Train Dreams (2025)

Jack and I really liked this Best Picture Oscar nominee about a Washington state logger at different phases of his early 20th century life. Joel Edgerton plays the taciturn Robert and Felicity Jones his sweet love interest Gladys. William H. Macy has a nice supporting role as Arn and Kerry Condon makes an appearance in the third act as Claire. When I added this movie to my list of ones to watch, I noted that a reviewer said "luminous," and they weren't wrong.

Clint Bentley directs from the Oscar- and Writers Guild-nominated script written by him and Greg Kwedar, based on a 2011 novella by Denis Johnson. The score, ranging from ethereal to lively, by Bryce Dessner can be streamed on Apple Music.

Director of photography Adolpho Veloso is also nominated for an Oscar, among his 34 nominations (including his peers in the American Society of Cinematographers) and nine wins for this picture alone.

In all, the movie so far has 29 wins and 173 nominations. It was shot on location in Washington. One fascinating trivia item is that many of the felled trees were actually props aided with visual effects, so few trees were harmed in the making of this picture.

Edgerton was last blogged for Boy Erased, Jones for Oh. What. Fun., Macy for Room (in the middle of 134 episodes of Shameless), Condon for The Banshees of Inisherin, and Bentley and Kwedar for co-writing Sing Sing and Dessner for scoring it. Bentley directed one other feature which was co-written by him and Kwedar and shot by Veloso. The latter has over two dozen credits but is new to me.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are wide awake with averages of 94 and 91%, respectively. We watched it on Netflix on January 22.

Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩 - Zuopiezi nuhai - 2025)

I liked this sweet story of the titular five year old I-Jing, her 18 year old sister I-Ann, and their single mother Shu-Fen struggling to make ends meet at Taipei, Taiwan's night market. The character plot lines of this ensemble movie intertwine throughout. Nina Ye plays I-Jing, Shih-Yuan Ma is I-Ann, and Janet Tsai is Shu-Fen.

The title comes from I-Jing's grandfather's belief that left hands are evil, which happened in real life to director/co-writer Shih-Ching Tsou. Sean Baker co-wrote the script with her. No composer worked on it. Instead, I counted 29 songs in the credits.

This movie was shot entirely on an iPhone (as was Baker's Tangerine) in 2022. It has, as of now, 14 wins and 28 other nominations

Baker was last blogged for writing (and directing and editing) Anora. Ye, who was six when this was shot, has 19 credits so far, Ma has one other, and Tsai has over three dozen. This is Tsou's solo directorial debut, after co-directing and co-writing one feature with Baker, and she acted as producer on another four of his features.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are right about this one with a 98% average, and its audiences are holding down one finger at 84. I downloaded it from Netflix and watched it with subtitles on an airplane on January 16.

One Battle After Another (2025)

Jack and I liked this way-too-long (161 minutes) but very entertaining story of American leftist activists clashing with "the man." Four acting Oscar nominations went to Leonardo DiCaprio as Pat, Teyana Taylor as Perfidia, Benicio Del Toro as Sensei Sergio, and Sean Penn as Lockjaw (he's so good as a villain). The names Perfidia and Lockjaw do make me chuckle. The enormous cast also includes Chase Infiniti and Regina Hall in a part written just for her.

Three more Oscar nominations went to Paul Thomas Anderson: Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay, loosely based on Thomas Pynchon's 1990 novel Vineland. 

Jonny Greenwood got a nod for composing the original score, streamable on Apple Music. Here's a list of 

songs in the movie. And Michael Bauman is nominated for cinematography here.

The other five Oscar nominations are for casting, sound, production design, and editing. And you should know that, as of this posting, the movie has 204 wins and 424 other nominations. This long list of trivia is fascinating if you're so inclined.

DiCaprio was last blogged for Killers of the Flower Moon, Penn, Anderson, and Greenwood for Licorice Pizza, Del Toro for The French Dispatch, Taylor for A Thousand and One, and Hall for Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. Bauman shot Licorice Pizza but I failed to mention him in that post. Pynchon's novel Inherent Vice was also adapted by Anderson into a 2014 movie of the same name.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics aren't ready for a truce with a 94% average, while its audiences are pretty feisty at 85. We streamed it on January 6 on HBO with our subscription. You can also watch it on big screens in many locations or rent it.

The Wizard of Oz (1939) at The Sphere (2026) in Las Vegas

We loved this experience! Of course Jack and I have seen the original many times--he more than I. He said that, unlike so many things, this actually lives up to the hype. The production is computer enhanced to take advantage of the 270° screen: over our heads and around both sides. Google told us the best section was in the 300s so that's where we sat. 

As we took our seats (no late seating allowed) we heard a recording of an orchestra warming up. The show starts, as the original does, with a rectangle in front of us containing Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion roaring instead of the MGM lion. And then we all gasped as the viewing area opened up.

The seats shake from time to time and little things drop onto  the audience but I think I'll let you be surprised what and when.

Beautiful closeups of Judy Garland as Dorothy, Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow, and Jack Haley as the Tin Man, as well as scary ones of the dreadful Wicked Witch (Margaret Hamilton). Trivia is that actor Buddy Ebsen was cast as the Tin Man but had to drop out because he was allergic to the silver makeup.

The opening has a dedication written at the movie's release, referring to the book's publication in 1900 ("For nearly forty years..."). Here's a photo I took from my seat, which doesn't do justice to the extreme wide angle of the screen.

The closing credits take up lots of space when the computer acknowledgements begin. Here's some other credit-related trivia from the original movie.

Be aware that it has been edited. The Sphere show is one hour and fifteen minutes long, whereas the original movie is 1:41, so some of our favorite bits are not included. Still totally worth it, even if, like us, you're not a Vegas person. We saw it on January 15 and its run has been extended, alternating with pop music concerts at the venue. And I learned today that another Sphere is planned for the Maryland/DC area.

Bad Shabbos (2024)

I got a plenty of laughs with this screwball comedy about a Jewish man introducing his non-Jewish fiancee and her parents to his family on their sacred Friday evening dinner AKA shabbos at their New York apartment.

The cast includes Jon Bass and Meghan Leathers as the happy couple, Kyra Sedgwick and David Paymer as his parents, Milana Vayntrub as his sister, Theo Taplitz as his brother, and Cliff "Method Man" Smith as the doorman Jordan. In movies, bookending is a short scene in the beginning which then continues at the conclusion. Josh Mostel and Stephen Singer make cameos in the bookends.

Daniel Robbins directs from his script co-written by Zack Weiner. Eli Keszler's score is not available to stream.

Bass was blogged for Sword of Trust, Sedgwick for The Edge of Seventeen, Method Man for Paterson, and Mostel for State of Play. I've seen a few things Leathers and Singer have been in but don't remember them. Some of my favorites of Paymer's long career are City Slickers (1991), Mr. Saturday Night (1992) (supporting actor Oscar nomination), nine episodes of The Good Wife (2009-16), and six of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017-23).

Robbins, Weiner, and Keszler are not known to me but the latter played percussion on Uncut Gems.

A couple of my friends who saw this at a Jewish Film Festival did not like it, but Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are keeping the candles lit with averages of 84 and 82%. I downloaded it from Netflix to watch on a long flight on January 14.

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

Amy picked this for our annual Christmas day movie and all three of us liked a lot the yarn with Josh O'Connor and Josh Brolin as upstate New York priests and Daniel Craig returning to the franchise as the Southern detective assigned to solve the crime. The outstanding ensemble cast includes Glenn Close, Mila Kunis (both wonderfully unglamorous), Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Daryl McCormack, Thomas Haden Church, and Jeffrey Wright.

Rian Johnson writes and directs and his brother Nathan Johnson is the composer, just as they did for the last two Knives Out mysteries. I'm streaming the soundtrack on Apple Music as I write.

We're not bible scholars, so we looked up the meaning of the the road to Damascus, referenced in the movie. Apparently it indicates a flash of insight and includes a blinding light. That tidbit is not included in imdb's list of 35 interesting trivia items. Cinematographer Steve Yedlin  occasionally incorporates blinding light into his work here.

"A Knives Out Mystery" is not in the official title, but was very useful for marketing this third installment. Amy, Jack, and I saw the previous one on Christmas day in 2022 as part of our holiday tradition of a Christmas day movie, every year since 2006 (except 2020).

O'Connor was last blogged for Challengers, Brolin for Dune, Craig, both Johnsons, and Yedlin for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Close for Swan Song, Kunis for The Spy Who Dumped Me, Renner for Arrival, Washington for The Prom, Scott for All of Us Strangers, McCormack for Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, Church for Acidman, and Wright for Highest 2 Lowest.

Rotten Tomatoes are reanimated with averages of 92 and 93%. Amy, Jack, and I streamed it on Netflix on, as promised, December 25.

My Mother's Wedding (2023)

Amy and I enjoyed this sweet drama with a few laughs about three adult daughters at the wedding of their mother. Kristin Scott Thomas makes her directorial debut and stars as the mother of Emily Beecham, Scarlett Johansson, and Sienna Miller.

Thomas co-wrote the script with her husband John Mickelthwait and the original score, which I can't find online, is by Rolfe Kent. Yves Bélanger provides pretty pictures of gorgeous English locations. And I found Scar-jo's English accent pretty believable.

Thomas was last blogged for acting in The Party, Johansson for Fly Me to the Moon, Miller for Burnt, Kent for Stan & Ollie, and Bélanger for Brooklyn. Beecham, with dozens of other credits, and Mickelthwait, a first-time screenwriter, are not known to me.

Rotten Tomatoes critics and audiences want a divorce, averaging 41 and 50%, respectively. We rented it on December 28.