It’s been a rolley-coaster year, between the highs of Dune: Part Two and high-profile bombs like Borderlands, with plenty of interesting stuff in between. Now the summer is nearly over and we’re headed into spooky season, which then gives way to awards season (groan). Hollywood might not be fully back yet, but there’s plenty to look forward to! Shall we review some examples?
Nah.
Just joshing. Yes!
The Penguin
19 September, Max
I never thought I’d say this, but I’m actually gonna watch a Batman spinoff. Well, let me backtrack. The problem is that I have seen a few Batman spinoffs, namely Gotham and Pennyworth (in bits and pieces, for my job), and I found them deeply offensive. You know what the cool part of Batman is? The answer, my friend, is in the question. It’s when Batman. When no Batman, I just don’t see the point, barring some comic books I hear good things about? The 2019 Joker movie certainly showed promise by choosing a very specific genre to exercise, but it turned out to be a dud. The Penguin is basically the same idea, as a crime drama, but this time with a proven creative team. This is from the people who made the 2022 movie The Batman, which was pretty good. The reviews have been glowing, and it seems to represent what I’ve always wanted out of The Sopranos: brevity.
The Judge from Hell
21 September, Disney+
While Hollywood is lurching back gradually, other industries and stars around the globe have also taken the halt in production to attend to their lives, and Park Shin-hye — one of the most iconic hallyu stars — married Choi Tae-joon in 2022 and had a kiddo not soon after. She returned earlier this year in Doctor Slump (no relation to the Akira Toriyama manga), and while I don’t usually go for medical shows (like arguably her most famous work, simply entitled Doctors), The Judge from Hell sounds right up my alley. Really, all it took was calling a show “The Judge from Hell” and ensuring that Park Shin-hye was playing the titular role. And it’s not metaphorical, it’s not like she’s a hellish judge in a courtroom. No, she’s an actual demon, who — checks notes — is also a judge. What’ll they think of next?!
Azrael
27 September, In Theaters
This is one of those horror-tinged action-thrillers, the kind that Simon Barrett used to write. Azrael, written by Simon Barrett, is about a young woman on the run from a cult in the post-apocalypse, and maybe there’s monsters? I don’t know, but the image of Samara Weaving with a gun has me thinking this could be a rework of Ready of Not (this time, with substance?). I’m no fan of movies or TV shows where it’s a woman on the run, even if she’s fighting back, because inevitably the fighting-back is never enough to make up for all the torture and bondage. But even if I get burnt on these every time, I’ll still check ’em out.
Megalopolis
27 September, In Theaters
I have no idea what this movie is about, and I plan to not learn until I’m watching it — writhing in pain throughout its two-hour-plus runtime. I mean, everything I’ve heard about this production makes it sound like a disaster, and Francis Ford Coppola is one of those weird directors who’s got “a killer rep,” Dick Jones-style, but we remember only 5% of his movies. And granted, those 5% are all American masterpieces, but it’s not even a question of “Will his latest be another Godfather?” because it’s more like “What the fuck is he up to this time?”
War Game
27 September, Digital On-Demand
Whether or not this turns out well, it’s a fascinating idea: a documentary of a war game simulating the escalation of an insurrection like Jan 6. Sounds like a whole lot of arguments over conference tables! I did watch the movie Seven Days in May this year and thought it was a little too action-packed, so this could be perfect. Although, I thought I spotted the suspicious inclusion of that neocon dickhead Bill Kristol in the trailer, but looking at the cast list on the official website, it must’ve been some other white-haired old guy. Who would’ve thought!
The Shadow Strays
17 October, Netflix
Yeah, man. I mean, this is it, right? Debate over. What debate? I don’t know.
This is coming in from the madman himself, Timo Tjahjanto, which means that as soon as I heard about it, I shit myself. Holy shit, dude. It’s amazing, like, this guy keeps getting signed onto American movies like the Train to Busan remake or Nobody 2, and instead of sitting on his hands waiting for these glacial Hollywood productions to unfurl, he goes home and makes another bloodsoaked Indonesian epic. In late 2022, it was the comedic The Big 4, and now it’s The Shadow Strays, which looks and feels closer to the never-happening, Julie Estelle-fronted Night Comes for Us sequel. Yeah, this one definitely has my IGN Most Anticipated of E3 Award.
Woman of the Hour
18 October, Netflix
Like Late Night with the Devil, this is one of those movies with a premise I can’t pass up. I guess I have a weakness for recreations of old-style TV shows in movies? Based on a true story, we have Anna Kendrick (also directing) as a dating show contestant who gets mixed up with a fellow contestant — who just happens to be a killer. Honestly, I think it’s just hoary-old high-concept movies. We don’t really do that anymore.
Sweetpea
October, Starz
Like Jason Mamoa and Steven Yuen before her, Ella Purnell knows: you got to be in the really big TV show, but you got to get killed off early. Of course, when I say that, I’m reminded that Steven Yuen died in, like, season 27 of The Walking Dead, but the point stands. And also, Ella Purnell had been working long before Jackie went down in the plane. But now she’s a rising star, and Sweetpea looks like the perfect vehicle for just this moment. It’s the kind of role I would’ve wished upon all my favorite actresses ten, twenty years ago, who are now typecast-mom-age and/or retired. Basically, Purnell’s character’s been pushed around too much and now she’s a serial killer. Simple, irresistible.
Gladiator II
22 November, In Theaters
I really don’t know what to think here. The original Gladiator works almost despite itself, being such a narrative/emotional simpleton — the good guy is really, really good and the bad guy is really, really bad — but it makes for some amazing set pieces, and possibly the greatest scene in the history of movies (“My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius…“). Can that be replicated again, 24 years later? Eh, who cares? In another universe, Gladiator II is barely a standout in a sea of sword-and-sandal epics, and there’s no pressure to be good. In our universe, however, this is a big-budget gamble to determine whether or not we’ll see another movie like this within the next ten years. I’m also gobsmacked by the title. It’s not Gladiator: Legacy or Gladiator: A Gladiator Story. I would’ve even taken Gladiator Part II, or Son of Maximus, but I’m digging the simplicity. Bravo, fellas.
The Fire Inside
25 December, In Theaters
Probably the first Oscar bait I’ve seen for this year, we have a sports biopic about Claressa “T-Rex” Shields, an Olympic female boxer. It’s Barry Jenkins writing, and Ryan Destiny and Brian Tyree Henry starring, and they make an intriguing combination. To be fair, Gladiator II is also Oscar bait, given that the original won Best Picture in 2001, but it feels so far removed from the original that I truly wonder how it’ll fare with the Academy, provided it scrapes by the audience first. But anyway, obviously, you had me at “Ryan Destiny, boxer.”
Squid Game
26 December, Netflix
We finally have a release date, as well as early promotional material. I think it would be impossible for any show to recapture the magic of Squid Game, even its own expansion — and I don’t mean quality-wise, but the meta-show of a world gone squid-crazy. I thought the show itself was great, like, legitimately a modern classic, but my favorite part was probably the explosion of its popularity. That was just, like, a really cool thing to watch unfold in real time.
Dark Nuns
This one’s about a boy possessed by an evil spirit? I’m not usually into South Korean supernatural stuff, or supernatural stuff in general, though I heard Exhuma was really good. But come on, I mean, this one is called “Dark Nuns,” and one of the nuns is played by Song Hye-kyo. That’s good enough for me, ghosts notwithstanding.
Seeds
Another notable feature out of TIFF, when I first read about Seeds on Bloody Disgusting, my jaw dropped. In anticipation of 2022’s Prey, I watched an extremely promising movie entitled Mohawk, starring Kaniehtiio Horn, and I hated it. What appeared to be about a Native American woman kicking a bunch of colonists’ asses turned out to be a chatty, bloodless slog. The colonists were doing the chatting. Here, Horn is in the director’s seat, and in interviews, she pitches the movie as a “home invasion comedy,” about an Indigenous woman battling some corporate bastards. Yeah, the word “comedy” has me nervous, but I’m so desperate at this point, I just want to see her kick ass no matter how serious it ends up being.
Projecting now, into 2025…
The Shrouds
22 January, In Theaters (France)
I always say I’m down for the next David Cronenberg movie, but I actually haven’t seen Crimes of the Future yet. I love body horror — and there are a few this year, like The Substance and Shell — but it’s a pretty dependable subgenre for being actually disturbing, and I’m almost never in the mood to be disturbed. I only saw Raw this year, and you know what? It was gross! But The Shrouds reunites Cronenberg with Vincent Cassel, adding Diane Kruger and Guy Pearce, as well as Sandrine Holt, who I’ve always liked. I’ll be on the lookout.
Mickey 17
31 January, In Theaters
Five years after ‘ol Marty Scorsese told him not to make us wait too long for his follow-up to Parasite, Bong Joon-ho is back with, well, something. His filmography is a zigzag, bouncing between Korean arthouse and more international blockbusters; Mickey 17 being, then, a zag. I don’t know, I can’t say I was super-excited when his next project turned out to be an adaptation of a sci-fi novel, but to his credit, there’s a thematic as well as stylistic throughline running through all of his movies. Despite their surface differences, Memories of Murder and Snowpiercer are driven largely by the same concerns. It’s just that I tend to like his bigger stuff a bit less, with exceptions — I liked Okja and didn’t like Mother. And then there’s The Host, which is right down the middle and remains one of the best monster movies of the 21st century. So, we’ll see. There’s a trailer floating around out there, but I read the briefest comment that said it gave away too much. Already a far cry from the Parasite days, a film whose trailer was lauded for its discretion. I’d like to go into this one knowing as little as possible, though truthfully, nothing can prepare one for a Bong Joon-ho movie.
And that’s it for now! I read recently about a movie where a wealthy businesswoman is under siege by a mass of laborers she’s just laid off, but I can’t remember the title. And then there’s Anora, of which I like Mikey Madison from Better Things, but didn’t like The Florida Project. All told, it remains a jam-packed year, and I already got mine — Alien: Romulus — so I did not expect The Shadow Strays, no siree.
With Eyes East 