November 2025 [24-30]
Rental Family, Wicked: For Good, Absurdistan, Wiseblood, Train Dreams, Caught Stealing
- Rental Family [2025] - 79
Rental Family is one of those movies that’s difficult to criticize because, it does what it sets out to do… It’s just that what it sets out to do could be so much better. It’s plenty sweet and it’s vaguely introspective, but it mostly fails to dig its nails any further than your most fragile layer of skin. This is one of those movies that I’d love to see with a different team to see if it holds up outside the exact context in which it’s been presented because, the entirety of the experience is carried by both Brendan Fraser’s incredibly touching demeanor and the film’s absolutely stunning score by Jon Thor Birgisson and Alex Somers while every-one and every-thing else just kind of fades into the background. This is well and good, except the story insists on including too many undeveloped pieces of undeveloped characters that mostly just get in the way of of a more focused and meaningful plot hiding beneath it all. Certainly not a film to avoid by any means, it’s just one that should have hurt much more than it did.
- Wicked: For Good [2025] - 79
I wrote a full review for this one so, there isn’t a ton to say here except to quickly summarize that Wicked: For Good was never going to be as strong as its part 1, but it didn’t need to be as weak or underdeveloped as it turned out to be. It’s still good enough to be worth watching if you’re a fan, but if you aren’t already in love with the setting, there really isn’t much here for you and you’re likely better off imagining what happens next instead of spending 2+ hours watching this 3/4-baked conclusion.
- Absurdistan [2008] - 23
2008’s Absurdistan, however, is not worth watching no matter how big a fan of sand, stupidity, extremely boring “comedy”, or water pipes you are. It’s difficult to come up with a ton of things to say about this movie except that I truly don’t know why I finished it. Just stay away from this one, it has absolutely nothing of value to offer.
- Wiseblood [1979] - DNF
Two real stinkers in a row here. With my patience having already been tried this week with Absurdistan above, Wiseblood’s constant screaming about how our main character isn’t a preacher and doesn’t believe in anything got mad old, mad fast. I made it about 45-minutes into this meaningless slog before I started skipping around to try and see if anything ever happens or anyone ever matters and, from what I could tell after spending another 10-or-so minutes hopelessly looking for plot… No thing and no one ever does. Like Absurdistan, this movie is well received critically… But the longer I spend around the internet, the less I think those clowns know what they’re talking about.
It’s a good thing you all have me.
- Train Dreams [2025] - 93
Saving us from the idiot brigade is Sing Sing crew, Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar, as they come hot out the gate with their next film, Train Dreams, adapted from a novella by Denis Johnson of the same name. An amazingly sensitive, soft, and mesmerizing tale of life, love, and loneliness, Train Dreams is a film that might not connect with everyone because of its patient pacing, but will deeply reward those who are in for a message that matters. Reminding me of a strange amalgamation of Big Fish and You Won’t Be Alone, Joel Edgerton positively shines as a logger making a living the only way he knows how, in a world that doesn’t care whether he wakes up the next day or disappears into the woods forever. This marks two films by these creators that are likely to land in my top 20 of the year and I absolutely cannot wait to be hurt by them in all new ways with whatever they do next.
- Caught Stealing [2025] - 90
Another adaption to round out my week here, Caught Stealing is the latest monster by Darren Aronofsky, and marks another impressive creation from a director I continue to hold in extremely high regard. Written by the author of the novel from which it’s adapted, Charlie Huston, Caught Stealing is the modern crime-thriller that Guy Ritchie wishes he made. It’s fast, it’s fun, it’s twisty, and it never stops being an absolute zinger of a good time, making its 107-minute runtime feel at once incredibly dense and breathlessly breezy. The term “thrill ride” is sort of tossed around in marquees for films like this but uh… That’s really what this one is, and I just cannot get enough of what Aronofsky has to offer or the stunning performances he squeezes out of his casts. This is the rare film that’s going to please the biggest critic you know, while also keeping even the most casual of watchers more than entertained for its entire duration.
