NIightcap: 11/30/25 : Repeating Mysef; Forward And Back; Oscar Nonsense

When I saw Ochi at NYICFF they had give-aways

I had tweeted earlier this  week that anyone asking me to put my review on Rotten Tomatoes needs to understand I am not there. People like Nate Hood are, and can post, but I am not. The reason is simply that they frown on people writing for their own website. Since Unseen is my baby, they don't like it. 

Yes they have allowed people to join who have their own sites, but as of right now I am on the outside, despite membership in critics groups, working with film festivals and having pull quotes.

Some day maybe...

Related to that- I am not on Leteerboxd. I have enough trouble keeping Unseen upodated so the idea that I'd update somewhere else is something that isn't going to fly.

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Yes, I have been tearing through screeners this weekend. I am racing to see anything that is either out now or soon, and anything likely in the awards mix.   The result is I have seen more than is healthy and I have not been sleeping. If you want to know what I am seeing, keep checking Twitter or BlueSky, to see my thoughts before the reviews post.

(No I will not do instagram or facebook, I don't have time)

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Looking forward

December is going to be new largely new releases and catch up posts. I have screeners and I know how to watch them.

Into 2026 planning on the usual coverage. 

Sundance will be limited because I am not going and because I did not sign up for remote (they are such a pain in the ass it isn't worth it). 

Slamdance will be covered. And watch for The Indie Awards second year.

I am not planning on New York Jewish unless the recind their requirement that pieces only be capsules. It is a waste of my time  to spend two hours watching a film and then have a preset limit of four or five lines. Its a restriction that has reduced the coverage because a number of my fellow writers won't waste time doing what amounts to on piece worth of coverage.

This is the 20th Anniversary of the Drive-in Monsterama at the Riverside Drive -in in Vandergrift PA. The April Ghouls portion is April 24 and 25. I have tentative plans to go.

I also have tentative plans to cover Tribeca.

(Tentative plans means I asked for time off from the day job)

The Best/Worst year list comes out the last few days of the year.

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I do want to say that this is the first year where a number of the projected oscar contenders are worthy.

HAMNET is excellent and moved me deeply- Oscars for everyone

NUREMBERG is way better than I expected and can't wait to watch it again.

Amanda Seyfried removes any doubt about how good or bold she is as an actress in THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE. 

Jennifer Lawrence is earthly and never better than in DIE MY DARLING

TRAIN DREAMS is wonderfully crafted film,

IS THIS THING ON proves Bradley Cooper can make a hell of a film when he isn't trying to win a Best Actor Oscar.

Though looking at the list narrowing things down, I think a large number of worthy films are going to be ignored for showy shit (and I mean that). It shows that people are only watching the big films and not the smaller ones. 

I also am not happy with some of the projected choices for Best Animated film, especially since the ARCO English voice cast is horrible.

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Looking at several things on social media about the wonderfulness of one director or another and wondering how you can tell after one or two or three films. Are some of their works stellar- oh yes, but to say they are the next (insert name) is foolish largely because until we see more than a couple examples we don't know if they are the one. Yes they are of interest, but i would doubt the next greates anything.

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Tapawingo (2023) hits VOD on December 2

John Heder plays Nate Skoog a misfit who ends up acting as a bodyguard and taking on the bullies in his town.

Ever wonder what Napolean Dynamite would be doing 20 years on? This film will answer that, not officially but that's what this is. Heder is playing this exactly like Dynamite which is going to make it a make or break thing for several people I know.  If you like Dynamite odds are you'll love this, if not this film may make you crazy.

If you are on the fence know that the cast includes Gina Gerson, John Ratzenberger, Billy Zane, Chris Gethard and other great actors who sell the nonsense for more than it's probably worth.

Yes I enjoyed the film. No I hated Napoleon Dynamite. That said I'm not sure what your take will be since the mannered comedy is not for everyone.

Nuremberg (2025)

The Nuremberg trials from the view point of psycholgist Douglas Kelly, who was ordered to keep an eye on the prisoners before and during the trial. Rami Malek stars as Kelly.

I should start out by saying that while everyone focuses on Rusell Crowe as Herman Goering , the truth is the whole cast including Michael Shannon, John Slattery and Colin Hanks is first rate. Even Malik who can be hot or cold, gives a genuine performance that makes you realize he really is a good actor.

Going into the film I wasn't certain how it would be. Yes it looked good, but it kind of had Oscar Bait written all over it. I was afraid that it would  be all posturing. Instead I was surprised. The film is about way more than just the Goering centric thread. Issues of could they do the trials and how to do them were also in the mix. There are more characters than just Kelly and the Field Marshall. And almost everyone is nicely written so they don't come off as just a cut out or mouth piece.

Is it historically accurate to the letter of the law? Probably not. There is too much here to work in a two plus hour film. At the same time it is gripping and extremely entertaining even for people who know the story. Additionally I am hearing more and more from friends who have seen the film, many who went with their parents to the movies who came out of it expecting nothing and raving about how good it is.

I loved it. It was the first of this years possible Oscar nominees to make me think it actually belongs in the mix.

Highly recommended.

Catch Up Post: Kandahar (2023)and Ballerina (2025)

 

KANDAHAR
A plot against the Iranian nuclear program goes side ways and Gerald Butler and his guide have to get out of the country via Khandahar. The pacing is kind of slack and my interest drifted. I'm kind of at a loss as to hy this film delighted some people.

BALLERINA
Latest entry into the world of John Wick has interesting characters, and some good action but the pacing is so dire that everything feels as though its three steps too slow. It might have been okay, but setting it in the world of Wick sets high expectations it never meets.

Brief thoughts on WIcked: For Good (2025)

After seeing the film I texted my friend Randi with my pull quote "Oh for f#%@s sake".

Yea, I didn't much care for it. 

I may have had issues with the first film, but it had sequences that soared and genunely moved me. This is just a series of missteps that never work and expand the plot just ways that simply feel like filler.

The film is an expanded version of the second act of the Broadway show. The film runs over an hour longer than the second act. The film picks up with the building of the yellow brick road as the "wicked witch" frees the animals and battles the forces of the Wizard.  It takes us to the end of the story.

Its not bad, as such, just badly constructed (everything is stretched to fill time) and directed (John Chu cannot direct musicals). It's a soulless film that exists to make money not to really tell a meaningful story. Its the same brain dead Hollywood thinking that turned JRR Tolkien's Hobbit into three rambling three hour films instead of one. It's a film set in and around sets that look and like the rotting CGI corpse of a whale spray painted pink and green. Almost nothing looks real and when it does it looks wrong.

To be honest, I could dismantle almost everything in this film, but whats the point? I don't have time to take the film to task point by point and moment to moment; besides you are either going to love the film or dislike the revisions (this now is barely connected to the Baum story), the poor direction (don't get me started - everything is bad), and the totally forgetable new songs that exist not to move the story,  but fill time. Either way you don't  need my words you can love or hate it on your own (though I want to see Riff Trax dismantle this, largely to see if they do it funnier than my off the cuff stream of jokes)

I will say that the last two minutes of the film moved me- mostly not because of anything that happened in the film but what I carried in from the play and from the original stories and every Oz story that I have seen over the course of my life, but not from the film itself. And because Cynthia Erivo final has material to finally to make Elphaba human and not a blown up larger than life musical theater caricature playing to the back rows. Its only in those fleeting two minutes that she is finally shot up close and in such away that her humanity isn't lost on vast artificial sets. Finally, after 5 hours of total screen time, she stops being far away and larger then life and comes down to earth to move us without the larger than life trappings of long dead money grabbing machine.

This is a film that may get awards but only because of the campaigns and not because it deserves it.

WICKED FOR GOOD is not so much bad but misguided to the point that it's just not worth discussing

Brief thoughts on Eternity (2025)

A woman must decide who she wants to spend eternity with, her first husband who died at a young age or her second husband of decades. She has a week to decide.

This is an okay film. The cast if fine. The script mostly isn't bad. Even the fact that the basic narrative not being  anything special doesn't hurt it. The real problem is that both of the male characters are really annoying. The Miles Teller character (the second husband) is particularly tough to handle. You want to punch him the face rather then spend time with him.

I was amused but I never want to spend time with the Teller character ever again.

Hamnet (2025)

Chole Zhao returns to the Oscar mix with an adaption of Maggie O'Farrell's novel aboiut the romance between William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and Anne (Agnes in the novel and film) Hathaway (Played by Jesse Buckley) and what happens when their son Hamnet dies.

Raw, and at times feral, the film feels like we are there in the moment, watching the lives of two people deeply in love. We can see the passion and emotion between Will and Agnes arcing across the screen. There are times you can sense the electricity you get when you touch the person you love most in the world traveling between them. The emotion is so pronounced in the early part of the film that in the final third of the film you are destroyed just by a look.

The film is essentially told in three parts. The first part is the romance of Will and Agnes. The second is their life together and the third is the death of Hamnet and their dealing with grief. The first part is a great romance, the second is good domestic drama, and the third is just on another plane of existence. All of the Oscar talk and discussion of greatness comes from that final part of the film.

And now a slight digression. I saw this film on Thanksgiving morning at 9am at a screening in Brooklyn with my friend Hubert Virgilla. I had not been offered an press screenings so I decided to go with him to see the film. I needed to go because I knew it was going to be in the mix for voting for NYFCO. I am mentioning that because when the film was done and Hubert asked me what I thought I said my feelings were all over the place, in part because of all the praise, but also because I had to figure out where to put it in the NYFCO voting. I went  home had Thanksgiving dinner, watched some football and more films and found I was still haunted by HAMNET.

That the film works is due two two things, the first is the three part construction. We need the romance and the domestic drama for the final third to work. We need to feel the love of Will and Agnes to be rocked by the grief they feel. The other reason it works is are the actors  Jesse Buckley and Paul Mescal. They show us what they feel with every word and gesture. By the end every emotion is in their eyes, expressed with a look and no words.

I would argue that with the minor exception of the performce of the actor playing Hamlet at the Globe, the final third of HAMNET is nigh perfect emotionally. Everyone undertsands that we are riding the emotion of the moment and they lean into it, with the result that I, and many people I know, were sobbing in that last section.  It's not about what physically happens, it's about the emotional journey that the characters take, particularly the broken Agnes and Will who discover that they are both in the same place, side by sides, just as they had always been from the moment they met, just hidden by the blackness of their grief. It is glorious. 

This will wreck you in the best possible way.

I need to mention that the use of Shakespeare's plays in the film shows how a great performance of the work makes us understand why the plays have survived. Mescal's delivery of a section of "to be or not to be" is the greatest one that I have ever run across in any form. Its out of context, yet perfectly in context delivery says so much about why the work matters. His brow beating the actors over the nunnery speech reveals what is needed to make the words work, you need to feel the lines not just say the lines. Lastly the context of his performance of the father brings so many levels to the role and the play that I think it may reshape how people see the play as a whole.

While I still don't know how I entirely feel about the film, as I said above the need to consider the film as something other than itself has clouded some of my feelings, I do think that it is a staggering achievement. See it.

DRAGONSLAYER (1981)

A wizard is asked to kill a dragon that is menacing a kingdom, things go sideways and he is killed before he can make the journey.  However his apprentice thinks he knows enough and decides to try to kill the dragon himself.

I was of two minds when I saw DRAGONSLAYER opening night. The first was that I had finally seen a dragon in real life. The effects work, done with models, is still one of the gratest things I've ever seen. It also changed the effects industry and how we see dragons in films and in real life (REIGN OF FIRE and GAME OF THRONES steal mercilessly from the film). I love the dragon and it lives in my head and heart rent free. The second thing I thought was that the film is really draggy for a good chunk of the middle. Mind you that is the nature of the story, which is a road film mixed with a coming of age tale. I kind of understood why the film kind of faded from some people's minds.

However forty plus years on and lord know how many viewings, I think the film is nigh on perfect in it's way. I think it's a perfect fantasy film that mirrors a novel. It's an adult tale told at a time when the movies were beginning to shift toward spectacle alone.  

The problem with the film is that in the wake of films like STAR WARS and all the films that followed, motion was what people were looking for in a spectacle film. DRAGONSLAYER has spectacle but it wants people to connect with the characters and their plight. This is an adult film about adult things. This is a story about finding out that we don't know everything and that there is a cost to growing up. It's a film that is literally about the death of magic in our world since the death of the dragon comes at the cost of the loss of magic in the film's world.  The themes of the film didn't hit me until a decdae or so after I first saw the film.

I know this didn't do that well when it came out. It was one of the films, like many others in this series at Unseen, where they tried to put out a quality project, but found that the tastes of Americans had gotten less refined. From a financial perspective it may have bombed but on evey other level it soars. Its a film that isn't predictable, it's a film with something to say and it's a film that proves dragons are real.

This is a great film.

If you want to see a real dragon, see this film.

DIE MY LOVE (2025)

Its all about the editing, the needle drops and the performance of Jennifer Lawrence, who gives an earthy performance as a new mother who has depression over take and destroy her life.

There is no getting over it DIE MY LOVE is well made movie. Its technical marvel whose editing style and use of music drive the film. Jennifer Lawrence is the pilot of this rocket to the darkside and she has never been better. It's an earthy, raw film where Lawrence lets it all hang out. You can't take your eyes off of her.

The problem here is the narrative. This is yet another woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown and we've been here before. This is not to take anything away from the magic on screen, except to reveal that the film doesn't do anything new here, except perhaps push things to an extreme. I liked what I saw, but the pieces and sequences are so good that I wish they all hung together better. I wanted it to say something new.

Worth a look for Jennifer Lawrence.

Brief thoughts on THE TALE OF SILYAN (2025)

Nikola, a potato farmer in Macedonia is unable to either earn a living or sell his property, so he geta job at a garbage dump where he meets an injued stork and begins to nurse him.

One part documentary and one part narrative THE TALE OF SILYAN is a solid film that is more than just the tale of a man and his feathered friend. The film also deals with the story of Nkola's friends and family as well as the situation in Macedonia.  There is a lot going on here so if you go into this film thinking you are just going to see one thing you are going to be surprised.

And you'll forgive me for not saying more but the fact that I am all documentaryied out with DOC NYC.

The film was at DOC NYC and is now playing in select theaters.

Brief thoughts on Rental Family (2025)

Brendan Fraser plays an American actor living in Japan and not getting roles. He ends up working for a company that supplies people who are being hired to be family and friends for people who need a cover. As he tries to navigate what is and isn't real, he begins to alter the people aaround him and change everyone's life.

I liked RENTAL FAMILY. It is a really sweet movie that does exactly what we expect it to. Since the film does it well there is no issue with that. The film entertains, which is more than enough.

If I have any quibble with the film it is simply that Brendan Fraser is much too big a presence that he overwhelms the film.  His physical being and personality kind of overwhelms the material. You can't really believe he is schmo.  It's not fatal but to me it keeps the film very good instead making in great. 

Quibble aside. Its definitely worth a look.

Pelverata (2025)

Two engineers surveying for windmills disappear into the forest and find that the land has a memory...

I've been trying to figure out how to write this film up. The trick is to try and express what the physical experience of the film is with words. I say that because the viewing experience is very visceral with the emotion coming from the silences, the physical performances, the framing of the images and the landscape. The emotion of what you feel is not so much what happens but how all the pieces frame what happens and how they affect you inside.

This is a film you need to both go with (it builds in its own time) and you need to see this preferably in a darkened room with no distractions (turn your phone off). You need to give yourself over to the film and let it wash over you in waves. Its starts lapping at you toes because the set up  of people lost in the wilderness seems familiar but the film quickly turns and turns again and the waves of dread wash over you.

This is of the low key folk horror films that gets under you skin and leaves you bothered for days. I dare not say more lest I ruin it.

Recommended

MY SCIENCE PROJECT (1985)

 

This was part of the the 1985 clump of films that included REAL GENIUS and WEIRD SCIENCE. Of the three MY SCIECE PROJECT is the one that no one talks about because it doesn't have Val Kilmer or an Oingo Boingo theme song. It also feels kind of cheap.

The film is the story of a high school kid who only loves cars who finds part of a crashed UFO in disused military bunker. He takes it home in the hope of  making it his science project. Trouble occurs when it is connected to a power source since it opens a rift in time. Chaos results.

This was the last of the three students and science projects gone wrong films to be released in 1985. The result was that the film kind of got lost at the box office. By the time it hit home video I know a lot of people had completely forgotten about it. I know that when I worked in the video store I would constantly point the film out to anyone who said that they like WEIRD SCIENCE or REAL GENIUS and the reaction was always that the person forgot aboutthe film's existence.. 

As with other films in this collection of "forgotten" Disney films there was a point where Disney kind of disavowed them and removed them from rotation. Early cable reruns became it being effectively locked in the closet before dumped on home video without any fanfare.

I like the film. There is a more serious edge to it compared to the other films. The effects are okay even if they are a bit cheap. I think Disney was in a cost cutting  mode when this came out. The cast is fine, with Dennis Hopper wonderful as the loopy science teacher. I will say that I think part of the problem the film disappeared is that they put John Stockwell in the lead. Yes  he's a good actor, but at the same time he is better in support than as a lead. 

Should you see it? Yes. It's a lot of fun.

Eden on SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES (1982)

One of the few cinematic adaptations of Ray Bradbury’s work, Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) is an anomaly in more ways than one. It’s a Disney movie that was too scary for the family audiences it was marketed to. It’s genuinely tense and terrifying.

It had a fraught production – director Jack Clayton and Ray Bradbury clashed and the studio re-edited it without Clayton’s input – but somehow it still works.

Jonathan Pryce as Mr. Dark  brings such a menacing and, I have to say, sexy presence to this role that works so well for this material.

Jason Robards is amazing here. Pam Grier is disappointingly underused.

The two young child actors -- Vidal Peterson and Shawn Carson are great and don’t fall into the trap of being too precious that a lot of child actors do (I don’t think either did much after this).

The effects for the time are surprisingly good and the sequence with the tarantulas will haunt me.

This was mostly considered lost for years but it’s a recent addition to Disney+. It’s time for it to be rediscovered so it can frighten a new generation of children (or those of us who missed it the first time around).c

WATCHER IN THE WOODS (1980)

 

The Watcher in the Woods is possibly Disney’s oddest release. It has a fervent following but has kind of been abandoned by the studio forty plus years on. It seems they never knew what it was or what to do with it.

The film came out of the studio trying to match the times of the late 70’s. The Disney kiddie films were dying. The studio heads did not know what to do since Walt died and it was killing the brand. The Black Hole was a move to step things up- and it kind of worked, though the darkness and implication of one character being the devil annoyed people who wanted wholesome. Feeling the need to try something the decided to make a dark fantasy, ret-conned into something else over time about a weird force in the woods that was causing problems and taking people. It was a spooky film that was very much not for young kids.  As the execs saw what was being made, they asked for changes, screenings brought more changes. It was pulled from theaters, and the end was changed multiple times.

Ultimately it was all but abandoned by everyone except a vocal few who championed the film.

Decades on and multiple watches over the years and I’m not certain what I think. The film is very good for much of the running time. It’s a spooky film about a family trying to make sense the weird things that are going on. Its far from graphic and full of mood. This was not what many people wanted since we were shifting to the graphic kills of Halloween, Jason and Dawn of the Dead. Also Star Wars was a huge hit so what was not supposed to be science fiction became one  because science fiction sold.  In all honesty up to a certain point the film is a pretty good Disney-esque thriller (actually you would not have noticed the Disney connection if it wasn’t in the credits to remind you). Then there is a point and the film stumbles. I’m not certain at what point but somewhere in the final third the film drifts and you get the sense this was where they started farting around.

You will forgive me for not being specific about a lot of this, but there are hundreds or thousands of pieces about the making and the unmaking of the film. There are so many details that I knew if I started writing this would get wildly out of hand, so I decided to keep it short.

That said this is a mostly solid little B film that has gotten lost. It’s a film that needs to have a Criterion release made about it- but that will never happen. Instead do yourself a favor and track the film and see it- and then dive into the various sites devoted to the film.

Bill Plympton's SLIDE opens Friday and it's playing with his glorious new short WHALE 52

The latest feature from Bill Plympton feels more like an animated comic book then a movie. It's the story of a cowboy who ends up in a logging town just as a movie studio sends a crew out to shoot their latest film.

It's a musical.

This is a film you are going to have to see several times because it's full of sly remarks, throw away images and general insanity that you multiple viewings are needed to see it all. I generally laughed and had a good time.

What bothered me about the film is that rather static. Such is the nature of computer assisted animation.  What I mean by this is that is that the images are minimally animated and the backgrounds are flat and motionless. While I've seen this sort of thing in other films, I've never seen it in a Plympton film. It is because of this I made the comic remark at the top.

Animation aside this film is a wickedly funny blast and worth a look.

MORE SO SINCE IT IS PLAY WITH WHALE 52

Hands down one of the greatest films of 2025, WHALE 52 left me a sobbing mess. It is a glorious celebration about finding the people you need.

Based on a true story the film is the story of a senior volunteer who ends up asked to mind a young man who refuses to speak. Over time the pair begin to connect.

I was not expecting this to be what it was. Where it goes and how it goes was so perfectly done that even the touches that make you think it's just Plympton style quirkiness reveals itself to be key to the tale. I will not say more lest I spoil anything.

I was destroyed in the best possible way by the ending which is as note perfect as any film I've ever seen.( Yes, really)

I do not have words to say more beyond see this film when it makes a limited run at Cinema Village in NYC starting Friday with Bill Plympton Q&A's at the 6 and 8 PM showings every day

NIGHT CROSSING (1982)

This is the true story of the Wetzel and Strelzyk families who escaped East Germany via a hot air balloon in 1979. It was a story that rocked the world.

This is a solid little thriller. John Hurt and Beau Bridges play the patriarchs and they are supported by great actors like Jane Alexander and Ian Bannen.

I remember when this film came out some people were not sure what to make of it. This was a serious cold war drama coming from a company best known for making family films. While this is about families trying to be free, there is a seriousness to it that most  people at the time didn't expect from Disney. It was too adult for those looking for family films and the right audience didn't think Disney could pull it off. 

I like the film a great deal it's a hell of a story and director Delbert Mann and his cast manage to create some real suspense from a story that was fresh in the memories of many in the movie going public.  

Seeing it now I am very aware of how much of it's time it is. Actually it's more clear if you watch the film BALLOON from 2018 which told the same story, but a bit more clear eyed and without jingoistic baggage.

On the other hand this film is a solid thriller and definitely worth a watch.

Brief thoughts on BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions (2025) which opens Friday

Based on Kahil Joseph's art installation BLKNWS is a one of a kind film that mixes real footage with created footage and edited in a hypnotic way that picks you up and pulls you along. Less a traditional narrative and more a collection of ideas, the filmmakers refer to it as a kind of cinematic record album, the film works on a subconcious level to create something that may seem like some avant garde films I've seen while remaining wholly unique.

Wow, just wow.

You will forgive me for the brevirty of this piece, but I don't know how to explain it. It's been ten days since I saw the film and I don't know how to write this up. That's a rave, because it means that this is a film that you have to enage with. You can't be an inactive particpant, you have to be fully there and fully fighting with it in order to get everything tha Kahil Joseph want's you to.

Additionally this isn't a film, so much as an experience. The act of seeing the film is a physical, mental and psychic trip to somewhere else. Even though you do not leave your seat during the viewing you are physically, mentally and psychically somewhere else when you get to the end.

For anyone who does not want conventional filmmaking this film is a must.

Highly recommended.

TRENCHCOAT (1983)

This was an odd duck film. What happens when Margo Kidder, still riding the wave from Superman, tries to find another leading role and meets up with Disney trying to get some footing in more adult films? TRENCHCOAT is the result.

The plot had Kidder's character going to Malta in order to write a novel and getting mixed up ina real life mystery. She also collides with Robert Hayes, trying to jump into meatier leading man territory.

We've been there before. Don't kid yourself, there is nothing new here. At the same time what is here is inoffensive and amusing on a slow night.  This was an effort to try and do something along the lines of the Goldie Hawn Chevy Chase films (FOUL PLAY and SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES). There were a bunch of these films that plopped between  FOUL PLAY and when ROMANCING THE STONE upped the ante and made the light comedy need an action adventure edge. Ultimately they were all riffing the classic films going back including CHARADE.

The trouble with this film, as with many of the Disney films from the 1980's, is that Disney didn't know what to do with it. Yes, it came out but they kind of just tossed it out to see if it would stick. It kind of did okay, I guess. I remember the theater being crowded, but at some point the company didn't do anything with it. This was one of the films where Disney floundered with a direction, before they hit with Little Mermaid  and the rebirth of the animated division. (Remember there was a time when there were rumors they might stop making animated features)

While I like the film, the problem for me, beyond it being by rote, is the fact that the casting is off. Kidder needs the right part to shine. She rarely soared in leads because the roles never matched her abilities. She was playing a variation on her Lois Lane here. And as for Robert Hayes... can he be the hero? Yes he can, but he never could get over his being a comedy guy so we never quite buy him as the true romantic lead even in a comedy mystery.

Is the film worth seeing? Yes, but you'll probably forget you saw it soon after.

Perhaps Better That Way (2025)

When you see Jaschar Marktanner"s PERHAPS BETTER THAT WAY you absolutely must stay to the very end. It's about 12 minutes so it's not a huge ask, but you have to get to the end for the film to fully hit you and blossom in your heart.

The film begins with two friends talking in a cafe, one is a woman whi is killing a plant a boyfriend gave her. The other is a photographer who has no desire to take pictures. Later that night when she is home the friends text and the photographer goes out "to take pictures" but finds nothing...until she meets a man with a stick.

Marktanner is becoming a hell of a director. Following up his TURING TEST, another film that clicks in the final moments, he has shown that he is the absolute master of story construction. Where with most films you know minutes in where it's going, Marktanner's films are unexpected, his films don't reveal the destination until you arrive at them.

Here in PERHAPS... we have two scenes between friends that seem off. We wonder where they are going because they are slightly awkward. What we don't realize right away is that the scenes perfectly mirror the photographers state of mind. She doesn't feel right or connected. She like us is just going through the motions being pushed by circumstance, wondering why and how. It is not until she meets the man that things click. What seemed off was just part of a journey.

The best thing about Marktanner's film is that while you may think I've told you everything, the truth is  I have told you nothing. There is a great deal that happens and you won't know what any of it is until the filma fade out. Trust me.

I will be very curious what Marktanner does with a feature, however until then I will happily take his wonderful shorts that leave me delighted with unexpected stories.

THE CARETAKER (2025)

Robert Bronzi stars as the caretaker of a ghost town who takes on a bunch of bad guys looking to grab a girl on the run.

Servicable action film doesn't do anything we haven't seen before and keeps it watchable by giving us just enough shading that we don't mind that we know where this is going.

Chalk another notch into the record of Charles Bronson look-alike Robert Bronzi. He has become a solid action star who knows the assignment and knows his limitations. That said he has gotten better as an actor and an on screen personality since his first films where you would wince at his delivery. Now he actually sells that he is a tough guy to the point I will happily watch any of his films I run across.

Worth a look for action fans.

Brief thoughts on MIDNIGHT MADNESS (1980)

Disney's second PG film was once a cable TV staple and is now largely forgotten. In an age of nostalgia I'm kind of hard pressed as to why that is. Admittedly it isn't the greatest film ever made but it is one that entertains. I suspect that some one at Disney wants the film buried, even if it can be rented for a price.

The film is the story of five college teams in a scavenger hunt. They are given clues that take them all over the place during the course of the evening. David Naughton (American Werewolf in London) stars, Stephen Furst (Animal House) and Eddie Deezen also apprear,  though the most interesting cast member is Michael J Fox in his first role.

I have yet to meet anyone who ever saw this in theaters. The film seems to have been barely released.  I know the film was on VHS  but I don't know anyone who ever rented it. Everyone I know used to watch this on HBO endlessly. Scavenger hunts were inspired by the film. It s a film I remember seeing at friends houses and when friends came over. It was never a film I ever wanted to see.

Rewatching the film for this underseen 1980's Disney project I found it was amusing. It was better than I remembered but also incredibly TV sitcom like but with slightly more mature themes. Remember Disney may have made it but they distanced themselves from it. 

Are you going to like it? Yes probably, but the mad love the film has in some circles is going to be reserved for those who loved it when they were growing up

Chiquita (2025)

Currently on Amazon Prime CHIQUITA is the story of a biker who has a mystical experience in the desert and it changes his life, shifting his world view toward an Eastern religious bend.

This is a solid short feature (it runs 46 minutes) about how a single event can change our lives for the better. While some of the sequences are a tad too cliche drama (say the break up of Charles' marriage) other sections are nicely unexpected.

If the film works it is because of Jody Dean as Charles. Dean's wise biker is a delight and he makes you want tp spend some time with him. He is not your typical biker, but one that is closer to the bikers I've met in real life, sweet guys and girls who are fun to be with.

I had a good time and if you've got less than an hour and want a good film this is for you.

Train Dreams (2025)

Based on a novella by Clint Bently this is the arc of the life of a man named Robert Grainier. Grainier works for the rail road  clearing trees in the early part of the 20th century, marries, has a daughter and ponders his place in the world.

Feeling more like an illustrated novella then a full on film at times TRAIN DREAMS is beautiful film that nicely fits into the current Oscar race. This is a film that is operating on a slightly higher artistic plane (it echoes Malick but is its own thing) than most films with the literary nature of the story coming from the fact that much of what we know about the characters and situations comes from a ominpresent narration. This is a film where we don't witness life as lived abut experience it through the eyes of a god like storyteller who tells  us  the way things are.

This is a wonderful highbrow film that deserves all the accolades that it has won. I completely understand why many people have fallen madly in love with it. Expect tons of Oscar nominations and year end awards.

On the other hand, as great as it is on so many levels I never went into full on crazy love for the film. It's not because the film is bad, more that the literary and artistic nature of the telling and of the story made me feel more that this was a work of art and not a representation of life as lived. . Some of what happens felt less organic, and was instead because this is the way artistic novellas go. Additionally as much as I absolutely adore the narration and its use of language to make us feel the exact emotion, I would have liked to have had the emotion played out or spoken by the cast, instead of having it express by "god" over staring faces. We should not to have been told every meaningful notion and would have prefered to see it or experience it (I'm looking at you final bit of dialog)

Quibbles aside, this is a stunning achievement. It's a beautiful small scale film that deserves to be in the discussion of the best of 2025, even if I'm not completely there.

Saving Etting Street (2025) DOC NYC 2025

 

This is a portrait of carpenter Shelley Halstead, who is teaching Black women who to use carpentry and other skills in order to allow them to renovate homes in a rundown section of Baltimore. The idea is that if they can renovate their homes, they will bring the neighborhoods back.

This is a wonderful portrait of a woman trying to save her city one woman and one home at a time. It's a great look trying to make a difference in her city and making a seismic change. It's a story that will make you smile and wonder why this isn't being done in other cities.

While the film is playing at DOC NYC, the film may end up being one you will have to search out. Running 67 minutes, the film has an odd running time which may make this something that may not play near you, so keep your eyes out for it at festivals or elsewhere since this is a film you will want to see, and Shelley is someone you need to meet

Recommended

DOC NYC 2025 short takes: EMBODYING PASOLINI-LAW OF ATTRACTION; ROLLING FILM,ROCKING HISTORY, AL MAYSLES CAPTUES THE BEATLES; WHO WAS HERE?

 

Embodying Pasolini - Law of Attraction
A puffy look at a poerformance piece featuring Tilda Swinton and some of the costumes from the films of Pasolini that is done when the costumes are put on display.  It's okay but nothing special, especially when compared to the other films at DOC NYC.

Rolling Film, Rocking History, Al Maysles Captures the Beatles
Maysles recounts how a random phone call two hours before the Beatles laned in New York set him on a journey to shoot their first arrival in America. Cut from an interview done in 2006 there is a lot of great stories here including the fact that despiute spending a week or so with the group they only shot about two hours of film. Definbitely a film to see.

Who was here?
The director uses AI to create a family history. An interesting exercise comes with a lot of baggage in that the AI is essentially making things up from clues. While the film makes some effort to seperate truth from fiction the implications are a bit uncomfortable since I can see the fiction being taken as fact. Its an intriguing ride with disturbing implications, especially in an age with so much manipulation of the truth on an national/international scale with fakes.

FRENZY MOON (2025)

FRENZY MOON did not work for me. Its great practical effects lost in a run of the mill horror film.

The plot is the typical plot of friends going to a secluded cabin in the woods. Of course things go sideways, in the case when they find that there are werewolves around them.

A fantastic werewolf suit is lost in in a horror film that doesn't do anything special.  This film hits every expected point and uses every visual trope- say lots of red and blue lighting- to try and create feelings by rote instead of by giving us real characters and interesting plots.  While not bad, it's one of tose films that is good enough that had they actually tried a bit more they could have made a truly great film.

BLACK HOLE (1979)

Every year around Thanksgiving I do a series of bad film to avoid, however last year I kind of got bored with that and I did a series of films from the early 80's that were supposed to be huge and  either fizzled or are no longer talked about at all. It was an interesting walk down memory lane.

This year I'm going to do something kind of similar ad look at some of the films that Disney made in the wake of losing their way after Walt's death. By the end of the 70's there was talk of the animated films going away and the studio moving into more adult features. This resulted in some PG rated films and eventually into the creation of Touchstone. It also resulted in some films which aren't on many people's radar. The reason is most didn't do well or Disney didn't know what to do with them. In many cases the desire to do something different or more adult collided with Disney's family friendly reputation either in the studio not being able to go all the way (WATCHER IN THE WOODS for example) or audiences not being sure why they were making a scary movie (SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES despite it being based on a Ray Bradbury classic). 

Between now and next Saturday we will look at 8 Disney produced films that don't quite fit the Disney mold.

 The Black Hole is an interesting miss that you need to see- on a big screen if possible.

The film is the story of a spaceship which makes contact with the lost starship Cygnus. It was lost decades before and now sit on the edge of the safe zone of a Black Hole. In the ship the only one left is Maximillian Schell and a couple of robots. Schell is delighted to have guests. More importantly he needs to use their ship to actually dive into the black hole. A battle of wits ensues.

Grand space opera of the sort they don’t do any more, this was Disney’s attempt at getting into the Star Wars craze. Coming out at the same time as the first Star Trek film, The Black Hole had scifi fans getting into heated arguments as to which is better.

While the film is a clunky old school Hollywood film,  and the film is structured like many of the live action films that Disney had been cranking out for their TV show and theaters since the 50's, the film does entertain. Absolutely not scientifically accurate, (we couldn’t see the black hole, and the things that happen, the meteor down the hallway, are physically impossible) the filmmakers knew that they had to steer that course to make the film exciting and the result is a rip-roaring adventure film.

Yes, some of the film is cringy-tastes change over 35 years, but at the same time your eyes pop with many of the images. This is grand spectacle with no CGI anywhere.

Is it great? Visually it is, you will never unsee what you see in the film. At the same time the story is formulaic. Disney never balanced the desire to make a full on action adventure and keep it family friendly. For the most part we never have to fear that cthe good guys are going to meet a bad end, despite having fantastic villians.

The ending has freaked some people out since there is an implication that the seemingly evil robot Maximillian is the devil with a shot of a hellscape over which he seemingly rules. Religious people screamed, more so once it hit home video and I have heard tales of the final shot being removed for some screenings so as not to offend.

I really like the film. It has problems but there is enough there that not only do I own it, but I will also watch it when it makes a rare TV appearance.

The mixed reaction left Disney not sure of what to do. Yes they drifted towards more mature films (WATCHER IN THE WOODS, SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES and some of the other films in the current Disney series,) but they never again tried something this big and out of the box because it was never the super hit they hoped for – Trek and films like ALIEN made the film feel quaint, even if it was entertaining.

Do take a look.

PAIKAR (2025)IDFA 2025

Dawood Hilmandi returns home to try and reconnect with is father who was a mujahideen fighter, later a spiritual leader, writer, and poet. There was distance and silence between the pair and Hilmandi wants to find some common ground.

This is a stunning film that really isn’t one we’ve seen before. You don’t normally see a complex relationship between a father and son in an Islamic family like this. It is a relationship that isn’t black or white, which is normally how films that we see in America are portrayed. I found myself leaning in, wanting to know more about this world that was out side of my experience.

What I love about the film is that Hilmandi frames everything with love and grandeur. There is beauty to every image, even of the simplest one has weight and power to it.

I am haunted by this film.  This was the first of three I watched in succession and after ach that followed I wanted to return to this film and the people on screen.

Recommended.

THE SHIPWRECKED (2025) IDFA 2025

 

SHIPWRECKED follows the lives of several people as they try to navigate today’s world in their own way. A young man plants a garden, scientists in love, some peasants simply try to survive, a church restorer trying to bring beauty to the world and through it all we watch as they try and navigate the world.

When you see SHIPWRECKED, you will have to let it play out for a bit before it clicks. It’s not that there is anything wrong, simply that that the film shifts stories just as we connect to the story we are being told. Once you get into the film and fully feel the rhythms it goes like gangbusters. It’s a film that pulls you along and opens your eyes by showing you things in unexpected ways.

I can’t say much more than that because the film is a ride you need to see  because part of the magic is watching it weave the tapestry of seemingly unconnected stories into a magnificent Quilt.

Recommended.

CUTTING THROUGH ROCKS (2025) DOC NYC 2025 and in theaters

Sara Shahverdi is a motorcycle riding, divorced woman who is one of the leaders in her village in Iran. She is a no nonsense sort of person who wants to change the world and give the women in her village and country greater autonomy. However the old ways die hard, and even the members of her family don't always side with her.

This Oscar hopeful documentary may have a tough go of it to get the gold statue, since this is not a simple good versus evil tale, there are too many complications which the Academy hates. On the other hand people who want real world stories without simple solutions are going to eat this up. There is a great deal going on here. A great deal of what we see is not always the way things are or subject to change from one moment to the next. This film is a literal rollercoaster of emotions.

What makes this film so compelling is that the film doesn't sugar coat anything. Many documerntaries simplify things down  to the point where everything is black and white. CUTTING THROUGH ROCKS doesn't sugar coat anything, yes there are some small inroads being made by Shahverdi to change the way things are, but at the same time some people are not going to be moved.

You will forgive me for not going into great detail about what happens over the course of the film, but part of the power of the film is going into it and not being prepared for what happens. As I said above the film is not like any other documentary in its narrative course, with the result that we are constantly surprised at how things go. I do not want to give you any clue as to what happens since the power of the film is in watching life and arguments unfold before you.

This is a hell of a tale, about a hell of a woman. Almost certain to be in the Oscar mix, this is a film you'll want to see.

Blood Red (2025) IDFA 2025

 

Life on a farm.

Moody black and white observational documentary is going to thrill some and bore others. This is life on film at the speed of life.

The film is best described as observational documentary film making meets the art house, with images and sequences of such incredible beauty that you will want to hang them on the wall.

As I said the film moves at the speed of life so if you don’t want to see something that could be considered slow, skip it. However if you want to see some great black and white images that will haunt your dreams see this film.

Love & Other Crimes (2025)

A fantastic cast make this short film one you will want to see as a feature (which I'm told is coming).

The film is the story of an unemployed man who takes a room with a high school friend is a drug dealer. While he wants no part of the life, he finds  himself tagentially involved, complicating his growing relationship with a waitress with a great smile.

Playing like a big budget feature LOVE & OTHER CRIMES grabs us from the first frame. The film moves like the wind, giving us great characters to connect to. The performances fill in the blanks that the brief running time doesn't allow to be revealed via the script.

This film is a stunner.

You need to track this film down at one of the festivals its playing at.

Old Woman With The Knife (2025) Hits Digital November 25

Lee Hye-yeong gives a performance for the ages as Hornclaw, an assassin in her 60's who is tasked with killing pests, those society deems vermin. She is broken and sliding toward her end, but still fighting the good fight. She ends up teamed with a young man named Bullfight, who may have his own agenda.

Based on a novel THE OLD WOMAN WITH THE KNIFE is an interesting variation of the old guy heading into the sunset. Here we have a woman and we have  one that is very intent on taking out the grim reaper when he shows up rather than going quietly.

While the film has some great sequences, particularly in the very bloody, very bruising action sequences, the script is kind of all over the place. Flashbacks are not always inserted in the best places, breaking the forward flow of the story in order to fill us in. It's not fatal but it makes it difficult for the film to have momentum. It doesn't help that the plotting is a bit too covuluted and doesn't always make sense.

What does work and what makes the film a must is Lee Hye-yeong as the assassin from hell. She's a sweet old lady to a point and then she is a stone cold killer. Never mind her work here is at odds with her work for Hong Sang-soo, the real eye opener is she gives us a real person, who is beyond broken and still going forward. We know how bad she is physically and mentally and it makes what she does all the more amazing. Yea we've seen variations on the killer at the end but this is quite simply best that has ever been put on screen by a long way. Hye-yeong gives us character shading you never seen in a film like this. Oscar won't notice her but fans will and she will end up enshrined for all time as the greatest cinema assassin.

Recommended

Misan Harriman: Shoot The People (2025) DOC NYC

This is a look at the life and work of photographer Misan Harriman who hopes to change the world with his pictures.

Not going to lie and say that I knew Misan Harriman before I saw this film, but I absolutely know the man and his work now. Yes, I remember seeing some of the images presented, but I never head a name to go with images.

Breaking the mold of most recent documentaries on artists which tend to be love fests and not particularly complex, SHOOT THE PEOPLE is something more. A discussion with the man and the world he documents the film wants us to do more than allow the pretty pictures to wash over us. Harriman’s words are here to make sure that the ideas and emotion he is trying to express fully engage us.  This is not a film that you watch and move on from, it is a film that takes you by the throat and forces you to engage with it long after it’s done. Yes we recall the images, but in doing so we are confronted with the words that surrounded them on screen.

This film is a glorious masterpiece that must be seen- preferably on a big screen where the images can be seen as large as they deserve to be seen.

Highly recommended.

thoughts and prayers (2025) DOC NYC

THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS is a repeated punch in the face.  It’s like being bludgeoned to death while watching deranged bunnies dance.

That may not seem right, after all the film is about school shootings, but everyone selling the things to keep your children safe are so happy to be making money from potentially dead kids it is like going into an alternate universe where it’s a great thing to have our children die.

The film is alternately a look at the industry that has sprung up in the wake school shootings, where everyone is happy to be selling things that will make them rich, and a look at the kids who are the targets who are deeply disturbed that they have to figure out how best to stay alive and whether they should go down fighting or not.

This film will give you whiplash and make you wonder how we got her.

The power of the film is in the fact that while all the adults not connected to schools seem to take the idea of random shooting in stride (hey this is the world now – and we can make money doing this) while all the kids and the teachers are scared shitless, as anyone who has a real danger hanging over their head would be. Growing up in the 60's and 70's I used to worry about the Soviet Union bombing us, but that was an amorphous threat thousands of miles away, not one that is from someone inside the community.

I will not debate how we got here, what’s the point? The crazies controlling guns are in charge of the asylum. What we need is to be shocked into making the killing stop and perhaps this film will go a long way to stop them from happening.

Love Ya Bum (2025) hits VOD Tuesday

 

Portrait of Oail Andrew "Bum" Phillips Jr.who coached the Houston Oilers into becoming a playoff contender. The film charts his life and influence  on and off the field.

This is a very good, if somewhat run of the mill sports biography. Interviewing a wide variety of people who knew him or admired him, the film is a time capsule when the game of football was radically different than the glitz and glamour of todays game.

I liked the film a great deal. Phillips was coaching just as I was starting to discover football so watching the film was a nostalgia trip for me. Watching the clips I was reminded of when I was a kid watching broadcasts on Sunday afternoons.

While the film doesn't do anything new, it mostly tells it's tale quite well, with only Dennis Quaid's narration acting as a weak point since he doesn't seem to have the proper passion for his subject.

If you like football, especially way back when this film is a must when it hits VOD Tuesday.

Catch up Capsules: DEATH OF A UNICORN, K POP DEMON HUNTERS and APOCALYPSE IN THE TROPICS

 

DEATH OF A UNICORN
A man and his daughter on the way to visit his boss, ends up hitting a unicorn with his car. This leads to mayhem when the unicorn's parents come looking for revenge.

Solid dark fantasy/ comedy is entertaining, if unremarkable. Talk earlier in the year of it being one of the best films of the year didn't pan out in my eyes, but I still had good time. My only complaint is that the CGI effects aren't that good.

K POP DEMON HUNTERS
Amusing animated film about a K-Pop trio who fight demons with their music. 

This is a mega hit that is loved by millions. I like it. It's not so much that it's bad, more that it's so prepackaged and formulaic that part of the fun is gone because you know how exactly how its going to go. If this wasn't so formulaic I would have loved this.

APOCALYPSE IN THE TROPICS
Is a look at how the religious far right took over Brazil. It is a tale being mirrored in the United States. This is a really good film that is going to rattle your cage. I'm not quite sure it's the barn burner that some have labeled it but at the same time it is a cautionary tale we need to pay attention to

CRIMINAL (2025)

Robe Imbriano's CRIMINAL is a one of a kind animated documentary short musical about cash bail.

I see your eyes glazing over, but that would be wrong. After all the New Yorker put the film on their website (go here).

The truth is that CRIMINAL is a magnificent film that beautifully explore the issues with bail  and the problems with it.  It's a film that even had me, someone who has a day job in the criminal justice system, pondering the way bail is used.

CRIMINAL is a one of a kind film that forcefully shows that there is no wrong way to tell a story if it works. Some times you have to mash things to get the result you want.

One the great surprises of the year and a must see.