Month: October 2025

Movie 1: Good Fortune

This is a very delightful and entertaining comedy/drama.  A guardian angel (Keanu Reeves) protects people from texting while driving.  And the low key good humor starts from there.  The cast is wonderful with an easy and winning chemistry. Much better than we had anticipated, a good time at the movies.

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Movie 2: After the Hunt

This is a riveting psychological crime drama set on the Yale University campus.  A teacher is accused of sexual assault of a student.  Filled with much timely and relevant topics.  Did he or didn’t he?  The acting of Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield is excellent and both deserve Oscar nominations.  In theatres now, soon to be streaming on Netflix and Prime Video.  

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Movie 3: Steve

This is a very nuanced, intentionally slow drama about a headmaster of a reform school trying to keep his students in line.  While at the same time dealing with his own issues.  Another fantastic performance by Cillian Murphy.  Based on Max Porter’s novel “Shy”.  On Netflix.

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Special Note:  We are off to France and Italy.
Movie reviews will return mid-November. 
Be well everyone. 

Movie 1: Bone Lake

This is an entertaining and well done horror movie. Two different couples mistakenly rent the same lake house for the weekend. For most of the movie it is intelligently written and acted with believable situations. It was tracking towards a three globe movie. Then the last 20 minutes it reverted back to some usual horror schlock, diminishing the overall effect. But nonetheless much better than we expected.

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Movie 2: Tron: Ares

We aren’t exactly sure what this expensively made and visually spectacular movie is about.  It is the third Tron movie in the franchise.  We both nodded off more than once, so I guess staying awake would have helped in understanding it.  It is loud, colorful with great special effects.  The younger audience seemed to like it a lot, as did many national film critics.

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Movie 3: Ballad of a Small Player

Colin Farrell plays a high stakes gambler on a massive losing streak, in search of that one winning night.  Set in the gambling casinos of Macau, Farrell’s acting is riveting and brilliant.  And it’s always good to see Tilda Swinton.  Yet somehow this movie seems slow, disjointed and not nearly as good as we had hoped.

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Movie 1: Kiss of the Spider Woman

This is a beautifully filmed redo from the award winning 1985 original. The acting, sets and costumes are spectacular. A political prisoner shares a cell with a gay man in a Latin American prison. And they gain each other’s trust and friendship through the reliving of a Hollywood musical. Part drama, part musical, all very well done.

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Movie 2: Roofman

Based on a true story where a convict hides and lives in a North Carolina Toys R Us for six months.  While he has made several bad and wrong decisions, he is basically a kind and generous person.  Channing Tatum and Kristen Dunst have a good and believable chemistry together.  A very entertaining movie.

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Movie 3: A House of Dynamite

This is a masterpiece directed by Kathryn Bigelow.  A nuclear weapon is launched from the western Pacific region and will detonate in 19 minutes in Chicago.  Two attempts to blow it up midair fail.  The tension and horror are palpable.  The overtones of this movie are timely and horrifying.  In theaters now and streaming globally on Netflix October 24.  Do not miss this one.

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Movie 1: The Lost Bus

This is the terrifying true story of the wildfire that devastated the Northern California town of Paradise in 2018.  Matthew McConaughey plays the bus driver who saved 22 children.  Combined with actual footage of the fire and its total destruction, this is a very tense and harrowing movie.  Limited theatrical release but now streaming on Apple + TV.

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Movie 2: Anemone

This movie is the long-awaited return of Daniel Day-Lewis to acting.  Set in present day Northern England, Lewis portrays an aging recluse dealing with family issues and the trauma experienced from the Northen Ireland “troubles”.  The cinematography and acting are very good, but this film is slow, bleak and more than a little confusing.  Overall, a disappointing movie.

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Movie 3:The Smashing Machine

This is a very entertaining and engaging “sports movie”.  It follows the life of an amateur wrestler and the complicated relationship he has with wrestling and his live in girlfriend.   This is a very well done movie with excellent acting by Dwayne Johnson and especially Emily Blunt.  It had its world premier at the Venice Film Festival and won the Silver Lion Award.  

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Movie 1: Eleanor the Great

A 94 year old woman moves from Florida back to Manhattan after the death of a close friend.  Looking to join a social group she accidently walks into a Holocaust Survivor group instead.  The acting, writing and humor are pitch perfect.  Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut is a winner.  This is a very warm and realistic drama/comedy.

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Movie 2: Dead of Winter

This is a very well made thriller.  Set in the cold, dark and gloom of a Northern Minnesota winter (actually filmed in Finland) a widow gets lost in a blizzard and knocks on the cabin door of a kidnapper.  Emma Thompson and Judy Greer are perfect in their confrontational roles.  As a film reviewer said on RogerEbert.com, “Imagine a cross between Taken and Fargo.”  In theaters now but will also be on Discovery+ and Apple TV.

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Movie 3: One Battle After Another

This is an epic movie from the acclaimed film director Paul Thomas Anderson.  The movie follows years of protesting by the American group called French 75.  The acting, writing, direction are all Oscar worthy.  Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro are excellent.  This is a very timely and well told story in our current American adventure.  

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