Totally concur! National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is by far the best of the National Lampoon movies, plus for me it has great nostalgia value. I watch it every Christmas! And you gotta love the great upbeat theme song sung by Mavis Staples over the opening credits.
Nickel Boys
Highly recommended
Powerful movie about “schools” for White and Black juvenile delinquents that takes place main in the 1960’s. Of course, the white kids have it much better and the black kids are separated and treated much worse, including abuse of all kinds.
Fictional, but based on true accounts of a school in Florida that, shockingly, only closed in 2011.
This movie is entirely shot from the first-person perspective of two boys, one named Elwood and the other Turner. And I do mean FIRST-person, as we see through their eyes, alternating as the story sees fit.
Maybe because I am a teacher and maybe because of recent rise of bigotry and Trump, etc., but I found this movie painfully powerful. They dug up bodies of many boys decades later.
Not to different from the horrific residential schools in Canada.
Definitely see this one. Over two hours, but very gripping.
Sherrybaby 2006 Maggie Gyllenhaal
Highly Recommend
This movie is quite a gut punch for me. Sherry is recently released from prison, living in a halfway house, struggling to stay clean, and reconnect with her daughter.
She’s attending AA meetings. Navigating relationships with guys who want her only for sex. Her desperation and loneliness is powerful.
There’s a scene where she’s very carefully dressed and applied makeup for a job interview. The interview isn’t going well because of her criminal record. Sherry unbuttons her shirt and offers oral sex (not shown) for a job. It’s not gratuitous. It shows her desperation for a normal life with a family and job.
The film won several awards. I couldn’t find it on streaming services. It’s on dvd or bluray or uh other ways. 
Next, I want to watch Maggie Gyllenhaal in Secretary 2002. Also a Gloden Globe winner. It’s on Prime.
Link from LA Times Sex and 'SherryBaby'
Horizon Part one, apparently. Another western with Kevin Costner. Way longer and way more confusing than it needs to be, and apparently there will be a part two (or more) to come along at some point.
Thanks for the recommendation. Between the “definitely want to watch” Best Picture nominees and the “not interested” ones, this is one I was waffling over. Will give it a watch, thanks.
Yeah, it would not have made my top 10 of 2024 had I seen it in the year, but it would have made my top 20 most likely.
It’s fictional, but based on a real school and the incidents of abuse there.
You can read about the school that the movie is based upon in Florida School for Boys - Wikipedia .
Yes, I went there right away. I can’t even say I’m shocked, to be honest. Terrible place.
Babygirl. This is a tough one to comment on.
Nichole Kidman is a big time exec with sexual issues. Major sexual issues. She starts up with an older intern played by Harris Dickinson. 28 IRL but looks much older. He seems to trying to channel Richard Gere from his An Officer and a Gentleman era. Doesn’t work. Antonio Banderas is her husband.
I somehow got the dynamic backwards going in. The intern is Not a Good Person who preys on Kidman’s mental health issues. Ugly “sex” scenes ensue. Not at all pleasant to watch IMO.
There’s several things I don’t get. Kidman gives a bit of a business bio at one point. Started working at a failing business. Quit and started up a very successful competitor. People mention that she has reached the top. So she’s the boss, right? Apparently not.
Of course the sound editor for the film is a total idiot. Loud music, crowd noises. People whispering at a very low level. Constantly adjusting the volume. Missed quite a bit of dialogue. The usual craziness.
The sound track is interesting at times. E.g., it has INXS’s Never Tear Us Apart and other oldies. It would have been fun to have another song from that era used: Pat Wilson’s Bop Girl.
The “sex” stuff is there. Very little actual significant nudity. Mostly just shoulders/backs, occasional full backal. But lots of moaning, etc.
I keep thinking about, you know, the storyline. Kidman’s character apparently has issues from childhood. You figure out she is messed up as it goes along. But what is her actual story, story? The films comes across quite empty in terms of a well thought out, connected plot arc. It just seems so random at times.
Give it 2 handfuls of kibble.
Moana 2 (2024). Visually beautiful and fairly entertaining. I enjoyed watching it but after seeing the first one recently I really felt like this was a sequel that did not need to be made. The first film was perfectly self contained and did not raise the questions that this one set out to answer. It is still interesting that the basis of both is the mystery of why the people in Polynesia abruptly stopped making long-distance voyages, and this film gives an invented reason for that. On the whole, not bad, but at least for me not particular memorable.
Back in Action (2025) Streaming on Netflix. A fun action movie about a married couple with kids that happen to have been spies before they had kids. Of course the past comes back and they have to deal with it. This is the type of movie that depends on the charisma of the actors more than the plot and I think Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz did a great job in that respect. Anyone who is married and has kid is likely to find many of the situations particularly amusing.
//i\\
I just watched The Fall Guy. It’s been mentioned a number of times in this thread but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was a fan of the TV show and they did a good job of capturing the mood of the old series. I also got a kick out of the Bionic Man “nuhnuhnuhnuhnuh” effect they threw in a few times.
The Brutalist.
First, the term “brutalism” is never mentioned in the movie. Second…I can’t remember the last time I went to the movies for a film with an intermission. Sound of Music? Lawrence of Arabia?
I loved the first half. After that … I have some notes, primarily with the screenplay. It’s full of things that seem like they should be consequential, but in hindsight turn out to have not mattered at all.
And the climax is the most “Where did that come from?” turn of events since Poochy returned to his home planet on The Itchy & Scratchy Show. It’s like the writers didn’t know how to end their story, so they threw a bomb and ran away. If it wins a Screenplay Oscar I’ll throw something at my TV.
2001: A Space Odyssey?
Hamlet (1997) had an intermission.
Let’s not forget Monty Python and the Holy Grail! It has an intermission too!
//i\\
RRR (2022) has an intermission.
Of course. Probably in my top 5 of this current decade and I forgot.
Yesterday’s double feature for me was a couple of cheesy low-buget horror/sci-fi comedies: Psycho Goreman and Critters. Great fun, perfect for a rainy afternoon.
When I was a kid in the 80s, movie intermissions were still very common–and not like EPICS…just regular movies.
Watched Rambo First Blood. Been a long time (lessee here, decades). It holds up. Some of the themes are ‘hit you over the head’ but Stallone, Dennehy, and Crenna are top shelf. Rambo and the sheriff morph into mirror images. Some anti-war commentary, small town mentality, Crenna as the sanity.
Noticed the beginning; drifter comes into town looking for something to eat, trouble ensues; reminds me of The Jack Reacher movie (Cruise) and the beginning of the first episode of Reacher, the series.