Did ‘Blue Moon’ Make Me Swoon?

November 5, 2025

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CREDIT: Sony Pictures Classics/Screenshot

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Scott, Jonah Lees, Simon Delaney, Patrick Kennedy

Director: Richard Linklater

Running Time: 100 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: October 17, 2025 (Theaters)

Was I born under a blue moon? Well, considering how much I enjoyed the movie Blue Moon, I would have to answer “yes.” Is that how these things work?

Anyway, I didn’t know a whole hell of a lot about Lorenz Hart before I watched this biopic about him, other than a general awareness that he was a significant contributor to the Great American Songbook. But I did know that I’m a fan of watching Ethan Hawke do whatever he does on screen, whether or not he’s collaborating with Richard Linklater. And I also had a strong suspicion that him teaming up with Margaret Qualley would result in some crackling chemistry. I wish she had been in more of it, but the parts without her were capably filled by other quip-throwers, like Bobby Cannavale and the guy playing E.B. White (Patrick Kennedy).

Should I now move into a house and nickname it the Blue Moon? I think it would fit me nicely.

Grade: Living Up to the “Blue” in Its Title in More Ways Than One

How Does Honey Do in ‘Honey Don’t!’? Let’s Find Out!

August 19, 2025

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I’ve heard that local Honey can help with allergies (CREDIT: Karen Kuehn / © 2025 FOCUS FEATURES LLC)

Starring: Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans, Charlie Day, Kristen Connolly, Talia Ryder, Gabby Beans, Jacnier, Josh Pafcheck, Billy Eichner, Lera Abova

Director: Ethan Coen

Running Time: 89 Minutes

Rating: R for A Few Hardcore Dalliances and Some Ridiculous Fatal Encounters

Release Date: August 22, 2025 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Another wacky cast of characters has made its way to the big screen in an off-the-wall crime caper from Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke! It all goes down in dusty Bakersfield, California and revolves around the mostly no-nonsense private investigator Honey O’Donahue (Margaret Qualley). A trail of death starts to form with the discovery of a woman who’s driven off a cliff. Soon thereafter, Honey is dealing with a desperate guy who fears he’s being cheated on (Billy Eichner), as well as her wayward niece (Talia Ryder) and MG Falcone (Aubrey Plaza), the police officer she’s taken a shine to. Their stories all get mixed up with that of Reverend Drew Devlin (Chris Evans), whose flashy church is really just a front for (very messy) organized crime. Also, there’s a mysterious French woman walking around. If anyone can figure out what all these people are up to before it all blows up, it’s probably Honey.

What Made an Impression?: We Gotta Get Out to Get In: Man, I love a good opening credits sequence. And Honey Don’t! has a doozy of an introduction. From the POV of a car driving through Bakersfield, the names of the cast and crew appear on storefronts, graffiti, and other signage, while “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” by The Animals rocks the place. Or at least I thought it was The Animals, until the end credits informed me it was actually a cover version. (But I’m not going to reveal who it actually was. Sure, it’s not like who sings a song is much of a spoiler, but you might enjoy being surprised the way that I was.)
Day for Q: There’s one really important character I didn’t mention in the synopsis, so I better go ahead and mention him now: Detective Marty Metakawich, played by the adorably agitated Charlie Day. He and Honey have quite the crackling repartee, but don’t expect them to end up together by the end! Marty is pretty easily Honey’s favorite man that she’s ever met, but here’s the thing: she’s just not into dudes. For whatever reason, though, Marty just can’t get rid of the mental block that won’t allow him to process her lesbianism. It’s bizarrely kind of sweet, or at least as sweet as something annoying like that can be.
Tough, But Rough: Thank God Margaret Qualley is so goshdarn likable. Most of this cast is pretty compelling, but she’s the one who’s really been solidifying her superstar status lately. Anyway, it really helps to have such an attention-grabbing lead performance when the screenplay feels so random. If you’re feeling particularly ungenerous Ethan Coen (and his brother/former collaborator Joel) could be dismissed as purveyors of unjustifiable kookiness. But at their best, they have a knack for making a circus feel like Shakespeare (or whatever literary inspiration they’re drawing from). Honey Don’t doesn’t quite harmonize in the same way, though. Or maybe we as a moviegoing society just haven’t gotten used to Ethan’s sensibilities while teaming up his wife Tricia Cooke as co-screenwriters. Although I did find their last effort, Drive-Away Dolls, pretty fun. So maybe in a few years I’ll start saying “Honey, I’ll give you another shot.” In the meantime, we’re at “Honey If You Must.”

Honey Don’t! is Recommended If You Like: Movies Where Two Ladies Get Really Handsy with Each Other in a Bar (If You Know What I Mean), Regardless of What Else Happens

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Macaronis

Inject ‘The Substance’ Straight Into Everyone! (Not Literally, Though)

September 24, 2024

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The Substance is full of substance. (CREDIT: MUBI/Screenshot)

Starring: Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid

Director: Coralie Fargeat

Running Time: 141 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: September 20, 2024 (Theaters)

Not long ago, I discovered that Will & Harper was the perfect movie for my habit of reviewing cinema by asking, “Would I like to be a part of what this movie is all about?” But now I’m confronted with the totally opposite situation in the form of The Substance, as I would most definitely decline to inject myself with the titular substance. I prefer when things are in balance!

Although, I suppose I could learn from Elisabeth/Sue’s example and just not make the same mistakes. But ultimately, I’d still have to say “Nah.” Working out our most grotesque desires/insecurities without actually going into the danger zone is one of the most useful purposes of art, so just watching The Substance is enough for me. I imagine Coralie Fargeat and her cast and crew felt similarly by making it happen.

Grade: 77 Activators out of 101 Stabilizers

‘Kinds of Kindness’ is Kind of Out There

June 20, 2024

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What a racket! (CREDIT: Searchlight Pictures)

Starring: Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, Joe Alwyn, Mamoudou Athie, Hunter Schafer, Yorgos Stefanakos, Merah Benoit

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

Running Time: 165 Minutes

Rating: R for Sexual Nudity, Ritual Nudity, Limb Removal, Petty Animal Cruelty, Etc.

Release Date: June 21, 2024 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: A man tries to break free from the grasp of the controlling boss who micromanages his entire life. Another man who looks just like that man suspects that the woman claiming to be his wife returning from a disappearance isn’t who she claims to be. Members of a cultish group are on a quest to find someone with the power of resurrection. It’s an anthology! And it’s called Kinds of Kindness, but I sure didn’t detect a whole lot of kindness in these vignettes. Maybe writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos and his co-writer Efthimis Filippou have a different conception of what that word means. Anyway, this movie is a real head-scratcher, in the sense that it produces the same sensation as sticking your finger up your nose and poking around in your brain tissue.

What Made an Impression?: O R.M.F., Where Art Thou?: Most of the main Kinds of Kindness cast members have a role in each of the three segments. Their respective roles have vaguely similar personalities, though it’s not clear if that’s how they were directed or if it just happens to be that way because they’re played by the same actors. If you squint, you can probably pick up on some Cloud Atlas vibes in the sense of the same souls existing within different beings. But since each Kinds of Kindness segment appears to take place in the present day, it comes across more as just alternative realities or hypothetical do-overs. The one constant is a guy known only by the initials “R.M.F.,” who serves as the namesake for each chapter despite not doing much of anything. Although, in the last part, entitled “R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich,” he does indeed eat a sandwich, so at least one promise is kept.
In the Mood for Vexation: Good movies often teach you how to watch them, but Kinds of Kindness seems intent on doing just the opposite. That doesn’t make it a bad movie per se, but if you don’t want to get frustrated, then you’ll have to adjust your calibrations and accept that you will almost certainly get frustrated. After releasing the most accessible film of his career last year in the form of Poor Things, Lanthimos has returned to the more impenetrable territory of The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer. (I haven’t seen his earlier Greek-language flicks, but they have a similar reputation.) I wasn’t expecting a satisfying ending, and I did not get a satisfying ending. I wasn’t expecting a legible message, and I did not get a legible message. There were moments here and there that brought a smile to my face (particularly a world run by dogs set to the tune of Dio’s heavy metal banger “Rainbow in the Dark”), but otherwise, this was a, shall we say, vacation into a land that claims to be speak the languages of English and cinema, and yet it’s not any form of communication that I recognize.

Kinds of Kindness is Recommended If You Like: Constantly opening one of those fake cans of nuts that’s actually a prank snake even though you know it’s going to be the snake every time

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Changelings

It’s a Gay Old Time with the ‘Drive-Away Dolls’!

February 21, 2024

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What’s in the box?! (CREDIT: Wilson Webb/Working Title/Focus Features)

Starring: Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Colman Domingo, Beanie Feldstein, Bill Camp, Joey Slotnick, C.J. Wilson, Pedro Pascal, Matt Damon, Miley Cyrus

Director: Ethan Coen

Running Time: 84 Minutes

Rating: R for Unabashed Sexuality and Sucker Punch-Style Violence

Release Date: February 23, 2024 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: It’s 1999, and good friends Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) decide to take an impromptu road trip from Philadelphia to Tallahassee, Florida. Jamie is slipping out of yet another messy relationship, while Marian is too buttoned-up to have ever made a move on anybody. They’re both gay, but they’ve never considered each other as serious prospects. But perhaps that could change over the course of the next few days, as vacationing and stress both tend to make people closer. And this is certainly going to be a stressful ride, as a couple of criminal goons (Joey Slotnick, C.J. Wilson) are hot on their tails when the car rental joint mistakenly loans them a vehicle with a very valuable piece of luggage in its trunk.

What Made an Impression?: Those Old Reliable Yuks: After making some of the most beloved movies of the past few decades, brotherly filmmaking duo Joel and Ethan Coen have taken a creative break from each other. If their first solo directorial efforts are any indication, then it was Joel who specialized in the dark and probing drama, and Ethan who drifted towards their unique brand of wacky yet droll comedy. With Drive-Away Dolls, Ethan has teamed up with his wife Tricia Cooke for screenwriting duties, and the result very much sits on a continuum of Raising Arizona, Fargo, and The Big Lebowski, with a series of Jenga-like misunderstandings leading to comically violent escalation.
Out and Loud: Speaking of continuums, Jamie and Marian are part of the Coen-esque tradition of protagonists who don’t quite realize what type of movie they’re in before it’s too late to do anything about it. That’s mainly because they’re too busy being their unapologetically gay selves. Marian is certainly a lot more reserved than Jamie, but that doesn’t mean she’s ashamed in any way about her sexual orientation. Interestingly enough, though, they never really encounter any homophobia. That’s partly because they spend most of their time in defiantly gay spaces, but also because the straight people they stumble across just couldn’t be bothered to be bigoted. (Will & Grace did premiere in 1998, after all, so maybe those folks have been watching it.)
Secrets But No Shame: I don’t want to give away the truth about the package, partly because it would be rude to be a spoiler, but also because I want my review to be as family-friendly as possible. Let’s just say then that it involves a politician and a very personal form of pleasure. And when you have public ambitions bumping up against private escapades like that, it often leads to over-the-top shenanigans. That’s certainly the case in Drive-Away Dolls, much to our demented delight.

Drive-Away Dolls is Recommended If You Like: The comedy half of the Coens

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Makeout Sessions

‘Poor Things’ Seeks to Break Free

December 6, 2023

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How POOR are they?! (CREDIT: Atsushi Nishijima/Searchlight Pictures)

Starring: Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Christopher Abbott, Jerrod Carmichael, Margaret Qualley, Kathryn Hunter, Suzy Bemba, Hanna Schygulla

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

Running Time: 141 Minutes

Rating: R for Weird Science and Lots and Lots of Sex

Release Date: December 8, 2023 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: The case of Bella Baxter (Emma Stone) is a strange one. Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) discovers her body after she attempts suicide and proceeds to bring her back to life via reanimation and a brain transplant. But because the brain he uses is that of a baby, Bella reverts to a rather infant-like mental state upon her resurrection. Her development back to a fully conscious adult happens remarkably quickly, all things considered, perhaps because that brain recognizes that it’s been encased inside an adult body. Nevertheless, Bella also gets to have the profound experience of being able to rediscover all the sensory pleasures of life on Earth.

Dr. Baxter understandably tries to keep her locked away from the outside world, though he does invite into the fold medical student Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef), who soon finds himself proposing marriage to Bella. But before that wedding can happen, she’s decided to see the outside world alongside hedonistic lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo). As in many a hero’s journey, she will eventually return back to her starting point, having changed. But unlike a lot of other hero’s journeys, Poor Things features an unbound number of ecstatic sex scenes.

What Made an Impression?: A Fresh Set of Eyes: If there’s one lesson to be learned from Bella Baxter above all others, it’s the power of childlike wonder. Most of us have been living within our systems and routines too long to ever be able to fully question if there’s a better way. But Bella is a blank slate blessed with a mature body that can take advantage of her pleasures as much as possible. It’s a big reason why she charms everyone she encounters so much, despite her profoundly off-kilter, often juvenile disposition. It’s also, of course, why she enjoys sex (which she dubs “furious jumping”) as much as she does. However, her lack of inhibitions sometimes lead her astray, such as when she threatens to punch a crying baby, or when she tries to upend the carefully tended business practices at a Parisian brothel. But as her mental capacities lock into focus, she eventually devises compromises that she is uniquely qualified to conceptualize.
A World of Experimental Wonders: Bella is not Dr. Baxter’s only test subject, as we also get to meet some hybrid animal creatures wandering around his property that have been formed by head and body swapping among a goose, pig, and bulldog. The obvious antecedent here is Victor Frankenstein, but I also detected some playfulness in Dafoe’s performance, a la Futurama‘s Professor Farnsworth. Dr. Baxter has plenty in common with his hubristic brethren, particularly his tendency to seem like a deity to his creations. (It’s not for nothing that his first name is abbreviated to “God.”) Despite his tendency to control, he’s not as much of a monster as you might suspect. Instead, he’s one of the titular poor things, considering his history of abuse and experimentation at the hands of his own father. His abode is terrifying, but comfortingly so.
Soaking It All Up: If you somehow can’t engage with any of the characters of Poor Things, you can hopefully at least appreciate all the pretty business that director Yorgos Lanthimos and his crew have assembled. He’s certainly developed a unique visual style over the course of his career, and a movie set in an alternate version of the late Victorian era has allowed him plenty of room to be indelible. Fisheye lenses, purple-pink skies, spiral staircases that hover in the sky, and plenty more design choices make an inimitable visual impression. It’s all lived-in, anachronistic, and surreal, which is to say, an ideal environment for the Bella Baxters of the world to thrive in.

Poor Things is Recommended If You Like: American Pie, Socialist feminism, Steampunk

Grade: 4 out of 5 Transplants

Be Careful What Ye Seek in ‘Sanctuary’

May 15, 2023

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Who’s selling the Sanctuary? (CREDIT: NEON)

Starring: Margaret Qualley, Christopher Abbott

Director: Zachary Wigon

Running Time: 96 Minutes

Rating: R for Hijinks That Might Require Invoking a Safe Word

Release Date: May 19, 2023 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Hal (Christopher Abbott) is a big-deal businessman on an important phone call. When Rebecca (Margaret Qualley) arrives in his hotel room, she starts conducting a job interview with some surprisingly personal questions about his bodily measurements and sexual history. As it turns out, she’s actually a dominatrix and he’s orchestrated this entire encounter. He’s one of her top clients, but he’s about to end their arrangement in the wake of acquiring his late father’s company. But instead of walking away quietly, she sees an opening to potentially re-negotiate their terms. Will this evening blow up everything between them, or will they find themselves closer than ever before?

What Made an Impression?: It was pretty hot and stuffy in the screening room where I saw Sanctuary, which felt thematically appropriate. I could never quite get comfortable or figure out where exactly Abbott, Qualley, director Zachary Wigon, or writer Micah Bloomberg were guiding us. Surely some of that was by design. But it didn’t make it any less unsettling. I spent the vast majority of the running time wondering if this battle of the wits was all just part of the script that Hal had written for Rebecca. The ambiguity was killing me! And I usually appreciate ambiguity.

I think the issue was that I was never entirely sure what the base reality was. We never see anyone besides Hal and Rebecca, and that claustrophobic setup can really warp your sense of reality. So whenever Hal freaked out the possibility of Rebecca exposing him, I couldn’t help but wonder, “Would that really be a big deal?” The answer to that seemed like it was supposed to be “Obviously, yes.” But also the Terms of Use kept shifting.

Still, this was quite the spirited presentation, with a particularly go-for-broke performance from Qualley. It’s kind of like a screwball-slapstick version of the 90s corporate sex thrillers that Michael Douglas specialized in. If you do check out Sanctuary, I recommend focusing on the pratfalls and not getting too hung up on the contracts.

Sanctuary is Recommended If You Like: Traipsing on the edge

Grade: 3 out of 5 Inheritances

Super Chill Movie Review: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

August 4, 2019

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CREDIT: Andrew Cooper/Sony Pictures Entertainment

A movie that presents an alternative history can be cathartic, and there may be no better example of that than Hitler biting it at the theater in Inglourious Basterds. Quentin Tarantino goes back to that well once more with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by considering: in 1969, a pregnant Sharon Tate was murdered by members of the Manson Family, but what if things had gone a little differently? It must be said, though, that while going back and getting rid of Hitler as soon as possible is a fantasy harbored by many, I don’t think it’s as widely-held a wish that Tate and her baby had been spared. Since the relatability factor isn’t as built-in, Tarantino lets us see Margot Robbie as Tate just living her life and finding the joy in being a movie star, ultimately giving this what-if scenario enough oomph. And on a pure cinematic level, the climactic showdown with Charles Manson’s associates just ramps up the preposterousness factor to an irresistible degree.

Beyond that wild what-if, I found Once Upon a Time most satisfying in the comfy friendship between struggling actor Rick Dalton (Leo DiCaprio) and his steady stunt double Cliff Booth (Mr. Brad Pitt). After a busy day on a Hollywood set, a typical night for them consists of pizza and beer at Rick’s house. That sounds like an ideal evening, if you ask me. There are a lot of kooky characters and psychological pitfalls in Hollyweird, and sometimes, especially in 1969, there is also real mortal danger. So the melancholy-but-resilient mood between Rick and Cliff in the face of all that is by contrast delightfully optimistic and downright inspiring.

I give Once Upon a Time in Hollywood 40 Job Securities out of 50 Flamethrowers.

This Is a Movie Review: ‘Novitiate’ is the Latest Harrowing and Also Inspiring Peek at the Inner Workings of the Catholic Church

October 24, 2017

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CREDIT: Sony Pictures Classics

This review was originally posted on News Cult in October 2017.

Starring: Margaret Qualley, Melissa Leo, Julianne Nicholson, Dianna Agron, Denis O’Hare

Director: Margaret Betts

Running Time: 123 Minutes

Rating: R for Sexuality and Profanity-Laced Anger That Can Be Suppressed for Only So Long

Release Date: October 27, 2017 (Limited)

An institution as massive and long-lasting as the Catholic Church is bound to be filled with corners that many of its members are completely unfamiliar with. Sometimes those areas are not even the ones that are shamefully hidden. They may actually be intrinsic features, but if allowed to function independently, they can involve into a weird hybrid of both doctrinaire and renegade. I was raised (and remain) Catholic, but I was born decades after the reforms of Vatican II, which rendered the most extreme practices of convents as seen in Novitiate verobten. But even if I had been a churchgoer in the ’60s, I doubt I would have been familiar with the ins and outs of the nuns’ rigorous training. And yet, this story does not feel fully alien, nor should it feel so to anyone of any background who has ever desired feelings of deep love and devotion.

This examination of religious life is mainly told through the story of Sister Cathleen (Margaret Qualley), who in 1964 is one of the convent’s new class of postulants (candidates to become nuns) who eventually become novitiates (nuns-in-training). Margaret’s ready acceptance of the convent’s extreme practices, e.g. self-abnegation, has nothing to do with lifelong indoctrination, as she comes from a family of bitterly divorced, agnostic parents (at least Mom is agnostic, Dad is never much around). Her attraction to marrying God is perhaps a desire for stability, but it is also more than that. Stirring in her is an aching for transcendence that cannot easily be explained by nurture (or lack thereof). Setting her up as the novice character to follow in this secretive world is crucial, because otherwise the convent’s frightening elements would feel almost abstract and theoretical.

As the convent is resisting the reforms of Vatican II that were then being enacted, the message is clear that this is not the right way to practice religious devotion. But that historical background of rebuke is unnecessary to make that point, except perhaps for viewers with the most hardened of souls. The training and practices – oppressive silence, avoidance of eye contact, asceticism, confession in a group setting – are reminiscent of the auditing of Scientology, so memorably approximated in The Master. Ostensibly designed to make its adherents better people and closer to God, its true effects are vulnerability and surrender to authority. Overseeing all this is the Mother Superior (Melissa Leo), who while sitting on her throne of a central chair, is reminiscent of Pan’s Laybrinth’s Pale Man.

Novitiate is powerful grist for the mill for those who decry the problems inherent to all religions and for those who remain religious but point to this as an example of the wrong way of doing things. And quite frankly, it may very well also make such a connection to the ultra-traditionalists and reactionaries, who might see this as a lament for the old, better way. It is a fascinatingly human look at all those urges, appealing both to a desire to connect to a higher power and a desire to not be wrong.

Novitiate is Recommended If You Like: Spotlight, The Master, Silence

Grade: 4 out of 5 Grand Silences