Monthly Archives: November 2025

2025 Films, Thriller

After the Hunt-2025

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After the Hunt-2025

Director Luca Guadagnino

Starring Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield

Scott’s Review #1,504

Reviewed November 29, 2025

Grade: B+

After the Hunt (2025) is a thriller mired in questions and secrets, which, from the outset, director Luca Guadagnino successfully creates. An atmosphere of the Yale University elitist intelligentsia, enshrouded in internal chaos, just reeking to be let go.

Julia Roberts reemerges into the awards conversation with a startlingly raw and introspective performance as Alma, a professor harboring a secret past that is invaded by present circumstances.

Guadagnino, known for the brilliant LGBTQ+-themed Call Me by Your Name (2017), usually incorporates emotional complexity, eroticism, and lavish visuals into his work. This one is highly character-driven, embellishing the thoughts and desires of the leads.

For the viewer, After the Hunt remains compelling because we don’t know whom to believe, with allegiances teetering from character to character, including Alma herself.

Alma drinks too much, pops pills, and has a secret apartment away from her eccentric husband, Frederick, wonderfully played by Michael Stuhlbarg. Despite being a psychiatrist, he coddles Alma and serves as her househusband rather than an equal, causing him peculiar bouts of weird behavior.

Meanwhile, Alma is desperately seeking tenure at Yale.

At a boozy party at Alma’s house one night, amid societal and philosophical conversations, Maggie (Ayo Edebiri), one of her students, uncovers a secret about Alma while snooping in her bathroom.

Later, Maggie, who is black and gay, leaves the party with Hank, one of Alma’s handsome colleagues (Andrew Garfield).

The next morning, Alma finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when Maggie, a star student, levels an accusation against Hank, claiming she was sexually assaulted.

As the onion is peeled back, it is discovered that Maggie plagiarized a paper and has wealthy parents who help the University maintain its financial status. She is also obsessed with Alma, even wearing the same shade of fingernail polish.

At the same time, Hank is a volatile hothead with a vicious temper. Does he have a romantic past with Alma?

Who should Alma believe, and what should the audience think? Are we supposed to side with Maggie because it’s politically correct to believe a young black female over a white male?

Maggie immediately put me off. Was that the intention? I wanted to like her, but just didn’t. This was even before it was known that she was privileged.

By contrast, I immediately did like Hank. His passion for philosophy and his yearning for debate about the younger generation being coddled resonated with me.

Guadagnino offers more than solely a compelling story in After the Hunt.

As a Connecticut resident, the exterior locales are powerful. Rich camera shots of the massive Yale campus, especially on snowy days, provide wonderful texture to the film. A small, cruddy yet cozy Indian diner, strangely empty, serves as a meeting point for two poignant scenes.

Besides the campus, New Haven, Connecticut, is not the ritzy Greenwich, Connecticut, by any means, and Guadagnino must have realized this by incorporating ugly waterside views and glimpses of factories.

A quiet, introspective director, many scenes of Alma staring into the distance, in thought or pondering life, play well with philosophical debate scenes between faculty and students.

While the film’s pacing is slow, it works for me. And throughout the question remains of what Alma’s secret is and whether Hank sexually assaulted Maggie, or is it all lies?

The film is also reminiscent of Fatal Attraction (1987) or Single White Female (1992). The key to the film may lie in Maggie’s obsession with Alma, which slowly unfolds.

In what may be Julia Roberts’ best film role to date, After the Hunt (2025) doesn’t hit a home run with a slightly ambiguous, unsatisfying ending, but with stellar performances from Roberts, Edebiri, Garfield, and Stuhlbarg, it’s enough to warrant a watch.

1976 Films, Thriller

Obsession-1976

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Obsession-1976

Director Brian De Palma

Starring Cliff Robertson, Geneviève Bujold, John Lithgow

Scott’s Review #1,503

Reviewed November 25, 2025

Grade: B+

Brian De Palma’s Obsession was made in 1976, the same year as his iconic horror film Carrie, which made him a household name. This kicked off a period of other great De Palma films, like Dressed to Kill (1980) and Blow Out (1981).

The marginally successful film gained respectability because the director acknowledged that Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 masterpiece Vertigo heavily influenced Obsession, which undoubtedly drew many to sit up and take notice.

Since Vertigo is a film I am ‘obsessed’ with, I can easily see the blueprint that it is on many levels.

Film composer and Hitchcock stalwart Bernard Herrmann beautifully scores both movies, so the similarities are undeniable on both a musical and a plot level. I immediately recognized the orchestral and mysterious notes that fill Vertigo with intrigue and sophistication.

A case of doppelgangers and an obsession with a presumed-dead character or the ghost of someone from the past are common elements in both, as a tangled web is spun.

The heroic male character struggles with this obsession while spiraling out of control and making rash or poor decisions.

The story begins in 1959 and centers on a prominent New Orleans businessman, Michael Courtland (Cliff Robertson), who is riddled with guilt following the death of his wife, Elizabeth (Geneviève Bujold), and daughter during a kidnapping-rescue attempt gone wrong.

Fast forward to 1975, and Brian, while traveling to Florence, Italy, meets and falls in love with a young woman who is the exact look-alike of his long-dead wife. He must do anything to have her and imagines she actually is his wife.

While Obsession is a compelling film with an appropriate, suspenseful buildup and a startling twist during the final act, Vertigo’s influence also makes it a weakness for Obsession on its own merits.

Since I knew it was patterned after such greatness, I also found myself constantly comparing it. While Obsession is good, it’s also more of an opening act to Vertigo’s headliner status.

Some standard De Palma particulars are incorporated, which is what I waited for throughout, and some are not.

The slow-motion sequence appears at the conclusion of the film, in a long shot of an airport terminal, as one character runs to another. The fact that one character weilds a hidden gun makes the perilous situation even more daring.

The dreamlike quality is apparent, including a puzzling romance scene in which Michael imagines a marriage and a steamy bedroom sequence with Elizabeth. He also imagines the kidnapping events happening again.

Is this real or imagined?

The split screen, so potent in Sisters and Dressed to Kill, is abandoned altogether.

De Palma also treads lightly on the subject matter of incest that could have made Obsession daring and cutting edge, but instead is softened considerably. This irritated me slightly, since I assumed there would be pushback from studio executives.

Robertson and Bujold have adequate chemistry, and it’s a treat to see John Lithgow in what would be the first of several De Palma films.

Obsession (1976) is worth a watch for De Palma fans because, like Sisters (1973), it offers a glimpse of the greatness he was about to achieve with grander, more fleshed-out efforts.

Some early tools from the director’s arsenal are featured, making the watch enjoyable and a treat for anyone with a fondness for what air travel was like in the mid-1970s, well before terrorism and 9/11 changed the world forever.

1993 Films, Biography

What’s Love Got to Do with It-1993

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What’s Love Got to Do with It-1993

Director Brian Gibson

Starring Angela Bassett, Laurence Fishburne 

Scott’s Review #1,502

Reviewed November 22, 2025

Grade: A-

Many biographies have been made in cinema over the years, but What’s Love Got to Do with It? (1993) is the only one, to my knowledge, about the legendary and leggy singer Tina Turner.

The blues and rock diva, known for her lioness wigs and powerful voice, had a rough road to achieving her greatest success in her 40s.

Made over thirty years ago, more modern biographies have both succeeded (Bohemian Rhapsody-2018 and Rocketman-2019 come to mind) and failed (Respect-2021), but impressively, What’s Love Got to Do with It? holds up well and provides emotional power throughout.

Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne are exceptionally well cast. As Tina and her abusive husband, Ike, the actors give a lot of investment and believability into the performer’s tumultuous relationship.

The film, based on Turner’s 1986 autobiography I, Tina, is not quite a solid A because Bassett, while terrific as Turner, lip-syncs to Turner’s vocals. It’s left unclear why Ike is such a controlling tyrant and why she stayed with him for close to 20 years, and some aspects are embellished from the autobiography.

But the acting and other aspects usurp these nitpicky particulars.

The production numbers when Turner performs are electric, and the film’s best parts. Especially ‘River Deep-Mountain High’ and the title track allow Bassett to embellish the superstar in raw fury and guttural range.

It is clear how the actor channels Tina through gestures, stage confidence, and passion for her art. It’s beautiful to observe and be inspired by.

The story is based on the life of the legendary soul singer, who was born Anna Mae Bullock to an absentee mother and father and a meager upbringing in the rural South.

When her grandmother, who raised her, dies, she reconnects with her birth mother and sister (Jenifer Lewis and Phyllis Yvonne Stickney) in 1960s St. Louis, where she meets the charismatic Ike, already an established star.

As a musical team, Ike and Tina take the charts by storm. But as his physical abuse worsens, Tina has to make the tough decision to leave Ike and set out on her own.

This eventually leads to her climactic return to the pop charts in 1984, where she achieves massive success.

The abuse scenes are startling and challenging to watch. At first, Ike appears smitten with Tina (whom he renamed), but he beds her while married to another woman. The luster quickly wears off as he becomes militant about her performances and berates her when she dares to question his authority.

A brutal rape scene in a music studio left me shocked and sickened.

Again, I wondered what made Ike the way he was, and it’s a minor misfire by director Brian Gibson and screenwriter Kate Lanier. I asked if his own father beat him and subsequently taught him that fame and success are the be-all and end-all, but it gnawed at me that I had no proof.

A brief flashback of Ike’s father being stabbed in front of him told me little.

Also mysterious is why it takes Tina so long to finally leave him, even though she is willing to be penniless as long as she can keep her stage name. Her kind friend, Darlene (Khandi Alexander), urges her to leave him for years.

Delightful is watching Bassett and Fishburne play off each other, proving that amazing chemistry is so important in film. I never bought that Ike really loved Tina; instead, I saw her as a talent to solidify his career.

The finale, a live performance by the real Tina, propels Bassett’s already divine performance. The audience can confirm that her portrayal is spot on by identifying similarities.

With a miscast, the differences would have been glaring.

Thanks to superb acting, impressive production design that encapsulates the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, and a hefty dose of the star’s greatest hits, What’s Love Got to Do with It (1993) is one of the better biopics.

Oscar Nominations: Best Actor-Laurence Fishburne, Best Actress-Angela Bassett

2025 Films, Comedy

The Naked Gun-2025

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The Naked Gun-2025

Director Akiva Schaffer

Starring Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson

Scott’s Review #1,501

Reviewed November 20, 2025

Grade: B-

With different levels of cinema for audiences to choose from, The Naked Gun (2025), a reboot of a long-dormant franchise, is meant for a particular spoof comedy fan who expects goofiness over a heavy subject matter.

It’s not The Godfather (1972), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), or Vertigo (1958), and pondering a more profound meaning or luxuriating in great visual art will not happen.

Instead, for some tepid chuckles and escapist fare from a rough day at work or a family matter one is hoping to run away from, director Akiva Schaffer crafts a smirky one-liner riddled experience in lunacy.

The fourth in The Naked Gun franchise, and the first in over 30 years, the plot follows the son (Liam Neeson) of Lt. Frank Drebin, also named Frank Drebin, as he steps into his father’s footsteps to prevent the closure of Police Squad.

Fans know that Leslie Nielsen played bumbling Frank senior in the first three installments, while George Kennedy played his sidekick, Captain Ed Hocken. Priscilla Presley played love interest Jane Spencer.

Essentially, Nielsen is replaced by Neeson, Kennedy by Paul Walter Heiser, and Jane by Pamela Anderson.

Preseley does quickly appear in a cameo (if you could even call it that), sitting on a sofa watching television.

While it is familiar territory to someone like me, who has seen only one other in the series and barely remembers it, the pattern is very one-note and more of a retro greatest hits compilation than anything new and noteworthy. 

If we’re talking the 1980s, think Police Academy for a similar reference, and there is little reason I see to dust the franchise off the shelf.

We meet the new Lieutenant Frank Drebin Jr. of the LAPD Police Squad, who single-handedly dispatches a gang of bank robbers while disguised as a schoolgirl.

The fact that he morphs from a 3-foot-tall girl into a 6-foot-tall grown man is expected to be plausible.

Unbeknownst to Drebin, the bank heist is a distraction to steal a gadget called the “P.L.O.T. (“Primordial Law Of Toughness”) Device” from a safe deposit box by the film’s villain Richard Cane (Danny Huston), who is intent on reverting the human race to primal animals who kill each other.

This is to make sure that the world’s billionaires are safe to rule the planet.

The audience is not expected to wonder who will be left to serve the billionaires, or otherwise do the world’s grunt work.

The fewer plot points asked, the better.

Predictably, hard-edged Police Chief Davis (CCH Pounder) reassigns Frank when his over-the-top law enforcement becomes a legal liability.

From there, we watch Drebin eat bad food, have diarrhea, and suffer further embarrassments while working alongside Beth Davenport (Anderson), a crime novelist, to figure out why her brother died in a car accident deemed a suicide.

It’s hard to believe Neeson is the same actor who received an Oscar nomination for playing Oskar Schindler in the 1993 masterpiece Schindler’s List.

Still, shifting to an action star in 2008 proves that some actors accept projects to stay relevant.

While the plot is inane and easy to dissect with over-the-top plot points, overacting, and silly potty jokes, it can almost be overlooked for simple moments that bring a sliver of joy.

The chemistry between Neeson and Anderson is not bad, mainly because the actors know how to create it. As they banter and deliver monotone dialogue, the woodenness actually becomes an asset.

The scenes that made me smile were solely between the duo as they embraced the lines served to them to the best of their ability. Creating enough comic wit to remain entertaining, I clamored for more between the two and less of the ridiculousness of everything else.

Neeson and Anderson are the saving grace in an otherwise shit show.

The Naked Gun (2025) knows what kind of film it is, which helps level-set expectations. There is something refreshingly silly about anticipating a bad movie and having fun with it nonetheless.

1980 Films, Best Picture Oscar Winners, Drama

Ordinary People-1980

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Ordinary People-1980

Director Robert Redford

Starring Mary Tyler Moore, Donald Sutherland, Timothy Hutton

Scott’s Review #1,500

Reviewed November 15, 2025

Grade: A

Ordinary People (1980) demonstrates that a quiet film with excellent writing and superb acting can pack an emotional punch, surpassing the gimmicks or action sequences that other films often employ to draw attention.

It’s character-driven and tells a story of a family tragedy and the ramifications and complications that affect the surviving members. The emotional intelligence that director Robert Redford embeds in the film is astonishing.

Deservedly winning the 1980 Best Picture Academy Award, it proves how crucial good writing and good characters are to a quality film.

Significantly, it propelled 1970s television sitcom star Mary Tyler Moore, known until then as the iconic girl-next-door type, into cinematic respectability.  Her narcissistic, uptight character was uncharted territory and a career risk for the actor who ended up exceeding expectations.

Tortured by guilt following the death of his older brother, Buck, in a sailing accident, we meet the alienated teenager Conrad Jarrett (Timothy Hutton) right off the bat, following a failed suicide attempt.

Returning home to his affluent Chicago suburban life following an extended stay in a psychiatric hospital, Conrad tries to deal with his mental anguish and also reconnect with his mother, Beth (Mary Tyler Moore), who has grown bitter after the accident.

His emotionally wounded father, Calvin (Donald Sutherland), tries to gently repair the family damage with the help of a psychiatrist, Dr. Berger (Judd Hirsch), who begins to treat Conrad.

The screenplay, written by Alvin Sargent, is based on the 1976 novel by Judith Guest.

Combined with Redford’s masterful direction, the story never shifts to a soap opera direction with Calvin or Beth having affairs, turning to booze, or other showy plot devices, intent on stirring up drama.

Instead, it’s about how they and Conrad handle their trauma. Each has an individual view of the events, who they blame, and how they cope with such trauma.

The audience can easily empathize and relate to the incidents if anyone has faced a death, loss of a job, an accident, a divorce, or any such upheaval in their lives.

The posh autumnal suburban landscape is enveloped by Redford, which enhances the experience. The Jarretts’ affluence is put to good use as they attend local theater, play golf, take European vacations, and can afford to send Conrad to a psychiatrist.

Exterior shots of large suburban homes, accompanied by luxury cars, housekeepers, well-manicured lawns, and sleek golf courses, all convey the comforts of life.

It makes their pain a bit more understandable as they, especially Beth, soak in luxury as a way of comforting herself from the loss of her son.

Can’t their money help alleviate some of the suffering?

I had mixed emotions about Beth’s character. Appearing to be a cold bitch with Conrad and the assumption that she favored the dead son, she never visits Conrad in the hospital after his suicide attempt, instead fleeing to Europe on vacation. She engages in small talk with him rather than caring for him.

What kind of mother could do that?

But I realize that she is hurting too, and when she becomes teary-eyed or crumbles in her husband’s arms, I feel genuine sympathy for her, a testament to Tyler Moore’s talents.

My favorite character, though, is Conrad (Hutton).

Via flashbacks, we see the closeness of the brothers’ relationship and the action that occurred during the drowning.

Hutton delivers on many levels. Whether staring into the distance, pondering events, exploding with rage, tenderly sharing a date with a blossoming love interest, Jeannine (Elizabeth McGovern), or struggling with a friend, Karen, his performance is always inspiring.

Ordinary People (1980) marks his directorial debut; Redford crafts a family drama rich in layers and a beautifully moving pace that draws the viewer into the lives of the primary characters.

The still taboo of mental illness and therapy is also embraced, showing that expressing feelings is better than repressing emotions.

Oscar Nominations: 4 wins-Best Picture (won), Best Director-Robert Redford (won), Best Actress-Mary Tyler Moore, Best Supporting Actor-Timothy Hutton (won), Judd Hirsch, Best Adapted Screenplay (won)

2025 Films, Comedy, Dark Comedy, Thriller

Bugonia-2025

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Bugonia-2025

Director Yorgos Lanthimos

Starring Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons

Scott’s Review #1,499

Reviewed November 8, 2025

Grade: A

Going into the movie theater to see Bugonia (2025), I had the apt knowledge that off-center iconoclast Yorgos Lanthimos directed the film once again using his muse, superstar Emma Stone, in his latest project.

Responsible for the weird efforts like The Favourite (2018), Poor Things (2023), and a bizarre early effort, Dogtooth (2009), I knew I was in store for something off-kilter if not altogether unhinged.

My mouth salivated for something deranged, and I was not disappointed.

I hoped that no one in the theater was expecting something like La La Land (2016), also starring Stone. No disrespect intended, since I adore that film, but a story about a chirpy aspiring actress conquering Hollywood is hardly a Lanthimos storyline.

The creative Greek director hits a home run with Bugonia while subsequently convincing Stone to shave her head and take on a bald role.

Like several other recently released films, Lanthimos critiques modern society and the decisions made by this generation of human beings. He challenges the audience to ask if people have simply fucked up the Earth.

Should we start over from the dinosaur era and try to get things right?

By the time the credits rolled and a few nervous chuckles had enveloped the audience, I knew that not everyone had grasped this Lanthimos film.

Sigh.

Without spoiling the film, a late-inning surprise catapulted Bugonia from very good to exceptional, leaving me pondering the conclusion and its ramifications for days.

The idea is based on the 2003 South Korean film ‘Save the Green Planet!’ by Jang Joon-hwan. Bugonia follows two young men, led by a spectacular performance by Jesse Plemons, who kidnap a powerful CEO (Stone), suspecting that she is secretly an alien intent on destroying Earth.

Ludicrous as it sounds, the plot begins to unravel as Plemons and Stone play kidnapper and kidnappee against the backdrop of a dilapidated suburban house, each trying to outsmart the other using reasoning and conspiracy theories to argue their case.

It becomes a game of chess.

Stone’s Michelle Fuller, the CEO of a major pharmaceutical company, who has a secret connection to Plemons’s Teddy Gatz, now a beekeeper, initially assumes Teddy is dimwitted and an easy target to outmaneuver.

Along with Teddy’s cousin, Don (Aidan Delbis), an intellectually disabled young man, they accost and keep Michelle bound and tied in their basement, encouraging her to confess to being an alien and taking them back to her planet at the upcoming lunar eclipse.

The audience goes along for the ride, wondering if the characters are who they seem to be and exactly how the wacky plot will play out.

Will Michelle ultimately escape? Will the more sympathetic Don come to Michelle’s rescue?

The plot thickens when flashbacks reveal a connection between Teddy’s mother, Sandy (Alicia Silverstone), and Michelle.

Is Teddy seeking revenge, or does he believe Michelle is an alien? Or both?

Stone can’t do enough with her large green eyes, only enhanced by her bald head, which Teddy and Don shave. Her shock at both being shaved bald and accused of being an alien elicits comical moments from the actor.

Her timing is perfect as she emits corporate jargon meant to placate and manipulate Teddy. She assumes she can talk her way out of her crisis by putting on her CEO hat, which is intended to intimidate him.

The fun part is that we don’t know whether to root for Michelle or root for Teddy.

Stone and Plemons play off each other so well, keeping the dialogue juicy and crisp, and entirely engaging the audience.

Bugonia (2025) offers up twisted twists and turns set against delicious cinematography and a couple of blood-spurting dark comedy moments.

A cringy torture scene and a suggested childhood molestation only add to the bizarre puzzle that Lanthimos creates.

Fans of the director will celebrate and champion the film for its uniqueness and dizzying thrill rides. Hopefully, he will continue to inspire young filmmakers to create unconventional and thought-provoking offerings.

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture, Best Actress-Emma Stone, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score