In 2025, Superman Once Again Takes to the Skies and Grapple with His Human Dilemmas

July 10, 2025

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He doesn’t look like a bird or a plane from this angle (CREDIT: DC/Screenshot)

Starring: David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi, Anthony Carrigan, Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced, Pruitt Taylor Vance, Neva Howell, Wendell Pierce, Skyler Gisondo, Beck Bennett, Mikaela Hoover, Christopher McDonald, Sara Sampaio, Alan Tudyk, Terence Rosemore, Frank Grillo, María Gabriela de Faría, Michael Ian Black, Pom Klementieff, Bradley Cooper, Angela Sarafyan

Director: James Gunn

Running Time: 129 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Some Bloody Blows and Foul-Mouthed Critics

Release Date: July 11, 2025 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: The Big Blue Boy Scout, aka Superman (David Corenswet), aka Supes, aka Clark Kent, aka the Man of Steel, believes deeply that he’s been sent to Earth to protect the human race. That idealism is a big part of why his Daily Planet colleague/girlfriend Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) and so many of his fans have fallen for him. But not everyone is so sure that an alien from Krypton should be their guardian. Especially not Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), who’s waging a disinformation campaign to erode the public’s trust and orchestrate a war-profiteering scheme. His evil plan also includes imprisoning Supes in a pocket universe, a risky move that threatens to tear the entire fabric of Earth apart. Fortunately there are already some other superpowered folks in this world who might just be willing to help Clark out.

What Made an Impression?: Can Clark Kent Afford Therapy?: With James Gunn behind the camera and the screenplay, it appears that the biggest threat to Superman in 2025 is … social media troll bots! And not even particularly clever trolls. The biggest difference between this Clark Kent and all other previous big screen versions is surely his fragile ego.  It’s more than a little jarring seeing him so petty and vulnerable when his predecessors have been so unfailingly upright. But it’s also kind of endearing.
Clark Wants to Be a Punk Rocker: Assuming that this Clark Kent is about the same age as the guy playing him (David Corenswet is 32), then he definitely feels like a millennial whose personality was shaped by the Gen Xers driving culture in the 90s and early 2000s. People like James Gunn, perhaps! (Or people like The State alum Michael Ian Black, who plays a just-asking-questions-style “journalist.”) Corenswet Clark is like the guy who tries to be cool by emulating the indie rock crowd from when he was a kid and doesn’t get it quite right. But Lois still loves him anyway!
Gizmos and Galaxies Galore: In addition to being the most short-circuited and vaguely punk rock version of the character, Gunn’s Superman is also easily the nerdiest big screen iteration we’ve ever seen. This movie is filled to the brim with the sorts of gadgets and phenomena that sound like they’re based on a kernel of real science but are stretched out to ridiculous comic book sensibilities. Nanites, hypno-glasses, antiproton rivers: imaginations have certainly been let loose.
A Promising Forecast: Superman 2025 features some spirited acting, a cast of colorful characters, kinetic action sequences, a clear and unapologetic sense of its own identity, and a super-duper canine. And it also features some fantastically pleasant weather. There are several moments throughout the movie of a news broadcast with a forecast on the ticker informing us that the temperatures in Metropolis range between 62 and 65 degrees (presumably Fahrenheit) for the entire week. No wonder everyone’s in a good enough mood to fulfill their heroic destinies!

Superman is Recommended If You Like: Comic Books; Or, Your Loved Ones Who Enthusiastically Tell You Everything That Happens in Their Favorite Comic Books

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Justice Gangs

‘Warfare’ Leading to ‘The Amateur’

May 1, 2025

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A Warfarer and an Amateur (CREDIT: A24; 20th Century Studios/Screenshot)

Warfare

Starring: Joseph Quinn, Charles Melton, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Finn Bennett, Taylor John Smith, Michael Gandolfini, Adain Bradley, Noah Centineo, Evan Holtzman, Henry Zaga, Alex Brockdorff, Nathan Altai, Donya Hussen, Aaron Deakins

Directors: Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland

Running Time: 95 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: April 11, 2025 (Theaters)

The Amateur

Starring: Rami Malek, Laurence Fishburne, Rachel Brosnahan, Caitríona Balfe, Michael Stuhlbarg, Holt McCallany, Julianne Nicholson, Danny Sapani, Jon Bernthal, Adrian Martinez, Marc Rissmann, Joseph Millson, Barbara Probst, Alice Hewkin, Henry Garrett, Takehiro Hira

Director: James Hawes

Running Time: 124 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: April 11, 2025 (Theaters)

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Movie Review: Rachel Brosnahan Assures Everyone, ‘I’m Your Woman’

December 2, 2020

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I’m Your Woman (CREDIT: Wilson Webb/Amazon Studios)

Starring: Rachel Brosnahan, Arinzé Kene, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Bill Heck, Frankie Faison, Marceline Hugot

Director: Julia Hart

Running Time: 120 Minutes

Rating: R for Deadly Gunshots and Tough Guy Language

Release Date: December 4, 2020 (Select Theaters)/December 11, 2020 (Amazon Prime Video)

Do you think you would be entertained if someone told Rachel Brosnahan that she needed to leave her house immediately and then gave her a gun just in case, even though she’s never handled one before? Surely, there are plenty of people who believe that “woman on the run + gun” is a foolproof formula for quality cinema. When that woman is the star of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, it turns out that she is more than up for the task. Did I mention that there’s also a baby in the mix? Because that’s pretty important. As very frustrated housewife (or house-less-wife) Jean, Brosnahan spends a significant portion of I’m Your Woman with a baby in one hand and a gun in the other. She’s not quite sure how she ended up in this mess, and neither are we, but goshdangit if she doesn’t convince us that we’re all going to make it through together unscathed.

It all kicks off as an unholy mix of The Godfather and Raising Arizona dressed up in the most 1970s of full-length trench coats. We meet Jean when she’s been struggling through miscarriage after miscarriage, but then one day her husband Eddie (Bill Heck) shows up at their front door with a random infant in tow. Soon after, he’s closing a door on her so that he can talk shop with some guys in private in much the same way that Michael Corleone kept Kay shut off from his business. While Jean never quite learns what Eddie is up to, she does know that it is very, very bad, as Eddie’s associate Cal (Arinzé Kene) soon shows up to whisk her and the baby off to a series of safe houses. Eventually Cal’s family joins in on the mission as well, and Jean basically becomes reborn as the ultimate survivor.

Structurally, I’m Your Woman works in fits and starts, kind of by design. There are significant stretches of Jean just sitting around watching TV and nodding off in the middle of the afternoon, occasionally waking up to look over her shoulder. These segments are rather numbing, but we’re meant to absorb her simmering anxiety. They’re surrounded by a series of high-tension car rides, nightclub shootouts, and good old-fashioned running towards some semblance of safety. Consistently carrying us through both all the numb and all the exciting is Brosnahan’s steely resolve. It’s a big ask to give any lead actor that much cinematic responsibility, but she’s ready to take care of us.

I’m Your Woman is Recommended If You Like: Focusing on the characters who are usually given short shrift, Long Tan Trench Coats, Aretha Franklin covers

Grade: 3 out of 5 Secrets

‘Spies in Disguise’ Preaches Weirdness, But It Could Stand to Be Weirder

December 16, 2019

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CREDIT: Blue Sky Studios/Twentieth Century Fox.

Starring: Will Smith, Tom Holland, Rashida Jones, Ben Mendelsohn, Reba McEntire, Rachel Brosnahan, Karen Gillan, DJ Khaled, Masi Oka

Directors: Troy Quane and Nick Bruno

Running Time: 102 Minutes

Rating: PG for A Pigeon Eating a Band-Aid, and the Like

Release Date: December 25, 2019

Spies in Disguise has two credited directors and two credited screenwriters (and a third writer with a “story by” credit), and it’s based on a 2009 short film made by someone who is none of the aforementioned writers or directors. Yet it feels like a very singular, personal vision, as though it were willed into existence by someone who really loves pigeons and wanted the world to know that they’re not just rats with wings, but rather, dignified and eminently capable creatures. The world of animated children’s films is filled with plenty of talking animals, so this isn’t out of the ordinary in that regard. But I haven’t gotten the sense that movie-going tykes have been clamoring for the pigeon niche to be filled in this genre. And yet that’s what has happened, with about as triumphant a premise as possible, as the fate of the world hinges upon what super-awesome spy Lance Sterling (Will Smith) can accomplish when he turns into a pigeon.

If there are any pigeon aficionados out there, you will certainly be pleased by how lovingly they’re treated in this film. For everyone else, you’ll probably be floored by how out of time Spies in Disguise comes across. It feels like something that should have come out twenty years ago, when CGI animation was in its infancy and Smith was known primarily as a Man in Black. I actually appreciate some of its musty style, as it commits to a full-on opening credits sequence (a rarity in this era) that follows not one, but two, cold opening scenes.But the rest of my reaction to this film is basically being flummoxed by its outdated, non-specific definition of “weird.”

The other main character is socially inept young gadget guy Walter Beckett (Tom Holland), who is the one who accidentally turns Sterling into a bird. He’s spent his whole life believing that the world needs more weird, just like his mom assured him when he was a boy. But the thing is, while he may be a little awkward, I find it hard to believe that his line of work wouldn’t consider him weird so much as technologically essential. And while a man becoming a pigeon may be unusual in our world, it’s standard practice in this sort of movie. Spies in Disguise, you need to follow your own advice and be more weird.

Spies in Disguise is Recommended If You Like: Therianthropy

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Spies in Da Skies

SNL Love It/Keep It/Leave It: Rachel Brosnahan/Greta Van Fleet

January 20, 2019

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CREDIT: Will Heath/NBC

Jeffrey Malone watches every new episode of Saturday Night Live and then organizes the sketches into the following categories: “Love It” (potentially Best of the Season-worthy), “Keep It” (perfectly adequate), or “Leave It” (in need of a rewrite, to say the least). Then he concludes with assessments of the host and musical guest.

Love It

Ken Instagram – This redux is not quite as masterful as the Barbie Instagram bit from the Donald Glover episode, which was my pick for the best sketch of last season. Luckily, it’s different enough to stand on its own and still be quite hilarious, thanks to Pete Davidson and Heidi Gardner’s daffy suggestions and Rachel Brosnahan’s unique darkness. Alas, it is also different in a couple of bad ways, as the timing isn’t always perfect and the ominous piano is unnecessary. But that’s just evidence of how difficult it is to capture magic in a bottle more than once. In this case, I’ll settle for almost-magic.

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