The Breakfast Club (1985): I loved TBC growing up. It was a movie that resonated with me a lot, as it did with so many others. As an almost forty-year-old today, it’s more of an ask to love it in the way I loved it back then. That said, I still think it holds onto a fundamental truth that has become only more notable since, in a manner that is not so straightforward to dissect. For John Hughes, it was a fairly simple message: we are more than our labels, more than what the world tries to see us as. Easy to say, for a handful of very standard, white, perfectly American characters. In today’s world, the relationship between labels as restricting and labels as self-affirming is a lot less clear-cut. Even though on some level you would think TBC could be very well suited to a more inclusive, modern remake, at the same time you just know that’s like prodding a hornet’s nest. I remain a believer in the fact that you don’t need one-to-one representation to feel represented and movies are time-travel devices, representations of our socio-cultural priorities and angsts at one time or another. In that, TBC is a wholesome story of friendship and belonging. 8
Project Hail Mary (2026): I instantly thought about Cast Away after watching PHM. Seeing Ryan Gosling interact with a space rock just had that throwback effect – so expect something on it next week. In this adaptation of Andy Weir’s book, we follow a space mission dedicated to saving Earth from a mysterious phenomenon that’s compromising the sun. It mixes a slightly amnesic present tense with revealing flashbacks, fleshing out the story at a leisurely pace. We are ultimately served a buddy comedy, with a lot of warmth and a strong spirit of self-sacrifice. This is coupled with some impressive visuals, a staple of most modern-day movies set in space, which are just a joy to look at it. Overall though, I don’t feel the movie does quite enough to break any new ground or do something unexpected, and I perceived it to be very carefully calibrated as a highly-identifiable checklist matcher. Or maybe I’m just projecting, but at no point did PHM feel anything else but super safe. A nice, safe, comfy romp through space. 7
Lorne (2026): American productions sure like to make things in twos. After last year’s fictional retelling of the first Saturday Night Live show, we get a proper documentary about its creator, Lorne Michaels. Lorne is an elusive fellow, we are told, and acclaimed director Morgan Neville (Twenty Feet from Stardom, Best of Enemies, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?) tries to make something out of not very much. Adding an ironic narrator, varying visual reconstructions alongside archival footage, and fly-on-the-wall kind of observations alongside less than illuminating interview snippets with the subject, Neville really throws the kitchen sink at this. The result, unfortunately, is very tame. Covering the highs and lows and highs of the SNL “franchise”, it does succeed in highlighting its pivotal role as an entertainment factory line, with many-a-comedian/actor having earned their chops there. However, it doesn’t really elucidate what the whole kerfuffle is with SNL, why it has become some kind of hallowed institution, even when the comedy is very hit and miss. There’s also no attempt to view Lorne as anything but Lorne, i.e. the benevolent subject of a benevolent filmmaker, and the many, many talking heads involved in singing his praises do become tedious. You have a table with Bill Hader, Andy Samberg, Fred Armisen and you immediately wonder why you need anyone else talking about this thing. Alas, that’s the problem with a hagiography, there’s no limit to how much a man can be lauded. 6
The Devil Wears Prada 2 (2026): I am struggling to say if I enjoyed TDWP2 more than I disliked it. Not aggressively, but as a hastily assembled piece of slop cinema that has the pretentiousness of being more than it is, while treating its characters with the grace of a bulldozer. The first movie had a fresh feeling to it back in the day, which this follow-up doesn’t even try to fake. It just goes through the motions, complains about the downfall of print media ten years too late, jabs at the billionaires who run everything, ticks off a series of cameos (Ronny Chieng, so random) and then ties it all off in the neatest of bows. It’s nice to see the gang back together, even if it scarcely feels like a gang, and there are moments of lightness and vibe where I sensed I was having a good time with it. So I’ll try to be less negative. 6
Roofman (2025): In spite of the good buzz around this movie starring Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst and a handful of other very familiar actors, there was something that didn’t sit right with me. It tells the true* story of Jeffrey Manchester, a serial criminal but also a swell guy who (spoiler) got the book thrown at him, escaped jail, lived in Toys R Us, found love and ended up back in jail. All because he’s good at some things, but bad at others, which is what makes him “so human”. Even though the movie is, as one would say, well put together, with good performances all around, I couldn’t shake the sense that there’s something fake and heavily romanticized about it, to the point where I just couldn’t find it true any more. It’s also long at over two hours, so I am afraid I can’t join the bandwagon on this one. 5
tributary stu 
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