March 2025 Reviews

Anyone else just, like, waking up every day being like “well, here we go again”? Yeah, I thought so.

It is somewhat hard to capture the “what’s even the point” energy that permeates this particular time in world history. The ennui, the overwhelming enormity of the situation this country is currently in. The fear that this train does not run in reverse. It’s hard to be like, oh, know what I’m going to do today? Write silly thoughts about movies! But it’s either that or staring forlornly into the void, so I guess we’re doing this instead.

This piece from Luke O’Neil gets at a lot of my feelings these days.

Onward.

Books

• A Sweet Sting of Salt, Rose Sutherland—Queer historical fantasy/romance set in 1830s Nova Scotia about an isolated midwife (Jean) who discovers secrets about her neighbor’s mysterious new wife (Muirin). This book does itself a disservice by announcing from the very start what the actual twist is. By revealing off the bat the specific folklore this pulls from, all the mystery is taken away and you know going in what the inevitable outcome is going to be. That makes suffering through the main character’s wildly stupid choices even less tolerable because you know that things are going to turn out okay, even more so than you do in your standard romance. I wish this book grabbed me more but at one point I misplaced my Kindle and took like at least a month to find it and was like "oh well guess I'll finish that book when I find it again." I generally really get into books set during this time period but something about this just didn't hit with me. The writing felt almost YA-like and the book skipped over a lot of the friendship-building between Jean and Muirin and became another one of those stories where you have to believe the characters are in love because you're told they are. Jean makes the dumbest possible choices at every moment, and then is shocked when her bad ideas turned out poorly. She should have been easier to root for as a main character but I mostly wanted her to make smarter choices.

• The Wild Robot, Peter Brown—Robot washes up on shore of isolated island and befriends some critters. Fast paced, easy to read, incredible illustrations. I think I may prefer this to the movie, which invents some conflicts that aren't really present in the book. Probably suitable for some braver early readers who may need an adult to read out loud. I appreciate the book's overall message of growth, accepting those who are different from you, and the bittersweet but important message that sometimes life is going to be hard and unfair (but that the people who love you will still love you no matter what). Missed opportunity for the movie to emulate the illustration style here instead of making a movie that basically looks like every other animated movie lately.

• Ladyhoppers, Sarah Thérèse Pelletier and Scott James Taylor—A scientist and a soldier have to jump through the multiverse to try to figure out how to stop the universe from getting destroyed. This is a fun world-hopping sci-fi romp that has our main characters bouncing through the multiverse as they try to figure out how to stop the mysterious events that are slowly destroying their own world. It's a bit buddy comedy, a bit odd couple, and very witty the whole way through. At one point, a dragon gets punched. It's a good time. I would have liked to spend more time in some of the worlds, and the ending left me with a bunch of unanswered questions, but things still wrap up mostly satisfactorily.  (Full disclosure, I have known the authors for ages thanks to running in some of the same online circles as them, back in the day. Knowing them had no influence my rating.)

• Russian Gothic, Aleksandr Skorobogatov (translated by Ilona Yazhbin Chavasse)—Originally published in Russian in 1991, not officially translated into English until 2023. A man, a former soldier clearly dealing with trauma inflicted while fighting in Afghanistan, starts believing that his wife is having an affair. Can you call your narrator unreliable when it’s clear from the beginning that he is, in fact, wildly unreliable? Short, intense, difficult, and masterfully translated. Russian-to-English literature seems to often, well, lose something in translation, but translator Ilona Yazhbin Chavasse managed to keep the spirit of a vaguely 1980s-90s Russia while crafting a narrative that's readable to outsiders. This is a book (novella?) that can be read in many different ways. Whether you're just taking it straight-forward as a story about a violent man, or if you're looking at it through the lens of PTSD and post-war trauma, or if you're looking at it as a metaphor, there is something there to both fascinate and disgust you. I don't often want to look up analysis of the more serious books I read, but I'm looking forward to seeing the opinions of people more educated than me on this one. Contains plot lines about domestic abuse and violence against women.

Book links go to an affiliate page on Bookshop.org, where I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase.

Movies

• The Source Family (2012)—Documentary following a religious movement (uh, cult) that came out of Los Angeles in the 1970s. The group had their own historian, a woman who was a photographer who ended up falling in with the group, so their history is very well documented. They also had a psych rock band that released several albums throughout the ‘70s. Given the origin of the footage, and that several members have credits as producers or writers, the documentary has a fairly obvious bias and treads lightly over some of the darker aspects of the group’s history. Still an interesting watch, though. Love how every cult across time is just slight variations on the same series of grifts.

• The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)—Young man infiltrates wealthy family for nefarious reasons. Honestly, I kind of love that every Yorgos Lanthimos movie takes place in some world that is just like slightly off kilter. If the subject matter of his movies was less weird, I’d say they all existed in some kind of dream-like limbo state, but these would be just the weirdest dreams you’ve ever experienced. This one is deeply uncomfortable and awkward and brutal. It’s helped along by the fact that Barry Keoghan could be mistaken for 16 or he could be 35 at any given moment, which helps add to the surreal universe his character inhabits. “Colin Farrell is hairy” is a legitimate plot point and for that, I thank all involved.

• The Dead Thing (2024)—Indie horror from film podcaster Elric Kane, on the horrors of modern dating. There are some very slick, memorable shots in here (the shots of the lead actress sitting in her like, home tanning / light ray contraption thing are striking). And the concept — woman goes on date with man who ghosts her, and she becomes determined to track him down — is engaging at first. But the movie drags despite being just over 90 minutes long, and eventually takes a turn into violence against women for no real reason. There’s some good stuff in here but I think it needs just a little more refining.

• Intermission (2003)—Interconnected stories of lives of a bunch of small-town Irish delinquents. Fun, a little bit ridiculous, held a few surprises for me. I appreciate any movie that can pull off the interconnected storyline thing without seeming like it's trying too hard. And I think every Irish movie I’ve seen has been absolutely unafraid to descend into chaos at least a time or two. Love playing the “where did I see that guy before” game.

• Werewolves Within (2021)—New park ranger comes to town and discovers not all is as peaceful as it seems. Honestly this was a lot of fun. I know saying that it was good risks at least one nerd coming in and being like "oh hur hur so u think it's like the godfather" or something but like, for being a lower budget indie loosely based on an IP that I've never heard of, this was a good time. Silly, tense when it needed to be, good chemistry between characters, an accurate send up of small rural towns. Minus a point because I thought it would have the balls to never actually show us the mediocre werewolf transformation but alas.

• Novocaine (2025)—Nerdy guy who can’t feel pain goes on a mission to save the woman he has a crush on. This was a lot more fun than I expected, despite being mostly predictable and wildly ridiculous. More grisly than a lot of horror movies I've seen lately. Enjoyed watching this in a crowded theater with an audience that reacted to all the gross injuries. A day will come where Jack Quaid doesn't play a dweeb but today is not that day.

• Paddington 2 (2017)—Okay, everyone’s right, this may actually be a perfect movie. Very deeply silly, and a performance from Hugh Grant where he clearly was having the time of his life.

• The Symbol of the Unconquered (1920)—Silent film that follows a white-passing black woman who moves to a remote town and befriends her new community, while a group of racist jerks try to force a black man to give them his land. This film is hard to judge because it is incomplete—climactic footage showing the defeat of the KKK has been “mysteriously lost”—and, besides the acknowledged missing footage, almost certainly chopped up in ways that didn't honor the creator's intent. Still, though, curious that every film class I had was eager to spend time on The Birth of a Nation but none of them ever wanted to talk about the contemporary film whose scenes of black people defeating the Klan have been "lost" over time. Presented at the Music Box with an incredible live score performance from the Alvin Cobb Jr. Trio.

• Black Bag (2025)—Spy movie but make it intellectual instead of explodey. Very slick, stylish, twisty, full of intrigue and incredibly beautiful people. Kept me guessing, which is a rarity for these types of movies. Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett are perfect in their roles as married spies, one of whom may be engaged in some double crossing; Fassbender in particular is always so excellent as the most miserable, tightly-wound, serious man you have ever met in your life. Nothing revelatory here but also when I have been looking at movie listings lately in order to check out something new, I keep finding myself saying “but what if I went and saw Black Bag again instead?”

• Dark City (1998)—Noir-ish dystopian world where alien beings (the Strangers) are trying to find what gives a human a soul. It took a bit for me to buy into this, and you really have to forgive The 1998 Of It All, but this was a neatly creepy sci-fi/noir mashup. The child Stranger was legitimately unsettling. I don't usually advocate for movies to be remade unnecessarily but I'd love to see a current day version of this, because I think with a few revisions, plus modern special effects technology, this could have been a killer.

• Warfare (2025)—Visceral, loud, tense, difficult. Incredible sound design, par for the course for an Alex Garland project. The story is based on the memories of the real-life men depicted on screen, as well as co-writer/co-director Ray Mendoza. There are no heroes in this movie. The men are scattered, confused, make mistakes, make poor choices. The lack of glamorizing any of the soldiers was a noticeable (and intentional) departure from other similar war movies.

  Appreciated the Q&A afterwards with Ray Mendoza, Alex Garland, and Will Poulter. Mendoza talked about the impetus for making this movie, which was largely because one of the men, injured in the battle, has no memories of the event. I appreciated their dedication to keeping this true-to-life; Garland mentioned that at no point could they just "make something up" or go off-script, they were that devoted to portraying the event as the men remembered it.

• The Disaster Artist (2017)—After finally seeing The Room for the first time recently, I figured it was time to see the movie based on Greg Sestero’s memoir of the same name. Entertaining but also repeatedly winds up on the wrong side of the line of punching down/making your subject the butt of your joke. Is the point of this movie to make fun of Tommy Wiseau or is it to dramatize the whole everything surround the movie, its cult status, etc.? It’s clear that James Franco and company are more than well-versed in the original work but I think this movie was mostly deeply confused about what it was trying to be.

• Paddington in Peru (2024)—Paddington and friends head off to Peru for more shenanigans. This was not as charming as the previous two entries in the franchise but still more heartfelt than a lot of other kids movies out there today. Everyone in it seemed to be having a blast, at least, although Sally Hawkins was deeply missed. Emily Moritmer brings a more wholesome, less quirky vibe to the role, and maybe we didn’t need that extra amount of zany in a movie packed to the gills with quirky characters, but still. I appreciated the scenery and the llamas. The post-credits scene/cameo was legitimately the funniest part of the movie, though.

• Mickey 17 (2025)—In a futuristic world, a guy just trying to escape consequences on Earth finds himself passage on a space voyage in exchange for agreeing to do work that’s, uh, to die for. A bit on the nose but I think you can say that about all of Bong Joon Ho's movies. Great performance from Robert Pattinson, who continues to make the most bizarrely interesting career choices. Mark Ruffalo’s character (incompetent politician) has some pretty blatant inspiration from the real world, and it looks like he had a blast making this movie. Dragged a bit the longer it went on and yet seemed to leave you with a lot of unanswered questions. Loved the Creepers, would adopt one if possible. Perfect giant tardigrade friends.

• Lincoln (2012)—Incredible performance from Daniel Day-Lewis, bringing Abraham Lincoln to life as more than just a caricature, and instead as a complicated man trying to balance what’s best for the nation with what he can actually get accomplished. The rest of the movie is Very Spielberg. It’s hard to have any tension in a movie where you know exactly how everything is going to end. Enjoyed spotting some early career cameos from actors who we all know and love now.

What Else?

The 2025 Live Music Playlist has been updated with the acts that I saw live in March: the Yale Whiffenpoofs (a cappella choir; St Pauls United Church of Christ) and Julian Lage (solo jazz acoustic guitar, Old Town School of Folk Music).

Otherwise, I didn’t do too much of note in March, so instead, here’s the picture of a very timely notation I spotted in a library book.

What’s Next?

April’s already half over (whoops my bad) but I’ve got some interesting stuff on deck still. A couple of concerts (including seeing Bill Callahan for the first time in at least 10 years) and a trip to NYC at the end of the month to catch the Live In Concert version of the short-lived musical Swept Away. The show, which is about a shipwreck, had a brief run at the end of last year and then closed abruptly because apparently the tourists don’t want to see a show which features cannibalism as a subplot. It was exactly my jam, though, and I’d actually had plans to go and see it in January, which of course were scuttled by the show closing before I could get there. The fandom is strong for tragic boat boys, though, and so the cast is getting back together for a one-night only reunion concert. I will probably squeeze in a few other theater things while I’m there - I’d love to see Vanya although tickets are so exorbitantly expensive that I’ve got to hope I somehow get lucky with the rush lottery, and I’m hoping to get to see Cabaret, too - so look forward to some of those thoughts next month.

Anyway, what are you all up to?

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