TEN GREAT MOVIES FROM 2025

 1.  Train Dreams - (NETFLIX) --- The life of a logger from the early 1900's to a man in space.  Told like a story over a campfire. 

2.  The Life of Chuck (PRIME) --- A jolting tale of love and joy and the end of the world. 

3.  One Battle After Another --- (THEATERS) One revolutionary chases the next generation. Best road race of the year. 

4.  Sinners --- (HBO Max) ---The deep South, rhythm and blues, racism, and vampires make a heady mix. 

5.  Weapons (HBO Max) --- Mystery and horror combine for a compelling story. 

6.  Rental Family - (THEATERS) --- Brendan Frasier learns the value of real emotion working for a Japanese company that only pretends to care. 

7.  Nuremberg --- (THEATERS) Russell Crowe personifies evil as a charming Nazi, on trial for his life.  

8.  Song Sung Blue - (IN THEATERS CHRISTMAS, 2025) - Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman touch hearts as small time tribute Neil Diamond singers  - experience success and heartbreak. 

9.  The Choral - (IN THEATERS CHRISTMAS, 2025) - Choirmaster Ralph Fiennes must recruit singers where he can find them during World War I.  

10.  A Little Prayer - (PRIME) - Family drama from the writer of Junebug - David Strathairn struggles to understand his son and protect his daughter-in-law 

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Other notable films:

Wicked for Good --- conclusion to Wicked series - for fans. 

Sentimental Value - father daughter drama - I have a headache.

Hamnet - Felt like a chore.  

Marty Supreme - I'm tired of stories about relentless hustlers.

Jay Kelly - George Clooney as a big star reevaluating his life.  Boo Hoo. 

Bugonia - Too weird for me. 

Frankenstein - I'll take the original. 

Hamnet - 2 1/2 Stars - THEATERS - November 26, 2025

Hamnet imagines the marriage of William Shakespeare and his feisty wife Agnes.  As portrayed by Jessie Buckley, Agnes oozes feistiness.  Their romance and her birth scenes crackle, with screams and howls.  The death of their son Hemnet, most likely from the plague, throws the marriage into chaos.  Shakespeare throws himself into work while Agnes throws herself into the full force of grief.  Did the tragedy influence The Tragedy of Hamlet?  Did the work repair the marriage?  Jessie Buckley's performance overpowers all.  She will most certainly receive an Oscar nomination and probably win.  Hamnet gives this year's awards season an artful entry.  I hate to admit I found it a chore to watch.    

Jay Kelly - 2 1/2 Stars - THEATERS - November 25, 2025 NETFLIX - December 5, 2025

George Clooney might actually be Jay Kelly, the new character in the same named movie.  Now approaching his 60s, Kelly rethinks his life---including choices that on reflection seem arrogant, selfish, or even cruel.  A chance encounter with a college friend ends in a fistfight touching off the character's re-appraisal of his life.  Jay Kelly has some nice supporting characters, particularly Adam Sandler as Kelly's business manager/handler.  But as Casablanca puts it "The problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world."  Same with Jay Kelly.  This plot's been around forever.  Nothing new here.    

Movie Guide

Train Dreams - 4 Stars - NETFLIX - November 21, 2025 - A haunting story of a logger in the early 20th century, his loves, and the changes in his world over 80 years.  Extraordinary. 

The Beast in Me - 4 Stars - NETFLIX - November 13, 2025 - Chilling 8 part series pits Manhattan developer and possible murderer Matthew Rhys against strung out writer Claire Danes.  A great script with a roller coaster close hooked me from start to finish.  

The Life of Chuck - 4 Stars - PRIME - June 3, 2025 - Three scenes in a man's life - based on a Stephen King short story. Life as a mystery full of wonder.   

My Mom Jayne - 4 Stars - MAX - June 27, 2025 - Mariska Hargitay documents the life of the mother she never knew, 1960s sex symbol Jayne Mansfield.  Hargitay shares her very personal discoveries in this fascinating brave film.   

The Pitt - 4 Stars - MAX - January 9, 2025 - One of the great medical series ever, Noah Wyle as head of emergency medicine in a struggling Pittsburgh hospital.  The Pitt far surpasses Wyle's work in ER.  This one's the real deal. 

Adolescence - 4 Stars - NETFLIX - March 13, 2025.  13-year-old boy arrested for the murder of a schoolmate.  Stephen Graham heads the family that tries to understand.  TV doesn't get much more powerful.  

Becoming Katherine Graham - 4 Stars - PRIME - February 27, 2025 - Fascinating true story of Kay Graham's journey from dutiful wife to Journalism giant. 

Sinners - 4 Stars - MAX - April 8, 2025 - Brilliant mix of genres surrounding the story of a blues legend.  Vampires are involved.  Ryan Coogler directs, Michael B. Jordan stars as twins.  

A Little Prayer - 4 Stars - PRIME - August 29, 2025 - Quiet North Carolina family drama from the writer of Junebug.   thoughtful 

One Battle After Another - 3 1/2 Stars - THEATERS - PRIME - Paul Thomas Anderson creates a dazzling chase drama of revolution a generation later.  Outstanding roles for Leo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, and Chase Infiniti.   A 2025 Oscar contender.  

 

Pee-wee as Himself - 3 1/2 Stars - MAX - May 23, 2025 - Paul Reubens on the effect of the character he created who overshadowed him, as well as the accusations that came with the creative success of Pee-wee Herman.  

Rental Family - 3 Stars - THEATERS - November 21, 2025 - Brendan Frasier plays an American actor in Japan, hired to provide emotional stand-in roles for strangers.  The unusual idea bogs down in well intentioned lies.   

Nuremberg - 3 Stars - THEATERS - November 7, 2025 - Based on the memoir of the Army psychiatrist who interviewed Herman Goering during his rial for WW2 war crimes.  Strong acting from Russell Crowe, Rami Malek and Michael Shannon.  A soapy script detracts. 

I Like Me - 3 Stars - PRIME - September 4, 2025 - Sweet documentary on a very nice guy who died too soon in 1994.  Clips include his star turn in "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" and great work on SCTV. 

Downton Abbey - The Grand Finale - 3 Stars - PEACOCK - PRIME - September 12, 2025 - the familiar characters return except for Maggie Smith.  Life goes on, divorce becomes acceptable, Noel Coward visits, and a new generation takes over.  Watching this is like taking a warm bath.  

The Thursday Murder Club - 3 Stars - NETFLIX - August 28, 2025 - Cut senior citizens solve a series of murders threatening their posh retirement home.  Great cast includes Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosman, and Ben Kingsley.  

 

Department Q - 3 Stars - NETFLIX - May 29, 2025 - Crackerjack mystery thriller. Hot headed Matthew Goode heads a cold case unit unraveling the mystery of a missing prosecutor.  Great writing and producing keep you guessing.   

Materialists - 3 Stars - HBO - MAX - June 13, 2025 - Dakota Johnson as a matchmaker - caught between boyfriends.  With Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans - a winning romantic comedy with some depth.  

Eleanor the Great - 2 1/2 Stars - PRIME - September 26, 2025 - The wonderful June Squibb wanders into the wrong group meeting and passes herself off as a Holocaust survivor, when actually the strong belongs to her late best friend.  Interesting thoughts on grief and aging but resolves incompletely.  

Hamnet - 2 1/2 Stars - THEATERS - November 26, 2025 - This year's artistic bid for the Oscar, with an excellence performance from Jesse Buckley, as Will Shakespeare's wife Agnes.  The death of their son creates deep grief and maybe a masterpiece.  A great work, but a chore to watch.       

Jay Kelly - 2 1/2 Stars - THEATERS - NETFLIX - December 5, 2025 - Movie super star George Clooney as an icon toward the end of his career rethinking his life.  Pleasant but nothing new here. 

  

Happy Gilmore 2 - 2 1/2 Stars - NETFLIX - July 25, 2025 - Adam Sandler updates his golf comedy with PGA professionals poking fun at themselves as well as the sports washing LIV tour.  

Blue Moon - 2 Stars - THEATERS - October 24, 2025 - Great performance by Ethan Hawke as songwriter Lorenz Hart --- drunk and miserable at the end of his depressing life.  Geez, can we at least have some music? 

The Baltimorons - 2 Stars - PRIME - September 5, 2025 - Struggling comic falls for older dentist over Christmas.  Baltimore home towners will love the home town feel.  Me?  I never got the attraction.    

Riefenstahl - 2 Stars - PRIME - September 5, 2025 - Documentary on the brilliant Nazi propaganda filmmaker.  She won't admit it.  

The Naked Gun - 2 Stars - PRIME -  August 1, 2025 - Desperately tries to recreate the originals.  i spent more energy trying to laugh instead of the real thing.  

Honey Don't - 1 1/2 Stars - PEACOCK - August 22, 2025 - Uneven Film Noir with margaret Qualley.  She's great in a confusing script with a lousy ending. 

Bugonia - 1 Star - THEATERS - October 31, 2025 - Two conspiracy crazed brothers kidnap high powered executive Emma Stgone convinced she's an alien from outer space.  I've never liked any of Yorgos Lanthimos' films and this one's no exception.  

The Phoenician Scheme - 1 Star - PRIME - June 1, 2025. Another Wes Anderson comic story.  His art direction overpowers the story which turns into the same old, same old.   

Rental Family - 3 Stars - THEATERS - November 21, 2025

Brendan Frasier plays the ultimate fish out of water in Rental Family.  A tall hulking American actor living in Japan, he finds work at an emotional support business.  They provide mourners for funerals, dads for children of single mothers, journalists to massage the ego of forgotten actors.  Frasier can't separate his emotions from his work, getting overly involved with his clients.  The idea falls apart as the well intentioned lies come to the surface.  At first Rental Family feels like a so so comedy---sort of an Asian Tootsie, but the story comes together with a nice emotional high by the end.  

Train Dreams - 4 Stars - NETFLIX - THEATERS - Novermeber 21, 2025

Train Dreams tells a quiet reflective story of a logger's life in the early 20th century.  Joel Edgerton creates a portrait of a good man, in love with his wife and family, forced to leave home for his work.  Will Patton narrates a slow measured engrossing story of man and nature.  The conclusion took my breath away.  Count Train Dreams among 2025's best.