by Patrick Bromley

Spend all day and night with my favorite female actor.

Jennifer Jason Leigh has been my favorite actress since the mid-'90s. She's the definition of a fearless performer, time and again demonstrating a knack for selecting interesting projects that almost no other female actor this side of Nicole Kidman would dream of touching. She also looks a lot like Erika, which doesn't hurt when it comes to me loving her. With her wild taste in material and her propensity to make big, often outrageous choices as an actor, she's basically the female equivalent of Nicolas Cage. No wonder she's my favorite.

10 am - Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982, dir. Amy Heckerling)Though technically not the very beginning, we'll start with the movie that made Jennifer Jason Leigh a movie star and Somebody's Baby. From the very beginning, she was taking chances with material that was way grittier and edgy than her teen-movie counterparts, never shying away from sexuality and darkness. People remember a lot of things about Fast Times, whether it's Sean Penn hitting himself in the head with his shoe or Phoebe Cates' topless scene, but it's Jennifer Jason Leigh that provides the heart of the movie. If her casting or her performance didn't work, the movie wouldn't have worked.
11:30 am - The Hudsucker Proxy (1994, dir. Joel & Ethan Coen)Because it's going to get very easy to wallow in darkness with this marathon, I want to make sure to include something that's just fun and funny to lighten the mood. This film, the Coens' ode to 1930s and '40s screwball comedies, is the one that first cemented JJL as my favorite actress because she takes a huge Nicolas Cage-like swing in playing the fastest-talking gal reporter of all time. I've always loved just how bold and risky her choice is and the way that the stylization of the performance puts Tim Robbins' goofy sincerity into even sharper relief. This would be my pick for the most underrated entry in the Coens' filmography if it wasn't for Hail, Caesar!.
1:30 pm - Rush (1990, dir. Lili Fini Zanuck)Ok, we've had enough fun. Time to get dark and depressing. JJL and Jason Patric are electric in "based on true events" account of two undercover narcotics officers who wind up getting in too deep and hooked on drugs in the process. For some reason, I wanted to see this movie so bad when I was a kid. Maybe it was the '70s aesthetic? Maybe because I liked "Tears in Heaven?" Maybe because Jennifer Jason Leigh is so pretty in it? Whatever the case, young me was not ready for it. I came back to it a few months ago and discovered a fantastic neo-noir that I loved despite my allergy to addiction movies. I know it's early to get so grim, but let's be honest things aren't going to get much better from here.
3:30 pm - Flesh + Blood (1985, dir. Paul Verhoeven)Speaking of grim! Paul Verhoeven's English-language debut seems on the surface like a medieval epic starring Rutger Hauer (Verhoeven's leading man of choice during this period) as a mercenary and a young Leigh as the virgin girl he claims as his own. Because it's Verhoeven, though, it largely flies in the face of anything audiences expected from a Hollywood adventure film in the 1980s and winds up a muddy, ugly, disease-ridden film about terrible people doing terrible things and succumbing to the plague. I love that Leigh wanted to work with a madman like Verhoeven this early in her career, again demonstrating her excellent taste in collaborators and material. When an ugly rape scene was cut down for ratings purposes, Leigh objected because it resulted in the scene not being ugly enough. She's one of a kind.
5:30 pm - Georgia (1995, dir. Ulu Grosbard)Of all the movies that are part of this marathon, this is the one I remember the least, having seen it only once on VHS in the late '90s and never since. It has stuck with me, though, in a way that most of the other movies I saw only once during that period (or any period) have not. Leigh plays Sadie Flood, the fuckup younger sister of successful folk singer Georgia Flood (Academy Award-nominated Mare Winningham), whose life is thrown into chaos when Sadie returns with aspirations of becoming a singer herself. The screenplay, penned by Leigh's mother Barbara Turner, is full of heavy and raw observations about familial relationships and the songs, performed live by Leigh and Winningham, are great (Winningham's much more so than Leigh's, which is the whole point). This is a terrific indie drama that fell through the cracks even for me, so I'm excited to revisit it during our marathon.
7:30 pm - Single White Female (1992, dir. Barbet Schroeder)The PrimeTime Pizza slot goes to this '90s classic and the movie in which Jennifer Jason Leigh's brand of Freak finally matched up with a mainstream commercial effort, resulting in one of the biggest successes of her career. In the pantheon of "_____________ from Hell" thrillers of the '90s, this "roommate from Hell" entry is one of the best and most memorable thanks to the leading turns from Bridget Fonda as a yuppie businesswoman and (especially) Leigh as the new friend and roommate who becomes dangerously obsessed with her. I love the performance because Jennifer Jason Leigh does things on camera that no other actress would do: masturbate on camera, murder a puppy, and blow Steven Weber.
9:30 pm - Buried Alive (1990, dir. Frank Darabont)It's getting late but we're not ready to switch over to full-on horror just yet, so let's ease into things with this made-for-TV effort from Frank Darabont, his first credit as a director. Leigh is in full Femme Fatale mode as a wife who conspires to murder her husband (Tim Matheson) after cheating on him with a skeezy doctor (William Atherton, ever the prick). The movie is decent, not great, but fun in a programmer way. Leigh and Atherton are having a blast playing the worst people.
11 pm - The Hitcher (1986, dir. Robert Harmon)I want to program this one as we head into the overnight slot because it's one of the few full-blooded horror films in which Jennifer Jason Leigh starred and it's a good movie even if it's an almost total waste of her talents and does things to her I can never forgive. She reunites with her Flesh + Blood co-star Rutger Hauer (sort of), who plays a hitchhiker that begins terrorizing Leigh's boyfriend played by C. Thomas Howell. This is a beloved cult classic that I think I've only seen one time, so I'm excited to revisit it within the context of this marathon even though I'm going to need to wash one specific sequence out of my brain afterwards.
12:45 am - eXistenZ (1999, dir. David Cronenberg)Ok, it's late enough that we can get weird. Not just weird, either. Canadian weird. My favorite Jennifer Jason Leigh performances are the ones that match the material to her own eccentricities as a performer -- the movies that allow her to be a freak -- and this is definitely one of those. She's video game designer Allegra Gella, who has developed a new virtual reality experience in which fleshy pods plug into the user's spine for gameplay. Eventually, the lines between fantasy and reality begin to blur. This has more Cronenbergian imagery than almost any other Cronenberg movie, and even the director is more or less reworking themes and ideas from Videodrome, I still mostly love the movie. It will play so well this time of night.
2:30 am - Annihilation (2018, dir. Alex Garland)The most recent movie in our marathon is another sci-fi horror masterpiece from writer/director Alex Garland in which a team of scientists enter a mysterious energy field (called "The Shimmer") in which all life seems to be mutating. Though Jennifer Jason Leigh's character is pretty normal, her participation in the film once again reflects her excellent taste in unusual and challenging material. I still won't pretend to understand everything in Annihilation, but watching it in the middle of the night will allow us to just coast on the vibes and will give anyone in the audience who dares fall asleep endless nightmares about that fucking screaming bear.
4:30 am - Sister, Sister (1987, dir. Bill Condon)The debut movie from writer/director Bill Condon (who would go on to make Gods & Monsters, Dreamgirls, and some Twilight movies) is a big slab of Southern Gothic melodrama nonsense in which Jennifer Jason Leigh plays a sexually frustrated young woman who enters into a relationship with Eric Stoltz and then a ghost story breaks out. There's also a subplot about Leigh's older sister because she plays a lot of sisters. The degree to which this becomes overheated and downright silly ought to make it feel like a fever dream after being up all night, which is probably the best way to enjoy it. As usual, Leigh doesn't shy away from the movie's sexuality but manages to generate little chemistry with Stoltz. We can pour ourselves a cup of coffee every time someone says "Etienne."
6 am - Margot at the Wedding (2007, dir. Noah Baumbach)Let's wake up with a splash of bitter acid in the face. Leigh was married to writer/director Noah Baumbach when the pair collaborated on this 2007 dramedy about a self-absorbed woman (Nicole Kidman) who goes to visit her sister (Leigh) just before she gets married to Jack Black. This is Baumbach in Squid & the Whale mode, attempting to mine humor from the discomfort of awful people being awful to one another. Though probably considered a minor work from the director these days, it's one I revisit more than most because the performances are so good and the relationships so sharply drawn. I would like to have seen Leigh collaborate more with Baumbach, but unfortunately he left her for Greta Gerwig and ruined a good thing.
7:30 am - The Hateful Eight (2015, dir. Quentin Tarantino)I won't say we're saving the best for last because all of these movies have kicked ass, but we're kind of saving the best for last. Jennifer Jason Leigh got her long overdue first Oscar nomination (she lost to Alicia Vikander for The Danish Girl, a movie that does not exist) for her portrayal of Daisy Domergue, managing to be the most colorful character in an ensemble of the most colorful characters of any movie in the last 25 years. Supposedly Tarantino wanted Jennifer Lawrence to originally play Daisy, and while I'm sure she would have been great (she's almost always great..."almost" because I just rewatched American Hustle), there's no one as fearless as Leigh. The way she's able to not just go toe to toe but actually out-ugly all them sumbitches is a kind of miracle, and Daisy is sure to join the actor's short list of iconic movie characters (a list that also includes Stacy in Fast Times and Hedy in Single White Female). While The Hateful Eight isn't my favorite Tarantino movie -- Once Upon a Time in Hollywood will be pretty hard to unseat -- but it is the one I revisit the most. It never gets old.

 by Rob DiCristino

The Dark Universe lives!

It’s hard for those of us working outside of the entertainment industry to understand just how fickle and arduous the motion picture development process can be. Some projects are rushed into production to capitalize on a rising pop star or cultural phenomenon — the 2002 Britney Spears vehicle Crossroads, for example, or 2023’s befuddling Five Nights at Freddy’s. Other prestige projects need years of seasoning before they’re ready to mature into their final forms — take 2023’s Killers of the Flower Moon, which had to be totally reimagined to accommodate Leonardo DiCaprio’s (correct and justified) character switch. And then there are the orphans. The leftovers. The players to be named later. These are the projects for whom auspicious beginnings have soured into regrets and recriminations, into finger-pointing and half-hearted excuse-making. You remember, of course, when Universal Pictures reintroduced their classic monsters with the Avengers-coded Dark Universe. You remember, of course, how that was all spoiled by Tom Cruise’s 2017 disaster, The Mummy.“But hold on!,” you say, remembering the relative critical and commercial success of 2020’s The Invisible Man. “Isn’t that proof that Hollywood development executives are actually Very Smart and just need to put their trust in quality creative voices like low-budget horror maestro Leigh Whannell?” You would think so! Trouble is, those same executives are also grubby, star-fucking whores, so it should come as no suprise that Universal dropped Whannell as soon as Ryan Gosling and frequent collaborator Derek Cianfrance showed interest in a Wolf Man remake. Only after Gosling and company left the project in 2021 — “scheduling conflicts,” i.e. “Blumhouse wouldn’t pay them” — did Whannell and his partner Corbett Tuck re-enter the picture. Production on Wolf Man was further delayed by the 2023 SAG/WGA strikes, which left little time to get something coherent together by the fall of 2024. And so, more than ten years into its misbegotten development, Wolf Man is what’s left: A two-star monster thriller released in January, where Hollywood dreams to go die.

And even if everything I just wrote is libelous, rumor-mill bullshit, it’s still the most generous-possible explanation for Universal dumping the new film from the co-creator of Saw and Insidious, whose last project made almost $150 million on a $7 million budget (during COVID!) at the beginning of the new year. It certainly wasn’t for lack of inspiration, as Whannell and Tuck’s screenplay introduces a workable update to the ‘40 horror classic: Upon the death of his father (Sam Jaeger), big-city writer Blake (Christopher Abbott) returns to his childhood ranch in rural Oregon. Blake is eager to reconnect with his workaholic wife (Julia Garner as Charlotte) and spend quality time with their daughter (Matilda Firth as Ginger), but they’re barely off the highway before a mysterious monster — a wolf-man, if you will — lays siege to the property. Matters become worse when the monster scratches Blake, slowly turning the kind-hearted man into a vicious creature of the night. Trapped in the wilderness with no help coming, Charlotte and Ginger must fight to survive.On paper, Wolf Man has more than enough going for it. Saw showed us that Whannell knows claustrophobic horror, and The Invisible Man demonstrated his firm grasp of character psychology. There are stretches of Wolf Man that take advantage of both, like a great sequence in which a tarantula’s thunderous steps demonstrate Blake’s supersonic hearing, or a later scene where Ginger’s love breaks through his scrambled “wolf vision.” As in The Invisible Man — which uses negative space to build tension — Whannell understands that less is more when it comes to the werewolf effects; the wolf is suggested long before he’s ever seen, with most of the close-ups coming during Blake’s own monstrous transformation. This is the right way to do it! 2025 audiences will never be impressed by makeup effects — especially these, which are admittedly unremarkable — but we’re far more likely to invest if we’re seeing the toll they’re taking on a face we’ve gotten to know. And with due respect to Christopher Abbott, the faster we dispense normie, pan-faced Blake, the better.It’s these scattered bits of genuine pathos and creativity that make the rest of Whannell’s film so frustrating, though, as its flat storytelling and disastrous dialogue — characters are constantly freezing the movie in its tracks to stumble through the subtext of their actions — make its ninety minutes of running time feel like two hundred. They’re lazy mistakes that are frankly unlike Whannell, which might lead us to infer that his film was another victim of the dreaded January re-cut, a watering-down that studios often employ to milk easier money out of a genre project that’s growing too ponderous or complex (in their infinite wisdom, at least) for mainstream audiences to comprehend. I’m willing to bet there’s a more layered and interesting version of Wolf Man on the cutting room floor, or at least on pages stuffed into a drawer somewhere in the derelict Dark Universe offices. Either way, the released version is too dull to be memorable and too competent to be fascinating, another let-down for Universal Monsterheads still hoping for a worthy return to their favorite franchise.

Wolf Man hits U.S. theaters on Friday.

The review duo (w/ special guest Dana Buckler!) who celebrate 2025 by talking about their favorite movies from when they turned 25.

Patrick and Heather Wixson do their annual rundown of favorites from another good year in horror.



Download this episode here.

Listen to F This Movie! on Apple Podcasts.

 by JB

And now the rare column about an actor who does NOT appear in It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.

I first discovered Ernie Kovacs when I was 15 years old. WTTW, the PBS station in Chicago, produced a revelatory twelve-part series, The Best of Ernie Kovacs, narrated by his best friend Jack Lemmon. Who was this strange, mustached man and why did his comedy speak to me? I did some digging and discovered a record album, The Best of Ernie Kovacs, at my local library and proceeded to check it out every couple of months for the next ten years. His comedy wasn’t like anyone else’s. Although widely different in scope, tone, and approach, I would compare his comedy to contemporaries Bob and Ray. You either “got” them or you didn’t, and if you did, they were all staggeringly funny. One of my favorite Kovacs bits was “Droongo,” a parody of the board game craze that swept the nation in the 1950s. He performed it on radio, TV, and later adapted it to a Mad magazine piece titled, “Gringo.” You can listen to that here.He started his career on local television in Philadelphia, but quickly gained fame with a series of ground-breaking programs in the early years of television, the success of which led to better markets and better opportunities. He was a frequent guest on talk shows and game shows; he even hosted his own twisted game show, Take A Good Look, in 1959. The crown jewels of his career were a series of television specials he made for Dutch Masters cigars in the late '50s. These are classics of their form, playing with the very medium of television itself. His work would go on to inspire Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Sesame Street, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Saturday Night Live, Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, and Mystery Science Theater 3000.My favorite of the television sketches is probably the “Office Symphony,” broadcast in 1961. It was unlike anything else to be seen on television back then:


A big audience favorite was the “The Nairobi Trio,” an odd sketch that Kovacs repeated many times in his career. Trivia fans: that’s Kovacs, wife Edie Adams, and Jack Lemmon in the gorilla suits:



One more sketch he repeated quite a bit, on both radio and television, “Mister Question Man:”



What I loved about Kovacs was that his humor was so undeniably HIS: skewed, weird, and odd in a way beyond words, seeming to come straight from... Kovacsland. He was an American original. He actually appeared unannounced one night on The Steve Allen Show and accused Allen of ripping him off. “Get your own material for Christsakes,” he railed... as Allen’s producers cut to a commercial.At the height of his television fame, Hollywood beckoned. He made ten films:
Operation Mad Ball (1957); Bell, Book, & Candle (1958); It Happened to Jane (1959); Our Man in Havana (1959); Wake Me When It’s Over (1960); Strangers When We Meet (1960); North to Alaska (1960); Pepe (1960); Five Golden Hours (1961); and Sail a Crooked Ship (1961). He quickly became typecast as “The Captain,” a scatterbrained, quirky, incompetent Army officer. He also played several drunks. Ernie’s favorite of all his films was Five Golden Hours; it’s my favorite too. Kovacs plays Aldo Bondi, an amiable swindler taking wealthy widows for a ride. For decades, a framed lobby card from the film hung in my classroom.Unfortunately, Kovacs' life was cut tragically short. An automobile accident took his life on January 13, 1962. He was 42 years old. His tombstone reads, “Nothing in Moderation.” He was supposed to appear in It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World with Edie Adams, in the part eventually played by Sid Cesar.Shout! Factory has done a wonderful job preserving his legacy. Adams made it a bit of a crusade during her lifetime to pay off his debts, preserve his work, and buy the rights to his masters—in many cases, preventing them from being destroyed. A few times her representatives literally stopped a truck from driving the material to be dumped into the ocean.

Shout! Factory offers a six DVD boxset, The Ernie Kovacs Collection, with a broad, representative sampling of his work. This was followed by the 3-disc Ernie Kovacs Collection, Part Two. Shout! Factory’s amazing collection of Kovacs game show episodes, Take A Good Look, is no longer available on its website but can be purchased elsewhere. The Best of Ernie Kovacs, the PBS series that first introduced me to Kovacs, was briefly available on DVD; copies are still available on Amazon. The record I used to check out of the library is now available as a “Centennial Edition" CD.Zoomar, the novel Kovacs published during his lifetime, occasionally comes up for auction on eBay. A used copy is currently for sale on Amazon. (Oh, wait! No, it isn’t. I just bought it. Sorry.) Diana Rico published a wonderful biography, Kovacsland, in 1990. Ernie in Kovacsland: Writings, Drawings, and Photographs from Television’s Original Genius, a scrapbook of career ephemera was published last year... and is a lot of fun.

 by Adam Riske and Patrick Bromley

Escape the winter doldrums with these delightful double features.

Double Feature 1:

Adam: #1: Serpico (1973)
Patrick: #2: Prince of the City (1981)
Patrick: Trailers/Shorts: The Insider, All the President’s Men, John Grisham’s The Rainmaker
Patrick: Theme: Taking on the System

Patrick: Holy shit this double. It wasn’t necessarily intentional that both movies were about police corruption or that both are directed by Sidney Lumet, but once I thought of Prince of the City (a movie that rules) I knew I had to pair these two. It will be a long night of gritty New York procedural drama, but I am here for it. I wouldn’t immediately think of myself as a fan of this theme on screen but even the trailers have me excited because, in the words of Tom Atkins, they’re all fucking good.

Adam: I can’t wait for this one! My strategy for picking what to headline double features with this year are movies from my own collection. Pairing Serpico (which I saw once and really liked) with Prince of the City (which I’ve never seen but always heard was good) sounds great to me. I love the trailer block. I need to get around to seeing All the President’s Men for the first time too.

Double Feature 2:

Patrick: #1: Get Over It! (2001)
Adam: #2: Head Over Heels (2001)
Adam: Trailers/Shorts: Antitrust, The Shipping News, The Wash
Adam: Theme: 2001 Movies That Grossed $10M to $11M at the Domestic Box Office

Adam: 2001 was overloaded with programmer movies so I thought it would be fun to build a night around a few of them that made a mild impact at the box office and were probably more successful at the video store. Sorry in advance for The Shipping News trailer. Get Over It! rules (there’s a lot of competition but it might be Mt. Rushmore Dunst adorableness) and I’m excited to finally see Head Over Heels although I remember hearing that movie had a shitting scene, so I’ll leave the theater during that part because I hate shitting in movies. Pissing I’m not a big fan of either, but it’s at least more cinematic. I should’ve booked Antitrust as the second feature the more that I think of it. Oh well, it’s too late now.

Patrick: I saw Head Over Heels the night it opened and remember really hating it, but I don’t know why. I wasn’t as much of a Freddie Prinze Jr. guy as you and literally the only thing that sticks in my head all these years later is the shitting scene you mentioned. Maybe a revisit can turn things around? Probably not. That’s ok! I’m coming to the Cinemarink that night just to see Get Over It! on 35mm. The closing credits dance to “September” is one of my favorites and one of Dunst’s Top 3 “looks like Erika” moments so of course it’s what cemented my crush on her.

Double Feature 3:Adam: #1: The Allnighter (1987)
Patrick: #2: Hard to Hold (1984)
Patrick: Trailers/Shorts: Dune (1984), Prince “Let’s Go Crazy” video, Spellcaster, Desperately Seeking Susan
Patrick: Theme: ‘80s Pop Star Vehicles

Patrick: Plenty of musicians have tried their respective hands at acting, some with more success than others. I wanted this night to be a tribute to the One and Dones, star vehicles designed to launch the movie careers of a couple rockers that completely belly flopped. To be fair, Rick Springfield acted both before and after Hard to Hold, but that was the one clearly designed to capitalize on his rock stardom. These are both pretty bad movies, but I would seriously love to watch them together. This night would be so fun.

Adam: This sounds fun. Susanna Hoffs was one of my first crushes so this night of programming will finally be the impetus to get me to open my sealed DVD of The Allnighter. It’ll also be good to get more familiar with the persona/music of Rick Springfield. I’m passively aware of his music but for some reason I got into my head when I was younger that I can’t support both him and Bruce Springsteen so since I’m already a fan of The Boss the buck stopped there.

Double Feature 4:

Patrick: #1: The Raid 2 (2014)
Adam: #2: Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012)
Adam: Trailers/Shorts: The Warriors, The Untouchables, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990), Signs, Inglourious Basterds
Adam: Theme: Movies with Baseball Bat Action Sequences

Adam: The first thing that came into my head with The Raid 2 was the baseball bat fight and that quickly led to me remembering the fight sequence involving a bat in Day of Reckoning. I like both movies a lot and honestly, I’m surprised I don’t go back to them more. Maybe it’s harder to feel nostalgic about 2010s movies for me because I was older and didn’t grow up with them? Bats are fun. Should we do a bat giveaway like they used to do at baseball games? Like the first 50 in line get a bat. And there’s a piñata in between movies.

Patrick: Bat Night during these two movies might be asking for trouble. What’s our security sitch at the Cinemarink? Think we can get Rob to bounce? No one would swing a bat at his pretty face.

Double Feature 5:Adam: #1: Daylight (1996)
Patrick: #2: The Juror (1996)
Patrick: Trailers/Shorts: The Chamber, Before and After, Diabolique (1996)
Patrick: Theme: Roger Ebert Two-Star Movies from 1996

Patrick: There’s something about two-star movies that makes them totally skippable – they’re not good enough to warrant me checking them out nor are they bad enough to pique my curiosity. They’re just kind of there. Proof of this theory: I’ve only ever seen The Juror from this lineup, and it’s the most two-star movie that ever two-starred. The Demi bump makes me want to revisit it, though, so I’m down for a four-star night of two-star movies.

Adam: This sounds fantastic to me. I really like Daylight. It’s Stallone in sad bastard Cliffhanger mode and it really works as a disaster movie. I don’t remember liking The Juror, but I’d love to revisit it after The Substance and Juror #2 captured my heart last year. From this lineup, I’ve also seen Diabolique, which is not good, and The Chamber, which is also underwhelming but scratches my always there and I wish it wasn’t Chris O’Donnell itch. I like that the trailer ends with him running away crying. Not many trailers do that.

Double Feature 6:

Patrick: #1: Who’s Minding the Store? (1963)
Adam: #2: Fitzwilly (1967)
Adam: Trailers/Shorts: Mannequin, Shopgirl, Last Holiday
Adam: Theme: Department Store Comedies

Adam: After recently revisiting The Shop Around the Corner and the Alison Brie Macy’s ad, I realized I have the hots for media depicting the day-to-day operations of department stores. I’ve never seen Who’s Minding the Store? or Fitzwilly but I’d love to go to this to see a couple of department store movies set in the ‘60s. Plus, Fitzwilly sounds like Free Willy so when I put the title on the marquee it’ll feel satisfying. Is Who’s Minding the Store? a Jerry Lewis movie you like a lot?

Patrick: I love it. I mean, it’s no Cracking Up, but what is? All of Jerry Lewis’ collaborations with Frank Tashlin are good, but this is one of my favorites because it’s so sketch/set piece-heavy. And I’ve never seen Fitzwilly either, so that’s a great pairing because I love ‘60s comedies so I feel like the perfect audience for this double.

Double Feature 7:Adam: #1: The Informant! (2009)
Patrick: #2: Bubble (2005)
Patrick: Trailers/Shorts: Underrated Soderbergh
Patrick: Theme: The Underneath, Solaris, Side Effects

Patrick: Steven Soderbergh makes a lot of good movies that a lot of people like! But he also makes some good movies that not a lot of people like. This is a night devoted to those. The Informant! rules and so does Bubble. I feel like it’s been a while since I really loved a Soderbergh joint, though. Is that right? Am I forgetting a great one?

Adam: I agree with you on The Informant! and Bubble. I like both quite a bit. I remember Bubble was one of the first movies to play on-demand and in theaters at roughly the same time. I don’t think Soderbergh has made a great one in a while either, although I’m a fan of Contagion, Magic Mike, Side Effects, and Unsane. I thought No Sudden Move and Kimi were good, but I’ve never thought about them again after my initial watch. I’m excited Soderbergh has two theatrical movies coming out soon. I especially want to see Presence.

Double Feature 8:

Patrick: #1: Legal Eagles (1986)
Adam: #2: Havana (1990)
Adam: Trailers/Shorts: Sneakers, Indecent Proposal, Up Close & Personal
Adam: Theme: After You’re Out of Africa

Adam: I’m not the biggest Robert Redford fan but I’d go to this double feature to finally see what all the hype is about with Legal Eagles, a movie I feel like you title-drop regularly. I can’t remember if you like it or not though. Are you a fan? Theme aside, I’m happy to book Havana with it because it’s a movie I remember chasing Oscar clout so obviously that it annoyed me even in 1990 when I was 8 years old. I was going to see Home Alone and The Rescuers Down Under and seeing the poster for Havana at the theater and thinking “You want Best Picture so bad, don’t you Havana?”

Patrick: I wouldn’t say I’m a fan of Legal Eagles so much as I am fascinated by it. Like, what is it? Not a comedy, not a drama…it’s just this thing with pretty people and a kickass Rod Stewart song. Havana will be a first time watch for me and I’m pretty excited about sleeping through it.

Double Feature 9:Adam: #1: Source Code (2011)
Patrick: #2: Knowing (2009)
Patrick: Trailers/Shorts: The Ghost Writer, Man on a Ledge, P2
Patrick: Theme: Summit Thrillers

Patrick: I miss Summit. They were like a JV Lionsgate. When they got absorbed, Lionsgate just became Lionsgatier. I like that these are both sci-fi movies made by good directors and yet both barely exist even though I like them both.

Adam: Yeah, they both are kind of forgotten, aren’t they? Source Code is my favorite Duncan Jones movie and I’m due for a rewatch. I’m ready to forgive him for Warcraft, which is the most inside baseball blockbuster of the 2000s. Knowing rules, too. It’s so bleak and Proyas-y. It held up well when we covered it for a Travolta/Cage episode a few years ago. Offhand, I don’t share your nostalgia for Summit but when you package the night like this (with those trailers) then maybe I do appreciate them more than I previously thought.

Double Feature 10:

Patrick: #1: High Fidelity (2000)
Adam: #2: Return to Me (2000)
Adam: Trailers/Shorts: About Last Night, My Best Friend’s Wedding, While You Were Sleeping
Adam: Theme: Schmoopy in Chicago

Adam: With Valentine’s Day coming up next month, I felt like getting the jump on other rep programmers and put together a romantic comedy double feature. I like both movies a lot and it’ll be fun celebrating the greatest city in the world for a few hours. P.S. I love High Fidelity but feel sometimes like I’m not cool enough for it, while Return to Me feels exactly like the Chicago movie I’d be in if I were a movie character.

Patrick: This double is so, so good. I love all these movies, and I love Chicago so I’m excited to put them all together. I’m definitely more High Fidelity than Return to Me (it’s my favorite book and one of my favorite movies) and if I’m cool enough for it, you are definitely cool enough for it. We keep trying to show it to Charlie and he’s resisting so I’m going to give him Minnie Driver’s heart and see if that changes him.

 by Jan Bottiglieri

Badass Lady People have long been a mainstay of cinematic entertainment—but I think 2024 was a particularly good year for solid performances from female actors in roles that challenged common tropes about femininity.

Maybe audiences are tired of the usual ways "strong women" are portrayed in film: the "final girl," the "mamma bear," the "tough old gal." Even positive portrayals can feel limiting and vaguely sexist when they're so overused they've become cliché.

I'm delighted that so many Movie Lady People of 2024 found new ways to be badass. Women contain multitudes! We are creators and destroyers, friends and lovers, alphas and omegas, and we will NOT be shoved into boxes... unless being shoved into a box is EXACTLY what needs to happen for our badassery to save the day! Then just TRY to keep us out of that box.

Here are my Top 10 Badass Lady Person Performances of 2024. Please note that these performances represent only Movies I Have Actually Seen; I missed a lot this year. The movies may (Anora) or may not (Nightbitch) be on my "Top 10 Movies" list for 2024.

I've presented them in alphabetical order, because badass women are hella organized. I've included five runners-up, because badass women are always trying to include, not exclude. I tell you why I think these are not your usual badass women, because badass women are generous with their intellect. Bring the smelling salts, Mortimer, I'm positively swooning from empowerment!

1. Naomi Ackie and Alia Shawkat, Blink Twice. For me, the most badass and interesting aspect of this film was how it addressed the theme of female friendship—so I'm including both leads on my list. Ackie takes the "final girl" trope one step further by... becoming just like her abuser? Not sure how I feel about that, but I do love Lady Bosses.

2. Amy Adams, Nightbitch. Can we please agree to stop calling a certain type of female performance "brave"? Yes, Amy Adams is a force in this film, and she does it with no makeup and a few extra pounds and covered in mud. But I rock that shit EVERY DAY and no one calls me "brave." To suggest that dressing, behaving, or presenting oneself outside of societal standards for female beauty is "brave" is sexist as hell, because it implies that there should be negative consequences for doing so. To be honest, I felt Adams was miscast here; yet, she threw herself into the role and elevated a sometimes cringy script with her energy and commitment. Not "brave," but definitely badass.

3. Kirsten Dunst, Civil War. A terrific and deeply unsettling film that would make my Top Ten List... if I made a Top Ten List. Yes, journalist Lee Smith seems cold—but Dunst plays her journalistic detachment as a strength, not a failing. Lee is smart, dedicated, honest, and fearless, but Dunst manages to make her profoundly human as well. What's more badass than that?

4. Anna Kendrick, Woman of the Hour. I love it when Kendrick's game show contestant Sheryl rejects the show's sexist premises and goes "off script"—but the real badass-ness comes later, when she realizes that the man she's with may be more dangerous than he first seemed. Kendrick's smart, nuanced performance in these scenes amplify the tension of a scenario that will feel familiar to every woman in the audience. Every. Woman.5. Natasha Lyonne, His Three Daughters. Another movie that would be in my Top 10. I'm a huge fan of Lyonne in anything she does. Here, what makes her character Rachel so badass is her vulnerability. Rachel doesn't "act" strong as the sister who has been caring for the ailing father; she simply is strong, without grandstanding or self-pity.

6. Mikey Madison, Anora. It's great to see Madison in a role that finally lets her fill the screen with her own vibrant light. Her Anora is independent, confident, and self-possessed—until someone breaks her trust. She's tougher than we expect, but sweeter too, and I think that's pretty badass.

7. Demi Moore, The Substance. I should probably throw Margaret Qualley in here as well—after all, the Two Are One—but my favorite scene in this terrific film is all Moore. As Elisabeth, she does a mirror check before her date with an old high school acquaintance and becomes increasingly displeased with what she sees. With a lesser actor, the scene could even be played for laughs; but Moore delivers a complex despair that renders the scene more deeply horrifying than any hunchback. It's a pivotal scene showcasing one of the film's least-talked-about themes: self-worth is not about how society treats us, but about how we treat ourselves.

8. Kristen Stewart, Love Lies Bleeding. One of my favorites of the year! I loved Stewart's portrayal of Lou, a Lady Person who has had a very fucked-up life but who really knows how to commit to love. And to commit murder. If you're thinking I should have chosen Jackie (Katy M. O'Brian) for this list, I ask you: Who is more badass, the giantess, or the one who loves so hard she creates the giantess?

9. Ana Taylor-Joy, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. She's got mad driving skills and a degree in post-apocalyptic botany, and though she spends part of the movie in drag, she's still woman enough to CUT OFF HER OWN ARM when necessary. I loved Fury Road more, but ATJ brought more badass intensity than I expected.10. Sarah Paulson, Hold Your Breath. Full disclosure: I've not been a big fan of Paulson, who I generally find too mannered; yet I thought she was quite interesting in this psychological horror western. Her performance turns the "emotional woman accused of being crazy" trope on its head. By the end we know she's definitely crazy—but it's for all the right reasons. Her devotion to her daughters is badass and adds nuance to the bleak ending.

RUNNERS-UP:Elle Fanning, A Complete Unknown: For her performance in one pivotal moment: In the space of a single song, Sylvie realizes she has no future with a man who will always keep her at a distance; she'll never know Bob the way that Joan can. It all plays out on Fanning's face as she watches them sing.

Rebecca Ferguson, Dune Part 2: Face tattoos. Also, there is nothing that takes more courage than letting go of your beloved child so they can become the Muad'Dib. I did it. I should know.Jennifer Grey, A Real Pain: That was Jennifer Grey?! I had to read it in the end credits. We forgive you for "fixing" your nose, you gorgeous 64-year-old. Be in more movies!

Isabella Rossellini, Conclave: Sister Agnes is not putting up with this SHIT. Badass!

Sydney Sweeney, Immaculate: Messiahs are like nicknames—you can't force them, they need to happen organically. In other words, Sister Cecilia is not putting up with this SHIT. Rock of ages, cleft (this misbegotten hell-child) for me!

by Erika BromleyYou think we need one more? You think we need one more. All right, we'll get one more.

Top 5 “Yes, MOVIES!”

1. The Substance
2. The Brutalist
3. Love Lies Bleeding
4. Dune II
5. Anora

This was the start of my proper “Top Ten” until… I started having a million ties, changing my mind, and moving Yacht Rock documentaries in to the top 5. Maybe. Maybe not. Long time readers and friends, did I ever mention how indecisive I can be? I think the only thing I really know for sure is that we should get pizza tonight. And I love my family.Top 5 “Yes, Nostalgia meets ‘This is SO fascinating and/or just good’ Movies”: Documentary category

1. Yacht Rock: A DOCKumentary
2. The Greatest Night in Pop
3. Steve (Martin) a documentary in 2 pieces
4. Jim Henson: Idea Man
5. Will & Harper*

*Not really nostalgia, but I loved this film, it’s a documentary, and I’m nostalgic for the genuine empathy that is bubbling over from every frame. This empathy does exist in ‘the real world,’ so why would I be ‘nostalgic’ for it? Because it doesn’t seem to exist without someone or something trying to pummel the life out of it; someone or something right up alongside it, trying to outrun it in the race. In Will & Harper, empathy is not just ahead in the race, it emphatically and deservedly wins the whole thing.

Top 2 “They talk a lot, and I love it: Movies that showcase the human condition and human spirit just by featuring characters dealing with real life family drama or personal pain. And talking a lot.”1. His 3 Daughters
2. A Real Pain

Best Movie I am right about and most others are wrong about (if they did not like it):

1. The Fall Guy

Gosling love aside, it was super fun, the leads had a ton of chemistry, and it made for a great night at the theater. (Even if it came out at a time when every family I knew -- and I know that is only a certain part of the population -- was quadruple booked with family and school events and could barely find time to shower, so all of the discourse about “people don’t want to go to the theater” was just insane to me… busy people need more than ONE WEEKEND to have a chance to go to a theater!)

Other movies I liked more than the other movies I saw:1. Juror #2
2. Inside Out 2
3. Wicked
4. Longlegs

Movies I did not see, but a bunch of smart people liked:
1. Civil War
3. Amelia Perez
4. Maria (wait, did people like this?)
5. What am I missing?

by Rosalie LewisA retrospective of the year with a little help from my favorite album of 2024, Charli XCX’s BRAT.

My favorite album of 2024 and my favorite movie of 2024 have a few things in common. Both tap into the contradictions of feminine identity in all its messiness and societal scrutiny and obsession with self-improvement and twin desires to live like there’s no tomorrow and leave a meaningful legacy. Both are undeniably fun even while digging into some uncomfortable truths. And with both the album and the movie, it was love at first encounter. I kept an open mind for the rest of the year, but I not-so-secretly knew that there was no moving these out of the top spot. I’m aware that Charli XCX and her Brat album have been think-pieced and memed into oblivion; hopefully you’ll indulge me anyway as I filter my top ten movies of the year through the lens of this album that has soaked into my bones and soundtracked my year. Now, on to the movies!

10. Queendom (dir. Agniia Galdanova, rentable on Prime)
Companion song: 360
Relevant lyric: “Shock you like defibrillators/No style? I can’t relate.”This compelling documentary follows Gena Marvin, a queer performance artist living in rural Magadan, Russia when we first meet her. She’s 21, lives with her grandparents, and gets kicked out of the grocery store for wearing elaborate drag costumes. Her grandpa lectures her about getting an education and a regular job and occasionally uses homophobic slurs to chide her for how she presents in public. Discouraged but undeterred, she buys Grandma a kitten, goes to Moscow and continues to make videos and confrontational public appearances to protest the increasingly restrictive Russian government. Gena risks personal safety and imprisonment to embrace her identity fully. Her creativity and vision result in stunning imagery and indelible beauty, and you can’t help but be moved by her story.

9. Nosferatu (dir. Robert Eggers, in theaters)
Companion song: Von Dutch
Relevant lyric: “You're obsessing//Just confess it put your hands up. It's obvious I'm your number one."Up until now, I’ve been a bit of an Eggers skeptic. I can appreciate that he’s making gorgeous looking movies that clearly appeal to a lot of cinephiles, but I felt at a distance from the previous films he’s made. Nonetheless, I wanted to see his take on this gothic tale of an ancient evil stalking a beautiful maiden. I don’t love every incarnation of Dracula (looking at you, Dracula 2000), but I’ve been known to enjoy even the less critically acclaimed vampire movies (case in point: Queen of the Damned). I’m glad I gave it a chance, because guess what? I loved this movie!

Every few seconds, I kept looking at the screen thinking, “If that were a painting, I’d hang it in my house.” I loved the many cats, all of whom live til the end credits, I’m happy to say. I loved the twisted phenomenal embodiment Bill Skarsgard brings to Count Orlok, mustache and all. I love Ellen’s take on the hysterical woman and the idea that her desires hold a power no one should underestimate. I love every second Willem Dafoe is on screen, and the empathy Nicholas Hoult brings to a character who is basically getting cucked by a demonic spirit. I love that even though I’ve seen this story on screen many times, Eggers gave me something that felt fresh and exciting and memorable.

8. Trap (dir. M. Night Shyamalan, streaming on Max)
Companion song: I Think About It All the Time
Relevant lyric: "And they're exactly the same but they're different now//and I'm so scared I'm missin' out on something."

Unless this is your first day amongst F This Movie folk, you’re probably familiar with the Josh Hartnett thriller featuring a full concert by M. Night’s daughter Saleka as Lady Raven. I’m already on record as being a pretty big fan of Shyamalan, and this is 1000% my jam. I saw it in theaters several times, I watched it at home as soon as that became an option, and I smiled every time I heard it positively mentioned on a podcast or saw a screengrab of Hartnett as Cooper.

It's fine if you think this movie is silly because yes, it is. As Patrick said on the recent Underrated podcast with JB, it does not hold up to an ounce of scrutiny or logic. I love it anyway. It’s fun to see Hartnett in Dad mode, rocking out and trying to impress his 12-year-old daughter. That part reminded me of conversations about music and slang and internet trends with my early teen nieces as I attempt to appear cool to them as a 43-year-old with a corporate job and a suburban existence. The serial killer plot feels retro and 90s, implausible but exciting. The psycho babble from cops and unwitting participants feels straight out of Hitchcock. The whole thing just makes me grin.

7. Blink Twice (dir. Zoe Kravitz, streaming on Prime)
Companion song: Club Classics
Relevant lyric: "Sweat marks all on my clothes//I wanna be blinded by the lights."I vaguely suspected that the party had to end sometime in this debut from Zoe Kravitz, but I was unprepared for the reveal that happens midway through. Most of what I want to say will give away key plot points, so I strongly encourage you to see the movie before reading further. The most disturbing part of this story involves a betrayal of trust and the casual and cavalier attitude on the part of the perpetrator. While I hope the majority of humanity never experiences such cruelty or deception or denial of agency, we had a news story in 2024 that all too closely mirrored details of the movie’s plot.

6. The Last Stop in Yuma County (dir. Francis Galluppi, digital rental)
Companion song: Hello Goodbye
Relevant lyric: "Felt a little fear and some anxiety the second you arrived and kind of smiled at me."Big ups to Patrick for recommending this one to me back in the spring—I absolutely loved it from the first frame. Basically take a bunch of excellent character actors (including Jim Cummings, Barbara Crampton, and Richard Brake) and trap them in a diner where two violent bank robbers are hiding out and see who cracks first. It’s a little bit noir, a little bit Western, a lot my shit.

5. Thelma (dir. Josh Margolin, streaming on Hulu)
Companion song: Spring Breakers
Relevant lyric: "Hi it's me you're all in danger//Crazy girl shit gonna go Spring Breakers"You had me at June Squibb and Richard Roundtree on a scooter. Throw in the fact that she plays a 93-year-old grandma trying to get her money back from a phone scammer and I’m even more sold. Thankfully this movie lived up to the amazing premise, delivering laughter and suspense and some moving moments as well. It turns out the director and writer of the film named it after his own grandmother, who had in fact almost fallen for a phone scam where someone impersonated him and said he needed bail money because he’d gotten in trouble. The incident and his grandma’s fighting spirit inspired the film, and that warmth makes this a memorable experience and not just a novelty where old people get into capers.

4. Anora (dir. Sean Baker, available for digital purchase)
Companion song: Mean Girls
Relevant lyric: "Yeah it's 4am and she's out there//With her razor-sharp tongue stuck to skinny cigarettes.”I was not expecting so much comedy from Sean Baker’s latest movie. Sure, its dialogue and sexual content would give Hays code enforcers an aneurysm, but the template of 1940s screwball is an undeniable influence on this story. Mikey Madison owns the screen and takes no shit from anyone as the title character. She meets a young Russian dude at the club and forms a bond with him that starts out transactional but begins to transcend into something else altogether. Is her XBOX-playing paramour a Richard Gere in Pretty Woman type, or just a fuckboy with a fuck-ton of money? She gets her answer—and a lot more—as she gets to know other people in Vanya’s life.

3. Woman of the Hour (dir. Anna Kendrick, streaming on Netflix)
Companion song: Sympathy is a Knife
Relevant lyric: "I don't wanna force a smile//Don't know if it's real or if I'm spiraling."Anna Kendrick directs and stars in this based-on-a-true-story film about a serial killer who appeared as a contestant on The Dating Game in the 1970s. She doesn’t shy away from his violent acts against women, which are appalling; but she also gives voice and back story to the women he preyed upon. She depicts the everyday interactions and calculations as well as the casual misogyny women experience with the authenticity of a person that has lived it. The most disturbing part of this movie is not necessarily how evil the killer is, but how ordinary he is. She gets every detail right, and I wish it didn’t feel so relevant for a story that took place before I was born.

2. Love Lies Bleeding (dir. Rose Glass, streaming on Max)
Companion song: Everything Is Romantic
Relevant lyric: "In a place that can make you change//Fall in love again and again."

I sigh, I swoon, I stare respectfully at Katy O’Brian and Kristen Stewart being like so romantic and hot and badass and tender in this movie (and also in life, let’s be real). Their characters Lou and Jackie meet in a small town gym, sense a mutual attraction, and are soon inseparable. Unfortunately, small towns are often home to some pretty messed up people and situations and populated by folks who either turn a blind eye or actively enable said messed-upness. An act with heroic intentions aims to stop the violence of one person, but the unintended ripples of this gesture threaten to demolish the newly established romance.

I love the risks that this movie takes, and the way it defies audience expectations while giving us what we didn’t know we could want but suddenly need fervently. The performances are wonderful, and I can’t wait to see what Rose Glass makes next.

1. The Substance (dir. Coralie Fargeat, streaming on Prime)
Companion song: Girl, So Confusing featuring Lorde
Relevant lyric: "And it's just self-defense until you're building a weapon."

Ever since Revenge, I’ve been excited for Coralie Fargeat’s next project. I never could’ve predicted it would be this phenomenon, but what a delightful turn of events! She teamed up with two powerful and iconic women, Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, and created a body horror for the ages. It’s quotable, it’s hilarious, it’s disgusting, it made me cry, it blew my mind.

This movie is an instant classic and an instant favorite. For anyone who binged the Missing Richard Simmons podcast; for anyone who considers reality plastic surgery show Botched a guilty pleasure; for anyone who could relate to Tai in Clueless when she told Cher, “My buns don’t feel nothin’ like steel.” For the people who avoid reflective surfaces and the people who seek out those reflective surfaces, because one day their roles will be reversed. For people who take selfies and people who untag themselves in other people’s social media posts. For fans of Death Becomes Her but think it should be a little more like Possession. For fans of the Jerry Seinfeld bit about night guy versus morning guy in the "Glasses" episode.

“The balance must be respected,” insists Elisabeth Sparkle. But she could learn a thing or two from Seinfeld. “The only thing Morning Guy can do is try and oversleep often enough that Day Guy loses his job and Night Guy has no money to go out anymore,” concludes Jerry.

As the mysterious voice on the phone says, “Remember, you are one.”

BONUS LIST: My top 10 discoveries of the year
1. Paris is Burning
2. Le Trou
3. Tampopo
4. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains5. No Way Out (1950)
6. The Deep End
7. Cure
8. Holy Spider
9. Ladybug Ladybug
10. Under the Shadow