Now Watching 2025

[Beltmann]

 

Yesterday I stumbled upon an old Super 8 film shot by my father in the summer of 1980. It features the six-year-old me riding a bicycle on the dead-end street leading to our village apartment in Jackson, Wisconsin. No cars, no fear... until, as the movie undeniably proves, our asshole mailbox refused to yield the right of way. My mind doesn't actually remember that crash--I must trust the movie when it tells me about that day, including how my silly faces mugged for the camera--but I do remember the sensations of that chrysalis age, and comprehend how those sensations entered a kind of perpetual metamorphosis that still hasn't ended after another 44 years of life proceedings. And, as the years pass, the changing way I perceive those images from 1980 provides its own kind of evolutionary map.

 

This universal yet elusive dynamic is nearly impossible to put across in a film, which is why Up, Michael Apted's nine-part documentary series spanning 56 years, is one of the cinema's greatest miracles. Apted started chronicling the lives of 14 British seven-year-olds in 1964 and then checked in on them every seven years until 2019 (even though Apted died in 2021, future installments have not been ruled out). The first few entries are bluntly engineered to bear witness to class immobility but eventually the series becomes more personal than political, and there is accumulating wisdom to be found in accompanying children as they travel toward young-old age, their hopes and worries shifting right along with the sands of time. What happens when "the future" gives way to mortality?

 

I've been watching Apted's movies for decades, and even though my actual age somewhat trails the participants (at the time of 63 Up, I was 45), I've always been able to identify with their position of having to reckon anew with their choices, with their aging, and with who they once were--or at least who Apted's camera tells them they once were. Fifty-six years later, there's a sense that the participants only know those children from Seven-Up! the way audiences do, meaning all they know is what Apted's recorded fragments show. Those children are resurrected every seven years, but they are increasingly strangers from another life and sometimes they are unwelcome interlopers in the participants' current lives. What's most curious to me, I think, is that my own aging has caused me to also have an evolving relationship with these archival images, these individuals, and these movies. In a sense, that makes me--and by extension any viewer--the real subject and beneficiary of Apted's magic.

 

(I watched 63 Up last night after several years of waiting to legally acquire a physical copy. I finally gave up and caved; thank you, person who uploaded a high-quality copy to YouTube. But YOU shouldn't watch it. This series is best viewed in order, preferably with years in between each installment!)

[Oil Can Boyd]

On 1/10/2025 at 8:08 PM, Beltmann said:

 

Yesterday I stumbled upon an old Super 8 film shot by my father in the summer of 1980. It features the six-year-old me riding a bicycle on the dead-end street leading to our village apartment in Jackson, Wisconsin. No cars, no fear... until, as the movie undeniably proves, our asshole mailbox refused to yield the right of way. My mind doesn't actually remember that crash--I must trust the movie when it tells me about that day, including how my silly faces mugged for the camera--but I do remember the sensations of that chrysalis age, and comprehend how those sensations entered a kind of perpetual metamorphosis that still hasn't ended after another 44 years of life proceedings. And, as the years pass, the changing way I perceive those images from 1980 provides its own kind of evolutionary map.

 

This universal yet elusive dynamic is nearly impossible to put across in a film, which is why Up, Michael Apted's nine-part documentary series spanning 56 years, is one of the cinema's greatest miracles. Apted started chronicling the lives of 14 British seven-year-olds in 1964 and then checked in on them every seven years until 2019 (even though Apted died in 2021, future installments have not been ruled out). The first few entries are bluntly engineered to bear witness to class immobility but eventually the series becomes more personal than political, and there is accumulating wisdom to be found in accompanying children as they travel toward young-old age, their hopes and worries shifting right along with the sands of time. What happens when "the future" gives way to mortality?

 

I've been watching Apted's movies for decades, and even though my actual age somewhat trails the participants (at the time of 63 Up, I was 45), I've always been able to identify with their position of having to reckon anew with their choices, with their aging, and with who they once were--or at least who Apted's camera tells them they once were. Fifty-six years later, there's a sense that the participants only know those children from Seven-Up! the way audiences do, meaning all they know is what Apted's recorded fragments show. Those children are resurrected every seven years, but they are increasingly strangers from another life and sometimes they are unwelcome interlopers in the participants' current lives. What's most curious to me, I think, is that my own aging has caused me to also have an evolving relationship with these archival images, these individuals, and these movies. In a sense, that makes me--and by extension any viewer--the real subject and beneficiary of Apted's magic.

 

(I watched 63 Up last night after several years of waiting to legally acquire a physical copy. I finally gave up and caved; thank you, person who uploaded a high-quality copy to YouTube. But YOU shouldn't watch it. This series is best viewed in order, preferably with years in between each installment!)

 

I saw 28 Up when it was in theaters in 1985 and have been obsessed ever since.  It is such a great series, particularly as the participants get older and have a better sense of who they are.  Thanks for the reminder.  

[uncool2pillow]

A couple of great things I've seen recently...

 

Cunk on Life. A dense number of laughs per minute.

Bad Sisters Season 2

[Oil Can Boyd]

2 hours ago, uncool2pillow said:

Cunk on Life. A dense number of laughs per minute.

I love the Philomena Cunk character. So many laughs.

[chuckrh]

Great mini series about a great & underrated band. (Late) singer Gord Downie's brother directed this. I dare you to get through episode 4 without a tear in your eye.

[Beltmann]

 

The chemistry between Keke Palmer and Sza is so electric, their hijinks are so funny, and the pace is so zippy that when the main plot arc of One of Them Days succumbs to formula it feels a little deflating. Still, when no one's looking the movie spikes the punch bowl: The coolest thing about this supercool comedy is the way the script sardonically reflects upon American economic inequality and the intersection of class, race and capitalism. It's all so breezy that it might be easy to underestimate its lethal takedowns. Heed has not been taken!

[Brian F.]

Since you didn't ask:

 

The day before Oscar nominations were announced, I shared the list of my ten favorite films of 2024. Only films released in theaters during the 2024 calendar year were eligible for inclusion on this list. All ten films and the Honorable Mentions were seen in the theater except for Nos. 5, 8 and 10. Incidentally, “Five, Eight and Ten” is a great song by Mineral, the chorus of which is appropriate for this list: “I want to know the difference between what sparkles and what is gold.” Here’s what sparkled in 2024, and here’s what I’d give the gold to:

 

*******************************************

 

1. Anora: The most entertaining film of the year, with rollicking slapstick comedy and deep pathos existing seamlessly side-by-side.

 

2. Hard Truths: A keenly observed, funny and moving look at two working-class London sisters and their families. Marianne Jean-Baptiste’s Pansy is one of the most simultaneously unsympathetic and sympathetic film characters in recent memory.

 

3. Conclave: I think my favorite line of the year might be when Ralph Fiennes snaps, “I don’t want to be pope!” A pleasingly suspenseful potboiler that is catnip for anyone interested in the history and trappings of the Catholic Church.

 

4. September 5: The attack on the Israeli delegation at the Munich Olympics as seen through the eyes of the ABC Sports journalists covering the Games. Suspenseful despite knowing how the story ends, and fascinating to see how much harder it was to report live news fifty years ago because of technological limitations. My favorite billboard of the year: “September 5. In theaters December 13.”

 

5. Saturday Night: A tightly written screenplay that packs a lot more than 90 minutes of action into the 90 minutes leading up to the first episode of what we now know as Saturday Night Live in October 1975.

 

6. The Seed of the Sacred Fig: Filmed in secret under the noses of the repressive Iranian regime, this powerful and terrifying film is kind of a miracle. The footage was smuggled out of Iran after the filmmaker had to flee the country on foot to avoid arrest.

 

7. All We Imagine As Light: Two nurses and a cook navigate daily stresses at home and at the Mumbai hospital where they work. Another beautiful and graceful portrait of working-class folks.

 

8. Thelma: 95-year-old June Squibb goes against type to play 93-year-old Thelma Post—all right, Squibb was probably 93 when she filmed it. Hell hath no fury like a woman scammed out of $10,000 over the phone who has access to a motorized scooter. Squibb and the late Richard Roundtree (in his final role) are an unlikely but very entertaining Batman and Robin. Based on a true story, and so much fun.

 

9. A Complete Unknown: I was very skeptical about Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan but he pulled it off. Strong performances all around in this biopic.

 

10. The Apprentice: Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong as Donald Trump and Roy Cohn, respectively, really nail the essences of the people they’re playing without doing blatant impersonations—Stan especially. This movie actually manages to somewhat humanize Trump for the first hour before we see him transition from terrible person to the worst person.

 

Honorable Mentions: Sing Sing; The Room Next Door; Nickel Boys; I’m Still Here; Emilia Pérez; The Outrun.

 

Best Director: Sean Baker, Anora; also considered: Mike Leigh, Hard Truths; Mohammad Rasoulof, The Seed of the Sacred Fig; Payal Kapadia, All We Imagine As Light; Jason Reitman, Saturday Night.

 

Best Actress: Mikey Madison, Anora; also considered: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hard Truths; Saoirse Ronan, The Outrun; Kani Kusruti, All We Imagine As Light; Karla Sofía Gascón, Emilia Pérez; Fernanda Torres, I’m Still Here.

 

Best Actor: Sebastian Stan, The Apprentice; also considered: Colman Domingo, Sing Sing; Timothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown; Ralph Fiennes, Conclave; Hugh Grant, Heretic; Sebastian Stan, A Different Man.

 

Best Supporting Actress: Michele Austin, Hard Truths; also considered: Ariana Grande, Wicked: Part One; Elle Fanning, A Complete Unknown; Monica Barbaro, A Complete Unknown; Jamie Lee Curtis, The Last Showgirl; Renate Reinsve, A Different Man.

 

Best Supporting Actor: Yura Borisov, Anora; also considered: Jeremy Strong, The Apprentice; Edward Norton, A Complete Unknown; Clarence Maclin, Sing Sing; John Magaro, September 5; Ben Chaplin, September 5.

[Oil Can Boyd]

In the past ten days or so I have watched these four - and I've liked them all:

• A Real Pain
• Conclave
• Saturday Night
• Will & Harper

[Beltmann]

On 1/25/2025 at 7:54 PM, Brian F. said:

Here’s what sparkled in 2024

 

 

That's a strong list. I liked all of 'em--except for The Seed of the Sacred Fig, which I haven't seen yet. (I have a copy here, though, and am eager to watch soon.)

Speaking of Mohammad Rasoulof... I'm friendly with an obscure Iranian documentarian who splits her time between Tehran and Milwaukee, and some years back I invited her to see Rasoulof's Manuscripts Don't Burn with me. Afterward, she dropped the bombshell that she knew Rasoulof and was a little pissed: "I'm going to yell at him when I go back to Iran. He didn't warn me that it would be so grim. It was like watching a documentary about some of the worst parts of my life." (I loved it.)

I haven't really thought about compiling a Top Ten, but Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World would probably sit at the top, rivaled only by About Dry Grasses (technically a 2023 release, but unavailable to me until 2024.) Also, there has been a weird year-end amnesia surrounding both Challengers and Furiosa, both of which I loved.

[Chez]

Finished Say Nothing last night.  Quite good. 

[chuckrh]

very scary

 

[Beltmann]

On 1/28/2025 at 10:28 PM, Beltmann said:

 

That's a strong list. I liked all of 'em--except for The Seed of the Sacred Fig, which I haven't seen yet. (I have a copy here, though, and am eager to watch soon.)

 

Update: Watched and LOVED.

[Boss_Tweedy]

I watched Anora last night. I very much enjoyed this movie, but the ending left me totally nonplussed. The movie brings all the feels. It's an emotional roller coaster. I've only seen five of the ten Best Picture nominees, so I'm not sure how things will shake out once I've seen them all. I do get why Mikey Madison won the Oscar for best actress. She's fantastic. 

[Brian F.]

I think nonplussed was what they were going for. I thought the ending was really powerful.

[Boss_Tweedy]

Had an unexpected afternoon off and finally got around to watching Beastie Boys Story. So good. It made me miss them and their music. 

[Analogman]

Thanks to King Charles III - we can now watch Dr. Who on Youtube. I was able to pick up where I left off about 12 years ago. Season 23-24-25-26.

[calvino]

Last night, we started watching Dark on Netflix --- I think we are pretty much hooked after the first two episodes. Definitely has a Stranger Things feel -- but much 'darker'.

 

 

[Analogman]

I watched that entire show when we went into lock-down/furloughed for two months in 2020. 

[Albert Tatlock]

On 3/17/2025 at 6:49 PM, Analogman said:

Thanks to King Charles III - we can now watch Dr. Who on Youtube. I was able to pick up where I left off about 12 years ago. Season 23-24-25-26.

So is that the Peter Capaldi era. He was good I thought - a traditional style older Doctor. Standout episodes for me were Heaven Sent and World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls

Since he was the Doctor I haven't really enjoyed anything of note. I still kind of watch since I've been doing it practically my whole life. For me the best stories are just good sci-fi stories that happen to have the Doctor character in them.

[Analogman]

It was the late 1980s. It went off in 1989. 

 

Peter Davidson, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy

 

The really great thing is Ace (Sophie Aldred). 

 

Also - the American made Dr. Who movie from 1996. 

[Beltmann]

 

 

"If you understand what I'm talking about, you're gonna take the money. If you don't, then I'm gonna have to worry about you."

 

Liked Bound a bunch in '96, but at the time I wouldn't have guessed that it was destined to become one of the decade's defining movies. (I've seen this watery, handsy noir more times than just about any other movie from that era, and the new Criterion 4K makes all those whites and blacks and reds look better than ever.)

[Beltmann]

 

I didn't buy large swathes of Magazine Dreams, but I was nevertheless riveted. Sometimes a fearless performance, and the right tone, can carry a movie right past its many flaws. We are invited deep into Killian Maddox's head, and we leave with him deep inside of our own.

[Beltmann]

 

Last month one of my most inquisitive students engaged me in a discussion about the role those with settler privilege might play in decolonization. When might gestures toward allyship become a form of recolonization? That’s an important question, but it’s one that primarily occupies the Western mind and presumes a Western point of view.

 

Our conversation came to mind while watching Mati Diop’s excellent new documentary Dahomey, which chronicles the return of 26 treasures that were stolen from the Kingdom of Dahomey more than a century ago by French colonial troops. Today in the West, the issue of looted cultural goods often centers on whether repatriation is the appropriate means of reparation. These treasures are therefore defined first as colonial trophies and second, perhaps, as commodities. Dahomey, by contrast, uses a formal inventiveness to present ways of thinking that supersede those Western perspectives. Through a series of narrators, Diop gives poetic voice to the stolen artifacts. She also becomes a fly-on-the-wall witness to a vigorous debate among students at the University of Abomey-Calavi in the west African country of Benin. Their points of view are thoughtful, contentious and contradictory. What value might these items have beyond historical interest? How should their return be received? Nothing in Dahomey feels pinned behind glass; its meanings are alive and stacked in a way that no European or American museum diorama could ever capture.

[Chez]

Just watched a four-episode drama on Netflix - Adolescence.  Fantastic.  

[Albert Tatlock]

19 hours ago, Chez said:

Just watched a four-episode drama on Netflix - Adolescence.  Fantastic.  

I don't have paid TV of any kind but I have been hearing alot of good things about that over here. Stephen Graeme is brilliant, and I am interested in seeing the one shot episodes. He did another one shot film - Boiling Point a while ago centered around work behind the scenes in a restaurant kitchen. I'm no a foodie but there is something about the tension of a one shot production that is riveting. He also featured in this video for a song I like very much:- 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoODq7Ol1so

 

It deals with father-son relationships like Adolescence too.

 

Graeme is also playing Springsteen's Dad in the upcoming biopic.