Watch List Digest 7/6/25
My picks for the 100 Best Movies of the last 25 years, the latest VOD picks and two new releases, one small and excellent, the other big and stupid and fun.
Latest
New WaPo reviews: "40 Acres" & "Jurassic World Rebirth"🔒
A startlingly fresh post-apocalypse drama and a generic (but effective!) serving of corned beef dino hash.
What to Watch: VOD Picks New and Old & a Neglected Master
Four recent theatrical releases hit VOD, plus six recommendations from the back list, plus a retrospective of the films of Mikio Naruse. (Who? Exactly.)
The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century: Watch List Edition
The New York Times just published a list of the top films of the past 25 years. Here's mine.
New Reviews: "Familiar Touch" and "M3gan 2.0" 🔒
One beautiful new movie about the end of one woman's memory and one enjoyable new schlock sequel.
What to Watch: "Bob Trevino Likes It," "Blow the Man Down"
Narcissists, Murderesses and The Feelies, Oh My: Two wee audience-friendly sleepers, plus a trip down the Feelies rabbit hole with Ty and a hot little pre-Code classic.
New Reviews: "28 Years Later," "Bride Hard," "Elio" 🔒
Plus a few thoughts on reality as filtered by our national news media.
What to Watch: "The Swimmer" & "Deep End"
Everybody out of the pool!
New Reviews: "Prime Minister" & "Unholy Trinity" 🔒
What to Watch on a Weekend When You Should Be Marching
"Materialists" in theaters, "Make Way for Tomorrow" and "Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse" on demand.
Brian Wilson 1942-2025
We just weren't made for his times.
New Reviews: "Ballerina," "Straw" 🔒
From this week's WaPo reviews: A "John Wick" spinoff and the latest Tyler Perry melodrama
Good Movies 📽
I Know He Is But What Are You?
Matt Wolf's documentary peeks behind the surface of a pop-culture icon in search of the lost boy beneath. Plus, some thoughts about the new Wes Anderson design showroom - sorry, movie - the two faces of Dubrovnik and on demand recommendations.
Good Movies 📽
Tom Cruise Will Never Die
And other thoughts about "Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning." Also: "I'm Still Here" and a new "Four Seasons" come to Netflix
One Good Film
One Good Film: "Land Ho!" (2014)
A hot spring of a movie: It fizzes a lot, and you come out feeling better than you went in.
Guilty Pleasures 🤦♂️
Pan Sauce
On the art of the negative movie review and an anniversary celebration of one of the best bad reviews ever written.
New Movies
New Reviews: "Fight or Flight," "Juliet & Romeo," Henry Johnson" 🔒
One hellacious B-movie action-comedy, one parboiled Shakespeare revamp for tweenie-boppers and a late-career curio from a great American playwright.
Good Movies 📽
10 Good Movies on Netflix (again)
Plus: A heads-up for the latest Movie Club screening and a Watch List bargain.
New Movies
New Reviews: "Another Simple Favor," "The Surfer," "Words of War" 🔒
This week's reviews from the Washington Post, including one of the year's worst movies and a bio-drama of a hero.
Good Movies 📽
"Sinners" and the Curse of Amnesia
Some belated thoughts on the year's most ambitious movie and what it asks of audiences.
Film Festivals
Best Bets for Boston's Best Film Festival
(plus: New WaPo reviews of "On Swift Horses" and "The Legend of Ochi") I’ve been running around so much this week that I forgot to tell my local readers about this year’s edition – the 22nd – of the best little film fest in town, The
Remembrances ⭐️
Rerun: Walter Matthau's Barbaric Yawp
It's been a busy week with all sorts of irons in the fire, movie- and life-related, so I thought I'd dust off one of the very first Watch List postings from 2021 because it was fun to write and because this guy is fun to read about.
One Good Film
One Good Film: "Ricki and the Flash" (2015)🔒
The silliest role of Meryl Streep's career is also one of the warmest, thanks to the late, great Jonathan Demme.
Good Movies 📽
Why Are There No Good Movies About the American Revolution?
And a tip to a pretty good film for the upcoming Patriot's Day