I haven’t seen One Battle After Another

I’m interested in the opinions of you cognoscenti types. Is it worthy?

locked

505 views

https://youtu.be/3O6DdyhFtQk?si=Loi1RWVfGu0tReFP

They should just retroactively give Dune 2 this year's best picture. I know that the story starts to go a little haywire here, but MAN Villaneuve knows how to put together a movie trailer.

Also, it's kind of strange how they said Dune was unfilmable for like 60 years and audiences would never go for it, and then Denis made it look insanely easy and it was a massive hit and everyone loved it.

This is gonna make another half-billion and they're gonna beg him to make God Emperor and the worm-king and he really should just say no.

locked

133 views

But hasn't he already said this is the last one he's making? He's already committed to doing the next Bond movie.

locked

129 views

Iirc - This is the last one that’s about Paul, and after this his kid turns into a 100 foot tall worm man god emperor. Less marketable

locked

134 views

around the inevitably destructive nature of technology, the possibility of benevolent autocracy, and the transmission of mythos over time (esp. from the perspective of an observer who doesn't die). Give them to Michael Bay, he'll make that god-man-worm superbadass.

And just think of how he could eventually sex up the Honored Matres!

locked

130 views

For my entire life I was told Dune is an unfilmable mess. It broke Jodorowsky, and Lynch turned in a repulsive mess of an 80s movie.

Villeneuve turns in two absolutely beautiful box office smashes. I’ll continue to say Dune 2 should have been best picture but I assume the voters are waiting for this one LOTR style and they may not like it.

So what changed? CGI advancements for sure, but Dune’s best moments are practical effects, the worms are still not the most impressive part. Did WE change? Certainly not in our ability to watch slow paced blockbusters.

Was it all casting? Is chalamet such a perfect Atreides that we could not resist? Not to rag on Kyle shanahan but Maybe! We needed a scrawny spoiled prince Paul, instead of the stock hero Paul that Kyle was inevitably going to be in the early eighties. And Rebecca Ferguson and Zendaya and Momoa and Brolin and Saarsgaard and Isaac and Butler were perfectly cast, too - especially compared to their 1984 cast.

Is it just vibes? The entire set design of arakkis and geidi prime and Caladan were better than anything Disney has given us since Endor at least. It was all show-don’t-tell with enough detail to make you just accept that those were lived in places with cultures and history. I think it might just be style and vibes.

locked

112 views

but you have to admit they are a bit cerebral, cold, and distant. And that might be fine, perfectly manifesting the source material.

However, I don't see the comparables with the hugely entertaining LOTR series, which are full of lovable characters and chock full of humor.

locked

89 views

I can always fire up the LOTR movies and they'll bring a smile to my face.

I'm always going to remember, for the rest of my life, the way that it felt to see Dune 2 in IMAX, with sounds associated with the spice miners making my back teeth rattle, and just constantly thinking to myself "how the hell did he do that?"

It was a goddamn incredible spectacle.

locked

86 views

- No text -

locked

107 views

was the In Memoriam segment, especially Billy Crystal's tribute to Rob Reiner.

locked

190 views

Ery relevant too

locked

255 views

For as long as I've been going to the movies in my life, 2025 was the year I've seen the fewest BP nominees (4 out of 10).

seen:

* OBAA - already discussing

* Sinners - pretty good story until the vampires came along

* Hamnet - an admirable slog. Buckley is good here but even better in "The Bride!"

* F1 - perfect popcorn movie. No notes.

Who has seen Bugonia, Train Dreams, The Secret Agent, Marty Supreme, Frankenstein, or Sentimental Value, what did you think, and would you recommend?

locked

319 views

I've seen all ten nominees, and honestly didn't think any of them were actively bad or wholly undeserving.

Bugonia - Weird. Fun. Like most people, I typically enjoy both Plemons and Stone and felt like they delivered here. Good stuff.

F1- Okay, I do think it's a bit odd that this one was nominated, but I agree with your take. It's absolutely a fun popcorn movie. I enjoyed it a lot, despite the plot being very by-the-book. Cars go fast, vroom!

Frankenstein - Fine? Maybe the film I enjoyed the least of this year's nominees, and I probably won't watch it again, but I thought it was a perfectly fine telling of the story.

Hamnet - For 100 minutes I thought this was merely okay. But the final sequence at The Globe Theater really worked for me. I'll grant that using "On the Nature of Daylight" as the music during the climax is almost cheating, but I don't mind being manipulated like that.

Marty Supreme - Will echo KGB's notes; this is basically a spiritual sequel to Uncut Gems. I think Chalamet is terrific, but it's not a movie I'll spend time watching in the future.

One Battle After Another - I think I liked this more than some of the other participants in the thread did, but I understand finding it a bit uneven. I think the chase sequence during the 3rd act is riveting as they speed across the rolling hills. I don't recall seeing a scene quite like that before.

The Secret Agent - Boy I wanted to enjoy this more than I did. Wagner Moura was really good, and I particularly enjoyed the scenes with him and his father-in-law. Overall just okay imo.

Sentimental Value - Great performances. I wish there was a touch more meat on the bone; perhaps a bit more growth from the characters by the end. But the bedroom scene between the sisters hit really hard.

Sinners - My favorite scene of the year is the juke joint music video sequence. I loved that. Saw it twice. Really enjoyed it. Appreciate the discussion on it elsewhere in this thread.

Train Dreams - The movie that will stay with me the longest from 2025. A simple story about a simple man living a simple life. He suffered. He died. He was forgotten. A story about loss and grief - not merely the trauma we experience, but also of the unrealized dreams so many people experience. Dreams that you begin to grasp but slip through your fingers. Hopes that never come to pass. Beautiful.

locked

260 views

Hamnet crushed me at the end. Lot of things wrapped up in there for me. But I thought the movie was really beautiful and I just may be a sucker for Mescal.

I enjoyed both Sinners and One Battle. I'd probably stan more for One Battle - I like PTA generally and thought this was a pretty damn good movie for its time. And, I also really dug into the fatherhood aspect mentioned previously. I will agree that it might not have permanence like a lot of other best pictures. But, I'm hard pressed to figure out which of the movies this year will be that one, even going beyond the nominees.

The music in Sinners was fantastic and I really liked "the" scene. That said, that movie is ambitious in a lot of ways and I struggle with discerning what the overall message was intended to be. All that aside, the coda was really fun.

locked

160 views

Agree, it really bowled me over too, and made the journey worth it.

Thanks as always for your due diligence on moviegoing! Much appreciated.

FTR I'm not getting any strong vibes from anyone persuading me to take a run at Frankenstein, Marty Supreme, or the Secret Agent. I will definitely check out Train Dreams, Sentimental Value, and Bugonia.

locked

245 views

Bugonia is very entertaining.

I am dying to watch Secret Agent. I've heard that's the real best movie of the year. Just waiting for it to pop on a service for which I already pay.

--
Sometimes I rhyme slow sometimes I rhyme quick.

locked

158 views

It was astonishing (to me). An amazing work by Maggie G.

locked

227 views

some weeks ago. Safdie's protagonists are always unlikeable sociopaths -- and typically chatterboxes, to make it that much worse -- and it just makes his movies a goddamn chore IMO. I appreciated Chalamet's performance and the craftmanship of faithfully building that 1950's NYC world, but I have zero interest in watching the movie again.

locked

258 views

I've already gotten a conference paper out of it: there's so much to geek out about and play with, particularly once the veil gets pierced and the vampires show up and start dancing to "Rocky Road to Dublin."

I'm no film scholar, and you all know far more about the history and craft of cinema than I do, but give me any excuse to blather about liminality and cultural exchanges between Black and Irish music and I'm a happy man.

locked

286 views

Do we need vampires to tell that story? (Sorry I'll step off the soapbox now. But all the bloodsucking seemed really superfluous.)

locked

260 views

Not just because Remmick is Irish, or because his bloodsucking utopianism is all Celtic Soul Brothery, but because the film is playing with tropes traceable to Stoker and, to a lesser extent, Le Fanu--Dubliners both--which in turn derive from ancient Celtic tropes, so that the second half of the film is basically Samhainn at the Juke Joint. And that's before we get to the connections you can draw to other, better Irish writers--particularly Yeats, but also Joyce--and the Black and Irish musical rabbit holes one can fall down in search of everyone from Geeshie Wiley to D.K. Gavan.

I don't know if any of that makes it a great movie, but it does make it a fun one for a very particular kind of nerd.

locked

257 views

(kidding, great stuff HCE)

https://theonion.com/what-to-know-about-sinners

Sinners, the new movie from Ryan Coogler starring Michael B. Jordan, has received widespread praise from critics and audiences. The Onion shares everything you need to know about the film.

Q: What is Sinners about?

A: America’s inability to discuss its complex racial history without bringing the Irish into things.

Q: Has Sinners broken any box office records?

A: It is the highest-grossing Black Southern gothic vampire horror musical fantasia of 2025.

Q: What are the vampires in the film meant to represent?

A: Werewolves.

Q: Who is the movie for?

A: Anyone who doesn’t want to be left out of conversations for the next three months.

Q: Will Sinners have a sequel?

A: If they can figure out how to get a third Michael B. Jordan on screen, sure.

Q: Are the vampires in the movie real?

A: We’re almost positive they aren’t.

Q: When will Sinners be streaming?

A: It will likely be available on Max in July, you lazy, cheap son of a bitch.

locked

208 views

I thought the way that Coogler intertwined the Black and Irish cultural threads, particularly in the music, was one of the best aspects of the movie.

locked

230 views

https://bluegraysky.com/forum/index.php?id=575770

I'm biased because it was filmed around here and is about this area.

locked

301 views

One of the few people in my life where I can recall having an instant and easy rapport. Was only much later that I was told who his father was. He’s put out some really good movies over the years, and he’s easy to root for as a decent and normal enough person relative to a similarly-situated ghoul like David Ellison.

locked

233 views

Such a beautifully shot film, and Edgerton is hauntingly good. Loved all the little supporting roles that came and went in and out of his life. Agree with Jay that it would be a great film to see in the theater. I saw it at home and was still mesmerized by the Malick style of filming.

Bugonia was great fun. I will watch pretty much anything with Landry from Friday Night Lights, and he was terrific again. The guy is such a chameleon. If you like Emma Stone (I do!), you'll enjoy seeing her throw herself into another delightfully bizarre scenario.

locked

264 views

- No text -

locked

251 views

Excellent on the big screen since so much thematically is about the landscape and how its used.

Probably the only place in the country sold out shows happened...

locked

278 views

dedicated to "see it on the big screen" movies, with perfect picture and sound. Malick. Kubrick. Lean. Spielberg. Bertolucci. I don't know how profitable it would be but there's an audience out there.

locked

269 views

- No text -

locked

81 views

While I was watching Train Dreams I couldn't stop thinking about how much like a Terrence Malick movie it felt like. Not that I'm an expert on his work, but I kept thinking, "is this what I was supposed to feel during The Tree of Life?"

Perhaps I should rewatch that one, maybe I just wasn't in the right place in my own life.

locked

203 views

My wife loved it. Lots of commentary in the movie but I found it mostly uninteresting.

I liked Sinners but this was another year where the best picture nominees will fade into obscurity IMO.

locked

313 views

Some really great moments, highlighted by any time Benicio was on screen. I got a kick out of DiCaprio's performance, particularly his frustration with the Gen Z revolutionaries. Penn and Teyana Taylor were ridiculous. It felt like a failed attempt at a Coen brothers absurdity. Neither was believable nor relatable. The mom in particular was a caricature and I was dumbfounded at the amount of praise heaped on Teyana Taylor.

Still worth seeing though.

I loved Sinners, Weapons, and Bugonia. Really good creepy stuff from all of them - Weapons in particular felt like a classic 80s King thriller.

locked

337 views

As you said, old school throwback to Stephen King, but it also gave me the creeps along the lines of Rosemary's Baby.

locked

303 views

Really glad Madigan won the Oscar. She was amazing!

locked

141 views

First hour of Sinners was strong but then it just sort of devolved into a pretty run-of-the-mill vampire flick. Style over substance.

I thought Weapons was phenomenal. Aside from the creep-out entertainment value, it really tapped into some topical themes about parenting, security and community that landed in a compelling way. That Ring footage of the kids running off into the darkness like airplanes was such a haunting, timely visual.

locked

280 views

What a great movie to watch when you have zero spoilers and zero expectations. Midway through I actually sat up in my seat and said WTF is going on here.

I have major quibbles with the tone shift to absurdity in the climactic scene but up until then it's great.

locked

278 views

Definitely enhanced the story to see how the characters cross paths and overlap with one another. Tremendous little Tarantino lift.

locked

262 views

the vampire stuff had been more subtle or even just implicit.

locked

265 views

opening a juke joint and getting harassed by the KKK. C'mon Ryan why couldn't you have fleshed out that story instead of going all kooky.

locked

274 views

And it worked, given the box office numbers.

Your idea for the story is great too, but I don't think it draws the audience to the points he wanted to make.

--
Sometimes I rhyme slow sometimes I rhyme quick.

locked

260 views

- No text -

locked

232 views

It's entertaining enough, I guess, but there's very little there there.

FWIW, I felt much the same about Vineland, the Pynchon novel that "inspired" it.

locked

320 views

I thought it was going great for about 45 minutes and then ran off the road (so to speak). But that's many of his movies.

I never thought it was a worthy BP (it's not even his own best movie), but I'm not too surprised there either. BP has been in a rut for a long time.

locked

357 views

Quite often it looks pretty, and there are usually some cool sequences (the chase in One Battle was particularly engrossing), but I always find myself wondering why "people who know things" about movies keep urging me to appreciate how great he is.

locked

306 views

He's a cinema savant and so he loads up his work with all sorts of details and moves and outright homages to other filmmakers, such that if you're a movie buff you catch the reference and reward yourself with a little pat on the back. I find his set pieces pretty fascinating but I don't think he's ever pulled together a complete movie from start to finish. It's interesting that among all his copying of his cinematic heroes, one thing that emerges in all of his work that seems to be truly original is a certain sexual fetishization. Somebody should write a paper on themes of sexual deviancy in PTA. (Or maybe somebody should just ask Maya what's going on with him).

locked

291 views

but I don't think PTA has made a movie since Boogie Nights nearly 30 years ago (!?!) that has measured up. There Will Be Blood is the only one that's even in the ballpark IMO.

locked

281 views

It's possible he shot his wad with that one (sorry).

TWBB has a few absolutely riveting set pieces and a lot of dross.

locked

276 views

I don't think anyone would really talk about TWBB in the same way. Some cool spectacle with the oil fields, etc. but DDL puts that whole project on his shoulders and carries it over the finish line.

I respect Boogie Nights for what it is, but in the end, its a less-interesting Goodfellas in the porn business. Which is exactly what its supposed to be. But I can't get there with putting it in the "masterpiece" category.

locked

255 views

DDL and the Greenwood score were the best two things about TWBB.

Wouldn't call Boogie Nights a masterpiece either, but it scores extra points with me for evoking that period of time in American culture in a more vivid and genuine way than most movies have been able to portray.

locked

162 views

I think a ton of folks put their own biases and even, maybe, hopes and dreams into the meaning of it, when really the entire thing is making a huge point about the nature of fatherhood - particularly fatherhood for dads of strong young women - while also reflecting some really ugly and some really unexpectedly beautiful things about the country in which we live.

Some folks seem pissed that PTA didn't make some grand statement in his speech last night. I don't think those folks understood the movie at all.

--
Sometimes I rhyme slow sometimes I rhyme quick.

locked

361 views

My time would have been better spent staring at the back of the seat, or better yet, watching Dune for the nth time. A total mess, boring and pointless, an implausible story line with outlandish characters who make silly decisions for the point of a plot that takes itself way too seriously. The makings of an impotent left that imagines itself fighting the good fight but is revolutionary only in their own imaginary fantasy land. In a just world, Sean Penn would find his next job welcoming old ladies shopping at Walmart. Benicio del Toro was cool, I guess, but throwing out his life, when he was the guardian of so many, because of a drunk white guy's past in a failed uprising?

Like I said, I'd have preferred watching Dune.

Why do you ask?

locked

421 views

Big time movie stars in Penn and Leo. Hilarious and poignant at times. Sweeping in scope at other times. The Christmas Adventurers Club was an inspired satire on racism. And who hasn’t forgotten their revolution password?

locked

357 views

I won’t dive into the reasons beyond my own feeling: I thought Sinners was far more deserving and will stand the test of time in a way One Battle won’t.

locked

416 views

the Polo Grounds

I haven’t seen One Battle After Another

Dune 3 trailer is out!

I'm sure he could change his mind

Yes - and also the books get less audience friendly

Those books probe interesting questions

I don’t get how these movies work so well

I like the movies

The way I look at it

"less audience friendly" is a kind way to put it.

you know what was really good in the show last night

I highly recommend it.

other BP nominees

Notes on all of them

These are good notes

great note on the Hamnet Globe sequence

I fell asleep for Frankenstein.

P.S. see "The Bride!"

We discussed Marty Supreme in an aside

Sinners was really fun for us Irish studies types

that sounds great

But the vampires are where the Irish stuff comes in

found this explanation much more insightful

That's great color.

brief "Train Dreams" discussion here:

I knew the producer back in the day-Teddy Schwarzman

I really liked it.

I wish I had caught it on the big screen

Our one art house theatre showed it to packed audiences.

I want to open a single screen theater

A Cinema Paradiso of sorts?

Funny you mention Malick

I am with those that were unimpressed

I thought it was uneven.

Weapons was one of my favorites

We really enjoyed it too.

Much better than Sinners IMO

I went in totally cold

The POV shifts were a great touch, too.

Agree on Sinners. I really liked the opening stretch. I wish

I wanted to hear the full story of two brothers

It's his Trojan Horse

The Color Purple meets from Dusk til Dawn

I wasn't impressed

it's PTA, so it's always worth a look

I just can never seem to get there with his stuff

I think people are enamored with his style and flourishes

I know this is a very contrarian-douche thing to say

no, I totally agree

If anyone other than DDL was playing that role

Agree on both.

It's excellent.

I watched it on a plane recently.

I really liked One Battle

I only saw it and Sinners.