Author: msobczak1138

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The Odyssey (2026)

The Odyssey (2026)

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There are two things I admire about Christopher Nolan.  First, he’s never made the same movie twice (outside of the Batman trilogy).  He’s Kubrick-ian in that way, setting out to make the best movie in every genre he visits.  Second, he relishes large-scale storytelling.  Like his peer Denis Villeneuve, he loves painting on the biggest canvas possible.  Taken together, it makes perfect sense that Nolan would tackle The Odyssey, an epic tale in a genre he hadn’t conquered yet.  That said, the movie contains all of the narrative and stylistic touches you’d expect from a Nolan film, right down to the “what did he say?” moments of dialog dialog.

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Love and Mercy

Love & Mercy (2014)

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I wish I had more time to watch movies than I do.  The list of them I’d be ashamed to admit I’ve never seen is quite long and grows by the day.  For example, when Brian Wilson, the former leader of the Beach Boys, died in 2025, memorial articles referenced Love & Mercy, which came out ten years prior.  Wilson’s passing finally motivated me to see the film, which had been routinely praised for its performances by Paul Dano and John Cusack.  That praise was well-deserved, because the movie is one of the best biopics about a musician I’ve seen.

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Minions & Monsters

Minions & Monsters

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Minions & Monsters could be the funniest movie I see this year.  Two factors play into this assessment.  First, Hollywood studios rarely make pure comedies these days, which means that this one will have little competition for the title.  Second, this movie is hilarious.  Did it matter to me that this movie was made for kids?  Not at all.  If this is the best funny business Hollywood has to offer, I’ll take it.  All hail the Minions, the new kings of comedy!

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Lucky Strike

Lucky Strike

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Did the fate of the free world really depend upon how American soldiers smoked their cigarettes during WWII?  Lucky Strike, named after one of the brands included in their rations, says that it did.  In this movie, that small part of military training played a key role in a soldier’s struggle for survival behind enemy lines during The Battle of the Bulge.  Accordingly, the movie is an interesting entry in the growing “little-known facts of WWII” genre, which emphasises small-scale stories over huge battle scenes.  But don’t worry–there are tanks and a flamethrower!

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Toy Story 5

Toy Story 5

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Everyone knows that “helicopter parenting” is bad, right?  Apparently not, since the good folks at Pixar have revisited the topic again, seven years after Toy Story 4 made it clear that toys need to know their place.  Don’t they have a “prime directive” to guide them in situations like this?  Anyhow, in Toy Story 5 it’s Jessie instead of Woody who decides to take matters into her own hands with current owner Bonnie, and things turn out about as you’d expect.  There’s also a platoon of newly-awakened Buzz Lightyears that find their way into the story, and who doesn’t love more Buzz?

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Pressure

Pressure

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During a quiet moment in Pressure, Group Captain James Stagg (Andrew Scott) poignantly asks a colleague, “What is wind?”  His question is rhetorical but it reflects the philosophical differences he has with a rival who bases his optimal D-Day forecast upon historical charts.  In the face of unrelenting pressure from everyone around him to change his pessimistic weather forecast, Stagg stays true to his convictions, because he knows that predicting the weather requires more than pattern-matching.  It requires curiosity and insight, two things that ultimately won out in what was proven to be the most consequential weather forecast in history.

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Passenger (2026)

Passenger (2026)

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At one point in Passenger, the heroine uses her van’s camera system to find the ghost that’s been following her.  I’ve seen dash cams and backup cams before, but this was cooler.  It gave her a 360 degree view outside of the van, which eventually revealed the ghost.  While the scene played out exactly as I expected, it was a clever way of using modern technology so that for once, the poor girl can finally look around without her head on a swivel.  This and other little details showed that the filmmakers wanted to make an interesting “stalking ghost” movie, and I was entertained by the results.

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