Diane Warren: Relentless (2025)

Nominated for Best Original Song.  I mean, of course it is.  It would be so funny if this had been nominated for Best Documentary and won.  Like, that would have been the biggest slap in the face.    Content warning:  discussion of sexual assault, animal death (off-screen, cat)

Diane Warren has been writing songs for over fifty years.  Even if you had never heard of her, you know her.  She has #1 singles in every decade, sung by dozens of artists.  She has her own production company, platinum records, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  But the one thing she did not have was an Oscar.  She has the dubious distinction of being the only woman nominated 15 times (16 this year) without a competitive* win.  She is loud, single-minded, and not particularly personable.  And in an award competition based in no small part on how well your peers like you, that's a major disadvantage.  

The documentary is kind of a puff piece; a look inside the often chaotic world of a neurodivergent creative professional.  It's interesting to see her process and the interviews with her very famous music clients are charming but unless you're super invested in songwriting or a big Oscar fan, there's really nothing else here.  It's streaming on Kanopy.

*She got an honorary one in 2022.

Jane Austen's Period Drama (2025)/The Singers (2025)/Two People Exchanging Saliva (2025)/A Friend of Dorothy (2025)

Nominated for Best Live Action Short    For expediency's sake, I'm lumping all the shorts together.

Jane Austen's Period Drama - Kanopy - a very funny short that people online have likened to a better class of SNL skit.  I think that's setting the bar too low but I don't like SNL.  

Miss Estrognia Talbot (Julia Aks) is in the middle of being proposed to by handsome bachelor Mr. Dickley (Ta'imua) when she unexpectedly gets her period.  Confused and alarmed, Dickley rushes her home where she argues with her sisters over how much she should educate him on women's biology.

Honestly, it's 2026.  If we cannot as a society be over the "ew, girls have cooties" factor about periods, what are we even doing?

The Singers - Netflix-  almost the polar opposite of Jane Austen, this doesn't have a single woman on screen and is four times as emotional.

A bar full of men is energized by a late-night bet:  whoever is the best singer wins a free beer and $100.

Absolutely magical performances.

Two People Exchanging Saliva - YouTube - what if Carol had been directed by Yorgos Lanthimos?

A shopgirl (Luàna Bajrami) and a wealthy housewife (Zar Amir Ebrahimi) try to suppress their desire in a world that criminalizes kissing as disgusting.

Only the French would think that the fastest way to show a dystopia is to make kissing illegal.  The garlic gum is going to give me nightmares, though.

A Friend of Dorothy - Kanopy - And we're back to being wholesome and cute.

A teen (Alistair Nwachukwu) trying to retrieve an errant soccer ball from a garden befriends an elderly lady named Dorothy (Miriam Margolyes) who encourages him to pursue his dreams.  All of them.

So sweet.  

Butcher's Stain (2025)

Nominated for Best Live Action Short    Catching at least one of the shorts this year.

Samir (Omar Sameer) works as a butcher in an Israeli grocery store until he is accused of tearing down posters of hostages in the breakroom.  He is told by the store manager (Roma Toledano) that someone saw him do it, and if he confesses they can move on with disciplinary actions.  Except Samir knows that he didn't do it and he's being unfairly targeted for being Palestinian.

This is less about Israel-Palestine than it is about toxic workplace cultures and the everpresent threat of poverty.  Samir gets by on the fringes but any kind of issue jeopardizes his entire life.  That's pretty universal.  

This is a moderately long short at 26 minutes and it's streaming on Kanopy with a library card.  It reminds me of the short about a stolen bicycle from a few years back (White Eye).

The Kid from Spain (1932)

  Reaching back into the depths of time with this one.   Content warning:  bullfighting, the kind of latent racism you find in pretty much any movie from this time, but also blackface for no real reason, and threats of domestic violence.

Eddie (Eddie Cantor) and Ricardo (Robert Young) get kicked out of college for a prank gone wrong, so Ricardo suggests they visit his family in Mexico.  Along the way, a mishap at the bank sees Eddie mistaken as the getaway driver for bank robbers.  Now wanted by the cops, he pretends to be the son of a very famous dead bullfighter in order to hide.  Ricardo, meanwhile, discovers that his beloved, Anita (Ruth Hall), has been betrothed to Pancho (John Miljan), a different famous matador.  Hijinks ensue.

Eddie Cantor was a big deal because of The Jazz Singer, but I don't really get the appeal.  He's too old for this part (everyone in the movie is, honestly) and his schtick doesn't work for me.  Lyda Roberti, however, is a scene-stealer as Anita's love-hungry best friend, and runs circles around Cantor in star quality.  And the musical numbers are by Busby Berkeley, so they're great.  You can see a very young Betty Grable and this is the debut of Jane Wyman as one of the Berkeley girls.  

Overall, it's worth watching as long as you keep its age firmly in mind.  It's streaming on Kanopy.

The Last Tycoon (1976)

  This has an incredible pedigree to be as mid as it is.  Content warning:  homophobia

Monroe Stahr (Robert de Niro) is a hotshot Golden Age Hollywood studio executive.  Everything he touches seems to succeed but he is haunted by the death of his wife.  An earthquake causes damage to the studio sets, and while supervising, Stahr sees a young woman who looks exactly like his late wife.  Kathleen (Ingrid Boulting) keeps telling him no but he pursues her anyway.

If you are in the right mood, this is probably a really lovely film about the price of success versus happiness.  If you're not, this is a nothing-burger about a man who experiences one (1) rejection and torpedoes his career.  Guess which one I was in.

The cast is stacked with Robert Mitchum, Tony Curtis, and De Niro, and with cameos/bit roles from Donald Pleasance, Ray Milland, John Carradine, Anjelica Huston, and Jack Nicholson.  It was directed by Elia Kazan from a screenplay by Harold Pinter, based on an unfinished F. Scott Fitzgerald novel.  Which I think is the problem.  If you kept one of those elements and nixed the rest, it probably would have made for a better movie.  

It's streaming on Kanopy but there are much better films out there.

Horror Watch 2025 - Day 28 - The Old Dark House (1932)

  Shout out to Gabe from Movie Club for the suggestion!  

Five strangers are stranded in a terrible storm at the only house for miles.  They are a fairly jolly bunch but their hosts, the Fremm siblings, are morose, weirdly fanatic, and dour, while their creepy butler (Boris Karloff) is handsy when drunk.  As the night progresses, romance blooms and the dark secrets of the house are revealed.

This movie is great!  I'm a huge fan of Golden Age Universal horror and this is by the same director as Frankenstein.  I can't believe I'd never heard of it before.  The cast is stacked.  Melvyn Douglas in particular is a scene-stealer.  Karloff is silent once more and not nearly as tall as I had thought he was.  He does have really beautiful hands, though.  Definitely wins the month for most romantic horror movie.  It's streaming on Kanopy.  Highly recommend, especially if you like '30s horror.

Horror Watch 2025 - Day 27 - The Invitation (2015)

  I thought this was going to be about werewolves.  It was not.  Content warning:  dead child (off-screen), suicide attempt, dead animal (coyote, very much on screen and making the sad dog noises)

Will (Logan Marshall-Green) is bringing his new girlfriend, Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi), to a dinner party at his ex-wife Eden's (Tammy Blanchard) house.  It is hideously awkward because Eden re-married and disappeared to Mexico for two years and this is the first time anyone in their friend group has seen either her or Will.  Worse, she and her new husband, David (Michiel Huisman), brought some of their weird new "spiritual retreat" friends to pitch The Invitation, a grief counseling/wellness/cult-type thing.  

This is a movie about weaponized social contracts.  Even though everyone is uncomfortable, no one tries to leave until it's way too late.  As an autistic person, that made no fucking sense to me.  So I was already annoyed by these people.  And the dialogue is weirdly stiff and stage-y.  Also, no werewolves!  

Admittedly, I am judging it a little harshly because of my own expectations.  Don't do that and you'll likely enjoy it more than I did.  It's streaming on Kanopy.

Horror Watch 2025 - Day 16 - Presence (2024)

  Content warning:  sexual assault

Chloe (Callina Liang) and her family have only just moved into their new house when she becomes convinced that they are not alone.  She believes it is the spirit of her friend, Nadia (Lady Not-Appearing-in-This-Film), who died of a drug overdose, but the only person who is willing to listen is her dad (Chris Sullivan).  Her brother (Eddie Maday) thinks she's making it up and her mom (Lucy Liu) barely pays attention to her at all.  Is it just a manifestation of teen grief and neglect?  Nope!  Stuff flies all around and outside help is called.

I didn't love the ending of this but I had the same problem with The Haunting of Hill House.  Otherwise, this is a solid ghost story.  All the camera work is shot from the ghost's POV so there's this sense of fluidity unmoored from time and the family dynamics felt realistic and natural.  Personally, I hit my limit on the amount of drama --some of this was a little overwrought-- but your mileage may vary.  Lucy Liu is full-on Tiger Mom here in an understated supporting role, but the standout to me was the gloriously named West Mulholland as Cool Kid/Teenage Heartthrob Ryan.  

This is directed by Steven Soderbergh who I am generally not a fan of but I know a lot of people like.  It's streaming on Kanopy and has no blood, no gore, just a couple of really tense moments if you're more into atmospheric horror.

2025 Horror Watch - Day 6 - Dead of Night (1945)

  Okay, I cheated a little bit to break that weird streak.  This one is from my TBW queue.  Content warning:  ventriloquist dummy, suicide

Walter Craig (Mervyn Johns) keeps having a recurring nightmare about meeting six people at a country house and having something horrible happen.  He tries to convince them that his dreams are real, but Dr. Van Straaten (Frederick Valk), a psychiatrist, disbelieves.  So several of the guests take turns recounting their own brushes with the supernatural.  

This movie is great.  The framing device is a little weak but the cast is phenomenal.  Each story feels fully fleshed out, like its own full episode, but doesn't drag the movie down.  Now, not every story is a winner.  The golf one irritated the shit out of me, personally.  But I can recognize that it was meant to be a mood lightener.  Obviously, the final one is the standout with an incredible performance by Michael Redgrave.  And Hugo, of course.  People talk about "dream logic" in films, which never lands for me, but the nightmare sequence here is actually quite jarring.  There are some great makeup effects in the crowd scenes.  

It's streaming for free on Kanopy, if you have a library card and it's definitely worth checking out if you like your horror more atmospheric and British.

Fargo (1996)

  I didn't post last week because I had a couple of deaths in the family.  I can't believe I've never posted a review of Fargo but it got picked for Movie Club so I re-watched it.

Car salesman Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) has a problem:  he has committed fraud and needs almost half a million dollars or he'll get caught.  He knows his father-in-law (Harve Presnell) has the money, so he comes up with a scheme to hire two criminals (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife, Jean (Kristin Rudrüd), and hold her for ransom.  Things do not go to plan and as the body count rises across multiple jurisdictions, police chief Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) begins pulling apart the various strands leading back to Jerry.

This was pretty much an instant classic when it came out and it continues to be held in high regard.  I have had my ups-and-downs with the Coens but I can't deny that Fargo is a great movie.  It's got the alchemy of a great cast, great writing, and great direction.  Sometimes you can have all three and still not work out, but when you do, it really is movie magic.  There are still some things I would change (because I'm an asshole) but not enough to even talk about.  If you've never seen it, you definitely should.  Also, the TV show is very good as well.  It's streaming on Kanopy with a library card or Tubi and Roku for free with ads.

UHF (1989)

  I didn't have anything to post yesterday because I DNF'd a bunch of stuff.  I've been having a hard time finding movies to watch lately.  Probably the aforementioned burnout.  Content warning:  some gore, animal death (dogs), child endangerment

George ("Weird Al" Yankovic) keeps getting fired from menial jobs for daydreaming until his uncle (Stanley Brock) lets him run the local UHF TV station, U-62.  George stumbles upon Stanley Spudowski (Michael Richards), a janitor fired from an evil network affiliate, and gives him a chance as host of a kid's show.  Stanley is an overnight success and catapults U-62 to the top of the ratings.  Evil Network Affiliate Boss (Kevin McCarthy) vows to crush the tiny upstarts.

Like a lot of 80s movies, there are aspects of this that have aged like milk and others that have remained staggeringly current.  If you saw Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, you probably already know if this style of humor is for you or not.  I liked it but I've been a Weird Al fan since I was in middle school.  

I'm not going to get super sappy about it, but it struck me that all of George's success comes from being kind and all of the villain's nastiness contributes to his downfall.  That sounds really simple, but a lot of modern shows and movies have moved away from direct narratives and more into post-modern and fatalistic "this is just how the world works; you can win for a little while but you'll eventually be ground down" mentalities.  Again, could just be the burnout talking but it was great just letting good guys win because they're good.  

Anyway, UHF is streaming on Kanopy for free with a library card. 

After Hours (1985)

  I'm going to consider this a corollary to Women's Horror.  Content warning:  suicide

Paul (Griffin Dunne) is a typical 80s yuppie.  He's stuck in a job that pays well but is boring with no upward mobility, and he's lonely.  During a bout of insomnia, he meets Marcy (Rosanna Arquette) at a diner and decides to try his luck.  Thus setting in motion a series of events that results in the worst night of his life.

Okay, so we previously defined Women's Horror as "what if we just showed what women's lives are like" and believe it or not, this counts.

Paul spends the majority of the night second guessing the intentions of every woman he meets, being hounded, harassed, and at one point literally imprisoned as he grows increasingly desperate for help.  Now, because he is a man, this is played for dark humor.  If he were a woman, this would be a slasher/thriller.  Which drags us back around to dark humor, actually.

This was directed by Martin Scorsese and it is probably the biggest outlier of his filmography.  He has made movies with humor before but never an out-and-out comedy.  Now whether you consider this to be successful as a comedy or not is entirely your perception.  It's streaming on Kanopy for free with a library card.

Brighton Rock (1947)

  The poster is washed out but that's a baby Richard Attenborough.  

A gang leader (Richard Attenborough) bumps off a journalist (Reginald Purnell) but finds out there's a witness, a waitress named Rose (Carol Marsh), that can throw off his carefully constructed alibi.  He decides to cozy up to the girl, easily winning her over despite pressure from a nosy small-time theater performer named Ida (Hermione Baddeley).  Ida had met and liked the dead journalist and didn't believe the suicide story being floated by the cops.  She took it upon herself to figure it out, following the breadcrumbs right to Rose and her new beau.  

It's so funny to watch old movies and realize that absolutely zero things have changed.  All Ida needed was a podcast and she could have been an OG true crime legend.  

If you're into noir at all, this should be part of your curriculum.  The story is a little underwritten, I think, but the performances are all really solid.  It's streaming on Kanopy with a library card, the Criterion Channel until the end of the month, and (sigh) Max.  Give it a shot.

Hundreds of Beavers (2024)

  This was hugely popular in Movie Club but I will flat tell you, I didn't like it.  I don't care for slapstick.  Never have.

An alcoholic Apple Jack brewer (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews) must learn to become a fur trapper after beavers destroy his brewery, leading him on an epic journey to find love and purpose.

It's shot in black and white, mostly silent, and has early cartoon energy that takes a joke and keeps repeating it in more and more absurd ways.  Like I said, went over huge with normal people.  It's gotten a lot of word-of-mouth recognition and is poised to become a cult classic in the next ten years.  It was not for me.  However, if it seems like something you will like, I encourage you to seek it out on Kanopy with a library card, or Tubi with ads.  

Rio, I Love You (2014)

  This is the third entry in the Cities of Love series.  It's a little uneven but I expected this.

A series of love stories swirl together in Rio de Janeiro.  A dancer (Rodrigo Santoro) struggles with a potential career change that would take him away from his girlfriend (Bruna Linzmeyer).  A man (Eduardo Sterblitch) tries to understand why his grandmother (Fernanda Montenegro) is living on the streets.  A cab driver (Marcelo Serrado) deals with a jet-lagged actor (Ryan Kwanten).  A sculptor (Vincent Kassel) tries to find inspiration in the sand.  

There were vignettes I liked more than others.  My least favorite was probably the one with John Turturro and Vanessa Paradis but there were enough "good" ones that I still feel really comfortable recommending this. 

It is a tourism pitch, of course, but holy shit is it a good one.  Every aerial shot of the city is stunning.  Gorgeous lighting and composition.  Anthologies are always a mixed bag but if you're in the mood for a whole bunch of different riffs on the concept of love, give it a shot.  It's streaming on Kanopy with a library card. 

No Men Beyond This Point (2016)

  I generally like mockumentaries but this was a swing and a miss.

In a world where parthenogenesis has rendered men an endangered group, Andrew (Patrick Gilmore), has unwanted notoriety from being the youngest man alive.   A documentary crew interviews him, the family he works for as a caretaker, and various talking heads about what the societal shift means for men.

I have no idea what the larger point of this was.  It is billed as a comedy and parts of it are funny but it just doesn't seem to know who its audience is.  It makes sweeping generalizations about women including worldwide period synchronization, which is just fucking stupid, doesn't explain anything about the process of parthenogenesis --is it a choice?  Is it random?  What other options are there for women who don't want to be pregnant by any means?-- claims that the surviving men would be put in camps with their every whim catered to because they can't take care of themselves (implying that it's women's job to do), and even makes the incredibly bizarre claim that women would try to outlaw any sexuality because it's somehow a "gateway drug" to liking men?

Zero surprise that when I got to the end credits that it was written and directed by a dude.  A dude who has apparently never met a lesbian or picked up even one book of erotica.  Like I said, I have no idea what this was going for, but it comes off as a "Won't someone think of the Straights?!" propaganda.  It's currently streaming on Kanopy with a library card, Tubi and the Roku Channel with ads.  Not worth it.

31 Days of 2024 Horror - Day 21 - Night Shift (2023)

  Content warning:  some gore

Gwen (Phoebe Tonkin) takes a last-minute under-the-table cash job pulling the night shift at a motel but soon finds that outdated appliances and weird décor aren't the only features.

This was cliche-ridden, derivative drivel and you can do better.  Tonkin gives it her all but she can't save the movie.  The twist isn't twisty, the ghost design is boring, and there's no tension.  It is as generic as its title and I don't feel like wasting any more words on it.  

31 Days of 2024 Horror - Day 18 - Lovely, Dark, and Deep (2023)

  Content warning: mild gore, cannibalism

People keep going missing in the Arvores National Park.  A fact that Ranger Lennon (Georgina Campbell) is all too aware of, given that her sister, Jenny (Letícia Assunção), was one of them.  Jenny's disappearance has haunted Lennon for years and now, she plans to use her first season in the back-country to search for answers.

I wish I could be nicer to this movie but it just didn't do anything for me.  I'm sure there are a bunch of people for whom the unknown is terrifying and if so, this is probably a great movie for them.  I needed clarity and I wasn't getting it.  Also, I don't camp so I don't really care what happens in the woods.  You go out there, that's on you.

If bugs and sleeping on rocks are your thing, give this a shot.  It's currently streaming on Kanopy with a library card and Tubi for free with ads.

Vox Lux (2018)

  Content warning: school shooting, ableist slurs, statutory rape

A violent tragedy propelled teenaged Celeste (Raffey Cassidy) into celebrity.  Now an adult, Celeste (Natalie Portman) struggles with self-esteem, body dysmorphia, a range of addictions, and narcissism as her 6th studio album is set to drop.

I'm not entirely sure what this movie was trying to say.  It felt very cynical but fell short of actual satire.  Mostly, it was very whiny.  And the music was terrible.  Portman is fine, you can tell she's had a lifetime of training but it's very much not a style of music that suits her voice.  I feel like Cassidy was intentionally told to be bad as some sort of "only famous because of circumstance" commentary but she was really bad.  The absolute very least you can do in a musical drama is have good music.  

I love Natalie Portman but this was a total misstep.  Just unpleasant on a lot of levels.  It's streaming on Kanopy but I wouldn't bother.

Watu Wote (2017)

  This Oscar-nominated short is based on a true story in case you were having too good a day today and needed to be reminded that horrible people exist.  Content warning:  terrorism

A woman (Adelyne Wairimu) confronts her prejudices when she is stuck on a bus being threatened by a terrorist group.

It's not a fun watch but it is only 21 minutes long so at least it's fast.  It's streaming on Kanopy.