george.schmidt

TOGETHER (2025) ***1/2 Dave Franco, Alison Brie, Damon Herriman. Sci-fi, body horror done right. When complacent couple Franco & Brie (marrieds IRL) decide to move to the country to attempt a new chapter in their shaky relationship, an encounter with an unknown origin while hiking begins to affect their chemistry - literally making them inseparable from one another, leading to terrifying complications. Filmmaker Michael Shanks builds tension and complexity skillfully with technical brio while his leads have a field day going through every emotions including grief, anxiety, and ultimately foreboding dread. Excellent practical visual make-up f/x by Brydie Stone & Larry Van Duynhoven and sound design by Cornel Wilczek combine with amazing results underscoring the psychological breakdowns of its characters. One of the year's best horror films.

SORRY, BABY (2025) ***1/2 Eva Victor, Naomi Ackie, Louis Cancelmi, Kelly McCormack, Lucas Hedges, John Carroll Lynch. Heartfelt and heartbreaking dramedy with Victor (who, if Sigourney Weaver & Paula Cole had a baby, resembles) as a small-town liberal arts junior professor going thru her life year-by-year with personal events - both hilariously wonderful and horrendously terrible with equal weight given - in her dry-witted, dead-pan and amiable manner with aplomb. Ably assisted by her bestie Ackie (adding sweet gravitas and anchoring the film soulfully so) and neighbor love interest Hedges (touchingly gawky and lovely), Victor (who also wrote & makes an assured directorial debut) adds layers to character development skillfully with its short-story vibes and interactions of cringe-worthy moments while balancing the deeply poignant life lessons as well as the smile-thru-it-all complexities of navigating the pitfalls with the triumphs. Bonus - arguably cinema's cutest kitty & baby. Ever.

One of the year's best films.

JURASSIC PARK: REBIRTH (2025) ** Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise, David Iacono, Audrina Miranda. Retread for the franchise this time with Johansson (in Black Widow mode) as a mercenary enlisted on a secret operation involving the extraction of dinosaur DNA for the possible end of heart disease a shady big pharma fat cat (slimy Friend) needs leading to a re-visit with the monstrous creatures on an island at the Equator with the usual rickety plot of the hubris of mankind tempting fate by trying to fool Mother Nature. A hybrid of JAWS, JAWS 2 (see: AAF characters you so hope will be eaten alive) and ALIEN : RESURRECTION (i.e. Freakish dino mutations) can't salvage a truly insipid screenplay by David Koepp (who adapted the first flick) and been-there-done-that rampage direction by Gareth Edwards).