Brianland

Best Movies Watched in 2025

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Since people seem to love year-end lists — from critics’ picks to people’s own music streaming results — Sky suggested I make one for the best movies I watched this year.  Never did one of these before, but thought I could share some highlights that might lead some to new discoveries or revisits with old friends.

Only three of these films were in theaters this year — the rest were all watched on the giant hi-def at home.

Being in my autodidactical Film Studies program (for the last five years), I keep track of everything I watch and study.  This year I saw in theaters or at home 172 different movies (so far) — not counting things like standup comedy specials or filmed concerts or TV series or whatever.

Looking through the year’s list, there were 14 that stood out — past and present films.  I could cut it down to a Top 10 — but there were really 14 — and I don’t wanna gyp four of them just to honor the decimal system. 🙂

Roughly in order of mind-blowing-ness . . .
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One Battle After Another

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Months before this came out, I saw an article with the picture of DiCaprio on the payphone and that it was a Paul Thomas Anderson film!  I was both surprised & excited that Leo was gonna be in a PTA movie, and said to a cine-friend, “Wouldn’t that be sumpthin if PTA had a hit movie this fall!”

I intentionally learned nothing about it before going to opening night at the IMAX where I ended up scribbling eight pages of notes in the dark including [15 minutes in] “the PTA movie I’ve been waiting for since Boogie Nights!”  

For my Film Studies program, this was like being a sports fan and your team (Movies) finally winning the championship after years of hard work.  This was the Holy Grail of new cinematic mastery I’d been searching for but never knew if I’d find.  This is not just the movie of the year — it’s something bigger than that. 

I subsequently went to experience it in a half-dozen different theaters while I still could — in the format it was created to be experienced in.  As much as I love it, I wish I could have that first experience over and over again of not knowing anything that was going to happen.  

[Note:  For each of the following 14 films I’ve shared their summaries from my main Movie Page.  The blue titles take you to their IMDb page.]

One Battle After Another — 2025;  produced, written & directed by Paul Thomas Anderson;  Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti.  A filmmaking masterpiece. 

Here’s the review I wrote after first seeing it on opening night at the IMAX . . .

Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” film review — Do Yourself A Favor

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A Complete Unknown

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A Complete Unknown came out in late 2024 but most of the screenings I saw and Blu-ray watches were in 2025.  This is the second best movie released in the five years of my Film Studies deep dive.  This elevated writer-director James Mangold into the upper echelon of living filmmakers and spring-boarded Timothée Chalamet into the top rung of actors.  I saw this masterpiece in five different theaters including an IMAX and a classic 1914 Playhouse, and wrote an extensive scene-by-scene breakdown as a study in how the masterpiece was created.

A Complete Unknown — 2024;  directed & cowritten by James Mangold, using Elijah Wald’s “Dylan Goes Electric” as source material, and Bob himself helping on the script;  Timothée Chalamet as Dylan, Monica Barbara as Joan Baez, Edward Norton as Pete Seeger, Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash, and Elle Fanning as Freewheelin girlfriend Suze Rotolo.  Astute casting and performances by all.  Nominated for 6 BAFTAs, 4 SAG awards, and 8 Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Lead Actor, Supporting Actor for Norton as Pete, Supporting Actress for Barbaro as Joan, plus Costumes and Sound.  All the music is performed live on camera.  Covers Dylan’s arrival in NYC in Jan 1961 to going electric at Newport in July ’65.  Not a literal retelling but a composite fable.  Fantastic cinematic storytelling — a fast-paced domino tumble of scenes with a rapidly changing protagonist.  And it has about a dozen unexpected laugh-out-loud moments.  Great production design particularly recreating the early ’60s Greenwich Village.  I wrote a full feature story about it with tons of spoiler-free background on how it got made and how it turned out that you can read here — A Portrait of The Artist As A Young Man.  

A Complete Unknown movie review

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Or here’s the time-coded scene breakdown I started just so I could try to understand how Mangold did it … and then it kept growing to include dialog and background details … and then it became the most-read piece on my website in 2025.

“A Complete Unknown” Scene Breakdown – Time Codes, Song Titles, Quotes & Context

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The Grateful Dead Movie

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The big story here was how this concert movie filmed in 1974 and released 1977 was upscaled to 4K for the first time and then shown internationally in theaters for the annual Grateful Dead Meet-Up at The Movies.

It was such a joy to see the images in crisp hi-def on the big screen in a theater full of Deadheads groovin to every beat.

The Grateful Dead Movie — 1977;  dir. Jerry Garcia;  starring the band and fans.  Cinephile Jerry Garcia’s baby and passion project.  Leon Gast was the director in preproduction and during the live shoot, then Garcia took over after that and Gast gracefully bowed out.  Albert Maysles was one of the cameramen.  Shot over five nights – Oct. 16-20, 1974 — at Winterland in San Francisco — because these might’ve been the band’s last shows.  Fantastic 7½ min opening hand-drawn frame-by-frame animation sequence that cost more than twice the original filming (!) and took 8 months to make . . . but it turned out so cool and iconic it’s been repurposed in the futuristic Sphere visuals.  With a musician as the director, Garcia made the editing cuts in synch with the music.  Plus, his vision was to take the viewer to a Dead show from the perspective of the audience, including everything from the ticket lines outside to the lobby to the dancing.  

For a ton more background on how it was made and its cinema life, check my widely-circulated piece from this past summer . . . 

“The Grateful Dead Movie” — How It Was Made & Background

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And here’s a fun radio interview I did about it with Lowell’s Mike Flynn complete with tons of visuals . . .

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Saturday Night

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This movie came out in late 2024 and sadly had a short theatrical run and didn’t generate the buzz I certainly think it deserved — so I gave it some appropriately good ink on my Movie page . . . 

Saturday Night — 2024;  produced, co-written & directed by Jason Reitman;  an incredible ensemble including Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels, Dylan O’Brien as Aykroyd, Rachel Sennott as Rosie Shuster, a brutally effective Willem Dafoe as the gruff NBC exec, the great Tracy Letts as the wise old Herb Sargent (who jumped in the day before he shot his scene! which he crushed!), Matthew Rhys perfectly as George Carlin, Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son Cooper (in only his 3rd film!) as Lorne’s showrunner Dick Ebersol, J.K. Simmons plays a classic Milton Berle, Robert Wuhl as the seen-it-all camera director, Brad Garrett as a bad open-mic comic, and relative unknowns appropriately as the rest of the Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Players.  Reitman said he couldn’t get this funded for years because studios/investors would always say “How are you going to cast it?!”  Well, he sure solved that in spades!  They had 80 different speaking roles to fill and from Carlin to Gilda — and they nailed it.
Jon Batiste composed the very original & percussive score in real time live on set as it was being shot, composing the music with his self-described “motley crew” of musicians each day as the scenes were shot (!)  And he also plays an electrifying Billy Preston.
The film plays out in real time — between 10-11:30PM on the night of the debut, Oct 11th, 1975.
Beautiful cinematography by Reitman’s career-long collaborator Eric Steelberg including lots of long tracking ‘oners’ thru the labyrinthian maze of Rockefeller Center.  Early on there’s an incredible nearly four-minute unbroken oner where you meet all the real-life characters that’s now forever going to be in the conversation with Touch of Evil, Goodfellas, The Player and Boogie Nights.  This being modern times, the cameras were sometimes mounted on a small remote-controlled dolly for the tracking shots thru multiple rooms.  And it was all shot on 16mm film!
They completely rebuilt the 8th & 9th floors of 30 Rock circa 1975.  No bluescreens were used in the creation of this movie.
It’s positively Altmanesque in the improv and use of ambient room mics and real-world multiple conversations happening at once.  Brilliant script, and then editing — creating the chaos of the final hour-&-a-half before airtime.  This is a docudrama about a new generation taking over an old medium — like Chuck Berry and the Beatles did to music decades earlier.  The old guard didn’t understand and resisted — but the younger visionary artists were capturing the zeitgeist.
We take SNL for granted now — the most Emmy-winning show in history! — but it really was an historic turning point in network television.  The movie builds to a tremendous climax of art and madness triumphing over naysayers and a staid industry that actually made me choked up in joy.  This is an A+ masterpiece of a film in my eyes.  I’ve watched it at least 5 times and it gets *better* every time!
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Boogie Nights

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As Paul Thomas Anderson rightfully re-entered the public film conversation, I rewatched his early masterpiece that first put him on the cinematic map.  This film was something of a cultural landmark when it came out, and it being his second feature that achieved a similar critical / audience reaction as Taratino’s sophomore masterwork Pulp Fiction, the two have been linked in cinema conversations ever since.  But by late 2025 when PTA’s One Battle is being hailed as his cinematic peak (so far) Tarantino publicly exposed himself as a cruel bitter old man with his insults on skilled actors and kind humans like Paul Dano and Matthew Lillard, which comes on the heals of him demeaning George Clooney and others earlier.  The same December week PTA’s One Battle was sweeping the early awards for Best Picture, Tarantino caused himself to be heading in the opposite direction of respect.

Boogie Nights — 1997;  Oscar-nominated Original Screenplay written & directed by Paul Thomas Anderson;  mind-blowing cast — 25-yr-old Mark Wahlberg (how did he not get a Best Actor nomination?!), but Burt Reynolds & Julianne Moore correctly did!  Plus William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman (appears 40 mins in and is riveting as always), John C. Riley, Don Cheadle, Luis Guzman, early Heather Graham, Joanne Gleason, Robert Ridgley, Nina Hartley, Ricky Jay, Philip Baker Hall (appears 70 mins in), Thomas Jane! (72 mins) and Jack Riley.  Set in the San Fernando Valley beginning in 1977.  Great filmmaking.  Smart storytelling and script – deservedly Oscar nominated.  Great interweaving story, cinematography, editing, pacing.  SO many young actors who grew into full-on masters and household names.  Brilliant now-renown 4-minute opening ‘oner’ tracking shot introducing all the characters in the Hot Traxx dance club.  This tells you right away you’re in for something special, a la the openings of The Player or Touch of Evil.  Also, the same type of opening as Babylon — where you meet everyone at the club/party, then follow each character home.  Interesting smart original score and soundtrack cuts.  The corny movies-within-a-movie porn scene dialog was lifted from actual porn movies because Anderson wanted it authentic.  Also, a bit like the moviemaking story in Babylon where the first half is the happy upswing of success . . . and the second half is the downside.
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Death of A Salesman

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Stage plays turned into feature films are a savored delicacy to this cinephile.  Think of the original film adaptations of A Streetcar Named Desire or Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe, or the ’70s musicals Cabaret or Jesus Christ Superstar, or the recent hits with Hamilton or West Side Story.  I saw this version of Death of a Salesman on Broadway and it was one of the great theater moments of my life.  Thank gawd somebody saw fit to make sure this was preserved for history — and they did an absolutely masterful job including keeping the sense for the viewer that they were in a theater.    

Death of A Salesman — 1985;  CBS;  Victor Schlondorff;  Arthur Miller;  Dustin Hoffman, John Malkovich, Kate Reid, Stephen Lang, Charles Durning.  An absolute masterpiece of a production from the performances to the art direction.  Nominated for 10 Emmys — won for Hoffman, Malkovich & Art Direction.  I saw the original on Broadway, and taped this TV broadcast onto VHS and watched it a thousand times.  Arthur Miller was hands-on with the entire production.  He always envisioned Willie with the kind of body frame Dustin Hoffman has and was most happy with this version of all of them.  Hoffman called this his favorite acting experience.  Originally aired on CBS Sept. 15th, 1985.

Here’s a sweet story of me meeting Arthur Miller in the street of New York . . .

The Day I Thanked Arthur Miller

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In a gift to the world, this is actually on YouTube for all to see . . .

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The Subject Was Roses

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Another play that was masterfully turned into a movie — and one that I had frankly never heard of before — was the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning The Subject Was Roses about a young man returning from WWII to a broken family.  Perhaps it had resonance in the ’60s due to the Vietnam War.  Turner Classic Movies (gawd bless ’em) aired it as part of their Patricia Neal day this year.  This is one of those unexpected gems a movie hunter is sometimes lucky enough to stumble upon.  I usually research movies before I watch them to understand their backstory and what was special about them.  This was one of the rare times the curtain opens and I have no idea what’s coming.  And sometimes what’s waiting is a sparkling jewel from the movie gods. 

The Subject Was Roses — 1968;  Ulu Grosbard (his directorial debut); Patricia Neal, Jack Albertson & Martin Sheen (in only his second movie, altho he’d done a bunch of television).  A filmed version of Frank D. Gilroy’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning Best Play from the Broadway production that starred Albertson & Sheen — and boy is it a treat for viewers to see their interaction captured on film.  Albertson won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, and Neal was nominated for Lead.  About a son returning from WWII to parents in conflict.  The production reminded me of the 1985 Death of a Salesman with Hoffman & Malkovich et al with its beautiful set / production design.  This is authentic theater brought to the movie screen.  You feel like you’re watching a play from the best seat in the house. 

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Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean

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Another treat of a play–into–movie I was lucky to come across thanks to our Lord and Savior TCM was Robert Altman’s Come Back to the 5 & Dime.  This had limited theatrical release when it came out and never grew into some must-see cult favorite, but I was always curious about it mostly because it had James Dean in the title.  I didn’t know it was an Altman film or that it had been a play he directed on Broadway — but that was a one-two punch that made this one of the surprise hit viewings of the year.

Come Back to the 5 and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean — 1982;  Robert Altman;  Karen Black, Sandy Dennis — and Cher & Kathy Bates both in one of their first film roles before they would each go on to win Best Actress Oscars.  Phenomenal performances by all.  Brilliant story & script — adapted from the short-lived Broadway play — filmed during the production with Altman directing both and utilizing the entire Broadway cast.  Shot (in 16mm!) on a replica single room set of a Woolworth five-&-dime store.  And thank gawd he did this so it can live on forever.  Masterfully handled in flashbacks (using wall mirrors) between 1955 and a James Dean fan club reunion 20 yrs later.  Smart & gutsy cinematography.  Obvious echoes in the female-centric comedy-drama Steel Magnolias (1989) — but way more powerful and engaging to these eyes.  In fact probably the most powerful of any all-woman-cast movie I’ve ever seen.  A phenomenal portrayal about how people lie to themselves . . . and everyone around them . . . including god.

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The Wolf of Wall Street

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This is a masterpiece that keeps on giving after no matter how many viewings.  It’s full of gems — from Spike Jonze’s small role running the penny-stock hustle in a strip mall to Jonah Hill’s home-run of a supporting role — his second Oscar-nominated performance in two years.  There’s the classic yacht showdown scene between Leo and Kyle Chandler (photo above), and British gem Joanna Lumley’s comic performance as Aunt Emma.  But it’s the uber-confident Leo who carries the film.  

Leo working closely with PTA this year made me think of the other master directors this 51 yr old has already collaborated with.  There can’t be many or any actors in all of history with this kind of a resume:

Scorsese six times;  Tarantino twice with Django and Once Upon A Time in Hollywood;  Baz Luhrmann twice with Romeo & Juliet and The Great Gatsby;  Spielberg on Catch Me If You Can;  Alejandro Iñárritu for his Oscar-winning role in The Revenant;  James Cameron on Titanic;  Chris Nolan on Inception;  Woody Allen on Celebrity;  Ridley Scott on Body of Lies;  Sam Mendes on Revolutionary Road;  Danny Boyle on The Beach;  Adam McKay on Don’t Look Up;  Sam Raimi on The Quick and The Dead;  and Clint Eastwood on J. Edgar.  That is mind-blowing!

And get this — his last SIX movies have ALL been nominated for Best Picture!  Every single one of them!  Can there be any other actor in history who starred in six Best Picture-nominated films in a row?

One Battle (assuming), Killers of The Flower Moon, Don’t Look Up, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, The Revenant, and The Wolf of Wall Street.

The Wolf of Wall Street — 2013;  produced & directed by Martin Scorsese;  based on Jordan Belfort’s memoir;  Leonardo DiCaprio (also co-produced and was working on it for years before Scorsese or anyone else got involved), Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie (her first substantial role in a major movie), Matthew McConaughey, Spike Jonze, P.J. Byrne, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner, Jon Favreau, Jean Dujardin, Bo Dietl (as himself), Joanna Lumley (as Aunt Emma), and a fun little cameo by Fran Lebowitz.  A modern masterpiece.  Deservedly Oscar nominated for Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, and DiCaprio & Jonah Hill for Lead & Supporting.  And it also should’ve been for Thelma’s brilliant editing.  Producer DiCaprio had been developing and preparing for this role for 6 years — no wonder his performance is so over-the-top spectacular.  Scorsese brought in 3 major directors in acting roles: Rob Reiner, Spike Jonze & Jon Favreau.
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All The Presidents Men

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Without planning, I end up watching this once a year, and every time I shake my head in awe at how perfect a film it is — from the screenplay to the casting to the performances.  This is Redford and Hoffman in their mid-’70s prime telling a story about journalists standing up to a power-crazed authoritarian regime.  That’s a hit combination in any year, but boy does it resonate nowadays!

All The President’s Men — 1976;  Alan Pakula;  based on book by Woodward & Bernstein;  brilliant cinematography by Gordon Willis;  Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Hal Holbrook, Jason Robards, Jane Alexander, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam, Ned Beatty, Stephen Collins, Meredith Baxter, Robert Walden.  Rewatched for the first time in decades during the lockdown summer of 2020 as I began my Film Studies program and was being blown away.  It’s mind-blowing how this movie reflects trump taking Nixon’s amoral authoritarian corruption to the stratosphere.  This film’s authoritarian power grab is trumpism in its infancy.  Everything that Watergate and this movie foretold as an immanent danger to American democracy came to pass with the practiced evil of trump’s manipulative sociopathy.  Exactly what was stopped by the Washington Post is the evil that’s proliferating now when a criminal autocrat can manipulate the functions of government and media.  87 mins in there’s an historic TV clip of the great Elizabeth Drew interviewing Nixon’s Attorney General.  The 2-disc Special Edition has fantastic making-of documentaries, and the Robert Redford commentary is to-die-for.  He was the guy who first saw the story as being about Woodward & Bernstein, not the Watergate crime per se.  He contacted the two before they ever wrote the book, and said THIS was the story.  HOW they uncovered it.  Not the “it” — but the “how.”  Redford saw and pitched it as a real-life detective thriller … and every studio turned him down.  (!). The lone studio that was interested, Warner Brothers, wouldn’t make it unless he starred in it.  It was by making The Candidate that led to Redford’s connections to political journalists.  It’s almost as amazing a story of how this film came to be created as the story itself.  And hearing Redford describe what was behind each scene and shot is a gift from beyond.  Nobody was more involved in why this film exists than Robert Redford.  It deservedly won Oscars for Best Screenplay, Art Direction and Jason Robards as Ben Bradlee, but what an historic mistake that this didn’t win Best Picture.  Mind you, it was up against Taxi Driver, Network, Bound For Glory and Rocky . . . and frickin Rocky won!  

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Moneyball

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Like Wolf of Wall Street or All The President’s Men this is one of those movies that can be enjoyed over & over like a great suite of music.  And like Wall Street it’s set in a world I don’t care about or think about (baseball), yet had me completely captivated from the jump, plus has another masterful performance by Jonah Hill and a cameo by Spike Jonze.  Like President’s Men it’s inspired by a real story featuring two guys going up against the establishment, and against all odds succeeding.  The tone of the movie throughout is pitch-perfect (ha-ha), and overall it’s an outta park home run.  (sorry 😄)  If there’d been a Best Casting Oscar back then, it would have been nominated in that category along with all the others.  Every character from the scouts to the lead’s family are perfectly cast including Chris Pratt in his first quality film role.  It’s warm, endearing, and a joy to enjoy over as many screenings as you wanna ride it.

Moneyball — 2011;  Bennett Miller;  Aaron Sorkin co-wrote;  Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Chris Pratt, Spike Jonze, Robin Wright.  I’m not really a baseball fan, but this character-rich real-story drama about a revolutionary process of putting together a winning team with a low budget is compelling from start to finish.  Nominated for Best Picture, Screenplay, Editing, and both Brad & Jonah’s Acting.
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Scott Pilgrim vs The World

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During the lockdown in 2020 when I was first embarking on this Film Studies program I stumbled across an interview with this young British guy who knew a shit-ton about film.  Who is this guy?!  Turned out it was Edgar Wright.  So I checked out a couple of his films — Hot Fuzz and Shaun of The Dead — and I was fairly blown away by both his twisted humor and his filmmaking.  So, I then sought out Baby Driver, The World’s End and Last Night in Soho — he only has 7 features to his young name — all of which were great in their own weird ways.  But this Scott Pilgrim is on a whole other level.  Check out the description I riffed —

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World — 2010;  co-written & directed by Edgar Wright;  a cavalcade of stars, many of whom were yet to be household names — Michael Cera, Kieran Culkin, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Aubrey Plaza, Anna Kendrick, Brie Larson, an hilarious Chris Evans & Jason Schwartzman, and an uncredited Bill Hader & Thomas Jane.  Set and filmed entirely in Toronto (including Casa Loma!) Wright’s first film not shot in England.  Brilliantly written script birthed from a graphic novel.  Surreal & funny love story.  Boy, this Edgar Wright is one weird dude! and a visionary brilliant filmmaker!  Incredible visuals and sound editing.  Made like a blend of a video game and a movie.  Crazy-huge $85 million budget!  Tons of CGI & SFX.  Wright ran a rough cut by Tarantino, Jason Reitman & Kevin Smith to get their input.  Beck, Sloan, Broken Social Scene & Metric all contributed music.  Watching a lot of films, I think in some ways I could create something like that — but watching Edgar Wright or Baz Luhrmann movies, I’m like, “These guys are operating on some superhuman level so far beyond where my brain goes!”  This is a cinematic masterpiece as far as I’m concerned.
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3:10 to Yuma

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The mastery of A Complete Unknown caused me to check out the rest of James Mangold’s filmography.  I’d already relished in Walk The Line and Ford v Ferrari, and while I was on his train to Cop Land, I caught the 3:10 to Yuma and was blown away, as you can read below.  I’m not a fan of Westerns at all — but this one broke through the desert dust.

3:10 To Yuma — 2007;  James Mangold (his first film after his Academy Award-winning Walk The Line);  Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Ben Foster, Peter Fonda, Dallas Roberts [Sam Phillips in Walk The Line], Alan Tudyk, Vinessa Shaw, Gretchen Mol, and a fun bit-part by Luke Wilson.  Interesting to see Christian Bale in a Western.  Neat Beat connection in that Ben Foster played William Burroughs in Kill Your Darlings and Gretchen Mol played Cherry Mary in The Last Time I Committed Suicide.  Great script in both the micro and the macro.  Originally a short story from 1953 by Elmore Leonard (!) and made into a 1957 film starring Glenn Ford & Van Heflin.  Set in the 1880s – about transporting a murderous prisoner to get on a train to take him to prison.  Mangold actually used passages from the original screenplay.  Great location shooting in Arizona & New Mexico.  Exciting filmmaking.  Atmospheric.  Great cinematography, costuming, sets and masterful art direction in general.  Like another contemporary filmmaker, Quentin Tarantino, two directors who normally make movies set in the 20th century — they each put their stamp on a Western – Q with Dango Unchained & The Hateful Eight and Mangold with this.  Echoes of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in how it starts with a gang robbing a Pinkerton-protected money shipment.  Also echoes of Hateful Eight in that it features a prisoner in transit; as well as the De Niro–Charles Grodin bounty hunter / road trip / prisoner buddy movie Midnight Run.  One of only a handful of Westerns this movie fan has ever enjoyed.  James Mangold needs to be up there in the conversation with Spielberg, Scorsese and Coppola.  This guy has never made a bad movie.  Even when he makes one about a genre I don’t care for — I love it!

For a great riff on James Mangold check out . . .

James Mangold in the Conversation of Greatest Living Directors

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Big

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Going to university and spending the next 25 years in Manhattan where my daily paper was the New York Times and my life was lived among the artists in Greenwich Village, I developed a bad habit (only one?!) of sort of dismissing light pop fare.  In an attempt to rectify that I’ve watched a few pop hits, and while many confirm my dismissive bias, Big was a big exception.  This movie is fun and endearing and funny and all with an important subtext of adults needing to embrace the joy of childlike wonder and a sense of play — ironically one of the things a too-serious art student in New York might breed out of themselves.  This movie really deserves its status as part of our collective culture and is a joyous reminder in serious times to embrace our playful side.

Big — 1988;  Penny Marshall (her second film);  Tom Hanks (his first Oscar nomination, lost to Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man), Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia, John Heard, Jared Rushton, Mercedes Ruehl, Jon Lovitz, Debra Jo Rupp.  The great Penny Marshall + the great Tom Hanks + an Oscar-nominated Screenplay = the 4th biggest box office hit of the year (and the first woman-directed movie to gross $100 mil).  Masterfully handled and an absolute delight from start to finish.
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Here’s my main Movie Page that began 15 years ago with the premise of:  the movies you’ve watched the most are the ones you think are the best.  It’s grown over time to now have 954 movies with a focus on 78 filmmakers. 

Brian’s “Hot 300” movie list

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Or here’s the story of how the “Jack on Film” shows were created — showing clips and exploring every portrayal of Kerouac on the big or small screen . . .

The Making of “Jack on Film”

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Or here’s a link to the Movie section on my website with tons of film reviews, feature stories and other cinematic fun from over the years.

https://brianhassett.com/category/movies/

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Or here’s my introduction at Lowell Celebrates Kerouac to the film Magic Trip about the Merry Prankster’s historic Bus trip in 1964 . . .

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Or here’s a fantastic conversation with filmmaker Michael Polish (Twin Falls Idaho, The Astronaut Farmer) about him making his masterful adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s Big Sur . . .

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by Brian Hassett

karmacoupon@gmail.com   —  BrianHassett.com

Or here’s my Facebook page if you wanna join in there —

https://www.facebook.com/Brian.Hassett.Canada