Song Sung Blue

If you’re expecting a Neil Diamond biopic, you will be pleasantly surprised. This is the true story of a hard luck Milwaukee couple who performed Diamond tunes.

Hugh Jackman is perfectly cast, of course, as Mike the Diamond “interpreter” who eventually becomes a local legend with his better half, played by Kate Hudson. Hudson shines as Claire, whom Mike meets backstage at a state fair. Mike asks the Patsy Cline-wigged Claire, “You’re a blonde?” and she replies “Oh boy, am I”. Both actors fully commit to the roles and that’s the pure joy of this film. 

In theaters on Christmas Day, this film has a job to do for movie goers and it performs mostly on that. 

It breezily plays like a great night at a bar when the jukebox lands on “Sweet Caroline” and suddenly everyone is family. The tone is breezy, tuneful and built on smiles. I wan't hunting for awards here. I wanted a good time, and for most of its run the movie delivers exactly that.

Midway through, a sudden real-life twist threatens to turn the story into melodrama. I braced myself for eye rolling TV-movie territory, but the filmmakers pull off a smart rebound that keeps the spirit light and the tempo alive.

The stumble comes at the very end. A second tragic beat overlaps what should have been the film’s last pure, joyful performance. Instead of swaying, the audience is left waiting at the end of every single note for something bad to maybe happen. It was followed by a list of familiar tropes that drain the room just when it should be singing

What worked so well at the Freddie Mercury movie Bohemian Rhapsody, is that they altered the timeline a bit so that the movie ended on that inspiring Live Aid performance, leaving audiences exiting in bliss. Since they messed with Mike’s timeline anyway, this would have made this a crowd pleaser that might have reached its own cult status.

In a nutshell: A lot of fun, hitting most of the right notes. Adding an extra song at the end (i.e. Mamma Mia musicals) or blooper songs (i.e., Anyone But You) would have saved this film and probably have started a Tik Tok craze.

Where to see it: In theaters, starting Christmas Day. 

Would it be better with Olivia Colman: I'd cast her in a bar scene and just watch what happens. 

Award potential: Ripe for Golden Globes attention, but nothing more. Jackman and Hudson are perfect in their roles, but where it achieves best is not meant to be award territory.

The Ten Buck Review: Still your best bet for a fun film this season. Worth ten bucks. 

          After the film: Watch the original documentary for free here. 

 

Hamnet

The beauty of a tragic tale is how it takes hold of the heart and refuses to let go. Shakespeare understood that better than anyone.

The grief and mortality that shape the historical novel behind the film draw from Maggie O’Farrell’s own experiences living with the constant danger posed by her daughter’s life-threatening food allergy and anaphylaxis.

Chloé Zhao’s (Nomadland) adaptation of Hamnet understands loss not as something to conquer, but something to carry, with art offering a way to survive it. 

When a (spoiler-free) tragedy happens, William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) turns to his work because it is the only place he believes his sorrow can go. Agnes Shakespeare (Jessie Buckley) endures by refusing to mute her pain or soften it for anyone else.

Jessie Buckley (Women Talking) gives Agnes, known more casually here and historically as Anne Hathaway, a raw and deeply physical presence. Her grief is loud, uncontained and impossible to ignore. Paul Mescal (Normal People, AfterSun) meets her intensity with restraint, playing a man who learns that creating art can both protect him and force him to face what he has lost.

This is not simply a film that “makes you cry.” It is a full sensory passage through love, family and mourning that ultimately opens into something rare and transcendent. Quite poetically, the theater is alive with power here. Hamnet is a story of loss that somehow bursts with life. A reminder that from unbearable grief can come lasting beauty.

In a nutshell: Brilliant. Devastating. Achingly beautiful. A profound act of empathy, Chloé Zhao’s finest work to date and another reminder of why art matters.

Where to see it: In theaters. Don't see it Christmas Day.

Would it be better with Olivia Colman? To thine own self be true.

Award potential: This film will be very competitive with Oscar noms ranging from Picture and Director to Actress and Supporting Actor to Max Richter’s score. It won’t tally as much as Wicked, Sinners and One Battle, which are eligible in everything including song, but it will be a big player in key categories. 

The Ten Buck Review: Worth ten bucks.

Jay Kelly

There is an expectation that comes with a new Noah Baumbach film (Frances Ha, The Squid and the Whale, Marriage Story). You sit down expecting something essential and maybe a little bruising. Jay Kelly arrives with that same promise and a tuxedo full of movie stars and for a while, it looks like it might be his leap into deliverying an elevated crowd-pleaser. Instead, it settles into something more modest and oddly charming. 

George Clooney plays Jay Kelly, one of the last movie stars who still believes in movie stars. He floats through life with an entourage, a displaced family and the kind of privilege that insulates you from ever needing to ask why any of it exists. Clooney is basically playing himself with a Cary Grant tilt, and the film knows it. At one point, a stranger on a train calls him out for exactly that. Clooney fires back like a silver screen relic, insisting that playing yourself is harder than it looks. The movie winks.

Somehow, and oddly, all at once everyone who orbits Kelly seems to quietly question why they are there and whether this life is enough. That is fertile Baumbach territory, but Jay Kelly keeps slipping between tones. One minute, it is a melancholy character study, the next it is a travelogue through Tuscany.

The best stretch is an out-of place middle section on a train rolling through Europe. Adam Sandler delivers another reminder that vulnerability is his secret weapon. This is not another against-type tough guy turn. He is open, fragile and quietly devastating. Laura Dern delivers her lines like an Aaron Sorkin classic. Greta Gerwig (his wife and collaborator), Emily Mortimer (co-screenrighter, BIlly Cruddup, Stacy Keach and the rest of the cast all deliver. It's fun in parts.

And yet, when the film finally asks you to care deeply about Jay Kelly, it runs into trouble. The ending aims for a poetic bookend to the opening shot, complete with a quote that wants to be immortal. It does not quite earn it. Jay remains too insulated, too entitled and too vaguely sketched for the emotional payoff to fully work. You enjoy watching him but you do not ache for he and his Hollywood life.

The comparison that hangs over the film is Sentimental Value, another 2025 film about a famous father and his daughters. That film knows exactly what it is building toward and sticks the landing. Jay Kelly prefers to wander, collecting moments instead of meaning.

In a nutshell: There is plenty to enjoy. The dialogue snaps. Tuscany looks incredible. The scenes, taken individually, are often wonderful.

Where to find it: Watch it in theaters or on Netflix.

Would it be better with Olivia Colman: Absolutely.

Awards potential: Golden Globe nominees Clooney and Sandler both have a shot as the Oscar nominees become 10 not 24, but Sandler feels like the real long-shot contender, especially in supporting actor. The screenplay by Baumbach and Emily Mortimer should also be in the conversation.

The Ten Buck Review: Not what we hoped from all this talent, but it's still worth ten bucks.

2025 in Film + What Best Pictures will Golden Globes choose tomorrow?

2025 has shaped up to be a terrific film year and thank you thank you, because after 2024 I needed this. Around this time a year ago, we were trying to convince ourselves that The Brutalist was a triumph. I adored the first half, then spent the second half wondering if I had wandered into the worst movie of the year by accident. Anora gave us the most trite entry in an auteur director’s collection and Emilia Pérez left me indiferente. I mean, The Substance made the top ten nominees for film that year.

This year, the energy is different. It's a director year. We get to cheer an auteur director delivering one of his finest works with Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. Chloé Zhao doth dropped a gutting masterwork in Hamnet. Joachim Trier gifts us an emotionally rich family drama with Sentimental Value. And then there is the unforgettable Train Dreams, which you just have to see right now.

Even stranger, the monster corner of cinema has come to play at an A+ level in a genre I don't usually bother with. Ryan Coogler pulled off a vampire film with Sinners, and Guillermo del Toro brought Frankenstein to life. Meanwhile, Weapons came in screaming as a well-scripted zombie movie to complete the trifecta.

Extra exciting, we still have heavy hitters coming to theaters soon, from Marty Supreme to It Was Just an Accident to The Secret Agent. If last year’s nominee, A Complete Unknown, tried to sneak into this year’s top ten, it wouldn’t stand a chance. Sorry to Deliver Me From Nowhere, tough year for a rock biopic.

There were some big misses. Kathryn Bigelow’s House of Dynamite fizzled on a finale, Luca Guadagnino's After the Hunt got schooled and Coppola’s Megalopolis wandered. Still, this is unmistakably a top director year. Also did I mention there is another Avatar coming? Never ever count out James Cameron.

The Golden Globes announce their nominees tomorrow. It’s a new voting body, not your father’s Globes, but here are the films I expect to see on their list, in alphabetical order.

Best Picture, Drama (6)

Frankenstein (Netflix)
Hamnet (Focus Features)
It Was Just an Accident (Neon)
The Secret Agent (Neon)
Sentimental Value (Neon)
Sinners (Warner Bros.)

Fingers crossed: Train Dreams
Spoiler: Avatar: Fire and Ash
Surprise: Is This Thing On?


If you're missing some top dranas, it's because they are running as comedies. I hope you see the humor in that too.

Best Picture, Comedy or Musical (6)

Jay Kelly (Netflix)
Marty Supreme (A24)
No Other Choice (Neon)
One Battle After Another (Warner Bros.)
Wake Up Dead Man (Netflix)
Wicked: For Good (Universal Pictures)

Fingers crossed: If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You
Spoiler: Bugonia
Surprise: Song Sung Blue

Train Dreams

Director Clint Bentley (Sing Sing, Jockey) brings us the story of Robert (Joel Edgerton), a would-be-forgotten everyman. More than telling this man's story, Bentley is intent on celebrating a life even if it’s a quiet one. He lets us see the sweep of a man’s existence, the small and large moments that shape a souland what it means to live mostly alone in Idaho at the start of the 20th century, except during logging season when Robert joins the men cutting down trees and drifts to wherever the work calls.

Edgerton plays Robert with a blend of masculinity and vulnerability. He watches the world shift beneath his feet as he clears forests, pounds rail tracks into the ground and helps raise bridges. His work reshapes the land and, in turn, reshapes him.

One of the film’s earliest shots shows a pair of boots nailed to a tree. It’s the kind of woodland oddity you might stumble upon and quietly wonder about. How did they get there? Who left them? The film understands that every tree has a story, and every person has a story, and if luck is on our side, someone will keep that story alive.

The film is narrated by Will Patton (Minari) with support from characters including wife Gladys (Felicity Jones) and logger Arn(William Macy), who steals his brief time on screen. Still, the truest supporting character is the land itself. Cinematographer Adolpho Veloso makes every frame glow as if borrowed from magic hour, which gives the film the hush of a dream.

All of this springs from Denis Johnson’s 117-page Pulitzer finalist novella. Bentley and co-writer Greg Kwedar (Sing Sing) bring that spirit to life from the candlelit cabins in the middle of nowhere to the lush woods where Robert works to the thick night.

Time moves forward and the old man searches for his place in a modern world. Men are going to the moon and the shape of the earth seems to bend in his mind just as his own reflection does in a mirror. A later scene takes this view even further and the perspective it offers will stay with audiences for a long time.

At one point, a logger looks out into the gathering dark and says simply “It’s beautiful.” Train Dreams is a disarmingly human film about who we are, how we arrive at ourselves and how we endure. It’s my favorite film of 2025 so far.

In a nutshell: If Terrence Malik (Tree of Life, Badlands) made an accessible film about what defines a life, it would be Train Dreams. “It’s beautiful.”

Where to watch it: In theaters now and on Netflix on November 21, 2025. That’s a short window to get to a big screen with an audience. Don’t watch this on your phone, please.

Would it be better with Olivia Colman: Of course, even as good as it is.

Award potential: Dark Horse for Oscar Best Picture and Cinetography and acting awards with a low profile and Netflix focusing on Jay Kelly, Frankenstein, House of Dynamite — and this. But I have faith the word will get around by January nomination time.

The Ten Buck Review: Worth ten bucks.

After the Hunt

You don’t have to be a Yale grad to see it coming. A movie about professors means endless coffee-fueled conversations, deep moral questions and zero concrete answers. That is After the Hunt.

Julia Roberts (Ben is Back, Erin Brockovich) goes full serious mode here, more Cate Blanchett than Pretty Woman. She plays Alma, a philosophy professor whose calm, curated life unravels when a student, played by Ayo Edebiri (The Bear, Bottoms) accuses another professor, Andrew Garfield (Tik Tick Boom, Spiderman, The Social Network) of abuse. Roberts nails the mix of control and unease, and Garfield? There’s a wild pulse to him here with every glance loaded, every pause flirty.

Director Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name, Challengers) brings his signature touch of place with beautiful, slightly haunted spaces and that unmistakable sense of tension in the air. He starts things off with Woody Allen–style title credits and music (intentional), then dives in. 

There’s a lot to unpack here. Power. Politics. Truth. Yet Guadagnino never quite lands the plane. You’ll keep wondering who to believe and what it all means, right up to the moment the credits roll and probably long after.

In the end, it’s like sitting in on a really juicy grad-school debate: fascinating, messy and impossible to stop thinking about, even if no one reaches a conclusion. B-

In a nutshell: A smart, moody drama that keeps you guessing. Don’t expect a breezy Julia Roberts romp. This one’s dense, divisive and post-film conversation-worthy.

Where to watch: In theaters, starting October 17, 2025.

Would it be better with Olivia Colman? No scholarly discussion needed here. Yes.

Award potential: Julia and Andrew deserve a seat at the table, but it’s a competitive year.

The Ten Buck Review: Worth ten bucks and maybe a post-movie drink to process it.

Anemone

It’s not every day you get a new movie with Daniel Day-Lewis. Anemone (uh-NEM-uh-nee) marks the Oscar winner’s return after an eight-year retirement, and it’s a thunderous reminder of why he is the GOAT.

From the opening childhood drawing sequence, you sense a storm is coming—and it does.

This debut feature from writer and filmmaker Ronan Day-Lewis is exactly what you’d expect from a first film by a talented artist finding his voice. At times, it dazzles, with environmental details as sharp as the rim of a beer glass or as stark as woodland landscapes caught in winter light. At other moments, it leans into indulgent arthouse clichés. His handling of mystical magical visions haunting the protagonist Ray doesn’t always land, but when he unleashes elemental chaos—particularly a hailstorm of near-biblical scale—the effect is unforgettable.

Confession: I loathe dream sequences. They so often feel like a lazy storytelling shortcut. Here they’re treated with self-conscious gravitas, which only underlines the contrivance. Still, the raw force of nature on display makes up for some of the eye-rolling.

The full acting team is on point, too. Sean Bean sparring with his co-star is not an easy feat.

The film pattern is uneven, much like the brothers, and the men it portrays, mixing stretches of silence with dialogue-heavy scenes that occasionally feel overwrought or flat-out gross. Yet together they serve as a showcase for Daniel Day-Lewis’s craft. His portrayal of Ray Stoker, a former British soldier living in exile, is a reminder of why he’s untouchable. To see him back on the big screen is a thrill, even if the script isn’t fully fleshed out.

An anemone, incidentally, is a flower, and if that applies to the director, looks like one to watch bloom.

In a nutshell: Not a fan of dream sequences or dialogue that stretches on like a pub monologue, but the film’s dark beauty and Daniel Day-Lewis’s mesmeric presence won me over.

Where to watch: Opens Friday, October 3 in Dallas. In theaters nationally starting October 10, 2025.

Would it be better with Olivia Colman? Naturally. SHE better not retire.

Award potential: Never count out the GOAT for Best Actor nomination.

The Ten Buck Review: Worth ten bucks.

One Battle After Another

I had zero interest in this film after its trailer. After all, I either love Paul Thomas Anderson movies (Phantom Thread, There Will Be Blood, Boogie Nights) or hate them (Inherent Vice, The Master). In fact, Inherent Vice holds the dubious honor of being one of only four films I’ve ever walked out of. Critics at festivals were swooning, but at two hours and fifty minutes, it seemed destined to be filed under my most common dig of the decade: “self-indulgent marathon films from untouchable directors that should have been two hours flat.”

However, his tenth film, One Battle After Another, is one of the best sustained pieces of filmmaking — ever. It felt like one hour and is clearly one of the best films of 2025.

It kicks off with the kind of velocity most action films save for their finale, then never lets up. Without spoiling specifics, it centers on revolutionaries from the last decade, though it feels as if the script were finished last night. At full volume, it’s about defying fascism and racism, but in quiet moments, it's a tender father-daughter story. Somehow it is both a thunderous thriller and intimate drama, switching gears with comic precision. The balance of action, thriller, drama and comedy is a masterwork.

Often cited "greatest actor of our generation," Leonardo DiCaprio to me, has too often been outsized by the film roles from The Aviator and Departed to J.Edgar and Killers of the Flower Moon, but this film and comic role fits him better, much like his turn in The Wolf of Wall Street. Here, DiCaprio gives a carefully modulated turn, often channelling The Big Lebowsi in his backrobe as Bob Ferguson. 

Our other "greatest actor," Sean Penn completely disappears into Col. Lockjaw, the clearest bad guy of the film, creating one of his all-time best roles. Teyana Tarylo, Benicio del Toro and Regina Hall are all expectedly great too.

What makes the film astonishing is that it never panders. It’s bleak, sardonic, tough-minded, yet alive with jolting humanity. It isn’t about good guys or easy redemption, it’s about survival and defiance, and somehow that makes it all the more hopeful.

In a nutshell: the action jolts, the comedy lands and the suspense feels utterly original. This is a Molotov cocktail hurled into the 2025 film season.

Where to see it: Theatrical release, in 70mm, IMAX 70mm, IMAX Digital and VistaVision. IMAX was worth every cent.

Would it be better with Olivia Colman? We’re talking about one of the decade’s best films, but yes, naturally.

Award potential: Expect Oscar nominations in all categories.

The Ten Buck Review: Worth ten bucks.

Fall's Future Best Picture Nominees - mark your calendar

Goodbye, super summer blockbusters. The fall movies are coming. Festival buzz is heating up and while some early Oscar contenders (Frankenstein, The Bride, The History of Sound and Julia Robert's instantly controversial After the Hunt) have already fizzled out, a new crop of top-tier films has emerged. These are the ones to circle in your calendar and get your popcorn and excitment ready for.

TOP 3 LOCKS

Hamnet

In a nutshell: Adapted from Maggie O'Farrell's acclaimed novel, this drama centers on Agnes (Jessie Buckley) grieving a family tragedy that inspires her husband William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) to write Hamlet. Directed by Oscar-winner Chloé Zhao.

Why it's a lock: It's Zhao’s first drama since Nomadland, and it slayed at Telluride. Focus Features might finally have its Best Picture winner.

In theaters: Limited release November 27, 2025, national expansion December 12, 2025.



Sentimental Value

In a nutshell: An actress reunites with her estranged, acclaimed director father, who wants her to star in his autobiographical film.

Why it's a lock: Reuniting The Worst Person in the World dream team of Trier and Reinsve. Oh, and it was the Cannes runner-up for the Palme d’Or. Sentimental? Early word has it as sensational.

In theaters: Limited release November 7, 2025.



Sinners

In a nutshell: A complex, ambitious film that blends vampires, blues music and historical themes. Michael B. Jordan excels in a dual role.

Why it's a lock: Don’t let the vampires fool you, this one has real teeth. One of the only Oscar-quality films to already hit theaters and people are still talking about it.

In theaters: Now streaming online.


TOP 3 CONTENDERS

House of Dynamite

In a nutshell: A U.S. missile is accidentally launched at Chicago, and a high-stakes team led by Idris Elba and Rebecca Ferguson races to prevent catastrophe.

Why it's a lock: It's directed by Kathryn Bigelow (Hurt Locker), in another James Cameron Avatar year, and it recently blew up the Venice Film Festial.

In theaters: Limited September release and on Netflix October 10, 2025.



Marty Supreme

In a nutshell: Timothée Chalamet is a young ping pong player in the 1950s on a quest for greatness. The ensemble cast including Gwyneth Paltrow, Fran Drescher and Tyler, The Creator.

Why it's a lock: Directed by Josh Safdie (Uncut Gems) and backed by A24, this late-year entry is the weird, wild awards contender that will likely sneak in at the end.

In theaters: Christmas Day.


Jay Kelly

In a nutshell: George Clooney plays a fading actor on a reflective European road trip with his longtime manager, grappling with fame, failure, and legacy.

Why it's a lock: Directed by Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story), with Adam Sandler poised for another serious-actor moment. Netflix is pushing this hard despite some so-so reviews — expect it to go the distance.

In theaters: November 14, 2025.



THE 3 POPULAR, COLON ONES

Avatar: Fire & Ash:  The upcoming third film in the James Cameron Avatar series (each prior film was nominated for Best Picture) will release on December 19, 2025.

Wicked: For Good: The follow-up and conclusion to last year's Best Picture nominee releases November 21, 2025.

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere: The film about Springsteen's personal work on the Nebraska album, and not his life story, had a boss world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, securing likely nominations for both Jeremy actors (Jeremy Allen White and Jeremy Strong) and a shot at Best Picture. Releases October 24, 2025.



THE WILD CARDS

It Was Just An Accident: Directed by Jafar Panahi, this co-production between Iran, France, and Luxembourg explores political repression in Iran. It has garnered global acclaim and was awarded the Palme d'Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Releases October 15, 2025.

No Other Choice: A 2025 South Korean dark comedy thriller film co-written, produced and directed by Park Chan-wook, in theaters now.

Begonia: The next satirical absurdist science fiction dark comedy film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things, The Favorite) with Jesse Plemmons and Emma Stone, opens appropriately on October 31, 2026.

One Battle After Another: Paul Thomas Anderson directs Leonardo DiCaprio as a former revolutionary hunting for his missing daughter. Ehh. Releases September 25, 2025.

Train Dreams: Netflix's contender with actor Joel Edgerton as a logger and railroad worker in the rapidly changing American West in theaters November 7, 2025, followed by a global Netflix release on November 21, 2025.

Testament of Ann Lee: Early indications from the Venice Film Festival suggest a divisive film like The Brutalist. It stars Amanda Seyfried as Ann Lee, the founding leader of the Shakers religious sect in the 18th century. Release date is still TBD.

Is This Thing On? Bradley Coopers' film about British comedian John Bishop is the closing film of the New York Film Festival on October 10, 2025, and it releases on December 19, 2025.

Rental Family: A comedy-drama, starring Brendan Fraser, is set in Tokyo and follows an American actor who finds purpose working for a Japanese "rental family" agency. In theaters starting November 21, 2025.

Weapons: One of two summer horror breakouts. Stylish, chilling and smarter than your average scream fest. It's in theaters now.

The Naked Gun (2025)

"Nothing to see here! Please disperse!" In 1982, Leslie Nielsen first played the hilariously clueless Detective Frank Drebin in Police Squad!, an underappreciated, short-lived TV series that took the breakneck, deadpan absurdity of the movie  Airplane! and applied it to copland Six episodes and one cancellation later, that same character hit the big screen in 1988’s The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, which became an instant classic and spawned two sequels—the final one aptly titled Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult.

Now, 31 years after that final insult, The Naked Gun returns. The style? Still rapid-fire and delightfully ridiculous. The difference? This time, it's coming from the team behind The Lonely Island and Family Guy.

Akiva Schaffer directs, Seth MacFarlane produces and Liam Neeson plays Lt. Frank Drebin Jr., son of the late, great Nielsen’s character. He’s perfect in the role. Plus, Pamela Anderson joins in and holds her own, while the film throws everything at the wall.

It helps that it’s a tight 90-minute comedy, yet the reboot wrestles with the same truth as the original sequels: lightning rarely strikes twice, and never three times in a row. The film is funny, but rarely Airplane! funny. Not enough jokes work for me to suggest you buy a ticket and go out to see this when your TikTok delivers rapid-fire comedy without having to force a contrived plot between the jokes.  

All that to say that Naked Gun is only OK and hard to fully recommend, despite Neeson firing on all cylinders to dramatic deadpan perfection. If you go anyway, you may be disappointed, but you will laugh in a full theater with the community and that's hardly a bad thing.

In a nutshell: They don’t make them like this anymore, but they probably won’t again either.

Where to see it: In theaters, starting August 1.

Would it be better with Olivia Colman? Surely. But don’t call her Shirley.

Award potential: No.

The Ten Buck review: Not worth ten bucks.

Superman (2025)

Look, up in the sky! It’s yet another Superman, his eighth screen incarnation if you’re counting, and yes, we are doing this all over again. Should we be?

Mostly, yes. The new Superman smartly skips past the origin story. No exploding planets, no baby in a space bassinet, no discovering his powers at the Kent farm.  We’re dropped right into a world that already knows the guy in the cape and tights. Clark’s secret identity? She knows. Lois and Clark? Already a thing. Clark and The Daily Planet? Oddly sidelined. And that’s a shame.

What works, and works fast, is the film’s energy. Filmmaker James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy) clearly brought his mixtape of comic book optimism. The colors pop, the pace zips and we are thankfully spared another dark, overly grim yawnfest. The film clocks in at a breezy two hours, which feels practically retro in an age of 3-hour superhero bloat. A standing ovation for that alone.

David Corenswet (Twisters, Hollywood) and his do-gooding Superman radiates a golden retriever vibe. He’s super, yes, but vulnerable in ways that make you actually care when he gets knocked around (and he gets knocked around a lot). Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) matches him beat for beat as Lois Lane, the two sharing skyscraper-leaping chemistry that fuels much of the film’s charm. More of that next time, please.

And there’s Krypto. The superdog. He flies. He growls. He steals scenes. You’ll leave wanting the plushie.

The first hour is pure joy. Banter, character beats, clever action. Then comes the large plot hole. I mean, a universal portal time hole thing.

Woof. It piles on cosmic threats and loses much of what made the early going so enjoyable. Superman gets beaten more than any other screen version before him. So much so that Mel Gibson is probably wishing he had this role.

Suddenly, the film feels pressured to go epic big, piling on way too many increasingly vague threats. The Justice Gang (maybe their name, maybe not) enters. They’re here to help, and somehow they get beaten up much less than the Man of Steel. It doesn't add up. Supes fights one threat, then another, then five more. Lois drives a spaceship — what is happening now?

Nicholas Hoult (Nosferatu, The Great, Juror #2) plays Lex Luthor in the most one-note Elon Musk way, and it's a mystery what his beef is with Superman is despite, well, spoiler avoided.

The real crime committed is — not enough Clark Kent. With all the universe-hopping, the grounded, goofy charm of Clark-in-the-city is sidelined.

For all its flaws, Gunn brings a welcome sense of humor, hope, and old-fashioned romance back to the DC Universe. Will it make its money back? Definitely. Will it make people want more Superman? Well, I left wanting more Krypto, Lois and Clark, so I'd say they might be on to something here.

In a nutshell: The first half is a colorful blast. In the second half, I was looking at so many things happening, and yawning. It's a toss-up, but yay, it's a tight two hours and Krypto saves the day.

Bonus Tip: No need to stay for the credits. Throwaways without much charm or intended humor.

Where to watch: In theaters starting this Friday. July 11, 2025.

Would it be better with Olivia Colman? Of course.

Award potential: Visual Effects is the only play here.

The Ten Buck Review: Down Krypto! Worth ten bucks.

The Materialists

Good news: Director Celine Song is back.

Bad news: After making my favorite film of 2023, she’s now made a rom-com. You had me at hell-no! For every Nora Ephron, Nancy Meyers or Richard Curtis meet cute that worked, there are hundreds of forgettable duds.

The director of Past Lives—that quiet gut-punch of a film about time, fate and choices—has followed her debut with a story about swiping right.

The Materialists plants us in a very Insta-friendly New York, where Dakota Johnson plays a high-end matchmaker who’s juggling two very different suitors (Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans).

Here, romance isn’t just roses and Meg Ryan karaoke —it’s ROI. Song explores the transactional side of modern love. There’s real bite in the script like an anxious bride nervously joking, “It’s not like my family needs a cow.” One other unique offering is I loved walking in not knowing which of the lead men would be the jerk in the end; I guessed wrong.

Most of the great rom-coms often ask us to conveniently dismiss our knowledge of life’s realities. Cameron Diaz and Jude Law meet up in an English cottage, c’mon.

Song is caught between her desire to speak honestly about what it means to be an authentic woman working in the dating industry while balancing her own wishes and create a fun, funny film with real consequences dropped in.

The movie’s split personality shows. It wants to be sharp and insightful, but also swoony and fun. Sometimes it’s both and other times it feels like it’s ghosting its own premise.

Is it frustrating? Occasionally. Predictable? Yes. Sweet? Often. Perfect? Nope. But in a summer stuffed with bombastic IPs, The Materialists feels like a great date to swipe right to (and one with great music).

In a nutshell: Not great, but fascinating. It’s no Past Lives nor Bridget Jones, but hey—it’s definitely not Bride Wars.

Where to see it: In theaters starting June 13.

Would it be better with Olivia Colman? Absolutely.

Award potential: None. I suppose the comedy Golden Globes has some potential.

The Ten Buck Review: Worth ten bucks. This ones fine either in the theater or on the TV at home.