I’m slowing down on movies. I’m getting back to 2023 numbers, where my number of films watched in a month stays in the single digits. That might not be the worst thing in the world; I have a big life change coming up fast. However, I did manage to revisit the Yonge-Dundas Cineplex for the first time in a while for a double feature of The Drama and Mile End Kicks with my wife—definitely the highlight of this month in movies.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
United States of America, Japan | 2026 | 98m | English
The three stars is a little generous tbh. I felt bad giving my standard “meh” score of 2.5 to something that clearly had a lot of artistry and imagination go into it.
There’s not much of a story to draw you in—and I’m pretty sure it even violates some of the Mario lore. I now understand what Martin Scorsese meant when he described Marvel movies as theme park rides as opposed to cinema. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is peak theme park ride movie. It is a long, deep slop trough laid out for you to plunge your entire head and shoulders into while you scoop double fistfuls of popcorn out of the special promo Yoshi popcorn container.
“It’s Monty Mole!” said the children sitting behind me excitedly. I gloated silently in my seat because I could identify which game Wart came from while they vocalized their uncertainty. Yes, I am a 32-year-old man who recognized each and every reference in this film. After the Lumas referred to Rosalina as their mother for the second or third time, I suddenly found myself wondering if/how Rosalina gives birth to them, shuddering at the thought that scores of online artists had surely already depicted an answer to this question. (For all its constant color and motion, this movie is strangely dull, so forgive my mind for wandering.)
Nothing in this movie makes sense. We’re all just here for the ride. “Omg it’s the T-Rex from Mario Odyssey!” If reading that spoiler made you angry just now, you are the audience for this movie. Enjoy.
Harold and Maude
United States of America | 1971 | 92m | English
Really wasn’t sure how I felt about this movie at first. I tend not to like stories that make jokes out of suicide. But as it unfolds it shows a unique and memorable relationship between two weirdos living the way they want, despite what everyone else says. It is carried by the performance of Ruth Gordon as Maude. She’s selfish and antisocial, sure, but it’s a delight to see someone live so confidently on her own terms.
Fallen Angels
Hong Kong | 1995 | 98m | Cantonese, Chinese, English, Japanese
I wanted to like this more than I did. It impressed me early on with the late night, chaotic Hong Kong atmosphere and interesting cinematography, but as it went on I felt like it wore out its welcome with its wandering plot and insufferable characters. I liked the parts with the assassin way more than the parts with the mute… uh… hooligan. My viewing of this was split across several nights—and nighttime really does feel like the only time to watch this—so maybe if I were to rewatch it one day all in one go I may appreciate it better.
The Drama
United States of America | 2026 | 105m | English
The marketing for The Drama smartly avoids giving away the inciting incident for the titular “drama,” and I was glad that I managed to watch this movie without having spoiled it for myself beforehand. If you haven’t watched this movie yet, close out of this review because what I want to talk about involves those spoilers.
… That being said, if you’re still here, maybe you share my sense that everyone was too harsh to Zendaya’s character. For someone to have the feelings she had, she would have been in the deep throes of depression and soul-corroding anger. At the end of the day, she didn’t actually go through with it. It was a dark, awful time in her life but one she ultimately climbed out of without causing any real damage—other than to her own hearing. Apart from, I guess, stealing her dad’s gun, she didn’t actually do anything wrong.
Contrast that with the past actions of the characters played by Robert Pattinson and Alana Haim. They actually did carry out their “worst things they’ve ever done.” Maybe my own morals are totally out-of-sync with Hollywood’s expectations (it would not be the first time, trust me), but I genuinely think that cyberbullying a child so badly that you cause not only him but also his entire family to move is far worse than the crime of… what, being depressed? Then we see what he does with his coworker shortly before the wedding! One has to wonder whether the animosity shown towards Zendaya’s character has more to do with the others’ own sense of moral superiority and their desire to absolve themselves of guilt by putting someone else down.
Now, I actually did enjoy this movie. I think Zendaya and Robert Pattinson are both great actors and their chemistry is what makes the movie work. The story keeps you guessing until the end—and it makes you think, although perhaps more about the morals and assumptions of its writers than intended.
Mile End Kicks
Canada, United States of America, Finland | 2025 | 111m | English, French
I had been dying to see Mile End Kicks ever since I heard MGMT’s “Time to Pretend” feature prominently in its trailer. The song has been stuck in my head since—which means it’s been there at least a month at this point.
I can almost relate to this movie. In 2011 I was still in college, not quite at the post-university, first-“real”-job age of these characters. Nor was I living in Canada yet (that wouldn’t come until graduate school in 2018), but I too was music-obsessed at this exact point in time. My own experiences in bands and around musicians at this age and in this era made so much of this movie ring true to me. Even when the characters referenced bands I wasn’t personally familiar with, I still felt like I “got it.”
I think Mile End Kicks will appeal to a lot of viewers who are now thankful to be past their early twenties and can relate to the ambition, awkwardness, and quiet desperation of this phase of life. The Canada setting and 2010s indie soundtrack are the cherries on top for this charming and funny coming-of-age story.
Walker
United States of America, Mexico, Nicaragua, Spain | 1987 | 95m | English, Spanish
I once asked ChatGPT to give me a list of right wing Hollywood films and it answered Walker. I… think it misunderstood. To be fair, so did a lot of people, it seems, when this movie first came out. That zero-star Ebert review where he laments that the satirical tone wasn’t made obvious by its trailer is pretty funny in hindsight.
I watched Walker on a rare 35mm screening with two rounds of introductions—one of them recorded by the director himself—so it was never lost on me that Walker is a scathing critique of Reagan-era American imperialism absolutely not meant to be taken at face value. Still, while I respect the point it’s trying to make, Walker did not work for me as a film at all. I’m still trying to put my finger on why—there were certainly moments where the dark, exasperatedly pessimistic humor succeeds in being pretty funny. The image of the Nicaraguan man collapsing in a bloody battlefield, crying praises about the Americans who only came to spread democracy and improve the economy, stands out as an exemplar of this film at its funniest, as screwed up (and heavy-handed) as that scene is. The deliberate anachronisms of the film, meant to cast the historical events in a similar light as contemporary American endeavors, are funny—on paper, at least. I think the music is a highlight as well. Why, though, did this film feel so dull most of the time? Maybe it’s the at-arms-length treatment of any emotion in the characters or plot. I get it—I mean, we’re not supposed to like any of these people—but usually the tradeoff for mean-spirited satire is a cleverer plot or at least a higher rate of jokes per minute. Walker plays itself so seriously until those moments when it absolutely does not play itself seriously, but the result is a bizarre tone that never quite finds its footing or, frankly, coalesces into a good movie. Walker isn’t much longer than 90 minutes but I wouldn’t have guessed that—it drags from start to finish. My problem with it seems to be the opposite as most of its original audience—I grasped right away the point it was trying to make, but that left me spending the rest of the runtime going, “Okay, well what else do you got?” Apart from the biting, angry satirical premise, there isn’t much.
Other Movies I Saw This Month
- Mikey and Nicky (1976) [3/5]
Best Movies I Saw This Month
- Mile End Kicks
- The Drama
Worst Movie I Saw This Month
- Walker
Josh Anderson 