Monthly Archives: December 2025

Song Sung Blue

Do you like Neil Diamond’s music? If YES, continue. If NO, just move along.

Song Sung Blue is a delight for Boomers and Gen-Xers who like Neil’s tunes. The movie has plenty of Neil Diamond songs.

Most of the tunes are performed by Lightning (Hugh Jackman) and Thunder (Kate Hudson), a married Milwaukee couple who play casinos and other venues.

Along with the music, Song Sung Blue has a story. Lightning is the stage name of local band member Mike who has a “meet cute” at the state fair with Claire whom he dubs Thunder. Both are divorced parents. Mike is a recovering alcoholic. They click professionally AND they get married!

The music is fun. The movie starts strong with good vibes. Kate Hudson looks great and sings great, too. They even get booked to open a Pearl Jam concert! Then, a tragic accident derails the joy. Will Thunder and Lightning rebound from the bad break life has thrown their way? Come on, what do you think?

As special as Kate Hudson’s performance is in Song Sung Blue, let’s not forget Hugh Jackman. He’s a total pro and a good singer, too! 

Also in the cast are Fisher Stevens as Mike’s dentist and manager and Jim Belushi as a casino bus driver. Michael Imperioli appears as one on of T & L’s band members. Mike’s daughter Angelina (King Princess) and Claire’s daughter Rachel (Ella Anderson) manage to bond and are vital to their parents’ story.

Thunder and Lightning were real life performers in the Milwaukee area. This film is based on a documentary about the pair. Song Sung Blue tweaks a few of the elements of their story for dramatic purposes.

During my radio career I played Neil Diamond songs almost every day from the late 60s through the late 80s. My wife and I saw him perform in the late 70s and Song Sung Blue was the (almost mandatory) sing along song. It was a fun show. So I was already inclined to like this movie. I do like it.

If you’re a Neil fan, the only question is what song will you be singing to yourself when you leave the theater after seeing Song Sung Blue? The crowd pleaser Sweet Caroline? The almost sacred Holly Holy? The Monkees hit written by Neil I’m A Believer? The title song? For me, surprisingly, it was Forever In Blue Jeans. 

Song Sung Blue was written and directed by Craig Brewer. It’s rated PG-13. 

Leave a comment

Marty Supreme

What a character! Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) AKA Marty Supreme is one of the more memorable rare birds seen onscreen in a long time. He’s an over-confident table tennis hustler, a schemer and a romancer. And a shoe salesman!

He’s based on a real life person but the Marty created by co-writer and director Josh Safdie and fleshed out by Chalamet is an over-the-top can’t-be-real guy who’s full of surprises and seemingly fearless moves and feints. Somehow all his ventures seem to work out.

And the characters he encounters during the time of the movie—a year or so in the early 1950s—are a clever mix of individuals. Rachel (Odessa A’zion) is a neighborhood girl friend who engages in a tryst with Marty in the back room of the shoe store where he works and becomes pregnant. Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow) is a sort of washed up actress who Marty spots and seduces. Her husband Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’Leary of Shark Tank fame), is a crusty businessman who Marty hits on for financial sponsorship. Marty’s mom is played by Fran Drescher and magician Penn Gillette has a memorable role as an angry dog owner.

Marty Supreme moves at a breakneck pace. The tale and the lead character are audacious and frequently funny. It’s not quite Tarantino level but there’s a collection of episodes here that seem to whipsaw in unexpected directions.

And what about the table tennis? Just like he practiced guitar to play Bob Dylan, Timothée Chalamet practiced for years to become a ping-ping wizard. Not that the sports competition is the main reason to see Marty Supreme, but the ping-pong play is a vital element. And director Safdie includes just about the right amount. Will Marty Supreme lead to a boom in sales of ping-pong tables? It could happen!

Chalamet, who turns 30 on December 27, is likely to receive his third Academy Awards nomination for his portrayal of this beguiling character. Will he grab the trophy this time? It could happen!

For pure entertainment and engagement, Marty Supreme is a winner. One of this year’s best.

Marty Supreme is rated R for language, sexual content and violence. It runs two-and-a-half hours.

Leave a comment

My Top Movies for 2025

My Top Ten Movies of 2025

  1. Nuremberg—Russell Crowe at his best
  2. One Battle After Another—So much stuff going on… all of it compelling
  3. F1: The Movie—Good story…amazing visuals
  4. Materialists—A different sort of romcom…Dakota Johnson stunning
  5. After The Hunt—Polarizing film, yes, but I like it
  6. The Ballad of Wallis Island—Sweet quirky tale…memorable characters
  7. Black Bag—Soderbergh’s compact mystery
  8. Mickey 17—Another Bong Joon Ho goofy story…Pattinson brilliant
  9. Marty Supreme—Everything clicks in this one, especially Chalamet
  10. Hamnet—Jessie Buckley and cast deliver an emotional payoff

*****Ten more movies I liked a lot in 2025…

The Running Man

The Phoenician Scheme

Novocaine

Eleanor The Great

Highest 2 Lowest

Song Sung Blue

Eternity

Death of a Unicorn

Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere

*****A few more movies I liked in 2025…

The Housemaid

From the World of John Wick: Ballerina

Regretting You

The Amateur

Love Hurts

The Penguin Lessons 

Friendship

Good Fortune

Jurassic Park: Rebirth

I’m Still Here

Drop

*****And Four Movies I DID NOT like…

Warfare

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey

The Smashing Machine

Sinners

Leave a comment

The Housemaid

An ad for the new movie The Housemaid suggests that moviegoers will want to see this film for a second time. Presumably to piece together all the film’s plot elements. 

Once is enough for me. The film’s “bloody violent content” is a smidge over-the-top for my taste. YOU, on the other hand, might be totally okay with it!

The Housemaid is a suspenseful, psychological thriller. The stars are attractive. All are talented. The story is unraveled cleverly. And, along with the tension, The Housemaid even has a few chuckles. Good movie. Just grisly.

There are signals early on in the story that things in this beautiful house are not quite right. Would a suburban housewife like Nina (Amanda Seyfried) actually hire as a housemaid a woman who looks like Minnie (Sydney Sweeney)? Especially when she has a handsome hunky husband, Andrew (Brandon Sklenar) who is a perfectionist?

It’s soon revealed that Minnie is a recently paroled convict who is sleeping in her car. She needs the gig, even if her rather spartan room is at the very top of the house. Minnie works hard to keep Nina pleased with her work, despite her uneasiness with Nina’s erratic behavior.

As the tale unfolds and more is revealed, we learn things about Andrew, his man cave (where he likes to watch of episodes of Family Feud) and his controlling mother (Elizabeth Perkins). And what about the swarthy handyman (Michele Marrone) seen lurking in the yard doing random tasks? And Cece (Indiana Elle), Nina’s daughter from a prior relationship?

NO SPOILERS HERE! What transpires in The Housemaid are events you might have guessed were coming. But you will enjoy it more, I think, if you just allow things to happen and let yourself be surprised/amazed by what unfolds.

The Housemaid is directed by Paul Feig who knows how to assemble a suspenseful movie. Writer is Rebecca Sonnenshine from Freida McFadden’s novel. The Housemaid is rated R for “strong/bloody violent content, sexual assault, sexual content, nudity and language.” 

Leave a comment

Hamnet

Jessie Buckley! Bravura performance! Awards worthy!

Hamnet (not a typo) is slow, dark and moody. But, like the words you sometimes see posted next to online videos, “wait for the end!” Not to spoil things, but the third act of this new movie serves up a nice payoff.

Agnes (Buckley) is an earth mother, a free spirit type of woman. A birder. She even has a glove she wears to keep talons from piercing her arm. She runs through the woods.

Will (Paul Mescal) spots her, they hook up, marry and have three kids. Two girls and a boy, Hamnet. They live in a woodsy idyll with family close by. Emily Watson appears as Will’s mom Mary. Will, by the way, is Will Shakespeare.

Childbirth is not always easy, even in our modern times. 440 or so years ago, it was a real challenge, especially so for Agnes. And then, to lose her beautiful boy… 

Well, speaking as one who knows, the loss of a child, at any age, brings a pain that is unfathomable. The hurt is palpable, emotionally and even physically. 

Agnes grieves. Will grieves. Following the death of their young son Hamnet, Will goes back to London where he writes and stages his classic tragedy, Hamlet.

The depiction of the Globe Theater in the film is impressive. The real Globe exists in London but was deemed not appropriate for Hamnet. The one is the movie was built especially for the film. But it gives a good feel for the intimacy of the Globe, back in the day.

Interestingly, the man who plays Hamlet (in the stage play) is Noah Jupe who is the older brother of Jacobi Jupe who plays young Hamnet. 

Hamnet is being marketed as a mass appeal type of movie but it does still have a tinge of artsy-fartsy. Yes, it delivers an emotional punch and yes, the acting is superb. It has its sweet, light moments. But the feel is that this is an “important” film, which is something you should know going in. 

Hamnet is one of the answers to the question: Why don’t they make movies for grownups anymore? Well, they do. And this is a movie for grownups. (AARP recently published its annual list of “Movies for Grownups” and Hamnet is included.)

Hamnet is directed by Chloe Zhao who co-wrote the script with Maggie O’Farrell who wrote the novel that the movie is based on. Hamnet is rated PG-13. 

Leave a comment