3.5 stars out of 5
I left this movie thinking I’d be giving it a higher rating than the aggregated writers on Metacritic. Was surprised to see that, no, it was averaging 80 out of 100, with a handful of perfect 100s from a few top reviewers. Well, I guess there’s a new hardass in town!
And let me say, I am a pretty big fan of writer/director Kelly Reichardt. Was the fact that Yo La Tengo scored 2006’s Old Joy the reason I saw it in the theater? Not sure, but I loved it. (And have since become friendly with costar Daniel London; what a koo-koo crazy world this is.) Her Wendy and Lucy made my top-ten of 2009. I was kind of bored by First Cow in 2019 (another the critics went gaga for), but I thought Reichardt’s 2022 offering Showing Up was a real improvement, and not just because Todd-o-Phonic Todd’s voice was in it.
I went to see The Mastermind solely because it was a Kelly Reichardt film; I didn’t know anything else about it, except that art theft was involved. So I cheered in my seat when the second-listed cast member was Alana Haim, who I dig. Sadly her role as the mastermind’s wife is not much bigger than her glorified cameo in One Battle After Another — here she just gives a lot of disappointed looks.
I’m not familiar with lead actor Josh O’Connor, though he looks like Charlie from Always Sunny. O’Connor is the titular mastermind of a turn-of-the-70s art heist. Except he’s not a hardened criminal, he’s a mild-mannered dad in Framingham, Massachusetts. When we meet him, he is casing the local art museum, and we assume he’s made a foolproof plan to sell four paintings and put his family on an easier street. He’ll still be an unemployed schlub, but maybe not have to borrow money from mom Hope Davis anymore.
So the film begins as a low-key comic heist. My interest was piqued because the targeted paintings are by Arthur Dove, subject of the excellent 2006 song “I’m in Love (With Arthur Dove).” Coincidentally the only time I’ve seen works by Arthur Dove in person was at the Montclair Museum on Art, in the same town I was watching this movie.
O’Connor is solid enough in the heist-leader role, but I found myself no longer rooting for the character as his life begins to crumble. I’m not sure if this was the actor’s fault, or the writing, or both. But the movie also shifts from just-barely comedy to depressing character-driven drama.
Reliable character actor Bill Camp is our mastermind’s dad; he also doesn’t get much to do. Gaby Hoffmann (most recently seen in Deliver Me From Nowhere as Springsteen’s loving mom) plays an old friend. Like Ms. Haim, she is disappointed in our protagonist, but the more veteran actress Hoffmann (she was the 6-year-old niece in Uncle Buck!) is able to imbue her letdown with real gravitas. My favorite actor and character in the movie is her longtime partner Fred, portrayed by Reichardt regular John Magaro. He bursts with sweetness, idealism, and supportiveness; Fred is the guy you want in your corner when the chips are down.
I won’t reveal the ending except to say that I would’ve much preferred a vague conclusion rather than what occurs.
The Mastermind is still in a handful of theaters, but this one is fine to watch via streaming. That’s where I’m going to catch up with the few Kelly Reichardt features I’ve missed. I am indeed a fan of her slowcore style, and admire that she attempts different genres each time out.
Movie Review: The Mastermind
Movie Review: Frankenstein
4.5 stars out of 5
Guillermo del Toro has quietly become one of my favorite filmmakers. This is his fourth consecutive movie (after The Shape of Water, Nightmare Alley, and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinnochio) that I’ve rated 4.5 stars out of 5, and Pan’s Labyrinth is a classic as well. And via interviews, I’ve learned of his deep love and appreciation for Hollywood history; del Toro gets it — the magic and importance of movies.
So it was really fitting that he revisit a legendary tale of horror, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, that has a seemingly definitive film version from 1931. But instead of remaking or (god forbid) modernizing the beloved James Whale/Boris Karloff movie, he honors it and borrows from it. Del Toro bases much more of the plot on Shelley’s novel (fine, I never read it, but I did skim the Wikipedia entry). He reworks bits that didn’t make sense, and adds his own sensibility. (Hmm, sense… sensibility… somebody should use that.) It’s almost like he’s a solo Don Henley, building the perfect beast. Or wait, no, he’s like Dr. Victor Frankenstein! Why didn’t I use that obvious comparison? Oh if only my delete key workedgkhjf.
One nifty del Toro addition is a focus on fathers and sons: young Victor and his bad dad, a dynamic which grown-up Victor unwittingly repeats with his “son,” the Monster. (But don’t call him the M-word, it’s offensive.) And, not to mention Henley twice, but, I think it’s about forgiveness.
Don’t worry, Guillermo hasn’t gone all woke with the monster (which was a Cheap Trick album?); the fable-like story actually could’ve been OK for kids but there’s a lot of blood and body parts and shooting and fire (“Fire bad!”). So if you like monster movies, you’ll like this, trust me.
Oscar Isaac, one of my fave actors, is the grown Victor Frankenstein, and he’s excellent taking the character from driven to obsessed to a God complex to madness and desperation. Rising star Jacob Elordi is The Creature and he is perfectly cast: a beautiful face that uncannily looks a bit like Karloff’s Monster. Chrisroph Waltz is a wealthy benefactor who you can probably guess is a bit nutty because it’s Christoph Waltz. And for gothic romance you gotta have Mia Goth (so good in Infinity Pool, pretty good in X, meh in Pearl, and I didn’t see MaXXXine because the person who recommended that trilogy ghosted me, harrumph!). She’s engaged to Victor’s brother (a part that del Toro doesn’t quite know what to do with) but Victor likes her, but she likes the big stitched-together dude. What a triangle!
It’s a shame that most people will watch this film at home because there are BIG settings — including the very-cool laboratory and a vast frozen expanse — that are gorgeously shot and really deserve to be seen in the theater. (Maybe you’ll be able to catch an anniversary theatrical re-release on some future Halloween.) But I must admit, it’s kind of cool that while Universal Studios has quietly, slowly rebooted Invisible Man and Wolf Man, Netflix snuck away with Universal’s Big Man and handed him off to del Toro, who delivered a great movie.
Movie Review: Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere
4 stars out of 5
I try to buy any new Springsteen album on the day of release, and it turns out I’m an opening-day guy for any Bruce biopics too. Had obviously been looking forward to this movie, after so many reports of filming days in Asbury Park, Bruce sightings on-set, etc. And I’ve enjoyed Jeremy Allen White’s work in The Bear (less so in The Iron Claw).
In case you haven’t been as invested in the making of this film as I was: It only focuses on one specific time period in Springsteen’s life, the making of his sparse landmark album Nebraska. He’s already the superstar who appeared simultaneously on the covers of Time and Newsweek, but not yet the global megastar of Born in the USA. And the songs coming to him are not obvious hit singles; they are explorations of a darkness and a solitude within.
As a result this is not a flashy, bright lights, big city movie (despite a couple of thrilling concert recreations). Like the Nebraska album itself, the film is subtle, subdued, and reflective, and goes to some dark places. It is perhaps overly respectful of the Legend of Springsteen; had writer/director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart) taken some bigger swings, he might’ve turned a very good film into an excellent one.
The superb cast provides you with a reason to believe. Jeremy Allen White inhabits the role of the personally and professionally conflicted Springsteen; it doesn’t hurt that Bruce’s insistence on perfection and his own vision but with a self-doubt linked to depression is ground White’s previously covered as Carmy. Jeremy Strong is excellent as Bruce’s ultra-supportive, nurturing manager Jon Landau. I could listen to his great near-monotone voice all day. Stephen Graham, who is having a moment, anchors the black-and-white childhood flashbacks as Bruce’s dad – frightening and distant but still a role model for a wide-eyed kid. In smaller roles, the likable Paul Walter Hauser is manning the tape deck at Bruce’s house, David Krumholtz solidifies his position as go-to nebbishy character actor with a turn as a record label exec, and a stubbly-but-no-mustache Marc Maron only gets a couple of key lines as mix-master Chuck Plotkin.
The movie never embarrasses itself, and can proudly take its place in the Bruce-adjacent canon. As a piece of entertainment: If you love Bruce, and love New Jersey, I think you’ll really enjoy this movie. Or if you’re simply Bruce-curious, you’ll learn quite a lot. But if you’re Type-A or ADHD or crave car chases, superdudes, or K-Pop anime, you can probably skip this one.
Movie Review: One Battle After Another
4 stars out of 5
Maybe Trump caught an early screening of this before they started sending National Guard troops against U.S. citizens. We start 16 years ago (but it might have been yesterday), when a band of revolutionaries are freeing detained immigrants. These anti-fascists include Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor (who I’ve only seen in Coming 2 America), Avon Barksdale, and my girl Alana Haim who we all loved in PTA’s previous flick, Licorice Pizza.
Teyana uses sex as a weapon against Sean Penn’s Colonel Lockjaw of the militarized police force, and he’s immediately smitten. Too bad she’s in love with Leo and they make a baby.
Cut to the present, our band of good-troublemakers have spread to the four winds. Leo has raised the baby who has grown up into Willa (young actress Chase Infiniti) and they lead a fairly normal suburban life… until Col. Lockjaw, who just can’t get Teyana off his mind, reappears to screw things up. And just when Leo thought he was out, they pull him back in.
That’s more plot than I usually share but I felt you deserved it, because the trailer really doesn’t let you know anything at all. I basically went in blind to this 2 hour, 40 minute film because I trust DiCaprio and writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson. They rewarded my faith with a fun, smart, funny, exciting movie that held my attention all the way through.
What we have here is a satire of our modern far-right police state (though there’s nothing new under the sun, as this is based on the 1990 novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon). We meet the Christmas Adventurers Club, an elite secret society of white supremacists including SNL legend Jim Downey and Kevin Tighe a.k.a. DeSoto from Emergency! Anderson also explores the overlapping of personal and professional lives. Early on, we see Leo choose family over revolution, while Teyana makes the opposite choice. Later we see Lockjaw making military decisions, and devoting vast resources, based solely on his broken heart and his desire to impress the Christmas club. It’s frightening to think how many big bad actions are taken just because somebody got dumped.
The acting is top-notch. Leo is hilarious trying to reconnect with the cloak-and-dagger world, but also shows great sweetness as the loyal dad. Benicio del Toro is fantastic as the local karate sensei who is quietly harboring immigrants. He is a born leader, unfailingly positive, and someone you always want on your side. And has Sean Penn played a nasty soldier since Casualties of War? He’s very funny here.
The movie looks great and sounds great (thanks Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood and several well-chosen popular songs), and contains I think the most action sequences we’ve seen from PTA. He’s good at it! A career in Hollywood is certainly one battle after another, but this is a decisive victory for Paul Thomas Anderson.
Movie Review: The Long Walk
4 stars out of 5
I approve of Stephen King as an author and as a human being, but as I covered in my review of IT, I’ve never read his stuff or even seen most of the movies based on it. Which made The Long Walk another total surprise for me. The trailer really drew me in: A competition in which young men go for a, uh, lengthy stroll, where the last man standing wins and presumably everybody else dies. Dang! Even in Glengarry Glen Ross there was a second prize.
Now, we have two main participants and one is the lead actor, so anyone with any basic grasp of storytelling knows there are only two possible endings. So as a viewer (and in life, IMHO), it helps to be process-oriented rather than goal-oriented. How will we reach that one conclusion instead of the other? Everyone involved in this film helps make it a compelling journey: King with the story, relative unknown JT Mollner with the script, Hunger Games vet director Francis Lawrence, and a cast of talented young actors.
Leading the way is Cooper Hoffman as Ray. How lucky we are to have Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s son in our lives for decades to come! He was excellent in Licorice Pizza and he’s even better in this, showing the full range of human emotions (which one might expect over the course of walking hundreds of miles with machine guns pointed at you).
Nearly matching Hoffman performance-wise is David Jonsson (who I liked as a robot in Alien: Romulus) as fellow walker Pete. Also of note in a smaller role is Judy Greer as Ray’s mom. In the past decade, Greer has really found her niche as a loving divorced or widowed mom. I’m not going to say who plays the hardass major, as I didn’t know till the end credits, but he’s having a blast doing his best R. Lee Ermey impression.
The film’s long-walk format – unlike anything I’ve seen before, really — allows backstory and character development to come out bit by bit, very naturally. The exception to this is for some of the supporting actors, who briefly get the spotlight, deliver a little soliloquy about their rough upbringing, and then fall back in the pack. But at least for Hoffman, Jonsson, and a few of the walkers they bond with, we really see a realistic progression of friendship and trust.
Because story information is delivered piecemeal, we don’t know the era (young men walking through idyllic country landscapes actually called to mind the King adaptation Stand by Me and feels and looks old-timey, yet they have digital pedometers). We know there’s been a war but not who fought who or why or when or who won. (Does not look like we did, though.) But then we get a quick flashback showing that “subversive” books and music have been outlawed and that U.S. troops are policing our own citizens, and this dystopian tale written in 1979 felt current and real and terrifying.
Thankfully, through the young men’s conversations, we also hear a lot about love, religion, regret, appreciation, greed, ambition, hope, fear, desperation – the whole gamut of the human experience. So take a short drive or long walk to the multiplex and catch this one while it’s still around.
Aquarium Playlist, 9/30/25
EPISODE #661: SINS
Traveling Wilburys — “7 Deadly Sins” [ALTERNATE THEME]
John Cozz & Ken De Poto — “Oh What a Sin”
Sidney Gish — “Sin Triangle”
Bruce Springsteen — “Wages of Sin”
Nina Simone — “Sinnerman”
Dream Syndicate — “Loving the Sinner, Hating the Sin”
Sweet Nobody — “Sinner at Gatherings”
Pet Shop Boys — “It’s a Sin”
Tony Bennett — “Sing You Sinners”
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers — “Sins of my Youth”
George Usher — “Unforgivable Sin”
Rare Books — “Sinner”
John Prine — “The Sins of Mephisto”
Health & Happiness Show — “Sinner’s Lullaby”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Movie Review: Spinal Tap II — The End Continues
3.5 stars out of 5
Upon re-watching 1984’s This Is Spinal Tap early in the pandemic, I rated it 10 out of 10 on IMDb, and if the scale allowed me, would’ve gone to 11. I was 15 years old when the movie first came out and it was a perfect blend of smart and stupid, mocking the Heavy Duty Rock and Roll that was then such a big part of my life. Next, Nigel Tufnel a.k.a. Christopher Guest took that mockumentary format and ran with it, creating some of my very favorite films (Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind). If I couldn’t quote from all these movies, I’d likely have a lot less to say.
So there was no chance I wasn’t going to see Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. No, it is not as non-stop hilarious and brilliant as the original. But I smiled all the way through, laughed quite a lot, and am liking it even more as days pass since the screening. Staging a contractually-obligated reunion concert is an ideal conceit for this film; we aging rock fans have certainly witnessed our fair share of “getting the band back together” while members struggle to overlook whatever conflicts split them up in the first place.
Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, and Guest slip back into their old characters with ease (likely aided by the fact they’ve dusted them off a number of times in the past four decades). Of course Rob Reiner is here as the real-life director and as fictional director Marty DiBergi. Cameos round out the cast including a few This Is Spinal Tap vets who are great to see, a couple of ringers from Guest’s stable of talent (John Michael Higgins and Don Lake), and a ton of music stars, including a parade of famous drummers understandably hesitant to occupy the Tap’s drum stool. You’ve likely seen Paul McCartney and Elton John in the ads, and their scenes are particularly terrific.
I imagine that improvising comedy doesn’t come as naturally with age, and some exchanges here do fall flat. But there’s more than enough good stuff, all leading up to a laugh-out-loud ending. Ultimately, I am so appreciative that the boys are back in town.
Aquarium Playlist, 9/23/25
EPISODE #660: DUST
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
Dolly Mixture — “Dust to Dust”
Bob Mould — “Return to Dust”
Allo Darlin’ — “Only Dust Behind”
The Schramms — “Faith Is a Dusty Word”
The Ballroom — “Musty Dusty”
Elmore James — “Dust My Broom”
UV-TV — “Dust”
Robyn Hitchcock — “The Dust”
Eels — “Dust of Ages”
14 Iced Bears — “Dust Remains”
Cayetana — “Dust”
Mazzy Star — “Into Dust”
Woody Guthrie — “So Long, It’s Been Good To Know You (Dusty Old Dust)”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Aquarium Playlist, 9/16/25
EPISODE #659: SATISFIED
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
Otis Redding — “Satisfaction”
Jeanines — “Satisfied”
Steve Earle — “I Ain’t Ever Satisfied”
Liz Phair — “Satisfied”
Untamed Youth — “She’s So Satisfying”
The Replacements — “Unsatisfied”
Plastic Palms — “Satisfied”
Tuns — “To Your Satisfaction”
Tom Waits — “Satisfied”
Rolling Stones — “I Can’t Be Satisfied” [radio session]
Skeeter Davis — “What Does It Take (To Keep a Man Like You Satisfied)”
Palmyra Delran & the Doppel Gang feat. Genya Ravan — “I’m Satisfied”
Blind Willie Johnson — “Praise God I’m Satisfied”
Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart — “Words” [demo] ri.p. Bobby Hart
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Movie Review: The Conjuring — Last Rites
3.5 stars out of 5
If you’re keeping score: First I watched The Conjuring, The Conjuring 2, Annabelle Comes Home, and Annabelle: Creation on cable. In 2021, I went to the theater to see The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. Since then on cable I’ve watched Annabelle and The Nun.
I returned to the multiplex for The Conjuring: Last Rites. It was 2:15 pm on a Saturday in Brick, New Jersey and I figured I’d have the theater mostly to myself. But no, the ticketing kiosk indicated a pretty packed showing, and I was relegated to the front show. I looked up my review of Devil Made Me Do It and saw that the first screening of that I attempted to attend was sold out. People love this spooky trash! And I kind of do also.
I do get annoyed when they try to convince the audience that the paranormal is REAL. “Some regard the Warrens as leaders in the mainstream acceptance of yadda-yadda.” Phooey! And this one begins with a flashback to 1964, when supposedly a creepy mirror tried to interfere with the birth of the Warrens daughter. And I’m screaming (in my head) at the screen, “Oh just because the hospital’s power goes out and the baby doesn’t breathe immediately doesn’t mean the supernatural is involved! Didn’t these people watch The Pitt?”
My other recurring pet peeve is Vera Farmiga’s wardrobe. The filmmakers are dreaming up all kinds of nonsensical shit. So why are they sticking so close to the facts regarding Lorraine Warren dressing like a Little House on the Prairie school marm??
OK, one more disappointment: They recast the role of daughter Judy. Sterling Jerins had played her from age 9 to 17 (with a quick detour to McKenna Grace in Annabelle Comes Home). Now when Judy finally has a meaty part, Sterling is out and Mia Tomlinson is in. At least the same guy has played Father Gordon five times, and the same guy has been Drew four times. And “Brad” from part I shows up at a barbecue.
All that aside, this installment is a lot of fun: good scares, a few laughs, some nice weird touches. It’s 1986 so the music is solid (including one of my fave raves, “A Girl in Trouble (Is a Temporary Thing)” by Romeo Void). The plot, if you care, has a family in Pennsylvania ending up with OMG the same mirror that tried to off baby Judy back in ’64! And very bad things start happening. Just when the Warrens thought they were out, the man in the mirror pulls them back in.
Last Rites has been positioned as the final flick in the Conjuring Universe (I still need to see The Nun II to be a completist), but it’s clear the Warrens are handing the torch to Judy and her beau Tony, and a quick Google reveals that they are the real-life co-directors of the New England Society for Psychic Research. Oh friggin’ great, she dresses like her mom.
Jack Silbert, curator