Week Ending 2/14/25
Best on best hockey is back.
It’s wild to think that we haven’t had best on best hockey in nine years. That feels like forever and yet shorter than I would have guessed.
The last Word Cup was 2016?! The Sabres have had so many coaches since then—including the guy who made a huge impact at that event, Ralph Krueger—that I would have said it’s been closer to two decades.
Even so, that was so long ago that Jack Eichel and Connor McDavid were on the “North American” team because they were too young and inexperienced to play on Team USA and Canada respectively. This is their first time wearing that crest as an adult. Talk about a lost generation of talent on that stage.
You must give the NHL and NHLPA a lot of credit for organizing the event so all those players can dip their toes in before next year’s Olympics. Get them a taste of sport-centric patriotism before the Big Show so that tournament can be as high quality as possible. It still won’t be the same considering Russia’s absence, but they can always leave Ukraine and acknowledge their sovereignty.
I’m writing this while still watching USA v Finland, but I can safely say the event has been everything you could hope it could be after Wednesday night’s Canada v Sweden tilt. It looked like a blowout waiting to happen with the Maple Leaf riding the adrenaline high of being in Montreal and cheering Mario Lemieux, but the Three Crowns came back strong to force an exciting overtime. It was a fantastic game.
What I Watched:
2025 OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT FILMS
(in theaters)
Reviews for all 15 nominees are live at The Film Stage:
THE GORGE
(streaming on AppleTV+)
The life of a long-distance snipers freelancing as assassins is a solitary one. No time to start a family when each job demands extensive chunks of your life. No time to escape the nightmares that gradually chip away at your steely resolve. Thankfully for Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy), she doesn't have to worry about the latter because her ex-KGB father lets her tell him her secrets so as not have to hold onto them alone. Sadly for Levi (Miles Teller), he doesn't have to worry about the former because the PTSD won't allow him any attachments anyway. So, why not both accept a year-long mission shrouded in mystery?
Written by Zach Dean and directed by Scott Derrickson, The Gorge follows the exploits of these two characters stranded on either side of an unknown chasm by their respective governments. The assumption is that they are to kill someone from an extreme distance to cover their employer's butts like usual. But when Levi arrives to relieve his predecessor (Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù's J.D.), the assignment given is a babysitting gig. Sit in a tower, patrol the parameter, radio home every thirty days. Only when J.D. drops a pulse grenade into the mist below are the horrors at-hand revealed. Yes, Levi must simply protect his territory, but not from a potential threat. The monsters beneath his perch are inevitable.
While we catch a glimpse of these "hollow men" to set the stakes, the first hour is hardly action-packed (or tense beyond one effective jump scare). Those sixty-minutes instead portray burgeoning romance on behalf of two lonely souls deciding months of isolation were enough. Written banter seen across the gorge via impossibly crisp zoom binoculars (him on the west side operated by the western world—US and UK—and she on the east side—Russia) evolves into synchronized patrols to flirt and work simultaneously. Eventually, they'll figure out a way to be together. And as is often the case when a moment of bliss interrupts a nightmare, that calm will be very short lived.
It must considering there's another hour to go and still no real excitement beyond shooting fish in a barrel. We need Levi and Drasa to get into that no man's land and see what's really happening. Answer the questions of who Sigourney Weaver works for and what happened to the original battalions of 1940s soldiers who went down and never returned. We'll get a ton of CGI foes looking like Davy Jones' men from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, an impossibly overgrown-by-bone ghost town, and a conspiracy doing its best to render this affair plausible in the scope of World War II destruction and Cold War espionage. Sooner or later too, Levi and Drasa will be forced to choose the mission or each other.
The romance angle works better than the action in my eye, although I wouldn't say either half is especially trendsetting in its ideas or execution. A generic love story against an oddly dark backdrop versus a generic survival chase amidst an intriguing if underused mythology of creatures (their origin really just helped explain their aesthetic and got me wanting to re-watch Annihilation). The effects work is decent—the darkness and fog do a lot to make it look better than it is considering moments of clear vision leave a bit to be desired. The pacing is effective—two hours is definitely too long, but it never dragged. And Teller and Taylor-Joy's performances are the perfect mix of hoo-rah determination and sweet humanity.
My biggest gripe is the ending since so many things occur to make it feel like the tension will finally ratchet up. We're dealing with the fallout of knowing what this place is. The threat of their superiors knowing they know. The uncertainty that Levi and Drasa may be killed by what they saw even if they escape it. And the knowledge that any hope for a future demands running. I actually got excited to see Dean and Derrickson go to town making each of those shoes drop to devastating effect only to ultimately receive ... nothing. It's almost like they ran out of money and decided to simply tie all those loose ends with the same rose-colored saccharine bow. If the rest were better than just "fine," that letdown probably would have hurt more. As is, The Gorge simply remains fine.
- 6/10
ROUNDING
(limited theaters & VOD)
It's difficult to believe your own eyes about what occurs during the prologue of Alex Thompson and co-writer Christopher Thompson's Rounding. Not just because the lead character is an unreliable narrator, but because the film intentionally obfuscates the circumstances surrounding this initial event. We're pretty sure Dr. James Hayman (Namir Smallwood) is euthanizing a patient considering the clandestine way he goes about procuring the medicine he injects into her IV. That plus the pointed "Are you sure this is what you want." all but guarantee it. Where things go awry is her plea for him to save her while flatlining. Did she change her mind? Did he do it without her permission? Was it a mistake?
The latter proves the safest answer since James faints in the hallway and ultimately requests a transfer to a rural hospital to finish his residency with a "fresh start." His new supervisor, Dr. Harrison (Michael Potts), seems ecstatic that he chose their facility and confirms the previous department filled him in on everything that happened. Suddenly those thoughts of suicide gone wrong dissolve because there's no way James would still have a license let alone freedom if that were the case. We must therefore assume it was in his head. Perhaps that whole prologue was a nightmarish recollection of his actions filtered through a malicious lens to better hate himself about the result. James' quick return to insomnia, paranoia, and obsession only helps to confirm it.
This is why I call him an unreliable narrative force in the film. James is our focal point and we see everything through his eyes—including the time skips and confusion that keep him off-balance and five steps behind the rest of the hospital. He's not sleeping, barely eating, and eventually battling a severe ankle injury he refuses to treat all while submerging himself in the implausible case of a nineteen-year-old asthma patient whose chart shows no sign of asthma (Sidney Flanigan's Helen Adso). Does James become infatuated with the mystery of her continued presence in the emergency room because he needs to ensure he doesn't lose someone too soon again? Is it to distract himself from the obvious trauma he's suffered? Or could it be that he's about to get her killed by looking for something that isn't there like before?
Thompson has crafted a visually intriguing film depicting this man's descent into the dark abyss of his own guilt and shame. The lost hours and days are expertly rendered via seamless cuts to him still being where we left him while his surroundings have been repopulated by different people. And that idea of James fending off his perceived sins becomes manifested as twisted religious iconography. First there's a broken cross his mother reminds him to fix. Then weird illustrations of death and monsters hanging on the hospital walls. Finally, there's a hydra with flaming horns seemingly hunting him through the halls. James screams and falls or screams and braces for impact, but everything is normal upon opening his eyes. He's still breathing and Helen is still sick.
A lot ends up being introduced to simultaneously keep us off the scent of what's really going on (although the earmarks are ever-present) and augment that truth via comparison points and metaphor. James wonders if Helen's mother (Rebecca Spence) is the culprit via Munchausen by proxy thanks to some amateur sleuthing and knee-jerk assumptions. He revolts against being mandated to attend a bedside manner training class meant to help him better handle his truth when he's desperately trying to suppress it. And all the while he's chasing made-up ghosts to escape the real ones at his heels. The hope is that it will all connect for a rousing third act of new discoveries and/or answers we haven't already connected the dots on ourselves.
Sadly, that isn't what happens. It's not that Rounding loses potency by being exactly what it is on its surface, but that it misses an opportunity to give meaning to its message by providing a payoff rather than an admission. Things ratchet up so high that we prepare for a roar yet receive a whimper considering the result is other characters knowing what we already did where James is concerned. Yes, there's a payoff to Helen's story and the complexities behind the disparity that arises between action and desire, but it feels more about closing her chapter than adding to the whole. Smallwood is very good at presenting the terror and fatigue driving James into the ground, but the script's choice for him to admit the truth as though he's been actively lying rather than subconsciously hiding undercuts its emotional impact.
- 7/10
TIMESTALKER
(limited theaters & VOD)
Love is often found staring you right in the face. The problem, though, is that it's not always seen. Maybe, as the 1980s version of Katie Dickie's Marion explains, it's because we have a penchant for loving people who hate us precisely because we hate ourselves. Or maybe it's that we seek the impossible as a way of holding onto hope that our lives can be more than what they currently are. For Agnes (Alice Lowe) and her quest to find her beloved Alex (Aneurin Barnard) throughout time, it's a bit of both. Low self-worth. A desire for excitement. You can also mix in an even less healthy option: the thrill of dying.
As Lowe, who also writes and directs, exclaims: "Romance is dead." Literally. Every single time Agnes reunites with Alex, she ends up saving him from his own demise by unwittingly sacrificing herself—almost exclusively via a grisly decapitation. We must therefore ask the question of whether the cycle of destiny at the back of Timestalker is a product of giving Agnes another chance for happiness by Alex's side or another chance to live by finally letting him go. Because he's never looking for her. Even though their first meeting appears to portray a mutual sense of adoration, his words expose how the source is different. She loves him. He merely loves that she does.
So, beyond the subversion of rom-com sensibilities that twist the meet-cute into a trigger for reaping, there's a lot here to say about fan culture and the ever-thinning line between romance and infatuation that parasocial relationships have cultivated. Agnes needs Alex to survive and yet he's never thought of her once. This isn't a tale of star-crossed lovers as much as a masochistic gauntlet of self-destruction. Because she cannot escape the pattern. She doesn't want to escape it. Even though karma works insofar as turning her poor peasant into a queen and then back down to working class, she refuses to learn her lesson. Not like George (Nick Frost). He goes from devoted subservient to violent oppressor.
His is a character you might not think will play as large a role in the over-arching message as Jacob Anderson's Scipio or Tanya Reynolds' Meg, but I'd argue George is the second most vital piece of the whole behind Agnes. Scipio is intriguing in his position as a voyeur puppet master, but he's more of a distraction so Agnes doesn't cut her strings than an agent of change. Meg is that love that stares her in the face. A sweet, kind soul who might put Agnes on too high a pedestal, but remains everything she wishes Alex could be. She's the goal. And the counterpoint. Meg is there to provide an out and thus to be seen as a taunt that keeps pushing Agnes to Alex.
George, conversely, is Agnes. He does to her what she does to Alex, albeit in an overtly cruel way towards her when Agnes is overtly cruel to herself. He stalks her like she stalks Alex—each one makers of their own sociopathic murder boards while deluding themselves into believing them to be shrines. When Agnes can't get what she wants, she sacrifices herself to try again. When George doesn't, he sacrifices her to satisfy his rage. Is one worse than the other? Definitely. That doesn't, however, mean the other is good. Both are damaging and dangerous. Both are selfish. And yet the alternative seems worst of all: to simply exist without the ability to love or be loved. Is that even living?
Lowe packs a ton of messaging into a very tightly wound package from patriarchy to feminism and fate to free will. Because it must move so fast, some things do get left by the wayside. Some from the often broad humor that doesn't quite match the earnestness of the themes and some from the constant back and forth that both advances us through unnecessary centuries and leaves what look like unnecessary centuries shrouded in secrecy until the time is right. Timestalkers can therefore alternately feel too flippant and not flippant enough—the tonal balance between comedic juxtapositions and metaphor proving adversarial instead of complementary. It works more than not, though. Especially its table-turn wink of an ending.
- 6/10
UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE
[Une langue universelle]
(limited release; Canada’s International Oscar submission)
“Rankin and company are providing us a glimpse at the beauty of our shared human experience removed from labels and geography. The true "color blindness" of society isn't achieved through homogeneity. We get there through acceptance.”
– Full thoughts at jaredmobarak.com.
Cinematic F-Bombs:
This week saw IMAGINARY (2024), IN THE LAND OF WOMEN (2007), MASKED AND ANONYMOUS (2003), and XXX: STATE OF THE UNION (2005) added to the archive (cinematicfbombs.com).
Peter Strauss dropping an f-bomb in XXX: STATE OF THE UNION.
New Releases This Week:
(Review links where applicable)
Opening Buffalo-area theaters 2/14/25 -
Armand at Regal Transit
“Armand is distilling mankind’s penchant for baseless attacks and fear-mongering down into the interaction of three distinct entities in a familiarly simple scenario.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
Becoming Led Zeppelin expanding to North Park Theatre; Dipson Amherst & Capitol; Regal Elmwood, Galleria & Quaker
Captain America: Brave New World at Dipson Flix & Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge & Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood Transit, Galleria & Quaker
Chhaava at Regal Elmwood
Illti at Regal Elmwood
Laila at Regal Elmwood
Ne Zha 2 at Regal Elmwood Transit & Quaker
Oscar Nominated Shorts - Animated & Live Action at Regal Quaker
Links to reviews are above.
Oscar Nominated Shorts - Documentary at Dipson Amherst
Link to reviews is above.
Paddington in Peru at Dipson Flix & Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge & Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood Transit, Galleria & Quaker
Streaming from 2/14/25 -
Dhoom Dhaam – Netflix on 2/14
Flow – Max on 2/14
“It's a beautifully animated and choreographed film with suspenseful life or death moments and effective action. I don't think Flow is quite as captivating a story as Away, but you cannot deny that Zilbalodis has evolved his craft in all other aspects.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
The Dead Thing – Shudder on 2/14
“It's an effective thriller that lets its themes exist beneath the surface so that those uninterested in delving deeper can simply enjoy the ghost story turned quasi-slasher on its own merits.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
The Gorge – AppleTV+ on 2/14
Thoughts are above.
Love Forever – Netflix on 2/14
The Most Beautiful Girl in the World – Netflix on 2/14
Umjolo: There is No Cure – Netflix on 2/14
Strange Darling – Prime on 2/17
“It's not that Mollner is manipulating his characters to hide the truth. He's manipulating our preconceptions to heighten it.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
Watchmen: Chapter II – Max on 2/17
Bad Genius – Hulu on 2/18
Now on VOD/Digital HD -
Better Man (2/11)
Black Dog (2/11)
From Ground Zero (2/11)
“No matter your opinion on the success of each, however, the whole is an undeniable document of an unspeakable tragedy. As a puppet declares during "Awakening": everything is gone and the world just watched.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
Hard Truths (2/11)
“But it's Jean-Baptiste who shines brightest by showcasing her talent to maintain humanity through despicable behavior. For all the bile [Pansy] spews, the person who ends up hurt most by it is her.” – Full thoughts at jaredmobarak.com.
One of Them Days (2/11)
Flight Risk (2/14)
Inheritance (2/14)
Jade (2/14)
Kid Snow (2/14)
Rounding (2/14)
Thoughts are above.
Something Is About to Happen (2/14)
Timestalker (2/14)
Thoughts are above.
When I’m Ready (2/14)