I Swear (2025)

I became aware of this only in connection with a public catastrophe. I assumed a documentary, but it's a biopic. When it came to Netflix, I leapt at it for education's sake.

In a Scottish town in 1983, preteen John Davidson (Scott Ellis Watson) develops frequent shouts and spasms, some of which qualify as assaults. Everyone else assumes he's just being a jerk, but he insists it's involuntary. Sure enough, he goes on to be diagnosed with acute Tourette syndrome. In young adulthood (now played by Robert Aramayo), he decides to leave the home of his mother, Heather (Shirley Henderson), and live with Dottie (Maxine Peake), the ailing mother of his old school friend, Murray (Francesco Piacentini-Smith). Heather objects, but John notes that Dottie is both more tolerant and more experienced with mental patients. In middle age, he becomes the face of Tourette's awareness.

Miracle (2004)

I had started watching Happy as Lazzaro, but the first maybe half hour didn't grab me. When I learned that it had a strange setup and an anticapitalist message, I lost interest further. Giving up, I chose this replacement in a bit of a rush.

In 1979, former Olympic hockey player Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell) gets to coach the U.S. Olympic hockey team. There is little time before the 1980 winter games, so he sees fit to take a hard approach, which doesn't make him popular in the short term. He also doesn't favor the same player picks as others, believing that individual athletic skill matters less than who will work well together.

Steel Magnolias (1989)

I'd seen a fair number of movies with comedic elements lately, but it was time for an indisputable comedy-drama. It was also time for something that easily passed the Bechdel test, with six women getting top billing and the entire poster. OK, mainly I decided to watch what would soon stop streaming on Netflix.

Although partly based in truth, the story takes place entirely in a fictional small town in Louisiana. It begins on the wedding day of Shelby Eatenton (Julia Roberts) and Jackson Latcherie (Dylan McDermott), who narrowly avoid several fiascos, including cold feet. Alas, the event showcases Shelby's worsening health from diabetes. Her mother, Mary Lynn or "M'Lynn" (Sally Field), would rather she not endanger herself further by having a baby. When the focus is not on the Eatentons or the Latcheries, it's usually on Annelle Dupuy (Daryl Hannah), sometimes made out to be the main character. She's a struggling newcomer who gets hired at the beauty shop of gossipy Truvy Jones (Dolly Parton), falls for one Sammy DeSoto (Kevin J. O'Connor), and then finds religion more than Sammy likes.

Michael (2026)

Longtime readers know I'm a sucker for musician biopics, with few exceptions. I was also as much of a Michael Jackson fan as the next tween in the early '90s. For that reason, I decided to see this in an immersive theater while I could.

The story follows Michael from the formation of the Jackson 5 in 1966 (when he's played by Juliano Valdi) to the start of his first solo tour in 1988 (when he's played by Jaafar Jackson, son of Jermaine). His father, Joseph (Colman Domingo), makes for a demanding manager, prone to emotional and sometimes physical abuse; his mother, Katherine (Nia Long), can do little to counter Joseph. The overarching theme is of Michael wishing to do his own thing, with help from attorney John Branca (Miles Teller) and bodyguard Bill Bray (KeiLyn Durrel Jones) among others.

Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)

I had enjoyed First Blood but understood that it bore little resemblance to the rest of the Rambo series. Green Beret John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) doesn't kill any humans in it, for one thing. When I found the immediate sequel on Pluto TV, I decided to get an informed opinion of how accurate the many parodies were. Hey, it wouldn't be the first mediocre Stallone vehicle I found interesting.

After a few years of a labor sentence, Rambo learns from his former commander, Colonel Sam Trautman (Richard Crenna), of a chance at a pardon. His accepted mission from Major Marshall Roger Murdock (Charles Napier) is to sneak into a Vietnamese camp suspected of still containing American POWs and take only pictures. Of course, this wouldn't be much of a story if he followed instructions precisely. Once he sees an opportunity to free a tortured prisoner (Andy Wood), it won't be long before the projectiles fly.

Ladyhawke (1985)

Sources told me that this was a cult classic. I fully expected an '80s sword-and-sorcery flick to be cheesy, but when YouTube suggested it, I figured it would at least be different from my other recent viewings.

Medieval peasant and habitual petty thief Phillipe "The Mouse" Gaston (young Matthew Broderick, mischievous as usual) escapes from an Italian dungeon but needs help evading guards ordered by the bishop of Aquila (John Wood) to kill him. Enter Etienne of Navarre (Rutger Hauer), former captain of said guards, who seeks to kill the bishop over a past treachery. Etienne is accompanied by a faithful red-tailed hawk, but by night, Phillipe sees neither of them, only the friendly Isabeau of Anjou (young Michelle Pfeiffer) and a black wolf who attacks only their enemies....

The Black Cauldron (1985)

When I read Lloyd Alexander's The Book of Three, it didn't make me want to read the immediate sequel by this title. And by all accounts, the adaptation from both novels was one of the worst Disney animations. Nevertheless, I got curious to judge for myself. Besides, I wanted to break up my October viewings with something gothic yet ostensibly family-friendly.

Adolescent Taran (Grant Bardsley) longs to be a warrior but must settle for assisting old Dallben (Freddie Jones) in the care of spoiled pig Hen Wen. The job gets less boring when Hen Wen panics over a prophetic vision, readable by means of water and magic. The ancient undead Horned King (John Hurt) has learned of Hen Wen and sent minions to coerce her to reveal the location of a legendary cauldron that can reanimate his skeletal army, enabling world domination. Taran tries to take the pig where she won't be found, but it wouldn't be much of a story if he succeeded.

Out of Africa (1985)

Of the 92 Academy Best Pictures I've seen, this was the one I remembered least -- mainly just that Meryl Streep's fake accent was so thick the DVD had subtitles on by default. You may take that as a reason not to rewatch it, along with its reputation as perhaps the weakest link in the weakest decade for Best Pictures. (Those who praise '80s cinema usually don't have award-winning dramas in mind.) But I wanted a refresher, especially now that I've visited the same area of Africa myself. This time, I forwent the subtitles, without trouble.

In 1913, Danish future writer Karen Dinesin (Streep) marries Swedish baron Bror Blixen (Klaus Maria Brandauer) for convenience, planning to start a dairy in the Nairobi region of British East Africa. Bror alters the deal to a coffee farm without consulting Karen, unaware of the difficulty of growing coffee at high altitude. This is one of many signs that they will never fully love or trust each other. As Bror is rarely home and Karen finds undeniable signs that he sleeps around, she herself strays to his fellow hunter, Denys Hatton (Robert Redford).

Flight of the Navigator (1986)

I'd heard of this title a few times and knew it to have had a moderately warm reception. When I saw it listed on Disney+, I figured it promised to be uplifting (in more ways than one) and appealing to '80s nostalgia. And short, at 90 minutes.

In Fort Lauderdale in 1978, unaccompanied 12-year-old David (Joey Cramer) falls into a ravine. When he wakes up, eight years have passed, yet he doesn't look or sound any older. Furthermore, he subconsciously has a telepathic connection with computers. A NASA official (Howard Hesseman) soon links him to a captured ET spaceship, which must have transported him at ultra-relativistic speed to an uncharted planet, where his brain was augmented. David doesn't like being taken to a national-secret government stronghold for study, so he sneaks out to the craft -- which opens only for him. A robot in control (Paul Reubens), whom David nicknames Max, identifies him as the navigator. Max needs to copy backup records from David's brain in order to go home; in return, Max promises to drop David off where he wants. Of course, NASA wants them both back....

American Psycho (2000)

Of all the horrors on Netflix I hadn't seen, this was the one I'd heard about the most. Partly, I suppose, because it's relatively old. My visiting friend hadn't seen it either, so we chose our viewing quickly.

In 1987, Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale, five years before he dropped the E from "Bateman") is a Wall Street investment banker with a luxurious lifestyle, often going to upscale restaurants with co-workers. That doesn't mean he enjoys it; as his first-person narration indicates, he can feel only greed and disgust, even toward ostensible fiancée Evelyn (Reese Witherspoon). At first, the only clear sign of something wrong with him is that he needs little provocation to make gory threats. Then his bloodlust grows beyond his full control, no longer reserved for envied colleagues and homeless people. How long can he hope to get away with murder?

Robot Dreams (2023)

This was probably the least noted Best Animated Feature nominee of the year, at least for the U.S. Going in, I knew little more than the what the poster presented. It hardly mattered, because I've never really hated an animated feature.

In a parallel world of anthropomorphic animals, a New York dog named Dog Varon (after the graphic novel writer, Sara Varon) buys a companion robot, who seems masculine but is never assigned a name to our knowledge. Despite some obstacles, they have a lot of fun together -- until the robot rusts to immobility at the beach. Dog can't move his friend with raw strength, and by the time he gets tools handy, the beach is closed for the next three seasons. Planning to try again later, Dog makes other efforts to combat loneliness, while the robot literally dreams of different futures for them both.

Molly's Game (2017)

For me, stories that focus on poker are, well, gambles. I liked the 2006 Casino Royale overall, but I thought scenes at the namesake were the weak points. Maverick couldn't get me excited about the climax. Rounders dizzied me a little. Maybe that's why I put off seeing this recommendation. Nevertheless, it was one of the most familiar titles left on my Netflix list, and I was in the mood for a change of pace.

This is based on a true story, but only the protagonist is identified by her real name. In the 2000s, Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain) becomes a secretary for "Dean" (Jeremy Strong), a real estate developer who also runs high-stakes underground poker games, where she collects huge tips. Since Dean is almost impossible to work with, Molly starts her own classy casino in a hotel room. She tries to keep everything strictly legal at first, but one desperate slip is enough to get unwelcome attention. Oddly enough, her worst legal trouble comes years after she discontinues her practice, when the FBI wants to strong-arm her into telling on criminal customers. Despite her lack of accessible funds, she persuades expensive attorney "Charlie" (Idris Elba) to defend her.

Jim Henson: Idea Man (2024)

I was just short of eight years old when Jim Henson died. To me, the Muppets have never been the same since. I already knew a fair bit about him before this documentary arrived, but after seeing enough hype, I decided it would make a nice palate cleanser.

The 108 minutes consist largely of relatives and co-workers talking about the life of Henson, peppered with brief clips of his works. Like Won't You Be My Neighbor?, it has a few supplementary simple animations. Unlike WYBMN?, it holds pretty strongly to chronological order. There's little focus on Henson's later efforts such as Fraggle Rock.

Maestro (2023)

My parents recommended this to me. I obliged partly because it was easy to find streaming. It actually has the lowest IMDb score of all current Best Picture nominees, but it still looked more promising for me personally than some of the others.

The story follows Leonard Bernstein (Bradley Cooper) from his big break conducting the New York Philharmonic in the 1940s to a retrospective interview in the 1980s, with a bit of skipping. The emphasis lies on his relationship with Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan), whom he marries and has three kids with despite his preference for men. She's not just a "beard" to him; he does love her, at least sometimes. But his extramarital affairs aren't discreet enough to prevent rumors, and they and his heavy smoking and drinking start to drive a wedge between him and Felicia.

Us (2019)

Another Monkeypaw Production already. I didn't set out to do this; it was simply the next horror I found on Netflix. And it got a somewhat better reception.

Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong'o, getting top billing for the first time I've seen) is reluctant to go with husband Gabe (Winston Duke) and their children, teen Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and preteen Jason (Evan Alex), on vacation to Santa Cruz, because that's where she developed childhood PTSD from an encounter with an identical girl. Her anxiety increases as she notices coincidences. Gabe doesn't take any of this seriously until around the midpoint, when doubles of the entire family show up -- with murderous intentions.

48 Hrs. (1982)

I picked this not so much for promising entertainment as for a lesson in influence. People credit it with launching the buddy cop subgenre, despite only one member of the duo being a cop. It inspired one of the leads in Miami Vice and left its direct fingerprints on Last Action Hero and even Zootopia.

Officer Jack Cates (Nick Nolte) of San Francisco is determined to catch prison-breaking Albert Ganz (James Remar) and accomplice Billy Bear (Sonny Landham), especially after they make off with Jack's pistol. Not knowing where to look for them, Jack requests the guidance of convict Reggie Hammond (Eddie Murphy in his big-screen debut), who used to work with the others but now has a bone to pick with them. Reggie agrees only on the condition that he can come along. Jack gets him a pass for the titular duration, hoping Reggie doesn't get away for good but mostly hoping the others don't.

Blood Simple (1984)

I had seen a dozen Coen brothers movies. My overall impression was that they are very skilled at the craft, whether going goofy or gritty, but always include something strange and unsatisfying, seemingly to annoy viewers on purpose. I got curious about their first feature-length effort, an indie, which was the only entry on AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills I hadn't seen yet.

Texan bar owner Julian Marty (Dan Hedaya) hires PI Loren Visser (M. Emmet Walsh) to see whether Marty's wife, Abby (Frances McDormand in her screen debut), is cheating on him. She is -- with one of his employees, Ray (John Getz). When his own confrontations prove fruitless, Marty asks Visser to kill Abby and Ray. He learns the hard way not to try to make a hit man out of someone who wasn't in that line of work to begin with. But that's just Act 1. Characters get confused from there, and as their panic mounts, so do the dangerous mistakes....

Police Story (1985)

Had I realized I was about to see another action flick, I would not have put this next on my queue. Still, it's not all that similar. No sci-fi here, just the slightly off physics of Jackie Chan.

Hong Kong policeman Chan Ka-Kui (Chan) gets some positive attention for arresting crime lord Chu Tao (Chor Yuen), but convicting him will be tough. Ka-Kui is assigned to guard a reluctant witness, Chu's secretary (Brigitte Lin), who manages to slip away, disbelieving his claims of danger. A subplot involves his girlfriend (Maggie Cheung) getting the wrong idea about the two of them. Not content to beat the charges, Chu arranges to frame Ka-Kui for murder. Chief Inspector Raymond Li (Lam Kwok-Hung) trusts Ka-Kui but is too by-the-book to forgo an arrest, so Ka-Kui runs off to deal with matters irregularly.

Conan the Barbarian (1982)

This is one of those movies I watched for education more than entertainment. It still gets cited now and then, particularly for a handful of quotable lines, but I was warned that it could really use a best-of cut. If it weren't streaming, I probably wouldn't have bothered checking it out.

In an unspecified land and century evocative of early medieval Europe, young Conan (then Jorge Sanz) sees the army of Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones) slaughter all the adults in his village and sell the children into slavery. Between manual labor, pit matches, and oriental training, Conan becomes quite the brawny fighter (now Arnold Schwarzenegger in his star-making role) before his voluntary release. He allies himself with two thieves, archer Subotai (Gerry Lopez) and fellow swordmaster Valeria (Sandahl Bergman), in his quest for vengeance. But Doom is worse than a mere warlord; he leads a snake-themed cult whose adherents readily kill themselves at his bidding, even tho he himself is reportedly more than a millennium old.

Marshland (2014)

The original Spanish title literally translates to "The Minimal Island." Either way, the point is to call attention to a remote setting, possibly with a symbolic status in light of the bleakness.

Specifically, it's set in or near Spain's Guadalquivir Marshes, reputedly akin to the U.S. Deep South, in 1980. Two promiscuous teen sisters who wanted to move away are soon found murdered in one marsh, having been treated worse than the girls in The Last House on the Left, albeit thankfully not on screen. The two Madrid-based detectives assigned to the case, Juan (Javier Gutiérrez) and Pedro (Raúl Arévalo), have not worked together before and espouse rather different worldviews, but they're both determined to catch the killer(s) before another girl meets a similar fate.