Honorable mentions:

The Materialists

If you think of this movie less as a Rom Com and more like a Jane Austen adaptation, you will find it much more enjoyable. Celine Song is a beautiful director and a solid follow-up to an all-timer in Past Lives.

Weapons

At times nonsensical and at times profound, this movie was an incredible viewing experience. The end sequence is as cathartic as it gets.

Eternity

The best rom-com since Palm Springs. It also did the impossible; it made me find Miles Teller Charming. Great movie if you are struggling to watch a new movie with mass appeal.

F1

I LOVED THIS MOVIE! SUE ME! Watching this in IMAX made me feel something. Thank you for your score, Hans Zimmer and his assistants

10. Sentimental Value

Sentimental Value, by one of my favorite directors, Joachim Trier, is his follow-up to his perfect Saturn Return movie (I will explain this later), The Worst Person in the World. It was one of my most anticipated movies of the year. I expected to be personally hit by a wall of emotion, but instead, you see a realistic portrayal of depression and how it’s the hardest to express to the people who know you the best.

The people who are expected to know you the best don’t have to have these big emotional speeches talking about how much they care about you; it’s in the ways that they can’t express in words. It’s almost too hard to tell them how you actually feel, but when it’s actually expressed in the scene between Nora and Agnes.. It’s when the floodgates open. That scene is the whole movie to me.. A big sister who thinks she is hiding her struggle so well, and her little sister who can see right through it. Through that, they may heal the generational curse of suffering in silence that affected their grandmother and their father. There is sentimental value in that.

The movie opens with the house as a narrator and as an example of what is passed down through generations; literally, this house, but also what happened inside. You see, at the end of the film, the house is stripped of all that sentimental value. Is it better to put a fresh coat of paint over the generational trauma or to live inside it and acknowledge it? Is it better to cast the Hollywood actress to white wash your film about the trauma in your family, or is it better to do the hard thing and work through this with your daughter and address it head-on?

At times, this movie can feel very aware of itself and potentially eye-roll-y.. But I feel like it really gets what family dynamics can be like especially if you feel you become your parents as you grow older.

I’m excited to see what Trier does next.

9. Bugonia

My Jesse Plemmons stock that I bought in 2002 with Like Mike has really paid off.

Bugonia has the typical kooky flair that we have become accustomed to when Stone and Lanthimos team up (The Favourite, Poor Things, Kinds of Kindness). It’s based on the movie Save the Green Planet and is the first movie in a while that was not written by Lanthimos. It was written by former EIC of The Onion, Will Tracy. You can tell, however, where Lanthimos put his flair into the movie. The outrageous story that keeps you guessing until the very end must have required meticulous direction and collaboration between Stone and Lanthimos to show just enough to keep the audience guessing. The girl boss-ification of corporate America meets the incelification of young men cast aside by society or let down by the very government that is supposed to protect them. To many working-class people, the CEOs ARE the aliens; they try to perfect their bodies, de-age, they suck the life out of working-class people, and for what? This movie asks, “What if we can’t be saved, or what if we aren’t worth saving”?

What I have really enjoyed this year from a variety of directors is their willingness to not cast ACTOR actors… One Battle After Another, Marty Supreme, and this film find the best person for the role rather than the most famous person for the role. Don, played by Aidan Delbis, works perfectly alongside Plemmons and Stone, and my guy Stavvy as the creepy cop is perfect. I just love these choices, and great directors can get great performances out of anyone they cast.

It’s hard to write about this movie without revealing everything that happens, but rest assured, when you see Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons pop up at the Oscars, know it is much deserved.

If the Oscars had a needle drop of the year, Where Have All the Flowers Gone in this movie, American Girl in One Battle After Another and Everybody Wants to Rule the World in Marty Supreme would be my nominations. I have also been listening to the score non-stop, and apparently, it was written before the composer saw the movie; he was just given a few plot points from the movie to work with. Trust me, listen to “Grand Cycle” and try not to feel something.

8. Roofman

This movie was the biggest surprise to me of the year. I had seen all the marketing around town, and I LOVED the trailer, but I didn’t expect to love the movie or feel really moved by it at all, but the movie charmed me just like Tatum’s character. This loveable doofus may be a genius? Kirsten Dunst is extremely lovable and charming herself; their chemistry made me fall in love with this movie. It is also a familiar setting to me, set in Charlotte, but the McDonald’s of my youth, the Toys R Us I’m used to seeing. There is just enough action and fun in this movie, but there is also a real sense of danger and loss. This movie feels like a movie that would have been nominated for Best Picture in like 2011.. A Sundance film that won people over with its heart.

I want more movies like this to exist because it is a total crowd-pleaser without being dumb. I know my mom would like it, but also my cinephile friend would like it. I’m happy that it wasn’t a straight-to-streaming property because I enjoyed hearing everyone in my crowd laugh and react.

Of all the movies I loved this year, I know I will go back to this one a lot.

7. Eephus

Another movie that came out of the blue for me this year, but that I absolutely loved. As a female moviegoer, I am always interested in the softer versions of masculinity, in the harmless versions. I think this movie nails that. It’s just being out there with your buddies, being a little stupid, but trying to hold onto something that you can’t really access that much anymore.

The movie is almost entirely unknown actors, but you’ll also see a couple of Uncut Gems all-stars in this movie, but that doesn’t matter because the concept of the movie is so strong. This is a group of men ranging from 18 to early 60s that have been playing rec league baseball for years, but the baseball field in their hometown is being torn down for a school, so this is their last game together, and they are trying to make it last as long as possible.

While this isn’t my favorite sports movie of the year, I think this movie perfectly encapsulates the feeling of both playing and watching baseball; it’s both nostalgic and soothing, infuriating and engaging. It’s a sport that has so much Americana baked into it that it’s almost hard to explain, but this movie does it so perfectly. It’s dreamlike at times, you lose track of yourself and time.. Is any of this real? Is it all in their heads?

6. Train Dreams

Train Dreams is the story of a normal man in one of the most tumultuous times in American history. The film takes notice of the everyday beauty and tragedy that is all around us. Some may find this movie slow, but I find it contemplative and challenging.

This movie is a spiritual twin to my favorite movie from last year, Sing Sing, it’s from the same writing partners, and both are soft portrayals of masculinity in hyper-masculine environments. This movie has sweet sentimentality and brutal reality in this beautiful stew.

It’s also a lot about action and reaction. Robert’s life feels like it’s happening to him rather than himself living it. The bad things he witnessed, he is merely a witness; the technological advances and the horrible tragedy just happened to him for no reason. While some may find that unearned or convenient storytelling, I find it to be true about life a lot. Sometimes both good and bad things happen to you.

I personally am a huge Terrance Malick fan, so anything Malickian has me in a chokehold hold and this and last year’s Nickel Boys show the incredible influence Malick has had on modern cinema. Capturing nature and the normal everyday beats of life in the most gorgeous way possible. Maybe I gravitate towards that because that’s how I want to remember the world. The way the sun breaks through the trees, a hand running through water, or running through hair, the creaks of a floorboard. I think that is what makes life beautiful, the minutia.

5. No Other Choice

The best satire of our current moment. The idea that we all bought into this life, that if we worked hard and got a good job, did that job well, we could have it until we retired — the movie operates with this assumption so that when its upended when Man-Su loses his job, his crash out is justified. It literalizes “I would kill for this opportunity”.

I couldn’t help but think of the “what have they done to us?!” sketch from I Think You Should Leave. That character goes, “I thought I was gonna get eaten, and for a split second I thought ‘I don’t have to go to work tomorrow’ WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO US?!” That’s what this movie is asking: What have these greedy corporations done to us? And in this movie, it literally makes him into a killer.

Some of the shots in this movie are just absolutely bonkers. There was one sequence reminiscent of Anatomy of a Fall where the music just drowns out everything happening. This is a movie made for the unemployed to feel justified in their anger and the feeling of being lost.

4. Marty Supreme

From Dream Big to Welcome to your life.

This movie is nothing if not relentless. Marty is in a relentless, selfish pursuit of a goal that, while impressive, is frivolous. Marty is consistently a terrible person, to his friends, his mom, his family, and, unlike a similarly terrible person, Howard in Uncut Gems, he has time to fix this if he wants. Similar to Howard, they both end up in the movie as the happiest they have ever been, and maybe all their hustling will amount to something. Howard achieves his biggest hit and dies smiling, while Marty cries, looking at his son. Josh Safdie said he originally had this entire movie as a flashback of Marty’s life, him explaining it to his son, which is why there are so many ’80s needle drops in a movie set in the ’50s. In that sense, it makes sense that some things are glossed over or airbrushed.

If you would have told me that Laurie from Greta Gerwig’s Little Women would have this kind of range I wouldn’t have believed you but I am FULLY and have been fully in on the Chalamet experiment. I think he should win the Best Actor Oscar this year, but if he loses to Leo in One Battle After Another, I get it.

Odessa A’Zion does a great job with a pretty thankless role. For example, compare her to Emily Blunt in The Smashing Machine this year. It felt like Blunt lost the humanity in her character and instead played a caricature. A’Zion, on the other hand, played a scared and manipulative hustler. We have seen the “woman holding the great man back” before, and I typically roll my eyes at it. I think there was just more fire behind the eyes of A’Zion, which made it feel more real.

Safdie has the incredible talent of casting and directing. He seems to cast people who fit the roles rather than make the role fit the person. This cast is littered with New Yorker cameos, and the big bad of the film, the main evil force, is not an actor but instead played by Mr. Wonderful himself, Kevin O’Leary. Much like with Kevin Garnett in Uncut Gems, you need someone who is of the world you are trying to portray, not just an actor. It wouldn’t be as convincing otherwise.

Is this a great sports movie? I think yes, honestly. I think sports is full of more hustlers than saints, and I like that this was gritty if predictable.

3. Sinners

Sammie: “You know something? Maybe once a week, I wake up paralyzed reliving that night. But before the sun went down, I think that was the best day of my life. Was it like that for you?”

Stack: “No doubt about it. Last time I seen my brother. Last time I seen the sun. And just for a few hours, we was free.”

What can I say that hasn’t already been said about this incredible movie?

Sinners is Ryan Coogler’s first foray out of the IP world since his debut feature, Fruitvale Station. It’s hard to describe the buzz and the feeling in the theater when I watched this movie for the first time. This movie to me, feels Spielbergian because it takes genre filmmaking, has a lot of thought, personal history, and cultural history into a crowd-pleasing blockbuster. You don’t have to look deeper if you don’t want to, but it’s there for you to dig.

When you get to the scene in which the entirety of history is playing music together. Through art we can transcend time and consciousness. And it’s not only the patrons of the juke joint that need connection through art, it is also the Irish vampires; his land was also taken from him and he would like to commune with his ancestors through song as well. I find it a brilliant choice that the groups that interact with each other and really know each other best in this movie are the Irish, Native Americans, and African Americans. Because the terrible thing about this movie is that this was going to be the only night that they had free anyway, because the KKK were going to come in the morning to kill them, whether they were turned or not.

Sinners has so much to do with the desire and the weaponization of freedom, and as my next pick would say “Freedom is a funny thing, isn’t it? When you have it, you don’t appreciate it, and when you miss it, it’s gone”..

2. One Battle After Another

“Freedom is no fear. Like Tom fucking Cruise.”

I have seen this movie four times, and ever since the first time I saw it, this line makes me tear up. To be free really is to live without fear.

I think this may have been one of Paul Thomas Anderson’s most fearless movies. The movie is incredibly rewatchable. It’s so funny, yet it’s the scenes with Bob in the car with Sensei talking about how he can’t do his daughter’s hair, or when he reunites with her at the end, and he says, “it’s me, honey.. Your dad”, that this movie implants deep into my heart. Everything in this movie is earned, every beat, every silly line, every second of the movie is useful.

This movie lovingly spoofs “woke” language that can only be written by a Gen Xer who generally believes in the same thing. One of my favorite jokes is when the phone operator tells Bob his coordinates to Bob through land acknowledgments. But that interaction is juxtaposed to the interaction of Sensei’s relationship to his own revolution, his “Mexican Harriett Tubman situation”. While the French 75 work with white folk, who maybe don’t have the revolutionary spirit, but instead a wish to exert power over others to withhold information, Sensei is clear and succinct to help his people. I think the line that shows this the most is when Sensei, right before he bids Bob adieu in the hallway, says, “Don’t be selfish, Bob, my people have been laid siege for hundreds of years”. People of color, oppressed people have been about this for centuries, and white people are just hopping on the train, though they think they are the conductors.

A theme this movie explores is that of inheritance, not of money, but of destiny. What do you inherit from your parents what do you reject? Willa inherits her revolutionary spirit from her mother. Her grandmother says as much before Purfidia leaves, that she comes from a long line of revolutionaries, and at times Bob might just be trying this on. It’s in Willa’s blood not to accept the world she is given and to be transformed through revolution. Willa also, for better or worse, inherits the sins of her mother, both in her mother being a rat, and her biological father. Well, what does Willa do with that information? She saves herself. She chooses to reject some parts of her mom but keep inside of her the fire she inherited. When Purfidia in her letter asks, “Will you change the world?” Willa just might die trying. She is an American Girl. Her dad tells her to be careful, she says, “I won’t.” Sometimes the journey can’t be careful.

In the end, this movie allows us tells us to live our lives; we must have courage in the face of evil powers, and through community, we can fight one battle after another. “Life man… LIFE!”

1. Sorry, Baby

Sometimes, the journey is back to yourself. To be able to claim your life again after someone takes your life force away.

This movie felt like watching Frances Ha for the first time, and that is truly the highest compliment coming from me. This movie so perfectly captures the co-dependence of an incredible friend, especially one who loves you and is worried about you. You want them there all the time, but you also know that for you to become your fullest self, that relationship has to evolve and grow. You can only hold onto the life raft for so long until you have to swim on your own.

This movie is getting the best original screenplay consideration because the tone of the movie is perfect. For example, we have seen the doctor’s office scene before in these later-in-life coming-of-age movies, thing Obvious Child, but here the tone and the control in the interaction are in the hands of Agnes and Lydie through humor; they have taken control. I found myself laughing so much during the movie, but it didn’t diminish the seriousness of the content. I do think that the best-written scene in the movie is the jury duty scene. While it seems somewhat out of place.. It is a beautiful tool of writing to explain what is going on in Agnes’ mind.

Eva Victor controls so much of the movie through their facial expressions, and they are both so vulnerable but strong. There is the forcefield of humor that makes some of the tough scenes bearable, but when they make you sit with the reality of what happened in the scene in the tub, it makes those scenes stand out. That is an all too realistic scenario and all too realistic way the conversation would happen, it’s hard to put into words.

Lydie and Agnes are an incredible pair of characters. Their bond and love for each other put up this invisible force field of safety for both of them, but especially Agnes. You see this forcefield at the dinner scene in the beginning of the movie, a friend makes a comment, and if Agnes were alone, she would be beaten by that remark, but because Lydie is there and holds her han,d she can carry on.. When Lydie is ther,e the world seems to make sense.. But the hard part is that Lydie can’t always be there, and Agnes eventually learns to love and take care of herself. I know and recognize this feeling so well. The scene in the first chapter of the movie where Lydie tells Agnes, “don’t.. Die.. okay?” is so painfully real, tender, and an attempt to always keep that forcefield around Agnes. To insert myself, I felt like my best friend without literally saying these words to me, we had the same conversation when I visited her at my lowest. Sometimes you need the person you love the most to say the quiet, scary part out loud.

I think my favorite genre of movie is the Saturn Return film. The Saturn Return is the concept that from 27–29 you go through a very intense emotional period, things will be built up and torn down, and it’s almost like an emotional sanding off period.. The first time I watched Sorry, Baby, the final scene perplexed me. But then I realized I saw Agnes put that forcefield around Lydie’s baby.. She will be that for this baby, no matter what. That final scene is the exit of the Saturn return. Agnes is a different person, and I think she will be okay.

Lastly, I would like to thank my “Lydie”, Chandler, for always being my forcefield and my best friend.

2026 will bring back many heavyweight filmmakers, but I just hope to be able to find a bunch of hidden gems that make going to the movies worth it. I also hope that I am personally out of my saturn return.

Thanks for reading all year, and I hope nothing but the best for you in 2026!

EmTV out

The Surfer — Streaming on HULU

Nicholas Cage is trapped on a beach in Australia.

IMDB logline: A man returns to the idyllic beach of his childhood to surf with his son. When he is humiliated by a group of locals, the man is drawn into a conflict that keeps rising and pushes him to his breaking point.

Why you should watch it: Cage is going balls-to-the-wall insane. The movie is an examination of the specific form of toxic masculinity rampant today. Men who feel as though their power is being taken away from them tap into the most base form of themselves. The isolationism that is forming around the world and on social media. This movie is also a midlife crisis movie, a dad who wants to reconnect with his biological child and his inner child. I guarantee you will have no idea how this movie ends.

Recommended for an odd movie night, and if you like this, I would also recommend the movie The Swimmer, which is streaming on the Criterion Channel and Inside starring Willem Dafoe.

The Wedding Banquet — Streaming on Paramount +

As the great Tina Fey once said, “authenticity is dangerous and expensive.”

This is a remake of the 1993 movie of the same name from Ang Lee, starring Bowen Yang and Lily Gladstone. So SIGN ME UP!

IMDB log line: A gay man makes a deal with his lesbian friend: a green-card marriage for him, in exchange for in vitro fertilization treatments for her. Plans evolve as Min’s grandmother surprises them with a Korean wedding banquet.

Why you should watch: This is a sweet story of chosen family, forgiveness, and choosing your partner over and over every day. I much prefer the storyline of the women in this movie and this movie is Kelly Marie Tran’s, with Lily Gladstone as always giving a powerfully quiet performance. This is a sweet and simple movie worth your time.

Recommended if you want something sweet and funny that goes down easily, and if you love Lily Gladstone, like I do.

Good Fortune — Available to Rent on Amazon or Apple for $5.99

It’s a Wonderful Life meets Freaky Friday.

IMDB log line: A well-meaning but rather inept angel named Gabriel meddles in the lives of a struggling gig worker and a wealthy venture capitalist.

Why you should watch it: KEANU REEVES. End of story. He is perfect in this movie, and I wish that roles like this got more recognition in awards season. The movie perfectly captures his weird charm and without it the movie is a lot less fun. Seth Rogen is great in this version of himself, he has been in Hollywood so long and probably spends most of his time nowadays with people like his character. While the ethos of this movie can at times run a little hollow when everyone starring in the movie is a multimillionaire, especially with Aziz performing in Saudi Arabia right when this movie came out, this movie is for sure a family crowd pleaser as long as your family is okay with swear words.

Recommended if you and your family just watched It’s A Wonderful Life, and you kind of want to roll over the vibes with more laughs and a little raunchier. Recommended if you like late-stage Rogen: The Studio, The Fabelmans, Platonic. As always, recommended if you are a Keke Palmer completist.

Rebuilding — This is not on streaming YET.. but will probably end up on Paramount Plus

Can anything good come from something so painful?

IMDB logline: After wildfires take his ranch, a cowboy named Dusty winds up in a FEMA camp, finding community with others who lost homes, including his daughter and ex-wife.

Why you should watch: This is a slow, beautiful movie with a lot of heart. The scenes of the landscape capture what is so beautiful about these rural mountain towns, while also capturing the devastation and struggle of everyday people trying to make ends meet. Josh O’Connor gives a subtle and heartbreaking performance from a man who was promised a life that has been ripped from him. A man who was promised to be protected by his government, but when he needed them most, it was anything but helpful. This is a movie of chosen family, of showing up for your village and your family, and why connection is so important. I went to a screening of the movie with the director, and he described this movie as a children’s book, and I see that in the beautiful simplicity of the film. Amy Madigan also gave her second-best performance of the year.

Recommended for a sentimental and slow movie night, if you liked Nomadland, Tangerine, and The Florida Project, but also love the Brokeback Mountain plot when they are off the mountain, this movie may fit your sensibilities.

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You — Available to Rent on Amazon or Apple for $5.99

Uncut Gems of Motherhood

While this may not be a hidden Gem much longer in awards season as Rose Byrne’s candidacy heats up, I still feel like this movie is widely underseen.

IMDB logline: While trying to manage her own life and career, a woman on the verge of a breakdown must cope with her daughter’s illness, an absent husband, a missing person, and an unusual relationship with her therapist.

Why you should watch it: Rose Byrne gives a fierce performance as Linda. A mom who has reached her breaking point, physically, mentally, and spiritually. In a world where mothers are pitted mercilessly against each other, and this grand “ideal” of the perfect mother, they all fall short. The key scene to me, and why I think she gives the best performance of the year from any actor, is when she is at the mom support class, and she lets it all go and says the quiet part out loud. “Maybe this is our fault.. Maybe sometimes you have to take responsibility”. This movie brilliantly gets right in the face of our over-therapized culture and slaps it in the face and says, “TAKE RESPONSIBILITY”. Byrne is so physical in her performance, and the camera is right in on her face, and you can read everything going on. This movie is in a trend of movies this year of mothers, who are messy.. And maybe don’t want to be or should not have been mothers. Not because they can’t do it but because motherhood can be seen as body horror, this being takes over your body, and then you are responsible for it for the rest of its life. Motherhood is also the most wonderful thing in the world and and you have never loved something like you love your child. But this year, I think a lot of filmmakers are wrestling with that conversation, of assumed motherhood… and what if you regret it? I haven’t stopped thinking about this movie since I saw it, and men who want to push this movie aside, you are the problem. Side note: shoutout to the Bronsteins, this and Marty Supreme, great year!

Recommended to watch, not when you are thinking of having a kid? Unless you like to upset your stomach, and maybe reconsider? If you like this also recommend, Die My Love, Nightbitch, and Thelma & Louise.

Megadoc — Streaming on the Criterion Channel and available to rend on Amazon & Apple for $5.99

What is legacy?

Trust me, you don’t have to have seen Megalopolis to enjoy Megadoc.

IMDB log line: A behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis

Why watch it: If you’re interested in why Great Men think that they are great. If you are interested in how the sausage gets made and how a flop really happens. I’ve always wondered, especially with big-budget disasters.. Do they know it won’t work? If you love Aubrey Plaza and you get to see her in her natural habitat. If you want to know why Type A people exist, and why a good AD is imperative. This movie is an endlessly fascinating one to me because Coppola explains in the first scene of the movie his greatest fear.. And his greatest fear is actualized in the making of this movie. The documentary is made by Mike Figgis, who knows what he’s doin,g and he almost can’t believe what he is witnessing in real time. This movie has both second-hand embarrassment, but you also have real sympathy for Coppola. It’s just fascinating if you care about the making of movies.

Recommend for the film buff in your life or the person who is very deep on film twitter.

Lurker — Streaming on MUBI and available to rent on Amazon or Apple for $5.99

All About Eve for Influencers.

IMDB log line: A retail employee infiltrates the inner circle of an artist on the verge of stardom. As he gets closer to the budding music star, access and proximity become a matter of life and death.

Why you should watch: If you want to see actors before they blow up in a huge way, I would recommend this movie. It felt like watching Red Rooms last year, where you saw an actor that I will now be obsessed with going forward. This movie felt very sure of itself, propulsive, almost like a cat that you just can’t get your hands on. I am excited to see where these actors and this director go moving forward.

Recommended for your friend that is really into the indie music scene, likes Frank Ocean but also loved old movies. Movies to watch if you like, Red Rooms (2024), All About Eve, Pearl, A Differerent Man.

I will be doing my top 5 books of the year and my top 10 films of the year before year end!

That’s all for now,

EmTV

One thing I learned about myself as a moviegoer this month is how my mood going into movies entirely determines what I think of films. For example, I can’t stand when people walk in after a movie has started, and when I went to see It Was Just an Accident, the person next to me walked in 15 minutes after the movie started, and it put me in a terrible mood. When I went to see Bugonia, not only did the person next to me take off his shoes.. He took off his socks as well, so I had to see his toes in my periphery the entire movie. All this to say, the act of going to the movies is something I cherish.. I love to feel the excitement and anticipation of a movie.. Feel my fellow movie goers erupt in laughter or hear a cacophony of sniffles as the credits roll.. But sometimes people ruin it for others. Don’t be like those people.

October was a month of highly anticipated movies that let you down. A lot of awards hopefuls bit the dust. But, something that is circles over and over in my criticism of this month's movies is, does the story of the movie justify itself?

It was also a month of movies that wrestle with the question of justice. Do we deserve what is coming our way? Do we deserve the harm we experience? Are we responsible for the bad things that happen to us? Can justice ever be served when someone is dead.. Did we bring this upon ourselves?

A House of Dynamite (2025)

When you are giving me the same events from 3 different perspectives, you need to justify that. It’s a difficult framework to make compelling because you lose any chance for anticipation or surprise, and I don’t think that A House of Dynamite justified its Rashomon-esque storytelling. It feels like the film tries to have it both ways.

Can we please stop casting British men as American presidents and members of Congress? The accent is just terrible, I’m sorry.

I just don’t know if I’m a huge fan of war-era Kathryn Bigelow.

Smashing Machine (2025)

Why was this a movie?

Maybe this is an interesting experiment with fighting your expectations of a combat sport movie, or maybe there just wasn’t enough there there… but I came out of this movie just wondering why it needed to be made? You’re waiting for the big moral to take away, but it’s just.. He walked away and maybe he had a bitchy ex-wife.

It’s rare to see someone so uniquely equipped for a role like The Rock was for this. He can master the physicality along with the tenderness that feels true of The Rock and Mark Kerr.

I think Benny Safdie is a great visual director. With this and The Curse, I like what he is doing in this time apart from his brother.

I don’t care, however, for his depiction of Dawn as this “crazy bitch wag bringing the great man down” trope that is prevalent ALL through sports movies, but specifically fighting movies. The shrill nagging wife who prevents him from reaching greatness doesn’t feel new, it in fact, feels very old and played out..

Which leads me to Emily Blunt. I know she is a great actress, you can see it in parts of this movie… but yet again, the angry “bitchy” wife is the role she has chosen. I want more for her. I know it’s in there, but this sadly was not it. The whole time her character felt like a caricature to me instead of an actual person… and I would venture to guess that’s because Benny only talked to Mark.

An incredible use of My Way

It Was Just An Accident (2025)

Not for me.

Maybe the tone didn’t hit right for me, maybe it was my attitude going into the movie, maybe it was the final scene, which I felt as though the director thought he was COOKING, and I felt like I had seen this before. I’m not exactly sure why it is getting so much awards buzz, but I am open to being convinced otherwise. The movie felt like it was 8 hours long.

Good Fortune (2025)

You almost had us back, Aziz.

The entire thesis of this movie is negated by what Aziz did by performing at the Riyadh comedy festival. It’s a shame because the movie is okay.

Some positives: Keanu’s weird charm is perfectly deployed. We get a great use of late-stage Rogen. We clearly get what Rogen’s beliefs are in this movie and the TV shows he has been making recently: fuck AI, film in LA, and fuck corporations. Let’s use Keke more, Hollywood!

A taste of the best parts of Good Fortune

Roofman (2025)

One of the most enjoyable watches of the year.

This movie feels like something that would have gotten nominated for Best Picture in 2009. It is technically sound, and might be the best thing that Channing Tatum has done since She’s the Man. It taps into his dumb charm as well as his physicality and ownership of his body. He feels like a gentle giant who means well. Kirsten Dunst feels like she is playing a real person, with her sweetness with an edge. Someone that I would have known back home in Virginia, maybe a teacher that I really loved.

The plot is fun, even if you know there is only really one way it could go. I would recommend this movie to literally anyone, and let’s put Channing in more movies like this!

Honestly watched the movie because of this trailer and its use of Running Down a Dream

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (2025)

Uncut Gems of Motherhood.

If you wanted birth control in a movie, you got it. I describe it as the Uncut Gems of motherhood because you are watching her make choices that she knows are bad, but she can’t help as the worst week of her life unfolds. She tries to get her daughter with special needs to gain weight, while they are staying in a motel because their ceiling has a hole in it, and her patient goes missing during a therapy session. Did I miss anything?

Almost every shot is a tight shot of Rose Byrne, where she bears the weight of everything happening to her. Is she meant to be a mother? Is she meant to be a wife? Is she meant to be anything to anyone? This movie is tapping into a recent trend of movies written by women wrestling with the burden of motherhood and the regrets of that. Which, I imagine, makes a lot of women out there feel less alone with scary feelings. The burden of co-parenting with heterosexual men who either refuse to help or can’t understand how to help. It is almost cathartic to watch at times to see someone be angry. To ask the question, “What if this is all my fault?”

I couldn’t help but think that this movie reminded me a lot of a book I had to read in high school, The Awakening. When I read that, I didn’t understand why she would walk into the ocean. Now, I think.. Good for her.

Did I mention that they capture Conan O’Brien’s raw sexual energy in the movie?

The Perfect Neighbor (2025)

Documentary perfection in forced perspective.

I normally don’t fire up documentaries in my free time, unless they are something that I have been highly recommended. The market has become incredibly oversaturated, especially in the true crime genre. The Perfect Neighbor is the exception. Filmed entirely with body camera footage from an escalating situation between neighbors in Florida. You see the deterioration into madness of an older woman who fears her neighbors for no reason but racism, most likely fueled by loneliness and the media she is consuming. You lack an explanation as to why she stayed, why she became so crazy due to the forced perspective of the body cam footage. You are left with questions just like the family of Ajike Owens. This documentary leaves you wondering how this could have been stopped. We are left with the feeling that our country is just truly doomed by the laws we have regarding gun rights. You are left with broken children without a mother, and sadly, it’s just another day.

I hope this movie gets an Oscar nomination for best documentary as well as best editing

Bugonia (2025)

More doom and gloom but with the gloss of a Yorgos Lanthimos film.

This is definitely the best film I watched in a relatively weak October. I went into this movie having seen the trailer probably a million times, so I came in hoping that the twist wasn’t that she actually was an alien. Ye of little faith, Emily. Emma Stone and Yorgos united for suspenseful perfection keeping you guessing scene to scene until there is almost a release when she walks into that closet. Emma Stone is the most daring actress of her generation, bringing her unique physicality to daring roles.

Plemmons was a powerful loser, harnessing something I don’t think that I have seen in him since Todd in Breaking Bad. His elusive and fligthy nature lends itself to a difficult role here. To understand both how he got here, but to maybe empathize with him because he was screwed by a system that screws millions of Americans every day.

What is this film trying to tell us about us? That we are too far gone to be saved? That even if we knew all the answers to our universe, we wouldn’t know what to do when we got them? Maybe. Maybe we deserve it in the end.

Emma capturing the inherent evil nature in corporations.

November is already off to a great start. I have seen three movies that I hope are in the awards conversation, but I only think that one will. I’m looking forward to The Running Man, Wicked: For Good, and Frankenstein. I feel like next month's movies will wrestle with perception vs. reality.

Until December,

EmTV out

Welcome to my blog for September. I’ll be recapping the second half of my viewing this month.

I have found myself in a lot of media surrounded by grief. I have almost been overwhelmed by it. Each movie has taught me a little more about the ghosts of grief, the great casms that will grow and haunt those who live on. What is your duty to carry on the legacy of a friend? When does it go to far? What to do you take from your parents? What do you leave behind? What do you try to leave behind but you just can’t shake?

Maybe I’m grieving the loss of a giant in the film industry, Robert Redford. Maybe my intuition is preparing me for a loss. I don’t know but I find that movies can help you prepare and sympathize with situations that you have never felt before, but you might one day.

BOOGIE NIGHTS (1997)

I feel this movie is spiritually connected to Almost Famous “I always tell the girls never take it seriously, if you never take it seriously you never get hurt, if you never get hurt you always have fun, and if you ever get lonely just go to the record store and visit your friends.”

I dove into a lot of Paul Thomas Anderson this month, and as I worked through his filmography, you see him reckoning with those same themes and growing up with his work. You see in Boogie Nights, Dirk Diggler grieving the loss of his family and finding a new, albeit dysfunctional, family and calling. Diggler’s story can be similar to that of the prodigal son who leaves home not once but twice to “squander his inheritance”, and we all know what Diggler’s inheritance is right… wink wink.. Only to get himself into trouble at the hands of a coked-out Alfred Molina character and come home to his father’s who greets him with open arms. Boogie Nights feels mythic, like a fable of some sort, where things happen as they probably wouldn’t in life and the morality of the movie is tricky. Maybe there isn’t a morality at the center and that everything is random? Like why does Buck Swope survive the encounter at the doughnut shop? We don’t know but he gets the money and moves on with his life. Amber Waves grieves through the entire movie the lost custody of her son but we also understand the point of view of the child’s father that maybe this isn’t the world a child should grow up in. This movie was incredibly fascinating and a magnificent sophomore film for Anderson.

PHANTOM THREAD (2017)

Two people have never matched each other’s freaks more..

In my PTA prep, I went through Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love, and finally came to Phantom Thread. The only PTA set entirely outside of the state of California. A movie that is equal parts cozy and sickening, not unlike what the characters work through within the movie. This movie brings you in close, but then shows you the toxicity that exists among geniuses. The need for push and pull is actually what creates great art. Toxicity can often times push people to the brink of what they are capable of, and Reynolds and Alma certainly do that for each other. While Cyril sits on the sideline,s but is the head coach of this organization, to use football terms. “Kiss me before I’m sick”.. What a nasty little line. In co-dependent relationships, especially anxious ones.. You want this person all to yourself. You also think of the times when you have grown close to your friends or family members, it has been when they have brought you back to health. I can not recommend Phantom Thread more highly, and I can’t wait to watch it again over the holidays.

MEGADOC (2025)

I stand by the fact that we can all have fun if we have a plan.

Let me bring you back to the topic of grief.. This movie is filled with it. In the course of making the movie, his wife passes away, and there is a beautiful scene with her in the film. Francis grieves his great masterpiece. There is grief for a genius lost with age. There is so much to think about and feel with the movie. I felt myself in the hour after the movie was overcome with sadness, but I also wanted to tell everyone that I know to watch it. It’s funny, and sad and at most times hard to watch but impossible to look away from. You see glimpses into a really terrific actor like Adam Driver trying to find a rooted performance, and then you see Shia LaBeouf try to do the same but is grasping at straws. Aubrey Plaza is being her charming, flirty, and weird self while the weirdest person in the movie is by far John Voit. You can tell that this set was a powder keg about to explode, and you can see every match being lit in this movie. I pray for the AD on this movie. I also grieve what could have been for a man who created great works of art.

I will say.. Only men get to be this unprepared for their job.

Just a taste of the dysfuntion

ELEANOR THE GREAT (2025)

They were girls together!

This is where the true water works come out. Eleanor the Great is Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut, and it stars June Squibb as an elderly Jewish woman moving back to Manhattan after her friend and, really, her life partner, passes away. When she moves to Manhattan, she goes to the JCC, where she is pulled into a meeting which she doesn’t realize until too late, is for survivors of the holocaust. When in the meeting she starts to share the story of her friend and her friends brother who died as a result of the holocaust, and as a result of the story becomes close to a young half jewish woman who has the aspiration of being a journalist and featuring Eleanor’s story. The plot may seem a little convoluted, and the writing clunky at times.. But Erin Kellyman, who plays the young woman does such a great job and subtlety in her performance. You fall in love with her and June Squibb in their easy warmth and chemistry. The beauty of intergenerational friendships to both keep you young and provide wisdom. I caught myself tearing up at the idea of telling your friends' story that they couldn’t tell themselves. Also of, Eleanor coming into herself as an independent Jewish woman and how faith connects her to her womanhood and to her place in the order of things as she has a bat mitzvah. It reminds me of a movie that came out last year, Between the Temples, which I didn’t connect to as clearly but I can relate to the place of a woman in religious circles, and what it means to take ownership of your faith.

This movie has a lot of sweet moments, but overall doesn’t capture June Squibb’s humor like last year’s Thelma did. I will always watch a movie with Squibb in it. She reminds me so much of my own grandmother in her wit and how she holds herself. It helps me hold onto my grandma.

Just a sample of June’s wit

One Battle After Another (2025)

Life, man.. LIFE!

Man, what a pleasure it is to live at the same time as this movie. This movie speaks to our current moment so clearly. This and Eddington are siblings, one is political and one is about politics. I want to dive into this movie and grief. Perfidia Beverly Hills sits like a ghost over this entire movie, though we never know what the real ending of her story is. Every character is where they are because of who Perfidia is and what she did to them. Do you grieve in anger and hatred (Colonel Lockjaw)? Do you grieve in resignation and dissassociation (Bob)? Or do you grieve with care and defiance (Willa)? Do you try to maintain their legacy (Deandra)? Throughout life, you go up and down and through cycles with grief, almost like the River of Hills sequence in this movie. Ultimately, Willa chooses to live and to continue her lineage of revolutionaries. She takes who her mother is, and what she gave her, to keep marching on in a battle she may never see the results of. It is truly one battle after another, one struggle after another, one death after another, but we choose to continue to live.

One more thing to say. I love this movie’s conversation with white revolutionaries in mostly battle of black and brown people. Bob is a distraction, comrade Josh is a hindrance, Sensei and Tallyrand get it.. Perfidia’s maternal figures get it because it is in their blood to be revolutionaries. White people may out on the trappings, may write the thesis, but at the end of the day, white people in revolutionary settings often are the distractions or the perpetrator,s and we are best to learn and sit back and ask how we are helpful. If you want a real life example of that, look at the Exra Klein and Ta-Nehisi Coates interview..

Anyway, off my soapbox. This movie is incredible and masterful and I can’t wait to see it 5 more times.

One more recommendation I have is a book and not a movie (yet). Hamnet.. It will be a movie coming out later this year with Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal on the mostly true story of William Shakespeare’s wife and the loss of his child. The grief in this book is palpable and the depth of feeling moves you. Read it before it challenges One Battle After Another for Best Picture.

That’s it for September.. October will be an exciting month for movie and for sports. I can’t wait to share more.

Peace,

EmTv out

Hi,

I hope that anyone reading this has been taking care of themselves this week. In times when I have felt the most paralyzed by fear or sadness, I look to movies for catharsis. I watch a sad movie to give myself a reason to cry. I return to a familiar story or a basic story so that maybe the good guys will win this time. I found myself desiring to sit back instead of lean forward in my viewing this past week, but I also encourage people to let themselves feel emotions in the safety of a story. As one red-headed pinstriped lady likes to say.. We come to this place for magic. I come to this place to feel deeply and to allow myself the vulnerability to let it out. I know that’s not why everyone goes to the movies.. But it helps me, and it has helped me this week.

That being said, let’s dive into this week’s movies.

The Circle (2017)

This movie feels so old it’s scary that it’s only 8 years old.

I truly beg directors to let Emma Watson just have a British accent. American accents take up every inch of space in her speaking, and it’s really hard to watch at times. However, let’s get to the movie. This is a movie based on a book with a lot of ideas. Yet this movie is incredibly forgettable, and maybe it’s because Emma Watson is basically sleepwalking through it, or its build doesn’t really build to anything. It comes to “surveillance is bad.. Kind of”. I feel like it could have been a much better movie if it leaned into the world in which Patton Oswalt’s character was inhabiting. It just feels like this movie wanted to be both optimistic and pessimistic and hit neither with a bullseye. A remarkably forgettable movie. 4/10

Watch Tom Hanks do his best Tim Cook impression

Ma (2019)

Don’t make me watch Tubi alone!

Finally watched the cult classic when I was on a Tubi binge. I think movies can only have this much meme-able relevancy and rewatchability when it’s anchored by good actors with bad direction. Take this movie, where Octavia Spencer gives us vulnerability, malice, humor.. But she feels like she’s in a different movie and I just call that bad direction. It reminds me of Madame Web, which has good actors in it, they are all just in different movies and edited together so poorly. I don’t blame good actors for poor movies or performances. (^about Emma Watson above, I don’t find her to be a particularly good actress).

I get the hype, I get the memes… and don’t let me drink alone at the sequel! (4.5/10)

I cackled at this

Iron Man (2008)

This is 100% who Elon thinks he is.

I watched this movie because of the Big Picture podcast series on Bush era movies, and I don’t think I had watched in maybe 15 years. I do remember watching it when it came out with my dad, and it was cool as shit then and it’s cool as shit now. The needle drops, the story, even the CGI really works. I think what I like about this movie and what I dislike that Marvel went away from, is that this movie feels like it’s shot in the real world. It’s not all green screen going through galaxies. In this movie Iron Man is in a world that exists to you and me and so it feels more tangible and the story more down to earth. This movie pulled some punches directed towards the American military complex, but not so much that it doesnt’ have some teeth. It’s a clear Cheny allegory for the evil character, which at the end of the day every Bush era movie is about Cheny. 7.5/10

Caught Stealing (2025)

Barry meets New York in the 90s.

Austin Butler’s series of unfortunate events. This movie felt really fun and full of energy. I think that Butler can hold center stage as a leading man pretty well, especially his running acting. The energy between Zoe Kravitz and Austin Butler is really palpable in an era where there are so many movies where the romantic leads have 0 chemistry. The cameos work for the movie and ti was much funnier than I thought it was going to be going into it. I do think that the big twist feels a little forced, because I felt as though we knew the stakes of the movie without what happened to Zoe’s character.

This felt like a B movie that is covered on the rewatchables almost every week, that, when we look back at the totality of Butler’s career it may be one of the more rewatchable movies. Finally, just to reiterate, it’s crazy that people just walk around on this earth looking like Austin Butler and Zoe Kravitz. 7.5/10

Breaking down Austin Butler’s amazing running scenes

Nightcrawler (2014)

Work-life balance’s #1 enemy.

After watching this movie, it is actually insane that Jake Gyllenhaal wasn’t even nominated, let alone win an Oscar for this performance. The reason this is such an incredible performance is because of his engaged physicality and line reading. I’m sure if you looked at the script of this movie, which was nominated, the lines on the page don’t jump off as crazy but when he embodies them, it is the creepiest thing ever said. This movie is so gripping from the jump because you just think, Who is this guy, but you also probably know exactly who this guy is. This guy doesn’t strike me as what in modern times we would call an incel; he just has this insatiable lust to climb the corporate ladder. He almost wants to operate too much within the confines of the corporation. The parasite of the corporation comes for us all and drains us of our humanity.

It’s also the most LA movie that I have watched in a while. Although the movie is 11 years old, it’s the LA that I know and have a love/hate relationship with. Shout out to Casita Del Campo! 9/10

Do you think he channeled his friend Heath for this scene?

Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)

We can be heroes for ever and ever

What d’you say?

This was my first time watching, I know.. Shocking.

Let’s talk about the best scene in the movie. I love it when filmmakers make movies about and set in their hometown, because they see it with so much beauty, life, and fullness while also capturing the bleak nature of it all and why they had to leave. I think of this movie and of Lady Bird, the final scene where she asks her mom how she felt when she first drove in Sacramento. Only creatives with so much love for their city can make a scene like that and the “We are infinite” scene in Perks of Being a Wallflower. Both capture the first feeling of freedom you have, but also the memory that will make you the most home sick you have ever felt. You can feel the love just pouring through this movie like it poured through the book.

Logan Lerman was incredibly sweet and vulnerable. Casting Melanie Lynskey as Aunt Helen is perfect and this is one of Emma Watson’s better performances.

As a depressed and deeply emotional teen I knew this movie would hit me I just needed to wait for the right time. I so deeply resonate with the feeling of being loved by these people that feel so free when you feel so constrained and when that is taken away from you it’s hard to process. This project feels so incredibly special. There’s hardly more that I can say about it, except thank you to Stephen Chbosky. 9/10

The Long Walk (2025)

Ideology is easy to hold and difficult to practice. Vengeance isn’t good enough.

[warning this is an incredibly violent movie] Without getting into recent events, this movie is incredibly poignant. Specifically, the final scene. When the book was written, it was an allegory for the war in Vietnam, boys volunteering or being drafted to go somewhere where most won’t return. The movie abides by this sentiment; if you put a green screen up and had them do the same scenes but with the background in a jungle, it would be a Vietnam movie. This adaptation is from the same studio and director that brought us the Hunger Games movies. The Long Walk confronts us with visceral scenes of violence; it doesn’t look away like it might have if this were another Hunger Games movie, it confronts us with how desensitized we have become.

The Long Walk attacks the idea that in order to “become a man,” you have to go through something. The Commander welcomes them to being men before they engage in a torturous competition. Each boy is a different form of boyhood-manhood. They ball bust until it’s too real, they troll each other to the point of deal, but there is also the camaraderie formed between men that is genuinely so foreign to me. Not to be this person, but to quote Hamilton, “I wish there was a war so we can prove that we are worth more than anyone bargained for”. That war makes a man feels like a terrible contract to have to sign. What was waiting for the boys returning from Vietnam was not glory, but trauma, and they were left to do the long walk alone..

The acting in this movie is just incredible by the two male leads, Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson. Jonsson does so much with his physicality and his eyes. You can read his gentleness and vulnerability, which make one a true man. In the final scene with the rain coming down on him, he is a movie star. Watching Cooper Hoffman, I couldn’t help but cry knowing his own relationship to his father in real life. His father may have been the greatest actor of his generation, and died young, presumably leaving Cooper to search for meaning. In the movie, Hoffman’s character is talking about his dad’s death and justifying him as a hero when Jonsson’s character just interjects with “He left you!”.. And I couldn’t keep it together after that. You can feel Hoffman bringing his real-life experience into the character of Garaty as someone with a lot to live up to and so much to want to prove. Just another layer that would make this an emotional scene to film, was that Hunger Games: Catching Fire was Philip Seymour Hoffman’s final film and it was directed by Francis Lawrence, the director of this film. You could imagine that Francis Lawrence was also seeing his father come through in this movie.

I also want to shout out Joshua Odjick, who played Collie Parker, and to include that the indigenous character was the one who was the most homesick, which highlights more of the point of view of the creatives on this project, that America did this all to them and America robbed so many indigenous people of their true homeland, and they will always be homesick.

This movie is like the brother movie to Hunger Games. Where in Hunger Games we see violence enacted on our most innocent, while in The Long Walk, we see violence enacted on our mostly innocent volunteers. It begs the question whether we can live by our ideology and if vengeance isn’t enough. 9/10

Here you can hear Cooper Hoffman talking about living up to his dad’s legacy

With that, I hope you are taking care of yourself, and I can’t wait for the rest of the month with the movie HIM and One Battle After Another.

EmTv Out!

I am starting this blog entry with something that has been on my mind a lot lately — a memory that keeps popping up for me right before I go to bed. I’m 5 years old and I’m so fired up leaving the Marquee theater at Southpoint Plaza in Spotsylvania, Virginia, where I just saw evil vanquished by love and family in the classic film, Spy Kids. It’s the first movie I remember watching as a kid, and I looked up at my dad as we walked out of the theater complex, which sat up on a hill overlooking shopping centers and I-95, and he asked me what my favorite part of the movie was. This memory is so sweet to me, and I don’t think I ever get tired of that feeling, the glee that you have when you are thrust into the “real world” after the immersion of seeing a movie on the big screen. I can still smell the popcorn and can picture the carpets in their early 2000s glory. I’ve just been feeling really nostalgic lately, and I never want to forget that time with my dad. Movie theaters are important, and sharing movies with the people you love is important.

Anyway, let’s get back to our regularly scheduled programming. This past week or so, I have sampled a variety of films, some as old as 70 to as young as 1 day old. Maybe the reason why I am so nostalgic is because of one very nostalgic play in this list.. Here we go

The Roses (2025) — theater

This is an incredibly British movie. Which means that it left me feeling a little bland.

So there were three different movies in one movie, right? You could see the seams of this movie in ways that were not very flattering. For example, Kate McKinnon’s character feels like it has no balance in reality; it’s trying to be Melissa McCarthy from Bridesmaids, but ends up more like if you put that character through AI. The producers clearly were only able to get Allison Janey for a couple of hours of filming, and they put it all in the trailer. They picked up and dropped storylines as they pleased. They make these Northern California liberal parents shoot guns for some reason? Wait, I know the reason, they just wanted a Chekov’s gun for Chekov’s gun’s sake.. To make them seem funnier than they are. They have the kids act like no kids have ever acted before, with their aged-up selves looking nothing like their younger selves. It just felt like a movie that had A LOT cut out of it, then sloppily put back together.

I do think that Olivia Coleman is perfect for a role like this; her cold demeanor, dry humor and sweet vulnerability combine to make this character feel very alive. However, I feel like the movie could have benefited from a female perspective because it tipped the scales way too far into Cumberbatch’s camp and he just seethes evil to me. 3/10

Do yourself a favor and watch the 1989 trailer

Freakier Friday (2025) — theaters

If you love Lindsey Lohan movies and Chappell Roan.. boy do I have a movie for you!

Seriously, I hope Chappell is making bank off of this movie. Freakier Friday does an incredible job at the very difficult job of a “lega-sequel” (a sequel made 10+ years after the original as a sort of nostalgia play). On the spectrum of Top Gun: Maverick to Hocus Pocus I think it’s much closer to Maverick. I think the biggest sign that a lega-sequel might work is that revisiting the material brings fresh ideas, that there is actually a reason to update the conversation that the original began. We all know that Freaky Friday (2003) was itself a lega-sequel.. So this story of “walk a mile in your mother’s shoes” can really be revisited with every generation. Freakier Friday felt as though it was written by someone who loved the 2003 movie as much as I did, which SPOILER was a lot. I would wear out my family’s desktop computer watching it in privacy and chewing gum to make myself feel cooler.. I know I was lame.

The jokes were funny and targeted relatively harmlessly at every demographic watching the movie. They paid homage not only to the 2003 Freaky Friday, but to other Lohan classics, Mean Girls (her wedding is October 3rd and there is some blocking in scenes that directly reference the movie), Parent Trap (there is an extra special cameo in the photoshoot scene), and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (basically anything having to do with fashion in the movie and a food fight). I think Lohan had her comedic timing down, and that Jamie Lee Curtis could nail her physical comedy and emotionally grounded scenes. And who doesn’t want Chad Michael Murray back in their life? Pink Slip 4ever!

Sue me if I had a fantastic time at the movies watching this?! And if you only wanted to see it because of the marketing video Jamie Lee Curtis posted.. welcome. 8/10

Why wasn’t I here for this?

Chop Shop (2007) — Criterion Channel

Hope is the most dangerous and intoxicating drug there is

Chope Shop follows the story of Ale and Isamar, siblings living in poverty in Queens in 2007. Ale works with the Chop Shop, while Isamar works on a food truck and is a sex worker. It’s not hard to draw comparisons from this movie to Sean Baker’s The Florida Project and The Pursuit of Happyness which came out at around that time. I am a sucker for a movie led by a great child actor playing a precocious child making the best of their situation. Florida Project and Beasts of the Southern Wild are two of my favorite films. This movie really highlights what is going on just beyond the borders of our privilege, the hard work and struggle of many, SAY IT WITH ME (!) IMMIGRANTS that allow this country to run. That person actually believes in what this country says that it provides, freedom. Freedom for Ale is his own room, a fan, and a bathroom that only him and Isamar have to share. This movie is simultaneously bleak and hopeful, somber and energetic.. Just like the city it takes place in.

I know need to go and watch Man Push Cart the first feature from this director. Safe to say I am impressed with his work. 8.5/10

Here’s the director giving background for the movie

Lurker (2025) — theater

All About Eve meets Red Rooms. A multi-hyphenate nightmare.

Am I comparing it to All About Eve because I saw that for the first time this week? Maybe. However, Lurker bizarrely captures this ephemeral state of fame and parasocial attachment that has grown exponentially in the past decade. Lurker balances humor with well-paced writing with killer vision from its director and actors. Russell knows who Matthew’s are in this world and how they are both leeches on talented people and necessary for mystique and world-building. It feels like watching Atlanta or a Jordan Peele movie, where you know so much thought was put into every shot.

Théodore Pellerin gave a truly incredible performance as Matthew. His gangly, sharp, and unmistakable looks add to this feeling that there is something off about him; his clothes don’t fit his frame. There’s something off you can’t quite place until it’s too late. At the top of this review, I drew the comparison to Red Rooms from 2024 because it feels like certain shots from Lurker are inspired by the film, and Juliette Gariépy’s haunting and enveloping performance of Kelly-Anne reminds me so much of Matthew. I am mostly drawing the connection from any shot of Matthew looking at a computer. It’s almost like the new age Kubrick stare, your villain staring illuminated by the horrors on their computer screen. Matthew and Kelly-Anne are mirrored stories of obsession and what one does with them. In both movies you the climax is when they release their obsession, they go maniacal with the power they perceive from it.. Kelly-Anne, when she was dragged from he courtroom, and Matthew is getting beaten up on the side of the road.. Maybe it’s a French Canadian thing..

Zach Fox is the chef’s kiss on top of it all. A perfectly comedic and realistic voice for the audience.

Great art requires pushback and conflict. Do our rivals and parasites push us to more? It’s what makes it truly memorable. I’m going to remember this movie when every actor goes on to huge things ,and Alex Russell is the next big thing. 9/10

(and if you readmy letterboxd review.. No you didn’t)

The music is actually perfect tik tok music

All About Eve (1950) — Vidiots screening

Yes, these are the Bette Davis eyes Jojo is singing about. Buckle up.. It’s going to be a bumpy night.

I love that All About Eve eviscerates the Bechdel test.. And in 1950. I loved my screening of the film because people were laughing, clapping when Bette Davis and Marilyn come on screen, and locked in for the duration. It was my first time seeing the film, and you see just how many stories take from this idea. It may be the first parasocial relationship on screen that we have all become much too familiar with in our lives. This story really gets at the core of female rivalry and resentment while also really nailing what it’s like to be close female friends. There is nothing that i can say about this movie that hasn’t been said, but that final shot, the multiplication of beauty into forever, is really something. They were cooking with that one. 10/10

Before I sign off, I wanna say that I am LOVING Platonic on Apple TV+. It’s my new comfort show; the chemistry between Rose Burne and Seth Rogen is so easy to watch.

I am also pumped for Bugonia, as a tried and true Yorgos lover I can’t wait for it! Here’s the trailer

As I said earlier.. I hope Chappell is making bank on her music rights.

See ya next week

EmTV out

This week has been a little light on movies that are in the theater, as August has been light on the quality releases, but I am looking forward to a very busy fall!

This week I got a chance to go to a Q&A for Splitsville, one of the movies that I will review below, but the Q&A was led by none other than Nicholas Braun (Cousin Greg from Succession), and I will tell you now that it was the strangest Q&A I have ever witnessed. The vibes were all over the place. Dakota Johnson was the biggest star there, and her energy was definitely “wine mom”, which concluded with her ~jokingly~ storming off to end the session. It was a time to be had, and I almost didn’t go!

In case you missed it this is the video I took from the Q&A

Alright, well let’s dive in. These are the movies that I watched this week from my least favorite to my most favorite, but I will say there was only one kinda stinker in the week.

SPLITSVILLE — (2025) early screening

Can ethical non-monogamy ever really work? Probably not.

We are not all as evolved as we would like to think that we are. We are possessive and territorial when it comes to relationships, and that dynamic comes across in Splitsville. Often, I don’t feel like this movie was as funny as it thought that it was and I don’t know how better to describe it, but it felt like a movie that was a worse adaptation of a scandinavian movie, not that it was, it just feels like a movie that had a little bit of juice but not enough squeeze. Maybe it could have leaned into more of the dry Dakota Johnson, leaned a little less on her speeches about love or hate or responsibility? I think that this movie works best when it is just lampooning love rather than trying to establish real chemistry.

This movie does feel very personal to the writer/director/actors, but it also feel like you could feel the sacrifices and cuts they had to make. It didn’t feel seamless… And just for Emily’s sake, I wish we had one scene with Adria and Dakota.. Just for me. ANYWAY, 5/10.

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (2004)

What in the world is this movie..

I watched it because the Big Picture is doing a series on early 2000’s Bush era movies.. And they combined The Manchurian Candidate and The 25th Hour as a double feature, and this movie is insane. Meryl Streep at an 11, Denzel really at like a 7, and republicanism at a 13. I literally caught myself laughing out loud when at the election night party, they had a photo of Liev Schreiber’s character and the presidential candidate on Mount Rushmore, like that is something Trump would do with AI in a heartbeat.

This movie is a re-imagining of the 1962 film, which was made in the height of fears of communism. This movie taps into the conspiracy fears of the early 2000’s as well as the fears of globalization leading to corporations' hand in politics. I understand the fear. This movie goes all the way out there.. And my god with the Oedipal complex.. 6/10

25TH HOUR (2002) — Amazon Prime

It all came so close to never happening. This life came so close to never happening.

There are three things that I would like to talk about with this movie it’s the influence of 9/11, the mirror scene, and the final dream sequence. Yes, the underage thing was weird, yes, Phillip Seymour Hoffman is an incredible actor… but those three things are what make the movie truly memorable.

This movie feels like a snapshot, a history book chapter, of New York City in the few months following the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The long opening sequence where the beams are illuminated where the towers once stood, and the conversation between Jacob and Francis with the few of ground zero highlight how the memory of the event was inescapable. In a movie entirely without direct dialogue about the event, it’s always there.

The 5-minute mirror scene is the most incredible monologue I’ve seen in a movie in a long time, but it’s also almost so out of place. The movie is one of restraint; it’s not showing everything, all the characters are holding a lot in and not showing all their cards, so it makes sense that when Monty is alone, he tells us, the audience, who he really is and what he thinks of New York. It holds all the contradictions of New York; to love it is to truly hate it. That’s why it’s so different than somewhere like LA there is no hate in LA; there is only apathy and indifference. In New York, there is passion both in love and hate, and in this mirror scene, the hate is on full display. An ingenious work of blocking and camera work. I was locked in for the entire 5 minutes.

The final dream sequence is something that I have been trying to wrap my head around because it is a sequence that would work really well in the cultural themes of the past 5 years. We as a creative consciousness, have become obsessed with multiversal storytelling, from Marvel movies to comedy shows to Oscar winners, we are fascinated by the idea that there is a timeline out there where things went right. I think this specifically blew up more post-COVID, almost like a cataclysmic event that knocked us from the timeline that we are supposed to be on. So when we see what COULD have happened if he ran for it, one of the three options highlighted earlier in the film, you get to live for 5 minutes with the idea of that timeline before being washed over in the reality of what is actually happening to you. 6.5/10

DONNIE DARKO (2001)

I hope that when the world comes to an end, I can breathe a sigh of relief, because there will be so much to look forward to.

Woah, baby is this movie dark, no pun intended. I really enjoy dark high school movies as much as I love the upbeat and lighter-hearted ones because I feel like the highs and lows of high school allow for both to be very true experiences. The euphoria (again no pun intended) and the ennui that you ride for those 4 years deserves exploration.

I’m not going to become a Donnie Darko reddit thread girlie but I definitely came away from the movie with a lot more questions, but that is the sign of a great movie.. It lives outside of the theater walls. Was he schizophrenic? Was this all real? Can we actually control our fates? Did he die in the beginning and the rest was a dream?

Donnie Darko had plenty of all star cameos of early 2000s young actors and that’s enough to get you to go and see it. I will definitely be revisiting. 7/10

HIGHEST 2 LOWEST (2025) — Theater

Oh, what a beautiful day!

Spike Lee’s reinterpretation of Kurasawa’s High and Low modernizes and Americanizes the classic story. Opening with “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’’” from Oklahoma! And closing with a performance of the song Highest 2 Lowest, it shows how much can change in the course of one day. Side note: I need Spike Lee to do a musical because I think he would knock it out of the park.

H2L has a slow build, which I think in High and Low, that slow build in the beginning before it both sons are returned is some of the best stuff from Kurasawa, the blocking, dialogue, and small changes are my favorite part of that film to me.. I think the final two-thirds of the story are why Spike wanted to engage with this story. The train sequence to the Puerto Rican parade to the police chase was truly riveting cinema, and you can tell Spike was cooking with it. Then the final stakeout and track down to the rap battle with young felon is what Spike wanted to build to. I think that the bag exchange sequence is worth the price of admission.

I think specifically to take this story of moral “what ifs” and take it from Japanese culture, built on respect, shame, honor, humiliation, and silence and bring it to black American culture beautifully alters the story. King has built his empire with music, and his son wants to build his through basketball and music to become a mogul. There is also real fear that the wealth King has built for himself may truly be gone if he doesn’t fix this himself. There is color and flash for the wealth, there is confidence and bravado that Denzel brings to the character of King that is not there in High and Low. Denzel has this unique quality as an actor to be commanding and tender, to be scary and vulnerable, and you see that in the final third of the movie when he realizes that he was always going to lose the record label.

I think that Spike was having a lot of fun with this movie, lots of great “blink and you’ll miss them” jokes. It starts slow but builds in energy throughout the movie. I was a little bummed that they didn’t recreate the club scene from High and Low, but overall satisfied with this adaptation. If you have the chance to see it in one of the like 10 theaters that are showing it I highly recommend it, but will still probably be a solid home viewing experience. I also appreciate Spike getting any chance he could to say “fuck Boston”. 7.5/10

HIGH AND LOW (1963) — on HBO Max

See the above movie.. And I think that a good double feature with this would be 12 Angry Men. While they were made 6 years apart they both rely on interpersonal conflict and incredible staging to burn itself into your memory. Both handle moral quandaries. What would you do? This was my first Kurasawa film and obviously, I get the hype. 8/10

Here’s Ayo breaking down High and Low because she’s smarter than me!

WEAPONS — (2025) theater

Weapons is many things, but also nothing at the same time. It attempts to find meaning, just like many parents attempt to find meaning amongst unimaginable grief.

Zach Creggers’ second feature film is a gripping, funny, thrill ride with one of the most cathartic endings I have seen in a while. He gets great performances out of his child actors, mainly Cary Christopher, who gives a similarly haunting performance to that of Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense. Julia Garner is turning into quite the scream queen, with Josh Brolin being the emotional center of the film.

I have seen many people describe Weapons as a “school shooter movie without the shooting,” an entire classroom gone, parents grieving, angry, and searching for answers, and the school having to open up again because students still need to learn. The harsh realities of something that has become far too common in the US, that you can’t always protect your kids from dangers unknown or weapons.

Zach Cregger may have Mommy issues.. I would like to explore the fascination with the body horror of elderly women. This article from The Atlantic explored this movie’s theme of the terror of a single woman. Nothing is as scary as an unmarried woman; she must be a witch, or responsible for the horrors affecting this small town.. Especially a single woman in suburbia… she will steal your children and steal your husbands. This is also Cregger’s second feature film, and in both, the main force of evil is elderly women. First, let me say that Amy Madigan’s performance as Gladys was incredible.. really stupendous work. But in Creggers’ films elderly women are seen in grotesque, decrepit, aging bodies that they try to hide from the world or seduce others into. To Cregger, is there nothing scarier than an aging woman? We see the villification of elderly women in other recent horror movies, such as X, The Substance, and Longlegs (in a separate sense but really quite similar to the Gladys character here). Living in Los Angeles it’s easy to see aging vilified, my friends getting Botox at 30, lip filler, face lifts, hair transplants, the scariest thing, at least here in LA, is to look old. Granted, I know that I am stretching this about a CLEARLY evil witch in Gladys.. But I believe that there is always some meaning to what horror directors and writers want you to fear.

I understand that Pedro Pascal, Renete Renseieve, and Brian Tyree Henry were originally cast in the film before scheduling issues, and, opposed to everyone else who is turning into a Pedro hater, I think that it would have been just as good, if not better. I was on the edge of my seat for the entire film, and I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next from Zach Cregger. 8.5/10

Next week I will be seeing the new Coen Brother film Honey, Don’t (side note I’m loving the dueling brother movies we have been getting in recent years with the Coen’s and the Safdie’s). I also am going ot be diving into some Robert Altman movies, Nashville and 3 Women. If you have any suggestions, let me know!

See you next week,

EmTv out

I’m too lazy to calculate the hours that I watched, short summary, too many.

Too Much (2025) — Netflix

I think that this show’s biggest strength is perhaps its biggest mistake.

The ancillary characters around Jessica and Felix are much better hangs than the main characters themselves. There is so much color to the supporting cast that I really felt a lack of balance and that I truly got tired, frustrated, and frankly a little bored with Felix and Jessica. I would have much rather the show “too much” each episode basically follow how each character feels as though they are “too much” for the characters around them. It really hurt the show in the final episode when I, a day 1 Girls stan, craved more of the Jameson (Andrew Rannells) and Nora (Dunham) dynamic. Perhaps that is from a biased opinion loving those too performers, but I really don’t think that the casting did Meg Stalter any favors putting her alongside three incredible performers in her family (Pearlman, Wilson, and Dunham).

I truly wish that the show leaned more into Stalter’s strengths, like the show Hacks does. It felt like even in her comedic moments, she is holding something back, while in her serious moment, if feels like she’s always about to break. I think there is more in Meg to be great but this was quite a big leap that I don’t think she was ready for. I believe that show could have helped that along with more robust storylines for the supporting cast.

I will say, the strongest episode of the season is Pink Valentine, where we see how Jessica fell in love with Zev, he was charming and a gentleman, then turned into her biggest bully, making her feel small so that he can feel big. What shines in that episode is Dunham’s writing; she has such a unique way of seeing her relationships in real time and using that pain to make art that most women can relate to… Worth watching the series for that episode alone. And Jack Antonoff if I see you in the streets, it’s on sight! also congrats to the show for actually making Emrata looks unattractive.

I have hopes that season 2 can be more balanced, if there is a season two. I look forward to more comedic roles for Stalter, and PLEASE I need Lena back in front of the camera because her lip quiver in the finale truly got me. 6/10

Fantastic Four (2025) — In theaters

Was it terrible? No. Was it great? No. Has Pedro Pascal been severely miscast.. Maybe.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Pedro but this version of Mr. Fantastic has 0 charisma and Pedro Pascal has this unlimited charisma in real life! You see it oozing off of him in any press tour and people love to work with him. However, this summer he was cast in Materialists and in Fantastic Four where his characters don’t really have as much to do. They are blank slates for their more interesting female counterparts. I want to see more out of him and I want him to be in more stories that tap into that.

Otherwise, its marvel, it’s moving a story along. Joe Quinn needs to change out of that fuck ass wig before I rip it off his head and they NEED to work on the CGI with the Thing. Vanessa Kirby was amazing as always! I also loved that Julia Garner got the chance to do her scream. 6/10

Women of Troy (2020) — HBO Max

Boy, women’s sports are fun to enjoy when I don’t have a man breathing down my neck telling me that they aren’t profitable or that they are “unwatchable”.

I’m ashamed I didn’t know about this story before. I would say that basketball is the sport that I have the least history with because I didn’t play it or watch it much as a kid. But the story of early women’s basketball can really move me to tears. The fact that someone like Cheryl Miller, who may have been the best that may have ever played her sport and never got the chance to play at a professional level, is a travesty. That she didn’t get the chance to earn NIL or send anything to her family for the publicity and attention that she and her teammates brought to USC.. but also it doesn’t seem as if she is bitter, she won multiple national titles, a gold medal, and was a coach in the WNBA. It is really something special when the men of these sports unanimously respect a woman that covers their sport like they have for Cheryl.

I wish that this doc went in more on the dynamics between USC and Louisiana Tech as the two best programs at the time, the mostly white, southern, Christian, “modest” Louisiana Tech vs. mostly black, tall, west coast/urban Trojans. It was almost the mirrored dichotomy that we were seeing in the NBA with the Lakers and the Celtics.

Both this documentary and the Billie Jean documentary talk about Title IX, and in a time in our country where it seems as if the current administration doesn’t want to hold up the tenants of title IX I think it’s even more important to actually know what Title IX is about. It’s prohibits sex discrimination in any education program or activity receiving federal funding. It forces institutions that would otherwise see women as second-class citizens as equal members of their educational communities.

This doc had a lot of ideas and storylines to pull at that I wish was fleshed out a little bit more or if it was more narrow at times. I learned a lot, I had this swell of pride to be a woman and to see what these athletes fought for. It reminds me that progress is not a straight line, and often it comes in cycles.. We may be in the next great turning point for the WNBA. 6.5/10

Battle of the Sexes (2017) — rented from the library

This is my first time watching this movie and I feel as though I remembered people bemoaning this movie at the time it was released. Maybe it was because it was Emma’s follow-up ot La La Land, maybe it was a lesser-known event in the American consciousness.. But if you had to ask me it may have had a lot to do with homophobia..

It is a relatively run-of-the-mill biopic, but it does my favorite thing in modern biopics, where it focuses on only a short period of time in the subject’s life. It’s not covering birth to death, but just one year, one album, one big competition.

Emma is great as always, and I really think that Steve Carell captures the NSFW locker room guy that Bobby Riggs seemed to be. I do feel like the best parts of the movie are with Billie Jean and when the movie veers into Riggs’ territory, it really slows down. 7/10

Do yourself a favor and watch the Battle of the Sexes

Billie Jean King: Portrait of a Pioneer (2007) — HBO Max

I watched this after I watched Battle of the Sexes, which was great to give context to what was in the film; you could see the real clips that they pulled to put in the movie or to recreate for the film. It did, however, color the relationship at the center of Battle of the Sexes because her lesbian lover in the movie is portrayed as loving and showing up for Billie when Billie needed her. However, as is shown in this doc in the events after the Battle of the Sexes stunt, the relationship between Billie became hostile, and Marilyn’s palimony suit was the reason that Billie was forced out of the closet.

I admire Billie Jean King’s outlook on life; she didn’t seem to hold many grudges, looked for justice and equality, but also how to work with the people around her. She wasn’t afraid to bring people in and forgive people who may have wronged her. I think that her relationship with her husband, Larry, is one of the most interesting and mature marriages that we may have seen. He is so in love with her, which means loving all of her. You can just tell that Billie Jean has this magnetism that draws everyone towards her, she is so present in her mind and her body. I was listening to a podcast with her and Julia Louis-Dreyfus and King talked about always feeling comfortable in her body.

In the doc they also talk about how she was the first Time Sportswoman of the year and that she is compared to Jackie Robinson in the way in which she broke through several barriers so that others like her could follow in her footsteps. This is a bold comparison but I think an apt one, she broke down barriers not just for women in terms of equal pay, but members of the LGBT+ community in visibility and acceptance. There is still a long way to go in that respect, it seems as though sports are much more accepting of the L in the LGBT+ and there is still a ways to go with the acceptance of active gay athletes and trans athletes, male and female. It is a priviledge that I don’t have to think twice about my ability to play a sport and that I always knew I could play a sport professionally if I had the talent. 7/10

The Swimmer (1968) — Criterion Channel

I love a descent into madness. An American dream destroyed.

If you have never seen this movie or heard of it, it is directed by Sydney Pollack & Frank Perry. The premise is that Ned, played by Burt Lancaster, is visiting some friends at their pool in suburban wealthy Connecticut after some time away. He realizes that he could “swim home” by running between all of his neighbors’ and friends’ swimming pools until he gets home. Along the way he is encountered by his friends and neighbor,s where you get the slow drip of his past come into view. There is the constant reminder that his wife and daughters are at home playing tennis, but he will pass along hellos and well wishes.

Sure, this movie had a problematic age gap infatuation, but that’s not really what it’s about. It’s about a man interacting with the ghosts of pools past and descending through the 9 circles of hell, but in terms of small talk. Along his journey, he is faced with his missteps in life and in the ultimate fate of what really happened to his family. It reminds me a lot of the movie The Surfer that came out this year with Nicholas Cage. In fact, I know that it was highly influenced by the movie because they are both descents into madness because of their failures as a father to protect and provide for their families.

This movie looks great, Burt Lancaster has the goods, and a solid summer movie. If you want the vibes of something like Badlands or Planet of the Apes but need something you could watch after a day at the pool, check out this movie. 7.5/10

The Daytrippers (1996) — rented from the library

Stanley Tucci and Liev Schieber with hair! Parker Posey in her NYC party rat phase! The liminal space between Thanksgiving and Christmas, without it really being about the holidays! What more could you ask for?

I really love that this movie takes its time to introduce you to every character, you understand every dynamic, and you can start to anticipate where the pressure points will be. I love the wispy nature of this era of Parker Posey alongside the “soft boy” energy that Liev Schrieber puts out. It really grasps the confrontational nature you have at this time of year. You are confronted with your parents, their ideals ,and struggles with their own marriage and their relationship to you. You are confronted with the question of identity outside of work and school. You are confronted by ghosts of your past and pitfalls of your future. I love movies set in this time that aren’t actually about the holidays that are being celebrated. Definitely a hidden gem! 7.5/10

The Naked Gun (2025) — in the theaters

Isn’t it fun to laugh? 8/10

See ya in two weeks! EmTV out

I watched 1378 minutes watching movies and tv; 3 movies rented from my local library (make sure you use every part of the library, kiddos!), 3 in the theater, one as part of a festival, and one season on HBO Max (thank god that’s back)

Here are my thoughts on what I watched from my least favorite to my favorite.

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) — first watch

This may be the most 2013 movie to ever exist..

It’s really hard for me to believe that it took me so long to watch this movie, especially because I had “Fare Thee Well” saved on my ipod for 12 years because I was such a huge fan of Mumford & Sons. Ultimately, I came away a little disappointed. I think I have realized that the Coen Brothers and I don’t super mix.. Not my flavor of ice cream.. And that’s fine. I think the meandering nature of this movie failed to hold my attention. Everyone seemed to be a caricature of a real person as opposed to a lived-in performance; I could FEEL the acting. Shout-out to the ‘Girls’ all-stars! 5/10

The Lobster (2015) — first watch

Boy, do Yorgos Lanthimos and I operate on the same wavelength.

Every one of his movies I’m just locked in with whatever batshit crazy premise he throws my way. This movie takes its time to bring you into the sicko world, but it does seem to lose its momentum to me when it leaves the hotel. I realize that the time in the woods is meant to be the emotional folcrum of the movie, but I miss the wackiness of the hotel and more specifically Olivia Colman, John C Reilly, and Ben Whishaw. It’s an interesting commentary on how the world treats single people, especially in a puritanical society, that if you are single, it’s simply because you didn’t try hard enough and you should just turn yourself into an animal because that would be a better fate than living as a single human in the world. This is certainly not my favorite of Yorgos’ movies but I vibe with it. 6.5/10 (take a moment to appreciate Olivia Colman singing)

Superman (2025) — first watch

Hopecore in a movie.

I am not someone drawn to the Superhero genre often, and when I am, it tends to be the ones that are “gritty”. But Superman, he charmed me. I like this Superman to be more MAN than Super at times. It seems like him and Lois have a real relationship, and that it’s potentially on the rocks. The 12 minute scene was a brilliant stroke in character building which really sets this movie apart from other superhero fare.. The stakes are laid and I care about these characters outside of their decades of comic book lore. I think that Nicholas Hoult gives an out there but interesting Luther.. Still a bit confused about what he wants and why he’s doing all of this. Sure, the political message is “be kind.. Being kind actually is punk rock and can save the world” and you know what, leaving the theater I felt that. Maybe the bad guys don’t win. 7/10

Here is James Gunn breaking down the fight between Lois and Clark

The Comeback (season 1 2005)

I’m so shocked it took me so long to watch this show. It is right up my alley, I love Kudrow and I love movies about movies and shows about shows. Its so interesting to me to see 2004 LA frozen in time, because some things have changed, but not everything! Kudrow is hilarious as the self-serious budding reality star. It takes a lot to do this right after friends ended, too! Much like Eddington it takes guts to cover the current moment warts and all. I found myself doubled over laughing with the cupcake scene. I’m going to watch season 2, and I’m excited to see where season 3 goes, a streaming show parody? 7/10

Eddington (2025)

20 years from now, they will show Eddington in history classes to show just how crazy the summer of 2020 was.

If you are having Pedro Pascal fatigue, I need you to take a deep breath and get over yourself… Eddington is the fourth feature from Ari Aster about a mayoral race in a small town in New Mexico, a modern western that could only truly be told in the southwest. The southwest is interesting because it is blue with red small towns, and that just happens to be the powder keg surrounding Eddington. It is also facing the existential crisis of a data facility coming to zap its natural resources and wars of jurisdiction. In a western where men don’t want to be told what to do, who is going to do what they are told? They are told by the state government that they have a mask mandate, but the sheriff won’t enforce it, the Sheriff wants control of the town, but the elected mayor has bigger powers behind him. Eddington is the story of people trying to gain power in a world order that is changing. I think the character that epitomizes that the best is the Austin Butler character, the opportunistic guru who knows that just saying you have a plan and that there is a reason for what is happening to you is worth following after even if it’s a load of garbage. Eddington is about what you pass down, paranoia, environmental disaster, racial prejudice, fear… I do believe that if you are truly offended by this movie.. It may hit you too close to home. If you think Ari Aster is “both-siding” it too much.. Perhaps you see yourself too much in the performative white activists. EVERYTHING in this movie makes sense that it would happen, which is why it’s such a brilliant snapshot of our not-too-distant past. Ari Aster even makes screens compelling! I’m not sure if I will revisit the movie any time soon, but it takes real guts and genius to capture the current moment. Also quite possibly the best use of the song Firework by Katy Perry… 7.5/10

Lincoln (2012) — revisited

I am a history major and huge nerd at heart who grew up in Virginia and so knowing too much about the Civil War as a kid is really ingrained into me. I find that this movie does portray Lincoln as a real person with faults but also as someone carrying this incredible burden. Lincoln didn’t pass this amendment just out of the kindness of his heart; he also knew that it would create a constituency for himself and his party once the country was reunited. I think the line in which he asks the black woman who works for him at the White House “Are your people prepared for what comes after this?” is the question for everyone in the movie, are they prepared for the country that they will have left when they have “saved the union”.. What does freedom look like.. For many, it turned into a different form of indentured servitude, carpetbaggers, and a new form of prejudice. I also think the movie does a great job of showing you that just because states were in the union didn’t mean that they were okay with abolishing slavery, it was not as cut and dry as the elementary history books would like you to believe. Lots of “great men” speeches, great political montages where Lincoln’s aides needed to secure votes. Well cast, buoyed by perhaps Daniel Day-Lewis’ best performance. 8/10 — Let’s hear it for Tommy Lee Jones

Short Cuts (1993) — first watch

This movie is truly what Crash (2006) (Derogatory) thought that it was.

I went to see Short Cuts by Robert Altman as part of the American Cinematheque 70mm festival at the Aero on Saturday. Let me tell ya, the line for the ladies’ room was pretty short for this one. I loved this movie. It truly says something when I came away from a 3+ hour movie and was amazed by how expertly it was edited. The transitions between the stories left me with my jaw on the floor, wanting to applaud with how deft and nimble it was. This movie was incredibly sardonic in its view of the 1990s in LA for white people. At times in the movie, I thought to myself, “I yearn for this time,” while also understanding the tumultuous nature of LA in the 90s. Each actor felt as though they had the permission to go there in Altman’s hands. Specifically, I was struck by Jack Lemmon’s, Tim Robbins’, and Lily Tomlin’s performances. They all seemed to know exactly what movie they were in. I would say my main criticism of the movie would be in the Andie MacDowell storyline.. It just felt like it was a completely different movie ,and I felt myself wanting to leave that storyline any chance I could. I would cut that part of the movie and the jazz singer mom/daughter combo.

Overall, really liked this movie and it was worth the 3 hours and 5 minutes spent at the Aero (one of my least favorite theaters in LA). 8.5/10 — just watch Jack Lemmon cook here.. (viewer discretion)

Sorry, Baby (2025) — watched it twice in the span of a week

An intimate portrait of time slipping away. Trauma robs you of so much: joy, security, friendships, triumphs.. Trauma can cloud all of these things, and did for Agnes in Eva Victor’s debut film.

I have seen Sorry, Baby now twice. In spite of that heavy topic, this may be one of the funniest movies of the year. You find yourself laughing to keep from crying around every turn. I really enjoyed the way that Eva Victor played with form and just showed us these moments from every year that passes, not these cinematic and huge moments, but the moments from Agnes’ life every year that remind her of the bad thing. This movie felt like watching Frances Ha for the first time.. You just fall head over heels with this quirky, funny, but so lovable main character just trying to find themself. Two scenes that perfectly encapsulate the tone of the movie. When Agnes was in the hospital the day after the assault, we have seen this scene before and its usually very somber, and the doctor is caring and attentive but here, it completely matches the tone of the movie, Lydie being fiercely protective with Agnes using comedy as protection while also tapping into the lack of bedside manner so many doctors have when dealing with cases of sexual assault. The other scene is when Agnes is reporting for jury duty, and they fill out the form hilariously trying to show how they identify as nonbinary, and also are confronted with the crime that happened to them and why they might have felt okay with letting it go unreported to the police. There are a million reasons not to pursue legal action in these cases, but that doesn’t mean that a crime didn’t happen to a person.

The last scene is so poignant, life will happen to you, but you just hope you have someone that you can talk with about its ups and downs. 9/10

That’s all for now, I’ll write again next Wednesday, then I’ll be off for a week!

Peace,

EmTv

This week, there were fewer sports, so I spent 1,286 minutes watching 1.5 seasons of television and 6 movies: 2 in the theater, 3 on streaming, and one on a spur-of-the-moment Blu-ray purchase.

I have ranked these from my least favorite to my favorite because I don’t think I watched anything “bad” this week.

Your Friends & Neighbors (2025 episodes 5–9)

*SCROLL PAST IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO AVOID SPOILERS*

DID YOU LEARN NOTHING COOP?! It was so obvious that it was Olivia Munn was involved in the murder, but the show didn’t give us any courtroom action? Coop isn’t charged with leaving a crime scene because he tried to clean it up? Oh, and he goes right back to robbing. I guess it’s setting it up to be more like a Walter White scenario — but at least Walter White was good at being a criminal.. They just left the Elena story out there and didn’t resolve anything with that or her brother. Anything having to do with Coop’s sister, his kids, or Nick the NBA guy, you can miss me with that.. Was this show a fine watch? Yes. Was it pretty to look at? Yes. Will I watch the next season? Yes. Does it deserve to win Emmys? Hell no. But I would count on it getting a nomination for Hamm, Series, and maybe a writing, but I don’t think it’ll win. The best scenes in the entire show are between Hamm and Amanda Peet so more of that, please! 6/10

Days of Thunder (1990)

Top Gun with race cars, can I get a hell yeah?!

I’m in my trying-out-Tom-Cruise era.. I’ve been a hater for a long time.. and I may continue to be one with some exceptions. However, there are a couple things that I want from a sports movie — a good villain, a compelling visual style for the sport, a little to a lot of gay tension.. Days of Thunder delivered on at least two! This movie had no business looking this good. You could inject the “give me some lovin’” montage right into my veins. I don’t need to go through every plot hole in this movie..

At the end of the day, I had a rootin' tootin' good time with it.I do think that Cole Trickel and Rowdy Burns (amazing names by the way) could have been a few points higher on the Kinsey scale. The biggest bone to pick is that there wasn’t a good enough villain.. I needed a Chick Hicks level bad guy. Nicole Kidman’s original face and hair were a welcome surprise. Oh.. and you really expect me to believe a NASCAR driver came from Eagle Rock?! 6.5/10

Bonus: Apparently, there is discussion of a Brad Pitt/Tom Cruise — Top Gun/Days of Thunder sequel?? https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/joseph-kosinski-interview-top-gun-3

Ocean’s Eleven (2001)

Has a movie ever been as effortlessly cool as Ocean’s Eleven?

It may have a predictable formula, tone, and team.. But damn if heist movies don’t suck me in. Ocean’s Eleven is seemingly effortless and sexy while also giving you the tension that heist movies always give you. You have Pitt and Clooney at the apex of their fame, they have Damon on his rise, along with a really incredible supporting cast of all-stars. 7/10

Side note: Why was it Scott Caan and not Ben Affleck alongside Casey Affleck?

Here’s Julia Roberts' entrance just for fun

28 Years Later (2025)

Time Didn’t Heal Everything

If you have never seen the trailer for 28 Years Later.. do yourself a favor

28 Years Later reunites Danny Boyle and Alex Garland to continue their story of a post-apocalyptic England where the rage virus has taken over humanity. In this movie, the virus has been contained to the island of the UK and is patrolled by international naval bodies to ensure that it stays that way. I went into the movie thinking that it would be a lone wolf and cub type story.. An older father figure takes a young and innocent character through the horrors of the world. That was the movie for the first 30 minutes or so, and don’t get me wrong, it was a gripping 30 minutes.. But the third act of this movie is really what is going to stick with me. Once Ralph Fiennes hits the scene, we are in a different and much more emotionally powerful movie. While I do bump up against the emotional and scientific conflict during the scene on the train.. I find the Bone Temple sequence to be breathtakingly poignant.

Thematically, the film grapples with the prevalence of isolationism, when globalism has failed ,tribalism remains. While 28 days later was a commentary of a post 9/11 world in which you may wake up in a different reality than the one that existed when you went to sleep, the total devastation one can feel in an instant.. 28 years later tackles a post brexit world in which britain has done it’s damage and now it’s every many for himself…. While I don’t think I left the movie with the same wow factor that I had when I walked out of 28 Days Later I am locked in for the rest of the movies in this project. 7/10

If you didn’t get the ending of the movie at first, like me.. this is what it is alluding to — http://inverse.com/entertainment/28-years-later-ending-jimmy-savile-the-bone-temple

HOWEVER MANY SPINAL CORDS YOU THINK YOU ARE GONNA SEE… DOUBLE IT…

Another Round (2020)

What if the cure for male loneliness was a drink with the boys, and that drink actually never ended and either ruined or saved your life…

Another Round is a Danish film, and if I know anything from my forays into Scandinavian cinema.. They love to drink.. A lot. This film makes me never want to drink again, you see just how quickly it can change your life and then destroy it. This deeply sad, funny, and challenging film leaves you without really knowing if your main character is going to act in his best interest or not. This final scene is the happiest he is all movie, and it’s after he has started to drink again.. This vicious cycle continues..

Brilliantly acted by Mickelson, great drunk acting throughout, peak mid-life crisis movie. 7.5/10

Bonus: Apparently this is being adapted in English with Chris Rock to direct? I’m intrigued.. https://deadline.com/2024/01/chris-rock-directs-another-round-remake-mads-mikkelsen-appian-way-makeready-fifth-season-1235807800/

Stick It (2006)

Where do I even begin with this movie? The soundtrack? The visuals? The one-liners?

.. This movie is everything to me. It is the first time that I have watched it in YEARS, and I still remember every line. This movie is a perfect teen movie to me, a sassy teen protagonist, a parental figure that just doesn’t get it, just the right amount of horniness (with age appropriate characters don’t worry), and growth. Jessica Berdinger made something kind of stuffy and patriotic, for lack of a better word, into something punk rock. Side bar — Jessica Berdinger gave us Bring it on and Stick I,t and like vanished… what is up with that?

I do think that this movie’s strong suit is its montages — the images matched with the iconic mid-2000s score is what really solidifies it for me in my pantheon of “sleepover movies”. You can debate on who was the cutest person in the movie, or who had the best scene, but at the end of the day, it got at the great teenage conflict, which is to be seen and to be loved.. Especially with this quote from Haley.. “There are things you wish for before big moments. I wish my friends were here. God, I wish my parents were different. I wish there was someone who got what was happening, and could just look at me and tell me that we weren’t crazy. That we weren’t being stupid. Someone to say “I’m proud of you, and I got your back. No matter what.” 8/10 movie — 10/10 sleepover movie

Bonus: Favorite needle drop — Brain Stew by Green Day and Favorite montage:

LIKE, HOW DID THEY GET THIS perfect for THE TONE OF THE MOVIE

Say Nothing (2024 — Hulu limited series)

If you’ve seen their FYC campaigns all around LA and you haven’t gotten the chance to watch this limited series, it’s a MUST SEE.

Say Nothing is based on the book “Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland” by Patrick Radden Keefe and follows a 30-year story of the Price sisters and their involvement in the IRA. The book uses the interviews of Dolours Price and Branden Hughes to ~potentially~ solve the kidnapping and murder of Jean McConville. I read the book earlier this year in anticipation of this TV series, but the subject matter is so challenging that I wanted to give myself some distance and reflection before seeing the events portrayed on screen. Say Nothing is the most challenging work of television that I have watched in some time. It puts you in the perspective of Dolours and Marian Price; however, it never tells you that what they are doing is morally right, but consistently juxtaposes it with the 10 children that were left behind when Jean McConville was kidnapped. Not to mention when the Price sisters bombed civilians in London outside of the court. The show also grapples with the ethics of assisted suicide and hunger strikes. Is it a violation to keep someone from killing themselves in prison? Do they have to serve their time? Was it ethical to keep the sisters in a maximum security men’s prison when they requested a women’s prison in Ireland? Should they have been treated as political prisoners or terrorists? Can bombs be political? These questions the show doesn’t want to answer for you, but wants to guide you to form your own opinion, even if it isn’t particularly rosy for our protagonists.

The one area in which the show has a heavy hand on it’s point of view is with Gerry Adams, both the book and the TV series paint him in an unflattering light, forgive me I am not a scholar of Irish politics, but I believe there may be more nuance to Adams’ than the show or the book leads on. He did bring a form of peace to Ireland that may have only been able to be brokered if he had distanced himself from the IRA. The beauty of the show is that even if he is painted as shameless or villainous, he is still fully realized, and you understand the why.

All of the series is anchored in the lives of the children who had their mother kidnapped in front of them, leaving all ten of them orphans. No matter the Goodfellas-eque beginnings of the series, it grounds you in the question “what was this all for?” I don’t think anyone has an answer for that. 9.5/10

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Jack, I swear..

20 years later and Brokeback Mountain is still a perfect movie in every way. I hate to describe it as a “gay cowboy” movie because that really is reductive. Side note: shame on you if you won’t watch it because it’s a queer love story.. Just want to say that out right, the homophobia that prevented this movie from winning Best Picture will not fly with me. It is one of the most poignant and powerful romantic movies of our lifetime. It may be one of the only TRUE cowboy movies, because they were doing what Cowboys actually do.. Not just a shoot ’em up Western that John Wayne would make. Brokeback begs the question of “What is a life?” — is it what you imagine in your head, what you dream about, what you long for? Or is it what you actually build for yourself? Jack, in his last moments with Enni,s says

What we have now is Brokeback Mountain. Isn’t Brokeback Mountain a good life? Maybe the purest version of their lives? If they had run off together, maybe they would have soured on each other as the world outside of Brokeback surrounds them. Their lives with their wives give them both the precious gifts of children, which to Ennis at the conclusion of the story, may be what building a life is for.. To have Elma Jr see him for who he is and to see her grow up. Let’s not forget the women of this movie, both the outwardly strong (Anne Hathaway & Linda Cardellini) and the inward and meek (Michelle Williams & Jack’s mother), they are trapped by heterosexuality almost as much as Jack & Ennis. They are trapped in marriages that aren’t working — bearing children, bearing abuse and humiliation because of a marriage they try to maintain. The score and the cinematography of this movie are incredible; it is all sky, space, and openness just like the west. The west, like the love shared in this movie, can be temperamental, tender, harsh, and exciting. No movie leaves your breathless quite like Brokeback. (10/10 absolutely no notes) — Additional 10/10 for Michelle Williams’ “Jack Twist.. JACK NASTY!”

… HAPPY PRIDE EVERYONE! I’ll be back next week to talk about F1, M3GAN 2.0, Sorry, Baby.., and whatever else I decide to throw on!

Until then,

EmTV out