Movies 2025 Movie Discussion Thread

[Andrew POE!]

Nickel Boys is like last year's The Zone of Interest with being one of the more experimental movies being nominated for Oscars.

[Technico Support]

11 hours ago, Andrew POE! said:

I'm Still Here (saw in the theaters) - 5/5 stars

Too many movies with similar, vague titles like this.  For a second, I thought you were reviewing this film.  You know what would be a fun theme night?  Get Out, I'm Still Here, and You Should Have Left.

[HarryArchieGus]

Highly recommend 'Being Led Zeppelin' to any fans seeing this. It's being criminally underrated by the few reviews I've seen. Excellent interviews, including a rare Bonzo from the 70s, and full performances of songs - which is I think why all the reviews say 'for fans only'.

Has anybody seen Sook Yin-Lee's new movie 'Paying For It' (Chester Brown)? 

[Kuetsar]

1 hour ago, HarryArchieGus said:

Highly recommend 'Being Led Zeppelin' to any fans seeing this. It's being criminally underrated by the few reviews I've seen. Excellent interviews, including a rare Bonzo from the 70s, and full performances of songs - which is I think why all the reviews say 'for fans only'.

Has anybody seen Sook Yin-Lee's new movie 'Paying For It' (Chester Brown)? 

What sick bastard isn't a fan of led zeppelin?

[Andrew POE!]

1 hour ago, HarryArchieGus said:

Highly recommend 'Being Led Zeppelin' to any fans seeing this. It's being criminally underrated by the few reviews I've seen. Excellent interviews, including a rare Bonzo from the 70s, and full performances of songs - which is I think why all the reviews say 'for fans only'.

Has anybody seen Sook Yin-Lee's new movie 'Paying For It' (Chester Brown)? 

Seeing Being Led Zeppelin this weekend. The movie watching never ends.

I'll have to track down Paying For It. It looks like it'll be on Mubi, so I'll catch it there.

I know Criterion Channel added All Shall Be Well recently.

Edited February 10 by Andrew POE!

[Tabe]

6 hours ago, Kuetsar said:

What sick bastard isn't a fan of led zeppelin?

The musicians whose songs they copied?

[Andrew POE!]

Movies today....lots of giallo on Criterion Channel.

Babysitter (2022) (Mubi, leaving on 2/19) - 3/5 stars

Spoiler

While watching this, I thought about something that happened years ago with a boxer Kubrat Pulev forcibly kissing a reporter/model Jenny SuShe during an interview. The premise for this movie is similar to that real life incident as well as the source material play.

This movie in some ways is an echo of this year's The Substance. It's a cinematic Rorschach test much in the way The Substance was as well and tackles a similar subject matter. There's Tarantino in certain scenes, Aronofsky in the editing choices and usage of closeups, Pasolini in the absurd comedic style, Godard in how scenes are handled, Celine Schiamma with how the introductory scenes were shot, Argento with the usage of light and shadows (some scenes reminded me a bit of giallo horror movies I've seen recently), Roman Polanski in psychological horror for a few scenes, Robert Altman with the female focus and inspiration from 3 Women, David Lynch in the surrealistic approach, Hitchcock for the freeze frame ending, Jacques Demy for the usage of color, Almodovar with the melodramatic scenes with the female characters, and a very Ennio Morricone-esque soundtrack.

For the most part with the movie, there isn't an aim to demonstrate a character arc for the main characters Cedric (Patrick Hivon), Nadine (Monia Chokri) and Amy (Nadia Tereszkiewicz) as it is to present a satirical view of men behaving badly and the culture surrounding it.

The movie mostly works, but I can't help to feel a bit empty afterwards. I don't really feel like I connected with the story as much or with the director Monia Chokri's purpose as much as I wanted to. I was expecting it to go as far as The Substance did and Babysitter seems to only scratch the surface (overshot of Chokri in a heart shaped pool and wearing a strap-on in a forest notwithstanding).

Don't Bother To Knock (Criterion Channel, leaving on 2/28) - 3.5/5 stars

Spoiler

Movie is a lot better than is thought to be - in a lot of ways, Marilyn Monroe's character Nell precedes Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie's characters in Girl Interrupted.

Much of the movie is about Nell's break from reality and remembering her ex who died. Monroe's facial expression document the changes as she tries to hide them from everyone. Jed (Richard Widmark) sees Nell from across the courtyard (almost Hitchcock's Rear Window like) and manages to get her to agree with meet with him. His character undergoes a change as well; he views love in a cynical fashion but eventually sees what Nell still thinks about her ex and the psychological break she is undergoing.

I liked the scenes toward the end as the scene changes from different characters as two nosey neighbors go to room 809 where Nell is located. It actually had a bit of tension albeit a bit understated.

The Girl Who Knew Too Much / Evil Eye (Criterion Channel, leaving on 2/28) - 2/5 stars

Spoiler

I watched the English dubbed Evil Eye on Criterion Channel and it's sorta bad. It's not really a giallo horror as much as it is a Hitchcock influenced film noir. There's a lot of stylish shots throughout the movie, but the music makes it feel like a Blake Edwards comedy and not a thriller (which is funny because Blake Edwards did a pretty effective giallo horror film himself with Experiment In Terror).

I did like the usage of match shots in the movie and there were some suspenseful moments throughout the movie. The ending was unnecessarily comedic like "oops, here we go again!"

In The Folds of the Flesh (Criterion Channel, leaving on 2/28) - 1/5 star

Spoiler

I have no idea what the fuck I just watched. Just for it being a movie where things happen and things got recorded on film, it's 5 stars. For it to make any sense, 1 star.

Still, what does anyone know about movie criticism anyway? I watched something, I have a reaction, I try to vocalize my thoughts in logical sense and judge whatever I thought of the movie against other movies I've seen. Even then, I'm at a loss to even evaluate this movie. I know it's bad because what I saw looked bad. But I wonder, "maybe it's me? Maybe I'm out of touch. Maybe it's actually good and I've been watching too many movies to even know anymore."

Nah, I realize, it's the drizzling shits.

With this, the director Sergio Bergonzelli is like, "Fuck you, this is my movie, good luck reviewing it, you don't know what you're talking about. So what if I used triple zooms and unexpected zooms that cause whiplash? I made this. Go watch Hitchcock if you don't like it." (this is how I imagine the conversation would go)

None of the acting 'performances' are even classified as character arcs or a logical character progression. The actors have no clue what they are doing as much as I have no clue what I'm watching. Any emotions generated from the scenes for them are empty gestures. The story for the movie is literally throwing feces at the wall.

The movie starts with a severed head on the carpet. Then a speeding train. Then a guy in a car driving to a villa. How all are connected at first, I don't know. The movie later explains what happens at the start but I can't say how it went about it made sense either. The movie haphazard runs through scenes. I just know for the characters if there are problems they encounter, one of them will use a sword to cut off the aggressor's head. There's Nazis in flashback. There's 2000 year old remains. Good luck watching this.

The only enjoyable scenes were Pascal Gorriot (Fernando Sancho) taking a bath. He looked like he was having a good time. (Although I wasn't because I had to see his nude ass). Then cyanide capsules fall into the bath from a cuckoo clock and....it's somehow hilarious.

This is the kind of movie you show to people saying that Megalopolis and Joker: Folie a Deux were the worst movies they've ever seen. Joker: Folie a Deux has a plot, characters, and makes sense. Megalopolis is about as nonsensical as this and yet cost a lot of money and is just insane to watch.

This can't even count as a giallo horror style movie. Someone somewhere making this movie used this movie as a tax writeoff. That's the only thing that makes sense.

 

[J.H.]

Checked out the Criterion Collection sale and... WTH! When did Shaft enter the CC?

I'm going to have to get this!

James

 

[odessasteps]

1 hour ago, Tabe said:

The musicians whose songs they copied?

Not that this got them any money, but I first learned about people like Memphis Minnie by them being mentioned in the liner notes or in the writing credits of some of those albums by Zeppelin and probably also the Stones. 

[(BP)]

Evil Eye is fine, but really the only thing that left an impression on me was the novelty of young John Saxon as the romantic lead. 

[J.H.]

The mere concept of "Young" John Saxon intrigues me. Like I just figured he came out of the womb in his 30s before he became everyone's favorite alcoholic Dad who got his daughter haunted by Freddy Kreuger

James

Edited February 13 by J.H.

[Andrew POE!]

Movies today...practically drowned in John Waters' movies.

Female Trouble (Criterion Channel, leaving on 2/28) - 4.5/5 stars

Spoiler

This movie is batshit insane to watch and I love it for that. In some ways, Serial Mom is the more commercially realized version of this. Female Trouble though has it's own identity and it's own goals.

Dawn Davenport (Divine) just wanted a pair of cha cha heels. That was it. Dawn Davenport as a character is a precursor to celebrities like Casey Anthony, George Zimmerman, Lorena Bobbitt, and others who did criminal behavior and are famous for merely doing so (the movie mentions other criminals as well).

The movie's low/no budget nature does mean certain things don't hold up well but I'd rather have more low/no budget movies like this than 'mumblecore' where nothing happens for 90 minutes except people talking (there's a few mumblecore movies I like though).

Radical Hardcore (Mubi, leaving this month) - 3/5 stars

Spoiler

Dalton West Carpets in Atlanta should use this music. The best carpet commercial ever.

Pitch Black Panacea (Mubi, leaving this month) - 3.5/5 stars

Spoiler

"And last night, I stared at a candle for about two hours and
got my head together" -Randy Savage

The only way out is through.

Desperate Living (Criterion Channel, leaving on 2/28) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

Peggy in Desperate Living is every Karen in 2025.

This movie at times is like a car. A beat up, older model Oldsmobile that barely runs. It almost stalls out but it gets there. Desperate Living seems to have a really weak plot structure (so many plot threads that weren't needed) but is just flat out insane to watch. A baby in a refrigerator because the babysitter is tripping on LCD. Nudity everywhere (including a sequence where Jean Hill, Mink Stole, Liz Renay and Susan Lowe are all naked).

At first, the desire to take this seriously is there. Peggy rants at kids for breaking her window with a baseball and thinks they are trying to kill them and 'this is her Vietnam.' It's just pure catharsis and pure insanity. After awhile, I just busted out laughing at a lot of the lines. "Your boyfriend is dead." "I want you to cut these tits off!" "Find 'em, fuck 'em and forget 'em!"

I felt like Female Trouble was narrative wise a stronger movie and more cohesive. Desperate Living is a bit more cinematic and there are a lot of influence from The Wizard of Oz, Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs and Sleeping Beauty in the movie - it's almost like a 1940s Disney movie at times (although a lot of the material isn't but oh well).

The final shot is a bit darken but is just admirable.

Heart Eyes (saw at the theaters) - 2.5/5 stars

Spoiler

A bit of a standard thriller with a bit of a standard romantic comedy. The movie at times does some things technically well but unimaginative (can’t screw up conversations where it does a shot of one actor talking then cuts to the other). The rest of the time, the cinematography is overall flat and too dark (although the opening scenes were the best ones with how it was shot and with the shot of the woman running away).

The actors' performances were adequate but a bit too close to the Scream formula. The best performances in the whole movie were Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell from His Girl Friday.

The final 15 minutes is a giallo horror wrinkle in Scream formula (almost reminded me of Blood and Black Lace). Rather forgettable as a movie.

Love Hurts (saw at the theaters) - 1/5 star

Spoiler

Oh wow, it hurts (no pun intended) me to give this one-star. I loved the action sequences throughout the movie and for the most part they hooked me into it. (Although I did get annoyed by the usage of shaky cam when hits were occurring). Big missed opportunity not to have a scene set to Nazareth's "Love Hurts." (maybe at the end would have been perfect instead of 10CC's "The Things We Do For Love.")

But man oh man the script did Ke Huy Quan, Ariana DeBose, Daniel Wu, Marshawn Lynch, Mustafa Shakir, and Lio Tipton dirty. The actors involved tried to make it work - I genuinely loved the exchanges between Shakir and Tipton - it reminded me a bit of scenes from Tarantino's Kill Bill with their subtle acting.

So much of the movie felt really rushed - it practically threw information at you in voiceovers, in flashbacks, and in scenes taking place at the same time. At one point, it jumped between what Marvin (Huy Quan) was doing, to what Raven (Shakir) and Ashley (Tipton) were doing, to what Rose (DuBois) was doing, to what Merlot (Cam Gigandet) was doing and then what King (Lynch) and Otis (Andre Eriksen) were doing. It was almost nauseating to keep up. I felt like I couldn't recall what the initial story was much less where I was in the story.

I did like the usage of match cuts during one sequence when Marvin was on the phone with Ashley. The fight sequence set to "My First, My Last, My Everything" was inspired. The fight sequence in the showroom house was great with the usage of wall-mounted weapons but the movie didn't pull the trigger by killing off King and Otis.

What failed the movie besides the script was the editing. It felt as though there were scenes missing that would have made the movie better - at one point towards the end, Merlow was found beaten up. The last we left him, he was getting into a vehicle. How did Knuckles (lol) / Alvin (Wu) find out about his double crossing him so easily? It wasn't explained. Marvin's boss (Sean Astin) dying was picked up on until Marvin sees his hat (which then did an unnecessary flashback as we're dumb). A new unnamed Russian character was introduced and what Rose did completely undermined the entire movie.

The ending was just a sloppy mess.

Love Hurts just hurts to watch.

Polyester (Criterion Channel, leaving on 2/28) - 5/5 stars

Spoiler

"That boy needs therapy/Psycho somatic / What does that mean?" -The Avalanches, "Frontier Psychiatrist"

Probably the best John Waters movie I've seen. It still retains a lot of the earlier aesthetics and approach of movies like Female Trouble and Desperate Living but not as unfocused. The more professionally shot look to the scenes I think does what the earlier movies tried to do.

Throughout the entire movie, Francine Fishpaw (Divine) cannot catch a break. Earlier movies from Waters would have depicted her situation as cruel, but here it's a bit more sympathetic. It's a bit more melodramatic but her family basically leave her with her children (including one being 'the Baltimore Foot Stomper') and her husband Elmer (David Samson) mocking her at times. Todd Tomorrow (Tab Hunter)'s appearance is in passing and is almost a fantasy rather than a reality.

The last 10 minutes did lose it's way a little with the revelations about Todd's true intentions, but it's practically hilarious how Todd and La Rue (Joni Ruth White) get hit by the same car back to back.

I think I'm a John Waters fan now.

 

[Travis Sheldon]

13 hours ago, Andrew POE! said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Oh wow, it hurts (no pun intended) me to give this one-star. I loved the action sequences throughout the movie and for the most part they hooked me into it. (Although I did get annoyed by the usage of shaky cam when hits were occurring). Big missed opportunity not to have a scene set to Nazareth's "Love Hurts." (maybe at the end would have been perfect instead of 10CC's "The Things We Do For Love.")

But man oh man the script did Ke Huy Quan, Ariana DeBose, Daniel Wu, Marshawn Lynch, Mustafa Shakir, and Lio Tipton dirty. The actors involved tried to make it work - I genuinely loved the exchanges between Shakir and Tipton - it reminded me a bit of scenes from Tarantino's Kill Bill with their subtle acting.

So much of the movie felt really rushed - it practically threw information at you in voiceovers, in flashbacks, and in scenes taking place at the same time. At one point, it jumped between what Marvin (Huy Quan) was doing, to what Raven (Shakir) and Ashley (Tipton) were doing, to what Rose (DuBois) was doing, to what Merlot (Cam Gigandet) was doing and then what King (Lynch) and Otis (Andre Eriksen) were doing. It was almost nauseating to keep up. I felt like I couldn't recall what the initial story was much less where I was in the story.

I did like the usage of match cuts during one sequence when Marvin was on the phone with Ashley. The fight sequence set to "My First, My Last, My Everything" was inspired. The fight sequence in the showroom house was great with the usage of wall-mounted weapons but the movie didn't pull the trigger by killing off King and Otis.

What failed the movie besides the script was the editing. It felt as though there were scenes missing that would have made the movie better - at one point towards the end, Merlow was found beaten up. The last we left him, he was getting into a vehicle. How did Knuckles (lol) / Alvin (Wu) find out about his double crossing him so easily? It wasn't explained. Marvin's boss (Sean Astin) dying was picked up on until Marvin sees his hat (which then did an unnecessary flashback as we're dumb). A new unnamed Russian character was introduced and what Rose did completely undermined the entire movie.

The ending was just a sloppy mess.

Love Hurts just hurts to watch.

Polyester (Criterion Channel, leaving on 2/28) - 5/5 stars

  Hide contents

 

I think I'm a John Waters fan now.

 

Welcome to the club.

Grab an egg, but limit yourself to one.

Those things are expensive these days.

[Brian Fowler]

At the risk of shameless self-promotion, I have recently become a recurring guest host on my favorite movie podcast, Alternate Ending. My second appearance went live yesterday. It's a weekly show, with a different format each week of the month (First Tuesday of the month is a show where the host has to only say nice things about a movie chosen by her guest that month, the second is a general film discussion episode, the third is a horror themed version featuring the two main hosts doing a deep dive on one movie, and the fourth is a preview of upcoming movies for the following month.) I'm scheduled to appear roughly once a month. If anyone wants to check it out, here's the link on their website, and you can find it on pretty much every podcast catcher and player out there.

https://www.alternateending.com/podcast/the-podcast-the-romance-of-cinema

[Andrew POE!]

Movies today....finally finished the John Waters movies leaving Criterion Channel this month.

Hairspray (1988) (Criterion Channel, leaving on 2/28) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

Hairspray as a comedy is in the mold of Doris Day romantic comedies or Frankie Avalon/Annette Funnicello surfer comedies but has a bit more to it.

The story is a bit threadbare and is really carried by the incredible soundtrack. A lot of the movie speaks to the time period of the early 1960s and is a bit nostalgic for when people in that time watched regional versions of Dick Clark's Top 40 countdown. It's easy to be captivated by the music and the dancing involved.

The movie did lead me to believe it would be about the power of fame corrupting Tracey (Ricki Lake); in fact, that wasn't the case at all. Fame empowered Tracey and didn't corrupt her. She became more confident in herself to speak up for integration.

There is something to be said about cultural appropriation which this movie touches upon: a lot of the music that white teenagers like Tracey like were created by black musicians to tell their pain, sorrow, and triumphs. White teenagers of the time wouldn't have an understanding of what was involved, so the irony is delicious when station directors decide to prevent integration of the time.

I did like how Waters had POV shots in the movie (which was in Polyester as well). With this and Polyester, I could definitely see John Waters change a lot as a director and the technical aspects being a lot more polished.

Cry-Baby (Criterion Channel, leaving on 2/28) - 3/5 stars

Spoiler

Compared to movies from John Waters, this movie seems a bit too risk adverse and doesn't have as much going on as it should. It leans a bit into musicals like Grease and 1950s delinquent youth movies like Rebel Without A Cause, The Delinquents and High School Hellcats.

At times, there isn't really character arcs for Wade Walker (Johnny Depp) and Allison (Amy Locane). Both actors did great despite this and there's a hilarious scene where they recount their parents' death to each other.

The rest of the movie is 1950s musical numbers for the most part. I did like the utterly insane flaming motorcycle pushed into a jukebox scene and the madness afterwards.

Probably one of the weaker efforts from John Waters.

Cecil B. Demented (Criterion Channel, leaving on 2/28) - 3/5 stars

Spoiler

Cecil B. Demented as a movie just really doesn't work as a movie. It works as an attempt to recapture John Waters' earlier insane style of filmmaking but with a higher budget. It's enjoyable in the sense that Stephen Dorff (Cecil B Demented) and Melanie Griffith (Honey) are completely watchable, but don't expect a whole more than that.

Still, the satire for the movie is even more true today except now it's the apparatus of Marvel/Star Wars/Disney movies have controlled Hollywood and right wing religious movies being shown regularly (last year having Reagan, City of Dreams, and The Forge in theaters at the same time is proof).

Fear City (Criterion Channel, leaving on 2/28) - 3/5 stars

Spoiler

The opening shots had to have an influence on the opening for Drive. Fear City is not very deep but when you watch Abel Ferrara's movies don't expect a lot of deep story or characters. Tom Berenger did great with the character Matt Rossi and gave him a sense of guilt and deeper motivation beyond "quiet tough guy" trope.

Melanie Griffith looked hot as always and still in the mode she was in when she did De Palma's Body Double.

Billy Dean Williams as a detective was almost like Gene Hackman in The French Connection; too bad his scenes were a bit limited.

I did love the montages used which showed the karate guy training naked (hey, a guy being naked showed up in Bad Lieutenant!) and showing Nick's friend in the hospital.

It's not an Abel Ferrara movie without a reference to Catholicism or usage of racial epithets.

Dead Calm (Criterion Channel, leaving on 2/28) - 3/5 stars

Spoiler

Not really a terrible lot of story to the movie to be honest. Nicole Kidman even in 1989 is positively gorgeous to watch and there were a lot of closeups of her face (and Billy Zane and Sam Neill's faces). I didn't really like Kidman's character Rae so easily switching to Hughie Warriner (Zane) and even having sex with him; there should have been more of a struggle against that and Rae should have been vehemently opposed to him throughout the movie. Sam Neill and Kidman were a bit too soft-spoken throughout the movie.

Still, the movie makes up for it with a lot of incredible cinematography. I really loved the shots of the yacht against the sunset at night.

 

[Contentious C]

21 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

At the risk of shameless self-promotion, I have recently become a recurring guest host on my favorite movie podcast, Alternate Ending. My second appearance went live yesterday. It's a weekly show, with a different format each week of the month (First Tuesday of the month is a show where the host has to only say nice things about a movie chosen by her guest that month, the second is a general film discussion episode, the third is a horror themed version featuring the two main hosts doing a deep dive on one movie, and the fourth is a preview of upcoming movies for the following month.) I'm scheduled to appear roughly once a month. If anyone wants to check it out, here's the link on their website, and you can find it on pretty much every podcast catcher and player out there.

https://www.alternateending.com/podcast/the-podcast-the-romance-of-cinema

I watched a new movie every day for a year and a half straight and no one asked me to be on a podcast.  What the Hell.

[odessasteps]

I liked Dead Calm when I saw it. And it was on the back of so many DC comics at the time

 

[Andrew POE!]

Movies today....not as many due to work stuff

Titane (Hulu, leaving on 2/16) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

Titane, like a lot of other French female directed movies, does have a lot to say about male power structure and the gender norms for women. The movie in its storytelling is a bit clumsy and some of the themes aren't as clear as they should be. But it makes up for it with how the movie was executed.

How this movie was shot was great and had a lot of great cinematography. I loved the opening present day tracking shot as the camera follows Alexia (Agathe Rousselle) through a car show then follows other things occurring at the show. The musical choices for scenes was great as well - Alexia watching Vincent (Vincent Lindon) dancing to "She's Not There" is a bit of a callback to Tarantino's Kill Bill and also says something about Alexia as well - she appears to be human and has open eyes but 'is not there.'

I did like the scene where Alexia as Adrien dances seductively on top of the fire engine at the party, confusing the other firefighters. In some ways, it subverts gender norms because those firefighters think Alexia is Adrien and is identified as a man.

In a lot of ways, Julia Ducournau uses ideas from directors like David Cronenberg (Crash) and Stanley Kubrick (A Clockwork Orange) to tell this story - one scene while Alexia/Adrien is walking through the apartment while naked especially reminded me of Kubrick.

Titane as a movie is a precursor in some ways to 2024's The Substance. In some ways, the director for this is having a dialogue with Coralie Fargeat through their movies.

The GoodTimesKid (Criterion Channel, leaving on 2/28) - 2/5 stars

Spoiler

The premise is really interesting and I like the idea of it talking about two people who share the same exact name but the movie is exceedingly dull at times.

I cringed completely seeing the destruction of some really great vinyl records (No, not Joy Division! Not Gang of Four!).

Much of the story is Rodolfo I (Azazel Jacobs) is a complete fuckup with his girlfriend Diaz (Sara Diaz) having to suffer through it while Rodolfo II (Gerardo Naranjo) is just along for the ride, man.

Spin Me Round (Hulu, leaving on 2/19) - 3/5 stars

Spoiler

It's easy to think of Spin Me Round as a comedy because of the fact that it has actors that normally do comedy or are on comedic shows like Tim & Eric, Awesome Job! or Parks & Recreation.

The fact is this is really a drama with very dark comedy elements. Having seen Life After Beth, Jeff Baena seems to lean in a lot to dark comedy in his movies; which makes what happened to him a bit sad.

Getting back to the movie, there's a lot of intrigue as to what is going on at the 'training program' for a restaurant that's basically Olive Garden. The movie does present a lot to make me wonder about the more sinister aspects that could possibly be occurring. A lot of the scenes with Aubrey Plaza as Kat and Alessandro Nivola as Nick really play up the sinister aspects - Kat and Nick take advantage of Amber (Alison Brie) and her financial place in life / subordinate status in the company.

I did like the usage of music in the movie - like "Lady in Red" during a party scene and "Spin Me Around" while Amber is flying back to the US. In some fashion, the movie reminded me a bit of Rumours, where chaos happens on site while the outside world is completely ignored. The difference being that the outside world is encroached and the police arrive at the end.

The one drawback is the last 15 minutes somewhat undermined the movie a bit and was easily resolved, which took the intrigue and mystery out of the movie.

 

[Brian Fowler]

6 hours ago, Contentious C said:

I watched a new movie every day for a year and a half straight and no one asked me to be on a podcast.  What the Hell.

Honestly, it came from well over a decade of being active in the comment section of the one hosts film reviews, and a few years of being active on the podcast's Discord server. But I've had fun being on the two episodes I've done, so time well spent.

[Travis Sheldon]

22 hours ago, Contentious C said:

I watched a new movie every day for a year and a half straight and no one asked me to be on a podcast.  What the Hell.

Think that's grounds to start your own podcast.

[Contentious C]

Prolly. I doubt I have a pleasant enough speaking voice for helming that, though.

[J.H.]

Ya know, you could just start your own podcast

One of these days I'll repost the 13 episodes me and Peapod did of "Chick Flick Picks". We did 3 Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan romcoms before Pod had a breakdown during Sleepless In Seattle. It got real dicey when our episode on 10 Things I Hate About You was twice as long as the actual movie!

James

Edited February 15 by J.H.

[Andrew POE!]

On 2/13/2025 at 6:33 PM, Contentious C said:

I watched a new movie every day for a year and a half straight and no one asked me to be on a podcast.  What the Hell.

I watched five a day every day for a year and no one asked me either (probably because I wouldn't be awake enough to be coherent).

[J.H.]

The Menu - Is it wrong to refer to Anya Taylor-Joy as the current "It Girl" for cinema in the English speaking world. I have loved her in everything I've seen her in, which is more than I realized. 

As a guy who spent 15 or so working the line, not Fine Dining mind you, but I get the hierarchy of working in a kitchen. Ralph Fienbes plays the meticulous type of chef who PBS Chefs take viewers into their kitchens. His dialogue is delivered succinctly and crispy. It gives a viewer the sense his Julian Slowik is definitely off with how everything he does is so precise. So crisp. So precise.

At it's core, The Menu reminds me of the 70s movie Murder By Death, which itself parodies the Parlour Room Murder Mystery. Unlike that film, The Menu is much darker in it's humor. It is builds tension with all the guests as you get to know them better. Anya Taylor-Joy's Margot is an outsider, like a female Poirot, minus the grooming, stumbling into a situation she doesn't belong.

I really enjoyed this, it's combination of black humor and horror/tension is so very fun as a moviegoer. I'm very glad I finally sat down and watched it. It is the type of movie you can sit in a dark room on a big TV and have it's humor, tension and pace wash over you for a really enjoyable experience.

James

[odessasteps]

I’m out of modern pop culture loop, but I’d think Sydney Sweeney or even Margot Robbie would likely be the current “It Girl.”