Weapons (2025, R)

In recent years, we’ve seen horror films making more inroads at the Oscars. That’s especially true this year—hi, Sinners and Frankenstein! But while those films are the sort of “prestige horror” stuff that the Oscars have been starting to recognize, Weapons is what I’d call more of “standard horror” fare. Even though it’s only up for one major award, it’s still neat to see that kind of film get nominated!

One morning, Ms. Gandy arrives at her 3rd grade classroom to find out that only one of her students has shown up to school. Every other kid vanished the night before, leaving their homes and running off into the night at 2:17 a.m. The mystery turns the town upside down. Archer, the father of one of the missing kids, becomes obsessed with Ms. Gandy, sure that she knows more than she’s telling. Meanwhile, Ms. Gandy has been placed on leave and her last remaining student, Alex, was moved to another classroom. She’s been told to give him space, but she starts to believe something strange is going on at his house.

The movie is split into six sections, with each one following a different character on a slightly overlapping timeline. We see Ms. Gandy’s story, along with Archer’s, Alex’s, and a few others. The first time we switched perspectives, it was a little jarring to hop back in time a bit. But I got used to it as the format went on—it’s nice to fill in the blanks with what each character knows/discovers.

As I’ve said before, I don’t watch a ton of horror, so I’m not the best judge of what qualifies as a good horror film. Again, I can tell that this isn’t prestige horror along the lines of Sinners or Frankenstein. Personally, it feels kind of middle-of-the-road to me. There are some jump scares, some well-earned creepy bits, and some gore. The final section of the movie is the most engrossing for me, although I’m not altogether satisfied with the ending.

The film scored a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Amy Madigan, who plays Alex’s great-aunt Gladys. Given that her performance got the Academy’s attention, it’s safe to say that Gladys isn’t just a regular townsperson. Her cheerfully-eerie persona puts an off-kilter slant on every scene she’s in. And while it’s the sort of performance that’s helped along by her character design—the severe bangs on her bright red wig, her caked-on makeup—Madigan is very good in the role.

There are some familiar faces here as well, including several Marvel alum. I like Julia Garner (who I saw recently as the Silver Surfer in The Fantastic Four) as Ms. Gandy. Even before everything kicked off, she had issues, to put it mildly—between the trauma of the kids’ disappearance and getting branded as the town pariah, she’s not handling things well. Meanwhile, Archer is played by Josh Brolin and the always-reliable Benedict Wong plays Marcus, the school principal. I knew I recognized Paul, a police officer who has a connection with Ms. Gandy. He’s played by Alden Ehrenreich, a.k.a. young Han Solo. I must not have cemented this guy in my brain yet, because this isn’t the first time I’ve recognized him but been unable to place him. The film also features appearances from Justin Long and Tob Huss (Bos from Halt and Catch Fire.)

Warning

Graphic violence/gore, sexual content, language, drinking, disturbing images, and strong thematic elements (including child abuse/neglect.)

Blue Moon (2025, R)

Like Train Dreams, I went into this film not really sure what to expect but wound up enjoying it quite a bit. It’s another Richard Linklater/Ethan Hawke collaboration, a one-night-in-the-life biopic about lyricist Lorenz Hart. It’s well-written, an intimate story about a friendship breakup that’s equal parts moving and cynical.

It’s the opening night of Oklahoma!, the first Broadway musical Richard Rodgers did not write with his longtime partner Lorenz “Larry” Hart. Larry leaves the show at intermission to bolster his spirits at Sardi’s: talking the bartender’s ear off, promising he isn’t going to drink, and preparing himself to congratulate Richard and his new collaborator, Oscar Hammerstein II.

As far as troubled geniuses go, Larry feels both familiar and specific. He’s an alcoholic whose work is often misunderstood by the critics, whose ideas about musical theatre are out of step with a lot of the general audience (not to mention his own writing partner.) He likes incisive satire and distrusts honest sentiment, and he’s of the unfortunate opinion that Oklahoma! is a piece of trite drivel that will be far more popular than anything he and Richard wrote together. He’s deeply insecure and desperate not to show it. He’s brimming with ideas for a new four-hour-long musical epic, but Richard just wants him to commit to showing up when he says he will. 

I really like the different connections we see throughout the night. Larry and Richard are the big one, of course, but theirs isn’t the only relationship we see in the film. Larry and Eddie, the bartender, know each other well and have an easy back-and-forth together. It’s clear that Eddie cares about Larry’s well-being and worries about his drinking, even as it’s Eddie’s job to serve him. While waiting, first for the arrival of his young lady friend Elizabeth and then Richard and his entourage to show up, Larry gloms onto a young GI playing the piano at the bar and a fellow drinker/writer who turns out to be E.B. White! And when Elizabeth finally comes? We already know Larry’s obsessed with her—he’ll tell anyone who’ll listen about her being 20 and him being 46, and that he’s pretty sure “tonight’s the night.” When she gets there, she asks almost immediately when he’s going to introduce her to Richard Rodgers, and yet it’s clear that they do have a special connection. Their repartee is effortless, and there’s just something about the way they interact with each other.

The film got two Oscar nominations: Best Original Screenplay and Best Leading Actor, for Ethan Hawke. The screenplay nod is self-evident. The dialogue sparkles in ways that stories about theatre writers often do, with a nice mix between witty banter and revealing monologues. The characters and their relationships depend just as much on the script as they do on the acting. As for Hawke, he’s very effective as Larry. It’s quite an “actorly” performance, and the movie loves using forced perspective/other film magic to show how short Larry is, but behind the hooks, there’s a lot of honesty here too. Larry is a man who’s deeply in pain and doing everything he can to distract from it—that comes through loud and clear in Hawke’s performance.

I enjoy the other performances too. I’ve loved Bobby Cannavale since The Station Agent, and he’s great as Eddie, playing very well off of Hawke. It took me a while to place Elizabeth, but she’s played by Margaret Qualley of The Substance—she’s wonderful in the role. I also like seeing the always-welcome Andrew Scott pop up as Richard.

Warnings

Sexual references/discussion, language (including homophobic slurs,) drinking/smoking, and strong thematic elements.

Joel Fry-days: Game of Thrones: Season 5, Episode 1 – “The Wars to Come” (2015)

*Major spoilers for the end of season 4*

After a brief foray in season 4, we’ve jumped ahead to season 5, where the majority of Joel Fry/Hizdahr’s screentime is. The premiere episode resets the board after the shakeups of the previous season finale, dealing with the fallout from some of the big twists and introducing some of the new stories we’ll be following.

At the end of last season, Varys helped Tyrion flee Westeros before his scheduled execution (but not before Tyrion killed both Shae and his father.) They arrive in Pentos, where Varys is ready to make plans and Tyrion is ready to drink himself to death. In the wake of Tywin’s murder, many of the remaining players in King’s Landing are trying to figure out what that means for them, and Cersei and Margaery are both circling each other. Stannis has set up shop at the Wall, and he comes to Jon with a request: convince the wildlings to bend the knee and fight for him. Daenerys is still in Meereen, where an Unsullied soldier has just been killed by the Sons of the Harpy, a radical group opposed to her rule.

Highlights:

• Once again, Cersei and Jaime find themselves standing over the body of a deceased close relative. This scene, fortunately, is far less horrifying than the one from “Breaker of Chains.” Cersei is furious with Jaime for helping Tyrion escape, telling him, “Tyrion may be a monster, but at least he killed our father on purpose. You killed him by mistake, by stupidity.”
• We get the first glimpses of the Sparrows, a fanatical religious sect that will play a major role this season.
• Personally, I prefer Tyrion’s storylines in Westeros to his ones in Essos, but Peter Dinklage and Conleth Hill do well with Tyrion and Vary’s interactions here—I especially like Tyrion’s dismissal of Varys’s plans, saying, “The future is shit, just like the past,” and Varys informing Tyrion, “You have many admirable qualities. Self-pity is not one of them.”
• Jon Snow and Stannis are two interesting characters to put in a scene together, because they’re both pretty black-and-white in very different ways. While Stannis is fastidiously pedantic to the doom of others, Jon is quite firm in his ideals and loyalties. When Stannis insinuates that Jon is too close with the wildlings (despite relying on that to convince them to join his army,) Jon doesn’t back down or equivocate—“They were born on the wrong side of the Wall, doesn’t make them monsters,” he replies simply.
• I forgot how much I like Podrick as Brienne’s squire! In this episode, Brienne’s confidence is shaken after failing in her mission to help Arya last season. While Podrick points out that Sansa is still out there, Brienne just tries to push him away, lamenting how her ambitions have soured.
• By this point in the Meereen storyline, Grey Worm and Missandei have started their very tentative, reserved flirtation, which I love—both characters consistently leave me wanting more for them. Here, Missandei is intrigued/confused by the revelation that the murdered Unsullied soldier was found in a brothel, and she shyly tries to ask Grey Worm about it. While I suppose I understand why an allosexual would think this way, it is a little frustrating that a lot of Missandei’s questions about pursuing a relationship with Grey Worm revolve around what he (as a eunuch) is capable of doing/feeling sexually. It often feels like she thinks romantic feelings are contingent on sexual feelings, even though it’s pretty clear to the viewers by now that Grey Worm likes Missandei.
• Unsurprisingly, Dany is ready to go scorched-earth on the Sons of the Harpy—she says, “[The murdered Unsullied] did not risk his life fighting for his freedom so cowards in masks could take it away, and I did not take up residence in this pyramid so I could watch the city below decline into chaos.”

Even though we didn’t see Hizdahr in season 4 again after episode 6, he got a later namedrop when Daenerys had some use for him offscreen, and that’s where we pick up with him here. He and Daario have just returned from Yunkai, where Hizdahr acted as Dany’s emissary, trying to convince the Masters to relinquish power peacefully to avoid her bloodier brand of justice.

As with “The Laws of Gods and Men,” Hizdahr only has one scene of note, again an audience with Dany. This time, he reports on his “resounding success” in Yunkai, then broaches the subject of the concessions the Masters have asked for. Naturally, Daenerys isn’t prepared to give them anything they want.

Hizdahr remains something of a slippery character—not openly shifty or nefarious, but he has a knack for pushing the wants of the former Master class while staying deeply aware of how easily Dany could have him killed. Joel Fry does some nice work with his vocal delivery here. Hizdahr often speaks in light, lilting tones, attempting to keep the atmosphere pleasant even as he proposes things he knows Dany won’t like. As their back-and-forth continues and it becomes clear that she isn’t swayed by his assertion that “politics is the art of compromise,” he starts to sound a little more forceful as he tries to keep a handle on things.