"Crime 101" and "Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice"

Two quick reviews of some interesting genre films today, which I don't want to see fall through the cracks.

First we have "Crime 101,"written and directed by Bart Layton.  This is his first proper narrative film after making earlier features that were either documentaries or documentary/drama hybrids.  And it's an old fashioned kind of crime film that you don't see much of anymore, because these projects tend to get turned into prestige miniseries on Apple TV+ or HBO these days.  "Crime 101" follows the fortunes of four characters in Los Angeles.  There's Mike (Chris Hemsworth), a very successful and principled jewel thief whose heists tend to happen near the 101 freeway.  There's Detective Lou Lubesnick (Mark Ruffalo), a detective who is investigating Mike's robberies, but is hampered by a police department that is more concerned with their clearance rate than justice.  Finally, there's Sharon (Halle Berry), who sells insurance policies to very rich people, and sees an opportunity after crossing paths with both Mike and Lou.  Finally there's Ormon (Barry Keoghan), Mike's unhinged new rival, who regularly chooses violence.

With a running time of 140 minutes, a fairly leisurely pace for the first hour, and a downright introspective tone at times, "Crime 101" is going to be pure catnip for some cinephiles, but it might be a tough watch for the more casual viewer.  However, the filmmaking is solid, the performances are excellent, and the script offers some genuine surprises.  While "Crime 101" never reaches the heights of the classics of this genre, like "Heat" or "Thief," it belongs in the conversation.  The action and chase sequences aren't too flashy, but they're very good at building up real suspense and tension.  The characters embody a lot of old cliches, but inevitably draw you in.  It's been a long time since I've seen Halle Berry in a role this thoughtful and grounded, and it's a shame that it doesn't happen more often.  Ruffalo and Hemsworth are playing variations on other roles I've seen them in recently - notably Ruffalo in "TASK" - but they have some memorable moments.  If this is your genre, but you're been weary of films like "Den of Thieves" that are all flash and no substance, give this one a try. 

On to "Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice," written and directed by BenDavid Grabinski, which is a time-travel comedy where most of the main characters are gangsters.  Nick (Vince Vaugh) is unhappily married to Alice (Eiza Gonzalez), who is having an affair with Mike (James Marsden), Nick's partner in crime.  Mike is trying to leave the mob, but is enlisted to help Nick with a job one night - kidnapping a different Nick.  And that's about as much plot as I think I should reveal before we get into spoilers.  

I really like "Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice," but I think it's a movie that's easy to oversell.  At its heart, it's a silly comedy about silly, cartoonish versions of tough guy gangsters in a ridiculous situation.  None of the characters are very deep and the plot feels sort of thrown together, with a lot of "Gilmore Girls" references and a retro soundtrack.  However, the movie kept surprising me because it managed to constantly be a little better than I was expecting in every department.  The humor worked for me.  The action scenes are inventive and well-executed.  Every single actor is charming and funny and endearing, especially Vince Vaughn in loveable asshole mode.  The plot, though its full of holes, turns out to be built around a truly touching character transformation that I found unexpectedly heartwarming.  

However, you'll notice that a lot of this depends on going in with pretty low expectations.  "Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice" is a Hulu original, and while it's significantly above average for a straight-to-streaming feature, it's still got a pretty modest budget and I don't think the dry, idiosyncratic humor is going to work for everyone.  Like "Crime 101," I also suspect I responded to it because it feels like a throwback to a different era of filmmaking, when theatrical comedies were more robust, and Vince Vaughn was a leading man with significantly more star wattage.  However, it's nice to be reminded that Vaughn can still carry a high concept comedy, and carry it well.  I hope to see more like this from him in the future.          

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My Top 25 of the Last 25: Girly Movies

I love girly movies.  And when I'm talking about girly movies, I don't necessarily mean films starring girls and women, or created by women.   I definitely don't mean romantic-comedies, though some of the movies below have romance and comedy in them.  I'm talking about the movies that are unapologetically, unabashedly, aimed at women.  These movies center on the female POV and treat the preferences, concerns, and tastes of women and girls seriously in a world that too often doesn't.  And though there are a few bittersweet entries, I find that the best girly movies focus on positivity and uplift, and are great for boosting my mood.

Legally Blonde - I resisted the charms of Elle Woods for a long time, but in the end it was impossible.  I love the character and I love this movie.  I love the notion of the ultra-feminine, bubbly blonde glam girl also being a whip-smart law student who uses her powers for good.  She can be a girly girl and do important, serious work.  She can reject the snobbery and privilege of the elites and choose sisterhood and solidarity, while still being her most fabulous self.  Is it a fantasy?  Yes.  Is it one we need?  Hell yes.

Catherine, Called Birdy - Easily the least popular film on this list, but it's such a great encapsulation of adolescent growing pains.  Catherine is growing up in an era where the rules of love and womanhood are completely out of step with how she wants to live her life, and her well-meaning father just doesn't understand.  And really, is that any different than how things are for some girls in every era?  And Bella Ramsay is perfect at embodying Birdy in all her rebellious, mischievous, stubborn impossibility.  

Pitch Perfect - It's "Glee" if it were from the creators of "30 Rock," which is more or less what happened here, because the main writer/producer of the series is Kay Cannon.  Honestly, the three "Pitch Perfect" movies have all blended together in my mind at this point, but I remember the first one being the funniest and it helped give Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson a significant boost in visibility.  And I appreciate that the comedy came first, inspiring other films like "Bottoms" to follow suit.  

One of Them Days - Let's hear it for the ones keeping it real.  Dreux and Alyssa, played by Keke Palmer and SZA, are just trying to come up with their overdue rent money and get through a bad day that keeps getting worse.  There are not enough theatrical comedies like this anymore - the right size and scope, aimed at the sorely underserved black audience, with the right combination of talent involved to give everybody the opportunity to shine.  A sequel is reportedly in the works, and I can't wait to see it.  

Bring it On - This has spawned six direct-to-video sequels so far.  Six!  Released in the year 2000, this barely made the cutoff date, and honestly this feels like a 90s movie more than a 2000s one culturally.  However, the impact of "Bring it On" is undeniable, a mixture of high energy sports movie, dance movie, and high school movie, with Kirsten Dunst and Gabrielle Union showing that they could carry a movie as they were transitioning from teen roles to leading lady status.  It holds up better that you'd think.

Lady Bird - There's probably too much Greta Gerwig on this list, but I had to have some Saoirse Ronan representation, and the best Saoirse Ronan movie is "Lady Bird."  She's an exceptional young woman, but like so many exceptional young women, she's got all the same problems that everyone else does growing up.  As the movie explores Lady Bird's universe, it's also a love letter to Gerwig's hometown of Sacramento and the benefits of a Catholic school education - not something you see much of in the movies anymore.

The Devil Wears Prada - Yes, part of the impetus for me writing this list was the hype for the arrival of "The Devil Wears Prada 2."  Do you remember in the mid-2000s when there was all this media about the fashion industry like "Project Runway" and "Ugly Betty" and "America's Next Top Model"?  Meryl Streep in this movie may as well have been the queen of that universe - a nightmare boss, but a figure of consummate taste, talent and professionalism to be admired, feared, and never taken for granted.   

Barbie - Everything about the promotional campaign, and later the awards campaign was so positive and fun.  It injected a burst of color and shine into the pop culture when we really needed it.  And Gerwig and Baumbach clearly understood the assignment, making a film that loves, hates, subverts, and pays homage to the titular toy representation of American femininity.  I would have liked it to be a little deeper, but then again I suspect America Ferrera's monologue and Ryan Gosling learning that he was  Kenough via dream ballet was probably as much as the general audience could handle.

Bend it Like Beckham - There were lots of good contenders for girly sports movies like "Whip It!" and "Blue Crush," but "Bend it Like Beckham" ended up being the one I couldn't leave off.  It's such a great snapshot of growing up as an immigrant kid, trying to balance all the competing demands of different cultures, parental expectations, and new opportunities.  It has one of the most genuinely sweet lesbian panic situations ever.  Oh, and this is the movie where most of us first saw Keira Knightley.

Kpop Demon Hunters - Finally, this is an unlikely charmer that I didn't see coming.  I've never really understood the appeal of K-pop.  However, the soundtrack is such an important part of why this movie works, delivering earworm after earworm to help enliven a familiar story about forbidden love and being a secret half-demon warrior.  The snazzy animation, wild humor, and some gentle ribbing of the music industry don't hurt either.  Thus, "Josie and the Pussycats" got edged out of the Top Ten.  

Ahem.

Josie and the Pussycats

Little Women

Whip It

Turning Red

The Princess Diaries

Romy and Michele's High School Reunion

Booksmart

Mean Girls

Polite Society

Eighth Grade

Bridesmaids

Frances Ha

Wicked

Miss Congeniality

Easy A

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My Favorite Jim Jarmusch Film

Jim Jarmusch is one of the undisputed stars of American independent cinema, who came out of the film school ecosystem in the early 1980s making these cool, sparse, almost experimental films, without much plot and even less action.  Forty years later, he's still making them, and his style hasn't changed much.  And it's taken me nearly that long to finally vibe with what he's doing.  I use vibe deliberately, because I think the key to Jarmusch is that he's an accomplished musician, and his filmmaking is an extension of his musical tastes and impulses.

Jim Jarmusch films don't tell stories in the traditional sense.  They have characters and settings.  They have moods and themes.  There are sometimes very precise patterns and rhythms of actions to be followed.  However, the most vital parts of Jarmusch movies are the ones where nothing in particular seems to be happening - the lulls in conversation, the pauses in activity, or the moments where a character seems lost in contemplation, thinking or weighing options.  Many of his films are collections of vignettes, where characters meet in various configurations, talk, and then separate.  And it's only at the end, after having witnessed all these seemingly incidental moments and encounters, or having followed along on an aimless journey to nowhere in particular, that it becomes clear that something has been gained from the experience.  

My favorite Jarmusch film is probably his most ambitious, filmed in five different cities, in four different primary languages, with a new cast and crew in each place.  It's essentially five short films with nothing to tie them together except for a basic premise - a taxi driver picks up a passenger or passengers one night, and they converse to pass the time during the trip.  The drivers and passengers are always strangers, often from very different walks of life, to keep things interesting.   The idea is that all of these stories are happening on the same night, at the same time, in different places across the globe.  This is "Night on Earth," where we start with a 7PM pickup at LAX airport in Los Angeles, and end in the suburbs of Helsinki roughly around 5:30 AM.       

Initially the premise feels like a fussy gimmick, but what's so fun about "Night on Earth" is that each of the segments is completely distinct, and feels very loose, improvisational, and unconstrained.  The direction taken by each of these stories feels largely driven by the performances, and there are some priceless ones here.  My favorite segment is the one set in New York, where an immigrant cab driver named Helmut, who is new to the job and can barely operate his vehicle, picks up the profane, fast-talking Yo Yo, who decides to drive the cab himself from Manhattan to Brooklyn, with Helmut as his passenger.  Yo Yo and Helmut are played by Giancarlo Esposito and Armin Mueller-Stahl, two performers with completely different energies and performance styles, who nonetheless play off each other wonderfully, especially when you throw Rosie Perez into the mix as Yo Yo's combative sister-in-law.  

Then there's the sexier, more mysterious Paris segment, where Isaach de Bankole's cab driver picks up a fiercely independent blind woman played by Beatrice Dalle as his fare, and the color barrier means nothing, but the difference in life experience means everything.  There's the awkwardness of the Los Angeles segment with Winona Ryder and Gena Rowlands, where the artifice is laid on thick, but it's hard not to get invested in the characters anyway.  And there's the Roman segment, the most blatantly comedic part of the movie, where a motormouthed driver played by Roberto Benigni takes a poor priest on the wildest  ride of his life.  And for a final note of existential melancholy, to help put everything into perspective, naturally we head to the frozen climes of Helsinki for a very sober Matti Pellonpaa to ferry home a trio of drunks as the sun comes up.  

Much of the music in the film was composed and performed by Tom Waits, who is one of Jarmusch's most frequent collaborators and appears in several of his films as an actor.  And as in all of Jarmusch's films, the music is half of the experience, setting the tone and the rhythm of each scene, and helping to define the tenor of each interaction as much as each of the five taxicabs define the physical spaces the camera and characters inhabit.  The steady beats of the nocturnal base accompany each transition in space and time, one of the only constants in the film.  

"Night on Earth" is not a piece of media to explain, but to inhabit, where we have an opportunity to share in these chance encounters with the characters, and see how barriers are crossed and common ground is reached - or at least sought out -  in every circumstance.  I think I love this film because it's so optimistic about human beings and human nature - the way that it captures our ability to find connections in unlikely places.  

And I get to enjoy a good, long drive without actually having to do any driving. 

What I've Seen - Jim Jarmusch

Stranger Than Paradise (1984)

Down By Law (1986)

Mystery Train (1989)

Night on Earth (1991)

Dead Man (1995)

Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai (1999)

Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)

Broken Flowers (2005)

The Limits of Control (2009)

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

Paterson (2016)

The Dead Don't Die (2019)

Father Mother Sister Brother (2026)

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"Hoppers" is a Delight

I got a little overhyped for "Hoppers," which is a pretty typical piece of children's entertainment when all is said and done, but it's definitely gutsier than most recent PIXAR films, and it's nice to see audiences responding so well to it.  I'll spoil the basic premise for this review, but will do my best not to get into the particulars of the plotting or give away any of the good jokes.  The less you know going into this one, the better.

Mabel Tanaka (Piper Curda) is a hotheaded college student who is staunchly devoted to protecting nature and animals.  She is especially keen on saving the glen and beaver pond where she spent much of her childhood with her beloved grandmother (Karen Huie), and where a new freeway extension is set to be built by the stubborn Mayor Jerry Generazzo (Jon Hamm).  One day, Mabel stumbles upon a secret project called "Hoppers" being carried out by her mentor, Dr. Sam (Kathy Najimy).  She and her team have built robot animals that peoples' conscious minds can "hop" into "like 'Avatar.'"  Mabel puts herself into a beaver robot and sets out in search of the glen's missing animals, eventually uncovering a dastardly plot.  Other characters include the beaver king, George (Bobby Moynihan), an antagonistic caterpillar, Titus (Dave Franco), an intimidating bear named Ellen (Melissa Villaseñor), and another beaver named Loaf (Eduardo Franco), who is maybe a little too chill.

Initial trailers for "Hoppers" made the film look very similar to "The Wild Robot," which was also about a robot and a community of woodland creatures in the Pacific Northwest.  "The Wild Robot" even felt like a PIXAR movie more than a Dreamworks one, featuring heartwarming found family connections and meditations on parenthood.  "Hoppers" has some of this too, with Piper struggling with the loss of her grandmother, and forging new friendships.  However, "Hoppers" also has a lot of comedy in it.  And not just comedy, but zany, off-the-wall, we're-in a-cartoon comedy that isn't what I've come to expect from recent PIXAR movies. I liked that "The Wild Robot" was willing to be pretty frank about the perils of the natural world and the life cycle without sugarcoating things too much for a younger audience.  "Hoppers" goes a step further than that, mostly just for the sake of getting some surprisingly dark laughs.  And it's super effective at keeping the movie entertaining while getting its messages across.

Despite the more zany style of the humor, this still feels like a PIXAR film, mostly due to little things like the thoughtful way that the visual storytelling is executed, and the way that the worldbuilding has a couple of fantastical elements, but not too many.  The animals' character designs change depending on whether the POV character in each scene can understand them or not.  Mabel's beaver robot form looks like an ordinary beaver from a human POV, but immediately looks like Mabel, with her personality and expressiveness, from an animal POV, or when a human is using Dr. Sam's communication interface with the robots.  There are some great jokes that play around with this concept.  The editing often sells some of the punchlikes too - look out for those smash cuts.  

I also appreciate that "Hoppers" has some nuance when it comes to its eco-fable.  It doesn't just argue for the importance of nature, but also points out how the wrong kind of overzealous advocacy can end up doing more harm than good.  It would have been very easy to make Mayor Jerry an evil, irredeemable bad guy, but he's not.  There are degrees of villainy, and Mabel has to learn not to see the world in black and white.  The movie is pitched toward older kids, with some of the intense sequences pushing that PG rating, so parents should plan accordingly.  

However, this is the first PIXAR film in a while that I feel comfortable recommending without any reservations.  Some of their recent offerings have felt awfully polished and prestigious, but haven't been as entertaining as what's been coming out of its competitors.  "Hoppers" seems intent on proving otherwise, and I'm all for it.     

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"Send Help" is a Scream

Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) is an overacheiving corporate worker who has been promised a VP position at her company.  Unfortunately the new boss, an insufferable youngster named Bradley Preston (Dylan O'Brien), won't give her what she's due.  However, the tables are turned during an overseas work trip, when the two are stranded on an uninhabited tropical island together, after their flight crashes.  

It's been far too long since we had an original Sam Raimi film, and this one is a lot of fun.  It's got action, comedy, bloody gore, and pig snot being flung on the camera lens.  I love that it gives Rachel McAdams a really juicy leading role.  Linda Liddle is great at her job, but she's got terrible people skills and some hygiene issues that signal that she's not very self-aware, and probably deluded about her career prospects.  McAdams isn't afraid to get gross or come off as a weirdo.  She's stellar at juggling the movie's variety of different tones, from straight drama to wildly over-the-top genre nastiness.  Dylan O'Brien is also very good at being obnoxious and awful, but also just charismatic enough that he's not entirely unsympathetic.  And that's important, given where the movie goes.  

You could classify "Send Help" as part of the recent spate of media about the class-divide, similar to "Triangle of Sadness" and "The White Lotus."  Linda turns out to be a "Survivor" enthusiast who thrives in the wild, while Bradley is useless.  However, Raimi has little interest in social satire, and puts all his efforts into thrills and mayhem.  Linda and Bradley might represent the forces of the privileged and the exploited, but it's their decisions as individuals that make the movie so compelling to watch.  It's not clear cut who you're supposed to be rooting for, all the way up to the end, and the movie gleefully keeps subverting common genre conventions and keeps the audience guessing.  What kind of movie are we even watching?  Is this a revenge thriller?  Is this a "Misery" style psycho caretaker scenario?  Is this some kind of twisted romance?  Maybe a little of everything?

One thing that I've noticed about modern comedies is that there aren't many of them that have a good grasp of comedic film language anymore.  Sam Raimi has always been fantastic at it.  There's a montage sequence involving Bradley getting dehydrated that's just a long string of dissolves of Dylan O'Brien head shots, floating over the screen one after the other.  It stood out because it had been so long since I'd seen any other action comedy attempt something similar - with the exception of last year's "Naked Gun" reboot. I hope to see more comedies that follow suit.   Raimi also manages the shifting tone extremely well.  Here, he balances cartoonish gags and heightened imagery with pretty grounded characters.  Sure, they're broadly drawn and are prone to unhinged behavior, but they exist in a pretty believable emotional reality for most of the film, so you get more invested in their clashes.   

My only major criticism of "Send Help" is of the ending, which I found too abrupt.  I liked the ultimate outcome, just not how we got there.  Maybe I was looking for more closure and maybe I was hoping for more carnage, but it feels like Raimi could have gotten more out of the material.  Then again, "Send Help" already runs 113 minutes, and hits every element you want out of a Raimi film, so it feels greedy to want more.  I hope the film's success means that we can get Rachel McAdams in more starring roles, and that it won't be over a decade before they let Sam Raimi make something similar again.  There hasn't been nearly enough screen splatter in circulation lately.

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"Paradise," Year Two

The second season of "Paradise" is different from the first.  It expands the show's universe, introduces many new characters, and alters the fundamental format of the series in some important ways.  It's also much easier to now categorize "Paradise" as a post-apocalyptic melodrama similar to "Station Eleven" or "The Last of Us," except "Paradise" is more hopeful about humanity than either of those shows, and avoids the bleakest material.  I never believed for a moment that our main character, Xavier Collins, was ever in any real danger as he searched the ruins of America in search of his missing wife.  

However, "Paradise" is still capable of some pretty strong dramatic hours of television, presenting several compelling portraits of different characters in the show's universe.  The season opener is about a tour guide at Graceland named Annie (Shailene Woodley), and her experience of the apocalypse and its aftermath.  Another is about a mailman, Gary Jones (Cameron Britton), and his survival story.  While much of the season is spent with Xavier, "Paradise" also keeps an eye on what's going on with the community he left behind in Colorado.  Agent Driscoll from last season gets a spotlight episode as the character dynamics of the rest of the regular cast go through some shakeups.

The eight-episode season seems a little too short, considering how much incident is packed into some of the storylines, but I thought that the creators did a decent job regardless.  While the plot twists often feel a little unlikely, the execution is always very good.  The deaths feel meaningful, big decisions carry weight, and the character arcs are satisfying, even if the logic of certain developments isn't quite there.  I get a sense that some elements are being set up for a potential third season that doesn't exist yet and may never exist, which is a little infuriating.  However, "Paradise" also manages to pull off some really good twists and subversions in a way that only happens when you have seasoned television writers who understand how to write good melodrama.  And that's rarer than you'd think when it comes to big, expensive genre shows these days.

The shape and the strengths of the series have become clearer.  Nearly all the best episodes of "Paradise" to date have been the little individual character studies, episodes that break away from the main stories and dig into people's pasts.  Sure, the big apocalypse flashback from the first season is still the high point of the show to date, but where "Paradise" has been consistently excellent is in how it explores the lives of specific individuals.  So many of the people who cross paths with Xavier this year are complete strangers to him, but their stories are just as compelling and eventful.  The way that the show gives these smaller histories the narrative space to play out in meaningful ways is the big thing that distinguishes "Paradise" from most other post-apocalyptic shows.

There's still plenty of genre material too - the finale features several impressive large scale action set pieces that feel appropriately epic.  Getting to that point is pretty rocky this year, though.  The Colorado storyline is the weaker part of this season, reorienting to focus on Sinatra, Agent Driscoll, and Sarah Shahi's therapist character,  Dr. Torabi, who find themselves in the middle of a power struggle as outside threats emerge.  A couple of additional episodes really could have helped here, if only to keep much of the talented cast from feeling underutilized.  As for Xavier's storyline, I won't spoil whether or not he finds his wife, but I imagine that this also would have played out better over a longer stretch of episodes.   

Still, I appreciate that the season wraps up pretty conclusively and manages to find a natural end point, in case this turns out to be the last season.  The alternative would be "The Last of Us" approach, where the material for one season got awkwardly split up over two, with a very long gap in between.  This season's ending might be rushed, but it's serviceable.  Of course, the door is left open for more, and if the show does come back it's very likely going to be a very different show again.  I think I'd be okay with that.  

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Behold "Nirvanna the Band, The Show, The Movie"

I don't think you need to go into "Nirvanna the Band, The Show, The Movie" knowing anything about its rather convoluted background, but it doesn't hurt to set up a few things up front.  Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol, lifelong best friends, created the mockumentary web series "Nirvana the Band, the Show," in 2007.  This became the Viceland TV series "Nirvanna the Band, the Show" ten years later, which ran for two seasons. The premise is simple - Canadian musicians Matt and Jay want to book their two-man band for a show at the Rivoli club in Toronto.  Matt and Jay do this in the most circuitous way possible, cooking up wild PR stunts and complicated schemes that often involve filming on-the-street interactions with non-actors.  As children of the 80s, their deeply silly manchild adventures involve a lot of references to old movies and television shows.

"Nirvanna the Band, The Show, The Movie" is essentially a super long and more elaborate episode of the show, where Matt and Jay are up to their usual hijinks.  The big stunt is supposed to be skydiving off of the CN Tower into the SkyDome stadium during a baseball game, but that's just the start.  Inspired by "Back to the Future," Matt manages to turn the band's RV into a time machine, powered by an ancient bottle of Orbitz.  This sends them back to 2008, to their original webseries, where things get complicated quickly.  Matt and Jay reportedly did not get any permits for what they filmed at the CN Tower.  Also, recreating 2008 Toronto and their old apartment on a very modest budget couldn't have been easy.  Fans already familiar with Matt and Jay will likely appreciate these efforts more, but there were multiple scenes where I was delighted to discover I had no idea how they'd pulled off the interactions.  Was it archival footage?  Deft use of CGI?  Or did they actually build a time machine somehow?  

However, the real fun of "Nirvanna the Band, The Show, The Movie" is getting to know these two goofy filmmakers, who were a part of the first wave of internet creatives who cut their teeth on shoestring web projects with DIY production values.  The shaggy style of the humor, the unpolished visuals, and the earnestly chaotic plot are all reminiscent of 2000-era internet culture in a tremendously appealing way.  There's a commitment to showcasing Toronto and sticking to their lo-fi filmmaking techniques that adds to the charm.  Even in the big action finale, they still find a way to incorporate unscripted moments with random people that just happen to be where they're filming.  There's also a genuinely poignant arc where Jay considers abandoning the friendship, after realizing he's spent so much time with Matt getting absolutely nowhere with their goals.  The contrast between the two of them as twenty-somethings in the web series and much schlubbier forty-somethings in the present day is a source of both humor and poignancy.   

  

I've seen a lot of web creators from Matt and Jay's cohort crash and burn over the years, sometimes running afoul of the changing popular culture or losing their verve when they move into more commercial projects.  What's so fascinating about "Nirvanna the Band, The Show, The Movie" is that it's essentially the same thing that these two have been doing since 2007.  The creators have gotten more skillful after working on several other films, the budget has expanded, and their ambitions have grown, but Matt and Jay are still playing the same pair of genial oddballs, and seeing what they can get away with via guerilla filmmaking tactics.  And they're absolutely fine with that.  The movie reportedly came about because their television show was cancelled when Viceland went kaput, but we might just get a third season if the movie does well enough.    

I'll be on the lookout for a way to watch "Nirvanna the Band, The Show," which seems to be stuck in copyright limbo at the moment.  I'm also looking forward to any behind-the-scenes material that will be made available for the movie, which I suspect will be as much fun to watch as the movie itself.  

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And What Didn't Make My Top Ten Films of 2025

As a companion piece to my Top Ten list, every year I write a post to discuss some of the other major films that got a lot of positive attention.  I find this exercise helpful in providing context for my own choices and how I feel about the year in film as a whole.  It is also a lot of fun.  Please note that I will not be writing about the films listed among my honorable mentions, including "Marty Supreme," "Train Dreams," and "Frankenstein."

Let's start with the foreign films, because there were a lot of big titles being talked about this year that I failed to connect with.  Filmmakers I generally really enjoy, like Kleber Mendonça Filho with "The Secret Agent," Joachim Trier with "Sentimental Value," and Jafar Panahi with "It Was Just an Accident," made films that just sailed over my head.  I can tell they're all very well made, but they either had characters I found unengaging, or were referencing political situations that I didn't have enough information to find resonant.  I had to look up what was going on with the disembodied leg in "The Secret Agent," which didn't land at all when I was actually watching the film.  "No Other Choice" just confirms for me that Park Chan-wook's sense of humor and mine do not vibe at all.  Oliver Laxe's "Sirat" was intriguing, but the unconventional plot left me adrift.  Bi Gan's "Resurrection" was beautiful, but so experimental that I had trouble parsing it. 

Among the awards contenders, "Bugonia" had a lot of strong performances and ideas that didn't cohere in the end.  I found "The Testament of Ann Lee" an incredibly brave film which must have been difficult to get made, but it wasn't as compelling as I hoped.  "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You" was simply too anxiety-inducing for me to enjoy, though it had a great Rose Byne performance, and some fantastic imagery.  "Sorry, Baby" had a few strong sequences in isolation, but the main character rubbed me the wrong way early on, and the film  never managed to win me over.  "Song Sung Blue" was better than I expected, and "The Smashing Machine" far, far worse, but both were based on more interesting documentaries.  Speaking of documentaries, I was a fan of "Predators," "The Perfect Neighbor," "Mr. Nobody vs Putin," and "The Librarians," but when it came to their filmmaking, none of them really distinguished themselves.

There weren't many popular favorites this year in contention.  I'm glad that the new "Superman" came out so well, but it's a little too comics-obsessed and features too many of James Gunn's quirks for me to fully embrace. My favorite superhero film of the year was the very imperfect "Thunderbolts."  I'm very happy for the success of "KPop Demon Hunters," but it's too derivative and slapdash for me to count as a favorite.  It was a tough year for animated films in general, and nothing really stood out.  "Avatar: Fire and Ash" looked great, but offered nothing new.  "28 Years Later" was innovative, and I liked the third act turn, but there were far more accomplished horror films last year.  "One of Them Days" was the kind of comedic crowd-pleaser I want more of, but could have been better.

Among the smaller titles that people were championing, "Eddington" struck me as a "Beau is Afraid" retread set in the real world that was very smart, but a whole lot less funny in that context.   "Pillion" was enjoyable, but ultimately not to my tastes.  I really liked the performances in "Black Bag," but the film as a whole felt awfully slight.  "The Mastermind" featured some great work by Josh O'Connor, but he was better in "Wake Up Dead Man."    "The Shrouds," "Father Mother Sister Brother" and "Vulcanizadora" were all very singular films with strong points of view, but not as good as similar titles from the same directors.  And I really liked "Peter Hujar's Day," but I suspect I liked it for reasons that have nothing to do with its quality, so I'm leaving it off. 

Films that were very close to making my honorable mentions this year include "Blue Moon," "Relay," "40 Acres," "Familiar Touch," "The Long Walk," "Freaky Tales," "A Savage Art," and "A Little Prayer."

And that's my 2025 in film.  Happy watching.

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My Top Ten Films of 2025

Every year is a good year for movies, and 2025 offered some great ones.  However, I found it very difficult to put this list together.  There was a lot of second guessing, partly because some of my favorites received next to no attention whatsoever, while others felt like echoes of titles I'd picked within the last few years.  I find myself being more susceptible to hype these days, and sometimes it takes a while for me to really nail down my feelings about a film.  Writing the reviews helped considerably.  

My criteria for eligibility require that a film must have been released in its home country during 2025, and film festivals don't count.  Picks are unranked and listed in no particular order, and previously posted reviews are linked when available.

Eephus - A poignant, elegeic baseball film that is about the love of the game in face of great adversity - not rival teams or personal demons, but the more existential forces of irrelevance, apathy, and time simply passing by.  The stakes of the game may be minor, but it feels like it's signaling the end of an era, and you understand why the players don't want to see it end.  

The Ugly Stepsister - A sister film to "The Substance," which marries a subversive fairy tale narrative with extreme body horror.  Instead of Hollywood stardom, it's the classic "Cinderella" story that gets gleefully skewered.  The important thing here is that "The Ugly Stepsister" is still a solid fairy tale film, albeit one that leans into the older, meaner origins of these stories as cautionary tales.

Weapons - That climactic finale was my favorite moment in the theater this year.  Zach Cregger is one of my favorite currently working directors, because I have no idea what's going to happen in his films from moment to moment, and he's so good at paying things off.  You can spend hours picking apart what it all means, or you can sit back and enjoy the hysterical carnage, and of course I did both.

Sinners - There's something for everyone here - romance, action, horror, melodrama, and some soaring musical sequences.  Deftly blending genres, and presenting a version of the Mississippi Delta you won't find anywhere else, "Sinners" is the kind of project that couldn't have been made by anyone else but Ryan Coogler, with the resources of a major studio willing to give him the chance.

One Battle After Another - I like the pieces better than the whole, but the more you dig into the film, the more there is.  The ensemble that really impressed me here, with so many perfectly cast minor roles.  You could make dozens of movies about characters who are onscreen only briefly.  Chase Infiniti was my favorite, and ironically was the only one of the main cast not to be Oscar nominated.  

Kiss of the Spider Woman - Tonatiuh's performance was one of my favorites this year.  The film it appeared in was very imperfect, but I so admire the efforts of everyone involved to make "Kiss of the Spider Woman" into a full-throated screen musical.  I find it ironic that it was so ignored by the awards race, when it got so much right that "Emilia Perez" got so very wrong the year before.  

The Plague - Kids are capable of a level of cruelty that we don't like thinking about.  "The Plague" examines the toxic group dynamics and ostracism that are already occurring with a group of eleven year-old boys, behavior that looks like play at first, but is more and more troubling the closer you look.  It's one of the most effective horror films of the year because it rings so true to life.

The Alabama Solution - Much of the documentary centers on striking cell-phone camera footage smuggled out of the prisons which was shot by the inmates themselves.  This shows us life inside from their perspective, and gives them some control over their own depiction.  And it puts the abuses of the system in much starker contrast, as we learn how bad the situation has become. 

Hamnet - Of course it's manipulative.  However, the kind of catharsis it skillfully evokes is a rare and wondrous thing, and I think we all need a reminder of the power of fictional narratives and communal enjoyment of art.  What I really appreciate is the clarity of the storytelling, which makes the film so accessible, whether you have any experience with Shakespeare or not.

Left Handed Girl - This was the last title I added, because I was worried that my affection for the film was rooted too much in how well I felt it captured the Taipei of my childhood.  And then I accepted that this was a perfectly good reason to get behind the film.  "Left Handed Girl" is a very personal, vibrant picture of a city and one of the families that inhabit it.  And it's fantastic.

Honorable mentions: 

Wake Up Dead Man

The History of Sound

Train Dreams

The Life of Chuck

Marty Supreme

Frankenstein

F1

Hedda

Nouvelle Vague

Deaf President Now

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"The Artful Dodger," Year Two

"The Artful Dodger" is back for a second season, another fun romp through 1850s Australia with a couple of Charles Dickens characters.  After narrowly escaping the noose in the opening sequence, Jack Dawkins finds himself back under the influence of his old mentor Fagin, and forbidden from seeing his lady love, Belle Fox.  Belle's manipulative mother, Lady Jane (Susie Porter), is bribing her with Jack's freedom and a potential medical career if the two of them stay apart, but of course Belle breaks her promise almost immediately.  Much sneaking around and angsty love declarations commence.  New characters this year include Belle's untrustworthy uncle Dickie (Jeremy Sims), a hunky new Inspector, Boxer (Luke Bracey), and Tim Minchin as a villainous harbor master, Cracksworth.  We also see more of Belle's younger sister Fanny (Lucy-Rose Leonard), who discovers a talent for criminality.

There's a breezy irreverence to "The Artful Dodger" that makes it very easy to watch.  Despite the subplots about plagues and criminal schemes and even a serial killer on the loose, the show stays lighthearted and very entertaining throughout.  It's operating by the tried-and-true rules of more old-fashioned serials, where the lovers will always come back together in the end, despite being tested and pulled apart at every turn, and an old trickster like Fagin will always land on his feet, no matter how unlikely the circumstances.  I find I don't mind the paper-thin plotting and the characters whose hearts can be swayed with the flimsiest arguments, because the show is so good about delivering satisfying emotional moments and everyone looks like they're enjoying themselves so much.  I might grouse about David Thewlis being way too good for this material, but he's clearly having a ball with Fagin's florid patter and questionable hygiene.  

The show is not a cheap production with its period setting, elaborate costuming, ambitious art direction, and frequent action and chase sequences, so we were lucky to get a second season at all.  I suspect that the budget was a little more generous this time around, at least when it came to the money for music licensing.  The needledrops are a lot more prominent this year.  I was hoping we would get more of the Australian interior and indigenous characters in a second season, but this is not the case.  Fagin's regular conspirators include locals Rotty (Brigid Zengeni), Flashbang (Aljin Abella) and Aputi (Albert Latailakepa), who are mostly comic relief, and though there's a lot of discussion about the unexplored Australian outback, the show never leaves Port Victory.  

Instead, more of the spotlight is given over to the underutilized female characters.  Lady Jane emerges as a primary villain, the one who's really running the show instead of the governor.  Fanny gets her own love interest with her uncle's assistant Phineas (Zac Burgess), and then has a delightful arc where she embraces the dark side and decides Fagin and company are her new "bohemian friends."  And while "Artful Dodger" does prominently feature the clinic, and medical procedures are still central to many episodes, there's less of a focus on surgery and medical mysteries.  I'd go so far as to say that you could characterize the first season as a medical show, but not the second, which is shifting towards period romantic melodrama.  Not that I'm complaining.   

The show also moves even farther away from its Dickensian origins, though Uriah Heep (Benedict Hardie) becomes a recurring character this season, as a representative of the East India Company.  Fagin is still pulling schemes left and right, and the rich-poor divide is a major theme, but the character dynamics have changed since the first season.  Jack is rarely in danger of falling back into his criminal ways, and stays very committed to Belle.  His relationship with Fagin is also more unambiguously paternal, and probably too one-sided - if there's one weak spot in this year, it's that Jack and Fagin don't get enough scenes together.

All in all this was a nice surprise, probably one that only happened because of the new Australian streaming quotes for local content.  We might get a third season as well, but this season wraps up well enough that I won't be disappointed if we don't.  

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"Zodiac Killer Project" and "Predators"

True crime content has raised a lot of concerns over the years for many reasons, and I'm seeing more and more media trying to address this.  Two features from last year stood out as excellent examples of the work of filmmakers trying to grapple with some of the major issues, one focusing more on form and the other one more on content.  

"Zodiac Killer Project" is a festival favorite that went largely under the radar due to its more experimental nature.   It's not a film about the Zodiac Killer, but writer/director Charlie Shackleton's film about a Zodiac Killer documentary that he was not able to make.  Shackleton intended to adapt Lyndon E. Lafferty's 2012 book, The Zodiac Killer Cover-Up, AKA The Silenced Badge, about a policeman's investigation into a specific suspect, but negotiations for the rights fell through.  This left Shackleton with detailed plans for his film and no way to realize them.  However, he still wanted to share his vision.

So, instead of making the documentary, he made a satirical meta-documentary, where he tells the audience all about the movie that never got made, using a lot of clips from other true-crime documentaries to illustrate various storytelling devices that he expected to use, and some limited original footage - mostly location shots around the Bay Area.  It's a very minimalist film, consisting almost entirely of Shackleton's narration and the cobbled-together images.  However, "Zodiac Killer Project" isn't just a look into the mind of a stymied filmmaker trying to let go of a project he was very invested in, but turns out to be a really biting critique of the whole true-crime genre.  Initially it's funny and illuminating to watch Shackleton point out all the common tropes of true-crime documentaries, from the use of grainy home movies and "evocative B-roll," to the prevalence of law enforcement figures named Bulldog, all while constantly referencing other true-crime docs like "Making a Murderer." 

As Shackleton describes how he planned to adapt parts of Lafferty's book and stage various pieces of action, the whole endeavor becomes increasingly troubling and the satire gets darker.  He's perfectly willing to stage scenes that never happened and play up the sinister nature of the suspect to make his narrative more engrossing to the viewer, even though he knows it's all bunk.  He points out the fallacies and inaccuracies of other directors, and then praises them in the next breath for making such entertaining work.  There's a fantastic moment where he describes a location that he plans to show as foreboding and creepy due to the appearance of disturbing painted symbols found there - only to reveal that the symbols are actually just scribbles and lewd graffiti that looks like a kid drew them.  Shackleton is the least interested in actually filling in the real details of the Zodiac killings, which are too well known and don't give him enough room to be more creative.       

And now it's time to talk about "Predators," David Osit's examination of the history and legacy of "To Catch a Predator," the popular reality television series that aired as a part of "Dateline NBC" from 2004 to 2007.  Osit was able to obtain behind the scenes footage and unused footage shot during the show's notorious sting operations, designed to entrap and force on-camera confrontations with purported child predators.  He also interviewed some of the crew and talent involved, including host Chris Hansen and actors who played the fake minors in the stings.  If you already thought that "To Catch a Predator" was ethically troubling, "Predators" just makes it all the more obvious that the show often operated on dubious moral grounds.  

Osit, an assault survivor, is very careful about how he presents his material.  Throughout, his position is that despite the show's enormous success, it does little to help the victims or to shed any light on why the crimes are committed.  Meanwhile there was every incentive for Hansen and his collaborators to operate recklessly, dehumanizing their targets and ignoring safety considerations to a disturbing degree.  The harms that resulted were foreseeable and preventable.  The show's targets were often caught in a way that meant they couldn't be prosecuted, and the public nature of the confrontations resulted in more than one suicide.  The success of "To Catch a Predator" also led to multiple copycat operations being run by amateurs chasing clout.  

There's been a spate of similar media lately, revealing what was going on behind the scenes of other prominent television shows from the same era, like "Fit for TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loser" and "Quiet on the Set."  "Predators" is much more thoughtful than most of these, because it has a very personal throughline thanks to Osit, and the goal is to dispel much of the sensationalism that the others encourage.  Some of the most effective moments are very simple, like seeing the additional footage of the "To Catch a Predator" targets in more human moments.  There are no real bombshells, just a conscious reframing of the narrative to call our assumptions into question.  Hansen says nothing new here, but nonetheless his interview is damning.  

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My Top Ten Episodes of 2005-2006

Below, find my top ten episodes for the 2005-2006 television season below, in no particular order.  And a few spoilers ahead, including "The Sopranos" and "Lost."  Also, my apologies to the finale of "Six Feet Under," but the show remains on my very long "To Watch" list. 

The Sopranos, "Members Only" - Let's ease into things with "The Sopranos" returning after a very long break, to begin its final season.  Most of the episode is spent catching us up on all the characters and how they've been - AJ's in college and no one is the wiser about Adriana - but things take an increasingly dark turn as the Eugene Pontecorvo story plays out.  And then Uncle Junior ends things with a bang.

Doctor Who, "The Girl in the Fireplace" - I love how this episode is really the whole series in miniature.  The Doctor stumbles across an interesting new person, only gets a very limited amount of time with them, yet impacts their lives profoundly.  Having time travel just speeds the familiar cycle up considerably.  Reinette is such a memorable character, it's a shame that she only appears in this episode.  

Battlestar Galactica, "Pegasus" - Just when you thought that the Galactica was finally catching a break, finding a lost Battlestar - surprise!  They're baddies.  Led by Michelle Forbes as a merciless admiral, the Pegasus is a dark mirror to the Galactica, pushing the show into much darker territory as we learn about their treatment of Cylon prisoners.  It's one of the gutsiest, most harrowing  episodes of the show's run.    

Avatar, "The Blind Bandit" - Toph's introductory episode is such a wonderful series of subversions, and really expands what  the show does with earthbending.  The animation is great, but this pick is chiefly for the humor.  Toph trash-talking the Boulder immediately establishes so much about her, and the fact that she can back it up is such a joy.  The whole series improved dramatically with her in the mix.    

South Park, "Trapped in the Closet" - Some of the jokes have aged very badly, but this episode of "South Park" remains indispensable for its no-hold-barred takedown of Scientology.  The closet bit with the celebrities was widely parodied at the time, but once the "This is what Scientologists actually believe" segment hit the wider culture, the credibility of the organization plummeted permanently. 

My Name is Earl, "Pilot" - "Earl" aired in an awkward timeslot, so I never saw much of it beyond a few episodes in the first season, but I always loved the pilot, where we're introduced to a reformed reprobate played by Jason Lee, and learn about his karmic quest.  The worldbuilding and the character introductions are so fun - Hey, Crabman! - and the cast instantly clicks like few others have.   

30 Days, "Minimum Wage" - Morgan Spurlock is cancelled, but back in 2005 he made one the better reality TV shows, having volunteers live totally different lives for 30 days to try and foster more empathy and understanding.  Spurlock and his fiancee at this time were the subject of the first episode, where they live off minimum wage for a month.  And it's both illuminating and infuriating to see play out.

Lost, "One of Them" - Sayid never got enough screen time. He's one of the most complicated "Lost'" characters, with a very checkered past, but the writers often didn't seem to know what to do with him.  This episode is one of the few times they confront his capacity for evil head-on, as he interrogates Henry Gale for information.  The performances really give their scenes together a rare intensity.  

Arrested Development, "The Ocean Walker" - The entire arc with Rita is wonderful, spoofing romantic-comedy tropes and giving Charlize Theron a chance to show off her comedy chops.  However, the end of the arc, where the shoe finally drops, and we learn the very non-PC reason for Rita's behavior is just brilliant.  Also, I just love awkward wedding episodes, and this one has a doozy.  

Mushishi "Light of the Eyelid" - You're going to start seeing more animation on these lists, as we move into the period where I was an active otaku.  "Mushishi" is an anthology series about supernatural creatures who inadvertently cause trouble for human beings, and this particular episode stands out for its quiet, mesmerizing storytelling and absolutely gorgeous animation.

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My History of "Star Trek" Fandom

I've wanted to write this post for a while, detailing my relationship with "Star Trek" media and fandom.  I wrote one of these for "Star Wars" a while ago, and I want to do the same for "Star Trek," because my experience with the franchise is similarly filled with odd little nuances that I want to have a record of somewhere.

As a child of the '80s, "Star Trek" meant "Star Trek: The Next Generation."  It was one of the earliest shows I became a fan of that wasn't a cartoon  or children's programming.  My syndicated station ran the reruns in the early evenings before anyone else was using the television, so I could watch it regularly.  I didn't have the access to watch any "Star Trek" in prime time until the mid-90s, so my fandom was entirely based on repeated viewings of the earliest seasons of "Next Generation" starting around 1993.  I was able to get my hands on episode guides and a few tie-in novels from the library, which also helped.  Metamorphosis, the one where Data becomes human, remains a favorite.

The 90s were arguably the peak of "Star Trek." At one point there were three series airing simultaneously, plus shows like "Babylon 5" that were going after the same audience.  There were plenty of fans around and plenty of chatter about the series in wider pop culture, which filtered down to me eventually.  The premiere of "Star Trek Voyager," the flagship for the new UPN network, was a big deal in 1995, and I purposely rearranged my schedule so I could watch the show live.  However, I found that I didn't like the characters much and lost interest about halfway through the second season.  I started watching some of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" around that time, though it was a tougher show for me to keep up with.  Eventually I would watch most of the last two seasons live, and more in syndication, starting around 1996.  I keep meaning to go back and watch the whole thing properly one of these days, but I haven't managed it yet.

I was very aware of the original 1964 "Star Trek" by this point, but I had almost no exposure to it except occasional archival clips and parodies.  The movie series with the original series cast was over by 1991, and I wouldn't seek any of those out until I was an adult.  Of course I knew who Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and all the rest were just via cultural osmosis.   To date, I've watched a handful of the most famous older "Star Trek" episodes, like "The City on the Edge of Forever" and "The Trouble With Tribbles," but I have no nostalgia for the series and  no interest in watching more.  I didn't even know about the existence of the first animated series until a few years ago.  

With the 2000s came "Enterprise," and I was ready to call it quits.  The previous shows had all ended.  "Enterprise," with its very different aesthetics and attempts to broaden the appeal of the franchise, looked so off putting in the advertisements that I still haven't seen any of it beyond the unfortunate title sequence.  By that time I was in college and had plenty of access to other genre media that was taking precedence.  I was still watching the movie series, which had switched over to "The Next Generation" characters starting in 1994, but these were also in decline.  2002's "Star Trek: Nemesis" would be the last until the 2009 reboot.  I largely stopped paying attention to "Star Trek" for the rest of the decade.

However, just because I stopped watching "Star Trek" didn't mean I wasn't still a fan.  When the reboots did come along, I was very receptive to having "Star Trek" in my life again.  I've watched every single movie and episode since 2009.  Even "Prodigy."  Even the "Short Treks."  I went back and watched all the older "Star Trek" films and all the episodes of "The Next Generation" that I'd missed.  I've watched multiple documentaries on "Star Trek," and even visited the Las Vegas Hilton so I could go to "Star Trek: The Experience," with its recreations of the Enterprise D bridge and Quark's bar.

Ultimately, I think I have to admit that I'm more of a "The Next Generation" fan than a "Star Trek" fan, but I've gotten awfully attached to other parts of the franchise, and I don't plan to stop watching anytime soon.

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