Doc Watch: Film Geek (2023)

Watched:   09/15/2026

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  First

Director:  Richard Shepard

It's always weird to watch a documentary about someone talking about themselves and their family.  In this way, the recent award winning doc by Mariska Hargitay My Mom Jayne absolutely works.  As her mother Jayne Mansfield passed when she was so very young, it's really about her learning about her own mother decades after the fact.  She just happens to have the best possible access to Mansfield's history.  But she also is clear eyed about remaining objective and talking about it when she isn't and what it means to live with that legacy.

Film Geek (2023) tosses anything like objectivity out the window in the first minute of the film, and you're just along for the ride as film maker Richard Shepard recounts his youth in 1970's and 1980's Manhattan, which was a whirlwind of movie mania and NY-based Gen-X childhood.  This is paired with our director/narrator trying to unpack how movies tied him to a father he wants to present as a romantic rogue and bon vivant and his mother as a saint.

Catch-Up Watch: Polite Society (2023)

Watched:  09/11/2026

Format:  Peacock 

Viewing:  First

Director:  Nida Manzoor

I'd seen a trailer for Polite Society (2023) when it was coming out, but theatrical windows are short, and I missed it.  Since then, I believe it was Stuart who rec'd it, and I'd had it loosely in the back of my head to watch, meanwhile forgetting why I wanted to see it or what it was about.

Well, whatever I thought it was about, the movie kind of defies genre or expectations at multiple points, and I mean that in the best way.  It's like someone took good ideas and stitched them together into exactly the movie they wanted to make (no, I don't know who Nida Manzoor is exactly, but she also did the series We Are Lady Parts in England, which got good notices).  

Shark/Jet Watch: West Side Story (2021)

Watched:  09/07/2026

Format:  FX Movies on basic cable

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Steven Somebody

I was performing repetitive manual tasks (dealing with comic books.  Where my fellow nerds at?) which means I need something to occupy my brain, but not something *new*, as I might get up to perform part of a task, move around, etc...  And then I saw the 2021 version of West Side Story was on cable, and, sure, why not?

I first saw the play in about 5th or 6th grade with our own Matt A. at the former Capital City Playhouse in Austin.  I then saw the 1961 film in about 1992, and so ask me about bearing witness to Rita Moreno as Anita in her lavender dress.*

But this was the 2021 version, which *also* features Moreno, but doing fewer high kicks.

I really dig this version, too.  I feel like Spielberg did it right, bringing his sense of visuals, character and narrative tension which he built his career on to the material and made it feel both fresh and deeply rooted in the time and place from whence it sprang, managing to make it speak to the now.  

It also fills in some narrative gaps and does some info-dumps to clarify the situation in New York which the general population would have known by osmosis in 1961, but which has shifted and shifted and shifted in the decades since.  The actual politics, economics and on-the-street situation in the film is made abundantly clear in a way it just wasn't previously.

I'm just checking in on this one.  No real notes.  And will say, I'm really glad DeBose and Ziegler are both doing great on the other side of this film.  The guy who played Riff is slated to be in the new East of Eden movie.  

I recall people being a little weird about this when it came out, and a lot of the commentary came down to skill issues and that even dummies can have internet access.  And people oddly offended that a play, done in every town in America, which was a movie, should get remade when the first movie had some really odd weaknesses (like making all the Puerto Ricans wear matching full-body make-up).

So, yeah.  I dig it.   

*Great googly moogly

 

Product Liability Law Watch: Coyote vs. Acme (2026)

Watched:  08/30/2026

Format:  Regal Cinemas

Viewing:  First

Director:  Dave Green

First:  yes, this is the *completed* movie Warner Bros. was going to just shelve for a tax write-off and then sold to Ketchup Entertainment when word got out and the PR around the move became quite bad.  Yes, I have thought the people who currently own Warner Bros. are absolute chuckle-@#$%s and why having MBAs run your entertainment companies all but guarantees the worst results.

Second:  I almost took a pass on writing this post as, at its heart, Coyote vs. Acme (2026) is a product liability law movie.  And our good pal, JimD, is an actual product liability attorney with a rich history of doing his own blogging.  And I was going to make him go see the movie and write up a post, but assigning homework to friends does not seem like a good way to maintain a pal-ship.

Friday Watch: Fantastic Four - First Steps (2025)

Watched:  08/21/2026

Format:  Disney+

Viewing:  Fourth?

Director:  Matt Shakman

First - I am no longer discussing Marvel movies as *movies*.  It's ludicrous to do so.  No one has tried and achieved everything Marvel Studios has done, and to pretend any of what is happening in any single movie is not part of a greater whole is untruthful.  If your problem is that a Marvel movie is tied to other Marvel movies and TV shows, the door is that way. 

We already talked about this movie twice before when I saw it in the theater (twice) and then when my dad came over to keep an eye on me after I had a big screw put in my foot (on purpose) and was recuperating/ hopped-up on goofballs.

But with Doomsday coming, I'd been thinking about the movie a great deal.  After all, Victor was conspicuously absent in this Fantastic Four movie, but it sure seemed to point to where things are going as the FF are all over one of the trailers.

HEAVY SPOILERS AND POINTLESS SPECULATION BELOW

DC Animated Watch: DC's League of Super-Pets (2022)

Watched:  08/19/2026

Format:  Disc 4K

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Jared Stern

One of the oddest of casualties of a certain point in time was DC's League of Super-Pets (2022).  

Started before COVID and then, mind-bogglingly, released during COVID as a kids' movie - it seemingly tanked at the box office.  Fun note:  it made $80 million more than Supergirl.

My memory was - people found the advertising very confusing, and the notion of Superman having a *dog* seemed preposterous to the uninitiated.  One wonders how a kid's movie about Krypto would fare now.  

Epic Watch: The Odyssey (2026)

Watched:  08/09/2026

Format:  Regal Westgate

Viewing:  First

Director:  Christopher Nolan

Well.  I'm the last person you know to finally see The Odyssey (2026).  All I can say is: You Oughta-See It!

Fortunately, you can't really spoil The Odyssey unless you haven't attended high school in a number of western countries.  (An hour after I typed this sentence, Jamie, unprompted, offered up she doesn't think she read it, but she still knew all the story beats, but wasn't sure why.  I assure you, I have not been, like, babe.. babe...  and then Odysseus?  He disguised his guys like sheep to get out of that cave!) 

I'll keep it short, because enough has been said about the movie.  

Yes, I liked it a great deal.  I haven't read any version of The Odyssey in 35 years, but it hit the beats I remembered.  So, check.

Catch-Up Watch: The Menu (2022)

Watched:  08/08/2026

Format:  Library DVD

Viewing:  First

Director:  Mark Mylod

While watching The Menu (2022), I kept thinking - this is a movie that wants to be a "fuck the rich" movie, but doesn't seem to want to actually say what the problem is.  

For all it's aspirations, the movie only occasionally rises above any other flick where people are held hostage with increasing horrors inflicted upon them.  It has lofty goals as a social commentary, of making poetic commentary about food and nourishment and art - And you've likely seen better.  It's stylish and sets itself up as comment upon the exploitation and pretentions of the elite, but then has nothing to say about it beyond a college freshman ranting in their dorm room.  Nor does it turn the lens back on those inflicting the damage - the cult-like crew of Ralph Fiennes' kitchen who have happily gone along with the plan that drives the movie, who had to know what they were signing up for if they wanted to work in Michelin star restaurants. 

Spidey Watch: Spider-Man Brand New Day (2026)

Watched:  08/02/2026

Format:  Regal Cinema

Viewing:  First

Director:  Destin Daniel Cretton

Look, I'm respecting that the movie-advertising is asking that we not discuss this movie publicly on social media, so I'm doing what I can here.

HERE THERE BE SPOILERS

Island Watch: Eden (2025) / The Galapagos Affair - Satan Came to Eden (2013)

Eden (2025)

Watched:  07/25/2026

Format:  Library Disc

Viewing:  First

Director:   Ron Howard

This is a movie about living in a place that's pretty good, but the place suddenly gets overrun by people who read an article saying the place was cool.  Because the people who moved there, wrongly believing themselves cool (and therefore heirs to the cool place), bring their suckiness to the place - the transitive powers of their suckiness, large numbers and insistence on changing the nature of what made the place cool to begin with, make that place which was once cool now suck.  

Eventually the place sucks so much, helped along with the participation of government stooges hoping for money and glamour, things in the place become straight up bleak.  

In short, this is the story of Austin, Texas.

When Eden (2025) was released, reviews were kind of all over the place, but I was curious.  I don't tend to think of Howard as a director who does grittier movies about sordid topics like sex and violence.  The movie had a fascinating cast - Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Ana de Armas, Daniel Bruhl, Sydney Sweeney...  A movie requiring minimal FX, and where shit gets very real as people scrape for survival in what is now an infamously inhospitable living.  And turn on each other.

He-Watch: Masters of the Universe (2026)

Watched:  07/23/2026

Format:  Amazon Prime

Viewing:  First

Director:  Travis Knight

Well.  

That was sure a He-Man movie.  

I'm not particularly a fan of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, the cartoon nor the toy line.  In fact, when this movie was pitched, I wrote a whole long post about how weird I thought it was that a movie studio went all in on what I thought was probably a far niche-ier market for this movie than they were probably aware, and I wasn't particularly looking to spend my paycheck on watching the movie in theaters.

But as the movie approached, I thought "well, maybe I'll take the niece and nephew", but neither of them showed the slightest interest - and they'd seen the trailer.  Something came up around the release date, and I thought "well, I'll go in like two weeks".  But the reviews hit and were unkind, the audience stayed away in droves, and the movie was gone.  And I was back to Plan A, which was to watch it streaming.

Meanwhile, my social media was ablaze with the "it's actually really good" assurances, and "all of you will say 'why didn't anyone tell me to see it in the theater?'"  

Arthouse Watch: The World to Come (2020)

Watched:  07/19/2026

Format:  Library disc

Viewing:  First

Director:  Mona Fastvold

I really liked Vanessa Kirby in last summer's Fantastic Four, and was aware she had a career a bit like Rebecca Hall.  Be foxy in things  After getting noticed in smaller stuff, do a mix of some big, silly crowd pleasers (Hall is in two King Kong movies and an Iron Man) while still doing smaller art films and some prestige pictures.  Do all the things.    

I happened to find two Kirby movies right off the bat via Austin Public Library, and so I've borrowed this movie, The World to Come (2020) and the Ron Howard flick, Eden.  

The World to Come was not exactly a critical darling, but pretty close!  It clocked in at a 73 on Metacritic.  And I'm not surprised that, especially in the political climate of 2020 - the year of the movie's release - it did well.  It got a lot of international attention.  It's a period piece about forbidden same-sex love, and it is very sad, and that is absolute critic bait.

Japan Watch: Rental Family (2025)

Watched:  07/05/2026

Format:  Hulu

Viewing:  First

Director:  Hikari

I initially said "no" when Jamie wanted to watch this movie.  

During COVID, I'd watched a lot of travel videos, and one thing I'd seen was Americans learning that, in Japan, you can rent people to role-play out scenarios.  This is an over simplification, but I can rent someone to act as if they were my grandfather - not my specific real life grandfather - but *a* grandfather who is generally nice to me.  A lot of people, of course, rent "girlfriends" - someone to go have dinner with them and ask them about their day.  That sort of thing.  

I am choosing not to pass judgment.  A whole country has normalized this, and while I want to say "hey... Japan?  You okay, buddy?" I also think maybe there's a market for this here.  Better than getting denied on dating apps.

Franken-Watch: The Bride! (2026)

Watched:  07/01/2026

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing;  First

Director:  Maggie Gyllenhaal

I was really looking forward to the release of The Bride! (2026).  

As many know, one of my favorite movies is The Bride of Frankenstein.  This ranking is followed immediately by Frankenstein, and I tend to think of them as a two-part movie as much as a pair of individual movies.  I still re-read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein from time-to-time. In 2018, I celebrated the 200th anniversary of the book's publication by visiting a sort of display at the Lilly Library at Indiana University. 

The Bride! was released with what I'd consider a serious marketing push - a rarity these days.  And then the reviews hit and word was not good.  And then people I know saw it and were unenthused, and so I decided to wait for streaming.

I am sad to report that this was the right call.  

Here's what I think.  

TLDR Super Watch: Supergirl (2026)

Watched:  06/25/2026

Format:  Regal

Viewing:  First

Director:  Craig Gillespie

It is probably worth noting that while a great IP to slap on thermoses and t-shirts, Supergirl is maybe the least consistently written mainstream character in comics.  So there is no "right way" to write Kara Zor-El.

I've read my fair share of comic books starring Supergirl over the past few decades.  I've read Silver-Age, Bronze and Copper-Era stories.  I read 90's-00's Not-Kara Supergirl by Peter David.  And was one of people who was flipping out when they brought Kara back in the mid-00's.  Aside from giving New 52 Supergirl a pass, I have pretty complete runs of pretty much everything since the 2005 reboot.  I heartily recommend the current series by Sophie Campbell as one of the best comics I've read in a while.  I own a copy of Action Comics 252.  

I've seen the 1980's Supergirl movie at least three times - including on VHS as a kid.  I watched the entire run of the CW TV show.  Am familiar with various incarnations in live action and animation.  (I have an affection for almost all of those takes.)

I am not a Supergirl PhD, but I feel pretty well oriented.  So, there's my bona fides.

Car Watch: F1 - The Movie (2025)

Watched:  06/21/2026

Format:  AppleTV

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Joseph Kosinski

So, I watched F1: The Movie (2025) a year ago in the theater.  It was an enjoyable movie that was about car racing and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer - so I figured I knew what I was getting, and I was right.  And that is not a complaint.  When I go to Chili's for dinner, I do not complain when the Old Timer with Cheese is the Old Timer with Cheese.

F1: The Movie stars a hot dude who is the best at what he does, but our hero is *also* a troubled rogue.  In this way, he is Maverick from Top Gun.  And, really, this movie is a scramble of beats from Top Gun and basic movie formulas of a certain era for which middle-aged men apparently yearn.  F1: the Movie also features the bonus of being about an old gun fighter showing the new kid on the block what it's all about in order to really satisfy us aging movie-dudes.  

Hallmark Texas Watch: Texas Two-Step (2026)

Watched:  06/14/2026

Viewing:  First

Format:  Hallmark Channel

Director:  Eva Tavares

Regional specificity is hard.   

I live in Austin, Texas which has, in the last two decades (and to my surprise), become a real tourist town.  People come here and drink, eat some barbecue and street tacos, feel they've lived authentically Austin/ Texas and go home.  And that's fine. 

It's not just at Christmas that Hallmark likes to make movies about country life's superiority to city life.  We do not require the yuletide season to insist that what you really need to do is give up your nice place in a city and your much-worked-for career track and do... something? in the country.  Not when you can boff the guy from high school who is roughly doing now what he did at age 17.  And, Hallmark -  occasionally - likes to make movies specifically about people doing this in Texas.  

While looking for World Cup Games, I saw Hallmark was debuting their latest "Texas" movie.  And I watched it so you don't have to.

Texas Two-Step (2026) is a movie about a woman who must go home to "Blue Creek" from Austin/Dallas to check in on her aging aunt and her roadhouse country bar and grill. 

Disney/Pixar Watch: Hoppers (2026)

Watched:  06/09/2026

Format:  Disney+

Viewing:  First

Director:  Daniel Chong

We don't get out to the cinema like we used to, and so it was that I missed Hoppers (2026) in the theater, despite what I'd call pretty good buzz.

It's an odd movie for Pixar, which is reeling from a few years of what I'd call unpredictable box office (which is just the industry these days).  A few movies tanked, and then a few sold like hot cakes.  If I was them, I'd be deeply unsure what to think audiences actually want in a film.

Hoppers is a weird movie.  I don't mean the sci-fi concept, which is cute and fun.  A young, plucky, adorably flawed girl, Mabel (Piper Curda) is doing battle with Mayor Jerry (Jon Hamm) who wants to build an overpass for his beltway through her beloved woodland glade.  She figures out a wacky scientist (Kathy Najimy) and her team (Sam Richardson and Melissa Villasenor) have built robots and can transfer their consciousness into the animal-shaped bodies.  This is done to observe species up close.  

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.