Doc Watch: The Yogurt Shop Murders - Part 5 (2026)

Watched:  05/24/2026

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing:  First

Director:  Margaret Brown

Last year we watched the documentary series The Yogurt Shop Murders (2025), a multi-part doc that covered the unsolved murder of four teenage girls in a yogurt shop in Austin, Texas in 1991 and the 34 years of nightmare that followed for the families and for some of the accused.  

I'll let you read that post and why the doc was impactful.  And maybe a bit of why, as a local, it hit home.

Ironically - within about five weeks of the airing of the fourth and final episode, the City of Austin announced a positive ID on the murderer - Robert Eugene Brashers.  Brashers was a drifter of sorts and is best described as a serial killer.  Based on DNA evidence and ballistics evidence, it is pretty clear who committed the crime.

Ovis Aries Watch: The Sheep Detectives (2026)

Watched:  05/16/2026

Format:  Regal Westgate

Viewing:  First

Director:  Kyle Balda

The Sheep Detectives (2026) was not at all what I expected.  And that is, as it turns out, a pretty good thing.

Now, don't get me wrong - I was looking forward to what I thought the movie would be:  a goofy play on detective fiction but with, you know, a lot of sheep puns and some wacky celebrity voices.  That seemed plenty for a matinee Saturday movie.  

Instead, I got an oddly moving movie that I suspect speaks more to some realities of being a living thing - and which illuminates the ways we (people, not sheep - you may need to stretch here, concrete-thinking reviewers) deal with pain and death. And, yes, from the mouths of CGI sheep.

Comic Doc Watch: Selling Superman (2024)

Watched: 05/12/2026

Format:  Amazon Prime

Viewing:  First

Director:  Adam Schomer

I imagine this doc will land one way with non-comics folk, and a completely different way with comics folk - or other serious collectors (and their immediate loved ones). 

For the record, I own a *lot* of comic books, and a *lot* of Superman stuff.  So, yes, I am in the camp of "collectors".*

I do *not* own any of those mythical comics you hear about.  This "blogging non-stop for free" gig does not pay what you'd think.  I have never even seen most of the epically priced comics you're think of in person, except in museums or behind thick glass.

This doc is about a guy somewhere near my age who recently lost his father, and inherited that father's absolutely massive comic collection.  

The father clearly was brilliant, neurodivergent, and an absolutely obsessive collector, filling his multi-bedroom home with comics, covering the windows so people couldn't see in, and forbidding his wife and kids from telling anyone what was in the house - not that they knew what he really owned.  And what he had was - from a collection standpoint - probably unlike anything else on the planet that isn't part of a major business like Mile High Comics.  

Austen Watch: Emma (2020)

Watched:  05/07/2026

Format:  Disc from Library

Viewing:  First

Director:  Autumn de Wilde

The funny thing about Jane Austen adaptations is that I guess, because I've never read any Jane Austen, is that Austen is the spring from which rom-com tropes flow.  So, even when you're watching a faithful or semi-faithful adaptation of Austen, you may feel the beats or arcs once the many, many moving pieces of an Austen story settle in.  

But that's okay.  It's not like people can't pick out the beats in a Spider-Man movie.

I do recall this one being advertised, but seeing it came out in 2020 means it may have played to empty movie theaters, but I'm also seeing it is not embraced and beloved as other Austen adaptations.  And Jamie's reaction was pretty muted when the movie wrapped up.  That said, while I was goofing off with CB and JAL on Sunday, she watched Clueless,* which is loosely based on the book of Emma, so maybe too soon?

The challenges of these movies are manifold.  You need to adhere largely to the book or the Austen-heads will make sure that if you don't, they can drag you.  Of course, the books do not follow the "wisdom" of modern screenwriting rules, which are intended to serve audiences who can only handle knowing who is good and bad, and when will the final boss show up.There are far more characters than modern screen-writing guidelines usually will say are a good idea.  And that can include characters who are discussed and not seen for quite a while - we're not meeting everyone important in the first five minutes as Modern Screenwriting Law would insist.   And we're certainly not clear on everyone's specific deal.  Communicating the social rules of Regency Era England to modern audiences - especially Americans who bristle at these things - can be hard.  

And yet - we keep making these movies and people tend to like them, because Austen knew how to write/ created a very specific kind of fantasy that's as satisfying in its way as any "male" fantasy story.  And they've already stood the test of time - which means they just already work for a wide audience.

The cast is punctuated with actors who would soon be more familiar.  The eponymous Emma is played by Anya Taylor-Joy - I think very well.  Her pal Harriet is Mia Goth.  Josh O'Connor plays Mr. Elton (and is hysterical, imho).  But there's also Bill Nighy as Emma's father and Miranda Hart as Miss Bates.

This is my first exposure to the story of Emma other than seeing Clueless one time in the theater.   I don't know.  It was a thumbs-up from me.  Anya Taylor-Joy and Mia Goth were solid.  Bill Nighy was terrific (and I guess Emma laid the groundwork for the oft-repeated solo-girl and her daddy sad-house).  It was a good mix of silly and semi-serious - including characters both rich and cartoonish.  The life-lessons imparted were non-bullshit and I didn't roll my eyes, which is not nothing.  It's well shot, and I thought it got honestly better as it went along, versus what too many movies do.  

I have no idea if any of it was historically accurate, but it was pretty to look at.

Weirdly, this was the last IMDB movie credit for director Autumn De Wilde who I *do* know, but only from her many Florence + The Machine videos.  She's super good at those.  Three thumbs-up.  

Anyway, the best uncommented upon gag in the movie is the casting of the 6'1" Miranda Hart with the 5'1" Myra McFadyen as her mother.   

*I am unapologetic in my loathing of Clueless, so it's best I was gone.  If I never have to watch it again, I'm good.  And walking in on the last ten or fifteen minutes did nothing to make m rethink my case.

Sci-Fi Watch: Predator - Badlands (2025)

Watched:  04/24/2026

Format:  Hulu

Viewing:  First

Director:  Dan Trachtenberg

Well, this was kind of a perfect Friday night movie.  And kind of why they invented PG-13.  

I kind of love that somehow the legacy of Alien has somehow turned into "yes, but limited-autonomy for superhuman AI beings".  I like squicky xenomorphs, too.  But they don't exactly carry a story.  And whatever merging we now have between Blade Runner, Alien and Predator is not the worst thing in the world.  It's allowed for all kinds of paths for exploration.  

I'll just say: if you can give me a movie with a humanoid lead, a robot pal and their murderous space-dog - all against alien landscapes and skies?  Shit, man.  I don't really feel like I need to explore deep themes or what it says about the human condition at that point.  This is raw popcorn entertainment.  And, somehow along the way, this movie is not incredibly stupid, all while admittedly being more than a bit unironically goofy.  Way to thread the needle, movie!

Disney Watch: Zootopia 2 (2025)

Watched:  04/16/2026

Format:  Disney+

Viewing:  First

Director:  Jared Bush/ Byron Howard

I'm on record as a Zootopia stan.  I watched it initially on a plane to Helsinki and lost my mind when we landed and it cut off the last ten minutes and I couldn't watch the end til I got back home a week later.  I loved the ideas and characters, the world they built and the imagination and thinking that went into the jokes.  And, I liked the character arcs for Judy and Nick and how they played off of each other.  Good stuff.

Do I want to see the Zootopia-land in Shanghai? Yes.  Yes, I do.

Comedy Watch: The Naked Gun (2025)

Watched:  04/09/2026

Format:  Amazon

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Akiva Shaffer

This is the second time I'd seen this.  Holds up.  I laughed.

Action Comedy Watch: Novocaine (2025)

Watched:  03/21/2026

Format:  Amazon

Viewing:  First

Director:  Dan Berk/ Robert Olsen

This movie hits that awkward spot of being "fine".  It's more or less what you were expecting from the trailer - a bit better in some spots, and a bit lacking in others, but when you saw the trailer you were like "I know exactly what this will be".  And you were 85% correct, with that remaining 15% not exactly blowing the doors off.

Novocaine (2025) should maybe have been like, one episode of a show.  The concept is both interesting and wildly limiting, and the story here is not really enough to fill the runtime of a whole movie.  And the movie around the concept is just boilerplate action stuff that feels deeply constrained by budget.  

But it's also not bad.  I wouldn't say that.  It's fine.  It's deeply gross at times, maybe a bit hard to watch in a scene or two.  And maybe weirdly should not have named the condition that our lead is supposedly suffering from, as it exists and sounds very rough.  It's kind of like turning epilepsy into a super power for a movie.  Maybe a fictional condition would have sufficed.

Sci-Fi Watch: Project Hail Mary (2026)

Watched:  03/21/2026

Format:  Regal

Viewing:  First

Director:  Phil Lord & Christopher Miller

Not so long ago, we read the novel of Project Hail Mary, which we discussed here at the ol' interweb log.

I enjoyed the book a great deal - just as I'd enjoyed Weir's first book, The Martian.  And like that book, it received the big screen treatment, which I thoroughly enjoyed and have rewatched in part and in whole.

First:  Go see this in the theater.  It will be fine on your TV or laptop, it is - however - a movie designed for the big screen and benefits from the image size and quality, plus the audio experience.  And maybe even the audience reaction.

Like the novel, the book is told in the present as an amnesiac awakens in a spacecraft with the other two crewmates deceased and, as he discovers, light years from Earth as the craft he's in approaches a nearby star.  Grace recovers his memories in flashbacks that fill in the gaps for himself and the viewer as he progresses, eventually realizing things about himself.

The impetus for the trip is that the sun has seen something called The Petrova Line form between Earth and Venus, and something about that effect means the sun is starting to dim - the predictable effects meaning Earth will become a frozen wasteland within 3 decades.  The star he's heading toward is not fading, and Earth needs to know why.

Australian Neo-Noir Watch: The Dry (2020)

Watched:  03/05/2026

Format:  Hulu

Viewing:  First

Director:  Robert Connolly

A while back, for various reasons, Jamie and I both read the novel The Dry. It was a big seller in Australia, where it was written and takes place.  And made its way here where I think it's done well.  

I asked for some downtime before I watched the inevitable movie adaptation so I could try to see it with fresh eyes, and hadn't honestly, thought about the book much since I read it.  It's fine!  Go read it.  But I think Jamie saw it starred Eric Bana and was happy to watch - and, anyhoo... here we are.

In the way of movies adapting popular books - the movie is largely a straight adaptation with some extraneous bits knocked off and some efficiencies found in storytelling.  But the film really does capture the mood of the novel, and as Jamie and I agreed, it looks more or less exactly how I saw it in my mind's eye.  Bleak, oppressive - a murder mystery in sun-scorched rural Australia.  

Hallmark Watch: The Stars Between Us (2026)

Watched:  03/03/2026

Format:  Hallmark

Viewing:  First

Director:  Michael Robison

I didn't used to post on Hallmark movies I put on as time-fillers, but I'm trying to be accurate.  I kind of watched this while looking up other things.

Why we watched this boiled down to neither of us being in the mood for anything challenging as we dealt with other things, and I'd already stated that I am watching basketball Wednesday night, so as this was highly ranked at Ye Olde Hallmark, this is what we landed on.

It stars Sarah Drew, who is a big name on TV in shows I don't watch (Grey's Anatomy, for example), and Matt Long who I know from Mad Men a few years back.  But those are just the folks on the poster.  This movie has a B-romance plot featuring Donna Benedicto (who is in a million things) and Noah Paul.  

The basic gist of the film is that seven years prior, Kim (Drew) met Malcolm (Long) briefly at an Eclipse party.  He was there as an astronomer, and she was there for vague reasons with a fiance.  They met and had an instant connection as they talked for what seemed to be about ten minutes before she ran off to her late-arriving fiance.  

Seven years later, Kim is working at a TV station in the news department, divorced, living with her mom and has a kid in tow when she lands an on-camera assignment to cover the eclipse.  This will make or break her career.

Heist Neo-Noir Watch: Crime 101 (2026)

Watched:  02/26/2026

Format:  Alamo

Viewing:  First

Director:  Bart Layton

If the title Crime 101 (2026) seems a little uninspired, what I think I'd say is - it feels like this movie is by someone who has seen and likes the same movies I've seen and liked.  And that's... fine.  If you don't watch a lot of heist movies, this may feel fresh.  It has a sprawling, winding storyline intersecting three compelling characters.  And it has an all-star cast that made the movie a real treat.  

Chris Hemsworth plays one of the modern takes on the post-Parker, post Le Samourai crooks - a loner with seemingly no life but the crimes they'll commit.  No friends, no family.  He's stolen millions in expensive jewels.  His connection/ fence/ maybe mentor is no less than Nick Nolte.  Mark Ruffalo is a cop who is such a rogue *he plays by the rules*.  He may be on the LAPD, but he's not just framing people to get his numbers up.  Also, his wife (Jennifer Jason Leigh!) is leaving him.  Halle Berry is an insurance salesperson (I missed the actual job title) to the uber-wealthy.  If you need someone to help you get your Matisse insured, she's your gal.  But she's also realizing her place in her company - and it isn't a rocket ride to the top.  

Kids Watch: Godzilla vs Kong (2021)

Watched:  02/16/2026

Format:  4K disc

Viewing:  3rd?  4th?

Director:  Adam Wingard

What I learned is the power of friendship.  And the power of a right hook to knock someone through a skyscraper

-my nephew, aged 10

Today was the day I knew was coming since Jason and Amy told me they were pregnant.  Today, I watched a Godzilla movie with my nephew and niece.  And, I am proud to say, The Boy was into it.  

Fantasy Watch: Red Sonja (2025)

Watched:  02/15/2026

Format:  Kanopy

Viewing:  First

Director:  M.J. Bassett

Jim had been rec'ing this movie at me for a while, and the man knows me well.  

Heads up - most people are going to dismiss this movie, and that's fine.  And maybe my reasons for saying "this is kind of cool" won't add up, but here we go.

I have no idea what the budget was for Red Sonja (2025) but it's certainly not a $150 million.  So, this is a movie that does a lot of "you get the idea" hand waving with FX and sets, etc...  that was part and parcel of exactly this kind of movie when it was starring Brigitte Nielsen and making me stay up way too late on a Saturday in middle school.  And, in fact, I'm kind of wondering if we lost something about the charm and allure of those movies when all they had were talent in front of and behind the camera, where a movie would sink or swim based on story and characters.  And cool ideas.  We couldn't just smother everything with CGI.

Finland Watch: Sisu (2022)

Watched:  02/11/2026

Format:  Prime

Viewing:  First

Director:  Jalmari Helander

My mother's parents were both from Finland.*  So, growing up, I heard and saw the word "sisu" here and there.  Occasionally I'd see it printed on something, and upon trying to understand what it was, never really put it together.  It's funny, because Sisu (2022) starts by saying the term is "untranslatable", and then spends the runtime of the movie showing instead of telling.  And if you still don't get it by movie's end, ain't no one going to be able to help you.

It will not hurt to Google "Finland in WWII" for a quick synopsis of the rotten position Finland was in before, during and after WWII.  As a nation bordering the Soviet Union, who had tried to claim Finland almost immediately after the Communist take-over, After The Winter War of 1939-1940, Finland lost swaths of land but was not annexed.  Finland sided with the Nazis for several years of the war against the USSR, seeing an alliance as a chance to get the land back.  

In the end, they switched teams, forming an alliance with the Soviets and purging the Nazis from Finland (especially Lapland).  

But that's just the backdrop.

The movie is extraordinarily simple.  A former Finnish soldier, who lost everything (family, home, etc...) during the war with the USSR, has turned his back on people and World War II raging around him.  During the war, he was known as "The Immortal" - seemingly unstoppable and unkillable, and racking up a massive body count.  While war rages around him, he's out in Lapland digging for gold and hanging with his dog.

While riding his horse back to civilization with a coupleof bags of gold, he passes Nazis going back to Germany, the tail end of the Nazi occupation, and leaving with everything behind them burning.  Being Nazis, they begin to mess with our hero, and... then it's mostly a Tom and Jerry cartoon, with Aatami (Jorma Tommila) - aka: The Immortal - killing a whole lot of Nazis and liberating a truckload of comfort women, who are happy to join in on this revenge thing.

It falls in line with a John Wick sort of movie, where a plot is a pretext for action sequences, and the stakes never really get higher or lower than survival on either side.  And, as this movie is 85% blowing up National Socialists, it's hard to dislike.  

The "sisu" in question is Aatami's drive to wipe the map of every last one of these bastards, paired with his endurance to withstand their assaults.  

I was a big fan of Rare Exports when I finally saw it, and Jalmari Helander, the writer/director here, is the same brain behind this movie and its sequel.  He knows how to do *a lot* with what he has on hand - like... Lapland.  He also isn't afraid to swing for the fences with extremes, making most horror movies look tame in comparison to the havoc wrought by Aatami.  

The movie is a bit of a cathartic cartoon, and that's okay.  If the worst thing that happens out of this is we all learn the word "sisu" and embrace the concept, we're none the worse off.

 

*my grandfather was actually from the border of Finland and Sweden and spoke only Swedish until he immigrated to the U.S. and landed in a Finnish community.  In the US he learned both Finnish and English.  And married my Finnish grandmother.  It's also worth noting, my mother was a very late addition to the family, and my grandparents were born between 1898 and 1908, so everything was very old school with them.

Raimi Watch: Send Help (2026)

Watched:  02/01/2026

Format:  Alamo

Viewing:  First

Director:  Sam Raimi

So, two things before we get started.

1.  Back in college, my movie buddy was CB.  We went to film school together back in the day and saw lots and lots of movies together.  Turns out, CB now lives very close to me, and for the first time in decades we were taking in a genre movie like it was the mid-90's all over again.  (I saw Dead Alive with CB, for example).  Shout out to CB!

2.  I have Rachel McAdams face blindness.  It's a serious condition.  Jamie thinks it's a funny game to ask me occasionally who that person is on TV or in an ad or whatever, and I never know who she is.  I have no idea why.  She's a perfectly lovely woman, but if I was the witness when she committed a crime, she'd get off scot free.  Sure, I'll recognize her here, but when she's in her next movie trailer, Jamie will ask me again who that actress is, and I will have no idea.

This is also the third movie I've seen inside of a month that was about getting marooned on an island.  January 4th, we watched a Hallmark movie, Lost in Paradise and last week we watched A Game of Death.  Love an unintentional theme.  

If you've seen the trailer, you know what this movie is about.

Amazon Watch: The Wrecking Crew (2026)

Watched:  01/31/2026

Format:  Amazon Prime

Viewing:  First

Director:  Angel Manuel Soto

So, I was a fan of The Expanse, and I saw Frankie Adams - who played Martian Gunnery Sergeant Roberta Draper on the show - was in a new action movie with Jason Mamoa and Dave Bautista.  So, despite some negative stuff I'd seen online, I put on The Wrecking Crew (2026).  

Positives:  

• it does have Frankie Adams
• there's some bits about Hawaiian culture I didn't know
• you get to see Hawaii

Negatives:  

• this movie is terrible

Oscar Nom Re-Watch: Sinners (2025)

Watched:  01/22/2026

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing;  Second

Director:  Ryan Coogler

I guess they announced the Oscar nominees, and Sinners (2025) is up for a record 16 Oscars.  Jamie had already asked to watch this movie a few times, and I figured - hey, tonight's the night.  (I'd delayed because the movie is 2+ hours, and I wanted to do it in one sitting.)

In my 2025 Favorite Movies list, it came in as Honorable Mention, just behind Flow, which I called my Favorite of 2025.  But I'll let you in on a little secret (pssst.  Scoot closer)  Ya see  - it's kinda arbitrary.  I could have picked either movie.  

I will say, Sinners isn't a different movie on a rewatch, but it's really, really good as a rewatch - and is a different experience.  It's very well written and edited (along with everything else, which is why they're throwing award noms at it), so when you know what's coming - things definitely have a different weight to them.  

All that said, I don't actually want to talk too much about the movie again.  I dunno, here's my post from April.  I probably liked it even better on a second viewing.  

Yes, it has received a lot of nominations, and it's kind of wild, but there are a variety of reasons that's true - including the film's overall popularity and watchability while still managing to reflect on the sorts of themes Academy voters tend to like to nominate.  The performances across the board sell the movie, and it's, if nothing else, pretty @#$%ing novel.  

Catch-Up Watch: One Battle After Another (2025)

Watched:  01/05/2026

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing:  First

Director:  Paul Thomas Anderson

Well, better late than never.  This was one I absolutely wanted to see in the theater, but didn't due to circumstances.

Let's not bury the lede:  I dug the hell out of this movie.  

I suspect One Battle After Another (2025) will do well through awards season - everyone in the movie is great, it's beautifully shot, the audio and score are A-level (I hadn't heard a Jonny Greenwood score in a minute).  It's on an evergreen topic in modern drag.  That said, I haven't read any reviews and I don't know what people *think* about the movie as of yet, just seen it get many stars from folks' letterboxd accounts.  

I kept thinking about how movies are made - what choices were made.  How someone else would have turned this into something preachy, or treacly, or something that was just a standard actioner.  There's a handful of directors who maybe could have done this, but PTA walks a tightrope here, and so many others would have tilted too far one way or the other.

Chabert Watch: Lost in Paradise (2026)

Watched: 01/04/2026

Format:  Hallmark

Viewing:  First

Director:  Dustin Rikert

Job: head of a premier fashion design studio

Location of story:  Fiji

new skill:  jungle and beach survival

Man:  Ian Harding

Job of Man: Chef!

Goes to/ Returns to: Goes to Fiji

Event:  Plane crash

Food:  fish

Again, I'd love to know what stats the Hallmark Channel has about viewership when they have Lacey Chabert in a movie.  Because someone ran the numbers and was able to show that sending a Hallmark crew and stars to Fiji was going to be profitable.

It's not the first time Chabert has wrangled a destination movie.  I've seen her in movies filmed in Malta, Ireland (once as Ireland, once doubling as Scotland), vague Europe, South Africa, Italy and I think Greece.  And for the US, I know she went to Hawaii for a movie.  I feel like she's been in Manhattan at some point.

Somehow Fiji feels particularly nuts, but off to Fiji this movie went.