Blue Moon (2025)

IMDb plot summary: Tells the story of Lorenz Hart's struggles with alcoholism and mental health as he tries to save face during the opening of "Oklahoma!".

Directed by Richard Linklater. Stars Ethan Hawke, Bobby Cannavale, and Andrew Scott.

Blue Moon is a Richard Linklater film starring Ethan Hawke as Lorenz Hart, of Rodgers & Hart, trying to reunite with his former songwriting partner on the opening night of Oklahoma!, Rodgers' successful pairing with a new lyricist. The film takes place in real time over the course of the opening night party. I have always really loved when Linklater goes small and intimate in his stories and evokes a more black-box-theater style, and this is absolutely that. It harkens back to what I loved about Before Sunrise, where we really just got to watch these two characters, one also played by Ethan Hawke there, interact with each other. The dialogue here is snappy and funny and smart and worth listening to, even if it didn't have the underlying character development going through it. Hart is a fascinating character here, and Hawke does an amazing job playing him, really bringing out the character's desperation, and how frequently he tries to cover it up with scores of clever words. I also want to shout out the supporting cast. Andrew Scott, as Richard Rodgers, is an incredible job here and is a wonderful foil for Hawke as Hart. Margaret Qualley is fast becoming one of my favorite actresses, and she is also excellent here as Hart's supposed love interest. If you have any connections in your heart to theater, especially musical theater, this is absolutely a must-watch. There is not only so much going on narratively in the story that is theater-adjacent -- including some lovely little Easter eggs that made me chuckle -- but it also has a theatrical feel in its execution, which I love. The longer that it sits with me, the more I like it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Blue Moon (2025)

📊 Ranked #294/4185 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 93

beat Blackadder: Back & Forth (#2099 → #2100)

beat Robin Hood (#1039 → #1040)

beat All Quiet on the Western Front (#517 → #518)

lost to Chicken Run (held at #258)

beat 25th Hour (#387 → #388)

beat The Virgin Spring (#322 → #323)

lost to Equus (held at #290)

beat Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (#306 → #307)

beat Fatal Attraction (#298 → #299)

beat Deathtrap (#294 → #295)

lost to Two Lovers and a Bear (held at #292)

lost to Midsommar (held at #293)

Unsung Hero (2024)

IMDb plot summary: A mother's faith stands against all odds and inspires her husband and children to hold onto theirs. Based on a remarkable true story.

Directed by Richard L. Ramsey and Joel David Smallbone. Stars Daisy Betts, Joel David Smallbone, and Kirrilee Berger.

Unsung Hero tells the true story of David and Helen Smallbone, who move from Australia to Nashville in an attempt to get David's music producing career back on track. They are met with an enormous amount of obstacles, and the "unsung hero" of the title is Helen, who holds the family together as David struggles with his career and the emotional toll this all takes on him. I have a pretty low expectation for faith-based films, but this one is not bad. It's definitely a little cheesy, but it does a pretty good job of having a decent baseline quality level. It's interesting to me that this is framed in marketing as the story of the artists of Rebecca St. James and the artists behind the band For King and Country, because that's barely part of the story -- For King and Country isn't even mentioned until the epilogue. It does feel very much like just a group of kids wanting to honor their parents by telling their stories. But that gets a little murky. I appreciate that it doesn't have an obviously didactic message the way that so many faith-based films do, but I wish that it was a little bit clearer in what it WAS trying to say, because where it does feel didactic, it feels unclearly so.  It seems like trying to teach a message both about the need for humility and the need for ambition, and how somehow this husband is failing at both at once, and that doesn't quite work. I think it does a good job of building the relationship with the family. As somebody who grew up in a large family and not a lot of money, I really appreciate the thoughtfulness put into that. It's not a bad movie if you like this kind of story, or if you're at all curious about the families of some of the big CCM names, but for me it sits along the lines of other mid-level inspirational stories. A step up for a lot of Christian films, but still not something that I want to watch again.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Unsung Hero (2024)

📊 Ranked #2530/4184 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 40

lost to Cypher (held at #2101)

beat Le Cercle Rouge (#3146 → #3147)

beat The Man Who Knew Too Much (#2627 → #2628)

lost to The Blues Brothers (held at #2363)

lost to King Richard (held at #2495)

beat Dhamaal (#2561 → #2562)

lost to Rushmore (held at #2527)

beat The Vagabond King (#2545 → #2546)

beat The Hangover (#2535 → #2536)

beat Shame (#2531 → #2532)

lost to Stagecoach (held at #2529)

beat Elevator to the Gallows (#2530 → #2531)

A Complete Unknown (2024)

IMDb plot summary: In 1961, an unknown 19-year-old Bob Dylan arrives in New York City with his guitar and forges relationships with musical icons on his meteoric rise, culminating in a groundbreaking performance that reverberates around the world.

Directed by James Mangold. Stars Timothée Chalamet, Edward Norton, and Elle Fanning.

A Complete Unknown is a musical biopic of Bob Dylan, starring Timothee Chalamet. We follow his early days trying to make it big, as well as the fallout from his attempts to branch out from his folk music roots. I just wrote a review of the Christopher Reeve documentary, which kept a tight narrative focus throughout his life. This is the complete opposite -- the story tackles a much shorter period of time in Dylan's life but somehow lacks any throughline aside from maybe "Bob Dylan is an obnoxious person," which I suspect was not the story they were trying to tell. I do think that it's trying to get us to see him as this sort of a rebel figure, but it's not successful. It feels like a series of disconnected stories that don't add up to a picture of the artist that is interesting or compelling or feels worth telling. I will say Timothee Chalamet is really excellent in this. He fully disappears into the role. Totally forgot that I was watching a known actor. He just embodies the character, which is really impressive. And of course, we also have some really excellent music. I love how much time it spends listening to a lot of these great folk songs, and not just performed by Dylan, but we also get a lot from Baez and a lot from Seeger. (Edward Norton as Pete Seger is also really excellent. I haven't seen him do anything this good in a long time.) So the music is good, but I'm just not compelled by the story enough to be swayed by it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 A Complete Unknown (2024)

📊 Ranked #2523/4183 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 40

lost to Blackmail Is My Life (held at #2100)

beat Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (#3144 → #3145)

beat The Man Who Knew Too Much (#2626 → #2627)

lost to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (held at #2362)

lost to All the Money in the World (held at #2494)

beat Dhamaal (#2560 → #2561)

beat Rushmore (#2526 → #2527)

lost to Stage Fright (held at #2510)

lost to The Savages (held at #2518)

lost to Hanna (held at #2522)

beat Videodrome (#2524 → #2525)

beat Only You (#2523 → #2524)

Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (2024)

IMDb plot summary: Reeve's rise to becoming a film star follows with a near-fatal horse-riding accident in 1995 that left him paralyzed from the neck down. After the accident, he became an activist for spinal cord injury treatments and disability rights.

Directed by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui.

Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story is a documentary about Christopher Reeve's life, focusing particular on his rise to fame as Superman and his activism efforts after an accident that left him paralyzed. The fact that Reeve's story really only has two widely-known pieces -- his work as Superman and his disability/activism -- makes this a cleaner documentary work than many films trying to capture a full human being. I also found it fascinating how even though it primarily used interviews from very close friends and family, it didn't idolize him as someone larger than life, so much as just a regular guy who liked to act and then wanted to live a better life. It did make me want to hunt down some of his lesser-known films and learn a bit more about him as an actor before his accident, which I suppose is one of the purposes of the film. Overall it does feel like I came out of it having learned a lot about Reeve but without necessarily feeling much about him, which feels like a missed note.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (2024)

📊 Ranked #2227/4182 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 47

lost to Raising Arizona (held at #2097)

beat The Big House (#3141 → #3142)

beat Tab Hunter Confidential (#2621 → #2622)

beat Skyfall (#2359 → #2360)

lost to The Three Faces of Eve (held at #2226)

beat The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (#2291 → #2292)

beat Dallas Buyers Club (#2259 → #2260)

beat Hamlet (#2243 → #2244)

beat The Lodger (#2235 → #2236)

beat King of Jazz (#2231 → #2232)

beat Cry-Baby (#2229 → #2230)

beat Annie Get Your Gun (#2227 → #2228)

The Lobster (2015)

IMDb plot summary: In a dystopian near future, according to the laws of The City, single people are taken to The Hotel, where they are obliged to find a romantic partner in 45 days or they're transformed into beasts and sent off into The Woods.

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. Stars Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, and Jessica Barden.

The Lobster is a Yorgos Lanthimos dark comedy that stars Colin Farrell as a man who signs up to go to a hotel in which he has limited amount of time to find a romantic partner, or else he will be turned into an animal of his choice. As one might guess from the title, he chooses a lobster. As the time ticks by and he has no prospects in sight, he starts trying to figure out what he will actually be willing to do to get a partner and avoid that fate. As with so many Lanthimos films, this plays out in a very unusual way, so I'm not going to spoil it much beyond what I've actually said. I have learned that Yorgos might be my favorite modern director. While this doesn't rise quite to the level of enjoyment that I got out of Poor Things or Kinds of Kindness, I did find it fascinating, and I laughed out loud a lot. It's got a truly wonderful mix of dark comedy alongside its horrific story. I also found the ending and its ambiguity very engaging. It kept me thinking about what the story was trying to say about relationships, and I like that it doesn't give an obvious answer. Not my favorite of this director's films, but it's one that I think will continue to sit with me and I appreciate it.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 The Lobster (2015)

📊 Ranked #1059/4181 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 75

beat The Sasquatch Gang (#2097 → #2098)

lost to The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall (held at #1038)

beat Sweet Smell of Success (#1562 → #1563)

beat After Yang (#1301 → #1302)

beat CBGB (#1168 → #1169)

beat Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (#1103 → #1104)

beat Crazy Rich Asians (#1070 → #1071)

lost to The Voices (held at #1054)

beat In the Name of the Father (#1062 → #1063)

lost to The Quick and the Dead (held at #1058)

beat My Life as a Dog (#1060 → #1061)

beat Repo Man (#1059 → #1060)

The Penguin Lessons (2024)

IMDb plot summary: A disillusioned Englishman who goes to work in a school in a divided Argentina in 1976 finds his life transformed when he rescues an orphaned penguin from the beach.

Directed by Peter Cattaneo. Stars Steve Coogan, Jonathan Pryce, and Bruno Blas.

The Penguin Lessons stars Steve Coogan as an English teacher during a time of political upheaval in Argentina in the 1970s. He is determined to stay out of it and not endanger himself or put himself on the line for any of what's going on, but his perspective changes when he ends up unintentionally adopting a penguin. This is the kind of film that I will admit is very unlikely to work for me. I do not tend to be moved by stories of people being pulled out of apathy by either pets or small children. There are just very few ways that I have ever seen that play out that feels compelling to me. This one doesn't quite work either. I admire the story trying to be told, and it is apparently based on a true story to some extent, but it's one of those stories that it is almost impossible to tell well for me. Once you introduce a cute animal into the mix, it just feels perpetually sappy -- and I fully admit this is a problem with me more so than with the movie, but it means that I'm not the right person to evaluate whether or not this film is actually good because all it does is make me kind of sigh and roll my eyes. If you have a similar reaction to stories in that vein, you probably won't love this either.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 The Penguin Lessons (2025)

📊 Ranked #2547/4180 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 39

lost to Cypher (held at #2100)

beat Le Cercle Rouge (#3142 → #3143)

beat Jimmy the Kid (#2625 → #2626)

lost to The Blues Brothers (held at #2361)

lost to King Richard (held at #2493)

beat A Bridge Too Far (#2559 → #2560)

lost to The Mistress of Spices (held at #2525)

lost to Melinda and Melinda (held at #2543)

beat Ice Princess (#2551 → #2552)

beat The Asphalt Jungle (#2547 → #2548)

lost to Son of Rambow (held at #2545)

lost to I'm Not Rappaport (held at #2546)

The Old Guard (2020)

IMDb plot summary: A covert group of tight-knit mercenaries with an inability to die have fought to protect the world for centuries. But when their abilities are suddenly exposed, they need to eliminate the threat of those who seek to replicate their power.

Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. Stars Charlize Theron, KiKi Layne, and Matthias Schoenaerts.

The Old Guard is a fantasy sci-fi action movie starring Charlize Theron as the leader of a group of immortal beings who go around saving people's lives while also being on the run from those who want to hunt them down. Things get even more complicated when they discover another immortal who doesn't know what she is yet. What an odd movie this is. It has all the hallmarks of a very trope-filled young adult novel, but this is clearly for adults. That's not necessarily a complaint, just something that makes the movie unique. The lore behind the characters is significantly more interesting than watching them engage in actual battle with the government agents, and it was irritating how obviously it was set up for a sequel at the end. Have the courage to end your movie, please. But if you wanted to watch a YA story featuring adult characters, this is absolutely what that is, and it's a decent ride.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 The Old Guard (2020)

📊 Ranked #2460/4179 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 41

lost to Blackmail Is My Life (held at #2099)

beat Le Cercle Rouge (#3141 → #3142)

beat Jimmy the Kid (#2624 → #2625)

lost to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (held at #2360)

beat King Richard (#2492 → #2493)

lost to Hellboy (held at #2427)

lost to Wreck-It Ralph (held at #2459)

beat Smokin' Aces (#2475 → #2476)

beat The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (#2467 → #2468)

beat Broken Embraces (#2463 → #2464)

beat Pitch Perfect 2 (#2461 → #2462)

beat Home Again (#2460 → #2461)