The Long Walk (2025)

There are a good deal of challenges when adapting a story like The Long Walk for the screen. It's a very literary story, where much of the drama is explored in the characters' heads or through their conversations, and the explicit physical action is repetitive and monotonous (the walking) and viscerally violent (the executions). Finding visual and auditory ways of communicating all of this is not necessarily an easy task which is why I think Mollner and Lawrence have pulled off a bit of a miracle here by making one of 2025's most compelling, most engaging, and most impactful films. I came out of The Long Walk completely shook, and it gave me so much to reflect upon. The Long Walk is the sort of film you don't want to get up to go to the bathroom because every moment is important and riveting.  And they have made this tale very cinematic. 

The Long Walk is truly an ensemble piece and the cast here is wonderful, living up to what this story demands. They are just... walking... and talking and through this they develop their characters into fully realized and recognizable humans, discuss concepts in complex and meaningful ways, and build relationships that make the impact of the events even more raw and powerful. Hoffman and Jonsson are the central characters and are a perfect collaborative team, but the others are no less impressive in making sure we care about each one, even those we resent. This is the sort of cast that "ensemble awards" are designed for. 

I want to talk about the violence. Stephen King famously indicated he wanted the film makers not to shy away from the killings. This story, at its heart, is about the young men who are sacrificed for "our nation" (gun violence, the armed forced), the way we celebrate their deaths ("thank you for your service"), and the true horror of that. King doesn't want us looking away and The Long Walk makes us look. I never became desensitized to the death and that's on purpose. We are supposed to feel it and we do. 

I want to talk about the queerness/masculinity. I have complicated feelings here. The novel suggests some romantic/sexual feelings amongst the characters and the film has toned some of that down with only one brief, off hand explicit reference (which arguably could be seen as a joke... but as any queer person knows, that's how these things are often originally communicated) and then more suggestion than anything else. I was a bit disappointed the film wasn't braver here. But it does deconstruct performative masculinity quite well over its run time, as well as the bonds and feelings between men, even tying these threads together at moments. The film codes hyper masculinity in negative tones while extolling male connection, sensitivity, empathy. There is a romance structure to the central relationship with the meet cute and the growing affinity. The Long Walk admittedly leaves room for McVries' sexuality to be explicitly queer, never cutting off that option. I would argue he is positively queer coded througout. He is presented as a strong, bold character who goes his own way and nurtures those around him. He is cut off from family ties and builds his own chosen family. While queer coding has historically been used to villainize a character I would say here it is used to "heroitize" him. While I was disappointed the film left this vague enough to be ignored, I appreciated what it did with his character even if he just represents the values and isn't literally queer himself. 

What truly impacted me was the ending. I'm still reflecting on this and my feelings might change a bit as I think about it more but I found the film truly bleak as it ended, in a way that I appreciate deeply. From this part on I will talk *spoilers* so stop reading here until you have seen it. It was confused a bit at first by how the film's ending differs from the book (on the record I am a big fan of films varying from their source material in ways that work better for their medium - reducing the characters, and heightening the danger levels make sense here). On the one had it was a shock for anyone who has read the book to see Garraty die. Hell it's a shock for anyone who hasn't... the movie completely sets him up with all cinematic conventions to be the final boy. This rocks you more than you expect when it happens. American movies usually sacrifice the noble black (maybe queer) friend for his white buddy, the central character. The Long Walk was brave in pulling this switcheroo, even if it was just for the shock value. 

But for me the biggest impact of the change was how it made the ending even sadder, even more discouraging. After McVries has inspired so many of his compatriots along the way to reach to a higher goal or even just to find peace, he succumbs. The ending shows he has even he has been tainted and damaged by the totalitarian society that couldn't break him until now. The magical unicorn character, the one that is supposed to be there to transform the hero, becomes the centre himself, and is in that corrupted. It is dark and foreboding and something I'm still struggling to process. I intend to rewatch this to explore these further and I might have more thoughts but these are my first reactions. 

As I said I left The Long Walk completely shook. I know sometimes cinema is great for escapism and often that's what people want from it. Sometimes that's what I want from it. But it is films like this that remind me why I love cinema so much. 

The Long Walk

Starring: Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, Tut Nyuot, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang,  Roman Griffin Davis, Jordan Gonzalez, Josh Hamilton, Judy Greer, Mark Hamill 

Director: Francis Lawrence

Writer: TJ Mollner

Universal Monsters - Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954)

The Creature from the Black Lagoon was the final Universal Monster introduced during the classic age, and he came along almost two decades after things got rolling with Dracula. It is a very different movie from the others, inspired by the sci fi trend of the 50s, yet still featuring the tropes of the classic movies (a monster who becomes fascinated with a central woman who needs to be saved by the dashing, and somewhat sympathetic, hero). The story here is as flimsy as they come and even its 80 minutes runtime feels like a stretch. But it manages to capture the series' magic and remains one of the more popular. 

Creature is sun-drenched and full of beefcake. Unlike its predecessors, which were shot is shadow and moonlight, this is very much shot in the daytime under a burning sun. Its message seems to be a warning against going where you don't belong. Are there anti-colonialist sentiments here? Perhaps that's stretching. But the Gill-Man's motives appear mostly to be about protecting his lagoon from shirtless interlopers. The film's messaging feels muted compared to some of the other films in this series and feels more interested in showcase the simmers bodies of the cast and the monster action. 

Still there isn't much there there. The action is stunted by what they could do underwater at the time and there are long swimming sequences which slow things down. The film never quite manages to be scary. It often milks the idea of the creature's hand slowly reaching from the depths but this doesn't evoke much fear. The film was famously shot in 3D so perhaps that craze moved audiences to fear but there are few moments of real terror. 

Creature was followed by two sequels which see him taken into custody and then "terrorizing" the locals as opposed to here where he is in his element. It has inspired many other monster movies including Guillermo del Toro's Oscar winning The Shape of Water, a film which began as a potential remake of this film. As his series ran out, so did the Universal Monsters original run. Despite the film's shortcomings, the creature himself is iconic and leaves a huge legacy along with his fellow monsters. 

Creature From the Black Lagoon

Starring: Richard Carlson, Julie Adams, Richard Denning, Ben Chapman

Director: Jack Arnold

Writers: Harry Essex, Arthur Ross

Lurker (2025)

Lurker is marketed as an All About Eve kind of drama or Single White Female style thriller but it ends up being something quite different. The film dares us to hate our central figure, Matthew, as some sort of interloper, social climber. But in the end we see the target of his obsession, rising pop star Oliver, come to need Matthew as much as Matthew needs him. The bold underlying thread in Lurker is the transactional needs of relationships and social connections, that perhaps there is reciprocity in obsession, and asks us to see these dynamics in the relationships around us. 

So yeah, in light of this Lurker becomes quite nihilistic. We are presented with moments of connection which are consistently reduced to elements of exchange, of trade. They are based on different sorts of fear, of loss. It is a rather bleak outlook on friendship. 

The film plays with queer-coding in interesting ways. This is a common trope in stories like this and the film layers in moments of suggestive homoeroticism yet in the end dismisses the idea of gay attraction for something else, something quite heterosexual. It explores the idea of the heterosexual male need for the love and affection of other men, especially men they admire, and desire, perhaps to be or to be loved by. This is a subversion of the typical sort of play with queer themes and is refreshing if quite challenging. 

Much of what makes this work are the central performances of Pellerin and Madekwe who bring complicated ranges to their characters and build a requisite desperation to their relationship. There were moments the energy between them felt so compelling and other times so bruised. Alex Russell visuals are stripped down and raw and his script is tight, leaving so much between the lines to communicate. Together the three are an exciting group with so much potential to do more great things.  

Lurker

Starring: Théodore Pellerin, Archie Madekwe, Zack Fox, Havana Rose Liu, Sunny Suljic 

Writer/Director: Alex Russell

HIghest 2 Lowest (2025)

I appreciate it when a remake doesn't simply attempt to retell the movie it is remaking, following its beats and regurgitating its themes. That is what it felt like when Lee remade Oldboy, but with Highest 2 Lowest, a remake of Kurosawa's High and Low, Lee appears to be taking only the basic premise and using it to tell a very different story. While Kurosawa's narrative deconstructed a class divide and exposed how the interests of the upper classes almost necessarily come at the cost of the lower classes, Highest 2 Lowest is more interested in exploring the rediscovery of ones priorities. So while I appreciate that Lee isn't attempting to go over Kurosawa's old ground, I may not have found Lee's thesis as interesting overall despite the fact that Highest 2 Lowest is a collab between two modern legends of cinema who remain amongst the best in their fields. 

Highest 2 Lowest is the story of David King (sure it is an on-the-nose reference but I'm here for it), a record mogul who is not only a self-made man but is presented as being almost single handed in building New York's black music scene. When his son is kidnapped, but then he discovers the kidnappers mistakenly took the son of King's driver instead, he is faced with a moral dilemma complicated by the fact his own financial success has been stretched and he's in the process of rebuilding. This is where the two films diverge. Where Kurosawa explored the moral questions of how the central character should use his power, Lee choses to look at how this experience changes King, or refocuses him. I think this is where I found the film less interesting. The idea of a rich and powerful man shaken to reevaluate his priorities is such worn ground and I'm not sure I found Lee offered much new here. I can see why maybe he didn't want this to be about indicting King for his use of power and more on a personal journey but I found that personal journey just less engaging, especially due to how many times we've seen that story play out. 

The switch in tone feels a bit of a let down in light of casting of one of my all time favourite actors, Jeffrey Wright who is underused here. He gets some good scenes in the first half but since the film isn't focused on the tensions arising from the two men's positions, his character fades into the background which is a loss truly. Washington is doing good work here though and carrying the film. He hasn't lost his touch and he gives a complicated yet subtle performance that I appreciated. 

I have mixed feelings about other aspects of the films as well. The music was confounding to me. The "in world "music" was wonderful. The music contributed by artists that populated this world of a record mogul was easily one of the highlights of the film. At the end there is a powerful performance by singer Aiyana-Lee playing a young, emerging singer which is a show stopper. But the score felt very anachronistic and kept pulling me out of the film. Drossin's score feels like it was pulled from a Marvel movie and never quite fits with the tone of this film. I couldn't quite make sense of what was going on there. 

My biggest plus for this film is the way it highlights its location. New York feels like a living, breathing character in this film and Lee's obvious love for the city shines through. It feels lived in and real, not a cinematic version of NYC. So while overall my experience of Highest 2 Lowest was mixed, there was a lot about it that rang true for me. 

Highest 2 Lowest 

Starring: Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, ASAP Rocky, Ice Spice, Frederick Weller, Dean Winters, LaChanze, Michael Potts, Wendell Pierce, Anthony Ramos, Rosie Perez

Director: Spike Lee

Writer: Alan Fox

The Roses (2025)

My initial thought when I heard this adaptation of The War of the Roses would be directed by Roach was that it might lean into the silly, the over the top battling of soon-to-be exes, and the trailers did push it in that direction. However fortunately it actually spends more time on the relationship between its lead characters than on the revenge. And that part of the movie is quite good. It's often quite smart and endearingly funny. The final act, which falls into the cliches of divorce is less so but it feels like the film knows this, sort of rushing through it so that it doesn't have to spend much of its time there. The only downside is that it doesn't give its final moments enough time to truly resolve and therefore loses some of it punch. 

The Roses examines the ways marriage itself can eat away at connection between the parties. Neither Colman or Cumberbatch's characters are ideal humans but they are both quite relatable and generally lovely, facing very real world (for upper middle class white people anyway) challenges and the film does a nice job of diving into this. The script is funny, if sometimes a bit loose, and it is delivered with a charming dexterity by the film's too amazing leads, actors who can do almost anything, and have surprisingly good chemistry together. 

So while I very much enjoyed it, The Roses left me wanting near the end as they descend into a silliness which just saps some of the power of the rest of the film for laughs which don't quite feel worth it all. I think there is a darker movie here which could have truly taken the characters into a sort of madness and then redemption in a way that might have been more heartfelt. However, as I mentioned earlier, the ending is rushed and less honest than what had come before, and I wasn't sure I entirely bought the final moments. But still, Colman and Cumberbatch are both so good (as are the supporting cast) that The Roses makes for some good, if not perfect, viewing that does ask us to consider some questions about marriage and relationships and perhaps laugh a little too. 

The Roses 

Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Olivia Colman, Andy Samberg, Alison Janney, Sunita Mani, Ncuti Gatwa, Jamie Demetriou, Zoë Chao, Kate McKinnon 

Director: Jay Roach

Writer: Tony McNamara

The Toxic Avenger (2025)

Despite a bumpy road Macon Blair's love letter to B-moves is finally getting its release and thank goodness cause it is a whole lot of fun with undercurrents of brilliance running through it. With its underground aesthetics, subversive messaging layered into its excessively conspicuous plot, and its heavy use of practical effects The Toxic Avenger is intentionally designed to feel like its from another age, yet its morals couldn't be more modern. It also embraces the legacy of its brand (and its genre) by leaning into silly gore in ways that are clever and damn entertaining. 

Dinklage truly shines here. While being both funny and silly, he also brings a heavy amount of pathos to his role as widowed step father trying to do right by his teen step-son. His relationship with Tremblay is sweet in a genuine way despite how tongue in cheek the movie is trying to be. Their chemistry is so strong make sure you stick around for the post-credit scene which works entirely on the strength of their relationship. 

Macon has woven quite subtly a lot of modern critiques into this otherwise very blatant, in your face film. I appreciated how many throw away lines made sharp, insightful points while we are laughing at some absurdity. This film is smart and fun and sweetly sentimental while bathed in a lot of fake looking gore and blood. 

The Toxic Avenger

Starring: Peter Dinklage, Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige,Julia Davis, Jonny Coyne, Elijah Wood, Kevin Bacon

Writer/Director: Macon Blair 

Caught Stealing (2025)

I have to confess I've never really liked an Aronofsky movie. I think that may have changed with his adaptation of the Huston novel Caught Stealing, a crime thriller with just enough humour to keep it from wallowing in its quite dark storyline but not tipping over into self-satire. This is the sort of film one could see Tarantino directing, which likely would have taken the film down a far more over-the-top path. Instead, Aronofsky plays it cool, sticking to the story, and letting the emotional beats hit themselves while delivering a gripping tale centred around a very likeable, and rather lucky, protagonist. 

The film's story (from the novel) does require a certain amount coincidental confluences of events that keep it from feeling overly realistic which is why Aronofsky's restrained direction makes it work. He has assembled a strong cast around Butler who truly pulls off the lead character's arc in a way that keeps us invested in him. This story could have easily jumped the shark and there may be a few moments that made me scratch my head, including a fridging moment which boarders on exploitative yet also is used to set up so much of the plot's resolution. In fact a lot of characters have to die for our central character to make it out alive, but I found the film pays respect and makes us all feel the losses without getting too weighed down in the misery nor shrugging it off with inopportune humour. 

I felt is all came together rather well and set up what could be a film series if Butler and Aronofsky are so inclined. I normally do not find Aronofsky's choices to be ones I am interested in, but this film, a bit more commercially minded and accessible, is made in the way I enjoy a good commercial movie to be made, with a bit more brains and a strong cast doing good work. So while his "artier" films aren't to the taste of how I like my "arty" films, perhaps our aesthetics related to mainstream movies are a bit more aligned.

Caught Stealing

Starring: Austin Butler, Regina King, Zoë Kravitz, Matt Smith, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D'Onofrio, Benito A Martínez Ocasio (Bad Bunny), Griffin Dunne, Carol Kane, Laura Dern

Director: Darren Aronofsky

Writer: Charlie Huston