viewAbout Schmidt, Alexander Payne (2002)
This movie hits differently at 52 than at 32.
In 2002, it was a dull Election follow-up; in hindsight, it matches his Nebraska with its suburban inner-sprawl dread. A bleak movie that sends time running short pings to midlife doldrums. Birth, school, work, death-level doom.
Nicholson gives one of his last great performances, injecting a sneering everyman menace into scenes. Hope Davis at her mousy best, with June Squibb, Dermot Mulroney, Kathy Bates, and Dr. Johnny Fever layering the slow-motion cringe with despair.
Pre-smartphone. Schmidt driving to Rush Limbaugh on AM radio? Quaint.
Need motivation to get going? Watch it.
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viewThe Eternaut, Netflix (2025)
Prepare for a dark, dystopian acid trip of a show, mashing up sci-fi allegories and wink-wink nods to a universe of science fiction stories. Based on the Argentinian comic El Eternauta, which debuted in 1957, it was deemed so subversive by the Argentine military leadership that the author, Héctor Germán Oesterheld, and four of his daughters “disappeared.”
The series updates the plot to modern times. The anti-authoritarian rhetoric with a scrappy resistance is as relevant now as it was throughout the twentieth century.
Covertly, also a celebration of middle-aged wisdom and long friendships, adding to the emotional weight. Binge it.
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viewPavements, Alex Ross Perry (2024)
An inventive and funny movie about a band. Parts documentary, narrative, and musical. The alchemy of farce, myth, and sentimentality is authentic to Pavement; even the parody is believable.
I searched my Human Intelligence for a comp, and the best I could find was Nathan Fielder. Both use absurdity to find truth.
I cried watching. Was it nostalgia and middle age? Was it watching with my teen daughter? Was it ignoring societal suffocation to revel in the community of the film’s third act? Was it the lyrics divorced from 90s cynicism by musical theater? Who knows, I did. Watch It.
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viewAlex Johnson – Brooklyn Motto (2025)
My fave thing about this crime novel's self-discovery ride? How funny it is. Madcap, smart-aleck, wry-wit humor keeps you invested in protagonist Nico and his predicament. Chuckles and snorts aside, it's a damn fine gumshoe yarn that tweaks expectations, updates archetypes, and features an evolved masculinity that detoxifies the genre.
Johnson's knowledge of place shines. South Brooklyn, East Village, Sunnyside, Williamsburg. Even if you don't know O'Connors from the Blue and Gold, you sense the interiors of these bars.
Like Jim Gavin, Johnson delivers scathing observations on life's absurdities while churning through clever, fast-moving plot.
Fun, poignant, memorable. Read it.
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