don't think I'm ever going to forget that theater experience. Spent most of the time having to fight off blind rage at the sheer injustice of it all, which of course was partly spurred on by the current political climate.
Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson have THE SAUCE.
Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson have THE SAUCE.
Half/CartoonHalf/Human
Active Member
But what type of sauce? Barbecue? Alfredo? Tomato? Hot? Soy? Secret?
Clearly THE sauce
AceAstro
Well-Known Member
I just got out and wow, I don’t even have words. That rocked me to my core, I was a mess the entire second half. It was definitely gorier than I thought it was going to be, which rattles you early, and then it never lets up from there
One Battle After Another is good… very good even, but I do fear it’s being a bit overhyped. I think solid 8-8.5/10 for me with some real amazing performances, score, cinematography, etc. I mean PTA is a master, but I was just a little bit let down I think, but it may just need a second watch
Still a must see though and it’s gonna make a lot of my Golden Tikis longlists
Still a must see though and it’s gonna make a lot of my Golden Tikis longlists
Last edited:
TheOriginalTiki
Well-Known Member
Pretty much had the exact same thoughts. Definitely some big highlights, that last car chase is an all timer, but "the defining movie of our time" is a bit much.
TheOriginalTiki
Well-Known Member
September was a weird month. There were some major high points, the legitimate worst movie I've seen all year, and some very, very mid offerings. It's also the month I've seen the least new releases since like April or May, with Gabby's Dollhouse, The Strangers Chapter Two, Downton Abby, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, and The Lost Bus all being pretty no brainer skips on my end (yes, @PerGron, I WILL judge you a little bit if you actually saw Gabby's Dollhouse in theaters 
)
6. Him
I really don't have much to say about this garbage that this Simpsons clip didn't already sum up. This thing just goes completely and utterly off the rails, and in a migraine inducing way more than a fun way. All it had to be was Whiplash for football, a premise that really does SEEM like a no brainer. Instead of being a thought provoking look at how far pro athletes push their bodies, this just completely and utterly devolves into occult nonsense. It's the sheer definition of "style over substance". It feels like a 90 minute music video with very little actually happening in the plot at any given point.
Marlon Wayans provides the singular high point as the charismatic villain, but even the tone of his character is all over the place. It was obviously written for him to be unpredictable but it just comes off as inconsistent. The main character has one facial reaction he sticks to for every single thing that happens to him. The ending had the potential to veer into campy fun territory but it's just all too much. I was CACKLING by the time the credit rolled, but it was the sort of laughter you can only get when you just throw your hands in the air and give up on any sort of story logic the film is throwing out. Just an all out trainwreck and the single worst movie going experience I've had all year.
5. Eleanor the Great
This movie's heart is in the right place, but it's so lazily executed I honestly was tempted to put it in the last spot just because it doesn't have the campy "what the hell am I watching??" factor that Him has. This very much feels like a more self serious but way, way less enjoyable follow up to Thelma as a late career June Squib starring vehicle. If I had a nickel for every movie released in September where the premise revolves around someone lying to get in good with a support group, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.
The other "liar revealed" movie is way up there for the month, but this one just felt like it was sleepwalking towards the inevitable reveal. I was genuinely so bored through most of this. June Squib has some fun feisty moments but that's really about all the film has going for it. The drama of the situation is so self serious that the comedic moments don't even mesh tonally. The one MAJOR highlight I'll give this thing is Rita Zohar delivers a straight up soul crushing performance in a couple monologues. It's a small part but her scenes are by far and away the most captivating in the movie. Her last monologue was genuinely some of the absolute best acting of the year and it's a shame the performance is wrapped up in a film that's so utterly mid beyond it. I can see this hitting better for other people, but for me it was just a really boring, self serious affair with a couple performance highlights.
4. The Conjuring: Last Rites
The most "mid" movie of the month, but overall not really bad at all. It's definitely a pretty significant step up from The Devil Made Me Do It but doesn't even come close to the studio horror perfection that was the first two movies. As always, Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga give it their all in these roles, and they truly have done a fantastic job crafting a pair of really engaging screen characters from people who were all in all pretty garbage in real life. I even like the stuff with their daughter and her fiance, especially Patrick Wilson's "protective dad" interactions with the latter which while very cliche were elevated by his sheer charisma.
While the character stuff on the Warren side is very strong in this one, the actual haunting stuff falls flat. It's almost comical just how much the family being affected here is pushed to the sidelines. The way the movie gets the entire Warren family to their house is one of the most convenient leaps in plot logic I've seen all year, and once they're all there the victim family basically just become background extras. The scares for the most part are really lame. It's definitely one of those horror movies where the build up is way more suspenseful than the actual payoff. A super memorable and effective opening scene gave me false hope that the rest of the movie could never live up to. I'm happy that the fictional Warrens didn't go out on a whimper, but this franchise has very much fallen from the heights it once reached.
3. Twinless
Honestly it was really hard to rank the top three, as all of them are among my favorites of the year. Twinless might be the absolute biggest surprise I've had all year. I went in knowing basically nothing about it besides the "support group for surviving twins who have lost their sibling" angle, and was pretty floored by the overall execution. This IS a "liar revealed" story, and one of the absolute best in that sub genre. The movie does a fantastic job of walking the razor's edge of comedy, heart breaking drama, and genuine nail biting tension.
Unlike Eleanor the Great which just kind of establishes the lie and then goes in circles for most of the run time until the inevitable reveal, the tension this movie creates around the central lie just gets more and more ramped up as the movie goes along, creating a house of cards that you're just on the edge of your seat waiting to be toppled over. The performances are exceptional, with Dylan O'Brien doing double duty for two radically different characters. There's just a lot of moments here that have really stuck with me, and I love how it all comes together. Great opening scene, great title drop, great ending, great pace throughout. Twinless is a can't miss movie that really went above and beyond any expectation I could have possibly had for it.
2. One Battle After Another
As PerGron alluded to, this has literally the EXACT opposite effect on me that Twinless had. I'll say upfront I did love a lot of this movie, so much so that I'd probably put it as my #4 Paul Thomas Anderson movie behind There Will Be Blood, Punc Drunk Love, and Magnolia. The problem is that good God...the hype for this movie is SOOOOO off that chart that I'm legitimately disappointed specifically because I don't think it's one of the "defining movies of the 21st century". Seriously, the hive mind holding this thing up like it's the absolute best movie ever made is actively making me appreciate it a little less. It's kind of insane that I literally haven't seen a SINGLE criticism for it.
Don't get me wrong, it IS fantastic. The performances across the board are great with particular highlights from Benencio Del Toro in a rock solid supporting role and Sean Penn in a villain role I can only describe as a modern day Frollo. I'm a bit mixed on the structure of this film, as I think the pre-time jump stuff was a little all over the place with some honestly pretty choppy, montage-heavy editing at certain points. I didn't really feel the connection between Leo and his partner that I was supposed to and I think a lot of that comes down to how fast the film goes over their courtship. It really seemed like the script was speed running the set up to get to the good stuff and honestly I would have gladly taken the extra 20 minutes to make this movie a round three hours if it meant more time to really get to know these people before everything hits the fan.
I will say though, as far as a movie that's essentially one long chase scene, this one does it better than most. As soon as Leo and Del Toro hook up, the movie really finds its footing and goes into overdrive for the rest of the run time, resulting in a truly thrilling, edge of your seat, and exhilarating second half that literally DARES you to take a bathroom break. I absolutely adore the score, and the climatic car chase is an absolute all timer with probably the single best cinematography I've seen all year. I genuinely really DO love this movie, I just think it's kind of reaching an Everything Everywhere All At Once/Oppenheimer level of film bro worship that is genuinely obnoxious.
1. The Long Walk
I can't not put it at number one. I honestly feel like the reactions to this and One Battle should be switched. People are viewing this as solid Hollywood popcorn entertainment and One Battle as an earth shattering masterpiece when really I think by all accounts it's the other way around. This movie DESTROYED me on my first watch, and on my second watch I really got to appreciate just how well it sets everything up. The cast, music, production design, script, everything comes together so well to create a story that SHOULD be much more culturally relevant to the times were living in than it actually is. The fact that this movie will likely not get a single Oscar nomination kind of breaks my heart.
I do have a few mild hang ups with it, which are really just moments. It has a quick flashback that does take you out of the action and is one of the rare times I think "tell don't show" would have worked better, and while I overall really love the ending from a character development point of view and for really driving the point of the story home, THAT LINE kills me with how corny and Hollywood it is. But that's it. Those are my only two minor nitpicks.
The rest of the whole movie completely sweeps me away. David Jonson and Cooper Hoffman are two of the absolute most promising up and coming actors, Mark Hamill gives what might be his absolute best live action performance (a role so hate-able it literally made me flip off the screen on my first viewing) and Ben Wang is both super effective at being comic relief and completely and utterly heartbreaking when his character meets his inevitable fate. I don't think I'll ever forget him screaming "I DID IT ALL WRONG" as the music builds. I get chills just thinking about it.
I just don't get how this movie isn't being praised for the defining piece of art it really is. One Battle is a ton of fun and super engaging, but THIS feels important. It touches on real world issues of our day and really gets to the raw nerve of them in a way I feel like One Battle mostly just uses those issues as set dressing. It's an all around triumph of a movie and I'd be shocked if it doesn't get a Shawshank style reevaluation in the years to come.
) 6. Him
I really don't have much to say about this garbage that this Simpsons clip didn't already sum up. This thing just goes completely and utterly off the rails, and in a migraine inducing way more than a fun way. All it had to be was Whiplash for football, a premise that really does SEEM like a no brainer. Instead of being a thought provoking look at how far pro athletes push their bodies, this just completely and utterly devolves into occult nonsense. It's the sheer definition of "style over substance". It feels like a 90 minute music video with very little actually happening in the plot at any given point.
Marlon Wayans provides the singular high point as the charismatic villain, but even the tone of his character is all over the place. It was obviously written for him to be unpredictable but it just comes off as inconsistent. The main character has one facial reaction he sticks to for every single thing that happens to him. The ending had the potential to veer into campy fun territory but it's just all too much. I was CACKLING by the time the credit rolled, but it was the sort of laughter you can only get when you just throw your hands in the air and give up on any sort of story logic the film is throwing out. Just an all out trainwreck and the single worst movie going experience I've had all year.
5. Eleanor the Great
This movie's heart is in the right place, but it's so lazily executed I honestly was tempted to put it in the last spot just because it doesn't have the campy "what the hell am I watching??" factor that Him has. This very much feels like a more self serious but way, way less enjoyable follow up to Thelma as a late career June Squib starring vehicle. If I had a nickel for every movie released in September where the premise revolves around someone lying to get in good with a support group, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.
The other "liar revealed" movie is way up there for the month, but this one just felt like it was sleepwalking towards the inevitable reveal. I was genuinely so bored through most of this. June Squib has some fun feisty moments but that's really about all the film has going for it. The drama of the situation is so self serious that the comedic moments don't even mesh tonally. The one MAJOR highlight I'll give this thing is Rita Zohar delivers a straight up soul crushing performance in a couple monologues. It's a small part but her scenes are by far and away the most captivating in the movie. Her last monologue was genuinely some of the absolute best acting of the year and it's a shame the performance is wrapped up in a film that's so utterly mid beyond it. I can see this hitting better for other people, but for me it was just a really boring, self serious affair with a couple performance highlights.
4. The Conjuring: Last Rites
The most "mid" movie of the month, but overall not really bad at all. It's definitely a pretty significant step up from The Devil Made Me Do It but doesn't even come close to the studio horror perfection that was the first two movies. As always, Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga give it their all in these roles, and they truly have done a fantastic job crafting a pair of really engaging screen characters from people who were all in all pretty garbage in real life. I even like the stuff with their daughter and her fiance, especially Patrick Wilson's "protective dad" interactions with the latter which while very cliche were elevated by his sheer charisma.
While the character stuff on the Warren side is very strong in this one, the actual haunting stuff falls flat. It's almost comical just how much the family being affected here is pushed to the sidelines. The way the movie gets the entire Warren family to their house is one of the most convenient leaps in plot logic I've seen all year, and once they're all there the victim family basically just become background extras. The scares for the most part are really lame. It's definitely one of those horror movies where the build up is way more suspenseful than the actual payoff. A super memorable and effective opening scene gave me false hope that the rest of the movie could never live up to. I'm happy that the fictional Warrens didn't go out on a whimper, but this franchise has very much fallen from the heights it once reached.
3. Twinless
Honestly it was really hard to rank the top three, as all of them are among my favorites of the year. Twinless might be the absolute biggest surprise I've had all year. I went in knowing basically nothing about it besides the "support group for surviving twins who have lost their sibling" angle, and was pretty floored by the overall execution. This IS a "liar revealed" story, and one of the absolute best in that sub genre. The movie does a fantastic job of walking the razor's edge of comedy, heart breaking drama, and genuine nail biting tension.
Unlike Eleanor the Great which just kind of establishes the lie and then goes in circles for most of the run time until the inevitable reveal, the tension this movie creates around the central lie just gets more and more ramped up as the movie goes along, creating a house of cards that you're just on the edge of your seat waiting to be toppled over. The performances are exceptional, with Dylan O'Brien doing double duty for two radically different characters. There's just a lot of moments here that have really stuck with me, and I love how it all comes together. Great opening scene, great title drop, great ending, great pace throughout. Twinless is a can't miss movie that really went above and beyond any expectation I could have possibly had for it.
2. One Battle After Another
As PerGron alluded to, this has literally the EXACT opposite effect on me that Twinless had. I'll say upfront I did love a lot of this movie, so much so that I'd probably put it as my #4 Paul Thomas Anderson movie behind There Will Be Blood, Punc Drunk Love, and Magnolia. The problem is that good God...the hype for this movie is SOOOOO off that chart that I'm legitimately disappointed specifically because I don't think it's one of the "defining movies of the 21st century". Seriously, the hive mind holding this thing up like it's the absolute best movie ever made is actively making me appreciate it a little less. It's kind of insane that I literally haven't seen a SINGLE criticism for it.
Don't get me wrong, it IS fantastic. The performances across the board are great with particular highlights from Benencio Del Toro in a rock solid supporting role and Sean Penn in a villain role I can only describe as a modern day Frollo. I'm a bit mixed on the structure of this film, as I think the pre-time jump stuff was a little all over the place with some honestly pretty choppy, montage-heavy editing at certain points. I didn't really feel the connection between Leo and his partner that I was supposed to and I think a lot of that comes down to how fast the film goes over their courtship. It really seemed like the script was speed running the set up to get to the good stuff and honestly I would have gladly taken the extra 20 minutes to make this movie a round three hours if it meant more time to really get to know these people before everything hits the fan.
I will say though, as far as a movie that's essentially one long chase scene, this one does it better than most. As soon as Leo and Del Toro hook up, the movie really finds its footing and goes into overdrive for the rest of the run time, resulting in a truly thrilling, edge of your seat, and exhilarating second half that literally DARES you to take a bathroom break. I absolutely adore the score, and the climatic car chase is an absolute all timer with probably the single best cinematography I've seen all year. I genuinely really DO love this movie, I just think it's kind of reaching an Everything Everywhere All At Once/Oppenheimer level of film bro worship that is genuinely obnoxious.
1. The Long Walk
I can't not put it at number one. I honestly feel like the reactions to this and One Battle should be switched. People are viewing this as solid Hollywood popcorn entertainment and One Battle as an earth shattering masterpiece when really I think by all accounts it's the other way around. This movie DESTROYED me on my first watch, and on my second watch I really got to appreciate just how well it sets everything up. The cast, music, production design, script, everything comes together so well to create a story that SHOULD be much more culturally relevant to the times were living in than it actually is. The fact that this movie will likely not get a single Oscar nomination kind of breaks my heart.
I do have a few mild hang ups with it, which are really just moments. It has a quick flashback that does take you out of the action and is one of the rare times I think "tell don't show" would have worked better, and while I overall really love the ending from a character development point of view and for really driving the point of the story home, THAT LINE kills me with how corny and Hollywood it is. But that's it. Those are my only two minor nitpicks.
The rest of the whole movie completely sweeps me away. David Jonson and Cooper Hoffman are two of the absolute most promising up and coming actors, Mark Hamill gives what might be his absolute best live action performance (a role so hate-able it literally made me flip off the screen on my first viewing) and Ben Wang is both super effective at being comic relief and completely and utterly heartbreaking when his character meets his inevitable fate. I don't think I'll ever forget him screaming "I DID IT ALL WRONG" as the music builds. I get chills just thinking about it.
I just don't get how this movie isn't being praised for the defining piece of art it really is. One Battle is a ton of fun and super engaging, but THIS feels important. It touches on real world issues of our day and really gets to the raw nerve of them in a way I feel like One Battle mostly just uses those issues as set dressing. It's an all around triumph of a movie and I'd be shocked if it doesn't get a Shawshank style reevaluation in the years to come.
September was a pretty odd month where it started super strong but kind of petered off before getting really strong at the end again. Unfortunately, my most anticipated movie of the month was one of the biggest letdowns, but I got through 17 releases and only three of them would I describe as "bad" where most of this stuff falls into the "good" territory and a few absolute standouts.
#17- The Strangers: Chapter Two
[Watched in theaters]
I definitely didn't expect this movie to be good, the first one was at best a bad requel of a series I'm already not the biggest fan of to begin with, but this just absolutely fumbles any amount of goodwill I have for The Strangers franchise. The highlight of the series has always been the line "Why are you doing this?" "Because you were home." Having these masked killers doing their thing entirely randomly with no reasoning is the terrifying part of the series, but instead now this is a generic revenge slasher because they decided to go full The Hobbit and stretch one movie's premise into a whole trilogy.
Half of this movie just drops being a slasher at all too and just becomes Tubi's The Revenant with a boar instead of a bear and Cheryl Blossom from Riverdale instead of Leonardo DiCaprio. I will say, Madelaine Petsch does her best with what she has and I can't entirely blame her, but still an absolute waste of 90 minutes. The worst part is I've invested myself in two of these pieces of garbage so now I have to see it finished next year. Don't be me, skip this movie.
#16- A Big Bold Beautiful Journey
[Watched in theaters]
This was a movie I did really want to love because I do love Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie, but man was it a complete misfire on all counts. The two leads aren't remotely believable as a romantic pairing, in fact I'd argue they have anti-chemistry and I don't know if that's because of the direction, dialogue, premise, or that these two just don't have chemistry, but it did make it really boring and hard to sit through.
This is the most manic pixie dream girl movie made since Scott Pilgrim by the way, it's so ridiculous in trying to be whimsical and quirky that it's just an incredibly difficult watch. It's shot well and the colors absolutely pop, but as a narrative feature, not worth the time.
#15- HIM
[Watched in theaters]
God did I want this movie to be good, but it just wasn't. This movie felt like a trailer to a better movie, there were so many montage shots and weird music choices and just stand alone visuals that I wondered if they really were just trying to make a good trailer rather than a good movie. Football is a brilliant idea for a horror movie and even a cult movie, the way so many people dedicate their lives to this sport is a really interesting take on the genre and I think if Jordan Peele HAD directed it would've been a much stronger movie, but it ended up just being a nothingburger. There's no satisfaction at the end of the movie during the bloodbath because you don't care about the characters and the cult aspect is so not delved into that I didn't care there either. Just a disappointing mess of a movie that I wish I could praise but I can't.
#14- Blood & Myth
[Watched on Hulu]
This is one part a true crime story about a man who killed his mother in a remote Alaskan village and one part about Inuit mythology and feral people of the tundra, but neither aspect really gets fleshed out in the way you need it to for a documentary like this to work.
I do really appreciate the story about Indigenous people being told by an Indigenous person and how he manages to showcase some of the plights they have historically gone through, but it's neither about his nation nor about the murder nor really about the fact the murderer claims to have seen these mythological people in the mountains. It tries to juggle all of these topics in just around 90 minutes and it simply doesn't work. There is some amount of intrigue here, but it's just a little too unfocused and messy to get me to ever think about it again.
#13- Highest 2 Lowest
[Watched on Apple TV+]
A Spike Lee x Denzel Washington remake of an Akira Kurosawa film should be an absolute homerun, but alas this was a pretty forgettable time that misses some of the purpose of the original High and Low.
Denzel is, of course, one of the greatest actors in history and does have a lot of charm and charisma here, and the score is pretty phenomenal with some great tension building moments, but beyond that the plot is just kind of alright and I can't really say it's something I'll ever return to, but it was a solid enough one time watch.
#12- The Conjuring: Last Rites
[Watched in theaters]
I've not been invested in The Conjuring franchise in a long time, probably since the second movie, but since this is allegedly Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson's final performance as the Warrens, I figured I may as well check it out. As a family drama about the Warrens including their daughter and her fiancee, Ed Warren's heart condition, and just getting older in general, this really worked for me. I may not be the biggest fan of this series but the connection between Ed and Lorraine and their family has always been a highlight and I'm happy to see them get more focus.
HOWEVER... This is the least scary movie in the franchise by a mile. The ghosts/demons/whatever they are don't have special designs like Annabelle or Valak where they can become icons of horror, these all look like those two little gremlin kids from the Ghost of Christmas Present's scene in the Jim Carrey A Christmas Carol. There's also too much fantasy here with a giant Annabelle doll and a hatchet-wielding maniac ghost that doesn't feel in line with the series. These movies were scary because they felt grounded in reality because they're based on allegedly true accounts from the Warrens. The Conjuring worked because we didn't get these long cheesy looks at the spirits, most of the horror is based around the family and unseen forces, not a 20 foot Annabelle running down the hallway. Of course ghosts and spirits and stuff aren't really "realistic," but this movie sheds its grounded nature and just goes full It Chapter 2 with the goofball scares.
The Conjuring: The Last Rites is the third best Conjuring movie and probably in the top 5 of the whole series, but there's a huge leap between The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2 and this movie. Watch it for the family drama, but don't expect great horror unfortunately.
#11- Eleanor the Great
[Watched in theaters]
Another movie I really wanted to love that I just kind of... liked? It feels weird saying I liked this because it's a pretty deep topic and a liar revealed story which I think everyone at this point knows I hate. Making a movie about a woman who lies about being a Holocaust survivor to a group of Holocaust survivors is pretty insane for a dramedy and definitely not what I thought this movie would be about. It looked like a movie about a 90-year old woman moving to New York for the first time, not like... this.
I can't say I enjoyed this movie but I did enjoy June Squibb in it. Honestly her performance alone gets it this high because if it were any other actress in the role I could easily see this sitting around Him levels. The movie is very predictable and oddly insensitive while still being heavy and about coping with grief in a way that I think a lot of people can empathize with and relate to. As a directorial debut from Scarlett Johansson it leaves some to be desired, but as a movie in the career of a 95-year old June Squibb, it's no Thelma but she did very well.
#17- The Strangers: Chapter Two
[Watched in theaters]
I definitely didn't expect this movie to be good, the first one was at best a bad requel of a series I'm already not the biggest fan of to begin with, but this just absolutely fumbles any amount of goodwill I have for The Strangers franchise. The highlight of the series has always been the line "Why are you doing this?" "Because you were home." Having these masked killers doing their thing entirely randomly with no reasoning is the terrifying part of the series, but instead now this is a generic revenge slasher because they decided to go full The Hobbit and stretch one movie's premise into a whole trilogy.
Half of this movie just drops being a slasher at all too and just becomes Tubi's The Revenant with a boar instead of a bear and Cheryl Blossom from Riverdale instead of Leonardo DiCaprio. I will say, Madelaine Petsch does her best with what she has and I can't entirely blame her, but still an absolute waste of 90 minutes. The worst part is I've invested myself in two of these pieces of garbage so now I have to see it finished next year. Don't be me, skip this movie.
#16- A Big Bold Beautiful Journey
[Watched in theaters]
This was a movie I did really want to love because I do love Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie, but man was it a complete misfire on all counts. The two leads aren't remotely believable as a romantic pairing, in fact I'd argue they have anti-chemistry and I don't know if that's because of the direction, dialogue, premise, or that these two just don't have chemistry, but it did make it really boring and hard to sit through.
This is the most manic pixie dream girl movie made since Scott Pilgrim by the way, it's so ridiculous in trying to be whimsical and quirky that it's just an incredibly difficult watch. It's shot well and the colors absolutely pop, but as a narrative feature, not worth the time.
#15- HIM
[Watched in theaters]
God did I want this movie to be good, but it just wasn't. This movie felt like a trailer to a better movie, there were so many montage shots and weird music choices and just stand alone visuals that I wondered if they really were just trying to make a good trailer rather than a good movie. Football is a brilliant idea for a horror movie and even a cult movie, the way so many people dedicate their lives to this sport is a really interesting take on the genre and I think if Jordan Peele HAD directed it would've been a much stronger movie, but it ended up just being a nothingburger. There's no satisfaction at the end of the movie during the bloodbath because you don't care about the characters and the cult aspect is so not delved into that I didn't care there either. Just a disappointing mess of a movie that I wish I could praise but I can't.
#14- Blood & Myth
[Watched on Hulu]
This is one part a true crime story about a man who killed his mother in a remote Alaskan village and one part about Inuit mythology and feral people of the tundra, but neither aspect really gets fleshed out in the way you need it to for a documentary like this to work.
I do really appreciate the story about Indigenous people being told by an Indigenous person and how he manages to showcase some of the plights they have historically gone through, but it's neither about his nation nor about the murder nor really about the fact the murderer claims to have seen these mythological people in the mountains. It tries to juggle all of these topics in just around 90 minutes and it simply doesn't work. There is some amount of intrigue here, but it's just a little too unfocused and messy to get me to ever think about it again.
#13- Highest 2 Lowest
[Watched on Apple TV+]
A Spike Lee x Denzel Washington remake of an Akira Kurosawa film should be an absolute homerun, but alas this was a pretty forgettable time that misses some of the purpose of the original High and Low.
Denzel is, of course, one of the greatest actors in history and does have a lot of charm and charisma here, and the score is pretty phenomenal with some great tension building moments, but beyond that the plot is just kind of alright and I can't really say it's something I'll ever return to, but it was a solid enough one time watch.
#12- The Conjuring: Last Rites
[Watched in theaters]
I've not been invested in The Conjuring franchise in a long time, probably since the second movie, but since this is allegedly Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson's final performance as the Warrens, I figured I may as well check it out. As a family drama about the Warrens including their daughter and her fiancee, Ed Warren's heart condition, and just getting older in general, this really worked for me. I may not be the biggest fan of this series but the connection between Ed and Lorraine and their family has always been a highlight and I'm happy to see them get more focus.
HOWEVER... This is the least scary movie in the franchise by a mile. The ghosts/demons/whatever they are don't have special designs like Annabelle or Valak where they can become icons of horror, these all look like those two little gremlin kids from the Ghost of Christmas Present's scene in the Jim Carrey A Christmas Carol. There's also too much fantasy here with a giant Annabelle doll and a hatchet-wielding maniac ghost that doesn't feel in line with the series. These movies were scary because they felt grounded in reality because they're based on allegedly true accounts from the Warrens. The Conjuring worked because we didn't get these long cheesy looks at the spirits, most of the horror is based around the family and unseen forces, not a 20 foot Annabelle running down the hallway. Of course ghosts and spirits and stuff aren't really "realistic," but this movie sheds its grounded nature and just goes full It Chapter 2 with the goofball scares.
The Conjuring: The Last Rites is the third best Conjuring movie and probably in the top 5 of the whole series, but there's a huge leap between The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2 and this movie. Watch it for the family drama, but don't expect great horror unfortunately.
#11- Eleanor the Great
[Watched in theaters]
Another movie I really wanted to love that I just kind of... liked? It feels weird saying I liked this because it's a pretty deep topic and a liar revealed story which I think everyone at this point knows I hate. Making a movie about a woman who lies about being a Holocaust survivor to a group of Holocaust survivors is pretty insane for a dramedy and definitely not what I thought this movie would be about. It looked like a movie about a 90-year old woman moving to New York for the first time, not like... this.
I can't say I enjoyed this movie but I did enjoy June Squibb in it. Honestly her performance alone gets it this high because if it were any other actress in the role I could easily see this sitting around Him levels. The movie is very predictable and oddly insensitive while still being heavy and about coping with grief in a way that I think a lot of people can empathize with and relate to. As a directorial debut from Scarlett Johansson it leaves some to be desired, but as a movie in the career of a 95-year old June Squibb, it's no Thelma but she did very well.
#10- The Happiest Story on Earth: 70 Years of Disneyland
[Watched on Disney+]
This is a really really standard Disney parks documentary about the history of Disneyland and I'm sure all of us on these boards have seen that same stuff a million and a half times. Combine that with the very obvious product placement of "watch Avatar: Fire and Ash coming to theaters" "watch The Mandalorian on Disney+," etc. popping up periodically, and the fact this came out right in the midst of the Jimmy Kimmel incident, it felt really weird for this to be coming out. I checked it out post-Kimmel rehiring and everything, so it was less weird, just feels like an odd time to drop the Disneyland documentary.
As a theme park fan, this is the story we've all heard before, it's Walt wanting somewhere for all ages to have fun together, its the 1964 New York Worlds Fair, it's the story about the animatronic bird in a cage, it's stuff we can probably all recite from memory, but there are just enough moments of special uniqueness that isn't just plugging the newest ride and movie that made this worth the time. There's a moment with a little Make a Wish girl which will always get me choked up, there's a scene about cast members who have been there forever, but for me the waterworks were being held back at Richard Sherman's newest final verse for It's a Small World. There's a reason no matter their horrible corporate leadership and evil business practices that the Disney parks will always remain special to me and it's stuff like that. As a fan of the parks, this was a nice little documentary with just enough for me to say I enjoyed it.
#09- Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires
[Watched on VOD]
I like the elseworlds DC stories and so when this came out I figured I'd check it out. As a fan of history, this is surprisingly accurate in a lot of moments about Aztec history and Spanish colonization but with that extra Batman flare put in. I will say, the rogues gallery felt very forced in here with Two-Face, Poison Ivy, and Joker all feeling out of place in a story about the fall of the Aztec Empire, but I did really like the ties into the culture and mythology that justified the existence of Batman as a vigilante and Catwoman as well. Two-Face is not very Two-Face despite flipping a coin because it's just Hernan Cortes, a real dude, so they don't actually play with the Two-Face stuff because it's hard to make a genocidal maniac sympathetic (you would think...)
The animation is pretty cheap and feels a lot like the type of Flash Animation you'd see on a PBS kids program, but the voice acting was solid enough and the colors popped much more than your standard Batman fare. This is far from the best Batman animation ever, but as a history and elseworlds fan, it scratched an itch for me.
#08- Spinal Tap II: The End Continues
[Watched in theaters]
It's been like three million years since This is Spinal Tap came out and as someone who grew up in the early 00s, my knowledge and familiarity with that movie began and ended at whatever jokes my Dad would quote from it. I hadn't even seen the movie until this year in preparation for the sequel and while it is funny, I have none of the nostalgic attachment to that movie that the fifty boomers in my audience had. While everyone was making an absolute ruckus just hooting and hollering the entire time, I had a mildly enjoyable time with this movie.
There are a lot of really funny jokes and moments in here, but a lot of them are very funny in the moment but didn't stick with me by the end. In fact, I really only remember one joke from the entire movie which isn't a great sign for a comedy. Of course, comedy legacy sequels tend to be pretty rough and I don't expect much out of them, but this one was pretty enjoyable throughout. The cast of grouchy dirty old men worked as they feel plucked right out of the local senior center that I visit for my job all the time and the ensemble of celebrity cameos, particularly Paul McCartney and Elton John are particularly memorable. Ultimately it's not the best movie ever, but it is funny and I'm happy mid-budget comedies are returning to theaters relatively heavily this year, even if this one is a legacy sequel.
#07- Dolphins Up Close with Bertie Gregory
[Watched on Disney+]
And here's the obligatory animal documentary. I like Bertie Gregory as a host a lot, he's pretty humble and his passion for wildlife is clearly because he loves animals and not because he loves himself (cough Forrest Galante cough). This documentary explores the abundance of life off the coast of the Azores while Bertie tracks down and hopes to film a feeding frenzy at a bait ball. This doc in just 40 minutes lets you see and learn about all kinds of animals from whales to dolphins to seabirds to sharks and it's done in a fun and entertaining way that brings me back to my days of watching Animal Planet after school back when it used to be about animals. I knew a lot of the information shared already because of what I do for work, but for most people I think this would be a really educational and interesting little doc.
#06- Xeno
[Watched in theaters]
I've seen zero reviews or anything for this movie outside of specifically going to its Letterboxd page, so I'm not sure how many people even know it exists, but this is basically E.T. for troubled horse girls. It blends a lot of elements of hiding the alien in your house from more movies than I can name right now with the coming of age story of a girl who lost her dad and bonds with an untameable wild creature. It's definitely darker than E.T. ever gets, and the government guys serve as predictable villains, but the moments with the girl and the alien are very wholesome and sweet and if you're up for a movie that isn't all that unique from things like E.T. or How to Train Your Dragon, I think this movie is a solid time.
#05- The Threesome
[Watched in theaters]
I really didn't know what to expect from this movie, but I do love Zoey Deutch and I've been craving a good romantic comedy so I figured, what the hell and this movie is shockingly hilarious while also being pretty damn emotional. It's about a threesome in which both women get pregnant and the ensuing hilarity that comes from that situation. We follow these characters as they meditate on life, on parenting, on love and relationships, expectations, etc. and it worked for me on almost all levels. This isn't just a cringe comedy about sexual escapades, it's more of a dramedy about accountability and communication and it worked well. I think my biggest complaint is that the guy, played by Jonah Hauer-King, is a pathetic loser throughout pretty much the whole thing who is so down bad for Deutch's character that he comes across as obsessive and stalkerish. I wasn't a fan of creepy guy in the lead, though he does get better by the end of the movie, but the rest of the movie is pretty solid and I do recommend it if you're looking for a sweet, emotional, and funny rom-dram?
#04- Night of the Reaper
[Watched on Shudder]
Night of the Reaper is definitely not as "good" as The Threesome, but it was a hell of a lot more fun. This starts off as an 80s throwback slasher that feels very homage-y, but by the end it completely flips its premise on its head and becomes a really fun inversion of the genre. This really blends the 80s slasher aesthetic and the 90s slasher "whodunnit?" aspects into a fun and exciting slasher movie with a nice twist at the end. Worth checking out on the trail to Halloween.
#03- Splitsville
[Watched in theaters]
Splitsville is what Materialists thought it was and what it wanted to be. This is probably in the top three funniest movies I've seen this year with some genuinely fantastic chemistry between the four leads of the movie. Dakota Johnson proves why I think she's a good actor here and Adria Arjona plays in a smaller but hilarious role. The two guys are very funny too, feeling a lot like Nick and Schmidt from New Girl in their dynamic both with the women and one another. This was a massive surprise and a massive hit for me and it's one I definitely recommend checking out!
#02- One Battle After Another
[Watched in theaters]
I saw a YouTube short or TikTok or something that called this an "overrated masterpiece" and I think that's the best way to describe it. One Battle After Another is a fantastic tour-de-force of a film that will most certainly earn PTA his first Oscar and it's insanely well deserved. The craft here is impeccable with top notch cinematography, editing, score, adapted screenplay, acting, sound design and everything else and when it sweeps this year's awards circuit I will be incredibly happy for it. Unfortunately, after two viewings though I just don't love this movie as much as everybody else. I appreciate it a ton and I'd be shocked if it doesn't end up in my top 20 of the year, but I do think that people calling it the movie of the decade or the most important movie of the year are overblowing the importance here. I absolutely agree that this movie's message is important, but so wasn't Sinners, so wasn't Superman, so wasn't Nuremberg (last night's Monday Mystery Movie at Regal despite it not coming out until November), and so I think it's a bit overblown and like @TheOriginalTiki mentioned, there are certainly flaws here like the montaging of the opening act.
Some genuinely phenomenal performances here though from Teyana Taylor, Leonardo DiCaprio, Chase Infiniti, and especially from Benicio del Toro and especially especially Sean Penn who this may be his best performance ever and the among the best movie villains in a while. This movie will make its rounds including in the Tiki's I'm sure, and it's absolutely a must watch so don't think I'm downplaying it, I just say maybe be ready to be a tiny bit let down by the sheer amount of hype this movie is getting.
#01- The Long Walk
[Watched in theaters]
Between the last two movies, I've gotta give it to The Long Walk. I expected absolutely nothing from this movie, I thought it would be just a generic Stephen King thriller movie that comes and goes with no fanfare like we seem to get multiple times a year (The Monkey anyone?) but this movie is genuinely phenomenal. It's a pressure cooker in a similar way to One Battle After Another, just in a different way because in that movie you're rooting for survival, in this one you know that's not an option. This movie also has some stellar performances from Cooper Hoffman, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang, and most especially David Jonsson who is at this moment my performance of the year. This movie is just as important as One Battle After Another and it's sad to know it's going to fall by the wayside. Definitely go see it if you haven't already.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October has me stoked because we're getting some big big stuff. This weekend I've already got tickets for Good Boy, Anemone, Bone Lake, and The Smashing Machine, and coming up after that we've got some exciting stuff. Even with the Jared Leto of it all I am very very excited for Tron: Ares as a huge fan of Tron: Legacy especially. Roofman may be fun and Kiss of the Spider Woman has me intrigued as well. The end of this month sees the releases of big awards contender movies too like Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, Bugonia, If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, and a short theatrical run of Frankenstein. And I'd be remised if I skipped some big horror names too like Black Phone 2 and most excitingly Shelby Oaks. Overall, I'm incredibly excited for what October delivers and I hope it's great!
[Watched on Disney+]
This is a really really standard Disney parks documentary about the history of Disneyland and I'm sure all of us on these boards have seen that same stuff a million and a half times. Combine that with the very obvious product placement of "watch Avatar: Fire and Ash coming to theaters" "watch The Mandalorian on Disney+," etc. popping up periodically, and the fact this came out right in the midst of the Jimmy Kimmel incident, it felt really weird for this to be coming out. I checked it out post-Kimmel rehiring and everything, so it was less weird, just feels like an odd time to drop the Disneyland documentary.
As a theme park fan, this is the story we've all heard before, it's Walt wanting somewhere for all ages to have fun together, its the 1964 New York Worlds Fair, it's the story about the animatronic bird in a cage, it's stuff we can probably all recite from memory, but there are just enough moments of special uniqueness that isn't just plugging the newest ride and movie that made this worth the time. There's a moment with a little Make a Wish girl which will always get me choked up, there's a scene about cast members who have been there forever, but for me the waterworks were being held back at Richard Sherman's newest final verse for It's a Small World. There's a reason no matter their horrible corporate leadership and evil business practices that the Disney parks will always remain special to me and it's stuff like that. As a fan of the parks, this was a nice little documentary with just enough for me to say I enjoyed it.
#09- Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires
[Watched on VOD]
I like the elseworlds DC stories and so when this came out I figured I'd check it out. As a fan of history, this is surprisingly accurate in a lot of moments about Aztec history and Spanish colonization but with that extra Batman flare put in. I will say, the rogues gallery felt very forced in here with Two-Face, Poison Ivy, and Joker all feeling out of place in a story about the fall of the Aztec Empire, but I did really like the ties into the culture and mythology that justified the existence of Batman as a vigilante and Catwoman as well. Two-Face is not very Two-Face despite flipping a coin because it's just Hernan Cortes, a real dude, so they don't actually play with the Two-Face stuff because it's hard to make a genocidal maniac sympathetic (you would think...)
The animation is pretty cheap and feels a lot like the type of Flash Animation you'd see on a PBS kids program, but the voice acting was solid enough and the colors popped much more than your standard Batman fare. This is far from the best Batman animation ever, but as a history and elseworlds fan, it scratched an itch for me.
#08- Spinal Tap II: The End Continues
[Watched in theaters]
It's been like three million years since This is Spinal Tap came out and as someone who grew up in the early 00s, my knowledge and familiarity with that movie began and ended at whatever jokes my Dad would quote from it. I hadn't even seen the movie until this year in preparation for the sequel and while it is funny, I have none of the nostalgic attachment to that movie that the fifty boomers in my audience had. While everyone was making an absolute ruckus just hooting and hollering the entire time, I had a mildly enjoyable time with this movie.
There are a lot of really funny jokes and moments in here, but a lot of them are very funny in the moment but didn't stick with me by the end. In fact, I really only remember one joke from the entire movie which isn't a great sign for a comedy. Of course, comedy legacy sequels tend to be pretty rough and I don't expect much out of them, but this one was pretty enjoyable throughout. The cast of grouchy dirty old men worked as they feel plucked right out of the local senior center that I visit for my job all the time and the ensemble of celebrity cameos, particularly Paul McCartney and Elton John are particularly memorable. Ultimately it's not the best movie ever, but it is funny and I'm happy mid-budget comedies are returning to theaters relatively heavily this year, even if this one is a legacy sequel.
#07- Dolphins Up Close with Bertie Gregory
[Watched on Disney+]
And here's the obligatory animal documentary. I like Bertie Gregory as a host a lot, he's pretty humble and his passion for wildlife is clearly because he loves animals and not because he loves himself (cough Forrest Galante cough). This documentary explores the abundance of life off the coast of the Azores while Bertie tracks down and hopes to film a feeding frenzy at a bait ball. This doc in just 40 minutes lets you see and learn about all kinds of animals from whales to dolphins to seabirds to sharks and it's done in a fun and entertaining way that brings me back to my days of watching Animal Planet after school back when it used to be about animals. I knew a lot of the information shared already because of what I do for work, but for most people I think this would be a really educational and interesting little doc.
#06- Xeno
[Watched in theaters]
I've seen zero reviews or anything for this movie outside of specifically going to its Letterboxd page, so I'm not sure how many people even know it exists, but this is basically E.T. for troubled horse girls. It blends a lot of elements of hiding the alien in your house from more movies than I can name right now with the coming of age story of a girl who lost her dad and bonds with an untameable wild creature. It's definitely darker than E.T. ever gets, and the government guys serve as predictable villains, but the moments with the girl and the alien are very wholesome and sweet and if you're up for a movie that isn't all that unique from things like E.T. or How to Train Your Dragon, I think this movie is a solid time.
#05- The Threesome
[Watched in theaters]
I really didn't know what to expect from this movie, but I do love Zoey Deutch and I've been craving a good romantic comedy so I figured, what the hell and this movie is shockingly hilarious while also being pretty damn emotional. It's about a threesome in which both women get pregnant and the ensuing hilarity that comes from that situation. We follow these characters as they meditate on life, on parenting, on love and relationships, expectations, etc. and it worked for me on almost all levels. This isn't just a cringe comedy about sexual escapades, it's more of a dramedy about accountability and communication and it worked well. I think my biggest complaint is that the guy, played by Jonah Hauer-King, is a pathetic loser throughout pretty much the whole thing who is so down bad for Deutch's character that he comes across as obsessive and stalkerish. I wasn't a fan of creepy guy in the lead, though he does get better by the end of the movie, but the rest of the movie is pretty solid and I do recommend it if you're looking for a sweet, emotional, and funny rom-dram?
#04- Night of the Reaper
[Watched on Shudder]
Night of the Reaper is definitely not as "good" as The Threesome, but it was a hell of a lot more fun. This starts off as an 80s throwback slasher that feels very homage-y, but by the end it completely flips its premise on its head and becomes a really fun inversion of the genre. This really blends the 80s slasher aesthetic and the 90s slasher "whodunnit?" aspects into a fun and exciting slasher movie with a nice twist at the end. Worth checking out on the trail to Halloween.
#03- Splitsville
[Watched in theaters]
Splitsville is what Materialists thought it was and what it wanted to be. This is probably in the top three funniest movies I've seen this year with some genuinely fantastic chemistry between the four leads of the movie. Dakota Johnson proves why I think she's a good actor here and Adria Arjona plays in a smaller but hilarious role. The two guys are very funny too, feeling a lot like Nick and Schmidt from New Girl in their dynamic both with the women and one another. This was a massive surprise and a massive hit for me and it's one I definitely recommend checking out!
#02- One Battle After Another
[Watched in theaters]
I saw a YouTube short or TikTok or something that called this an "overrated masterpiece" and I think that's the best way to describe it. One Battle After Another is a fantastic tour-de-force of a film that will most certainly earn PTA his first Oscar and it's insanely well deserved. The craft here is impeccable with top notch cinematography, editing, score, adapted screenplay, acting, sound design and everything else and when it sweeps this year's awards circuit I will be incredibly happy for it. Unfortunately, after two viewings though I just don't love this movie as much as everybody else. I appreciate it a ton and I'd be shocked if it doesn't end up in my top 20 of the year, but I do think that people calling it the movie of the decade or the most important movie of the year are overblowing the importance here. I absolutely agree that this movie's message is important, but so wasn't Sinners, so wasn't Superman, so wasn't Nuremberg (last night's Monday Mystery Movie at Regal despite it not coming out until November), and so I think it's a bit overblown and like @TheOriginalTiki mentioned, there are certainly flaws here like the montaging of the opening act.
Some genuinely phenomenal performances here though from Teyana Taylor, Leonardo DiCaprio, Chase Infiniti, and especially from Benicio del Toro and especially especially Sean Penn who this may be his best performance ever and the among the best movie villains in a while. This movie will make its rounds including in the Tiki's I'm sure, and it's absolutely a must watch so don't think I'm downplaying it, I just say maybe be ready to be a tiny bit let down by the sheer amount of hype this movie is getting.
#01- The Long Walk
[Watched in theaters]
Between the last two movies, I've gotta give it to The Long Walk. I expected absolutely nothing from this movie, I thought it would be just a generic Stephen King thriller movie that comes and goes with no fanfare like we seem to get multiple times a year (The Monkey anyone?) but this movie is genuinely phenomenal. It's a pressure cooker in a similar way to One Battle After Another, just in a different way because in that movie you're rooting for survival, in this one you know that's not an option. This movie also has some stellar performances from Cooper Hoffman, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang, and most especially David Jonsson who is at this moment my performance of the year. This movie is just as important as One Battle After Another and it's sad to know it's going to fall by the wayside. Definitely go see it if you haven't already.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October has me stoked because we're getting some big big stuff. This weekend I've already got tickets for Good Boy, Anemone, Bone Lake, and The Smashing Machine, and coming up after that we've got some exciting stuff. Even with the Jared Leto of it all I am very very excited for Tron: Ares as a huge fan of Tron: Legacy especially. Roofman may be fun and Kiss of the Spider Woman has me intrigued as well. The end of this month sees the releases of big awards contender movies too like Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, Bugonia, If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, and a short theatrical run of Frankenstein. And I'd be remised if I skipped some big horror names too like Black Phone 2 and most excitingly Shelby Oaks. Overall, I'm incredibly excited for what October delivers and I hope it's great!