Movies I Watched This Week (3/3/25 - 3/9/25)

PRE-ROLL

• the Traitors US Season 3 is FINALLY OVER. the “right” people won, but at what cost? an ultimately frustrating exercise in the limits reality TV competition shows when the people playing are Idiots that I hope to never revisit ever again. the entire Season 3 of UK Traitors is up on Peacock so I recommend checking out that masterful season instead.

• MUBI Fest1 is coming back to Chicago April 26th and 27th (my birthday weekend, who knew!). last year was themed around “music movies,” with the only screening I attended being Bob Fosse’s masterpiece ALL THAT JAZZ. according to press notes, the “festival” will take place at the Music Box and the Salt Shed. neat! i’m very curious what they end up programming this year.

• Mamma Mia is returning to Broadway! I’m sure it will be a very fun time, and this also likely means a recession is incoming. gird your loins. here we go again!

• we’re in the midst of the Blank Check Podcast’s March Madness Bracket, where the show (devoted to covering the filmographies of directors that have received “blank check” status from the studio system) lets the audience hash out who their next miniseries will cover. it’s a fun and silly thing that I look forward to every year2. last year, David Lynch won out, which has since proved to be rather emotionally serendipitous. i’m mainly rooting for either of the Coppolas (Francis or Sofia) or Spike Lee. my guess is Paul Thomas Anderson will take it. we’ll see what the month brings!

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THE MOVIES

• SEVEN VEILS (2025, dir. Atom Egoyan). watched on screener.

  • wrote about this one for Cine-File. had a really great time untangling the bizarre metatext of Egoyan filming this movie about a production of Salome at the Canadian Opera Company while staging his own production of Salome at the Canadian Opera Company. the mind reels! Amanda Seyfried is on another level here, and is maybe one of our most underrated actors. better invest some stock in her quick, folks! I did enjoy seeing her this week on *shudder* Jimmy Fallon, where she played the dulcimer and sang some Joni Mitchell. a star!

• A HARD DAY’S NIGHT (dir. 1964, Richard Lester). watched on Turner Classic Movies.

  • I mainly just had this on in the background while doing other things so I can’t give any real earnest thoughts on the matter. what I did catch, I had a great time with, Lester creating a frenetic low-stakes, high-energy world for the Fab Four to thrive in. will definitely give this the time it deserves one of these days soon!

what movies did you watch this week? who should star on US Traitors Season 4? what’s your favorite Beatles album?