Black Bag (2025): Ah, my good friend Steven S. He makes it onto my podium of most-watched-directors with this one and there’s still places to go (Spielberg and Friedkin are ahead, but not by much). And Black Bag is one of his best. Some people will find the particular glare of early scenes annoying, but I thought it adds an ethereal look to the scenes which serve the movie well in portraying the state of its characters. We follow a handful of intelligence agents, all couples with questionably dysfunctional relationships. They are all tested as a leak indicates someone is a traitor and this sets the stage for one of the most memorable on-screen romances of last year. It’s not flashy, but in their absolute devotion and determination, George and Kathryn (Fassbender and Blanchett) become aspirational figures. The end result is a tight thriller, which doesn’t innovate on story (it is David Koepp, so hard to expect much innovation), but pays out in the sharpness of its tempo. 8
Neighborhood Watch (2025): Jack Quaid and Jeffrey Dean Morgan star in this crime drama as an aloof but mostly earnest not-quite-cop duo. Quaid’s character struggles with disability and is haunted by a distressing inner voice, diminishing him at every step. Morgan’s is a former campus security officer who is unable to find purpose in life, while generally being a seemingly grudgeful and insensitive guy. The two team up after Quaid witnesses a kidnapping and the police (justifiably?) doesn’t devote all its resources to the reported, but unsubstantiated crime. It’s a wholesome movie by the end, even as someone gets their head blown off, but I was frustrated when the “we should definitely call the cops right about now” moment came and went. Then again, it’s the sacrifices we make to have most amateur-sleuths-turned-detectives movies. The finale is both anticlimactic and highly likable in its unorthodox wrap-up, which ultimately left me with a fuzzy feeling inside. 7
People We Meet on Vacation (2026): The Netflix movie churn apparatus is at it again, this time producing a travel romcom about two best friends who may or may not ruin their friendship with a lifelong romance. Emily Bader and Tom Blyth star and they have enough chemistry to keep you mildly entertained, in a generally lush looking movie. The story, core conceit and grand gestures are subpar though. It’s probably a great experience if you’ve never seen any other romcom in your entire life, but odds are that you have, which will make PWMoV feel instantly familiar. That isn’t necessarily bad, but I think the way the movie handles itself is not only trite, but inauthentic. So, meh. 5
Five Nights at Freddy’s (2023): Based on the popular game series of the same name, this movie and the ensuing series can join the other poster children of terrible VG adaptations. Director Emma Tammi has an ability to make this look and behave like a production of some quality, but she doesn’t show any feel for tension or scares. The amount of failed jump scares is hilarious in itself. Not many of the movie’s other failings are. We follow Mike (Josh Hutcherson), his niece Abby (Piper Rubio) and young police officer Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), who are assisted by the more colourful presence of Matthew Lillard. Our motley crew spends a bunch of time (sleeping, ahah) at the now defunct Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, where animatronic dolls have a life of their own. The backstory is convoluted, but it at least goes to dark places, that would have been better served by equally dark visuals. Not much a PG-13 movie can serve. Ultimately, the movie is just silly, poorly written and lifeless, but the strength of the gaming franchise does for it what it did for P.W. Anderson’s Resident Evil – condemns it to sequelization. 3
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 (2025): We’re back with our friends of old, as FNaF 2 ticks most of the sequel cliches you can think of. We delve into Vanessa’s (Elizabeth Lail) troubled youth, while still trying to save Abby (Piper Rubio) from being manipulated by various Machiavellian animatronics. For a while, I thought this would be less ridiculous than its predecessor, by just playing it very safely. But then, where the plot had a love-interest-sized-slot between Mike and Vanessa, it works hard at making us believe the two can’t trust each other, because Vanessa is selective with what she shares – for obvious plot reasons. It does look a bit darker, but really doesn’t do anything to warrant praise or elicit enjoyment. 3
tributary stu 
Leave a comment