David Hemingson is a journeyman TV writer, who's worked on great cult shows like "The Adventures of Pete & Pete" and "Don't Trust The B---- In Apartment 23." And when Alexander Payne decided he want to make a film set in a prep school, he asked Hemingson to adapt his unproduced pilot script about a New England boarding school into what is now an Oscar-nominated screenplay, which I think is one of my favorite Cinderella stories of this year's awards season. All that aside, though, The Holdovers is excellent, I'd put in the upper middle of Alexander Payne's filmography right around The Descendants. I love how the three main characters were played by an established vet (Paul Giamatti), a rising star (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) and a kid plucked out of obscurity (Dominic Sessa) who all just worked beautifully together, inspired casting all around. 

Saltburn seems to have one of the sharpest love-it-or-hate-it divides of any movie in recent memory, people were straight up rejoicing when it got shut out of Oscar nominations. I was pretty much in the middle, though, I thought the performances were pretty strong but it all felt a little empty and devoid of characters or a story beyond some familiar tropes from better movies. And I'd say it's probably a net positive just for being the reason "Murder On The Dancefloor" is now all over American radio. 

I hold David Fincher in such high regard that even after watching what I think may be his weakest film, or at least a lock for his bottom 3, I'm willing to grant that some of the things I disliked about it were deliberate choices with clear artistic motivations. I've never been wowed by a Michael Fassbender performance, but this isn't a movie that's out to seduce you with a charming hitman, so his cold anonymity was a choice. The only other star in The Killer, Tilda Swinton, has one fairly brief scene, and I would've enjoyed that being a much bigger part of the movie, but that's clearly not what Fincher's vision was. The way the Smiths songs would abruptly cut up and down in volume as the camera changed in perspective, I respected what Fincher was going for even as I found it irritating as hell. There were some very funny deadpan moments with the voiceover narration, but I just found myself wishing the whole movie went a little further in one direction or another, towards more comedy, more action, or more of the lightly implied backstory, even just names for the characters, it felt like Fincher methodically cut away things he didn't care about that might have made The Killer a better movie. 

You probably would've heard about a sci-fi rom com starring Jessie Buckley, Jeremy Allen White and Riz Ahmed if it had come out anywhere but Apple TV+, but Fingernails has been streaming there for 3 months without a peep about it in most places where you'd think it'd get attention. The basic premise (a near future where a scientific test is developed that tells couples whether they are in love) is pretty similar to AMC's 2020 series "Soulmates," which was also barely seen by anybody, but I think Fingernails did it in a more vivid way and better explored the idea's comedic potential and emotional resonance. This was Greek writer/director Christos Nikou's first English-language feature and I think he could do something great in the future. 

It seemed like all of the small number of people who've seen Rye Lane have raved about it, so I went into it with high hopes, and it was pretty charming, I liked the "Shoop" scene. It felt a little lean at 80 minutes and kind of breezed past me, though, good debut feature but I think I'm more interested to see what Raine Allen-Miller does next.  

This Netflix documentary about the recording of "We Are The World" is pretty fun to watch even for someone who has no affection for the song, it's inarguably a unique snapshot of a collection of huge pop stars actually interacting, not just sitting in the audience at an awards show. And it was surprising to actually hear some stories I hadn't already heard. Diana Ross comes across the best in the stories about how she asked Daryl Hall for his autograph, spurring everyone else at the session to start autographing each other's lyric sheets, and how she was the last to leave because she was having so much fun she just didn't want the night to end. 

This Paramount+ documentary about June Carter Cash exists mainly as a corrective, to assert that she was more than just Johnny Cash's wife, although it kind of works that angle to its own detriment, too often viewing her life through the prism of her husband's fame. It's a good doc, but it also made me wish there was a Carter Family doc, like there could've been a whole series about them with this as one of the episodes. 

Lil Nas X's latest single "J. Christ" is just about the only time in his career that he's taken a big swing and it hasn't been a huge success, which makes the timing of his new HBO documentary a little unfortunate. But the movie was filmed during his 2022-2023 tour, and it's a fun look back at his unlikely rise from his own perspective, going beyond his social media prankster persona a little bit, and it's cool seeing the kids at his shows talk about becoming fans, there really is nobody quite like Lil Nas X in pop music and I hope he continues being a big star. 

I didn't get to see this before writing my Baltimore Banner piece about "Craig of the Creek," so it was fun to sit down with one of my kids recently and check out the new prequel movie, which is cute and does a good job of showing how the characters met in a way that suits the series. 

Another movie I wanted to watch because of one of my recent Baltimore Banner articles -- when I was writing about Kix I learned about this 2017 horror comedy about an '80s metal band battling giant ants in the desert, which features Kix songs standing in as the fictional band's hits. It's not a great film by any means, but it was better than I expected, Sean Astin and Tom Arnold are pretty funny in it. 

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