One Battle After Another (PTA, 2025): 3.5/5
Very good! Not best of the year, and certainly not of Anderson, but a real good time. Fun, funny, exciting, the definition of propulsive. Doesn't feel a bit of its runtime.HIM (Justin Tipping, 2025): 2.5/5
A slick and punchy scratch at the sport industry's bourgeoisie excesses—packed within the confines of a tense and suspenseful horror film. While the film points in plenty of valid directions regarding the ridiculous brutality of football, these directions are never investigated and the potential for genuine thematic brilliance slips through the cracks. There's nothing going on here that isn't deducible from the trailer. Fortunately, a well-integrated soundtrack and a strong performance from Marlon Wayans anchor this confused clunker. Also Tim Heidecker for some reason?
Good Boy (Ben Leonberg, 2025): 2.5/5
Indy the Dog has more acting range than Gal Gadot.
Spinal Tap II: The End Continues (Rob Reiner, 2025): 2.5/5
Certainly not as revelatory as the original, which remains one of the greatest mockumentaries ever made. And much like an amp that only goes to 10...I feel like this wasn't nearly as great as it could have been.
Adjunct (Ron Najor, 2024): 3.5/5
Triggering! It’s insane that UCLA really did offer an adjunct position without pay.
The Naked Gun (Akiva Schaffer, 2025): 4/5
[V.O.] "She had a bottom that would make any toilet beg for the brown." I ALMOST CHOKED TO DEATH.
A modern miracle. Brilliantly blends the classic slapstick and deadpan humor of the original Naked Gun with a mix of modern comedy styles; everything from absurdism to meta-humor, visual gags, clever wordplays, and even some surreal moments. It’s not just copying the old formula; it’s updating it, remixing it, and trying new things. And mostly, it works like a gangbuster.
"And that's when it hit me. Like an idiot's completed jigsaw puzzle, I was being framed."
Oh, Hi! (Sophie Brooks, 2025): 2/5
I can fix her (I'm talking about the script)
Relay (Daivd MacKenzie, 2025): 3.5/5
“Hello, this is the Tri-state relay service.”
“Yes, hello?”
“A person is calling from the relay service. Have you received a relay call before?”
A broker/fixer of a lucrative payoffs between corrupt corporations and the whistleblowers who threaten them breaks his own rules when a new client seeks his protection to stay alive. RELAY's use of the relay telephone service—where city operators relay text-based conversations sent by people who are deaf and hard of hearing—is wildly brilliant. A solid throwback to 70's paranoia thrillers with an engaging story, compelling characters, and a unique hook to its concept.
Mars Express (Jeremie Perin, 2023): 4/5
French sci-fi animated film that feels like you're watching the adaptation of a bright, confident, brain-stimulating, fully mapped-out classic novella from someone like Clarke, Heinlein or Philip K. Dick, contemplating our trending tech topic of late, the integration of artificial intelligence into the human world and whether androids/robots deserve any independent rights.
A bit BLADE RUNNER and GHOST IN THE SHELL with the droids being hunted, the noir sensibility, and the labyrinthine convolutions of conspiratorial villain motives that propel the unfolding mystery narrative, but the greater thing about MARS EXPRESS is the teeming onslaught of intriguing, ingenious futuristic concepts all over the place that the movie expertly shows as part of this world during the course of this story without ever having to focus much on. Every few seconds there's another little device or setting or advancement in everyday life that makes you go "whoa, cool!"
Finer world-building efficiency and imagination than most big-budget live action sci-fi films out there. Plus a fitting techno score (what happened to movies using those?), 88 minutes of gimme-more brevity, and an ending with a cleverly/movingly binary interpretation.
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent (Nebojsa Slijepcevic, 2024, 14 mins): 3.5/5
Paramilitary: Sit down and shut up, that's none of your business.
Tomo: It is. You’re treating honest folks like animals.
Paramilitary: Oh, you’re a Muslim-lover?
Paramilitary: I told you to sit down!
Tomo: You’re not an army, you’re a bunch of criminals.
Bearing witness to one massacre from the systemic genocide of Bosnian Muslims carried out by Serbs in the early 1990s. What it takes to truly stand up for the victims. A powerful short film.
KPop Demon Hunters (Chris Appelhans, Maggie Kang, 2025): 2.5/5
sometimes it’s just you, your secret hot demon situationship, and his silly ass blue tiger and a sassy six-eyed magpie against the world
Masking Threshold (Johannes Grenzfurthner, 2021): 4/5
Beautifully shot, disturbingly inventive, and shockingly effective. MASKING THRESHOLD is a psychological horror film about a tinnitus sufferer's descent into madness. The entire 95 minutes takes place in one single location, focusing on a single character's mental illness in the framework of unfathomable cosmic horror contrasted by the use of macro cinematography and ASMR.
We're on the same page with One Battle After Another.
ReplyDeleteSome really great recommendations here. I instantly added Mars Express, The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent, and Masking Threshold to my watchlist. Thanks!
<3
ReplyDelete