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CRIME THRILLER. “Honey Don't!” / "Stone Creek Killer.” / “Sew Torn.” / “Barron's Cove.” / “Rust Creek.”

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“Honey Don't!” (2025, Netflix) neo-noir black comedy directed by Ethan Coen . Small-town private investigator Honey O'Donahue probes a series of strange deaths that are tied to a mysterious church.        Director Ethan Coen requires no introduction, whatsoever. And Margaret Qualley has been scoring hits so far. Add Aubrey Plaza's engaging stoicism. But never mind a perennially one-dimensional Chris Evans and loud-mouth Charlie Day.         Anyhow, this movie has the pre-watch gravitas that'd get you intrigued and interested. Only, “Honey Don't” is a disappointment, and I am not necessarily talking about Margaret and Aubrey's lesbo sex scenes. 🎥💻📽 "Stone Creek Killer" (2025, Amazon Prime) psychological thriller about a Minnesota small-town police chief who pursues a serial killer. He is aided by a psychic, all while fighting to prove his own innocence and confronting his personal past and present demons....

HISTORICAL or PERIOD DRAMA. “Nuremberg.” / “This Bloody Country.” / “Lapwing.” / “The Claim.”

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“Nuremberg” (2025, Netflix) psychological thriller historical drama. The film follows the U.S. Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley seeking to carry out an assignment to investigate the personalities and monitor the mental status of Hermann Göring and other high-ranking Nazis in preparation for and during the Nuremberg trials .  The movie's source material is the 2013 book “The Nazi and the Psychiatrist” by Jack El-Hai , which follows U.S. Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (played by Rami Malek ) seeking to carry out an assignment to investigate the personalities and monitor the mental status of Hermann Göring , and other high-ranking Nazis in preparation for and during the Nuremberg trials .        This movie isn't epic in physical proportion but it is elegantly crafted, anchored on a tight screenplay, measured editing, and a fine performance from Russell Crowe as Hermann Goring. Mr Crowe's essay of Adolf Hitler's #2 aide is a piercing study of c...

DRAMA. “Twinless.” / “Hoard.” / “The Infernal Machine.” / “American Woman.” / “Driftwood” / “The Sleepwalker.” / “Bellflower.”

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“Twinless” (2025, Hulu) psychological black comedy. T wo young men, Roman and Dennis, meet in a grief support group and form an unlikely friendship, which is complicated by lies, secrets, and an unexpected connection to the past.         First, I don't see or feel “psychological” or “black comedy” in this meandering indie.         I don't question James Sweeney cluelessly nonchalant Dennis or Dylan O'Brien's intensely sensitive Roman/Rocky but their characters offer no twists or new angling, anyhow. And as expected, critics praise this correctness lecture due to the obvious. That's it.         But still a promising attempt by James Sweeney, writer and director. 🎥💻📽 “Hoard” (2023, Amazon Prime) British coming-of-age drama about a teenager whose mother used to be an obsessive hoarder as she journeys through childhood trauma and emerging sexuality.   ...

WATCHED THEM AGAIN. “Escape from New York.” / “Saturday Night Fever.” / “The Man Who Fell to Earth.” / “The Seventh Seal.”

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“Escape from New York” (1981, Roku) science fiction action film . Set in a then-near-future world of 1997, a crime-ridden United States has converted Manhattan Island in New York City into the country's sole maximum security prison .         Repeat: This is the year 1997 and the movie was made in 1981. And we are now in the year 2026. And we haven't yet seen the “dystopian future” regardless of the eerie divide among us. Uh huh.        Still in those years, movies of this “futuristic” sort never failed to entertain. As does Kurt Russell 's Snake Plissken. When I first saw this, I was in awe. Whoa! 1997? LOL! 🎥💻📽 “Saturday Night Fever” (1977, Pluto TV) dance drama. Star s John Travolta as a young Italian-American man who spends his weekends dancing and drinking at a local disco while dealing with social tensions and disillusionment in his working class ethnic neighborhood in Brooklyn . The story is base...