Nunsploitation Watch: To The Devil A Daughter (1976)

Watched:  09/15/2025

Format:  Criterion

Viewing:  First

Director:  Peter Sykes

It's hard not to see To The Devil a Daughter (1976) as existing due to Rosemary's Baby's wild success, a dash of 1970's-style Satanic Panic, and a dollop of Hammer's latter-era horror output like The Devil Rides Out (this is a Hammer co-production).  It's based on a novel by Dennis Wheatley from the 1950's, so good on the printed word leading the way here.

For reasons that kinda make sense if what I understand about Hammer's financial state in the 70's, a German company was involved in financing and production.  

The movie stars an American, Richard Widmark, who made his name in noir - especially with Kiss of Death, with which he's still widely associated - and then went on to participate in a wide-range of movies and roles.  Widmark plays a writer who has written a sensationalistic best-seller about Satanism, who is represented by former Bond-girl Honor Blackman, his pal in London,* and her boyfriend, David.

Nunsploitation Watch: Behind Convent Walls (1978)

Watched:  09/13/2025

Format:  Criterion

Viewing;  First

Director:  Walerian Borowczyk

Uhm.

So.

Yeah.

And.

Right.

So.

Behind Convent Walls (1978) is a lot more what I had in mind when the word "Nunsploitation" entered my vocabulary a few weeks ago.  For good or ill.

Horror Watch: Alucarda (1977)

Watched:  09/08/2025

Format:  Criterion

Viewing:  First

Director:  Juan Lopez Moctezuma

Now that's how you make a horror movie.

Start with a base of Carmilla, the pre-Dracula vampire story about sapphic vampires (or 1970's The Vampire Lovers), sprinkle in some Dracula, add in some The Exorcist, probably three or four movies I'm not thinking of or aware of, and then a dollop of Carrie for the finale.  

A Mexican-produced film, Alucarda (1977) is just batshit from the first scene and then cranks it up to 11.  I'm not sure it's in any way scary - any more than a Hammer film ever feels frightening - but it's a crazy spectacle - and never fails to be *interesting*.

80's Art-Sploitation Film Watch: Ms.45 (1981)

Watched:  09/06/2025

Format:  Criterion

Viewing:  First

Director:  Abel Ferrara

Criterion Channel currently has a collection of "Nunsploitation" movies, and of their 7 offerings or so, I'd already seen three in my life (Haxan, Benedetta, The Devils) and I'd been meaning to catch Ms. 45 (1981) since seeing something about it a few years ago.  So here we are.  

And, yes, if I can watch 70+ Lacey Chabert movies, I can watch the remaining Nunsploitation movies.

Director Abel Ferrara was kind of a big deal when I was in film school, coming off of The Bad Lieutenant (worth seeing once, at least) and following up with The Addiction, with the Body Snatchers remake in between.  Unfortunately, I kinda stopped tracking indie film a while ago and lost sight of him, but he's been out there making movies all along.  He was not afraid of what was too much for an audience, and seemed not just to push margins but lived there.  

So this early film is a pretty good indicator of what he was capable of.  

JLC Watch: Freakier Friday (2025)

Watched:  08/27/2025

Format:  Alamo

Viewing:  First

Director:  Nisha Ganatra

We all know I went to see this because it stars JLC, and that's fine.  I'd also finally recently watched the 2003 version of Freaky Friday for the first time, liked it much more than expected, and - now that I have the Alamo Pass, popping off to go watch a movie is not such an ordeal.  In fact, I feel pretty incentivized to use the heck out of the pass.

I am not sure if I hadn't seen the 2003 movie, though, if I wouldn't have missed a lot or even been lost.  So, watch that first.  

Here in 2025, I think we finally kind of figured out how to do these late-entry sequels no one was asking for and make it worth it.  As evidence, I'll enter in Freakier Friday (2025) which manages to expand on the set-up of the general Freaky Friday concept, do new things with it, be very funny, and feel like it has some emotional resonance at the end that I'm not sure any of the prior entries, or most body swap movies in general, tend to earn.  

Comedy Watch: The Naked Gun (2025)

Watched:  08/13/2025

Format:  Drafthouse

Viewing:  First

Director:  Akiva Schaffer

If you're wondering if The Naked Gun (2025) lives up to the original film, it's really, really close.  It's, of course, trying to recapture that same vibe, and mostly hits the mark while also absolutely having moments that will have you saying "well, that's clearly Akiva Schaffer".  And I mean that in the best way.

I won't actually do a dive on this because it's a joke every 30 second comedy, exists to be that, and does so.  There are great gags that I'll be laughing about tomorrow, and sequences that made me fold over in my chair laughing.  You'll know what they are.

And everyone is funny.  Neeson I've seen be hysterical before, so this was not a shock, but he nails the Police Squad brand of humor..  Pam Anderson has great comedy chops and I hope this pair gets a sequel to do more.  Paul Walter Houser shows up as Ed, and I'm becoming a fan.  CCH Pounder even gets to send-up very specific police chief tropes and it's just hysterical having it come from her.

If I have a recommendation, find the person in the theater who is going to laugh like a maniac and sit near them.  I was fortunate to have "deep belly laugh" guy behind me, and it helped to be in a theater and join that guy in knowing it's okay to laugh like that in a theater.

Disney Watch: The Shaggy Dog (1959)

Watched:  08/09/2025

Format:  Disney+

Viewing:  First

Director:  Charles Barton

First, this movie's opening sequence slaps.  

The rest of The Shaggy Dog (1959) was never going to live up to whatever that was, but I basically enjoyed it.

I tell you what - for what this movie is, which is a near 70-year-old movie for kids probably up to age 12 or so, and adults looking for utter nonsense, this fit the bill for some silly viewing.

The basic plot is not basic - it is, in fact, a "shaggy dog story".  I don't know why we call intentionally long stories with side-plots and a sad trombone of an ending a "shaggy dog story", but we do, and Wikipedia has a theory as to why.  But, yeah, it's an entire movie leading up to a punchline about Annette Funicello finding a better guy than the two guys initially interested in her.

French Noir Watch: Le Cercle Rouge (1970)

Watched:  07/27/2025

Format:  4K disc

Viewing:  First

Director:  Jean-Pierre Melville

So, there's a whole bunch of Criterion movies on sale on Amazon, and I wasn't doing much this weekend, so I got silly and justified the expense on this movie.  Because.  

Leave me alone.  Sometimes I do things.

If you've never dipped your toe in French noir, or only watched Breathless, the French noir movement is fascinating as it's so clearly done with love for and homage to American noir (which the French coined - we just called them crime movies).  I assume American culture was imported via Hollywood in the post-war years as American GI's rambled around Europe and France took a minute to get its film industry fired up again.  But the American movies are refracted through the lens of a nation crawling out from occupation, and maybe contain the spirit which gave us Camus.  

I mean, one of the French noir films I'd rec is called Elevator to the Gallows.  Fate vs. freewill and existential dread hangs heavy on the minds of these movies - more so than American films mostly being about "don't pursue the wrong dame".

Le Cercle Rouge (1970) is a crime/ heist movie in which we're told at the outset, before we meet any characters "these people will come together, and it will go very badly, indeed".  And, that is what happens.

Marvel Watch: Fantastic Four - First Steps (2025)

Watched:  07/27/2025

Format:  Drafthouse

Viewing:  First

Director:  Matt Shakman

Well, nothing says "I am a cool dude" like showing up for a 9:00 AM screening for Fantastic Four by yourself.  I don't know if 12-year-old me is dying inside or deeply impressed I'm still committed to the cause.

Fantastic Four is not a comic I read a lot.  I very much enjoy the first issues by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, but kind of lose interest after that - though Mark Waid's run is mind-boggling.  I do love the idea of the team as a bunch of science-adventurers more than just caped vigilantes,* and their individual personalities and the family dynamic.  Also, my earliest memories include watching that jenky Fantastic Four cartoon of the 1960's the movie references.  

I've never seen the Corman movie, but have seen the two 00's-era movies, and the 10's body-horror movie that was Fox's "edgy" take on the FF.  The movies were uniformly not-good, no matter what your Millennial nostalgia brain is trying to Space Jam Fallacy you into believing.

Coen Watch: Drive-Away Dolls (2024)

Watched:  07/25/2025

Format:  Peacock

Viewing:  First

Director:  Ethan Coen

Is anything more telling about what the Coen Bros. each brought to their team than that when the brothers decided to do independent projects, Joel Coen made a mannered and styled Macbeth and Ethan Coen made Drive-Away Dolls (2024)?  

The mix of high-brow and low-brow - even Raising Arizona has thematic and nigh-poetic aspirations - was their hallmark, with ultra-specific characters, absurdist humor, and deeply human stories - culminating in the excellence of their track record over years and movies that had a stamp audiences recognized and sought out.  

I was vaguely aware Drive-Away Dolls received very mixed reviews, and audiences were kind of irritated with it.  

Which, no kidding.  The movie isn't overly concerned with good taste or your politics or the horseshoe turn lefties online took into agreeing with the Catholic League about how movies are for perverts if they acknowledge sex and show blood with violence.  Instead, this flick is an old-fashioned pulp crime comedy with a heavy layering of what turns out to be the sense of oddball humor that the Coens always brought, that apparently was Ethan Coen's contribution.

Vroooom Watch: F1 - The Movie (2025)

Watched:  07/24/2025

Format:  Drafthouse

Viewing:  First

Director:  Joseph Kosinski

Growing up in the US, racing has been mostly NASCAR, and I just never got into stock car racing.  But Austin is, for vaguely shady reasons, home to an F1 track, and we all went from finding it weird to being kind of proud of it.  It's not Monaco or anything, but it's a feature few other cities have.  And, anyway, I started watching some videos about F1, and it is really neat.  But I'm only aware enough of autosports to know that they are infinitely complex and I don't know how any of it works. But rocket cars go super fast and that is cool.

Something about the trailer for F1: The Movie (2025) had me sold.  But I thought I'd probably see it at home on HBO eventually.  However, SimonUK had seen it, liked it, and recommended I check it out, so we went together.

And, yeah, I dug it.  Quite a bit, if I'm being honest.  If I came to watch F1 cars zip around, it does that a lot.

After the movie was over, SimonUK stated "it's basically Top Gun: Maverick in cars, but...  it works" and that is very correct.  This movie is directed and written by the director of Top Gun: Maverick, Joseph Kosinski, so do your own math.  

Doc Watch: Jaws @ 50 - The Definitive Inside Story (2025)

Watched:  07/10/2025

Format:  Hulu?

Viewing:  First

Director:  Laurent Bouzereau

A victory lap for Jaws, this doc is an uncritical look at the movie on its 50th anniversary.  And that's great!  How many movies earn this? 

There's interviews new and old, and despite the fact I think I've seen two prior Jaws documentaries, Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story (2025) still manages to feel a bit fresh as it provides some new info but mostly how it contextualizes the movie in 1975, after, and now.  Sure, there's the "making this was rough" parts of the doc, but more details abound and how much the film is now woven into Martha's Vineyard's shared history.  How involved the whole island really was - I really didn't know until now.

Spielberg is one of *the* storytellers of the last 70 years, so of course he's captivating on camera and his stories about the movie during and after are engaging - and maybe even true.

Many who worked on the film have since passed, of course, but there's still many around - those who played kids are now aging adults.  Lorraine Gary even appears.  Dreyfus, always a problem child, is not in the film except as archival footage, which is odd as he's been touring for years to supposedly talk about Jaws (I think he's been canceled or something recently, so maybe that got him cut).

But the biggest delight is learning that Emily Blunt is a huge Jaws nerd.  Who knew?

Waco Watch: Action USA (1989)

Watched:  07/12/2025

Format:  Prime

Viewing:  First

Director:  John Stewart

After he'd recommended it to me twice, I took JAL up on his suggestion of this particular flick.  I meant to watch this for the 4th of July, but we got busy, so here you go.  My salute to America.

Action USA (1989) is probably the best high-action movie shot in Waco during the 1980's.

I very much remember Waco in the 1980s.  It was, aside from Baylor, a town that had seen its best days 30 years prior and was not yet recovered from the economic turns of the 1970's and 80's.  In a few short years, we'd have the Branch Davidian stand-off near here.  And then, much later, Joanna Gaines would convince people Waco was the shit, which... TV is a powerful drug, y'all.  Somehow, the second worst college town in Texas is now a tourist destination for people who like overpriced wooden spoons and mediocre football.

Anyway, it is always weird/ a delight seeing the landscape of my part of Texas in a movie.  And buildings that still stand that I am a bit familiar with from a job I had ten years ago when I was in Waco a lot.

Super First Watch: Superman (2025)

Watched:  07/08/2025

Format:  AMC IMAX

Viewing:  First

Director:  James Gunn

You can follow our posts on Superman at this link, and our posts on the new movie, Superman (2025) at this link.

For More on the Movie:

• Super Watch:  Superman (2025) - a pre review post
• Super First Watch:  Superman (2025)
• Superman Second Watch:  Superman (2025) - Part 1 - Likes/Dislikes/Punk Rock Superman
• Superman Second Watch: Superman (2025) - Part 2 - Characters
• Superman Second Watch: Superman (2025) - Part 3 -  If You Now Like Superman, Hooray!
• Super Third Watch:  Superman (2025)

Light spoilers ahead.  We'll do another post or two on the movie getting deeper into details.

Well, kids.  We made it.  It's 2025, and we have a Superman movie.  

We posted some details of our screening previously, right after Jamie and I took in the flick.

At the top - I'll say, a good portion of my life has been spent reading Superman comic books, watching Superman films, television, cartoons, etc... I've read non-fiction about Superman's storied history as a pop-culture figure and feel pretty confident in saying that I'm up to date on the character.

And, yet, it is very, very strange to see Superman come to the screen and feel less like an interpretation of Superman re-imagined for the big screen by people wanting to put their own stamp on the character, and instead get a movie that feels like someone took a really terrific event Superman comic run and said "this is what we're doing.  On the screen.  With a budget that's equal to roughly the combined GDP of Europe."

2010's Watch: Bad Times At The El Royale (2018)

Watched:  06/29/2025

Format:  Prime

Viewing:  First

Writer/ Director:  Drew Goddard

It's possible in fifteen or twenty years, this movie will be found and puzzled over as featuring folks who are now established stars, mixed with longtime stars.  Bad Times at the El Royale (2018) features Cynthia Erivo in what I will say should have been a break-out performance and her entree into film stardom, rather than her having to wait until Wicked.  She's clearly already a star.  Lewis Pullman is here.  As are Chris Hemsworth, John Hamm, Jeff Bridges and a not-50 Shades-ing Dakota Johnson.  

But this movie came out and tanked.  That's neither here nor there, but it has meant that it's not exactly on the forefront of people's minds as few eyes saw the movie in the theater and it's not found an audience on home video. 

What's odd is that Metacritic comes in at a mid-range-ish 60, and the audience score is a generous 71.  And yet... no one saw this.

However, maybe in the same way of The Last of Sheila from 1973, it will find an audience that will make sure it has a cult following.  Or not.  (I heartily recommend The Last of Sheila.)

Doc Watch: My Mom Jayne - a film by Mariska Hargitay (2025)

Watched:  06/28/2025

Format:  Max

Viewing:  First

Director:  Mariska Hargitay

I don't watch Law & Order much, but for a while back in the 00's and 10's, SVU was the one I'd watch in re-runs.  And Mariska Hargitay was hard to miss as the ultra-driven cop, Detective Olivia Benson.  But it was probably in the 2010's that I figured out her parents were screen legend Jayne Mansfield and body builder Mickey Hargitay.  

Mansfield is the stuff of Hollywood Babylon legend, following a career path that feels one-part Monroe, one-part Jane Russell.  I've seen only two or three Mansfield movies, and she struck me as very good at what she did (I liked her a lot in The Burglar), but she and I don't cross paths much in my TCM viewing.  

Once I knew about her parentage, I also never could quite sort out Mariska Hargitay's domestic situation, as I couldn't believe she'd even been born when Mansfield died in a car wreck in 1967.  It seemed Mariska was a smidge older than I'd guessed (good genes, I guess) - but she was three at the time, and in the car when it happened.  But, due to her age when Mansfield passed, Hargitay didn't have memories of her mother, and she wasn't raised by her.  

The doc, My Mom Jayne: a Film by Mariska Hargitay (2025), is Hargitay coming to terms with who her mother was, learning who she really was away from the public, and embracing her relationship with the woman she never really knew.  

Musical Watch: Wicked (2024)

Watched:  06/26/2025

Format:  Peacock

Viewing:  First

Director:  Jon M. Chu

I am a huge fan of the OG Wizard of Oz.  My second biggest regret about ending the podcast was not covering that movie before we put away our mics.  In my opinion, Wizard of Oz is not just an important film, it's a key to American film and culture.  

That said - I am fine with derivative works.  Of course people want to explore this amazing world in which Wizard of Oz takes place, to consider and deconstruct and shuffle around the cultural icons of the movie, look into the characters, themes, etc...  It's a bubbling well for interpretation, commentary and America.

Wicked (2024) came in riding decades of popularity as a stage show and soundtrack.  Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenowith were launched to super stardom with the show and became fixtures.  People who don't care about Broadway probably already knew two of the songs by osmosis before ever buying a movie ticket.  It's one of the few 21st Century Broadway shows to break into the pop consciousness like 20th Century shows like Oklahoma!, Phantom, Cats or Les Mis.  

This film adaptation did great at the box office and was at least an American phenomenon.  It did fine overseas, but likely suffered from being an English-language musical about a play that probably hasn't been getting seen in Beijing, etc...  quite yet.  And who knows if they care about The Wizard of Oz in Lichtenstein?

But in the states, it made almost half-a-billion dollars.  As the movie was released in late Fall, Christmas season 2024 was pink and green with the movie's merchandise and imagery everywhere.  It was kind of neat.

Noir Watch: High Tide (1947)

Watched:  06/22/2025

Format:  TCM

Viewing:  First

Director:  John Reinhardt

This movie had the unfortunate combo of plodding pacing while feeling deeply convoluted.  Throw in some off-brand talent and poverty row aesthetics, and it's not exactly one of the most polished movies you're going to see.

It's a bummer, because it feels like there's probably a good story or movie in here somewhere, but this probably isn't it.  

There's just so many angles and storylines, and the movie runs only 72 minutes but has enough going on for something 45 minutes longer.  It also uses the framing of "wow, this is awful.  How did we wind up here?" with two of our leads in a car wreck at the beach, both trapped and waiting for the high tide to come in and kill them.

We flash back to a newspaper office with a tough editor, a weak-knee'd rich boy boss and our lead - who had been fired from the paper coming back to find out why his editor pal is making him the beneficiary on his high dollar life insurance.

There's multiple dames in play, gangsters, perturbed fired reporters.  It's a lot.  And it's kind of hard to care about forty minutes in as things just keep happening but it feels like the movie is spinning its wheels.

I just couldn't get into it.  I wish I could say I did.  But...  alas.  

Then, at the end, when they put all the pieces together, I was like "oh, that's actually really smart and cool".  Alas, I just didn't maintain much interest to get me to that point.  It's so short, I'll rewatch it soon to see if I like it better when I'm in a better headspace.

Chabert Whoops Watch: The Sweetest Christmas (2017)

Watched:  06/21/2025

Format:  Hallmark

Viewing:  First

Director:  Terry Ingram

Job: Receptionist/ Would-Be Baker

Location of story:  Helen, Georgia (which is apparently a real place themed like a German village?)

new skill:  ruining two men's lives

Man:  Lea Coco (no, really)

Job of Man:  Italian Restauranteur

Goes to/ Returns to:  has returned home

Event:  National Gingerbread Competition

Food:  oh, Gingerbread, man.  So much Gingerbread.

Well, whoops.  

I thought I'd watched this one, but... and follow me here... I found out through an odd way that I had *not* watched it.  I had confused a Valentine's movie about chocolate with The Sweetest Christmas (2017) while managing the Chabert-a-Tron 3000 and checked it off.

Hey, moron... how did you puzzle that one out?  you may be asking yourself.  

Doc Watch: Implosion - The Titanic Sub Disaster (2025)

Watched:  06/21/2025

Format:  Max

Viewing:  First

Director:  Pamela Gordon

Friday when I wrapped work, Jamie informed me that there was, in fact, a different documentary about the Titan submersible disaster currently playing on Max (part of the Discovery/ HBO partnership).  And so it was we put on Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster (2025).  

Just a couple of days ago, we wrote about Titan: The Oceangate Disaster which we watched on Netflix, so, yes, this is a second doc on the same topic.

Thanks to streamers seeing documentary as a fairly inexpensive endeavor, we often get more than one documentary on the same hot topic - and since the Fyre Festival adventure, I've liked watching dueling docs.  It gives me a chance to get more than one POV on a topic, and you do start feeling like you're triangulating on some version of reality as different film makers will pursue different angles.

In that prior write-up, I sort of raged against the myth of the maverick entrepreneur, so I won't repeat myself here.  

This doc is actually a great companion piece to the Netflix film with different interview subjects, some of whom share more of the mentality of Stockton Rush, some of whom were on the boat and are not covering their ass, and some saying out loud what you kind of have to suspect based on the evidence provided in both films, but which we still don't know for sure.