Good Boy (2025)

 

Here is another of the best films of the year, that I am getting to, way past the time I saw it. "Good Boy" is a horror film with a relatively brief running time, but it will deliver the suspense, shocks and dread that you crave with these kinds of movies, and it will give you a real hero to root for in 
Indy" the terrific star of the movie, and the title character. In case you still don't know, "Indy" is a dog and the film story is told through his point of view. Dog lovers should be entranced with this film and relieved but a bit sad at the resolution. I don't want to give any spoilers, but be assured, you will be ok as an animal lover when this is all done.

Our lead actor, is the pet of the director, and has not been trained as an actor. "Indy" is reacting to the elements of the story, but the actor Indy is sometimes just being a dog, who is being closely watched by his human companion, so that editing and normal dog behavior can be crafted into s scary story that features a dog. I am all for the praise that the dog is receiving for his performance, but the talk of an Academy Award nomination should probably belong to the editing team as much as our canine leading man. 

The movie is a haunted house type story, although there are moments of possession and human perfidity. Todd is the human featured in the film, but we barely see his face in any of the shots. At first I believed the character was a recovering drug addict, but as the movie goes on, it becomes apparent that Todd is suffering from cancer, and it is effecting his personality and behaviors. There is as a result some ambiguity as to whether some of the events are supernatural or merely the ramification of Todd's declining health. Indy knows there is something wrong, and he is loyal to a fault. Any dog owner who has instantly regretted snapping at their dog in a moment of stress, knows how wonderful it is that our pets can forget a momentary detour from our usual path. 

Indy wants to do the right thing, but as a dog, he can't understand some of the things he sees, and that we see through his eyes. There are moments of horror that reflect some violence, but the movie is really about the horror of losing touch with your humanity. There are a couple of good jump scares, and there really is a supernatural element to the movie, but while dread is the feeling that envelops the story, it is really just sadness that forms the climax.

The lack of dialogue and exposition will be challenging to some viewers, but anyone who has loved a dog will want to stay invested in Indy's journey. The hair on the back of your neck will stand up a couple of times, and there may seem to be jeopardy to the dog, but in the end  this is the story of a good boy, who struggles in his animal brain, to make sense of the world he finds himself in with his human companion. This movie is a triumph and deserves the accolades it is receiving. 

Roofman (2025)

 

The fact that it has taken me more than three weeks to post on this film, should not in any way be seen as a fault in the movie. From my perspective, this is one of the best films I have seen this year and it has a strong chance of making my end of the year list. I have simply been busy and lackadaisical in following through on my promise to post on everything I see in a theater. This movie might not be on any screen near you, but it should be available for streaming soon and it will be worthy your money to do so.

"Roofman" is based on the true story of a burglar/robber, who despite being a criminal and threatening people, seems to also have been a person with a good heart and brain. The fact that we can sympathize with the character, in spite of his criminal activity is a combination of the real person the story is based on, and the script/performance supplied by the movie. Everyone likes an underdog, and the character of Jeff, played by Channing Tatum, gives us that underdog in a very appealing package. He is a family man, struggling with the inability to hold a job that would take care of his family. He is smart enough to figure out a low risk criminal career, but of course gets caught. He is also smart enough to figure out a way to escape, but he has not figured out what to do once he has, He is all tactics without strategy. 

Tatum has grown into a very appealing actor and this role is probably his career best performance so far. He hits the right notes of desperation in the opening act, as Jeff falls into a life of crime. His victims, who are not the ones financially responsible, all seem to feel he was a decent guy, in spite of being held up. He is polite, apologetic, and considerate of the employees that he encounters. In he second act of the film, he meets and bonds with a woman, who is unaware of his status as a fugitive, and she sees his good qualities and falls in love with that guy. Kirsten Dunst plays the friendly employee of the Toy R Us store that Jeff is hiding out in, and her sincerity and open nature are infectious. I personally think this is a career best performance as well. Dunst and Tatum have great on screen chemistry, which makes the outlandish but true story attractive to us as viewers.

There are a few parts of the movie plot that seem to be manufactured to get the characters into a coherent story. Jeff is hiding out for six months because he has to wait on his fixer buddy to get back from an overseas job. He also has to commit another crime, to be able to pay for the escape plan he is getting from this mysterious compatriot. That one last job brings together the two lives he has been leading, which is of course the climax of the film, so maybe it feels a little inevitable. What I did like is the fidelity of the story to the real events. They don't manufacture a resolution to make us happy, they just spin the outcome to make it feel less sad. 

The film is sold as a comedy, and while there are comedic moments, that is not really an accurate description of the movie. This is a romantic drama with a real life criminal background, which is doomed from the start. The fact that it is ultimately a downer is overcome by the bright relationship between the two leads. Peter Dinklage provides an antagonist that diverts us from the fact that Jeff is the criminal. Dinklage can do both the comedic and the a-hole parts well and he does both of those in this film. My friend Howard and I talked about this film for a special episode of the LAMBcast, when that gets posted, I will share the podcast here with you so you can listen if interested. 

Kiss of the Spider Woman (2025)

 

I will tell you up front, especially if you are new to this site, I love musicals. The form is not as popular as it once was, but the ones that manage to make it to the screen are usually going to get some attention from me, even if I have reservations about the subject or director. Hell, if Ari Aster or Robert Eggers did a musical, I'd bother to see it. Fortunately, I don't have those reservations about this particular film. I generally trust Bill Condon as a director and, although I never read the original novel, I am a big fan of the 1985 film that was based on it. William Hurt won the Academy Award for his performance as Luis Molina, and the film played the story straight as a political drama, with tragic outcomes. 

When the story was converted to a Broadway Musical, I was frankly confused. I could not quite imagine how this bleak story of two prisoners in a South American hellhole, would work as fodder for tourists visiting New York City. Even with the fantasy sequences extended, it seemed like a longshot at best. I never saw the musical version, which was quite successful, until now. It works really well as a film, and I would be interested in seeing a stage production so I could compare the way they transition between the two worlds presented in the story. 

There will be some comparisons here to the 1985 film, since that is my original experience. I actually purchased a Laser Disc copy in the last year because I did not own it in any other form, and the cover art is really nice. I rewatched the film and confirmed my impression from 1985, this was one of the best films of the year. So now it comes time to see the musical version in a screen format, and I have to say I was nicely impressed. The tone is a little old fashioned, but that's ok, so am I. 

There are three things that are important to talk about here, the music sequences, the original story premise and the performances. The thing that I liked the most about the musical sequences is that they remind me of the dance numbers and songs from the 30s and 40s era films that inspired them. The camerawork is not ostentatious, it is just clever enough to give us some interesting views of the action taking place. For the most part, the scenes are shown in full screen shots with very limited edits. I'm not an expert, but I would be willing to believe that some of them were done in single takes from start to finish 9if not, then a nod to the editors who made it appear seamless). The settings are often elaborate in the way a musical from bygone times would be. There are extravagant costumes, interesting backgrounds, and colors that pop every time we go to the musical fantasies. Unlike some contemporary music, you could actually follow a melody in most of the songs. This was not a Sondheim tonal fest, but a throwback to films like "Cabaret" or "Chicago". I wasn't humming the tunes as I left the theater, but I could if I listened to them a little more. 

Bill Condon has stayed true to the political story, but there is one significant change. Molina, the persecuted homosexual that is cellmates with Valentin, the political prisoner, is revealed much earlier in the story as an informer for the warden. That limited my ability to build the requisite sympathy for the character for a lot longer time than in the 1985 film. The prison sequences are fairly grueling, and I was happy there there was no dance number to accompany the food poisoning diarrhea scene. The story is also set more clearly in the Argentina of the 1970s. The timing of events in Argentina are closely tied to the ending of the musical, where they were not as important in the 85 film. 

A Crappy Poster Does Not Help

There are several changes in the story of the old film that Molina is recounting from his memory. Those allow the fantasy character played by Jennifer Lopez, much more of a role than Sonia Braga got. Lopez continues to be beautiful on screen and her singing performance is very good, with eight or so songs to perform, including the climax title song. She has the most impressive of the musical elements in the film. Her two costars, get something that the two stars of the 1985 movie don't get, they have dual roles not only as the prisoners but as characters in the fantasy of the movie "Kiss of the Spider Woman" as Molina is telling it. Diego Luna has the heavier role in the musical sequences as the romantic interest of the star Ingrid Luna (Lopez). Tonatiuh, the actor playing Molina, has the stronger role in the prison scenes. Both of the men are quite good in the jail set scenes. Tonatiuh plays Molina with less obvious femininity than Hurt did, and the more subdued reading of the character might be better for the story, but it will probably not sustain the attention that Hurt's performance did. This may be a case where the authentic casting works against the need for the audience to suspend it's disbelief.

So, the movie is old fashioned, put together professionally, does right by it's socially important political story and the music scenes all work. So why is this film going nowhere fast with audiences? I guess it is just a different world. This movie could have been platform released thirty years ago, starting in prestige locations and then getting a wider release as interest grew. That is not the world we live in anymore, and the success of the movie suffers for it. If you can find it on the big screen, go for it, but my guess is that it will be PPV this week and streaming on a service next month. Too bad, because it would bring back some old fashioned glamour to a movie going experience. 

Tron Ares (2025)

 

Did we need another "Tron" movie? I don't really think so, but need is not the motivation here, rather it is want. The audience is not the group that wants another "Tron" film, it is the studio, which is trying to create a franchise that they can rely on every few years, but just because you want something, doesn't mean you are going to get it. The box office for this film is not as big a disaster as for other Disney films this year, but it is unlikely to encourage a return to this universe, at least until the next time the house of the mouse is desperately looking for IPs to develop, fruitlessly again.

You might think after these mostly negative comments about the strategy of the film, that it wasn't very good. That's wrong. "Tron Ares" is a handsomely mounted science fiction/fantasy/adventure that looks spectacular on the big screen and justifies s a visit to your local IMAX or XD cinema. I did not see this in 3D but it is one of the few films that I can say I wish I had. There are some visual sequences and action scenes that would have popped dramatically with that extra visual element added. 

I only saw "Tron Legacy" one time in a theater, that was fifteen years ago and before I was writing on the blog on new films. I seem to remember enjoying it well enough, but I'm not sure I left wanting to see more. Sort of like the way I felt about the original "Tron" from 1983. It was innovative in look, but was soon surpassed as the technology got better and was being used more impressively in other films. The only thing that seemed to link the two movies was Jeff Bridges character. Guess what, that's an even more tenuous link tin this film. Bridges returns as a digital ghost in the movie for a couple of minutes, that's it. Jared Leto is the star of the film, and in a twist, he starts out one way, but morphs into something different by the end of the movie. I think he has the requisite charisma for the character, but it is not enough to sustain the film just on it's own. That's why there are so many high tech chase moments and digital destruction on the screen. 

The story turns out to be a pretty straight forward action narrative. The good guys have something the bad guys want to steal, and there is an attempt to retrieve it or destroy it. Chases and life threatening situations occur for human characters, and the digital AI characters simply reproduce and keep chasing. All the energy went into the look of the film rather than the script. Which as I said is not a bad thing, if all you want is an action movie with a cool look. That was enough for me, but it probably won't be enough for everyone and everyone is needed if you are going to keep making these films.

I suggest, you enjoy your snack, and the great soundtrack provided by Nine Inch Nails. The movie will be on streaming soon, but it will not be as hypnotic at home as it is in a theater setting. Entertaining but non-essential. 

Re-Animator (1985) Panic at the Paramount/Alamo Draft House

 

Having fallen even further behind on my posts, this entry will be a little different. I actually saw "Re-Animator" twice in the week of these screenings, and one of those screening was a special presentation with guests at the Paramount Theater here in Austin. To get the complete discussion of the film which was also the MOTM selection for the LAMBcast, I am including a link to the podcast here. 

"Re-Animator" is one of the jewels of 1980s horror gore films. Theater director Stuart Gordon makes a seamless transition to films with a cast of soon to be iconic horror actors, including the great Jeffrey Combs as Dr. Herbert West. His arched brows, deadpan face and monomaniacal voice, are the perfect combination for this science fiction horror story that mixes the Frankenstein mythos with the Zombie aesthetic. 

Combs appeared with co-star Barbara Crampton, to talk about the movie with the hostess from Austin's own Hyperreel Fanclub. 

The late actor David Gale, steals the movie every time his disembodied head appears on screen. It is both horrifying and hysterical. There is a sequence featuring some nudity and a very explicit sex act being performed by a talking head, so be careful about showing this movie to anyone under age, it is adult fare. The violence and bloodletting should have warned you of that early on. 

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) Paramount Screening

 

I basically quoted the above teaser trailer to a couple of guys sitting behind me at the recent screening of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". I overheard them asking each other, "What are the first and second encounters?" That I could remember the answer from way back in this 1977 trailer is a credit to my long term memory, now if only I could remember the three things I was going to pick up at the market, I'd be in much better shape.

This was a last minute commitment we made. Some other social engagement fell out, and we are Paramount Movie Pass holders, so this was available to us without an extra charge. It was a 70mm screening of  a newly struck print of the film, and the Austin audience was among the first to see this print. 

I wrote about the film after a screening eight years ago, and I will stand by my comments from that time here..   Every time I see this film, I am more impressed by what it accomplishes. The screening at the Paramount allowed me to be immersed in the sounds of the film very effectively. The opening musical note, sustained and then the jump to a loud retort was perfectly timed to the visual jump opening that the movie comes in with. The roar of the winds in Mexico as the survey team is arriving to discover the lost squadron of WWII planes is a terrific use of sound. The same can be said of the sequence in India, where the throngs of thousands are replicating the humming musical notes that came from the sky. The payoff of the thousands of hands simultaneously  pointing towards the heavens was perfect and another indicator of the brilliance of writer/director Steven Spielberg. That this is the film that followed his masterpiece "Jaws", cements his place in the hierarchy of film giants. 

Of course If we are going to spend time talking about the sound of the film, we can't ignore the score from the legendary John Williams. The five note motif is so deeply intertwined with the story of the film, that as I said before, Williams could easily have earned a screenwriting credit for the movie. The editing of the lights and the music in the final scene is one of those times where music can completely replace dialogue and you still understand what is going on. 

I discovered that I did not have a CE3K shirt to wear down to the presentation. So I substituted a shirt that has a secret connection to the film. Those of you who know, will appreciate the joke, and those of you who are confused need to watch both movies. So many cultural references depend on understanding the timing of the events, and this is one of those. The 007 movie came out two years after "Close Encounters".

I have to admit that I get frustrated sometimes with young people who have no sense of film history. Amanda told me that when she mentioned that she was going to the screening, her co-workers had never heard of the movie. Yes it is forty-eight years old, but they all know "Star Wars" and have at least heard of "the Godfather". I'm just amazed that this classic from director Steven Spielberg is not imprinted on our collective memory as deeply as I think it should be. I'm probably just a grumpy old guy, but when they discover this film for themselves, I will be seen as a prophet. 

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues

 

Apparently not everybody treasures Spinal Tap the way I do. "Spinal Tap 2:The End Continues” should have had a nice moderate run at the box office and been beloved by fans of the band. Instead it's a neglected pebble on the beach, kicked out of the way by people who should be embracing it and ignored by the people who created it except for the four main stars, who are doing their best to try and sell the film in the face of public indifference.

Spinal Tap is a fictional band, but the music is real and the performances are live. Famously the structure of these movies is the framework that existed before the movie started but most of the material that fills it in is improvised by the stars themselves. Harry Shearer, Michael McKean and Christopher Guest are joined by Rob Reiner returning as his fictional director Marty de Bergey. They all improvise and kibitz their way through a reunion concert that is filled with intrigue, and the usual antics of narcissistic rock artists.

The 41 years that have passed since the original film, have seen changes in the music industry, and the way films are made and marketed. Those changes must have been significant enough to render this film impotent in the face of the new World Order. I say that because I completely enjoyed this movie, and I laughed a lot. The only thing that I thought was missing were new original songs that might match up to the brilliance of the original soundtrack album. To compensate we get Cameo appearances by some big rock stars who sing some of the Spinal Tap Originals. Paul McCartney comes in during rehearsals and with his quiet respectful comments, he manages to antagonize David St, Hubbins. A perfect example of Rockstar megalomania gone to the extreme.

A much longer insertion into the story is Elton John, who not only appears in the rehearsal stages but shows up for the performance of the climactic song of Spinal Taps reunion concert, “Stonehenge”. Fans of the original will be anticipating disaster and they won't be disappointed, although it's an exact reversal of what happened in the first film. In between these appearances we had a series of drummers who rejected the idea of joining Tap for a one-off performance, which is understandable given the history of Spinal Tap drummers.

I talked about this movie a couple of weeks ago with some of the other Lambs on the LAMBcast, one of whom enjoyed it almost as much as I did, and the other found a few things to be entertained by but he was not as nostalgic as we were for the return of Tap. I guess his attitude reflects the modern world more than my own. It's a complete shame to me that this movie managed to have such a minuscule box office weekend, and some other crap is going to pull in more simply because it fits into a genre that is popular in September. Oh well it's a fine line between clever and stupid, the stars and director of this film fall on the clever side of the line, the audience falls on the other.