One of the leading candidates for multiple Academy Award nominations, the Norwegian film, Sentimental Value popped up on Fandango at Home this past week. I rented the film and watched it this Christmas afternoon.
Directed by Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value is a serious drama that starred Stellan Skarsgård, Renate Reinsve, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, and Elle Fanning.
According to the plot synopsis on Fandango, “Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård), an estranged father and once-celebrated director eager to reclaim his former glory, reconnects with his daughters Nora (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas). When Gustav offers Nora the lead role in his new film, she refuses and learns he has given the part to a Hollywood star (Elle Fanning).”
The movie is very slow and I had some difficulty in the first hour or so of staying engaged with the film. I had to keep reading the subtitles for much of the film, but I did have some challenge. The performances were solid in the beginning of the movie, but the slow burn was tough to watch.
However, as the story picked up between Gustav and his two daughters, my own engagement picked up as well. No doubt that Skarsgård and Reinsve were special in the film. Elle Fanning gave a very powerful performance as well. As we discovered more about the dysfunctional relationship between them, the more it came off the screen.
The ending was very strong and made me happy that I had continued to watch the film, when I did consider stopping it around the first half hour or so.
Percy Jackson, Annabeth and Tyson were confronted by Clarisse and her crew of dead sailors from the Underworld. After a tense standoff, they decided to work together, with Clarisse taking the role of captain, since it is her quest.
Things do not go well for the quest as they have to face the choice of either Scylla and Charybdis in order to get past them and continue their search for the Golden Fleece.
Clarisse changes the plan in mid-execution, heading off to fight the monsters using her cool on board laser canons (that looked more like something on the Millennium Falcon).
The end of the episode saw the ship starting to tear apart and getting pulled into the vortex.
There are some good flashbacks to Annabeth’s past with Luke and where they met Grover.
There were some really strong special effects for this too. Very impressive for a Disney + show.
Two more episodes from HBO Max’s The Pitt are in the tank now. This show has been exceptional. I do have to turn my head away a few times, including this episode with the burned man and the boy with the blood behind his eye, but the drama is just so intense it is worth a few wiggly feelings in my tum-tum.
When Dana took the punch to the face from a frustrated Doug Driscoll, I was shocked. I had seen a picture of her with a bloody nose when I was searching for pics on Google, but the cruelness of Driscoll was tough. I understand the frustration that he was feeling with the wait that he was having, but that does not excuse the violent response. I sure hope he gets what is coming to him.
Langdon was discovered for stealing medication. He had been leaning on Santos a lot, but she was noticing the discrepancies in some of his patients’ medication. Robby sent him packing at the end of episode 10. It feels as if this is just one more thing that is weighing down on Robby. Stresses are building on him.
We got back to the storyline with the boy and his “hit list.” McKay reported the boy to the police, who came to talk to his grandma. This arc has been slow, but feels like it is starting to build once again.
We are down to six episodes remaining of season one.
It’s not Christmas for me until I watch Muppet Christmas Carol. Of all the Christmas traditions, this is the one that I look forward to the most.
Among the dozens of adaptations, this is my ABSOLUTE favorite version of A Christmas Carol.
Michael Caine is the perfect Ebenezer Scrooge. He accomplished this feat by playing this completely straight. He played Scrooge, as he said, “like I’m working with the Royal Shakespeare Company” and not dancing, singing Muppets. Line delivery was spot on and the facial expressions brought Scrooge to life.
Another reason he is great in this film is that we see Scrooge’s humanity right off the bat. As soon as the Marley Brothers (preformed by Statler and Waldorf) showed up, you could see Scrooge begin to change. I have never liked the versions of Scrooge that feels as if he does not change until he sees his tombstone in the future. That feels insincere. Michael Caine’s work is just fantastic.
The movie is also a surprisingly accurate translation of Charles Dickins’ work. Many lines are exactly as they appear in the novel. I mean, of course, there are plenty of changes and adjustments to the film. It is narrated by a rat and a … whatever… in Gonzo the Great and Rizzo the Rat.
The design of the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come are brilliant. The Ghost of Christmas Past is just a child Muppet, but it is, arguably, the creepiest of the three. This Muppet had the perfect touch of the uncanny valley to make her frightening. I love the Ghost of Christmas Present. He always reminded me of Santa Claus. Yet to Come is the classic Grim Reaper version and looked remarkable. The Jim Henson Company was at its best with this puppetry.
I am not ashamed to say that the scene where Kermit and Miss Piggy talk about the death of Tiny Tim breaks me every time I watch it. There is just something about Kermit and Miss Piggy grieving that is just unnatural.
There are some great songs in the film. The “Scrooge” anthem that started the film off is fabulous as is the “One Sleep ’til Christmas” sung by Kermit. Above all of them though, my favorite is the song sung by the Ghost of Christmas Present called “”It Feels Like Christmas.”
I am grateful that I can watch this at any time on Disney +.
It really feels as if Pluribus has only just started its season. It’s hard to believe that the show is already up to its first season finale already, but that is the case. Apple TV + dropped the finale a couple of days early (before Christmas).
And what a finale this was. In some ways, it was smaller, quieter than I might have expected. But then again…
There was an A-Bomb!
Carol and Manousos come face to face in this episode and some of the early scenes between these two were truly hilarious. I loved the use of the umbrella to block out the chance of the drones spying on them, reading their lips.
The mistrust between Carol and Manousos was on display as they tried to communicate via cell phone translation programs. There was some high comedy with that translation program as well. When the phone was in the sewer, but still translating, well, that was the height of funny.
Carol seemed to believe that Manousos had taken it too far with his “experimentation” on the Others. Carol’s close relationship with Zosia was coloring her perspective and she joined Zosia on another isolation attempt. This time, however, it seemed clear that Manousos was not going to fold like Carol did. He seemed like a type of guy who does not mind some isolation.
Carol never really understood the relationship she shared with Zosia. Carol looked at it like it was a typical, normal relationship, but that was not the case. Carol looked to be in denial about a lot of what was going down. When Carol learned that The Others had her frozen eggs (that Carol and Helen had decided to harvest years ago) and that they could change that into stem cells, the same stem cells the Others needed to turn Carol into another member of the hivemind, things crashed around her. Carol had Zosia return her to her home and decided to join with Manousos after all.
And the atomic bomb reveal at the end was insane. Maybe it was not literally an A-bomb… though Carol had asked about it earlier in the season…
Pluribus’s first season was sensational. I know the series has been renewed for a second season. I hope we do not have to wait three years to get the next episodes.
This was not the best year for science fiction movies.
When compiling these separate lists, there just was not much on the Best side of the ledger.
As a rule, I have always excluded superhero movies as sci-fi films, even though they could be considered. In fact, Fantastic Four could absolutely be considered a science fiction film. But it is excluded.
We have kept track of the Best Horror Movie (but not the worst). Here is the previous winners:
Best Sci-Fi Movie
Previous Winners: Upgrade, Blade Runner 2049, Arrival, The Martian, Ex Machina, Star Trek Into Darkness, Edge of Tomorrow, Freaks, The Invisible Man, Dune, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Avatar: The Way of Water, Doctor Who Special 2: Wild Blue Yonder, Dune: Part II
Runner-Up: I only have one and it is Bugonia. I did like this film, as it was filled with complete insanity. Companion is kind of sci-fi.
Best Sci-Fi Movie of 2025:
Predator: Badlands
Predator has had a resurgence over the last few years since Prey. The new film Predator: Badlands features a protagonist who is an actual predator. Elle Fanning was great in the film as the synth Thia.
Worst Sci-Fi Movie of 2025…
We do not have previous winners, but we have a ton of runners-up.
Runners-Up: Tron: Ares, Star Trek: Section 31, M3GAN 2.0, 2073, Electric State. Mickey 17 was on the border between fresh and rotten, but I had it just under the positive.
Worst…
War of the Worlds
There will be more to say about this one down the line. This is just a horrendous film. I feel for poor Ice Cube. What chance did he really have. I mean, if only he worked for Amazon Prime!
Happy Christmas Eve to everyone. With the year coming to a close soon, there are a few more in theater movies to watch. The first of the few remaining theater films today was Timothée Chalamet’s new film, Marty Supreme.
I was really surprised with this movie. It was not what I was expecting. Apparently, this is slightly based on a real person, but in a fictional story with fictional things happening. The main character of this movie, Marty Mauser, is based on Marty Reisman, an American table tennis player, and it is directed by Josh Safdie.
What surprised me about this movie was how unlikable the character of Marty Mauser was. He was such a jerk to everyone. Selfish. Rotten. Mean-spirited. Obnoxious. Marty is a con man who will do some rotten things to try an accomplish what he wanted to do. During the first half of the film, I was thinking about how Marty was so rotten, yet how I found myself rooting for him. That, surprisingly, did not stay as I was rooting for the other guy in the final act.
Timothée Chalamet was excellent in the role of Marty. He disappeared into the role and I never was thinking about him as the actor that he was. It was a great performance and will probably earn him an Academy Award nomination.
It is a risk having a protagonist as unlikable as Marty Mauser because you take the chance of alienating the audience. However, there is such great writing involved and Marty is such a complex character that you can understand why he is doing the terrible things that he is doing.
The film is a little long, and there was a spot where I thought the movie might be ending (and I feel as if maybe it should have). I can’t go into details without spoiling it.
I expected Marty Supreme to be a good time, feel good story. It is not that. It is challenging and dark. It is a great film.
This episode hit hard. It was a one-two punch and that did not even take into account Dr. Collins and the miscarriage. That was pushed back by the character and the moment.
We get a young girl who was a drowning victim, who the staff desperately tried to warm up so they could get her heart started. The little girl who, as we find out, saved her little sister from drowning in the pool.
Oh my god, this was heartbreaking. Every minute of this story on screen ripped at the heart. If there ever was a story that demanded a happy ending, it was this one, but that would not be coming.
Then, as the grief over the loss of this little girl was sitting with us, they held an honor walk for Nick Bradley, the young man whose story has been going on for most of the show. His parents finally decided to allow the organ donation to proceed and the wheeled him out of the ER past friends and staff.
The show had to counterbalance the anguish of the episode with a man who arrived with a malfunctioning pacemaker, who was named Willie, and he turned out to be a member of the Freedom House Ambulance Service, which was the very first U.S. emergency service staffed by paramedics with medical training that went beyond basic first aid.
There was also a nice moment with Dr. Javadi, a patient and a corpse of a black widow spider.
But all of the loss floating around the ER was palatable and just emotionally stunning. This may have been the best episode the series so far.
The Batman and Robins are the awards we give out every year for the worst of the worst. The awards for rottenness are given out to stuff that just did not work.
Worst Movie: To be revealed at the Least Favorite Movies list.
Worst Actor: Ice Cube (War of the Worlds). Ice Cube is a talented performer who gave a horrible performance in a horrible movie.
Worst Actress: Gal Gadot (Disney’s Snow White). She was miscast as the Evil Queen and nothing that happened in Snow White showed that she could not elevate the material.
Worst Director: Justin Tipping (HIM). One of the worst films of the year. It’s so bad that they needed to pretend that Jordan Peele had something to do with it.
Worst Sequel: Fear Street: Prom Queen. The first Fear Street trilogy was so good and a lot of fun. This was the antithesis of that.
Worst CGI: Star Trek: Section 31. Not much was good about this one.
Favorite Rotten Movie: Captain America: Brave New World. There is a lot of hate for this movie, but I enjoyed it a lot. It could have been better, but it does not deserve as much hatred as it got.
Worst Movie That I Did Not See: The Smurfs
Cashing a Paycheck: Richard Dreyfuss (Into the Deep). Dreyfuss was one of the reasons why I watched this shark movie. That was a mistake.
Worst Reboot/Remake: I Know What You Did Last Summer.
Most Successful Bad Movie: A Minecraft Movie
Worst Movie Based on TV/Video Game: Smurfs
Worst Superhero Movie: Old Guard 2
Worst Trailer: A Minecraft Movie. This trailer showed me how terrible this was going to be
WTF: 2073. It was from HBO Max, but it was a bizarre mixture of doc and horrific film.
Worst Performance by Oscar Winner: Michelle Yeoh (Stra Trek: Section 31)
Worst TV Show I Watched: Alien: Earth. Started great, but fell off quickly. Too boring for an alien show.
Worst Product Placement: Amazon Prime in War of the Worlds. It played more like an advertisement for Amazon Prime.
The original theme for the Transformers animated series was written by Ford Kinder and Anne Bryant.
The line “More than meets the eye” is a line that I will use to this day. The theme was adjusted and changed over the different iterations of the franchise, but “Robots in Disguise” found its way into most of them.
The original theme also gave us the Transform sound that would become iconic in the world of entertainment. When you hear the sound, you know what it is. It is like the starting up of a light saber. Everyone knows what that sound means.
There were so many great TV shows on streaming and TV. We split them into four categories: Drama, Comedy, Genre and Animated.
Starting with Animation:
#5. Eyes of Wakanda(Disney +). Good show with four episodes dropped all on one day. Second half of those episodes were considerably better.
#4. Win or Lose(Disney +). Pixar show on Disney + that I watched during the Sunday Morning Sidewalk. Highly entertaining and well written.
#3. Marvel Zombies(Disney +). This one turned out way better than I ever thought it would. Another one day drop by Marvel on Disney +.
#2. Hazbin Hotel (Amazon Prime). Second season of the Hell musical was awesome. Wonderful music and amazing voice acting.
#1. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (Disney +). One of the best animated Spider-Man series in quite a long time. Great characterization, not only for Peter, but also for Lonnie (Tombstone). I loved the adjusted origin and the tie ins to the MCU was clever.
Comedy
#4. Poker Face (Peacock). Always entertaining. Natasha Lyonne is great as Charlie. Every time is seemed like the show made an adjustment. And that was the truth.
#3. Stick (Apple TV +). Owen Wilson starred as a former golf pro who finds a skilled kid who he wanted to help become a pro. Funny and clever.
#2. The Studio (Apple TV +). Insider story starring Seth Rogan as a movie studio exec and his struggles to get his films out. Hilarious writing and a ton of brilliant cameos.
#1. Only Murders in the Building (Hulu). The fifth season of this venerable series was remarkably entertaining and funny. There has been some great seasons of this show, and the fifth one worked so well.
Drama
#10. The White Lotus (HBO Max). This was my least favorite of the three seasons of White Lotus. I was only really interested in one of the stories, and I was unhappy with the resolution.
#9. Squid Game Season 3 (Netflix). Squid Game was really great, but was tainted by the finale, which left way too much undone and unsolved. The end hurt this badly.
#8. The Bear (Hulu). A much better season than the previous one. The Bear felt like it got back to the success from the early seasons. This is in a drama because it is NOT a comedy.
#7. Duster (HBO Max). This was a fun series with Josh Holloway and a duster car. This sadly did not get a second season, but it was much better than it got credit for.
#6. The Pitt (HBO Max). This one might be higher if I had watched the entire series. I am currently at episode 7. Great medical show with Noah Wylie.
#5. Pluribus (Apple TV +). Another one that might be higher on this list if it is finished. There is only one more episode left, but it is really great.
#4. Yellowjackets (Paramount +). The third season continues to show the weirdness of the forest. The story of the mysterious events are still exceptional.
#3. Adolescence (Netflix). Four episode mini series from Netflix with a teenage boy who is charged with murder. Brilliant performances from Stephen Graham and Owen Cooper.
#2. Dexter: Resurrection(Showtime). After the up and down nature of Dexter: Original Sin, I did not expect much out of Resurrection. However, this was a sensational series with Dexter taking up residence in New York. This was so fabulous.
#1. Paradise (Hulu). One of the best new series of the year. The mystery behind the death of the President and what was going on with the story. Paradise was so wonderful. I did not expect it to be this good.
Genre
#15. Alien: Earth (FX). This started great, but it fell off quick. I actually never finished this series.
#14. Fallout (Amazon Prime). I have only seen one episode of season two so far, which is why this is as low as it is. It might be on the 2026 list too.
#13. Silo (Apple TV +). The ending part of the season came into 2025 and it was a very strong season.
#12. Perry Jackson and the Olympians (Disney +). Another show that would be higher on the list had there been more episodes released by now. I do like the mythologically based show.
#11. The Last of Us (HBO Max). The second season of The Last of Us was a step down from the first season.. mainly because of the results of Joel’s fate. It was brutal and damaged the show.
#10. Wednesday(Netflix). The second season of this show was good, but maybe not as great as season one. Still solid and it had some great new characters.
#9. Doctor Who (Disney +). I am sad that Ncuti Gatwa was gone from the role by the end of the season. I loved him as The Doctor. This was a great season with some excellent episodes.
#8. Ironheart (Disney +). Ironheart was better than I expected and… MEPHISTO CONFIRMED!!!
#7. Gen V (Amazon Prime). Gen V does a great job setting up for the end of the Boys in 2026. The characters are excellent and the story was awesome. Brutal as always.
#6. Murderbot (Apple TV +). Surprise series with a robot that becomes sentient. A fun sci-fi series with a wonderful group of characters that are easy to root for.
#5. Strangers Things 5 (Netflix). The first part of the final season of Stranger Things was so great, especially the ending of episode 4 with Will.
#4. Andor (Disney +). The second and final season of Andor is amazing. You knew what the fate of these characters would be, yet the drama of this series was never lacking.
#3. Peacemaker (HBO Max). John Cena’s second season dealt with the multiverse and Peacemaker has to confront so many of his personal demons. A great season for this show… and another brilliant opening credits.
#2. Daredevil: Born Again (Disney +). Daredevil returned and brought Kingpin with him. Shocking death in the first ten minutes set the tone for the season. I wish they had done more with Muse, but it had a great episode in a bank.
#1. It: Welcome to Derry (HBO Max). The prequel to the movie series was so great. The first episode introduced us to a group of kids, made us love them, and then killed them off. Then, we meet another group of kids who had to struggle against Pennywise. Bill Skarsgård was amazing as Pennywise, scary and sinister. A satisfying conclusion with one of the best finale of the year.
It was a big year for the child actors. There have been some truly powerful performances in the world of entertainment in 2025. The days of kid actors getting cast because they were the niece of the director is probably over (at least, unless that niece is incredibly talented).
Previous winners:
I See Kid Actor Award
Previous Winners: Emjay Anthony (Chef), Jacob Trembley (Room), Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things), Dafne Keen (Logan), Elsie Fisher (Eighth Grade), Noah Jupe (Honey Boy), McKenna Grace (Troop Zero), Jeremy T. Thomas (Antlers), Alisha Weir (Matilda the Musical, Abigail), Madeleine Yuna Voyles (The Creator)
Runners-Up: Last year, I speculated that our only two-time winner of the I See Kid Actor Award, Alisha Weir, was rumored to be up for Dorothy in Wicked: For Good and that she might be a threepeat. She was not cast in the role and will need to wait for awhile to gain that third award. Cary Christopher carried a lot of weight in the hit film Weapons as the one boy who did not disappear. His scenes were very powerful. Christian Convey has been a runner up for this award multiple times from his past work as Sweet Tooth, Cocaine Bear, and Oliver in Invincible. He is back in the runner-up column for his role in The Monkey.Maia Kealoha had a huge job stepping into the live action role of Lilo in Lilo & Stitch. The young girl did a fantastic job. The Gomer Award winner this year, Sketch, had a group of kids who were at the center of the story and did a tremendous job including Bianca Belle, Kue Lawrence, and Kalm Cox. Group of kids fighting monsters has been a popular trope lately. Stranger Things 5 has returned with a couple of new kids to go with the rapidly aging kids from past seasons. Nell Fisher became Holly, sister of Mike, and Jake Connelly, who stole the show in episode 4 as “Dipshit Derek.” Then, It: Welcome to Derry had two groups of kids. The first group Pennywise murdered including Matty, played by Miles Ekhardt. Teddy and Phil, played respectfully by Mikkal Karim-Fidler and Jack Molloy Legault, also died in the first episode, shocking us all. However, the next group of kids really became the focal point of the show, especially Will, played by Blake Cameron James, Lilly, played by Clara Stack, Marge, played by Matilda Lawler, and everyone’s favorite hero Rich, played by Arian S. Cartaya. I would have considered Cartaya for this award because of the impact that character had on the show, if the award winner wasn’t so obvious. Alfie Williams was one of the lead actors in 28 Years Later, and he did a great job in a very difficult role. Other actors included Helena Zengel (The Legend of Ochi), Sara Wong (Bring Her Back) and Patrick Scott McDermott (Rust).
The winner of the I See Kid Actors Award for 2025 is…
Owen Cooper (Adolescence)
I knew this winner back when I watched Adolescence on Netflix in March/April. Owen Cooper played Jamie Miller, the young boy accused of murder in the four episode miniseries.
Cooper was absolutely staggering in the role. He carried off the character with the professionalism of a long time actor. This was his first major role. He wound up receiving an Emmy Award for his performance.
Specifically episode three of the show, which was a continual one shot (as all of the show was) between Jamie and clinical psychologist Briony, played by Erin Doherty. The performance was chilling as the show dived deeply into the mind of the damaged boy.
I knew he would get this award and, despite some heavy competition above, Owen Cooper is the I See Kid Actor Award winner for 2025.
Okay, there were a couple of moments during these two episodes that we rough on me. There was a heart attack scene that was just about more than I could handle.
I do like how the show has been, for the most part, more about the characters than with the illnesses. Whether it be the staff of the ER or the patients, the characters are the driving force behind story.
The abortion arc is really good. There is a father abuse storyline that did not work for me. One comment was made that the doctors and nurses were mandatory reporters but couldn’t report without evidence. As a mandatory reporter, that is patently incorrect. That pulled me out of the scene.
Then, it took a dramatic twist with Trinity Santos, who was a character that I have not been a fan of so far in the series, and a vicious confrontation with the child abuser in question. It was fairly unrealistic, but very kick ass. It helped that storyline.
The end of episode seven was horrific, as Dr. Collins went into the restroom, with tears, seeing blood in her underwear. There had been subtle hints through the last couple of episodes that Collins, who was pregnant, was going to have something terrible happen to the baby. While it is unconfirmed as of yet, this ending scene did not make things look good.
This pair of episodes started to show Doctor Robby was acting unlike he normally would do. I had a bit of a problem with that too because up until here, he seemed like he was great. I had no idea that he was acting differently than normal. The show had told us about his struggles on the anniversary of his mentor’s death, but I still thought he was doing a great job. When Collins called him out on his behavior, I was surprised. Some of these scenes with Robby felt out of place from the rest of the season. Of course, we did not know Robby before this series, and all of the episodes have been the same day, so it is hard to see the changes.
The show brought up the kid with the “hit list” again, but it is a story arc that feels like it will come back hard later in the season.
I was so happy that Whittaker made it through episode 7 without having to change his scrubs!
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 