Thief's Monthly Movie Loot - 2025 Edition

Visitors follows three friends going to visit a fourth one that hasn't been responding his phone. However, after finding him in his home and coming in for tea, all hell breaks loose inside, forcing them to take extreme measures; that is if they can find something to kill.

I had this short on my Letterboxd watchlist, but I really don't remember who recommended it. It is fairly simple and mostly focused on gore and splatter. It does have some dodgy special effects here and there, but for the most part, it is well executed and effective.

Overall, Visitors is a fun watch, even though it doesn't offer much else beyond the gore. I read there's a feature length version that came out a year later, so maybe that polishes some of the issues and improves. As it is, this isn't more than an enjoyable curiosity.

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The Door follows Natasha (Reba Landers), a young woman that goes to visit her estranged uncle (Brian Pollock) who is a recluse obsessed with keeping doors shut. But the visit seems to bring out some hidden demons that they'd rather keep behind closed doors.

Stumbled upon this one in the weirdest way. I fell asleep while watching Visitors, and YouTube auto-played this one right after. So when I woke up, I decided to back it up and check it out. It is very low budget, but for the most part, it is well shot and director Andrew Froening manages to set an effective atmosphere of dread.

Both performances are solid, even if you can see the seams at certain points. I also think that, despite throwing some crumbs about what's happening, it doesn't really make for a fully coherent story. Still, I enjoyed the mood it built up.

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Soliloquio de un Adulto is a low budget, self-produced, local short from Omar Rivera Molina. It follows this character, played by Rivera, that stops at a bar on his way home from work. While lamenting his daily struggles with the bartender, a young man appears and they talk about their lives and dreams.

Written by Rivera himself, the dialogue has the peculiarity to be in the form of a poem. Although Rivera is pretty good with his delivery, it can't help but feel a bit unnatural. The effect is also hindered by the performance of the young man, who I think is Rivera's real life son, which is pretty weak.

Still, I appreciated the message of not abandoning your dreams, and not sacrificing "freedom for security". I get the feeling that the short is sort of autobiographical, and that Rivera apparently had a similar reckoning of deciding to follow his dreams. That's something I can certainly identify with.

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For anyone interested in checking out these three shorts...

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith closes out the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy by showing us the final descent of Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) into the Dark Side. Set three years after the events of Attack of the Clones, the film follows Anakin's relationship with Padmé (Natalie Portman) and his strained friendship with Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) while the Republic is in the middle of a full-scale war. Meanwhile, Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) uses any opportunity to poison Anakin's mind and lure him to his side.

I've seen this film a couple of times, but I've been continuing my rewatch of this trilogy with one of my kids. I often cite this one as the best of this trio, although I think I've warmed up to The Phantom Menace more than to this one. Still, Lucas manages to polish a lot of the rough edges from the previous film and the result is, well, competent enough. The dialogue is slightly better, the CGI isn't as intrusive, plus it has most of the conflicts boiling down to their resolutions, so to speak.

My main issue with this part is that everything feels so rushed and forced that there's barely room to breathe. Evidently Lucas has a lot of marks to check off, so in order to get there, he has to jump a lot of hoops and take a lot of narrative shortcuts, hindering the overall dramatic effect of things like the Jedi Purge or Anakin's Fall. This is particularly notable in the last act where there are a hundred things happening, all at once. You can get whiplash from the way Lucas has to jump between them all.

If it were up to me, I would have given a smaller scale to the final fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan to allow its emotional baggage to come through, instead of having them jumping through endless rivers of lava and floating rocks. Still, like with the two previous entries, McGregor holds his own as the best among the three leads while McDiarmid hams it up really nice. Is it enough to call this "good"? Well, good is a point of view.

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That's how James, a tour guide, prepares his guests as they begin a "Holocaust tour" in Poland. The tour will include visits to the Warsaw Ghetto and Majdanek concentration camp, so all of that is indeed expected, but for cousins David and Benji Kaplan (Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin), pain and suffering and loss are closer. A Real Pain follows their attempt to reconnect and smooth some tensions after the death of their grandmother.

Evidently, my main motivation to watch this film is the fact that it has a couple of Oscar nominations. However, I was very much captivated by the story and relationship between the two main characters and how they relate with each other, and with others. On the surface, David is reserved, restrained, and maybe a bit OCD-ish, while Benji is more outspoken, a bit loud and abrasive. But beyond that, both characters have numerous layers and nuances that are interesting to see unfold and clash as the two try to see how they fit with each other.

The many ways that the script and direction (both from Eisenberg) build up these characters is really good, but a big part of that also goes to the actors. A lot of praise has gone to Culkin, who is the one that got the acting nomination, deservedly so. However, I think that Eisenberg deserves as much praise for his performance, on top of writing and directing the film. His script and direction have the patience to not dump everything on the audience, but to rather give us tidbits of what is going on beneath the surface of this complex relationship

Eisenberg's direction is very confident, even if it is not particularly "flashy". However, it doesn't have to be cause this is not a "directors" film. The key things here are the script and the performances, and how the combination of both builds these dimensional characters that we can all relate. The truth is that either we are a bit like either one of them, have a relative/friend that is like one of them, or maybe even want to be like one of them.

That is something that Eisenberg's character brings up during a crucial scene at dinner. The way that his relationship with Benji veers from resentment and anger to admiration and envy. David confesses as much with an incredibly poignant and heart-breaking monologue that I think is the peak of the film. What it reminds us is that no matter where you go and how much you try to distance from it; pain and suffering and loss, there's no getting around that.

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In many ways, our face is our presentation card. Is the first thing most people see of us, and obviously, it's what most people will be looking at during any interaction. But what if we perceive that "presentation card" to be "damaged"? What does it do to our interactions with people and our self-esteem? How do we see ourselves as a person? Do we perceive ourselves as "damaged" as well? Those are some of the questions brought up by this psychological drama about "damaged" faces and "damaged" perceptions of ourselves.

A Different Man follows Edward (Sebastian Stan), a C-level struggling actor who suffers from a severe case of facial neurofibromatosis. This not only limits his acting opportunities, but also makes him struggle with his social interactions with co-workers, neighbors, and potential love interests. When the opportunity of an experimental procedure that might heal him comes up, he takes it thinking it will change his life. However, Edward will soon realize that his perception of himself goes beyond what his face looks like; something that is made more evident when he meets Oswald (Adam Pearson), a fellow actor that suffers from the same condition.

One of the main reasons I caught up with this film was that it was nominated for an Oscar. However, I had been curious about it since its release. Maybe because of the involvement of Stan, his subsequent nomination for The Apprentice, and my curiosity to see him in something other than the MCU, but also because of Pearson, who I've been following on social media since Under the Skin. Turns out that my instincts were right, cause both Stan and Pearson deliver some really strong performances that I would even call "great".

But the film is much more than its performances. The script from director Aaron Schimberg is a really thought-provoking look at what our perception of ourselves is, and how it can change (or not) when other variables change. In addition, how the perception we have of ourselves is affected by the perception others have of us. The film does walk a fine line between drama and dark humor, and I do feel the absurdity levels get a bit out of hand in the very last act, but it still makes for a very compelling watch with two very compelling performances in the lead.

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CAPTCHA's are these little tests performed by websites and applications to make sure that the user accessing them is human and not what we call a bot. In the beginning, they started just as random characters that the user had to enter, but as bots became more advanced, CAPTCHA's have evolved into sometimes intricate puzzles to make sure bots can't solve them. But can bots end up as evolved and advanced that we can't tell them apart from humans?

I'm Not a Robot follows Lara (Ellen Parren), who finds herself questioning her true nature after repeatedly failing CAPTCHA tests at work. This is one of the live shorts nominated for an Oscar this year, and I thought it was pretty well done. I thought the way that they build up this uncertainty about Lara's identity was really well done, while also never losing perspective of her "humanity" and emotions.

I think parts of these were a bit derivative from other films, and I still feel that they could've done a bit more with the premise to set themselves apart. However, I still thought what they did, they did really well. It's the kind of thing that makes you wonder, how would you react if your whole nature, your whole being, was put into question and you suddenly couldn't tell what's real and what's not apart?

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For anyone interested in checking it out...

That is probably the key point with which Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) addresses his fellow cardinals as he kickstarts the titular conclave to elect the next pope. And doubt is something that Lawrence is certainly plagued with; from self-doubts about his own faith, to major doubts about the motives and agendas of the cardinals present and those that are frontrunners to become "the most famous man in the world".

Conclave opens with the death of the pope, and then puts us in Lawrence's shoes as he investigates the circumstances behind that death while also preparing for the inevitable transition. This includes handling the personalities and frictions between the lead aspiring candidates which includes Aldo Bellini (Stanley Tucci), an American liberal; Joseph Tremblay (John Lithgow), a Canadian moderate; and Goffredo Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto), a hardcore traditional.

Contrasting with the nature of the event and what is expected of the people involved, Conclave is plagued with secret scandals, gossip, backdoor machinations, backstabbings, selfish ambitions, and even an opportune explosion. All of those reinforce Lawrence's doubts in himself and the process. To add to that, a previously unknown archbishop arrives out of nowhere claiming the backing of the deceased pope.

There are a bunch of things I liked about this film, starting with the craft with which it is made. From Edward Berger's direction to Stéphane Fontaine's gorgeous cinematography. The careful construction of images, the blocking, the careful use of lights and shadows to underscore hidden motivations and things coming to light; it was all masterful. Imagine my surprise when I found out that out of eight (8) nominations, cinematography was NOT one of them.

The other thing I liked was, obviously, the acting from pretty much everybody. Even though it is Fiennes who single-handedly carries the film, earning him a well-deserved Oscar nomination, he has lots of help from the likes of Tucci and Lithgow. Isabella Rossellini complements them in the role of Sister Agnes, one of the "invisible" nuns that are running the show. Even though I'm still not sure if her performance deserved a nomination, she was pretty good in it.

Incidentally, Rossellini subtly drives one of the main points about the film, which is the power hierarchy of men in the Catholic church, contrasted with the alleged "invisibility" of women; something that you can say becomes more important as the film goes on. Because, what role can a woman have in this "world of men"?

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The Wild Robot follows ROZZUM Unit 7134, or Roz (Lupita Nyong'o), a service robot that has been left stranded on a remote island after a shipwreck. Without anyone else needing her services and trying to adapt to her surroundings, Roz becomes the caretaker of Brightbill (Kit Connor), an orphaned goose, along with Fink (Pedro Pascal), an initially opportunistic fox with a good heart. Together, they help Brightbill prepare for his eventual migration, while working out clashes among the rest of the wildlife, battling the elements, and preparing for the inevitable retrieval of Roz by its manufacturer.

This is one of the animated films nominated for a Best Animated Feature Oscar and you can clearly see why. You can say The Wild Robot follows the same beats as other films like The Iron Giant, or countless others where you have reluctant parties working out their differences for a common goal. But even though it doesn't really tread a lot of new ground, it does what it does with an undeniable heart and charm while boasting some solid casting and gorgeous visuals.

The voice work from Nyong'o and Pascal is nearly flawless. One interesting thing is that I didn't really notice who they were until later, which means that their "starpower" wasn't necessarily distracting from what was on screen. They are also complemented by an impressive cast that includes Mark Hamill, Bill Nighy, Ving Rhames, Catherine O'Hara and Stephanie Hsu, among many others. Even though one might argue there is a bit of overload of characters, as far as vocal performance goes, there really isn't a weak link among all of them.

The other thing with the film is how gorgeous the animation is. I found the way the colors pop and the animation flows to be very pleasing and beautiful. All of these assets are paired with a charming and touching story that, although somewhat predictable and not necessarily innovative, still manages to raise some interesting questions about human/not-human nature and what our purpose in life might be, which I found to be very effective. Not only did my kids loved it, but so did their father (i.e. Me!)

One of the main plot-points of the film has to do with Roz overcoming her initial programming to be and do much more. This is highlighted by the above quote which she repeats a couple of times, but it also applies to Fink, and other creatures in the film. It is a beautiful message that tells us how we can be so much more than what others expect. As far as the movie goes, it certainly became more than I thought it would be, and would be my top pick for the Oscar (if it wasn't for a certain cat).

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No usual challenge to start the year, but here's what I saw during the month...

Here's my summary for JANUARY 2025:

Oscar nominated films: A Real Pain, A Different Man, I'm Not a Robot, Conclave, The Wild Robot
Animated films: The 3 Wise Men, Barnyard Olympics
Short films: Squared, Reckless, Visitors, The Door, Soliloquio de un Adulto, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS
Horror films: Nosferatu (1922), Nosferatu the Vampyre, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, Longlegs
Sci-fi films: Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Aniara
Other film: Antes que cante el gallo




It was a pretty solid month. Had the chance to rewatch/revisit some favorites, most notably 2001: A Space Odyssey, which I finally saw on theaters. Others were rewatches to prepare for podcast recordings like Aniara and Antes que cante el gallo.

I also had the chance to catch up a good bunch of short films, and also start my Oscars watchthru. Which brings me to my favorite first-time watch of the month, and the truth is that all four Oscar-nominated films I saw (A Real Pain, A Different Man, Conclave, and The Wild Robot) were really good. I think I would give a slight edge to Conclave, though.

As for the weakest first-time watch, that one goes to The 3 Wise Men, which was probably a good choice for the kids, but not so much for me.

One of my top ten favorite films of all time, and made for the big screen..It came out the week I was born, so I also had to wait a bit to see it in the theater, but it was well worth the wait!

Definitely!

My first watch of February 2025 was a rewatch of Romance Tropical, the first sound film made here in the island. I reviewed it back in 2022, when I first watched it, so you can check it out here.

Indian boarding schools were educational institutions established by American and Canadian governments since the 17th Century to "get rid of the Indian problem". Often ran by churches, they were intended to isolate Indigenous people from their families while making them assimilate American or Canadian culture. As was expected, this led to numerous cases of mistreatment, abuse, and in many cases, death.

Sugarcane follows an investigation in Canada trying to find out the whereabouts of potentially hundreds of children that went missing during the period that boarding schools were in operation. The documentary is co-directed by Julian Brave NoiseCat, the son of one of the child survivors of one of these boarding schools, along with Emily Kassie. As part of their investigation, they talk with Julian's father, but also with several other people that were part of this system that was kept alive until early in the 20th Century.

I've become somewhat familiar with the topic of these boarding schools after recently watching short films like In the Beginning was Water and Sky and Shimásání. It's always surprising, but sadly expected, that this topic doesn't come up more often. Much like all the horrors committed against other minorities, the way that the "forces that be" work to sweep all of these atrocities under the carpet is just astonishing and depressing, so a feature-length documentary tackling the subject is a welcome addition.

The quote I shared above is from one of the victims of these boarding schools vowing to reveal what's "under the carpet", and to hold someone accountable for it. That is part of the mission from NoiseCat and Kassie as they dig deep, and in the case of NoiseCat, even within his own family, to uncover the truth. In the process, the documentary offers a series of very emotional and heart-breaking conversations and confrontations between those involved. Perhaps the most notable is that of NoiseCat and his father, but I was really moved by the conversation between one of the survivors and a Catholic priest (not involved in the events).

There is another powerful monologue that I think it's worth sharing from another victim that says:

A quote that I think sums up the powerlessness of the victims, the ruthlessness of the system, and the generational ripples that these things cause. It's all the more depressing when you factor in that those responsible are the very same institutions that have sworn to "love thy neighbor" and "protect the weak"; in this case, the Catholic Church. Thankfully, there are documentaries like this, which can help these communities not go through these again; or can it?

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That is one of the "rules" shared by Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) towards the end of The Apprentice. Rules that he adopted from his former attorney Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), and which set the basis of how he relates to others and how he does business. This film follows Trump's early years as a real estate developer in New York and his eventual rise to the spotlight, which started under Cohn's tutelage.

I have to admit I wasn't that eager to check out this film. On one hand, I'm not that big on biopics, and on the other, I find the main figure to be a repulsive human being. However, watching Stan in A Different Man piqued my interest as far as his acting abilities in the film that actually got him an Oscar nomination. After watching it, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by it.

First of all, unlike some biopic dramas, the film maintains a fairly lively pace and manages to juggle the drama with some level of (ironic) humor, I guess. Second, Stan is actually pretty good in the lead role. With these two performances in one year, I'm really looking forward to what else he puts out. Strong is just as impressive as the slimy Cohn, a character I have to admit I didn't know much about; but reading afterwards, it seems that his performance was spot-on.

I know this might be a shaky film to write about and I might be pushing the boundaries with @Yoda of what to say, but as far as the film goes, I think it does a pretty good job of showing how the main character got from Point A to Point B. The way his character evolves seems pretty consistent with the different variables around him, from his relationship with his father to Cohn's manipulation, and gives us an interesting outlook of the actual real-life figure.

I know the enjoyment of this film will probably depend on where you stand on the main character. But regardless of your leanings, I think The Apprentice makes for a compelling watch with some great performances. Whether you agree with its portrayal or not, perhaps we can ask ourselves what is truth after all?

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For those that occassionally listen to The Movie Loot, I was able to rush out an Oscars episode last night, along with my friend Ian from Best Film Ever podcast. We talk about most of the main races and close sharing our Top 5 Favorite Oscar-winning screenplays. We had a lot of fun talking about that, so check it out before tonight:

The Movie Loot 122: The Oscars Loot (with Ian from Best Film Ever)

Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and other streaming platforms.

Hope you enjoy it!

That is how one character describes his situation at a certain point of this film. But it can also apply to most of the characters in it, as most of them are intoxicated with something; whether it is drugs, money, sex, power, freedom, love, or the idea of love. Anora follows the titular character (Mikey Madison), a New York stripper that meets and falls in love with Vanya (Mark Eydeshteyn), the young son of a Russian oligarch. However, this causes some tension with his parents, who are determined not to allow it.

With six (6) Oscar nominations, it was evidently a film I wanted to check out. Writer and director Sean Baker has been making a name for himself in the past decade through unconventional love stories; from a transgender sex worker and her pimp boyfriend in Tangerine to a retired porn star and a 17-year-old in Red Rocket. Anora intoxicates us with this Cinderella love story where there's sex and drugs, yeah, but there's also a level of innocence and a desire to find some connection, or escape, from both parts.

But like most intoxications, once the "high" wears out, we have to deal with what comes after. By the halfway mark, Anora throws a wrench into the works as our lovers are somehow split, and they have to deal with the possibility that this is no fairy tale after all. The shift in the film's vibe is quite something as it becomes an incredibly tense race around the clock as Vanya's parents take extreme measures to end this relationship. I really found myself at the edge of my seat during most of this half, as we're trying to figure out what is going on and what is going to happen.

In the middle of this tension, Baker does a great job of injecting some doses of humor in it. These come mostly through the interactions with the "thugs" that are sent to pick up Anora and Vanya. One of them, Igor, is played by Yuri Borisov, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. He's good, but if you ask me, I would've given that spot to Eydelshteyn. I thought his performance ran the gamut from a partying, naïve young man to a drunk and scared boy, and he sold it really well.

One of my podcasting friends, Frank Mandosa, described the film as "tragically poetic", and I think that's a beautiful way to put it. After all, you have all these characters – Anora, Vanya, Igor – all trying to escape certain cycles or "prisons", and they're just unable to. Being trapped leads to intoxication, and being intoxicated can lead to worst decisions, and when it all wears down, sometimes all you can do is break down.

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A bunch of these reviews that will come out now, I wish I could've gotten them in before the Oscars, but well... such is life.