Wolf Man (2025 film)

Category: Werewolf horror, reboot/remake of existing IP

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The government of the state of Oregon over in the US must be tearing their hair out! How are they ever going to attract anyone to come visit when there are so many horror movies, shows and games set there (and all that's without mentioning the residents). There was Longlegs, there was also the open-world zombie game Days Gone (a low-key classic in my opinion) and now we have this - a movie about a werewolves in an Oregon forest!

What attracted me to this when I saw it on my Netflix was Leigh Whannel's name - he has been involved with numerous high-quality horror films (the Saw and Insidious franchises come to mind), so I thought I'd give this one a spin - if indeed one can spin movies.

Is it any good? Find out after the plot!

The plot:

The movie starts off with a shot of a forest and text stating that in 1995, a hiker went missing as they succumbed to a virus called "Hill Fever" by the locals, or "Mouth Of The Wolf" by the indigenous peoples. We then see Grady (Sam Jaeger) on a hunting trip through the woods of Oregon with his young son Blake (Zac Chandler) in order to teach him how to be a hunter and to survive not just forest environments, but in life in general. Of course, Blake ignores his father's advice and wanders off away from his dad at the most inopportune time - a scary and mysterious creature much more threatening than the deer they have in their sights is close by.

Anora (2024 film)

Category: Dramedy

Directed by: Sean Baker

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Wikipedia describes this movie as a romantic comedy-drama. Ha! It's hardly romantic. I've actually gone with Dramedy as the category because this movie is essentially a drama revolving around a marriage and tinged with some wonderfully subtle comedy.

I remember when this came out, there was lots of consternation by the online blowhards about a movie centering around sex work, as well as the controversy of a Russian (Yura Borisov) being nominated for an Academy award (Best Supporting Actor) because of all the naughty things Vladimir Putin is doing in Ukraine. Wow. Not racist at all! And this plays in to my tendency/preference to wait until hysteria about a movie has died down, to allow me to watch said movie with a fresh mind.

So to that end, Anora actually won five awards out of six Oscar nominations (though Borisov didn't win his nomination - would have been hella awkward if he did).

Anyway, let's break down the plot.

Plot:

Anora (Mikey Madison) - but who prefers the shortened form of her name, Ani - works at a New York strip club when one night, the boss of the club demands Ani service a specific high-value patron because Ani can speak Russian (though not fluently). The patron is Ivan 'Vanya' Zhakarov (Mark Eydelshteyn), a young Russian man who prefers using his parents' wealth to party rather than study.

Sunday Too Far Away (1975 film)

Category: Australian drama

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It was the movie that kicked off the Golden Age of Australian cinema and propelled Jack Thompson (and his jiggling butt cheeks) to stardom - Sunday Too Far Away.

Now, I initially thought Sunday Too Far Away was actually a reference to the grind of life on a station where no matter what day of week it is, Sunday (the day of rest) is always too far away. Turns out that it actually comes from a poem reflecting the life of a shearer's wife where the line goes “Friday night [he’s] too tired; Saturday night too drunk; Sunday, too far away”. But given the fact that there are no shearer's wives in this movie, I am going to stand by my interpretation!

And just a heads-up, I will give a brief explanation of any terms I think need expanding upon in the plot summary.

The plot:

Set in 1955 and in an unnamed state of Australia (though most likely South Australia), Foley (Thompson) is driving to a major country town to find work as a shearer when he falls asleep behind the wheel of his car and rolls it over, forcing him to walk the rest of the way.

There Will Be Blood (2007 film) + UPDATE

Category: Period drama

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

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Numerous movie critics have rated There Will Be Blood as among one of the best movies of the 21st century, and I'm telling you straight up - they're right! It's a masterclass in storytelling, scene setting and character work.

Even if the only scene in this movie was Daniel Day-Lewis' emotive utterance of those immortal words, "I drink your milkshake!", that alone would be worth the price of admission - but darn it, this movie is excellent in so many ways.

Let's go through the plot outline and then I'll get into my thoughts.

The plot:

The story revolves around Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his rise, his personal struggles and his descent in to anger, loneliness and madness.

The story starts in 1898 where we see Plainview, a prospector (someone that searches for precious metals/minerals in a given area) spending his days and nights digging along a shaft and hacking away at the rock deep down, hoping to make a significant find. Plainview makes a find and (literally) drags himself into town to get his find assayed (inspected for purity and integrity). With his find certified, he begins a mining operation that employs numerous men.

The Iron Claw (2023 film)

Category: Biographical Drama

Directed by: Sean Durkin

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Movies based on professional wrestling have been few and far between. From memory, there has been The Wrestler from back in the 2000s by Darren Aranovsky, and also Ready To Rumble (the movie that helped kill WCW) though there have been a couple of mini-series here and there, as well as documentaries like You Cannot Kill David Arquette and the Dark Side Of The Ring series.

Now, being a pro wrestling nut myself, I have always been keen to watch this movie, but wanted to avoid the hype and watch it in my own time and at my own pace. Which is something I regret - this movie is easily Best In Class!

To explain the plot, I will need to explain and expand on some wrestling terms as I go along. Here we go - The Iron Claw.

The plot:

The Iron Claw is the (mostly true) story of the Von Erich family and comes from the name of the finishing move used by Fritz Von Erich and his sons throughout their professional wrestling careers. In professional wrestling, a finishing move is the move that a wrestler performs that either causes the opponent to submit or incapacitates them to be pinned for a three-count - thus finishing the match. So in this case, The Iron Claw was when Von Erich would place his fingers around the top of your skull and squeeze, either causing you to submit or for you to forget your shoulders are on the mat for a three count.

Cobweb (2023 film)

Category: Creature horror

Directed by: Samuel Bodin

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The Ring meets Home Alone meets Longlegs - this was my impression as I got watching up this creature horror starring Lizzy Caplan, Antony Starr, Woody Norman and Cleopatra Coleman.

And quite surprising is that Seth Rogen, known for his comic acting, was actually a producer of this film!

Can he make a horror? Let's find out after the plot!

The plot:

Peter (Norman) is the son of Carol and Mark (Caplan and Starr) who raise him in the suburbs of somewhere cold America (where is never specified, though I think somewhere north-east) in a large, creaky old house, but are emotionally distant and far from nurturing. Alongside this, Peter is having problems with a bully at school, Brian (Luke Busey), though the growing bond bewteen Peter and his teacher, Miss Devine (Coleman) helps.

However, Peter's biggest problem is that at night, he hears what initially begins as tapping from behind his bedroom wall which then becomes a voice he starts having conversations which that his parents brush off as being the result of an overly active child's imagination.

Hostel: Part 3 (2011 film)

Category: Torture horror/drama

Directed by: Scott Spiegel

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Not only should movie studios leave well enough alone, but I have to ask: when am I going to stop doing this to myself? I saw some reviews that forewarned me Hostel: Part 3 was not a top-notch cinematic experience (to put it generously), but I just couldn't say no when this offered itself on my streaming. I suffer for my art.

Hostel: Part 3 shares next to no narrative connection to either Hostel or Hostel: Part 2, save for the Elite Hunting Club name and logo and the concept of people paying to kill other people. It's really more a parallel movie rather than a sequel, and was directed by Scott Spiegel rather than Eli Roth.

Anyway, let's go over the plot and then I'll get into likes and dislikes.

The plot:

The movie begins with a young man named Travis (Chris Coy) who walks into a hostel room as if to put his belongings down to settle in for the night when he finds two people already in his room - Victor (Nickola Shreli) and Anka (Evelina Oboza), a Ukranian couple. There is a sense of unease as Victor (looking very gangster-like) offers Travis vodka, with Travis offering beer instead. Victor and Anka accept, and Anka goes to shower while Victor and Travis chat.