2025 has not been a movie-watching year for me, outside of the things I’ve been assigned to review. I was feeling really down on myself for not keeping up but honestly something had to give. I had to work on my Frankenstein book. I’ll get back on the horse eventually.
The X-Files (1996-2002)
Continuing my re-watch. Texting with Keith the entire time. It’s unbelievable to me that this ridiculous shot –
– could bring me to tears.
The X-Files (2008; d. Rob Bowman)
Scully, even after a UFO plunges up through the Arctic Ice, you still have your doubts? I get you were passed out but after being congealed in amniotic goo, naked, with a tube down your throat in some subterranean hellscape … you still revert to “well, Mulder, I’m not sure …”
Wild Diamond (2025; d. Agathe Riedinger)
Depressing but interesting. I reviewed for Ebert.
Countdown (2025)
There’s so much effort on display here. It’s impressive, to the degree that effort is impressive, and obviously everyone involved is talented. Planning a series like this must be like planning a military maneuver. It’s great to see Jensen in another kind of role – it’s especially interesting to see Jensen play someone who isn’t always on the verge of being a goofball. There’s a flinty quality to Mark, and Jensen definitely has a flintiness – like, he seems approachable, but if you push your luck, he will not hesitate to put you in your place. That side of Jensen is very intimidating and I am very into it. He’s the opposite of a loose cannon. Clearly I am in this for Jensen and would not be watching otherwise. They do so much to establish this “task force” but … to be honest, it seems like the writers are only interested in Mark and Olivera. It’s uneven. But whatever. I’ve looked forward to each new episode, it’s been fun.
Superman (2025; d. James Gunn)
We all went together. I enjoyed much of it – particularly Lois Lane’s wardrobe, so cute. I regretted taking my younger niece and nephew. It was too violent – one moment in particular of randomly cruel violence – way too much. Plus there was a lot of casual profanity, and the two younger ones were traumatized. Yes, PG-13, but I don’t associate Superman with violence and profanity so I assumed it would be okay. It was not!
Folktales (2025; d. Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady)
It’s excellent. I reviewed for Ebert.
Amy Bradley is Missing (2025; d. Phil Lott and Ari Mark)
I think she was wasted and fell off the ship.
One Night in Idaho: The College Murders (2025; d. Matthew Galkin and Liz Garbus)
Why did he do it? We’ll probably never know now. He’s an enigma and it’s scary.
She Rides Shotgun (2025; d. Nick Rowland)
I reviewed for Ebert.
WRT Countdown
/ It’s uneven. But whatever. /
I hate when our heroes forget that radio was invented more than a century ago and they could use it to ask law enforcement officers nearer the scene to check for suspicious trucks at the location. They could still speed through the city, but maybe stay off the sidewalks.
And a childhood friend who’s a neuro-oncologist and unafraid to violate HIPAA… Maybe there’s a deus in that machina.
There are an impressive number of mirror moments. I wonder what motivated that. Someone familiar enough with JA to know he’d kill at it? Did he suggest it as a great way to tell the story?
So many great LA locations, not the usual stuff.
I mean, I think mirror moments are practically a cinema cliche at this point – doesn’t mean we love them any less! it especially helps as story-telling shorthand – Mark doesn’t tell anyone anything – so the mirror moments allow us to see what is going on.
Unfortunately it’s far more compelling than the actual SHOW. I can’t help but try to figure out how to fix this – while acknowledging that what they have created is clearly very impressive – and took tons of work – and I’m not involved at all. But just in terms of effective storytelling – I know Die Hard was a big inspiration. but Die Hard took place in a condensed time period and was also a 2 hour long movie. Hard to draw out the tension episode to episode. I think some standalone sequences are tense – I liked them having to get back over the border with the pig feed truck – they built that really well. I still think the best sequence in the whole show was in that shady Belarussian nightclub – and the uncle, and Mark having a gun on him – I don’t think anything else they’ve done has ratcheted up the tension the show clearly wants.
It’s just way too drawn out. Something’s off in the timing of it.
and inadveertently – because these mirror moments are so authentic – the main tension in the series is “will Mark tell the team he has a tumor? will he trust Olivera?” like that’s been the most genuine tension! Granted, I am only watching this thing for Jensen, so that’s a factor.
But still. we establish the other guy’s wife and kids in the pilot – or whenever – it’s his birthday – but we have no idea WHO he is – like what is the character? He’s just not established. so then when you have his kids’ poetry reading at the very spot where the attack is going to take place – in a massive city like Los Angeles … you tend to forgive these things when you’re watching a movie and it’s 2 hours long and the pace is a bat out of hell. But the seams reallly show in an episodic like this.
// “will Mark tell the team he has a tumor? will he trust Olivera?” like that’s been the most genuine tension! //
Yes. Mark telling Blythe not to come back to work after getting knifed, and Olivera looking at Mark like “you aren’t the person to be saying this to anyone.” That was great. And Blythe with the “don’t test me” response, he’s coming back to work despite the health risk, just as (unbeknownst to him) Mark is doing. Though Mark is putting others at risk. A darker kind of mirroring, between Blythe and Meacham. It makes Mark more selfish to keep at it, from my point of view, without telling the rest of the task force how he might be a liability. Too bad that complexity isn’t going on with the other characters.
“Complexity” isn’t the word I’d use. It’s feeling like a manipulated plot point to me – even though Jensen of course is playing it beautifully. I hear what you’re saying though.