4.5 stars out of 5
I knew very little about this movie going in. Was it a true story? (It is not, though was loosely inspired by a real person.) But Timothée Chalamet has earned my trust and watching him play ping-pong — excuse me, table tennis — sounded fun. So there I was in the theater on Christmas Eve, and my gift was a 2.5-hour, nonstop blast.
Chalamet is Marty Mauser, expert NYC shoe salesman and would-be international table tennis champion. It’s his destiny, and he’ll stop at nothing to get there! Oh but there are obstacles, and not just JAPANESE PING-PONG SUPERIORITY. Marty must also negotiate around his married girlfriend, unsupportive family, his attraction to married aging screen siren Gwyneth Paltrow, a lost dog, lack of money, and much, much more. It’s After Hours except with a fully willing protagonist and also, set in the world of 1950s ping-pong.
Chalamet wears the role perfectly, just like the period clothing hangs beautifully on his so-skinny frame. I anticipate a best-actor nomination, or at the very least, best mustache. Marty isn’t a great guy, he’s a charmer who uses people, but somewhere in there has an OK soul and you can’t help but root for him.
Josh Safdie is the director here and I thought this was a lot better than his Uncut Gems (which I did enjoy). Oh there is some jewelry in this too. Someone had a fantastic time casting various roles: Fran Drescher unrecognizable as Marty’s mom, Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary a convincing businessman as Gwyneth’s cuckolded hubby, Abel Ferrara, David Mamet, Levon Hawke, Phillippe Petit, Tracy McGrady, George Gervin, Kemba Walker, Tyler the Creator, Penn Jillette, Sandra Bernhard, my pal Chris Nelson from The Scene Is Now, a guy I met many years ago Ed Malone who posted something antisemitic and I unfriended him, Isaac Mizrahi. I spotted some and didn’t spot others.
Several ’80s songs on the soundtrack. Alphaville, etc. I’m not sure why. But they work in here just fine. And there’s a score by Daniel Lopatin of Oneohtrix Point Never, so that’s good too.
You still have a few days off. Go see it! Enjoy yourself.
Movie Review: Marty Supreme
Movie Review: Sentimental Value
5 out of 5 stars
I was very impressed with the 2021 film The Worst Person in the World, directed and co-written (with Eskil Vogt) by Joachim Trier and starring the charming Renate Reinsve. But I didn’t get to rank it among the year’s best, as Worst Person didn’t receive wider release until 2022. That won’t be a problem with Sentimental Value which was created by the same three people, and was released solidly in 2025 with time to spare. Spoiler: It will be at or near the top of my rankings.
The film explores the late stages in a nuclear family’s existence. Their house — their home — is actually presented as another main character here, as it has observed all the joy and sadness over generations. Mom has died; estranged dad Stellan Skarsgard returns. This complicates matters for the two grown daughters. Historian Agnes is married and has a son. In Worst Person, Reinsve’s character wondered whether to choose the married-with-kids track. Here, as sister Nora, she has not taken that route.
As another layer, Dad is an aging movie director of some acclaim. Nora is a TV and theater actress with a bad case of stage fright. Paging Dr. Freud! There are similarities to Jay Kelly here: Being feted leads to reflection for both late-career creatives, and they realize their younger ambition damaged relations with the children. Perhaps to mend fences, Dad presents Nora with a script he’s written for her and wants to direct. Could be his comeback! But Nora isn’t interested. Hey, fine, Dad will just cast American star Elle Fanning instead.
Another compelling aspect: Often it’s easier to express emotions through art than in real life.
Information is shared later in the story that brings things to a new dramatic level. I was deeply affected by this film, filled with excellent performances. And I hope the Joachim Trier Trio stays together.
Aquarium Playlist, 12/23/25
EPISODE #673: BEST NEW-TO-ME 2025 PT. 2
This Is Lorelei — “I’m All Fucked Up” [ALTERNATE THEME]
Ducks Ltd. — “Under the Rolling Moon”
Zandi Holup — “Go Find Less”
LA LOM — “Danza de LA LOM”
Charlie Nieland — “Shame”
Nape Neck — “The Shallowest End”
The Laughing Chimes — “High Beams”
Bullseye — “Tell Tale Signs”
Sunshine Convention — “Dawned on Me”
$500 — “Harvest”
Bunnygrunt — “Inanimate Objects”
Momma — “I Want You (Fever)”
Maria Mirenzi — “Let It Steep”
Strange Neighbors — “You Got Love”
The Midnight Confessions — “When You Were Mine”
Paper Lady — “Static”
John Calvin Abney — “Door of No Return”
Justus Proffit — “Spitting on the Sidewalk”
Chip Away — “Back Out”
Trace Mountains — “Crawling Back to You”
Ultra Lights — “Nostalgia”
Sharp Pins — “Takes So Long”
The Tubs — “Chain Reaction”
Joe Ely — “You Can Bet I’m Gone” r.i.p.
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
Movie Review: The Running Man
2.5 stars out of 5
I like to go to the movies after Thanksgiving dinner. Clears my head. This year I wasn’t thrilled with my choices: Zootopia 2, Wicked for Good, Predator: Badlands, and The Running Man. Quickly narrowed it down to Predator and Running Man. I’d never seen the original version of either of them. But since there have been about 37 Predator predecessors, I figured I’d have less trouble with missed back story if I picked The Running Man.
I think I chose wrong.
Lest we think this was simply a paycheck for director/co-writer Edgar Wright, he seems to have been mostly drawn to goofy sci-fi since his Shaun of the Dead debut in 2004. (Though of what I’ve seen, the Sparks Brothers documentary is his strongest work.)
The Stephen King-conceived conceit is solid enough: Contestants on a dystopian game show try to avoid assassins. I would think the way to play this cinematically would be very straight and thrilling. But Wright goes broad, focusing on satirizing TV in the not-too-distant future. What an evil network head Josh Brolin is! That guy will do anything for ratings!
Glen Powell is also problematic. He is not a compelling leading man. We never really feel for him or his quest to win to get his wife and daughter out of poverty, squalor, and illness. So this just becomes an overlong series of set pieces, some more exciting than others, with some very blatant product placement. Sean Hayes is in this for a hot second, Martin “Please Don’t Destroy” Herlihy lasts slightly longer, and William H. Macy too. Colman Domingo gets more screen time, as does Michael Cera in a too-long sequence, and though I was happy to see rising star Emilia Jones show up, it was too little and way too late in The Running Man’s bloated running time.
Movie Review: Jay Kelly
4 stars out of 5
Hollywood loves movies about Hollywood. Sure, it is the absolute most cliched topic for a Hollywood writer to write about, but A) People who watch movies love movies, so it’s not too risky a subject to present, and B) Write what you know, and C) Noah Baumbach has been directing movies for 30 years and this is his first “look behind the scenes” so, let’s cut him some slack.
As if to rub our noses in the delightful meta-ness of it all, Noah has George Clooney playing Jay Kelly who is basically George Clooney. Sure, Clooney has often been categorized as an actor who always plays himself, and someone in the movie says that to Jay Kelly, who explains that it’s difficult to portray oneself. Point, Clooney! Uh, I mean, Kelly!
The supporting cast is fun and well-chosen. Adam Sandler may earn an Oscar nomination playing against type as Kelly’s long-suffering manager, a character at the crux of one of the movie’s throughlines: Can people be true friends if one is an employee of another? Two other staffers (who show the sacrifices that underlings make for a superstar, who made many sacrifices himself to become a superstar!) are the always great Laura Dern and, in a smaller role, Emily Mortimer who co-write the script with director Baumbach. Whew! Patrick Wilson, who is less famous than Clooney, plays an actor who is less famous than Kelly. Billy Crudup does the same. Stacy Keach has a great time as Kelly’s dad and it’s nice to see him. For those Baumbach-heads keeping score, Dean Wareham has a cameo; I didn’t see Britta but that doesn’t mean she’s not in it, as IMDb doesn’t list either of them. And Greta Gerwig (Mrs. Noah) has a larger role than Emily Mortimer as Adam Sandler’s long-suffering wife.
Those sacrifices made for career, they can lead to regret. That’s a topic here. And can long-busted fences be mended? Another topic. Which add some depth to a generally light and often amusing film. It’s insane that a movie about movies starring a big movie star — who might get nominated as Best Actor for basically playing himself but doing it really, really well — is going to be on Netflix so soon (December 5). Somebody make a movie about that!
What I’ve Been Watching: Edition XXIX
Luckily, the recent government shutdown didn’t effect my TV viewing. Here’s a list of the shows I’ve checked out in the past several months.
LOVED
The Pitt (HBO) I never did watch ER, and I haven’t watched a hospital show since Code Black. But the 24-esque real-time conceit of this series really hooked me, and I couldn’t wait for the next episode. Noah Wyle leads an excellent cast playing doctors and support staff with a lot of heart (and often actual hearts). I am very thankful for a night at Johnny Brenda’s in Philly when both the bartender and my friend Maggie recommended this show.
Task (HBO) I loved Brad Ingelsby’s previous limited series, Mare of Easttown (ok, technically, I “liked it a lot”), and Mark Ruffalo is a long-time fave, so this was a no-brainer for me. Took about an episode to really warm to it, though they scored early points by featuring the Merlin bird-identifying app. Tom Pelphrey, as conflicted bad guy Robbie, is another standout in a superb cast, as the show explored nontraditional families, loyalty, and dreams of a better life with a tremendous amount of heart.
The Chair Company (HBO) My love for this show is so strong, I’m not even waiting for the season finale to air before posting this. The Chair Company is what the movie Friendship could’ve and should’ve been: Take the absurdity and bizarro-yet-very-real characters of I Think You Should Leave and place them in a fleshed-out, more realistic environment. In this, Tim Robinson isn’t simply a quick-to-anger office fuckup; he’s a real person with a wife and kids who he loves, and a responsible job that he’s good at. Until he falls out of a chair and all hilarious hell breaks loose.
King of the Hill (Hulu) Not technically a new show for me, but the original 1997–2009 run was before I started doing these recaps, and I need to show Hank Hill some public love. Mike Judge and his team didn’t lose a step in restarting the classic series. Though most animated series exist in a permanent present, King’s characters aged (Bobby is now a chef; the boy still ain’t right) and experienced the pandemic and societal shifts. Even Hank, retired from selling propane and propane accessories, is slightly woke. Just a little. I was delighted to have this show back.
LIKED A LOT
The Studio (Apple) Really funny and sharp satire of the movie industry, with some terrific cameos. Some episodes were stronger than others, and an overarching cynicism kept me from fully embracing the show, but Seth Rogen and crew deserved their Emmy awards.
Families Like Ours (Netflix) I can’t remember who recommended this to me! But thank you. Set in a very possible near future, this limited series had a terrifying conceit: Rising water levels make Denmark uninhabitable, forcing the government to shut down the country and for all the residents to emigrate. We see the impact on an extended family, led by young actress Amaryllis August (daughter of great Danish director Bille August of Pelle the Conqueror, Les Misérables, etc.), including immigration quotas, illegal border crossings, xenophobia, difficulty finding work, etc.
SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night (Peacock) I signed up for Peacock for a month and keep forgetting to cancel just to watch this documentary series. Not all four episodes are equally compelling, but I loved learning about the very-odd season 11, and to devote an entire episode to the cowbell sketch took gusto. (Note to self: Watch Jim Downey doc and cancel Peacock.)
LIKED
The Lowdown (Hulu) I had high hopes for the latest from Reservation Dogs’ Sterlin Harjo. It stars my boy Ethan Hawke and includes other favorite actors: Kyle MacLachlan, Tracy Letts, Tom McCarthy. And I did love the Tulsa setting of bookstores, diners, bars, and dusty wide-open streets. It’s fun and I kept watching, yet it just doesn’t have the heart and soul that made Reservation Dogs so brilliant.
Stick (Apple) I thought I was one-and-done. I’m not a golf guy, and after watching Happy Gilmore 2, I felt like that was enough golf for me this year. But my friend Jamie convinced me to stick with Stick, and I’m glad I did. Owen Wilson is charming as ever as a once-great golf pro who gets a chance at redemption by coaching a young phenom. We follow their gently comic adventures which stress the always welcome lesson, family is where you find it. And Judy Greer has really hit a sweet spot in her career as the sensible and kind ex-wife.
JURY’S STILL OUT
We can assume it’ll be a “loved” but I still have four episodes (8 hours) to go in Ken Burns’ American Revolution. Don’t tell me who wins!
ODDLY…
I didn’t try any series that I really didn’t like in this stretch of time. There was a movie I had saved on my DVR that I gave up on, but I forget what it was.
YES, I STILL WATCH THE SIMPSONS
Hey, they’re making another movie. My theory last time was that they were saving the best jokes for the screenplay, so the TV writing suffered. We’ll see how it plays out this time.
LOOKING FORWARD TO
As soon as I finish The American Revolution I’m starting Plur1bus. I meant to give It: Welcome to Derry a try. Of course in February there’s the 2026 Winter Olympics. I think I’ll sample All Her Fault even though it’s on Peacock and one of the directors is named Minkie.
SHOWS I USED TO WATCH AND IN MANY CASES STILL DO
Links to Edition I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX, XXI, XXII, XXIII, XXIV, XXV, XXVI, and XXVIII.
Movie Review: Blue Moon
4 stars out of 5
That I went to see Blue Moon in the theater shows two things: One, that I trust Richard Linklater as a filmmaker and two, that I’ve come a long way in my reappreciation of Ethan Hawke. (It was Linklater’s 2014 opus Boyhood which in fact ended my quarter-century Hawke boycott.) That I would learn about legendary American songwriter Lorenz Hart was a great bonus.
Going in, though certainly recognizing the names, I didn’t know the difference between Rodgers & Hammerstein and Rodgers & Hart, or that it’s the same Rodgers in both pairings. But the transition from one words-and-music duo to another is actually at the crux of this film. We see Hart attending and prematurely leaving the 1943 Broadway debut of Oklahoma!, written by his old partner Richard Rodgers and his lyrical replacement, Oscar Hammerstein. Hart retires to his regular bar, where the rest of the movie takes place.
Hawke fully committed to matching Hart’s physical appearance. Clothing and camera tricks helped him look quite short, while hair and makeup added an unfortunate combover. And Hawke’s strong performance, shifting from arrogance to pride to hiding disappointment to desperation to heartache, absolutely dominates the film.
The first third of the film, with Hart holding court at the bar before the Oklahoma! party arrives, is 1940s rapid-fire witty dialogue perfection. Bobby Cannavale basically plays himself as the nice-guy bartender and Hart’s foil. Kudos to Patrick Kennedy as customer-sitting-at-a-table E.B. White. Kennedy looks like a real person instead of an actor playing a role, if that makes sense. A scene with famous White could’ve been corny, but everyone involved makes it work, and the character adds a note of calm to the larger scene. Meanwhile, Jonah Lees as the pianist in the corner supplies elements of youth, innocence, admiration, and ambition.
Then things get messy. Margaret Qualley arrives as the college student poor Lorenz has pinned all his hopes and dreams on. Want to guess if she feels the same way? And then Rodgers (Andrew Scott) and Hammerstein and Oklahoma! cast and crew and society hangers-on all show up, and it all gets a little overwhelming for our tiny protagonist, watching his old partner bathing in accolades while Lorenz is bathing in gin and headed in the other direction.
Later, I looked up Rodgers & Hammerstein’s run of hugely successful musicals. And yet, nothing in them matches the songbook legacy of Hart’s “Blue Moon” and “My Funny Valentine.” I feel like Rodgers is Jay Leno, the broad people pleaser, and Lorenz Hart is Letterman, brilliant, sardonic, and sickened by the phoniness all around.
I expect Ethan Hawke to be Oscar nominated. And I hope some bright theater type will stage this as a play. The limited sets, the emphasis on dialogue — it would totally work!
Movie Review: Bugonia
4.5 stars out of 5
This is the best Yorgos Lanthimos film that Yorgos didn’t write himself. (I’m looking at you, well-received Poor Things and The Favourite.) It best captures the very dark comedy that permeates his own scripts. So I was pleasantly surprised to see that Will Tracy wrote the screenplay, as I wasn’t too impressed with his previous co-write, The Menu. And then was less surprised to learn that Tracy adapted the screenplay from the 2003 Korean movie Save the Green Planet!, which I’m going to check if it’s streaming anywhere once my new FireStick arrives in the mail.
Bugonia reunites the dream team of Lanthimos, Emma Stone, and Jesse Plemons from 2024’s super-dark Kinds of Kindness (and is the fourth time Yorgos and Emma have collaborated). On the surface level, it’s a satire of both corporate America and of conspiracy culture, with Stone note-perfect as a cold-blooded but always smiling CEO who always knows what to say, and Plemons nearly matching her as an aluminum-foil-on-the-windows The Truth Is Out There type. But the revelation here may be newcomer Aidan Delbis, Plemons’ devoted buddy who gives off some serious “Tell me about the rabbits, Lenny” vibes. Delbis emanates sweetness, trust, and innocence, while agonizing over making his own difficult decisions.
This is a fun, funny, hard to guess what will happen movie-watching experience. And just when I was thinking, “Am totally enjoying this, but Yorgos will really need to stick the landing to take it another level,” by god he did! A perfect extended Lanthimos sequence. Be going to Bugonia, you guys!
Movie Review: The Mastermind
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: 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.
Jack Silbert, curator