December 2025 Check In

Thanksgiving makes November a weird month. Sometimes there’s a full week of November after Thanksgiving, others it’s Thanksgiving and then whoops we’re into December. That second one is how this one went.

For the first time in over maybe two years, I’m starting to fall behind on my weekly podcast rotation. I’ve been pushing really hard to try to catch up on Blank Check to get current with it, and that’s taking up a lot of listening bandwidth. Gonna try to keep it in balance, but I’ll just feel better once I finally get through that full backlog. Just nine months left to go…

As for this month, the priority is finishing the last of these big movie reviews (only Unforgiven, To Kill A Mockingbird, and Vertigo are left) and then assembling this list of Top 250 films. Considering that I want to also make a post of the 50 honorable mentions that didn’t make the list, that’s a lot of writing about tons and tons of movies. Luckily, those 300 movies are all going to be stuff that I can [hopefully] write a quick blurb for. Then again, at around blurb #170 I’ll probably want to drill a hole in my head and whine at everyone I know about how awful this idea was in the first place.

Add in that I solicited a bunch of movies from people in my life and that those need to get watched in the next two weeks so they can be part of the overall consideration1… lots to do. Looks like it’ll be another movie-a-day sitch. Ending this project like I started it.

But that’s for me in a couple of weeks. For now though, I’m writing this while watching Dune Part One because it’s been too long. Good movie.

Anyways. Here’s what I’ve been up to. And as always, thanks for reading!

Now You See Me Trilogy

Caught up on this trilogy to catch the new movie in theaters. It should probably get a full write-up, but… whatever. The broad premise of “illusionist thieves do crime capers” is the sort of studio nonsense I’m here for. Add in that these are really star-driven blockbusters and it’s sad that these sorts of movies are as rare as they are. I just want to watch Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, and Lizzy Caplan be cool illusionist friends pulling wacky magic heists.

The first film, Now You See Me, is a 2013 film directed by Louis Leterrier. It sets up the Horsemen meeting but stars Mark Ruffalo as the FBI agent who investigates their crimes as they flit around pulling various cons. The struggle is the script, which keeps the Horsemen at arm’s length, so the audience is more in the POV of the FBI than with the ostensible main characters. This is a huge mistake, and every time we get near the Horsemen it’s frustrating when the film cuts away to focus on some investigation that’s behind the times. Not only that, but it seems like the movie doesn’t trust its layered plot to hold up under scrutiny. Which… they’re right to worry. The ending “whodunnit” reveal feels like the story got to the end, didn’t have a solution, and then randomly picked the person who would be most surprising regardless of whether they had earned the moment.

The second film, Now You See Me 2, fixes this. John M. Chu stays with the Horsemen, following them as they try to untangle the conspiracy that’s kept them on the backfoot. It’s far more successful, though it still suffers from the glossy Hollywood bullshit that turns off most critics. But it also has Woody Harrelson playing his own insolent twin brother.

The third film, Now You See Me Now You Don’t tries to recapture the magic by building a legasequel to reboot interest in the series. They bring in Justice Smith, Dominic Sessa, and Ariana Greenblatt and add them to the five Horsemen from the previous movies, making a giant mega team for future sequels. It’s a lot of fun, and the best sequence in the movie is when they arrive at the magic mansion and explore all its weird facets. It’s not to the level of the previous installment, though, and serving so many masters was never going to be easy. And it feels like that’s beyond director Ruben Fleischer.

This whole series lives on its weird quirks and things that make no sense. Not the this-isn’t-magic of the magic. The Horsemen as immediate viral sensation folk heroes is hilarious. They always sell out shows and get away by paying big money to the audience members in attendance. And these crowds are insane, materializing out of nowhere and in droves and treating the Horsemen like crazy ass rock star gods. How the Horsemen get around to do anything like groceries is something you can’t think about.

There’s room for improvement, though. The first film does a good job of building each Horseman’s specific skill into the actual tricks and gags they pull, but that’s gotten less and less as the movies have gone on. One of the new magicians in the most recent film is a master impressionist, but that only comes up in his introduction and then when pulling the big diamond heist at the beginning. Likewise, the hypnosis and mesmerism is always a hit and the film could always use more of it. Likewise with the lockpicking and the escapology… They do good with the card throwing tricks, but it’s Dave Franco turning any random playing card into a ninja star. It’d be inexcusable if they didn’t use it more.

This is probably demanding too much, but this series has the potential to be big and fun and massive. It would just take stronger writing, less studio interference, and the balls to make great blockbusters at reasonable budgets.

Predator: Badlands

Saw this in a theater and thought it deserved a mention. Dan Trachtenberg blasted onto the scene with 10 Cloverfield Lane and has since become the de facto head of the entire Predator universe. Prey was awesome, and this year’s Predator Killer of Killers was a slick as hell animated anthology of Predators throughout the ages.

Badlands is a huge shift in the overall tapestry of Predator stories. It follows a lone Predator named Dek who is hungry to prove himself despite his clan leader (who is also his father) having absolutely no faith in his ability to succeed. He teams up with an android named Thia (Elle Fanning) and sets out to hunt an impossible prey and bring it back as trophy to prove his worth. He then slaughters his way across a harsh and violent planet where all the flora and fauna is trying to kill him first.

Noticeably, it’s the first Predator film to feature no human characters, instead centering its emotional story on a Predator who has to discover his role in Predator society.

If it’s disappointing, that’s only because Prey is so good at iterating on the formula that made Predator work so well. Killer of Killers does the same. But if Predator is to be this big grand series of films, it needed this change so it could evolve the way it does things. We’re long overdue for a story from the Predator’s perspective.

Trachtenberg proves it’s possible, and does so by making a PG-13 Predator movie that’s rad as hell (even if it is an awful lot of CG).

Survivor 49

I’m behind on Survivor 49, and it says a lot about this season that I haven’t raced out to watch every episode every week. It’s definitely gotten better following the merge, and I’m following along with who’s getting voted out every week… but even with the sense that it’s picking up, this season doesn’t seem to have fixed problems endemic in the new era.

What I do like about this season, though, is that characters who might have felt one way early on have grown more compelling as the season has gone on. Savannah and Rizo have proven extremely adept at wielding their social influence to play from the bottom. One of the big issues over the past few seasons is the power players steamrolling those below them. Whenever the bottoms have managed to turn the tables and take control (even for one vote) we’ve gotten great gameplay like Operation: Italy. Unfortunately, that’s been rare in the new era.

Not sure what it would take to turn things around, and I’m still gonna keep watching just because like… I’ve seen flat out bad Survivor and this isn’t that. Production has built the game to be so homogenous that its quality has a very high floor. The flip side of that, of course, is that the ceiling is very very low.

A House of Dynamite

Netflix gave Katherine Bigelow a ton of money to make a movie. She’s made a bunch of great movies (Zero Dark Thirty is an all time fav and Point Break is a blast and a half), but there’s been points where her output has fallen short (The Weight of Water and K-19 The Widowmaker ain’t great).

One thing she’s not been afraid of (especially since winning the Oscar) is making deeply political films. Detroit might have been a huge bummer on top of misfiring, but it is trying to say… something.

A House of Dynamite is a dark fable about a nuclear missile and its imminent strike on a dense population center. It might seem like it takes its cues from Dr. Strangelove, but really it’s closer to Sidney Lumet’s Fail Safe, which came out in the same year. But where Fail Safe follows the accidental launching of an American warhead and their response to set things right, Bigelow makes a film about America under potential siege, where a rogue nuclear weapon threatens Chicago. She uses a nonlinear narrative to follow\ increasingly bigger and bigger players as they helplessly try to prevent the unthinkable.

This should be catnip. Bigelow directs the movie extremely well and I have a deep love for any story that takes place in and around the White House especially when it involves the national security state.

But a close friend of mine compared this movie to The Morning Show and I had that in my head the entire time I watched it. And… you know what? Yeah. It is a lot like The Morning Show.

It’s too bad. The threat of nuclear annihilation hasn’t really gone away. Despite a number of arms treaties over the past few decades that have worked to prevent the spread of such weapons, it’s only shrunk the public consciousness of the threat at hand. The potency of Oppenheimer helped to remind a global audience about how easy it is to forget that all of this carnage and destruction is easily deployable on a planetary scale. We have enough of these weapons to obliterate mankind in a matter of minutes. Oppenheimer, Dr. Strangelove, Fail Safe, A House of Dynamite… all of these help raise this concern in the public consciousness.

Katherine Bigelow has this in mind, clearly.

But oh my god this script.

What makes the “it’s The Morning Show” dig so astute is the movie will go for big swings in the name of surprises and also act with all the subtlety of a bullhorn. There are pathosy moments that are laugh out loud obvious, times when the movie should trust its audience to understand the subtext. Over explaining all the various components going into the story just makes the enterprise sound ridiculous.

It’s wild to watch the movie act with such swagger and self-importance while not realizing that it’s not wearing any pants. For all that it’s kind of a disaster, I weirdly recommend it just to see something so weird and hamfisted.

Pluribus

I’m sure I’ll write more about this when the season wraps, but… god Vince Gilligan making a show again. So good. And Rhea Seehorn. So good. And this premise! So good! I love that AppleTV brought him on and gave him a metric fuckton of money and he responded by making a show with lots of extras and lots of scope. It’s a show that can show giant airplanes taxiing in sync and massive, empty sets and locations. It’s bleak but also so funny (every drone bit in the most recent episode had me howling).

And was that seriously a real Whole Foods in episode 3?)

All that said, I’m not exactly sure how much of this show is sustainable long term. It’s extremely premisey and there’s been a lot of plot for something that will need to change by the end of the season. But Gilligan is one of those dudes who’s earned the faith that comes from Breaking Bad. Stoked to have a show back on the air where every week is exciting.

Coming soon…

Boy. What a lot of writing coming up this month. Here’s a loose schedule.

• 12/4 - Unforgiven
• 12/6 - TBD
• 12/8 - TBD
• 12/11 - To Kill a Mockingbird
• 12/13 - TBD
• 12/16 - TBD
• 12/18 - Vertigo
• 12/20 - Avatar: Fire & Ash
• 12/23 - Honorable Mentions That Didn’t Make the Top 250
• 12/26 - Top 250 Films: #250-201
• 12/27 - Top 250 Films: #200-151
• 12/28 - Top 250 Films: #150-101
• 12/29 - Top 250 Films: #100-51
• 12/30 - Top 250 Films: #50-1
• 12/31 - Top 10 Films of 2025

Thanks again for reading! See you out there!