Jeremy Beck

Poster for FATHER OF THE BRIDE

#NW #Holiday95Rewatch

Featuring music from Vampire Weekend, I presume.

Poster for THE RUNNING MAN

Poster for KEEPER

Poster for HAMNET

This weekend in “I contain cinematic multitudes”:

Eddington: Sicking and Screaming - MovieManifesto Ari Aster's COVID movie is a chaotic jumble of half-baked ideas, but Joaquin Phoenix helps keep things on track.

EDDINGTON is now streaming on HBO Max. It is, if nothing else, one of 2025’s most *interesting* movies. moviemanifesto.com/2025/07/eddi...

A ★★★ review of Die My Love (2025) It's tempting to compare this to If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, but what's interesting here is that motherhood is basically the heroine's lone salvation; as she puts it, "It's everything else that's the ...

DIE MY LOVE (Ramsay, B-): Whoa hard feelings

#DieMyLove letterboxd.com/moviemanifes...

Poster for WAITING TO EXHALE

#NW #Holiday95Rewatch

Looking forward to a blind Stephen Lang showing up.

Predator: Badlands review: All Riot on the Western Hunt - MovieManifesto The latest Predator movie doesn't reinvent the sci-fi wheel, but it's a well-crafted actioner, with a welcome dose of buddy comedy.

“Setting aside its radical conception of a Predator who’s basically Katniss Everdeen, nothing in BADLANDS is especially surprising. What makes the movie work is the caliber of its craftsmanship and the inventiveness of its design.”

#Predator #PredatorBadlands moviemanifesto.com/2025/11/pred...

Do I love HAL & HARPER because it’s funny and tender and sad, or do I love it because it needle-drops Waxahatchee into every episode?

Predator: Badlands review: All Riot on the Western Hunt - MovieManifesto The latest Predator movie doesn't reinvent the sci-fi wheel, but it's a well-crafted actioner, with a welcome dose of buddy comedy.

New piece: I mostly liked PREDATOR: BADLANDS. It’s a well-crafted action movie (and buddy comedy!) that understands its strengths and limitations, even if it lacks the thematic ambition of PREY.

Review here: #Predator #PredatorBadlands moviemanifesto.com/2025/11/pred...

'This animal spared my life': Biologist bitten in head by shark hopes to meet it again (Plus picture of guy with a shark bite on his face)

Asked for comment about why he wished to reencounter the shark, the biologist simply answered, “Revenge.”

Poster for PREDATOR BADLANDS

Poster for DIE MY LOVE

Poster for CHRISTY

This weekend in “I contain cinematic multitudes” (sorry Netflix you should’ve released FRANKENSTEIN in theaters like a real movie studio):

A ★★★★ review of It Was Just an Accident (2025) Between this and Bugonia, Death and the Maiden sure is having a revival these days, huh? But there's much more going on here than just a suspenseful thriller of (potential) mistaken identity. Panahi b...

IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (Panahi, A-): Snatch-and-gab job

#ItWasJustAnAccident letterboxd.com/moviemanifes...

Rhea Seehorn in BETTER CALL SAUL

Rhea Seehorn in PLURIBUS

Rhea Seehorn’s performance in BETTER CALL SAUL was remarkable in part for how restrained it was, so it’s fascinating that in #Pluribus she’s playing someone who’s literally the most emotionally volatile person in the entire world.

Bugonia review: Alien vs. Redditor - MovieManifesto Yorgos Lanthimos' new whatsit lacks the power or beauty of his best work, but it's entertaining, with some sobering thoughts on America.

Evening bump: I wrote about BUGONIA.

It’s one of Yorgos Lanthimos’ lesser movies, which means it’s merely Quite Good.

#Bugonia moviemanifesto.com/2025/11/bugo...

Gauging the consensus is always imprecise, but I’d highlight:

Susan Chardy, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
David Jonsson, The Long Walk
Ralph Fiennes, 28 Years Later
Aisling Franciosi, Twinless
Robert Pattinson, Mickey 17
Channing Tatum, Roofman

And my favorite overlooked movie: On Swift Horses

Bugonia review: Alien vs. Redditor - MovieManifesto Yorgos Lanthimos' new whatsit lacks the power or beauty of his best work, but it's entertaining, with some sobering thoughts on America.

“Where BUGONIA does endure is its portrait of contemporary America... Even if its themes and its plot clash rather than harmonize, it is *watchable*, with two memorable characters whose respective neuroses are individuated rather than purely symbolic.”

#Bugonia moviemanifesto.com/2025/11/bugo...

As for the Government’s suggestion that the President is harmed by not being able to impose a uniform definition of sex across various regulatory schemes, that assertion is just another species of the far-fetched contention that the President must be injured whenever he is prevented from doing as he wishes. Department of Homeland Security v. D. V. D.,606 U. S. ___, ___–___ (2025) (S OTOMAYOR, J., dissenting from grant of stay) (slip op., at 11–12). The Government also fails to explain why it needs a uniform definition of sex, much less why such a uniform definition needs to be im-posed now such that it cannot await the outcome of this litigation.

This is obviously terrible, but I appreciate Jackson pointing out that Trump’s legal argument is basically “I should be allowed to do whatever I want.”

Thanks, Jason! Always appreciate you reading. And yeah, this is basically my seventh-favorite Lanthimos movie, which means it is merely Quite Good.

Bugonia review: Alien vs. Redditor - MovieManifesto Yorgos Lanthimos' new whatsit lacks the power or beauty of his best work, but it's entertaining, with some sobering thoughts on America.

New piece: I wrote about BUGONIA. It isn’t as majestic as Yorgos Lanthimos’ best movies, but it’s damn entertaining, with strong performances from Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons, and it accurately reflects just how fucked up this country is.

Review here: #Bugonia moviemanifesto.com/2025/11/bugo...

“My endorsement means a lot to me” is such a spectacular tautology. Forget “many people are saying,” we’ve moved on to “I’m very important in my opinion.”

Naomi, defending the religious upbringing of her children, insists that she possesses the perfect and singular understanding of Jewishness: “a progressive egalitarian Conservative Judaism with an emphasis on ritual and community over faith and blind practice.” That seems reasonable enough, but as Avi grows older, he finds himself straying from his heritage, complaining that executing different ceremonies simply amounts to “doing a bunch of stuff” for no reason. For Shira’s part, she turns to cooking in a time of grief, hoping that replicating her deceased mother’s exact recipe for knish will create a closeness in death that they never shared in life. Shira’s wife, Kendra (Nicole Byer), initially pretends to be Jewish in order to wriggle out of a sticky situation at work, only to attend synagogue during Yom Kippur and become so moved by the notion of collective atonement that she decides to convert. And Yoshi, ever the listless and unfulfilled child, finds structure and kinship in Orthodoxy, even though its ancient codes and peculiar canons alarm his Reformist siblings. The point is simple but important: Jews are not a monolith. Even within a single family, Jewishness is amenable to countless permutations; it can’t be reduced to a one-size-fits-all template (or two stone tablets) of beliefs and customs. And that’s a message that should be disseminated loudly and repeatedly, given how the extant political machinery in America is weaponizing the concept of Jewishness—and is purporting to combat anti-Semitism—in ways that are vulgar and dangerous.

Before classifying voters as Jewish, demographic pollsters should be required to watch LONG STORY SHORT.

moviemanifesto.com/2025/09/in-l...

Poster for BUGONIA

Poster for IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT

Poster for IF I HAD LEGS I'D KICK YOU

This weekend in “I contain cinematic multitudes”:

Deliver Me from Nowhere, Blue Moon, and the Pleasures of the Biopic Performance - MovieManifesto Jeremy Allen White plays Bruce Springsteen, while Ethan Hawke becomes Lorenz Hart. One is solid; the other is spectacular.

“This doesn’t mean that he disappears into the role, obliterating the distinction between actor & character. Quite the opposite: Hawke flaunts his gifts with a conspicuous élan, and it’s this showboating quality that makes his performance so inhabiting.”

#BlueMoon moviemanifesto.com/2025/10/deli...

Deliver Me from Nowhere, Blue Moon, and the Pleasures of the Biopic Performance - MovieManifesto Jeremy Allen White plays Bruce Springsteen, while Ethan Hawke becomes Lorenz Hart. One is solid; the other is spectacular.

“White’s vocals are impressive, but otherwise, he isn’t extending himself; it’s hard not to watch him and think, ‘What if the dude from THE BEAR could sing?’ It’s a solid, sturdy performance whose lack of bravado works both for & against it.”

#DeliverMeFromNowhere moviemanifesto.com/2025/10/deli...

Deliver Me from Nowhere, Blue Moon, and the Pleasures of the Biopic Performance - MovieManifesto Jeremy Allen White plays Bruce Springsteen, while Ethan Hawke becomes Lorenz Hart. One is solid; the other is spectacular.

New piece: I wrote about the lead performances in two recent biopics, Jeremy Allen White in SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE and Ethan Hawke in BLUE MOON. I didn’t fake an accent, but maybe I’ll still land an Oscar nomination?

#DeliverMeFromNowhere #BlueMoon moviemanifesto.com/2025/10/deli...

I'm overgeneralizing here, but it's dispiriting to me how much of online film criticism has been reduced to, "I strongly like/dislike this movie, and if you feel differently about it that's because you're a fucking idiot and maybe a bigot"

Just found this in my Drafts folder. Not ideal.

A ★★★½ review of The Mastermind (2025) "Imagine if the Coen Brothers made a heist comedy without any jokes" isn't the most exciting logline. And I do still sometimes chafe against Reichardt's pacing. She's an incredibly patient filmmaker, ...

THE MASTERMIND (Reichardt, B): Meek, shutoff

#TheMastermind letterboxd.com/moviemanifes...

“You can’t just sit there and do nothing.”
“I’m not doing nothing, I’m sending my best agents. And you.”

This wasn’t my favorite season of #SlowHorses, but I will always savor Gary Oldman shitting on Jack Lowden.

In “Long Story Short,” Jews Will Not Be Replaced - MovieManifesto Netflix's new comedy is a powerful exploration of what it means to be Jewish. Someone should tell the Trump administration.

Finished S2 of #NobodyWantsThis, and if you’re interested in a smart and funny Netflix comedy that also wrestles sincerely with what it means to be Jewish in modern America, might I recommend LONG STORY SHORT?

moviemanifesto.com/2025/09/in-l...

A ★★★½ review of A House of Dynamite (2025) Is the triptych structure a brilliant device or a pointless gimmick? I'll go with neither. I don't know that this story *needed* to be told in this way; it's certainly possible to imagine a more linea...

A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE (Bigelow, B): Ground control to major bomb

#AHouseOfDynamite letterboxd.com/moviemanifes...

Easily my favorite of his solo records thus far. It’ll likely make my year-end top 10, and “Luke and Leanna” is my pick for song of the year.