Much like her Oscar-nominated role in If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, Rose Byrne's performance in Tow is just a tour de force depiction of a woman being put through hell, albeit in a more grounded film based on a true story, I really think she's one of the best actors we have right now. Tow is basically a year in the life of a recovering alcoholic who was living in her car, until her car was stolen and a predatory towing company stuck her with a mountain of fees she couldn't pay off, and director Stephanie Laing tells this relatively simple but infuriating story with granular detail and so much heart and empathy, with really impressive performances from Byrne, Ariana DeBose, Octavia Spencer, and Dominic Sessa. 

Last week I talked to James McAvoy on Zoom after watching a screener of his directorial debut California Schemin', and I really enjoyed both the movie and our conversation, he's a really sharp guy, I couldn't even fit some of his more interesting observations and turns of phrase into the piece. Seamus McLean Ross gives such a good intense performance in this that helps it pivot between comedy and drama effectively, I also really liked Lucy Halliday, who's also on "The Testaments."

Evil Dead Rise was such a success that I just assumed that they brought back the same writer/director, Lee Cronin, for the next movie. But French writer/director Sebastian Vanicek gives Evil Dead Burn its own distinct feel and tone, and as someone who generally likes violent, gory horror movies, I found this to be genuinely shocking and close to a sensory overload at times. There were a couple of scenes, particularly Luciane Buchanan was possessed, that I think would've been really impressive as the climax of a more conventional horror movie. But the whole thing was just so relentless, rarely more than a minute of respite from the constant stomach-turning violence and blood gushing, that I don't even know if I could recommend it to anyone but the most depraved horror junkie. 

A pretty decent western action movie with Peter Dinklage and Juliette Lewis from Elliott Lester, a British director who's done a ton of music videos and some forgotten Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jason Statham movies. 

This movie got dragged through the mud a lot after it didn't make much at the box office, but it was nice to just sit down and enjoy it for what it was. I wouldn't say it was better than Superman, but it felt a little more on target as far as a fun, simple vehicle for its title character, I liked Milly Alcock in last year's miniseries "Siren" and she plays Supergirl entertainingly as Superman's bratty little cousin. I could do without the frequent blaring generic alternative rock or the tiny alien with Seth Rogen's voice, though. And at least Marvel is recycling Robert Downey as a masked character, it's just weird that this movie has a villain who looks exactly like Aquaman. 

A very weird dark comedy where a guy is catfished by his own father (played by Patton Oswalt) who poses as his dream girl online. Didn't love it but moderately original and successful at making something entertaining out of its premise. 

Last year NBC aired a whole bunch of documentary projects around the 50th anniversary of "Saturday Night Live," and I watched and enjoyed them all to varying degrees. And even though Lorne Michaels kept himself to a relatively minimal presence in those docs, it did seem kind of strange to me that there'd be another doc about just Lorne on Netflix a year later. But I'm glad I watched Lorne, Oscar-winning documentarian Morgan Neville really found an interesting angle on him and made the rare documentary about comedy that made me laugh a lot. Lots of documentaries these days have animated segments to depict events that never happened on-camera, but doing them in the style of "TV Funhouse" with Robert Smigel voicing Lorne was an extremely inspired choice. 

After watching Saltburn, I figured I should to back and see Emerald Fennell's even more divisive debut. And I guess it's been discussed a bit again lately because the Cornell rape case kind of resembles some of the story elements that were derided as 'dated' when the movie came out in 2020. And I have mixed feelings about it, I kind of see where the detractors were coming from, but some of the acting/casting and plotting were very good. 

Before starting the latest TV adaptation of Stephen King's Carrie, I finally sat down and watched the classic 1976 Brian De Palma film. Having seen clips and parodies of this movie for my whole life, the biggest jumpscare was realizing that John Travolta is in it. "AH! Danny Zuko, what the hell are you doing here?" But seriously, Piper Laurie is amazing in this movie, what a performance. 

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