PIG HILL (2025)

 

A young woman begins to look into a series od strange disappearances in her town with the help of her brother and a friend. The disappearances appear to have something to do with “the pig people” a legendary bunch of people who do terrible things.

This is a nifty little thriller. I’m not going to say it breaks any new ground, but I will happily say that the film instead takes something similar to tales we’ve heard before and dresses it up so well that we fall in love it. There is a reason that some frequently told tales are more loved than others and it is in the hands of the storyteller. In this case it’s director Kevin Lewis who shows after the very fun WILLIE’S WONDERLAND that he is one of the best directors working today.  Lewis has made two great popcorn films and his work will make you want to see what he is doing next.

I had a blast watching this and I wish I had seen it at a packed festival screening where the energy of a similarly focused group of people makes it something greater. I will be seeing this again.

This film is a blast

Recommended.

How To Become a Mob Boss

Peter Dinklage narrates a how-to tale of what to do and what not to do if you want to be a mob boss. Focusing on the careers of various people (Whitey Bulger, Capone, Gotti, Carlos Escobar) the film charts what makes a successful boss.

This is a good look at the lives of various mob bosses and their various levels of success. It’s an informative way of doing things since it allows for the filmmakers to connect things up in unexpected ways. I was intrigued by how they did it.  I was also intrigued by the fact that their definition is kind of relative since none of the people profiled remained free, or alive.  Watching the episode on John Gotti I was struck by how he would have felt since he is repeatedly listed as the guy you didn’t want to emulate.

I originally put the series on because I wanted something “easy” to watch. I figured that it would be a bunch of stories I had heard. However the series surprised me by telling me a few tales of the early days of the mob I hadn’t heard before. I was hooked and what was supposed to be a leisurely walk through the series became a gallop.

I had a good time, though I dislike that the length of the episodes get shorter as the series goes on., with the final three running around 30 minutes.

Shortness of episodes or no this is a series that’s worth your time.

International Oscar Hopefuls: TARIKA and PALESTINE 36

TARIKA (The Herd)
This soul crushing magical realistic tale is the Bulgarian Oscar entry.  The film is the story of a father and daughter living in the country side. They are outsiders and not really trusted. Traika, has developed butterfly wings disease, a condition that makes her bones brittle. Complicating matters is the fact that the village thinks the girl is cursed and the source of the bad luck that seems to have befallen the town.

Told largely through action not words, TARIKA is a tale of what it means to be a paret and how the the herd mentality can over take reason. Its a deliberately told tale that you have to go with and pay attention to because what it important is told in actions and not words. There are long silences. If you can go with its rhythms will leave you broken at then end

Recommended

PALESTINE 36
Palestine's entry to the Oscars is the story of a young man caught up in the politics and tensions of 1930's Palestine, where the influx of European Jews is turning the status quo upside down.

This is a solid historical drama that takes the current vogue of Palestine before the Second World War tales and tries to tell a large story than that of a family caught in the march of history. I mention this because PALESTINE 36 is one of a half dozen or more films that have come out this year set in the same period, and one of at least three that is in the Oscar mix.

Of many films of a similar subject this is probably the most conventionally told, but it is also the one trying to tell a larger scale story. We are introduced to a swath of people from various groups and we are given a wider look at the politics of what is going on.

While just as good as the other films on the subject, it stands out for not taking a similar path. At the same time it is hurt by being clumped together with films that are less conventional. Don't get me wrong, I like the film, but at the same time seeing it at the end of the year in the midst of Oscar talk, I found it hard to take on it's own terms. That said I will revisit down the road.

My peronal quibbles aside PALESTNE 36 is worth a look.

100 LITERS OF GOLD (2024)

From Teemu Nikki whose previous THE BLIND MAN WHO DID NOT WANT TO SEE TITANIC comes the Finnish entry for the Oscars. It's the tale of two sisters who are known for brewing the best sahti ale. Asked to make some ale for a wedding they end up drinking it all themselves and have to scramble to find more.

Nominally a comedy this is a film that is more real then a comedy: Characters are broken, many are alcoholic in a very real way, life is messy.  Laughs come out of reality, as do the gut punches. It a film that moves you in all sorts of unexpected ways. 

To be completely honest I'm at a loss to know what its oscar chances are. It is most certainly a great film but it's not a film that behaves like a typical film.  its gloriously messy like life. Even saying its a black comedy doesn't prepare you for the real life edge to it.

The reality is this is one of the great finds of the year. Its a film unlike anything else you'll see all year.  It's proof that Teemu Nikki is one of the best directors working today. Like BLIND MAN, 110 LITERS forces us to see the world in an entirely new way.

Highly recommended.

Catch up Posts: BRING HER BACK and LAST BREATH

BRING HER BACK

A Brother and a sister are put into foster care, but there is something wrong with their foster brother and their foster mom seems to have a motive for their being there.

This  horror film that  is a little too constructed for my tastes with everything set up to make us feel off, from wounding one character at the start with poor vision on to the end, everything is set up not so much to feel natural but to be the most disturbing just to be disturbing. Its a technically well done film with a plot line that requires more and more nastiness because the characters get into an almost unbelievable death spiral which will make you want to simply say "If Woody had gone to police...". Disturbing on a purely visceral level it never pulls it enough to be as great as the parts.

LAST BREATH
True story about the efforts to rescue divers at the bottom of the ocean.
If you can give this film 15 minutes to set everything up, this is a nail biting film that will creep into your dreams. I had heard this was good and that word was right.
If you can be patient this is very recommended.

Very brief thoughts on MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG

Filmed version of the 2023 revival of the Stephen Sondhiem play is going to be a love it or loath it affair. the story of three friends over the years told backwards is not everyone's cup of tea. 

While the play has has rewrites, rethinks and assorted other iterations that added and removed songs the show has always been something I liked the idea of but never really the execution (a "proper" movie version filmed over the actual span of the play, so the actors age properly, is now being shot). Looking at the filmmed version of the show I was never fully engaged. The film is a record of the play and never transcends into anything beyond that. What works on stage doesn't completely work on the screen. Granted I am not a fan of the show so my tolerence for the piece was low

While I like Sondhiem and his shows I have always been kind of curious as to why he has become the theater god since many of his shows are intellectual and atypical and, the odd song aside, tend not to connect with the public in general.  That's not a knock on Sondhiem or the shows, only my inability to understand why theater people fall all over him.

As it stands now, this version of MERRILY is a nice record of the show, but I suspect it would have played best when it started it's run in the tiny New York Theater Workshop where it could have been an intimate experience and not one controlled bythe cinema gods.

Catch up Capsules: NOUVELLE VAGUE and IN YOUR DREAMS

 

NOUVELLE VAGUE
Richard Linletter makes a Wes Anderson film about the making of Breathless.
This is a delightful little film that is going to mean little to anyone who doesn't know film history, but those that do, and know the characters being portrayed on screen are going to have a grand time.

IN YOUR DREAM
Huge disappointing film that riffs on Little Nemo in Slumberland about a brother and sister trying to keep their family together. Awesome moments and glorious needle drops are stitched together with saccahrine  threads that have rotted from being used too much.  This isn't a film so much a polemic about life that made me physically ill.  It kills me to say that, but too much of this film is like the rotten meat the smelly stuffed animal is fond of.

An unhelpful pointer toward 100 NIGHTS OF HERO (2025)

Cinematic adaption of a graphic novel. It is based on the 1001 Arabian Nights but reduced down to 100.

I'm not going to say much about the film because five minutes into it I realized that I was not the audience for it. Set in an alternate universe and possessing a DIY esthetic, the film deliberately seems to be leaning to a camp sensibility.  I'm not sure why, the underlying story is good, it just feel jumbled in the telling. It feels like Bruno Dumont's EMPIRE.

I know that isn't really helpful but it's all I got.

Brief thoughts on BUGONIA (2025)

Two conspiracy theorists kidnap a big executive because they think she is an alien attempting to destroy the world. 

This is a bleak, black science fiction comedy is a remake of the Korean film SAVE THE GREEN PLANET. I never cared much for GREEN PLANET, there was a mean edge and an uncomfortableness that didn't like. This film was originally supposed to be a remake by the original director, however he dropped out and was replaced by Yorgos Lanthimos who madea film that reminded me too much of the original for me to like it much. Yes, the performances are fine, but I don't know why this film was needed except to have an English version.

CATCH UP CAPSULES: MATERIALISTS, SORRY BABY

 

SORRY BABY
Young woman in a spiral doesn't realize how bad she is until a friend shows up.
Okay drama would have worked better for me had I liked the main character more (and the film wasn't so deliberate in its construction)

MATERIALISTS
Celine SOng's follow up to get Oscar nominated PAST LIVES is weird misstep. Despite having a cast operating at an Oscar award level the script never feels real. Or even something that Song wrote. Weirdly conventional and feeling like an attempt to intice the Academy into giving her an award the film feels less like a singular voice in film and theater and just a product turned out byt the Hollywood machine

Come Closer (2025) Opens Friday

This is the story of a young woman named Eden. When her brother is killed in a car crash she spirals off. Realizing her brother had a whole other life which she knew nothing about she begins investigating and begins a relationship with his brothers girlfriend.

This film really didn't work for me. Blame it on Eden, a character who is either badly acted or badly written, or both. The problem begins before the accident where we see Eden smothering her brother as if he was a needy lover rather than his sister.  Its the wrong sort of creepy. Watching her spiral out after that distances us as she doesn't seem anything other than nut. What makes it worse is the performance is so ungrounded that the character seems like she is in another film entirely. That isn't a bad analogy- this is a film where everyone except Eden is in another film entirely.

I was disappointed

The Chronology of Water (2025)

Kristen Stewart makes her feature directorial debut with an adaption of Lidia Yuknavitch's autobiography which chronicled her abusive up bringing, days on the college swim team and her life changing experience working with Ken Kesey. 

All hail Kristen Stewart, director. Is there anything that she can't do? She is a bold and daring director giving us a gloriously well-made film that is like an emotional lightning bolt into the heart. Refusing to feel shackled by convention Stewart does what every great director should do and that is make a film by any means necessary. The film feels more like the work of some of the independent directors I love to watch, but with a bit more fearlessness. There doesn't feel that anything was held back.

The cast is wonderful. Imogen Poots stands tall in a role that hides nothing. She is all there, and she so disappears into her role as Yuknavitch that I had to wait until the end credits to see who the actress was. Everyone else is just as good. I do however need to single out Jim Belushi as Ken Kesey. How could no one have realized that he was this good a character actor?

You need to see this. 

Highly recommended

Brief thoughts on Little Trouble Girls (2025)

Two girls on a Catholic choral retreat have their friendship tested when one of the girls takes an interest in a worker where they are staying.

The Oscar offering from Slovenia has me looking at is quizically.  While the film is good on its own terms it is very similar to about three other films from the last year or two. Its so similar that watching the film I was conflicted because the story I was seeing so close to other films that I really thought I had seen  it despite knowing that I had never seen any of the images.

Don't get me wrong, I like the film. Its really good on it's own terms, but why this was chosen for Oscar consideration completely vexes me. 

Peter Guiterrez on A Private Life which opens Friday

“I’m not crying, it’s my eyes.”

***

While it may be a slight stretch to claim that A PRIVATE LIFE is the kind of film that Truffaut would’ve loved to have made, it’s not unreasonable in the least to speculate that he would’ve loved watching it. After all, Rebecca Zlotowski’s engaging quasi-noir has all the hallmarks of a classic French thriller—it’s super smart, full of mystery and humor, and everything is executed with a light yet highly skilled touch. The fact that A PRIVATE LIFE is somewhat “Hitchockian” would, of course, have been an extra bonus for Truffaut. The obvious touchstone in this respect is REAR WINDOW: while Jimmy Stewart’s photojournalist character suspects murder as a result of casual voyeurism, Jodie Foster’s psychoanalyst character suspects murder because her profession relies on, as she puts it, “knowing the secrets and lies” of her clients. As in REAR WINDOW, the protagonist must enlist the efforts of a love interest—in this case, a somewhat unlikely one—to investigate a crime that no one else is sure has even taken place. Come to think of it, given its psychoanalytic bent and dialogue that interprets some creative mindscreen sequences, this is a film that the director of SPELLBOUND himself would have enjoyed.

That is, with the possible exception of the characters’ unrepressed sexuality and the film’s ultimate critique of reason alone—remember, Hitchcock never made supernatural or paranormal genre fare. In these aspects, Zlotowski’s script, co-written with Anne Berest and Gaëlle Macé, is at its Frenchiest. On the other hand, the presence/aura of Foster, who’s playing a longtime expat, and the way that the story wraps up in an upbeat fashion (which is one reason A PRIVATE LIFE isn’t a true noir) point to an American side of the film’s lineage. Indeed, for some the way that Foster’s arc cleanly dovetails with the solution to the central mystery, the transformation of her own fiercely held epistemologies, and the resolution to her sidebar family conflicts will be a bit too much—it’s too pat and too Hollywood, achieved with little ambiguity and earned at little cost. 

There’s some validity to such an argument, but I’m choosing mostly to ignore it. Granted, A PRIVATE LIFE may be too ambitious for its own good, attempting to say too much about too many things, but in a way that’s part of its charm. It’s like one of the wine-filled evenings it depicts—too much may be said, and some of it not even clearly recalled later, but no one can say that the time spent in its company isn’t full of life and truth. Once upon a time critics called such a film a “confection,” but A PRIVATE LIFE is a little too dark and too serious under its veils of wit and style to be dismissed as something sweet. 

man finds tape (2025)

  A filmmaker  makes a film investigating the story of her brother, who one day found a mysterious video tape inside his barn, a tape of him when he was a young boy and a strange figure walked in. Her brother then starts a YouTube series that seeks to investgate what happened...

... I can't say any more because where this film goes is unexpected.... no really. There is a point in the film where it goes from "this is good, but I've seen this before" to "what the hell is going on?" And I mean that "What the hell is going on" in a good way. I say that because what is what happens is nothing I've seen before. It's also a film that doesn't give us a lot of answers (in a good way - the filmmakers understands that not only don't we need them but also because to do so would require stopping the film for lonmg exposition)

As much as I like the story telling, I dislike the  framing as a found footage film. There is couple of times where the film breaks the found footage wall and several others where it works against the film.  While it's annoying it isn't fatal because the story ultimately too good to fail.

Ultimaely this is one of the great horror films of recent vintage...and yea I want a sequel so I can have answers, but at the same time I don't want a sequel because it might ruin what's here.

Recommended

PEACOCK (2025)

A man who makes a living pretending whom ever other people need him to be, finds his own life imploding when his girlfriend leaves him.

Gentler but similar to the uncomfortable films of Ruben Ostlund and Torgos Lanthimos, this is a film you are either going to love or hate. Mannered in it's telling you can feel the hands of writer director Bernhard Wegner all over it. As much as his protagonist is not in control of things, Wegner is. You are either going to love that or hate it. I didn't much care for it.

What I did care for is the performance of Albrecht Schuch, who gives a masterful role as a man who doesn't know who he is or how to behave. It is one for the ages.

Worth a look if you like uncomfortable comedy.

(ADDENDUM- I saw this weeks before RENTAL FAMILY which is similar in some ways and better. Honestly by the time I saw RENTAL I had forgotten the plot completely)

Troll 2 (2025)

This is just brief thoughts on TROLL 2.

Its going to be brief because I’m still looking for the plot.

The film is a continuation of the first film, with the same characters and with the government trying to figure out what to do about trolls. This has some connection to the Second World War where the Telemark raid to stop the creation of a German atomic bomb really had something to do with a sleeping troll that was being studied. The troll gets loose and there are more trolls, and I don’t know. I really don’t. I mean I understand everything once the troll gets loose, but the whole first hour is a big question mark.

Is it bad? Not really (it gets dark and the Star Trek/Iron Giant reference killed me), but its a huge step down from the first film. Frankly if this was the first film there would never have been a second. I would love another, better film.

Worth a look on a slow night.

La Grazia (2025)

This is a beautiful film where the florishes and odd moments get in the way of a solid story.

The president of Italy is serving out his final six months. As he does so he has to decide what to do about a euthanasia bill and whether to sign two pardons for people who killed their spouses.

Paolo Sorrentino returns with a lovely and thoughtful portrai of a man of the law who has to wrestle with friends, family and what he believes in in order to figure out what the right thing to do is. It was a film that played festivals across the globe in the last year to great acclaim.

For the most part I absolutely loved this film. I loved the performance by Toni Servillo as the president who is uncertain what do do. Able to convey humor and heartbreak at the same time it is a performance that you will take into your heart and treasure.

For the most part I truly loved this film. Almost everything is spot on and I loved the mix of humnity and heady discussion of ideas. What I did not like was Sorrentino's periodic awkward flights of fancy or allowinf sequences to over stay their welcome. I broke slightly with the film with the sequence of the ambassadors arrival in the rain, which just became the wrong sort of absurd, a feeling that returned periodically through the film.

Reservations aside this is a wonderful film and worth a look.

THIS ORDINARY THING (2025) opens Friday

The story of 45 people who helped to keep Jewish people safe during the Second World War

I do not have a lot to say, largely because everything that needs to be said is said on screen. While the film is a rehash of the story of the Holocaust, the film rises above it by simply being a record of what the people who helped the Jews did. Told in a simple, almost matter of fact style, the film reveals how simply basic humanity saved humanity. Time and time again we hear the  simple refrain that they helped because that was the thing to do. No one was trying to save everyone, they were just trying to help who they could. In a world where people refuse to help or even to acknowledge that anyone not isn’t someone they know is human, it speaks volumes.

I was moved.

By the time this slightly longer than a hour long film had ended I was wiping away tears.

A truly great film.

 Recommended.

ROSEMEAD (2025) opens Friday

 

A woman tries to come to terms with the fact that her son is not taking his schizophrenia medication and is becoming more violent while not letting anyone know about the experimental cancer treatment she is taking may not be working.

This is a sold drama that show cases Lucy Liu’s true acting ability. Disappearing into the role of a mother being broken by life’s turns Liu sheds her flashy big budget persona to become a small woman trying to do right by her son. It’s a heartbreaking role that could put her in the Oscar mix if the film’s campaign can gain traction. She truly is stunning in a far from showy role that needs to be shepherded in front of academy voters.

Beyond her performances this is a solid little drama that’s worth your time.

Endless Cookie (2025) Opens Friday December 5

ENDLESS COOKIE is a one of a kind documentary/essay/comedy from the half brothers Seth and Pete Scriver. The film is nominally the story of the brothers getting together to record stories that were to be animated into a documentary that tell the story of Shamawatta, however the film is something greater than that with the film becoming a meta exploration of the family and the making of the film.

I’m going to say right up front that this film would not have worked as anything live action. The film grows exponentially due to the visuals creating a unique and one of a kid world. It’s a choice like PIECE BY PIECE (the Pharell Williams documentary) and the use of a CGI Robbie Williams in BETTER MAN that takes what would be a just okay film and makes it several shades of great.

Wandering all over the place  ENDLESS COOKIE seems like it is buckshot shot from a gun. Things are all over the place, the making of the films, the family bit, the stories that are supposed to be the film and the life of a member of the First Nation. Everything is everywhere, separate but connected like things in the house or on the porch and in the yard.  However after while the whole things makes sense and questions are answered.

Why are we hearing these seemingly random conversations? Why are things animated? How do the stories tie into this? Why are we being shown the people making the film? These questions are answered and we are placed into this animated safe space where the whole world exists because it’s all up on screen.

That probably makes no sense, and I understand that because ENDLESS COOKIE is a film that  you can not ever hope to explain to anyone, you just have to press a copy into people’s hands and say “watch this”

Consider this me pressing it into your hand and saying watch this.

In all seriousness this film may seem like other things in either construction or style but by the time you get to the end you will be well aware that the film is one of a kind and the familiarity is merely your brain trying to hopelessly  explain something it doesn’t know by making assumptions. There is nothing else like ENDLESS COOKIE and now that it is here we I can  honestly say we were lessened until it arrived.

Forget your expectations and buy a ticket and take a ride.

Recommended- even more so to the adventurous.

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.

---

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)

---

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.

---

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.

---

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.

---

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.