The doors are locked without a lock, The windows barred without a bar. No stepping out to take a walk, No Sunday cruise around the block, No driveway upkeep on the car, No short but friendly neighbor talk, No evening wishes on a star, No welcoming a guest to knock… I guess it’s just how things now are. _____________________
MPA rating: PG-13
It shouldn’t really be a surprise that the Netflix movie machine churns out disappointing fare, but I had hoped The Last House would be better than it is. I like the ideas behind films that posit how life would fundamentally change given some hypothetical cataclysm, and other films have turned out really well playing with the notion of not being able to go outside, such as Right at Your Door (trapped by toxic fallout) or The Last Days (trapped by lethal agoraphobia). But The Last House is one seriously janky example of this peculiar apocalyptic subgenre.
Wagner Moura and Greta Lee play married couple Jason and Ann, who live in happy suburban bliss in Seattle with their two kids Ruth and Graham. When a strange rain storm hits, they find that their house is completely sealed by a barrier of water, trapping them and everyone else inside their homes. And while some people are likewise trapped outside, they soon regret it as invisible hostile creatures use the rain for cover. As years pass, the family is forced to use their wits to survive and find a way free.
Simply put, the setup of The Last House is hard to take seriously. When the reason for the sealing of buildings is revealed, it opens a lot of questions about why the creatures behind it would take such an indirect manner of wiping out humanity, and the threadbare themes of mercy by the end really don’t make sense in the larger context. While the survival elements are sometimes interesting, they also strain credulity, as when Jason manages to defy gravity and fashion a small game trap through the chimney. And I’m rather annoyed by the family dynamic where one partner accuses the other of not taking things seriously because they’re holding onto hope and not folding to utter despair (see The End of Oak Street for the same thing).
Moura and Lee do their best to make The Last House at least watchable, but it’s the plot that falls apart by the end. Besides, I would think most of us still remember what it was like being trapped in our houses during the COVID era. We don’t need a worse version of that.
‘Tis dark tonight And darker still The heart of one With time to fill With thoughts in thrall And alcohol And none to slow Their slide downhill.
‘Tis dark tonight, And darkness grows Where monsters sleep And shadows doze. With one mistake, The spell could break And fell a fool Like dominoes.
‘Tis dark tonight, And dark it stays As long as men Walk wicked ways. We’re terrified The more we hide Until the morning’s Warming rays. ___________________
MPA rating: R (for brief violence, corpses, intense scares)
As many others do, I dove into the horror genre this October, more so than in past years, intending to deliver some reviews before Halloween, which obviously didn’t pan out. But even if spooky season is over, the racing hearts need not stop, and, despite a title that many would only know as a folksy dig from Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory, Hokum is one of the best chillers of the year.
Adam Scott plays depressed author Ohm Bauman, who travels to a remote Irish hotel to spread his parents’ ashes in the scenic place where they had once honeymooned. He’s a thoroughly unpleasant guy, prone to writing misanthropic endings and insulting people to their face, and he certainly doesn’t pay heed to the rumors of a haunted suite where a witch is supposedly imprisoned. Through a series of twists and turns, he finds himself trapped in said suite and is forced to come face to face with both malevolent forces and his own guilt.
A lot of horror films often feel tied to a gimmick or mixed with humor to ease the impact of the scares, which I often tend to like, so I was impressed with how straight Hokum plays its haunted hotel scarefest. It may be par for the course with many horror fiends, but for me, this film scared the crap out of me. It fosters a genuinely creepy atmosphere, starting out with just an uneasy gloom and eventually filling you with dread every time the lights go out or line of sight is broken. And even if it telegraphs some of its jump scares rather obviously, they’re still effective more often than not.
Beyond the shocks, I also enjoyed the non-supernatural story at play, with a human villain getting their comeuppance in parallel with Ohm coming to terms with his own grief and misanthropy, reflected artfully in the depiction of his novel’s ending, which bookends the film. I understand that the Irish director Damian McCarthy has become a bit of a star in horror circles, and I can see why. It’s the kind of non-gory horror I prefer, so I’ll have to check out his other films, but maybe during the day… huddled under a blanket.
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, An obstacle of ageless sleep To those with promises to keep And fragile lives so brief.
The woods are life and death in turn From ivy vine to fir and fern. To sky they grow, to ash they burn, And seeds are free of grief.
What business have you in the wood Where trees care not for bad and good? They’ve seen far more than humans could, And they shall watch you too.
Good luck whatever road you take, Whatever bones or hearts shall break, Whatever sleeping dogs you wake… You can’t escape their view. ______________________
MPA rating: PG-13 (for violence and a suicide)
Well, so much for my plans to review some scary movies ahead of Halloween. I’ve still had some issues with writing motivation, so in lieu of National Novel Writing Month, I’ll try to post a review per day in November. No promises, of course, but I’m hoping this will get my creative juices flowing again. And I’m kicking things off with a new release that was one of my most anticipated films of the year.
The trailers alone for Wildwood have given me chills, so I was eagerly awaiting the newest film from stop-motion studio Laika. I have rarely fully connected with Laika’s previous films like Coraline and Missing Link, though I do love Kubo and the Two Strings. Often stop-motion films are technically impressive, but the stories somehow don’t resonate with me, as if they weren’t worth the amount of effort put into them. Yet I could tell Wildwood had a lot of potential, to the point that I read the 2011 novel on which it’s based, written by Colin Meloy of the band The Decemberists, which only heightened my expectations. And after seeing it twice now in the theaters, I am so glad that Wildwood is the masterpiece I wanted it to be.
Set in Meloy’s hometown of Portland, Oregon, the story follows tweens Prue (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) and Curtis (Jacob Tremblay) as they enter a magical world in the nearby woods after Prue’s baby brother Mac is kidnapped by a murder of crows. The two are soon caught in the middle as tensions rise between neighboring nations of the wood, and the deposed Dowager Governess Alexandra (Carey Mulligan) has raised an army and plots destruction on all who stand in her way.
For starters, the animation is absolutely wondrous, a technical achievement that has been universally praised by critics and audiences alike. I consider it the apotheosis of stop-motion animation. The sheer number of locations, characters, costumes, and set pieces that were fashioned by hand are staggering, and stop-motion’s sometimes jerky look that lends itself to the creepy or grotesque is remarkably smooth here, to the point that it’s easy to forget the pain-staking process that went into every second of what is now the longest stop-motion film ever made. The lush forest environments are gorgeous, and the warm colors and cinematography make the miniature world come alive. There’s a huge battle toward the end that has drawn fitting comparison to The Lord of the Rings, and the scale of it is truly a new high in Laika’s chosen art form.
As for the story, that seems to be where at least some viewers are more mixed, finding it perhaps less than original or too stuffed with plot for the characters to stand out. Such observations are not unwarranted, but, having read the book, I think it’s a really masterful adaptation. A lot happens over 500+ pages, and Chris Butler’s screenplay manages to capture most of the story while speeding up the pace, a little gender-swapping, adding some more exciting scenes, recreating others straight from the page, and retaining a remarkable amount of heart at the core of Prue and Alexandra’s conflicting journeys. The film even manages to fix a couple plot points that annoyed me in the original book.
So though Wildwood isn’t immune from some plot weakness and fast pacing, it’s nonetheless a truly special film, one worthy of the amount of time and craft that Laika invested in it. As its deserved PG-13 rating suggests, it’s also much more mature than the typical animated fare, with much death, a suicide, and intense battle scenes (though not overly graphic), which only increased my appreciation for how seriously the filmmakers approached this story that touches on grief and desperation. At this point, I am actively rooting for Wildwood to get a Best Picture nomination at the next Oscars, while also bemoaning its criminally low box office numbers. Something about this film just makes me so glad that it exists, and I suspect that its reputation will only grow in the future.
I hope we won’t be spotted. I hope it’s safe to stay. With every hour More we cower, The more I feel like prey.
I hear the sounds approaching. I fear their origin, The smell of death Upon its breath As hope is wearing thin. __________________
MPA rating: R (for violence and language)
I’m torn on whether I should catch up on a pretty deep backlog of films or focus on new releases, so I might as well alternate. One of several Korean imports in recent months, Hope is the latest film from acclaimed director Na Hong-jin, an apocalyptic alien invasion thriller that boasts the highest budget yet for a Korean film. Set in the (surprisingly heavily armed) rural village of Hope Harbor near the DMZ, police chief Ko Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min) goes from investigating a mysterious dead cow to fighting for survival against a giant creature wreaking havoc on the town, with bigger implications as the scope of the danger spreads.
Despite an overlong runtime of over 2½ hours, Hope’s pace rarely falters, with the extended sequences of alien carnage being the main attraction. Whether it’s navigating narrow village streets or battling in beautiful green forests, the action is consistently thrilling and shot fluidly to capture the right balance of tension and movement, with echoes of Attack on Titan and Predator. Once seen, the monsters themselves suffer a bit from imperfect CGI, but they have a unique biology and thick hide that make them a particularly dangerous adversary for mere humans. Special mention is deserved by Jung Ho-yeon as a rookie cop with a truly badass introduction and Zo In-sung as a hunter with especially impressive plot armor.
The main drawback for Hope is that it is very obviously incomplete; it might as well be called Hope: Part One for all the closure it gives to… anything. After an exciting chase scene that gets a bit repetitive, something big and catastrophic happens for reasons unknown, and it just ends. There’s a sort of twist in the final moments that indicates the alien perspective will become more important, which could be really interesting in a sequel, which is supposedly already written but yet to be greenlit. But as the film stands now, it offers little beyond the action (admittedly very skillful, intense action) and a suggestion of a larger story that we may never see. One can only hope that a worthy Part Two will come eventually.
Do you believe that a man can fly? Or do they all fall to the cynical eye? The worst is more likely, so doubt in the best. That S on the chest Is a pie in the sky.
Do you believe we are too far gone, That the king and the queen have forgotten the pawn? But someone is fighting, if need be alone, And every stone thrown Makes trying feel wrong.
Do you believe we are doomed from the start? Or can hope be found in the ol’ bleeding heart? It’s risky, of course, pinning hopes anywhere, But such is the prayer Of playing one’s part. ___________________
MPA rating: PG-13
Considering how deep my year-plus backlog of movies is, I wasn’t sure where to start with my return to blogging, but it made sense to begin with my official favorite movie of 2025. I don’t think I’m alone, but I have long been a proponent of Marvel’s cinematic universe over DC’s more scattershot attempts. Except for Wonder Woman and Shazam, I never really connected with most of the Snyderverse, so I had no qualms over James Gunn taking over the DC franchise and giving it a fresh coat of paint. And considering his first film in that rebooted world, I’m fully on board.
Stepping confidently into Christopher Reeve’s shoes and eschewing the more broody Henry Cavill take, David Corenswet plays the new Man of Steel, already an established hero dating Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) and defending Metropolis alongside an incipient “Justice Gang” made up of a Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), and Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi). Superman ends up a punching bag more often than one might expect, both literally and figuratively, thanks to the machinations of born hater Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), who is intent on taking his nemesis down physically and in the public eye.
It was smart of Gunn to not belabor yet another origin story for an already well-known character, and he wastes no time in dropping us into the new DC universe, complete with Krypto the Superdog, prison pocket dimensions, Fortress of Solitude robots, and existing character dynamics. There’s a lot of comic book geekery on display, yet it manages to serve the story without alienating newcomers. It doesn’t hurt that Gunn borrows some of his own trademarks from Guardians of the Galaxy, like an extended one-shot battle scene set to music that makes Mr. Terrific the unexpected stand-out side character.
No hate to the prior Superman actors, but Corenswet is a natural, boasting excellent chemistry with Brosnahan and a likeable boy-scout earnestness opposite the more cynical heroes. A climactic monologue to Luthor doesn’t quite land as well as intended, but a quieter moment with Lois in his childhood bedroom reinforces how his optimism and goodness are their own form of resistance. I liked how his adoptive parents Ma and Pa Kent are played by lesser-known actors (Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell), as well as his arc of ultimately embracing his earth heritage over his Kryptonian one.
After the comparative drudgery of the Snyderverse, the latest Superman is a breath of fresh air. Action-packed, sincere, perhaps slightly overstuffed, but above all fun, this is how to start a cinematic universe.
Best line: (Lois) “My point is I question everything and everyone. You trust everyone and think everyone you’ve ever met is, like… beautiful.” (Clark) “Maybe that’s the real punk rock.”
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:
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.
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.
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
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!
Where did 2025 go?! Another year gone, and, for my 12th blogiversary, sadly one of my least productive years for this blog. As mentioned in my previous post, I have been going through a creative dry spell for the better part of the year, much to my own chagrin, but I sincerely want to change that in 2026, so I suppose that can be considered one of my New Year’s resolutions.
Despite my lack of output, one thing I have been preparing for throughout the past year was this post, for which I kept an ongoing list of newsworthy events for a retrospective. Last year, I began a new tradition of rewriting the lyrics to my beloved “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel to be instead a musical recap of the prior year, and this look-back seems like a good way to kick off what will hopefully be a more productive 2026. I couldn’t fit every little thing in; as much as I would have liked to mention Juan Soto, Dispatch, “The Shoebody Bop,” Gene Hackman, Brian Wilson, Anne Burrell, the NBA gambling scandal, Universal Epic Universe, the ostrich convoy, or the One Piece flag protests, there’s only so much that can fit in nine verses, and this is at least how I will enjoy remembering 2025.
So feel free to read or sing along to Joel’s iconic tune, and here’s hoping the next year will be even better! Happy New Year!
____________________
Chicken Jockey, Southern Spear, Generation Beta’s here, Blanket pardons, Discord hardens, NOLA truck attack. TrumpRx, Gulf renaming, Cracker Barrel logo flaming, Shutdown ends and funding pends, Zootopia is back.
Bondi Beach, Roblox, autopen, fake Botox, Vance memes, torpedo bat, leaking of a racist chat. Tilly Norwood, Claire Obscur, Sinners, Tung Tung Tung Sahur, Major mergers, Reiner, Redford, Alien and Predator.
Such was the year. We made it! Through the highs and lows and each surprise, we chose To get through the year. We made it! So now, sister, brother, let’s all face another!
Alligator Alcatraz, A.I. passed what no bot has, Texas flooding, DOGE is gutting USAID, No Kings, Stranger Things, Sydney Sweeney loves jeans, One Big Beautiful Bill, 23andMe.
Blue Ghost, Karen Read, Gaza hostages are freed, Scottie Scheffler, RealIDs, Midnight Hammer, H1-Bs, East Wing, Tylenol, revolution in Nepal, Bari Weiss, woolly mice, Epstein files free-for-all!
Such was the year. We made it! Through the highs and lows and each surprise, we chose To get through the year. We made it! So now, sister, brother, let’s all face another!
Francis out, Pope Leo in, Thunder, Eagles, Dodgers win, Deepseek, eggs ain’t cheap, dire wolf, Anora sweep, Elbows up, Labubu, Taylor Swift’s engaged too, Earthquake in Myanmar, yet another Avatar.
Stablecoins, ICE raids, loose monkeys, Palisades, Kimmel canceled (for a week), Hegseth really hates a leak, Horse girls, “Not Like Us,” Adolescence, Pluribus, Six-Seven, Gen Z stare, tariffs, tariffs everywhere!
Such was the year. We made it! Through the highs and lows and each surprise, we chose To get through the year. We made it! So now, sister, brother, let’s all face another!
Salt Typhoon, Tush Push, firefighter ambush, Cloudflare, Demon Slayer, Mamdani elected mayor, Christians in Nigeria, blackout in Iberia, HuntriX don’t miss, GPT psychosis, Kiss cam, Jubilee, TACO, Grok, and Summerween, RFK, measles gain – what else do I have to say?
Such was the year. We made it! Through the highs and lows and each surprise, we chose To get through the year. We made it! So now, sister, brother, let’s all face another!
Oh, Mary!, bye, Jo-Ann, TikTok deal averts a ban, Cloned dog, Portland Frog, Musk salute, Tea logs, Seditious Six, sandwich thrown, astronauts are back home, Superman, Fantastic Four, CECOT in El Salvador.
Sora 2, congestion tax, Arctic Frost and fibermaxx, Lisa Cook, birthday book, Louvre heist, Charlie Kirk, War in Ukraine still unchecked, gerrymandering effect, No more pennies to collect, what a year in retrospect!
Such was the year. We made it! Through the highs and lows and each surprise, we chose To get through the year. We made it! So now, sister, brother, let’s all face another!
Well, this is a little overdue, isn’t it? Anytime I have a long-ish gap between posts, I feel the need to apologize to any readers who might be improbably waiting for my next poem/review, and the longer this gap extended, the more embarrassed I grew at my inability to end it. The truth is that I’ve had more time at home than ever this year, but due to worsening family health issues and work, I have been struggling to muster any creative output at all. Even work on my planned musical has stalled, though not completely. Hence, my absence from the blogosphere since the end of April.
Sorry it took so long, but I’m back. I would like to find a better cadence (or any cadence) to post more in the coming year, but I can’t guarantee what that will be yet. Still, I want to get back to writing again, and the first step is closing out this past year’s NaPoWriMo with the traditional recap below. Thank you to anyone reading and anyone who hasn’t forgotten me entirely!
(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.”
(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!”
