Anyone But You (2023)

  I'm just going to say it:  I don't get the Sydney Sweeney fascination.  Sure, she's got a great rack, but she's not particularly charismatic.  

After a disastrous one night stand, Ben (Glen Powell) and Bea (Sydney Sweeney) find themselves stuck together at a destination wedding for mutual friends.  In order to keep the peace, they agree to fake a relationship but soon find that feelings are complicated.

This is meant to be an updated version of Much Ado About Nothing that cuts out all the stuff that isn't Benedict and Beatrice, but there's a reason those are side characters.  They cannot carry a whole movie on banter.  Maybe other actors could and Powell is certainly game (although he really gets screwed by the script) but there's no chemistry and the bickering is forced and juvenile.  Ironically, the side characters really shine.  Alexandra Shipp, GaTa, and Bryan Brown understood the assignment and carried on like loyal soldiers.  

Again, I'm not a rom-com person so feel free to take my opinion with a grain of salt, but this bears no comparison to the Branagh-Thompson movie.  It is streaming on Hulu, though.

Wicked: For Good (2025)

  So there were actually THREE supernatural musicals released in 2025 but this one I didn't see until after the new year.  

Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), now branded the Wicked Witch of the West, has been trying to change the hearts and minds of Ozians to make them see that their Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) is a con man, but she can't compete with Madame Morrible's (Michelle Yeoh) propaganda machine.  Madame M has positioned Glinda (Ariana Grande) to charm and distract the good people with a huge, glamorous wedding to Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), even though they weren't engaged, little realizing that news alone was enough to strike a blow to several hearts: Elphaba, who was secretly in love with Fiyero, and Boq (Ethan Slater), the Munchkin man in love with Glinda.  Boq's revelation of his feelings sends Elphaba's sister, Nessarose (Marissa Bode) into a jealous rage, setting in motion a chain of events that leads to a cyclone and the beginning of a new story.

The movie makes explicit some plot aspects that the stage musical kept more subtle, which I don't hate, and the music is of course fantastic.  Still not sure why everything has to be three hours long now, but whatever.  I watched this with friends and it was a great time.  We made macarons in pink and green.  It was a whole thing.  If you don't like musicals or the first one wasn't your thing, go ahead a skip this one.  It is strictly for the fans.  It's available on Amazon to buy or rent.  I'm obviously going to buy it but I think I'll wait to see if there's a double-disc option.

Master Z: Ip Man Legacy (2018)

  You have no idea how long it has taken me to actually finish this movie.  I started trying in July of last year.  Content warning:  some blood, overdose, drug use

Cheung Tin-chi (Max Zhang) was the new Grandmaster of Wing Chun until he challenged and got his ass beat by Ip Man (Donnie Yen) behind closed doors.  Humiliated, Cheung sold out as a gangster for hire for awhile, then gave up crime to open a grocery store.  He runs afoul of local tough guy Tso Sai-Kit (Kevin Cheng) on a delivery when he accidentally interrupts Tso's harassment of Julia (Liu Yan) and Nana (Chrissie Chau).  Tso firebombs the grocery store in retaliation.  Julia gets Cheung a job at her brother's bar, and Tso starts selling heroin because he's mad at his sister (Michelle Yeoh).  

This is not a great movie.  The plot is a pastiche of like 6 other, better films.  But it is a very good martial arts wire fu movie.  The legendary action choreographer Cory Yuen Woo-Ping directed it and every fight scene is great.  You just kind of have to slog along in between them while it tries to plot at you.  It does feature a surprisingly good performance from Dave Bautista, like way better than his cardboard cutout character deserved.  He totally could have phoned that in but didn't.  And his fight with Max Zhang is hilarious because of their size differences.  It reminded me of Kate Bishop going up against Kingpin in the Hawkeye series.  

I started trying to watch this on the Roku Channel but the ad breaks were super annoying.  Then it was on Netflix but my subtitles were messed up.  And I finally finished it on Hulu.  A journey was taken.  Just watch it on Hulu.

The Mouse and His Child (1977)

  Still working my way through Christmas.  Content warning:  cartoon violence?, some indefinable thing but you should definitely watch it before you show it to your kids

A clockwork mouse (Alan Barzman) and his child (Marcy Swenson) are joined by the hands.  After accidentally falling into the trash, they wind up at the dump and under the power of Manny the rat (Peter Ustinov), who uses discarded windup toys as slave labor.  He wants the mouse and child to rob a bank holding his favorite sweets, but is foiled when the henchman he sends with them is too stupid and allows Mouse and Child to escape.  They wander through the land, searching for a muskrat (Bob Holt) who can allegedly give them the power to be self-winding.  

This is some late 70s animated nightmare fuel!  And on top of that, there's the existential crisis of the central plot.  Zero reason this had to go so hard!  Fully insane that there's a clock that tells the characters that their paths in life are predetermined and immutable.  The whole movie is on YouTube on what appears to be a VHS transfer, which frankly only adds to the fever dream of it all.  Vet this before you show it to your kids.  I'm so serious.

Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (1977)

  I watched this for Movie Club several weeks ago but didn't get a chance to post it, with all that was going on.  

Emmet Otter (Jerry Nelson) and his Ma (Marilyn Sokol) live on the river.  Ma takes in washing and Emmet does odd jobs.  Both hear about a talent show where the prize is $50.  That would be a significant sum, so they each independently sign up, Ma as a singer and Emmet with some locals in a band, without telling the other, each figuring that a win will allow them to buy the other one a present.

If you ever thought "Gee, I wish the Muppets could deal with abject poverty and be depressed," 1) what the fuck is wrong with you and 2) here's your movie!

This is the Jim Henson version of O. Henry's "Gift of the Magi" short story.  It is still pretty heart-warming but it is also a huge downer.  But like, in an important life lessons kind of way.  All the music is (of course) by Paul Williams and Kermit even makes a guest appearance.  It's a legitimate Muppet movie that I had somehow never seen.  I don't think I'd rush to watch it again, but I would definitely recommend it to people looking for kind of an off-beat Christmas movie to show their kids.

I think I had to actually rent this one from Amazon.  

2025 Top 10

The last couple of years have been pretty rough.  I had a family emergency over Christmas and overall this has been my worst year for posting.  I'm not a big resolutions person, but I would like to get back into my semi-normal routine, if things calm down enough to let me.  I hope everyone reading this has a wonderful 2026.  Let's look back at some of the movies I enjoyed and then what we're looking forward to in the coming months.

10.  Match - This was a huge surprise.  I wasn't expecting to like it this much, but the more I thought about it, the more it held up.

9.  The Thursday Murder Club - Comfort food.  I had a lot of burnout this year and had to deal with drama from all sides.  Otherwise, this would likely never have made the top ten.

8. Thunderbolts* - I didn't see Fantastic Four but I liked this Marvel entry.  It was messy and sad and dark when I was messy and sad and dark, so I really enjoyed it.

7. Superman - I mostly hate Superman.  He's my least favorite superhero.  But damn if I didn't need a little hope.  Also, Nicholas Hoult is a top-tier hater and I love that for him.

6.  Weapons - Shockingly funny.  Just great.

5. Companion - Best date movie this year.  If Heart Eyes hadn't tripped at the finish line, it could have been here.

4. Mickey 17 - Might be benefitting from how recently I watched it, but I really liked it.

3.  Frankenstein - How was this not going to be near the top?  Loved it.  The aesthetic!  The trauma!  The therapeutic rewriting of the ending!

1. (tie) Sinners

1. (tie) KPop Demon Hunters - Two (2!) supernatural musicals in one year??  With lore?? And pathos?? And incredible soundtracks??  Couldn't choose.  Truly, an embarrassment of riches.  I kept going back and forth between them, but just like my favorite Kindle category, Why Choose?  Have both!

I know 2026 has technically already started but I'm still catching up.  Here's what's coming out this year!

Dead Man's Wire - Bill Skarsgaard in an underdog thriller.  Haven't seen a lot but I love when he plays weird dudes.

Dracula - Luc Besson is doing his take.  I have mixed feelings, but you know, vampires.

Pillion - Alexander Skarsgaard out here letting his freak flag fly high!

Wuthering Heights - For Margot Robbie, I will suffer through another Bronte adaptation.

The Bride! - Very exciting!

Project Hail Mary - My ex listened to a lot of this audiobook while I was in the car so now I'm interested.

Hokum - From the same team that did Oddity.  

The Sheep Detectives - This looks really cute.

The Mandalorian and Grogu - I feel like this is going to be diminishing returns, but what do I know?

Supergirl - Milly Adcock looks like she'll be hilarious as Supergirl.

The Odyssey - I just can't quit Christopher Nolan.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day - There's a new Spider-Man movie?

Clayface - Zero expectations but I am curious.

Practical Magic 2 - Argh, I'm so afraid this is going to suck.  I love the original so much.

Street Fighter - Sure.  Why not?

Avengers: Doomsday - Will this be the final nail in the MCU coffin?  We'll see!

Dune: Part 3 - More space drama!

Werwulf - All right, Eggers.  You are tentatively off my shit-list.  Don't fuck this up.

A Christmas Carol (1984)

  Everybody has a favorite version of A Christmas Carol but this one is almost universally regarded as the definitive performance.  It's certainly the one I remember seeing the most.

Noted miser Ebenezer Scrooge (George C. Scott) is visited by the apparition of his dead partner (Frank Finley) on Christmas Eve and told that three more ghosts are coming to play This is Your Life, but in a bad way.  Scrooge is forced to confront his behavior and the chain of events that led him to this state.

Sure, Scott does most of the carrying but there isn't a single bad performance in this film.  Nobody plays a flat note, even the Dickensian cardboard cut-out side characters like the second-hand goods dealer.  Somehow that guy is just as interesting as Bob Cratchit.  Except, no, because Cratchit is being played by David Warner who managed to elevate The Secret of the Ooze.  But still.

Anyway, if you only ever see one Christmas Carol... it should probably still be The Muppets, but nobody is going to judge you for only seeing this one.  It's currently streaming on Hulu.