CREDIT: (Clockwise from Top Left): Marvel Entertainment; Ketchup Entertainment; Stan Alley/IFC Films; Cinetic

Oh wow, look at the time! I guess I’ve been pretty busy the last few weeks. (For a variety of reasons!) That means I’ve got more than one movie to catch up with my thoughts about. It’s quite a mix that we’ve got on the agenda: some blockbusters or would-be blockbusters, a heartbreaking award winner, and an indie from the depths of the muck.

First up, we checked back into the MCU, and I found myself in rare agreement with SNL‘s Drunk Uncle, which is to say: “Not my Captain America!” Nah, actually, Sam Wilson, you’re cool, dude. But Brave New World was neither brave, nor new, nor a world. Discuss.

Then all the way from the other side of the world, I somehow found my way into an auditorium playing The Rule of Jenny Pen. It’s a New Zealand psychological horror film starring an Australian dude (Geoffrey Rush) as a judge who ends up in an assisted living facility after he suffers a stroke, and an American dude (John Lithgow) as the demented resident who rules that facility alongside the iron fist of his titular puppet. I liked it most when it was giving off timey-wimey Shining-esque vibes.

Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land has been struggling to find wide theatrical distribution, but fortunately I was able to settle in for a showing at Manhattan’s Film Forum. An Israeli journalist (Yuval Abraham) and a Palestinian activist (Basel Adra) team up in the West Bank… that’s not the beginning of the joke, hopefully it’s instead the beginning of a resistance movement that will foster unity in a part of the world that could desperately use a miracle.

One day after witnessing the heaviest heaviness of the world, I got a little looney as I gave The Day the Earth Blew Up a whirl. There’s an alien zombie chewing gum invasion! Fortunately,  Porky Pig and Daffy Duck are on the case, which should alleviate our funny bones, at the very least. Keep an eye out for Farmer Jim: he’ll worm his way right into your heart. With Petunia Pig also throwing heaters, it’s sweet and raucous like electric candy.

Captain America: Brave New World

Starring: Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Danny Ramirez, Shira Haas, Carl Lumbly, Giancarlo Esposito, Xosha Roquemore, Tim Blake Nelson

Director: Julius Onah

Running Time: 118 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for

Release Date: February 14, 2025 (Theaters)

The Rule of Jenny Pen

Starring: Geoffrey Rush, John  Lithgow, George Henare

Director: James Ashcroft

Running Time: 104 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: March 7, 2025 (Theaters)

No Other Land

Starring: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham

Directors: Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor

Running Time: 95 Minutes

Rating: Unrated

Release Date: January 31, 2025 (Limited Theaters)

The Day the Earth Blew Up

Starring: Daffy Duck (Eric Bauza), Porky Pig (also Eric Bauza), Petunia Pig (Candi Milo), Peter MacNicol, Fred Tatasciore, Laraine Newman, Wayne Knight

Director: Peter Browngardt

Running Time: 91 Minutes

Rating: PG

Release Date: March 14, 2025 (Theaters)

Grades:
Captain America: Brave New World: 2 Reds out of 5 Hulks
The Rule of Jenny Pen: 6 Spits out of 9 Puppets
No Other Land: Everyone Should See It
The Day the Earth Blew Up: They’re B-B-B-Back, Baby!