Coen Watch: Drive-Away Dolls (2024)

Watched:  07/25/2025

Format:  Peacock

Viewing:  First

Director:  Ethan Coen

Is anything more telling about what the Coen Bros. each brought to their team than that when the brothers decided to do independent projects, Joel Coen made a mannered and styled Macbeth and Ethan Coen made Drive-Away Dolls (2024)?  

The mix of high-brow and low-brow - even Raising Arizona has thematic and nigh-poetic aspirations - was their hallmark, with ultra-specific characters, absurdist humor, and deeply human stories - culminating in the excellence of their track record over years and movies that had a stamp audiences recognized and sought out.  

I was vaguely aware Drive-Away Dolls received very mixed reviews, and audiences were kind of irritated with it.  

Which, no kidding.  The movie isn't overly concerned with good taste or your politics or the horseshoe turn lefties online took into agreeing with the Catholic League about how movies are for perverts if they acknowledge sex and show blood with violence.  Instead, this flick is an old-fashioned pulp crime comedy with a heavy layering of what turns out to be the sense of oddball humor that the Coens always brought, that apparently was Ethan Coen's contribution.

Vroooom Watch: F1 - The Movie (2025)

Watched:  07/24/2025

Format:  Drafthouse

Viewing:  First

Director:  Joseph Kosinski

Growing up in the US, racing has been mostly NASCAR, and I just never got into stock car racing.  But Austin is, for vaguely shady reasons, home to an F1 track, and we all went from finding it weird to being kind of proud of it.  It's not Monaco or anything, but it's a feature few other cities have.  And, anyway, I started watching some videos about F1, and it is really neat.  But I'm only aware enough of autosports to know that they are infinitely complex and I don't know how any of it works. But rocket cars go super fast and that is cool.

Something about the trailer for F1: The Movie (2025) had me sold.  But I thought I'd probably see it at home on HBO eventually.  However, SimonUK had seen it, liked it, and recommended I check it out, so we went together.

And, yeah, I dug it.  Quite a bit, if I'm being honest.  If I came to watch F1 cars zip around, it does that a lot.

After the movie was over, SimonUK stated "it's basically Top Gun: Maverick in cars, but...  it works" and that is very correct.  This movie is directed and written by the director of Top Gun: Maverick, Joseph Kosinski, so do your own math.  

Super Watch: Supergirl (1984)

Watched:  07/19/2025

Format:  HBO Max

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  Jeannot Szwarc

With Superman 2025 out, it occurs to me it's been a while since I revisited some Super-Media - and I cannot tell you the last time I actually watched Supergirl (1984) from start to finish - ie: I always give up somewhere in the middle.  

I always feel bad saying this, but the movie is a mess.  And there's no one place to point the blame, but the culprit is neither Helen Slater nor Faye Dunaway.  I don't know that you can even blame director Jeannot Szwarc, as this was the fourth Superman movie by the Salkinds, and he knew he was a hired gun.  So, yeah, as with all things going wrong with the Super-movies from this era, I blame the Salkinds.  But, without them, there would be no Superman: The Movie and Superman II.  And likely without those movies, no Batman '89.  And if none of that, then what...?

Life is complicated.  

Superman Second Watch: Superman (2025) - Part 3 - If You Now Like Superman, Hooray!

You can follow our posts on Superman at this link, and our posts on the new movie, Superman (2025) at this link.

For More on the Movie:

• Super Watch:  Superman (2025) - a pre review post
• Super First Watch:  Superman (2025)
• Superman Second Watch:  Superman (2025) - Part 1 - Likes/Dislikes/Punk Rock Superman
• Superman Second Watch: Superman (2025) - Part 2 - Characters
• Superman Second Watch: Superman (2025) - Part 3 -  If You Now Like Superman, Hooray!

This will be far from my final word on Superman (2025), but I think I should probably not go nuts on you people for too much longer by just circling the Super-drain.  One last thought:

You just never know when your niche interest will go mainstream

In high school, the music I listened to was not exactly underground, but I learned to stay up late on the weekend and catch 120 Minutes on MTV.  That was where I found my bands rather than watching music video blocks during afternoons after school.  Imagine my surprise when the type of music I liked over in my corner suddenly became labeled "alternative" music and was playing on the radio and MTV next to, say, En Vogue.*  By Lollapalooza '93 - frat dudes and sorority girls were standing next to me in sun-pounded fields instead of just moody kids and guys with scalp tattoos.  It was... weird.  But here we all were, enjoying Front 242 together.

Noir Watch: The Gangster ( 1947)

Watched:  07/15/2025

Format:  TCM

Viewing:  Second

You know what, I think I would just repeat myself - so here's my post on the movie from the first time I saw it back in 2018.  

I guess I'll mention - this movie stuck with me in a way that really surprised me.  I've almost purchased it on disc for a rewatch a number of times-  even as recently as a couple of weeks ago - and then it was listed as part of Noir Alley's offerings on TCM.  

I'm not sure it's the best movie in the world, but after seven years, it's one I thought about quite a bit, and that's not nothing.

Superman Second Watch: Superman (2025) - Part 2 - Characters

You can follow our posts on Superman at this link, and our posts on the new movie, Superman (2025) at this link.

For More on the Movie:

• Super Watch:  Superman (2025) - a pre review post
• Super First Watch:  Superman (2025)
• Superman Second Watch:  Superman (2025) - Part 1 - Likes/Dislikes/Punk Rock Superman
• Superman Second Watch: Superman (2025) - Part 2 - Characters
• Superman Second Watch: Superman (2025) - Part 3 -  If You Now Like Superman, Hooray!

So, this is my consideration of the casting and portrayal of some key characters in the film.  I'm bringing my opinions as an avid Superman comics reader, who prefers certain portrayals - often tied to certain eras.  But I'll be mostly discussing portrayals in the comics over the last two decades.

One thing that Gunn seems keen on doing is not re-imagining characters too much.  Except when he does, and I'll get to that.  But the default between Gunn and John Papsidera to go with types for archetypes.  Which may be a bit different from what Sarah Hailey Finn has been doing at Marvel - to great success - which has been finding a personality that will be kind of what you expect, but with a spin.  And that's how you wind up with Tatiana Maslany as She-Hulk rather than a 6'2" weightlifter.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Doc Watch: Jaws @ 50 - The Definitive Inside Story (2025)

Watched:  07/10/2025

Format:  Hulu?

Viewing:  First

Director:  Laurent Bouzereau

A victory lap for Jaws, this doc is an uncritical look at the movie on its 50th anniversary.  And that's great!  How many movies earn this? 

There's interviews new and old, and despite the fact I think I've seen two prior Jaws documentaries, Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story (2025) still manages to feel a bit fresh as it provides some new info but mostly how it contextualizes the movie in 1975, after, and now.  Sure, there's the "making this was rough" parts of the doc, but more details abound and how much the film is now woven into Martha's Vineyard's shared history.  How involved the whole island really was - I really didn't know until now.

Spielberg is one of *the* storytellers of the last 70 years, so of course he's captivating on camera and his stories about the movie during and after are engaging - and maybe even true.

Many who worked on the film have since passed, of course, but there's still many around - those who played kids are now aging adults.  Lorraine Gary even appears.  Dreyfus, always a problem child, is not in the film except as archival footage, which is odd as he's been touring for years to supposedly talk about Jaws (I think he's been canceled or something recently, so maybe that got him cut).

But the biggest delight is learning that Emily Blunt is a huge Jaws nerd.  Who knew?

Regret Watch: Jaws - The Revenge (1987)

Watched:  07/13/2025

Format:  Prime

Viewing:  Second (god help me)

Director:  Stanley Morgan

A while back, SimonUK and I podcasted this trainwreck.  Over the past six years, I'd forgotten how truly terrible this movie is.  Like - I don't understand how this is a studio movie with professional actors, and studio backing and intended for a human audience.

It's maybe not the worst movie I've ever seen, but.. for a studio movie?   it's up there.

Jaws: the Revenge (1987) is a movie that admits - in movie, by way of recycled footage - that the only reason it exists is that they hope you liked the first one.  But they have to admit, they do not know what this movie is about.  Because if it's about a giant shark, they all know to stay out of the water.  If it's about the lives of the Brody's, post-Martin Brody's untimely passing - no one asked or wanted to see it, and as a slice-of-life movie about mourning, they forget to be sad for the second half of the movie, and the movie instead gets very randy.

Waco Watch: Action USA (1989)

Watched:  07/12/2025

Format:  Prime

Viewing:  First

Director:  John Stewart

After he'd recommended it to me twice, I took JAL up on his suggestion of this particular flick.  I meant to watch this for the 4th of July, but we got busy, so here you go.  My salute to America.

Action USA (1989) is probably the best high-action movie shot in Waco during the 1980's.

I very much remember Waco in the 1980s.  It was, aside from Baylor, a town that had seen its best days 30 years prior and was not yet recovered from the economic turns of the 1970's and 80's.  In a few short years, we'd have the Branch Davidian stand-off near here.  And then, much later, Joanna Gaines would convince people Waco was the shit, which... TV is a powerful drug, y'all.  Somehow, the second worst college town in Texas is now a tourist destination for people who like overpriced wooden spoons and mediocre football.

Anyway, it is always weird/ a delight seeing the landscape of my part of Texas in a movie.  And buildings that still stand that I am a bit familiar with from a job I had ten years ago when I was in Waco a lot.

Superman Second Watch: Superman (2025) - Part 1 - Likes/ Dislikes/ Punk Rock Superman

You can follow our posts on Superman at this link, and our posts on the new movie, Superman (2025) at this link.

Watched:  07/12/2025

Format:  Drafthouse

Viewing:  Second

Director:  still James Gunn

For More on the Movie:

• Super Watch:  Superman (2025) - a pre review post
• Super First Watch:  Superman (2025)
• Superman Second Watch:  Superman (2025) - Part 1 - Likes/Dislikes/Punk Rock Superman
• Superman Second Watch: Superman (2025) - Part 2 - Characters
• Superman Second Watch: Superman (2025) - Part 3 -  If You Now Like Superman, Hooray!

We've already posted on seeing Superman (2025) as an initial, kinda spoiler-light/ spoiler-free take that was really about how gobsmacked I was to see a Superman movie that actually cared about four-color comics and what Superman actually stands for.  

While celebrating that the movie felt like a DC comicbook in that first post, I didn't get into the issues I had with the movie, because I wanted to make sure I didn't just miss something.  I also didn't discuss the characters beyond our primary trio of Superman, Lois and Lex - plus Krypto.  Or a few other things I figured I'd cover in a subsequent posts.

In this post, I really don't want to get too much into the social media stuff happening around this film, and, believe me... it is tempting.  There is some incredibly disappointing stuff happening out there.

SUPER SPOILERS AHEAD

What did and did not work

So what didn't work (for me)

Super First Watch: Superman (2025)

Watched:  07/08/2025

Format:  AMC IMAX

Viewing:  First

Director:  James Gunn

You can follow our posts on Superman at this link, and our posts on the new movie, Superman (2025) at this link.

For More on the Movie:

• Super Watch:  Superman (2025) - a pre review post
• Super First Watch:  Superman (2025)
• Superman Second Watch:  Superman (2025) - Part 1 - Likes/Dislikes/Punk Rock Superman
• Superman Second Watch: Superman (2025) - Part 2 - Characters
• Superman Second Watch: Superman (2025) - Part 3 -  If You Now Like Superman, Hooray!

Light spoilers ahead.  We'll do another post or two on the movie getting deeper into details.

Well, kids.  We made it.  It's 2025, and we have a Superman movie.  

We posted some details of our screening previously, right after Jamie and I took in the flick.

At the top - I'll say, a good portion of my life has been spent reading Superman comic books, watching Superman films, television, cartoons, etc... I've read non-fiction about Superman's storied history as a pop-culture figure and feel pretty confident in saying that I'm up to date on the character.

And, yet, it is very, very strange to see Superman come to the screen and feel less like an interpretation of Superman re-imagined for the big screen by people wanting to put their own stamp on the character, and instead get a movie that feels like someone took a really terrific event Superman comic run and said "this is what we're doing.  On the screen.  With a budget that's equal to roughly the combined GDP of Europe."

Super Watch: Superman (2025) - a pre review post

You can follow our posts on Superman at this link, and our posts on the new movie, Superman (2025) at this link.

For More on the Movie:

• Super Watch:  Superman (2025) - a pre review post
• Super First Watch:  Superman (2025)
• Superman Second Watch:  Superman (2025) - Part 1 - Likes/Dislikes/Punk Rock Superman
• Superman Second Watch: Superman (2025) - Part 2 - Characters

This isn't the actual review.  I'll start on that ASAP and get it done - don't worry!  (Because I know how you worry, pals!)  But I also don't want folks really reading what I have to say until the film has been out more than a few random screenings on a Tuesday.

We saw Superman (2025) at the AMC Barton Creek on Tuesday, July 8th, 2025 as part of an oddball promotion with Amazon Prime, Fandango and Superman I guess.  

I'll say this:  I really, really liked the movie.  If all you want to know is if I think it's worth a viewing - sure.  Go get a ticket.  

Much as I went into Black Panther terrified this was going to go badly and then was just stunned by what I saw, this was that - only bigger.  It may surprise you to learn I have a lot invested in Superman as a character.

It was also wild to walk into a theater full of people not just in Superman shirts, but sporting the S from this movie in large quantities.  When you shop at one of the biggest comic shops on the continent and they *still* know you as "the Superman guy" it can feel like maybe you're the one person who likes the character.  But holy cats, did the Superman fans come out of the woodwork tonight.  The dudes in front of me were regularly quietly high-fiving.  

Anyhow - I don't think this is just opening night hype. 

Y'all go see my guy, Clark, and his cool friends.

Rock Watch: This Is Spinal Tap (1984)

Watched:  07/06/2025

Format:  Alamo

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  Rob Reiner/ Marti DiBergi

SimonUK and I took in the re-release of This is Spinal Tap (1984) at the Alamo on Sunday evening.  

I don't need to tell you what This Is Spinal Tap is, I hope.  Apparently, The Drafthouse has signed up to host Fathom events, and this included the viewing of the new 4K restoration of the movie, but it's sort of America's original faux-documentary.  It led directly to Christopher Guest's brilliant mockumentary* series and indirectly to the format of shows like The Office and Parks and Rec.  

I have lost track of when and how I saw this movie the first time.  I remember seeing it very young, and not really getting the jokes - minus the "it goes to 11" bit (I want to say as early as 1985 or 1986) but then seeing it again at the end of high school and absolutely getting it (maybe in 1992-93).  By then, I'd had a subscription to Rolling Stone, so some of the references and gags - like the cricket bat - made more sense.

Superman 2025 Pre-Watch: Superman - The Movie (1978)

Watched:  07/05/2025

Viewing:  a lot.  Whole bunch of times.

Format:  Max

Director:  Richard Donner

You can follow our posts on Superman at this link, and our posts on the new movie, Superman (2025) at this link.

In prep for seeing Superman 2025 on the 8th, I figured I owed the OG classic one more spin before settling in for what Big Blue has to offer us in our modern era.  

To catch folks up, I saw Superman: The Movie (1978) during its initial release in December of 1978 or shortly thereafter.  Maybe in Spring of 1979.  But I'd certainly seen it in the theater with my dad and brother during that window when I was 3.  I recall seeing it, as they were giving away gumball machines that were red or blue, and at that time, my brother's stuff was coded blue, and mine was red, so my parents could be even-steven giving us things, but we knew what belonged to who.

I think often of how spoiled we were as kids in the 1980s.  One of my first movies outings was seeing Star Wars in the theater at age 2, and then all of the paraphernalia around the movie from toys to wall paper .  To me, movies were just where mind-boggling things happened, and what was the point if you weren't seeing something amazing? 

2010's Watch: Bad Times At The El Royale (2018)

Watched:  06/29/2025

Format:  Prime

Viewing:  First

Writer/ Director:  Drew Goddard

It's possible in fifteen or twenty years, this movie will be found and puzzled over as featuring folks who are now established stars, mixed with longtime stars.  Bad Times at the El Royale (2018) features Cynthia Erivo in what I will say should have been a break-out performance and her entree into film stardom, rather than her having to wait until Wicked.  She's clearly already a star.  Lewis Pullman is here.  As are Chris Hemsworth, John Hamm, Jeff Bridges and a not-50 Shades-ing Dakota Johnson.  

But this movie came out and tanked.  That's neither here nor there, but it has meant that it's not exactly on the forefront of people's minds as few eyes saw the movie in the theater and it's not found an audience on home video. 

What's odd is that Metacritic comes in at a mid-range-ish 60, and the audience score is a generous 71.  And yet... no one saw this.

However, maybe in the same way of The Last of Sheila from 1973, it will find an audience that will make sure it has a cult following.  Or not.  (I heartily recommend The Last of Sheila.)

Doc Watch: My Mom Jayne - a film by Mariska Hargitay (2025)

Watched:  06/28/2025

Format:  Max

Viewing:  First

Director:  Mariska Hargitay

I don't watch Law & Order much, but for a while back in the 00's and 10's, SVU was the one I'd watch in re-runs.  And Mariska Hargitay was hard to miss as the ultra-driven cop, Detective Olivia Benson.  But it was probably in the 2010's that I figured out her parents were screen legend Jayne Mansfield and body builder Mickey Hargitay.  

Mansfield is the stuff of Hollywood Babylon legend, following a career path that feels one-part Monroe, one-part Jane Russell.  I've seen only two or three Mansfield movies, and she struck me as very good at what she did (I liked her a lot in The Burglar), but she and I don't cross paths much in my TCM viewing.  

Once I knew about her parentage, I also never could quite sort out Mariska Hargitay's domestic situation, as I couldn't believe she'd even been born when Mansfield died in a car wreck in 1967.  It seemed Mariska was a smidge older than I'd guessed (good genes, I guess) - but she was three at the time, and in the car when it happened.  But, due to her age when Mansfield passed, Hargitay didn't have memories of her mother, and she wasn't raised by her.  

The doc, My Mom Jayne: a Film by Mariska Hargitay (2025), is Hargitay coming to terms with who her mother was, learning who she really was away from the public, and embracing her relationship with the woman she never really knew.  

90's Watch: The Cutting Edge (1992)

Watched:  06/27/2025

Format:  YouTube

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Paul Michael Glaser

This is the second time I saw this movie, the first time being in the late 90's.

I mentioned I was going to watch The Cutting Edge (1992) to some dudes my age (heyo, Marshall and Paul) and we all kind of said what I think is true:  this movie wasn't really aimed at us, we all saw it, and thought that if you're going to make this movie, this is pretty good.

At least that was my memory of it before watching it again.  

And, yeah, it's still true.  

I mean, it's got some very 90's vibes, but because of the era, it has a bit of that "we're adults and so we're going to act like (young) adults, not tall teenagers written for a Disney daytime show".  

The basic plot is that D.B. Sweeney plays a hockey player who suffers an injury that will keep him from playing professionally.  He's struggling in life when he's approached by the coach to be the partner for a difficult pairs skater (Moira Kelly!).  Who can't keep a pairs partner.  Because she's a raging B.

It follows the enemies-to-lovers thing that people seem to love (see: Jane Austen) which is not a spoiler because the poster had Sweeney and Kelley looking like they might make out right there.

The cast is small, but doesn't need to be huge.  Terry O'Quinn plays Kelly's rich dad.  

There's a pretty good conclusion to the film with characters having actual moments of self-actualization and whatnot, even if it's all swaddled in 90's sports-movie cheese.

I dunno.  It's fine!  I even kind of like it.  If I were on a date in the 1990's, I would take Jamie to it and try not to say too much about Moira Kelly being dreamy.

Since I saw the movie the first time, I've watched countless hours of ice skating thanks to Jamie's abiding interest in the sport - and now I know that very little of what happens in this movie is how skating actually works.  But enough works that it's not utterly broken.  

My only other real note is that a girl from my high school class that I never spoke to or shared space with married D.B. Sweeney and was with him until what Google tells me was 2023.  I kinda vaguely/sorta remember her when I look at her picture.  She would not know me at all.  It all works out.

Musical Watch: Wicked (2024)

Watched:  06/26/2025

Format:  Peacock

Viewing:  First

Director:  Jon M. Chu

I am a huge fan of the OG Wizard of Oz.  My second biggest regret about ending the podcast was not covering that movie before we put away our mics.  In my opinion, Wizard of Oz is not just an important film, it's a key to American film and culture.  

That said - I am fine with derivative works.  Of course people want to explore this amazing world in which Wizard of Oz takes place, to consider and deconstruct and shuffle around the cultural icons of the movie, look into the characters, themes, etc...  It's a bubbling well for interpretation, commentary and America.

Wicked (2024) came in riding decades of popularity as a stage show and soundtrack.  Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenowith were launched to super stardom with the show and became fixtures.  People who don't care about Broadway probably already knew two of the songs by osmosis before ever buying a movie ticket.  It's one of the few 21st Century Broadway shows to break into the pop consciousness like 20th Century shows like Oklahoma!, Phantom, Cats or Les Mis.  

This film adaptation did great at the box office and was at least an American phenomenon.  It did fine overseas, but likely suffered from being an English-language musical about a play that probably hasn't been getting seen in Beijing, etc...  quite yet.  And who knows if they care about The Wizard of Oz in Lichtenstein?

But in the states, it made almost half-a-billion dollars.  As the movie was released in late Fall, Christmas season 2024 was pink and green with the movie's merchandise and imagery everywhere.  It was kind of neat.

Rebekah Del Rio Merges With The Infinite

Singer and performer Rebekah Del Rio has passed.

Superman 2025: Making An Event

You can follow our posts on Superman at this link, and our posts on the new movie, Superman (2025) at this link.

If nothing else, I think WB/DC - and maybe the film industry - will come out of Superman (2025) remembering that movies used to be events. And, how to create events again. 

It's been a while since I've seen a studio work this hard to make a movie something for which they've built anticipation and a desire to participate in by the public... make them want to see it on the biggest screen possible.  Even if Superman doesn't make a billion dollars at the box office, which is may not, WB has fired up the engines of the machines that once brought people out to stand in line for the privilege of watching one of their movies. Right now it *feels* like it's working.