Dear friend,
indecision was the real winner this week, as I started watching multiple films and abandoned them in impatience. I ever get to finish Sisu 2, you’ll be the first to know.
Caught Stealing, directed by Darren Aronofsky, written by Charlie Huston, based on his novel of the same title, US, 2025 - ⭐⭐⭐
Everyone compares this film to After Hours, but it’s been ages since I’ve seen that one, and I never ever identify Griffin Dunne, so my immediate association was ‘Guy Ritchie in New York’. Although usually an Aronofsky supporter, I’m glad I didn’t watch this when it was released in cinemas, because some of the violence was hard to look at - even when it’s played for laughs.
I only started enjoying this after I recognised Liev Schreiber behind his beard, and Carol Kane appeared, but I had to look up who that other bearded guy was. Just to find out that I’m watching him being all threatening every week. In my defence, all you see of him here are somewhat sweet-looking eyes, and I still can’t reconcile the dissonance.
I guess I finally understand the charm of Austin Butler, while I’ve never had problems liking Zöe Kravitz (maybe a little under-served here?).
So, what I’m saying is that the few things I liked are more linked to the players than the film itself.
Pizza Movie, written and directed by Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney, US, 2026 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Listen, I know.
The Disney+ carousel showed me the poster for a film with such an inspired title, Stranger Things’ Galen Matarazzo face on it, and the plot summary about two college students taking drugs and then going on a quest to get a pizza and I thought: ’never in a million years’.
But then the good people on the Empire Podcast mentioned how much fun they had with it, so I gave it a chance on Saturday night and… I don’t remember the last time I laughed this much watching a film. Sure, the humour is all over the place as you might expect from what is essentially a stoner comedy, but there’s a lot of creativity and unpredictability. It reminded me of The Daniels’ style (it even features the Swiss Army Man himself, Daniel Radcliffe, in a small voice role).
Matarazzo plays essentially the same role he did in the Netflix horror series, while I wasn’t familiar with the other lead, Sean Giambrone - mostly known for voice roles and Disney Channel series - , playing the shy, normally sensitive nerd (he brought to mind Tom Lenk from Buffy seasons 6-7 of Buffy and The Cabin in the Woods). Nice to see Mike Flanagan’s favourite haunted child, Lulu Wilson, having fun.
泥娃娃/Mudborn, directed by Shieh Meng-ju, written by Huang Yen-chiao, Taiwan, 2025 - ⭐⭐
I was starting to trust Taiwanese horror, thanks to Incantation and Dead Talents Society. The editor of the latter debuted as a director with this film about (in a nutshell) a doll inhabited by evil spirits who would like to upgrade their existence by taking over a body.
This is one of those films I started watching and then stopped, multiple times; it took me five or six sittings to finish watching this 111-minute film, not because it’s particularly scary or disturbing (one scene is), but because it’s so unfocused I couldn’t care about what would happen; there’s a bit of Paranormal Activity in it, a bit of St.John’s Wort, a bit of every horror film you can think of. And you’ll see where the plot is going a good forty-five minutes before the characters get it.