Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (2025)

Fans of the TV series, as I am, will enjoy this sentimental franchise finish, taking place in 1930, for its familiar cast and beautiful production values, as I did. Almost all of the ensemble is back, including Michelle Dockery, Laura Carmichael, Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, and Paul Giamatti in the family, and Jim Carter, Brendan Coyle, Joanne Froggatt, Lesley Nicol, Sophie McShera as servants, and many more. A few new actors appear as well. The movie is dedicated to Maggie Smith, who died a year and a half ago at 89.

Director Simon Curtis again takes the helm from the script by series creator/writer Julian Fellowes. The original score by John Lunn is available on Apple Music. There are some fun scenes with Arty Froushan as Noel Coward. The credits say that the singing voice is actually Coward's. And the luscious cinematography, production design, and wardrobe add to the experience, thanks to Ben Smithard, Donal Woods, and Anna Robbins, respectively.

Dockery was last blogged for The Sense of an Ending, Carmichael for A United Kingdom, Bonneville for Viceroy's House, McGovern for Kick-Ass, Giamatti for The Holdovers, Carter for The Good Liar, Coyle for Mary Queen of Scots, McShera for Cinderella, Curtis for Goodbye Christopher Robin, and Fellowes, Lunn, Smithard, Woods, and Robbins for the 2019 movie Downton Abbey. Froggatt and Nicol have no other mentions in these pages besides the cast list in the 2019 version and Froushan is new to me. Full disclosure, there was a Downton Abbey movie in 2022 that I did not see, but I did watch all 52 episodes on PBS' Masterpiece Theatre.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are down with this movie, averaging 91 and 95%, respectively. I streamed it on a plane on March 27 and it is currently available on Netflix.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die (2025)

This unhinged science fiction comedy had us scratching our heads a little–Jack said it’s destined to become a cult classic–but we kept at it. Sam Rockwell's character, a suicide bomber claiming to be from the future, appears in a Los Angeles diner in order to draft the customers on a mission. Rockwell is a terrific actor, as is the supporting cast, which includes Haley Lu Richardson, Zazie Beetz, Michael Peña, and Juno Temple.

Directed by Gore Verbinski from Matthew Robinson's script, it probably isn't meant for our boomer demographic, but that seldom stops us. I am enjoying Geoff Zanelli's soundtrack on Apple Music, including a snappy title track, as I type.

Rockwell was last blogged for See How They Run, Richardson for Love at First Sight, Beetz (we loved her in 30 episodes of Atlanta and other TV) for Nine Days, Peña for Ant-Man and the Wasp, Temple for Roofman (and 34 episodes of Ted Lasso), Verbinski for The Lone Ranger, and Zanelli for House of D, a 2004 release we watched in 2020 on our very last Netflix hard copy DVD (he has scored dozens of projects since then). This is Robinson's fifth produced feature screenplay.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are having a bit of fun with this, averaging 81 and 85%. Overcome by our very, very long list of movies, we went off-list on April 17 from a Apple TV recommendation and rented it on April 17.

F1: The Movie (2025)

Jack and I found this story of a race car driver coming out of retirement entertaining but not, in our opinion, a Best Picture, though nominated by the Academy. Plenty of star power leads the glossy action picture, with Brad Pitt in the lead and support coming from Javier Bardem, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, and Tobias Menzies, among many.

Director Joseph Kosinski keeps it moving, though not fast enough, because it's just over two and a half hours long, from the script by Ehren Kruger. The prolific composer Hans Zimmer's exciting original score can be streamed on Apple Music, and that platform also has an album of fun songs.

Shout out to cinematographer Claudio Miranda. The first five of the many trivia items on imdb are fascinating (I didn't go further), some of which go into special photography techniques.

The movie's 31 wins include the Oscar for Best Sound and its 129 other nominations include Oscars for Best Picture, Visual Effects, and Editing, plus Miranda's nomination by his peers in the American Society of Cinematographers.

Pitt was last blogged for Babylon, Bardem for The Good Boss, Condon for Train Dreams, Menzies for You Hurt My Feelings, Kosinski, Kruger, and Zimmer for Top Gun: Maverick, and Miranda for Nyad. This is Idris's seventh feature but he is new to me.

33 producers lands this a spot on my Producers Plethora Prize list, though the current winner is Ferrari, coincidentally also about car racing, at 53.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are easing up at 82% but its audiences are full throttle at 97% approval. Jack watched it a week or two before I did on March 13 on Apple TV.

Frankenstein (2025)

I did see almost all of the Oscar nominees before the awards but have lagged in putting fingers to keyboard. That said, Jack and I were impressed with this powerful and technically complex story of the scientist and the creature he brings to life. Jacob Elordi was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor for playing The Creature, with terrific performances by Oscar Isaac as the scientist Victor Frankenstein, Christoph Waltz as a merchant named Harlander, and Mia Goth in dual roles as Frankenstein's mother and Harlander's niece.

Guillermo del Toro directs from the script he adapted from the original 1818 Mary Shelley novel and was Oscar-nominated for Adapted Screenplay. Wikipedia says that since 1915 there are 480 feature films, 243 short films, 103 TV series, and 413 TV episodes based on that book.

Streaming Alexandre Desplat's Oscar nominated original score on Apple Music is bringing back the mood, since we watched this over seven weeks ago.

Among the movie's overall 89 wins are the Best Makeup Oscar by Mike Hill (there were frequently ten-hour makeup sessions for Elordi), the Production Design Oscar by Tamara Deverell, and the Costume Design Oscar by Kate Hawley. Its 260 other nominations, besides the three named above, include Oscars for Best Picture, Best Cinematography by Dan Lausten, and sound.

I did make a note at the time about realistic wolf puppets. Watch for them! Imdb has a long list of trivia items for those with the time and fascination to read it.

Elordi was last blogged for Priscilla, Isaac for Dune, Waltz for Downsizing, Goth for Emma., Del Toro and Deverell for Nightmare Alley, Desplat for The Piano Lesson, and Lausten for The Color Purple

Both Hill and Hawley have won their first Oscars for this and are making their first appearance in these pages. Hill has done makeup and prosthetics for del Toro's pictures at least twice before, on The Shape of Water and Nightmare Alley. Hawley's nine other features include The Edge of Tomorrow.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics, with an 85% average, aren't quite as animated as their audience's 94. We streamed it on Netflix on March 10.

Blue Moon (2025)

As a lifelong fan of Rodgers and Hart's music (see below), I was predisposed to like this story of lyricist Lorenz Hart on one of the last nights of his life. Jack and I both did. Ethan Hawke was Oscar-nominated for playing Hart and is ably supported by Margaret Qualley as his young friend Elizabeth Weiland, Bobby Cannavale as the bartender, and Andrew Scott as Richard Rodgers.

Richard Linklater directs from the script by Robert Kaplow, who was in turn inspired by the letters of Hart and Weiland. The sparkling dialogue is worth the price of admission (your Netflix subscription and a scant hour and 40 minutes). If you know any of Hart's lyrics, you will understand why the dialogue had to be clever to make it believable. The movie takes place on March 31, 1943--the opening night of the Broadway musical Oklahoma, which Hart's former partner Rodgers composed with his new lyricist Oscar Hammerstein.

Graham Reynolds' score on Apple Music includes many piano solos of Hart's tunes. To elaborate on my fandom, I have in my possession two hardcover Rodgers and Hart songbooks. The first was given to me when I was in elementary school so I could play the chords and sing along to songs from our family's oft-played album Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers and Hart Songbook. The second was in my stepmother's belongings when she died in 1979, and is autographed by Rodgers. You, too, can buy one from this link, with a dust cover that I don't remember ever having.

The movie earned 17 wins and 74 other nominations, including the two above. You'll notice that Hawke remains seated throughout most of the movie. That's because Hart was "barely five feet tall."

Hawke was last blogged for Raymond & Ray, Qualley for The Substance, Cannavale for Ezra, Scott for Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, Linklater for Nouvelle Vague, and Reynolds for Hit Man. I briefly mentioned Kaplow for the source material for Me and Orson Welles, his only other imdb credit.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are full with an 89% average, while its critics are waning slightly at 76. We streamed it on Netflix on March 11.

Song Sung Blue (2025)

Yes, there are some sad and dramatic parts, but overall this is a feel good movie about a real life Neil Diamond impersonator and his partner. Jack and I liked it a lot. Kate Hudson earned seven of the movie's 13 nominations as Claire AKA Thunder (including a Best Actress Oscar nod). Of course Hugh Jackman as Mike AKA Lightning is fabulous. And Michael Imperioli as a Buddy Holly impersonator and Mustafa Shakir as a James Brown one are wonderful as well. Ella Anderson plays Claire's daughter Rachel and King Princess is Mike's daughter Angelina.

Craig Brewer directs and wrote the script based on Greg Kohs' 2008 documentary of the same name. Brewer apparently took poetic license and there are a number of inaccuracies. But this one is not a documentary.

Scott Bomar is credited as the composer, however, the Apple Music soundtrack is almost all covers of songs by Diamond and others, played and/or sung by the cast.

Hudson was last blogged for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Jackman for Deadpool & Wolverine, Anderson for The Glass Castle, and Brewer and Bomar for Dolemite Is My Name. Best known for 86 episodes of The Sopranos (1999-2007), Imperioli has a long resumé, including eleven episodes of Californication (2014), seven of The White Lotus (2022), and the movie One Night in Miami..., though I didn't mention him in these pages. Shakir is new to me. I liked Princess in her eight episodes of Nine Perfect Strangers (2025) and Kohs has made four more feature documentaries since his Song Sung Blue.

Rotten Tomatoes aren't quite feeling cherry with a 77% average, but its audiences are so good, so good, so good at 97. We rented it on March 16 and now it's also available on Peacock.

Marty Supreme (2025)

Despite its 2:29 length, Jack and I enjoyed this story of an unlikeable young man in 1950s New York with aspirations of fame and fortune as a ping pong player. Timothée Chalamet earned an Oscar nomination as the title character and is supported by a cast of nearly 200, including Odessa A'zion as his love interest and Gwyneth Paltrow as a Broadway star. This article lists some of the many cameos (Isaac Mizrahi, Fran Drescher, Sandra Bernhard), some of whom you may spot and others, perhaps not. 

Josh Safdie makes his debut as a solo director after co-directing six features with his brother Benny. Josh co-wrote the script with their frequent collaborator Ronald Bronstein, loosely basing it on Marty Reisman's 1974 memoir The Money Player: The Confessions of America's Greatest Table Tennis Champion and Hustler.

I'm streaming the original score by Daniel Lopatin on Apple Music, but what I jotted down while watching was that the movie featured a lot of 1980s hits, listed here, despite it being set about thirty years earlier.

Nominated for nine Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Directing, Best Cinematography (Darius Khondji), and Best Production Design (Jack Fisk), it didn't win any. In all, it received 44 wins and 287 other nominations. Imdb lists many interesting trivia items, too.

Chalamet was last blogged for A Complete Unknown, Paltrow for She Said, Safdie, Bronstein, and Lopatin for Uncut Gems, Khondji for Bardo (he also shot Uncut Gems), and Fisk for Killers of the Flower Moon. A'zion has been in fifteen other features and more, but I know her from eight episodes of the 2025 series I Love LA.

We rented it on March 6 and that's still the only way to stream it. Rotten Tomatoes' critics reign supreme with a 93% average while its audiences are following the bouncing ball at 82.