One Film After Another: A Movie Catch-Up Post
hello!
it's been a second, hasn't it?
work has been busy, the High Holidays Happened, so i've had a few bumps in getting back to our regular Movie Recap schedule. to assist with this, we're gonna do a big ole recap of my late August/all-of-September watches, a nice neat summation of a month of movies. ideally, we should be back to the usual "Movies I Watched This Week" format next week.
thanks as always, and here are the words;
CINE-FILE & FESTIVALS
for the wonderful folks over at cinefile.info, I wrote up the Highs & Lows war-focused double feature of SMALL SOLDIERS (1998, dir. Joe Dante) and SERIOUS GAMES I-IV (2009-2010, dir. Harun Farocki), alongside the seedy noir TENSION (1949, dir. John Berry). i also wrote up the spooky and sexy FASCINATION (1979, dir. Jean Rollin), a wonderful ball of erotic horror to get the Spooky Month rolling.
festival season is upon us here in Chicago! expect some writing from me in the coming weeks on the Chicago International Film Festival, both for Cine-File, and just my own personal outings to the fest (yes, you will get a full Criterion Mobile Closet Section, don't worry). i've already covered some films for Chicago's Reeling Film Festival, including LESBIAN SPACE PRINCESS (2025, dir. Emma Hough Hobbs & Leela Varghese) and SHE'S THE HE (2024, dir. Siobhan McCarthy), plus the closing night film for the Chicago Underground Film Festival, $POSITIONS (2025, dir. Brandon Daley). I would heartily recommend all three of those films, especially $POSITIONS, a film that lives up to the promise of it's "UNCUT GEMS but in the Midwest" premise and then some. I'll let y'all know whenever these will be released into the world outside of the festival circuit.
FALL CINEMA
D and I have set "must-watch" films for the latter seasons of the year. our "Fall Movie" selections kicked into full gear with CROSSING DELANCEY (1988, dir. Joan Micklin Silver), WHEN HARRY MET SALLY (1989, dir. Rob Reiner), and FANTASTIC MR. FOX (2009, dir. Wes Anderson). FOX remains my favorite Wes Anderson, his emotional proclivities and visual prowess reaching their heights in the world of animation. films like CROSSING DELANCEY and WHEN HARRY MET SALLY remind me that great screenplays are hard to find, and that great dialogue has real poetry to it, and requires musicality and rhythm to really sing. ideally, there will be more autumnal and spooky watches coming soon.
NEW RELEASES
new releases include the brand new THE TOXIC AVENGER (2025, dir. Macon Blair), THE BALTIMORONS (2025, dir. Jay Duplass), and ELEANOR THE GREAT (2025, dir. Scarlett Johansson). it was very fun to check out my good friend Toxie in the theater, even if his new venture isn't sure whether it wants to be a classic junkie Troma flick, or a heartfelt indie. can it be both? eh! THE BALTIMORONS is a very sweet film about sobriety and depression and connection with some genuine laughs and earnest performances. it really scratches that low-fi indie itch, if that's what you're looking for. unsure what to say re; ELEANOR THE GREAT other than I love seeing June Squibb thrive. is Scarlett Johansson a great director? she's not a bad director, is what I can gather right now. who knows where she goes from here.
the big movie story of the month (perhaps of the year) is ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER (2025, dir. Paul Thomas Anderson), which is being - rightly! - touted as the standout film of 2025, and a high water mark for ole' PTA. there's much better writing out there on the film, and I'd prefer to see it once more before churning out any more concrete thoughts on the matter, but I, too, am part of the hyperbole choir for this one. I was knocked out, blown away, enthralled and inspired by one of the few films that accurately gets at what our current political moment Feels Like, and one of the even fewer films that is Hopeful in regards to that feeling. to me, that's not nothing.
we'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming soon, promise! how was your September? what movies would you recommend I check out before the year is out? more soon!
