Take a deeeeep breath. 🫁

Feels good, doesn't it?

Feb 27, 2025

THE QUOTE 🎬 💬

“I hate space.”

hint: weird quote from an astronaut

THINK THOUGHTS 💭

I’m sending this week’s email from somewhere over the Pacific. Currently closest land mass is… Shikotan, Island. Which is somehow both Russian and Japanese. Duality. It’s existence is plentiful in this world.

It can also be found in my Oscar appreciation. If you’ve been reading for a while, you know my thoughts on awards shows, which is essentially, “reluctant curiosity.” I love the interest it drives and stuff like completing viewing of all the best picture nominees and discussions around people’s “faves.” But I generally dislike the fact one movie has to win.

And since we’re talking Academy Awards, I have to call out the fact I never featured a solid set of movies that are nominated this year. Largely because I kept waiting for a “wider” release so more people could see them outside of just LA/NY, but that turned out to be just a way for me to push off talkin about them. No more…

Sing Sing - a group of inmates, led by an innocent incarcerated man (Colman Domingo), discover arts and theater. The impacts are profound and plentiful. The reviews are fantastic, and Domingo received loads of affection and attention. Based on a true story and the crew is acted (outside of Domingo) by formerly incarcerated actors.
September 5 - an ABC Sports crew is the closest news group to the awfulness at the 1972 Munich Olympics, so they focus their lenses and attention on the attack. The reviews tended to focus on two big themes: the intensity of the pacing and the moral quandaries it brings up. It wasn’t widely seen, and “only” was nominated for Best Original Screenplay, but the fantastic reviews indicate it probably should’ve gotten more attention.
Flow - nominated for best Animated Picture, a cat has to figure out how to manage a massive flood with a capybara, a lemur, a bird, and a dog on boat. I know—cute, but also odd sounding. The reviews talk about the unique and really well done animation and slower, more thoughtful pace/tone of the movie. I wouldn't’ say no to an edible while watching.

PS Clearly didn’t go bones bare on this edition either, but was fairly straight forward with the feature descriptions fwiw.

NEWSY BITS 👾

Amazon MGM Studios Gains Creative Control of James Bond Franchise From Broccoli Family - this is what you call a “big deal” in Hollywood. So monikered because the Bond franchise has been controlled by the Broccoli family since the film franchise started in the 60’s. Amazon bought MGM which had half-ownership of the franchise, but not creative control (good move y’all). I would expect the milking to happen post-haste. MI6 workplace comedy anyone? Oh, and is Jeff Bezos already crowdsourcing who to play 007 on the socials — likely more to boost his own cultural awareness than business move? Yes indeed. - Wall Street Journal

‘Captain America: Brave New World’ Slides 68% at Box Office to $28 Million 2nd Weekend - only in the world of blockbusters and superheroes is $28 million a bad thing. - The Wrap

Gene Hackman and Wife Betsy Arakawa Found Dead in Santa Fe Home - he certainly had a magnetic menace to him. Btw, no, they don’t know what happened yet. - Variety

Michelle Trachtenberg, ‘Gossip Girl’ and ‘Buffy’ Actress, Dies at 39 - 😔 they left out EuroTrip. - NY Times

‘Star Wars’ Boss Kathleen Kennedy Planning to Exit Lucasfilm at the End of 2025 - a big deal considering the scope and size of the Star Wars world. I have my critiques of how things have gone, but I also understand it’s a massive undertaking. No word on who would take over if this actually occurs, but Dave Filoni, who is the companies chief creative officer, seems a strong possibility. PS Revenge of the Sith is popping back into theaters to celebrate the big 2 - 0. - Variety

EXTRA CREDIT MOVIE(S) 📝

Riff Raff - a dark-comedy crime caper where an old timer criminal (Ed Harris) is just tryin’ to get some god damn peace and quiet, but the “gang” and his family won’t let him. The reviews say you’re coming for the acting—from: Harris and Jennifer Coolidge, Bill Murray, Gabrielle Union as well as Pete Davidson—and less for the story that a decent number of reviews (even if they liked it) say is held together by the cast rather than a stirring story. Playing in Limited Theaters Friday

NOTABLE NEW RELEASE(S) 🎟 & 📺

Last Breath

A fictional telling of a true story from the same director who made the (well liked) non-fictional documentary of the same events: a member of a team of saturation divers (????? yeah, same, I had to wikipedia, but the TL;DR is that it’s divers who stay underwater for long periods of time, often in these tight chambers, in between dives so they don’t have to decompression until they’re done) has all his vital connections—light, oxygen, communication—severed and has five minutes of oxygen to breath hundreds of feet below the water. Yikes.

Reviews are pretty complementary with comments about the directness and lack of fluff, which allows the movie to focus on the core anxiety of “will he make it,” but little else.

Watch the Trailer

Out: Friday

Where: Theaters

Details: 1 hr 33 mins | PG-13 | 🍅: TBD

My Dead Friend Zoe

The title ain’t lyin’, Zoe (Natalie Morales) is dead. But Zoe is also very much alive — just in the mind of Merit (Sonequa Martin-Green).

See, Merit and Zoe were in the Army together in Afghanistan, and Zoe didn’t make it. But this is definitely not a wat movie. After everything, Merit is having a tough go and even though she attends group therapy sessions, led by Morgan Freeman (acting in a role, not like literally Morgan Freeman running the group - though that’d be kinda cool though, and sleep inducing).

Critics have been welcoming to first time feature direcor Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, who is a vet himself and say it does a solid job of subverting certain cliches, while handling the fact that one of its leads, well, doesn’t exist.

Ed Harris (back again like he never left) plays Merit’s grandfather who she goes to stay with while dealing with it all. He’s also going through it as he’s processing the loss of a spouse and showing signs of alzheimer’s, which of course only makes things easier for the grieving Merit. But who knows1, it might just help that someone else is going through “the shit” as well. 💩

Watch the Trailer

Out: Friday

Where: Theaters

Details: 1 hr 38 mins | R | 🍅: 94%

Movies are better with (good) company.