In-Review: January 2025
A new year brings exciting new films and discoveries
Happy New Year, readers. I’ve been working on some new articles and I forgot to do my monthly recap. I’ve decided to change the name to match the month I’m writing in, so December 2024 will be skipped. Some upcoming articles include film discoveries of 2024 and anticipated movies of 2025 which I’ll be sharing later this month.
I decided to partake in the 2025 Criterion Challenge. A member of Letterboxd put together a great list that I’ve used to select 44 Criterion home video or streaming releases I’ve never seen before. While I’m not sure how much I’ll complete over the next year, it’s a fun idea and will help me watch some of the movies that I’ve been intending to get to.
The picture above is for the new Netflix movie, Wallace & Gromit: Vengence Most Fowl. I’ve been a long-time fan of the franchise and I was so excited that a new entry was coming out. Needless to say, it doesn’t disappoint. Wallace has created a new invention, a smart garden Gnome that can do all the chores. He quickly mass-produced the invention so that his money problems could be solved. Meanwhile, an old nemesis is behind bars at the local Zoo and plans an elaborate escape using the Gnomes to his benefit. As always, Gromit is going to have to save his owner and discover just who is behind their troubles. If you’ve never seen Wallace & Gromit, it’s a delightful introduction to the pair. I do suggest checking out the shorts though, especially The Wrong Trousers, since it works as a prequel to this movie.
Here are the movies I caught up with in December:
As always, if you’d like to follow along on Letterboxd, my account can be found here.
Home Video Releases
Yojimbo / Sanjuro 4K UHD
While this isn’t the first time that Akira Kurosawa’s classics Yojimbo and Sanjuro have been available through the Criterion Collection, it is the first time they are available in 4K. I’ve seen both films a few times and while I vastly prefer Yojimbo, Sanjuro isn’t a slouch either. The best part is they both feature Toshiro Mifune as the lead character. If you can play 4K discs and have not bought into these two movies yet, you’re in for quite the treat. Even if you have the Blu-ray release, this is a worthwhile upgrade for these classic films.
Purchase Yojimbo/Sanjuro: Two Samurai Films by Akira Kurosawa.
Se7en
One of director David Fincher’s very best films, Se7en is now available on 4K UHD. The new disc is sourced from a new 8K scan of the source materials and represents the highest quality image to view the movie. There’s just one caveat. Fincher has decided to go into the film and edit some scenes using AI-assisted tweaks. Whether or not you’ll even notice them is up for debate, but Fincher has used tools to change the movie. If you are looking for the most accurate presentation that was in theaters this is probably not what you were looking for. I’ve always been fond of Se7en, especially with the way the film haunted me for days after I first saw it. It’s right up there with The Social Network and Zodiac for me.
Purchase Se7en
Podcast
My co-host Evan Crean and I talked about our favorite movies of 2024 for the latest It’s the Pictures podcast.
Links
At the end of 2024, I contributed some words on memorable performances and crafts to RogerEbert.com. If you’d like to read about The Brutalist soundtrack, you can find my words here. If you’d like to read about the performance of Clarence Maclin in Sing Sing, you can click here.
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award nominations were announced this morning. There were a few surprises, including the support for the Pamela Anderson starring feature, The Last Showgirl. Given that the Actors Guild is one of the biggest voting bodies that vote for the Oscars, there’s a good chance that the winner of the SAG will also be in the driver’s seat for the Oscars.
The reviews for Severance season 2 started coming out yesterday and for the most part, they were pretty solid. Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone says that Apple TV’s hit show “hasn’t missed a step.” The new season premiers on January 17th.
If you need a look ahead to some of the exciting TV shows coming out in the next few months, Deadline compiled a list of some of them. Shows I’m looking for to— Severance, The Last of Us, Andor, Alien: Earth.
The film diary website Letterboxd has shared their annual results and Deadline has decided to share them as well. Letterboxd has earned a reputation as a tastemaker for the Indie film scene and nowhere is that more apparent than the success of something like Hundreds of Beavers on the platform.