Category Archives: 2025

Train Dreams

Train Dreams     4 ½ stars

Movies like Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams don’t come along very often. Based on an award winning book by Denis Johnson, it follows the life of an ordinary man, Robert Granier (Joel Edgerton) who worked as a laborer in the early 20th century as a logger in the Pacific Northwest. We see him first as a child who has no parents, up to the time of his death as an old man. In between he experiences love, joy and immense tragedy. As played by Edgerton, Robert doesn’t use a lot of words. He is often an observer, watching others in this world and seeing the beauty of nature. We also have the services of the narrator who fills in all the blank spaces we need to know this man. This is not a film with a lot of plot, but rather a character study about a man seeking to find his place in society. He is one of thousands like him that built this country in the early part of the last century, those that we don’t hear about in our culture or the history books. As a point of reference, think of a Terrence Malick movie like Days of Heaven and you may have an idea what this movie is like. (That would be a good thing for fans of Terrence Malick.) The narrator says that Robert is hoping for some great revelation that will reveal to him what life is all about. But the closest thing that comes to it is at the end when he has the chance to take a plane ride and see the world from the sky for the first time. The way the cinematography is shot shows the beauty of nature, showing the thick forests and the hills. And it shows that while nature is beautiful, it can also be quite deadly. Robert also sees the violent nature of man seeing people killed for no discernable reason. This is a very different role for Joel Edgerton. Here he is quite passive and reflective as opposed to the more active roles he has had in Warrior, Black Mass and Zero Dark Thirty. I saw the movie on Netflix but advise that you see it in a theater if possible. Look for it to get a few Academy Award nominations including Best Picture.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery          4 ½ stars

Rian Johnson’s third installment of his iconic Knives Out murder mystery series, Wake Up Dead Man is out, and one thing is certain. He has hit a winning formula by casting Daniel Craig as the southern gentleman crime solver who is a master at working through some of the most convoluted murders this side of Sherlock Holmes. Johnson’s two previous films of the series, Knives Out and Glass Onion, were set in a mansion and a billionaire’s island retreat. This time around he gives up the usual extravagant location and cast of detestable rich people for a gothic church and a small flock of loyal church goers. The mystery to be solved is just as complicated and full of possible suspects as those earlier outings and with some misdirection’s. We start by meeting Father Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor who we remember from Challengers), a young priest who just assaulted a church deacon. His superiors must find a new parish for him so send him to Chimney Rock, New York, the location of Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude. There he meets Monsignor Wicks (Josh Brolin), who he is to serve under. Wicks is not your normal priest. He is a real firebrand and has a style of preaching that is all about anger toward the world, something that poor Father Jud doesn’t find very comforting as he is more about serving the world. (He also goes to extreme lengths in confessing his masturbation habits to Father Jud.) Wicks tends to turn newcomers away from the church, leaving him with only a handful of dedicated worshippers. Without going into details about all the characters and giving much away, I’ll say that we have an all-star lineup of a cast that includes Glenn Close, Jeremy Renner, Mila Kunis, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Thomas Hayden Church and Jeffrey Wright. The story requires us to have a little background information that includes Wicks’ grandfather who served the church as priest and died at the altar many years ago, Wicks’ mother who was a harlot and Glenn Close’s character, Martha Delacroix, who has served the church for sixty years. It is after Wicks suddenly falls dead during the Good Friday service, and the police are stumped by the crime that sleuth Benoit Blanc is brought in to solve the murder. At this point I will not give away any spoilers and will just say there are plenty of clues the viewer learns of along with Blanc. It is not so much about identifying the murderer as about the how it was accomplished and the motive that really keeps things interesting. Of course, much of the entertainment value comes from the performance that Daniel Craig puts on with his dramatic way of speaking making him the modern-day Sherlock Holmes. I hope we don’t see the end of this series for a long time to come. It’s a really fun ride.

Sentimental Value

Sentimental Value           5 stars

From filmmaker Joachim Trier comes one of the best films I have seen about family dynamics and the lasting effects of trauma on generations. Renate Reinsve stars as stage actress Nora who still lives in the family house in Oslo that has been in the family for multiple generations. She has just had the memorial service for her mother, who raised Nora and her sister, Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) when their long absent father, Gustav (Stellan Skarsgard of Dune and Nymphomaniac: Vol. 1 & II), a famed filmmaker, who walked out on the family when the girls were young suddenly shows up. The two sisters still resent their father leaving, but Gustav acts like things are still normal between them. On top of that he offers Nora the starring role in his new movie that he has written especially for her. Nora says no way to the offer and soon after Gustav shows up with a famous American actress, Rachel (Elle Fanning of Somewhere and Maleficent) to whom he has offered the role. Things then become personal when the location of the film is to be the family home. In addition, Gustav convinces Rachel to dye her hair the same color as Nora’s plus he wants to cast Agnes’ young son, Erik, as the son of Rachel’s character. It gets even more shocking when it is revealed that the film will feature a suicide in a manner like an actual suicide that happened in the family many years before. In this way the film becomes art imitating life, something that is just too much for Nora to contemplate, given the events in her family. Both Lilleaas and Fanning are both stunning as actors in the movie, but the film really belongs to Reinsve and Skarsgard, who play well off each other and make you realize that neither is the villain here. They are just trying to work through the pain of their circumstances. This is the second time that Joachim Trier and Renate Reinsve have worked together with their previous film being The Worst Person in the World (which I previously reviewed). Don’t be turned off by the subject matter as things work out in the end, but I won’t say how. Sentimental Value, I believe will be seen as one of the best films of the year.

A House of Dynamite

A House of Dynamite      3 stars

It has been eight years since Kathryn Bigelow’s last movie, Detroit, and now the movie everyone seems to be talking about, A House of Dynamite, has been showing on Netflix after a brief theatrical run. Academy Award winner Bigelow has impressed us before with her high-tension thrillers like The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty and Detroit so now she has turned her attention to showing us what the launching of a nuclear missile at the United States might look like. Unfortunately, the intention of depicting this kind of crisis doesn’t fit well into the format of a 90-to-120-minute movie. The idea is to show as realistically as possible how the US military would respond to an attack by a single nuclear missile fired at the middle of the country from an unknown adversary. Since the time it takes from detection to impact is only nineteen minutes, there is a lot of extra time to fill in. Bigelow’s answer to this problem is to first show the events in the White House situation room with some additional scenes from military bases, but then when the missile arrives, we back up several minutes and replay the events from different perspectives including those of high-ranking officials. Then we do it all over again, this time with POTUS (Idris Elba) being the focus of most of the scenes. So, after the first time through much of the tension is gone as we know what to expect. The big question is what will be the response of the US military. Will the president order an all-out retaliation, or will he accept the loss of a major city, hoping to deescalate the situation? Another problem with the film is that there are so many characters, many of which only appear briefly. We don’t get the chance to know their story or what makes them tick. There are plenty of big names in the movie including Rebecca Ferguson, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts and Jason Clarke that expertly play their parts, but I would like to know more about their characters. I understand that many military consultants were employed to get the details right. But sometimes realism doesn’t result in the most interesting movie.

Frankenstein

Frankenstein     5 stars

For his entire adult life Guillermo Del Toro has been obsessed with Frankenstein. The famed writer/director and winner of three Oscars previously brought us Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water. He reportedly has thoroughly researched all previous works on the subject of Mary Shelley’s gothic novel, even building a room in his house dedicated to the story of Frankenstein. His own version of the story is now on-screen starring Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis, Ex Machina) as Victor Frankenstein, the brilliant doctor obsessed with the creation of a living being made from dead body parts and Jacob Elordi (Saltburn, Priscilla) as the misunderstood monster. The viewer is amazed at the elaborate sets that include Frankenstein’s laboratory complete with glowing nineteenth century electrical equipment and a complete sailing ship trapped in Arctic ice. The story is largely true to the original novel (which I read around thirty years ago). Isaac plays the doctor with high intensity and makes us believe he sees himself as a sort of god but who is lacking in empathy toward his creation. Elordi, with his large frame and soft eyes makes us sympathetic toward the naïve creature, but fearful when he goes into a rage against those who would harm him. His appearance is startling with elaborate makeup, making it appear he is put together with many parts. The carving up of dead bodies and assembly into a new body looks horrifyingly realistic. The movie will certainly earn an Academy Award nomination for Makeup and Hairstyling as well as Visual Effects. Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained) puts in an appearance as Harlander, a collaborator of Frankenstein who has his own agenda. Mia Goth (X, Pearl, Suspiria), the new scream queen, is Elizabeth, the beautiful fiancé of Victor’s younger brother, who is the only one that can see the beauty and the suffering of the monster at the hands of Frankenstein. As in the book and unlike some of the film adaptations, this monster becomes fully articulate and can express the torment that the world heaps on him. He comes to hate Frankenstein for creating him but giving no thought as to what would come after, forcing him to be alone in a world that despises him. Much of what the creature says comes straight out of the Shelley novel. It’s clear that del Toro is sympathetic toward the monster as he characterizes him as someone desperate for human affection but then changes him into an instrument of vengeance against his creator. This may not be del Toro’s best movie. But it’s certainly a close second to The Shape of Water from 2017, a movie that shares some of the elements of Frankenstein.

Sorry, Baby

Sorry, Baby         4 stars

I had heard of the title Sorry, Baby from when it played at the Sundance Film Festival but didn’t know anything about it before seeing it this past week. The film is written by, directed by and starring Eva Victor, a standup comic and improv player. Victor stars as Agnes, a full English professor at a New England liberal arts university who lives alone in a house outside of town with her cat. One weekend she is visited by her friend Lydie (Naomi Ackie of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and Mickey 17) who she knows from her graduate school days at the same college. The two are very close and loyal to one another. They can talk endlessly about all sorts of subjects including men. During the visit Lydie reveals that she is pregnant and expecting a baby with her partner. This is a happy occasion except that Agnes wants to make sure that Lydie will still love her, not the expected response. They go out to see other friends from grad school for dinner at their house, when we get the sense that something is not right with Agnes. She has a panic attack and must excuse herself. At other times she is wary of her surroundings when alone. This film is a character study that focuses on one character, someone who makes us wonder what is going on with them as they seem to be alternately strong, then weak. We then go back in time a few years to the time when Agnes and Lydie are both still graduate students working on their theses in the same mentor group. They share the same mentor, an older man named Preston Decker (Louis Cancelmi) who is a handsome academic type. He is very impressed by Agnes’ writing and tells her so. There is a convenient reason for Agnes to stop by Decker’s house for more consultation on her thesis, where we find out the reason for all her anxiety. We never see anything happening. The only hint is a very long shot of the exterior of the house, until Agnes leaves looking disturbed. She then drives home in a reckless matter. From then on, we watch as Agnes deals with the trauma with Lydie’s support, following all the prescribed actions when one has faced an attack. For the remainder of the movie Agnes must go about her life but her interactions with other people are always affected by what she went through. She has moments of rage hoping for some form of retribution and at other times she is in need of reassurance, even at one time from her cute guy neighbor next door, Gavin (Lucas Hedges of Boy Erased and Manchester by the Sea), who she asks rather graphically for sex. The title of the film is indicative of things we say to people going through something difficult that may or may not be genuine. Don’t get the wrong impression of the movie. Despite the heavy subject matter it has many moments of comedy that will generate laughs. The final scene of the movie is especially heart wrenching. A few weeks ago, I saw another film on a similar subject, After the Hunt. Sorry, Baby is far superior as it has characters that seem very real and that the audience can relate to.

Bugonia

Bugonia                4 ½ stars

If you have ever seen a Yorgos Lanthimos movie you know you are in for something bizarre and odd. The Greek filmmaker also typically has something to say about the state of our society. Sometimes they can seem absurd, such as The Lobster where each person is turned into an animal if they don’t find their soulmate, or Poor Things involving transplanting a baby’s brain into an adult body. Sometimes they involve extreme torture and violence like The Killing of a Sacred Deer. In the case of Bugonia you get both. And some commentary on societal issues like conspiracy theories, our dependence on drugs and a collapsing society. It starts out as a conventional story. We see Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone of Birdman and La La Land), a CEO of a large pharmaceutical firm that develops miracle drugs. She is an expert on corporate double speak, making promises to the public and advocating for a family friendly culture for the employees as long as it doesn’t affect their work. Then one day she is kidnapped at her luxury home by two young men who tranquilize her and carry her off to the basement of their isolated house. (But first they have to shave off all her hair while she is unconscious and cover her in some white lotion.) It seems that Teddy (Jesse Plemons of The Power of the Dog and Killers of the Flower Moon), who works in packaging at Fuller’s company, has been down a rabbit hole on the internet for years and is convinced that aliens from space have infiltrated earth and are ready to take over the planet from humans. He believes that Fuller is one of the aliens disguised as human. He wants to get a confession from her and have her contact her spaceship to negotiate a peace deal and save humanity. He also holds a grudge against her because of some experimental procedures conducted on his mother that did not go well. Helping him in this quest is his somewhat dimwitted cousin, Donny (newcomer Aidan Delbis) who worships Teddy. This is where things may get tough for some viewers to watch. Fuller must endure being chained as a prisoner and tortured by electric shock while she does all she can to try to tell Teddy that he has it all wrong. She is just a human person trying to do what is right as a corporate CEO. But there is no convincing Teddy. He has done his research and is convinced that she is in fact an alien and he must save Earth. Fuller thinks he is crazy and must match each point coming from Teddy. The scope of the movie is mostly confined to these three characters and their interactions in the house or the headquarters of the resistance. Both Stone and Plemons give the roles everything they can, putting in some incredible performances. Emma Stone was all in for the movie after seeing the script despite the grueling scenes and losing her hair on screen. (Alien hair is a communication device in Teddy’s conspiracy filled world.) Lanthimos’ film, Bugonia says a lot about our world today, with the effect of the internet, inequality among classes and distrust everywhere. The film goes to some extreme places you wouldn’t expect, but maybe that is what should be expected from Lanthimos, who has put some crazy ideas on screen before. This is the fourth movie where he has cast Stone in a lead role, the others being The Favourite, Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness. These two obviously have a good working relationship. Plemons shows us a character filled with rage, lost in his misguided notions coming from the internet. Delbis who is autistic shows us someone who is not crazy but is taken advantage of by someone he trusts. Lanthimos brings them all together and once again creates a strange and troubling world out of his imagination.

After the Hunt

After the Hunt                   2 stars

What can I say about Luca Guadagnino’s new drama After the Hunt? It has some of the most pretentious, condescending, full of themselves characters I can remember, but played by some of the greatest stars working in Hollywood today. We have two university professors of philosophy Alma (Julia Roberts) and Hank (Andrew Garfield) at Yale who are heavily involved in campus politics, being among the most elite in higher education. The movie has a theme of questioning cancel culture and wokeness and does it in a very heavy-handed way. The story focuses on Maggie, a PhD student (Ayo Edebiri of The Bear, Opus and Bottoms) who is a close admirer of these two professors and unfortunately gets a little too close to Hank and must decide whether to report his assaulting her to the administration but first must seek Alma’s advice. So, the characters get into questions about the MeToo movement and the impact of these accusations on their futures. Questions also arise about Maggie’s integrity as she is accused of plagiarism so there is plenty of bad behavior to go around. Alma’s husband (Michael Stuhlbarg), a therapist, is included with those with annoying behavior without being detestable other than his questioning Maggie’s motives. Before it’s all over there will be suffering and destroyed careers as a result of bad behavior. All the actors give excellent performances, but of very flawed people that one has no empathy for. I did not enjoy this movie. Guadagnino has made some good movies lately that include Queer, Challengers and Bones and All. Unfortunately, After the Hunt won’t be among them. It generally has not been getting good reviews. (Incidentally, if you like horror movies check out Suspiria by Guadagnino.)

The Smashing Machine

The Smashing Machine                  4 stars

The Smashing Machine by writer director Benny Safdie (Uncut Gems, Daddy Longlegs) is the recently released biopic about the life of Mark Kerr, the mixed martial arts star of the nineties and early 2000’s. It is not a conventional sports movie where a team or individual overcomes the challenges of their sport and triumphs in the end. Instead, the film focuses mostly on the character of Kerr (played by Dwayne Johnson, the former wrestling star and movie action hero, but forget about Red One) and the struggles he faces in his life within the sport and in his personal life. A few fights are represented, but they only take up a small portion of the total screen time, so don’t expect an MMA version of Rocky. I don’t know much about the sport that became the UFC, but it seems like the objective is to tackle your opponent, hold him on the floor while you beat him in the face turning it into a bloody mess until he gives up. (At least this is what I took from it. The nation will get a first-hand look at UFC next year when it will be featured on the White House lawn on the occasion of President Trump’s eightieth birthday.) Much of the film has the look of being a documentary using long takes, making it seem like you are watching the real Mark Kerr. It shows us the various sides of him. As played by Johnson he is the nicest guy you can imagine while dealing with the public. He is polite in the extreme to the average person, being very humble and restrained. But when he loses a fight for the first time and then only focuses on his next fight he becomes completely absorbed, shutting out those around him. This gets to be a problem for his girlfriend, Dawn (Emily Blunt) as she comes to resent Kerr’s silence at these times. Much of the story is about these two people who can’t understand each other and who question the motives of the other’s decisions. The role of Dawn is a complete change from how we are used to seeing Blunt. Normally, her characters are of women who are adventurous and in complete control of their lives. Here Blunt is not her normal movie star self (think The Fall Guy and Jungle Cruise) but has an understated presence and is subservient to boyfriend Kerr. It is a testament to her acting talents that she can blend into the feel of the movie so effectively. Blunt may be in line for an acting Academy Award nomination for this role. There also seems to be talk of Johnson getting an acting nomination as well. It would be well deserved. The film is recommended, but again you shouldn’t expect a lot of action leading up to a traditional final climactic finish. (I hope I’m not giving too much away, but what kind of sports movie has the winner being awarded the trophy because of a cancelled final match?) You should go to see a person dealing with setbacks in their life and finding a way to get through them.

One Battle After Another

One Battle After Another                             5 stars

It’s only October and I feel I may have seen one of the Best Picture nominees or even the Best Picture with Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. Anderson, the master storyteller (remember Licorice Pizza, Phantom Thread and There Will Be Blood) has created a film that is part social commentary and part family saga. It tackles matters that are relevant to today’s social situations and has some exceptional heart pounding action sequences. The main story follows an ex-revolutionary figure named Pat or Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his sixteen-year-old daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti in her first movie role) as they try to escape an enemy from their past, a certain army colonel named Lockjaw (Sean Penn) who is trying to hunt them both down. But first we must learn what led to this situation through the first part of the movie. Bob and Perfidia (Teyana Taylor) are part of an anti-establishment revolutionary group called the French 75, a loosely organized group of freedom fighters who try to free detained undocumented aliens and cause general chaos through destructive actions. Perfidia is one of leaders of the group while Bob has skills with explosives. Their actions could fit in almost any time period, but here it seems to be the early 2000’s. They run afoul of Colonel Lockjaw, a hardnosed tough as nails army officer with a really bad haircut who literally has a hard-on for black chicks. He is also part of a secret Neo-Nazi white supremacist society (called the Christmas Adventurers Club) which creates a conflict when he meets Perfidia during one of the 75’s missions. Pat and Perfidia have a baby daughter, who they are raising together that is, until most of the gang gets rolled up after a bank heist, including Perfidia. She is convinced to reveal names by Lockjaw and is placed into witness protection only to flee into the wind. Sixteen years go by during which time the gang goes dormant and Bob must live off the grid while raising the baby, now named Willa on his own. Bob is no criminal mastermind and by now has become a stoner regularly getting high and drunk. Other than his skills with explosives, he is not good for much. But DiCaprio is very convincing as a father who has a real attachment to his daughter. Bob has a real problem when he is alerted through his underground contacts that the authorities are on to them and he and Willa will need to disappear. Fortunately for Bob, there are still a few members of the group around that can help keep him and Willa out of the hands of the government. They include Sensai Sergio St. Carlos (Benicio del Toro also of Inherent Vice) and Deandra (Regina Hall of The Hate U Give) who finds Willa and gets her out of harm’s way (at least for a while). The latter part of the movie is very intense as Bob and Willa try to stay one step ahead of Lockjaw’s soldiers who are closing in. The scenes are aided by a fast-moving original score by Johnny Greenwood. The audience will really be glued to the screen during two car chase scenes, with an outcome that is not expected. (Also, look for Alana Haim in a small role. Anderson featured her in his film, Licorice Pizza.) I fully expect One Battle After Another to earn several Academy Award nominations. It could be Paul Thomas Anderson’s best to date. Do not miss it.