Alien: Earth – Season One (2025) | TV REVIEW

Sydney Chandler as Marcy/”Wendy” in ALIEN: EARTH — PHOTO: FX/HULU (Still image from trailers).

Although I grew to be really excited about it, I’ll admit that when I first heard about Alien: Earth, I was somewhat displeased. I admire the work of series creator Noah Hawley a great deal, but, as a defender of Ridley Scott’s prequel films, it upset me that it had been reported that the new show would distance itself from those films and potentially split the canon into two. When I finally watched the show, I was taken on something akin to an emotional rollercoaster ride, as I, from episode to episode, would switch between being skeptical about the show to being head over heels in love with it. So, where did I ultimately land on the show once the season was over and done? Well, I found it to be both a promising and frustrating experience that teased something cerebral that it couldn’t quite live up to, while I thought the show did the titular Xenomorph creature a massive disservice. 

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Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) | REVIEW

Varang (played by Oona Chaplin), leader of the Mangkwan tribe, in 20th Century Studios’ AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH.

Directed by James Cameron — Screenplay by James Cameron, Rick Jaffa, and Amanda Silver.

It’s time to return to Pandora. Avatar, James Cameron’s original otherworldly sci-fi epic franchise, is often criticized for lacking a significant cultural impact when compared to franchises like Star Wars, Marvel, DC, or The Lord of the Rings. And yet, here we are again, and audiences are already flocking to the theaters around the world to travel back to a world populated by tall blue-skinned aliens with braids that can connect with other life forms. One of the highest-grossing (and most expensive, notably) franchises remains a spectacular cinematic event with state-of-the-art visual effects and performance capture technology. The latest film in the franchise, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is equally breathtaking visually, but there are key narrative and dialogic issues, as well as a general sense of repetitiveness, that hold it back from matching the level of the previous films.

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‘A Minecraft Movie,’ ‘The Phoenician Scheme,’ ‘After the Hunt,’ ‘F1,’ and ‘Jay Kelly’ | Bite-Sized Reviews

Top Row (L-R): A Minecraft Movie (Warner Bros. Pictures); The Phoenician Scheme (Focus Features / Universal); After the Hunt (Amazon MGM / Sony Pictures Releasing).
Bottom Row (L-R): F1 (Warner Bros. Pictures / Apple TV+); Jay Kelly (Netflix).

Oh my, we’re back again! In this edition of additional bite-sized reviews – my recurring blog post series highlighting films that I want to share my thoughts on, but that I, crucially, don’t have time enough to cover in a more lengthy full review — I’ll tell you what I think about 1) one of the biggest theater hits of the year, 2) Wes Anderson’s latest flick, 3) Guadagnino’s most recent feature film, 4) Brad Pitt’s racing movie, and 5) Noah Baumbach’s big George Clooney-vehicle. As is often the case, most, if not all, of these bite-sized reviews may have been seen early on my Letterboxd account, so do note that you can get a sneak peek at my future reviews over there. Let’s get to it!

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‘TÁR,’ ‘The Last Showgirl,’ ‘The Bikeriders,’ ‘Queer,’ and ‘Sonic 2’ | Bite-Sized Reviews

Top Row (L-R): TÁR (Focus Features/Universal); The Last Showgirl (Roadside Attractions); The Bikeriders (Focus Features/Universal).
Bottom Row (L-R): Queer (A24); Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Paramount Pictures).

We’re getting towards the end of the year, and so now seems like a good time to assemble some of my thoughts on some films that didn’t ultimately get a full solo review dedicated to them, even though I had something to say. So, here we are, today I’ll share my thoughts on 1) one of the most celebrated films of the decade thus far, 2) Gia Coppola’s Pamela Anderson-vehicle, 3) Jeff Nichols’ film about biker culture, 4) Daniel Craig’s first performance in a Luca Guadagnino film, and 5) a sequel to one of the most popular video game adaptations. Do note that if you are so kind that you also follow me on Letterboxd, then you may have seen some of these bite-sized reviews over there already. Let’s get to it!

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Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025) | REVIEW

Daniel Craig and Josh O’Connor in Rian Johnson’s WAKE UP DEAD MAN — PHOTO: NETFLIX (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Rian Johnson — Screenplay by Rian Johnson.

Rian Johnson, the renowned writer-director behind films like Looper and Star Wars: The Last Jedi, has successfully made himself synonymous with the whodunnit mystery genre in recent years with his Knives Out films centered around Benoit Blanc, the heavily accented detective character, which has helped Daniel Craig reinvent his career following his James Bond exit. These are films that have become highly celebrated for their distinctive detective, their star-studded casts, and the way they merge comedy, modern inventiveness, and a genre affinity to form films that are always a highlight of the year in which they are released. This was the case with both Knives Out and Glass Onion, and it is certainly also the case with Wake Up Dead Man, which, arguably, features the best protagonist performance that we’ve seen in any of these films.

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Wicked: For Good (2025) | REVIEW

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande-Butera in WICKED: FOR GOOD — PHOTO: UNIVERSAL PICTURES (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Jon M. Chu — Screenplay by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox.

The wait is over for musical theater fans all over the world. The long-awaited sequel to 2024’s Wicked, both based on the musical theater show of the same name, has hit theaters and is already one of the biggest hits of the year. Still directed by In the Heights director Jon M. Chu, Wicked: For Good is an adaptation of the second half of the aforementioned musical theater show and is thus one of the decade’s key part two films. The sequel follows the wrongly villainized Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba (played by Cynthia Erivo), known for her green skin and her magical powers, some time after the events of the first film, which culminated in an instantly iconic performance of “Defying Gravity,” as Elphaba escaped the Emerald City and left her best friend, Galinda ‘Glinda’ Upland (played by Ariana Grande-Butera), to become ‘Glinda the Good,’ a pinkly-dressed faux-witch and key representative of the Wizard of Oz (played by Jeffrey Goldblum) and his empire. The film sees our main duo step into their roles as opposing forces, hoping for reconciliation and a better future for Oz, with Elphaba being particularly focused on improving the rights of animals and anyone else who may lose their ability to speak up as a result of the Wizard’s regime. 

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Train Dreams (2025) | REVIEW

Felicity Jones and Joel Edgerton in TRAIN DREAMS — PHOTO: NETFLIX (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Clint Bentley — Screenplay by Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar.

Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams is a gripping character drama, based on Denis Johnson’s 2011 novella of the same name, that chronicles the life of a man named Robert Grainier (played by Joel Edgerton), a quiet and humble railroad construction worker and lumberjack. Among other things, over the course of the film, we witness him get to know others like him, fall in love, face heartbreaking loss, and experience some mysterious events in the woods of America. 

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IFSCA’s Best Films of the Century, thus far list (2025) | SPECIAL FEATURE

In early October of this year, the International Film Society Critics Association (IFSCA), of which I am a voting member, released its list of the 100 best films of the century thus far. I had taken part in the voting, got the opportunity to write a few review-type blurbs for certain films, and I was really delighted to be able to take part in this process. Today, both for posterity’s sake (meaning for the purpose of preserving and presenting my writing for my site’s readers) and to widen the list’s reach, I want to share my very brief review blurbs for the films that I was selected to comment on, release my 10 film ballot, and navigate you to the list home over on the IFSCA WordPress site. Let’s get to it.

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The Running Man (2025) | REVIEW

Glen Powell (as Ben Richards) in disguise in THE RUNNING MAN — PHOTO: Paramount Pictures (still image from trailers).

Directed by Edgar Wright — Screenplay by Michael Bacall and Edgar Wright.

The British writer-director Edgar Wright has a fairly significant fanbase, and I think of myself as part of that fanbase. Ever since he burst onto the scene with his second feature, Shaun of the Dead, the first film in his Cornetto trilogy, Wright has been widely praised for his distinctive brand of comedy and his distinctive visual inventiveness that has seen his film stand out for their comedically fast and/or precise editing or the way the films sometimes are paired extraordinarily well with music, with Baby Driver being his best example of that. His latest effort as a director is an adaptation of Stephen King’s sci-fi novel (written under a pseudonym), The Running Man, which was previously adapted into an Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi action vehicle (despite being a product of its time, it does have its moments, as well as a very good performance from Richard Dawson). It is a story that I can totally understand why it is being put on the big screen again, because that Schwarzenegger flick can be improved upon. Does Wright succeed with that challenge? Well, I’d say that he mostly does, but not by as much as I imagined he would. This is not as smooth a film as the ones Wright has become known for. 

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Frankenstein (2025) | REVIEW

Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein in Guillermo Del Toro’s FRANKENSTEIN — PHOTO: NETFLIX (Still image from the trailers).

Directed by Guillermo Del Toro — Screenplay by Guillermo Del Toro.

There are literally hundreds of films either directly based on or partially inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, so the story of Victor Frankenstein (and his creature, or monster, that is often wrongly referred to as just ‘Frankenstein’) is one that audiences of most ages know quite well either through having seen films based on the story or through references in pop culture that, with stories as familiar as this one, tend to fasten in your audiovisual language through a process of cultural osmosis. One auteur, however, hopes that his passion project can add something new to the storied legacy of the character, and now Netflix has given that opportunity to that auteur. I am, of course, referring to Guillermo Del Toro, the Oscar-winning filmmaker with a known love for classic monsters, creature effects, and both horror, fairy tale, and gothic storytelling. It should be a match made in heaven, and, frankly, I do think the wait for Del Toro’s take on Frankenstein, his 13th feature film as a director, was worth the wait. 

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