Category Archives: Movies

My Overdue 12th Blogiversary and 2025 List Additions

25 Monday May 2026

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It’s always a bit embarrassing when I announce “I’m back and plan to blog more” (as I did with my New Year’s post) and then go incommunicado for months. I had a good, if sad, reason this time, which was the health decline and passing of my mom, which has made 2026 a pretty crummy year thus far, to put it lightly. Struggling with… all that is also the reason I opted to skip NaPoWriMo this year, as much as it pained me to break April tradition.

Nevertheless, as I move on from years of caretaking and its natural ending in heartache, I’m trying to reclaim my inspiration and write more. That includes returning to Rhyme and Reason, and I can’t do that without properly closing out 2025. Thus, I’m kicking off my comeback with a very belated blogiversary post to list my Top 12 films seen last year. This includes both 2025 releases and any older movies watched last year, nine of which have earned a spot on my ever illustrious Top 365 list.

I’ll first give a fond mention of films that I still liked but didn’t make the cut for this list, including A Real Pain, Marty, Here Today, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, I Am Sam, We Live in Time, The Host (2006), Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, Looper, Prey, and Captain America: Brave New World. Plus, there are How to Train Your Dragon (2025), The Naked Gun (2025), and Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, which didn’t make the Top Twelve but are still List-Worthy thanks to their franchises. I certainly didn’t watch as many films in 2025 as I used to, but there were still some definite gems. I will say that 2026 is already outpacing it with how many good movies I’ve gotten to see, so it’s shaping up to be a strong movie year at least.

Thanks to any and all who have read, followed, liked, or commented on this blog over the past 12 years. It’s been a fantastic creative outlet and one I hope to continue utilizing for years to come. Plus, if I’ve gotten even a few people to check out a film they wouldn’t have otherwise, then I count it as a win. Without further ado, here are my Top 12 Films Watched in 2025:

12. The Gorge (2025)

I’m not usually drawn to open Apple TV+ despite its bundled availability to me, but every now and then a real gem drops there. Not everyone found The Gorge as appealing as I did, but I thoroughly enjoyed this tale of boy-meets-girl-with-a-giant-hellish-ravine-between-them. The chemistry of the leads was electric, and it cemented Anya Taylor-Joy as one of my celebrity crushes. Even when the romance gave way to full horror-action mode in the latter half, it was never less than entertaining.

11. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that a celebrated classic like Bonnie and Clyde turned out to be deserving of celebration. I just wasn’t expecting its subject matter to appeal to me, but a great film is a great film. Chronicling their romance and bank-robbing spree in the Depression era, the movie finds ways to humanize the title duo without justifying their deeds, giving a full picture of their legendary infamy.

10. Lost in Starlight (2025)

While non-Ghibli anime films have been typically ignored by the Academy, it’s unfortunate that Korean animation can’t even get a nod from something like the Crunchyroll Awards, leaving Lost in Starlight to be an overlooked footnote in the Netflix catalog. Which is a real shame, because this near-future tale of a woman falling in love with a musician shortly before embarking on a voyage to Mars is absolutely beautiful. The science admittedly falters toward the end, but it’s a tale of cosmic love that deserves more attention.

9. Wicked: For Good (2025)

I won’t deny that Wicked: For Good is a step down from the first film (my #2 for 2024), but I always thought the second half of the original musical was kind of a mess too. Nevertheless, it delivers a darker-toned but mostly satisfying conclusion to the story of Elphaba and Glinda, so ‘twas better than I was expecting honestly. I still think it’s ridiculous that the Oscars snubbed it entirely.

8. Sinners (2025)

Perhaps this seems low for a film that was universally loved last year, but I was still rooting for it during the latest Oscar season. A brilliant genre mish-mash of Southern music and vampire horror, Sinners only increased the cultural cachet of Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan. Many films struggle to get even one right, but it excelled at both the music and the scares.

7. Thunderbolts* (2025)

While I liked Captain America: Brave New World more than most and Fantastic Four: First Steps less than most, Thunderbolts* was (for me) the clear stand-out from Marvel’s roster last year. Bringing together a bunch of who-cares side characters from past projects seemed like a tall order (without James Gunn), but they successfully plumbed their trauma and managed to make heroes out of losers while elevating Florence Pugh’s Yelena to Marvel star.

6. Predator: Badlands (2025)

This was perhaps my biggest surprise of the year. After catching up on Prey and the animated Killer of Killers (also quite good), I respected the Predator franchise but was not ready to embrace its gory glory. Then this effects-heavy romp came along, injecting more aliens, more humor, found-family themes, and a Predator protagonist, somehow making a fan out of me. One of my coworkers called it “a Predator movie for Alien fans,” and that fits perfectly. Between this and Alien: Earth, both franchises are on the upswing.

5. Dead Man Walking (1995)

A “message movie” is always tricky, whether in the hands of Hollywood or Christian filmmakers, so the script of Dead Man Walking had quite a tightrope to walk in tackling the controversy surrounding a Louisiana death row inmate and the nun who advocates for him. Yet writer-director Tim Robbins knocked it out of the park with a carefully balanced portrayal of institutional revenge and spiritual grief, matched by stellar performances from Sean Penn and Oscar-winning Susan Sarandon.

4. Zootopia 2 (2025)

Among Disney’s animated films of the last decade, Zootopia especially felt like it had a universe wide enough for another big case alongside Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde. It took almost the full decade, but the wait was worth it. Expanding the world-building and its themes of prejudice via the introduction of reptiles in a mammal-centric society, Zootopia 2 proved to be another funny and thoughtful adventure (while keeping the shippers happy).

3. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025)

I wasn’t sure exactly where to place Wake Up Dead Man, since it’s not quite as good as the original Knives Out, but I’m simply too big a fan of Rian Johnson’s mystery sensibilities. (Poker Face is very good if you want more at a TV level.) I was afraid it would be too much of a takedown of Christianity, thanks to the ardent atheism of Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc, but Josh O’Connor’s conflicted but earnest priest is an excellent partner/foil as they investigate the death of his divisive superior. The end result is another excellent chapter in a series I hope will continue for many more years.

2. Kpop Demon Hunters (2025)

I had a good feeling about this movie as soon as the trailer dropped, and I watched and loved it the first day it premiered on Netflix, so I feel like I was ahead of the curve before it became a pop culture juggernaut. Yes, I sound like an animation hipster, but I don’t care. With a soundtrack full of bangers, strong Korean representation, and brilliantly vivid animation, Kpop Demon Hunters was an absolute treat for animation lovers like me.

1. Superman (2025)

The jury is still out on how well the new DC Universe will pan out in future installments, but James Gunn certainly kicked things off with a bang. Wacky, aspirational, action-packed, and perhaps a bit overstuffed, David Corenswet’s inaugural appearance as the Man of Steel hit all the right notes for a great superhero movie. It was the highlight of the summer blockbuster season and, in my book, the whole cinematic year.

And so concludes another year of blogging, even if we’re already halfway through the next. As always, here are my own unofficial awards for the year’s films:

Best opening scene:  Thunderbolts*

Best final scene:  Superman

Coolest scene:  Superman

Biggest emotional impact:  Dead Man Walking

Oldest film:  The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Most recent film:  Wake Up Dead Man (2025)

Longest film:  Wake Up Dead Man (144 minutes)

Shortest film:  Marty (90 minutes)

Best soundtrack:  Kpop Demon Hunters

Best score:  Sinners

Best special effects:  Predator: Badlands

Most mind-bending: Looper

Most family-friendly:  Zootopia 2

Most mature:  Dead Man Walking

Funniest:  The Naked Gun (2025)

Scariest: Sinners

Best male performance:  Sean Penn in Dead Man Walking

Best female performance:  Susan Sarandon in Dead Man Walking

Personal favorite poem written: Bonnie and Clyde

Most represented year: 2025, with ten films

So that’s that. There is still a lot I’m dealing with in the wake of this year’s loss, so I can’t make any promises on post frequency or how “back” I truly am, but I do plan to be more active for the rest of the year. After all, there are so many good movies worth reviewing and poeticizing. Thank you to any readers still out there who haven’t forgotten me, and I wish you all a wonderful remainder of 2026!

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024)

03 Saturday May 2025

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(I’m catching up after the fact, but for Day 15 of NaPoWriMo, the prompt was for a six-line poem characterized by simple language and enthusiasm, so I focused on the film itself this time.)

I played the games when I was young.
I guess I’ll go watch the movie. Looks fun.
It’s not as if I’ve been waiting for this,
But all my friends saw it. I don’t want to miss
The tragic backstory, Jim Carrey’s full glory, ooh, that scene was peak!
Shut up, I’m no geek….
______________________

MPA rating: PG

It honestly feels like a minor miracle that the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise has translated to the big screen as well as it has. It seemed as if it would be a bomb on arrival after the poorly received initial design for the title character, but three live-action movies and a streaming show later, it’s proven to be remarkably fun. In this third outing (did I never review the sequel? Guess not.), a powerful black and red hedgehog called Shadow (Keanu Reeves) is freed from decades-long imprisonment and embarks on a spree of vengeance, leading Sonic (Ben Schwartz), Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey), and Knuckles (Idris Elba) to team with the non-shockingly not dead Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) to bring him down.

While the Knuckles series got rather dumb as it dragged out, the movies have found the right secret sauce for Team Sonic, with Sonic’s quippy super-speed antics bouncing well off of Tails’ earnest tech support and Knuckles’ headstrong aggression. Add in a self-serious straight man in the form of Shadow, a villain very much in the mold of Mewtwo from Pokémon, and the film is able to find a surprising balance between silly action and emotional stakes. It also helps that James Marsden and Tika Sumpter as Sonic’s adoptive parents are given more to do this time, while Jim Carrey pulls eccentric double duty as both the returning mad scientist Ivo Robotnik and his even madder grandfather Gerald.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 gives every indication that this franchise has the potential to keep getting better, with yet another character from the games teased at the end for a sequel. One dance scene between the Robotniks will no doubt go down as one of Carrey’s finest and most hilarious moments and well worth his return from retirement. And though there’s nothing revolutionary about the plot or themes, the overall entertainment value makes this a film to please nostalgic nerds and present kids alike.

Best line: (Shadow) “The light shines, even though the star is gone.”

Rank: List Runner-Up

© 2025 S.G. Liput
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It Happened One Night (1934)

01 Thursday May 2025

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(For Day 30 of NaPoWriMo, the prompt was for a poem about hearing a band or song throughout one’s lifetime. Based on a scene from this film, I went with the classic “The Man on the Flying Trapeze,” so the poem can be sung to that tune.
This might be the end of the month, but I’ve missed I think three days so I’ll be catching up before calling it quits.)

Remember that song we sang on the bus
When life was just you and me and not us?
My voice was drowned out by the crowd (‘twas a plus),
But yours, like a bell, had me reeling.

I hear it, years later, but clearly
To the sound of cans dragging behind.
The bouquet had been thrown, and we weren’t on our own,
And we sang with our voices combined.

Oh, we warble it still on the road all the time,
And though my voice borders on audial crime,
You still sound as sweet as you did in your prime.
So one more time, honey, with feeling!
_________________________

MPA rating: Approved (G-level)

Another Oscar-season showing from TCM, It Happened One Night is still fondly regarded today as a Frank Capra classic, so I was curious if the Best Picture winner of 1934 would hold up and, for the most part, it does. Claudette Colbert plays spoiled heiress Ellie Andrews, who elopes against her father’s wishes and then goes on the lam as he puts up a reward for her return. She is found by beleaguered newspaper reporter Peter Warne (Clark Gable), who helps her in exchange for covering her story, and the two gradually grow closer along their travel misadventures. Both actors also won Oscars, as did the screenplay and Capra as director.

Any film this old is going to be somewhat dated, but the banter between Peter and Ellie feels more natural than a lot of other repartee from the era, like the flowery dialogue of Double Indemnity or the pretentious quips of The Philadelphia Story. It’s fun to watch the beauty Colbert humbled by the travails of being on the road, while Gable bears the bulk of the film’s charm on his back, proving it was second nature for him to play an appealing rogue even five years before Gone with the Wind. From the running joke of “the walls of Jericho” to Colbert’s famous hitchhiking scene, the film stays amusing without going silly with its screwball comedy, and I was surprised by a scene toward the end that was blatantly borrowed by Spaceballs, a testament to its influence. While I didn’t think It Happened One Night rose to the level of greatness I’ve seen critics ascribe to it, it’s an excellent early rom com that further proves the talents of Gable and Capra.

Best line: (Ellie’s father Alexander, to Peter) “Do you love her?”
(Peter) “A normal human being couldn’t live under the same roof with her without going nutty! She’s my idea of nothing!”
(Alexander) “I asked you a simple question! Do you love her?”
(Peter) “Yes! But don’t hold that against me, I’m a little screwy myself!”

Rank: List Runner-Up

© 2025 S.G. Liput
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Spellbound (2024)

29 Tuesday Apr 2025

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(For Day 28 of NaPoWriMo, the prompt was for a poem about “music at a ceremony or event of some kind,” like for instance a birthday.)

“Happy Birthday!” everyone sang.
The sound of unity in my ears rang.
Everyone loved me, at least for a song
That needed more verses to feel at all long,
And oh, how I wished, as the candles were blown,
That mom would stop yelling and put down her phone
And dad would stop cursing and pointing his finger,
That both would just stay as a smiling singer
And love me enough to not hate one another.
Not too much to ask for a father and mother.
I knew what would happen but blew all the same.
Then maybe the candles would carry the blame.
_____________________

MPA rating: PG

Sometimes a film so clearly wants to be like its predecessors that you have to at least admire the effort that went into its earnest attempt. Mary and the Witch’s Flower comes to mind in trying to live up to Studio Ghibli’s legacy, while Skydance Animation’s Spellbound aspires to be like the Disney princess musicals of yore. It certainly has a pedigree with producer John Lassiter, director Vicky Jenson of Shrek, and songs by the great Alan Menken. In it, Princess Ellian (Rachel Zegler) of the fantasy kingdom of Lumbria desperately tries to keep secret from the citizens that her royal parents (Javier Bardem, Nicole Kidman) have been transformed into animal-like monsters running amok in the palace. Seeking the help of two magical Oracles (Nathan Lane and Titus Burgess as an unspoken gay couple), Ellian takes her parents on a dangerous journey to transform them back to humans.

Spellbound has a lot of great ideas to its credit, particularly in the world-building, from a waterfall used as a massive gate to a desert that turns to quicksand under cloud shadows or a tunnel where sounds become projectiles. The songs are quite good too, though still don’t hold a candle to Menken’s best work, and the voice cast is on point, especially Zegler’s original spunky princess role and John Lithgow as her long-suffering adviser/sidekick. 

But it’s hard to escape the feeling that Spellbound is a pale imitation that needed more fleshing out to avoid its own plot holes, like how the monster king and queen escape the palace when their cages are left open yet had been free to wander the palace for months before that. And then there’s the message that makes itself known rather late in the runtime, clarifying the monster situation as a metaphor for divorce and saying many of the right things for a resolution while not diving deep enough to make it land emotionally. Spellbound is a valiant effort, often funny, cute, and imaginative, but its muddled tone and oversimplified lesson keep it from rising to the level of its forerunners.

Best line: (Queen Ellsmere, to her daughter) “The best thing about us is you. And it always has been.”

Rank: Honorable Mention

© 2025 S.G. Liput
807 Followers and Counting

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024)

27 Sunday Apr 2025

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(For Day 27 of NaPoWriMo, the prompt was for a poem focusing on a detail of a painting, but I think I’ll go off-prompt today and cover a movie I’ve been meaning to review for a while.)

The legends that matter endure through time.
The others are lost with a final breath,
Were not so luck’ly preserved in rhyme,
And died an unremembered death.

What could have saved the tales so lost?
A copied scroll or a memorized line?
What bade a once-loved myth be tossed
Ere passing history’s finish line?

What wonders, horrors, joys, and fears
Have gone extinct with fossils none?
The stories mute for want of ears…
I wish I could read oblivion.
___________________

If you imagine a Venn diagram with anime fandom and Lord of the Rings fandom as the two circles, I would be squarely in the middle of the shared area. Therefore, an anime spin-off film set a couple hundred years before The Fellowship of the Ring was right up my alley from the start. Focusing on one of the legendary tales of the horse-riding nation of Rohan, the story follows Princess Héra (Gaia Wise), daughter of King Helm Hammerhand (Brian Cox), as she defends her nation from the invasion of Wulf (Luke Pasqualino), a former friend bent on vengeance.

The most common criticism I heard about War of the Rohirrim was about the choppy animation, and yes, character movement is a bit stilted at times, particularly at the beginning. Even using a 3D rotoscope-like technology, Sola Entertainment as a studio can’t match the butter-smooth animation of MAPPA or Science Saru, so we can only imagine how different the style might have been in the hands of a different studio. But the animation is still good throughout and even excels in the big action moments, and best of all, the style compliments Peter Jackson’s version of Middle-earth with some outstanding backgrounds and scenery. (Besides, the previous standard for LotR animation was Rankin/Bass or Ralph Bakshi, and this is still a cut above those.)

Beyond the animation, I’ve heard all the complaints, from the plot being too long, the characters one-note, the story being basically female-forward fan fiction since Héra isn’t even named in the Tolkien appendices from which the plot was drawn (and the film doesn’t explain why she was supposedly left out of the official history). And yet, I really liked this movie, my inherent love of the franchise winning out over all else. None of those grievances detracted from the experience of being able to visit Middle-earth again, with Howard Shore’s Rohan theme setting the epic mood and some hype-worthy set pieces bringing the action. A friend who saw it with me thought it went too anime at times, with clearly human characters pulling off superhuman feats as if they were elves, but I saw such moments perhaps as embellishments, considering the story is told as a legend of Rohan by the narrating voice of Eowyn (Miranda Otto). I also thought Héra was a good example of a “strong female character,” by simply rising to the challenge set before her rather than harping about gender differences or whatnot, similar to Miyazaki’s Nausicaä, who was cited as an influence by Wise.

All in all, The War of the Rohirrim is an epic story that continues the tradition of Peter Jackson’s world. Even if it was simply an expendable side project so New Line could hold onto the Tolkien rights, that just makes the care and quality that was put into it that much more impressive. It broke my heart then that, whether due to disinterest or poor marketing, the film flopped last December, failing to even earn back its budget. I don’t deny that it had room to be better with smoother animation or more interesting dialogue, but it met my high expectations for a Middle-earth movie and, in my opinion, deserved better.

Rank: List-Worthy

© 2025 S.G. Liput
807 Followers and Counting

Dead Man Walking (1995)

26 Saturday Apr 2025

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(For Day 26 of NaPoWriMo, the prompt was simply for a sonnet, in my case, a Shakespearean. I enjoy this form, since it lets me delve into heavier themes and my sonnet for Time of Eve is one of my personal favorite NaPoWriMo posts, so here goes another.)

Is death deserved and who decides the guilt?
The question haunts the conscience of mankind.
“Thou shalt not kill,” foundation for us built,
But punishment frets our reluctant mind.
The fear the felling blow perhaps may land
On innocence mistaken for the crime
Delays the price that bloody sins demand
And stretches out their pending ending time.
And what finality to halt a heart,
Declaring second chances null and void!
Not “vengeance is the Lord’s,” but ours, in part,
More death where life’s already been destroyed.
An “eye for eye” or “life for life” is fair
But leaves so very much beyond repair.
__________________________

MPA rating: R (for language and intensity)

It’s rare to find a film that manages to cover every angle of a controversial issue as deftly as Dead Man Walking while also remaining an engaging story. Based on the non-fiction book by Sister Helen Prejean, the film follows the plain-clothes Catholic nun (played by Susan Sarandon) as she becomes the spiritual advisor to Matthew Poncelet (Sean Penn), a convicted rapist and murderer on Louisiana’s death row. All the arguments for and against capital punishment get their say, and while Sister Prejean’s faith puts her on the pro-life/anti-death side, her conversations with the families of the murder victims make the grief of the opposing side completely understandable. She is criticized for even considering offering comfort to Poncelet as he awaits his execution, and at times, he acts like the unsympathetic monster everyone believes him to be. Yet, just like the old “no atheists in foxholes” saying, Poncelet’s need for forgiveness and human compassion becomes more and more apparent as the end draws nearer.

I get that Braveheart was the epic juggernaut for the 1995 Oscars season, but the sheer emotional power behind Dead Man Walking makes the fact that it wasn’t even nominated for Best Picture a travesty. And the same goes for Nicolas Cage winning Best Actor over both Penn and Richard Dreyfuss in Mr. Holland’s Opus! At least Susan Sarandon won an absolutely deserved Oscar for her nuanced performance, often just sitting and listening to others but mirroring every emotion of the audience with her expressive eyes. Penn proves his acting prowess at every turn (it’s gratifying that he at least went on to win two Oscars to make up for this loss), and his final scene is a harrowing and devastating gut punch, similar to the end of Dancer in the Dark. Director and writer Tim Robbins made a poignant masterpiece with Dead Man Walking, one worth opening up uncomfortable discussions around capital punishment and justice, themes that remain timely even thirty years later.

Best line: (Sister Helen) “Mr. Percy, I’m just trying to follow the example of Jesus, who said that a person is not as bad as his worst deed.”

Rank: List-Worthy

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Trap (2024)

26 Saturday Apr 2025

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(For Day 25 of NaPoWriMo, the prompt was for a poem about an experience with live music. Considering most of this thriller takes place at a concert, it seemed like the obvious choice.)

A thrill runs through the crowd and me,
For I am the crowd in part.
Here to laud our artist’s art
Dance and sing with all our heart,
Scream their name till they depart,
Loud is the crowd and me.

No telling who’s here in the crowd and me,
Obscurity safe in swarm.
Stay in the median; stick to the norm;
Cheer when they look at you gladly conform.
This is your cover from out of the storm,
Shrouded in crowd and me.

A drop in the ocean, the crowd and me,
Where malice is easily hid.
I’m like that guy, that girl, that kid,
So in the know, I’m off the grid,
And nobody knows the things I did,
Proud in the crowd and me.
_________________________

MPA rating: PG-13

M. Night Shyamalan had such a slump after his initial success that any film better than his low points is a welcome treat in my reckoning. In Trap, a Philadelphia fireman named Cooper (Josh Hartnett) takes his teen daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to a massive concert by her favorite pop star Lady Raven (the director’s daughter Saleka Night Shyamalan). While there, he notices increased police presence and learns that the event is intended to capture the serial killer known as “the Butcher,” and since Cooper is the Butcher, he is forced to get creative in escaping.

Seeing Trap the first time in theaters was a fun watch, if a bit far-fetched, and I recall discounting the more vocal criticism I heard against it. Then watching it again with a family member made me notice just how… artificial the dialogue is. Cooper’s interactions with his daughter, a fellow parent, and various people he fools all feel stilted in a way that is likely owed to Shyamalan’s weakness as a writer, but it also kind of works in this context since Cooper’s whole life of normalcy is a facade meant to keep others away from his psychopathic secret. And Hartnett really sells the character, managing that stilted charm and shifting on a dime to darker intentions beneath, the kind of psycho performance that proves an actor’s chops.

Despite that mixed benefit of the script, the film still hinges on a lot of suspension of disbelief with how trusting everyone is and how easily Cooper manages to evade authorities. It’s also a blatant nepo commercial for Shyamalan’s daughter’s pop music career, but I can’t really fault him for wanting to give her the Taylor Swift treatment. Luckily, she is quite talented, and the background of original pop songs gives the film a memorably unique setting. I’ll admit on the second watch that Trap is yet another flawed Shyamalan thriller with unfulfilled potential, but it’s still decently entertaining and, for me, shows his quality is thankfully on the upswing.

Rank: Honorable Mention

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Here Today (2021)

25 Friday Apr 2025

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(For Day 24 of NaPoWriMo, the prompt was for a poem about “people making music together,” ideally with a reference to another poem or song, so I took a comedian’s metaphorical view.)

Music can sound like many things,
Beyond the range of voice and strings.
To Andrew Lloyd Webber, the yowls of cats;
To Dracula, ‘tis the shrieks of bats;
To Beethoven, a silent dream;
To Pollock, friendship with a theme;
To writers, their pithier paragraphs;
But in my case, it’s laughs.

I’ve trained my ear here over the years,
And many a friend has shared premieres:
A generous bellow is melody mellow,
And chuckles transport me more than any cello;
A snicker is symphony; cracks, a cornet;
And two people cackling’s like a duet.
I’ve been a conductor of smiles, my dear,
A banter-and-beam balladeer.
________________________

MPA rating: PG-13

Directed and co-written by Billy Crystal (alongside SNL writer Alan Zweibel), Here Today is my kind of film, the sort that critics acknowledge as pleasant while criticizing its sentimentality. Well, maybe I’m just sentimental because I thoroughly enjoyed it! Crystal plays aging comedy writer Charlie Burnz, who is trying to hide his developing symptoms of Alzheimer’s from his coworkers and estranged children. Through a serendipity of spite and epinephrine, he builds an unlikely relationship with a singer named Emma (Tiffany Haddish), who becomes the friend and confidante he needs most right now.

Crystal still boasts an effortless comic touch and manages to mix it with deep pathos as his character feels his life, his work, his memories of love slipping away. I’m generally not a fan of Haddish’s loud-mouthed comedy, but she reins it in somewhat while remaining an endearing contrast to Charlie. (It’s neat knowing they became real-life friends too.) There’s some awkward uncertainty over whether their bond will veer toward romance, but thankfully it stays meaningfully platonic.

Along with some nice cameos, Here Today has several great scenes that could be deemed corny with the right cynicism, like Charlie’s flashbacks to his wife, his epic comedic meltdown during a live show, or Emma’s impromptu singalong at a bat mitzvah, but I like to keep my cynicism low enough to enjoy a film like this. Its release sadly suffered from the lingering pandemic slump, but, in my book, Here Today is another charmer to Billy Crystal’s credit.

Best line: (Charlie) “I’m writing something, and I have to finish before my words run out.”

Rank: List Runner-Up

© 2025 S.G. Liput
807 Followers and Counting

Flow (2024)

23 Wednesday Apr 2025

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(For Day 23 of NaPoWriMo, the prompt was for a poem focusing on birdsong. For some reason, I went with a bird of prey’s screech instead of the more pleasant bird sounds. It’s not even that applicable to this film, though there is a bird of prey in it. I’m also sick, which is why I missed yesterday, so I’ll have to catch up later.)

The cry of a bird of prey,
Sharp, shrill shriek,
Looking down from the sky,
Strong far above the weak,
Razor talons, knife beak.

Eyes follow every move,
Sharp, skilled sight,
Spotting each potential meal,
Every morsel worth a bite,
So unlucky lacking flight.

The dive of a bird of prey,
Sharp, still stop,
Then down, down, angle steep,
Silent in its violent drop,
Reaper of the flesh crop.
___________________

MPA rating: PG

As a cat lover and a fan of serious animation, the trailer alone was enough to interest me in Flow, the little Latvian film that could, and did win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Told through a small collection of animal characters entirely without words, the story depicts an increasingly catastrophic flood and the way the wildlife handle their shared struggle for survival. It particularly follows a dark gray cat, who ends up sharing a boat Life-of-Pi-style with a capybara, a lemur, a Labrador Retriever, and a secretary bird.

The wordless interactions between the animals transcend language and are brilliantly rendered via the dynamic animation, surprisingly using only free Blender software, and, without any explanation of what is happening, the viewer is simply along for the ride, taking each danger as it comes with the animals. And despite an absence of human characters, the animals manage to represent human traits without being outright anthropomorphized, such as the lemur’s fascination with shiny things that triggers grief when it loses its possessions to the rising tides. Though a supernatural turn toward the end felt confusingly out of place, Flow is a fascinating adventure in the tradition of silent films, short, sweet, and visually magical; it’s a fine animated film, but I still contend The Wild Robot should have won instead.

Best line: Any meow from the cat

Rank: List Runner-Up

© 2025 S.G. Liput
807 Followers and Counting

It’s What’s Inside (2024)

22 Tuesday Apr 2025

Posted by in Movies, NaPoWriMo, Poetry, Reviews, Writing

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(For Day 21 of NaPoWriMo, the prompt was for a poem describing an abnormal version of an event as if it’s normal, so I took an outsider’s view of a wild party.)

The neighbors had another party last night.
I saw from a distance and rolled my eyes.
I got a nice view of each head light
As all of the guests rolled in.
It didn’t take long for the hahs and guffaws,
The drunken cheers and smoky highs.
They probably broke some local laws,
But, hey, I was used to the din.

And then, as usual, the screams began,
The frenzied shrieks of “Eek, he’s dead!”
It must be some weird game they plan
For when the tension loosens.
Threats were yelled and shots were fired, 
But I just tried to go to bed.
I checked in the morning, sore and tired.
More cops… what a nuisance….
________________________

MPA rating: R (for frequent language and brief violence)

I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of body swaps; when I was growing up, they always made for especially fun cartoon episodes (and you’d be surprised at how many there are). So a film with multiple body switches at its core had my interest from the get-go. A group of seven college friends reunite after eight years for a pre-wedding party at a remote mansion. To their surprise, an estranged pal of theirs named Forbes (David Thompson) shows up as well, bearing a mysterious device and inviting them to play a game in which they all trade bodies and then must guess who is who. When an accident leaves, shall we say, fewer bodies to go around, chaos breaks out as their weird fun transforms into competing self-preservation.

It’s What’s Inside gets a lot of mileage out of its uniquely trippy take on a timeworn concept, even if it can be confusing to keep the ensemble cast straight as they swap bodies and sometimes lie about who they really are. There’s initial interest from the idea of being one’s own friend temporarily and how that can affect one’s self-esteem and ambitions, but, once the shoe drops, the second half is a twisting whirlwind of intrigue and backstabbing that makes for a wild ride. I had some reservations about the ending, though, particularly how one character is punished excessively for more of an interpersonal offense, but It’s What’s Inside was still a fun watch exploring the dangers of body-swapping.

Rank: List Runner-Up

© 2025 S.G. Liput
807 Followers and Counting