Thanks once again to Universal Pictures Home Entertainment for shipping me a review Blu-ray copy of THE WOMAN IN THE YARD!

This has been a good way to catch up on movies I missed in the theaters. The teaser for this movie sucked me in right away because it's simple: a family living at a farm house, with no neighbors as far as the eye can see and almost as far as the foot can walk...but then they see a creepy veiled woman, dressed in all black, sitting at the end of the driveway.

There's the thinnest veneer of civility in our daily lives. All it takes to send us into paranoid or hostile spirals is one uninvited person approaching our space. Shit, we really are just animals, aren't we?

Now imagine this person carries herself with the kind of calm yet firm demeanor reserved only for folks who know they can back up what they say. They can overpower you at any time and the only reason this movie doesn't end in five minutes is strictly due to the fact that they're not just here to rob or pillage or fight. There's something deeper going on.

This Woman (Okwui Okpokwasali) is here for Ramona (Danielle Deadwyler). She's the matriarch of a young family: young teen Taylor (Peyton Jackson) and elementary-aged Annie (Estella Kahiha). Ramona's husband has just died in a car accident; the movie starts with her getting around on crutches.

Taylor's trying to be the man of the house with the limited resources a 14-year-old has: no groceries, no license, no electricity. Bills pile up; Ramona lies in bed, rotting in her own mind. It's within this scenario the Woman arrives, revealing she knows more about Ramona and her family than any stranger ever should.

The movie plays out like a wind-up toy, setting up all the necessary pieces and letting the tension play out, watching Ramona and the kids try to figure a method of escape or deterrence. As the Woman grows closer, almost at the pace of shadows cast by a gliding Sun, secrets are revealed and Ramona's state of mind continues to warp, influenced by the Woman's otherworldly presence. Collet-Serra crafts genre set pieces that work as metaphors for Ramona's deteriorating mental illness, though leave me focused more so on how this works within the movie's world rather than how Ramona's mind is reflected within these scares.

I've always appreciated Deadwyler's gusto in pursuing a wide variety of projects (this to I SAW THE TV GLOW to THE PIANO LESSON, TILL and the upcoming siege thriller 40 ACRES carves a wide swath). She plays so much internal strife within her eyes and expressions; there's a woman who's fighting not only to survive, but also stave off this nagging reminder that she never wanted this kind of life. This isn't the plan she had for herself. It's hard not to wallow in self-pity. Deadwyler carries all of this in a way that never feels maudlin, always relatable.

The movie doesn't overstay its welcome, coming in at a breezy 88 minutes. Some sci-fi elements threaten to overstuff the story and I wish they'd been developed more throughout the movie rather than explained within the climax. Regardless, the movie, much like most of Collet-Serra's filmography sits at a comfortable 5-6 out of 10, perfect for a lazy Saturday afternoon.

The Blu-ray release? I can't understand why I'd pick up a "Collector's Edition" without so much as a commentary. The two featurettes into the making of the movie and design of the Woman are nice, but in 2025, falls below the standard for home video ownership.

Streaming's already made Blu-rays rarer and more expensive; this sparse set of bonus features wouldn't make me feel any better about dropping $20 for the disc. It shouldn't entice you to do the same.

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I interviewed John Maclean, the director of the coming-of-age samurai revenge movie TORNADO. The titular character is a teenage girl (Koki) avenging her father's murder at the hands of a band of thieves led by Sugarman (Tim Roth) and his son Little Sugar (Jack Lowden).

I swear I didn't mean for this episode to drop on Father's Day but it feels appropriate. The movie features two sets of father and child struggling with communication and good old-fashioned rebellion. It doesn't matter that Fujin (Takehiro Hira) nurtures and disciplines his daughter while Sugarman has left his son to fully grow into adulthood with little more than an idea of how to lead a group of ruffians. Either way, kids will roll their eyes. They'll pull a 180 to spite whatever you say.

Maclean and I discussed the importance of leading by example, the necessary shift of perspective from one who rejects their parents' tutelage to one who embraces it with warmth.

But don't worry, I didn't forget this is a samurai flick, spraying blood and sword-slashed limbs as Tornado's wind-blown hair shrouds her face in captivating mystery. You know I had to talk the Kurosawa influence, especially one shot that genuinely looks like an anime finisher.

This was a fun conversation. Maclean is a thoughtful guy, in love with so many different facets of what film has to reveal. I hope y'all enjoy this as much as I did recording it.

Pre-order TORNADO on Fandango at Home

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First things first: Thank you for 200 episodes! It's been continuously joyful to keep showing up for y'all, to chat about the art form that fuels my love and obsession. I gave myself a goal to get here by December, so the fact that it's May tells me I've put a decent-sized proverbial fire under my ass.

Today, I interview Bille August, the director of the new romantic drama THE KISS, about soldier-in-training Anton (Esben Smed) courting wheelchair-bound aristocrat Edith (Clara Rosager) in 1913 Denmark.

At first, this sounds like the stuff of airport love novels, but Anton's main concern is to pull himself up by the bootstraps out of poverty. This pursuit of upper class ends up creating a rift between his feelings for Edith because his prejudice, quiet though unchecked, ensures, in his mind, that a serious romantic relationship would be judged negatively by his community.

He does care for her, so he won't be callous as his fellow soldiers do behind her back, but he also won't defend her. He overcompensates with compassion to soften any blow regarding blowing off plans or sneaking in a lie to cover his whereabouts. Compassion bleeds into pity, reflecting the warning posted in the title of the Stefan Zweig novel on which the movie's based: BEWARE OF PITY.

August and I spoke about pity, the idea of too much compassion being the real villain of a decidedly thorny, frustrating story. Anton hits too close to home regarding how we pity others, how our own prejudices go unexamined due to cowardice. In this, the movie's evergreen.

THE KISS is currently playing in select theaters.

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THE KISS is based on Stefan Zweig's novel BEWARE OF PITY. Pity is the word. It's the emotion that keeps Anton (Esben Smed) at an arm's length from Edith (Clara Rosager).

Anton is a poor kid trying to raise his social status by rising through military ranks. Edith is the wheelchair-bound daughter of the wealthy Baron Løvenskjold (Lars Mikkelsen). He makes her laugh. She loves his company. He looks strapping in uniform. She's gorgeous. The movie's called THE KISS. The poster has them an inch away from locking lips; this should be a romance for the ages, right?

Not necessarily. Anton's quest for a higher class leaves him susceptible to external (and subsequently internal) judgment. The ableist muttering from other soldiers and cries of "You're not really with her, are you?" are enough to keep him quiet. He doesn't join in the jeering but he also doesn't defend her.

The prejudice is quiet yet strong. He flakes on commitments; he lies to her. He clearly enjoys spending time with her but a wheelchair-bound wife isn't great for the image. That's enough for him to justify his distance by extending too much compassion, by doubting Edith's abilities, pushing back on any of her attempts to let loose. Compassion festers into pity. Pity is myopic: It only sees a person for what they can't do, who they can't be.

This makes for an appropriately frustrating lead. I think it's going to frustrate because for the most part, Anton's a stand-up guy. But he's got that prejudice. He recognizes it and cowardly remains inert about it. A lot of us can probably see ourselves in Anton and as much as we fear other people's judgments, we fear our own the most. THE KISS isn't the most riveting movie, but it made me point the finger back towards myself.

THE KISS is currently playing in select theaters.

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ADA: MY MOTHER THE ARCHITECT is a documentary directed by Yael Melamede, the daughter of the titular mother, Ada Karim-Melamede.

Karim-Melamede is one of Israel's finest architects, receiving the Israel Prize for architecture in 2007, an honor she shares with both her father and brother. She co-designed Israel's Supreme Court with her brother from 1982 to 1992. This was a move intended to only keep her separate from her American-based husband and three kids for a year. 40 years later, Ada continues to live alone in Tel Aviv.

This tension between mother and daughter is inherent to the story, but never beholden to it. Yael, a self-proclaimed failed architect in her own right, approaches interviewing her mother against a typical cradle-to-career-to-family path. She gets Ada to talk the most by asking about architecture.

It's through Ada's breakdowns of five concepts that Yael is able to blend a primer on architectural appreciation with her mother's history. This movie coming in the wake of THE BRUTALIST's success last year doesn't surprise me. What it does do, however, is expand the horizons of my understanding. You can look at a pretty building all day, but once you understand how the architect chooses, characterizes, synthesizes each decision, almost like a filmmaker blocking each frame? It's hard to ever again look at a building with merely a passive gaze.

Via Ada's conversations about architectural roots, the role of one's heart, the passage of time and the need to respect the past when it comes time to carve a creative future, I learn about this woman's devotion to the environment, history, the fulfillment of a grand ideological promise, and mostly, the benefits of creating within a community.

What Yael Melamede is able to pull off in 80 minutes is astonishing. I shouldn't have expected any less from someone with such a history in design. ---
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This week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced some new rule changes regarding eligibility and voting for the Oscars.

The main change? Oscar voters are, as of this season, REQUIRED to watch all nominees in each category they vote in. Why this wasn't a rule beforehand is beyond me, but y'know, if the best time to throw water at a burning house is at the start, the second best time is now.

Along with this is some language regarding generative AI, new submission deadlines, updates to the voting process for the Animated Short Film and Cinematography categories, and the rule reveal for how the new category for Best Casting will be decided.

I was fully ready to let this Oscars news be the full episode, but Thierry Fremaux and his band of merry folx had different plans. Part deux of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival lineup dropped yesterday, adding 16 films to the official selection, including Kristen Stewart's directorial debut THE CHRONOLOGY OF WATER and Lynne Ramsay's DIE MY LOVE (which will be featured In Competition).

How can I pass up an opportunity to talk about even more potentially kickass movies? Do you SEE the name of this podcast?---
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