A one-line spoiler-free review of everything I watched in the cinema in September 2025

This month featuring, among others, The Toxic Avenger, The Courageous, Honey Don’t!, Caught Stealing, Happyend, and the inevitably disappointing Spinal Tap sequel.

The Toxic Avenger (2023), Macon Blair – Peter Dinklage, Kevin Bacon, Elijah Wood and Julia Davis all appear to be having the scenery-chewing time of their lives in this reboot/remake of something I remember watching on VHS the first time round. I reckon the new version probably bears a second viewing as there are so many ridiculous things going on in the background all the way through, and it left me itching to watch the original again.

Non si sevizia un paperino (Don’t Torture a Duckling) (1972), Lucio Fulci – This was beautifully shot but I didn’t get to the end of it because it 1) suddenly became extremely unpleasantly violent and 2) I realised I’d had too many frozen margaritas and had lost track of whatever the fuck was going on.

[One of the cast judging my frozen margarita intake]

The Courageous (2024), Jasmin Gordon – As someone who has made some poor parenting choices recently I found this an absorbing tale of someone making poor parenting choices.

Honey Don’t! (2025), Ethan Coen – Don’t? I am very much glad they did. It is stylish, funny, has an incredible opening credits sequence and Margaret Qualley, who I loved last year in Drive-Away Dolls is *ahem* very watchable in this …

Sorda (Deaf) (2025), Eva Libertad – This was quite a slow-burn and I nearly gave up halfway through but I am glad I didn’t. Excellent sound design and Miriam Garlo conveys a real sense of isolation and frustration throughout.

[Miriam Garlo in Sorda (Deaf)]

Caught Stealing (2025), Darren Aronofsky – This was an entertaining – if occasionally brutally violent – romp, but you know I only went to see it to enjoy Doctor Who running around with a punk hairdo. Also I got distracted by thinking that one of the Jewish gangsters was actually Graham Norton in disguise.

Thunderbirds 4K restoration double-bill (‘Trapped in the Sky’ and ‘Terror in New York City’) (1965), Alan Pattillo and David Elliott & David Lane, Thunderbirds created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson – This looked gorgeous and vibrant in the restoration, and such a technical achievement. We’ll gloss over the fact that each 50 minute episode only has about 15 minutes dialogue/plot and the rest is just “Oooooooh, clever model work!”. I mean, that was the point of the show I guess.

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues (2025), Rob Reiner – Unsurprisingly, given the trailer, this one did not go up to 11, but rather like the plot of the film, I felt contractually obliged to go watch it anyway. I mean the end was quite funny I guess.

Nosferatu with Radiohead: A Silents Synced Film ((1922, 2000/2001, 2024)), F.W. Murnau / Josh Frank – A great film, re-soundtracked for this to Amnesiac and Kid A, which are two great albums, with a little bit of occasional Adobe After Effects® colour splashes. But I remain unconvinced that playing the film and the music at the same time added anything much to either to be honest, and it wasn’t so much “synched” as “press play on the DVD and the CD at the same time”. Given how much effort I put into carefully splicing archive footage in synch for my m-orchestra shows this felt very half-arsed, there wasn’t even any attempt to rearrange the running order of the albums to match scenes thematically. Very disappointing.

Happyend (2024), Neo Sora – Another slow-burn of a movie, but I enjoyed it even if, in the end, despite having grown huge empathy for the characters, the overall messaging felt quite slight and superficial.

I may have mentioned before that my interest in cult and horror b-movies started in about 1982 when for my tenth or eleventh birthday or Christmas or whatever I got given this book as a present from my Aunty Diz (or maybe Aunty Eunice) …

… hence decades later immediately signing up for a Bar Trash 90th anniversary screening of James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein (1935).

I couldn’t quite remember whether I’d ever seen it, but a couple of iconic scenes soon made me realise that yes, I must have seen it on BBC2 at some point in the 80s/90s. It is great. Very camp and funny. And astonishingly the iconic Elsa Lanchester “bride” look which launched a thousand goth-girl fantasies of mine is only on screen for about two minutes. Mostly looking hot as fuck, yes, but also entirely baffled.

[PWHOAR etc etc]

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