3 stars out of 5
I’ve been an admirer (cough, cough) of Rachel McAdams for 20+ years. But it was the combined presence of her and director Sam Raimi that convinced me to see Send Help. They last worked together in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and I thought that effort came together very well.
Here, McAdams is Linda Liddle, nebbishy loner but a numbers whiz at her finance job, where she’s just been passed over for a promised promotion to VP. However, 24’s President David Palmer, just before cashing his paycheck for a glorified cameo, convinces dickhead young boss Brad (Dylan O’Brien) to bring Linda along on an important trip to Asia. And just like in 2005’s Red Eye, McAdams finds herself on a very troubled flight.
Linda and Brad realize they are the only survivors of the plane crash on some remote island. But here, Survivor superfan/wannabe contestant Linda thrives with her mad skills regarding food and shelter, and busted-leg Brad is the weak one. In the hands of an anonymous director, this could be a really crummy role-reversal-revenge movie. But good ol’ Sam Raimi knows how to make it fun and funny. A scene with McAdams hunting a wild boar is a particular highlight.
Alas, Raimi didn’t write this movie (and hasn’t written one since 2009’s Drag Me to Hell). And the screenwriting duo Damian Shannon and Mark Swift (who have only previously scripted movies about Freddy, Jason, and Baywatch) – if you’ll excuse the metaphor – don’t know how to land this plane once they have it up in the air. They want to add another twist but the plot gets away from them, and the second half of the movie meanders.
Overall, it’s still entertaining enough as an indictment of corporate bro culture and as a you-shouldn’t-assume-things-about-people survival horror comedy. But next time Shannon and Swift get a screenplay greenlit… send help.
Movie Review: Send Help
Aquarium Playlist, 2/3/26
EPISODE #679: FUCK ICE
Bruce Springsteen — “Streets of Minneapolis” [ALTERNATE THEME]
Mad Doctors — “Fuck Sean Hannity”
Jack White — “ICE Station Zebra”
Karl Hendricks Trio — “Fuck Shit Up”
Vehicle Flips — “ICE Jam”
Sarah Shook & the Disarmers — “Fuck Up”
Naughty Clouds — “ICE on Trees”
Joy Cleaner — “Fuck Up and Run”
Celibate Rifles — “ICE Blue”
The Replacements — “Fuck School” [live at Maxwell’s, 1986]
The Dismemberment Plan — “ICE of Boston”
Grandaddy — “Fuck the Valley Fudge”
Clem Snide — “ICE Cube”
Mitch & Mickey — “Kiss at the End of the Rainbow” r.i.p. Catherine O’Hara
Creedence Clearwater Revival — “Fortunate Son” r.i.p. James McMahon Sr.
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Movie Review: A Private Life
4 stars out of 5
First of all, how come no one told me that a remake of Emmanuelle came out in 2024?!? Well, the co-writer of that, Rebecca Zlotowski, is also the co-writer – and the director — of A Private Life. I’m guessing these are very different films (and as soon as I post this review I will immediately research if Emmanuelle is streaming).
I was drawn in to A Private Life because it stars Jodie Foster in a French thriller, which are two of my favorite things. Or three. And I even recognized a couple of the French dudes in the trailer: Daniel Auteuil who I first saw onscreen in college in Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring, and Mathieu Amalric from The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and a few Wes Anderson flicks.
Then the opening credits begin and we hear “Psycho Killer” – the Talking Heads song with French in it! Tres bon!
Foster is American psychiatrist in Paris Lilian Steiner, an old-school Freudian. Trouble is, she loses two patients in rapid succession. And one is due to death. Which she soon finds herself investigating, because this is a movie. Steiner enlists the assistance of a hypnotist (skeptical Steiner hypnotized? She must really be on edge) and Auteuil as Gaby, her ex-husband eye doctor. Foster and Auteuil are tres magnifique together, like a French Nick and Nora Charles. You can feel the love still between them after all these years, and the easy give-and-take. Plus what a warm, kind face the 75-year-old Auteuil has.
Was Steiner’s late patient murdered? And if so – by who? Perhaps daughter Valerie, intriguingly played by Luana Bajrami, who was in the superb 2022 film Happening. Or maybe it was the client’s hothead husband Simon, portrayed by Amalric. He was a Bond villain in Quantum of Solace, after all.
We end up with a smart modern noir with a strong dash of humor along with explorations of psychology and family dynamics. There’s also Judaism which you don’t find in a ton of thrillers, and kudos for casting a disabled person in a very small role that didn’t require a disability. (The Farrelly brothers always do this and I’m happy to see it in another movie.) I liked A Private Life it a lot but hell, I would’ve bought a ticket just to hear Jodie Foster speak French so expertly.
Movie Review: 28 Years Later — Bone Temple
4 stars out of 5
We had to wait 18 years for a sequel to 28 Weeks Later, so they’re really spoiling us with another installment just 7 months later. From 28 Years Later, the unstoppable Alex Garland returns as screenwriter, while director Danny Boyle sits this one out, handing the reins to Nia DaCosta. The only other movie I’ve seen by her was the godawful The Marvels, but Boyle and Garland have this British zombie world pretty well-defined so I wasn’t overly concerned.
When last we were here, our 12-year-old protagonist Spike (Alfie Williams) was rescued/captured by Sir Jimmy Crystal and his band of Droogies uh I mean Jimmies. In the previous film, young Alfie got to display a wide range of emotions; here he’s pretty much just worrried/scared. But that’s OK, Jack O’Connell as Jimmy C is ready to pick up the mantle of primary character. And he has a field day, equally adept at terrorizing others or being a comic presence.
Ralph Fiennes is also back as Dr. Felton, and he gets to have more fun this time, dancing about, and going all My Fair Lady with rehabilitating zombie Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry). We were promised the return of Cillian Murphy in this movie and he does show up, but it looks like his fan club will really have to wait for Part 3.
Bone Temple may not have the emotional heft of its predecessor, but it’s still a highly entertaining film and – make no bones about it — certainly does its job setting us up for the final chapter.
Aquarium Playlist, 1/27/26
EPISODE #678: ROMEO AND FLOYD
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
Michael Penn — “No Myth”
Edward Rogers — “Romeo”
Wipers — “Romeo”
Dawn Landes — “Romeo”
Steve Forbert — “Romeo’s Tune”
Red Dons — “Just Write Romeo”
Michael & the Messengers — “Romeo & Juliet”
Chambers Brothers — “Romeo and Juliet”
Dire Straits — “Romeo and Juliet”
R.I.P. Uncle Floyd Vivino
Jack Silbert feat. James Bally — “Slip Away”
Cowboy Charlie & his Corral Chums — “Deep in the Heart of Jersey”
Uncle Floyd & Oogie — “Shaving Cream” [punk lyrics version]
Uncle Floyd & Oogie spoken segment
Uncle Floyd — “Cheerio, Cherry Lips, Cheerio”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Movie Review: Father Mother Sister Brother
3.5 stars out of 5
I was initially disappointed learning that this wasn’t a feature length exploration of Richie Cunningham’s fake fraternity, Mama Papa Sister. But I was even more disappointed to discover that this is Jim Jarmusch’s most boring film by a long shot.
Now, I love Jim Jarmusch, going back to his 1980s triumphs Stranger Than Paradise, Down by Law, and Mystery Train (the first movie of his I saw in a theater). And he hasn’t let me down since: Night on Earth, Ghost Dog (loved Ghost Dog!!), Broken Flowers, even the challenging Limits of Control. In the past decade-plus I loved Only Lovers Left Alive, thought Paterson was perfection, and was even delighted by the generally panned zombie comedy The Dead Don’t Die. His movies are cool, stylish, grungey. Saxophones and coffee and cigarettes and darkened streets. Hell, I own the soundtracks to at least four of his flicks.
I certainly don’t mind Jarmusch trying something new, because he always has. But focusing on aging parents of the upper middle class? Leave that to EVERY OTHER WRITER/DIRECTOR OF A CERTAIN AGE, Jim. You’re better than that! (Oops sorry, my caps lock was stuck.)
This is an anthology, like Mystery Train and Night on Earth. The only reason I was sad to find that out: I was looking forward to an entire movie of Tom Waits. (At least memorizing 110 pages of dialogue would be a decent excuse for still not making a new album.) First of three stories is Adam Driver and Mayim Bialik (hey why not) visiting their down-and-out dad Waits. Second is an adorably nerdy Cate Blanchett and Vicky Krieps (who I thought was superb in Phantom Thread and Hold Me Tight) visiting Charlotte Rampling. And third is I don’t know and I don’t know (I was getting a little sleepy by this point, sorry) visiting their dead parents’ apartment.
We see common themes of estrangement, sibling rivalry, and pretending you’re something that you’re not. These are high-quality actors and Jarmusch puts them in recognizable situations. Wow, I could feel sitting there with grown children Adam and Mayim as the room gets darker and the afternoon gets longer thinking “When can I leave.” There are a few laughs too. It’s not a bad movie; it’s a pretty good movie, but it’s very very talky and not particularly compelling. And for Jarmusch, that’s a letdown. I feel like Jimmy in Quadrophenia finding out Ace Face is now a bellboy. Now that was a cool movie!
Aquarium Playlist, 1/20/26
EPISODE #677: ROBOTS II
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
Stereolab — “Robot Riot”
Freedy Johnston — “Madeline’s Eye”
The Buggles — “I Love You (Miss Robot)”
Magnetic Fields — “The Little Robot Girl”
Heather Cook — “Robot Prom”
Dentist — “Robot”
Dennis Young — “Radical Robots”
Flaming Lips — “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1”
They Might Be Giants — “Unctuous Robot”
Devo — “Mechanical Man” [Booji Boy version]
Hoodie Allen — “You Are Not a Robot”
The Saints — “International Robots”
Bern & the Brights — “Thieves, Creeps, and Automatons”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
My Highly Subjective List of the Best Films of 2025
Call me optimistic, call me someone who makes claims based on anecdotal evidence, “Call me… irresponsible…,” but I feel like maybe, maybe people are starting to go to movie theaters a little more? Like, I’ve been at crowded screenings recently that in the past few years would’ve just been me and my medium popcorn.
Here are the best new theatrical releases that I saw last year. Annual caveats: I didn’t see everything I wanted to see, and you and I might like different movies and we’re both right.
10) 28 Years Later This sequel to 28 Days Later was only 23 years later, but reunited director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland (whose Warfare appears elsewhere on this list). Of course we get lots of zombie action and scares, plus some laughs. But the movie also has emotional heft thanks to a strong performance from 12-year-old newcomer Alfie Williams and a bizarre-looking Ralph Fiennes.
9) The Phoenician Scheme Classic Wes Anderson in the form of a road picture/antihero’s quest. It’s a satire of oligarchs and theocracy, tackling redemption and forgiveness, and the meaning of family, all blended up in an old-fashioned screwball comedy. Plus appearances by every star who’s ever been in a Wes Anderson movie.
8) Bugonia Director Yorgos Lanthimos returns with a satire of both corporate America and of conspiracy culture, with his 2024 Kinds of Kindness dream team intact: Emma Stone note-perfect as a cold-blooded but always smiling CEO who always knows what to say, and Jesse Plemons nearly matching her as an aluminum-foil-on-the-windows The Truth Is Out There type. It’s fun, funny, keeps you guessing, and Lanthimos totally sticks the landing.
7) Sinners Writer/director Ryan Coogler pulls out all the stops in this super entertaining (and yes, eventually pretty violent) horror flick that is a whole lot more! Perhaps he was inspired working again with his muse Michael B. Jordan, who plays twin brothers who open a juke joint in the old-timey south. We’re dealing with religion vs. sin, city vs. country, and a head-on battle with racism and discrimination. Oh and SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. And music sweet music. There is a performance by breakout cast member Miles Caton that is absolutely hypnotic, placing the blues securely in its place in the history — past, present, and future — of black music.
6) Frankenstein Like some sort of mad doctor, the amazing Guillermo del Toro stitches together Mary Shelley’s classic novel with bits of the 1931 Hollywood classic film and some of his very own ingenuity to create this highly satisfying movie! Oscar Isaac is excellent, taking Dr. Victor Frankenstein from driven to obsessed to a God complex to madness and desperation. And rising star Jacob Elordi is perfectly cast as The Creature: a beautiful face that uncannily looks a bit like Boris Karloff’s Monster.
5) Sorry, Baby How great to have a fresh, smart, funny voice in Eva Victor, who also stars in her debut feature as writer and director. The tragic story could’ve been maudlin in less-skilled hands, but Victor gently shows us how awful events change us but that we can also slowly carry on, navigating through idiocy and occasional sweetness.
4) The Secret Agent Writer/director Kleber Mendonça Filho crafts a thinking person’s thriller based in the real-life military dictatorship and government corruption of 1977 Brazil. Wagner Moura is excellent as the latest resident in a community of political refugees. The director includes a few Lynchian touches which for me is value added!
3) Warfare My boy Alex Garland (Civil War, Annihilation, Ex Machina) co-wrote and co-directed this no-nonsense, stellar piece of filmmaking: 95 tight minutes, showing a harrowing incident that took place in 2006 during the Iraq War, in real time, based solely on the recollections of the Navy SEAL participants. I was really impressed with the portrayal of soldiers relying on their training, chain of command, standard procedures (and necessary improvisation), and care for each other when the shit goes down.
2) Marty Supreme Sometimes at the movies you just want to be entertained, and Marty Supreme was a non-stop blast. It felt like After Hours set in the world of 1950s table tennis and with a willing protagonist. With a different lead actor, scheming Marty might’ve been insufferable, but Timothée Chalamet puts this film on his back and absolutely carries it from start to finish.
1) Sentimental Value The writers, director, and star of 2021’s The Worst Person in the World return with an even better film, exploring the late stages in a nuclear family’s history with great emotional depth. As in Jay Kelly (see Honorable Mentions), this explores how professional ambition can damage personal relationships, and does it with more nuance. No other movie this year affected me as deeply.
Honorable mentions: One Battle After Another, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, Blue Moon, Jay Kelly, The Long Walk, Weapons, The Naked Gun, Honey Don’t!
Worst movie: The Running Man
New releases I saw in a theater this year: 44 (including the superb 2024 international film The Seed of the Sacred Fig and the very good but not widely released till 2025 The Room Next Door)
My best-of lists from: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019,2018, 2017/16, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009
You can check out all my movie reviews by clicking here.
Movie Review: Is This Thing On?
3.5 stars out of 5
Alec Baldwin said it was the best movie of the year, and this was a slow New Year’s Day, so I found myself in a surprisingly crowded theater for Is This Thing On? Well, maybe Baldwin needs to see a few more films, but it was a decent, “grown-up” way to spend a couple of hours.
I guess the ideal audience for this movie is upper-middle-class divorced people with kids, just trying their best to make it through this crazy world. In other words, 90% of Hollywood. Director/co-writer/co-star Bradley Cooper is a divorced dude with a kid, same with co-writer/co-star WIll Arnett, and co-star Laura Dern is a divorced mom with kids. (Oh, Alec Baldwin? Divorced; kid.) So they were inspired by the true-life story of a British guy, separated from his wife, who took a stab at stand-up comedy.
Arnett (financial guy who we never once see at work) and Dern (retired Olympic volleyball player) are headed in different directions after 20 years of marriage and two sons, 10 and 11 years old. There’s still a lot of love around so it’s tough. The upper-middle-class thing is key (which I would’ve liked the script to acknowledge), because we see both partners grappling with the emotional and psychological aspects of separation, but the monetary issues, which can cripple so many, don’t come into play here. Oh, Will has to move out? No problem, he’ll just get a nice apartment in the city.
Arnett, who we learn was “always a funny guy,” stumbles into stand-up. Sharing tales from his own life, he finds it cathartic, and he improves as he goes. We get to once again (as we did in Louie, and Crashing, etc.) explore the world of New York City comedy clubs, and the camaraderie found there. (Hey, there’s Dave Atell, and Chloe Radcliffe.) Maybe Laura Dern can plug back into her passions too, though that kind of gets short shrift here.
The movie feels like we’re hanging out with friends. I can certainly see myself separated from Laura Dern. Arnett is very good; really captures the distracted look of one suffering from trauma. I see him either getting a surprise best actor nomination, or else a couple of articles mentioning he was snubbed. Cooper is a bearded stoned buddy, good for a laugh or honest talk. (The movie is pretty talky.) Amy Sedaris feels right as the Comedy Cellar manager. Sean Hayes is another buddy, and I’m sure they’re having good fun on Smartless, Jason Bateman all mock-hurt, “What, there wasn’t a role for me, pal?” I didn’t recognize Ciaran Hinds or Christine Ebersole as Will’s parents but they turn in nice small parts. There’s one bit of stunt casting that was initially jarring but worked out fine. And in product placement news, BUY A VOLKSWAGEN.
Is this thing on streaming? Not yet, but that’ll be a fine place to watch it.
Pandemic Cinema, Year 6
A chronological list of non-current or non-theatrical movies (feature length and short films) that I watched at home during the continuing COVID-19 crisis in 2025. The great majority of them were new to me.
Gaslight a.k.a. Angel Street (1940)
Lousy Carter (2023)
Love Lies Bleeding (2024)
Homesteader Droopy (1954)
Cops Is Always Right (1938)
Juror #2 (2024)
Wolfs (2024)
The Hound and the Rabbit (1937)
Customers Wanted (1939)
Black Gravel (1961)
Blackmail (1929)
Trouble in Paradise (1932)
The Life of the Party (1920)
Design for Living (1933)
Rifkin’s Festival (2020)
Act of Violence (1948)
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
Murder! (1930)
Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary (2024)
Young and Innocent (1937)
Hearts of the West (1975)
The Peachy Cobbler (1950)
Ghosks Is the Bunk (1939)
Hello How Am I (1939)
First Reformed (2017)
This Land Is Mine (1943)
Leap Year (1924)
Love (1919)
Foreign Correspondent (1940)
Rumble Fish (1983)
Sugarland Express (1974)
The Thief Who Came to Dinner (1973)
Scanners (1981)
The Alley Cat (1941)
The Swimmer (1968)
Fightin Pals (1940)
Doing Impossikible Stunts (1940)
Summer of ‘42 (1971)
Bear Raid Warden (1944)
Popeye Meets William Tell (1940)
Cold Turkey (1971)
Casque d’Or (1952)
Marooned (1969)
28 Weeks Later (2007)
My Pop, My Pop (1940)
The Bear and the Hare (1948)
Poopdeck Pappy (1940)
Eraserhead (1977)
Popeye Presents Eugene, the Jeep (1940)
Problem Pappy (1941)
Intruder in the Dust (1949)
Two on a Guillotine (1965)
Happy Gilmore 2 (2025)
The Bride Wore Black (1968)
Annabelle (2014)
$ (1971)
The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961)
Olive’s Sweep$take Ticket (1941)
Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)
F for Fake (1973)
Thank God It’s Friday (1978)
Alone in the Dark (1982)
Alice in the Cities (1974)
Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
John Candy: I Like Me (2025)
The Omega Man (1971)
The Hand (1981)
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978)
The Fury (1978)
Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (1968)
Blind Spot (1947)
Return to Mount Kennedy (2019)
High and Low (1963)
Pandemic Cinema, year 1
Pandemic Cinema, year 2
Pandemic Cinema, year 3
Pandemic Cinema, year 4
Pandemic Cinema, year 5
Jack Silbert, curator