My Review of The History Of Sound (2025)

 

Written by Ben Shattuck

Directed by Oliver Hermanus

Lionel (to David): "Write. Send chocolate. Don't die."

I really do hate staggered releases for movies. This was released in US theatres back in September, popped up on Mubi this month but UK/Irish audiences have to wait until January 23rd to see it. I decided that I wasn't waiting that long.

Based on a short story by the writer of this movie, we had a lovely story between two men and because it's not a contemporary one, it fell into the realms of tragedy. One died, one survived, both tried to live heterosexual lives and so on. You get the gist.

Our main character would be Lionel Worthing (Paul Mescal). He had an unique relationship with music and sound and his love for both put him in the cross hairs of fellow music student, David White (Josh O'Connor). It didn't take the pair long to bond over their love of music and their physical attraction to one another either.

In fact we got a nice period of time where the two enjoyed collaborating both musically and sexually before David got called to war and Lionel returned to help his parents (Molly Price and Raphael Sbarge) before his father died. Lionel's relationship with his mother seemed more testing than the ones he had with his father and grandfather respectively.

Of course the best part of the two of the movie was Lionel and David reuniting. The latter needed the former to go to places to meet people and record songs. This plot introduced characters like Thankful Mary Swain (Briana Middleton) but it also highlighted the gap between Lionel and David as well.

The second half of the movie separated the pair with Lionel having furthered his music career in both Rome and Oxford and even being engaged to Clarissa Roux (Emma Canning). Fortunately it was an engagement that didn't last as Lionel did the right thing and ended it with her.

As for David, he married a woman named Belle Sinclair (Hadley Robinson) but killed himself due to shell shock from the war. Belle knew about Lionel and David and she made sure that the former knew as well before he took a visit to the Lake District.

The end of the movie then focused on an older Lionel (Chris Cooper) promoting his latest book on radio and being reunited with the cylinder's of his time with David. David's last recording in particular did end this movie on a rather poignant note.

- This movie marked Paul Mescal taking on an executive producer role. It's very much his film to be fair.

- I found the spitting scene with Lionel and David funny more than anything else. At least we got a few sex and kissing scenes between the two of them.

- Standout music: For it's sheer significance, the use of Silver Dagger as sung by Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor at different points in the film.

- Chronology: 1910 to 1980, taking in places such as Kentucky, Boston, Maine, Rome, Oxford and the Lake District.

I can see why The History Of Sound might feel like a disappointment but for the most part, I did like it. There's a few tropes that I do think gay cinema, especially historical ones do need to move away from. Saying that, both Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor did help to elevate the material and gave their all here.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of Plainclothes (2025)

 

Written And Directed by Carmen Emmi 

Lucas (to his mother): "It wasn't dad's letter, it's mine."

I've been wanting to see this movie for a bit now and I got to seeing it late last night. Theres a few gay themed movies that have been released the last two months I am determined to see before the year's out. This was one of them.

Tom Blyth has had something of an interesting career with his biggest role to date being in a prequel for The Hunger Games. In this movie, he's playing an undercover named Lucas Brennan. Lucas's assignment was entrapping gay men for public acts of indecency. Lucas was also revealed to be a closeted gay man himself.

Alternating between flashbacks and a chaotic New Year's Eve party at his mother, Marie's (Maria Dizzia) house, following the death of his father, Gus. It's a party that no-one will forget anytime soon because Lucas got into a physical altercation with his asshole uncle, Paul (Gabe Fazio) and outed him in order to preserve his father's memory.

Getting back to the flashbacks, Lucas fell in love with a closeted reverend named Andrew Waters (Russell Tovey). Lucas fell hard for Andrew, even protecting him from getting outed by the police but at the same time, Andrew might have been outed to his family. 

There's some nice sex scenes between Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey and both actors have nice chemistry with one another but Lucas and Andrew are a different kind of doomed. Lucas at least quit his job and came out to his family. He took the kind of steps that Andrew refused to do for himself.

Then again, coming out wasn't also a choice for Lucas. A missing letter had Paul and Marie mistake Gus for being gay and Paul's new girlfriend seemed to have an inkling about Lucas as well. Not to mention Lucas's former girlfriend, Emily (Amy Forsyth) definitely knew he was. Lucas really did have to come out and he did it very dramatically.

- There's a supporting role from Christian Cooke as Lucas's work colleague, Ron. Lucas was also replaced by Jeff (Darius Fraser).

- We can thank Tom Blyth for Russell Tovey's casting as he suggested him to director Carmen Emmi.

- Standout music: Emily Wells My San Francisco.

- Chronology: March to December 1997, New York. Lucas is from Syracuse while Andrew's from San Francisco.

Plainclothes was something of a mixed bag, movie. On the plus side, the chemistry and performances from Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey were spot on but it's also disappointing with how Lucas and Andrew ended up as well. The camcorder use in certain scenes did jar a little bit but it's still a good watch.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of Kiss Of The Spider Woman (2025)

 

Written And Directed by Bill Condon

Valentin: "I'm sorry to break the news but nobody sings in real life."

Luis: "Well, maybe they should."

There are times when a movie comes out and bombs so badly that you have to watch to see if it's that bad. Then you find out it's actually, which made the fact that it bombed even more mystifying. This would be such a movie.

Okay, I can think of a few reasons for it's box office failure. It's very political in a climate where audiences are vastly preferring less of that, it's very queer themed and let's be honest, I'm not sure October was the right month to release such a movie.

Now let's gets to the positives because there's plenty of them Tobe had. The biggest one being Tonatiuh. Cast in the role of informer Luis Molina, he's placed in a cell with political prisoner Valentin Arregui (Diego Luna) to uncover some vital information. Needless to say, it's not an easy task for Luis.

Mainly because both Luis and Valentin are like chalk and cheese. One's a proud and flamboyant gay man with a traditional mindset towards women and the other's a straight man with a girlfriend named Marta (Josefina Scaglione) and a more modern mindset towards women. The latter's also not a fan of musicals, which posed another challenge for Luis.

Throughout the movie, Luis regaled Valentin with the story called The Kiss Of The Spider Woman. It was mixed in with other tales, had a love quadrangle of sorts involving Kendell Nesbitt (Tonatiuh), Armando (Diego Luna) and in dual roles, there was Jennifer Lopez as both Ingrid Luna and Aurora. Oh and she was the Spider Woman, who unsurprisingly symbolised death. Her kiss was inevitable.

The musical numbers popped on-screen as the growing closeness between both Luis and Valentin intensified and the Warden (Bruno Bichir) tried to drive a wedge between the pair of them. On the plus side, we got a lovely and tender romance between Luis and Valentin but also one mired in tragedy when Luis's freedom came at a horrible price.

- I agreed with a lot of the things that Luis said but dissing Meryl Streep might have been a step too far.

- This isn't the first attempt of a live action version of this movie. There was another that came out in 1985.

- Standout music: Her Name Is Aurora, I Will Dance Alone, An Everyday Man, I Do Miracles, Anything For Him and Kiss Of The Spider Woman.

- Chronology: May to October 1983 at the tail end of the Dirty War in Argentina.

Kiss Of The Spider Woman definitely deserved better as a movie. It's a genuinely good movie with excellent performances from Jennifer Lopez and Diego Luna. However it's also a brilliant showcase for Tonatiuh, who absolutely stole the show here. He gave one of the most charismatic performances this year. I'd actually recommend seeing this while I find the 1985 version.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

Freddy's Nightmares - Episodes 31-35 Reviews

For this batch of episodes, there's a few sequels, a change in opening introduction and another look into Freddy's past.

Episode 31: Monkey Dreams 

As usual, a story of two halves. The first part focused on a gambling addict lab researcher. He needed to finish his work before his debt called in and kept having nightmares about his sister being killed. The second half focused on his co-worker wanting to save a chimpanzee from another researcher's treatment of the primate. Loses points for that ending. 6/10.

Episode 32: Do You Know Where Your Kids Are?

Remember the evil girl from two episodes ago? Well, she's become a teenager, her father's remarried and had a child and they've locked her in the basement. Of course the evil girl managed to get out of the basement and take over the life of the babysitter she put in the basement in place of her. It's actually a pretty decent episode where evil won out as our villain protagonist decided to get back at her family. 7/10

Episode 33: Dreams That Kill

Keeping with sequels, anyone fancy another round of Springwood Confidential? New host Charlie Nichells isn't the nicest of men and he wanted to kill the "Dreams That Kill" segment when Freddy threatened him in his dreams. Then he actually died and an experimental brain matter transplantation surgery on a young man ended up being a disaster for everyone, including the surgeon. I liked this one. 7/10

Episode 34: It's My Party And You'll Die If I Want You To

The title alone might be my favourite for an episode of this show yet. Anyways you've got that Oliver guy from earlier in the season factoring into both stories and not dying. The first half focused on a fake psychic being possessed by Freddy and going on a killing spree. The second half focused on a twenty year high school reunion, which also introduced a woman who spurned Freddy for the Prom. Needless to say, Freddy's reunion with the woman didn't end well for her. 8/10

Episode 35: What You Don't Know Can Kill You

Something of a weak episode, more in execution than premise. A pervy psychiatrist was using hypnotherapy to sexually assault his female clients, only for one of them to remember what he had done along with a co-worker willing to turn him in. The psychiatrist hypnotized a man who wanted to quit smoking in order to silence them. The man was dyslexic and that ended up being a problem for the psychiatrist. The second half then focused on the man having his face surgically altered, only for his new look to resemble a snitching mobster. Again, the ideas were great but the execution didn't land. 6/10

Next blog I'll tackle Easy Come, Easy Go, Prime Cut, Interior Loft, Interior Loft - Later and Funhouse.

My Review of Back To The Future Part III (1990)

 

Written by Robert Zemeckis And Bob Gale

Directed by Robert Zemeckis 

Marty McFly: "Hey, Doc! Where you goin' now? Back to the future?"

Doc: "Nope. Already been there."

On to the final part of this trilogy. Often, this would be seen as the weakest instalment of this particular movie franchise but it's also reasonably liked too. I like it. It at least did something a little different.

Last time, Marty McFly (Michael J Fox) was stuck in 1955 but managed to find out that Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) however had landed in 1885. A letter from Doc gave Marty the tools to fix the DeLorean to go back to 1985. Marty did that and then he went back one hundred years into the past.

I said in my last review that the people from Biff Tannen's (Thomas F. Wilson) timeline were awful and it turned out that Biff's great grandfather, Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen killed Doc in 1885 after Marty received the latter's letter.

If the first two movies focused a lot on Marty and his family, I do appreciate that this movie was more about Doc instead. That's not to say Marty didn't get some focus as he met great-great-grandparents, Seamus (Michael J. Fox) and Maggie (Lea Thompson). The Irish stereotypes were rife with these characters, so points have got to be deducted for that alone.

Getting back to Doc, it was also his time for a romance and the one he got with schoolteacher Clara Clayton (Mary Steenburgen) was rather sweet. It might have even been a better love story than the one with Marty/Jennifer (Elisabeth Shue) or his parents. Doc certainly got the happy ending he deserved.

As for the antagonist of the film, Mad Dog isn't much different to the likes of Biff and again, he's given a much deserved comeuppance. There's some loose ends from the second movie in regards to Marty's 2015 fate that are nicely resolved.

- I had forgotten to mention that Flea popped up in this movie and the previous one as a rival to Marty named Douglas Needles.

- Both Marty and Doc say each others catchphrases instead. Michael J. Fox got hung for real during that one scene.

- Standout music: ZZ Top's Doubleback. Members of the group also appeared in the movie.

- Chronology: 1955, 1985, 2015 but mostly 1885 for the events of this movie.

While it's not my favourite of the trilogy, I can't deny that Back To The Future Part III certainly had it's moments. Focusing on Doc was definitely needed and I loved his romance with Clara. A satisfying end to a great movie trilogy.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of Back To The Future Part II (1989)

 

Written by Robert Zemeckis And Bob Gale

Directed by Robert Zemeckis 

Doc: "Don't talk to anyone, don't touch anything, don't do anything, don't interact with anyone, and try not to look at anything."

How do you follow up one of the most iconic movies all time, sequel wise? Well, you retain what worked about the movie in question and then you push things into another direction.

The first movie explored the possibility of Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) not existing had George (Jeffrey Weissman) and Lorraine (Lea Thompson) never got together. This movie explored a much worse conundrum. What happened if they fell apart? This was something that Marty and Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) would find out.

Yup, what if things in 1985 has resulted in a dead George and Lorraine in a relationship with Biff Tannen (Thomas F Wilson). It's a relationship where Biff was abusive to Lorraine and her children but especially with Marty. Yes, it's because Biff became aware of time travel and decided to change his own fate, which making the McFly family's much worse as a result. All because of a discarded almanac.

This was also a movie where Jennifer Parker (Elisabeth Shue) got to see her own future with Marty. This involved children named Marty Jr and Marlene (both played by Michael J. Fox) with Marty, which also trying to stay out of sight. At least Jennifer had something to do in this one.

Speaking of future kids, Marty Jr wasn't exactly the sharpest either. His whole plot was getting framed for a crime that Biff's grandson, Griff (Thomas F. Wilson) had committed but that was resolved fast enough in lieu of the dystopian version of 1985 that made up the best bit of the movie.

I think the future scenes were fine and had their moments before Jennifer thought they were just a dream. The dystopian 1985 plot just worked better, further solidifying Biff as a proper threat. Biff's proper nasty when he he had any semblance of power and once again, it was gratifying to watch him get his just desserts.

- Both Claudia Wells and Crispin Glover were replaced in this movie, though the latter would return for the third movie. Marty also got to use a hoverboard.

- The movie ended with Doc being revealed to being alive in 1885, nicely setting up the final part of this trilogy.

- Standout music: Michael Jackson's Beat It.

- Chronology: October 26th 1985, a dystopian version of 1985, 1955 again and 2015 in Hill Valley, California.

Back To The Future Part II certainly upped the stakes and I do think it's mostly worked as a sequel. It definitely had fun raising the stakes for Marty and Doc, gave the recast Jennifer a bit more to do and continued to prove how horrible Biff and his bloodline are.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of Back To The Future (1985)

Written by Robert Zemeckis And Bob Gale

Directed by Robert Zemeckis 

Marty McFly: "Wait a minute. Wait a minute, Doc. Ah... Are you telling me that you built a time machine... out of a DeLorean?"

Dr. Emmett Brown: "The way I see it, if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?"

I turned forty this year and I was overdue in writing a review for the highest grossing movie of that year. Yup, of course I had to finally get around to this very movie.

It's such a simple take on time travel and it's consequences. You've got an average teenager in Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox). He's got a geeky father, George (Crispin Glover), an alcoholic mother, Lorraine (Lea Thompson) along with two siblings Dave (Marc McClure) and Linda (Wendie Jo Sperber). Oh and a girlfriend named Jennifer Parker (Claudia Wells).

Some of those relationships are a bit more explored than others but it's Marty's relationship with eccentric scientist Emmett "Doc" Brown (Christopher Lloyd) that was a good focus. Mostly because Doc's experiments with time travel had quite the effect on Marty and the future/past of his parents.

The time travel machine of choice was a car named the DeLorean. Marty went from being in 1985 to ending up in 1955 where the origins of his parents romance came very close to not even happening. In fact, Marty really had to play matchmaker with socially awkward George and the more rebellious Lorraine.

Of course what the movie needed was a really good villain. We got that with local bully Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson). He was George's boss in 1985 and his tormentor in 1955. He also got a little too handy with Lorraine and even came close to scuppering Marty's plans in 1955. His fate in 1985 after Marty changed things however was a nice comeuppance for the character.

Now this movie could have been a nice one and done but even before it was enough of a box office success to justify two sequels, Doc's reunion with Marty and Jennifer did set up further adventures. Something had to be done about their kids.

- Doc had the "Great Scott" catchphrase as well as dogs named Einstein (1985) and Copernicus (1955).

- Eric Stoltz was originally cast as Marty McFly before the role was recast with Michael J. Fox.

- Standout music: Hey Lewis And The News The Power Of Love.

- Chronology: 1985 and November 5th 1955 in Hill Valley, California.

Like every one on the planet, I love Back To The Future. It's a perfect movie that has aged brilliantly, never outstayed it's welcome and will always put me in a good mood when I watch it. A classic for the right reasons.

Rating: 9 out of 10 

My Review of Frankenstein (2025)

 

Written And Directed by Guillermo del Toro

The Creature (to Captain Anderson): "My maker told his tale, then I will tell you mine."

If ever there was a film that needed a full theatrical release instead going down the Netflix route, it was this one. It's seriously a shame this didn't go that way because this would definitely be a Nosferatu (2024) monster hit.

Broken into three parts, we started off with the Prelude. This part was somewhat the conclusion to the story between Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) and The Creature (Jacob Elordi). The Creature was trashing a ship in a bid to get revenge on his creator. Then there was Captain Anderson (Lars Mikkelsen). He had the pleasure to hear both perspectives.

Let's start with Victor's Tale, shall we? We got a look into his younger days as a boy (Christian Convery). He had a strict father, Leopold (Charles Dance) and a loving mother, Claire (Mia Goth) and a younger brother named, William. Leopold preferred William over Victor and the latter was obsessed with stopping death.

Anyways, the years passed and William (Felix Kammerer) had a fiancée named Lady Elizabeth Harlander (Mia Goth). Elizabeth forged something of a connection with Victor while the latter inadvertently killed her uncle, Henrich (Christoph Waltz). Oh and there was The Creature himself.

Yes, we saw the dynamic between Victor and The Creature and it's one where the latter was the more sympathetic of the two. There were times when Victor's impatience with The Creature got so bad that Elizabeth found herself thoroughly disgusted with his mistreatment. Of course,Victor would then try to kill The Creature, only for the latter to be immortal.

As for The Creature's Tale, it's a bit shorter than Victor's but just as engaging. His friendship with a blind old man (David Bradley) was one of the nicest moments in the film. The blind man did everything with The Creature that Victor failed to do but sadly, it was also a relationship that ended in tragedy.

Speaking of tragedy, what should've been William and Elizabeth's wedding ended up being their demise as Victor and The Creature's conflict created such a disaster around them. I mean, it's definitely all Victor's fault, which was a realisation that he came too, albeit much too late.

Those final few minutes with Victor and The Creature were some of the best from the movie. A beautiful culmination of their volatile relationship as one of them died and the other lived, while choosing something other than revenge. The final shot in particular was just beautiful.

- Andrew Garfield was originally signed up to play The Creature before being replaced with Jacob Elordi.

- Mia Goth did double duty as both Baroness Claire Frankenstein and Lady Elizabeth Harlander. I'm genuinely surprised they didn't go down The Bride route with her as well. Charles Dance previously appeared in Victor Frankenstein (2015).

- Standout music: The score from Alexandre Desplat was exquisite. 

- Chronology: 1857 in the North Pole as well as Europe for the majority of the film.

Frankenstein (2025) quite frankly, turned out to be a massive triumph. It's absolutely gorgeous and beautifully Gothic to look at. The performances from Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi and Mia Goth are on fine form and Guillermo del Toro wrote a fantastic script and directed the hell out of it. I loved this movie.

Rating: 9 out of 10