Well, 2025 is off to a rocky start and I’m desperately late blogging about all the movies I’ve watched. All I know is I need to retire, so if someone has any ideas, do let me know.

48 Hrs. (1982)

written by Roger Spottiswoode, Walter Hill, Larry Gross, and Steven E. de Souza

directed by Walter Hill

In 48 Hrs., a gruff white cop (Nick Nolte) enlists the aid of a motormouth black convict (Eddie Murphy) to help him find a couple of escaped criminals. It’s a fun action movie, and it’s no surprise it made comedian Murphy a bona fide movie star. But what gives the movie its edge is it’s racial commentary, as the two main characters grow to appreciate each other despite their casual distrust of each other’s skin color. The scene in which Murphy passes himself off as a police officer and tells a bunch of rednecks that he’s their “…worst fuckin’ nightmare, man. I’m a nigger with a badge” is by now as legendary as Sidney Poitier’s slap in In the Heat of the Night (1967).

Rating: ***

A Complete Unknown (2024)

written by James Mangold and Jay Cocks

based on the book Dylan Goes Electric! by Elijah Wald

directed by James Mangold

I am fairly intrigued by Bob Dylan, having gone through his whole discography a couple of times and seen him live many years ago. On the other hand, good biopics are hard to come by, and I didn’t like co-writer/director James Mangold’s previous biographical effort, Walk the Line (2005). So I approached A Complete Unknown, about Dylan’s formative years, with some trepidation. Good news: it’s not bad – Timothée Chalamet does a fine job as the elusive singer/songwriter, and the film is consistently entertaining.

Bad news? It doesn’t rise above that. Maybe it’s me, but I don’t care much about seeing the moment when Dylan decided to switch from his folksy tunes to a more electric/rock style (the movie ends at precisely this juncture in music history). Instead, I am much more interested in the reasons why he would. A Complete Unknown doesn’t really get into Dylan’s mind, failing to develop him beyond what fans like me already know. A missed opportunity for sure.

Rating: **½

Cuckoo (2024)

written and directed by Tilman Singer

A young American girl (Hunter Schafer) moves with her family to Germany and soon realizes her dad’s weird boss (Dan Stevens) is protecting some sort of human/bird hybrid species that impregnate female humans in order to breed. Oh, and they also emit a high-pitched shriek that creates a disorienting time loop, because… well, I’m not sure, but whatever. I don’t think Cuckoo makes a lot of sense, but I did have fun with it, particularly because of Schafer’s committed performance as the broody teenager facing crazy shit in the Alps.

Rating: **½

Straume (Flow – 2024)

written by Gints Zilbalodis and Matīss Kaža

directed by Gints Zilbalodis

A beautifully surreal animated movie about a cat in a post-apocalyptic world, Straume (English title: Flow) wears its ecological message proudly: In a world devoid of humans, the animals – which include a capybara, a secretarybird, a lemur, and a dog – face a flood that threatens their lives, and the only way to survive is to band together and figure out how to cooperate (hint to earthlings everywhere). Better yet, there is no dialogue to speak of, just the regular meows, barks, and croaks you’d expect from the disparate group of critters. Straume is not for the average Disney watcher – it’s simultaneously sad and hopeful, a unique experience all its own.

Rating: ***

Immaculate (2024)

written by Andrew Lobel

directed by Michael Mohan

In the nunsploitation horror movie Immaculate, Sydney Sweeney plays Sister Cecilia, an American novice nun who moves to a convent in Italy and discovers a plot to bring about the return of Jesus Christ. Worse, it involves implanting an engineered fetus into Cecilia’s virgin body (hence the title). Damn. Had this outrageous premise been played completely over the top, I would’ve been all over Immaculate. As it stands, it lacks the energy and style of the Italian horror flicks it clearly wants to emulate.

Rating: **

The Parallax View (1974)

written by David Giler and Lorenzo Semple Jr.

based on the novel by Loren Singer

directed by Alan J. Pakula

A U.S. senator is assassinated at the Seattle Space Needle, and the suspected killer subsequently dies trying to escape. Three years later, reporter Joseph Frady (Warren Beatty) discovers that witnesses at the scene have been dying for years, and a shadowy organization called Parallax is behind it all. Frady is soon targeted as well. Can he gather enough evidence before it’s too late?

The Parallax View is the second of director Alan J. Pakula’s “paranoia trilogy,” which includes Klute (1971) and All the President’s Men (1976). It mostly works – the beginning sequence is shocking in its sudden violence, and the downer of an ending is better than the ambiguous one from the similar Three Days of the Condor (1975). But the conspiratorial elements are hard to believe, and Frady escapes from so many jams – bar fights, car chases, explosions, floods – at times you’ll think you’re watching a James Bond flick.

Rating: **½

The Substance (2024)

written and directed by Coralie Fargeat

Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), a has-been actress, is fired from her aerobics show because she’s too damn old. Desperate, she turns to a black market product that can supposedly make her younger. What it does, though, is create a new being altogether, Sue (Margaret Qualley), which emerges from a slit in the back of Elisabeth’s body. Every seven days they must switch consciousness or face dire consequences. How dire, you ask? If you’ve ever seen body horror films before, you can probably guess.

Except that The Substance has much more on its mind than just being a horror film. It also wants to be a satire about beauty, vanity, and celebrity. Fine, but… did it have to be so obvious and cartoonish about it? Did the characters have to be so shallow and underdeveloped? Did it really need to go on for two hours and 21 minutes? A hard no to all of those. Even then, I did enjoy writer/director Coralie Fargeat’s over-the-top ending which is all sorts of 80s splatter fun, as well as the many references to her inspirations, from Rear Window (1954) to The Shining (1980) and Society (1989).

Rating: **½

Check out my friend Ruben’s hilarious take on The Substance at my sister site here.

To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)

written by William Friedkin and Gerald Petievich

based on the novel by Gerald Petievich

directed by William Friedkin

Every couple of years I sit down to rewatch To Live and Die in L.A., hoping that it’s actually a good movie. It’s not. I know critics and fans believe it to be director William Friedkin’s comeback after many years of subpar output like The Brink’s Job (1978) and Deal of the Century (1983), but it’s just a poorly directed, ho-hum thriller about an unscrupulous Secret Service agent (William Petersen) hot on the trail of a counterfeiter played by Willem Dafoe.

Dafoe is fine, the gritty Los Angeles locales are interesting, and Wang Chung’s title song catchy enough. But none of it feels believable. A late-in-the-game car chase against traffic – Friedkin clearly hoping to surpass his earlier influential race from The French Connection (1971) – fails to liven up the pace, and the ending is probably one of the most bizarre I’ve ever seen in a cop actioner. For a better 80s crime flick set in the City of Angels, check out 52 Pick-Up (1986).

Rating: **

The Wonder (2022)

written by Emma Donoghue, Sebastián Lelio, and Alice Birch

based on the novel by Emma Donoghue

directed by Sebastián Lelio

The Wonder is an interesting if uneven psychological drama set after the Great Famine in which an English nurse (Florence Pugh) is sent to investigate claims of a young Irish girl (Kíla Lord Cassidy) who won’t eat, yet seems to survive by divine intervention. The acting is good and the central story thought-provoking, particularly in terms of its examination of faith, but the script feels underwritten and the inclusion of meta elements – the fourth wall is repeatedly broken – is a decidedly weird choice.

Rating: **½