Movies I Watched This Week (4/21/25 - 4/27/25)

PRE-ROLL

• it was my birthday yesterday! it was lovely to spend the day with family, friends, and a movie. I hope the week was good for you too.

• my good friend (and very talented playwright) Zach Barr has released their latest video essay, here tackling Stage Right Theatrics, the self-professed “only conservative theater company in America.” I got a sneak peek of the video a few days ago and, for those who enjoy very long video essays (this one approaches 3 hours), it’s a real hoot. wholly entertaining and informative, and Zach takes a more nuanced and empathetic approach than others might with such a subject matter. I highly recommend giving it a watch!

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THE MOVIES

• SINNERS (2025, dir. Ryan Coogler). watched at Alamo Drafthouse Chicago.

  • SINNERS is, indeed, the movie of the moment, staying #1 at the box office two weekends in a row, with a 6% dip in overall gross from weekend 1 to weekend 2 (practically unheard of in this day and age, especially for an original film not based on any pre-existing IP). anyone who - at this point - thinks that this movie isn’t a roaring success is deluding themselves. the movie itself though; pretty damn good! a pretty solid 2hr 20min feature that likely could’ve been tightened up into a stellar 110min feature, but I can’t complain too much when there’s so much Good up on that screen. Coogler’s innate skill at telling intelligent stories through entertaining means is on full display here, his thrilling-as-hell horror film also working through threads on assimilation, religious salvation, and the long and storied traditions of Black music (which inspires perhaps the most audacious and, for my money, best sequence in the film). above all else, it’s just a good story told well, with great action and good dialogue and kickass music. it is the definition of a “you have to see it in theaters” kind of film. I hope you get the chance to do so!

    

• MAGIC FARM (2025, dir. Amalia Ulman). watched on screener.

  • wrote about this one for Cine-File. I had a lot of fun trying to work through this one for the sake of the newsletter, but I truly just Could Not Vibe with what Ulman (clearly a very talented visual storyteller) was doing here. the tone and humor just did not mesh with me personally, and I found it far too casual and meandering a watch to really get anything meaningful from the experience. Simon Rex wasted!!!

    

• THE SHROUDS (2025, dir. David Cronenberg). watched at Music Box Theatre.

  • David Cronenberg was in attendance for this screening (!!!) which definitely made the whole evening worth it. the less said about the abysmal talkback1, the better. dwelling on it will just make me sad. with that, I think I need to give THE SHROUDS another watch, it’s plot-heavy mechanics and monotonous visual palette leaving me kind of exhausted midway through to the point of sadly nodding off at certain points. I gathered enough to have something of a concrete opinion on the experience, but i’m sure there’s more to be gathered on a rewatch. hope you’re doing well, David!

    

• ISHTAR (1987, dir. Elaine May). watched at Music Box Theatre.

  • I remember liking ISHTAR quite a bit when I first watched it a few years back, and on rewatch, I’m confident in saying I now love ISHTAR. of the four films that Elaine May has directed so far (still holding out hope for CRACKPOT!), it’s no question her 4th best, but when you’re four for four, that’s not too shabby. ISHTAR transcends the horrific flop reputation that precedes it, the inane banter between Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman the stuff of comic gold, the desperation of these two characters (a pair of flailing New York songwriters) fueling some great bits for its sub-two-hour runtime. for a film that finds itself situated in a 1980’s approximation of the Middle East for a good amount of its runtime, it’s definitely not as offensive as you might think, so points there! also the songs are genuinely great. i dunno y’all, I think ISHTAR is the tops. certainly better than most contemporary comedies. give it a chance, I say!

    

• PAVEMENTS (2025, dir. Alex Ross Perry). watched at The Salt Shed.

  • my hope is to be able to write more on this one closer to its wider release, but i’ll say for now that this is, as of writing, My Favorite Film of 2025. Joe Keery pretending to be a pretentious Method Actor, a jukebox musical starring Michael Esper, artists trapped in a self-reflexive mode. it’s so much of what I love wrapped in a glimmering ‘90’s alt-rock package. like I said, hopefully more on this at a later date but for now, I recommend checking it out when it reaches our shores in the coming months.

thanks for reading along! anything good you watched this week? what’s your favorite Pavement album? can telling the truth be dangerous business? see you next time!